"But what?"
"But you are not a Buddhist cultivator," Xiao Yan said, taking a bite of a spirit fruit. "To use it, one must practice a Buddhist cultivation technique and guide it with a unique merit power." After swallowing the bite, he continued, "Otherwise, if the karmic fire enters your body, you will end up killing people instead of saving them."
Li Nanzhu's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "So it still won't work..."
Suisui patted the back of her hand comfortingly, manifesting a small flower between its bone claws.
"Don't think too much about it," Xiao Yan said. "Being able to possess karmic fire is already quite good. Do not ask for more; greed is a dangerous thing."
"But in cultivation, if one isn't greedy, how can they obtain opportunities?" Li Nanzhu muttered.
Hearing this, Xiao Yan picked up his fan and tapped her on the head with a sharp 'thwack'. "Greed for opportunity and greed for life are two different things!" He produced a herb basket and shoved it into her arms. "Since you clearly aren't tired enough, go and gather some more cleansing heart grass. Tomorrow, I will teach you new Fire Control Techniques."
"Master!!!"
...
In the dead of night, Li Nanzhu carried the drowsy Suisui back to her room. The little skeleton's soul fire had turned a warm orange, and its bone claws were still tightly clutching a corner of her clothes.
"Sleep now." She gently placed Suisui onto a specially made small rattan bed. Xiao Yan had woven it from spiritual plants specifically for the skeleton after learning that Suisui slept in the same bed as her, claiming that it was inappropriate for 'humans and bones to be so intimate'.
Suisui nuzzled the pillow dizzily, lying amidst the soft cloud-haze cotton. The soul fire within its skull flickered in rhythm with its 'breaths'.
Li Nanzhu herself was exhausted. Three consecutive hours of fire control training had left her fingertips trembling even now, making it difficult to hold a teacup steady.
She stared blankly at the moonlight outside the window for a while, suddenly recalling the flicker of complexity in her master's eyes when he spoke of being 'greedy for life'.
"Master, just what..." she murmured to herself, her eyelids growing heavier until she eventually slumped against the pillow and fell asleep.
In the courtyard, Xiao Yan sat at a stone table, manipulating a game of Go. The black and white pieces clashed on the board. The moonlight cast his shadow onto the bluestone floor, appearing much more solid than it did during the day.
"Azure Wood Longevity Sutra, Kalpa Fire Dance Sutra..." He held a piece but hesitated to play it, his gaze drifting toward Li Nanzhu's room. "Feng Yi, it seems you have dragged this child into a massive web of karma... Just what are you..."
The night wind brushed through the bamboo grove, the rustling leaves drowning out his unfinished words.
With a sharp click, the black piece in Xiao Yan's hand landed on the Tianyuan position, startling a few bamboo leaves into falling from the trees.
...
The next three months of fire control training were nothing short of hell.
Without divine sense to assist her, Li Nanzhu could only rely on her naked eyes to observe the subtle changes in the flames. She often practiced until her eyes were bloodshot, unable to even see the location of the spirit tea Suisui brought her.
The most difficult part was the flame splitting training. Ordinary alchemists would only begin practicing the simultaneous control of multiple flames once they reached the Golden Core stage. Although she managed to achieve this by relying on her life force, maintaining control for extended periods remained a monumental challenge.
"Failure number seventy-eight!" Li Nanzhu collapsed onto the ground, tiny blisters forming on her fingertips from the heat.
The three flames twisted and tangled together before her before finally exploding with a bang. Sparks flew onto her robes, burning several charred holes into the fabric.
Suisui hurriedly brought over spiritual spring water, its bone claws carefully washing her wounds. The soul fire in the little skeleton's eye sockets flickered with worry, and it frequently turned to glare at Xiao Yan, who sat some distance away.
"What are you looking at?" Xiao Yan said without looking up from his ancient text. "This is only the beginning." He manifested a bottle of ointment and tossed it over. "Apply this and keep practicing."
