“Huo Yuhao.”
“Hmm?”
“We’re out of spices for the grilled fish.”
“…Got it.”
“Also, I want three fish for dinner.”
“…Got it.”
“Make it quick.”
“I know, I know, milady.”
On a bright, sunny afternoon, Huo Yuhao stood at his kitchen door, having his daily, utterly meaningless routine conversation with Gu Yuena.
Sighing helplessly, he pulled a notepad out of his apron pocket and checked off “Premium Cumin” and “Sea Salt.”
“Yuhao, are you going out?”
His mother, Huo Yun’er, walked out of the living room holding a cloth bag.
“Just in time.
We’re almost out of rice and oil at home.
Could you pick some up while you’re out?”
“Sure, Mom.” Huo Yuhao took the cloth bag.
Gu Yuena’s cool, aloof voice drifted from behind him again.
“If you aren’t back before dinner, I’m tearing down your kitchen.”
Huo Yuhao waved his hand without looking back, muttering a quiet “Got it, my little ancestor,” as he walked out of his small family courtyard.
Since settling down here, Gu Yuena had fully revealed her true nature as a complete foodie.
Huo Yuhao, meanwhile, had proudly become her personal chef and grocery boy.
Heaven Dou City’s East Market was one of the busiest, most bustling marketplaces in the entire imperial capital, teeming with people and carriages.
Familiarly weaving through the crowd, Huo Yuhao headed straight for the spice shop.
Just as he passed the entrance of a medicine shop named “Huichun Hall,” a commotion caught his attention.
A massive crowd had gathered at the shopfront, packed so tightly it blocked the entrance completely.
Muffled, choked sobs of a young girl and the impatient scolding of a man echoed from inside the crowd.
“If you don’t have the money, don’t block my entrance!
You’re ruining my business!
Scram, scram!”
“Please, Doctor!
Please save my mother!
I’ll kowtow to you!”
“What’s the use of kowtowing?
Can kowtowing magically produce Gold Soul Coins?”
Huo Yuhao wasn’t one to meddle or enjoy spectating, but the girl’s crying tugged at his heart.
Taking advantage of his small build, he squeezed his way through the gaps in the crowd.
When he saw the scene inside, he couldn’t help but pause.
A young girl of about seven or eight was kneeling on the cold stone floor.
She wore her hair in cute twin tails.
Though her small face was stained with tears and dust, she was still clearly a striking beauty in the making.
She wore old, heavily patched clothes, but they were washed meticulously clean.
Her large eyes were brimming with tears as she stared despairingly at the shopkeeper.
On the ground before her, a middle-aged, beautiful woman lay stretched out on a straw mat.
The woman’s eyes were tightly shut.
Her face was as pale as paper, her lips purple, and her breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible.
The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with a goatee.
He stood with his arms crossed, looking down at the mother and daughter with disgust.
“I’ll say it one more time!
Your mother is suffering from acute cold-toxin.
The cold has invaded her heart.
Only a hundred-year-old Yang-attribute lingzhi can keep her alive!
I have one right here, but it’s three hundred Gold Soul Coins.
Can you pay for it?” The owner gestured with his chin toward a jade box on the counter containing the lingzhi mushroom.
The girl’s crying faltered.
Three hundred Gold Soul Coins was an astronomical sum to her.
She slammed her head onto the ground with a dull thud.
“Please, shopkeeper!
Give my mother the medicine first!
I…
I, Jiang Nannan, swear that I will pay you back every last coin!
I’ll work like an ox or a horse for you!
I’ll work for you for the rest of my life!”
The shopkeeper remained unmoved, even letting out a cold sneer.
“You?
A little slip of a girl, worth three hundred Gold Soul Coins?
Stop wasting my business hours.
Take your mother and get the hell out of here!”
The onlookers whispered and pointed. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Most felt pity, but none stepped forward to help.
Just then, a somewhat frivolous young voice rang out.
“Well, look who it is.
If it isn’t Jiang Nannan.”
The crowd parted automatically, and a boy dressed in luxurious silk robes stepped forward.
He looked to be about ten years old, flanked by two burly bodyguards.
