Qingfeng Temple

Li Huowang lay on the bed in a hospital-issued straitjacket, silently staring at the IV hook above his head as though waiting for something.

With a creak, the ward door opened. "Ah, Little Li, weren't you recovering quite well before? What happened this time?"

Li Huowang's attending physician walked in and looked at him with disappointment written all over his face.

Hearing that, Li Huowang, his head wrapped in white gauze, immediately grew anxious and hurriedly explained, "Doctor, they attacked Yang Na first! I only fought back because I had to protect her!"

The doctor pushed up his glasses with a bent index finger. "You call that fighting back? That was a counter-kill! Liu Jianye is still lying in the ICU, and that kick of yours nearly sent him straight to the grave. You've been here quite a while; everyone knows everyone else's situation. Before you acted, did you not consider Master Liu's condition at all? I thought you were a sensible child."

Thinking of Yang Na, frightened until she looked like a pear blossom drenched in rain, Li Huowang was unconvinced. "So what if he's mentally ill? Does being mentally ill mean he can do whatever he wants? If I had to choose between Yang Na getting hurt and going to prison, I'd rather choose the latter."

"You—" The attending physician was left speechless by Li Huowang's retort.

In the end, he sighed and shook his head. "Forget it, forget it. The director has already called both families. You don't need to worry about any of this."

Hearing that, Li Huowang curled up slightly and turned onto his side, facing the empty side of the bed. He began calculating whether the Jade Pendant worth four hundred thousand would be enough for compensation.

Yet he was not panicking at all. After seeing that the pills truly worked, Li Huowang suddenly realized that his life now had many more possible paths.

Sensing that his young patient was in low spirits, the doctor tried to comfort him. "Little Li, don't worry. You won't go to prison. The hospital can issue you a certificate. Stop thinking about these things and focus on recovering. We'll handle everything else."

Li Huowang sensed the concern in the doctor's words. "Thank you, Doctor."

"What are you thanking me for? I'm your attending physician. And you're so young, of course I should take better care of you." Li Huowang felt the other man pat his shoulder.

"But, Little Li, tell me honestly. How did you injure him so badly back then? That wasn't something an ordinary person could do. Were you in a normal state at the time, or had you fallen into some new stress-induced hallucination?"

At those words, Li Huowang's heart tightened, and his attention immediately focused on his shirt pocket. "Um... I..."

"I'm a psychologist, and I know this field quite well. Don't think about hiding your condition. You'd better think carefully before answering. I hate it when my patients lie to me."

Though the doctor's tone was gentle and pleasant, Li Huowang felt an invisible pressure fill the room. What should I do? He can't find out about the pills.

Just as Li Huowang anxiously searched for a way out, everything around him began to grow unstable, and the doctor's voice became increasingly indistinct.

A few seconds later, he found himself caught in a hallucination again, lying on the stone bed in Xuan Yang's private Karst Cave chamber.

Holding his head as he sat up, Li Huowang looked at the crude furnishings around him and laughed. "Hehehe, no matter what, this is still one way to solve it."

This time, he did not plan to go back so quickly, lest the doctor still be waiting beside him.

Walking out of the room, Li Huowang watched the senior and junior brothers coming and going through the Karst Tunnel and began considering his next move.

Since those pills were real, he could no longer act as carelessly as before. He had to manage this place properly and fleece more wool from it.

Fortunately, his identity was no longer that of the Material Room's Medicinal Guide. He had become Leper Head's Unregistered Disciple, giving him far more freedom of movement.

When Li Huowang saw a bearded Daoist in a Daoist Robe walk past him, his eyes lit up. He hurriedly chased after him. "Senior Brother, Senior Brother!"

The bearded Daoist turned and saw that it was Li Huowang speaking. His attitude was neither warm nor cold. "Junior Brother Xuan Yang, what is it?"

Imitating the way they spoke, Li Huowang replied, "This junior brother has only just become Master's disciple. Please enlighten me, Senior Brother. What should I do next?"

"Don't blame this senior brother for speaking bluntly. Though Master personally accepted you into his fold, your seniority is the lowest. For now, all you can do is run errands within Qingfeng Temple."

"If you want Master to teach you the Daoist arts of becoming immortal, that is treatment reserved for a closed-door disciple. You are not qualified yet. Come with me and wait outside the Pill Refining Room first."

"Becoming immortal...?" Li Huowang murmured. He had never heard of any immortal who became one by refining people into pills.

"Can Master really become immortal?"

A trace of pride appeared on the bearded Daoist's face. "Of course. Master possesses great divine abilities. Just serve him well."

From this senior brother named Xuan Yin, Li Huowang also learned the full personnel structure of the Daoist temple within the Karst Cave. There were five Unregistered Disciples, one direct disciple, and one temple master—Danyangzi.

Besides them, everyone else was peripheral personnel: cooks who prepared food, Medicinal Guides in the Material Room, Daoist Children who handled odd jobs, and so on. Altogether, there were around eighty to a hundred people.

This was the first time Li Huowang had gained an entirely new understanding of the whole temple. Its numbers were small—one could even call it rudimentary—especially after so many people had died not long ago.

As they spoke, that oppressive pill furnace appeared before Li Huowang once more. Wisps of white smoke drifted from within it, as though something was being refined inside.

This time, besides Danyangzi, there was also his closed-door disciple, a young man with a gloomy expression.

After waiting at the side with Xuan Yin for a while, Li Huowang received his assignment: take the materials list to the Material Room and inventory the ingredients, just as Xuan Yang had done before.

When Li Huowang, holding a white whisk, arrived at the Material Room, everyone working there looked over at him, their tense gazes carrying a trace of fear.

The Albino Girl pressed her lips together and urgently stepped forward twice, but in the end, she said nothing and slowly retreated in fear.

His identity had changed from one of the oppressed to one of the oppressors.

Li Huowang looked at them, his thoughts beginning to stir. Their positions had changed; perhaps he could gain some benefit from this.

"Um, do you have any money on you?" As soon as he said that, everyone froze. "Money. Don't you understand? Silver, gold, Jade Pendants—those work too."

To be honest, Li Huowang badly needed money right now. He did not know how much Old Liu's compensation would cost. His household was ordinary; if the compensation was too great, his mother would probably have to sell the house. That was why he needed money so urgently.

"You can't spend it here anyway, so you might as well give it all to me. Think of it as protection money. From now on, I'll cover you."

With his words so blunt, the others understood. The people in the Material Room began feeling around on their bodies. They did not ask Li Huowang to protect them; they only hoped that after handing over their things, he would not bully them.

Half a thumb-sized piece of blackened broken silver, a copper hairpin, and more than forty round copper coins with square holes—this was all he gained.

Looking at those things, Li Huowang sighed again and again. It seemed he had miscalculated. How could these people possibly have any money left? What these things would fetch was probably not even as much as what he had on his medical insurance card.