Chapter Thirteen: Medicine Child's Elder Sister

  Early morning, misty fog.

  Lin Xiao was carrying a very heavy iron axe and holding a three-foot square iron basket, struggling to move forward on a narrow mountain path. His right side was a towering cliff that reached the clouds, and his left side was a bottomless precipice. Across the precipice, on the opposite mountain ridge, several white-browed tigers were fighting over the flesh of their prey, one particularly ferocious old tiger occasionally raising its head to let out a low, rumbling growl towards Lin Xiao across the hundred-meter-wide chasm.

  Lin Xiao gritted his teeth and struggled to move forward. With the true energy of the Longqing Jue he had practiced since childhood, he had also honed his strength in the Hui Chun Tang, but carrying this iron axe and holding this iron basket frame, he could only walk a few miles before being pressed to the point of almost suffocating. Thinking of the light and agile hatchets and bamboo baskets used by other white-robed Taoist youths, Lin Xiao felt an urge to cry without tears.

  Other white-clothed Taoist youths were busy chopping firewood and carrying water every day, but their activities were limited to the mountains and forests around Hui Chun Valley. Only Lin Xiao was personally instructed by Dan Rong Dao Ren to go to a golden birch forest thirty miles away from Hui Chun Valley to cut down the golden birch trees for firewood. Moreover, even the specially-made iron axe and iron basket that Lin Xiao is currently using were obtained under Dan Rong Dao Ren's instructions, with Dan Fu Sheng running out for three to five days to exchange them with a certain equipment-refining sect using dan medicine. These two items are not large in size, but they are indeed very heavy. Lin Xiao has been tortured for several days, and his shoulders have been pressed into a large piece of bruised flesh.

  "Gudong", in the spring morning dew, Lin Xiao had a heavy load on his body. He wasn't careful and stepped on a patch of moss with one foot, almost falling off the cliff.

  "Ah!" Lin Xiao's leg had already slid halfway down the cliff, when a green shadow flashed behind him and Yao'er flew over, grabbing his hair tie and lifting him up with a jerk.

  "Haha! Younger brother, it's older sister who saved you again!" Yao'er swung Lin Xiao's queue back and forth, a triumphant smile spreading across her face.

  "Oh no~~~~ Medicine sister, it hurts, it hurts!" Lin Xiao held onto the iron axe with one hand and the bamboo basket with the other, afraid they would fall off the cliff. Medicine pulled his hair tie and hung him on the cliff, swinging him wildly. Lin Xiao felt like his scalp was being torn off, the intense pain made his vision go black in waves, he almost fainted.

  “Ouch?” The medicine girl blinked blankly and casually threw Lin Xiao onto the mountain path. Then, she forcefully grabbed her messy hair bun and pulled it, her mouth suddenly twisted to one side, and she frowned: "Indeed very painful! That, next time what place should I grab you from to lift you up? Last time was your waistband, you said I almost tore off your clothes; the time before that was your collar, your clothes were torn and you almost fell down; this time is your hair bun, you say it hurts~~~Hmm, indeed very painful too~~~That, next time when saving you, where should I grab you from?”

  The medicine child's dazed eyes swept back and forth over Lin Xiao's ears, neck, and other places. Lin Xiao only felt his scalp exploding in waves, he didn't dare say anything more to this dazed Shifu, and hastily picked up his chopping tools, hurrying along the mountain path ahead. The medicine child however wouldn't let him go, she quickly caught up to Lin Xiao's side, wrapped her arms around Lin Xiao's arm, and laughed "heh heh": "Little Shidi, don't rush off so fast, quick say, quick say, next time I save you, where should I grab?"

  Lin Xiao's arm and Yao'er's soft chest were tightly pressed together, Lin Xiao, who had been taught by Lin Shan with the Tao of the Sage since childhood, was so scared that his soul flew out, and he quickly withdrew his arm and shouted loudly: "Sister, you also underestimate me too much. Today is just a slip under my feet, where do I need you to save me all day?"

