Chapter 40 This Old Pervert
Elder Wu's pill room was filled year-round with the pungent smell of scorched pill fire. The ground fire beneath the bronze Pill Furnace flickered, casting shifting shadows on the bottles and jars on the medicine cabinet.
He had been sitting cross-legged on a futon with his eyes closed in meditation, a wisp of pale gold Spiritual Qi from refining a Medicinal Pill still lingering at his fingertips. Suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain came from his Dantian—the spiritual thread connection he had established with the azure yuan divine tripod and the Poison Soul Gu had snapped in an instant!
"Who touched my azure yuan divine tripod?! Who destroyed my Poison Soul Gu?!"
The roar of shock and fury struck the stone walls, causing the dregs in the Pill Furnace to rattle and fall.
Elder Wu snapped his eyes open, his eyes bloodshot. His originally gentle spiritual power instantly became violent, and the air around him seemed to warp from the heat of the pill fire.
With a wave of his hand, the medicinal supply documents on the desk were swept up by a gust of wind. The words "The overdue Spirit Medicine from East Mountain Medicine Garden has been demanded" in the report Xuan Chenzi had just submitted now felt like a thorn pricking his eyes.
"Xuan Chenzi! Get in here!"
Panicked footsteps came from outside the hall, and Xuan Chenzi ran in with one side of his face red and swollen, his body still covered in the dust from being kicked out earlier.
He thought the matter of collecting the Spirit Medicine had been settled and was about to speak flatteringly when he met Elder Wu's murderous gaze. Terrified, he fell to his knees with a thud: "Revered Master, your Disciple..."
"What happened to the Spiritual Vein in the Medicine Garden?" Elder Wu took a step forward, his foot stepping on the herbs beside Xuan Chenzi's hand. The crushed withered leaves made a crisp "crack" sound. "I told you to keep an eye on East Mountain Medicine Garden. How could something go wrong!?"
Xuan Chenzi trembled all over, only then realizing that his Revered Master was not angry about the overdue Spirit Medicine, but about the treasure buried underground.
He hurriedly kowtowed: "Revered Master, please appease your anger! It's that old thing Lin Yue! I don't know what kind of fortuitous encounter he had, but he suddenly became extremely powerful. He defeated Zhao Dezhu and Ren Yanran and took over East Mountain Medicine Garden! Thinking he definitely wouldn't be able to provide double the Spirit Medicine, your Disciple went specifically with the demand document to force him to hand over power..."
"Fool!"
Elder Wu raised his hand and delivered a slap, the crisp sound echoing through the pill room.
Xuan Chenzi was slapped to the ground, a trail of blood instantly spilling from the corner of his mouth. Before he could crawl up, Elder Wu kicked him in the chest again, sending him crashing into the medicine cabinet, sending porcelain bottles rolling everywhere.
"Who told you to go demand the Spirit Medicine?!" Elder Wu pointed at his nose, his beard shaking with rage. "That azure yuan divine tripod was buried on the Spiritual Vein node to nourish the Poison Soul Gu by absorbing the ground vein's Spiritual Qi. I intended to let it nurture for another three hundred years until the Gu poison reached Major Achievement, so I could use it to break through the Bottleneck of the Late Golden Core Stage! By demanding the Spirit Medicine, weren't you just forcing Lin Yue to investigate the Spiritual Vein?!"
Xuan Chenzi finally realized the truth. Cold sweat poured down his forehead as he kowtowed while scrambling: "Your Disciple deserves to die! Your Disciple didn't realize that Revered Master's treasure was hidden in that Spiritual Vein... Your Disciple will go and capture Lin Yue right now and make him apologize to Revered Master!"
"Capture? How are you going to capture him?" Elder Wu sneered, a sinister glint flashing in his eyes. "Lin Yue broke my Poison Soul Gu and could even move the azure yuan divine tripod. He is definitely not that Qi Refining Level 3 waste from before. If you go now, you'll just be throwing your life away!" He turned and walked to the Pill Furnace, his fingertips brushing over the cracks on the furnace wall. "Just wait. Since he dared to touch my things, I'll let him know the consequences of offending me."
...
