Half a Pill

The five of them quickened their pace and turned back toward the garrison.

They had spent nearly an hour on the road coming out, but the return trip took less than half an hour.

Upon reaching the main garrison, He Shou went straight to find the person in charge.

Before long, He Shou emerged from inside, his expression even gloomier than when they had set out.

It was not until they returned to their outpost that He Shou spoke up.

"It's not just our group." He Shou leaned against the doorframe, his hand resting on the hilt of his saber, his voice kept low.

"The other patrol groups ran into similar situations today as well. One group even bumped straight into three First-Order Mid-Grade ones and had to fight a spell before retreating. Two were injured, and one died."

Liu Ping's voice sounded somewhat panicked, "Someone died?"

"They died, and mainly because the fight attracted other demonic beasts, forcing them to run."

He Shou rolled his neck. "The upper echelons have already reported this to the Wang Family. Captain Wang of the Guard Squad has decided to send out a team tonight to scout out and figure out just how many of these beasts have gathered and where they're distributed."

"Going tonight?" Chen Qi furrowed his brow.

"People from the Wang Family are leading the team." He Shou swept his gaze over the group.

"It has nothing to do with us. Our mission remains as usual, and we'll continue patrolling tomorrow."

With that, He Shou waved his hand, telling everyone to rest as they pleased.

After nightfall, the outpost grew quiet.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the bed, first running the Spirit Guiding Art for several cycles. Spiritual qi entered his body as pure as water, and the circulation of the cycles was swift.

Upon finishing the technique, Li Yuan's consciousness stirred, and the panel materialized.

His gaze swept across the lines for realm, cultivation techniques, and equipment slots, finally landing on the spells section.

[Spells: Fireball Technique-Mastery (589/800), Godly Movement Step-Proficient (123/400), Spirit Shield Technique-Proficient (39/400), Ice Spike Technique-Entry Level (189/200)]

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment.

The proficiency of the Fireball Technique had jumped directly from under one hundred to nearly six hundred.

The upper limit of the Mastery Stage was eight hundred, and he had already walked through most of it.

The increases for the other spells weren't quite as exaggerated, but they were also a good deal higher than when he last checked.

After giving it a brief thought, Li Yuan understood the reason.

He had already practiced the Fireball Technique for several years prior, so his foundation had been laid down very deeply; all that was lacking was actual combat.

The patrols over these past few days had made up for that shortcoming.

The foundation accumulated through daily practice had been thoroughly activated in real combat, much like a pot of water on the verge of boiling, receiving its final piece of firewood.

Putting away the panel, Li Yuan closed his eyes to rest.

At the first light of dawn the next day, the five of them left the outpost.

He Shou led the team to set off along the south line, taking a route in the same direction as yesterday, but instead of plunging directly southwest, they first walked a stretch along the regular path of the south line to observe the situation.

A little over two li out of the outpost, Li Yuan noticed the anomaly.

Quiet.

On this exact same stretch of road yesterday, the Spirit Detection Disk had captured at least two or three clumps of spiritual qi fluctuations. Today, spiritual power was poured into the copper disk, and his perception spread out; a radius of thirty zhang was completely clean, and even the faint auras of ordinary beasts were much scarced.

He Shou clearly sensed it as well, slowing his pace.

"The demonic beasts are fewer. It's possible they were cleared out by the Wang Family's team." He Shou let out a breath of relief, but didn't lower his guard.

Continuing forward for a stretch, the situation remained consistently like this. The Spirit Detection Disk occasionally captured one or two extremely faint clumps of spiritual qi fluctuations, very far away and vanishing in a flash, like something flickering past in the distance.

"At least five or six were active in this area yesterday, and today they're all gone." He Shou stopped on a high ground, his gaze sweeping over the undulating bushes around them.

The five of them continued pushing southwest along the route.

Because demonic beasts were sparse nearby, He Shou decided to extend the route further outward, going further than yesterday.

After walking for nearly an hour, the terrain became even more desolate. Underfoot, there weren't even wild trails left, only gravel and thorns, and the bushes grew sparse, replaced by large patches of wild grass and exposed rock.

Along the way, they successively ran into three waves of rogue cultivators.

