The sudden outburst silenced every official and noble of Great Li present. Even the Emperor’s face turned ashen.
To an Immortal Master, mortals were little more than ants. And what happened when ants made demands? The bloodshed that had painted the capital’s skies twenty years ago was answer enough.
Heads bowed. Sweat beaded on brows. Furtive glances darted toward Li Fan.
Yet the voice rang out again, undaunted. “Immortal Master, I beg you, please save my sister!”
Li Fan soon found the source: a boy of perhaps ten or eleven, Su Changyu.
A middle-aged man finally reacted, rushing forward and forcing the boy to his knees.
“Yu’er, what madness is this?!” the man cried, dropping to his own knees and pressing Su Changyu’s head toward the floor in a kowtow. “My son is a fool! I beg your forgiveness, Immortal Master!”
Li Fan remained silent.
Panic seized the nobility. Following the Emperor’s lead, they too dropped to their knees.
Xiao Heng joined them in kowtowing as well. Slowly, he ventured, “Immortal Master, please... save Su Xiaomei.”
A long moment stretched before Li Fan finally spoke in a measured voice. “Very well. Take me to her. But this will be the last such request.”
A collective sigh of relief washed through the mortals.
Truth be told, Li Fan had already intended to examine the mortally ill girl. Yet, appearances mattered; he couldn’t appear too eager. This display of reluctance had been necessary.
After a moment, Li Fan was led to the basement to see Su Xiaomei.
The temperature here was exceedingly low, causing many of the officials who had followed to shiver involuntarily.
On a small jade bed lay a newborn infant whose body appeared intensely feverish.
Piles of ice surrounded the bed, and a maidservant constantly chipped fresh pieces to press against the child’s scalding skin.
Li Fan’s eyes narrowed at the unnatural sight, and he stepped forward.
As his divine sense swept over the infant girl, his expression froze.
“Leave us,” he commanded in a cold voice.
The nobles swiftly retreated, leaving Li Fan alone with the child.
He placed a hand on her fevered brow, channeling an infinitesimally fine thread of spiritual qi into her body. It circulated once and returned to him. As it did, certainty dawned, and shock flashed across his features.
There’s no trace of Immortal-Mortal Miasma within her? And this constitution...? The thread of spiritual qi I sent in was amplified after a single cycle?
He drew the thread back, coalescing it at his fingertip. The spiritual qi now pulsed with a searing heat, feeling utterly different from his own. Yet it was not the consuming fire of Crimson Flame. This was different.
Li Fan analyzed the energy at his fingertip for a long time before reaching a tentative conclusion. A strange look crossed his face.
Heat born of... rage?
He stared down at the slumbering infant, his expression inscrutable.
Can this be... the legendary Innate Immortal Physique? And also Heaven’s Envied?
Having set foot in the cultivation world across two lifetimes, Li Fan was no ignorant novice. He knew a fair bit of common knowledge about the cultivation world.
First, the Innate Immortal Physique.
It was widely known that mortals in the cultivation world were born with Immortal-Mortal Miasma within them. To pursue cultivation, one had to first purge this miasma from their body.
However, when two cultivators conceived a child, there was a certain probability that their offspring would be born without any Immortal-Mortal Miasma.
Such individuals were said to possess an Innate Immortal Physique.
Those with an Innate Immortal Physique possessed an unparalleled affinity for all manner of cultivation techniques and arts. Their natural talent for cultivation was also exceptional.
These two qualities combined meant that not only did those with an Innate Immortal Physique cultivate at terrifying speed, but their techniques also received a natural potency boost when unleashed.
Ordinary cultivators couldn’t compare to them, and they were truly worthy of being called Heaven’s Favored.
In the distant continents, the legends of those forming a Golden Core after just a dozen or so years of cultivation were all forged by those with Innate Immortal Physiques.
Now, for Heaven’s Envied.
In the cultivation world, there existed a category of people born with innate divine abilities.
Some were born with a third eye that could see through falsehoods; others possessed anomalous bones, granting them near-limitless potential and vitality that seems almost inexhaustible. Still others were born with the divine ability to command water, fire, lightning, and the like.
Those born with such innate divine abilities often suffered corresponding envy from heaven, proportional to the power of their divine ability.
From birth, they were plagued by various tribulations.
If they could overcome these tribulations one by one, they would naturally emerge stronger from the ordeal.
But if they couldn’t withstand them, they would die, taking their divine abilities with them to the grave.
This was heaven’s restriction upon such people, and also its test.
Those who possessed innate divine abilities did not necessarily cultivate with exceptional speed. But in combat against others, they were often invincible among those of the same cultivation realm.
Many with powerful innate abilities found killing cultivators of the same realm as easy as slaughtering chickens; some could even fight those a full cultivation realm above them.
Every single one of these individuals had a fearsome reputation and a stellar record of achievements within the cultivation world.
Both constitutions were exceptionally rare, one in countless millions.
And now, what was Li Fan seeing?
These two constitutions actually appeared simultaneously in a single infant!
The complete absence of Immortal-Mortal Miasma within her confirmed that she undoubtedly possessed an Innate Immortal Physique.
Though he didn’t understand how someone with an Innate Immortal Physique, which should only be born from the union of two cultivators, could appear in this minor world teeming with mortals, Li Fan was certain he wasn’t mistaken.
And that power constantly burning within Su Xiaomei should be her innate divine ability.
Li Fan speculated that her constitution was related to the emotion “rage.”
As the fury in her heart grew stronger, her own power would multiply, until the rage completely incinerated both herself and her enemies to ash.
Su Xiaomei’s current state of constant, pervasive heat was likely caused by her innate divine ability running out of control, and being unable to restrain the fury in her heart.
Innate Immortal Physique. Heaven’s Envied. No wonder she faces such a mortal tribulation just moments after birth.
With the inner rage constantly burning her life force, even if she hid in an ice cellar all day, Su Xiaomei would absolutely never live to adulthood.
No wonder Su Changyu was so desperate in that past life. He was even willing to become a test subject himself, just so he could become a cultivator as soon as possible.
In his view, perhaps he could save his sister’s life after becoming a legendary Immortal Master.
Unfortunately, even a Golden Core cultivator might not be able to preserve her life.
As Li Fan looked at Su Xiaomei, the Blue Flame phantom spirit within Li Fan’s consciousness suddenly stirred from its slumber.
Fortunately, she encountered me.
A faint blue figure materialized before Li Fan. It drifted like a wisp of mist, slowly approaching the small form of Su Xiaomei.
A hand reached out, gently resting upon the infant’s head.
Gradually, the searing heat radiating from the baby dissipated.
Her tightly furrowed brow relaxed, and Su Xiaomei smacked her lips softly before slowly turning over.