Gorging on Pills! The Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill

The change came so abruptly that the medicine boy and the shop assistant failed to react at first.

Only when they saw the physician on duty collapse, convulsing and coughing up great mouthfuls of bloody foam, did their faces fill with terror.

The two of them, one male and one female, clamped their legs together almost simultaneously, pressed them tight, and opened their mouths to scream.

They did it all in one fluid motion. They were by no means slow.

But Gu Qingfeng was faster.

Holding Sun Sheng's fat corpse in one hand, he stepped into the room and lightly struck both their necks with the edge of his other hand.

The blows were as light as dragonflies skimming water, yet both clutched their throats and could no longer make a sound.

Only then did they get a clear look at the man who had come in.

That country bumpkin of a drug tester!

To Gu Qingfeng, the medicine boy and the shop assistant were old acquaintances too.

One had tricked him into testing medicine without mentioning payment in installments, then charged him a tael of silver for a night's lodging. The other had told him to get lost at breakfast, rudely and without a shred of courtesy.

Gu Qingfeng did not hold grudges, but he remembered every wrong they had done.

Of course, those were merely minor failings of character.

What truly deserved death was their part in the Ghost Hand Apothecary, where they had helped kill who knew how many people.

The medicine boy and the shop assistant had not yet breathed their last.

Their eyes were full of fear and bewilderment.

This drug tester had actually killed the manager—and them!

How could a lowly drug-testing creature, someone who barely counted as human, do such a thing?

It was as absurd as planting herbs in a field, going out one morning to check on them, and suddenly being eaten by the herbs they had planted.

Seeing their expressions, Gu Qingfeng felt so pleased that he let out a heroic "Heh heh heh" laugh.

This was the fate those wicked heretics deserved!

The medicine boy and the shop assistant could not make sense of it, and then they died.

They died without ever knowing why, their eyes refusing to close.

Gu Qingfeng released his grip, and Sun Sheng's fat corpse dropped to the floor.

That made four corpses on the ground.

And so the Ghost Hand Apothecary, already quiet at night, grew quieter still.

Gu Qingfeng closed the door, and his mood gradually settled.

This was not his first time killing someone, but it still felt good.

He was not as excited as he had been when he first stabbed his master's wife, Zhang Yao, to death, though. His adrenaline had not surged quite so fiercely.

After all, only Sun Sheng had given him any real excitement. Killing the others had felt like cutting down people beneath him.

Still, it had felt damn good!

Thinking of all the evil these people had done, all the lives they had taken, and how long they had kept him afraid—only for every last one of them to end up dead—gave him the clean, satisfying feeling of finishing a thorough sweep.

How refreshing!

As a young hero, he really did love keeping things clean!

Gu Qingfeng did not rush to deal with the bodies. He began looking for medicine instead.

He went to the back of the apothecary's storefront.

The Ghost Hand Apothecary was sizable. It had both a blood room and a medicine room, and the blood room even had an ice cellar for storing blood.

Gu Qingfeng headed for the medicine room.

Medicines of every kind filled it, with neat rows of drawers stacked together. Who knew how many varieties there were?

He did not grab everything in sight. After feeling his way around carefully, he opened two of the drawers.

They looked no different from the many other drawers, but they held what Gu Qingfeng wanted.

That peculiar stirring told him so.

In other words, only the pills inside had caught the eye of his "wisdom."

One drawer contained two purple porcelain bottles holding the Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills he needed.

Gu Qingfeng poured them out and counted. There were twelve in all.

He thought that was rather few and grumbled, "An apothecary this big, and this is all they made? It's not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."

With that, he simply ate all twelve Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills in one go.

Now that was eating with gusto!

Once he had swallowed them, Gu Qingfeng's body tensed. His eyes felt clear and bright, his blood and vitality surged, and even heavy things seemed light.

His liver was probably growing cleaner and stronger, continually "cleansing" his flesh and blood.

After all, the liver was supposed to remove toxins. He wondered whether he would end up like characters in some novels, "crapping through his pores."

All he could say was that taking twelve Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills at once had nothing but benefits, apart from their size and how they caught in his throat going down!

It felt amazing!

This was how pills ought to be eaten. Anything less would spoil the fun!

Taking one or two a day like he had during drug testing would have people thinking his tolerance was poor!

The other drawer held a spherical wooden box.

Dragons and phoenixes had been carved across its surface with exquisite care. One glance told him it held a precious pill.

Gu Qingfeng opened it eagerly.

There was only one pill inside.

It was at least half the size of a fist, and a faint red aura rose from its surface.

The strangest thing was its appearance.

Most pills were round, and this red one was too, except that it also had many white tendrils.

At a glance, if the pill was a human head, those white tendrils were its beard.

Gu Qingfeng placed a finger on the pill.

The next moment, a string of information appeared in his sea of consciousness.

[Recorded name: Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill]

[Record type: Pill]

[Description: Deep in the mountains lived Taisui, fleshy beings that ranged from the size of a basket to the size of a mountain. Facial features often appeared in their flesh, so people commonly took them for "mountain gods" and built temples to worship them.

When a Taisui died, its body became a mound or mountain of flesh. Its flesh did not rot for a thousand years and remained active.

Taisui flesh was highly poisonous, but experienced flesh gatherers could find treasures amid the toxic meat.

Over the years, green, red, and orange flesh fungi grew on the black-and-purple corpses of Taisui. All were rare and potent tonics.

This pill was made from a Red Taisui Flesh Fungus using the Ghost Hand Apothecary's secret method. Consuming it rapidly strengthened the soul and greatly benefited the user's mental power.]

[Cost: Taisui flesh was no ordinary meat. Once consumed, the flesh's vitality merged with the user's own flesh and blood, continually tempting the user to return to the Taisui's original body and become one with it.]

Reading this sent a chill through Gu Qingfeng, despite the buoyant feeling the Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills had just given him.

It was like eating a strange piece of meat that strengthened his soul while constantly luring him back into the corpse of the thing called a Taisui, to merge with it.

Damn it, was it really that sinister?

[Note: After Reversal of Cost, you can still sense the Taisui's "call," but it cannot tempt you. You can also shut out the "call" at will.]

Seeing those two lines, Gu Qingfeng relaxed considerably.

Good thing he was a genius!

After eating so many Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills, Gu Qingfeng had little appetite for a red pill that looked as though it had grown a beard.

But he decided to eat it anyway!

Whether it was a meal or a precious tonic like this, it was only truly secure once it was in his stomach and digested.

Imagine going through a thousand hardships to get such a valuable pill, then leaving it untouched because the time was not right, or because he could not bear to use it. One day, someone might kill him, and the pill would fall into his enemy's hands.

If the enemy who killed him ate it in his place and gained tremendous benefits, would that not feel like being cuckolded?

Yes, he was talking about Sun Sheng!

Gu Qingfeng had played with Sun Sheng's wife during the day, then killed him that night. Even Sun Sheng's precious pill had fallen into his hands.

As a hero, that was exactly the feeling Gu Qingfeng wanted!

And so, facing the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill, he opened his mouth, ready to swallow it whole!