Chapter 22: Cousin

After returning to her room, Lou Mu Yan lined up the Spiritual Herbs she ‘ransacked’ from the treasury. She took the Flame Fruits out from her interspatial ring, then placed them carefully with the Spiritual Herbs.

She only used one Flame Fruit when refining the Marrow Cleansing Pill before, so including the ones Ye Qing Han gave her, there were a total of eleven Flame Fruits left.

With this quantity, it was more than enough to refine the Marrow Cleansing Pills for her grandfather and the rest. Not to mention with her current strength, she’d be able to refine at least three to four Top-Quality Marrow Cleansing Pills per batch, so there wasn’t a problem at all.

Lou Mu Yan placed the Spiritual Herbs into the cauldron one by one. The Flame Fruit wasn’t suitable to be stored as the longer they were kept, their medicinal effects would slowly decrease.

Since her Terminal Meridians constitution was completely cured and she now had access to Spiritual Energy, it saved a lot of trouble when refining pills.

Lou Mu Yan threw the Spiritual Herbs and Flame Fruits into the cauldron, carefully controlled the flame, and slowly began to refine.

After several hours, the flow of medicinal aroma spread throughout her room.

It wasn’t until the evening of the second day did Lou Mu Yan extinguish the flames. With a raise of her hand, round, lustrous white pills flew out of the cauldron one by one.

Looking at more than a dozen white porcelain bottles on the table, a merry smile rose on her face. This time, she refined a total of forty-two Marrow Cleansing Pills, meaning each batch produced nearly twice as much as her initial batch in the Blazing Mountain Range.

Lou Mu Yan carefully put the porcelain bottles away with a sharp glint in her eyes—these Marrow Cleansing Pills were worth quite a bit of wealth!

With these Marrow Cleansing Pills alone, she could find a way to exchange for some more precious Spiritual Herbs. Once she broke through to the Core Formation Stage and obtained her own Pill Flame, then refining pills like the Worldly Reduction Pill1 was as easy as obtaining it simply by reaching out a hand.

Lou Mu Yan clenched her small fists tightly, “Core Formation Stage… I’ll definitely reach it soon!”

Due to her strong desire for strength, Lou Mu Yan didn’t continue to delay herself at home. After delivering the Marrow Cleansing Pills to her grandfather, she explained a little, then returned to the Imperial Academy.

As the most powerful Academy in Yan’zhou Country, the Spiritual Force that gathered in the Imperial Academy was far more plentiful than her home.

After a few days of unrestrained absorbing of the Spiritual Force in her courtyard in the Imperial Academy, she stabilised her cultivation base at the Final-Layer Meditation Phase, and she only needed to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill to advance to the Foundation Establishment Stage, which was equivalent to the strength of a Sword Spirit.

More than twenty types of Spiritual Herbs that were necessary for the Foundation Establishment Pill could be found on the market, but the three main Spiritual Herbs were more difficult to find.

These three herbs were the Deep Orchid that grew in icy places, so it could only be found in the Glacial Mountain Range, and the Seven-Leaf Ginseng and Purple Monkey Flower which could be found in the Southern Plume Canyon but were very difficult to find.

Lou Mu Yan put away her thoughts, then touched her hungry stomach. “It seems I still need to refine some Inedia Pills!”

After leaving her courtyard, she discovered she would receive some strange looks from time to time, or secretly be judged behind her back. She sighed, gave up the plan to go to the Academy’s cafeteria to eat, and walked towards Moon Billow Restaurant.

Moon Billow Restaurant was located in the most prosperous street, the Vermillion Bird Street, and was the most famous restaurant in the Imperial Capital.

“Hey, isn’t that Lou Mu Yan?” Yun Jin sat in a private room of the Moon Billow Restaurant. After scanning the streets randomly, he saw Lou Mu Yan who entered the restaurant.

Hearing this, Chi Yi Xuan also looked down from the window, but only saw a corner of purple clothing, without any trace of Lou Mu Yan.

In addition to the two people in the private room, there were also three others. One was the Empress’s son, the Third Prince Yun Lan; another was the Prime Minister’s grandson, Xiao Zi Ang; and the other, Yun Luo who accompanied the Third Prince in training, was the son of the King of Zhen’xi, the Emperor’s younger brother.

“Lou Mu Yan? Isn’t that the famous little trash oof the Imperial Capital that constantly chased after Yi Xuan?” Xiao Zi Ang touched his chin in thought, then looked at Yun Jin with curiosity, “I heard that she changed a lot after being injured by the Imperial Noble Consort’s younger sister? Is it true?”

