Phoniex Requiem
Round 92: Reasoning

Round 92: Reasoning

Instead of letting him directly purify the pill, Lin Zainan instructed Yun Ruoyan to develop better skills with his fire as the first step to master the basics of pill making. Spiritual fire was notoriously difficult to control, and he would not be able to refine pills properly.

When he returned to Yun home, Yun Ruoyan shut herself in her room to cultivate, while Peony and Xi Lan sat in the courtyard and embroidered.

“Peony, what if our lady is tired of cultivating day and night?” Xi Lan rubbed the needle into her scalp and asked.

“It won't happen, for sure. Miss Yun knows what she's doing.” The peony continued to sew the delicate phoenix orchid pistil while speaking.

He brought some designs to Yun Ruoyan to see which one she liked the most, and Yun Ruoyan immediately chose the phoenix orchid design. Yun Ruoyan did not like phoenix orchids in the past, thinking that they were too flamboyant and flashy.

“He will increase as time goes by, I know that. The design of the phoenix orchid is the prettiest!” Xi Lan joked.

Peony's fingers stopped before he also agreed, "Right, miss us the better."

“Peoni, Xi Lan..”

As the two maids spoke, a voice suddenly came from afar. They raised their heads and saw Ling Lan standing half-couched in the far corner of the courtyard.

Meanwhile, Yun Ruoyan was practicing controlling the spiritual flames in her room. In the center of each of his palms was a small red flame. As he put more fire-aligned spiritual energy into his palm, the two flames grew even larger, like two blood lilies that would sprout on his palm.

“You should not only be able to control its size at will, but also its color,” Lin Zainan's words sounded in her mind. “Red fire is almost intangible, without its own heat. It could not be used as the only flame for pill making, but still important, it could modulate and regulate the temperature of other flames, he said, and it can also serve as a temporary flame when switching to a flame of a different color."

Yun Ruoyan's eyes were fixated on the red flames in her palm. He wanted them to turn into the same orange, orange he had shown before, but to no avail even after a long time.

With a puff, the two flames extinguished, Yun Ruoyan had used up all of the spiritual energy that was in harmony with the fire she had.

'Maintaining a spiritual flame certainly drains my energy reserves. No wonder Grandpa didn't allow me to start refining pills right away'. Yun Ruoyan glanced at her almost pure white spiritual vortex and sighed. 'With this amount of spiritual energy, lighting a furnace alone was already difficult enough! I'd better keep going forward with my blademaster cultivation as well'

Blademaster cultivation served as the basis for all other aspects, as such cultivation could strengthen and expand one's spiritual vortex, as well as allow one to absorb spiritual energy from the heavens more quickly.

Because of how fast he broke through this rank, even though Yun Ruoyan was in principle a seventh rank blademaster, her spiritual vortex was still immature and not yet fully developed. If he did not use the strength of that bracelet to equip himself, he would definitely lose the battle equivalent to running out of spiritual energy earlier.

His current goal was to continuously absorb the spiritual energy from his surroundings and turn it into part of his spiritual vortex.

With this new goal, Yun Ruoyan planned to retreat to the dimension of her pocket and immediately begin her training routine. However, the moment he closed his eyes, someone started knocking on his door.

Unfortunately, he exclaimed, "Didn't I already say not to disturb me while I was cultivating?"

"Miss, Ling Lan stated that there is something urgent that she must report," Peony replied.

Yun Ruoyan blinked before letting them in. He sat on the bed, Ling Lan bowed in front of him.

"This is what Mrs An told me to put in my food?" Yun Ruoyan held a palm-sized bottle of wine in her hand. "Do you know what's here?"

"Miss, it smells like wine, but I'm not sure what exactly it is," Ling Lan replied respectfully. "What Madame An said was just mixing it with some steamed pork that you like while no one was paying attention."

Yun Ruoyan suddenly laughed coldly. "Even to find out that I like steamed pork."

Ling Lan did not respond, and simply lowered her head down even deeper.

When Yun Ruoyan saw his trembling form, she relented. "Ling Lan, you did very well." He took out ten taels of silver and left them on the table. “This is a gift for your efforts.”

Ling Lan raised her head and looked at the silver, but she did not grab it. Instead, he knelt down and replied, suffocated by emotion, “Nona, I can't quite return your gratitude. If I take this silver too, my father will definitely reprimand me.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded. "How is Old Zhang?"

"My father is much better, Miss." Ling Lan raised her head and wiped her tears with her sleeves. “Thank you so much for calling the doctor to my father, for paying off my brother's gambling debts, Miss Yun. Please, if there's anything I can do, let me know".

