Chapter 426: Requesting a Pill

Chapter 426: Chapter 426: Requesting a Pill

A warm draft stirred in the prison, tickling his face.

"What say you?"

After a long silence, the Great Suanni’s voice sounded faint.

It sounded drowsy, strained, as if it had forced itself awake and was now a little grumpy.

"Alright!"

Bai Mo gritted his teeth and agreed to the Great Suanni’s directive.

Faced with the Great Suanni’s profound concern for its descendants, he felt he had no choice but to accept.

"Excellent. Once this is done, I’ll give you some rewards..."

With that, the Great Suanni’s voice faded away.

Meanwhile, in the prison, a few inmates who had noticed Bai Mo pause for a moment wore thoughtful expressions.

But considering the warden had shown a tendency to use people for pill testing, they quickly averted their eyes before his gaze swept over them.

Sigh!

Bai Mo let out a silent sigh and turned to leave the prison.

The mad cultivator’s temperament was erratic. No one could ever predict when he might remember something.

Prying the complete set of Array Patterns for the Netherworld Communication Array from him was going to be an incredible hassle.

It was a task that would demand immense patience.

POOF!

Just as he stepped out of the prison gates, something flashed before his eyes.

A flicker of flame ignited in mid-air and drifted slowly downward.

When it landed on the ground, the flame flickered once and winked out, revealing a bright yellow stone.

Bai Mo paused, startled, then crouched and picked up the stone.

The stone felt slightly heavy in his hand. When he held it up to his eyes, he could see fiery patterns occasionally flashing across its surface.

"This is..."

"Fire Essence!?"

Bai Mo was stunned.

Fire Essence wasn’t an incredibly rare treasure; it could be found in places with abundant fiery energy.

It was a common material used for practicing Cultivation Techniques and refining magical artifacts and Pills.

But ordinary Fire Essence was insubstantial, similar to a normal flame, something that could only be channeled and guided.

No one had ever measured it by weight.

Yet the one in Bai Mo’s hand weighed a full two *liang*, a true marvel.

*Phew!*

He exhaled, the gloominess fading from his face. His heart was now at ease.

’This sort of task isn’t so bad after all.’

’A being this powerful... is truly generous when they decide to act...’

His steps now light, Bai Mo returned to his stone house, picked up a brush, and immediately drafted a letter to the Foreign Affairs Hall to report the matter.

No matter what, it was best to clear it with his superiors first, lest something truly go wrong.

Eight days later, Ah Er returned.

He was covered in dust from his journey. Upon seeing Bai Mo, the first thing he did was take out a command token he had brought back from the Foreign Affairs Hall.

Seeing such a casual reply, Bai Mo immediately had a feeling he knew what it would say.

After removing the seal on the token, he found the message he expected: ’Let the old man do as he pleases.’

Bai Mo thus cast his worries aside.

His main concern had been that the Great Suanni, in its obsession, might use the so-called Netherworld Communication Array to seek a path to immortality for itself.

Since the sect wasn’t concerned, then there was nothing for him to worry about.

"Ah’er!"

Ah Er untied one dirty, mud-caked cloth bag after another from his waist, pouring out the herbs from within.

They were all brightly colored, beautiful flowers and plants.

Piled together, they formed a mound as tall as a person.

Bai Mo couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.

’Such flowers, all blooming at once, must be a truly beautiful sight.’

’No wonder I’ve heard that Medicine Peak has a tradition of holding flower-viewing festivals.’

The sect disciples were busy with their cultivation, so few had the leisure to attend.

Those who did go were usually disciples accompanied by their cultivation partners.

It was said that the flower-viewing festival was a lucrative side business for the Medicine Peak disciples, as the romantically inclined disciples who attended competed to be more generous than the last.

Ah Er gestured, telling Bai Mo several small stories about its herb harvesting.

Apparently, a disciple from Medicine Peak had tried to stop it, only for Ah Er to produce its writ and send them packing.

This was understandable.

There would be no flower-viewing festival this year.

