Supreme Emperor of Mist

"Are you looking down on me because I'm a woman?" Hu Jia stares intensely at the seated Qin Lan. Her hand is slowly reaching to the whip hidden behind her cloak as she had the urge to struck Qin Lan down right on where he's at.

"Lady Hu, as a well-educated gentleman, and also one of the members of the prestigious Qin Family, how can I be looking down on you just because you're a woman?" Qin Lan said. His way of describing himself first before he continues surprised everyone present in this Elders' Hall.

"I am merely describing how honored I would felt if I managed to bring a wife like Lady Hu Jia back to my sleeping chamber. Your beauty in red is like the maple leaves raining down onto my front yard, bringing fortune and delight to my family day after day."

"Although I'm a cripple, I cherish my woman. Having her pushing my wheelchair hurts my heart. Furthermore, with someone as proud as Lady Hu Jia as my wife, how can I bear the blame for not being able to satisfy her?" Qin Lan added.

He mixed both praises and perverted thought into one logic as he made her speechless.

"This... This..." Qin Lan's shameless word of affection made her unable to continue. Half of her wanted to hide inside a hole from embarrassment, while the other half is somewhat feeling good from listening to what he just said.

(Ah... This brat's skill in picking up ladies is actually this strong. Perhaps even the birds perching on the tree will come to his shoulder voluntarily for a moment of his affection)

Qin Tian relaxed his hand that unconsciously formed into a fist. He turned his sight to Hu Yong, the patriarch of the Hu family, as both of them exchanged a smile and a nod.

"I can't be the only one to receive a gift. Xiao Yun, can you bring the box out for me?" Qin Lan ordered. Lu Qing Yun soon withdraws a box from the storage sack on the back of the wheelchair and handing it to her young master's hand.

"Miss Hu, please," Qin Lan opened the box with a set of three Running Amulets.

"This..." Hu Jia was shocked by Qin Lan's generosity of giving her three hard to obtain demonic amulets without a change of expression.

One has to know that although both the demonic amulet and Flesh Foundation Pill roughly cost the same, the latter is much easier to get and affordable.

"Humph!" Hu Jia accepted the box with three demonic amulets and returned to her seat. Suddenly, Qin Lan noticed that a small curve appeared from the edge of her lips, exposing a hint of her smiling.

"Grandfather..." Qin Lan nudged his grandfather's sleeve.

"Bring the dishes out! Serve a bottle of my treasured Six-Miles of Fragrance Wine to both patriarchs!" Qin Tian laughed.

...

...

"Lan-Er, thank you for solving this knot in your grandfather's heart today." Qin Tian personally pushed Qin Lan back to the private courtyard after the banquet. Deep inside his heart, he felt happy that Qin Lan is becoming more understanding than before. But at the same time, it wasn't like Qin Lan became a different person.

Perhaps using the word "matured" would sound better.

"I won't hide the truth from you. Actually, your grandfather heard that the patriarch of the Hu Family has a treasure known as Core Replenishing Liquid. That treasure is something their previous patriarch found by chance but has no reason to use it."

Feeling bad for keeping his recovery a secret, Qin Lan gently released a sigh. Both of his servants found out about the change in their young master's tone too, but remain silent as there is no reason for them to join their conversation.

"Grandfather, I understand the importance of the Core Replenishing Liquid, but may I suggest an alternative?" Qin Lan wanted to try and change his grandfather's mind, in case the price they're paying end up becoming too much to bear.

Of course, it wasn't because he's reluctant about taking Hu Jia as his legitimate bride. That feisty woman does possess some quality that could make men drool when she's lying on the bed. Furthermore, as someone who's having his 2nd chance at life now, his view towards marriage can be sad to be much more thoughtful.

His concern is mainly on how legit is the Core Replenishing Liquid, where even in his first reincarnation, he had only seen it once.

"I'll respect my grandson's wish. If you're not satisfied with Hu Jia, we'll look for another miracle treasure that can help you regain your cultivation." Qin Tian is somewhat saddened, but he tried to keep it from showing on his face.

