Five days later.
Somewhere underground by the Yin River.
Accompanied by a booming sound, a dismal green blade light burst through the collapsed rocky entrance.
Chen Mu, shielding himself with the Yang Judge Bone Shield, with a glowing algae lamp the size of a fist floating beside him, carefully stepped into this subterranean space.
As soon as he entered, he found a shriveled corpse at the entrance.
The chest of the other party was split open, and the face, skin-and-bones, was full of terror, as if it were a mummy buried in the desert for hundreds of years.
At this moment, it floated on the surface of the Yin River, blocked by a rock, drifting with the current, slowly rotating in place.
"What a futile move," Chen Mu shook his head.
Sun Wuhuan, with his great talent and good family background, and not lacking in secret techniques or resources, should have become a high and mighty figure, yet he still met his end underground.
"I was clearly avoiding you, but you insisted on eradicating me to the roots. Sigh..." Chen Mu sighed."Still, we knew each other, and although we were enemies, I can’t bear to see your body floating in the water after death. I’ll take care of your burial," thought Chen Mu, as he activated the Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles and lifted Sun Wuhuan from a distance.
Then... he took out the Fire Cloud Gourd.
Boom!
A fierce flame immediately engulfed Sun Wuhuan.
Chen Mu watched unblinkingly, occasionally using the Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles to squeeze and hammer, until he completely burned the opponent to white ashes before stopping.
Then he scattered the white powdery ash into the Yin River.
"Dust to dust, earth to earth, as my enemy, to take care of your affairs after death to this extent, I suppose that counts as doing the utmost duty," Chen Mu’s face was filled with complexity.
"Sigh... I am just too kind-hearted," he was quite helpless about the innate goodness in his bones.
The world is perilous, and having a too kind heart doesn’t necessarily lead to a good outcome.
"But who made me this kind of person," Chen Mu was very pleased that he could maintain this pure kindness.
"If Sun Wuhuan knew underneath the spring, he would surely feel moved," he thought with a sense of achievement.
"If he could still pass on messages, he would definitely reward me with these material things," Chen Mu looked at the two items floating in front of him with a smile on his face.
A heavy, iron-cast like, red gourd.
An emerald jade ring with faint silver star spots.
"It’s really too polite!"
"This is what I should do."
"No need to thank me!"
"Haha..."
...
Inside the alchemist chamber of the storeroom on the east side of Mist Smoke Mountain.
Chen Mu sat cross-legged on a soft couch, cradling the pitch-black Primordial Furnace on the short table in front of him.
A humming buzz emanated rhythmically from within the Pill Furnace.
After a while, Chen Mu released his hands and lifted the lid of the Pill Furnace.
Eighty-one Fasting Pills flew out in succession, landing inside a wooden box next to the short table.
"If only I had a Qiankun Furnace," Chen Mu thought with some longing.
Even though he had fully mastered the method to refine Fasting Pills, he was still constrained by the size of the Pill Furnace, which only allowed him to refine eighty-one pills at a time.
He had heard Bai Xiuwen casually mention that there was a kind of Qiankun Furnace that, though not large on the outside, was immensely spacious within and could refine enough to match ten furnaces.
"If I had a Qiankun Furnace, I wouldn’t have to repeat the pill refinement," Chen Mu looked at the more than ten neatly arranged wooden boxes under the soft couch.
They were all filled with the Essence of the Five Grains, which he had accumulated over the past month.
"Qi Hui wants to come and earn Daoist cultivation points, right? Liang Yi transferred me away before, why didn’t he come?" Chen Mu wondered.
"It’s even better that he didn’t come. Now with Sun Wuhuan’s schemes gone, these cultivation points should rightfully be mine to earn," Chen Mu thought cheerfully.
After resting a while, he cleaned the Pill Furnace and continued with alchemy.
...
Late evening, more than ten days later.
At Chen Mu’s bamboo building, outside along the corridor.
Insect Repellent Incense Sticks hung on all three sides of the corridor, trailing down in bell shapes, as a Gentle Breeze blew, the burning red tips flickered in the light and dark.
A glowing algae lamp the size of a fist hung at the top of the eaves, casting a soft white light, illuminating the gradually darkening sky.
