"You did what?" Yu Xiaogang asked, his voice a low, dangerous sound, completely devoid of the warmth she had so desperately hoped to hear.
Liu Erlong's brilliant, happy smile faltered. A cold, sick feeling began to coil in the pit of her stomach. "I… I brought these for you, Xiaogang," she said, her voice a little shaky. "They are the lightning-attribute pills. I thought… I thought they might help your Luo Sanpao."
He just stared at her, his eyes, hidden behind the thick lenses of his spectacles, seeming to magnify his disappointment into two burning, accusatory points of light.
He slowly stood up, his movements stiff and deliberate. He began to pace the small, cluttered office, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
"You had the chance," he began, his voice a low, controlled monotone that was somehow more terrifying than any shout, "to acquire any three pills from a man who can seemingly rewrite the very laws of spirit cultivation. Any three. And you chose… these."
He stopped pacing and turned to face her, his expression one of pure, unadulterated, and utterly soul-crushing disappointment.
"Are you a fool, Erlong?" he asked, his voice rising, the cold control finally cracking to reveal the furious, frustrated pride beneath. "Do you have rocks in your head? You had the opportunity to acquire the upgraded Mystic Water Pills! Pills that could enhance the innate talent and aptitude of the entire team! Of Xiao San! Do you have any idea what that means? It would have saved them months, even years, of hard, grueling work! It would have solidified their foundation, pushed them to new heights!"
He took a step closer, his voice now a full-blown, angry shout that seemed to make the very books on the shelves tremble. "But no! You didn't think of the team! You didn't think of the plan! You made a selfish, emotional, and utterly, completely, stupid decision! You thought only of me!"
The words were like a physical blow. Liu Erlong staggered back, her hand flying to her mouth, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and a deep, profound, and utterly soul-shattering pain.
"I… I just wanted to help you, Xiaogang…" she whispered, her voice a choked, broken sound.
"Help me?!" he scoffed, a harsh, ugly sound. "You want to help me? Then help me achieve my dream! Help me prove my theories! Help me turn Xiao San into the legend he was always meant to be! That is how you help me! Not by wasting a priceless opportunity on a sentimental, foolish gesture!"
He glared at her, his face a mask of cold, academic fury. "You have failed, Erlong. You have failed me. You have failed the academy. And you have failed Xiao San."
The more he shouted, the more her heart broke. The beautiful, sun-drenched fantasy she had constructed on her journey back, the one where he was happy, where he was proud of her, where he finally, finally, accepted her… it all just shattered into a million, tiny, glittering pieces.
She looked at him, at the angry, disappointed man she loved more than life itself, and a wave of pure, unadulterated despair washed over her.
"I… I can go back," she said, her voice a weak, pleading whisper. "I can ask him for more pills next week. I can get the ones you want."
She looked at the jade vial on his desk, her last, fragile hope. "But… since I have already brought these… can't you just… try one? Please? Just to see if there is any effect? What if… what if he was lying? What if he was exaggerating about their power?"
Yu Xiaogang stared at her, his anger slowly giving way to his natural, insatiable academic curiosity. Her point, as much as he hated to admit it, had some merit. It was a variable that needed to be tested.
He let out a long, weary sigh, a sound of profound, frustrated resignation. "Fine," he grunted, his voice still cold, still angry. "I will test them. But do not make such a foolish, sentimental mistake again, Erlong. Next time, you will think with your head, not your heart. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Xiaogang," she whispered, her head bowed in a gesture of complete, utter submission.
He walked to the desk and picked up the jade vial. He uncorked it and tipped one of the small, dark blue pills into his palm. It seemed to crackle with a faint, latent electrical energy.
He looked at it for a long, silent moment, his expression a mixture of skepticism and a deep, underlying hope. Then, with a decisive, almost defiant, movement, he put the pill in his mouth and swallowed.
The effect was instantaneous.
The moment the pill dissolved, an intense, almost violent surge of pure, concentrated lightning energy flooded his body. It was not a gentle, nourishing power. It was a raw, untamed, and incredibly potent force that seemed to tear through his meridians like a bolt of lightning.
He let out a sharp, strangled gasp, his body seizing for a moment as the foreign energy warred with his own, much weaker, light-attribute spirit power.
And then, it happened.
His Martial Spirit, the Luo Sanpao, materialized in the air beside him, not by his own will, but torn from his body by the sheer force of the pill's energy.
The small, purple, pig-like creature, the source of his lifelong shame and frustration, began to convulse violently. Its body was completely engulfed in a crackling, brilliant blue aura of pure lightning.
"Xiaogang!" Liu Erlong cried out, taking a step forward, her face a mask of pure, terrified concern.
He held up a hand, silencing her, his own eyes wide with a mixture of pain and a dawning, incredible awe.
He was watching his spirit. And it was changing.
The change was minute, almost imperceptible. But it was there. The soft, rounded features of the pig-like creature seemed to sharpen, to elongate. A single, brilliant blue streak of pure lightning arced across its back, a permanent, beautiful scar. Its squeal, which had always been a pathetic, high-pitched sound, was now a low, rumbling growl, laced with the faint, unmistakable crackle of thunder.
