Rest In A Demon’s Embrace

Luo Xiao went home to the house and spent the following days reading up on the scrolls he had been given.

To become an alchemist was not as simple as he had expected. First one needed to be an apothecary. One needed to be able to create medicinal liquids and pastes, and these were already rather difficult to concoct.

The apothecaries were split between beginner, advanced, and master apothecaries, and depending on the rank one had, one could make more effective slaves and pastes.

As an apothecary, one had to build a steady base for being an alchemist. One had to learn about the herbs and the different medicinal properties of various resources.

At the same time, when one had amassed enough knowledge about the herbs and resources, and when one had become a master ranked apothecary, then one could attempt to break through to become an alchemist.

Alchemists were different from apothecaries. They needed to refine their ingredients with fire, they had to control and fuse medicinal properties together, and it requires much more than what an apothecary was capable of. Hence it was hard to become an alchemist.

As an alchemist, there was also different ranks one could have. First were beginner, then came advanced, master and grandmaster.

When one was a grandmaster and below, then one's fire was white. Following after the grandmaster rank was the Rainbow Alchemists.

These were revered amongst everyone in the entire continent and immensely rare. They were named after the colors of their flames.

The lowest-ranked Rainbow Alchemist was a Red Rainbow Alchemist, named as such because his flame was red.

Following red came orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

A Violet Rainbow Alchemist was something that was not even seen once in a millennium; it was simply too hard to become a Violet Rainbow Alchemist.

Even Overseer Zhu, who was revered across the entire continent, was only a blue rainbow alchemist.

Luo Xiao had seen Overseer Zhu make pills before. He was unaware that the blue flame he had seen was the proof of his rank, but after reading up on the differences between the different grades, he had a newfound respect for his master.

The days went by slowly. Luo Xiao was busy cultivating, training the different techniques hat Jiang Yao had given him, and studying the material Overseer Zhu had given him.

The days went by one after another. The minions of the fourth prince were still trying to find him, but because he was either in the Essence Tower, at home, or in Overseer Zhu's pill room, it was hard for them to find him, and thus they had no other option than to continue looking for him.

It was not only the men of the fourth prince who was looking for Luo Xiao, but Jiang Bai was also looking for him, but since he could not find him, his already foul mood turned worse, and he could not control his anger as he smashed an expensive antique vase.

Luo Xiao was utterly unaware that his business had caused others to be frustrated, but even if he was aware he would have just snorted in disdain.

He did not like the fourth prince, and his men could look for him for all that he cared, and although Jiang Bai was tasked with looking after him, the apparent dislike he had shown had caused Luo Xiao not to want to spend time with him either.

One day, while Luo Xiao had just come out from the herb fields and was on the way back to his house, he encountered Jin Chuan. She seemed as if she had been waiting for him, her gentle smile as always playing on her lips, her stunning appearance making every passer-by take an extra look at her.

When she saw Luo Xiao, her small casual smile widened, and she rushed to him.

"Luo Xiao!" she called out. "I am going to town today. I got something I need to purchase, why don't you come with me? You have been so busy recently, running back and forth from the Essence Tower to the Herb Fields. You never really have time after class to talk with me, and I am starting to feel quite lonely."

Luo Xiao felt somewhat guilty when he heard this. Jin Chuan was his only good friend, and it was true that he had neglected her recently. He had been too busy dealing with his things and had not had the time to spend time with her.

Contemplating for a moment, he nodded his head. "I have nothing going on now, so I can go with you."

He had only planned on going back home to cultivate, so it was not a big deal to skip a single afternoon of practicing.

Hearing his promise to go with her, the joy in Jin Chuan's eyes turned obvious, and she grabbed his hand and dragged him after her. "Let's not waste any more time then!" she exclaimed.

Seeing her eagerness, Luo Xiao could only shake his head and feel that it was quite endearing. He did not have any other friends, so she was really someone he valued greatly.

In the dark, the two shadow guards followed silently. They both knew of Jin Chuan and her relationship with Luo Xiao and had not stopped her when she grabbed his hand, but both of them were dreading when they had to make the report to their master and had to retell this episode.

Previously the two shadow guards would never have thought that Jiang Yao would be someone who could be jealous, but after seeing him recently, they understood that he got jealous over the smallest things when it concerned Luo Xiao.

Sighing, the two had no other option than to rush after Luo Xiao. They dared not leave him alone.

Jin Chuan dragged Luo Xiao from one store to another. They would buy a few things here and there, but mainly she was looking at things, and she was having so much fun just looking around.

At first, Luo Xiao had been quite bored, but after looking around, he found that it was not as annoying as he had thought.

