Skin Pill, Muscle Pill

Xu Yuan braced the door with all his might, his body shaking nonstop from the impacts. Fortunately, he held it shut and hurriedly slid the bolt into place.

This frenzied assault had clearly enraged certain presences. A golden iron whip swiftly condensed in the void, more solid than any of the previous ones!

Clang!

The iron whip crashed down heavily, but the Corpse Infant had already recoiled at lightning speed the moment it began to form. Nimbly withdrawing the river of blood, its fat body rolled and rolled all the way along, escaping beyond the town in an instant!

It truly had no backbone—able to bend and stretch as circumstances demanded!

The iron whip struck the street, shaking the surrounding houses.

Xu Yuan peered through the crack in the door. Only then did he finally relax completely.

"I've made it through this ordeal."

Xu Yuan slumped limply behind the door. The medicinal pill within him dissolved, its potency spreading through his limbs and bones as it repaired his injuries.

More than half an hour later, once his wounds had stabilized, a fierce hunger struck him. Xu Yuan searched himself, but aside from gold and silver, he had nothing else to eat.

So he got up and ransacked all of Zhao's Furs Shop.

There was a hidden cellar behind the kitchen, where seventeen or eighteen ordinary weapons had been stashed.

Xu Yuan swallowed them all in one go. Now that he was an Eighth Stream Pill Cultivator, it took only moments for the common iron to be refined into a new Gold Pellet.

Yet the hunger did not ease by much, so Xu Yuan pried open the storeroom on the top floor of the furs shop.

Inside lay more than a hundred animal hides and over a dozen bundles of animal sinews. Xu Yuan tore into them and ate every last bit!

But he still felt somewhat hungry. Looking up, he spotted strangely shaped chunks of meat hanging overhead, seemingly air-dried long ago.

Xu Yuan was far too hungry to inspect them closely. He took them down and swallowed them all.

At last, he let out a full belch and heaved a long sigh of relief.

Then Xu Yuan collapsed onto a bed. Inner Fire blazed within his belly, refining the Bait/Food in his abdomen. In his daze, Xu Yuan did not know when he fell asleep.

The next morning, not even Huahua's crowing could wake Xu Yuan.

When the sun was high in the sky, a bright shaft of sunlight two fingers wide fell through the gap in the window, landing directly on Xu Yuan's eyes. His eyelids twitched a few times before he finally woke.

Xu Yuan rolled over and sat up, still shaken as he recalled the previous night. "The night is far too dangerous."

Lines of wounds remained on both his arms, while a huge patch of flesh had been sliced from his back.

One more use of his Inner Pill trait had been consumed. Only one use remained!

The losses could only be called catastrophic.

This was the price of a single "night journey"!

"Fortunately, Forbidden River Proximity was not in effect yesterday. If it had overlapped with Forbidden River Proximity... there's no way I could have escaped alive from the Corpse Infant and that little river."

Xu Yuan rubbed his face and began examining himself.

The wound on his back had recovered considerably, and fresh flesh had already grown over the wounds on his arms. The medicinal pill was truly effective.

The animal hides and sinews he had consumed as Bait/Food last night had already been refined into Outer Pills.

What surprised him was that he felt exceptionally vigorous upon waking, brimming with dragon essence and tiger strength. By rights, after losing so much blood yesterday, he should have awakened listless and drained.

Xu Yuan could not help looking up at the beam overhead. What exactly had those chunks of meat he ate last night been?

He could not help but feel suspicious.

The unexpected gain was that the animal hides and sinews had actually refined into two Outer Pills.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth and spat out the two pills—then, in his palm, they transformed. One became a thin cord.

It looked much like the horsehair worm that would crawl out of a mantis's belly after one crushed it as a child.

Only, it was much longer—roughly ten feet.

With a thought from Xu Yuan, the thing sprang open in his palm, writhing freely like a living horsehair worm.

It was extraordinarily nimble, moving as naturally as an arm or finger!

