Chapter 64: Deciphering the Heaven-Mending Paste, Chen Changsheng Flees
Chapter 64 – Deciphering the Heaven-Mending Paste, Chen Changsheng Flees
After exchanging a few pleasantries with Medicine Old Man, Chen Changsheng followed him into the thatched cottage.
Looking at the translated prescription resting upon the wooden table, a rare surge of excitement rippled through Chen Changsheng’s heart.
Back in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, Chen Changsheng had exhausted every conceivable method yet still failed to decipher the complete Heaven-Mending Paste.
Naturally, he had not abandoned this pursuit after departing the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
By a stroke of Fated Chance, Chen Changsheng crossed paths with the Medical Immortal of Butterfly Valley: Medicine Old Man.
Chen Changsheng was a supreme Master of the Pill Dao, while Medicine Old Man was an apex practitioner of the medical arts.
Although they tread fundamentally different paths, their respective Daos inevitably shared profound commonalities.
Through his exchanges with Medicine Old Man, Chen Changsheng finally understood why the Heaven-Mending Paste had continually eluded him.
Because the Heaven-Mending Paste was never a Pill formula; it was a mortal medical prescription.
Pill Masters excelled at condensing Pills to elevate cultivation, forge the physical vessel, and heal grievous wounds.
However, the Pill Dao intrinsically focused on forcing spiritual ascension; when it came to fundamentally curing diseases and mending torn flesh, it fell short of a Medicine Master’s touch.
This was because the medical Dao did not merely rely on spiritual herbs to heal; it employed intricate, mortal methods of restoration that a Pill Master’s blazing cauldrons could not replicate.
“To think the ingredients for the Heaven-Mending Paste would be so mundane. It is truly unexpected.”
Sweeping his gaze over the prescription, Chen Changsheng could not help but voice his admiration.
Medicine Old Man stroked his beard and replied, “Naturally, ascending one’s cultivation requires precious spiritual herbs.”
“Because those rare spiritual herbs harbor tyrannical essence.”
“But for mending life and curing rot, spiritual herbs sometimes cannot compare to the humblest of weeds.”
“The Senior who conceived the Heaven-Mending Paste managed to refine a life-restoring miracle from common grass. Their talent can truly be called peerless across the eons.”
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng stored away both the jade slip and the translated prescription.
“You deciphered this formula; you must have perfectly engraved it into your mind.”
“As a friend, let me offer a warning: even if you possess the means to refine the Heaven-Mending Paste, do not let it see the light of day for a hundred years.”
“The Kunlun Holy Land is preparing to forcefully breach the Sacred Ruins, and countless cultivators have already died in the preliminaries.”
“If they discover you possess the Heaven-Mending Paste, an endless tide of blood and trouble will find you.”
Hearing this, Medicine Old Man looked at Chen Changsheng, a knowing smile on his lips. “You are leaving?”
“Within the next few days. I originally intended to borrow the Kunlun Holy Land’s grand teleportation array, but given the current storm, I can only rely on my own two feet.”
“The Western Continent, Eastern Wasteland, Northern Desert, Southern Plains, and the Middle Heavens… I never realized the mortal dust was so incomprehensibly vast.”
“Walking from the Middle Heavens to the Eastern Wasteland will take heaven knows how many centuries.”
Unmoved by Chen Changsheng’s complaints, Medicine Old Man chuckled and retrieved a jade slip from his robes, holding it out.
“Since you are departing, I shall offer you a parting gift.”
“Consider it fair exchange for the Heaven-Mending Paste.”
Sweeping his Divine Sense over the jade slip’s contents, Chen Changsheng looked back in utter confusion.
“You have handed over your lifelong legacy. You cannot possibly be trying to take me as your disciple.”
“That will not do. I have no desire to bind myself to a Master.”
“With your terrifying aptitude, Chen Changsheng, it would be more fitting for me to become your disciple. How could I dare accept you as mine?”
“My medical Dao has yet to find a worthy inheritor. With this great turmoil brewing, I cannot guarantee my own survival.”
