As soon as Li Yan stepped into the courtyard of Jingxu Temple, he saw Old Daoist Xuanwang approaching with a group of disciples.
Seeing his master come out to receive him in person, Li Yan clasped his hands and said, "Your disciple, Ming Yan, pays his respects to Master!"
Xuanwang said nothing. He simply raised his palm.
A force of suction pulled the White Bone Blood Crystal hidden in Li Yan's sleeve straight into Xuanwang's hand.
Looking at the treasure in his palm, translucent and brimming with the essence of blood, Xuanwang smiled with satisfaction.
"Well done, Ming Yan."
"From today on, you're promoted from Labor Disciple to Outer Sect Disciple. You can collect five medicine stones every month."
"The outer sect's room at the Stone Workshop Eatery is yours. You'll still be in charge of looking after the Stone Workshop Eatery."
At this, Li Yan secretly congratulated himself on having hidden the other crystals outside in advance. Otherwise, the old Daoist would have taken them all.
Li Yan sensibly clasped his hands in thanks. "Thank you for your cultivation, Master!"
"Mm, Ming Yan, come with me."
"Yes!"
Li Yan followed behind Xuanwang as they walked into the inner courtyard and stopped outside the Alchemy Room.
"Disciple, wait here. I'm going to refine this treasure."
The old Daoist left Li Yan waiting outside and carried the White Bone Blood Crystal inside.
If he remembered correctly, the soul inside that Blood Crystal belonged to Senior Brother Ming Zhe...
Through a crack in the window, Li Yan watched the deranged Old Daoist Xuanwang place the crystal inside the Alchemy Furnace.
Xuanwang formed a hand seal with two fingers and summoned a cluster of eerie, greenish-blue flames, igniting the furnace.
Before long, Ming Zhe's anguished cries rang out from within the furnace.
Under the scorching flames, his soul gradually fell silent.
About half an hour later, a pill rolled out of the furnace.
Xuanwang picked up the pill, white with a tinge of red. The wrinkles on his face bunched together, forcing a chilling smile across his aged features.
Holding the pill, Xuanwang opened the door and came to stand before Li Yan.
"Disciple, eat this. It'll do you good."
Xuanwang held the pill out to Li Yan, leaving no room for discussion.
But so what if the pill had side effects? The stronger the side effects, the more he liked it.
"Thank you, Master!"
Without another word, he swallowed the pill.
The instant it entered his mouth, Li Yan felt a powerful resentment.
It was the intense curse Ming Zhe had unleashed before his death. Li Yan could almost hear the man's voice, cursing with all his hatred.
But so what?
Ming Zhe had tried to harm people more than once. For such a scourge to die by his hand was a deed of boundless merit.
[Detected that the host has swallowed a [Nether God Pill] with powerful side effects.]
[Side effect: Powerful evil thoughts will disturb the host's mind and plant an Inner Demon in his Dao heart.]
[Side effect conversion: Host's Spiritual Vision +1. The higher the Spiritual Vision level, the easier it is to see through the true nature of the uncanny with the Mind's Eye.]
[This pill also has positive effects. It can boost blood energy and grant a portion of the departed soul's memories.]
In an instant.
Countless memories surged into Li Yan's mind.
The World of Demonic Chaos: natural disasters, human calamities, soldiers and bandits running rampant.
Senior Brother Ming Zhe had originally come from beyond the mountains. At fourteen, he had been conscripted into the army. By twenty-one, he was already a grizzled old soldier. He had slain countless enemies, but had also killed innocent people and claimed their heads as military merit, often using the heads of locals to pad his tally.
Then one day, as usual, he took his reward money to visit the brothel run by his commanding officer. There, he took a fancy to a new military courtesan.
After flirting with her, Ming Zhe discovered that she came from his hometown. He pressed her for more details and was horrified to learn that she was his younger sister, who had gone missing six years ago.
Desperate to save her, Ming Zhe made up his mind, took her, and fled the army camp. With countless pursuers closing in, he was gravely wounded and hid in Mount Bugui.
When Ming Zhe woke, his sister had brought him to an abandoned hut in the mountains. The siblings began living in seclusion there.
Ming Zhe hunted in the mountains while his sister gathered wild herbs. Their lives seemed to be getting better, and the relationship between them gradually grew strange.
Until one day, when he returned from hunting.
He found an old Daoist who called himself Xuanwang waiting in the courtyard, holding his sister's head.
The old Daoist told him this wasn't his sister at all, but a Demonic Painted Skin wearing her face.
Seeing his sister's headless corpse, Ming Zhe felt a rush of blood to his head. He wanted to cut down the demon Daoist and avenge her, but Xuanwang subdued him in an instant and force-fed him a Blood Egg Pill.
The demon Daoist also said that Ming Zhe had good talent and could withstand the medicinal power of the Blood Egg Pill, so he wanted to take him as a disciple.
Faced with the Daoist's strength, Ming Zhe had no choice but to join Jingxu Temple, biding his time in secret and thinking of revenge at every moment.
Even though he had long understood that his sister had already been struck by several arrows and died when the pursuers surrounded them.
One day, Ming Zhe heard that a new disciple named Li Yan had arrived at Jingxu Temple, and that Master seemed to think highly of him.
He volunteered to show the junior brother Li Yan around the sect, leading him to the forbidden Library Pavilion on the fourth floor.
As Li Yan absorbed those memories, he instantly learned many things, including the work required within the sect and its taboos.
Even his cultivation had risen by one level.
At this point, Li Yan also gained a basic understanding of the cultivators' ranks.
Blood Condensation Realm, Blood Moving Realm, Blood Pill Realm, Blood Cocoon Realm, Feather Ascension Realm...
At Jingxu Temple, senior brothers and sisters often disappeared for no apparent reason. Everyone knew what was happening, though no one said it aloud: the old Daoist was taking them to make pills.
After absorbing Senior Brother Ming Zhe's memories, Li Yan's expression gradually turned grave.
He didn't feel sad about the story. He realized that Old Xuanwang seemed to have set his sights on him.
Turning back, he saw the old Daoist gently stroking his beard. The wrinkles on his face had bunched into a mass, and greed glimmered in his eyes.
"Disciple, your growth is truly swift, far surpassing all your senior brothers and sisters."
"Excellent... excellent."
Xuanwang reached out and patted Li Yan on the shoulder, as if the old man were trying to restrain his own greed.
It seemed he intended to raise Li Yan like a rare treasure, fattening him up before butchering him.
The disciples of Jingxu Temple were, in truth, nothing more than pigs raised by Xuanwang.
They worked for him, only to become ingredients for his alchemy as well.
Though he'd long been prepared for this, his rapid rise in strength had already attracted Xuanwang's attention.
The old man wanted to raise him, fatten him up, and then kill him!
Li Yan clenched his fists in secret, but he knew the time wasn't right yet.
Xuanwang was a Blood Moving Realm cultivator. He was strong enough to kill Li Yan in an instant.
The old Daoist could withstand his Lamp Lighting Technique head-on and kill him by force.
As Li Yan pondered this, Xuanwang turned around and took an Ebony Sword from a nearby cabinet.
"Disciple, I'm giving you a Magic Artifact. Take it."
The instant Li Yan took the Ebony Sword, he brightened with interest.
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