Obtaining the Medicine

It was clearly Lin Hao who had set his beast upon others.

Li Yan had intervened to save them.

He fought desperately to slay the vicious creature, only to suffer a grievous waist injury in the process.

Yet not only did he receive no credit, he was forced to compensate the very perpetrator whose beast he had killed!

Hahahaha!

Yang An said nothing, scooping up a handful of snow to wipe the blood from his face and body.

What could he do, no matter how furious he was?

Lin Hao was the son of Lin Yeping.

Lin Yeping, the military governor of Yunzhou, a third-rank frontier official who commanded the entire province’s forces—no one in Yunzhou could rival his power!

Moreover, rumors swirled in the streets.

The current emperor’s most beloved daughter, Princess Anle, had come to Yunzhou to admire the snow, with whispers suggesting she was to be wed into the Lin family.

Princess Anle was the most beautiful woman in the court.

Even at her coming-of-age ceremony, she was already famed for “radiance that could move the world.”

The son of a frontier governor.

The future imperial son-in-law of the Great Xia Dynasty.

And what was he? Just a frail scholar, unable to even defeat the flaming lion that Lin Hao rode!

Having cleaned himself thoroughly,

the icy snow seeped through his fur coat,

piercing him with bone-chilling cold. Yang An took a deep breath and muttered through gritted teeth, “A gentleman’s revenge can wait ten years. I’m only eighteen now. If that bastard surnamed Lin and his whole damned family are still alive by the time I’m twenty-eight, I’ll slit my own throat and be done with it!!!”

Suppressing the bloodlust urging him to fight right then and there,

Yang An strode off toward another direction on the snow-covered mountain.

The blizzard had raged for over half a month.

The Yunling Mountains were blanketed in white, frost clinging to every surface. The snow reached past his waist, and with every step, Yang An sank halfway into the drifts.

One misstep into a hidden pit, and he could break a leg!

Without a flaming lion to ride,

Yang An had no choice but to tread carefully, prodding the snow ahead with a bamboo pole as he walked.

After much effort, he had only covered a few miles of mountainous terrain.

Another peak still lay between him and his destination!

“This is too slow. It’s exhausting, and the noise might attract beasts.”

Yang An shook his stiff wrists.

After a moment’s thought, he recalled the survival shows he’d watched daily in his past life—back when he still had time to eat and shit in peace. An idea struck him.

Drawing the short knife at his waist,

he hacked a few wrist-thick branches from a nearby old tree and lashed them together into makeshift snowshoes.

Once secured to his feet, he stepped onto the snow again.

This time, he didn’t sink.

“Now I don’t have to worry about hidden pits beneath the snow.” Still young at heart, Yang An chuckled foolishly.

But soon, his laughter died.

“Damn it! One day, I’ll get myself a mount as magnificent as that bastard’s lion!”

Head down, Yang An pressed on through the storm.

With the makeshift snowshoes,

his pace improved significantly. Before joining the military, Li Yan had been a hunter in these very mountains, his legs having traversed nearly every inch of Yunling’s outer reaches.

After marrying Yang An’s sister, Yang Ning,

though she kept Yang An on a tight leash,

Li Yan, who doted on him, would occasionally sneak him out for some fresh air—hunting rabbits or pheasants in the Yunling Mountains. The result? Both men would return home only to face Yang Ning’s rolling pin.

Having accompanied Li Yan on many trips to Yunling,

Yang An’s sense of direction was decent. Following his memory, he crossed one peak and trekked along the forest’s edge for over an hour.

Finally, he reached a cliff.

“Hahaha! Thank the heavens I didn’t misremember the way!” Delighted at finding the spot, Yang An laughed. “Old Mr. He said black jade lotuses thrive in high places, often on cliffs. This is the tallest cliff in Yunling’s outer reaches—there had better be one here!”

“Otherwise, I’ll have to risk venturing into the inner mountains, where the beasts roam.”

