Cannon Powder

The ghost fire had been extinguished. Xu Yuan took a breath, a numb sensation spreading from the wound on his back. Xu Yuan clutched the cage containing Master Qiao's corpse and fled quickly.

This place was still a bit too close to the old Locust's territory.

After moving another dozen miles away, Xu Yuan found a sun-drenched hillside and sat down, taking off his shirt to expose his back to the sun.

He wondered if it would help.

Then Xu Yuan pulled Master Qiao's corpse over and rummaged through his belongings.

Hidden within the corpse's clothes were several calligraphy sheets. Xu Yuan unfolded them and saw they were all "Soaring Cloud," "Riding Wind," and similar phrases. The ink was still fresh; Master Qiao had written them recently.

Xu Yuan didn't know that Master Qiao never used these kinds of calligraphy sheets in his daily life. He always traveled by carriage.

But the day before yesterday, he had gone into the mountains to gather information.

The targets of Master Qiao's information gathering were, of course, the powerful and strange beings within Ghost Witch Mountain.

However, all those strange beings wanted from Master Qiao was blood food.

Master Qiao had left in such a hurry this time that he hadn't prepared enough blood food. To gather information, he could only leave his pageboy, coachman, and carriage horses to the strange beings.

The coachman had worked for the Qiao family for twelve years, and the pageboy had been with him for five years.

Without his horses and coachman, Master Qiao couldn't possibly pull the carriage back himself. That's why, when Xu Yuan encountered Master Qiao on the official road the day before yesterday, he was walking on foot, clutching the "Soaring Cloud" and "Riding Wind" calligraphy sheets.

Beneath the stack of calligraphy sheets were several pages of paper, recorded in tiny characters was a cultivation and usage method for a "Dao Method."

The Dao Method was called Body Entering Situation. Xu Yuan glanced at it and realized it was exactly that move used by Chang Xunbei.

"These are all good things for me." Xu Yuan quickly put them away and continued to search the corpse.

In the money pouch were a few taels of loose silver, a ten-tael gold ingot, and two bank notes worth two hundred taels each!

Xu Yuan's breathing quickened. In his entire life, he had never seen so much money!

The Xu family's most valuable assets were the old opera stage in River Worker Alley and the several rooms connected to the backyard.

Together, they wouldn't be worth more than one hundred and fifty taels.

Cultivators were still human; they needed to eat and wear clothes, receive guests, and maintain social relationships.

Moreover, a cultivator's expenses were much higher than those of ordinary people.

As Xu Yuan quickly stuffed the money into his clothes, he muttered, "Master Qiao shouldn't have carried so much money on him."

Under normal circumstances, Master Qiao would carry loose silver and gold ingots, but not those two bank notes.

Master Qiao's "Yi Fang Ting" inn also functioned as a bank in town. Traveling merchants often needed to exchange large bills, and the inn provided this convenience.

These two bank notes had been recently exchanged, and Master Qiao was planning to take them back to the city this time.

After this windfall, Xu Yuan felt refreshed, even feeling that the numbness in his back wound had lessened.

He continued to search further down, reaching Master Qiao's waist, where he felt something hard.

When he pulled it out, he was startled: "Why didn't he use this treasure?"

It was a short-barreled Three-eyed Gun, with clear engravings of "Nandu Artisan Craft" and "Chen Wutong" on the barrel.

"Nandu Artisan Craft" indicated it was a product of the workshops under the Ministry of Works in Nandu.

"Chen Wutong" was the name of the manufacturer.

This item was commonly called a "Three-eyed Cannon" among the populace, especially those produced by official workshops.

Furthermore, Master Qiao's was even more extraordinary; it was an Artisan Cultivator creation!

With just one shot from this, Xu Yuan's head would have been blown apart.

It was no wonder Master Qiao could subdue the entire Qihetan Town; he had treasures hidden away, not just the strength of a Nine Streams Literary Cultivator.

This treasure could kill a Seventh Stream cultivator!

—But why didn't Master Qiao use it when his life was on the line?

Xu Yuan examined it and discovered: "So it's broken."

Some internal component was faulty, rendering it unusable.

Xu Yuan felt a wave of disappointment.

The Three-eyed Gun was in a leather pouch, which also contained a small gourd for cannon powder.

It was said that this kind of cannon powder was different from the stuff used in firecrackers during the New Year, and its power was much greater.

"I'll take it back and see if Stepmother can fix it." If it could be repaired, it might be very useful.

Just as Xu Yuan was about to put the Three-eyed Gun and the cannon powder gourd back, his movements stopped. His eyes fixed on the gourd with a strange expression.

"I have a bold idea!"

"Could this cannon powder... be used as Bait/Food?!"

Xu Yuan's first thought was to refine the cannon powder into an Outer Pill, but refining pills required using Inner Fire.

Cannon powder meeting fire... his belly would likely explode on the spot.

But then he thought, Bait/Food was also a method of cultivation.

For Pill Cultivators, it's not merely a method of refining pills and gathering ingredients.

His Pill Cultivator level is currently Nine Streams; condensing an Inner Pill will allow him to advance to Eighth Stream.

To a Pill Cultivator, the Inner Pill is the "great medicine," the most fundamental aspect of their own cultivation.

Before a Pill Cultivator condenses their Inner Pill, they must first find a precious item to serve as the "fetal medicine."

This could be a thousand-year-old medicinal herb, a rare natural treasure, or the essence of a spiritual item, and so on.

Xu Yuan remembered that when his father was alive, he once told him about the most peculiar Pill Cultivator, whose "fetal medicine" was a mysterious creation of an Artisan Cultivator!

But using Cannon Powder as the fetal medicine...

"Isn't that too bold?"

Yet, Xu Yuan was filled with anticipation for the Inner Pill that could be cultivated from this fetal medicine.

The downside of being alone out in the world was apparent; he had no one around to guide him. If he were at home, his Stepmother could always offer some advice.

But he only hesitated for a brief moment before Xu Yuan pulled out the stopper of the gourd and poured the Cannon Powder into his mouth.

Master Qiao was dead, but Saint Aunt was still alive. Falling into Saint Aunt's hands would be just as fatal.

Xu Yuan couldn't find another more suitable "fetal medicine" in a short period. He had no choice. Since there was an opportunity to increase his strength, he absolutely could not hesitate.

Unexpectedly, the Cannon Powder was easier to "digest" than those rare natural treasures! After Xu Yuan consumed the Cannon Powder as Bait/Food, it took less than half an hour for him to condense a dull gray Inner Pill.

It was only about the size of a soybean.

This tiny thing alone meant that Xu Yuan's Pill Cultivator level had advanced from Nine Streams to Eighth Stream.

Xu Yuan secretly thought that Pill Cultivators truly were one of the strongest in the early stages of combat.

Moreover, his own small Cannon Powder Inner Pill... had truly brought some special benefits!

An Eighth Stream Pill Cultivator can inject certain "characteristics" of their Inner Pill into their Outer Pill.

"After returning to the city, I must quietly go search Master Qiao's mansion."

"His residence must still be hiding more Cannon Powder."

Xu Yuan packed his things and threw the corpse into a nearby mountain ravine.

The corpse crushed the weeds as it fell into the darkness at the bottom of the ravine, followed by the sound of tearing and chewing.

Xu Yuan shivered and quickly left.

After running for more than ten li, a faint scent drifted in the mountain wind. Xu Yuan suddenly felt a certain instinct within his body acting uncontrollably. With a rumble, he rolled onto the ground, his eyes vacant and dazed, crawling like a maggot towards a certain direction!