Battle Through the Heavens: Starting with Cao Ying as an apprentice

My stomach started growling, and to make matters worse, my mouth started watering again.

Zi Yan suddenly raised her hand to wipe the water stains from the corner of her mouth, and two small flames suddenly ignited in her eyes.

"No! Absolutely not!" She stood up abruptly, her back straight despite her aching body.

"I've already suffered so much; if I go back empty-handed now, wouldn't that be a huge joke?"

She grew angrier the more she thought about it, her little fists clenched tightly: "More importantly, if word gets out about what happened today—"

How would those guys in the inner courtyard who she beat up and stole medicinal herbs from laugh at her?

What kind of mocking expressions will the elders, who are being chased all over the courtyard by her, make?

"I am the mighty little tyrant of the inner courtyard!" Zi Yan took a deep breath, her voice exceptionally clear in the night.

"Besides Old Man Su, who else can control me? Everyone else avoids me. Now that I've suffered such a great loss, if I back down, how will I ever be able to maintain my position in the inner courtyard?"

She raised her hand to wipe her face, her eyes sharpening again as she stared intently at the still-floating pill beneath the old locust tree.

The moonlight shone on the elixir, giving it a cool, silvery glow that was breathtakingly beautiful.

"I—Zi—Yan—" she said, enunciating each word with extreme emphasis: "Today I'm going to eat you up!"

Behind the artificial hill, the little golden retriever poked half its head out, its golden eyes gleaming in the darkness.

Seeing Ziyan regain her spirits, it tilted its head, a look of almost "gratified" on its face, and its tail unconsciously began to wag gently.

But the next second, it human-like curled its lip and said disdainfully:

[Oh ho, now that the sun's out and the rain's stopped, you think you're all that anymore?]

[Are we still going to rush towards the elixirs?]

[Sigh, looks like it hasn't had enough of its master's beatings.]

The golden retriever scratched its ear, looking puzzled.

Judging from her appearance, she should be much older than me, so why does she look so silly? Are all the magical beasts outside... so dim-witted?

Just then, Zi Yan began a new round of attempts.

Having learned from her previous experience, she did not jump rashly again. Instead, she carefully circled around to the exact spot beneath the pill and looked up to estimate the distance.

"This time it will definitely work..." she murmured to herself, bending her knees slightly, preparing to jump vertically from directly below—that way, no matter how the pill shifted sideways, she could adjust its direction in time.

"I, I absolutely, definitely get it..."

"what--!"

Before she could finish speaking, a rope net suddenly sprang up from the ground beneath her feet! The rough hemp rope wrapped around her ankles like a serpent, and a tremendous force pulled her upside down into the air!

"Splash—"

Zi Yan dangled helplessly in the air like a fish on a hook. What devastated her even more was that the rope net was lifting her to the same height as the pill.

The two were no more than three feet apart.

The elixir floated silently, shimmering with golden light, and exuded a fragrant aroma.

She stretched out her hand, her fingertips only an inch away from the pill.

"No, I can't give up..." Zi Yan gritted her teeth and began to struggle her body.

The rope swayed, and she swung in an arc through the air, her fingertips almost touching the smooth surface of the pill with each forward swing—

But it was just a little bit short.

A little bit.

"I can do it... I'm just a little bit more... just a little bit more..."

Zi Yan's voice drifted in the night wind, carrying resentment and stubbornness.

She swung up and down again, her fingertips brushing against the elixir. The moonlight stretched her shadow, casting it on the bluestone slabs, like an absurd yet persistent shadow play.

The pill remained suspended in its original spot, emitting an alluring light and fragrance.

It's as if they're quietly waiting, waiting for the next moment when they think they're "just a little bit away".

Chapter 181 Zi Yan's Tears; Xiao Jin's Pill!

Zi Yan was hanging upside down in mid-air, swinging futilely like a fish that had been caught.

She gritted her teeth and swayed her body again and again, her fingertips brushing past the tempting pill, but always just a little bit short.

Just as she was panting heavily and preparing to gather her strength again, a childish yet precocious voice suddenly came from under the tree:

Hey! You up in the tree!

Zi Yan suddenly stopped and looked down.

Under the moonlight, a small lion with golden fur was crouching beside the roots of an old locust tree.

It was small, about the size of an ordinary house cat, its fur shimmering softly in the moonlight, and its golden eyes were staring at her intently.

What's even more peculiar is that the moment Zi Yan saw the little lion, she felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity—a natural affinity stemming from the depths of her bloodline for a fellow high-level magical beast.

"Is that you speaking, little lion?" Zi Yan asked in surprise, temporarily forgetting her embarrassment.

The golden retriever flicked its tail, its tone tinged with helplessness: "Who else is here besides the two of us?"

