Disbelieving Immortals

Slowly finishing the pot of wine, Qin Yi looked at the sundial in the courtyard, calculated the time again, and turned back to the fire. The fire flickered slightly in the wind, and he immediately carefully shielded it from the wind, no longer leaving, staring intently at the fire, his eyes unblinking.

He didn't know how long he stared, but the pottery pot over the fire swayed slightly, as if a faint light was appearing, and a fragrant aroma filled the air. Qin Yi quickly put down the cover, and the fire immediately went out.

Carefully opening the pot, a greenish-blue pill lay quietly inside, with a faint glow flashing around it.

"It's done?"

"It's done." Liu Su's voice reappeared, "You say you have no desires, but when you do things, you are patient. How can you be so steady doing something as boring as alchemy, staring at something motionless?"

"Give me a game, and I can stay still for even longer."

"...You're treating alchemy as some kind of game?"

"Pretty much, it's also leveling up..."

"Forget it." Liu Su was quite speechless, "The pills you made before only relieved illness caused by resentment, they weren't detoxification pills. This one is a true Immortal Pill that can cure all poisons with one pill – of course, this is just the lowest grade of the ninth rank, limited to curing mortal poisons, and it depends on the severity of the poisoning. But it can already be said that you have basically entered the field."

Qin Yi's face was expressionless, but his heart was somewhat turbulent.

Holding the pill in his hand, he could truly feel a kind of energy flowing, as if it contained many profound meanings within it, indistinguishable.

It had been over two months, and he had finally refined the first "Immortal Pill" that was no longer "mortal grade."

This was achieved without cultivating any techniques, without a trace of spiritual energy, without special medicinal materials, special fire seeds, or special alchemy furnaces, purely by using sophisticated alchemy formulas and fire control to refine an Immortal Pill!

"Now you know I didn't lie to you, right?" Liu Su said coldly.

Qin Yi went to the corner of the wall and picked up the wolf tooth club. The club was black and dull, but under the moonlight, a faint dark red color seemed to be vaguely visible, like bloodstains that had remained for ten thousand years, making it look somewhat ferocious upon closer inspection. He sighed, "Without cultivation, I can arrange formations and refine Immortal Pills. What you taught me should be a very high-level method, right?"

"It's also because you are compatible. You are the most suitable person for cultivation I have ever seen." Liu Su didn't argue with him anymore, but instead praised him, "With such comprehension and patience, clear and pure, even many who claim to have attained the Dao cannot compare to you."

"Just stop urging me to cultivate every day. My life is the most important thing. The thought of possession is terrifying, who would dare gamble?"

"You're just too afraid of death." Liu Su said coldly, "You didn't dare to eat any of the pills I taught you to make before. Don't think I don't know what you meant by naming it 'Eat Date Pill' (a pun on 'you're going to die soon'). What do you want to name this new pill?"

Qin Yi didn't answer, looking at the pill in a daze, and suddenly said, "You want to teach me cultivation so that I can help you reshape your body in the future, right?"

Liu Su said irritably, "Yes."

"Then I said I would send you out to find another master, but you disagreed. How many seekers of immortality would treat you as a treasure and worship you? Why bother competing with me here? Grinding me day after day, saying the same old things, is it interesting?"

Liu Su said coldly, "In the past two or three months, you have been wary of me, and I have also been observing you. Although you are afraid of death and suspicious, your heart is kind, which is not necessarily true for others. I am just a wisp of a remnant soul, with no ability to protect myself, and I am also afraid of entrusting myself to the wrong person and suffering eternal damnation."

Qin Yi smiled, "You, such a malicious artifact spirit, would actually be afraid of entrusting yourself to the wrong person?"

"I'm not an artifact... Forget it." Liu Su said nonchalantly, "It is precisely because I am this kind of... artifact spirit, that I know even more what happens when you meet your own kind."

"That makes sense."

"Of course it makes sense." Liu Su said leisurely, "Anyway, I've waited for thousands of years in the mountains, I'm very patient. Since you are interested in alchemy and formation arrangement, you will eventually be unable to resist cultivating with me... Honestly, would you be willing to throw me away?"

Qin Yi twitched the corner of his mouth and didn't speak.

Liu Su sneered, "Just like the little story you told me, the essence of humans is indeed 'it smells so good' (a phrase meaning something is so good you can't resist it)."

"Then have I told you about another essence of humans?"

"What?"

"A repeater." Qin Yi straightened his face. "It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You just need to know that it's very much like you."

"Whoosh!" A silver streak like a ribbon, Li Qingjun's spear shot out like a dragon, pinning a suddenly appearing green python to the mountain wall. This girl in men's clothing actually possessed extremely high-level martial arts, her cultivation having already reached a considerable level.

