Blood Butcher

On the third floor of the Luo Pill Pavilion, sandalwood incense curled through a quiet room.

Elder Qin sat opposite Xiao Yan, holding a pill Xiao Yan had just taken out. It was crimson all over, smooth and round, and likewise bore no Pill Patterns. Yet it gave off a gentle warmth that passed through the jade tray and filled the entire room.

The old man had spent a full incense stick's time examining the pill. His wrinkled face shifted between amazement and puzzlement, then sank into thought, until even Luo Lan, sitting beside him, began to grow restless.

"No Spirit Marks, yet the medicinal power is fused into one, layer upon layer, without interfering with itself..." Elder Qin murmured. "Such control over the heat is simply inconceivable. In my hundred and twenty years of pill refining, I have never seen a technique like this."

He finally looked up at Xiao Yan, his gaze burning. "Young friend, forgive my presumption, but who taught you this pill-refining art?"

"My master is an old man who lives in seclusion. He is not someone I can speak of to outsiders," Xiao Yan said with a smile.

Seeing that he was unwilling to say more, Elder Qin did not press him. He merely sighed and carefully returned the crimson pill to the jade tray. "I am willing to buy this pill for three hundred drops of spirit liquid. If you have any more of those detoxifying pills from earlier, I will pay two hundred drops apiece. I will take as many as you have."

Beside them, Luo Lan drew a sharp breath.

Three hundred drops!

Even the most expensive pills on the first floor of the Luo Pill Pavilion were priced at only a few hundred drops, yet Elder Qin had offered three hundred drops for a pill without a single Pill Pattern. If word got out, the whole of Luo Shen City would probably be shaken.

Xiao Yan, however, was making rapid calculations.

Only a dozen or so pills in his Storage Ring still retained their medicinal power, and every one of them was being slowly eroded by this world. The longer he kept them, the less they would be worth. Rather than let that happen, he might as well exchange them for this world's spirit liquid while they were still useful.

Moreover, he needed a way to learn about this world's art of pill refining, and Elder Qin was clearly an excellent choice.

"I have two detoxifying pills left." After a moment's thought, Xiao Yan took out two emerald-green pills, then selected two more from his Storage Ring whose medicinal power had deteriorated more severely and placed them on the table as well. "I'll sell you all of these, Elder Qin. However, I have another presumptuous request."

"Please, young friend, go ahead."

"I have only just arrived here and know nothing at all about this world's pill-refining art. I would like to ask Elder Qin to teach me the basics of refining pills with Spirit Marks. Also, if the pavilion has any introductory texts on Spiritual Energy cultivation, I would like to borrow them."

Elder Qin was taken aback, then stroked his beard and burst out laughing. "With skills like yours, you still want to learn from me? Haha, good, good! I was just hoping to have a proper discussion with you. I'll have someone prepare those materials tomorrow and send them to you!"

A short while later, the deal was settled. Xiao Yan sold five pills for a full eleven hundred drops of Supreme Spirit Liquid. He also received a guest elder's jade token from Elder Qin, which would allow him to enter and leave the Luo Pill Pavilion freely and purchase its spirit herbs at seventy percent of the usual price.

When Xiao Yan and Luo Lan went downstairs, the customers in the first-floor hall looked at him in an entirely different way. Steward Liu even came to greet him personally, his face wreathed in smiles as he called him "Mr. Xiao" over and over, with not a trace of his earlier arrogance.

Xiao Yan merely nodded slightly and did not hold it against him.

Just as the two were about to leave the Luo Pill Pavilion, however, a commotion suddenly arose at the entrance.

"Out of the way, out of the way!"

Several young men in dark red robes shoved the customers at the entrance aside and swaggered in. Their leader was a young man in his early twenties. He was tall and broad, with a sinister face and a pair of eyes that were a strange dark red. A faint bloody stench hung around him, enough to make anyone who smelled it want to retch.

The customers in the hall, who had been talking among themselves, fell silent the instant they saw the newcomers. Fear appeared on many faces as they quietly backed away.

"People from the Blood God Clan..." Luo Lan's expression changed. He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "The one in front is called Blood Butcher. He's a notoriously ruthless character among the Blood God Clan's younger generation, at the Late-Stage Divine Soul Realm. He was the one who injured those people from our clan a few days ago!"

Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes slightly. He could sense dark red Spiritual Energy flowing through the young man called Blood Butcher. It was cold and foul, exactly like the Blood Fiend Qi forced out of the silver-armored man's wound earlier.

Blood Butcher entered the hall and swept his dark red eyes around before settling them on Steward Liu. He grinned. "I hear someone capable came to your Luo Pill Pavilion today. One pill was enough to undo a strike from my Blood Fiend Palm?"

