Tingling Scalp
Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu Edited by: Atsam
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Duan Yuyang laughed without much concern, “Well, I would like to see if you have the guts to. A man who has the heart of a thief but not his guts is the most cowardly kind.”
“You fucking–!” Duan Yuhao immediately raised his fist and his Qi began circulating. He was clearly infuriated.
“Both of you, that’s enough.” Duan Zhengde made use of his might as the head of the family and said as he frowned. “You’re brothers with the same blood running through your veins, why are you shouting at and trying to kill each other? Don’t you think it’s shameful?!”
Duan Yuhao clenched his teeth and tossed Duan Yuyang a gaze that seemed to say ‘just you wait’.
But Duan Yuyang just casually gave him a middle finger.
Duan Zhengde turned a blind eye to all this and said lightly, “Yuyang, I called you over today because there’s something I want to discuss with you. Yuhao, take your brother with you and leave first.”
Duan Yufei unreluctantly left with Duan Yuhao. Before he left, Duan Yufei even grimaced at Duan Yuyang.
Duan Yuyang looked at Duan Zhengde and sat down on the chair beside him in an extremely casual posture. He fiddled with a jade pendant at his waist and said, “What is it? You can just say it frankly.”
Duan Zhengde’s line of sight fell upon the incomparably exquisite and valuable jade storage space.
“Yuyang, before your mother left, she gave you that storage jade pendant. For all these years, I have never asked a single question about that pendant.” Duan Zhengde said.
Duan Yuyang nodded, “The Duan family has such a prosperous business, so father would naturally not bother with this jade pendant.”
Duan Zhengde and Madam Duan looked at each other, then he said, “But recently, there’s been one thing that I wanted to discuss with you.”
Duan Yuyang’s heart stopped for a moment and thought, to especially mention the jade pendant and talk about something he wants to discuss, it probably has something to do with my jade pendant’s space.
But everyone was part of the same family, and saw the head of the family, Duan Zhengde rarely asked for favours from the younger generation.
Duan Yuyang didn’t mind too much and nodded, “What is it? Father may as well just say it straight.”
Duan Yuyang’s attitude made Duan Zhengde feel extremely comforted.
“Your mother used to be an alchemist when she was alive. I would like to borrow the hand seal manuals she used to cultivate with.”
Duan Yuyang’s expression didn’t change as he asked, “Our Duan family has no alchemist. Who does father want to give it to?”
. Duan Zhengde looked at Madam Duan and said, “Your Aunt Lian’s family has a junior who was just born a few days ago. He was tested to have dual spiritual roots of wood and fire, and he also has an alchemist fire within his body. Your Aunt Lian and I will be returning to her maiden home in a few days, so we were thinking that if we could give that junior an alchemist manual for his 100th day as a first meeting fit, it would be extremely appropriate.”
Duan Yuyang didn’t even hesitate before saying, “There are tons of good items circulated within the Duan family’s auction house daily, so my mother’s manual shouldn’t be worth much ba.”
Duan Yuyang suddenly looked at Duan Zhengde, “Father, is that what you think, or what Aunt Lian thinks?”
Duan Zhengde frowned slightly, “What difference does it make? Your Aunt Lian and I are husband and wife in the first place.”
Duan Yuyang shook his head. After pondering for a moment, he said, “I’m afraid that I can no longer take out that manual!”
“What?”
“I just gave that book to Lin Xuanzhi today.” Duan Yuyang said lightly.
“You actually dared to give such a rare and valuable alchemy manual to one of our competitors?” Duan Zhengde’s expression didn’t look too good.
Likewise, Madam Duan’s expression darkened.
Duan Yuyang shrugged helplessly, “Well, isn’t it because Father asked me about it too late? Also, didn’t Father tell me before to establish a good relationship with Lin Xuanzhi? I thought that since my mother couldn’t use that manual anymore, and that there weren’t any alchemists around me anyway, so since he needed it, then I sold him a favour. It would only be beneficial for our Duan family in the future.”
Duan Zhengde lamented, “That was something your mother left to you, how could you give it away so easily?”
Duan Yuyang blinked, “It’s precisely because mother left it to me alone that I dared give it away casually. If it was something that belonged to the Duan family, I would have to consider it more thoroughly before giving it away.”
Duan Zhengde felt like his head was about to explode. Items that were given out are like spilled water, he definitely couldn’t get Duan Yuyang to take it back. Frankly speaking, it wasn’t like Duan Zhengde had to get that alchemy book at all costs, it’s just that Su Yulian was suddenly struck by an impulse to say that she must obtain that manual.
Duan Yuyang looked at Madam Duan’s eerie-looking eyes that made her appear as if she wanted to swallow him in one gulp and suddenly understood something in an instant. He remained calm as he smiled, “Since that’s the only matter to discuss, your son will take his leave first.”
Duan Zhengde waved his impatiently, “Go then.”
After Duan Yuyang left, Madam Duan clenched her teeth and said with a frosty expression, “Look at that good son of yours. He would rather leave the good items for outsiders rather than his own father.”
Duan Zhengde said with displeasure, “We were just a step too late. If you had told me about it earlier, I would have found him sooner to ask for it.”
Duan Zhengde did like Duan Yuyang. Although he had no talent for cultivation for some reason, he did owe Duan Yuyang’s mother a lot and felt great remorse for it. So naturally, he was willing to treat Duan Yuyang well.
But what Duan Yuyang did today made him feel like he had lost face.
With a sneer, Madam Duan got up and pulled Duan Yufei, “You’d better find a way to get that manual ba. Otherwise, the Duan family will probably be ruined at his hands.”
