Chapter 395: Collecting
Within Immortal Arrival City.
Lately, any Demon Hunting Team heading into the mountains would think twice, going fully armed and thoroughly prepared.
There was a simple reason for this: the mountains were now teeming with never-before-seen Demon Beasts of exceptional ferocity.
The familiar creatures that once dominated the area had either fled to distant lands or become fodder for these new arrivals.
It wasn’t like the old days when staying out of the mountains meant starvation. Naturally, many Demon Hunting Teams began to have second thoughts.
One day, a rumor even started to circulate from Lanshan and his men, claiming that those Demon Beasts had all come from the other side of the mountain range.
The reason, they said, was that three major sects had ventured deep into the mountains to make a major move.
The Demon Hunting Teams immediately made up their minds: they would not set foot in the mountains again.
Lanshan had gotten lucky and befriended a Pill Master.
This person had entered the Xuandao Sect and hadn’t been seen in ages, leaving only a few assistants to manage his shop. Heaven only knew what heights he had reached by now.
Because of this, the news spread by Lanshan and his men was naturally treated as an inside scoop—guaranteed to be authentic.
Inside the pill shop, Wei An’s abacus clacked away.
"There have been more and more outside Cultivators in the city lately."
"A lot of them are big names—local magnates or pillars of their communities."
Qin Wen stood nearby, watching the bustling street.
"We’re the local powerhouse, after all. And with the network we’ve built recently thanks to the pills, these outsiders can’t compete with us."
Wei An grunted in agreement, and his fingers, flicking at the abacus beads, paused.
"We have just over thirty thousand Spirit Stones available in the shop."
"Don’t be stingy. Any stone slabs, bone fragments, or similar items that show up—if they bear the word ’Pill,’ buy them all!"
He could ignore other opportunities.
But he was determined to acquire anything related to the Alchemy Dao for their Shopkeeper.
"Things like this are just odds and ends. In the hands of an ordinary person, they’re useless."
"But I’m sure the Shopkeeper can put them to great use!"
Just then, a man from a Demon Hunting Team walked into the shop, carrying a cloth bag.
"Brother Wei, Lanshan asked me to bring this over," he said, glancing around the shop and hoisting the bag.
This wasn’t the first time. Lanshan was a thoughtful man.
Qin Wen stepped forward, took the bag, and smoothly pressed a pill into the man’s hand.
"Thank you for your trouble, brother."
The man’s grin was so wide it crinkled his eyes shut, but he tried to refuse again and again.
"Whoa! I can’t possibly accept this!"
"This is on behalf of the whole team. I can’t take all the credit."
Qin Wen just smiled and insisted, pushing the pill back toward him.
"We’ll remember the team’s favor, of course."
"This is just a little something from me personally..."
The man left with a cheerful grin.
Qin Wen carried the bag back to the counter and opened it, revealing two bloodstained stone slabs.
The stains were so deep it was hard to say if they could ever be washed clean.
Qin Wen lifted them out for a closer look. The script on the slabs was quite different from the modern form, but it was still mostly decipherable.
"It’s definitely a record about the Alchemy Dao, that’s for sure."
Wei An, however, asked with curiosity:
"Are Senior Lanshan and his men feeling that ambitious these days? I hear they’ve been going into the mountains and have killed quite a few of the new Demon Beasts."
"And they’ve already sent us slabs like these twice."
Qin Wen shook his head.
"You don’t understand. This is their time to expand. ’When others retreat, we advance’—that’s true capability."
"Making a name for yourself means doing what others can’t. Haven’t you seen people on the streets singing their praises all day?"
"Besides, they’re all veterans. They’re extremely cautious in the mountains and would never let their guard down..."
An outside Cultivator, dressed in fine robes, was walking past. Seeing the two in the shop openly discussing the stone slabs without any apparent defense, his eyes flickered with interest.
However, seeing the street full of Cultivators and recalling the shop’s reputation, no one dared to make a move.
To Wei An and the other assistants, the pills their Shopkeeper occasionally sent back—claiming they were just casual experiments—were priceless treasures.
