Taking the Pill

Crack, crack, crack, crack.

All his joints were dislocated at once.

Chen Quan slammed his head against the ground, half his face pressed to the cold, hard tiles, unable to move.

Old Man Xiang removed the black mask from his face, took out a cloth bundle from his robes, then pulled out silver needles and coated them with an unknown medicine.

"You know me. You should know that I am a Hundred-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"A Hundred-Household Commander must study punishments."

"This needle technique is renowned even within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It is called the Three Needles of Yama."

"Even the toughest man with bones of iron cannot endure three needles."

"Back when the Crown Prince ascended the throne before the late emperor's coffin, some people plotted rebellion."

"They captured the traitors, but they refused to talk."

"After two needles, they confessed everything."

"Today, you are fortunate enough to experience it."

Old Man Xiang spoke very slowly.

Perhaps he wanted to use words to shatter a person's psychological defenses.

Or perhaps he simply had no one to confide in and could only tell his enemy about the terror of it all.

Yet to Chen Quan's ears, every word boomed like muffled thunder, a soul-chasing rope demanding his life.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard!

Merely hearing that name made Chen Quan tremble all over in terror.

No one who entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard's imperial prison could keep a secret.

To them, the Embroidered Uniform Guard were living Yamas.

And now he was about to experience such horror.

One of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's most infamous punishments.

He would rather not have such an honor.

Chen Quan hurriedly shook his head, his eyes filled with pleading.

"Want to talk now?"

Old Man Xiang reset Chen Quan's jaw.

Chen Quan's voice trembled. "Lord Xiang, people will die."

"I really do not know who is targeting you."

"We merely had a conflict. I am willing to compensate you."

"Even if I have to support your son for the rest of his life, I will have no complaints."

Old Man Xiang's previously calm expression suddenly turned savage. "You refuse to shed tears until you see the coffin."

As he spoke, he dislocated Chen Quan's jaw again.

He raised a silver needle and drove it into his spine.

It directly touched a nerve.

Old Man Xiang also controlled Chen Quan's vocal cords. Though he was in unbearable pain, not a single sound escaped him.

Chen Quan began foaming at the mouth as though suffering an epileptic fit. Veins twisted across his face as he writhed in agony.

But with his joints dislocated, he could not move at all.

Snot and tears rapidly poured out. His face was twisted with agony, like a fish stranded ashore, mouth gaping and eyes rolling white.

It continued for a full ten breaths.

Old Man Xiang pulled out the silver needle and reached out to reset Chen Quan's jaw.

Chen Quan opened his mouth and gulped down fresh air.

"I... I'll talk."

"I'll talk."

"It was Wen Fu, the steward of the second branch of the Marquis of Jing'an's household."

"He gave us two hundred taels of silver and said you had lost your position as a Hundred-Household Commander and been thrown into the prison to guard the gates."

"Even if your son were crippled, you would not seek revenge."

Chen Quan revealed everything, holding nothing back.

Because it was far too easy to investigate.

Those people apparently had never intended to conceal anything. They were openly telling him that crushing him to death was no different from crushing an ant.

They could casually find two stray dogs to bite his son to death.

Just as that man had said, if his son Xiang Wen had merely been crippled, he would not have sought revenge.

But his son was dead!

The scar on Old Man Xiang's face twisted like a centipede.

He took out the Soul Banner from his robes.

"To die beneath an immortal master's magical treasure, you may be said to have died in the right place."

On the way back, Old Man Xiang had noticed that the Soul Banner had absorbed ghosts and monsters before.

Could killing people with this thing absorb their souls?

Old Man Xiang did not know, but he was willing to try.

Chen Quan was nailed to death.

Gray mist was absorbed by the Soul Banner.

Old Man Xiang grinned.

He checked the aura of the hidden prostitute and confirmed that she had not awakened.

Old Man Xiang hesitated, but in the end, he did not act.

When he had still been on duty, his superiors had ordered him to wipe out entire families, leaving not a single one alive.

He had always felt uncomfortable with it, yet could only obey.

Now that he was all alone, he did not wish to create more slaughter and implicate his wife and son in their reincarnation.

Xiang Hu grinned, laughing at his own fear.

A former executioner, yet he no longer dared to kill.

One night.

A storm of blood and slaughter.

The Wild Dog Gang was destroyed. All three deputy gang leaders died in a single blow.

The gang leader was chopped apart so badly that even his corpse could not be sewn back together.

Old Man Xiang dragged his exhausted body home.

The information he obtained through torture was more or less the same.

After killing the Wild Dog Gang's people, Old Man Xiang felt no pleasure whatsoever.

They were indeed the direct murderers who had harmed Xiang Wen, as well as the indirect murderers of his wife and son, but they were not the masterminds.

