Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 2: An Alchemy Accident
After that night, Ye Liuyun suddenly seemed to change completely.
The boy who once could never sit still almost stopped going out altogether.
He stayed locked inside his room every day, rarely stepping beyond the front gate or even the inner courtyard. Even Lin Aoxue could hardly see him anymore.
Moreover, he began constantly tinkering with medicinal herbs, as though he had suddenly fallen in love with alchemy. He had his family purchase large quantities of different herbs, leaving the Ye family utterly confused.
However, as the only son of the Ye family, his status at home was probably even higher than that of the old master himself. Whatever he wanted, he received.
When he refined Elixir, he often muttered to himself, as though speaking to someone. No one knew who he was talking to, but judging from his expression, he seemed rather happy.
At least it was much better than his previous habit of wearing a gloomy expression all day long.
This kind of life continued for seven years.
That year, Ye Liuyun turned twelve.
One day, a sudden booming sound erupted from Ye Liuyun’s room.
A moment later, a large amount of pink smoke began seeping out from inside the room. For some reason, the smoke gave off a rather suspicious feeling.
“Cough, cough, cough… damn it! What just happened? Old hag, is your alchemy technique actually reliable? Why did the furnace suddenly explode?”
The door burst open, and a very delicate-looking youth dressed in male clothing ran out while cursing loudly.
However, it was unclear who exactly this “old hag” was directed at.
The person who looked almost like a young girl was actually twelve-year-old Ye Liuyun. But somehow, over the past few years, he had grown increasingly delicate in appearance.
“That shouldn’t be possible. I observed your alchemy for quite some time just now. There shouldn’t have been any problem. Why would the furnace explode?” a voice said.
At that moment, the copper ring on Ye Liuyun’s right finger suddenly lit up.
Soon after, a woman in green robes with white hair and an immortal-like temperament appeared beside him.
In broad daylight, had a ghost appeared? And a female ghost at that?
“Hey, old hag, are you fooling me? You said your alchemy techniques would absolutely never cause a furnace explosion. But didn’t it just explode?” Ye Liuyun complained unhappily.
However, halfway through his complaint, he suddenly froze.
Something felt wrong with his throat. It felt as if something was stuck inside it. The sound of his voice was… strange.
“Ahem… wait, what is going on with my throat? Old hag, doesn’t my voice sound a little weird?” Ye Liuyun felt that something was definitely off.
The mysterious woman looked at Ye Liuyun, and her gaze suddenly trembled slightly.
It seemed she had discovered something… not quite right.
Seeing her remain silent while her expression grew increasingly strange, Ye Liuyun instinctively reached down between his legs.
“Huh? This… what is going on?”
His face changed dramatically as a terrible premonition surged through him.
He instinctively looked toward the woman, who returned his gaze with a somewhat sympathetic expression.
That expression made Ye Liuyun even more uneasy.
“Fourth Young Master, what happened? Is everything alright?”
At that moment, a group of servants rushed over.
Before they could even enter the courtyard, Ye Liuyun shouted angrily. He was in an extremely bad mood.
“Get lost! Who told you to come here?”
At his furious shout, the servants awkwardly laughed before retreating.
Once the smoke in the room had cleared, Ye Liuyun returned inside with a dark expression and quickly shut the door.
“Old hag, you’ve ruined me. What exactly happened?” Ye Liuyun asked, forcing himself to suppress the panic in his heart.
Something major had clearly happened to his body.
“Hmm… perhaps the alchemy did not fail but actually succeeded. You accidentally absorbed the medicinal effects, causing your body to undergo a mutation. I think you should examine yourself carefully,” the mysterious woman said somewhat awkwardly.
Upon hearing this, Ye Liuyun hurried back into the room. He removed his clothes and checked himself in the mirror.
The moment he looked, he was completely stunned.
“Heavens… how did I become like this?”
The body reflected in the mirror was not that of a boy at all.
It was the body of a young girl who had just begun developing.
In other words, Ye Liuyun had refined some unknown Elixir and ended up turning himself into a woman.
This joke had gone far beyond ridiculous.
As for the woman with silver hair and green robes, her origins were far from ordinary.
She claimed to be an immortal from the Immortal Realm named Lin Qingyou.
During a battle against enemies in the Immortal Realm, she had nearly died. Only a fragment of her soul had survived, attaching itself to the copper ring and falling into the Human Realm—where Ye Liuyun eventually picked it up.