Beneath the lamp stood a square table, draping around it were three vegan and two meat dishes, while a rotund Primordial Furnace sat at the center.
Bai Xiuwen was seated in a bamboo chair with a high back, looking oddly at the Primordial Furnace in the middle, from which exotic beast meat stewed in red sauce bubbled and emitted white smoke, causing his eyelids to twitch uncontrollably.
Using a precious Pill Furnace to stew meat?!
Truly...
He couldn’t help but glance at Chen Mu beside him.
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"Eat, why are you looking at me? This meat has been stewed to perfection," Chen Mu said.
"Eat, I’ll eat..." Bai Xiuwen’s face twitched as he began to eat with a resigned smile.
As soon as the stewed meat touched his mouth, Bai Xiuwen’s eyes lit up involuntarily.
Alchemy can also be used to practise culinary skills?
"Regarding the recent calamity, has there been any conclusion?" Chen Mu, picking up a strip of cold mixed vegetables, crunched and asked.
He had been staying in the warehouse practising alchemy, not very well-informed on outside events.
"Inspection Courtyard has released news that the mastermind behind this is an Evil Path expert from East Ridge, ancestor Xin Ya," Bai Xiuwen said gravely.
"That person specializes in controlling poisonous insects and has cruel methods."
"Judging by that blood sacrifice Forbidden Spell, which wipes out humanity, you can tell how merciless they are," Bai Xiuwen shuddered as he spoke, "Apart from our place, almost all living things within a hundred miles have perished!"
Chen Mu was dumbfounded.
Such actions were indeed typical of the Evil Path, reckless and without restraint.
"Fortunately, we have the Mountain Protection Restriction, otherwise..." Bai Xiuwen’s face was full of relief.
"With this battle behind us, we won’t fear covert attacks from the Evil Path anymore."
"Mist Smoke Mountain is now completely under our control at Jilong Road," Bai Xiuwen declared.
Chen Mu nodded in agreement.
With the Mountain Protection Restriction in place and three Condensing Aperture experts - two humans and one demon - to guard it, it was enough to take control of Mist Smoke Mountain.
"Has there been any news from the deputy director of the Sun family? Or any word from the other institutes?" Chen Mu asked nonchalantly.
"I’ve crafted so many Fasting Pills, yet I don’t know whom to exchange them with for Daoist Cultivation," he said with a hint of complaint in his voice, as if he were truly just concerned about how to exchange them for cultivation progress.
"It’s probably more bad news than good," Bai Xiuwen speculated.
"I hear another Condensing Aperture expert from the Sun Family has come here, searching for information and enquiring a lot of people, even using Secret Techniques to scour the mountain."
"After circling Mist Smoke Mountain for several days, they found nothing at all."
"As you know, everything for a hundred miles is dead, what could they find?" Bai Xiuwen whispered.
"I reckon before long, someone will come to take charge of the Administrative Affairs Institute."
A Condensing Aperture expert? Searching with Secret Techniques?
Sun Wuhuan indeed had powerful connections.
Coming up empty is good.
No results likely means no involvement with me.
"I hope so," Chen Mu feigned a sigh, "I might as well stop for a few days before continuing to practice alchemy. Having too many Fasting Pills on hand doesn’t sit well with me."
...
In the days that followed.
Chen Mu dutifully remained in the warehouse, showing his face every morning, refining two or three batches of pills and brushing up on his experience with the Five Qi Primordial Technique.
Then he took the Ge Family’s Hundred Herbs Primer to read, seizing the opportunity to ponder over the Parasite Expelling Pill.
In the afternoon, he would return to his bamboo building, hiding in the secret chamber to practice the Fire Cloud Curse.
He went to bed early and rose early, maintaining a regular routine.
As days and months revolved like this, more than half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
One deep night, in a cave four hundred meters underground.
Glowing Algae Lamps illuminated a cavern that had been in darkness for who knows how many years.
On a platform protruding from the rock wall.
Chen Mu took out a large meditation mat and sat down, activating Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles and digging out a wooden box from within the platform’s rocks to open it.
A Red Gourd and an Emerald Jade Ring lay quietly inside.
Chen Mu excitedly scratched himself all over, "A Flying Sword..."
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