“If I am extinguished before passing on my legacy, I must ask you to bear this burden.”
“Find someone favored by Fated Chance, and pass this jade slip to them.”
Calculating the karmic weight, Chen Changsheng nodded. “Very well. That is a trivial matter.”
“If I encounter a worthy vessel, I will pass it on. However, you should survive to find your own successor.”
With that cold pragmatism, Chen Changsheng turned and walked out of Butterfly Valley.
Watching Chen Changsheng’s unburdened silhouette vanish, Medicine Old Man smiled and retreated into his humble thatched cottage.
……
Chen Changsheng departed, taking A-Man and abandoning the territory they had inhabited for forty years.
When news of Chen Changsheng’s disappearance broke, two individuals were driven to emotional extremes.
The first was the Quasi-Holy Son of the Kunlun Holy Land, Jiang Bufan.
“Utterly blind to the heavens!”
“Chen Changsheng, pray you never cross my path again, or I, Jiang Bufan, will make you choke on your regret!”
In his blinding fury, Jiang Bufan reduced his entire pavilion to pulverized ash, simultaneously locking a vicious grudge onto A-Li simply due to his connection with Chen Changsheng.
……
Before the empty coffin shop.
A solitary figure stood silently before the threshold. Staring at the desolate interior, he muttered to himself.
“Teacher… did you truly abandon A-Li?”
“Did A-Li commit a sin?”
After an eternity of silence, A-Li turned away from the shop.
In this very breath, the naive Wu Clan youth who had blindly followed him out of the Hundred Thousand Mountains finally matured.
He was forced to learn the brutal reality of facing the world’s malice entirely alone.
Yet, that cold, indifferent silhouette remained permanently scorched into his Dao Heart.
……
Nearly a thousand miles away.
Chen Changsheng and A-Man materialized atop a desolate mountain peak.
Having confirmed they had thoroughly breached the Kunlun Holy Land’s sphere of influence, Chen Changsheng ceased wasting spiritual energy on minor teleportation arrays.
“Brother Changsheng, are we returning to your homeland now?”
Chen Changsheng looked up at the endless sky, calculating briefly before answering. “You could call it that. The Eastern Wasteland anchors too many of my past karmic ties.”
“Standing on that soil provides a faint illusion of home.”
“It also affords us the perfect excuse to witness the sheer immensity of this world.”
Hearing his voice, A-Man gently looped her arm through his. “As long as I can walk by Brother Changsheng’s side, I will willingly tread any path.”
Her words flowed like sweet nectar, yet beneath the surface, a dark undercurrent of inescapable sorrow lingered.
Long ago, Chen Changsheng had claimed that all mortals possessed the ability to foresee the future.
At the time, A-Man had failed to grasp the chilling logic behind his words, let alone comprehend the desolate state of his Dao Heart.
But as the merciless river of time flowed onward, she finally understood.
As a cultivator’s realm advanced, their lifespan expanded.
The Qi Refining realm offered no more time than a mortal’s lot. Foundation Establishment secured two centuries. The Golden Core granted five hundred years, and a Nascent Soul could endure for eight hundred.
Reaching the Soul Formation realm shattered the thousand-year barrier.
To any ordinary being, such epochs were impossibly vast oceans of time.
Yet, even a thousand years was but a fleeting, insignificant breath in the endless span of Brother Changsheng’s existence.
She possessed none of A-Li’s monstrous talent. Even with Chen Changsheng violently forcing resources into her meridians, she had only barely clawed her way to Foundation Establishment.
This was the cold, inevitable future he had foreseen: she was biologically destined to turn to dust while he continued walking.
Burying that agonizing truth deep within her soul, A-Man forced a radiantly bright smile.
“Brother Changsheng, you must take me to witness true splendor this time.”
“I have slaved away as your shop assistant and maid for forty years, after all.”
Catching her smile, Chen Changsheng’s lips curved upwards. “Granted.”
“I will show you the supreme prosperity of the mortal dust. We will watch the sun rise and fall across the heavens. Whatever your heart desires to witness, I will take you there.”