Heavy Metals and Jade Eyes and Square Pupils

Villa district.

In the depths of a courtyard, a Daoist sat cross-legged in a pavilion.

His eyes were tightly shut, his soul wandering beyond the heavens.

As time passed, the temperature around him gradually dropped. Fine crystals of frost faintly formed along the hem and collar of his clothes.

This was one of the signs produced by visualizing the Cold-Ice Hell.

Having reached this stage, he had truly crossed the threshold into this visualization technique.

After a long while, Huang Bai slowly opened his eyes.

He entered his room and looked at his face in the mirror.

His complexion was pale, and the area around his eye sockets was slightly darkened, as though he had applied a layer of eyeliner. Under the sunlight, his pupils showed an eerie jade-green hue. When he held out his hands, black lines had appeared across his fingernails.

"Heavy metal poisoning..."

This was a symptom of heavy metal poisoning. The path of external elixirs came with some side effects after all.

"If this continues to the end, perhaps I'll have no choice but to abandon this mortal shell—or find a way to cultivate the fleshly body—to escape the effects of heavy metals."

Of course, giving up cultivation was not an option.

This heavy metal poisoning was not poisoning in the medical sense. It would not make him dizzy, hallucinate, or threaten his life.

Under the control of the visualization technique, it would only erupt at a very late stage and would not affect him for now.

So there was still plenty of time. He could slowly consider a solution later.

Panda Fast-Food Restaurant, office.

A fit, valiant-looking woman with a high ponytail leaned against the wall.

"Hu Bayi, you've truly made me see you in a new light. Where did you get the capital to open such a large restaurant?" Shirley Yang asked with a smile.

"We're not the bosses. We just own a few shares and work for the boss." Hu Bayi poured Shirley Yang a cup of tea.

He subconsciously touched his pocket. Inside was a small box containing a ring.

Today, he intended to find an opportunity to propose.

Bang!

The door was abruptly shoved open.

"Old Hu, Adviser Yang, let's make a trip back home." Wang Pangzi panted. "There's a huge tomb on the grasslands. Let's go check it out together."

"Fatty, are you missing a screw in your head?" Hu Bayi rose and slapped the table, nearly spitting in Wang Pangzi's face. "What did Big Gold Tooth tell you this time? Are you so stuffed you've got nothing better to do? You've got a good life right here, yet you insist on digging around in the dirt for food?"

Panda Express paid dividends every month, and another branch would open next month. By then, both of them would be store managers. Luxury cars and mansions were practically waving at them. Hu Bayi could not understand why Wang Pangzi insisted on returning to their old trade—a tomb-robbing business where death was always just around the corner.

Wang Pangzi fell silent for a moment before taking out several photographs.

"Little Ding might still be alive."

The sight of the Inner Mongolian grasslands was the first thing that entered his eyes, and Hu Bayi's thoughts instantly returned to twenty years ago.

Back then, they had been at an age when they feared neither heaven nor earth. The young people had gathered together, preparing to enter the forbidden land on the grasslands—the Millennium Goddess Tomb.

They had been young and high-spirited, pressing forward without hesitation, never expecting to stumble into a land of death.

They had toppled a strange Khitan statue. In an instant, countless bloodsucking grasshoppers had appeared, like a black wind sweeping across the grasslands and blotting out the sky.

Wherever they went, not a blade of grass remained. Humans and animals alike were reduced to white bones.

Everyone had fallen into the Millennium Goddess Tomb, where they saw dried corpses of Japanese soldiers and a Flower of the Other Shore statue within the goddess's tomb. Once midnight passed, an eerie crimson glow spread through the entire burial chamber. The Japanese corpses came back to life in a grotesque manner and began a desperate battle with them.

In the end, only Wang Pangzi and Hu Bayi escaped alive from the entire youth group, while his first love, Ding Sitian, remained forever in the Millennium Goddess Tomb.

Even years later, whenever Hu Bayi woke from dreams in the middle of the night, he still shuddered at the memory.

"No, no, no. Twenty years have passed. Little Ding is already dead." Hu Bayi stuffed the photographs back into Wang Pangzi's hands. "Wake up yourself."

