The Fire in His Belly

Of course it was expensive!

Did he think he could buy a Fate Cultivator's life for a single Silver Bean?

No way.

This was "buying by force." Merchant Law couldn't be completed, and the enormous difference in price had triggered a fierce backlash against the Law Cultivator.

Xu Yuan knew this full well. That was why he'd accepted the Law Cultivator's Life-Buying Money without a care in the world.

The Pill Cultivator rushed forward without hesitation, spitting twice into his palms.

The droplets of spit struck sparks!

Two balls of flame quickly sprang to life in his hands. The Pill Cultivator swung both palms at Xu Yuan!

Pill Cultivators refined pills using a ball of "Inner Fire" in their bellies. They could also spit it out to attack their enemies.

But this Pill Cultivator hadn't Entered Stream yet. His "Inner Fire" hadn't taken shape, so he could only draw out flames and attach them to his palms to increase their power.

Xu Yuan darted onto a boulder nearby. The Pill Cultivator chased after him and slapped both palms against the rock, leaving two charred handprints!

A Pill Cultivator's "fire" naturally countered many evil spirits. Something in the woods had been watching them from the shadows, but the moment this "fire" appeared, it scurried away with a rustle.

From his elevated position, Xu Yuan suddenly took out the Bamboo Cage and tossed it over the Pill Cultivator's head. "Gotcha!"

The Bamboo Cage dropped through the air. The Pill Cultivator raised his head, saw a little bamboo cage for catching bugs, curled his lip, and slapped at it with a sneer.

Flames roared across his palm, ready to surge upward and burn the tiny Bamboo Cage to ashes.

But the Bamboo Cage suddenly sprang open. Though it looked small, it was remarkably elastic!

The bamboo strips stretched, widening the gaps between them.

When the cage was used to catch bugs, those gaps had to be tiny so the insects couldn't escape.

But now it was being used to catch a person, so larger gaps were no problem.

In an instant, the little Bamboo Cage expanded to the size of half a room. The Pill Cultivator, head tilted back and palm raised, looked from a distance as if he'd willingly climbed inside it himself!

Whoosh—

The Bamboo Cage dropped over the Pill Cultivator.

He paid it no mind. Spreading his hands, he sent flames roaring out.

The bamboo strips were thin and delicate; he could snap them with a flick of his hand. The flames should have turned them to ash in an instant.

But the result was nothing like he'd expected. Beneath his "Inner Fire," the bamboo strips turned as red as steel in a furnace, yet they didn't catch fire!

He braced both hands against the cage, but the bamboo strips didn't break.

Not only that, the Bamboo Cage contracted inward. From different angles, the pointed ends of the bamboo strips pierced into the Pill Cultivator's body in ways that defied belief!

The cage kept shrinking, and the bamboo strips dug deeper and deeper!

His own "Inner Fire" had heated the strips until they were red-hot. As they pierced his body, his flesh sizzled and smoked, filling the air with the stench of singed pig bristles...

And each bamboo strip either struck an acupoint or happened to sever a meridian.

There was no way that could be a coincidence!

The Pill Cultivator was instantly immobilized.

Two bamboo strips pointed at his eyes. Four more crossed through his mouth, leaving him unable to speak.

The badly wounded Law Cultivator stared wide-eyed. "Y-y-you... You're an Artisan Cultivator?!"

Xu Yuan certainly wasn't an Artisan Cultivator—his stepmother was.

When his stepmother kicked him out of the house, she'd naturally given him something to protect himself with.

Forget an uninitiated Pill Cultivator; even a Seventh Stream Pill Cultivator's "Inner Fire" couldn't burn through this cage.

A Seventh Stream Martial Cultivator's "Bronze Skin Iron Bones" would be pierced through by the bamboo strips just as easily.

Xu Yuan walked toward the Law Cultivator, who stumbled back in fright. "Y-you, stay back!"

By now, the ominous scarlet signs in both their "Green Lives" had almost entirely swallowed the colors of their original fates.

