Chapter 461: Chaos

Just as the records of years past described.

In a year of great calamity, the inmates of the black prison were purged.

The Foreign Affairs Hall came and took away seventeen prisoners in one fell swoop, including two Nascent Soul Cultivators.

No new prisoners were sent.

“With the great calamity upon us, those who would exploit the chaos for evil must be purged through drastic means, to deter the petty and wicked.”

Behind this single statement from the Foreign Affairs Hall lay the ruthless decisiveness of the Xuandao Sect disciples, from whose hands no one was left alive.

Bai Mo recorded this faithfully, adding it to the archives.

As for the two Nascent Soul Cultivators, their fates were arranged with stark clarity.

Their bodies to suppress the earth, their Divine Souls sacrificed to the heavens.

It was said that a Cultivator somewhere had been nurturing an ice wraith, which had extinguished all life in several large towns and caused local resentment to billow to the heavens.

To prevent the birth of any further phantoms, the sect decided to use the profound cultivation of Nascent Soul Cultivators to suppress the area.

“Natural and man-made disasters… it’s always the same story.”

Bai Mo sighed, his gaze falling back to the letter from Immortal Arrival City.

His contact wrote that heavy snows had sealed the Celestial Barrier Mountain Range, making conditions within even more treacherous.

If not for the long-term support from Bai Mo’s Pills, Lanshan and his team would have been trapped in an impossible situation.

For now, they were just about managing.

Bai Mo picked up his brush, noted down several medicinal herbs suited to the current season and conditions, and planned to have the Demon Hunting Team pay special attention to them.

POOF!

Nearby, Ah Er’s fur puffed out as it vigorously shook the snow from its body.

Because Bai Mo was often performing Alchemy, the room was always a little warmer than outside.

Upon returning from the mountain, the snow on Ah Er’s body would melt, leaving its fur damp and clingy—a sensation it found unbearable.

As soon as it had shaken itself clean, Ah Er came to Bai Mo’s side, whining and making aggrieved noises.

Bai Mo thought it had run into some kind of trouble, but it turned out the big problem was that the old hen on the mountain wasn’t laying eggs.

‘A creature from a Divine Kingdom… its eggs are probably far from ordinary.’

Ah Er had been craving those eggs for a long time, waiting on the hen with good food and drink, but its wish remained unfulfilled.

“That chicken isn’t ready to lay eggs yet. What’s the rush?”

Bai Mo said comfortingly.

“You need to pay more attention to that gray-furred rat, though.”

“Its intelligence is probably about to reach the level of a Spirit Beast, so it’s going to be much more cunning.”

Ah Er nodded solemnly.

These past few days, the gray-furred rat in the cage seemed to be taking things in stride.

It spent its days eating and drinking on schedule, occasionally meditating in deep thought, a sight that made Ah Er feel inadequate by comparison.

Seeing that his words had sunk in, Bai Mo stood up.

“If there’s nothing else, go chop herbs. Do you remember all the key points I taught you?”

This, after all, was Ah Er’s primary duty as a Daoist Child of the Alchemy Dao.

It didn’t know why Bai Mo had suddenly dropped his various research projects these past few days to focus entirely on Alchemy.

But it had overheard the visiting disciples from the Foreign Affairs Hall discussing these various Pills, and they were all items of considerable value.

Even though its master always acted as if he didn’t care about such things.

Ah Er mused.

Still, having this income was always a good thing, so it was happy.

A faint SWISH-SWISH sound filled the air; it had grown proficient with the chopping block.

One paw held the herb steady while the other gripped the knife’s handle, pressing down rhythmically. A continuous stream of herb slices fell from beneath the blade.

Thanks to its strong physique, it didn’t suffer the exhausting toil of an ordinary Daoist Child, who would need to rest after each session.

Occasionally, Ah Er could even spare enough attention to sneak a peek at Bai Mo’s technique for adding herbs.

‘It was dazzling to watch. That air of effortless mastery filled it with envy; he was just so incredible.’

Under these conditions, Bai Mo had taught it a few Pill Formulas, and Ah Er had actually managed to compound several Pill Pills.

This made it happy for a full half-day.

‘This kid is unteachable,’

was Bai Mo’s assessment.

