Inside the quiet room, Nalan and her father were talking in hushed tones, occasionally turning their gazes toward the two men by the bed. After some time, their whispers slowly stopped when they saw the sweat rolling off the old man’s face and blue veins popping on his arm. The Nalans looked at each other and saw anxiousness and restlessness in each other’s eyes.

Xiao Yan’s face remained calm despite the growing restlessness in the room, his fingers pointed at Nalan Jie’s back trembling slightly. The faint green flame was constantly being controlled by his spiritual strength and its high temperature was being used to slowly expel the "Searing Poison" that had already invaded the bones.

The green flame wrapped itself around the periphery of the pitch-black bone. Although it seemed to cling to the surface, upon looking closely one would observe that they were separated by a very small gap. The Heavenly Flame’s temperature was too high, if it were to directly come in contact with Nalan Jie’s bones, even if he were a Dou Wang level powerhouse, he would instantaneously receive a severe wound or even die.

The blazing high temperature of the flames slowly permeated the pitch-black bones, causing smoke to slowly emanate from them.

With the continued roasting of the flame, a black mist quietly seeped out of the bones, but before it could escape, it was swiftly surrounded by the green flame and under its terrifying temperature, this "Searing Poison" which could even threaten a Dou Huang, was roasted into nothingness.

However, when Xiao Yan used the ‘Heavenly Flame’ to incinerate these black colored mists, he found that some black colored unknown thing actually slowly adulterated together with the ‘Heavenly Flame’ at the moment that the black colored mist was about to volatilize. Immediately afterwards, they became still within the fire.

As the time was spent quietly, the section of the pitch-black bone that was wrapped by Xiao Yan’s green flame was, with a speed visible to the naked eye, gradually restored to its normal color.

On the outside, at this time, Nalan Jie’s body had been drenched with sweat. His old face, while twitching uncontrollably, was emitting a slight sound of sucking in cold air from between his teeth.

"Little... little brother, is it done? Huh?" Nalan Jie’s trembling voice came out hoarsely as blue veins on his arm twitched as if they were small snakes.

Xiao Yan’s forehead was densely covered with sweat. Handling the Heavenly Flame with such precision for a long time was highly draining and was a large burden on his spiritual strength. He heard Nalan Jie’s question and slowly replied in a soft voice, "Since you are at the limit of your endurance, we shall stop here for this expelling poison session. The extent that the poison was embedded in your body had far exceeded my expectations. I wanted to expel it in one go, but it seems like that is not going to be possible so we can only choose to slowly take our time......"

"Can the ’Searing Poison’ truly be fully expelled?" When Nalan Jie heard his reply, he could not hide the authentic surprise in his voice. Even after having lived for so many years, if given a choice between life and death, everyone will choose the former.

"Looking at the current progress, totally curing it does not seem to be a problem." Xiao Yan said with an cold voice.

"Haha, I did not expect little brother to have such skills despite his young age. I really don’t know which hidden expert of this world can raise this kind of great disciple" Nalan Jie hurriedly nodded while laughing hoarsely. "Then we will do as little brother recommends.”

"Oh, by the way, what is little brother’s name?"

“Yan Xiao... stop talking, I am withdrawing the ‘Heavenly Flame.” Xiao Yan frowned. He bent his fingers slightly and the green colored flame that was shrouded around the bone began to slowly withdraw. Finally, it returned to Xiao Yan’s body one wisp at a time.

When the last wisp of green colored flame returned to his body, Xiao Yan sighed in relief. He wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead. Suddenly, his face changed slightly, but it was quickly recovered. Pretending that nothing had happened, Xiao Yan glanced at the tip of his finger which had turned black. He pursed up his lips and inserted his hands back into his sleeves without anyone noticing.

“Little brother Yan Xiao, how is it?” Eyeing Xiao Yan who appeared to have stopped expelling the poison, Nalan Su hurriedly took two steps forward and asked.

“We’ll end today’s treatment here. With this progress, I think that we would require at least seven days in order to remove all of the poison.” Xiao Yan glance at Nalan Jie, whose face appeared a little better than before, as he voiced his thoughts.

“Little brother, thank you very much. As long as you are able to cure my father, the Nalan clan will definitely give remunerations that won’t be disappointing!” Eyeing the slight luster on Nalan Jie’s old face, the weight pressing on Nalan Su’s heart finally fell. The importance of Nalan Jie to the Nalan clan was similar to the importance Mo Cheng had to the Mo clan. Although the Nalan clan would not be brought to its knees if it lost this supporting beam, the distance it had with the other two large clan would definitely be progressively pulled apart.

“Tomorrow, I will continue to come here. I will take my leave today.” Xiao Yan glanced at the color of the sky outside, turned around and spoke to Nalan Jie.

“Little brother, in order to save some trouble, why don’t you come and stay at the Nalan clan’s home?” Hearing Xiao Yan’s words, Nalan Jie hurriedly smiled and said warmly.

“There’s no need for that. I have my own matters to settle.” Xiao Yan shook his head indifferently. He ignored the three of them, lifted his leg and walked toward the exit.

