Chapter 515: 【Xiao Han: I'm Back】

Langya Pavilion. A slender, fair, and long jade hand gently pushed open the room door. The warm spring sun lazily spilled onto the cyan dress that trailed along the floor. The simple accessories on the dress shimmered in the sunlight, reflecting the radiance of that snowy, smooth skin.

The only flaw was that a trace of lingering sorrow and exhaustion always hung on the woman's face, greatly marring that peerless, nation-toppling beauty.

And this woman was, naturally, the nominal second-in-command of Langya Pavilion, the actual leader, the Pavilion Master's wife, a Ninth Grade Golden Core Grandmaster Alchemist, Yi Huang!

"Roar!"

Yi Huang, who was comfortably bathing in the sunlight, had her attention drawn by a beast's roar at her feet. A small, single-horned tiger with wings on its back, standing barely taller than her knees, was leaning intimately against her feet, rubbing against her incessantly.

"Little Tiger, are you looking to ask Mother for a Medicinal Pill again?"

As she spoke, Yi Huang took a jade bottle from her Storage Ring and poured out a black Medicinal Pill the size of a dragon's eye. The moment the pill emerged, the dense, lingering pill fragrance instantly filled the entire courtyard. The little tiger stared unblinkingly at the pill pinched between two slender jade fingers, tears of self-loathing for its own depravity streaming down the corners of its mouth before it even realized.

"Ah~ come, open wide!"

Following Yi Huang's movement, the little tiger squeezed its eyes shut and opened its mouth as wide as it could, waiting to be fed.

"Teacher, why are you giving him a Medicinal Pill again!"

Before the feeding was finished, a light, ethereal voice filled with apparent helplessness interrupted Yi Huang's movement. A cold, snow-like celestial maiden appeared in the courtyard, drawing a glare from the little tiger, who simultaneously hid behind Yi Huang's feet, cautiously watching the uninvited guest.

"Xian'er, you're here. Didn't that child Xiao Wu accompany you?"

"Teacher, please don't change the subject."

"Isn't Little Tiger just growing?"

As if caught doing something bad, Yi Huang embarrassedly put away the Medicinal Pill. She herself knew that feeding too many Medicinal Pills was not conducive to absorption, but every time she saw the little fellow's pitiful eyes and fawning actions, she truly could not bear to refuse.

"Xian'er, how about just this once, and it won't happen again?"

Xian'er did not speak, but instead looked expressionlessly at the slightly awkward Yi Huang.

Xian'er: I once believed in the phrase "it won't happen again," but you have made me lose so thoroughly.

"Come with me."

As she spoke, Xian'er grabbed the little tiger by the scruff of its neck—the neck of destiny—and lifted it up under Yi Huang's helpless expression.

"Tell me, did you go to the kitchen to steal food again last night?"

While speaking, she patted the little tiger's soft belly, stirring up waves of flesh.

Thinking of the desperate expression on the cook's face when he reported to her today, and the miserable state of the kitchen with only four walls remaining, Xian'er felt her anger rising.

It was fortunate that the Langya Pavilion Disciples were all cultivators, so their daily food requirements were not high, only occasionally needing a snack, but they could not withstand such destruction!

"And you still dare to eat a Medicinal Pill with this?"

"Have you cultivated? Have you grown taller? Have you learned to speak?"

"What is in your head besides eating? What progress have you made besides growing fat?..."

Sharp knives were spat out one after another from Xian'er's mouth, stabbing into the heart of the thick-skinned little tiger, who was used to this. To give the woman opposite some sense of accomplishment, the little tiger even pretended to cover its eyes with its small paws to show it was admitting its mistake.

It was having a hard time too! Did it not want to grow up? If it weren't for the inability to speak human language, the little tiger would have already poured out all its grievances from these many years to the other party.

Ever since being brought to Langya Pavilion, for decades, the little tiger, pampered as a treasure by Yi Huang, had lost count of how many high-grade Medicinal Pills it had consumed.

Fifth Grade was not worth looking at, Sixth Grade was treated as a meal, Seventh Grade was still consumed, and Eighth Grade could occasionally be looked at.

It was certain that not many of its ancestors had enjoyed this treatment!

According to this way of eating Medicinal Pills, it should have long since advanced to a high-tier Magic Beast. What left it completely baffled was that it was currently barely Fifth-Tier; it was truly like a small knife cutting the buttocks—an eye-opener.

