Chapter 375
Ghosts of the Mine (XVI)
"Do you know what this is?" Lao Shun asked.
"Vaguely," I replied sagaciously.
"Is your entire goal in life to startle my heart so much that you kill ?" he asked further.
"Perhaps," I played along with a smile.
"... haah," he sighed as the fla vanished from sight, as though consud by his hand. "What if they noticed?"
"I gambled," I shrugged; I an, it wasn't really a gamble; knowing Long Tao, he'd isolated us the mont we started talking.
"Hm. Fine. I'll play along. I've already sworn to just pretend everything is fine... though, truth be told, it's getting harder."
"Just consider it your ntal training."
"I used to endure having my soul scorched as a form of ntal training," he said. "Sohow, that was easier."
"..."
"Here," he procured a pill--a very, very small one, practically a fingernail-sized pearl, with strange, amber luminescence just under the haze of its coating. "I originally intended to use this to attempt to be classified as a Tri-Aspects Rank, but I'm not quite sure that matters any longer. With what you've given already, I'll probably beco World-Gathering Rank within a decade."
"Oh. What is it?" I asked, taking the pill. It was both soft and hard, oddly; it was also rather smooth, so much so that I found myself needing to use Qi to actually maintain my grip on it.
"A man of your ans, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out."
"... a bet?"
"A bet. But--" he quickly added. "You can't ask that weird thing over there you call a Disciple."
"... tsk."
"Did you just click your tongue?"
"No. Sothing was stuck in my teeth," I said. "Fine. How much ti do I have?"
"An hour."
"... really?" I felt my patience snapping a bit. "Very well, you unfilial Disciple." his expression imdiately distorted. "If I figure it out within an hour, forget Master, I'll have you call Grandfather for a month."
"F-fine," his conviction wavered slightly, though he still agreed. "If you can't... you'll have to do a favor one day, no questions asked. Good luck, Master~"
He seed quite confident that I wouldn't be able to figure it out--and, true enough, if it were just ... no way in hell was that happening. I've got less than zero knowledge about alchemy, though the pill did actually remind of quinidine tablet just a touch.
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Alright, system! I summon you! What is this thing?
...
Hey.
...
Oh, co on! Please!
...
You can charge points; you don't have to do it for free!
...
Oh shit. What kind of a favor will that crazy bastard ask of ? He already knows that I say 'Yes' to pretty much anything my 'Disciples' ask of , so the fact that he explicitly asked for it... I have a feeling it'll be monuntal. Haah. Why did I agree to the damn thing? I should have known the system would just ignore ...
[--Eternity offers an explanation for the strange pill]
[Cost: 500 Creation Points]
[Would you like to pay?]
... eh? Right! I forgot about that little fella! He, she, it, whatever it was--it hadn't really interacted much as we ventured, though I could always 'sense' it, naly because even when it tried to hide, it wasn't really that good at it. Right now, for instance, it was pretending to be a 'loose' strand of grass next to my foot. Except there's not a single other blade of grass that looks like it... anywhere.
Whatever, who cares? It offered to explain, and all I have to do is pay 500 points! Pay, pay, of course I'll pay!
[--500 deducted]
[...]
[Eternity has identified the strange pill as 'Enduring Qi Pill' (???)]
... huh? Wait, why does that na sound familiar?
[Enduring Qi Pill (???) -- prevents physical death for the next 60 minutes. The body cannot be destroyed by anyone under '???' Realm. It prevents the destruction of ridians and the dantian and ensures that there is a constant flow of Qi. One of the most desired pills for those undergoing Heavenly Tribulation. However, it can only be consud once and will lower all lifespan gains from future breakthroughs massively]
[Note: Host is naturally shielded from the negative effects of the pill]
Right!
The fucking breakthrough pill!
For the fourth path, it recomnded quite a few things, and one of them was this pill. I'd honestly kind of forgotten about it since it ain't happening any ti soon, but to think the guy had sothing like this already... and gave it to entirely unprompted.
Huh.
Lao Shun, Lao Shun, yet another lucky star of mine.
Interesting.
I almost ran over to him to brag about identifying the damn thing, but I stopped myself; I really didn't want a 500-year-old man to call "grandfather" for more than one reason. Even the system qualified him as Proud, and yet he still kowtowed toward , soone basically ten tis younger than him, to express his wishes. Just how much did that take out of him? Asking him to call grandfather... might just break him a touch too much.
Besides, regardless of what the favor is, I'm pretty sure I was going to do it regardless, so long as it wasn't about hurting any of the kids.
In a morbid sense, I can actually kind of guess what he would want of ; the likelihood is that he'd ask the favor once he reconciles with the reality he won't be able to 'cleanse' himself of the Heart Demon. It will either be that I help him then (unlikely) or that I kill him myself before he succumbs to it.
"So, did you figure it out?" he ca up to after an hour and asked, seeming rather nervous.
"... no," I said. "It looks like it's beyond ."
"Hah! I knew it! Ha ha ha, finally, a victory!" Wait, you're really that happy to pull one over on ? "Aah, that feels good."
"So, what is it? The pill?"
"Enduring Qi Pill. If you're ever undergoing Heavenly Tribulation and feel like you'll fail, consu it. It will save you."
"... oh. That sounds rather powerful."
"It is. I barely concocted one of the lowest quality purely by luck. I was also bedridden for about a year after because of how much I damaged my ridians in the process, not to ntion that the alchemy fla that I was using at the ti was completely destroyed, as I needed to use it to solidify the pill at the end of the process. I gather that there are no more than ten of them on the entire continent, as-is."
The system knew this, didn't it? That he already had the pill. That's why it listed it as one of the recomndations.
Scary.
That's so scary shit.
... just what the hell is behind it for it to know so much? Dao? So god-emperor? The creator of everything? Aah, when will I learn...
It was about a month and a week or so into our climb that we finally reached Spirit Peak, the place where Qian Shuren was set to put those mummies of hers to final rest. Two things of importance happened that day: the kids actually managed to complete the Demonic Beasts quest, and we suddenly found ourselves encircled as we reached the flat plateau just below the peak.
Not by beasts, but rather cultivators.
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