Heterodox Paths, the Zhongnan Shortcut

Half a day later.

After making a trip to the market of Sunward Dao Academy, Liu Dongqing returned slowly to his little courtyard, carrying several cloth bags of varying sizes.

Inside the bedroom.

The jade vat had been placed back atop the table.

For the first time, the deep azure radiance within the vat flickered and brightened in a rhythm like breathing as it soaked in the Red Spring.

This was the result of Liu Dongqing tossing all the Azure Flame Spirit Pills from the jade bottle into it.

In half a day, the precious pills themselves had been dissolved by the Red Spring into pill liquid. Moreover, because the abundant medicinal potency within them was condensed to an extreme degree, the deep azure pill liquid actually refused to blend with the Blood Filth of those fire-crow demonic beasts.

In the end, it formed a gorgeous "spring" of interwoven azure and crimson.

Though the color of the "treasure spring" was dreamlike, Liu Dongqing merely admired it for a few more moments.

To him, a "treasure spring" in this state meant that the energy contained within could now be freely and fully absorbed by the roots of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine.

Thus, moments later, Liu Dongqing formed a hand seal without hesitation. Azure heavenly light condensed into a Divine Vine Pill Sigil, which he struck down upon the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine.

A moment later.

A second Divine Vine Pill Sigil descended.

In this manner, following the Branch-Splitting Myriad Transformations Origin-Seizing Art, Liu Dongqing collected the seeds of two offspring plants into his palm.

The process that followed no longer required the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine itself.

Liu Dongqing fetched two jade bowls from the side.

He poured some Red Spring from the vat into one bowl, then smeared one offspring seed with fresh blood and awakened it in the bowl into a state of dense roots and a massive wooden tumor.

Next, Liu Dongqing took out another clean jade bowl. His mind abruptly sharpened, and even his expression turned considerably more solemn.

For what Liu Dongqing needed to do next was the true crux of this entire process—

He arranged the various cloth bags he had brought back from the Sunward Dao Academy market one by one beside the jade bowl.

The bags were opened.

Inside lay several different kinds of spiritual herbs. Liu Dongqing had bought some whole, while others consisted only of specific parts such as roots, stems, branches, or leaves.

These were the spiritual materials he had purchased in strict accordance with the contents of the Li Fire Void-Soaring Origin-Unity Pill Formula Zhang Qiwei had given him.

Just as Manager Hou had said before, the materials for this pill were themselves quite ordinary.

The materials theoretically sufficient for Liu Dongqing to refine pills six times had cost him fewer than ten whole spirit stones.

He first removed a bundle of spiritual herb materials from one of the cloth bags.

The sheet Zhang Qiwei had given him contained not a single extra stroke of ink besides the pill formula itself.

Yet among the torrents of Sigils that the jade slip of the Ghost Vine Lineage had once poured into Liu Dongqing's mind, the contents of many Daoist texts and notes surged through his memories. They were enough to grant Liu Dongqing a rudimentary understanding of medicinal principles.

At the very least, they allowed Liu Dongqing to understand how to properly process a particular spiritual herb material.

Very soon.

As blazing sky-blue radiance bloomed from Liu Dongqing's palm around the bundle of spiritual herb materials, scorching heat rose through the bedroom.

Then, under precise temperature control, drops of deep azure medicinal liquid fell into the jade bowl.

Finally, when Liu Dongqing opened his hand again, the spiritual herb materials were gone from his palm, leaving behind only a bundle of withered, blackened little "wooden sticks."

He discarded the scraps.

Liu Dongqing took another bundle of spiritual materials.

Very quickly, all the materials he had bought were processed in succession by Liu Dongqing. Some were roasted at high heat to remove their moisture before being ground into powder; some had their tubers slowly melted at low heat into gelatinous spiritual paste; others were directly calcined in fierce flames, leaving only ash.

The essences of these materials Liu Dongqing had processed were likewise blended, one after another, into that same jade bowl.

A rich medicinal fragrance already rushed toward him.

But by the standards of orthodox Pill Dao, this was merely the preliminary processing stage. The deep azure medicinal slurry was useless if consumed, and might even undergo toxic changes if mishandled.

