Luo Pill Pavilion

The five-story pavilion was built entirely of green jade. Strings of delicate jade bells hung from its upturned eaves and interlocking brackets, chiming as a breeze brushed past. Above the main entrance hung a purple-gold plaque bearing three great characters, written in strokes like flying dragons and dancing phoenixes: Luo Pill Pavilion.

A steady stream of people flowed before the pavilion. Most of those coming and going were dressed in fine clothes and had extraordinary bearing. On either side of the entrance stood a bronze Pill Cauldron half a person's height, each burning a pale purple incense. Wisps of blue smoke curled upward, and a single breath of it left one refreshed.

"Well? Impressive, isn't it?" Luo Lan lifted his chin proudly. "In the whole Western Heaven Continent, you could count the pill shops bigger than our Luo Pill Pavilion on one hand!"

Xiao Yan nodded, but his gaze fell on the two Pill Cauldrons. The patterns engraved on their bodies bore some resemblance to the Spirit Marks he had seen in the outer city's Bewildering Tracks Array.

It seems that in this realm, even pill cauldrons are controlled using Spirit Marks...

Lost in thought, he followed Luo Lan into the Luo Pill Pavilion.

The first-floor hall was extremely spacious. Countless jade bottles stood neatly arranged on the jade shelves around it, with a small jade tag hanging before each one, bearing the pill's name and price. Xiao Yan gave them a cursory glance. Even the cheapest pills cost three drops of spiritual liquid, while those displayed higher up, shrouded in a faint curtain of light, cost several hundred drops, or even over a thousand.

Luo Lan was clearly a regular here. As soon as he entered, a shop assistant in green came up to greet him, his face wreathed in smiles. "Young Master Lan, what brings you here today? Short on pocket money again?"

"Go on, get out of here. I'm here to do business." Luo Lan waved him off and pointed at Xiao Yan. "My friend has pills to sell. Go fetch Steward Liu."

The assistant glanced at Xiao Yan. Seeing his coarse clothes and pale face, he could not help but look at him with a trace of contempt. Still, for Luo Lan's sake, he acknowledged the request and turned to go upstairs.

Before long, a fair-faced middle-aged man in brocade robes came down the stairs with measured steps. He was the steward in charge of the Luo Pill Pavilion's first floor, surnamed Liu.

"Young Master Lan." Steward Liu first cupped his hands to Luo Lan, his manner reasonably respectful. Only then did he turn his gaze to Xiao Yan. "I hear this young friend has pills to sell?" he said mildly.

Without another word, Xiao Yan took out the emerald-green pill from earlier and set it on the counter.

Steward Liu looked down at it, his brows furrowing slightly. He picked up the pill between two fingers, held it up to the light, then brought it close for a sniff. A moment later, he returned it to the counter and shook his head.

"Strange appearance, and not a single Pill Pattern." His tone was flat. "Young friend, the art of pill refinement calls for Spiritual Energy to be infused into the pill and patterns to lock in its medicinal power. If a pill doesn't have even a single Pill Pattern, it means the Spiritual Energy failed to take shape during refinement and its medicinal power is scattered. At best, taking it will do nothing; at worst, it will harm the body."

"The Luo Pill Pavilion won't buy a pill like this."

Luo Lan grew anxious at once. "Steward Liu, you haven't even tried it! How do you know it won't work? Its medicinal fragrance smells stronger to me than those pills of yours upstairs!"

"Young Master Lan, a strong medicinal fragrance doesn't mean a pill is effective." Steward Liu smiled, though there was a hint of condescension in it. "Sometimes, an overly strong fragrance means precisely that the medicinal power hasn't been contained. Such pills are low-grade."

Quite a few customers had gathered around by now. Hearing this, many nodded in agreement, and their looks at Xiao Yan grew more mocking.

In their eyes, he was just another country bumpkin who didn't know how high the heavens were or how deep the earth was, trying to swindle money from the Luo Pill Pavilion with a pill he had casually rolled together.

Xiao Yan, however, was not angry. He listened quietly until Steward Liu had finished, then nodded. "You have a point, Steward. Locking medicinal power into pills with Spirit Marks is indeed a subtle and ingenious art in this realm."

Steward Liu raised a brow, seemingly surprised that this young countryman could say something like that.

"However," Xiao Yan continued, changing tack as he reached out and picked up the pill, "Spirit Marks aren't the only way to lock in medicinal power."

"Oh?" Steward Liu wore the hint of a smile.

Xiao Yan offered no further explanation. Instead, he looked around, his gaze finally settling on a corner of the hall. A burly man in the silver armor of the Luo Shen Guard stood there, leaning against the wall. His left arm was wrapped in thick bandages, through which a dark red stain of blood faintly showed. His face had a bluish tinge, and cold sweat kept seeping from his forehead. He was clearly struggling to endure the pain.

"Brother, your injury was caused by a sinister, poisonous Spiritual Energy, wasn't it?" Xiao Yan asked.