Although Ling Lan was a servant that Madam An had planted, Yun Ruoyan discovered that she did not have a bad temper. Instead, it was likely that he had some problems that Madam An took advantage of.

So Yun Ruoyan asked Lin Qingchen for help, to help take care of Ling Lan's father, and to pay off her brother's debt with Yun Ruoyan's money.

When Ling Lan found out about this, she was extremely grateful, the result Yun Ruoyan expected.

Although Madam An is an expert in deception and deceit, she is a harsh and merciless mistress. He knew about Ling Lan's plight, but the amount of money he gave was only enough to survive, ensuring that she would forever be in Lady An's grasp.

Yun Ruoyan felt Yi Qianying was much more adept at manipulating people's hearts.

“Standing,” Yun Ruoyan raised Ling Lan and continued, “Don't worry, this money is a gift for your information last time. Download and use for your family.”

In fact, it was Ling Lan who told Yun Ruoyan that Yun Ruoyu was planning to poison the tea that she was going to serve for her elder sister. That day, Ling Lan was just about to report Yun Ruoyan to Madam An when she heard them discussing the matter in her room.

Ling Lan immediately informed Peony of the matter, who sent the information to Yun Ruoyan.

Yun Ruoyan took the silver and put it into Ling Lan's hands, who trembled and thanked her. He smiled at the silver in his hand, his eyes still covered in tears.

The servants of Yun had a decent monthly salary of five copper coins, but ten taels of silver was equivalent to a two-year salary.

Madam An only gave her at most two taels of silver at once as a gift, and Yun Ruoyan's position in Ling Lan's heart became increasingly higher.

But Yun Ruoyan was still not finished. Despite the respectful look in Ling Lan's eyes, she felt that another layer of security was only wise. "I heard your brother passed the imperial examination?"

Not expecting Yun Ruoyan to ask about her brother, Ling Lan could not help but hold back for a moment. “My sister did pass. He is very talented, but our family cannot afford the cost of the master examination, so even though he passed.”.

For civilians on the Chenyuan continent, there are two main routes to progress. One was to cultivate and become strong, a third level swordsman would easily be able to find a position as a guard and earn a living. A rank five swordsman could even work in a noble family, or even as a martial officer in the court.

But most people did not have the talent to cultivate, or had so little talent that becoming a third-rate sword master was impossible. In that case, they could only try the second route: the imperial examination. Ling Lan's brother had obviously chosen the second route. However, corruption was rampant through the courts, and the current emperor Li Xiu invested more in generals than scholars.

Since Ling Lan's brother was unable to pay the "examiner's fee" to pass the imperial examination, he was repeatedly banned from the opportunities that should have been available to him. After this happened several times, a deep trauma caused him to turn to gambling.

Lin Qingchen had told him all of this. He also hinted that, after all his setbacks, Ling Lan's brother would most likely return to gambling if he just stayed home.

Yun Ruoyan walked up to her desk, wrote a short note, and handed it to Ling Lan. “Give this to your brother and have him go to a pharmacy operated by the Lin family. They'll give your brother a job.”

“Nona, ap—what?” Ling Lan opened her eyes wide, somewhat incredulous at what she heard.

Yun Ruoyan could not help but laugh at her stunned appearance. “It belongs to my grandfather's family, and my cousin and I are handling it right now. Do you remember him? The girl who took care of your father.”

Ling Lan immediately thought of Lin Qingchen. Coincidentally, on that day the debt collector from the gambling den found his way to his house, claiming that they would burn him if he did not pay his dues.

How could Ling Lan let them do that? His sick father is still inside! But just as she was feeling desperate, a beautiful girl appeared out of nowhere. Not only did he pay off his family's debts, he had even taken care of his ailing father.

In Ling Lan's eyes, Lin Qingchen and Yun Ruoyan were people who owed her a lifetime.

“Tell your brother to hand this note to Miss Lin. I'm sure he will accept it, ”ulang Yun Ruoyan.

Ling Lan's trembling hand grabbed the note. He was almost completely absent-minded, he never expected that the two problems that plagued him and his family life would be solved in such a short amount of time!

Now that they were not destitute, their lives would improve greatly. Her brother had even found a reputable job, and that was with one of his rescuers.

Ling Lan did not know why, but she was sure that her brother would eventually ignore his bad nature in gambling for good. His days of struggle will finally end.

He knelt deeply in front of Yun Ruoyan and kowtowed, his head hitting the floor with a dull thud. “Nona, please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. My life is yours to command!”

Yun Ruoyan nodded, satisfied, before helping Ling Lan.

After Ling Lan left, Yun Ruoyan opened the small bottle and sniffed it. Suddenly, a strange smell crawled his nose, causing him to sneeze loudly. "What the fuck?!"