In Immortal Arrival City, they were absolutely top-tier.
Thanks to these pills, no one dared to look down on their small shop.
...
Bai Mo received several stone slabs and bone fragments sent from the shop.
The moment he saw them, Bai Mo recognized the items as originating from beyond the Celestial Barrier Mountain.
The style of the fragmentary script upon them was faintly, yet surprisingly, similar to the ramblings of the prisoner in the black jail.
Bai Mo walked aside and heaved the furnace lid over.
Inside the Pill Furnace, the ingredients roiled. The milky-white Pill Liquid was boiling, and he estimated it would be several more hours before it would condense.
BANG!
The Pill Furnace was sealed.
Bai Mo no longer tended to it, but instead propped up a relatively complete, cutting-board-sized stone slab.
The writing on it seemed to have been inscribed in blood, but it was now faded and incomplete. In many places, he had to trace the surface with his fingers to faintly make out the original strokes.
Even so, after examining the entire slab, what little text he could decipher was still over sixty percent incomplete.
Relying on his experience and powers of deduction, Bai Mo was able to piece together the general meaning.
’It really is a method for creating an Outer Pill.’
’It makes sense. For a mighty expert of that realm who sought to ascend to immortality, other pills would have had little effect.’
’Only an Outer Pill would be fast-acting enough, producing immediate results.’
’If he was the one who left behind all these various methods, it’s only natural that most of them concerning the Alchemy Dao would be about Outer Pills.’
What Bai Mo hadn’t expected, however, was that the Demon Beasts that spawned in the ruins on the other side of the mountains had traveled so far.
And even brought out many things from the ruins.
After taking some time to transcribe the text from the stone slabs and bone fragments, Bai Mo casually entered the black jail.
He made a round of inspection and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Bai Mo arrived before the mad Cultivator’s cell. The man was huddled in a corner, his head down.
Bai Mo thought for a moment, then probed:
"Among the myriad Immortal Ascension Skills, is there one for the Outer Pill?"
"There is!" the mad Cultivator suddenly replied, his voice grave.
"Are there any records of it?"
"..." The mad Cultivator fell silent. After a long moment, he said:
"An Outer Pill, once it enters the body, can substitute for countless techniques, allowing one to break through realms by sheer force..."
Bai Mo said in a low voice: "Pill Formula?"
Seeing no reaction, he prodded further.
"The general outline? The catalyst?"
The mad Cultivator’s expression grew increasingly vacant.
Bai Mo sighed.
’So he’s pill-blind. What a pity...’
’The shortcut is a dead end. I’ll just have to honestly search for the records in the ruins myself.’
’An Caiwei has already departed as she wished, following that group of sect members from a few days ago.’
’I just hope she finds what she’s looking for.’
Bai Mo thought to himself as he returned to the Pill Furnace to watch over it, occasionally adjusting the heat of the fire.
「Three days later.」
Yuan Chu and his two companions arrived at the door again.
"Junior Brother, are our pills ready?"
Bai Mo gestured toward the roaring Pill Furnace, where the firewood crackled loudly.
"Just wait. It’ll be ready once the Pill Liquid has evaporated."
Xiong Xin, using his height to his advantage, craned his neck to peek into the Pill Furnace.
"Why is it taking so long? It’s been two months..."
Bai Mo waved his hand.
"That fruit of yours... it must have absorbed too many Demon Beast corpses as it grew. It’s full of impurities."
"To remove the impurities, I spent more than half a month."
Yuan Chu gave a dry laugh.
"No problem, since it’s almost done, we’ll just wait."
Ah Er promptly brought over some small stools.
The stools were small, and they looked miniature in front of the three men—especially Xiong Xin.
The three of them managed to get settled and began talking about matters concerning the Holy Dao Sect.
"What a satisfying turn of events!"
"A senior brother from Broken Blade Peak came out of seclusion and swept through Holy Dao Mountain undefeated."
"And just the other day, a disciple from Pill Peak came out of seclusion and completely crushed that disciple from the Holy Dao Sect, humiliating him so badly he couldn’t show his face..."