A menial disciple of the Herb Hall

"Senior Brother Ning, thank you for saving my life."

"If you hadn't shown up in time, I'd probably be a dead man by now."

They reached the mountainside, with no one around.

Lin Shisan bowed to Ning Hao in thanks.

He might have been a little slow on the uptake.

But he still knew that someone as important as Zhao Xun would never seek him out.

Much less send his sword-bearing attendant to summon him personally.

"Heh, heh, heh..."

Ning Hao scratched his head and grinned sheepishly.

He was honestly a little unaccustomed to Lin Shisan thanking him.

Like Lin Shisan, he was an insignificant disciple whom nobody liked.

He was no good with words and knew only how to work, which was why others always bullied him.

And their willingness to toil away without complaint was precisely what Chen Yang valued.

They could do all the dirty, exhausting work while adding a little luster to his public image.

"You figured it all out?"

Ning Hao even began to stammer.

He hurried over and used both hands to help the bowing Lin Shisan straighten up.

"Yes..."

Lin Shisan nodded.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Why would someone as important as Immortal Lord Chen send someone to invite me over? Please accept another bow from me."

"No... no need..."

Lin Shisan's bows left Ning Hao flustered.

"Don't bow. I just didn't want to see an honest fellow like you bullied to death by Chen Yang."

Anger filled Ning Hao's face as he spoke of Chen Yang.

"I can put up with him docking our monthly allowances, pocketing our rewards, and making us do every dirty, exhausting job."

"But I absolutely cannot put up with him killing people."

"For your very first assignment, he sent you to cut black maple bamboo, then made you go cut thunderclap bamboo."

"You barely came back alive to report, and he made you take the blame. Then he pocketed your reward and even tried to kill you. He's worse than a beast."

The more Ning Hao spoke, the more worked up he became.

It was as though he himself were the one Chen Yang had nearly bullied to death.

"Pfft..."

Heat surged into Lin Shisan's throat, and he opened his mouth and spat out a great mouthful of blood.

His face was pale, like that of someone in the final stages of a fatal illness.

He could barely remain standing.

Ning Hao hurriedly caught Lin Shisan and found somewhere for him to sit.

He even channeled his own pitiful supply of true qi into Lin Shisan to heal his injuries.

Only after nearly an hour did Lin Shisan's injuries stabilize.

Although Chen Yang's hate-filled blow had veered off target, it had still injured him.

"Shisan, you must never act so rashly again."

Ning Hao warned him, "Chen Yang really will kill you. Afterward, all he'll have to do is write a few words, while we'll have paid with our lives."

"I really was a little too impulsive back then."

Once he calmed down, Lin Shisan also felt that he had acted rashly.

He had come to the Azure Cloud Lineage to cultivate immortality.

There was no need to nearly throw away his life over a man like Chen Yang.

"Don't worry. It won't happen again."

Lin Shisan took out a small bottle.

There was still roughly a fifth of the Body Tempering Liquid left inside.

To treat his injuries and make it to the Pill Room that morning, he had relied on the Body Tempering Liquid to stimulate his injured body and nerves, keeping himself from collapsing.

"This... Body Tempering Liquid? Shisan, this is too valuable. I can't accept it."

Ning Hao hurriedly pushed it back toward Lin Shisan.

He, too, had recognized the Body Tempering Liquid in the bottle at first glance.

There wasn't much, but it would still fetch seven or eight Spirit Stones.

That was equivalent to three or four months of his allowance.

"I didn't help you for this. Shisan, I really can't take it. It's too valuable. Keep it for yourself."

"Senior Brother Ning, just take it."

Lin Shisan pressed the Body Tempering Liquid into Ning Hao's hands again.

"This Body Tempering Liquid won't do much for me. It's worth more to you."

With his spiritual sense at the second body tempering realm, he could tell that Ning Hao's foundation in the second body tempering realm was already extremely solid.

All he needed was the right opportunity to advance to the third realm.

This Body Tempering Liquid might just provide that opportunity.

"This... I... all right... Shisan, I, Ning Hao, am proud to call you my friend."

After refusing several more times, Ning Hao finally accepted the Body Tempering Liquid.

Just as Lin Shisan had observed, he did indeed need only the right opportunity to advance to the third realm.

