Chapter 10: Secondary Development

When Li Li Boyang opened his eyes again, the time was already nearing dusk.

The first thing to enter his view was Chen Yun, crouching before him with a worried expression.

"Son, you're awake?"

Seeing Li Li Boyang with sleepy eyes, Chen Yun reached out to touch his head, and the worry on her face naturally turned into a smile.

"?"

Seeing at a glance that Chen Yun was forcing a smile, Li Li Boyang couldn't help but blink in confusion.

【Wait... something seems off...】

As this thought flashed through his mind, Li Li Boyang quickly realized what was wrong.

Because although it was clearly dusk and the room had grown completely dark, he could still clearly see the expression on Chen Yun's face.

【Where is this firelight coming from?】

Li Li Boyang instinctively lifted his head, and the firelight illuminating the room swayed accordingly.

Seeing this, Li Li Boyang immediately realized—his hair seemed to be burning again?

In Li Li Boyang's perception, a power distinct from life essence was flowing into his body continuously.

This power was so violent and ferocious.

It made Li Li Boyang's hair burn with flames even more vigorous than before.

Moreover, Li Li Boyang could clearly feel this power eroding and destroying his physical body.

His body was continuously emitting high heat, and even his forehead had become scalding...

【Do I have a fever?】

Looking at Chen Yun opposite him, Li Li Boyang seemed to understand where her worry came from.

Gently closing his eyes, Li Li Boyang tried to circulate the Great Cycle again, guiding those Earth Fiend Qi through the Ren and Du meridians into his dantian.

Whoosh!

After being mixed with Li Li Boyang's life essence, those Earth Fiend Qi seemed to become less violent.

Especially when these Earth Fiend Qi flowed into the dantian.

The Sword Pill in the dantian immediately absorbed them, transforming them into part of its own power.

But the problem was, this method was merely a drop in the bucket.

The Earth Fiend Qi from outside was still continuously flowing into Li Li Boyang's body.

Even if he refined these Fiend Qi non-stop for twenty-four hours, he still could not fully digest and absorb these Earth Fiend Qi mixed with life essence.

【Is a single Sword Pill not enough?】

Seeing this situation, Li Li Boyang immediately chose to divert the flow of those Fiend Qi.

Under Li Li Boyang's control, the Fiend Qi entering his body split: one part flowed into the lower abdomen dantian, while the other part surged into the Sea of Consciousness between his eyebrows.

Whoosh!

Just like the Sword Pill in the dantian.

The Fiend Qi surging into the Sea of Consciousness was quickly absorbed by the Heavenly Eye.

The Heavenly Eye, which had stopped developing after its emergence, seemed at this moment to have a trend of secondary development again.

If someone could light up Li Li Boyang's meridians right now, they would discover the essence energy within his body circulating and roaring like an ocean.

Whoosh!

Taking the Ren and Du meridians as the center, and the four limbs and hundred bones as branches.

Every time that essence energy passed through the space between his eyebrows and the lower abdomen, its quantity would sharply decrease.

Even so, the remaining essence energy mixed with Fiend Qi still exceeded an infant's capacity, causing his body to continuously run a fever and become scalding.

With no choice, Li Li Boyang had to find a third outlet for this essence energy—the crown of his head.

Whoosh!

When an infant is under one year old, the brain is still developing continuously, and the crown of the head has not yet completely closed.

Therefore, when that essence energy was expelled from the body through the gaps in the crown of the head, the temperature of Li Li Boyang's body naturally dropped.

However, as the price for forcibly expelling this Fiend Qi, the downy hair on top of Li Li Boyang's head emitted even more dazzling firelight.

The firelight, nearly solidified, was no longer warm, but genuinely scalding to the touch.

Night fell, Li Family Courtyard.

When Li Yu returned home carrying today's prey, what he saw was Chen Yun, full of worry.

"A-Yun, what's wrong?"

Hanging the prey on a bamboo pole nearby, Li Yu approached Chen Yun and asked.

"It's our son, our son..."

Leaning gently against Li Yu, Chen Yun couldn't help but sigh.

"Today I went to the town to beg for a Peace Talisman for our son..."

"But as soon as I returned, I saw his hair emitting fire, his body scalding, and he was running a high fever."

"I brewed some medicine to reduce the fever for him; the fever went down, but the fire in his hair burned even more vigorously."

Hearing this, Li Yu immediately looked toward their bedroom, discovering that firelight was indeed faintly visible burning inside.

"Do you think the Mountain God really took a liking to our son?"

"Should I go to the nearby Mountain God Temple to worship again, asking Them to stop haunting our son?"

Gently stroking Chen Yun's hair, Li Yu asked in a deep voice.

"Besides you, has anyone else discovered our son's abnormality?"

His way of thinking differed from Chen Yun's more sentimental approach.

As a father, Li Yu was more concerned with whether anyone else had noticed anything unusual about his child.

"When I went into town today, I had the eldest girl from next door look after the child for me."

Hearing Li Yu's question, Chen Yun caught on at once and replied with a hint of worry in her voice.

"The eldest girl?"

After a brief moment of thought, Li Yu immediately realized who Chen Yun was referring to.

"That heartless scholar's daughter?"

In this Li Family Village of barely a dozen households, there was only one scholar—an outsider who had married in.

To put her husband through his studies, his wife toiled from dawn till dusk, single-handedly supporting the whole family on her meager plot of land.

Sadly, once that scholar declared he was going out to make his mark in the world, he never came back.

He left behind only his wife and a young, half-grown daughter, who had held on all this way.

Every time Li Yu passed through the village, he could see that fierce-tongued woman in front of outsiders sitting by the window, weeping alone.

To tell the truth, without the help of their fellow villagers, that mother-and-daughter pair would never have survived to this day.

"Tomorrow, take two catties of meat and go see them next door."

"My cousin may seem sharp-tongued, but in the end she's only doing it to survive."

"Have a chat with her, tell her not to go spreading gossip outside—it's not really a big problem."

Li Yu wasn't worried about the villagers learning of his son's situation.

Or rather, even if the villagers didn't know exactly what was going on with Li Li Boyang, they'd more or less guessed something.

After all, the whole village was this small, everyone was related one way or another, and keeping it hidden forever was simply unrealistic.

What Li Yu feared was that once word of his son's condition spread outside, it would bring unnecessary trouble.

"Mm, I understand."

No sooner had Chen Yun agreed than Li Yu, as if remembering something, added on.

"Oh, right—when you go, tell my cousin she can have her eldest girl come over to help us look after our son."

"We'll cover one meal a day for her eldest girl—it's also a way of easing her burden."

Monthly votes / recommendation tickets

Once again, many thanks to Boss Telu Muse's Noodles for the 1500-coin tip!!!





(End of chapter)