Chapter 457: Divinity

After half a month, Ah Er finally returned, having shopped to his heart’s content.

The Flying Ship was laden with packages, large and small, along with several cages full of live creatures that were tied on, making the vessel look rather unwieldy.

Only when he was just before Mi Mountain did he finally put away the booklet in his claws.

He had spent the entire journey checking his figures, and after confirming that he hadn’t been swindled by any unscrupulous merchants, a sense of accomplishment swelled within him.

The Flying Ship descended slowly. Ah Er leaped off and sauntered up to the gate, then jumped up to grab the door knocker and banged on it. BANG! BANG!

After waiting for quite a while, Bai Mo finally opened the door to let him in.

Bai Mo rubbed his brow, trying to dispel a hint of fatigue.

“Why did you bring back live animals?”

“Ahrk!”

Ah Er nodded, then leaped back onto the Flying Ship and steered it through the gateway.

The moment Bai Mo closed the door, Ah Er’s personal booklet was shoved into his hands.

He flipped it open, and his brow furrowed as he began to read.

“Creatures that escaped the Divine Kingdom and survived?”

Bai Mo looked at the creatures in the cages: a centipede, a raccoon dog, a chicken, a snake, a rat, and a pig.

Inside this dark prison, the creatures’ instincts filled them with terror, and they trembled uncontrollably.

‘They look just like domesticated animals and common wild beasts,’ he thought. ‘They’re a far cry from the ones on Beast Taming Peak.’

‘Could it be that they just happened to eat something from the Divine Kingdom, and that’s how they acquired this divinity?’

CLANG!

Ah Er ran into the house and came back out with an herb-cutting knife, pointing it at a few of the creatures in the cages.

His casual demeanor suggested he was a seasoned pro in the kitchen.

He clearly intended to cut them open and take something from inside.

An old hen in one cage jumped in fright, squawking nonstop. CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK.

In the next cage, a red snake that had been eyeing the hen hungrily suddenly froze. It remained coiled, its expression unreadable.

There was also a gray-furred old rat that sighed, stood up on its hind legs, and bowed repeatedly to Bai Mo and Ah Er.

“Yes, it must be these few. We’ll keep them and raise them for now. As for the rest, you can deal with them as you see fit…”

After a brief inspection, Bai Mo already understood the situation with the others.

‘They likely ate something from the Divine Kingdom but failed to retain the divinity, allowing it to dissipate. That’s why there are only external signs.’

POOF!

A golden light flared, and smoke billowed into the air.

Ah Er’s body shook, and amidst the swirling smoke, he transformed into a clever-looking boy with rosy lips and white teeth.

The boy was wearing a thick Daoist robe, which fit perfectly with his status as Bai Mo’s Daoist Child of the Alchemy Dao.

Only his height remained much the same; he barely came up to Bai Mo’s waist.

“Hehe!”

Ah Er waved his hand to disperse the smoke and gave a smug laugh, only to start choking and coughing from the fumes.

The smoke was a manifestation of his Golden Core’s power and not something he could control. It was terribly acrid.

Seeing this spectacle, Bai Mo shook his head repeatedly.

“You’re usually so strange, only good for burying your head in your work. How did you manage to take on such a presentable form?”

Ah Er finally managed to stop his coughing, his face flushed red. He looked quite displeased at the comment and complained in a childish voice.

“That old gentleman in Immortal Arrival City was always praising how smart I am…”

He was referring to the old Shopkeeper at the bookstore, who had been very kind to him.

Suddenly, Bai Mo grew curious about something else.

“How old are you, anyway? I’ve been raising you for quite some time now, haven’t I?”

Ah Er faltered for a moment, then tossed aside the herb-cutting knife and began counting on his fingers.

“By human reckoning, I was a year and a half old when you took me in…”

Bai Mo was a little surprised.

“You were already quite hefty when I caught you. And you were only a little over a year old?”

After a few more words on the topic, they dropped the subject.

Ah Er took out a variety of ores and herbs from a cloth pouch on his chest and began to explain them one by one.