It was obvious at a glance that he came from a wealthy family.
The boy walked up to Jiang Nannan, looking down at her with undisguised smugness in his eyes.
“Jiang Nannan, have you thought it over?” he said.
“My offer still stands.
As long as you nod and agree to be my concubine, never mind three hundred Gold Soul Coins—I can easily produce three thousand.
I’ll cover your mother’s illness.”
This boy was none other than the young master of the Xuanming Sect, Xu Sanshi.
Hearing his words, Jiang Nannan’s body went completely stiff.
She looked up, biting her lip fiercely, her tears spilling over like broken pearl strings, stubbornly refusing to utter a word.
The smile on Xu Sanshi’s face widened.
He leaned down, whispering in her ear so only the two of them could hear: “What?
Still hesitating?
Your mother is about to breathe her last.
Is her life really less important than your ridiculous pride?”
These words were like a needle piercing deep into Jiang Nannan’s heart.
Her entire body trembled violently.
Looking at her mother, whose breath was growing fainter by the second, the final defensive wall in her eyes was on the verge of collapsing completely.
Just as she was about to nod and capitulate, a calm voice sounded beside her.
“Move aside.”
Jiang Nannan and Xu Sanshi turned their heads simultaneously, seeing a boy about the same age as Jiang Nannan.
Huo Yuhao stepped out from the crowd.
He glanced at Xu Sanshi, a look of realization flashing in his eyes.
*So that’s how it is.
In my past life, the tangled, almost cursed relationship between Xu Sanshi and Jiang Nannan had its roots right here.*
*Taking advantage of someone in crisis to force a decent girl to be a concubine…
At this stage, Xu Sanshi really is a textbook scoundrel.*
Huo Yuhao ignored Xu Sanshi.
He walked straight over to the unconscious woman and knelt down.
He reached out and gently placed his hand on the woman’s wrist.
A faint but pure thread of mental power flowed from his fingertips, carefully probing into her body.
The condition of the woman’s body was instantly mapped out clearly in his mind.
Her meridians were filled with a dark, cold toxin that had already invaded her vital organs.
Multiple meridians were blocked by this cold-toxin, and her life force was rapidly slipping away.
The shopkeeper was right.
It was indeed a severe case of cold-toxin invasion.
Normally, there was no other way to save her short of using a hundred-year Yang-attribute lingzhi to forcibly sustain her life.
But that was only for ordinary people.
To Huo Yuhao, who possessed the Snow Empress’s origin, a cold-toxin of this level was not a trouble, but rather…
a tonic.
With a thought, Huo Yuhao channeled the incredibly pure ice-and-snow origin belonging to the Snow Empress, which lay dormant deep inside his body.
It was an Ultimate Ice that surpassed all worldly coldness, yet within that extreme chill lay a trace of the most Yang and robust life-origin power.
Huo Yuhao carefully guided this trace of origin power through his finger and into the woman’s meridians.
The moment the power of Ultimate Ice entered her body, the rampant ordinary cold-toxin behaved like a mouse spotting a cat.
It was instantly assimilated and absorbed without causing even a single ripple.
Right after, the trace of life force contained within the origin began to work.
Like warm sunlight shining upon a frozen river, it quickly cleared the blocked meridians and repaired the organs damaged by the cold-toxin.
Absorbing, refining, clearing, and repairing.
The entire process was as smooth as flowing water.
Under the shocked gazes of the onlookers, a miraculous scene unfolded.
The pale, paper-like face of the beautiful woman lying on the ground regained its healthy color at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Her purple lips slowly softened in hue, and her weak breathing grew steady and strong.
Finally, she even let out a soft groan and her brow twitched, as if she were about to wake up.
From the moment Huo Yuhao knelt down to the woman’s recovery, less than three minutes had passed.
“Heavens!
What…
what is going on?”
“The woman’s complexion changed!
She’s actually cured!”
“Who is this kid?
How did he do that?
Is it magic?” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
The surrounding crowd erupted into cries of disbelief.
The shopkeeper’s mouth fell wide open, his goatee trembling as he stared, unable to believe his own eyes.
Jiang Nannan was also utterly dazed.
