Lin Xiao woke from a nightmare. He saw his father, Lin Shan, hacked into pieces beneath a flurry of blades. He saw everyone in Spring Return Hall die beneath the blades of the swarming Black Blade Bandits. He saw Hua Wuniang and Lin Yao, covered in blood, standing before him with their arms outstretched, trying to seize his throat. He saw Hu Zhutie, Mr. Wei from the accounts room, and the others, their bodies all torn to tatters as they lay on the ground struggling and groaning desperately.
Everyone he knew lay in pools of blood, their eyes wide as they stared fixedly at him. Those unwilling, hate-filled gazes seemed to be demanding to know why they had all died while only Lin Xiao remained alive!
Then came the people of Shen Family Fortress. Thousands of Shen clansmen had been hacked into pieces by the Overlord's Soldiers. Thousands of dark figures stood before Lin Xiao, silently watching him. Why had he treated those Overlord's Soldiers who had breached Shen Family Fortress? Why had he saved their lives? Among those thousands of deaths, Lin Xiao bore his share of sin.
Shen Xiaobai's face suddenly surfaced. Her fair, delicate little face was now smeared with blood. She stood before Lin Xiao, saying something to him over and over. Yet Lin Xiao could not hear a single word. He could hear nothing, sense nothing. Just as he wanted to ask Shen Xiaobai what she had said, what exactly she wanted to tell him, a huge blade suddenly swept past. Shen Xiaobai's head flew high into the air, droplets of blood scattering across Lin Xiao's face. Lin Xiao turned back furiously, only to see Xue Wu grinning savagely at him.
Drenched in sweat, Lin Xiao suddenly woke.
Sticky sweat clung to him like glue, leaving his skin uncomfortably tacky. Yet his body felt incomparably refreshed. Not only had all his injuries healed, even his meridians seemed to have widened considerably. The true qi that had once felt slightly sluggish whenever he cultivated and regulated his breathing now flowed freely in every direction through his body, light and nimble at his command. Lin Xiao was even astonished to discover that several profound gates and vital acupoints he had spent years trying to open had become broad highways. Even the Ren and Du Meridians that determined whether a martial artist remained in the acquired realm or entered the innate realm had become as unobstructed as Guihua City's two main commercial roads.
Slowly sitting upright, Lin Xiao found himself wearing a blue coarse-cloth undershirt. Beneath him was a somewhat crude wooden bed. A piece of blue coarse cloth had merely been spread over the bare boards, and he had been lying on it just moments ago. He turned to look around. The room was not large, perhaps two zhang square. Apart from the wooden bed beneath him, there was only a small square table and two long benches beside it.
A bronze oil lamp sat on the square table, along with a tiny teapot and a teacup.
A girl in a green cloth dress sat on one of the benches. Her elbows rested on the table, her hands propped beneath her chin as she dozed there.
She was seated facing the wooden bed, so Lin Xiao could easily see her face. She had a clean oval face, utterly unadorned. A pert nose, little reddish lips, and a pair of delicate long brows. Altogether, she looked like a very clean, beautiful girl who made people want to draw close. Lin Xiao roughly guessed her age. Perhaps she was one or two years older than him, but certainly not much older.
This girl gave Lin Xiao a very strange feeling. Yet for the moment, he could not figure out what exactly felt wrong.
Her long black hair was glossy and beautiful, yet she had carelessly tied it atop her head with a long thorn. Several strands had slipped loose from her hair knot and swayed ostentatiously before her face, rocking from side to side with every breath. Her clothes had been washed very clean, but some unknown black substance was caked around her cuffs, making them look rather dirty. Her cuffs and chest also seemed to have been scorched by fire, leaving holes of varying sizes.
At last, Lin Xiao understood what was wrong. The girl was dozing with her chin in her hands, but her rosy little mouth hung slightly open. A glistening thread of drool dangled from the corner of her mouth and slowly dripped onto the tabletop, where a palm-sized puddle had already accumulated. Lin Xiao stared blankly at that strand of saliva when the girl suddenly smacked her lips and muttered in her sleep, "Master's wife, save the chicken drumstick for Yao'er. It has been so long since I had chicken drumsticks. Smack, smack, delicious!"
The corner of Lin Xiao's mouth twitched. He looked around the room again and softly called, "Miss... elder sister... miss, um, young lady!"
