Reborn as Huo Yuhao, but also in Battle Through the Heavens

Chapter 34 Teacher

At dawn, the three, dressed in trench coats, left the inn. A layer of frost had formed on the streets of Blackrock City. Street vendors had already begun sweeping away the frost, and when they accidentally bumped into small trees, the falling frost and frozen leaves elicited muttered curses.

"Hiss—ha!" Exhaling a puff of white mist, Xiao Yan shrank his neck and shivered. "It's a bit cold! It's quite warm inside the Magical Beast Mountain Range!"

"Thank you so much, sir!" Huo Yuhao thanked an elderly vendor, then walked back and gestured to Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor.

"I've already asked around. Take this road, turn left at the intersection, and the Alchemist's Association is at the end!"

"Why did that strange old man insist on making me take the first-grade alchemist exam?" Xiao Yan complained. He had thought he could rest a bit more after leaving the Monster Mountain Range, but Yao Chen dragged him out of bed early in the morning.

"Because alchemists can ride flying magical beasts for free and don't have to wait in line," Huo Yuhao explained, glancing at him sideways.

"Can't you even stand this little bit of cold?" With that, she took out two scarves from her storage ring and handed them to Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor.

"Thank you, Brother Yuhao!" Little Fairy Doctor smiled happily, immediately took the scarf, and wrapped it around her neck.

"I just got out of bed." Xiao Yan seemed unwilling to accept the scarf. "Yuhao, you're becoming more and more of a virtuous wife and mother. Why are you still wearing this thing? Could it be that you were a girl in your past life?"

"Hehe!" Huo Yuhao put away his scarf and smiled.

"Ouch! Who stabbed me!" Xiao Yan suddenly clutched the back of his neck, a chilling sensation spreading down his neck to his tailbone.

"Huo Yuhao!"

"Let's go quickly." Huo Yuhao lightly kicked Xiao Yan's butt. "If we don't get to the Alchemist Association soon, it will close down."

"Brother Yuhao?" Little Fairy Doctor tugged at Huo Yuhao's sleeve.

"What's wrong?"

"You weren't really... Ah! Brother Yuhao!"

In the same location, with the same chill, both Little Fairy Doctor and Xiao Yan were affected.

"Huo Yuhao! Why did you stab me again!"

"Shut up! Let's go!"

……

In the air, a giant bird was flapping its wings and flying, with wisps of wind-attribute energy swirling beneath it. Even carrying a wooden house on its back, it did not seem to be struggling.

"Haha! I didn't expect becoming a first-grade alchemist to be so easy!" Xiao Yan tugged at the collar of his new robe, deliberately showing off the alchemist badge on his chest, and circled around Huo Yuhao and Little Fairy Doctor.

"Still saying I didn't teach you properly? Only by learning the techniques and mastering the properties of the medicinal herbs can you achieve twice the result with half the effort in your alchemy studies." Yao Chen emerged from the Ancient Flame Ring, hands on his hips, looking somewhat smug.

Just then, the flying magical beast seemed to encounter turbulence and lurched slightly. Yao Chen's soul form, which was floating in mid-air, lost its balance and crashed directly onto the floor.

"Little Yanzi, I feel dizzy and nauseous!"

"Can't you act like a spirit at all?!"

Little Fairy Doctor glanced enviously at the alchemist badge, then complained, "Can you please stop spinning it!"

"Ha!" Xiao Yan chuckled, stopping his spinning legs and looking at Huo Yuhao, who hadn't spoken since boarding the flying magical beast. "Yuhao, what are you doing?"

"Cultivation."

"Look at Brother Yuhao, and then look at you. No wonder you're a bad student," Little Fairy Doctor seized the opportunity to mock.

"Tch, you haven't cultivated either," Xiao Yan retorted, then found a seat and began circulating the Burning Technique.

Seeing that Xiao Yan had finally stopped lingering, Little Fairy Doctor also seized the time to cultivate.

After the two of them entered a meditative state, Huo Yuhao opened his eyes, got up and walked to Xiao Yan. He took the alchemist badge off his robe, studied it carefully for a while, and then gave it back to Xiao Yan.

Then, Huo Yuhao took out a piece of fine steel and a small piece of mithril from his storage ring, and conjured an ice carving knife in his right hand, and began to carve on the metal.

"Yuhao!" Yao Chen's voice rang out.

"Teacher, don't worry, I haven't stopped cultivating." Huo Yuhao continued his hand movements, but the Zhou Tian Jue (a cultivation technique) circulating within his body did not stop.

