Phoniex Requiem
Chapter 87: Responses

Chapter 87: Responses

"Older Lin, will you accept the challenge?" The middle-aged man's smile did not reach his eyes. “If not, hand over five middle grade pills. Of course, we will pay the market price for them.”

In the Chenyuan continent, spiritual pills had always been in short supply and in high demand. The only supply of spiritual pills came from pill experts, other noble houses would only buy, not sell, these pills.

In the past year, these two people from the Wang family had successfully bought or forcibly challenged a large number of middle grade pills, and they had even obtained some high grade pills as well. Now that they were in Lin, they naturally did not plan to return empty-handed.

Lin Zainan clenched her fists, but she had no other way. He was just about to speak when a clear and pleasant female voice came from outside the door.

“I accept this challenge.” Yun Ruoyan walked into the room in an emerald green dress, her hands folded behind her back and bamboo leaf gauze on her face.

The middle-aged man and the gray-clothed youth hesitated when they saw the sudden smuggler.

“Where did this girl come from? Don't mess around!” The middle-aged man screeched.

The gray-clothed youth looked towards Yun Ruoyan and smiled. “Little girl, you must have missed the young from the Lin family? I challenge Elder Lin to a match. Don't act intentionally, okay?”

"Ruoyan, when did you get here?" Lin Zainan asked.

Yun Ruoyan walked to her grandfather's back. "just now. Just when I arrived, I heard a selfish man challenge you, Grandpa. With your reputation, wouldn't it lower your status to accept a challenge from such an arrogant young man?”

Yun Ruoyan turned around and looked at the gray-clothed young man. “That's why I accepted this challenge for you, Grandpa.”

Yun Ruoyan helped support Lin Zainan's elbow, her calm and relaxed demeanor managed to trick even Lin Zainan herself.

He immediately guessed that Yun Ruoyan must have had another breakthrough, but even so, surely he could not be the best of the fifth rank pill master.

"Grandfather," Yun Ruoyan squeezed her grandfather's arm, looking at him with bright eyes. "Please, let Ruoyan do something for you and for the Lin family!"

Lin Zainan could not help but smile. Throwing away all his worries, he said, “Alright. As my last student, Ruoyan, it makes perfect sense for you to accept the challenge on my behalf.”

He looked at the young man. “Boy of the Wang family, I am one generation older than your father. You are too ineligible to challenge me. My granddaughter, however, has received my personal guidance. He will be the one to face you, as long as you are brave enough to challenge him.”

"You should be joking, Elder Lin," The middle-aged man gave him an arrogant look. “Is there really nothing capable of remaining in the Lin family? Isn't it ridiculous to protect yourself with such a young girl? You should"

Before the man finished, Yun Ruoyan suddenly extended her right hand towards him. A burst of red mist seeped out from his hand, and it instantly became an orange flame that licked his face.

With a loud bang! , the flame spread out, and the fat man was left agape with a half-blackened face.

“Uncle, I advise you to be more careful while talking,” Yun Ruoyan smiled gracefully. "Or there might be a severe impact."

When Yun Ruoyan produced spiritual flames, Lin Zainan's eyes gleamed before she hurriedly hid all the signs of her joy in front of the two strangers. “Not bad, not bad, Ruoyan! You have my temperament!"

Even the gray-clothed young man's eyes twinkled, and he no longer spoke to Yun Ruoyan in a patronizing tone. "I was blind not to see her before, but you must be magical, Miss. I'll accept your challenge naturally."

"Good," Yun Ruoyan replied, "But I can choose when."

"of course. When do you want to compete, Miss?”

Yun Ruoyan thought for a moment before revealing two fingers. “How about in two years one day?”

"Two years?! Why not now?" The middle-aged man wiped the dust and soot on his face before shouting furiously, "You should be punished now, you brash girl!"

After being caught off guard by Yun Ruoyan, the man rolled up his sleeves and seemed to want to hit her.

"Wang Gang," the gray-clothed youth commanded, "Side."

The middle-aged man turned to the young man. The young man did not seem to be angry, but his gaze was speckled in granite.

"Yes, Young Master." Wang Gang finally lowered his head and retreated to the side, like a rooster that lost the battle.

The young man turned towards Yun Ruoyan once again. "Isn't two years too long?"

Yun Ruoyan sighed before replying desperately, “I am only thirteen, and only when I am fifteen will I be considered an adult. Young Master Wang, you didn't mean to challenge a child, did you?"

