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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Pill Recipe
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"Aiya, even if I told you, you wouldn't get it. The intricacies here are incredibly complex. Just stick close to Master, watch carefully, and learn well."
"Oh, I see." Li Huowang feigned contemplation, though his mind was elsewhere.
The pill Danyangzi had given him was clearly effective, which meant the laws of this world were entirely different from his own.
If he wanted to deal with Danyangzi, he needed to learn much more about this unfamiliar place.
"Cultivators from novels? No way. What kind of cultivator refines pills from people? What kind of cultivator enslaves mortals to help him ascend to immortality?"
"And by convention, wouldn't a normal cultivation sect give me a basic foundation-building technique? Where's mine?"
The more Li Huowang learned about this place, the stranger the temple seemed—nothing like the Daoist cultivators from his preconceptions.
"Right, Junior Brother Xuanyang, let me give you a tip. You'd best have everything prepared properly before Master even opens his mouth."
"Take yesterday's pill ingredients, for example. Because your hysteria flared up and you missed the timing, if you'd delivered the guiding ingredient ahead of time before the hour of the Ox two days from now, wouldn't that be like apologizing to Master in advance?"
"Master might be unpredictable in his moods, but as long as you keep him happy, you'll naturally get your rewards."
"Yesterday's pill ingredients?" Li Huowang paused.
"Yeah, what, you forgot? What did Master tell you to deliver yesterday?"
"Bai Lingmiao." Li Huowang's pupils shrank to pinpricks. So much had happened before, but this wasn't over yet.
If he didn't figure something out before the day after tomorrow, that albino girl would end up like all the previous guiding ingredients—pounded into meat paste!
Li Huowang didn't know how he made it back to his quarters. He lay on his stone bed, the gold anklet wrapped with red string pressing against his chest like a red-hot iron, urging him to find a way out.
But Danyangzi's strength far outmatched his own, to say nothing of the fact that the entire temple was filled with the man's lackeys.
The fates of those dead senior brothers who'd come before were a stark warning—blindly running away wouldn't work.
He tossed and turned all night.
Just before morning lessons, Li Huowang dressed and headed out of the cave.
He wanted to check the Pill Refinery Room, see if there was any other way out there.
Holding his oil lamp, he'd just stepped out when a sharp-featured, monkeyish face popped out of the darkness, startling him. It was Gouwa.
"Heh heh heh, Senior Brother Li, nothing's wrong, I swear. I just saw you didn't come to the Material Room all day yesterday, so I got worried and came to check on you."
"Is Junior Sister Bai okay?" Li Huowang took a step back and asked.
"She's fine, fine! You personally said she'd take over managing the Material Room—who'd dare disobey? Heh heh heh, Senior Brother Li, you're amazing. Look, ever since you took charge of the ingredient storage, you haven't had to drag anyone off yet."
Gouwa's words irritated Li Huowang to no end. He shoved the man aside with his lamp and strode off.
When Li Huowang reached the Pill Refinery Room, he found some of the early-rising boys already wiping down the pill furnace and floors with burlap.
One boy stood in a stone vat, scrubbing the walls hard with a pig-bristle brush.
As Danyangzi's disciple, no one dared say a word about him entering the Pill Refinery Room.
Li Huowang pretended to wander casually as he scanned the room carefully.
The Pill Refinery Room was stark and simple. Aside from the massive black pill furnace that took up a third of the space, there was only Danyangzi's stone vat and stone pestle.
No pill-refining books, not even a single painting on the walls. The whole room was cavernously empty, without a single place to hide.
"What are you looking at?" A familiar yet chilling voice sounded right behind him.
Li Huowang turned, bowed with clasped hands. "Master."
"I asked what you're looking at."
Li Huowang's mind raced for a second before he came up with an excuse. "Your disciple admires how masterful you are at pill refining, so I was just wishing I could reach that level someday."
Danyangzi was pleased with Li Huowang's change in attitude. Looked like the boy had finally come around.
He clasped his hands behind his back and circled the black pill furnace. "It's good to have ambition, but it's not that I won't teach you—the way of external alchemy isn't so simple."
"Ordinary pills are one thing, but if you want to ascend via the pill path, you must refine both external and internal elixirs. Even I've poured no small effort into it, and I'm on the verge of great culmination."
A smug, excited gleam crossed Danyangzi's face, as if he were already imagining his immortal life after ascension.
"Master... are you about to become an immortal?"
At Li Huowang's words, Danyangzi's expression sobered. "Ascension isn't so easy—the path is long. But I will ascend. Do you know why?"
"I don't know."
Danyangzi grew agitated. "Because the method of ascension is written in Old Lord's Heavenly Book, delivered to me by Old Lord himself! Who else in the world could ascend? He says I can, so I will!"
"Old Lord? Who's that? One of the three deities in the statues?" Li Huowang struggled to follow the mythical ramblings.
Though he understood none of it, Li Huowang flattered anyway. "Master speaks truly. You will surely ascend and live as long as heaven and earth!"
Danyangzi clearly loved hearing it; his ugly face broke into a wide grin.
"Hahaha, good, good! Since you want to learn pill refining, I'll teach you a simple Blood Nourishing Pill recipe first. Memorize it. Twelve taels of cinnabar, half a jin of cyperus, two liang and four qian of hematite..."
Though it was an unexpected windfall, Li Huowang wasn't about to refuse.
He hurriedly looked around for brush and ink to record it, but there was none in the entire Pill Refinery Room.
In his haste, he grabbed a chunk of charcoal from under the furnace and scribbled it on the hem of his Daoist robe.
"...At the third quarter of the hour of Chou, open the furnace when properly bathed; gaze silently upon it, blow gently with your breath, infuse it with your spirit, nurture it slowly with a gentle flame. Open at the fourth quarter of the hour of Mao."
"Take this recipe and practice it. Let's see your aptitude first."
Li Huowang tossed the charcoal scrap aside, held the hem up to Danyangzi with both hands. "Master, did your disciple miss anything?"
But when the charcoal-scrawled hem was thrust before him, Danyangzi's beaming face instantly darkened.
He kicked out with his right foot, sending Li Huowang flying into the pill furnace with a resounding clang before he crashed heavily to the floor.
Danyangzi's face was ashen as he cursed under his breath, hands behind his back, and stormed off—leaving Li Huowang stranded there.
As his surge of emotional fury faded, Li Huowang sensed something off about the whole thing. He hadn't done anything wrong—why the sudden attitude shift?
He looked down at the recipe in his hand, pondering. His handwriting was ugly, sure, but perfectly legible.
Suddenly, something clicked. He glanced around the barren Pill Refinery Room, devoid of scrolls or decorations, then recalled how no one at morning lessons ever used scriptures.
A startling thought struck Li Huowang. "Could it be that this scabby-headed bastard is illiterate?"
(End of Chapter)