Love Burning Amidst the Ashes. - Chapter 19 - The Bond Across Distance

Deep within the outer gate herb garden of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, midnight.

This was one of the few opportunities a handyman like him could use the alchemy chamber. Whether he could enter the outer gate and cast off his identity as a handyman—this was his only chance.

Absolute silence reigned, broken only by the faint dripping sound of cold dew condensing on the tips of spiritual herbs, and the low hum of earth fire licking the furnace chamber beneath a waist-high bronze cauldron inside the alchemy room. The runes carved into the furnace wall glowed with a warm crimson light under the steady heat, reflecting onto Xu Qing Xuan’s pale, handsome, yet utterly bloodless profile. He sat cross-legged on a cushion, the hem of his cyan robe stained with a few inconspicuous brown herbal marks. The bloodstained leather belt at his waist was fastened with meticulous precision, yet now it pressed painfully against an unhealed hidden wound just below his dantian.

From the furnace mouth wafted not scorching dan energy, but a strange, chilling fragrance—a blend of thousand-year cold jade essence and triple-refined snow lotus core. It flowed like an icy spring through the cramped chamber, attempting to suppress the immense vitality contained within the Condensation Dew Pill that was about to take form. Xu Qing Xuan’s fingers were steady as stone as he formed the complex “Ice Containment Seal.” His spiritual perception, like the finest silk thread, carefully guided the delicate balance of ice and fire energies within the furnace. His photographic memory allowed him to recite the properties of hundreds of herbs recorded in Discernment of Flora, but at this moment, his sea of consciousness was exceptionally clear, all his focus fixed on the single drop of dan liquid about to coalesce inside the furnace.

Suddenly!

Without warning, a tearing, violent pain exploded from his chest! As if an invisible ice awl had pierced straight through!

“Ugh!” The fingers of Xu Qing Xuan’s hand seal trembled violently, and the icy spiritual energy at his fingertips instantly became chaotic. Inside the furnace, the once-docile ice-blue dan liquid suddenly boiled over. Savage vitality mixed with cold energy slammed violently against the furnace walls, producing deep, resounding thuds! The crimson glow of the furnace runes flickered wildly, on the verge of extinguishing!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his temples. This pain did not come from his old dantian wound, but from deep within his bloodline—carrying a deathbed throbbing of a blood relative, achingly familiar to him.

Qing Feng!

The name exploded like thunder in his sea of consciousness. In an instant, his mind flashed to his younger brother’s bronze skin corded with muscle, those brows and eyes always carrying recklessness and unyielding spirit, and… the vicious, blackened demonic mark on his right arm, illuminated by lightning! A phantom scent—a mix of thick blood, sulfur stench, and some yin-cold, bone-eroding odor—brutally dispersed the elegant herbal fragrance within the alchemy chamber and assaulted his senses!

The bloodstained leather belt at his waist suddenly felt like a giant python, its suffocating tightness echoing the throbbing pain in his chest, squeezing him until he could barely breathe. The out-of-control dan energy inside the furnace roared like a dying beast, but his mind was in turmoil, his spiritual perception seemingly seized and torn by an invisible giant hand!

No! The Condensation Dew Pill was almost complete. This pill was crucial for him to pass the alchemy apprentice assessment and enter the Scripture Depository to find a way to save his brother! Forcing down the surging blood and tearing pain, Xu Qing Xuan took a deep breath, forcibly gathered his nearly scattered spiritual perception, changed his hand seal once more, and tried to forcibly suppress the furnace’s violent reaction with even stronger icy spiritual energy.

However, just as his spiritual perception forcibly probed the core of the furnace and touched the violently trembling center of the dan liquid—

BOOM!!!

Deep within his sea of consciousness, an image far more violent, far more despairing than the chest pain, was forcibly cleaved open like a heavenly tribulation lightning bolt!

Thunder Prison Gate, the depths of the War Slave Camp, a cold, damp cage.

Xu Qing Feng lay curled on the icy, filthy stone floor. His body was like repeatedly crushed charcoal, each faint breath causing the countless carbonized cracks all over him to emit tiny rustling sounds. On his right arm, beneath newly formed dark red flesh, the web-like black lines of the demon seed pulsed slowly with his weak heartbeat, like a living thing. Each pulse released bone-penetrating yin-cold energy that violently clashed with the remaining lightning force within him, creating an unbearable torment of ice and fire interwoven. The sweet, cloying taste of residual Blood Boiling Pills mixed with the burnt stench of seared organs clogged his throat. His consciousness sank into a bottomless mire of darkness and excruciating pain.