After an hour of trudging through the ice and snow,

even bundled tightly in his coat,

Yang An’s lips were pale from the biting wind. Blowing warm breath onto his stiffening hands, he braced against the storm and crawled to the cliff’s edge.

Cautiously, he peered over.

As the snowstorm momentarily relented,

the blinding white haze cleared slightly.

With his innate talent, [Fate of Calamity], enhancing his vision threefold, Yang An spotted it—a black, lotus-shaped herb growing two to three hundred meters below the cliff.

Graceful and radiant with spiritual light!

Extraordinary!

It could only be the black jade lotus Old Mr. He had described!

Heaven rewards the determined!

Overjoyed, Yang An immediately untied his snowshoes and fastened a rope around his waist, ready to descend. But just then, his enhanced vision caught something else—a massive, dark shape beside the lotus!

He ducked lower into the snow,

quietly focusing his gaze.

The thing was a nest—woven from vines and dried branches,

easily seven or eight meters across!

What kind of bird could build a nest this high on a cliff? And so large!

“A raptor-type beast, no doubt!”

“The texts were right—‘Where treasures grow, beasts stand guard.’ No wonder a single black jade lotus sells for hundreds, even thousands, of taels!”

Yang An sucked in a sharp breath, grateful for his caution.

Had he recklessly climbed down and startled the creature mid-descent, not only would he fail to save his brother-in-law, he’d lose his own life right here!

But now that he’d found the life-saving herb,

he couldn’t possibly back down. Even with a beast guarding it, he had to take the lotus!

Standing, Yang An slung the iron-reinforced bow from his back.

This was Li Yan’s bow, requiring five hundred pounds of strength to draw.

In the past, even if he mustered the murderous rage needed to slaughter Lin Hao’s entire family, he couldn’t have nocked an arrow. Now, with [Fate of Calamity] tripling his base strength, he could barely manage to brace the bow and set an arrow.

But to truly draw it? Still not enough.

If threefold wasn’t sufficient, then tenfold would have to do!

With a quiet exhale of “Open,” Yang An’s heart rate spiked, surging blood through his veins. A dark red aura flickered at the corners of his eyes as his power exploded tenfold!

As he slowly drew the five-hundred-pound bow,

the howling wind and snow around him seemed to freeze.

The world narrowed to the thrum of the bowstring.

Though archery wasn’t his forte,

with his vision and perception amplified tenfold by [Fate of Calamity],

the eagle’s nest two to three hundred meters away appeared as clear as if it were right before him. Holding his breath, he waited for a lull in the wind—then released.

“Whoosh!”

The black arrow tore through the blizzard,

streaking like a bolt of darkness. A moment later, a sharp “thunk” echoed as the arrow pierced the nest, embedding itself finger-deep into the rock behind!

A shrill screech erupted from the nest.

An enormous eagle, wings spanning seven to eight meters, burst forth, blood dripping from its shoulder!

But before it could locate its attacker,

Yang An had already nocked a second arrow.

The instant the eagle emerged—

Another “whoosh!”

The second arrow struck like lightning. “Squelch!” The eagle’s head exploded in a spray of crimson, its body—now headless—plummeting lifelessly from the cliff before it could even cry out.

With the beast slain,

Yang An remained vigilant, drawing a third iron arrow and keeping his aim trained on the nest.

After waiting a while, no more giant eagles flew out of the nest.

Yang An still hadn’t put away his bow, cautiously firing his third arrow toward the eagle’s nest first.

Bang!

The sound of shattered stone echoed.

The third arrow pierced clean through the nest again. Seeing no further movement, Yang An fired a fourth, then a fifth…

Until the nest was nearly riddled like a honeycomb.

Only then did he finally relax.

Taking a deep breath, Yang An deactivated the tenfold combat boost of his Tai Sui state. Instantly, his legs felt weak, and even the fierce winds threatened to knock him off balance!

"The short-term boost of tenfold combat power is terrifyingly powerful," he muttered.

"But the drain is just as terrifying. Just firing a few arrows nearly exhausted all my stamina."

Gasping for air, Yang An slumped against the cliff edge.