"I know, that's not what I meant," Yao Chen said. "Little Fairy Doctor can become an alchemist on her own in the future. Even without exposing the soul-guided medicine cauldron, she can control the temperature of the flames after her spiritual power improves."

Yao Chen did not intervene, but instead stared into Huo Yuhao's eyes.

She won't be happy if you give it to her ahead of time.

Huo Yuhao paused, looking at Yao Chen with a blank expression.

Yao Chen didn't speak again, his eyes showing a mixture of worry and determination as he looked at Huo Yuhao.

Sensing the emotions he couldn't understand emanating from Yao Chen, Huo Yuhao's confusion deepened. Looking at Yao Chen, he said in a bewildered voice, "Teacher, I..."

"Little Fairy Doctor has been working very hard to cultivate the Concentration Technique. She really wants to become an alchemist and achieve that through her own abilities. By doing this, aren't you...?"—Aren't you negating her efforts? Yao Chen swallowed the last half of his sentence and didn't say it aloud.

"Yuhao, think about it yourself. You're a good kid, you'll understand." Yao Chen's voice was gentle.

After a long silence, Huo Yuhao stared at the badge in his hand, its outline already carved, lost in thought.

Just as Yao Chen's heart was starting to race, Huo Yuhao said, "Teacher, it's been quite a while since I've made a soul tool. Let's make her a soul shield."

"Phew—" Yao Chen let out a long sigh, looking at Huo Yuhao with a clear smile in his crimson eyes: "Good, I didn't expect you to crack the anti-counterfeiting technology of the alchemist's badge at a glance, Yuhao. When we get to Zhongzhou, we must go to the Pill Tower to mock those old scoundrels. Hahaha!"

Seeing that Huo Yuhao was already immersed in making the soul tool, Yao Chen stopped disturbing him. Instead, he found an empty room on the flying magical beast, set up a soul barrier, and took out the Black Demon Cauldron to start refining medicine.

……

three days later.

"Huh? Where's Master? Master is gone!" Xiao Yan finished his cultivation and was just about to stretch his muscles when he realized that the Ancient Flame Ring hanging around his neck was gone, and it was not with Huo Yuhao and Little Fairy Doctor either.

"The ring is gone too!"

"Don't make noise, the teacher is refining medicine next door." Huo Yuhao reached out, and as if by prior arrangement, Xiao Yan's forehead appeared next to Huo Yuhao's hand, and he flicked Xiao Yan's forehead on the head.

"Ouch!"

"I didn't expect you to be so worried about your master, Xiao Yan!" Yao Chen's soul appeared and handed a pill to Xiao Yan.

"The first part of the Rejuvenating Pill has already been refined, but I predict that the final combination will be quite a spectacle, so we'll return to the Monster Mountain Range to refine it." Yao Chen paused, then pointed to the blood-red pill in Xiao Yan's hand: "This is the Blood Lotus Pill for absorbing the Strange Fire. Once we find the Ice Spirit Cold Spring, we'll be fully prepared to absorb the Strange Fire."

"With Yuhao here, we don't need the Ice Spirit Cold Spring, right?" Xiao Yan asked.

"What if something unexpected happens, and I'm not by your side, but you've already found the strange fire? What then?"

Huo Yuhao explained, and then took out a badge from his storage ring.

"Xian'er, this is for you."

"Thank you, Brother Yuhao. What's this?" Little Fairy Doctor took Huo's badge. It showed an alleyway carved on it, with the back view of a beautiful girl in the alley.

Upon closer inspection of the familiar clothing, Little Fairy Doctor realized: wasn't that her own back view?! In an instant, her face flushed crimson, and her voice became barely audible:

"Brother Yuhao..."

"This is a soul-guided protective shield." Huo Yuhao's voice carried a hint of satisfaction, pleased with his work. "It has no fixed level; once activated, the shield's defensive capabilities are determined by the strength of the user's battle qi, increasing its defensive level by one tier."

"In other words, if you use it now, Xian'er, it can withstand the attack of a Great Dou Master. However, due to the limitations of the materials, its limit is that it can only withstand the attack of a Dou King."

"Damn, you have such good stuff? Do you have any for me?" Xiao Yan was very interested in this soul-guided shield.

"have."

Upon hearing that this gift wasn't exclusively for her, a barely perceptible hint of disappointment flashed across Little Fairy Doctor's eyes. However, when she saw Xiao Yan's soul-guided shield, that disappointment vanished instantly, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile.

"Why is mine a monkey!" Xiao Yan protested, clutching the badge and looking at the monkey scratching its ears and cheeks on it.

"Haha, that suits you perfectly, Xiao Yan!"

"Yes, I think so too."