Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 31: A Piece for You

Although Yun Ruoyan’s vitality was almost half restored, her body was still physically weak, and her legs would turn to mush after just a few steps.

After a short discussion, the group decided to rest for a day before resuming their search for an exit.

Not far away, the saber-toothed tiger’s carcass lay in silence. Last night, after Yun Ruoyan had fainted, the others were so worried that none of them thought of dismembering the tiger’s carcass and extracting its treasures.

Supported by the Lin sisters, Yun Ruoyan headed for the carcass once more.

After a whole night, it was already starting to undergo rigor mortis, and only the chilly aura emanating from its two large canines revealed its past majesty.

“As a mid-tier magical beast, the saber-toothed tiger’s essentially a walking treasure trove.” Zhuo Yifeng reached out and carefully touched one canine, his bright eyes sparkling. “If we make arrows with its teeth, I’m sure they’ll be sharp and piercing.”

“Brother, if you had arrows that were sharp enough, the saber-toothed tiger from yesterday definitely wouldn’t have been a problem for you,” Zhuo Lin’er, who had been clinging onto her brother’s wrist, quickly said.

If Yun Ruoyu’s group had heard this, they might have laughed her comment off as a joke, but Yun Ruoyan had indubitably witnessed Zhuo Yifeng’s transcendent skill at archery.

Yesterday, while dealing with the tiger, Zhuo Yifeng’s swift, accurate shots would have turned the tide in their favor if his arrows were sharp enough to pierce the tiger’s thick hide.

Even if he were unable to shoot a deathblow, seriously wounding the tiger wouldn’t have been a problem.

“Yes, Brother Zhuo’s amazing!” Lin Qingchen sighed, thinking about his culinary skills.

“It’s a pity that you’ll need a fifth-rank forgemaster to be able to make weapons with these materials,” Zhuo Yifeng continued, somewhat regretfully.

There were four cultivation-type professions on the Chenyuan continent: blademasters, forgemasters, summoners, and pillmasters.

Among these four, blademasters required no special innate talent aside from the ability to cultivate at all, to transform spiritual energy from the heavens into a form that could be used by the human body.

Of the other three professions, forgemasters were the most common, followed by summoners, and the rarest and most precious were pillmasters. Among the nobility, as soon as a child showed talent in pillmaking, that child would be given any and all resources necessary to develop that latent talent further.

Those without any special talent could only remain as blademasters, and it would be extremely difficult to break past the seventh rank. Only after that would cultivators have the qualification to specialize in one of the other three professions.

Each cultivation-type profession was subdivided into nine further ranks. The first three were foundational and relatively easy to access, but it would get harder and harder as one progressed through the ranks. Some summoners and pillmasters, despite their greatest efforts, would never be able to step into the fourth rank before their death.

As for forgemasters, their advancement was a little simpler, so blademasters and forgemasters were relatively numerous on the Chenyuan continent.

With regards to forging weapons and tools, higher-grade materials would require higher-ranked forgemasters. Just like with pillmaking, both professions required heavy use of fire, and cultivation was required to remove impurities in a cultivator’s spirit fire. The purer the spiritual fire, the sharper and more mystical the resulting weapon. On the other hand, if the forgemaster’s cultivation wasn’t up to par, then even the highest-quality materials would go to waste.

If a forgemaster were talented and lucky enough to reach peak ninth-rank, with access to top-quality materials, then such a forgemaster could very well create a legendary or mythical artifact.

For example, this was how Yun Ruoyan’s Feilai Blade had been created.

And although fifth-rank forgemasters weren’t particularly high on the overall hierarchy of the Chenyuan continent, Zhuo Yifeng was a beastkin lad who didn’t have a shred of status at all.

So all he could do was look sadly at the two sharp canines that he couldn’t use, thinking that he would at least be able to sell them for a good price if he could make it out of the imperial territory alive.

“I do know a forgemaster.” At this time, Yun Ruoyan spoke up and interrupted Zhuo Yifeng’s train of thought.

“He’s peak fifth-rank, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to forge these canines into arrows. At any rate, I’ll take care of it.”

Yun Ruoyan hated to owe others favors. Zhuo Yifeng had helped her twice over, and she would naturally repay this debt with gratitude. She just hadn’t expected an opportunity to come so quickly.

“Really? Thank you!” Zhuo Yifeng’s bright eyes shone even brighter.

“Sister, even though you’re the only wife-born daughter of the Yun family, you’ve been more or less neglected, haven’t you? How did you come to know a fifth-rank forgemaster?” Lin Qingchen asked curiously.

Yun Ruoyan smiled. “You’ve both seen him before too. He’s the one who went with me to your place to ask Grandfather for a pill, Pei Yingxiong.”

“Ah, that old man whom Grandfather ridiculed and who ended up trading a top-grade furnace for that pill?” Lin Qingxue interrupted. “He doesn’t seem like a particularly generous man, so will he really help?”

“If Grandfather’s the one who’s asking, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Lin Qingchen murmured. “But Grandfather’s not the type to ask for favors…”

Lin Zainan and Pei Yingxiong were both fifth-rank, but even if Pei Yingxiong were duplicated a hundredfold, Lin Zainan would still be the more valuable asset. Naturally, he would feel it below his station to ask Pei Yingxiong for a favor.

“Grandfather won’t need to ask for a favor.” Yun Ruoyan smiled, turning and looking at Pei Ziao’s spear behind her. “I just have to wait for him to request my help once more.”

