Chapter 12: A Gift of Pills
The other two small paper figures crawled out from the remains, one on each side, and walked to the middle paper figure. Xiao He had now taken human form and was crouching behind the three paper figures.
“Yan Yan, what is this?”
Xiao He lowered her head, staring at them with a suspicious expression. She wanted to reach out and touch them but didn’t quite dare.
Song Yan shook his head. He had never seen such things either.
“Rustle rustle…”
The paper figures swayed in the mountain night breeze, making the sound of paper rubbing together.
Under Song Yan’s astonished gaze, the three paper figures actually bowed to him with clasped hands, then ran off toward the northwest.
Song Yan’s brows furrowed, and his fingertips formed seals again.
Three nearby fragments of magical artifacts hummed as they rose into the air, shooting toward the three paper figures.
Shhk—
The three fragments pinned each of the three paper figures to the ground.
No screams, no cries for help, no sound whatsoever.
The paper figures seemed to have died just like that, silently.
Suddenly, three streaks of blood light emerged from the paper figures and continued flying toward the northwest. The blood light moved too fast to intercept.
Song Yan furrowed his brows thoughtfully.
It didn’t look like anything proper…
But his realm was low and his knowledge shallow, so he decided not to dwell on it.
He walked straight to the three remains and began examining them.
Of the three, only Lu Xiaowei possessed a Cosmos Bag. The other two could be described as completely destitute, owning only a small bell.
Song Yan directly used his spiritual energy to erase Lu Xiaowei’s Cosmos Bag imprint on the spot.
“So poor.”
Before this, Song Yan had thought he might be one of the poorest cultivators in the world, but compared to these few, he was actually doing quite well.
In total, there were eight spirit stones and two black nails. If counting the three from earlier, that made five nails.
Several coffins. Some coffins were empty, while others contained corpses. Song Yan had no interest in them.
A sheet of paper with written text and two scattered jade slips.
The center of the paper was mostly obscured by black bloodstains. Song Yan could not make out what was written at all, only catching glimpses of phrases like “Holy Sect” and “Yin nature”…
He sent his divine sense into the jade slips. One was a blank jade slip that should have originally contained something but had been erased by someone.
The other recorded the refining method and effects of a pill called the “Spirit Transformation Blood Pill.”
Middle-aged corpse blood, dead infant heart blood, elderly corpse blood…
Looking at these refining ingredients, Song Yan felt nauseous.
But the effects of this Spirit Transformation Blood Pill left Song Yan’s jaw dropped.
Repeated consumption could cause a special meridian to grow within an ordinary person who lacked spiritual cultivation aptitude, thereby giving them the opportunity to cultivate up to the third layer of Qi Refining.
Letting a cultivator without spiritual root aptitude cultivate up to the third layer of Qi Refining?
It was simply unheard of…
Soon, Song Yan found this bottle of pills in the Cosmos Bag.
Song Yan opened the jade porcelain bottle, and a thick scent of blood rushed to his face. His brows furrowed, and his gaze sharpened as he saw the pills inside had an abnormal color.
The pill color was a deep crimson, as if stained with blood.
Xiao He transformed into a snake and slipped into her sleeve, slithering around before poking her head out from her Daoist robe collar.
“Ugh~ It stinks.”
Song Yan sealed the pill bottle. “This Xinshan Sanren must truly be a remnant of demonic cultivators…”
“After returning to the sect, I’ll report everything in detail…”
When the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. When those powerful demonic cultivators wreaked havoc on the world, they wouldn’t possibly start by targeting someone like him, a minor figure…
Song Yan had no use for any of these items either.
He planned to select one item that didn’t look too valuable and submit it to the sect along with his mission “report.”
Regardless, since there were clues about demonic cultivators, it had to be reported.
As for the other items…
Song Yan decided to sell them to Granny Qin.
Her little shop should accept these things, right? However much he could get was a small fortune. Even a mosquito was still meat, and Song Yan was so poor he could barely afford to eat.
After Song Yan finished everything, he went back and buried the three villagers’ bodies.
“Big brother, big sister, I was quite disrespectful just now, but it was to let you rest in peace…”
He sighed.
“Life is as fragile as grass…”
Song Yan packed everything up. Dawn had not yet broken, and he hurried back to his thatched cottage through the night.
The next day, Song Yan went down the mountain.
“Senior Brother Zhao, I will be returning to the sect today. The townspeople will need your care…”
Zhao Fengcheng also enjoyed solitude and lived near the base of Green Stone Mountain.
“Junior Brother Song, those three people…”
Song Yan smiled faintly. “They most likely won’t come to Shiliang Town to cause trouble again…”
“Oh… that’s good.”
Zhao Fengcheng nodded repeatedly, his gaze filled with envy as he looked at Song Yan.
For those inner disciples, perhaps outer disciples like Song Yan were a dime a dozen, unable to keep up with their cultivation pace and with no possibility of attaining the Dao and longevity.
But for a disciple like Zhao Fengcheng who had been expelled, being able to remain in the sect to cultivate like Song Yan was already something he had only dreamed of.
And how many people in Shiliang Town envied Zhao Fengcheng?
Between people, it had always been this way.
“Senior Brother Zhao, this is a bottle of Qi Nourishing Pills. I refined them myself, and they may have mid-grade pill effects.”
Song Yan’s finger moved, and a small porcelain bottle appeared in his hand. “Although it’s not the most suitable pill for you, it is a token of my appreciation.”
If one knew this Zhao Fengcheng, they would actually find that he was not a very likable person.
Cowardly, timid, self-deprecating.
But he had been diligently searching for spiritual cultivation prospects in the town for the Dongyuan Sect, and Song Yan was one of the disciples he had discovered and brought into the sect.
When Lu Xiaowei and his two companions caused trouble, he had also dared to stand up and support the townspeople.
In this self-preserving world of cultivation, regardless of his motives, he had already done right by many people.
Since Song Yan had now broken through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining, the Qi Nourishing Pills were no longer of any use to him. He might as well repay the debt of gratitude for once being his “guide” on the path of immortal cultivation.
Song Yan was very poor, but he was not stingy when it came to things that should be spent.
“This…”
Pills! Mid-grade pills!
Although they were the lowest-grade Qi Nourishing Pills, for Zhao Fengcheng, this was already a priceless treasure.
His eyes burned with fervor. The polite words like “It is my duty, how could I accept” were already at the tip of his tongue…
But he simply could not bring himself to say them.
“Thank you… Junior Brother Song.”
Every time he said the words “Junior Brother,” they burned his mouth.
He performed a deep bow, lowering his head profoundly.
“Senior Brother Zhao, there is no need for such formality. If you had not guided me into the sect back then, how would I have ever seen this path of immortal cultivation.”
“This debt of gratitude, I will repay today, lest in the future I die before I get the chance.”
Song Yan laughed self-deprecatingly and then departed.
“Die before getting the chance…”
Zhao Fengcheng let out a long sigh, clutching the porcelain bottle even tighter.
After walking a distance, Xiao He spoke in a muffled voice from within her sleeve, “Are we going to the immortal mountain now?”
“Let’s go to the town first and say goodbye to Ah Nian and Darong…”
Although Lu Xiaowei and his three companions were dead, what that so-called Xinshan Sanren wanted with Shengnian, he still did not know.
“No matter what, I have to give Ah Nian a warning.”
A cultivator traveling thousands of miles to find a mortal constable…
What kind of logic was that?