Battle Through the Heavens

BTTH Chapter 14 – Vacuum Hand

Listening to the voice inside his head, Xiao Yan blinked and secretly nodded.

Instead of immediately grabbing the black metal piece, Xiao Yan gently picked up the green monster core that was still dripping blood and looking at the shabby looking mercenary standing behind the stall, he asked cheerfully: “Which magic monster did this monster core comes from?”

“Haha, the eyes of young master are really good! This is a monster core from a first level magic monster named Swallow Wood Fox. It is a high quality core! Our Sharp Teeth Mercenary Group waited 3 days and ambushed 5 Swallow Wood Foxes before finally obtaining this magic core…” Noticing Xiao Yan’s luxurious outfit, the mercenary rapidly advertised his wares.

“If this object is to young master’s liking, I think 500 gold coins would be a good price. Haha, while obtaining this core, we had several brothers who got injured quite heavily…”

Xiao Yan slowly wiped the remaining blood off of the magic core, noticing they haven’t completely clotted yet. He nodded slightly and glanced towards the two golden stars on the chest of the mercenary and commented: “Too expensive! Normally a level one magic core’s price would only be from 400 to 450 gold coins, furthermore, even if the Swallow Wood Fox is a magic beast, its attack power isn’t too high. Are your underlings not Dou Zhes?”

The corner of his mouth slightly jerking, the mercenary laughed dryly. He did not expect the youth standing in front of him to be so knowledgeable about the magic core market and replied: “470 gold coins then, no more no less, we have to live by this…”

“Hahh…” Sighing under the Mercenary’s anxious eyes, Xiao Yan bent down and randomly grabbed many things from the stall, conveniently including the mysterious metal piece in the mess. Then he said: “470 gold coins for all of these…”

Looking at the goods on Xiao Yan’s hands, the mercenary let out a relieved sigh since none of the items in Xiao Yan’s hands were expensive…

“Alright!”

Cheerfully producing some gold coins, Xiao Yan did not waste another moment and left immediately…

“Hah! Brat, to be so cautious in a mundane task of buying things!” The elder’s taunting voice sounded in Xiao Yan’s head as he turned to leave the shop.

“Those bastards are all swindlers, they’ll immediately increase the price if you show interest in their wares. I don’t want to lose money for something stupid like that…” After answering, Xiao Yan stopped paying attention to the Elder inside his ring and leisurely exited the market and returned to the clan with Xun Er.

After parting with Xun Er, Xiao Yan impatiently ran back to his room and carefully locked the door…

Turning his head and seeing the Elder who left the ring since god-knows-when, Xiao Yan brought out the recently purchased herbs and magic core. He hastily asked: “All the required ingredients are here, what do we have to do?”

The Elder cheerfully laughed and his gaze scanned the ingredients on the table before suddenly asking: “Don’t you want to know what that black metal piece is?”

“Eh?” Xiao Yan paused before realizing that the elder was referring to his “accidental” purchase. He quickly took out the Black Metal Piece and examined it from top to bottom. But after examining it, his brows furrowed and asked: “This, what does it do?”

Yao Lao took the Black Metal Piece and laughed: “There seems to be a Dou Technique inside here. And, the creator of this metal piece was probably also an alchemist because only people that have a strong soul perception can feel the power within this metal piece.”

“Dou Technique?” Xiao Yan’s eyes brightened and he hurriedly asked: “What level is it?”

In the Dou Qi Mainland, the importance of Dou Techniques isn’t lower than Qi Methods. A strong Dou Technique would allow one to perform at a level far beyond what they are capable of. For example, a Dou Zhe being able to fight a Dou Shi even though his Dou Qi is at a disadvantage.

Dou Techniques and Qi Methods are both split into four levels of decreasing power, Tian, Di, Xuan and Huang. Normally, the Dou Techniques that are easily accessible are at most High Huang level and for higher Dou Techniques, one would have to go to a large clan or faction.

Of course, Dou Qi Mainland is huge and there are some special circumstances in which the top Dou Techniques are lost and found by some lucky individual. The black metal piece that Xiao Yan has right now was probably the lost work of some ancient person…

Yao Lao turned the metal plate around and smiled: “Vacuum Hand : Low Xuan level!”

