The fall was over in an instant.
Fang Mo's feet landed heavily in the slick muck at the bottom of the well.
The stench of rot grew even stronger, so sharp it almost made his eyes sting.
He didn't move right away.
He pressed himself against the well wall, held his breath, and waited quietly for a moment.
There was no sound.
No new mechanism clicked into action.
Fang Mo let out a small breath of relief.
By the faint light filtering down from above, he looked at the spot Third Brother had touched before he died.
It was a slightly raised blue brick.
A few broken steel needles still remained in the gaps around it.
Fang Mo reached out.
A faint metallic sheen spread across the skin on the back of his hand.
If anyone could have seen through his skin, they would have found the bones beneath it tightening ever so slightly, forming an exceptionally sturdy defensive structure.
"Click."
Fang Mo pressed down on the blue brick.
No poisoned needles.
No hidden arrows.
Only a faint scraping sound.
The well wall, which had fit together seamlessly, slowly caved inward, revealing a hidden compartment about the size of a palm.
Inside lay a small, pitch-black iron case.
It wasn't large, only about half a foot square. It had no decoration, just a heavy, somber look from being cast in pig iron.
Was this the batch of "Red Goods"?
Fang Mo wondered.
But he didn't open it rashly.
Opening a case at the bottom of a well was a good way to get himself killed.
He grabbed the iron case. It was cold to the touch.
"I got it!"
Fang Mo looked up and called toward the well opening.
His voice echoed off the walls, muffled and hollow.
"Pull him up!"
Gu Yichuan above clearly let out a breath of relief and immediately gave the order.
The rope went taut, and a powerful force pulled at it. Cradling the iron case, Fang Mo was hauled swiftly out of the well.
"Thump."
As soon as he hit the ground, Fang Mo wisely set the iron case down and moved off to the side, panting heavily as though he had just survived a brush with death.
"My lord,"
"I've carried out the mission..."
Gu Yichuan didn't even look at him.
His gaze was fixed on the iron case.
All the black-clad men crowded around.
This was the thing Iron Bone Liu had died rather than surrender, the thing that had cost the Punishment Department one of its best men.
"Open it."
Gu Yichuan didn't do it himself.
He pointed at Fang Mo with the tip of his blade.
Fang Mo was furious inside.
That bastard had "better safe than sorry" carved into his forehead.
They'd already hauled it up, and he was still afraid it might be a trap?
"My lord, this..."
Fang Mo had just started to refuse.
Gu Yichuan's blade tip had already lowered a little, pointing at Fang Mo's thigh.
"Enough chatter."
"You open it. If nothing happens, this will count as your Pledge of Allegiance."
Fang Mo had no choice but to steel himself and get up.
He crouched in front of the iron case and examined it carefully.
There was no keyhole.
Only a ring of fine seams around the edge of the lid.
Clearly, this was a mechanism case, too.
It would take a specific technique or brute force to open it.
Fang Mo tried lifting the lid, but it wouldn't budge.
"This is a Mohist school Thousand Mechanism Lock."
Drawing on knowledge from his previous life, Fang Mo made up a name on the spot.
"We have to smash it."
"Smash it?" Gu Yichuan raised an eyebrow.
"Right. Break it open by force."
As he spoke, Fang Mo picked up a large stone lying nearby, one used to weigh down the well.
"My lord, you should all step back a little."
"In case there's some kind of poisonous gas inside..."
At that, Gu Yichuan and the others immediately backed away and covered their noses and mouths.
Fang Mo took a deep breath.
He lifted the stone high in both hands.
"Open up!"
"Bang!"
The stone crashed down hard on the iron case.
Sparks flew in every direction.
The case, cast from pig iron, was certainly sturdy. That blow had only left a white mark.
But Fang Mo felt the latch inside shift.
"Again!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Fang Mo pounded away like a madman, strike after strike.
At last, on the tenth blow—
With a sharp crack, the lid was smashed out of shape and sprang open a narrow gap.
No poisonous smoke.
No hidden weapons.
Only a captivating red light shone through the gap.
In the pitch-black night, the glow looked especially eerie, like amber formed from congealed blood.
"This is..."
Gu Yichuan's pupils contracted sharply.
He strode forward, kicked the stone aside, and reached out to lift the lid.
But in the next instant, he froze.
For he saw three pills, each the size of a dragon's eye, lying quietly in the red glow.
They were crimson all over, with vein-like patterns on their surfaces, and gave off a rich, sickeningly sweet scent of blood.
"Blood Spirit Pills!"
Gu Yichuan cried out.
His voice carried greed and fear he could not hide.
Blood Spirit Pills.
A forbidden drug of the Demonic Path.
They were made with the heart's blood of ninety-nine virgin boys and girls as the catalyst, and refined with Thousand Year Blood Ginseng.
They had only one effect:
They could ignore bottlenecks and force a breakthrough!
Even an ordinary person with no martial arts foundation would instantly gain enough qi and blood to shatter stone and split boulders after swallowing one.
And for Martial Artists at the peak of the Qi and Blood Realm, who had been stuck for years at the bottleneck of the Bone Forging Realm, these were the key to reaching a higher realm!
But because their method of refinement was so cruel and wicked, the pills would draw the righteous sects' pursuit the moment they appeared, and their existence was forbidden under the Great Gan Law.
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