So it seems I was more bored than I had originally anticipated...

Chapter 17 – Golden Crow sacred spirit

On the Eastern side of the Scarlet flame continent there lies a chain of 13 islands. If one were to look down from the sky they would notice the outline of a bird with three legs. And if one could go even higher and see the golden magma spewing out from the volcanoes, they would have no doubt that this was the place known as The Golden Crow Sacred Ground!

Deep into the volcano on the central island which seemed to be torso of the great bird, a little golden chick scampered around, as if the flowing lava was as thin as air. Every now and then it would come to a stop near a dark patch of magma and screech, in its little chick like voice until the dark patch disappeared.

However, this little bird had still been inside an egg until last year, ad still showed no signs of growing any further.

Supposedly, in legends of an ancient time, the golden crow spirit had come down to the scarlet flame continent. Its presence in this region cause the 13 volcanos to form in its grand image, as if the earth was paying its respect to the godlike beast. So here, in the volcano which would be at the heart of this volcanic chain it laid an egg. Claiming that one day, someone with an extraordinary affinity of the flame attribute would arrive on the island. On that day the golden crow would send its spirit to this egg and awaken it, and eventually the golden crow with all its might would be born in this world!

That golden crow will accompany that person. So when the egg hatched, the higher ups of the Golden Crow Sacred ground scrambled through every child that had been born since the egg hatched, however the golden crow’s spirit didn’t seem to take a particular liking towards any one of them.

While they continued to search through all the children who had been born, Qian Mu was planning her escape.

She had already become fed up of the abuse and the inability to say anything. So she decided it was time to leave. So over these previous days she had been slowly accumulating various herbs. Many were stolen from the medicinal pavilion. For some strange reason, young master Yan would always send her for medical treatment whenever he beat her to an inch of her life. Almost as if he were afraid something would happen should he kill her.

Thus she frequently found herself in the medical pavilion being treated by the doctor there. This doctor would always look at her with the greatest pity, but he had no tongue, so he could never speak to her. Hence, after being healed for a time, she began to take inventory of where all the herbs were located. In these past two days she had already received a brief understanding of where everything was.

Now she was secretly stashing them in the cupboard under the table she would be laid on. While the doctor was not watching she silently slipped four or five them into her mouth. However she did not swallow them, instead she let them sit in her drool.

If given normal alchemy supplies, she would have soaked these herbs in water to allow them to slowly become like mulsh. Then she would change the water and using some soul force, dissolve the impurities in the herbs into the new water. Then extract the pure substance into another pot of pure water and slowly condense the herbal essences into an elixir.

However without such supplies available to her, she would have to complete all of those steps in her mouth. So slowly soaking them in her drool for nearly half an hour before she figured they must be ready.

Then she attempted to utilize her soul force and separate it from the impure substances, and with nowhere to put those impurities, she was forced to swallow them. Completing this required every bit of her will power. For those impurities tasted quite similar to decaying plants or fecal matter.

Yan Qiu I will never let you off for this! Qian Mu cursed internally.

After finally swallowing the last bit of the impurities she attempted to recall her soul force, but for some reason it refused to come back! Instantly panicking she tried to forcefully cut of her connection with it to stop more soul force from spilling out of her mouth, yet to no avail. The soul force slowly left her body and began to drift into the ground. However she did not dare to move.

One thing she had learned these past couple of days of torcher was to not let her curiosity get the better of her. So instead of trying to follow the soul force she tried to pull more saliva up her throat as fast as she could. Once the required level was reached she began to utilize the remaining soul force she had to prepare the elixir. Although this quickened the rate at which she lost her soul force, it was no longer of any concern to her, for the elixir was completed!

Had Hai Yun been here he would have recognized this elixir as one he had formulated. Its purpose was to open locks!

When the two were still fairly young, they had been restricted from reading the advanced alchemy archives, however both of them had finished reading all the other books, so Hai Yun created this elixir in order to open the locks on the doors so they could get in.

When she recalled this scene Qian Mu’s eyes began to tear up. Will we ever meet again brother Hai?

But in the end, no tear rolled down her eye. Instead her eyes began to grow fiercer with conviction. She swore, that no matter if he had reincarnated as a demon of hell, she would find him and place herself at his feet. Become his arms, legs and his mind if need be.

Whatever it took to repay the kindness he had showed her, for all those happy times they had spent together, and for the future which she had ruined by forcing him to write her letters. For all of that she would repay him, in full and with interest. But first she needed to get out of here…

…

Deep into the night, after the naked Qian Mu had been fastened to the cage all the guards returned to their posts. No one would guard her cage through the night, for no one thought this Qian Mu had the capabilities to escape, and even if she did, where would she go?

However if they knew they were holding a Divine Ranked alchemist in this cage, there would be no doubt that there would be innumerable guards stationed at every corner. A pity that they never knew that the Qian Mu who seemed weak and had no practical knowledge was long dead and replacing her was the second youngest Divine Ranked Alchemist of the Scarlet Flame continent – Qian Mu!

She silently spit a bit of the lock opening elixir into her hands and slowly applied it to the lock around her collar. Within seconds a soft click could be heard as the collar and chains came off.

Next she crawled to the door and spit some onto the lock there. It too was followed by a soft click before the door silently swung open. Crawling her way out, Qian Mu moved in the direction of the medical pavilion. With no guards patrolling the inner hallways, her route was unobstructed and she quietly and silently arrived inside.

Then she grabbed some clothes from the cabinet the medical servants used. Quickly finding some which fit her she moved towards the table she had been laid on.

Underneath the table was her stash of herbs. She quickly shoved them into her pockets and then quietly crept into a corner. In this corner the various cauldrons the medical staff used for water were kept. Although they were not imbued with elixirs they could still be used to quickly refine an elixir.

Since earlier in the day when her soul force had started to escape her body, she had barely been able to limit its extraction to a tiny amount but could not permanently stop it. Thus the most important thing to do right now was to stop its flow.

…

In the central island, the golden crow chick opened its beak wide as if to yawn. It was just about to begin its rest for the day when it sensed an incredibly strong soul force leak into one of the volcanos. Alarmed and curious, the little chick headed in the direction it sensed the new presence.

Arriving, it curiously stared at the strand of soul force.

The experts outside the volcano who had been monitoring the chick with crystal vision planes were also alerted to the strange soul force. Could this soul force be from the one whose arrival had caused the chick to hatch?

They immediately alerted their superiors who let the head of the sacred ground know of the situation.

The various experts from all over the sacred ground constantly sent their own soul forces to go probe this foreign soul however it came to no avail. The soul force was incredibly malleable and would easily avoid any probes they sent.

Only one of the supreme elders had managed to make contact with the soul force. But he claimed the soul was very good at shielding itself and he could not uncover the identity of whoever it was that had released the soul force.

While these experts were caught up on probing the soul force, the little Golden Crow chick popped its tiny head out of the top of a volcano. It silently scanned its surroundings before emerging and hopping downhill towards the nearby settlements. The same settlement where the mansion of Yan Qiu was located. The place Qian Mu was being held!

Author's note: my readers, please rate my novel! I really have no idea how well I am doing or if my novel is utter garbage when i see 70+ followers but not even 15 ratings... Please tell me where I can improve! That's why I moved over her, i'm begging you!