Xiao Han’s sudden transformation took everyone by surprise. Especially Tan Ling – she never expected that after sealing his yin qi, his appearance would turn even more lethal.

Gu Changshou blinked twice, staring foolishly at Xiao Han’s newly revealed features. He knew he was thin and had a good bone structure, but he never knew just how good looking he was.

Silvery tresses turned jet black, falling across pale cheeks. Full lips adorned a face carved from creamy, white jade. Long eyelashes trembled, fanning open to reveal large soulful eyes, sucking him in. The silver-blue robe he bought a week ago finished the picture of a frail beauty in his arms.

“Chang-ge? …are you hurt?”

Xiao Han’s labored voice pulled him from Gu Changshou from his thoughts. Shaking his head, he brushed the hair away from Xiao Han’s face studying those inky black eyes with a ring of deep purple radiating from the center, watery with pain.

“I’m fine, thanks to you, you little fool.”

Grabbing his pale wrist, he immediately frowned upon detecting the yin qi that rushed towards him, hungrily struggling to break free. He couldn’t be sure without studying it in more, but there was a huge amount of yin qi trapped in Xiao Han’s body. It was over a dozen times more potent than what he had observed previously.

Xiao Han didn’t know how to control his yin qi and could die if this dragged on any longer.

“Hold on for a bit. Let me deal with them first.”

“En.”

Adjusting Xiao Han so he lay more comfortably in his arms, Gu Changshou faced their pursuers.

“Are you happy now?”

A fierce scowl appeared on his face as he glared at those unwanted guests. If it wasn’t for them, Xiao Han would be fine. He could make out the lecherous intentions coming from a few of them, making his anger grow even stronger.

It was their fault Xiao Han was like this. He had better be fine; otherwise he would be out for blood.

Despite being burdened with more yin qi than humanly possible and being treated like a beast, Xiao Han never hurt anyone. Just the opposite.

He was curious and wanted to get close to other humans. But they shunned him for looking different and for lacking manners. But whose fault was it? He had no parents to teach him, no teacher to correct his ways, and no one to tell him what was right or wrong.

Making sure that Xiao Han was securely in his arms, he summoned a sword of qi, wielding it flexibly as he flew forward. It was unbecoming for a nascent soul cultivator to attack those weaker than him, but Xiao Han was his reverse scale.

Passing his eyes on the crowd of unconscious cultivators, he snorted and flew away. Gu Changshou made sure not to kill any of them, but they might want to die after this. Crippling their dantians was for Xiao Han’s sake, but blinding their eyes was for him – he didn’t want anyone seeing Xiao Han’s appearance. It was a petty grudge, but who told them to be present and see Xiao Han’s true appearance at the same time he did?

It was the most pain he had ever felt. His body was being torn into pieces, the yin qi rampaging chaotically through his veins, trying to escape. His entire body was icy cold, and uncooperative. If it wasn’t for the warm yang qi emitted by him, Xiao Han thought would have frozen to death.

“Chang-ge… it hurts…”

Had it been any other situation, having a lithe, delicate beauty say that in that tone of suppressing pain, would make a person’s mind drift to less savory thoughts.

“Hold on a little longer, Xiao Han.”

Shaking his head, he cycled his qi as quickly as possible, rushing back to their cave, where he could examine Xiao Han’s situation. Gu Changshou was taken aback at the frigid cold emanating from Xiao Han’s skin, invisible wisps of frost leaking out.

Before, the yin qi cycled inside him, and the excess was released back into the surrounding environment. His previously silver hair, the dense marks on his skin, and yin qi cloaking him was proof of that. Now, however, there was no place for it to go. All it could do was move around chaotically within Xiao Han’s meridians, trying to find a way out. And he was still absorbing more ambient yin qi without realizing it. Xiao Han would die if this continued.

Guilt for causing such a fate to befall the pure-hearted and guileless youth was a stone in his stomach, the regret eating him from the inside out. No one deserved such a cruel fate, especially Xiao Han who had spent his life being shunned by others.

Furrowing his brows, he studied the seal, trying to examine whether he could undo its effect. Tan Ling’s seal wasn’t an ordinary seal. It was made from a cultivator at the Nirvana stage. Why she had a talisman and what she was intending on doing with it was unclear, but it was impossible for him at his current level.

There was only one thing he could do – seek help from the outside. He didn’t know if it was possible to find someone who might be willing to spend time to break such a high-grade seal. Especially on someone they didn’t know. But it was more dangerous not trying. Sitting here would not resolve the problem.

“Wait here, I’ll try to get help.”

He turned to leave, but the icy grip against his wrist stopped him in his tracks.

“No, don’t… less cold with you…”

Teeth clattering, Xiao Han forced his eyes open. He didn’t want Gu Changshou to leave. What if he never came back? Digging his free hand into his chest, he mimicked a clawing motion, trying to remove the throbbing lump of ice inside.

“You mean it’s less cold next to me?”

“En…”

Was it an effect of his true yang body or yang qi? Quickly slashing his wrist, Gu Changshou lifted it to Xiao Han’s lips which had long turned pale blue, urging him to drink. He didn’t know whether his blood was useful, but it hadn’t hurt Xiao Han before, only helped.

Waiting for his throat to swallow, he only moved his hand away after a good minute. “Is that better?”