Lin Xiao called several times, gradually raising his voice, but the girl still slept as soundly as could be, without the slightest response. Having no choice, Lin Xiao circulated a trace of true qi and coughed forcefully. With an "Ahem," the lamp flame on the table flickered violently, and even the teapot lid was jolted into the air before falling onto the table with a clatter.
"Ah?" The little girl abruptly opened her eyes. She blinked dazedly a few times and stared blankly at Lin Xiao for a while.
Raising her sleeve haphazardly to wipe the drool from her mouth, the little girl nodded vaguely at Lin Xiao. "Oh, you're awake!"
She stood and turned to leave. Lin Xiao looked at her eagerly, wondering whether he should stop her and ask where this place was and who she was, when the little girl suddenly let out an earth-shaking shriek. "Heavens! Who are you? Why are you in my room? Take this! Are you here to steal the pills I secretly refined?"
The little girl whirled around and waved a hand at Lin Xiao from afar.
Lin Xiao sharply raised both arms in front of himself and shouted, "Wait, I am not—"
Before Lin Xiao could finish speaking, a thunderous boom rang out. A bolt of lightning struck from the little girl's palm, blasting Lin Xiao and the wooden bed through the wall behind them and sending them flying out of the room in utter disarray. The wooden bed shattered on the spot, and Lin Xiao's clothes turned to black ash. Lightning and fire charred his entire body pitch-black. Feeling as if his organs were convulsing, Lin Xiao crashed heavily onto the ground. He opened his mouth to say something, but a puff of black smoke came out instead. He shook his head, then fainted again with a thud.
Having blasted Lin Xiao away with Palm Lightning, the little girl stared blankly at the large hole now in the wall. She suddenly slapped her forehead hard and said in surprise, "Strange, this does not seem to be my bedroom!"
Blinking, the little girl suddenly cried out, "Oh no, oh no, I remember now! This blackened mess is the little junior brother Master was planning to take in! Oh no, little junior brother, how did you end up like this? When I bathed you just now, you were still so fair and tender!" In a fluster, the little girl pounced beside Lin Xiao. Tears already trembled in her eyes. "Wuwuwu, how did someone beat you so badly? Master's wife will definitely blame me for not taking good care of you!"
Figures came from all directions, some flying through the air, others leaping swiftly over with lightness techniques. High-crowned Daoists and Daoist nuns gathered nearby, staring blankly at the little girl clutching Lin Xiao and bawling her eyes out. One by one, they shook their heads, patted their backsides, and turned to leave. Only a middle-aged Daoist nun in an apricot-yellow Daoist robe took several steps away before hearing the girl's crying again. Unable to bear it, she turned back and said, "Yao'er, your Palm Lightning was not powerful enough. The little fellow is fine. Just give him any two pills."
"Oh? Any two pills?" Yao'er blinked, then truly did pull two black pills from her sleeve and stuff them into Lin Xiao's mouth. The moment they entered his stomach, they transformed into two streams of bitter, spicy, fishy, astringent heat that rushed into his abdomen. At once, a chaotic rumbling sounded from Lin Xiao's belly, and his body began convulsing violently.
The Daoist nun in the apricot-yellow Daoist robe had only just reminded Yao'er and taken two steps away when she slapped her forehead hard. Whirling around, she shrieked, "Yao'er, no! Don't give him medicine!"
Yao'er foolishly pointed at the violently convulsing Lin Xiao and smiled at the Daoist nun. "Senior Sister Hua, he already took them."
Senior Sister Hua's hands twitched. Somewhat nervously, she asked Yao'er, "What medicine did you give him?"
Blinking, Yao'er blankly pulled out a large handful of multicolored pills from her sleeve and looked at Senior Sister Hua in confusion. "Didn't you say that I only needed to feed him any two pills? I... forgot what medicine I gave him." She gestured at the pills in her hand as she counted them. "Look, there are more than thirty kinds of pills here."
Senior Sister Hua gave a dry, cackling laugh. Then she suddenly raised her voice and shouted, "Master, come save him! Yao'er gave someone random medicine again! Come save him!"
A streak of green light flashed through the sky. A clean-shaven middle-aged Daoist came rushing over atop a sword light, frantic and flustered. He shouted furiously, "Yao'er, I confiscated every pill on you just last month. Where did you get all these pills again?" As he berated her, he sped over on his sword light and reached down toward Lin Xiao.
