“I absolutely cannot.” Chen Fei explained, “Just before I left to come here, your father ordered me that I absolutely, no matter what, had to stay here to protect his wife and son. Even in death.”

Long Chen shook his head, “Although you are a late Blood Condensation expert, you are no longer able to protect me. The fact that you didn’t help me back when I was injured on the martial arena means that you are extremely apprehensive and will only act to help once I am facing death. But at that time, even if you did help, you wouldn’t be able to fix anything. Am I right?”

Chen Fei was silent for a long while. That was because Long Chen’s words were absolutely true and he couldn’t refute them.

“Within the capital, the only person who could make you feel so apprehensive should be Marquis Ying, correct?” asked Long Chen.

Chen Fei sighed and nodded. “Correct. Your father warned me over and over again not to let Marquis Ying notice me, otherwise, my life would be over. I’m not afraid of death, but I am afraid of betraying your father’s expectations. That’s why despite you being bullied so much, I could only continue to stay my hand. I truly am sorry.”

“Does my father have enmity with Marquis Ying?”

“Marquis Ying’s finger was severed by your father,” laughed Chen Fei.

No wonder Marquis Ying would target me. Father really is ferocious. But I won’t fall behind; my father severed a finger, while I made him lose all his money.

“When did you first come to the capital?” asked Long Chen.

“Three years ago.”

“And how many experts on your level does my father have beside him?”

“There were originally seven, but one of them died after many years of fighting, so there are only six now.”

“What Heavenstage have you reached?”

“The ninth Heavenstage of Blood Condensation. But unfortunately, I’ve never been able to break through the next barrier,” sighed Chen Fei. He was already thirty-seven years old. If he still wasn’t able to break through by the age of forty, it would essentially be impossible for him to do so for the rest of his life.

Long Chen wasn’t that surprised. Although Chen Fei was extremely good at hiding his aura, Blood Qi had emerged from the space between his eyebrows. That was a clear sign of blood being condensed to its densest state.

In other words, Chen Fei had to be at the peak of Blood Condensation. Unfortunately, he was unable to break through the next barrier.

To break through the Blood Condensation realm to reach the Tendon Transformation realm was extremely difficult. There were thousands of Blood Condensation experts in Phoenix Cry, but only three Tendon Transformation experts. The two were separated by a huge chasm that caused everyone who stood in front of it to despair.

“Chen Fei, I’ll refine some pills tonight. Bring them to my father.” Long Chen was almost talking to himself.

“Young master, this…”

Long Chen waved his hand, cutting him off. “Although your aura concealing techniques are exquisite, allowing you to hide from even Marquis Ying’s senses, the entire Phoenix Cry capital is undergoing intense undercurrents. That means that the entire empire will soon be flipped; whether you stay or not has no meaning. If my Long family truly did reach that end point where you would finally take action, do you really think you could manage to fight against that tide with just your strength?”

“I can bring you out alive,” said Chen Fei.

Long Chen’s face darkened. “And what about my mother?”

Chen Fei was immediately speechless. His aura concealing techniques were powerful, but he was actually even stronger when it came to his fleeing techniques. He was confident that even if Marquis Ying was the opponent, he would still have an eighty percent chance of saving Long Chen.

But he really was unable to reply when it came to Long Chen’s mother. He could at most bring along one extra person. In other words, his mother would have to be a sacrifice.

“Sorry young master, but these are my master’s orders. I must follow them,” Chen Fei shook his head.

Long Chen couldn’t help being both startled and furious. His father had actually decided to sacrifice his mother to save him in that situation. Perhaps that was because of his pampering of him, but he was completely unable to accept that.

Taking a deep breath, Long Chen suppressed his fury and coldly said, “Chen Fei, I’m not arguing with you. I am ordering you. Don’t end up hurting me and my mother just for some silly order. I’m going to the alchemist guild right now to get some medicinal ingredients. I’ll spend all night refining, and you will bring them to my father. Don’t even speak about saving me and my mother. If I wanted your life right now, it would be as effortless as blowing off dust. Right now, I have the strength to temporarily protect the Long household. But events are rapidly turning, and I need my father’s help quickly. So now I’m giving you two options. Listen to me and return to my father’s side. Or die here. Without more of the antidote, the poison will still inevitably kill you.”

Chen Fei’s expression became a mix of green and white. He could easily hear the fury within Long Chen’s words. He could almost see the image of Long Tianxiao within him. He was certain that if he dared to disobey, Long Chen really would take his life.

He wasn’t afraid of death, but such a meaningless death truly would not be worth it. Anyways, this was a matter for the Long family. He could only bitterly smile and agree. Of course, inside he was extremely agonized. Just how was he supposed to face Long Tianxiao once he returned?

Long Chen went straight to the alchemist guild. Now that he had so much money from the auction, he no longer needed to worry about buying medicinal ingredients on credit. Coming to the guild now had definitely been a smart decision, as they had all the medicinal ingredients he required.

Using Chen Fei as a guard, Long Chen directly started using his flame to warm the furnace. The pill he was refining this time was called the Breaking Barrier Pill.

It was an extremely ordinary second tier medicinal pill that could increase the chance of breaking through bottlenecks.

