The scene surrounding Tian Mingyun was too gruesome for a child's mind to handle. It was one thing to walk through a razed city with the occasional corpse and sick person around him, but it was something entirely else to stand atop a pile of dead and sickly bodies, with gruesome scenes of drying beasts and men taking place all around him.

Tian Mingyun's mind was crumbling under the pressure each time his senses picked up another fragment of this horrid tapestry. He smelled pus and rotten flesh and wanted to throw up. He saw flies enter through a dead man's eye socket and exit out of his mouth. He felt maggots crawling up his legs. Worst of all, he could hear the pleas of those who were still alive, echoing as if one voice.

"Kill me... Kill me... Save me... The pain... It hurts..."

Tian Mingyun was hyperventilating now, his one breath failing to catch the next as he kept getting dizzier and dizzier. He froze in place while doing his best not to faint, remaining still for longer than he felt comfortable with in a place like this. Only moving when his thoughts started flowing back into his mind.

"Calm. Calm down, Tian Mingyun. You just need to put one foot ahead of the other, you can get out." He thought to himself.

The way that he stopped himself from running as fast as he could out of fear was uncanny. A child, only 10 years old, was moving slowly atop the bodies while his hands and feet shook and his eyes overflowed with tears. He was not closing his eyes to avoid the horrible scenes around him, he was instead looking around in order to avoid being part of such a place.

He knew that he had to use everything he could in order to get out of this place. The way up the hill was slick with thick oil and would not be possible to climb. He looked around, seeing a dead soldier with a bent helmet on his head. He knew that such a helmet would prove useful, at least as a blunt weapon to hit something with, so he reached over to take the helmet.

Ah Dan was a man of humble origins. Even his surname meant small, and he was born shorter than most just like his parents, who were also cousins. He had trained hard to become a low ranking soldier and wanted to make a name for himself during the defensive siege against the Azure Whale County's army, he had died instantly after a Peak Skin Refinement Realm enemy soldier threw a stone at him from in front of the walls.

The bent helm was difficult for Tian Mingyun to pry off, the bent part of the helmet had clearly caved in the skull. Tian Mingyun had to use his shiv to cut open the dead man's eye in order to kick the loose skull fragments out of the socket. When he finally got the helmet in his hands, he noticed that it was surprisingly clean on the inside. There was no blood or rotten skin within, so he placed the helmet atop his back and tied the slim black rope of the helmet around his shoulders to keep it from falling.

Tian Mingyun felt horrible. He had scavenged before, but he had never harmed the dead body of another human. He felt a natural moral guilt gnaw at his heart, but all guilt would fade in front of fear. He nearly leaped out of his own skin when he heard a beast's cry down the mound of dead bodies. He quickly rushed over to the edge to see if there was a way out.

Sure enough, there was a small opening between the rocks right where the beast noise was coming from. A hole too small for an adult man to pass through was currently being blocked by a skinny and sickly looking horse. Clearly, that horse had become desperate and tried to leave this place as well, but only managed to mangle its neck and break its front legs by forcefully squeezing its huge body into such a small hole. The horse was now screaming and making weird noises, clearly having gone insane from the pain of its injuries.

Tian Mingyun's guilt had been washed away by fear earlier, and now the fear was being washed away by hope. Tian Mingyun could leave this wretched place! He could yet live! He ignored the shivers the screams of the horse were giving it and fearlessly jumped on its mangled neck, stabbing it randomly with his shiv like a madman.

The shiv was only as long as the index finger of an adult man, and it had a shabby handle. It was not something one could use for anything other than cutting knotted rope, which was its intended use. However, Tian Mingyun was now stabbing the beast with that shoddy shiv thanks to his body pulling every bit of strength it had stored. This horrible place, this dungeon of flesh and blood, Tian Mingyun's body wished to escape it with every cell of its being. The already dying horse had perished after the 6th stab, but Tian Mingyun only stopped after the 48th.

He was breathless, but he kept moving. He picked up the helmet and started stuffing it with whatever leather pieces he could find from around him. He was not only stealing from the dead but even cutting off the vests and pouches of the still living. He did not even look into their eyes as they begged him for help. His mind was constantly repeating to him what he had to do.

