Snowflight City, a cave abode in Changping Ward.
Li Ping lived a quiet life of cultivation.
One day, Shi Yutong came to his door and asked him to refine some pills.
Li Ping courteously led her to a pavilion and invited her to sit, while ordering a puppet to serve spirit tea.
Shi Yutong seemed somewhat distracted, but when she named the pills she wanted him to refine, Li Ping reacted.
He could not help being surprised. "Dragon-Subduing Pills? Sect Leader Shi, those are the pills you want refined?"
His surprise was understandable, for Dragon-Subduing Pills were not a human invention, but a type of pill unique to the Otherfolk.
As far as Li Ping knew, a degree of reproductive isolation existed between different Otherfolk races. Even if they intermarried, they could not produce offspring.
Dragon-Subduing Pills were something Otherfolk pill refiners had created to solve precisely that problem.
After intermarrying, Otherfolk needed only to take these pills at regular intervals to successfully produce offspring.
However, since Dragon-Subduing Pills were second-tier upper-grade pills, only high-level Otherfolk cultivators could bear the expense. Otherfolk mortals and low-level cultivators lacked the means to use them.
As for humans...
Humans could intermarry with other Otherfolk and produce offspring without these pills, and their mixed-blood descendants possessed most human characteristics.
For instance, they needed spirit roots to cultivate, and spirit veins to aid their cultivation and breakthroughs.
Shi Yutong herself was a prime example.
Naturally, Li Ping was very curious when she suddenly came to ask him to refine Dragon-Subduing Pills.
Shi Yutong shook her head helplessly. "Yes. To tell you the truth, Brother Li, a junior relative of my mother's asked her for these Dragon-Subduing Pills, and she ordered me to handle the matter for him."
"I see." Understanding dawned on Li Ping.
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