Chapter 428 - 395: Acupoint Opening Pill (Part 2)

Chapter 428: Chapter 395: Acupoint Opening Pill (Part 2)

"I’m surprised, Daoist Zhao. You’re quite knowledgeable to even recognize a Wuliu Gourd!"

Shopkeeper Tian gave a thumbs-up in praise and pointed to the brocade box. "A Wuliu Gourd is pale green when it first falls. As the years go by, its color gradually deepens. It turns from green to red, then from red to purple, and finally, it becomes entirely jet-black."

"You see, this Wuliu Gourd is reddish-purple, which means it’s at least a hundred years old. As you can see, I’m not exaggerating."

Zhao Lin nodded lightly. There was indeed a saying about Wuliu Gourds: "purple at a hundred years, black at a thousand."

’But while the gourd itself couldn’t be a fake, what was inside it was another matter entirely.’

With this in mind, he picked up the gourd, studied it for a moment, and gave it a gentle shake. The sound of a pill rolling around came from within.

"Can I open it and inspect the contents?"

Shopkeeper Tian smiled calmly at his words. "Of course. But you’ll have to pay a deposit first."

"As you know, Daoist, the Wuliu Gourd itself is quite valuable. If you open it and then decide not to buy, I’ll be left in tears."

Zhao Lin immediately asked, "How much is the pill, and how much is the deposit?"

Shopkeeper Tian held up two fingers. "Two hundred merit points, plus five hundred Spirit Stones. The deposit can be paid with just the Spirit Stones."

Zhao Lin was taken aback. "That expensive?"

Shopkeeper Tian shook his head with a wry smile and a helpless expression. "I can’t help it. Scarcity drives up the price, and this is a forbidden medicine. This price is already very low."

"I can’t speak for other places, but in all of Nanhe Province, we’re the only ones with the Acupoint Opening Pill. If I wasn’t worried about attracting unwanted attention, I’d take it to the Shangyuan Immortal Market, and the price would at least double."

Zhao Lin fell into contemplation. ’If I ignore the side effects, the Acupoint Opening Pill really is worth the price.’

It was used to break through the first Spiritual Acupoint of a new realm, which was equivalent to trading a single pill for an entire level of cultivation. This was precisely why so many cultivators were willing to risk injury to use the Acupoint Opening Pill.

’Since I don’t have to worry about injury, it’s an even better deal for me.’

’The problem is, there’s no way to verify the Acupoint Opening Pill. What if I buy a fake?’

’Am I supposed to run to the sect and complain that I got a fake when I tried to buy forbidden medicine?’

Shopkeeper Tian, for his part, was not in a hurry. He picked up a golden toad figurine from the table and began toying with it leisurely.

"Alright. I’ll trust you, Shopkeeper Tian. I’ll take the Acupoint Opening Pill!"

After a moment of deliberation, Zhao Lin finally made up his mind. ’If the pill is fake, I’ll just consider it a lesson learned.’

He immediately took out five thousand Spirit Coins and placed them on the table. "Here’s the deposit. Now, let me inspect the pill."

Shopkeeper Tian clapped his hands and smiled. "Daoist Zhao, you’re refreshingly decisive!" He then shot a glance at his clerk.

The clerk hurried over, collected the Spirit Coins from the table, then produced a sharp little knife. He sliced open the mouth of the gourd and gently set it back down.

Zhao Lin picked up the gourd and tipped it over. THUMP. A cyan-colored pill rolled into his palm.

The pill was about the size of the tip of his thumb and had an extremely strong odor—spicy, with an acrid, boozy smell.

Relying on his superior sense of smell, Zhao Lin could roughly identify dozens of Spirit Grasses within it, including Golden Cornelian Cherry Leaf, Tiger Tail Green, Rainbow Mustard, and Yinfengti.

The path of Alchemy was vast and profound. The medicinal properties of Spirit Grasses could be synergistic or antagonistic. Without knowing the exact ratios, even an Alchemy Master would find it difficult to determine the final pill’s effects.

’Logically speaking, it was unlikely the pill was a fake. Not unless someone had, over a hundred years ago, deliberately and meticulously placed a fake pill inside a Wuliu Gourd.’

"This should be fine, then. How do we handle the transaction for the merit points?"

Zhao Lin asked, placing the pill back into the gourd.

Unlike Spirit Stones, every transaction with merit points had to be recorded.

"That’s simple. On the receipt, we’ll just list pills that can only be bought with merit points, like the Jade Marrow Pill or the Water Returning Pill, until we reach a total of two hundred merit points."

"If the sect ever investigates, you just say you’ve already consumed the pills."

Shopkeeper Tian added with a chuckle, taking the shop’s seal from his robes.

Seeing how thorough the other man was, Zhao Lin felt reassured.

This was an illicit transaction; like trying to fight a wolf with a flimsy stick, both sides were afraid. Generally, neither party would dare expose the other.

Zhao Lin mentally reviewed the entire transaction, found no flaws, and took out his merit voucher.

"The transaction is complete. We hope to see you again!"

Shopkeeper Tian and his clerk escorted Zhao Lin all the way to the shop’s entrance. The moment Zhao Lin’s figure vanished at the end of the street, the smiles on their faces instantly twisted into cold sneers.

"Lord Tenzou, why did you give him a real Acupoint Opening Pill?"

A fierce glint appeared in the clerk’s eyes. "We should have swapped it with poison and eliminated a major threat on behalf of the Sect!"

"Poison?"

Tenzou’s face darkened as he reprimanded the clerk, "It’s not easy to kill a cultivator, even with the most potent poison. As long as he could hang on long enough to reach the Spirit Dao Institute, those three Foundation Establishment cultivators would find a way to save him."

"Besides, even if it worked, it would be too easy to trace back to us. The Sect spent immense resources to plant us here. Are you suggesting we throw that all away?"

The clerk lowered his head, admitting his error. "I was shortsighted, Your Lordship. I oversimplified things."

Tenzou’s tone softened slightly. "That’s only one reason. The second is that the side effects of the Acupoint Opening Pill are immense—not much different from poison."

"Once his Spiritual Acupoints are damaged, his cultivation will stagnate. He’ll be crippled as a cultivator. Isn’t the outcome the same?"

The clerk looked up, confused. "But what if he gets lucky and succeeds in breaking through? Won’t we have just helped him?"

"That would be even better!"

Tenzou gave a sinister smile. "If he succeeds this time, he’ll get a taste for it. From then on, whenever he hits a bottleneck in his cultivation, he’ll remember the ’wonders’ of the Acupoint Opening Pill and come back for more."

"One pill might not be a problem. But what about a second? Or a third?"

"By then, the side effects will be even greater. It won’t just be a matter of damaging a single Spiritual Acupoint—his entire cultivation will be destroyed!"

Realization dawned on the clerk’s face. "Lord Tenzou, you are brilliant!"