By the time Shen Fan reached the Waste Elixir Chamber, night had already fallen.
Knock, knock, knock—!
From afar, Shen Fan felt a scorching wave of heat rush toward him, and the air was thick with the smell of sulfur.
The next moment, the door opened, and the searing heat became even more intense, while the sulfur stench grew thicker still.
A dark-skinned young man, bare from the waist up, opened the door with a blank expression and asked coldly, "What is it?"
"I'm..."
Before Shen Fan could finish, the young man spotted the transfer order in his hand.
"You're here, finally! Half a year—I can finally leave this place!"
Clutching the transfer order in both hands, the young man wept with excitement.
Only after a while did he calm down, then he grabbed Shen Fan and pulled him inside.
Once inside, Shen Fan stared at the so-called Waste Elixir Chamber in shock.
The room seemed to be protected by an array that isolated the heat. Otherwise, with the Core Earth Fire inside, no person could endure such a high temperature.
It had been built in the gorge between two mountain peaks.
The top of the elixir chamber was open and shaped like a funnel. Discarded pills and residue poured down from Elixir Forging Peak and gathered here.
The task here was to collect them and burn them away.
Of the two peaks, Elixir Forging Peak stood on the left, while the Spirit Herb Department under its jurisdiction stood on the right.
Some refuse from the Spirit Herb Department was also dumped here for unified incineration.
Listening to this senior brother's explanation, Shen Fan grew even more excited.
The Spirit Herb Department?
Elixir Forging Peak?
The Waste Elixir Chamber?
These three places had somehow, muddleheadedly, all fallen right into his lap.
"Discarded pills, pill residue, and waste materials are generally processed together once every three days. You need to record everything—the quantity, the time of incineration, and so on. Just write it according to what's listed above..."
After saying that, the senior brother picked up his luggage and prepared to leave.
Just before departing, he saw Shen Fan carrying bags large and small. His eyes shifted, and he said,
"Junior Brother, there's one final procedure: a routine inspection to see whether you're carrying anything dangerous!"
As he spoke, ignoring Shen Fan's attempts to stop him, he began searching through his belongings himself.
But after turning everything inside out, he looked at the mess scattered across the floor and immediately revealed a disappointed expression. Under his breath, he cursed, "I knew it. What decent person would come here? Sure enough, you're a broke bastard!"
With that, he completely ignored Shen Fan's belongings strewn all over the ground, turned around resolutely, and strode away.
"Fuck! Not a single one of them is any good!"
Shen Fan cursed inwardly, but on second thought, he secretly rejoiced that he had not brought the Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice with him.
Then Shen Fan slowly crouched down and picked up the scattered items one by one. His movements were slow, yet orderly.
After tidying everything away, he began carefully examining the furnishings of the Waste Elixir Chamber. His gaze wandered across the mottled walls and old pill furnaces, as though searching for something.
Meanwhile, Old Man Duan returned from the market. As he passed his Spirit Field, he pretended to till it a few times, but found it utterly dull and returned to his room in frustration.
When he pushed open the door, a slip of paper came into view, lying quietly on the floor.
Full of doubt, Old Man Duan bent down to pick it up. He then paced over to the table, poured himself a cup of water, and examined the contents of the note carefully as he drank.
"That boy left? And he went to the Waste Elixir Chamber? Is that place fit for a human being to stay in?"
Old Man Duan's brows knitted tightly, his worry plain to see.
"It must be Zhao Erhu's doing!"
He let out a long sigh, his face full of helplessness and indignation.
"What does this boy mean by 'under the big tree'? Could he have buried something there?"
Old Man Duan's heart stirred, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
At that thought, he hesitated no longer. He immediately burned the note, then hurried up the mountain carrying a water bucket.
At this time, the sun was setting behind the western hills. The mountain was silent and deserted.
Following the directions on the note, Old Man Duan arrived beneath a large tree.
Weeds grew thickly beneath the tree, and the surrounding terrain was remote and steep. No one ever came here.
He crouched down and examined the ground closely. Sure enough, he found signs that the soil had been disturbed.
Old Man Duan scratched at it a few times with his hand and found the dirt unusually loose. There was clearly something buried beneath, though it seemed to be fairly deep.
So Old Man Duan went back for a hoe and dug hard a few times.
In an instant, a rich spiritual aura rushed toward him and seeped straight into his heart and lungs.
"This... this..."
The sudden change froze Old Man Duan on the spot. His eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief.
When he had completely dug away the soil, he saw grain after grain of golden Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice, wrapped in a coarse scrap of cloth and lying quietly in the earth. Under the lingering glow of the setting sun, they glittered with an alluring light.
"This... this is Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice!"
Old Man Duan's breathing instantly grew rapid. His eyes shone as though he had seen mountains of gold and seas of silver, and his body began trembling uncontrollably.
Immediately afterward, Old Man Duan vigilantly scanned his surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was there did he carefully pick up the grains of Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice with trembling hands and scrutinize them before his eyes.
"It's real. It's real!"
After the brief surge of excitement passed, Old Man Duan gradually calmed down, but his brows furrowed tightly.
"Where did that boy get so much Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice? Since he had it, why didn't he take it with him? Why leave it for me instead?"
A question surfaced in his heart, but the moment it emerged, he rejected it himself.
"He must have been worried Zhao Erhu and the others would search him, so he hid it here and left it for me!"
Old Man Duan muttered to himself, "The spiritual aura in this Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice is far too rich. It can't be taken out of the Spirit Field at all. I can only digest it here!"
Old Man Duan tightly clasped the spirit rice in his wrinkled hands and tilted his head slightly upward, his eyes filled with gratitude. "Boy, my careful care for you over these past three years was not in vain. This Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice is simply too important to me. Great kindness needs no words of thanks. One day, I will repay you with my life!"
After his outpouring of emotion, Old Man Duan knew full well that he could not bring this Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice back to his residence, or it would surely invite trouble.
It seemed he could only come here slowly to digest it whenever he went up the mountain to fetch water in the future.
Elsewhere.
Shen Fan had already thoroughly cleaned the Waste Elixir Chamber.
Everything here was quite good, except for the heat. Every so often, discarded pill residue and garbage fell from overhead into the funnel-shaped collection pit of the Waste Elixir Chamber, scattering everywhere.
His task was to climb onto the roof each day and sweep everything into the collection pit. Then he would return to the Waste Elixir Chamber, open the funnel, pour all the residue into the incinerator, and use the Core Earth Fire to burn it clean.
The night had grown deep.
Shen Fan emerged from a pile of garbage, his face covered in grime.
Yet there was now a round, grayish discarded pill in his hand.
It was one of the better-preserved discarded pills among the heap of residue.
All the others had shattered into dregs and were unusable.
Shen Fan held it beneath his nose and sniffed it.
The burnt smell made it impossible for Shen Fan to tell what kind of pill it was.
But in truth, even if it had been intact, Shen Fan would not have recognized it.
During his three years at the Spirit Field, the only pill he had ever seen was the Qi Induction Pill. He knew nothing of any others.
After washing up, Shen Fan ate dinner and carefully placed it into the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl.
Then he lay on the bed and waited for tomorrow to arrive.
Before you continue