"Fine, I understand." Wang Pangzi glanced at the two of them, suddenly seeming to think of something. He said nothing more and quietly left.

Over the next several days, Wang Pangzi mysteriously disappeared. Hu Bayi received a box of videotapes.

"Old Hu, I'm not going back for money. I'm going to settle something that has weighed on me for years. Don't worry. I'll be back soon."

"The Grave-Robbing Trio lives when we're together and dies when we're apart. I can't just ignore Fatty." Hu Bayi turned to Shirley Yang. "One last time."

"Together." Shirley Yang nodded and stood firmly at Hu Bayi's side.

"I'll go ask Brother Huang for leave."

"I'm coming too."

Shirley Yang was very curious about the Brother Huang the two kept mentioning. She had heard Huang Bai's name before, but she had never met him in person.

"Fine, but there's something you should keep in mind. Huang Bai is a Daoist, and his way of doing things is rather unusual. Don't offend him later."

"Got it."

Shirley Yang became even more curious. Just how strange was he, for Hu Bayi to remind her over and over?

Hu Bayi got into Shirley Yang's car, and they drove toward the villa in the outskirts.

The scenery along the road rapidly swept past on both sides. Prosperous streets gave way to sparsely populated suburbs.

On the way, Hu Bayi roughly explained how the three of them had made their fortune.

Shirley Yang turned her head, disbelief written all over her face. "So this restaurant of yours was essentially earned with fifty dollars?"

"That's right. And it was my money."

Shirley Yang had thought Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi had latched onto a wealthy second-generation Chinese American. She had not expected the truth to be like this. No wonder Hu Bayi held this man in such high regard.

The car stopped outside the villa. Its gates were tightly shut, and Hu Bayi stepped forward to enter the password.

Whoosh...

The gates slowly opened.

Before them lay a secluded front garden winding into the distance.

Flowers bloomed in abundance, greenery flourished, and emerald bamboo stood tall and graceful. Bluestone paved the ground, tree shadows swayed, and fish and shrimp frolicked in the pond.

Beside the pond stood a pavilion. Inside, a long-haired Daoist sat cross-legged refining pills. A bronze eight-sided sword lay beside him, while a toad trapped in a cage croaked wildly.

Shirley Yang had never expected Huang Bai to be so young.

As though sensing their arrival, Huang Bai slowly opened his eyes. In that instant, the two felt as if needles were pricking their backs, as though some ancient ferocious beast had fixed its gaze upon them.

"Hello, my name is Shirley Yang. It's a pleasure to meet you." After a brief moment of surprise, Shirley Yang generously held out her hand.

"Hello."

"May I ask what you're doing, Mr. Huang?" Shirley Yang glanced at the pill furnace still giving off heat.

"Refining pills, taking medicinal powders." Huang Bai's answer was concise. Almost everyone who came asked that question, and he had grown used to it without noticing.

"I see..." Shirley Yang noticed Huang Bai's jade-green pupils and seemed to hesitate.

Hu Bayi saw the concern in the person beside him and said, "Say whatever you want. Brother Huang isn't an outsider."

"Please, speak freely."

"I used to be a volunteer for the United Nations Holy Cross Organization and received systematic medical training..." Shirley Yang was still not very familiar with Huang Bai, so she first made a careful disclaimer before speaking.

"Forgive me for overstepping, but Mr. Huang's symptoms resemble chronic heavy metal poisoning. Without treatment, I'm afraid it could cause complications such as multiple organ failure, tremors, respiratory failure, and pulmonary edema."

Shirley Yang had not been entirely certain at first, but after seeing Huang Bai refining pills, she was almost completely sure.

"I guarantee that Shirley Yang isn't being alarmist. Brother Huang, you should go see a doctor." As his friend, Hu Bayi did not want Huang Bai's health to suffer.

"This is a conclusion based on science," Shirley Yang said.

"From a scientific perspective, you're correct. But from a metaphysical perspective..." Huang Bai pointed at his green-tinged pupils, which seemed almost square beneath the sunlight. "This is called [Golden Liquid Elixir, Jade Eyes and Square Pupils]."