She stared blankly at this boy, who was about her age, watching him do nothing more than rest his hand on her mother’s wrist, and her mother’s illness was cured.
This…
this was even more unbelievable than a deity descending to earth.
Huo Yuhao slowly stood up and withdrew his hand.
Having finished, his face was slightly pale.
Channeling the Snow Empress’s origin was still a significant burden on his current body.
He looked at Jiang Nannan and said, “Your mother is fine now.
The cold-toxin in her body has been cleared.
Just take her back and let her rest for a few days.
Give her some warm porridge, and she’ll be as good as new.”
Jiang Nannan’s eyes welled with tears.
The long-suppressed grievances, despair, and sudden, overwhelming joy surged together, spilling over as hot tears.
Without a second thought, she prepared to kneel and kowtow to Huo Yuhao.
“Thank you!
Thank you for saving my mother!
Thank you, benefactor!”
Huo Yuhao reacted quickly, catching her to prevent her from kneeling.
“Don’t kneel,” his voice was steady.
“It was just a small effort.”
Nearby, Xu Sanshi’s face was so dark it looked ready to drip ink.
He was just about to succeed, but this interloper had come out of nowhere and ruined his plans.
“Kid, who do you think you are?” He glared viciously at Huo Yuhao.
“You dare ruin my plans?”
Only now did Huo Yuhao spare him a glance, his gaze as indifferent as if he were looking at an ant on the side of the road.
“What?” he asked calmly.
“Do you want to fight?”
Though he had the body of a six- or seven-year-old child, the moment Xu Sanshi met those eyes, he felt as if he were being stared down by an ancient, primordial beast.
A chill rushed from the soles of his feet straight to his skull.
It was a pressure stemming from the depths of his soul, freezing his heart and making his breath catch for a brief moment.
Sensing their young master’s rage, the two bodyguards behind him took a step forward, their soul power surging as they prepared to act.
“Wait!” Xu Sanshi suddenly raised his hand, stopping them.
He stared hard at Huo Yuhao.
Though his heart was burning with rage, the survival instinct bred into him from a young age in a great clan told him that the boy in front of him was absolutely not to be trifled with.
“…Let’s go,” Xu Sanshi spat through gritted teeth.
He turned and left with his guards, giving Huo Yuhao a deep, lingering look before departing, as if trying to engrave the boy’s face into his mind.
Once Xu Sanshi left, the spectating crowd gradually dispersed as well.
Jiang Nannan carefully helped her mother up.
The older woman was still a bit dazed, but she was no longer in mortal danger.
After settling her mother, Jiang Nannan quickly ran after Huo Yuhao, who was about to leave.
“Benefactor!
Please wait!”
Huo Yuhao stopped and turned around.
Jiang Nannan ran up to him and bowed deeply once more, tears still marking her face, but her eyes were incredibly earnest and resolute.
“Benefactor, what is your name?
You saved my mother’s life.
I, Jiang Nannan, will never forget this kindness as long as I live!
I will definitely repay you in the future!”
Looking at the determined young face of the girl in front of him, Huo Yuhao felt a slight stir in his heart.
He recalled the “Soft Bone Rabbit” senior sister from his past life, who was soft on the outside but incredibly strong on the inside.
A warm smile appeared on his face.
“Huo Yuhao.”
“Huo Yuhao…” Jiang Nannan repeated the name softly a few times, as if trying to carve it into her heart.
“I’ll remember it!”
Huo Yuhao waved his hand to dismiss it, indicating it was nothing, before turning and continuing toward the spice shop.
He still had a little ancestor waiting at home for his grilled fish.
Jiang Nannan didn’t follow him.
She just stood there, blankly watching his retreating back.
Under the sunlight, the boy’s silhouette looked somewhat slight, yet exceptionally dependable.
For some reason, Jiang Nannan felt her cheeks grow slightly warm.
She suddenly felt that there was a very pleasant scent on this boy named Huo Yuhao.
It wasn’t the scent of flowers, nor was it any kind of spice.
Instead, it was like the warm sunshine after a fresh rain.
Just breathing it in made one’s heart feel warm and cozy, drawing them closer to him.