Chapter 27: Cloud Leopard

As soon as he regained consciousness, Cloud Leopard instantly flipped into the air and jumped to a corner of the room. He covered himself in the shadows while simultaneously preparing an Origin Skill. It was only then that he surveyed his surroundings.

Everything had happened in a blur to Su Chen. He discovered that the sick person who had just been passed out on his bed a moment ago had suddenly isolated himself in a corner of the room, like a leopard stalking its prey, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Su Chen was startled, but he laughed and said, “You’re awake? Don’t worry, nothing will harm you here.”

The youth’s vigilant gaze calmed down somewhat upon discovering that it was Su Chen.

In the instant that his vigilance relaxed, the pain in his body came surging back, causing him to let out a whimper of pain.

Su Chen said, “You were injured thirty-two times and three of them were life-threatening. It took me a long time to treat the wounds, but your movements just now opened them up again.”

Cloud Leopard lowered his head to look at his own body. Indeed, it was covered with wounds that had been bandaged together. Blood began to seep through some of his bandages.

“Thank you,” Cloud Leopard replied in a hoarse voice. His voice seemed slightly airy because his throat had also been cut.

“There’s no need to thank me. If you don’t want all of my hard work to go to waste then go lie down on the bed.”

Cloud Leopard obediently returned to the bed.

“Here, drink this.” Su Chen handed Cloud Leopard the medicine that he had prepared. “You have to drink this one while you’re awake. After you drink it, activate your absorption technique to absorb the medicinal power and allow it to diffuse throughout your entire body. It’s a bit hot.”

Cloud Leopard drank it quickly.

He felt a wave of heat rise from within his body and spread through every channel in his body. It grew hotter and hotter until it was so hot that Cloud Leopard almost let out a scream.

“Activate your absorption technique to absorb the medicinal power!” Su Chen said.

The wave of heat began to slowly dissipate after Cloud Leopard started furiously absorbing medicinal power. .

Despite this, the furious momentum of the medicinal power made it so that Cloud Leopard wanted to die. However, Cloud Leopard had a strange temperament; he gritted his teeth and kept silent the entire time, continuously absorbing the medicinal power as Su Chen had instructed.

This continued for the time it takes a stick of incense to burn until Cloud Leopard finally let out a sigh. His body stopped trembling after the heat had receded. Su Chen knew that Cloud Leopard had finished absorbing the medicine.

“How do you feel now?” Su Chen asked.

Cloud Leopard inspected himself and then replied, “My internal injuries have healed significantly, but my external injuries were not affected much. Some of them even got worse.”

“That’s good enough.” Su Chen was very satisfied. Cloud Leopard’s internal injuries were extremely severe. To be able to recover that much in such a short period of time was still impressive. Su Chen replied, “That’s not very strange. The Whitestone Medicine mostly exists to treat internal injuries anyways.”

“Whitestone Medicine?” Cloud Leopard was curious. “What kind of medicine is it? How come I’ve never heard of such an effective medicine before?”

Su Chen smiled. “That’s because this medicine doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

After a brief pause he said, “I invented it.”

“You invented it?” Cloud Leopard’s eyes were about to fall out from their sockets.

“Well…… It’s probably more accurate to say that someone invented half of it and then I finished the other half,” Su Chen said.

The Whitestone Medicine’s original creator was Master Feng. After killing him, Su Chen had obtained all of the information he had left behind, including the recipe for this medicine.

The medicine wasn’t originally called Whitestone, nor was it used to treat internal injuries.

It was a kind of medicine that was meant to cause one’s Origin Energy to surge and begin to boil. It excited one’s Origin Energy upon use, dramatically increasing one’s Origin Energy temporarily and greatly increasing the force of any Origin Skills used.

However, this was a failed product. Master Feng was only experienced in putting together medicine, not controlling Origin Energy. He discovered that the chaotic Origin Energy was extremely difficult to control so he gave up on it.

After obtaining Master Feng’s notes, Su Chen wanted to try his hand at making this medicine after he realized that his ability to control Origin Energy was much better than Master Feng’s. He could put into practice what he learned about alchemy and also increase his strength at the same time.

However, the notes only kept details on the ingredients, not how to prepare the medicine. This lead to Su Chen failing many times.

Su Chen inadvertently discovered during one of his failures that one of the side effects from concocting this Origin Energy Surging Medicine cured internal injuries.