He pulled out the flatbread Wang Shitou had given him from his robe and, while it was still warm, wolfed down two pieces, washing them down with handfuls of nearby snow.

Once he’d regained some strength—

Remembering his sister waiting at home and his brother-in-law relying on the Black Jade Lotus for survival—Yang An didn’t dare waste time. He tied one end of a rope around his waist and the other to a tree as thick as a man’s torso.

Then, he began his careful descent down the cliff.

The moment he started climbing down, Yang An understood why no one dared harvest the Black Jade Lotus despite its immense value—aside from the giant eagles guarding it.

After half a month of snowfall,

The cliff face was coated in a layer of solid ice, every stone as slick as a mirror, offering no foothold.

Yang An dangled midair with no place to plant his feet.

Each gust of wind sent him slamming uncontrollably into the cliff, leaving him battered and disoriented within moments.

Thud after thud—like bashing his head against a wall.

Even an iron man wouldn’t last.

Worse, even if he managed to retrieve the herb,

Climbing back up this glass-smooth cliff would be impossible. He’d be doomed to freeze to death halfway!

Fortunately, Yang An had a plan.

When he’d left home, he hadn’t skimped on arrows, filling his quiver to the brim. After shooting the eagles, he still had plenty left.

After several collisions with the cliff,

The next time the wind hurled him toward the rock face, he drew an iron arrow and—

Bang!

—drove it like a spike into the stone.

Using the arrow as an anchor,

Yang An quickly looped the rope around it to steady himself.

Finally, a foothold.

He clung to the arrow, panting, but didn’t dare rest long. "The cold saps stamina too fast. If I run out, I’ll never make it back up. I have to get the herb now!"

Slapping his nearly numb cheeks,

Yang An steeled himself and pressed downward, hammering another arrow into the cliff every ten or twenty meters.

Step by grueling step,

By the time only one arrow remained in his quiver, he finally reached the Black Jade Lotus.

The howling winds between the cliffs were like death’s whisper.

Yang An shivered violently.

His hands, raw and bloody from gripping the rope, had left frozen streaks on the fibers.

The life-saving Black Jade Lotus—

Right within reach!

With a hoarse cry, Yang An forced his half-frozen arm upward, mustering every last ounce of strength to dig out the lotus, roots and all, with his dagger.

At last—the cure was in his grasp!

But Yang An’s face was too stiff to smile.

His eyelids grew unbearably heavy.

Under the knife-like wind, his stamina was utterly spent. Cold and exhaustion numbed his mind. He no longer had the strength to climb back.

Biting his tongue,

He savored the metallic tang of blood to cling to his last shreds of awareness.

"Can’t stay exposed to this wind. Can’t close my eyes—I’ll die."

"Need to find shelter."

The more dire the crisis, the calmer Yang An became. Remembering the eagle’s nest just below the lotus,

He glanced down.

It wasn’t far. With luck, he might land inside.

"My legs are useless now. Hanging here means certain death."

"Only one gamble left."

"Sis, brother-in-law… Mom, Dad up above—bless me!"

Yang An sliced the rope at his waist.

Weightlessness seized him as he plummeted—

Then crashed into a tangle of pitch-black branches, their sharp edges gashing his cheek.

Tumbling twice through the nest,

He rolled straight into a pile of thick feathers—soft and warm as cotton.

"I won the bet."

"Didn’t fall to my doom. Guess fate’s not done with me!"

"Hahaha!"

Laughing wildly from the feather-filled nest,

Yang An lay sprawled at its center.

The giant eagle’s feathers held some mystical property, repelling the cold.

Within moments, warmth returned to his limbs. Sitting up, he gazed at the Black Jade Lotus in his hand and grinned. "Brother-in-law’s really going to make it now!"

Wary of losing potency,

He wrapped the lotus carefully and tucked it into his robe. Then, shaking feathers from his hair, he stood inside the nest.

A quick scan of the interior—

And his eyes gleamed.

Amid the scattered iron arrows and bloodstained feathers lay three eggs, each larger than a man’s head!