Just as his awareness teetered on the brink of eternal extinction—

A faint, clear bitterness, like a cold star piercing through thick gloom, abruptly appeared in his silent sea of consciousness.

This presence… so familiar! It was the herbal, cool fragrance that perpetually lingered in his elder brother’s medicine shop! It was the scent unique to Xu Qing Xuan, the one that clung to his fingertips!

Then, an indescribable warmth—tinged with the cool touch of jade—spread through his scorched, torn chest. The warmth was faint yet tenacious, like a campfire in a cold night, instantly dispelling the bone-eroding chill of the demon seed and granting him a moment to breathe.

In the darkness, a soft yet resolute silver light flickered to life.

Within the light, Xu Qing Xuan’s figure materialized from illusion to reality. He still wore his dust-stained cyan robe, his face pale as paper, brows tightly locked, and even a glaring thread of crimson spilling from the corner of his mouth! But those clear, cold eyes pierced through the endless darkness and spatial barriers, locking onto the dying Xu Qing Feng with heart-aching urgency and unwavering resolve!

What made Xu Qing Feng’s soul tremble even more was—his elder brother’s hands were not empty!

An ancient black bronze compass was suspended above Xu Qing Xuan’s loosely cupped palm! The compass’s surface was not marked with ordinary directional scales, but covered in an extremely complex array of silver runes that constantly shifted and flickered. These runes moved like living creatures, forming a profound, inscrutable micro-formation. At this moment, the compass’s central needle spun wildly, each turn causing more blood to flow from the corner of Xu Qing Xuan’s mouth. And the yin-yang jade pendant at his waist was emitting a faint yet clear warm white light, resonating with the compass!

“Hold on… Qing Feng…” Xu Qing Xuan’s voice did not reach through the ears but sounded directly within Xu Qing Feng’s soul. It carried an unmistakable weakness and the immense burden of forcibly activating some forbidden power. “Focus on your dantian… the lightning… hold it, don’t release it… demonic thoughts… are illusions… guard your core!”

Every word struck Xu Qing Feng’s chaotic consciousness like a thunder-forged sledgehammer! The four words “hold it, don’t release it” in particular were like lightning cleaving through the fog in the darkness, instantly hitting the core of the violent conflict between the rampaging lightning force within him and the yin-cold power of the demon seed!

“Brother?!” Xu Qing Feng let out a silent roar in the darkness of his sea of consciousness. He saw the runes on the compass in his brother’s hand suddenly erupt with blinding silver light—a fine crack even appearing on the compass’s surface! At the same time, Xu Qing Xuan’s body lurched violently, his face instantly turning the color of golden paper. He could no longer suppress a mouthful of his heart’s essence blood, which sprayed onto the compass with a sharp pfft!

The essence blood was instantly absorbed by the compass. The wandering silver runes faltered for a moment, then exploded with even more intense light! A guiding beam, formed entirely of silver runes—like a bridge spanning the stars—ignored spatial barriers, instantly pierced the darkness of the cage, and precisely pointed toward the chaotic, rampaging, collapsing energy vortex deep within Xu Qing Feng’s dantian!

“Follow it… circulate… don’t resist… guide it…” Xu Qing Xuan’s voice became intermittent, his figure flickering violently within the silver light as if on the verge of dissipating. He forcibly maintained the final guidance, his gaze locked deadly onto the pulsing demon mark on Xu Qing Feng’s right arm. In his eyes were bone-deep anguish and an icy killing intent.

The Alchemy Chamber, Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

Pfft—!

Xu Qing Xuan could no longer hold on. A large mouthful of scorching heart’s essence blood sprayed out violently, like a crimson arrow, splashing fiercely against the hot bronze furnace wall! Sssss— The harsh sizzling sound mixed with the thick scent of blood instantly filled the air!

The core of the nearly-formed Condensation Dew Pill inside the furnace, the moment his spiritual perception completely collapsed from the pain and backlash, lost its last constraint. The accumulated, extreme cold spiritual energy and rampaging vitality, like a runaway wild horse, crashed together!

BOOM!!!

The deafening explosion tore through the silence of midnight! The sturdy bronze furnace lid was instantly blown off by the rampaging energy, smashing heavily into the ceiling before bouncing and crashing back down! The viscous pill liquid inside—a mixture of thousand-year cold jade essence, snow lotus core extract, and Xu Qing Xuan’s essence blood—turned into an out-of-control ice-fire storm, carrying countless shattered furnace rune fragments as it sprayed outward violently in all directions!