Su Chen began to focus more and more on that aspect. In the end, Su Chen was not able to concoct the Origin Energy Surging Medicine, but his tinkering had resulted in a completely novel medicine that could heal internal injuries.

At this moment, Su Chen still considered the Whitestone Medicine as something he had obtained via a stroke of blind luck. It wouldn’t be until much later that he would realize that, on the path of research, it would be common for him to spend a lot of time and never achieve the results that he wanted, while chance happenings would often provide him with unexpected benefits1

When happenstances occurred often enough, they became inevitabilities.

The Whitestone Medicine was his first unintentional success during his research, but it definitely wouldn’t be his last.

“So your main goal is to become an alchemy master and cultivation is just something you do in passing,” Cloud Leopard said, understanding dawning on his face.

Su Chen gave him a strange look. “No, my goal is to become a powerful Origin Qi Scholar…… studying to become an alchemy master is just something I do in passing.

“……”

Su Chen had invented a completely novel medicine as a second-year student at the Hidden Dragon Institute, yet he claimed that it was something he had done “in passing”. Cloud Leopard was stunned speechless.

He suddenly thought of something and said, “You never asked me how I was injured…… You already know, don’t you?”

“You received thirty-two wounds, seven of which were clearly caused by thunder-type attacks. These attacks penetrated your skin and attacked your inner organs. Although there are many people who use the power of thunder, not many possess such penetrative power…… It was Thunder Spirit Bai Ou, wasn’t it?”

Cloud Leopard revealed an expression that said, “So you do know who.”

He muttered in a low voice, “Six of them ganged up on me. If it was just Bai Ou himself, I would have killed him!”

“I believe it. After all, you were able to escape even though the six of them ganged up on you.”

Cloud Leopard shook his head and said, “I didn’t run.”

Su Chen was stunned. He stared at Cloud Leopard. “You battled them head-on?”

Cloud Leopard replied seriously, “They made a big mistake. They shouldn’t have battled me in the forest.”

Su Chen stared at him in disbelief. “Don’t tell me that you even injured some of them in a six-on-one battle.”

Cloud Leopard replied, “I killed two of them and gravely injured another one.”

“……”

This time it was Su Chen’s turn to be stunned into silence.

——————————————

After talking for a bit, Su Chen finally confirmed that Cloud Leopard had been targeted because of Thunder Blade.

Soon after the Three Mountains Region exam had ended, Su Chen discovered that Bai Fan was from the Thunder Spirit Bai Clan because the Thunder Blade was their Bloodline Origin Skill. In addition, Bai Ou was Bai Fan’s own younger brother.

Even though they were both members of the Bai Clan, Bai Fan and Bai Ou possessed very different statuses. Although Bai Fan was the Eldest Prince, his status was much lower than his younger brother’s. He was only a product of Bai Jingtai’s numerous romantic exploits during his youth. Because his mother was someone without a bloodline, Bai Fan’s bloodline tier was much lower. His bloodline had not even awakened yet by the time he had been killed by Su Chen. Bai Jingtai had never accepted Bai Fan into the clan. Instead, he had always kept Bai Fan at a distance, forcing him to study from a friend of his.

Thus, although Bai Fan was a disciple of a Bloodline Nobility Clan, he had never received any care or attention at all.

Bai Fan had a weak bloodline and didn’t have many interactions with Bai Jingtai. Thus, Bai Jingtai didn’t actually care too much about that son of his.

They only worked together to kill Su Chen and Cloud Leopard because of the spread of Thunder Blade.

The Thunder Blade and Flying Flower Hands were similar. They were both Bloodline Origin Skills and had unlimited potential for growth and development. The bloodline was much more important than the skill itself, but evidently Bai Jingtai didn’t think that way. From his point of view, even if it was just a skill, it couldn’t be transmitted to outsiders!

Anyone who learns the Bai Clan’s secret techniques must die!

This perhaps was the greatest irony.

Su Chen’s ambition was to find a way to bypass all bloodline restrictions so that every human could have a long cultivation path ahead of them, but those conservative Bloodline Nobility Clans weren’t even willing to share just a simple Origin Skill.

1. I thought it would be worth explaining this phrase, since it’s a great example of how Chinese language is very descriptive. A closer-to-original translation, in essence, would be “Su Chen wants to pick a certain flower, but that flower never blooms. Meanwhile, a tree branch that he had carelessly stuck into the ground would eventually grow into a tree large enough that it could be used for shelter.” It’s not the exact, literal meaning, but I felt it appropriate to explain the original Chinese phrasing.