Sixteen years later, you began comparing the medicinal herbs again and discovered that removing the Hei Gu Grass slightly improved the neutralizing effect.
Thirty-three years later, you reduced the eleven herbs to eight. The tribe members used it and their bodies exploded.
...Their bodies exploded.
Seventy-nine years later, the number of herbs in the prescription had been reduced to seven.
In the eightieth year, three tribe members used the beast blood neutralized by the improved seven-herb formula. All of them successfully advanced to the Mountain Opening Realm.
At eighty-five years, another three tribe members tried it. Two advanced, while one failed.
For the following ten-odd years, no matter how you adjusted the proportions, there were no further results.
You understood. You realized you were a fraud, your foundations in witch medicine shallow—like a pavilion in the air, a tower built in sand. In the end, you still had to start learning from the basics.
"A-Can."
When Shen Can opened his eyes, he saw Huo Xian looking at him.
"Are you sick? Why do you look so exhausted?"
As he spoke, Huo Xian fished out a medicine ball from a clay jar on the wooden rack.
It was as large as an infant's fist.
Pitch-black, its surface rough and bumpy—and worst of all, it was not even round.
"Come, eat it."
A dense, fishy, acrid smell wafted from the medicine ball, instantly perking Shen Can up. For some reason, it reminded him of his memories of swallowing pills.
"Master, I'm fine. I might just be a little tired from practicing my fist technique."
He did not say he would not eat it. Instead, he took the medicine ball and stuffed it into his clothes.
Witch medicine had to be improved. He would rather be a dog than eat this pill again.
"Master, let me handle the rest."
As Shen Can spoke, he moved to carry the clay jar, intending to secretly reduce the dosage.
But Huo Xian directly took one of the jars and poured it onto the stone mill. The amount of medicinal herbs had not been reduced after all; Huo Xian ultimately did not dare make changes.
When the first batch of herbs had been ground into powder, Shen Can hurriedly said, "Master, I can do the pounding."
Huo Xian nodded, packed up the medicinal powder, and walked out of the cave.
After glancing outside, Shen Can began picking herbs out.
Fortunately, the nearly hundred years of deduction had trained his hands to be nimble. Otherwise, he truly would not have been able to finish this so quickly.
He sorted the herbs he had taken out and put them back where they belonged.
For now, he had no way to explain it, so he would keep it hidden for the time being.
Before Huo Xian could say anything, he poured the ground medicinal powder into two blood troughs and began stirring with a bronze rod.
By the time Huo Xian came over to inspect it, the medicinal powder and beast blood had already fused into one. There was no way to tell Shen Can had cut corners.
As he stirred, the beast blood looked as though it had been brought to a boil.
Only after more than half a shichen did it return to a relatively calm state.
Beast blood taken from savage beasts could also have its violent aura dissipated by being left to settle for some time, but the longer it sat, the more its effects declined.
To ensure its efficacy, the Blazing Flame Tribe only let it settle for one night.
After finishing the stirring, Shen Can noticed that Master Huo Xian had returned to the cave and was once again clutching the Beast Hide Scroll in thought.
The beast hide had been rubbed bald in places, clearly from being flipped through too many times.
After thinking for a while, Huo Xian began writing. It seemed he had come up with another new idea.
This beast hide scroll had been pieced together. Fully unfolded, it was nearly a zhang long.
The densely packed words and illustrations upon it were all records related to improving neutralizing witch medicine formulas.
From the beginning of the scroll to the section Huo Xian was currently writing, there were thirteen separate conjectures for improvement recorded.
Huo Xian then took down another two beast hide scrolls from the wooden rack behind him. They too contained records on improving neutralizing witch medicine formulas.
Only, the handwriting was different. They had likely been written by the tribe's former temple guardians.
All these improved formulas remained only on paper.
Every single improvement was merely a conjecture.
"I don't dare make a move."
Huo Xian let out a sigh.
"Two hundred years ago, a witch doctor emerged from the Bi Shan Tribe and improved their tribe's neutralizing formula. The two consecutive Mountain Opening Realm advancement ceremonies hosted by the tribe both failed.
"Originally, for a tribe with Heaven Vein Warriors, that would not have counted as a catastrophe. But on this land where natural disasters ran rampant, the Bi Shan Tribe lacked just that little bit of luck.
"The tribe's Mountain Opener realm martial artists fell one after another, and no new ones could replace them. In the end, the entire tribe scattered and collapsed."
In the Great Wilderness, where there was no precise way to describe success rates, determining whether an improved formula worked required several experiments.
Yet beast blood was not easy to acquire. Each attempt required a period of accumulation. If several experiments went wrong, it would affect the next ten-odd years.
Add even a minor natural disaster to the mix, and it would become a catastrophe that blotted out the sky and covered the earth for the tribe.