“Then, two years,” replied the young man. He walked over to Yun Ruoyan and introduced himself. “I Wang Meng, the eldest son of the Wang family of the Yue kingdom, who led a coalition of merchants that covered the entire Chenyuan continent. May I ask who you are, Miss?”

"You're Wang Meng?!"

"Yes, Miss," Wang Meng replied, somewhat confused. "Have I met you before?"

This was Wang Kuang's elder brother, whom he killed within the imperial territory! This was the man who had hurt Lin Zainan in his previous life!

Yun Ruoyan's eyes became extremely cold for a moment before she smiled once more. “Pill the famous magical master of the Yue kingdom, Wang Meng. I've certainly heard of you, and I look forward to competing with you within two years.”

"I'm also looking forward to our duel, Miss," Wang Meng raised his palm as he spoke.

"My name is Yun Ruoyan, Lin Zainan's last disciple," Yun Ruoyan replied, before slapping her palm with hers.

With a sharp slap, a shocking killing intent flashed in Yun Ruoyan's eyes.

When Wang Meng and Wang Gang finally left, Lin Zainan looked at Yun Ruoyan excitedly, both of her hands trembling as she placed them on her shoulders.

"Ruoyan, you've broken through again, and not just a single stage!"

Lin Zainan had told Yun Ruoyan that there were seven levels of spiritual fire, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple.

At first, Yun Ruoyan's spiritual flame would be dark red in color. As his cultivation increased, and the spiritual energy aligned with the flames in his spiritual vortex became increasingly pure, the spiritual flame would begin to turn a bright orange color.

Under the same principle, the subsequent flame would turn yellow, then green, and continue to turn purple.

Red flames were too impure to purify pills, but orange flames were enough for low-tier pills. Green flames were enough for a high-tier pill, and purple flames, supposedly, for a legend-level pill.

At its peak, Lin Zainan was able to condense green spiritual flames.

“I can hardly believe that your talent is so outstanding, Ruoyan. In this short amount of time, not only did you condense your spiritual flame, you even managed to turn it orange!" Lin Zainan was worried about the upcoming challenge, but now she could finally relax. "Ruoyan, I firmly believe that, in two years, even if you don't surpass that Wang boy, at least you won't be weaker than him."

But Yun Ruoyan replied firmly, "Grandfather, I will defeat him without fail."

Lin Zainan gave him a manual containing low-grade pill recipes and assigned him to memorize the contents and come back again the next day. Then, he would teach her how to purify the most basic pills.

When Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue found out that Yun Ruoyan had finally managed to condense her spiritual flame, it was, they were so happy for her that they started yelling and jumping around and then their happiness quickly turned to pity when they realized they had done it.

Lin Qingchen pulled Yun Ruoyan over, wanting to take her around her little bamboo garden. Surprisingly, Lin Qingxue, who was happy to know about it, ran away after claiming that she had to do the homework assigned by Lin Zainan.

Lin Qingxue was a rather brave girl, but every time her sister opened her small bamboo garden, she immediately became a timid cat. Lin Qingchen's bamboo garden housed many creatures that would make her scalp numb, toads as big as her sink, scorpions with one-foot-long tails, centipedes with a pair of large, round eyes, and a catfish that can laugh.

One of these creatures would leave Lin Qingxue with a nightmare. Unfortunately for him, his only sister liked these creatures and often spent the whole day in his garden, so he couldn't even go in for a quick chat even if he wanted to.

"Sister Ruoyan, look!" Lin Qingchen launched a black cloth and exposed the glass tank underneath.

Yun Ruoyan followed her finger and saw a small, three-inch-long white magic snake in the middle of the dark sandy soil.

"Is this from one of the snake eggs you brought out of the imperial territory?"

"Yes! In total there are five eggs, but only this one hatched.”

The snake was as white as snow, and looked like an ice sculpture lying on the ground.

Yun Ruoyan had once seen a green snake and a black snake, but never a white snake like the one she saw now. It even looks a little funny.

"Did Grandpa ever see anything like this before?"

"Of course!" Lin Qingchen put her face right near the glass tank as she peered inside. "If it wasn't for Grandpa's help, no one would have even hatched."

“Do they have special capabilities? Can it breathe fire? Yun Ruoyan tapped on the glass with her finger, and the little snake, as if sensing it, suddenly opened its eyes and looked up.

"Oh!" Yun Ruoyan glanced at the snake happily and started shaking Lin Qingchen's wrist. "Qingchen, look, his eyes even have double petals!"