The transformation lasted for less than a minute. Then, the lightning aura receded, and the Luo Sanpaved, now subtly but undeniably changed, faded back into his body.
Yu Xiaogang stood there, his body trembling, his face pale with a mixture of shock and a profound, earth-shattering disbelief.
He looked at Liu Erlong, and his eyes, for the first time in a long, long time, were shining with a brilliant, almost manic, light.
"It… it worked," he breathed, the words a choked, awestruck whisper. "The pill… it actually worked."
He looked at the two remaining pills in the vial, and his expression was one of pure, unadulterated, and almost religious reverence. He looked at them as if they were not just pills, but the very keys to his salvation.
"I will have these analyzed," Yu Xiaogang had declared, his earlier anger completely forgotten, replaced by a feverish, academic excitement. "We must discover their ingredients. We must replicate them."
The two days that followed were a whirlwind of frantic, obsessive activity.
He and Flender had called in every favor they had. They had consulted with the most respected pharmacologists in the city, with the most experienced alchemists from the great merchant guilds.
The results were all the same.
The experts would look at the pill, their expressions a mixture of awe and utter, complete bewilderment. They would talk of complex, layered energies, of a concoction method that defied all known principles of alchemy. They would shake their heads and admit, with a deep, professional humiliation, that they had no idea how it was made.
In his desperation, Yu Xiaogang had even, in a moment of casual conversation, mentioned the miraculous pill to his disciple.
Tang San, who had been listening with a polite, but ultimately detached, interest, had suddenly frozen. 'A pill that can evolve a Martial Spirit?' the thought was a lightning bolt in his mind.
"Teacher," he had said, his voice a low, careful sound, "may I… may I see one of these pills? I have the Blue Silver Grass so I think I have… a certain affinity for alchemy and I can normally sense the herbs used in the pills due to this affinity. Perhaps I might be able to identify some of the ingredients."
Yu Xiaogang, who had no idea of his disciple's true, profound knowledge from his previous life, had seen no harm in it. He had trusted his disciple implicitly. He had given him one of the two remaining pills.
Tang San had spent the entire night in his room, the small, dark blue pill resting in his palm. He had used his Purple Demon Eyes, his Mysterious Heaven Skill, his profound, Tang Sect-honed senses to analyze it.
And he had been utterly, completely, and profoundly shocked.
He could vaguely sense the auras of a dozen different, incredibly rare, and potent lightning-attribute herbs. But the way they were combined, the way their energies were fused into a single, stable, and incredibly potent whole… it was a level of alchemy that was far, far beyond anything he had ever learned in the Tang Sect.
'This is not just a pill,' he had thought, his heart a cold, heavy stone in his chest. 'This is a work of art. A masterpiece of a level of alchemy that I cannot even begin to comprehend. Without the recipe… without the specific, unique concoction method… to replicate this would be impossible.'
He had returned the pill to his teacher the next morning, his face a mask of polite, apologetic failure.
Yu Xiaogang had not been surprised. He had not been disappointed. He had already moved on to his next, and only remaining, option.
He had consumed the remaining two pills, one each day. And with each pill, the transformation of his Luo Sanpao had become more pronounced. Its form was still vaguely pig-like, but it was now leaner, more serpentine. The single streak of lightning had become a network of fine, crackling blue veins that covered its entire body. Its growl was now a low, rumbling thunder.
It was working. It was actually, truly, miraculously working.
On the morning of the third day, after he had consumed the final pill, he had summoned Liu Erlong to his office.
The anger was gone. The disappointment was gone. His eyes were shining with a bright, ambitious, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly focused light.
"Erlong," he said, his voice a low, urgent command. "You must go back to him. You must acquire more of these pills."
He looked at her, his gaze direct and unwavering, his expression that of a general giving his most important, non-negotiable order.
"The price is irrelevant. Your mission for next week is this: you will acquire two of the upgraded talent-enhancing pills. One for Xiao San, and one for Mubai. And you will acquire one more of these Stormbolt Spirit Pills. For me."
Liu Erlong froze.
The words, so simple, so direct, were a death sentence.
She thought of the chains. She thought of the humiliation. She thought of the disgusting, perverted, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly non-negotiable price that he had demanded.
Her mind screamed. Her heart broke. Her very soul seemed to cry out in a silent, agonized protest.
But then, she looked at him. She looked at the hope, the excitement, the pure, unadulterated ambition in his eyes. It was a look she had not seen in twenty long, lonely years. It was the look of the man she had fallen in love with. The man whose dreams she had sworn to protect.
She lowered her eyes, her long, dark lashes hiding the storm of pain and despair in their depths.
She took a deep, shuddering breath.
And she gave a slow, single, and utterly, completely, and irrevocably final nod.
"Leave it to me, Xiaogang," she whispered, her voice a dead, hollow sound.
He smiled, a brilliant, triumphant expression, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just, with his own words, with his own ambition, pushed the one woman in the world who loved him more than life itself directly into the arms, and the bed, of another man.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels like "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon