3 Chapter 3
Yang Xin lay Ye Han against a tree and sat down beside him, as she was tired of running from the Horned Sheep.
She was breathing heavily as she wiped off the tears on her face. Although 15, she didn't have any experience in fighting, as she is from the Alchemy class of the Holy Orchid Institute.
This is a class of the institute where kids are trained in Alchemy and they focus more on Alchemy part, compared to the combat class that focuses on combat.
Yang Xin lost her parents when she was young and didn't have resources to cultivate, so she choose the Alchemy class, which would help her make her own pills for cultivation.
She comes regularly to the training grounds looking for herbs, but this time she needed the horns of the Horned Sheep. She was already a 1 star Bronze rank and the Horned Sheep is one of the weakest demons in the training grounds.
With over confidence, Yang Xin decided to confront it on her own, preparing a weak trap thinking she wouldn't need it. Yang Xin found a sleeping Horned Sheep and decided to kill it with a single strike, but since she didn't have any fighting experience, she failed to kill it with a single strike and instead ended up angering the Horned Sheep. That led to the situation Ye Han had seen before.
Yang Xin relaxed after a while and looked at Ye Han as she said "So, he must be the young master that the family adopted. But, what is he doing here all alone?"
After an hour, Ye Han slowly opened his eyes and got up. He held his head and said "That shit is too taxing on this tiny body. I felt my whole body also feel the downward pull."
Ye Han was also in the dark circle and although not the full force, he still felt a little of the pull from the gravity that was produced by the darkness. In the show, Blackbeard was strong enough when he got the fruit, so he didn't face the side-effects, but Ye Han's body was weak and couldn't bear the force or the change in blood flow to his feet due to the change in gravity.
That's what made him loose conscious, as the blood to his brain was reduced. "I have to practice with this power a lot." Ye Han said and that's when he heard a voice say "You are finally awake young master Ye Han."
Ye Han turned to his left and looked at the girl that he saved. "You are Yang Xin, right? How long was I out?" he asked and she replied "Around 1 hour."
Ye Han got up and looked at the woman again, trying his best to remember her from the novel, as he felt that he heard that name somewhere. Ye Han then noticed the basket behind her and asked "What are those?" and she replied "I was collecting herbs to make pills. I am from the Alchemy class of the institute."
"Now I remember, she is that side character that only appeared for a few chapters. She is some high ranking person in the Alchemy Association." Ye Han said and then said to her "Yang Xin, I came to this forest looking for some herbs as well. I am willing to buy some herbs from you, it will help us both."
Yang Xin thought for a while and said "Fine, but today, they are free since you saved my life."
She placed the basket before Ye Han and said "See if there are any herbs you want among these. As for the rest, I will find them."
Ye Han was given money by Ye Zong to buy equipment for his safety in the training grounds, which he intended to use to buy herbs. Now, he could buy them anywhere, but this way, it would be cheaper and no one except Yang Xin would know about it.
Ye Han picked what he wanted and gave the names of the ones he needed. Yang Xin said "They are easy to find in the training ground." and turned to leave, but turned back and asked "I know it is rude to ask someone about their demon spirit, but I have never seen that, or read about it anywhere. What was it?"
"Yang Xin, there are a few secrets that all families have. It would be better for everyone if they remain a secret. So, forget about it." Ye Han said and Yang Xin already had enough problems, she didn't want more. So, she decided to forget about it.
Yang Xin went back to collecting herbs and Ye Han also had work to do. He had to test out his new powers and know his limits.
He made the black flame appear around his head. As he moved his hand down, a stone came flying to him. It got stuck to his hand, but didn't move inside or get sucked in like before.
He tried getting rid of that stone, but it wouldn't come off until he undid the black flames thing. Next was the black flames control. The last time he used the move on the ground, sucking the Horned Sheep, called Black hole, the flames spread in all directions around him till he stopped the whole move.
It would be disadvantageous when allies are around him. The move 'Black Vortex' where Ye Han covers his hand with the black flames to attract things, can't be used much, as it would only bring the enemy closer to him.
So, he needed to know how much he can control his flames, so that he can use the Black hole move in a limited range and make it useful in battle. He expelled flames from his body and accumulated behind him.
Before he knew it, it took the shape of a circle and was as tall as Ye Han. The shape isn't important, the circle started pulling Ye Han towards itself. Ye Han started panicking and before he got too close to it, he jumped to the side with the help of the tree trunk, which he used as a foothold.
He then turned off the ability and the flames returned back to his body. Ye Han said as he breathed a sigh of relief "So, I got the Yami Yami no Mi huh. It is a mysterious devil fruit. There weren't much details about this in the show, except for the fact that it was a weird logia devil fruit.
And after experiencing that, I don't think it only does pulling and excretion of things it sucked in. I have to explore more. And I also have to do something about this body."
Ye Han was just 10 and no one cultivated at his age in the city. Kids have some energy inside them which they receive from their mother during birth. This energy messes with the qi that they want to accumulate inside their body.
(Before people start to argue about this, I would like to tell that in the novel, Ne Li's sister was the only one who cultivated at a young age. I will consider this as a special case due to her special physique.)
It will gradually fade and by 12 years old, they can start cultivating, but Ye Han knew of a method that can help use that energy.
This energy is also the main factor in deciding the initial color of their soul realm. as the body subconsciously absorbs tiny amount of this energy and the childern with parents that are cultivators, it is more whereas in others, it is less.
Since it was already getting dark and Yang Xin returned with all the herbs and plants he needed, he took them and returned back to the family.
When he arrived at his bedroom, he found Ye Ziyun waiting near the door. Ye Han looked at her and asked "Ziyun, what are you doing here?"
She turned to me and said as she looked down "Brother, I wanted to eat dinner together with you." nervous as to what I would reply.
Since Ye Zong was busy with paperwork and Ye Mo, her grandfather, is busy cultivating. So, she usually ate her meals alone. Seeing her, Ye Han said in his head "Awwww....." and smiled at her.
He walked to her and ruffled her hair. Ye Han said "Ziyun, you shouldn't request anything from your brother. Just order what you want me to do and I will do as you say."
Ye Ziyun chuckled and ran in the other direction as she said "Then, I will ask the maids to prepare our dinner."
Ye Han smiled and entered his room. He sat down on his bed and let out a tired sigh. He had a long day and all of it was something new to him. He saw new plants and animals, weird people dressed in weird clothes, weird energy and mysterious powers.
The only good thing that happened to him today was, he got himself a little sister. And he only saw her as a sister, nothing else.
He rested on his bed for a while and there was a knock on the door. "Young master, may I ente...." but Ye Ziyun didn't even wait for the maid to finish or for my reply and opened the door as she came skipping inside, with a huge smile on her face.
Ye Han smiled when he looked at her and Ye Ziyun came running to h, whom he caught and lifted up. Ye Han said "Aren't you a little too energetic even though it is dark outside."
"Brother, don't talk like I was just idle the whole day. I studied about some family ruins." Ye Ziyun said, although she was just 3 years old. Her environment and the people around her made her mature fast.
Ye Han played with her, making her fly like a plane as he ran around in the room while the maid set up their food. When their food was ready, Ye Han dropped Ye Ziyun down and they both had their dinner together.
The maid who was in the room, was a maid who took care of Ziyun after her mother died. So, she cared a lot for Ziyun and didn't want Ye Han to be with her, but seeing her smile the maid didn't mind Ye Han's presence.
After the dinner, the maid cleaned up and Ziyun was also leaving, but she stopped near the door and asked "Brother, will you play with me again?"
Ye Han replied "What did I just say before? Just order." and Ye Ziyun smiled before saying " Then brother, you will have to play with me tomorrow." before running to her room.
Ye Han chuckled before closing the door, changing to his pajama and going to bed. Ye Han woke up the next day, more like he was woken up. Ye Ziyun came to his room to wake him up.
While the maids and others in the Snow wind Family felt her change in behaviour to be weird, but only those close to her knew why she was acting like that.
Ye Ziyun's mother died when Ye Ziyun was young and Ye Zong is busy managing the city because Ye Mo is busy cultivating and had given Ye Zong the responsibility of managing the city. So, with no one to talk to, Ye Ziyun felt pretty lonely in the family.
Ye Han woke up and got ready. He then played with Ye Ziyun for around 2-3 hours, after which Ye Ziyun went to her classes and Ye Han went back to his house to test out his hypothesis about the chemicals in the herbs he got yesterday.
He tested the herbs and he was lucky to extract 5 of the 100 chemicals needed for the serum. He did the testing till evening and played with Ye Ziyun again and they ate dinner before sleeping.
The next day however, he went to the training grounds early morning to start his first day of cultivation.
He drew some inscription patterns on the ground with some demon's blood and sat in the middle as he activated the inscriptions.
As soon as he did that, some weird energy inside him started to move. Since Ye Han was sensing energy for the first time, he focused all his attention at the feeling he felt inside him.
The energy that Ye Han got with his birth, was being converted into qi that can be accumulated in the dantian where the soul force is gathered
That's the first time Ye Han felt his dantian. As he started focusing on his dantian, he could also feel the soul force inside him that travelled all over the body, flowing through his meridians and energizing the body.
He relaxed and felt the energy inside him increase or more like, he was starting to feel all the energy in his body until all the energy that he got from his birth was converted into soul force.
After an unknown period of time, Ye Han opened his eyes full of energy and took out a soul crystal out of his spatial ring.
He channeled soul force through the soul crystal and it was purple in color, with a whirlpool pattern. It looked more like a black hole, but purple in color.
"Dark attribute huh. Should have expected that with the Yami Yami no Mi, but Indigo soul sea, is even more surprising. It is the legendary color of the soul sea that is said to owned by the rarest of the genius, above the cyan and azure color soul sea.
I guess it is due to the process I just did. Nie Li knew of this method, but didn't tell it to anyone. This must be because, even if he gave it to kids, they are still kids, they can't fight.
Another reason might be because of his childish behaviour. Although he wanted to protect the city, he didn't give cultivation techniques to everyone." Ye Han deduced and went back to his herbs testing.
