Taking the Pill

Ling Li raised a hand, and Dark Night in Mo Ji's grasp began to tremble violently. It then flew from his hand and came to a steady stop before Ling Li, who seized it once more.

Mo Ji: "???"

Weapons could recognize their masters? Could an inanimate object have its own consciousness? This was the first time Mo Ji had ever seen something like this!

Sword control?

It was said that the Cloud Mist Sect possessed sword-controlling techniques, but those fighting techniques were merely a disguised application of Battle Qi wrapping. They looked impressive, but had almost no power and an extremely limited range. Once someone used even a little Battle Qi to sever the connection between the sword and its wielder, it would be impossible to control the sword again.

Yet just now, nearly ten meters had separated him from Ling Li. Though he had not wrapped the blade in Battle Qi, his grip on the hilt had not been weak. Even so, Dark Night had still flown out of his hand.

This utterly surpassed Mo Ji's understanding. Could weapons truly possess their own consciousness? Heh, what nonsense was he thinking? An inanimate object was an inanimate object. How could it possibly have a mind of its own?

"Heh, so what if that's the case? That strike just now must have cost you quite a bit, right? But I'm an earth-element Great Fighting Master. Let me show you the fundamental difference between a Fighting Master and a Great Fighting Master!" Mo Ji sneered as he fished a fiery-red pill from his robes. After hesitating for a moment, he swallowed it with an expression as if he were putting on a mask of agony.

It was not because the pill tasted bad, but because it was expensive.

After medicinal ingredients were refined and balanced by an alchemist, they could be condensed into pills. Pills were divided into grades one through nine, yet their prices were more than five times higher than magical beast cores of ranks one through nine. Some pills with exceptional effects even sold for dozens or hundreds of times their production cost!

This third-grade Vitality Pill had cost Mo Ji a full eighty thousand Gold Coins. It could keep the Battle Qi within his body fully replenished for a short time, but its violent medicinal power would force his meridians to expand and overdraw his potential. Furthermore, for the following month, the user would be unable to use Battle Qi.

Mo Ji had always treated this pill as his final life-saving trump card. But today, he had to admit that this young man, merely a seven-star Fighting Master, was qualified to make him use it.

The pill entered his stomach, and its violent medicinal power instantly surged forth from his abdomen, flooding through every part of his body like roaring floodwaters. Mo Ji's body swiftly turned red and expanded. His frame, originally under three meters tall, abruptly shot up to four meters. Heat continuously steamed from his crimson body, while the one-and-a-half-meter double-edged axe in his hand now looked as tiny as a toy.

"Die, bastard! The fact that you forced me to use a pill is already enough for you to be proud of!" Mo Ji roared, swinging his double-edged axe fiercely. Battle Qi rapidly gathered along the axe blade, and then an earthy-yellow slash wave slightly over a meter long detached from the axe and flew toward Ling Li.

Did this count as Blade Qi, Sword Qi, or Axe Qi?

Ling Li did not know how to define this method of attack, but he envied it greatly. Slashing out Blade Qi sounded cool as hell, didn't it? Unfortunately, only those who advanced to Great Fighting Master could launch attacks with Battle Qi leaving their bodies.

The yellow slash wave was not especially fast, but it carried a heavy, oppressive feeling. After Ling Li easily dodged it, the slash wave ultimately struck a large tree behind him.

The earthy-yellow slash wave did not sharply slice the tree apart. Instead, like a blunt weapon striking it, the trunk thick enough for several people to encircle exploded directly open. The tree collapsed, and the fractured surface was covered in splintered wood.

"Gulp."

Ling Li could not help swallowing. Fuck, one hit from that and I'd be done for, wouldn't I?

"Run!"

Ling Li instantly lost any desire to keep fighting Mo Ji. A battle with a slight difference in strength was called a challenge; a battle where one side completely crushed the other was called suicide.

Moreover, the Swallow Return he had used earlier had already drained nearly half the Battle Qi in his body. He only had about one-sixth left. Though Mo Ji was only this fierce because he had taken a pill, no one knew how long he could keep it up or whether there would be aftereffects afterward. Continuing this fight was absolutely not a wise choice.

He poured all the Battle Qi he could into his legs. Feeling his calves swell slightly, Ling Li dashed toward the area not far from the city gate, hoisted the Little Doctor Fairy, who had been watching the show, over his shoulder, and began sprinting into the dense forest.

"Bastard, trying to run?! Too bad it's already too late!" Mo Ji gritted his teeth in fury. Leg guards formed around his legs once more as he gave chase.

Perhaps because certain parts of the Little Doctor Fairy were particularly lacking in weight, she was very light. Carrying her over his shoulder was almost unnoticeable. Of course, even if she weighed a few more jin, it would mean nothing to Ling Li, whose strength amounted to tens of thousands of jin.

"You bastard, put me down right now!" the Little Doctor Fairy protested from Ling Li's shoulder. Clearly, staying where she had been was the safest option, yet this bastard had deliberately dragged her into it. She even felt that Ling Li might use her as a shield if necessary!

"Don't move." Ling Li smacked the Little Doctor Fairy's perky butt and warned, "If you want to get down, I can throw you down right now. You can take a gamble. Maybe the guy behind us will see that you're fairly pretty and let you go?"

"You bastard!" the Little Doctor Fairy cursed through gritted teeth. Now that Ling Li was carrying her over his shoulder, the monster behind them had probably already automatically classified her as Ling Li's companion. The best possible outcome for her would likely be getting chopped into two by an axe.

"Looks like last night's lesson wasn't long enough. You actually dare curse at me!" Ling Li gave her another smack. This time, however, the Little Doctor Fairy behaved much more honestly.

After entering the dense forest, Mo Ji's speed dropped slightly due to his size, while Ling Li's speed barely changed at all. His training in the Monster Beast Mountain Range had not been for show. Even there, Ling Li could move as though walking on flat ground, let alone through a forest with such simple terrain.

The five-minute pursuit felt incomparably long to Ling Li. Happy times always passed quickly, but when one was risking one's life, every second felt like a year. Like attending class or doing homework...

Behind Ling Li, Mo Ji went from charging wildly at first, to gradually slowing down, and now suddenly collapsed to the ground without strength. His swollen body had already shrunk by more than half, and his loose skin sagged limply over his body.

"Is this the side effect of that pill? Or is this guy playing a trick?" Ling Li looked back at Mo Ji, who lay motionless on the ground, and spoke uncertainly.

"Don't worry. He can't move now, and he can't use Battle Qi either. Otherwise, he'll die on the spot," the Little Doctor Fairy suddenly said.

"Oh? Really? I don't believe you. I feel like you're trying to murder your husband," Ling Li said with a perfectly serious expression.

"Heh, believe it or not. Those are the side effects of the third-grade Vitality Pill." The Little Doctor Fairy curled her lips. Though she was only a physician, she had dearly wished to become an alchemist. Unfortunately, because of her constitution, that dream was destined to remain impossible.

Still, while she could not claim to know every medicinal ingredient and pill inside out, she understood their effects extremely well.

Ling Li shook his head. Rather than rashly approaching, he tossed over some of the various medicinal powders the Little Doctor Fairy had prepared. After waiting for more than half an hour and confirming that Mo Ji truly could not move, he finally went over, beheaded him with a single slash, and took his life.