  "Oh～～～so that's it!" The originally cheerful Yao'er suddenly became a bit listless, muttering to herself: "Not every day do I have to come and save your life? What did Master ask me to follow you for? Ugh, can't refine pills, can't prepare medicine, every day following you around the mountain, am I one of those monkeys that brew wine?! Waaahhh!"

  As they spoke, Yao'er suddenly squatted down on the mountain path and began to cry. Lin Xiao was momentarily flustered, feeling helpless. This infuriating sister of his, couldn't she just calm down a bit? He had no idea how to handle this kind of situation, where one moment she was crying and the next laughing. He stood blankly on the mountain path, staring at Yao'er, completely at a loss for what to do.

  However, Yao'er's nerves were really too careless. She had just squatted on the ground and cried for a few moments, with only three to five tears shed, when she completely forgot why she wanted to cry in the first place. With renewed enthusiasm, she jumped up and grabbed Lin Xiao, laughing: "Little Shidi, you're walking so slowly, when will we arrive at Golden Maple Forest? Shifu doesn't have that much free time every day to accompany you chopping firewood! Hmm, Shifu will take you to a fun place."

  One hand grasped Lin Xiao and lifted him up, not waiting for Lin Xiao to make any sound of protest, Yao'er let out a loud whoop of joy and shot forward like the wind along the mountain path. Lin Xiao tightly clutched the two chopping tools in his hands, seeing only blurry shadows flashing before his eyes, hearing only the whistling of the wind by his ears, for what felt like an incense stick's worth of time, he didn't even know where Yao'er had brought him to. Suddenly, Yao'er came to a stop and with a flick of her hand, threw Lin Xiao heavily to the ground.

  "Bang!" Lin Xiao was tossed about by the runaway medicine cart, almost vomiting as he rolled around on the ground for over a dozen times. The iron axe and basket in his hands were thrown far away, scraping against the rocks on the ground, producing large sparks everywhere. Medicine Cart laughed loudly, clapping her palms: "Little Shidi, look, isn't this place that Shijie found beautiful?"

  Lin Xiao struggled to his feet, dazed and disoriented, his whole body aching. He looked around and nodded repeatedly, "Beautiful, beautiful!"

  This is indeed very beautiful. It's a huge underground limestone cave, with countless colorful stalactites hanging down from the high ceiling, and the stalactites themselves are emitting thin wisps of purple smoke, which gather together in the upper part of the cave to form a thick layer of purple mist. Droplets of crystal-clear liquid fall from the stalactites, forming a small pool on the ground that's only about ten feet in diameter. In the pool, several segments of pale pink transparent lotus root float horizontally and vertically, with three thin stems growing out of them. On the surface of the pool are two large dark green lotus leaves and one huge red lotus flower.

  A drop of sticky liquid dripped onto the lotus flower, continuously splashing up clusters of thumb-sized green gas. Just then, a cluster of gas floated in front of Lin Xiao, and Lin Xiao accidentally sucked it into his body. Suddenly, he felt as if he had eaten an iced watermelon on a sweltering summer day. His entire body felt refreshed, with every pore comfortably emitting cool air.

  Especially the shoulders that had been battered by the iron axe and the bamboo basket for two days, now felt a cool and refreshing itch. Lin Xiao hurriedly opened his clothes to take a look, but saw that his severely injured and bruised shoulders were rapidly swelling and healing, in just a short while, his two shoulders returned to their original white and delicate state, without any scars.

  Is it just a small ball of air that has such an effect? With the sensitivity of a pharmacist, Lin Xiao pointed at the lotus flower and the two lotus leaves, opening his mouth to shout something, but nothing came out.

  Those blue air masses floated and flew wildly in all directions. The vast majority of the air masses turned into extremely fine water mist and fell into a small pond with an area of about one square meter, only a few air masses flew far away. What Lin Xiao had just absorbed was one of those distant flying air masses.

  "Shi jie~~~~~ Yao er shi jie~~~~~" Lin Xiao opened his mouth again and finally called out to Yao er.