Bone-piercing cold currents and scorching heatwaves instantly swept through the entire alchemy chamber! The herbal specimens hanging on the walls instantly froze into ice sculptures, then exploded into powder in the next wave of heat! Xu Qing Xuan, bearing the brunt of the blast, was violently thrown by the explosion’s force. His back slammed heavily against the cold stone wall. Another sweetness rose in his throat—blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth. The yin-yang jade pendant at his waist dimmed instantly, turning dull and gray, as if all its power had been exhausted.

Pain swept through his entire body. His old dantian wound felt like a thousand needles stabbing into it. His sea of consciousness was as if burned by raging fire—intense pain accompanied by strong dizziness. But his bloodstained right hand pressed firmly against his chest.

There—that tearing, bloodline-origin throbbing… had finally… weakened.

Though faint as a candle flickering in the wind, his younger brother’s rampaging, chaotic aura seemed… under that space-crossing guidance just now… to have forcibly stabilized a thread—not completely extinguished!

The cost… a destroyed furnace, the soon-to-be-assessed Condensation Dew Pill ruined, severe backlash on himself, and the exposure of the enormous hidden danger caused by forcibly performing the deduction. Xu Qing Xuan struggled to stand, but his vision was blurry, his ears ringing. He could only vaguely hear chaotic footsteps and startled, angry shouts growing closer from outside the alchemy chamber.

His bloodstained fingers unconsciously gripped the leaf of a “Seven-Star Wound-Stopping Herb” in the cracks of the cold floor—its roots severed by the blast. The herb’s bitter, fresh scent mixed with the thick smell of blood, invading his nostrils.

The Cage, Thunder Prison Gate.

Xu Qing Feng’s curled body suddenly jerked violently! Like a drowning man finally grasping a piece of driftwood, his collapsing consciousness, under the guiding beam transmitted across endless space by his brother—using essence blood as a guide and the compass as a bridge—erupted with one final burst of survival instinct!

“Hold it… don’t release it… guide it…”

His brother’s weak yet steadfast voice echoed deep within his soul. He no longer futilely fought against the destructive conflict between the lightning force and the demon seed’s yin-cold power within him, nor did he try to forcibly suppress it. The dying beast had finally found its direction!

A single remaining thread of his consciousness, like the tiniest tentacle, painstakingly wrapped around the beam formed of silver runes. The beam was gentle yet carried an undeniable guiding force, carefully avoiding the vortex core where the rampaging lightning force and yin-cold demonic thoughts clashed head-on. It was like carving out an extremely narrow yet relatively calm “river channel” within a destructive storm, guiding the rampaging, out-of-control remnants of the lightning force to slowly, painstakingly circulate along the path the beam had opened!

The circulation was extremely slow. The pain had not diminished in the slightest—each guidance was like dragging a red-hot branding iron through burning meridians. But miraculously, the densely cracked walls of his dantian—on the verge of complete collapse—stopped spreading under this faint yet orderly guidance! The destructive conflict storm within him was forcibly channeled into an extremely fragile yet real “river channel”! Though still rampaging and surging, it was no longer a chaotic, destructive collision!

The dark lines of the demon seed on his right arm seemed to sense the threat. Their pulsing suddenly intensified, releasing even stronger yin-cold energy in an attempt to interfere with the silver beam’s guidance. But Xu Qing Feng’s consciousness clung tightly to his brother’s guidance—like clinging to the only driftwood in raging waves. No matter how much the pain from the demonic thoughts eroded him, he would not let go even the slightest bit!

“Brother… I… have it…” A thought, faint to the extreme, rose in Xu Qing Feng’s silent sea of consciousness.

Outside the cage, at the end of the corridor, came the heavy footsteps of patrolling war slaves. The clanking sound of dragging iron chains was unusually piercing in the deathly silence.

In a dark corner, the figure with the centipede-like scar on his face—Scarface—his murky eyeballs silently turned in the darkness. His gaze, like a cold viper, first swept over the spider-web dark lines beneath the new skin on Xu Qing Feng’s right arm—those lines pulsing with abnormal intensity, even faintly showing a dark red bloody glow. Then, as if penetrating the thick stone walls, he looked toward the distant, unreachable western horizon. Between his withered fingers, a blade of grass root—still bearing the moist scent of soil—was silently crushed, squeezing out a few drops of dark green sap that exuded an extremely faint, strange, herbal, musky scent.