The mastermind was still living with a clear conscience.

Old Man Xiang's heart felt as though it were being twisted by knives.

It was not that he had not gone to the Marquis of Jing'an's estate. He simply could not get in.

He had made a trip there at night, and the experts inside had immediately discovered him.

Fortunately, they had not pursued him.

The Marquis of Jing'an's estate had towering gates and sprawling courtyards, with countless skilled guards. Charging in on impulse would be no different from courting death.

If he wanted to assassinate someone, he still had to force a confession from the second branch's steward.

Though the Wild Dog Gang incident appeared to have killed many people, it had not greatly affected Liang Capital.

However, he did not have much time left.

Even though he had concealed himself and dealt with the traces.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard could still find flaws from the smallest clues. Methods could not be faked, and traces could not be erased.

Because they were too familiar with them.

This was the Embroidered Uniform Guard's internal method.

Given the Embroidered Uniform Guard's efficiency, they might soon trace it back to him.

"What should I do?" Old Man Xiang fell to his knees and clenched his fists.

He was utterly lost.

He could not enter the Marquis of Jing'an's estate.

After his former patron fell from power, that patron no longer had the ability to shelter them.

Perhaps because he had no one to confide in, Old Man Xiang took out the Soul Banner.

"Magical treasure, magical treasure, what exactly should I do?"

He sent in his inner qi.

Tu Shan Jun felt that he could move again.

Twisted black mist formed words.

"Eat the pill."

"Strength."

Four words.

Old Man Xiang held up the Soul Banner as though possessed.

He did not know whether it was a fortunate coincidence or whether the magical treasure had understood his thoughts.

"A pill?"

"Strength?"

"Eat."

Old Man Xiang climbed up from the ground.

He rummaged through a chest at the very bottom.

Objects were tossed all over the floor until he finally took out that small box and placed it on the table.

The Yin Soul Pill lay quietly within a handkerchief.

It resembled black glazed crystal.

Even the surrounding light seemed to be absorbed into it.

Old Man Xiang picked up the Yin Soul Pill.

He truly doubted whether this thing could be eaten.

Would eating it grant him strength?

Tu Shan Jun was somewhat hesitant as well. To be honest, he did not know whether an ordinary person would grow stronger after consuming a Yin Soul Pill.

For cultivators, the Yin Soul Pill was unquestionably a great tonic, capable of vastly increasing one's accumulation of mana.

As long as it was not eaten like candy until one developed a yin-baleful constitution, there would be no aftereffects.

It absolutely deserved to be called a miraculous pill.

There were only two choices: eat it or do not eat it.

Either gain strength, or continue waiting for an opportunity.

But time waited for no one. Once dawn came and the corpses were collected, the Embroidered Uniform Guard would intervene, then swiftly follow the vine to find him.

In Tu Shan Jun's view, Old Man Xiang had already reached the end of the road.

There was only one path left: stake his life on it.

Old Man Xiang clenched the Soul Banner.

Gritting his teeth, he opened his mouth and swallowed the Yin Soul Pill.

The Yin Soul Pill melted upon entering his mouth, turning into a clear, icy current that flowed through his limbs, bones, meridians, and acupoints.

Old Man Xiang was somewhat surprised. He had thought it would choke him, but it had melted like water.

What followed was bone-piercing cold.

A vast aura surged forth, madly washing through his meridians as it rushed toward his dantian.

Pain. Distortion.

The cold made Old Man Xiang curl into a ball.

Inside the Soul Banner, Tu Shan Jun furrowed his brow. Li Qingfeng had not reacted so strongly when he took one. It had been very mild.

But now Old Man Xiang's lips had already turned purple, and he was shivering from the cold.

Even after piling several layers of quilts over himself, he still could not feel any warmth.

Even his consciousness began to blur.

"He will not die, will he?" Tu Shan Jun muttered.

Had he known, he would have let Old Man Xiang test it on someone else first. Testing medicine directly on himself was far too dangerous.

The matter had arisen too suddenly, and there had been no other way.

No one knew how much time passed.

Old Man Xiang suddenly sat upright.

"I'm still... alive." Old Man Xiang examined himself. He was still alive and intact, not frozen to death.

He simply still felt cold.

When he sensed the inner qi in his dantian, it had increased by a full fold.

"This!"

Old Man Xiang stared in dumbfounded shock.

What kind of treasure could double one's inner qi overnight?

It had returned him to the level of a quasi-first-class expert.

Though he had nearly frozen to death, the gain far exceeded his expectations.

And this kind of heavenly treasure that could vastly increase one's cultivation had come from this banner-like magical treasure, from a demonic-path immortal master.

"Good. He is still alive."

Tu Shan Jun let out a long breath.

If Old Man Xiang had eaten himself to death, he would have to start his plan all over again.