‘This little rascal concocts Pills based entirely on its mood and preferences, giving no thought to the key medicinal principles involved.’

‘It can get by with rote memorization, but if I were to let it out into the world, I’m afraid it would become a deadly Poison Pill Master.’

After he had been refining for four hours, the sound of someone calling at the door came from outside.

Ah Er’s hands paused, and it looked toward the door.

“Keep going.”

Bai Mo instructed it, then glanced at the Pill Furnace. Letting it continue to refine on its own, he walked out of the stone house.

When he opened the door, he saw it was An Caiwei.

“Senior Sister, what brings you here?”

Bai Mo was surprised.

An Caiwei’s eyes widened slightly, and then she smiled.

“What, am I not welcome?”

Bai Mo shook his head.

“Not at all. I just heard that Silkworm Valley has had a bountiful harvest recently. Shouldn’t you be busy gathering essence and harvesting the morning glow?”

At the mention of this, An Caiwei seemed to deflate a bit.

“That’s the very reason I came looking for you.”

“Things have been very unsettled out there because of the snow disaster. You know about that, right?”

Bai Mo nodded.

An Caiwei continued, “There’s a town out there where a powerful local clan was audacious enough to raise an ice wraith. They lost control of it, and it became a regional scourge.”

“That ice wraith is a phantom refined from human souls, born in accordance with the times.”

“Even though the wraith has been suppressed, its nest is still there. The sect is dispatching us disciples from Silkworm Valley to go and, well, unravel the mess and dismantle the ghost nest…”

Compared to staying in Silkworm Valley, an assignment like this was a significant step down.

Naturally, she was disappointed.

Bai Mo was quite surprised; he hadn’t expected An Caiwei to become involved in this matter.

“You’ll have to be careful on this trip, Senior Sister.”

“If that local clan was able to refine an ice wraith, there must be many other Cultivators who knew about it. Given the tangled web of interests, there are bound to be accomplices still at large.”

As far as Bai Mo knew, if everyone involved in this affair were to be held accountable, ninety percent of the upper-echelon Cultivators in that place would have to be replaced.

An Caiwei nodded. As she was the one being sent, she had already inquired about and heard plenty of secrets.

“I know. One of my senior sisters said that this great celestial shift has sent the mortal world’s fortune into a tailspin. Who knows how many demons and monsters will be stirred up.”

“Those of us who are going are all bringing Dao-protecting treasures with us…”

She had come to Bai Mo to stock up on some Pills for emergencies.

Bai Mo took out a good number of Pills—some were the ones she usually used to aid her cultivation, while others were various types of detoxification and curse-breaking elixirs.

“Oh! Are these newly made Pills?”

An Caiwei exclaimed softly the moment she received the Pills.

“Have you been working this hard lately, Junior Brother?”

Bai Mo shot her a sidelong glance.

“You have such a keen eye, Senior Sister? You can tell they’re newly made?”

An Caiwei shook her head.

“I can’t. It’s true I’ve taken a lot of pills, but the quality of your Pills is always excellent. How could I possibly tell?”

“It’s just that, you see, these Pills are still warm.”

Pills fresh from the furnace, when placed in a vial, could indeed retain their heat for as long as half a month.

Bai Mo replied casually, “You’re in luck. They’re all potent, high-quality Pills, all of them recent batches…”

After he reminded her once more to be careful, An Caiwei left, beaming with delight.

Before she left, she gave Bai Mo something wrapped in a silk cloth.

Bai Mo lifted a corner to peek and saw a seven-colored light shimmering within.

It was the morning glow from Silkworm Valley, likely gathered from a sacred spot at the crack of dawn, and it was brimming with life force.

This small package alone was an item of incredible value, the kind one could only encounter by chance and never seek out. It could be used to refine exceptionally fine Pills.

Bai Mo quickly wrapped it back up, returned to the stone house, and carefully put it away.

Ah Er craned its neck, trying to get a look.

Bai Mo turned and said to it,

“You are not to touch this. If you go rummaging through it and let any of the light escape, I’ll have no choice but to break your legs.”

This was something many elders in Immortal Arrival City said to frighten children.

Upon hearing this, Ah Er lifted one of its legs to look at it, gave it a little shake, and nodded to show it had committed the warning to memory.

Clearly, the threat was effective.