The Medicine People of Purple Gold Mountain

Beside the earth fire Pill Furnace halfway up Wuzhu Mountain.

Li Shang frowned.

Most top Alchemist have inherited knowledge of 'human medicine', but there are indeed a few Alchemist who have never come into contact with this field.

For example, the woman named Wudang in front of him is only skilled in cultivating vital energy, forging spirit, creating magic, and Grain Avoidance Pill. People like her are basically unlikely to come into contact with human medicine.

Human-made medicine is a type of prohibited medicine, as it involves using humans as a furnace to refine the medicinal substance.

Among human medicines, the most widely known is Bi Gan's Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart.

In the unified empire more than a thousand years ago, it was common practice to use humans or demons in medicine.

When the Immortal Court was destroyed and the world collapsed, the practice of using humans in medicine was suppressed. Only the use of demons in medicine remained. Demon treasures and demon cores were still widely used in the production of elixirs. In particular, the Creation Elixir often used demon cores as a catalyst, which led to the deaths of countless demons.

Leaving aside the use of Dao of Alchemy ingredients in medicine, the Alchemist discussing alchemy mentioned human medicine.

Li Shang pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.

"Fellow Daoist Wudang, human medicine is medicine made from human body. Although the Life Creation Pill is good, you still need to be careful and cautious. Don't be mistaken for a demon and be punished," Li Shang advised.

"My Life-Creating Pill can help cultivators in the True Self Realm repair their bodies," Zhang Xuezhou said. "Using some ginseng as a medicine is no big deal!"

"How can this not be a big deal? A human body... ginseng?"

Just as Li Shanggang was about to argue, he suddenly heard the other person's expression seem to have shifted to the other side.

This made him realize the truth belatedly.

"Fellow Daoist Wudang is right, ginseng can be used as medicine," Li Shangdao said. "If you are choosing medicine, you should choose ginseng that is the essence of heaven and earth!"

"So this is human medicine. Thank you, fellow Daoist. I understand now!"

"I still don't know how you plan to refine this pill?" Li Shang asked.

"That's right, I..."

A ripple spread through the air, the voice lingered, and then faded into the distance.

"Human medicine? The Life-Creating Pill? Can it heal injuries of the True Self Realm cultivators?"

Yang Po had vanished from his senses, while Li Shang paced back and forth.

He presented the Pill Formula for the Holy Blood Pill, and in return, the other party offered the Life-Creating Pill.

Li Shang explained in great detail, and the other party also went into detail about every step. Moreover, the other party's method of controlling the pills was extremely strict.

"What kind of medicine is needed here—ginseng or human-based medicine?"

After the other party left, Li Shang had some doubts.

A pill that can heal the injuries of the True Self Realm cultivator must also be able to heal cultivators of the Sole Self Realm and the Divine Ability Realm; this can be considered an ultimate pill.

It would be impossible for Li Shang to have no intention of refining a replica of the Life Creation Pill; his mind had not yet reached that level of sainthood.

"Whether it is or not, we'll know once we refine one!"

The King of Huainan's Household had no shortage of century-old Codonopsis pilosula, Atractylodes macrocephala, Poria cocos, prepared licorice root, Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Paeonia lactiflora, Rehmannia glutinosa, and prepared Astragalus membranaceus, and the King of Huainan's Household also had 'human medicine'.

If it were a ginseng spirit, Li Shang would be in a real predicament, since the King of Huainan's Household only had thousand-year-old ginseng, which had not yet reached the point of transforming into a spirit.

However, if it involves 'human medicine', the Prince of King of Huainan's Household has hundreds of these in stock.

For Li Shang and the others, the lives of these human medicines were not equal to their own; they were merely kept like pigs and sheep, to be used when needed.

He stood up and summoned another medicine slave.

"Go to Zijin Mountain and find Zuo Wu. Ask him for a 'human medicine'," Li Shang instructed.

"Only!"

"Let him give it to someone younger and Qi and Blood," Li Shang added. "Don't shove any old fogies at me!"

"Only!"

"If he's unwilling, you can tell him that you want to try refining a miraculous medicine called the Life-Creating Pill, which can heal his old injuries!"

Li Shang added that only when there was nothing more to be found did he order the medicine slave to quickly run down the mountain.

Purple Mountain?

Zhang Xuezhou was discovered by Li Shang while drifting aimlessly, but as long as his Yang Soul stood high enough, it would be difficult for the other party to find him.

He was far enough away that he couldn't hear Li Shang's voice very clearly, but he could make out the location and a few words.

After a brief moment of thought, Zhang Xuezhou's spirit had already drifted down the mountain, closely following the medicine slave who moved through the mountains as if on flat ground.