But for Liu Dongqing.

These were already the last few practical steps of Pill Dao that he knew.

Immediately afterward.

Liu Dongqing removed the cultivated Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine offspring plant from the jade bowl at his side, washed the bloody water from its roots, and without hesitation placed it into the jade bowl filled with deep azure medicinal slurry.

As streams of spiritual light began drawing the spiritual qi from the medicinal slurry through the tips of the dense roots and gathering it into the wooden tumor.

Liu Dongqing swept his sword fingers, and azure light flashed at his fingertips.

The instant he sliced open the wooden tumor, Liu Dongqing swiftly tossed the second Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine seed into its fissure.

Immediately afterward.

Azure light gathered in midair into another Divine Vine Pill Sigil, one that had never appeared before.

The moment its spiritual light descended.

That second offspring plant, rooted in the wooden tumor, immediately began to flourish.

This time, no more wooden tumors formed.

The new Divine Vine Pill Sigil brought an entirely new transformation to the offspring plant. It suddenly grew robustly, and unlike the mother Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine, which had absorbed the blood spring for so long yet produced only a single wooden joint.

The more slender offspring plant swiftly transformed into a "great tree" supported by twisted vines.

Its shape resembled a miniature, simplified version of the complete Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine Liu Dongqing had seen when he received the inheritance.

The half-human-tall medicinal vine tree spread into a rounded canopy. Even the patterns on its vines condensed once more into a crude human shape, and before Liu Dongqing could see it clearly, bulges began to emerge across its dense wooden joints.

Vast amounts of spiritual light surged upward from the wooden tumor in wave after wave.

As the deep azure medicinal slurry in the jade bowl was madly drawn out and thoroughly dried up.

When he looked again, the medicinal vine tree had already flowered and borne fruit within a brief few hundred breaths.

When the movement of all spiritual light had completely faded away.

All that remained before Liu Dongqing's eyes was a tree laden with pale azure Elixir Fruit.

It still depends on talent and aptitude...

How could the Pill Dao of our Mystic Sect be something so inconvenient!

If it merely drew upon blood and bones to condense a few Elixir Fruit, then this Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine would seem ordinary even compared to the Crimson Fire Divine Crow. This art would not deserve to be called the Pill-Descending Art.

Since it bears the word "pill," the mysteries of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine must naturally be manifested through Pill Dao.

This Medicine Vine Fruit Tree formed by nesting these two offspring plants is this Liu's pill furnace!

Whether you speak of sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy, or the Li Palace Eight Trigrams, no matter how profound medicinal principles may be, can they surpass heaven and earth's own nature? Can they rise above the life-breathing transformations of creation?

Not only the Li Fire Void-Soaring Origin-Unity Pill—even all manner of mystic sect pill formulas, so long as one knows the specific types of precious medicines and spiritual materials, even if their quantities and proportions are not so exact, they can naturally be harmonized as the Medicine Vine Fruit Tree grows.

With these thoughts in mind, Liu Dongqing reached into the Medicine Vine Fruit Tree and plucked a Li Fire Void-Soaring Origin-Unity Elixir Fruit. The pale azure Elixir Fruit melted the instant it entered his mouth.

The instant its medicinal potency spread through his limbs and bones, he immediately sensed over a dozen strands of blood and qi power, carrying six or seven strands of demonic Blood Baleful Intent, being stimulated together within the medicinal potency.

Immediately afterward.

The blood and qi mixed with the medicinal potency and surged naturally toward the Mud Pill Purple Mansion.

Liu Dongqing immediately felt a coolness arise from within his mind.

The discomfort from previously severing Angry vanished without a trace.

A brilliant smile spread across Liu Dongqing's face.

From this day onward, this Liu can be a pill master too. Pill Master Liu, ha—

Zhang Qiwei thought she was giving me a difficult problem, never realizing she was gifting me a foundation of fortune.

From this moment, the accumulated Blood Baleful Intent has a direction for partial refinement, and the Lesser Thought Art will no longer hold back the cycle of the three arts.

And even...

It is time for me to give Senior Sister Zhang a difficult problem—