Because of her guidance, Ye Liuyun had begun studying alchemy.
Lin Qingyou had told him that his natural aptitude was extremely poor and that he could not cultivate immortality. However, if he followed her advice and walked the path of alchemy, he might one day become an Immortal of Alchemy.
That night when Ye Liuyun first saw her, she had nearly scared him to death. After all, who would not be frightened to see someone suddenly appear beside their bed in the middle of the night?
Now it was certain—Ye Liuyun’s body had truly transformed into that of a female.
“Damn it. No, I have to figure out a way to refine an antidote,” Ye Liuyun said as he quickly put his clothes back on and began checking the ingredients he had just used.
If he wanted to create an antidote, he first needed to determine the exact formula.
Unfortunately, even after he reconstructed the formula and tried reversing it to create a cure, the result remained the same.
His body did not revert.
Ye Liuyun nearly went insane.
He spent several sleepless days experimenting day and night before finally giving up.
It felt as though Heaven itself was playing a cruel joke on him.
A few days later, Ye Liuyun lay weakly on his bed.
“It’s over… I can’t change back. Old hag, you’ve ruined me. I hate you. Did you do this on purpose just to disgust me?” Ye Liuyun muttered miserably.
“Hey now, hehe… kid, you cannot blame this on me,” Lin Qingyou said awkwardly with a laugh. “You were the one who mixed those herbs randomly out of boredom. Since things have already reached this point, do not dwell on it too much. So what if you turned into a woman? It is a small matter, a small matter. Besides, you successfully cultivated the technique, didn’t you?”
“What good is that? I’ve turned into a woman, and you’re telling me not to worry? What if my family finds out?” Ye Liuyun said with a twitching mouth.
On the second day after accidentally turning himself into a woman through alchemy, he had successfully cultivated the mysterious technique Lin Qingyou had taught him.
“Do not worry. With me here, no one will discover anything,” Lin Qingyou said seriously.
Ye Liuyun felt like he was going mad. His future suddenly seemed completely dark.
“Liuyun! Liuyun! What are you doing? Come out and play with me! Stop messing with those bottles and jars all day!”
Just as Ye Liuyun was clutching his head in frustration, a girl’s voice called from outside the door.
Standing outside was a beautiful young girl dressed in a white dress and carrying a sword.
There was no need to guess.
It was Ye Liuyun’s fiancée—Lin Aoxue.
Ye Liuyun’s expression immediately changed.
The person he feared seeing the most right now was Lin Aoxue. If she discovered that he had turned into a woman, it would be disastrous.
“I’m busy. Go play by yourself,” Ye Liuyun replied.
However, Lin Aoxue was no longer the same girl she had been years ago.
The Lin family had built its reputation through martial prowess, so their children began training in martial arts from a young age.
Lin Aoxue was a martial arts prodigy.
At just twelve years old, she was already no weaker than her father.
BANG.
Suddenly, Ye Liuyun’s tightly shut door was kicked open.
Lin Aoxue strode into the room with an imposing presence. Ye Liuyun was startled by her sudden intrusion.
“What the hell? What are you doing now?” Ye Liuyun jumped up from the bed in fright.
“Stop being so annoying. Come with me. We’re going to train,” Lin Aoxue said as she grabbed Ye Liuyun by the collar and dragged him straight out of the room toward the Lin family residence.
“Let go! I’m not going! I don’t like training!” Ye Liuyun struggled.
How was Ye Liuyun supposed to survive the days ahead?
For now, his young age meant the feminization of his body was not particularly obvious.
But once he grew older… who knew what would happen?
Fortunately, with Lin Qingyou’s help, no one discovered the changes in Ye Liuyun’s body.
After all, she was an immortal from the Immortal Realm. Creating a simple illusion to conceal the truth was no difficult task.
However, from that day onward, everything gradually became uncontrollable.
And so another difficult three years passed.
One month before Ye Liuyun and Lin Aoxue were about to turn sixteen and marry, a vast and majestic voice echoed across the skies above Qixia Town.
“Floating Cloud Mountain, Yunxia Sect, opens its mountain gates and widely recruits disciples. All boys and girls under the age of eighteen may travel to Floating Cloud Mountain to register and participate in the entrance examination.”
This was the announcement of a cultivation sect recruiting disciples.
When Ye Liuyun heard the news, his eyes lit up.
Because his opportunity had finally arrived.