But the medicinal formula Long Chen was using had come from the Pill Sovereign’s memories. It used the same medicinal ingredients, but through merging them in different proportions, it created an entirely different effect.

In addition, Long Chen had added Dragon Bone Grass as well. That kind of intense medicinal ingredient would increase the pill’s medicinal energy. This was no longer an ordinary Breaking Barrier Pill.

This Breaking Barrier Pill was used to attack the Tendon Transformation realm. The lower grade Breaking Barrier Pill could give people an extra ten percent chance of breaking through.

But the one Long Chen was planning on refining was a higher quality pill and could give cultivators an extra thirty percent chance of breaking through. If that was learned by others, it would definitely shake the current world.

Such a medicinal pill was even more shocking that the Flesh Bone Restoration Pill from the auction. In reality, that Flesh Bone Restoration Pill had a large flaw; however, Long Chen hadn’t told them about it.

If an ordinary person were to have their limbs severed, then they really could grow a new limb without any problems.

But if a cultivator took it, they would use their Spirit Root’s true spiritual core energy to heal it. That would end up shortening their peak potential.

Back then, Long Chen had cut off Fu Gui’s arm, and he had healed it without causing any problems. But later when Yao Niqian called up Zhao Yang... well, in any case, adventurers were in constant danger of being cut like that. And it wasn’t as if Zhao Yang could have resisted Yao Niqian’s charm anyway.

...

BOOM!

The medicinal furnace shook. Opening it, three round medicinal pills appeared. A faint glimmer shined off them, causing a weary Long Chen to smile.

This was his third furnace of pills. The first time he had succeeded in refining three pills. But the second time he had just been slightly distracted for a moment, causing an explosion. The pill furnace only narrowly managed to avoid being destroyed. However, the ingredients had turned to ashes.

Refining pills was simply like that. Just the slightest inattentiveness could easily cause failure. Even with all the techniques of a Pill Sovereign, it would be impossible to avoid some failures.

His goal had been to refine two furnaces worth of pills. Now that he had failed once, he had no choice but to attempt a third one despite his exhaustion.

The Breaking Barrier Pill, which had the Dragon Bone Grass added to it, was extremely hard to refine. Even with Long Chen’s powerful Spiritual Strength, he was still completely exhausted.

But looking at the six medicinal pills, he felt that all that exhaustion was worth it. He handed them to a shocked Chen Fei in addition to a letter.

Chen Fei left before the break of dawn. Long Chen took a quick nap to re-energize himself. Waking up, he realized he felt much freer and less worried.

The matter of his father had always been pressing on him like a huge boulder. Now that he had finally learned his father’s situation, he was filled with anticipation.

The only thing that kept worrying him was that Chen Fei hadn’t known just who was targeting his father. Long Tianxiao had never told anyone about that.

But that wasn’t too important anymore. Now that he had news of his father, he was filled with fighting spirit.

Getting out of bed, he placed Little Snow in front of him. Little Snow was what Long Chen had decided to name the Scarlet Flame Snow Wolf.

Little Snow’s eyes were still permanently closed as he cried and fussed. Long Chen smiled slightly and bit down on his finger, drawing a drop of blood. He dripped the blood into Little Snow’s mouth.

When Little Snow swallowed that drop of blood, his closed eyes finally opened slowly. He curiously looked up at Long Chen. His large eyes plus the small tuft of red hair on his forehead were indescribably cute.

For most Magical Beasts, the flavor of the first blood they tasted would be forever remembered. The owner of that blood would then become their family. Of course, cold-blooded Magical Beasts were excepted from this. There were different techniques for them.

As soon as Little Snow opened his eyes, he slowly started to crawl over to Long Chen. His walking was extremely unstable and he might trip and fall at any moment, but he still continued crawling towards him.[1]

Long Chen felt a burst of warmth when he looked at the little fellow. With his powerful Spiritual Strength, he could clearly sense the yearning within Little Snow’s soul.

As soon as Little Snow approved of Long Chen, Long Chen was supposed to use his Spiritual Strength to use the secret techniques Lu Fang-er had taught him. That would place a kind of slave imprint on Little Snow’s soul so that he could never betray him.

But Long Chen continued to hesitate about using the slave imprint. He couldn’t bear to make this little guy a slave.

Pondering over this, he suddenly felt his face become wet. That little guy had crawled onto his lap and was enthusiastically washing his face.

Long Chen laughed and hugged the little guy. He brought Little Snow out of the Long estate to the outskirts of the city. Now that the little guy had opened his eyes, it was time for him to temper himself.

Magical Beasts had an extremely tenacious vitality. As soon as they opened their eyes, they were essentially capable of finding and eating their own food. They would no longer require that nutrient fluid they had needed as a cub.

Bringing him out of the city was precisely the fastest way for Little Snow to mature.

But before he left the city, he still had to find a certain someone. In just an hour, Long Chen arrived at a large pasture.

Suddenly, a huge roar rang out, and the entire earth trembled along with it. A smile appeared on Long Chen’s face.

[1] The Chinese refers to Little Snow as ‘it’, but I think in English it sounds better to call Little Snow a ‘he’, similar to how you don’t call your dog ‘it’. But you should note we technically don’t know Little Snow’s gender right now, and other people may refer to Little Snow as ‘it’ instead of ‘he’.