Chapter 439: Breaking Through

Chapter 439: Chapter 439: Breaking Through

A bag of Outer Pills sent to Immortal Arrival City soon arrived at the shop.

It had been a long time since Bai Mo had sent a letter to the shop assistants.

Qin Wen guessed it was because he was in seclusion, so all the assistants understood.

Now that Pills had suddenly arrived, they were pleasantly surprised and also sighed in relief.

"Good. The shop’s stock of Pills was about to run out. The Shopkeeper sent these just in time,"

Wei An said.

The stock he mentioned referred to the Pills personally refined by Bai Mo.

As for their daily sales needs, the shop had long been self-sufficient.

The men from the Demon Hunting Teams loved the shop’s Pills and were frequent patrons.

With Bai Mo’s current skill, he wasn’t short on Pill Formulas. He could provide whatever the shop requested.

The only thing holding them back was the Alchemy Dao skill level of the assistants.

Qin Wen took a Pill from the cloth bag. Its dark brown exterior was unappealing, and its smell wasn’t very pleasant either.

Rummaging through the cloth bag, he found a handwritten note from Bai Mo, as well as some medicinal roots and leaves.

The Outer Pills in the bag were ones Bai Mo had casually tossed in after refining them.

After they were given to Ah Er, it didn’t even glance at them before passing them to its good friend, the swan goose from the Foreign Affairs Hall.

Nowadays, the friendship between the two was so strong you could say they were thick as thieves. Their bond was unbreakable.

After all, they were both tamed Spirit Beasts working for Human Race Cultivators, and neither had much free time.

Whether it was complaining or discussing the flavor of Feeding Pills, they found plenty of common ground.

’This... was probably just a casual creation of the Shopkeeper?’

Looking at such crude packaging, Qin Wen hesitated before unfolding the strip of paper.

The paper was discolored in several places, clearly scorched by Pills that hadn’t cooled down, but fortunately, it was still readable.

"Outer Pill?"

Qin Wen’s face was filled with astonishment after just a glance.

"Such a wonderful item actually exists?"

Wei An casually snatched the paper from his hand, his mind already racing with calculations as he read it.

"A Pill like this... taking one will last for at least three years."

"And you gain an extra skill during that time. This is no small matter. The price can’t be low..."

Even though this was just the beginning, the price of these Outer Pills that Bai Mo had casually experimented with wasn’t necessarily any lower than the Pills he had sent back before.

All the shop assistants were delighted.

...

Ah Er was greatly troubled at that moment.

Inside the Black Prison, Li Wuji had discovered that the prisoner who was on the verge of dying from old age had finally passed away.

Less than half a day after his death, the body began to rot and stink, quickly contaminating the air in the Black Prison.

The stench was so bad it was even wafting outside.

Before dawn, Ah Er was woken by the clamor from the Black Prison.

Startled by this development, it pinched its nose and did a round in the prison. Standing before that cell, it was almost brought to tears by the stench.

It ran out of the Black Prison in a panic and immediately crushed Li Wuji’s Jade Talisman.

When Li Wuji came to take a look, he also wore a troubled expression.

"I don’t know what kind of technique this fellow cultivated, but after death, his physical body is rapidly decomposing and releasing a toxic gas."

He looked at Ah Er.

"You’re alright?"

Li Wuji himself had a powerful physique; with the circulation of his blood and qi, he had already expelled all the toxins he had inhaled.

Ah Er was another matter.

It shook its head, indicating it was fine.

Ever since it started following Bai Mo, even its casual snacks were mostly various kinds of Feeding Pills.

These weren’t the same quality as the ones sold to Beast Taming Peak; they were all refined by Bai Mo with a bit of extra care.

Ah Er had been raised to the point that, while not completely immune to all poisons, it was at least halfway there.

Li Wuji turned to leave.

"We don’t have the skills to deal with a prisoner in this state, and I can’t guarantee I can fix this without making a mistake."

"To move the body out, we must first report to the Foreign Affairs Hall."

