Chapter 459: A Visitor in Deep Winter

For now, he would keep raising the three Divine Kingdom creatures—the chicken, the snake, and the rat.

Setting aside his research on divinity, Bai Mo shifted his focus to the fist-sized Outer Pill fragment.

No matter what, the path of the Outer Pill was his current priority.

Besides, there was no reason the two couldn’t be pursued at the same time.

At some point, it had started to snow within the sect, the flakes falling thick and fast.

One day, Bai Mo woke to find a thin layer had already accumulated outside.

Ah Er disliked this kind of weather.

He spent all day holed up in the house, hammering and chiseling away at the Outer Pill fragment with a constant CLANG CLANG CLANG.

Bai Mo exhaled a frosty breath and walked to the edge of Mi Mountain.

‘A timely snow promises a bountiful year, but with a snowfall this heavy, the outside world is probably in for a harsh winter…’

It didn’t often snow where the Xuandao Sect was located, and even when it did, it was never this heavy.

What he saw this year was the heaviest snowfall Bai Mo had ever witnessed in the sect.

It was a clear sign of the bitter cold in the outside world.

This was not without its effects on Bai Mo.

According to the Black Prison’s records from past years, whenever there were droughts, floods, blizzards, or wars, Demonic Cultivators were sure to be stirring up trouble.

During the worst of it, the gates of the Black Prison were constantly open, transporting prisoners to and fro, and the wardens barely had a moment’s rest.

Nearly half the prisoners in the cells would be replaced.

It wasn’t just about receiving new prisoners. To pacify the populace, quell their grievances, and calm the chaotic energies of disaster-stricken lands, the heads of the prison’s inmates were always of use.

In more extreme cases, there were even rituals that sacrificed prisoners to alter the weather.

After a moment of thought, Bai Mo returned to the stone house and lightly kicked Ah Er, who was furiously hammering away.

The beast, relying on his thick hide, paid no mind to the flying sparks, swinging the hammer like a pinwheel of fire and making a terrible racket.

Sensing someone touch him, Ah Er froze for a moment before stopping his work.

“Huh, uh?”

Bai Mo glanced at the black spots on the floor where sparks had died out and sighed.

“Save your strength. Go feed the three on the mountain.”

Ah Er scratched his head, sighed as well, and tossed aside the hammer and chisel to go prepare the food.

The three on the mountain ate well, dining on food saved from Bai Mo’s and his own rations.

He carried some Spirit Wood outside, started a fire, and got busy with a cleaver and a spatula.

Inside the house, Bai Mo set aside the chisel with its worn-out tip.

This was the third chisel Ah Er had broken. Each time it was replaced, the quality of the chisel’s material had to be upgraded.

It had cost Bai Mo a good number of Spirit Stones, yet the Outer Pill fragment remained virtually unchanged.

Bai Mo picked it up and examined it carefully.

‘Brute force won’t damage it. Looks like I’ll have to try another method…’

No sooner said than done, Bai Mo began to prepare various medicinal herbs and ores.

Just as the materials in the house began to slowly dissolve in the Pill Furnace, releasing a foul, fishy stench, Ah Er happened to finish his work.

He walked into the house wearing an apron, his furry, triumphant face immediately twisting into a look of disgust.

Bai Mo tossed the Outer Pill fragment into the Pill Furnace, letting it bob in the Pill Liquid.

Seeing Bai Mo close the furnace lid with an air of finality, Ah Er quickly pulled him outside and shut the door.

He had slow-cooked a large pot of beast meat with fragrant spices today; he wouldn’t have it ruined like this.

…

Just as they had eaten and drunk their fill, someone knocked on the door.

Bai Mo gestured for Ah Er to clean up, wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth, and walked toward the door.

BANG BANG BANG!

Before he reached it, another series of urgent knocks sounded.

‘So impatient?’

With a slight shift in his thoughts, Bai Mo willed the door to open on its own.

Outside stood a tall, gaunt old man wearing a worn-out magua jacket, his body covered in bone ornaments.