"Oh! Do you know that something interesting came up to our pharmacy today? Your third granduncle met an amazing Pill Master today. His surname is Lu, which is quite special considering there's nobody with this surname in our entire Fu-Rong Town."

"He traded 500 of his own creation, called Flesh Mending Pill, in exchange for a mere 50 pieces of silver coins and three sacks of the medicinal herbs." Qin Tian shared the good news with his grandson as they're approaching the private courtyard.

"I've heard about it from Xiao-Ke too. But it should be impossible for the business to be booming just from the appearance of a new medicinal pill. Don't tell me it can bring dead people back to life?"

"impossible. If it does, then Xiao-Ke will let me know the moment he came back." Qin Lan acted like he's puzzled by Qin Tian's sentence.

"Of course not." Qin Tian stopped pushing the wheelchair and grab a seat on a nearby piece of a boulder.

"Coincidently, the people from Chu Family came and requested your third granduncle to save a person's life, who turned up to be Chu Xiang." Qin Tian smiled as he mentioned the name [Chu Xiang] before his grandson.

"Chu Xiang? The youngest of the Chu Family amongst father's generation, also known as the Righteous Spear, Chu Xiang? Him?" Qin Lan made a guess.

"Correct. And guess what your third granduncle do? He fed a Wound Mending Pill along with a Soul Consolidating Pill and Breath Preservation Pill to keep him from leaving this world. Then, he immediately helps Chu Xiang to digest the three pills faster, which ends up saving his life!" Qin Tian happily shared the news with Qin Lan, not knowing that in Qin Lan's mind, he was thinking about something else.

"Sss... Ahh..."

"Soul Consolidating, a hundred pieces of gold coin each..."

"Breath Preservation, two hundred pieces of gold coin each..."

"Chu Xiang... Chu Xiang... You're going to have a very smooth journey in your future cultivation." Qin Lan nodded sorrowly. He's blaming himself for not asking because only two of each of these pills is more than enough to replace the effect he get from taking four drops of Changshen Dew.

"Let's hope that this Pharmacist Lu will have some miraculous medicine that can help you recover your Golden Core again. Even if he wants the entire Qin Family Manor, I'll transfer it to him without a need to think!" Qin Tian said.

...

...

"My third young master, why are you looking so sorrowful?" Lu Qing Yun asked as she patiently cleaned her young master's shoulder. Even if the fact about him able to walk and cultivate has been exposed, it does not change the fact that he's still entitled to such treatment.

"I was thinking about the karmic cycle of our life." Qin Lan answered.

"Karmic? The cycle of our life?" Lu Qing Yun bends her head a little as she couldn't understand Qin Lan's words.

"Let's say that I plant a tree because I want to eat the fruit. But I can't wait for ten years for it to grow. So while waiting, I went to the forest and captured a family of birds and grilled them to fill my stomach. This is what we call the start of a cycle," Qin Lan started to describe it simply.

"But I left two of the bird eggs untouched. When they hatched and grow, the bird ends up as a pair of a rare breed of demon beast that then in love with the tree I watered painstakingly for ten years."

"So we end up fighting." Qin Lan added.

"And then?" Lu Qing Yun still patiently listened to Qin Lan.

"If I won, that's because my cause is a righteous one. Furthermore, I just destroyed the leftover karma of what I had done ten years ago."

"But if I lose, that means my fruit of ten years labor will end up as a reward to them. So instead of enjoying my own fruit of effort and perseverance, I've actually paid it back with my life and ten years of effort." Qin Lan ends his story-telling here.

"So, karma is bad?" Lu Qing Yun continued as she wipes the droplets of water from her young master's shoulder and neck.

"Not really. But one has to be responsible for the karma sowed."

"Go back and rest or cultivate. We'll continue with everything tomorrow." Qin Lan smiled as he returned to his sleeping chamber.

"The Hu and Chu Family here is one thing, but grandfather is hiding another matter from me... Three weeks to go, and we'll see what it has to do with the Annual Hunting Festival." Qin Lan shakes his head as he started to get a hold of what's actually happening.