Night of the Broken Gliph

Alchemy would be easy for those who had previously learnt medicine as the most challenging part of alchemy was learning how to combine herbs and gliphic plants rather than controlling a flame. The ratio between the main ingredients and supplements had to be extremely precise, or it would ruin the elixir no matter how skilled the alchemist was. This was also essential for doctors, and practising medicine or alchemy would benefit the other. Divine Doctor Mo-Yung Yin wasn’t just the Divine Doctor, but also a grandmaster alchemist. 

On the other hand, fire control was easy for Chui Yim. The Nine Levels Of Heaven’s Flame style and other fire controlling techniques taught by his master, White Spark, from another world were amongst his best skills. 

Chui Yim trailed behind the First Spring’s Lady subconsciously. He frowned, laughed and pondered from time to time. 

Suddenly, his heart fell. It was the Heaven’s Flame in his heart. 

It’s… a warning. 

When Chui Yim regained his senses, he was already standing at an unknown part of the Southern Mountain. There was no one to be seen, and it was somehow familiar…

Wait, wasn’t this where Ping Ching was attacked? 

Pff. 

It was the sound of something piercing through flesh. Chui Yim looked down to see a white skeleton claw pass jutting out of his chest, stabbing him through the back.

“Indeed, a genius that withstood the Nine Hells of Chill even before reaching the one-chambered state. You should have stayed out of our matters that day.” A familiar, creepy voice was heard. This time, it was no longer muffled, but extremely clear. 

Chui Yim could finally tell that it belonged to an old woman. 

Trembling, Chui Yim turned back to see the First Spring’s Lady looking at him with a horrifying face. There was black gas surrounding her, making her look even scarier. On her claw-like hand was a pitch-black skeleton’s arm.

Proficient in medicine, Chui Yim could tell immediately that the bone was from a forearm. Its tip was the skeleton claw that had stabbed through his chest with a demonic aura. The claw was wiggling as if trying to grab onto something. 

“I hid for countless years, just one step from success. Why did you poke your nose into it?! I only needed Mister Ping, Ping Ching’s virgin blood essence, to refine my treasure!” 

The elderly woman’s eyes turned blood red and fierce, like a horrifying ghost that hid in the dark. “Since you saved Mister Ping’s life, then you shall replace him and become the forty-ninth soul for me, the last soul for my Yellow Spring’s Ghostly Claw! Remember my name. The First Spring in my name represents the Yellow Spring, the underworld! I am the Yellow Spring’s Lady, and you should be proud to be the last soul contributing to my success and fame!” 

The Yellow Spring’s Lady let out peals of chilly laughter. She didn’t care about being exposed anymore; after hiding in Southern Ping for such a long time, she finally succeeded in creating her treasure. Now that she had acquired the last soul, her treasure would be completed. With her four-chambered strength and her treasure, the Yellow Spring’s Ghostly Claw, even five-chambered gliphers would fall before her!

She laughed heartily at the thought of this. As if the full moon in the sky was attracted to her, a black fog formed around the moon and funnelled into the black bone. The harrowing treasure was taking form!  

Chui Yim felt like he was in a freezing lake, the cold penetrating through his bones as he slowly lost his ability to move. This was what death felt like, and it was no stranger to him, who had experienced it once before. However, Chui Yim really didn’t want to die again. 

Again? Twelve years isn’t enough for me! 

He screamed silently, but there was nothing he could do. He was totally frozen by the chill, and he wasn’t even able to reach for the black pouch at his waist. 

All of a sudden, he felt a warmth inside him. Deep within him…

The Heaven’s Flame. 

Black and chilly, the claw was like a horrifying ghost. The Yellow Spiring’s Lady acquired this bone from the grave of a five-chambered glipher who had passed away. It was the glipher’s remains. As part of the glipher’s body, it had been doused in his energliph  when he had still been alive, making it impervious to swords and spears. With how the Yellow Sping’s Lady fed it with negative energy and countless poisonous ingredients for years, it had become a terrifying weapon. 

She also performed a ritual for it using blood essences and souls of forty-nine teenagers, making it such that it belonged more to the realm of death than life, and now she was only missing the last soul. 

The black claw was inside Chui Yim’s chest, trying to reach for his heart. The Yellow Spring’s Ghostly Claw would be completed after she got ahold of Chui Yim’s heart, where she could get the blood essences! 

The ghostly claw searched for Chui Yim’s heart within his chest. When it got near, there was a sudden vibration. The Yellow Sping’s Lady stopped laughing as her face fell.

“What is that?!” 

The ghostly claw let out a silent scream. It was as if it had gone insane as it tried to escape Chui Yim’s body, but it was stopped as something was sucking it back in. The black gas surrounding the claw was soon gone. 

The suction force came from the finger-sized flame within Chui Yim. It was small in size, yet it contained unimaginable amounts of energy. 

It was tiny in Chui Yim’s eyes, but it had the power of a sun, the counter to all ghostly and negative energy! The Heaven’s Flame absorbed the black gas, leaving behind a few wisps of smoke as the gas continued to dissipate rapidly. 

“ARGH!!!” the Yellow Spring’s Lady screamed. Such treasures were connected to their cultivators, and now that the black gas from the claw was being absorbed, she was greatly injured. Frightened, she threw a death glare toward Chui Yim. “Die!” 

With that, her left hand shot towards Chui Yim’s head. 

“How dare you! Sneaky witch!” A shout rang out. 

A figure dashed over from a distance, and numerous gliph strings solidified and wrapped around Chui Yim as a shield swiftly. 

Boom! 

The Yellow Spring’s Lady’s attack struck the shield, and the next second, Chui Yim was flung aside together with the bone claw. 

“My treasure!” Yellow Spring’s Lady yelled as her heart ached. Her heart aching scream echoed throughout the Southern Mountain.