  The young girl let out a yawn, withdrawing her gaze from the lotus flower and proudly winking at Lin Xiao. She burst into laughter, saying: "Look, this is what Big Sister found! Big Sister is amazing, right? Hehe, actually, the medicinal pellets Big Sister refined contain water from this pool! So, even Master and the others can't figure out Big Sister's formula for refining the elixir!"

  Lin Xiao's face changed, looking at Yao'er as if he had seen a female demon. Since childhood, he has been studying orthodox alchemy in Hui Chun Tang and naturally knows that a dan formula is often finalized after being refined by dozens of generations and carefully considered. When Yao'er was refining the dan, she unexpectedly added this mysterious crystal liquid without knowing its origin, heaven knows what strange changes occurred to the dan medicine she refined. Lin Xiao couldn't help but shudder at the thought of the two black medicinal pills that Yao'er had fed him.

  After a moment of silence, Lin Xiang smiled and said: "Sister, didn't you tell Master about this place?" Lin Xiang instinctively felt that the water in this pond, as well as the lotus roots, flowers, and leaves, should be some kind of rare heavenly treasure. The Great Luo Dan Tao is famous for its alchemy throughout the cultivation world, and it's likely that they can reasonably utilize these treasures.

  "Don't tell them!" The originally smiling and cheerful Yao'er suddenly became furious, stamping her foot and shouting: "Don't tell them! Humph, Shifu only blew up another dan furnace, yet she punished me to follow you every day and not let me take a step into the dan room! Humph, such a great place, I won't tell them!"

  "Whoosh", the medicine child rushed to Lin Xiao's front, she affectionately patted Lin Xiao's head, gently bumped Lin Xiao's forehead with her own, and lightly laughed: "Good younger brother, you won't tell Master and the others about this, right? Hmm, older sister will tell you, if you dare to reveal this place to Master and the others, humph, older sister will give you a palm thunder every day!"

  The little girl seemed to have no idea what the difference between men and women was, but her intimate movements made Lin Xiao's face flush red. The little girl's pale face was right in front of him, less than an inch away, and her rosy lips were almost touching his face. Especially with the faint cold fragrance emanating from her body, Lin Xiao was so flustered that he kept retreating. "Yes, yes, brother will absolutely not tell Master about them. This place is sister's territory, how could brother betray sister?"

  As he retreated, Lin Xiao muttered to himself: "Just another explosion of a dan furnace. The words 'again' and 'just' are truly worthy of praise."

  Suddenly, Lin Xiao saw Yao'er clasp her hands behind her back, tilting her head and smiling slyly at him. Just as Lin Xiao felt something was off, he felt the ground beneath him give way, and he tumbled into a small pool of water. The crystal clear liquid in the pool seemed thick and sticky, but it was actually very light, much lighter than water. Lin Xiao plunged headfirst into the pool, struggling to use his swimming skills to float back up to the surface, but his body sank rapidly, 'gulping' down into the depths of the pool. For a moment, he was shocked, his mouth wide open, and he didn't know how much of the sticky liquid he had swallowed.

  Lin Xiao stabilized his body in the pond, slowly crawled out of the pond, but was shocked to find that Yao had already taken off her shoes and socks, and was soaking her two white legs in the pond. Lin Xiao stared blankly at Yao's two small legs kicking rapidly, gritting his teeth and shouting: "Master sister, why are you washing your feet here?"

  The little girl innocently blinked her big eyes at Lin Xiao, seeing that Lin Xiao seemed a bit angry, she also got angry and tilted her head, humming and saying: "What's wrong with washing feet? This was originally the master sister's bathtub!" Her delicate fingers lightly touched her chin, 'heh heh' laughing and saying: "Just the other day, Master Sister was bathing here, it's even more comfortable than the bathhouse in Hui Chun Valley!"

  "Bathtub!" Lin Xiao suddenly thought of the large amount of mucus he had swallowed into his stomach, and his heart felt a chill. He opened his mouth wanting to spit out something, but those mucous seemed to have disappeared as soon as they entered his body. His stomach was empty, what could he possibly spit out?