Xu Yuan looked back and forth between the Law Cultivator and the Pill Cultivator, then finally took out the skin he'd shed and stuffed the Pill Cultivator inside it.

Xu Yuan was sixteen and still growing.

The Pill Cultivator was taller than him and a little fat, too.

Xu Yuan had to put some "Family Tradition" handiwork to use before he could squeeze him inside.

He'd learned this particular skill from his stepmother before the New Year. Back in her hometown, people slaughtered pigs for the holiday and stuffed sausages.

Anyway, the years since his stepmother had married into the family had greatly improved the food he ate.

The Law Cultivator watched, horrified—not because of Xu Yuan's "Family Tradition" handiwork. He'd done plenty of things like that himself. It was nothing unusual in these times.

What terrified him was... that skin was plainly the kid's!

Could people... shed their skin?!

He'd never heard of any kind of cultivator having such a technique, either!

Could this guy have already become an evil spirit and be hiding in Qihetan Town?

But the way he looked "lifelike" really didn't seem like it.

"W-what are you doing?" the Law Cultivator stammered. The backlash from his spell was growing stronger, and he felt terribly weak.

Xu Yuan glanced at him and pointed at the boulder nearby. "Stand under that, and I'll tell you."

The Law Cultivator's instincts screamed: Don't go over there!

This kid's about to attack me!

He knew that, in his current condition, he probably wouldn't get away. But anyone facing death would struggle until the very end.

Without hesitation, the Law Cultivator charged in the opposite direction—and plunged headfirst into the woods!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

A flurry of strange sounds rang out among the trees, followed immediately by the Law Cultivator's screams.

The Snake Vines had finally gotten a full meal!

Before, whenever the Snake Vines tried to eat Xu Yuan, they'd been tricked: what looked like a piece of meat turned out to be a chunk of ginger in their mouths.

Xu Yuan didn't make the same mistake as Big-and-Small Eyes and the burly man. He waited until the sounds inside the woods stopped, rubbed Realgar Powder over his body, and walked in.

The Snake Vines were sick to death of this guy. Every time, he used this stuff against us!

And there was nothing we could do about it.

We're snakes! How could we not be afraid of realgar?

The Snake Vines slithered deeper into the woods, then raised their heads among the trees and undergrowth to hiss at Xu Yuan in defiance.

Xu Yuan ignored them and took a look around. Only a skeleton remained in the woods, still stained with blood.

The Snake Vines had eaten all the flesh and internal organs.

A bag lay on the ground. Xu Yuan picked it up and looked inside. It was full of money.

There was one small gold ingot, about five taels.

Two ten-tael silver ingots, as well as ten pieces of silver in various sizes, including Silver Beans.

And several dozen copper coins.

They were all "Life-Buying Money" made by the Law Cultivator.

Xu Yuan pocketed them without hesitation.

By the time Xu Yuan left the woods, the skin and the Pill Cultivator inside had shrunk into a plaster.

It looked just like the dog-skin plasters sold by Grandpa Shen, who lived next door.

But Grandpa Shen sold his goods cheap and in generous portions, with a thick layer of medicinal paste inside.

This plaster only had a thin layer.

Xu Yuan suddenly felt that comparison wasn't quite right. This was my own skin. How could it be a dog-skin plaster?

Xu Yuan stuck the plaster over his navel.

The thin layer of medicinal paste visibly absorbed into his body at a rapid pace. Then Xu Yuan felt a ball of fire rise in his belly.

The Pill Cultivator's "Inner Fire"!

Now Xu Yuan was not only a Fate Cultivator but a Pill Cultivator, too.

This shed skin wasn't useless. It had another function: "refining."

When he shed this layer of skin, Xu Yuan had realized it had an additional use.

But each layer of skin could only be used once, and every layer had a different effect. Xu Yuan had no idea what the next layer he shed would do...

Xu Yuan had realized it at the time: this June Bug wasn't an ordinary Medicinal Guide for Fate Cultivators!

He'd never heard of a fate attribute that could make a Fate Cultivator immune to the corruption of evil spirits, and he'd never heard of Fate Cultivators shedding their skin, either...