Suddenly, unconscious Lin Xiao let out an earth-shaking roar. He sprang straight up five or six zhang into the air. When the night wind blew, it swept away the clothing that had already turned to powder, exposing his pitch-black naked body to the gazes of nearly a hundred Daoists and Daoist nuns below. The Daoist on the sword light grabbed empty air. He awkwardly raised his head, only to see Lin Xiao let out a strange cry, cover his groin with both hands, and dash in disarray toward a lush flower garden in the distance.
Soon, strange sounds came from the flower garden, and a faint peculiar odor drifted over.
The Daoist angrily withdrew his sword light and stood viciously before Yao'er, who had hunched her shoulders, lowered her head, and begun shedding tears. Before he could scold her, Yao'er had already squatted on the ground and burst into loud sobs. "Wuwuwu, Master's wife... Master is going to scold people again... Master's wife, come quickly... Master is going to scold Yao'er again... Wuwu, I refined these pills for fun in the pill room these past few days, wuu!"
The Daoist's face twitched violently a few times. He asked softly, "Yao'er, what pills did you give him? Do you... still remember the formula for those pills?"
Yao'er lifted her head and looked at the Daoist blankly. After blinking a few times, she said in utter bewilderment, "Formula? Uh, I don't know! I just grabbed some herbs and tossed them into the pill furnace, and it refined pills. I do not know what they are! Hmm, I do have some pills refined according to proper formulas. Look, there are Bone Dissolving Pills, Marrow Chilling Pills, Wooden Man Pills, and also—"
The Daoist's face twitched even harder. He stared blankly at Yao'er for a long while before finally saying stiffly, "For three months, you are not to set foot in the pill room again. Hand over every pill on you to your master! Quickly! Not just those in your hands, but the ones in your sleeves too!"
Yao'er looked at the Daoist with immense grievance. Slowly, she handed him the great handful of pills in her hand, then took another large handful from her sleeves and passed them over.
The Daoist pointed at Yao'er's belt. "There are seven hidden pockets in your belt. Every pill inside, now!"
Rolling her eyes, Yao'er twisted her mouth and took several medicine bottles from her belt before handing them to him.
The Daoist pointed at Yao'er's boots again. "You have always hidden pills in your boot shafts. Hand those over to your master too."
Then he pointed toward Yao'er's hair knot. "And there are sometimes several wax pills hidden in your hair. Do not think your master does not know all these little tricks of yours."
As he forced Yao'er to hand over every last miscellaneous pill on her person, the Daoist listened closely to the sounds coming from Lin Xiao's direction. Daoist Danling had entrusted a disciple with a pure fire constitution to him and asked him to take Lin Xiao as his disciple. This was a good thing, and he absolutely did not want anything to happen to a disciple destined to attain great accomplishments in the art of "tending the fire." Before long, the Daoist relaxed. The strange noises from the flower garden continued, and though Lin Xiao's groans were agonized, they carried plenty of strength. It seemed that at the very least, the pills Yao'er had fed him were not highly poisonous.
After thoroughly stripping Yao'er of every pill she had, the Daoist pointed at Senior Sister Hua in her apricot-yellow Daoist robe and shouted, "Hua Feng'er, you are muddleheaded too. You know exactly what Yao'er is like, yet you actually suggested she casually feed him any two pills. You, you, you! Have you become muddleheaded as well?"
Hua Feng'er looked at the Daoist with equal grievance and helplessly spread her hands. "Master, this... little junior sister's Palm Lightning truly was not that strong. So long as he casually took two pills to protect the heart and nourish the body, he naturally would have been fine. But little junior sister, she..."
Hua Feng'er cast a strange glance toward the flower garden, then bared her teeth in a grin at the Daoist.
The Daoist could barely keep his face. He looked around at his fellow disciples and waved his hand broadly. "All right, disperse, disperse. What, are you all here to watch Dan Fusheng make a fool of himself?"
The Daoists and Daoist nuns laughed and clasped their hands toward Dan Fusheng before each swiftly departing with movement techniques and spells.