“…don’t know.” There was a brief warming sensation, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the icy chill. He could only lie there, shivering and clenching his teeth. “…cold.”

Maybe the yang qi wasn’t enough? Forcefully injecting his qi into Xiao Han might cause a backlash, but if it seemed that there was no rejection when taken by mouth. Taking out a yang qi pill he found from the wreckage of his stuff previously, Gu Changshou considered it for a long moment. There were only a couple left from the few earth-grade Elder Li had gifted him for reaching the nascent soul stage.

“Try this.” He pressed the yellowish-red pill against Xiao Han’s mouth.

Pale lips opened and swallowed. One, two, three… all the yang qi pills were eaten by Xiao Han, but there was only a slight change. The shivering lessened, but Gu Changshou knew it was only a matter of time before the yang qi was swallowed up by the vast amount yin qi in Xiao Han’s body.

“How does it feel?” It was a long shot. The pills had more concentrated yang qi than his blood, so if his blood worked, then the pill might be more effective.

Xiao Han was still for a moment before shaking his head.

Gu Changshou sighed. He didn’t have any more and his blood was of limited use as well. The normal way of guiding one’s qi by suppressing it first was too risky. Their qi needed to be compatible and the amount of qi in Xiao Han’s body was also much greater than a nascent soul cultivator could handle. He would almost certainly survive with grievous injuries, but if something went wrong, Xiao Han might die…

“Xiao Han, you need to promise to hold on. Chang-gege is going to find you help.”

“…en.”

Xiao Han could barely keep his eyes open as he was carried in Gu Changshou’s arms and brought down the mountain. Despite the pain, his heart was warm knowing how much he cared for him.

 

“Can you lift the seal?”

Xu Wenxing shook his head. That was the first thing he examined, but even if they could break the seal, it wouldn’t save him.

“I don’t know his circumstances well or why he attracts ambient yin qi, but breaking the seal will cause the rioting qi to burst out all at once. Even if he could survive, I’m afraid his meridians would be destroyed and he would be crippled for life.”

“Crippled for life?”

Worried eyes skimmed over Xiao Han who lay there appearing deceptively calm and peaceful, when his body was on the verge of collapsing.

Gu Changshou never expected this to happen when he left to go send a message. No one had interrupted them on the mountain before. Fortunately, he did his best to return quickly. Who knew what would have happened had he returned later!

While Tianmen Sect was too far away, Qingshui mountain was only a day’s journey away – for a nascent soul cultivator – from Wuwei Temple. It was a place that opened its doors for all manner of people, cultivator and mortals alike. As long as one had no ill-intentions and did not carry the scent of blood on them, they were welcome.

Better yet, he had met and was on good terms with several of the senior priests. Some even came when his sect held a celebration for his reaching the nascent soul stage, bringing some gifts, to congratulate him. Xu Daozhang, Xu Wenxing, was one of them, and shared a friendship with his shifu as well.

“…then, Xu Daozhang, what can I do?”

“This Taoist has three ideas.” Xu Wenxing hummed, stroking his beard thoughtfully, as he contemplated the possibilities. Rarely, did he see such a situation where a non-cultivator could survive with so much qi contained in their physical body.

“First, divine-grade yang pill.”

“Divine-grade?!”

Where would they get a divine-grade yang pill? It was hard enough seeing a heaven-grade pill. When the Wanyao Sect put one up as a reward for winning a pill refining tournament, thousands of cultivators had red eyes.

“Yes, Divine-grade.”

“Can we replace it with heaven-grade?” He could probably beg a favor from Elder Li to get some heaven-grade pills. Divine-grade were so rarely seen, they were almost a myth. Whenever there were rumors of one, cultivators would flock to the site.

“No. Heaven-grade might help for a short term, but there is too much yin qi trapped in his body. And as he also absorbs more constantly, only a divine-grade pill will be able to fully suppress it.”

“Then… what about the other choices?”

“The second is for him to learn how to cultivate and control the qi in his body. It will not be a problem once he forms his nascent soul.”

“That’s too long. He’s never cultivated before…”

It took him decades to reach form his nascent soul, and that was with ample resources, teaching, and practice. And several decades was already extremely fast. Xiao Han had no time.

While Xiao Han could sense and absorb ambient yin qi as easily as breathing, cultivating was not easy. He was already older than when most began training, and no one had ever heard of an early-stage cultivator dealing with so much qi in their body. It was suicide letting a novice survive the qi riots while cultivating.

“… wait. Did you not say there were three options?”

“Yes, there are three options.”

“Then, what’s the third?”

Xu Wenxing watched Gu Changshou’s nervous expression as he gently lifted a stray piece of hair off Xiao Han’s forehead. He had never seen the younger cultivator so patient or caring towards someone else like this before. Mu Zhouting told him to look after his disciple if he ever came asking his help, otherwise he would never even consider the third option.

Because of his true yang body and cultivation speed, Gu Changshou was well known among the younger generation. He was a role model to younger generations, well-liked amongst his peers and by elders, but there was a sense of distance he kept from most others. This Xiao Han must be special to Gu Changshou since he treated him so tenderly.

After a long moment of contemplation, Xu Wenxing finally opened his mouth.

“Dual cultivation.”