“Of course it’s true. She either ignores Yi Xuan completely or ridicules him.” Yun Jin’s expression was full of gloating, and he didn’t even care about Chi Yi Xuan who’s face already turned dark, “Oh yeah, she’s already a Great Sword Master.”

“How’s that possible?” Xiao Zi Ang exclaimed: “A person with the Terminal Meridians constitution can’t absorb Spiritual Force and convert it into Elemental Energy. How could she have advanced to a Great Sword Master?”

“That I don’t know.” Yun Jin shrugged. He also wanted to know how Lou Mu Yan became a Great Sword Master.”

After Yun Luo returned this time, he also heard a lot of rumours about Lou Mu Yan, particularly about the promised battle between her and Gu Yan Ran. There were already numerous major gambling houses in the Imperial Capital that had begun to make bets on them.

Thinking of Lou Mu Yan and her relationship with his cousin, he looked up at the young man who sat on the main seat and asked: “A’Lan, Lou Mu Yan’s your cousin right? She really advanced to a Great Sword Master?”

“Lou Mu Yan.” The man in the main seat muttered the name softly, with a contemplating smile on his lips, “As far as I know, it’s true.”

“Then how’d she do it?” Xiao Zi Ang asked curiously, wide-eyed.

“Even I’m not very clear.” Yun Lan smiled with slight profoundness, then turned to the guard beside him and said: “There shouldn’t be any seats left now at Moon Billow Restaurant, you go and invite Young Miss Lou up to have a meal.”

He had heard from his Empress Mother a couple of days ago2 that Lou Mu Yan already eradicated her Terminal Meridians constitution. Today, he sure wanted to see if his cousin that he hadn’t seen in many years truly had changed as according to the rumours or not. Of course, he was also very curious as to how his cousin advanced to a Great Sword Master.

“Yes, master.”

Currently, all faces displayed a little interest. Recently, the rumours about Lou Mu Yan came one after another, and they really wanted to see if she had truly changed.

After hearing the shopkeeper say ‘Moon Billow Restaurant’ was already full, Lou Mu Yan didn’t force anything either and was about to leave after nodding. But then she was stopped by a young man before she could exit.

“Young Miss Lou, our master invites Young Miss to come upstairs to have a meal.” The man was neither humble nor haughty, and his attitude was fairly respectful and polite.

Lou Mu Yan asked in surprise: “Who’s your master?”

“Young Miss Lou will know once you go up.” The man replied.

Lou Mu Yan saw that the man’s temperament was like a personal guard, and she was also curious about who invited her to a meal, so she nodded, “Lead the way.”

The man didn’t say much and took Lou Mu Yan directly to the only private room on the third floor.

After pushing the door and entering, Lou Mu Yan saw five men sitting within, but she only knew Yun Jin and Chi Yi Xuan.

“Cousin, long time no see.” Yun Lan quickly scrutinised Lou Mu Yan, and a gentle smile appeared on his attractive face.

Lou Mu Yan was startled for a moment—cousin? There was only one person who could call her cousin, and that was Yun Lan, the son of her Empress aunt.

She and this cousin had a very ordinary relationship before. Yun Lan was older than her by three years, and when they were young, they would often play together. But because she kept chasing after Chi Yi Xuan and ignored the people around her, she eventually stopped contacting this cousin.

Yun Lan’s teacher was the Empire’s Advanced-Phase Sword King expert, so he didn’t need to attend the Imperial Academy, not to mention he also travelled with the teacher for a few years and only just returned to the Imperial Capital. Within the few years, he and Lou Mu Yan had never seen each other, so she didn’t recognise Yun Lan at first glance.

Lou Mu Yan didn’t reveal any of her emotions. With only a light smile on her lips, she walked over to sit in an empty seat beside Yun Jin, saying: “Hello cousin!”

1susceptible to change. The original Chinese is 降尘丹. My understanding is that it helps transform a person into a celestial of sorts by decreasing their worldliness and mortality so that they can more successfully become immortals. ‘降’ has two meanings: ‘reduce/descend/lower’ etc. Or ‘surrender/subdue’ etc. My take is that it’s the first meaning. To reduce. ‘尘’ can mean ‘dust’ or shortened from ‘凡尘’ which refers to the mortal world. You get the general idea. If I think of a better translation I’ll change it.

2Absolutely no idea why, but they censored this part and I just filled it in with my guess. The original was: 前两****听母后。。。 etc. Based on the context and the words given, it only made sense to fill it in with either ‘天’ or ‘日’ which means ‘days’, or some measurement of time.