Early the next morning, Lin Xiao—who had suffered diarrhea all night, been emptied to the point of losing his shape, and now walked as though floating in the air, moving as slowly as a corpse—followed Dan Fusheng toward Pill Qi Lingxiao Hall beneath Spring Return Valley's northern main peak. After a night of violent diarrhea, Lin Xiao had felt by the end as if he were about to expel all his organs. Had Dan Fusheng not given him two pills to replenish his vitality, he would probably only have been able to lie in bed groaning now.
Even with Dan Fusheng's pills, the two "laxatives" Yao'er had fed him seemed to contain some bizarre ingredients. Lin Xiao still felt weak and limp all over. His calves trembled, and every step was soft and unsteady, as if he might fall at any moment.
Dan Fusheng looked at the pale-faced Lin Xiao beside him and could not help narrowing his eyes in a smile. "Hehehe, a thorough purge is a good thing too. There is not the slightest impurity left in your body now. Yao'er's two pills were somewhat overbearing, but their effects were quite good. Hmm, hmm, they have even saved us a bowl of Marrow Cleansing Soup after you enter the sect."
Lin Xiao slowly turned his head. He opened his mouth weakly and softly said, "Oh..."
Dan Fusheng gently patted Lin Xiao's shoulder. After a moment of silence, he said, "Today, you will formally enter the Great Luo Pill Dao. We already know what happened in Guihua City and Spring Return Hall. Your two martial uncles went there to investigate and returned overnight. Hmm, the Jimo Sect dared enter the Great Yuan Kingdom to cause trouble, and even destroyed an outer branch of our Great Luo Pill Dao. We will settle this matter with them properly. But your cultivation is too low, so do not keep this matter on your mind."
Lin Xiao opened his mouth, wanting to say something. Yet he suddenly realized that he did not even have the qualifications to voice an opinion.
The Palm Lightning Yao'er had used last night, as well as the sword light Dan Fusheng rode, had both made Lin Xiao understand clearly that he, Lin Xiao, had already touched a legendary world.
In this world, Lin Xiao, who possessed only a little more than ten years of true qi cultivation from the mortal realm, did not even have the right to speak.
Whatever disputes Great Luo Pill Dao and the Jimo Sect would have over Spring Return Hall, whatever scale of conflict would erupt, none of it had anything to do with Lin Xiao anymore.
Perhaps many, many years later, once Lin Xiao possessed strength equal to Dan Fusheng's, he would then be qualified to personally seek out the Jimo Sect and demand justice for Lin Shan?
The main gates of Pill Qi Lingxiao Hall stood open, while golden bells and jade drums gave forth pleasant chimes. After five years of seclusion and refining vast quantities of pills for the Origin Sect, Great Luo Pill Dao opened its gates once again. Dan Fusheng took Lin Xiao in, making him an utterly ordinary white-robed Daoist acolyte of the Great Luo Pill Dao.
Lin Xiao knelt before the ancestral master's statue of the Great Luo Pill Dao and bowed reverently.
Daoist Danling and the other elders of Great Luo Pill Dao nodded slightly. They could see the sincerity in Lin Xiao's heart, his persistence, his resolve.
But none of them could see what sort of person Lin Xiao would become in the future, nor what events he would encounter!
Just as Lin Xiao heavily knocked his head against the ground, splitting his forehead and staining it with blood, and Dan Fusheng was calling for him to rise with some concern, an earth-shaking boom suddenly came from the pill rooms beneath the southern mountain peak.
The Daoists in the great hall rushed outside one after another, using talismans to float in the air as they looked toward the pill rooms.
A small black mushroom cloud rose slowly from the pill rooms. One pill room had already been blasted into the air, and countless shattered bricks and broken tiles were now raining down.
Daoist Danling looked blankly at his martial brothers and sisters, asking dully, "I seem to have said yesterday that the pills had all been completely refined and that everyone was to rest properly for a month. Who is in the pill room?"
The corner of Dan Fusheng's mouth twitched. He suddenly let out a shrill howl. "Yao'er—"
A sobbing voice drifted from afar. "Wuwuwu, Master, save me! Yao'er put in one Blazing Sun Fruit by mistake. How did the pill furnace explode?"
With a thud, Dan Fusheng was so enraged that the true qi within him fell into disorder. Unable to keep his footing, he tumbled miserably from the sky.
The corner of Lin Xiao's mouth twitched, then a trace of happy laughter suddenly appeared on his face.
Great Luo Pill Dao?
This sect seemed rather nice.
Before you continue