“Uh... since it’s like this, girl, go and see our little brother off.” Seeing that Xiao Yan left so decisively, Nalan Jie was momentarily at a loss. He immediately helplessly ordered.

“Ok.” Nalan Yanran nodded slightly, eyed the thin back in front of her before slowly following.

...

As Xiao Yan slowly walked on the small path that was paved by stone fragments, he stared at the front with an expressionless face. It was as though the Nalan clan princess that was following beside him did not exist.

Being shoulder to shoulder with Xiao Yan, Nalan Yanran eyes would occasionally glance at the young man who was ignoring her. Her pretty face might have be calm, but she was somewhat stunned and a little depressed in her heart. Although she was not really concerned, this was still the first time in so many years that she had been disregarded in such a manner. She had originally thought that her character was quite proud. She did not expect that this person in front of her was even more arrogant.

However, Nalan Yanran also clearly knew that although this young man in front of her, who was called Yan Xiao, was arrogant, he did indeed have the capital to be so. At such a young age, he was already able to control the terrifying ‘Heavenly Flame’ that even a Dou Huang was extremely afraid of. It was sufficient for him to triumph over the generation of similar age to him. Therefore, even Nalan Yanran could not help but feel an admiration at the same time she felt somewhat stifled.

“Yan Xiao, although I am uncertain how an alchemist banishes poison, but inserting that terrifying ‘Heavenly Flame’ into a person’s body should require extremely precise flame controlling ability, right? This controlling ability of yours appear to be much stronger than many tier three alchemist that I have seen.” Nalan Yanran was finally unable to bear the depressing atmosphere and took the lead to softly inquire.

“Perhaps.” Xiao Yan looked steadily forward, his voice was extremely cold and indifferent.

“Then why don’t you go and take the test for a tier three alchemist?”

“Placing one’s strength on one’s chest for everyone to clearly see. This kind of action... I’m not as foolish as that.” Xiao Yan’s lazy soft voice contained a ridicule. He tilted his head slightly and glanced at Nalan’s chest area that was tightly wrapped by the moon colored dress. Immediately, he returned the question, “Aren’t you also not wearing a rank badge?”

“Teacher had said that the so called rank badge is merely a false appearance. Moreover, even I am unsure just exactly what class my strength belongs to. It drifts up and down far too much.” Nalan Yanran smiled and said.

“Drifts up and down far too much? What do you mean?” Hearing this, Xiao Yan’s heart moved a little as he softly asked without leaving a trace.

“...I’m sorry, I cannot leak some of the secrets of the Misty Cloud Sect.” Nalan Yanran shook her head in a slightly apologetic manner and did not reveal the reason.

Xiao Yan’s eyebrows were pressed lightly together before immediately relaxing. He nodded silently as he walked with nicely paced footsteps. The corner of his eyes drifted to Nalan Yanran beside him whose footsteps were quite elegant as she walked. He hesitated a moment. Then his Spiritual Strength was suddenly slowly extended out of his body and shrouded around her, wanting to test if he could probe her true strength. Although Yao Lao had said that there was something on Nalan Yanran which prevented the probing using Spiritual Strength, Xiao Yan still wanted to personally confirm it.

Xiao Yan’s Spiritual Strength lingered around Nalan Yanran’s body. A long while later, he sighed quietly in his heart. From his senses, the surface of her body appeared to be covered by a layer of energy film which completely isolated the probing Spiritual Strength.

After slowly withdrawing his Spiritual Strength, Xiao Yan’s eyebrow suddenly twitched slightly. He turned his head over and eyed Nalan Yanran who was calmly looking at him. His fist under his sleeves tightened slightly as he said in a faint voice, “What happened?”

“Mister Yan Xiao appears to be very concerned about my strength?” Nalan Yanran stared at Xiao Yan and smiled and said with a deeper meaning, “Although I am not an alchemist. I was naturally born to be extremely sensitive to Spiritual Strength...”

“I have long heard that the eldest miss of the Nalan clan is a strong competitor for the next Misty Cloud Sect Leader. Therefore, my hand became itchy and could not resist wanting to probe. It’s really unexpected that I was discovered despite being so careful. You have my admiration.” Xiao Yan helplessly shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he said.

“Ke ke, is that so?”

As Nalan Yanran smiled, her pretty eyes stared intently at that ordinary looking face. For some unknown reason, her heart seemed to have a strange faint feeling. However, she was unable to grasp what exactly this strange feeling was. For the moment, she knit her eyebrows into a little knot.

=

“We’ve arrived. Nalan xiao-jie need not see me off further. I will go back by myself. Goodbye.” As Xiao Yan walked out of the door, he tilted his head toward Nalan Yanran who had her eyebrows knit. He cupped his hands together and shook it toward her. Without waiting for her reply, he walked out of the main door by himself and into the street where people came and went.

“This fellow is really a very proud, arrogant and strange person...” Staring at the back which was appearing and disappearing in the human flow, Nalan Yanran shook her head slightly and helplessly whispered. Immediately, she turned her body around and entered the Nalan clan’s mansion.