Chương 51: A Demonic Pill and a Summons to the Outer Hall

Hovering in the air and holding the Qi Cauldron before him, holding its walls back from bursting with all his might, An finally managed to eliminate the conflicts in the energies and mix everything into a single mass. Now all that remained was to merge it all with the spirit core, which had been sitting calmly in the center of the sphere all this time. As for what An was actually doing, even he wasn't sure. The idea had come to him to create his first pill specifically from spirit plants and spirit beast organs.

But during the preparation, a stupid idea suddenly came to him: ' What if I merge all of this with a spirit core?' Taking the spirit core with the lowest Qi volume, one that had been stored in the corner of his pouch, harvested from a Capybara, he deliberately decided to mix it with organs from the same spirit beast to reduce possible conflicts. Starting the concoction, he hadn't expected it to drag on this long.

For several days now, he had been trying to merge the Qi of the organs and plants, completely forgetting about cultivation and practice, without any rest. Thanks to his vitality and the recovery speed of his mentality and Qi, he managed without any major problems. But a few hours ago, when he finally understood how to properly merge these two different types of Qi, the nightmare began. A terrible consumption of his energy, physical and mental.

Qi simply flew out of his body, as if a floodgate had been thrown wide open. However, the worst part was the pressure emanating from the process itself. It felt as if the Qi itself was angry and resisting An, resisting the process he was trying to carry out. Realizing that the process of merging the organs and plants was finally complete, he felt the load on him drop significantly. Taking a deep breath, An threw several plants into his mouth and began chewing them.

Since he had no pills to restore Qi in his dantian and body, he decided to eat the plants directly.

"There is no turning back now!" With a serious face, An began to push the energy from the mass toward the spirit core, which had been calmly sitting in the center of his Qi Cauldron all this time. Suddenly, the Qi from the spirit core retreated back and began allowing the energy from the mass to enter the core itself through a few gaps. Seeing this, An was in shock for a moment, trying to understand what was happening.

Sending his Qi closer to the spirit core, he could feel a solid mass of energy forming inside the core. Realizing that the process had already started and he could no longer change anything, he only helped and directed the energy into the core, carefully observing the changes inside. When the entire mass dissolved and entered the solid core, the energy inside began to race across its entire surface.

Feeling the pressure building inside and that it was becoming harder and harder to hold his Qi Cauldron, An concentrated and directed his remaining energy into the sphere to strengthen its walls. At the same time, intuitively, he began slowly compressing his cauldron, as if repeating one of the standard alchemy techniques, the Forming technique. As he began to compress, he felt the energy along the walls of the core itself also begin to enter the solid mass at the very center.

Only when the energy ran out did the walls themselves begin to crack and dissolve, also being absorbed by the mass inside. The moment the core's walls began to break, he felt a strange energy emanating from this mass. Concentrating on his sensations, he caught something evil, cold, something that made him very uncomfortable.

Finishing the concoction of this strange mass, the pressure and the bad feelings increased, but he continued the refining, understanding that he was almost there, and he was not about to cut off a several-day experiment just because of unpleasant feelings that were growing stronger and more distinct. Whoosh! A wave of strange Qi spread inside An's barrier, filling the entire space. The grass and sand beneath him darkened, taking on a dark brown hue.

Feeling this wave emanating from the refined ' pill', he frowned and didn't even dare to take it in his hands, only leaving it hovering before him.

"Something dark and very repulsive, inherent to neither the living nor the dead. This is... could it be, a demonic pill?" Observing and reading the Qi from it, An realized that he had accidentally created a demonic pill. But he wasn't sure that this energy was so-called demonic, these were only his assumptions, the first thing that came to mind when he felt and read the emanating energy flows. Crack! With a serious face, An crushed the pill and destroyed it, removing all traces inside the barrier.

"So many resources… and all for nothing!"

"Although, if only for the experience gained… But so much wasted time and resources…" Just the sight and the feelings this pill evoked were enough to keep An from being confident in its usefulness. Even without delving into its effect or what this pill even was, he destroyed it.' The very sight of it disgusts me… Even though I've always, when reading novels, never despised cultivators from the demonic schools, and treated them the same as the righteous ones...