He went outside the mountain, released a Flying Ship, and jumped aboard.

The Flying Ship started up, broke through the air, and vanished into the distance in an instant.

Li Wuji rarely used a Flying Ship, usually traveling by relying on his physical body, which showcased the personal style of an ascetic Cultivator.

However, the situation was urgent now, and he couldn’t be bothered with such things.

As for Ah Er, it stood guard in front of the stone house, its expression extremely grim.

A Spirit Beast’s sense of smell was obviously much sharper than that of an ordinary Cultivator. It was bearing the full brunt of the corpse’s stench from the prison cell.

Fortunately, the disciples from the Foreign Affairs Hall arrived very quickly.

Just three days later, they came, piloting a standard-issue Flying Ship.

Two disciples at the Core Formation level followed Li Wuji and went straight into the Black Prison.

Pinching its nose, Ah Er also followed them inside, wanting to see how they would handle it.

As they passed the hunchbacked Cultivator’s cell, they saw him looking calm and unconcerned.

He was skilled in Outer Pills and knew many techniques.

Shutting off his own sense of smell was a simple matter. Even if the stench of the corpse contained some unusual toxins, it wasn’t a problem for him.

One of the disciples from the Foreign Affairs Hall saw him and said in surprise:

"This guy is still here?"

"Didn’t we hear that Junior Brother Bai already got the secrets of the Outer Pill from him? Why don’t we take him away? He might be useful over at the Celestial Barrier Mountain range."

Hearing this, the hunchbacked Cultivator kept his eyes closed, his expression still calm and unconcerned.

But the eyeballs under his eyelids couldn’t help but twitch.

’Stuck in this prison, I’m doomed to never see the light of day. But in the Celestial Barrier Mountain range, with my familiarity of the place, there might be a sliver of a chance for survival!’

However, when Ah Er heard the proposal, it became agitated.

It leaped forward, spread its arms, and directly blocked the cell door.

Bai Mo had previously told it offhandedly that this hunchback was quite extraordinary and could be a fellow Daoist to communicate with in the future.

This fellow was useful, after all.

Seeing its behavior, the disciple from the Foreign Affairs Hall guessed what was going on and gave up on the idea.

"Forget it. This person is probably still useful, so let’s leave him for our Junior Brother."

With that, he walked away.

Behind them, the hunchback’s composure almost wavered. He opened his eyes and stared resentfully at the Spirit Beast’s back.

’Compared to when it was bringing me food to plot against me, this badger is so much more detestable now!’

Li Wuji led the men and soon arrived at the dead prisoner’s cell.

By now, the corpse had ruptured and was oozing bloody pus, with bone stained by foul blood exposed in some places.

The two disciples from the Foreign Affairs Hall only needed one look before saying:

"His soul has already scattered. He’s long dead. Let’s move him out."

The group opened the cell door and dragged the corpse out.

Although the body had begun to rot, its cultivation foundation meant it was still incredibly heavy, and it was dragged out stiffly.

As the body was taken away, all the prisoners in the jail sighed in relief.

This was especially true for the mad Cultivator, who had been tormented quite badly these past few days.

Li Wuji had just stepped outside the Black Prison and was about to ask how to dispose of the body.

According to the usual rules, when a prisoner in the Black Prison died, their body had to be handed over to the Foreign Affairs Hall for centralized disposal to prevent any posthumous tricks.

Before he could speak, the group felt the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi become unstable.

"This..."

Li Wuji was the first to react.

"It seems our Junior Brother has succeeded."

Ah Er immediately broke into a grin.

Before long, the stone house’s doors swung open, and Bai Mo strode out cheerfully, a look of pure contentment on his face.

This breakthrough not only concerned his cultivation realm, but he had also organized his general understanding of the Outer Pill discipline.

It was a moment of great mental and spiritual clarity.

He was about to let out a long cry of satisfaction when he was unexpectedly hit by a foul stench.

Bai Mo’s brow furrowed, and he couldn’t help but turn his head.

"What’s going on?"