“Umm…”

“These are all the things I bought according to your instructions for the Pills. They were very expensive all together.”

“I had to do a lot of haggling, you know. Take a look…”

He had gone around to the various marketplaces, haggling with many disciples and earning a less-than-stellar reputation for himself.

Everyone knew of a shapeshifting boy—one whose insults were never too harsh—who was scouring for Spiritual Objects on behalf of his master, the prison warden.

Bai Mo reached out and picked up a piece of ore, and felt a stir within him.

Holding the ore in his palm, he could feel a strange power flowing within it, circulating over and over.

‘So this is divinity?’

Looking at the boy who was staring up at him, Bai Mo nodded.

“You did well.”

Ah Er breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Twenty thousand Spirit Stones well spent…’

Bai Mo felt the power stirring in the ore and looked at the wild animals in the cages—creatures that had been lucky enough to ingest divinity, but lacked the fortune to retain it.

“Divinity is profound and mysterious. These wild creatures were blessed by heaven to have it pass through their bodies even once. Who knows what kind of karmic impact that might have.”

“We can’t eat them, that’s for sure. Go and release them into the wild…”

“What!?”

Ah Er’s eyes widened, his expression aggrieved and frustrated.

“But everyone says these things are excellent ingredients! When people at the market catch them, they raise them really well!”

“I even bought star anise and longan for them…”

Seeing that Bai Mo was unmoved, he heaved a heavy sigh and began carrying the cages outside.

As he opened the cages one by one, he was still lamenting the waste.

“Go on, shoo! Get out of my sight…”

The small bugs and beasts, already terrified from the journey, immediately scattered to the winds the moment they were freed.

Only a few inexplicably remained where they were.

The large centipede, for instance, seemed to have lost its mind, chasing its own tail and spinning in circles.

And the wild boar was lazily rooting around in the dirt, digging up grass stalks to eat.

They were all acting strangely.

Ah Er laughed in exasperation. With another POOF of smoke, he reverted to his original form.

“GRRR!!”

He snarled and bared his fangs at the remaining creatures, and they finally scurried away in a panic.

Even the nonchalant wild boar let out a piercing squeal and bolted after Ah Er gave its rear a good poke.

Ah Er gathered the empty cages and went back inside Mi Mountain.

Just as he entered, he saw Bai Mo with a hand resting on the cage, studying the three creatures that had been kept.

When Bai Mo saw him come in, he said:

“These three can’t be killed either. You’d better save those spices for stewing beast meat.”

The strips of Demon Beast meat brought back from Immortal Arrival City were quite good, after all.

“You’ll be in charge of raising them. After all, they’re native creatures of the Divine Kingdom. They might prove useful, so don’t let them die.”

Bai Mo pointed toward the top of the mountain.

“There’s plenty of space up on the mountain. You figure it out.”

“Ahrk!”

Ah Er agreed and walked out, carrying the cage.

‘This snake and this rat probably won’t be of any use for a while,’ he figured.

‘At least, they won’t be needed until my master frees up his hands from all these materials with divinity.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Ah Er glanced at the old hen, already calculating how many eggs he could get out of her each day.

While Ah Er was out finding a place for them, Bai Mo had already put away all the herbs and ores and returned to his stone house.

His work on the new technique had reached a temporary stopping point; he had a rough outline now.

The finer details could be perfected over time. It was not a task that could be accomplished overnight.

‘Tsk, tsk. Such a great Divine Kingdom… how vast must its legacy be?’

He took out a book titled Journey to the Divine Mountain and began to look through its contents.

It was a book of miscellaneous lore, a gift from the old Shopkeeper in Immortal Arrival City.

The Shopkeeper had given it to him because its descriptions of the Divine Mountain’s Pills were incredibly detailed, including the general refining process and their effects.

When he first received it, Bai Mo had found it baffling, but now he could vaguely discern what information was missing.

Now that he had the materials, he wondered if he could recreate the Pills described within by following the book as a template.