Li Nanzhu gritted her teeth while applying the medicine, the pain of the ointment touching her wounds making her hiss. Suisui clattered its teeth in distress, gently patting her back.
Instead of complaining, she leaned in and gently nuzzled Suisui's skull.
"Don't worry," she whispered. "I have to learn this quickly, otherwise, how can I protect you?"
With that, she refocused and began practicing again.
Suisui looked at Li Nanzhu, then at Xiao Yan. Finally, after Li Nanzhu's flames exploded yet again, it couldn't help but start tugging at Xiao Yan's sleeve.
"Don't cause a fuss," Xiao Yan said, finally looking up. A flash of pity crossed his eyes, but he quickly hardened his expression. "Little bone, what do you think alchemy is? Playing house?" He stood up, his green robes fluttering in the wind. "A furnace can be replaced if it explodes, and ingredients can be regathered if destroyed, but if a fire control error occurs while refining pills to save someone—"
He suddenly flicked his finger, sending out a wisp of flame that precisely incinerated a withered branch on a distant spirit grass without harming the new buds beside it in the slightest.
"—that is a life."
While it was strange to lecture a skeleton on such matters, Li Nanzhu knew that this was something Xiao Yan wanted her to understand as well.
She looked at Xiao Yan. This was the first time she had seen her master look so serious; his peach blossom eyes, which usually held a smile, were now filled with emotions she couldn't decipher.
"Master, I understand." Li Nanzhu nodded slightly and pulled the aggrieved Suisui back into her arms.
"Rest for half an hour." Xiao Yan turned back toward the medicine cabinet, his voice returning to its usual lazy tone. "And while you're at it, memorize the third chapter of the Treatise on the Intergeneration of Fire Natures."
Suisui cautiously tugged her sleeve, pointing a bone claw toward its ribs—where it had hidden several pieces of spirit fruit it had secretly saved.
Li Nanzhu rubbed her aching eyes and whispered, "You eat them, I'm not hungry."
The little skeleton stubbornly forced the fruit into her hand, its soul fire flickering insistently.
In the distance, Xiao Yan appeared to be organizing ingredients, but he was actually watching them out of the corner of his eye. Seeing that she couldn't even swallow the fruit, the pressure he applied to the medicine grinder instinctively lightened.
The Snow Lingzhi in the grinder was being crushed into an extremely fine powder—it was an ingredient that was supposed to be coarsely ground.
...
When the night was silent, Li Nanzhu once again sneaked out for extra practice.
Under the moonlight, her figure appeared exceptionally fragile as the three flames in her palm struggled to maintain a flickering balance.
Xiao Yan pushed open the door to the alchemy room and found Li Nanzhu still sitting before the furnace.
Night dew hung from the young girl's eyelashes; clearly, she had sneaked back here to continue practicing after he had told her to rest early.
Seven or eight open scrolls were spread across the desk, and a stack of notes with wet ink stood half a foot high. Looking at her determined back, he found himself unable to voice any reprimand.
"...How many times has it been?" Xiao Yan's fan tapped Li Nanzhu's shoulder, the force as light as a whisk.
Li Nanzhu didn't even look up, the crimson-gold flames at her fingertips precisely dividing into three strands. "The two hundred and thirty-seventh time today." Her voice was incredibly raspy. "Just a few more times... and I'll be able to keep it stable for the duration of an incense stick."
Li Nanzhu sat cross-legged on the prayer mat, the three clusters of fire twisting into a braid-like shape in her palm. She didn't notice that the hem of her robes had caught fire until the smell of burning cloth woke a dozing Suisui.
The little skeleton hadn't gone to sleep either, staying up to accompany Li Nanzhu. It seemed it had tried to stop her, but she hadn't listened.
Now, it gazed resentfully at Xiao Yan, its soul fire flickering—it had failed to coax Li Nanzhu into sleeping for three consecutive days, and she wouldn't let it tell Xiao Yan. It was truly at its wit's end.
"Master, let me try a few more times. I can definitely do it!"
Rate on N.U.