In the afternoon, with their combined strength, they extracted the canines of the tiger and its precious, golden-yellow monster core, about as large as a baby’s fist. Lin Qingxue hugged it tightly without wanting to let go.

“Haha, I thought that the firehound’s core was cute enough, but it seems like the saber-toothed tiger’s is even cuter.”

Lin Qingchen finally managed to wrangle the core from Lin Qingxue and handed it to Yun Ruoyan. “Ruoyan, since you were the one who slew the tiger, this core should be yours.”

Although the two Lin sisters were on the best of terms with Yun Ruoyan, they were still two separate families. Because most of their battle spoils would be handed to their families, Yun Ruoyan would surely be able to elevate her position within the Yuns if she were to present this core to her father.

Lin Qingxue hadn’t thought so deeply about such affairs, but she quickly agreed upon hearing her sister’s words. “That’s right, Sister Ruoyan, this should be yours.”

But Yun Ruoyan refused to take it.

“If not for your shielding me yesterday, I’d long since have been eaten by that tiger. This core belongs to everyone, including Zhuo Yifeng.” Yun Ruoyan glanced at him.

Zhuo Yifeng had already received Yun Ruoyan’s promise that she would make the canines into arrows from him. Given the high-grade materials and the fact that it required a fifth-rank forgemaster to process, the resulting arrows would be at least mid-grade, and he was already very happy with receiving that much. He hadn’t expected that Yun Ruoyan would want to hand him part of the core as well.

“I’m fine receiving just these two canines.”

“You’re clearly owed a share. As I’ve said, we won’t take advantage of you.” Yun Ruoyan was very obstinate about this point; she hadn’t wanted to have Zhuo Yifeng and his sister travelling with them to begin with.

First, she didn’t know anything about how good his skills were, and his weak sister seemed like she would have been a burden. Second, she didn’t know anything about his character or personality, and was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to battle effectively.

But after these last two days, Yun Ruoyan had begun to accept him as part of their team, and since they were all teammates, she surely wouldn’t treat him in a miserly fashion.

After all, the reason she had ended up in such a wretched state in her past life was because she didn’t know how to interact with people. In the end, she had lived and died alone, with no one to even tend to her corpse.

Yun Ruoyan took the core and stuffed it directly into Lin Qingchen’s bag of holding. For convenience, everyone had agreed to put their battle spoils into her bag and to split it up at the very end.

Zhuo Yifeng didn’t refuse again. His face seemed expressionless, but his heart was in turmoil. As a beastkin, this was the first time he had received equal treatment as humans.

The spiritual energy density here in the imperial territory was far greater than that outside. After settling their affairs, everyone sat down and began to cultivate.

Of course, once Yun Ruoyan sat down, her soul went inside her bracelet. The energy density within her pocket dimension was still incomparable to any other location she’d been in.

After another day of rest, along with a medicinal brew that Lin Qingchen had concocted, the next morning, Yun Ruoyan was just about recovered.

This was the third day since the opening of the imperial territory, and there was a week left before the end of the test. If they weren’t able to leave this place in that week, then they would have to wait three more years before undergoing the recruitment selection for Kongming Academy once more.

Three years wasn’t much for the Lin siblings, but Yun Ruoyan urgently wanted to leave the Yun family, and the only route forward for her was to enter Kongming Academy.

Despite being quite anxious about leaving, she didn’t say anything in order to avoid negatively impacting anyone else. The only sign of her anxiety was how unusually quickly she was walking.

“Brother Zhuo, isn’t it tiring for you to carry both the canines and your sister? Do you want any help?” Lin Qingxue spoke to Zhuo Yifeng once more. This entire morning, she’d been chattering away with Zhuo Yifeng, and although sometimes he might not say one word to her ten, it didn’t seem to dampen her spirits at all.

Lin Qingchen turned around to look at her sister, her eyebrows slightly raised, but Yun Ruoyao smiled and shook her head at her.

In her past life, she thought that Lin Qingxue was just a simple-minded, happy-go-lucky fool, but now she just seemed innocent and exuberant, a far cry from the scheming sisters she had.

“I only want my brother to carry me, not you!” Zhuo Lin’er, on the other hand, was not particularly appreciative of Lin Qingxue’s exuberance.

“That’s fine, I’m used to it,” Zhuo Yifeng declined politely.

He carried one canine on each of his shoulders, each about half a human’s height, as well as his sister on his back. Even so, he wasn’t breathing harshly as he walked, and even Yun Ruoyan admired how strong his beastkin physique was.

“Ai, Zhuo Lin’er!” Lin Qingxue turned towards Zhuo Lin’er, who had her head deliberately pointed away from Lin Qingxue. “Aren’t you already ten? You’re not a little kid anymore, so why do you keep insisting on being carried by your brother?”

“What does that have to do with you?!” Zhuo Lin’er called out angrily. She didn’t usually like to talk unless there was an emergency, but Lin Qingxue seemed to have the ability to get under her skin every time.

“Lin’er, I’m telling you, even though we’re girls, we can’t always rely on othe—”

“Brother, I sense a beast horde.” Zhuo Lin’er suddenly leaned forward and muttered into Zhuo Yifeng’s ear.

“Everyone, be careful! There’s a beast horde nearby.” Zhuo Yifeng stopped walking and scrutinized his surroundings.