The first wave consisted of two solitary rogue cultivators carrying large bundles and wrapped packages, walking at a fast pace. Catching sight of the five of them wearing patrol uniforms and guard uniforms, they cupped their fists from afar and simply left, without even exchanging words.

The second wave was a squad of three, their auras between the second and third levels of Qi Refining, looking like rogue cultivators from a monster hunting squad or herb-gathering squad. He Shou stepped forward to ask a few questions, and the other party waved a hand, saying they hadn't run into anything unusual, only that the medicinal herbs in this area were getting scarcer by the day, so they didn't want to stay here anymore.

The rogue cultivator team encountered in the third wave was the largest in number, totaling four people. The leader was a burly man in his forties with high cheekbones, a scar across the bridge of his nose, wearing a semi-worn leather armor, and slinging a long-handled axe diagonally across his back. His aura was around the third level of Qi Refining.

He Shou stopped them to ask a few questions.

The burly man happened to be quite talkative, with a rather loud voice.

"You're coming to ask as well? The Wang Family's side sent people over to ask just a moment ago. I told them, the number of times I've entered the mountains this month is half less than last month. The demonic beasts run this way sometimes and that way other times, with no consistency to it."

He Shou asked, "What do you think is going on?"

The burly man scratched the back of his head.

"How would I know? Anyway, the Yuanheng Mountains have never been peaceful. It won't be fun if a beast tide breaks out any day now."

"A beast tide?" Liu Ping followed up with a question.

"Bah, I was just saying it off the top of my head." The burly man waved his hand, but the expression on his face didn't look much like he was joking. "If a beast tide really happens, which of these market towns can withstand it? But looking at this posture, it doesn't look like the precursor to a beast tide; it looks more like something is stirring things up deep inside the mountains."

When he reached this point, the burly man paused, looked around left and right, and lowered his voice.

"To not keep it from you, I don't want to stay here anymore. I heard that the Li Family's market town in the south is preparing for expansion, allowing us to set up stalls, and the road is easier to walk than this side. I plan to head over and take a look."

He Shou didn't ask any further, nodded, and signaled that they could leave.

The burly man led his people away, and He Shou stood in place watching the direction they faded into, not moving for a long time.

After pushing a bit further southwest, the Spirit Detection Disk captured a clump of spiritual qi fluctuations.

Ahead and to the left, just over twenty zhang away, a solitary demonic beast.

The spiritual qi intensity was not high, roughly at the standard of a Low-grade First-Order.

He Shou glanced at Li Yuan, and Li Yuan nodded.

The five of them scattered, closing in according to the coordination they had honed over these past few days.

Even though it was only a Low-grade First-Order, He Shou still requested that they proceed according to their coordination.

Li Yuan circled around to the flank, and once his field of vision opened up, he clearly saw the target—a grayish-brown Iron-Spine Hyena. Its build was small, its shoulder height under two feet, and it was squatting beside an exposed rock, gnawing on something.

The five of them completed the encirclement amidst the bushes.

At He Shou's command, Li Yuan's Fireball Technique went first.

A crimson ball of light left his hand, heading straight for the hyena's flank. The hyena's reaction was not slow, but the Fireball Technique was faster, leaving a scorched patch on the hyena's body in the blink of an eye.

Liu Ping and Chen Qi cut in from both wings, using a saber and a sword to slay the howling, injured hyena.

It took no more than a few breaths, start to finish.

While dissecting the demonic beast, He Shou's movements suddenly paused.

He Shou squatted at the hyena's abdomen. After his blade tip pried open a layer of flesh without continuing to cut downward, he turned the saber sideways and cautiously poked into the interior of the abdominal cavity.

"Take a look at this."

Li Yuan stepped closer, his line of sight falling into the hyena's sliced-open abdominal cavity.

The stomach had been pierced with a tear by the blade tip. Inside, besides half-digested chunks of meat and bone fragments, there was also a clump of dark red matter mixed together with the surrounding food residue, but the color was markedly different.

He Shou used the tip of his blade to fish out that clump of dark red matter, placing it on a nearby rock.

Half a medicinal pill.

To be precise, it was half a medicinal pellet already pitted and eroded by stomach acid, with most of its outer medicinal skin peeled away to reveal the dark red medicinal core inside, still retaining a faint medicinal fragrance.

"Either it killed a rogue cultivator and ate it off them, or someone fed it."

