The sorcerer unwrapped the cloth around the books, revealing a bound volume with many loose sheets tucked alongside it.
Seeing Yi Shuyuan looking at the volume, the sorcerer offered it to him, cloth bundle and all, while shielding it with his body so his disciples farther behind him could not see.
"Scholar, please accept this. If you truly meet an immortal master someday, please ask them to look it over, too... to see whether there is anything worthwhile in my life's work."
His voice grew still quieter. After a pause, he looked at Yi Shuyuan's face and slowly continued.
"If... if no true immortal comes to guide you, the alchemical methods in this book might be worth a look!"
The sorcerer watched Yi Shuyuan, and Yi Shuyuan watched him in turn.
The sorcerer before him was somewhat agitated. His reddened eyes looked cloudy to Yi Shuyuan, too. On closer inspection, his pupils were dull and his eye whites murky; Pill Poison had already taken deep root.
Clearly, the man had some inkling of it himself. He knew his allotted time was nearly up.
Stoneborn ate a mandarin and watched the sorcerer, feeling that the man was about to cry.
"But, uncle, you already have so many disciples!"
The sorcerer glanced at Stoneborn and shook his head slightly.
"Those disciples of mine will never amount to anything. If I truly passed this alchemy on to them, I'm afraid they'd cause a great disaster! Even if I do meet someone worth teaching again, I can still recite it all."
Yi Shuyuan looked calm-so calm that, had the sorcerer not been so agitated, he would certainly have found it strange.
But the sorcerer's heart was already in turmoil, and his eyes held nothing but hope. Yi Shuyuan's composure only made him more anxious.