"Get the horse blood and leave. Leave this place. Get the horse blood. I need to run away. I need to get back to my tree. I need to leave."

As Titan Mingyun filled the helmet, which was shoddily made into a leather and iron bowl, with horse blood, he noticed how much his hands and feet were shaking. He would probably faint if he remained here any longer. He did not bother wiping his tears as he crawled out of the small hole, not caring one bit about how many small cuts the protruding rocks were delivering on his small body.

As soon as he left the hole, he walked with calm and slow steps all the way to his tree. He put the helmet, the shiv, and the needle away. He then threw all of his clothes into a small fire and then finally followed his instincts. His body was screaming at him ever since he left that horrid place to do this, and now he could finally obey.

Tian Mingyun ran, with all his might, no longer forcing himself to calmly walk since he had to carry the horse blood back home. He ran so fast and carelessly that his bare feet slapped the paved streets of the ruined city like a loud clap.

Tian Mingyun had seen it 2 years ago and made sure to remember it. An innkeeper had poured something out from a bowl onto his own wounded arm while saying something to one of his friends.

"Aiya... It hurts like hell! Damn! But it cleans you up real good when you have an open wound. I would rather even burn it with a hot iron rather than let a fly lay its eggs in my wound!"

Tian Mingyun remembered where that inn was, everyone had taken the drinkable alcohol already but the color of the clay bottle in the innkeeper's hand that night was pure white, it was not like a liquor bottle at all. Those bottles were still there, there were even big clay pots of the same color. Whatever was inside, Tian Mingyun knew that it would finally clean him up. He had been ignoring the maggots crawling into his wounds for hours now. He was willing and ready to even burn himself to get rid of this disgusting and itchy feeling if he could not find those bottles and pots there.

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The moment Tian Mingyun found the white clay pots, he opened the lid of one and jumped in without a second thought. As soon as he got in, he felt as though he was set ablaze. All of his open wounds were now made clear to him, the pain itself from each of them being cleansed by high purity alcohol was intense enough to make him wish he was dead after all. But, he did not jump out despite the pain, his small body simply sunk to the bottom of the pot motionlessly as his eyes saw the worms, bugs, and eggs float out of his wounds.

He wanted to wait there more, but he noticed that he was getting dizzy despite holding his breath. He then jumped out and threw himself on the floor. He was shivering like a leaf, but at least now he was sure his wounds were clean, though he was bleeding worse than before.

"False Yuan Fungus... Needle... Charcoal... Cauldron..." He recited the recipe in his mind as he crawled away. He was dragging himself back to his den while still drenched in alcohol and slowly bleeding out.

This was fine, he tried to convince his fading mind, he could heal if he simply made it back home. He had many injuries, but surely they would all count as small ones, the kind that the Cauldron Fever recipe could heal.

"If I can get home, I can talk again too... I can stop being called a cripple..." As he thought of that, he managed to muster the power to stand up. He walked step, by painful step, back to his lightning struck tree. He quickly started the fire and placed the materials into the cauldron.

He was running out of time. He had to finish making the recipe before he passed out. He quickly dipped the needle into the flame, luckily the alcohol on his body had evaporated by now.

The recipe said that the needle would be cleansed by the flames first. He decided that the needle was fine to use when it burned his fingers while holding, failing to notice how numb he was at this point and that his fingertips were basically cooking.

He then started poking holes into his body. He had studied it so many times, but in this state, it took his everything just to remember where his acupoints were. The holes were each a full needle's length in depth, blood was pouring out of some of them but the others simply made him feel like ants were walking on his skin.

The 27 acupoints required for using the Cauldron Fever recipe were ones targeting the Yang energy flowing into the Dantian and formed an incomplete circle. 3 more holes would make it complete, and the book clearly stated those who are crippled were to receive those three holes around the place they required the most healing.

Tian Mingyun stabbed the need into the underside of his neck without hesitation or shaking. These 3 points were meant for healing the vocal cords, which he had practiced them 340 times. He could do it perfectly even if he were to become blind.

Now, was the application. Tian Mingyun started taking deep breaths as the book described, trying to rotate his circulation in a certain manner. He did not have any energy to speak of yet, but he had to already start trying.