Just as He Shou was about to continue speaking, Chen Qi took over the conversation.

"Demonic beasts don't really eat medicinal pills, at least I've never seen a demonic beast eat medicinal pills. Many medicinal pills are specially used by humans; perhaps ones with greater intelligence would pick and choose to eat them."

"Besides, the probability of this Low-grade First-Order demonic beast killing a rogue cultivator isn't high. The rogue cultivators currently able to hustle outside all have a few tricks up their sleeves."

"Furthermore, I didn't see any meat in its stomach."

He Shou wrapped that half of a medicinal pill in a cloth, tucked it into his bosom, and didn't say much more.

"Report back."

On the return journey, the five of them did not walk slowly.

Li Yuan followed closely behind He Shou, his fingers resting on the Spirit Detection Disk within his sleeve.

Spiritual power slowly poured in while his perception continuously spread out, but his mind was busy thinking about other matters.

Traits.

From transmigration until now, he had permanetized four traits and hung two in the equipment slots. Six traits sounded like a lot, but using them still felt stretched thin.

Currently, there were no empty equipment slots; both were occupied—the Viscera Strengthening of the Iron Ox Technique and the Qi-Blood Self-Generation of the Nurturing Origin Technique.

The Iron Ox Technique had reached Mastery, while the Nurturing Origin Technique was still at the Proficient stage. Both mundane techniques needed to reach Perfection to permanetize Viscera Strengthening, and Qi-Blood Self-Generation also required the Nurturing Origin Technique's Perfection coupled with twenty-four hours of accumulated cultivation. Neither could be completed in the short term.

Therefore, he had to scout for the next batch of traits worthy of permanetization.

Up to this point, among the items Li Yuan had come into contact with, quite a few could provide traits, but very few were truly worth investing in.

The Spirit Detection Disk was a Green Trait, Spirit Sense Expansion, passive perception of thirty zhang—the effect was very strong, but the permanetization condition was possessing divine sense, something basically impossible to achieve before Foundation Establishment.

That complete molt of the Iron Scale Snake was a White Trait, seen on East Street last time, costing twelve spirit stones. The trait effect was unknown; without having equipped it, he couldn't see the detailed information, but the snake skin itself was fine material for artifact crafting and talisman making, so the trait was most likely related to defense or physical strengthening.

The Spirit Gathering Ring, a White Trait, fifteen spirit stones, with a name that carried the aroma of auxiliary cultivation.

The storage bag could provide a Green Trait, but the lowest price started at fifty or sixty spirit stones.

Aside from these, during his patrols and scouting, Li Yuan had also sporadically contacted a few items that could trigger reactions on the panel. Some spirit grain, a few mundane cultivation techniques, and occasionally encountered ores—the vast majority were Gray Traits, a few were White, and nothing stood out.

Meanwhile, he still had quite a bit of contribution points piled up in his own hands.

The contribution points issued from his previous monthly stipend, coupled with mission rewards, had accumulated for a good while now. Both spells and cultivation techniques inside the Hidden Merit Pavilion could be exchanged for with contribution points, and the fact that spell-type items could be equipped had already been proven by the Cleaning Spell booklet.

The Iron Ox Technique could be equipped, the Nurturing Origin Technique could be equipped, and spell booklets could be equipped as well.

Would immortal cultivation spell booklets have traits too?

The spells on hand—the Fireball Technique, Godly Movement Step, Spirit Shield Technique, and Ice Spike Technique—were all basic spells originally issued by the Wang Family. The original body had long since finished learning them, and who knew where the booklets had gone.

However, there should be other spells available for exchange inside the Hidden Merit Pavilion.

Li Yuan listed out the possible options in his mind: first, rule out spells he had already learned; second, the price couldn't be too outrageous; and finally, it was best if they were practical spells that he could learn, use, and also extract traits from.

Whether his contribution points were enough was another question; he would have to return to the market town and personally check out the Hidden Merit Pavilion to find out.

Thinking up to this point, Li Yuan reined in his stray thoughts.

The patrol outpost ahead had already appeared in his field of vision, the outline of the wooden cabin looking grayish-dim in the twilight.

He Shou quickened his final few steps, heading straight toward the direction of the main garrison with that half of a cloth-wrapped medicinal pill tucked inside his bosom.