He looked into his storage pouch, which Jiang Yao had given him, and found that there was a fortune worth of gold coins. If there was something that could catch his eyes, he could, without a doubt, buy it.

But Luo Xiao was rather frugal. Although it was possible for him to buy things, he did not wish to squander the wealth that Jiang Yao had spent time to amass, and he truly needed nothing.

The result was that he accompanied Jin Chuan from shop to shop and watched her purchase the things she wanted.

The time went by rather fast, and the two of them found a restaurant to sit down where they ordered some dishes and happily ate while chatting.

Luo Xiao was rather silent most of the time, but he enjoyed listening to Jin Chuan. Somehow the subject came towards the topic of the looming tournament.

"Are you ready for the tournament that his Royal Highness the Emperor will hold at the academy?" Jin Chuan was rather curious.

"I was told about it," Luo Xiao nodded his head. "Jiang Yao gave me some techniques so I will do my very best not to let him down."

Luo Xiao was treating Jin Chuan as a real friend and would not hold back the truth about him and Jiang Yao, neither would he hide his affection for the older demon.

Jin Chuan had been taken by surprise when she saw the adoration in his eyes when he spoke about Jiang Yao, but she quickly understood and smiled gently.

After eating, the two of them got ready to return to the academy. It had already turned dark, and the previously buzzing streets were now almost empty, only a few groups of pedestrians were walking towards the different drinking and gambling dens.

As soon as they exited the restaurant, Luo Xiao started feeling uncomfortable. It was as if hundreds of eyes were praying on him in the shadows, and he could not help but feel the fine hairs on his arms stand on end.

"You feel it too?" Jin Chuan asked with a hushed voice, her brows furrowed as she felt worried about who might have come out in such numbers.

Luo Xiao nodded his head and was on high alert. Although Jiang Yao had left his shadow guards around him, would these two be able to take on the mob that was currently eying them?

"Let us hurry," Jin Chuan said with a frown, her face looking slightly pale. She grabbed Luo Xiao's arm and started running through the main streets, but suddenly she came to a standstill.

In front of them was a group of people, all of them were looking menacing at the two of them, their eyes were lascivious as they observed the figure of Jin Chuan, and a bit disdainful as they looked at Luo Xiao.

As they stopped, Luo Xiao looked around them only to find that there was also a group of people behind them, and on both sides. In total it seemed that there were a full twenty-five Qi cultivators present, their bodies bulging with muscles and the air fluctuating from the unreleased energy that was pulsating through their bodies.

"Hey you, kid," one of them called out as they looked at Luo Xiao. "I am here on behalf of the fourth demon prince to invite you to his mansion for a discussion."

Although it sounded fancy, it was obviously not an invitation, but a kidnapping attempt and Luo Xiao's eyes turned cold and hard.

"And if I refuse?" he asked, his usually calm and gentle voice was now icily cold and emotionless.

"If you refuse we will invite you with force." The man snickered as if he did not care about what futile resistance that he might put up.

"I guess no one told you that I am not alone?" Luo Xiao asked, his voice still cold and emotionless but his eyes were shining with cunningness.

"Well, we can see that you have a beauty with you," the man said and laughed as his eyes roamed over her figure. "She is indeed not bad, so we will make sure to take good care of her."

Luo Xiao felt much more repulsed when hearing his words, and he suddenly spoke up, "Why are you not moving yet?"

The previous speaker, the leader of the opposing group, thought it was him that he referred to, and he was slightly stumped for words, yet before he had the time to say anything, two black streaks of light appeared and charged at his men.

Before he realized what had happened, three of the men had their heads looped off, and blood stood like a fountain from their throats.

The man narrowed his eyes as he observed how the two black streaks of light came to a standstill; their bodies shrouded in black clothes and cloaked in shadows.

Daggers were present in their hands, small masks were covering their nose and mouth, only their eyes and long black hair could be seen, the eyes devoid of any emotions, yet a killing intent was rising from their bodies as they observed the mob of thugs that the fourth prince had sent them.

These two shadow guards were trained and had walked down a path of blood and carnage. Facing off against numerous enemies was not something foreign to them, and their eyes quickly landed on the leader.

The guy who had taken on the task of kidnapping Luo Xiao was suddenly pale. His entire body was trembling, and he wanted to beg for forgiveness.

When he saw these two people, he suddenly understood why the fouth demon prince put so much focus on this Luo Xiao.

It was not because of the boy himself; it was simply because he was protected by the seventh demon prince, to the point where he even sent out his own shadow guards to protect him.