Most egregiously, it was unable to speak or take human form!

Even when a Transformation Pill was eaten, it had no effect at all, and even if Yi Huang checked personally, she could not find any problems.

In the little tiger's simple thinking, if it wanted to speak or take human form, it had to continue advancing and growing. How to grow? Eat!

But after years of eating, its strength did not increase but decreased, its body became smaller, and it looked even fatter. In the past, it could at least be taken for a man-eating beast by passersby on the road, but in its current appearance, no matter how it bared its fangs and brandished its claws, it was just a powerless milk cat in the eyes of others.

Thinking this, the little tiger only felt even more aggrieved, and its pair of large, golden eyes were filled with tears before it knew it.

"Wu~"

"Hmm?"

The little tiger's abnormality was also keenly noticed by Xian'er, who was astonished.

Why was it crying?

According to her understanding of the former, shouldn't it be treating her words as a breeze, entering one ear and exiting the other?

"Don't cry, okay?"

Xian'er's tone softened.

"Do you want to eat a Medicinal Pill? Do you want to eat something delicious?"

"As long as you don't cry, Big Sister will take you to eat whatever you want..."

"Let me do it."

Seeing Xian'er's clumsy comfort in her helplessness, Yi Huang, who had been silent for a long time, helplessly took over the heavy responsibility of comforting the heartbroken little tiger. Holding it in her arms, she patted its back rhythmically, and before long, the little tiger fell into a deep sleep like a newborn infant.

"Has this child's intelligence regressed a bit more?"

Yi Huang looked at the little cutie who would grunt from time to time in its sleep, her willow brows furrowing even deeper.

"What on earth is going on?"

Initially, the little tiger's growth was completely in line with expectations, and with sufficient Medicinal Pills and material supplies, it broke through to the Sixth-Tier in less than ten years.

Unexpectedly to everyone, after the Sixth-Tier, it was like a punctured balloon; the cultivation within the little tiger's body flowed away rapidly. Since then, no matter how it was treated or how many Medicinal Pills it swallowed, it could only maintain itself below the Sixth-Tier.

Such a bizarre situation was almost exactly the same as when Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was secretly drained away in the past.

However, even when the Magic Beast Imperial Zhu Kun checked personally, apart from vaguely sensing the existence of something within the little tiger's body that it found extremely repulsive, there were no further conclusions.

"Teacher, you should get some good rest; you have been very tired during this period!"

"Isn't Teacher resting right now?"

Yi Huang asked in return.

No noise of bamboo flutes to disturb the ears, no labor of official documents to tire the body. Such a leisurely and comfortable life was what she had always pursued; of course, it would be even better if a certain bastard who left without saying goodbye and hadn't returned for many years were by her side.

Seeing the familiar expression on her teacher's face, Xian'er knew the other was missing someone again; she sighed softly and was about to leave when suddenly, an excited shout rang out through the entire Langya Pavilion,

"Yi Huang, I've brought that bastard back!"

Bastard? What bastard?

Before the two had time to wonder, the figures of Ye Jianxin and Xiao Han appeared in the courtyard the next moment.

"Cough... well..."

With the figure she had been longing for day and night right before his eyes, Xiao Han felt a sense of trepidation, as if returning home, and did not know what to say.

Xian'er, who had been about to cry out in surprise, was quietly led away by a look from Ye Jianxin, leaving only the pair in the courtyard.

"Huang'er, I'm back."

These few simple words held the complex emotions of the speaker: the excitement and joy of reunion, but even more so, guilt—the guilt of having been out of touch for many years and failing to return in time when his loved ones were in the greatest danger.

"So you've returned."

Casting a faint glance at Xiao Han, Yi Huang's reaction was so calm that it made him somewhat afraid.

"I thought you had died out there!"

This sentence already carried a faint sob; with her husband missing and her daughter hovering at death's door, she had to force herself to keep smiling so as not to worry her loved ones and friends, and when no one was around, she had no one to rely on and could only shed tears in secret.

Only then did the weakness and grievances Yi Huang had hidden for years erupt in an instant; her incessant sobbing was like a whip soaked in salt water, lashing fiercely at Xiao Han's heart.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Han walked forward quickly, tossed the troublesome little tiger onto the grass to the side, pulled his wife into his arms, and expressed his apologies over and over again, pale and powerless,

"I'm sorry, it's my fault..."