  Lin Xiao's face fell, and he looked at Yao with tears in his eyes, unable to say a word. He couldn't help but suspect Dan Fusheng's intentions - was it to punish Yao for following him everywhere, or was it to torment himself on purpose? This senior sister, who was only one year older than Lin Xiao, had a cultivation that far surpassed his own, and yet she was someone who didn't care about anything. In just these few days, Lin Xiao had already suffered enough at her hands.

  The little girl was washing her feet by herself, humming a soft tune. She gently clapped her palms together, and the cave echoed with crisp "pats".

  Lin Xiao sat behind Yao'er with a bitter face, carefully asking: "Sister, are you just soaking your feet here? Brother, there's still a lot of firewood to gather?"

  The young girl carelessly glanced at Lin Xiao, absent-mindedly said "oh", and then turned her head to look at the lotus flower in the center of the pond.

  Lin Xiao's face twitched, he was just about to tell Yao'er that if he didn't chop enough golden birch wood back, he would be punished by Dan Fusheng when Yao'er suddenly clapped her hands and laughed: "Don't worry, don't worry, wait a bit, wait a bit. Hmm, it's almost time. Forty-nine days once, can't miss it. The lotus seeds it produces are very delicious."

  The medicine child's nonsense made Lin Xiao feel bewildered for a moment, but he saw that the medicine child's full attention was focused on that crimson lotus flower, and he couldn't help but concentrate his mind on it as well.

  As time slowly passed, the two lotus leaves slowly unfolded, and a ripple of water waves appeared in the small pond. A thread of dark green mist sprayed out from the lotus leaf, enveloping the crimson lotus flower within it. The stem of the lotus flower trembled slightly, and several drops of crystal clear nectar fell gently into the pond.

  Those colorful stone bamboo shoots in the air simultaneously emitted a faint hum, and from the tip of the stone bamboo shoots, strands of intense purple smoke shot out, shooting towards that lotus flower like strong arrows.

  The scarlet lotus petals swayed, and the lotus stamens suddenly spewed out threads of colorful light, absorbing all the purple smoke that had burst forth into the lotus. In the thirty-six empty holes on the lotus, a layer of misty light flowed, and a thread of strange fragrance wafted from the lotus, Lin Xiao took a sniff of this strange fragrance, only to feel as if he was being baptized with ambrosia, a stream of clear air rushed from his head to his feet, his five organs and six viscera seemed to be actively absorbing this stream of clear air, his whole body felt indescribably comfortable.

  In the blink of an eye, thirty-six holes on the lotus pod burst forth with thirty-six glowing lotus seeds. The stem of the lotus plant convulsed violently, and with a few soft 'pops', the lotus seeds shot out from the pod, trailing colorful lights as they soared into the sky.

  The little medicine let out a cheer and suddenly flew up, catching the thirty-six lotus seeds in his hand with ease.

  She swooped down and casually tossed half of the lotus seeds to Lin Xiao, urging: "Hurry up and eat, hurry up and eat, it won't taste good if you miss the timing."

  On one side, she reminded Lin Xiao, while on the other, Yao'er hastily stuffed eighteen lotus seeds into her mouth. Instantly, a radiant glow flashed across her pale face, and gradually, a refreshing fragrance wafted from her entire body. Yao'er took a deep breath, sat cross-legged on the ground, formed an "Inviting Thunder Seal" with her hands, and slowly began to cultivate her internal energy.

  Lin Xiao was stunned. Had he ever thought that there would be such a magical thing in the world? A strange lotus flower, a strange pool, a strange cave, and so many strange stone pillars, all resulted in so many strange lotus seeds within just three to five breaths!

  The world of cultivation is indeed a completely different world from the mortal world.

  He let out a soft sigh and, imitating Yao's mannerisms, stuffed all eighteen lotus seeds into his mouth in one breath.