The mist by the Spiritual Spring had not yet dissipated, and the moonlight filtering through the vines onto the bluestone made Luo Ningshuang's skin glow with a pearly white luster.
Lin Yue held her waist, his fingertips tracing the delicate skin of her back. He could still feel the residual spiritual power fluctuations—during their Dual Cultivation just now, their spiritual powers had merged to condense the Heart-Corroding Gu Poison into a pill core. Now, the Innate Pill Body within her had completely awakened, and even her breath carried a faint pill fragrance.
[Ding! The host and his partner Luo Ningshuang have completed a deep Dual Cultivation, successfully using poison to nourish the pill. Triggered special reward: Unlocked [Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons]!]
[Effect Description: The host's Physical Body can automatically repel 99% of the world's poisons. Gu poison, pill poison, and beast poison cannot invade. When in contact with toxins, they can be converted into pure spiritual power to nourish the Meridians. Sensibility towards pill-system techniques is increased by 50%, and the host is immune to backlash when refining highly toxic Medicinal Pills.]
Lin Yue was overjoyed and instinctively reached out toward a wisp of ink-colored poisonous mist remaining by the Spiritual Spring—it was the residual poison left when the Poison Soul Gu dissipated. As soon as his fingertips touched the black mist, it melted like snow meeting fire, turning into a wisp of pale green Spiritual Qi that entered his Meridians. The spiritual power in his Dantian actually became a bit thicker.
"This is Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons?" Luo Ningshuang leaned against his chest, her finger lightly poking his arm, her tone somewhat complex. "My Heart Demon oath is still there. If one day I really have to kill all the Qingyun Sect Disciples... aren't you afraid?"
Lin Yue lowered his head and kissed the top of her head, his voice raspy from the recent Dual Cultivation: "When you made the oath, did you think about when you would act? Did you think about who you would kill first?"
Luo Ningshuang was stunned, a look of daze flashing in her eyes. When Baicao Valley was destroyed and she made the oath among the piles of corpses, her mind was filled with hatred, thinking only of making the Qingyun Sect Disciples pay in blood, but she had never thought about the details of the oath.
"Since you didn't say, that means I won't be killed yet!" Lin Yue's gaze suddenly became burning hot again. Before Luo Ningshuang could react, he flipped over and pinned her against the bluestone.
The mist from the Spiritual Spring wetted their skin. The cold sensation made Luo Ningshuang tremble all over. She raised her hand to push against his chest, her voice carrying a panicked, coquettish tone: "If you mess around again, I'll kill you right now!"
"Kill me?" Lin Yue chuckled, grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head, then lowered his head to bite her lips. "Could you bear to? Besides, can you even kill me now?"
His kiss carried an irresistible dominance. Luo Ningshuang's struggle gradually softened, her fingertips clutching his collar, the killing intent in her eyes replaced by mist.
The sound of the flowing spring water and their breathing intertwined. The moonlight was blurred by the mist. Half an hour later, Lin Yue finally released her slowly.
Luo Ningshuang lay limp in his arms, her cheeks flushed, even her fingertips trembling slightly.
Looking at the satisfaction in Lin Yue's eyes, she couldn't help but pinch him: "You're a madman... Sooner or later, I will really do it."
Lin Yue took her hand and placed it over his heart, where the heartbeat was strong and steady: "Then I'll be waiting. But before that, I have to make it so you can't leave me." With that, he lowered his head and kissed her again. The gold and red mist of the Spiritual Spring once again enveloped their figures.
...
"This old lecher! He's been at it all night, and he's still not finished!" Su Qingyuan cursed in a low voice. Yet her gaze couldn't help but steal glances toward the Spiritual Spring, her face turning red once again.
A He stood beside her, also appearing somewhat uneasy: "Husband's stamina... seems endless. Will Sister Luo... be able to handle it? Should we... go over and help her?"
"If you want to go, then go!" Su Qingyuan glared at her fiercely. "I'm not getting involved in such filthy things!" She then turned and walked away.
A He watched Su Qingyuan's retreating back, but still lifted her skirt and walked lightly toward the Spiritual Spring.
Under the moonlight, her figure soon merged into that ambiguous mist, leaving Su Qingyuan alone, stomping her feet in anger and annoyance under the shade of the trees.