Sweat beaded on Steward Liu's forehead, and he glanced instinctively at Xiao Yan.

That glance was enough.

Blood Butcher followed Steward Liu's gaze to Xiao Yan and looked him up and down. At the sight of his coarse clothes, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, quickly turning into deep disdain.

"You're the one?" He sauntered over and stopped in front of Xiao Yan, looking down at him. "A sickly weakling?"

Xiao Yan said nothing, merely looking at him calmly.

"Kid, I won't make things difficult for you." Blood Butcher held out a hand, palm up. "Hand over every one of those detoxifying pills you have left, then write down the pill formula. Do that, and I'll pretend today never happened."

A dead silence fell over the hall.

Everyone knew Blood Butcher meant to cut off the Luo God Clan's means of countering the Blood Fiend Palm. If those pills fell into the Blood God Clan's hands, anyone from the Luo God Clan struck by the Blood Fiend Palm in the future would be left to wait for death.

"Blood Butcher! Don't go too far!" Luo Lan's face flushed red. He stepped forward and stood in front of Xiao Yan. "This is the Luo Pill Pavilion, Luo God Clan territory. You have no right to run wild here!"

"Luo God Clan territory?" Blood Butcher sneered. Without so much as a glance at Luo Lan, he casually waved his hand. A dark red gust of force swept out with a roar, striking Luo Lan before he could react. He flew backward and slammed into a jade display shelf, shattering jade bottles across the floor.

"Young Master Lan!"

"Luo Tianshen's shut himself away in seclusion, and those old fossils in your Luo God Clan have pulled in their necks and don't dare show their faces. What makes a little brat from a branch family like you worthy of shouting at me?" Blood Butcher shook out his hand and sneered.

Luo Lan struggled to his feet amid the broken jade, a thread of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were red, but he clenched his teeth and said nothing.

Xiao Yan slowly shifted his gaze away from Luo Lan and back to Blood Butcher's face.

His gaze was as calm as ever, but the temperature in the hall seemed to drop a few degrees.

"The pills are gone," Xiao Yan said slowly. "And you're not getting the formula."

The smile faded slightly from Blood Butcher's face, killing intent surging in his dark red eyes. "What did you say?"

"I said..." Xiao Yan raised his head slightly and met those blood-red eyes. He spoke each word distinctly. "Get. Lost."

Blood Butcher froze for an instant. Then he laughed, his laughter full of violence. "Interesting. Very interesting. It's been a long time since anyone dared speak to me like that."

Dark red Spiritual Energy erupted from his body like a wave of blood, instantly filling the hall with a heavy stench of blood. The watching customers cried out and fled outside.

"Enough!"

The instant Blood Butcher was about to strike, an aged, commanding shout rolled down from the staircase. Elder Qin descended step by step, his wrinkled face full of anger. "Blood Butcher, private fighting is forbidden in the Luo Pill Pavilion. That is the rule in every pill shop on the Western Heaven Continent. Does your Blood God Clan intend to break it?"

Blood Butcher's movements paused.

He could disregard Luo Lan, and even Steward Liu of the Luo Pill Pavilion, but Elder Qin was different. Though the old man was only a pill master, he held an exceptionally high standing in the Western Heaven Continent's pill-refining circles. The Blood God Clan likewise depended on his connections for many of its pills. If Blood Butcher actually fought in the Luo Pill Pavilion, the clan elders would probably not spare him when he returned.

Blood Butcher's face darkened as the blood-colored Spiritual Energy churning around him slowly receded.

He gave Xiao Yan a long look, as though he were looking at a dead man.

"Kid, I'll remember you."

He grinned and turned to leave. As he passed through the entrance, he tossed out a parting remark without looking back. "You'll have to leave Luo Shen City sooner or later."

The young men of the Blood God Clan followed close behind him and swaggered away.

The hall was a complete mess.

Xiao Yan went to Luo Lan and helped him up, then checked his injuries. Fortunately, they were only superficial wounds and nothing serious.

"I'm sorry..." Luo Lan hung his head, his voice muffled. "I said I'd bring you here to sell pills, but..."

"It wasn't your fault." Xiao Yan patted his shoulder and smiled.

But the moment he turned to look outside, an icy glint flashed through the depths of his black eyes and vanished.

As evening approached, Xiao Yan parted ways with Luo Lan and walked alone toward the city gate. He had arranged to meet A Heng there.

He walked at an unhurried pace, passing through long streets and narrow alleys, the setting sun casting a long shadow behind him.

And in the crowd not far behind him, several dark red figures followed, now near, now far.