For those at low cultivation realms like them, external aids such as Body Tempering Liquid offered the best opportunity.

As for his meager monthly allowance, after Chen Yang took his cut and he sent some home to his family, there was practically nothing left in his hands.

He simply had no Spirit Stones to buy Body Tempering Liquid.

"I'm determined to have you as my friend."

After chatting a little more, the two returned to the Pill Room together.

They had barely begun cleaning when Chen Yang sent Ning Hao away.

He left all the work in the Pill Room to Lin Shisan.

Chen Yang had found a secluded spot to have Ning Hao give him a thorough account of what had happened when Chen Xun invited Lin Shisan over.

By the time Lin Shisan finished cleaning the last Pill Furnace, it was nearly midnight.

All was silent as he pushed a wheelbarrow toward the rear mountain. Once he dumped the last three sacks of furnace ash and pill dregs, his work would be done.

He had just reached the rear mountain when he spotted a disciple in gray menial robes in the distance, his backside sticking up as he rummaged through the ash heap.

He seemed to be looking for something.

He was a menial disciple of the Herb Hall.

His clothes bore the image of an herb resembling a reishi mushroom or ginseng.

What's he doing here?

The Herb Hall disciple also spotted Lin Shisan.

He stared blankly for a moment, then came over to meet him.

He saw the cauldron emblem on Lin Shisan's clothes.

Naturally, he recognized Lin Shisan as a Pill Room disciple.

In the Azure Cloud Lineage, all menial disciples wore gray.

But the emblems on their clothes differed.

The Herb Hall had an herb emblem, the Pill Room had a cauldron emblem, and the Medicine Sage Hall had an emblem of an old man with a white beard.

"A senior brother from the Pill Room? Are you here to collect discarded pills this late, too?"

He's here to collect discarded pills?

Lin Shisan took a nervous step back.

Could he also have some sort of cauldron that could upgrade ordinary food, or even discarded pills?

"Hello, Senior Brother. I'm Lin Shisan, a Pill Room disciple. I just finished cleaning the Pill Furnaces and came here to dump the furnace ash and pill dregs."

"By the way, Senior Brother, what do you mean by collecting pills?"

Lin Shisan asked, feigning composure.

"Heh, heh, heh. One look tells me you're new here, Junior Brother. It means exactly what it sounds like-collecting the discarded pills your Pill Room throws away."

The Herb Hall disciple's eyes lit up, as though he had spotted a path to riches.

"What can you do with discarded pills? They're already ruined. Could they have some other use?"

Lin Shisan played dumb.

He put on an innocent, ignorant expression.

Since the other disciple had taken him for a clueless junior disciple, he naturally had to play along and keep up the act.

This seemed like a promising avenue, too.

He still had a few Spirit Coins on him, so he could buy a discarded pill and take it back to experiment with.

"Since you've called me Senior Brother, I have a responsibility to teach you a thing or two."

The Herb Hall disciple positively glowed.

He was always the one calling others senior brother. When had anyone ever called him that?

Being called senior brother was a mark of status.

"These discarded pills are good stuff. You can exchange them for Spirit Stones. You won't get filthy rich, but you'll definitely make far more than your monthly allowance."

More than the monthly allowance?

Could Niu Shan have gotten his Spirit Stones by collecting discarded pills and exchanging them like this?

Lin Shisan asked tentatively, "You can exchange discarded pills for Spirit Stones? How does that work? Senior Brother, tell me about it."

"If it really pays as well as you say, I'll keep an eye out from now on. I could earn a little extra income for myself, couldn't I?"

"Heh, heh, heh..."

Hearing that, the Herb Hall disciple grinned so widely his mouth nearly twisted out of shape.

He really had stumbled upon a money-making opportunity in the middle of the night.

Most importantly, Lin Shisan looked like a fool and would surely be easy to hoodwink.

"Junior Brother Lin, you've come to the right person. Listen while your senior brother explains it properly."

"A Body Tempering Pill fetches ten Spirit Coins, provided it has pill markings. One with three or four markings can sell for twenty Spirit Coins."

"An Origin Vein Pill can fetch a little more. Those with one or two markings have a market price of twenty Spirit Coins, but I can offer thirty."

"One with three or four markings can sell for around fifty Spirit Coins. If it's fresh and high-quality, it could probably sell for sixty."