  The lotus seed melted in his mouth, turning into eighteen streams of heat that surged directly into his body. Lin Xiao only felt the fragrance overflowing from his mouth, and his whole body felt light and airy as if he was about to float away. He also sat down cross-legged like Yao'er, waiting to circulate the Longqing mantra to digest this seemingly indescribable stream of heat when he suddenly saw Yao'er, who was sitting cross-legged and cultivating her energy, open her eyes in extreme shock.

  "Slow down, junior brother!" Yao'er shouted: "Senior sister, I'm confused. At first, I could only take two lotus seeds, and now I can take up to eighteen at most. Your skills are far inferior to mine, you can't eat eighteen!"

  Lin Xiao's body suddenly stiffened, and he looked at Yao with indignation, almost in tears: "Master sister, when have you ever not been confused?"

  But the words didn't come out. Because that hot flow had exploded like a bomb in Lin Xiao's belly, Lin Xiao hummed and his white Taoist robe was stained with blood from the pores, he rolled his eyes and looked at Yao'er with an extremely resentful gaze, and very decisively fell to the ground.

  Yaoyao scrambled to her feet, rushed to Lin Xiao's side and hugged his body, wailing: "Young Master~~~~~~ Waaah, you can't die~~~~~ Even if you did die, it wouldn't matter~~~~~ Waaah, Eldest Sister probably won't be able to enter the Dan room for the rest of her life~~~~~" Yaoyao desperately shook Lin Xiao's body and slapped his face hard, hoping to wake him up.

  With a loud "crack", Lin Xiao's face suddenly puffed up, quickly swelling into two bright red lumps.

  Suddenly, Yao'er stopped crying and blinked her eyes, muttering to herself: "It's strange, I ate 36 lotus seeds for the first time and almost died from being stuffed. Hmm, how did I survive?"

  She grasped her hair with force, and her disheveled hair scattered all over her head. Her hair was as messy as a female ghost's. Suddenly, Yao jumped up laughing: "I remember! This lotus root can save lives!"

  She jumped up quickly and her arm inadvertently lifted Lin Xiao up more than three feet high, Lin Xiao was like a dead pig, and heavily fell back to the ground.

  "Bang", Lin Xiao's head ruthlessly collided with the ground, losing consciousness. Without using internal force to protect his body, a fist-sized blood blister quickly swelled up on Lin Xiao's forehead.

  The little girl stuck out her tongue, blinked a few times, and looked around with a hint of guilt. When she saw that no one was around, she happily clapped her hands and slapped Lin Xiao's face hard, scolding in a low voice: "You scared me, humph!"

  She casually picked up Lin Xiao, and then threw him into the pond. Afterwards, she jumped in herself and dug out a fist-sized lotus root from the bottom of the pond.

  Back to Lin Xiao's side, Yao'er pried open Lin Xiao's mouth and tried to stuff the lotus root into his mouth. However, the lotus root she dug out was a bit too big, and it was different from the lotus seed. After entering his mouth, it wouldn't dissolve into clear air and merge directly into his body. Yao'er furrowed her brow in thought for a good while before suddenly slapping her palm and laughing: "I've got a way! Could this be difficult for Yao'er? Master said that Yao'er is the smartest, but her spiritual wisdom hasn't opened up yet!"

  "Huh, what's this thing called spiritual intelligence?" Medicine Girl was a bit confused again, and she slapped Lin Xiao's face in a daze, making his face even more swollen and red.

  After thinking for a long time, Yao'er still couldn't figure out what 'Lingzhi' was. She shook her head and habitually ignored this problem that she couldn't think through for the time being. She opened her small mouth, took a bite of the lotus root, chewed it carefully, and slowly fed it into Lin Xiao's mouth.

  Lotus root enters the abdomen, slowly transforming into a clear stream that permeates the entire body of Lin Xiao, and gradually gathering the explosive gas flow transformed by the lotus seed back to the dantian.

  Lin Xiao hummed and slowly opened his eyes. He happened to see that Yao was humming a tune, stretching out her small mouth to feed him a fragrant lotus root.

  The little mouth of Yao'er and Lin Xiao's mouth were tightly pressed together.

  The medicine child didn't feel anything wrong with this behavior, but Lin Xiao was stunned.