This cord had been condensed from animal sinews. It had decent elasticity and extraordinary toughness.

Xu Yuan had another thought, and the sinew cord changed accordingly.

It shortened and thickened, then transformed in Xu Yuan's hand into a short staff with toughness and elasticity beyond imagination.

Xu Yuan muttered to himself, "It can change size and length however I wish, but what use... is this thing?"

For the moment, Xu Yuan could not think of one.

He then shifted his attention to the other Outer Pill. The pill rapidly "melted" across his palm, wrapping around his entire hand and continuing up to about an inch above his wrist.

Xu Yuan had put on a "leather glove," yet this layer did not affect any sensation whatsoever—it was extraordinarily thin and light, as though he were wearing nothing at all!

Moreover, Xu Yuan tested it and found the glove's defensive power to be incredibly formidable, comparable to... the iron armor of the Imperial Ming Army!

Blades could not cut through it, nor could spears pierce it.

For now, it could only cover one hand. But if he continued using animal hides as Bait/Food in the future, one day it would cover his entire body!

Xu Yuan had never imagined that Zhao's Furs Shop would yield such a delightful surprise.

Having inexplicably used up one Inner Pill trait last night, Xu Yuan had thought that when he pursued the Saint Aunt today, he would be down one trump card. Unexpectedly, he had gained another.

Yes, Xu Yuan had no intention of simply going home now.

The Saint Aunt and her maid had both suffered grievous injuries as well.

Even with the blessings of two calligraphy scrolls, Xu Yuan had still been unable to return to town before nightfall. The two women certainly would not have made it back either.

They had spent last night in the mountains. If they were lucky, the strange evils in the mountains might already have solved the problem for him.

Even if they had survived, their injuries would likely have worsened. Estimating that they retained thirty percent of their original strength would already be generous.

The Pingtian Society stood behind them. Letting them return alive would bring endless trouble.

When there was no opportunity, Xu Yuan ran faster than a rabbit. But once an opportunity appeared, he did not hesitate—he would gamble on it and cut off all future troubles once and for all!

As for how to find the two of them...

Xu Yuan found a set of coarse servant's clothes in Zhao's Furs Shop and changed into them. The clothes he had been wearing were so tattered they could barely cover his backside.

Then Xu Yuan slipped out through the back door, keeping his head lowered as he hurried along, trying not to draw anyone's notice.

Before leaving, Xu Yuan had checked the almanac. Today was favorable for Forbidden River Proximity, calling the mountain, raising the ridge beam, and sealing an alliance.

Avoiding Beauty Dam, Xu Yuan left town from another direction.

Yet someone happened to spot him at the very last moment.

Uncle Rong Kui was sitting at the back of a merchant caravan's wagon, a thick felt hat pulled over his head and hiding most of his face.

"Xu Yuan!" Uncle Rong Kui was secretly astonished. "Why has he gone into the mountains again? Since he's returned to town and no one is stopping him, he should hurry back to the county seat."

Uncle Rong Kui muttered to himself for a while. After thinking it over, he jumped down from the wagon. He did not dare follow Xu Yuan, instead ducking into a roadside teahouse to wait.

After entering the mountains, Xu Yuan climbed the nearest peak at top speed, then looked into the distance.

Somewhere in the mountains, traces resembling "fate" rose high like beacon smoke—faint, yet unbroken.

Only Xu Yuan could see them.

There were two in all, one slightly thicker and one very thin.

The function of the charred skin Xu Yuan had shed last time was this: anyone who had touched it would leave behind traces that Xu Yuan could track in this near-Fate Gazing manner.

Provided they were still alive.

Xu Yuan was surprised as well. "After spending a night in Ghost Witch Mountain, both of them are actually still alive!"

The thicker trace belonged to the Saint Aunt. She had stepped on and crushed the charred skin.

Xu Yuan roughly determined the direction, mapped out a route that avoided the powerful monsters in the mountains as much as possible, then descended the peak and raced toward them.

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