He then sat down in front of the iron cauldron, maintaining a perfect lotus position meditation despite his injured and drunk state. He then took one final deep breath before tipping the iron cauldron on his own body, with its blazing hot contents covering his entire body. The molten pine resin quickly hardened around him and quickly sealed his small body in a hellish hot coffin made of scalding venom.

The Venom of Ascension mentioned minor Poison Arts within, but it was primarily a Venom Arts Cultivation book. This recipe was never meant to simply be drunk. This was its intended use, if poured over any mortal without the proper circulation instructions given, acupoint holes opened or injuries accumulated, it would give one a death worse than most other methods.

Yet, Tian Mingyun was calm, still meditating. He did not ignore the burning pain, he simply allowed it to circulate in his body. This heat was the energy of the Fire Qi, Yuan Qi. The holes allowed it to enter his body and gave him a clear road to channel it through.

Under the resin shell made of venom, one small boy was constantly cycling Yuan Qi. The heat inside only seemed to increase as well. It was not being spent in the least.

The healing method of the Cauldron Fever recipe was simple. Yuan Qi, however impure and miniscule, would be provided by the False Yuan Fungus, and it would trigger a healing response in the body. The body, when healing, released heat. This was a well understood concept among Healing, Poison, and Venom Arts. As such, this heat was also Yuan Qi.

However, a mortal body was a furnace fueled by food. As such, the False Yuan Fungus sealed by the resin surrounding the body was quickly digested by the body. Many Healing Arts experts knew this, a half-dead man with no mouth could still be fed sugar water from the veins. Some of these acupoint holes were opening to the blood vessels for this very reason.

Yuan Qi triggered the healing process, the healing process produced more Yuan Qi and it fed into itself to accelerate the cycle. This would go on until one either ran out of injuries, and as such the holes would finally heal and stop the reaction, or until one ran out of False Yuan Fungus in the resin.

Tian Mingyun's injuries were many. As such, the heat kept rising. He tried to focus only on his circulation, but that was becoming harder and harder as he could feel even his tears and sweat turning into steam. Just as he thought the healing was finally done, he felt the heat jump up by a notch around his neck, his vocal cords were only now starting to heal.

He focused once more. He could not lose focus now, not when he was finally getting his wish. He channeled all of the Yuan Qi he could away from the holes, preventing their healing and stopping the reaction from halting. Yet, the heat was an ever present risk.

At this point Tian Mingyun was getting so hot that the resin around him had completely ruined to crystal and was now cracking. The resin could no longer absorb heat off of his body, and the cooking of his organs from the I side would begin soon.

Tian Mingyun could feel it now, he did his best to heal his vocal cords but whether or not he succeeded would be up to fate. He cycled his energy close to his acupoints now, rapidly healing them and ceasing the reaction. Yet, his troubles did not end.

The Yuan Qi in his body was meant to dissipate into his blood, but he only now noticed that over the course of the last day, he had not only lost half his blood but did not even drink a drop of water to replace the missing fluid. He could feel the Yuan Qi's circulation slowly going out of his control.

He would die. Not only would he die, it would be a horrible death. He would burn and heal inside this resin crystal coffin until he dried his body completely and everything but his bones would turn to dust in his final moments. It would be a horrible death like those poor beasts and men in that pit.

Tian Mingyun remembered the pit, how horrible and hellish it was. That was not a death he could accept. He had crawled out of there by forcing his body to move as his mind screamed, he had not done so just to die here. He finally braced all of the power he had left and channeled the Yuan Qi through his arms. The veins on his arms swelled as though they would burst, and then the Yuan Qi finally shot out as small streaks of intense flames from underneath his fingernails.

The said flame was made of pure Yuan Qi forcing out from the imperceivably small opening between the tip of the fingers and the fingernails. They were hot enough to shatter the resin shell completely and have it turn to fine dust, but those flames also singed the fingernails until they were as black as charcoal.

Tian Mingyun had lived, and although he had experienced more toil than any kid could handle in a year just within the last day, he still had the energy to raise his hands up to the heavens and scream.

"I, TIAN MINGYUN, HAVE LIVED! I LIVE! I LIVE!"

Only then, did Tian Mingyun faint. All his childhood, he had felt that the world had been trying to kill him, but only now did he truly feel alive.