Upon seeing Bai Mo, he stared, his eyes widening in surprise.

“Ya! The Black Prison has a new warden!?”

“Where did those two big rocks go?”

Seeing the old man, Bai Mo’s heart skipped a beat in alarm, and a respectful expression involuntarily appeared on his face.

“To answer your question, Elder, the two Brothers Shi have gone on a long journey with an elder. It is unknown when they will return.”

“This junior has little ability, so the sect assigned me the idle task of watching the gate here.”

The old man sneered.

“Youngsters these days, always with the false modesty. If you truly had no ability, would the sect let you guard this gate?”

With that, he looked down and began to rummage through the bone ornaments on his body.

The old man’s frame was massive, likely even larger than those of the men from Lanshan Mountain and other groups who spent their years tempering their bodies.

But he was so thin he looked like nothing but skin, with an unusually wide pelvis, one arm longer than the other, and a strange, crooked posture, like some poor soul twisted by sickness and mutation.

Bai Mo stood before him, watching his movements, his heart still pounding inexplicably in his chest.

An uncontrollable and unpleasant unease had been rising in him ever since they met.

‘How utterly strange…’

This man was clearly no ordinary person. It was right to be polite.

Ah Er was more sensitive; the moment he saw the old man, he froze on the spot.

After a long moment, he snapped back to his senses.

While the man was preoccupied, Ah Er grabbed the large basin, sidled out of the house, and scurried up the mountain.

At that moment, the old man finally found what he was looking for.

It was a long, thin, smooth bone, seemingly from some kind of bird.

“Here, boy. Can you recognize this?”

As Bai Mo took the yellowish-brown bone, he immediately matched it to a certain token described in the Black Prison’s manual.

Not only that, but he also recognized that it came from a Poison Crow.

In the outside world, such birds were seen as the primary culprits behind plague and death.

Bai Mo knew this was true.

Even Alchemy Cultivators like himself had to be extremely cautious when using anything from a Poison Crow.

“This is your token, sir. Please, come in.”

The old man grinned, revealing a row of crooked, yellow teeth.

“You’ve got a good eye after all.”

With that, at Bai Mo’s invitation, he ambled into Mi Mountain with a swaying gait and headed straight for the Black Prison.

Bai Mo did not follow, standing at the entrance with his eyes lowered in a meditative posture, allowing the old man to enter alone.

“Ah, it’s him again…”

“Shut up!!”

A slight commotion arose from the prison, but Bai Mo acted as if he heard nothing.

There were indeed certain people in the sect who could enter and leave the Black Prison freely, with few restrictions.

The manual was vague about these individuals, only stating that he was to cooperate with them.

In less than forty-five minutes, the old man walked out, his bone ornaments clattering against each other.

Bai Mo’s gaze swept over and saw that the man was dragging a prisoner.

The prisoner’s neck was clasped in the old man’s hand. Like a drowning fish, he looked at Bai Mo with pleading eyes.

“Are you finished with your business, Elder?”

The old man dragged the prisoner along as he walked out, saying with satisfaction:

“Not bad. You’re just like those two big rocks—honest and not a blabbermouth.”

“Let me give you a piece of advice, boy. Don’t just bring anything and everything home with you. Some karmic debts you can’t afford to bear…”

Bai Mo was puzzled, but then he suddenly noticed the long, crimson shadow coiled around the old man’s pinky finger.

He swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and nodded.

“You are right, Elder.”

“Mm…”

The old man left, his swaying gait slowly carrying him out of Bai Mo’s sight.

Ah Er came running down from the mountain just as the old man left.

He ran up to Bai Mo, crying “Huh, uh?” and gesturing frantically with his claws.

“The red snake is dead?”

Ah Er nodded repeatedly.

He had been taking such good care of them these past few days; the old hen and the gray-furred rat were both fine.

This couldn’t be blamed on him.

Bai Mo was not surprised.

“Forget it. That was its fate. Just bury it.”

These creatures had survived the collapse of a Divine Kingdom. Who knew what roles they might have held there in the past?