The current formula might be inefficient, but it had stabilized the tribe's inheritance for three hundred years.
Just like how Shen Can had secretly improved the witch medicine formula this time, whether the tribe members could succeed was actually tied to the tempering of the Kui Ox Fist—and even required a measure of luck.
Even with the right timing, Geographic Advantage, and human harmony, no one dared claim a hundred percent success rate.
Not to mention that the Blazing Flame Tribe was currently enduring a natural disaster and the plight of what seemed to be a powerful savage beast appearing nearby.
Huo Xian rummaged through the wooden rack and pulled out another balding beast hide scroll.
"The ancestors recorded that after a great disaster comes a great plague, with pestilent insects running wild.
"It has rained for so many days. Who knows how many living creatures have drowned and become nourishment for those pestilent insects."
Before long, seven or eight beast hide scrolls had piled up in front of Shen Can.
Yet Huo Xian continued searching through the wooden rack, seemingly intending to seize this chance to stuff everything into Shen Can's skull in one go.
Shen Can felt somewhat dazed. He had worked overtime before transmigrating, and now he was working overtime here too. It made him feel as though he had transmigrated for nothing.
"Take your time reading. A witch doctor needs time before he can enter the field."
Shen Can did not want to enter the field. He only wanted cheats. In an environment like the Great Wilderness, no one but a cheat user could endure.
If every tribe member were a Celestial Meridian Realm warrior, stabbing third-rank savage beasts every day, then would he not, as a temple guardian, be living in bliss?
Although Huo Xian wanted to stuff the entire inheritance of witch medicine into Shen Can's head in one go, he still retained a sliver of reason.
In the latter half of the night, he finally sent Shen Can back to rest.
Upon returning to West Ear Cave, Shen Can was a little excited and could not wait to begin deducing again.
This damned environment offered not the slightest sense of security. He still had to become a warrior as soon as possible.
Lifespan: 272
Seizing the lifespan of the He Luo Fish and deducing the second-rank neutralizing witch medicine formula had used up ninety-eight years.
When he had begun that deduction, Shen Can had not thought too much about it. He had simply felt that it had to be done.
"Continue deducing the Kui Ox Fist."
"Go straight for two hundred years."
As the thought arose, a phantom appeared within the Three-legged Small Cauldron, opening with a Kui Ox charging stance.
You invested two hundred years of lifespan into cultivating the Kui Ox Fist.
Even a pig that lived two hundred years could develop some spiritual light. You kept your head down and practiced punches for forty years. While pigs rammed into trees, you rammed into pigs. You really did comprehend a little something, and unconsciously mastered the third form of the Kui Ox Fist.
The quality of the Kui Ox Fist rose to middle-grade. During practice, it could mobilize sixty percent of the muscles, flesh, tendons, and bones throughout your body.
You were still dissatisfied with the middle-grade Kui Ox Fist. Burying yourself in bitter training, you fell into a demonic obsession.
You went mad, mooing every day.
One year later, you finally recovered and stopped bellowing like an ox.
In the one hundred and eighth year, while practicing your fist technique, you suddenly heard something like the sound of bones cracking within your body. Though faint, you keenly caught this change and named it Kui Ox Thunder Sound.
You clung tightly to the thunder sound, gradually bringing it under control. The quality of your Kui Ox Fist rose to superior-grade.
While cultivating, it could mobilize more than eighty percent of the muscles, flesh, tendons, and bones throughout your body in unison.
You vaguely sensed that the thunder sound held even greater mysteries, but you were too exhausted. This deduction ended. A total of one hundred and seventeen years of lifespan had been consumed. The remaining lifespan was returned. Total lifespan remaining: 155 years.
On the stone bed, Shen Can's first reaction upon opening his eyes was not excitement, but, "Moo."
He immediately covered his mouth. His eyes stared blankly at the cave ceiling for a long while. Only after pondering, Who am I? Where am I?, did he come back to himself.
His head hurt.
He reached into his clothes, pulled out the dirt-smelling pill, and gnawed on it.
The medicine ball Master Huo Xian had rolled up tasted a little awful, but it should still have some effect.
After lying there for a long time, Shen Can felt that his head did not hurt as badly, and some of his mental exhaustion had also faded.
"Superior Kui Ox Fist!"
"Hehe... woof woof woof..."
Shen Can remained lying on the stone bed without getting up. Improving the quality of his technique could not directly transform into his strength.
But it was not a big problem. Temple guardians could sneak food.
Though the Blazing Flame Tribe was not large, it never let its ancestors suffer.
If the ancestors got one bite to eat, then he got a whole basin.
"Tomorrow, tribe members will soak in beast blood. This fist technique..."
Before you continue