A faint poisonous gas spread out. She frowned and waved her hand to disperse it.

Li Qinglin seemed very confident in his sister's strength. He didn't make a move, but instead seriously observed the situation in the mountains. The mountain clouds and mist swirled, also covering the area where the two of them were. It was very light and didn't affect visibility much. He reached out and made a grabbing motion, but the mist seemed to avoid him, scattering instead.

"Qingjun, after entering the mountain, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"I feel a chill from my scalp to my bones, and my skin is a bit numb..." Li Qingjun hugged her arms and shivered. "It's like hearing the sound of two gun barrels rubbing against each other..."

Before she finished speaking, a chilling sensation suddenly arose, and her scalp felt like it was about to explode. The two of them turned their heads to look, only to see a completely red wild boar suddenly leap out from behind a rock. Its tusks were sharp and menacing, about a foot long, and they could smell the pungent stench from its bloody mouth even several feet away.

Li Qinglin also raised his long spear.

"Roar!" The wild boar charged rapidly, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The two of them scattered to the left and right. The wild boar braked sharply, its hooves actually pressing a pit into the ground.

Just as Li Qingjun was about to thrust her spear, Li Qinglin's spear tip had already arrived from the other side. A dazzling sharp light fiercely stabbed into the wild boar's head, going straight through. The wild boar struggled and roared, but it didn't die immediately. Its tusks were still trying to hook upwards, as if they had a spirit, their shape extremely bizarre.

Li Qingjun let out a soft cry and leaped gracefully. Her long spear went straight into the wild boar's mouth. The wild boar struggled for a moment before finally falling silent.

They killed the fierce beast in a few quick moves, but neither of them showed any complacency, as if it were a matter of course. Li Qinglin looked at the wild boar's corpse and suddenly smiled. "The villagers at the foot of this mountain are quite formidable. With such fierce beasts in the mountains, they all live contentedly. That Qin Yi lives directly at the foot of the mountain, isn't he really afraid of death?"

Li Qingjun hesitated and said, "Could it be that there are truly cultivators hidden in the mountains protecting the villagers..."

"No." Li Qinglin said decisively, "There are no immortals in this world at all!"

As if responding to his words, a low whimpering sound echoed from the thin mist in all directions. It seemed to carry a sense of resentment that lingered in their hearts, refusing to dissipate.

Li Qinglin listened to the whimpering sound, unmoved. He mused, "I think this cloud and mist are not immortal energy at all, but rather a gathering of resentment and ghosts. This wild boar was likely affected by some unclean thing to become like this..."

His judgment was at least half right. The cloud and mist were resentment, but the wild boar's mutation had nothing to do with it.

Li Qingjun asked curiously, "Then why is it a bright red color, looking like immortal energy?"

Li Qinglin said indifferently, "Who said that red clouds look like immortal energy? What color is blood?"

"Uh..."

"So this mist avoids me because I have fought on the battlefield, and the killing intent on me is perhaps stronger than the resentment that has been without a basis for thousands of years and is about to dissipate."

Li Qingjun was very trusting of her brother. Hearing this, she said, "So, perhaps many people died here thousands of years ago?"

"I don't know, but I see that it's about to dissipate anyway." Li Qinglin reached out and took out Qin Yi's pill, shaking his head and smiling. "The so-called mountain miasma is actually just being invaded by resentment. Those low-level alchemists' pills are actually better than proper detoxification pills... This is the secret of Qin Yi's one pill curing all poisons."

Li Qingjun widened her eyes. "You... you came here for..."

"There may be some demons and monsters in the world, and there may be some spells to catch ghosts and eliminate demons, but there can be no true method of eternal life. Otherwise, how many emperors have been obsessed with this, yet not a single one has achieved eternal life? You and I have achieved success in martial arts, extending our lifespan is no longer ordinary, and we can also defeat demons and monsters. What kind of immortal are we looking for!" Li Qinglin said decisively, "Dong Huazi is just using some low-level magic to deceive the king into cultivating, disrupting our court. I will also bring a sorcerer back to break his tricks."

"So you came specifically for that Qin Yi!" Li Qingjun stamped her foot. "You claimed to accompany me to seek immortality, but you were actually just verifying the rumors and figuring out if he was the person you wanted!"

Li Qinglin turned to look at her and repeated, "There are no immortals in this world at all."

Li Qingjun ran down the mountain angrily. "I'm going to expose that swindler Qin's true face right now and see if you want to bring back a swindler who is no different from Dong Huazi!"

Li Qinglin watched her go down the mountain, shook his head and smiled, then looked up at the mountain clouds and mist, and continued to walk towards higher ground.

He was going to see the strange tiger that Qin Yi said wouldn't chase people.