Duan Zhengde’s heart jolted. He stood up and frowned, “What do you mean by that?”
Madam Duan threw him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “When I peeped at the divine secrets, I had already vaguely seen that after that manual circulated outside, it quickly let your first wife’s family discover its traces. After that, someone from her family discovered the true cause of your first wife’s death, and massacred the entire Duan family in a fury.”
“How could that be possible?” Duan Zhengde’s face turned slightly pale. He clenched his fist and said, “The Duan family is a first-class family, it couldn’t be massacred that easily. You must have seen it wrong.”
“If you don’t believe it, then forget it.” Madam Duan said coldly, “In any case, I’ve already told you long ago that Duan Yuyang’s life is tough, and he’s a curse who will cause the death of the entire Duan family. Since you don’t believe me, then just wait and see.”
After she finished speaking, Madam Duan left without even looking back.
Duan Zhengde collapsed onto his chair in a daze.
That year, it was as if he had been possessed — though he was already engaged to Duan Yuyang’s mother, he couldn’t withstand Su Yulian’s beauty and had intimate relations with her.
Originally, they had hidden it very well. But not long after Duan Yuyang was born, someone leaked the news to Madam Duan so she came to know that he had someone else outside, and even found the luxurious place Duan Zhengde had arranged for his mistress.
Madam Duan was a decisive person. When she came to the house and personally saw Duan Zhengde and Su Yulian getting intimate and even had a kid who was about Duan Yuyang’s age, she immediately surged with anger and declared that she would get her family to kill Duan Zhengde and Su Yulian.
Madam Duan had always been a bit of an enigma to Duan Zhengde. Even as her husband, he didn’t know that Madam Duan even had a family to back her up. He had always thought that Madam Duan was an orphan to was picked up outside her sect’s gate, and that aside from her sect, she had no other backers.
Just as Duan Zhengde was feeling restless and uneasy, Su Yulian viciously murdered Madam Duan.
Duan Zhengde was filled with remorse regarding Madam Duan, but he was also worried that Madam Duan would really make disaster befall him and harm him, so he decided to be ruthless and locked Madam Duan in a cave at the back mountains.
He originally wanted to wait for Madam Duan to calm down before having a good talk with her. But after a few days, when Duan Zhengde went to the cave again, he realised that Madam Duan had suffered from a Qi deviation and all her meridians ruptured. She died as a result.
Naturally, he didn’t dare publicize this matter. So he listened to Su Yulian’s countermeasure and killed Madam Duan’s personal maid and servant, and fabricated Madam Duan’s death as a result of getting killed by some cultivators who robbed her of her pills.
When he thought of this, Duan Zhengde let out a long sigh.
Eventually, he would need to pay the price for the wrongs he had committed in the past.
If what Su Yulian said was true, then he would rather accept his punishment as soon as possible.
After Duan Yuyang returned, he sent the food that was delivered to him that day to a spiritual plant shop in Qing city to be inspected under an anonymous alias.
Most chronic toxins that would work on cultivators were difficult to detect, so some time was required for the inspection to be completed.
After Duan Yuyang paid the money, he went back home. It was only after he sat down that he realised that his palms had broken out in a cold sweat.
On the day of his mother’s death, she had once split her soul to instruct the young him that he was the only one who could give that alchemy manual to someone else of his own accord, and it couldn’t be forcibly obtained by others.
If anyone asked for it, then it proves that that person was the one who killed her.
Besides… aside from him and his mother, no one knew that that book was called《Divine Jun Alchemy Arts》.
Duan Yuyang’s scalp tingled. He felt like there was a pair of vicious eyes boring straight through his back.
In the Lin family’s cultivation room.
Lin Xuanzhi took out the Flaming Cloud Stone, and at the same time, he carefully hid its companion stone in his storage bag.
He couldn’t refine the grey companion stone now, which was about the size of a head, because the Flaming Cloud Bug inside was still asleep, like a weathered fossil. But once he refined it, that Flaming Cloud Bug would revive.
Flaming Cloud Bugs are creatures that have lived for tens of thousands of years, so they weren’t something that someone of his cultivation level could control easily. By then, if something went wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable.
For this reason, Lin Xuanzhi decided not to refine the companion stone now, even though he couldn’t wait to obtain the Flaming Cloud Bug.
After keeping the companion stone, Lin Xuanzhi’s line of sight fell on the dark red Flaming Cloud Stone.
“Are you challenging yourself to craft a pill furnace with that Flaming Cloud Stone as a raw material?” Soul Bead suddenly said.
“I do have that intention.” Lin Xuanzhi answered.
“Tsk, kid, aren’t you a bit too arrogant?” Soul Bead clicked his tongue, “With the Flaming Cloud Stone as the seed, the pill furnace that’s crafted at the very least requires a fifth stage soulfire at the introductory level, 36 lethal points must be opened up and meridians must have been expanded by thirty-twofold.”
And now, although Lin Xuanzhi was at the first layer of his Foundation Stage, he had just reached the fourth stage of his introductory level soulfire.
Although there was only a one stage difference between the fourth and fifth stage, there was an insurmountable gap between them.
Lin Xuanzhi closed his eyes, formed his hand seals and said, “That’s not too difficult.”
Soul Bead, “…”
He had never seen such an arrogant and conceited man before!
However, what Soul Bead didn’t know was that Lin Xuanzhi was most adept at refining his soulfire.
In his past life, Lin Xuanzhi lived for a thousand years in the Soul Plate in a soul body. During that thousand-year period, before he could use his soul body to control his crafting soulfire, he had never crafted any magic treasures before and instead spent all his time on refining his soulfire.