The disciples who had traded with Bai Mo owned a considerable number of medicinal fields, and they were scattered all over the place.

Now, with Ah Er having diligently harvested those fields, they were just patches of bare, black earth. From a distance, they looked like spots of moss in an otherwise endless sea of flowers.

"Ah’er!"

Ah Er called out again, its cry cheerful.

After emptying all the bags from its waist, it finally reached into a pouch on its chest and pulled out a handful of dark seeds.

Ah Er crept over to Bai Mo with an air of mystery, holding out its cupped hands for him to inspect.

"These seeds..."

Bai Mo looked closer and recognized what they were.

"You dug these out of the ground?"

Ah Er nodded, then pointed upwards.

It wanted to plant these seeds on the mountain.

Bai Mo had no objection.

’The disciples of Medicine Peak truly are generous,’ Bai Mo mused. ’Letting so many seeds rot in the ground without sprouting, do they really not care?’

"Never mind. The medicine books in the house have records of these flowers. Go look for yourself and see where they should be planted..."

Ah Er agreed with delight.

But before that, it still had to wash and bundle the piles of flowers and herbs—all laborious chores.

Bai Mo, for his part, glanced over the quality of the flowers and herbs to ensure he hadn’t gotten a bad deal, then went back inside to read a letter from Old Man Bai Tou.

Upon learning that Bai Mo was researching the Outer Pill, the old master of the Alchemy Dao had gone through his personal collection and found quite a few related materials.

The most useful of these was the legacy of a small, obscure sect.

The sect was called the Gengyang Pill Sect.

On the verge of collapse, the sect had sold its core legacy to Old Man Bai Tou for three hundred thousand Spirit Stones, just barely managing to survive.

Bai Mo read through the handwritten manuscript that had been sent over.

He discovered that the sect’s specialty, a medicine called the Rejuvenating Pill, incorporated the art of the Outer Pill.

The Rejuvenating Pill could bring a dying Cultivator back from the brink of death, but they would die as soon as its effects wore off.

The ability to sustain life force was precisely the function of the Outer Pill.

Bai Mo had already grasped a trace of the Outer Pill’s true essence, and now, having obtained this legacy, he felt his understanding deepen immensely.

After all, this was the culmination of generations of painstaking research by the Gengyang Pill Sect. Its mysteries, though profound and detailed, were easily unraveled and mastered by Bai Mo.

’These old masters... their foundations truly run deep.’

A smile touched Bai Mo’s lips. There were indeed many benefits to associating with such fellow practitioners.

When they exchanged knowledge, both sides stood to gain.

Of course, Old Man Bai Tou hadn’t provided this legacy for free.

The letter stated that he was personally organizing a grand Pill Assembly and was extending a broad invitation to their peers.

The purpose was twofold: first, to promote the Alchemy Dao, and second, to facilitate exchange among practitioners and synthesize the strengths of a hundred different schools.

For Alchemy Dao Grandmasters like Bai Mo, whose homes were far away, he did not require them to be present.

He only hoped that they might each contribute one of their specialty Pills to be displayed at the assembly, to lend it some prestige and add to the splendor.

Bai Mo had heard of many such events.

Only a well-connected and respected elder would have the standing to organize such a gathering.

Old Man Bai Tou himself didn’t get out much, but he had apprentices. As they traveled and networked, his own fame had spread far and wide.

’I never thought the day would come when I’d be making friends through Pills.’

Bai Mo mused.

’Choosing which Pill to send is a delicate matter. I absolutely cannot lose face.’

At the assembly, the creator of each Pill would be announced by name, an event that would have a huge impact on a Cultivator’s reputation.

After the assembly, according to custom, Old Man Bai Tou would also have to send Bai Mo a copy of the event’s proceedings, a book detailing the highlights of the gathering.

Any new Pill Methods and legacies that appeared, as well as the discussions among the attending peers, would all be recorded within.

Once Bai Mo’s reputation was established, invitations to various Pill Assemblies would only become more frequent.