Chapter 197 | Recovery Verification

Chapter 197: 197 | Recovery Verification

By the next morning, the Flying Spiritual Ship had settled deeper into the northern route.

The clouds outside the barrier walls looked thicker than the day before, and the flight arrays along the hull ran with a heavier glow. On the service deck, an official Alchemy Recovery chamber had been opened for the long journey.

Two junior alchemists sat behind a wide table with record jades, sealed bottles, and verification slips arranged in careful order. Disciples formed a loose line, some impatient, some quiet, all aware that travel strain could leave hidden damage in the meridians if left unchecked.

Elder Liu stood at the head of the station.

She wore formal emerald robes and the cold dignity of the Master of Alchemy Peak. To every watching disciple she was only a Core Formation elder performing her duty.

Lin Tian arrived and took his place in the queue.

To the ship, he was now openly a Level 4 Middle Stage cultivator. Disciples in line glanced at him with a mixture of caution and respect, yet none spoke. The memory of that pressure wave still sat heavy in their chests.

When his turn came, a junior alchemist looked up from the record jade. "Name and token."

"Lin Tian."

He placed his participant jade token on the plate. The formation light confirmed it.

The junior alchemist began the standard questions. "Any uncontrolled meridian pain since boarding? Any private pill use outside assigned supply? Any signs of cultivation backlash after recent spars?"

"No."

The junior nodded and started writing. Before he could finish, Elder Liu stepped forward.

"I will take the detailed verification," she said.

Her voice was calm and impersonal. The junior alchemist immediately rose and moved aside. Her authority silenced every question. On a travel ship, a 4-Star Alchemist’s decision over recovery protocol was final.

Elder Liu glanced at the token once more, then at Lin Tian. "Follow me."

She led him past the open table toward a restricted side room behind the station. The door seals activated as they entered, cutting the noise of the deck away. Spirit lamps brightened along the walls. The air inside carried the clean bitterness of refined herbs and the faint warmth of controlled flame.

Only then did the distance between them change.

In the sealed room, Elder Liu’s public coldness thinned. Her eyes moved over him with a more personal weight, careful and restrained. The Irresistible Yang Scent around Lin Tian touched her senses at once. Deep in her body, the Verdant Flame responded with a familiar pull, warm and steady. She had already been cured of her old toxicity. What remained was attachment, not desperation.

"Sit," she said.

Lin Tian sat on the inspection chair.

Elder Liu took his wrist with formal precision, two fingers resting against his pulse under the cover of medical examination. The contact was brief and professional in shape, yet neither of them treated it as empty. Her flame resonated quietly at the nearness of his Yang presence. For a moment her breathing softened before she brought it back under control.

"Your foundation feels stable," she said in a low voice. "No travel damage. No disorder in the main meridians."

"I have been careful."

"Good." Her fingers remained on his wrist a second longer than necessary, then released him. "This ship is not the sect. Too many eyes. Too little room. Keep your true state locked tight. Give no one a reason to demand a deeper inspection."

Lin Tian met her gaze. "Understood."

Elder Liu turned to a sealed case on the side shelf and opened it with her own mark. From inside she took two small jade bottles and a thin folded slip. She placed them on the table between them.

"Top-grade recovery pills," she said. "Use them only if you are forced into repeated combat before docking. They will stabilize blood loss and meridian strain quickly."

Lin Tian accepted the bottles without ceremony.

She tapped the folded slip once. "There is also a short note on rival support. Two northern sect groups are traveling with strong alchemy teams. If you are injured in early rounds, refuse unidentified recovery pills from outside. Some formulas carry delayed suppression poison."

That was practical help, not empty affection. Coming from the Master of Alchemy Peak, it carried real majesty.

"You are taking a risk giving me this here," Lin Tian said.

Elder Liu’s eyes lowered slightly. "The risk is manageable if the cover remains clean. Outside that door, I am only verifying a representative’s condition. Nothing more."

For a brief moment, the Matriarch’s mask slipped enough to show the woman beneath it. Bound. Certain. Choosing this willingly.

"I will call you only through official channels," she said quietly. "But if duty opens this room again, come."

"I will."

She drew a verification jade slip forward, wrote her clearance mark, and pressed the official Alchemy Peak seal into it. By the time the seal light faded, her expression had already returned to cold professionalism.

"Verification complete," she said, louder now, as if rehearsing the public tone before reopening the door. "No travel injury. Cleared for continued route activity."

Lin Tian stood and stored the bottles and slip.

Elder Liu walked him to the door, paused with her hand above the seal release, and looked at him one last time in private. Hunger lived in that look, controlled and deeply rooted, yet she held herself in check. On a ship like this, one careless movement could turn devotion into scandal.

The door opened.

Noise from the service deck rushed back in. Junior alchemists continued their records. Disciples in line watched only long enough to see Lin Tian step out with a stamped clearance slip in hand. Whatever had happened inside, the surface remained perfect: a Middle Stage representative had undergone detailed recovery verification under Alchemy Peak authority and been cleared.

Lin Tian returned the token plate acknowledgment to the junior at the front table and left the station.

Behind him, Elder Liu resumed her place at the head of the line. Her emerald robes were immaculate. Her face was distant again. To the ship, she was only the Master of Alchemy Peak managing long-route medical duty.

To Lin Tian, another door had opened.

First Qing had opened a route through conduct inspection, and now Liu was opening another through recovery verification. Both routes were legal, both could be used again, and both remained dangerous if handled without care.

He walked back toward the lower spirit deck with the two jade bottles resting quietly in his storage ring. Around him, disciples continued their ordinary travel talk, unaware that under the cover of stamps, pulse checks, and official seals, the balance on the ship had shifted once more.

The Flying Spiritual Ship pressed farther north.

And with every legitimate route that opened, the closed distance between Lin Tian and the women bound to him grew harder to protect, and harder to ignore.

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