The man in silver armor was taken aback. He glanced instinctively at his left arm and nodded. "I fought someone from the Blood God Clan a few days ago and was struck by a Blood Fiend Palm. That Blood Fiend Qi has been running wild through my meridians ever since. I've taken several Poison-Dispelling Pills, but none of them could suppress it."

"If you don't mind, you can try this." Xiao Yan held out the pill.

The silver-armored man hesitated and looked at Steward Liu. Steward Liu sneered but did not stop him, seemingly waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

The man looked at Xiao Yan again and gritted his teeth. The Blood Fiend Qi had tormented him for days, leaving him unable to sleep at night. With no other choice, he took the pill and swallowed it in one gulp.

The hall fell silent. Everyone stared at the silver-armored man.

At first, nothing happened.

The sneer at the corner of Steward Liu's mouth grew more pronounced.

But the very next moment, the silver-armored man's body jolted. An intense emerald-green light shone from within him, racing along his meridians toward his left arm. It gathered into a mass of roiling green light at the bandaged wound.

Hiss, hiss...

Strands of dark red blood Qi were forcibly driven from the wound. They twisted and struggled in the air before the emerald light washed over them, turning them into wisps of blue smoke that vanished without a trace.

The bluish tinge in the silver-armored man's face gave way to a healthy flush at a speed visible to the naked eye. He moved his left arm in disbelief, then tore off the bandages. The wound, once a bloody mess of mangled flesh, had grown a layer of tender pink new skin.

"It's healed... it's really healed!" he cried. "There's not a trace of Blood Fiend Qi left!"

The entire hall erupted in an uproar.

The sneer froze completely on Steward Liu's face. He hurried over to the silver-armored man, seized his arm, and examined it closely. His expression grew uglier and more shocked by the moment.

How was this possible?

The Blood God Clan's Blood Fiend Palm was renowned for its sinister venom. Even the detoxification pills upstairs in the Luo Pill Pavilion, worth hundreds of drops of spiritual liquid, had to be taken for several days before they could gradually dispel it. Yet this pill, which did not even have a Pill Pattern, had cured it in a single dose?

"This... what pill is this?" Steward Liu whipped his head around to look at Xiao Yan, his voice changing pitch.

"Just a pill for healing injuries and dispelling poison," Xiao Yan said mildly, without revealing its name. It was a Sixth-Grade Pill from the Dou Qi Continent, made primarily from a spiritual herb of extreme yang, which happened to counter this kind of sinister, poisonous Qi. However, after being eroded by this realm for several days, less than half its original medicinal power remained.

Yet even with only half its power left, it had accomplished something that pills worth hundreds of drops of spiritual liquid in the Luo Pill Pavilion could not.

"Besides Spirit Marks, fire can also be used to lock in medicinal power," Xiao Yan said calmly, looking at Steward Liu. "As long as one's control over the heat is precise enough, the medicinal power will naturally condense without dispersing. Pill Patterns are good to have, of course, but a pill without them isn't necessarily inferior."

Steward Liu opened his mouth, his face turning alternately pale and ashen, but he could not utter a word.

The customers around them had erupted into a clamor. Gazes darted back and forth between Xiao Yan and the silver-armored man, and discussions rose and fell all around.

"Cured in one dose? Did I see that right?"

"Even those detoxification pills upstairs have to be taken for days to deal with the poison of the Blood Fiend Palm..."

"Who is this man? Dressed like that, could he be the disciple of some reclusive pill master?"

Xiao Yan turned a deaf ear to their discussions. In truth, his heart was not as calm as he appeared.

He had made it sound simple, but he knew that locking medicinal power in with fire depended on the fire-control technique he had honed over decades of devouring Heavenly Flames and dealing with countless kinds of fire on the Dou Qi Continent. It depended on the Flame Mantra, on Xiao Yi, and on the Heavenly Flames he possessed. Without them, control over the heat alone could never have condensed the medicinal power and kept it from dispersing.

Now, however, his Heavenly Flames were suppressed, Xiao Yi had fallen into a deep sleep, and even circulating the Flame Mantra would cause a backlash. In his present state, refining another batch of the same pill would likely be fraught with difficulty.

He had to learn this realm's method of locking in medicinal power with Spirit Marks.

It was not just for refining pills. He also had a faint feeling that the approach of using Spirit Marks to control power might be a key to resolving the predicament within his body.

Just then, an aged voice drifted slowly down from the stairs.

"Well said."

Everyone turned toward the voice. An old man with white hair and a white beard, dressed in a gray pill master's robe, had appeared at the head of the second-floor stairs at some unknown point. His gaze was fixed on Xiao Yan, and a fervent gleam flickered in his seemingly cloudy old eyes.

"Elder Qin!" Steward Liu shuddered and hurriedly bowed.

Luo Lan also drew in his neck and whispered to Xiao Yan, "That's Elder Qin, our Luo Pill Pavilion's chief pill master. He has a really strange temper..."

The old man called Elder Qin paid the others no attention. He descended the stairs in a few strides and went straight up to Xiao Yan, looking him up and down. After a long moment, he finally spoke, a trace of irrepressible excitement in his voice.

"Young friend, do you have any more of that pill?"