It strolled around slowly for a couple of steps, then settled into a more comfortable position and looked up at Zi Yan, who was hanging in the air, with an expression as if it were looking at something interesting.

Zi Yan's eyes darted around, and she immediately put on a fawning smile: "Hey, little lion, please be kind and put me down, okay? Once I get that pill, I'll share half with you!"

She assumed the little guy was after the pills, since the aroma of the pills was fatally attractive to magical beasts.

"No." The little golden retriever shook its head without even thinking.

Zi Yan was taken aback, then gritted her teeth: "Then... a 40/60 split! I'll take 40, you take 60! Is that alright?"

"No." It was still a straightforward refusal.

"Three times seven! I get three times, you get seven! This is the absolute limit!" Zi Yan was so anxious that she swayed in the air.

"If it's any less, then all my work will have been for nothing!"

The little golden retriever yawned and said lazily, "No. That's the Butterfly Mistress's elixir; I can't touch it."

It paused, then added, "Besides, I usually eat fourth or fifth-grade pills. When Master becomes more powerful, I can eat pills of this level as my main food. There's no need to lose the big picture for small gains."

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Zi Yan's head.

When she first heard "Mistress of the Butterfly," her heart sank—as expected, this little lion was part of Su Baichen's group! But the next sentence left her completely dumbfounded.

"Four or five grades! Eat it like rice!"

Zi Yan's voice was trembling, and each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth.

She stared wide-eyed at the leisurely little lion under the tree, her face filled with disbelief.

"Wow...wow...wow, this is a tycoon!" she finally managed to utter, her tone a mixture of shock, envy, and a hint of sour jealousy.

Upon hearing this, the little golden retriever proudly raised its head and wagged its tail smugly: "That's right, my owner is so good to me. And to make me happy, my owner has specially researched many different flavors."

As it spoke, it raised its front paw, revealing an exquisite silver storage ring—the ring appeared exceptionally small on its paw.

With a gentle touch of its paw, a small white jade bottle appeared out of thin air between its paws.

With a "pop," the cork popped open.

The little golden retriever tilted the bottle, and a round, blue pill rolled out. It caught it in its mouth, chewed it a couple of times, but then frowned.

"Hmm? The midnight snack wasn't very good tonight. I'll have to talk to Master about it tomorrow."

It casually tossed the jade bottle aside—that was a jade bottle that could hold five grade four pills! It just carelessly discarded it in the grass.

Then, it took out another emerald green jade bottle from its storage ring, poured out a crimson pill, and elegantly put it into its mouth. This time, it squinted its eyes in satisfaction, making a comfortable gurgling sound in its throat.

"Hmm, this tastes good. I want to have this for breakfast tomorrow."

At this moment, Zi Yan's eyes were wide open and her mouth was agape enough to fit an egg.

She hung upside down in the air, drool already uncontrollably dripping from the corner of her mouth, forming a shimmering thin line in the moonlight.

"Late-night snack?!"

"The taste...it's bad?!"

"You...you're having breakfast again tomorrow?!"

With Zi Yan's nose, which is that of a "culinary connoisseur," she could tell at a sniff that the two pills that the little lion had eaten as snacks were genuine fourth-grade pills!

Moreover, judging from its color and fragrance, its quality is absolutely top-notch!

Zi Yan's heart was in turmoil.

She thought about the kind of life she had lived all these years—

Every day they gnawed on those bitter and hard-to-swallow raw medicinal herbs; even fourth or fifth grade spiritual herbs were considered a feast.

To find food, she had to traverse mountains and valleys, compete with other magical beasts for territory, and sometimes even sneak into the inner courtyard's herb garden.

They endured wind and sun, hunger and cold, risking their lives for a meager living.

The results of it?

Someone's pet casually pulls out a bottle of Grade 4 pills! And when it eats them, it's picky, complaining that this one doesn't taste good enough, that one isn't fragrant enough!

This isn't eating elixirs; it's eating candy!

And this is just a late-night snack! If late-night snacks are this extravagant, how luxurious must the three daily meals be?

The more Zi Yan thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. Her nose stung, and tears streamed down her face. Tears mixed with saliva, tracing two pitiful arcs in the air.

"Good heavens, look at this kind of treatment!"

She couldn't help but cry out to the night sky: "Every day I eat those bitter fourth and fifth grade medicinal herbs, and I have to go to the mountains to find them myself. I'm running around every day just to have food!"

"And what happened? Someone else's pet was giving out fourth-grade pills, bottle after bottle! They were eating them like candy! And that was just a midnight snack! Including midnight snacks, that's four meals a day! And every meal was this standard!"

"I...I...I'm so heartbroken—"

"Waaaaahh ...

Zi Yan cried her heart out, tears streaming down her face and drool involuntarily. She looked just like a three-year-old child whose candy had been snatched away.