Li Shang was able to detect Zhang Xuezhou's Yang Soul traces, but the Medicine Slave was clearly several levels below, and even when Zhang Xuezhou flew right above the other's head, he didn't notice anything.

"The medicinal herbs weren't placed on Wuzhu Mountain, where alchemy is performed, but instead on Zijin Mountain, where metallurgy is smelted?"

Zhang Xuezhou couldn't understand this arrangement for a moment.

He followed above the medicine slave, his gaze constantly fixed on the distant winding mountain road.

It was a mountain that occasionally emitted a red glow.

Compared to the smoke from the five yam furnaces, the flames in the smelting workshop were extremely fierce, and there were quite a few people burning charcoal in this mountain.

The crimson flames flickered continuously in the mountains, and Zhang Xuezhou became more focused and vigilant, wary of being discovered by the cultivators of Zijin Mountain.

Nearly half an hour later, Zhang Xuezhou stepped into Zijin Mountain and began to linger far behind the medicine slave.

He saw the medicine slave enter a large house with blue bricks and red tiles, then take out a token and run towards the mountainside.

Following the medicine slave around, Zhang Xuezhou saw a cluster of thatched houses in a secluded spot, with many women washing clothes by a pond nearby.

"I have been sent by Supervisor Zuo Wu to find a test subject for the medicine. Successful test subject may leave the mountain!"

The drug slave entered the area, brandishing his token and shouting.

However, no woman responded to him.

The drug slave didn't care about the crowd's attitude; his gaze swept over the many women.

He completely ignored the older women, while constantly comparing the younger ones, trying to pick out a woman who was somewhat pleasing to the eye.

Although he was just a medicine slave, he was a medicine slave under Li Shang, and his status was even comparable to that of some ordinary guest ministers.

The drug slave had seen countless women, and these village girls were indeed unbearable to him; it would be difficult for him to find even one who was somewhat attractive.

He searched for a long time before finally grabbing a young woman with her head down.

"You're the one," the medicine slave chuckled. "Go with Master Li to Wuzhu Mountain!"

"I won't accept your help! You people are trying to harm us!"

The young woman struggled for a while, responding with a series of words in a local dialect, her strength so great that the drug slave could not hold her steady.

He wanted to slap her, but he was afraid of hurting one of the village girls who was considered pretty, so he had no choice but to endure the punches.

"What do you want? I'm here on orders. If you dare to obstruct me, watch out for the lives of your men!"

After he handcuffed the young woman, he felt a loud thud as a laundry stick broke in two and flew off his head.

This enraged the drug slave.

He shouted and retaliated by striking back at the attacker.

After a dull thud, an elderly woman in her fifties was thrown into the air and lay on the ground, struggling to kick her legs.

Seeing the group of women standing up menacingly, carrying washing sticks, Yao Nu couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. He shouted loudly and called for the guards on Zijin Mountain to come and help.

"You drug slave are really bold. We usually don't dare to mess with the people from Zhang Household," a guard whispered with a sigh.

"Luckily, all those men were blacksmiths, otherwise one arrow to you would have killed one of them!"

"These stubborn bastards are impossible to beat!"

"If we hadn't divided them, controlling the women with the men and the men with the women, they wouldn't be so obedient!"

"These women are all taller and stronger than us men, I really don't know how they grew so tall!"

"Hey!"

The guards rushed to help, but some of them took the opportunity to grope the woman.

The gleaming swords and blades left many women glaring angrily, and some even hurled insults.

"Jiangang, Zhang Jiangang, my daughter~"

A washerwoman cried out.

"Zhang Jiangang? Gangniu?"

There are few educated people in Zhang Household Village, and few names sound good. Even Zhang Xuezhou doesn't like his real name, so he adopted a name from the real world.

The names of Zhang Changgong, Zhang Cigong, Zhang Yaogong, and others are similar. These names are not much different from those of Zhang San and Li Si. Some of these names are based on generation, some follow the father's name, and some combine both. Zhang Jiangang's name follows both generation and his father's name.

Zhang Xuezhou doesn't usually hang out much with young men, and even less with women.

But Zhang Jiangang still left some impression on him, after all, he had never beaten her when he was young and had been pinned to the ground by this girl. Zhang Xuezhou had even taught Zhang Jiangang how to write his name because of this.

If no Human Sect Zhang Jiangang how to write his name, the other party will inevitably write his name as Zhang Laohu (Zhang Tiger).

Many years later, the young man from back then has grown up and become strong, and his appearance has become completely unfamiliar to Zhang Xuezhou.

Some of the older women had aged so much that Zhang Xuezhou could hardly recognize them.

It took him a long time to confirm that these women had all once been members of Zhang Household Village.