“Low Xuan level?” Xiao Yan’s face was filled with happiness; he didn’t expect that the “trash” he purchased would have a Xuan level Dou Technique. In his own clan, the Xiao Clan, the highest Dou Technique was only a Middle Xuan level and only the clan leader and some elders could learn it.”

“Vacuum Hand: If trained to max, it can suck up boulders that are thousands of pound. Against enemies, it can forcibly suck the blood out of their body.”

“Forcibly suck blood from a body?” His face full of surprise, Xiao Yan swallowed dryly and exclaimed: “This… This is awesome! Once the blood leaves the body, they would die right?”

“Don’t be happy yet. This only works if your level is higher than your opponent. If you meet someone stronger than you, they can use the chance to get close to you and the unlucky would be you…” Yao Lao carelessly threw the metal plate to the side, looks like he doesn’t think too highly of the Dou Technique.

Yao Lao was of high status and naturally had high standards but for Xiao Yan, this was a high level Dou Technique! He immediately happily picked it up and laughed: “Even with that, it’s better than the Dou Techniques in the clan. I’ll learn this from now on…”

“Hah, with your 3rd Duan Qi, it would be amazing if you could pull up a tree branch with your Vacuum Hand and you want to suck the blood out of someone….” Shaking his head, Yao Lao heavily criticized Xiao Yan.

Rolling his eyes, Xiao Yan ignored Yao Lao and smiled while hugging the metal piece.

“Look at yourself, having a Low Xuan Dou Technique makes you this happy. You’re embarrassing me …” Helplessly shaking his head, Yao Lao grabbed the monster core on the table and ordered Xiao Yan: “Go get a huge bowl of water.”

Seeing that Yao Lao was about to start refining the pill, Xiao Yan hurriedly put away the Black Metal Piece and cheerfully went to prepare…

……

In the calm room, Yao Lao picked up the Purple Bluegrass with his left hand. Moments later, he lets out a deep breath and a white flame appears in his hand…

When the flame appeared, the temperature within the room rose exponentially.

Without blinking, Xiao Yan stared at the white ball of flame. Although he didn’t know the process of refining pills by Alchemists, to materialize Dou Qi was an impossible task for even his father…

With a calm face, the white fire in Yao Lao’s hands expanded and swallowed the Purple Bluegrass…. Within the flame, the Purple Bluegrass instantly became a green liquid ball…

Yao Lao’s right hand picked up another stalk of Purple Bluegrass and threw it into the white fire…

After throwing all three stalks of Purple Bluegrass into the fire, the ball of green liquid became visibly bigger.

The green liquid slowly shriveled within the fire; the high temperature relentlessly burned the impurities within the green liquid…

With the flame, the green liquid became smaller and smaller in volume. After a few seconds, it was only about the size of a thumb…

Afterwards, Yao Lao threw the two stalks of Bone Washing Flowers into the flame and after they finished burning, the remaining liquid mixed with the original green liquid…

After that was the refinement of the monster core.

The third step took a whole hour but Yao Lao still seemed full of energy and without any signs of fatigue.

After an entire hour, the tough monster core had become a ball of green liquid. The violent energy within the monster core was softened by Yao Lao’s magical formula…

On his hand, the white flame slowly disappeared.

Looking at the green ball floating on top of Yao Lao’s hand, Xiao Yao rubbed his hands together. With his superior Soul Perception, he could clearly feel the bountiful energy within the energy ball…

“Teacher, do I just eat it?” Xiao Yan blinked his eyes and asked impatiently.

“If you want to die then eat it. With your Qi paths, you would become a true cripple within seconds.” Giving Xiao Yan a white eye, Yao Lao flicks the ball and it accurately flew into the bowl of water. Immediately, the bowl of clear water turned to a dark green shade.

“From now on, you should train in there. With your talent and barring any unforeseen circumstances, you should be able to get to 7 Duan Qi within a year.” Yao Lao claps the dust off of his hands and lightly smiles towards Xiao Yan.

With obvious happiness, Xiao Yan hurriedly nodded his head.

“Oh, I almost forgot. This medicine will only last for two months. Which means, you need to go buy the materials that you got today again every two months.” Yao Lao revealed a sly smile.

Xiao Yan happiness disappeared from his face and he nodded his head with reluctance.

“Dammit, only rich people can afford to use this stuff…”