But the feelings that arise in me when I see this pill and feel the energy it emits...' He had always believed that the division into Demonic and Righteous was invented only for cultivators with low cultivation. As always, it was all about resources and territories, and the division into right and left was only to create an artificial conflict between these cultivators. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

But just the sight of this pill and its energy, evoked in him a strong feeling of disgust and contempt, as if it wasn't even worthy of being near him. Similar to what other disciples mostly felt in his presence. Removing the energy barrier and destroying all remaining traces around himself, An took the fishing rod and went fishing. Attempting to distract himself this way from the realization that he had wasted so much time for nothing; that was what irritated him the most.

The still-trembling Baldi, with his head sticking out of his burrow, seeing where An was heading, quickly jumped out of the ground, as fast as his huge belly allowed, and ran after him. Sitting on the shore and holding the fishing rod in his hand, An didn't even pay attention to the float. All his thoughts were occupied with something else.' To obtain that long-awaited Master status, I need to be able to prepare five different second-rank pills...

Even if I have enough spirit stones to buy the resources for it, my Qi will be catastrophically insufficient, neither in volume nor density...' He averted his gaze to the side, toward the horizon, watching the thick clouds merging with the fog over the lake, completely forgetting about fishing." Bwawk!" Completely focused on the float, Baldi saw it start to bob. Jumping up and looking at An, he realized that he wasn't even looking at it." Bok-bok! Cluck!"

Jumping, the bird deftly climbed onto An's arm and took the rod from his hands. Jumping back onto the soft sand, the rooster dug his feet in and, with cries, began pulling the catch onto the shore, savoring the thought of a juicy, fried fish for today's dinner. All this time, thinking about his own things, An was perfectly aware of what was happening around him, but he decided not to pay attention to it.' The safest decision for me right now is to just wait until I can break through to Foundation Establishment...

Only then can I experiment with second-rank pills without any problems, even though it's unknown how long that will take me... If I try now, even though there's a chance it will work, what's the point? All I'll get is low quality, a ton of wasted resources, constant strain on both my dantian and my inner world. I already only have a few hours a day when my head isn't splitting from overusing my mind, and if I start preparing second-rank pills too, I'm afraid I'll forget what a clear head feels like...'

Watching Baldi resist with all his might to keep the fish from dragging him into the lake, his whole demeanor showing that he needed help, while An tried to make the right decision regarding second-rank pills.

"No. For now, that's a stupid idea. I'm still too weak. Better to try to simplify and modernize the concoction process and the costs for the First Step of Body and Qi pill." Waving his hand, the fish from the lake, along with the hook in its mouth, flew onto the shore. With huge, glazed eyes, it looked at the man and the fat, round rooster, who had raised his head to the sky and, holding the rod above himself, began to crow triumphantly. Pop! With one Qi Blade, An cut off its head so it wouldn't suffer.

Snapping his fingers, a fire appeared inside the stove, and the fish broke apart into small pieces. The innards and scales of the fish simply dissolved into the air, vanishing into thin air without a trace. The pieces of fish flew to the stove and laid themselves out on it, in several rows. Even though An could just as easily fry the whole fish on the spot, he preferred to avoid that and did it the way it had been in his first life, which gave him something familiar, something that calmed him, if only for a moment.

After all, An didn't even need food or water, getting all he needed from the Qi he absorbed during cultivation and his vitality. Besides, the fish caught from the lake no longer gave any changes to his physical or spiritual body. A few days later. Sitting by the stove and looking at the horizon, specifically at several medium-sized flying ships, as cargo was being unloaded from one onto another, An still pondered ways to reduce the costs of making the First Step of Body and Qi pill.

Suddenly, his pocket began to vibrate. Taking his plaque out of his pocket, he checked it and saw a message.

"Mandatory appearance? What for? What about my Practitioner status? Or does this only apply to mandatory missions from the Sect?" Putting the plaque back in his pocket, An stood up and reluctantly, almost by force, walked toward the exit from the plot.' I hope this isn't one of those moments where they end up forcing me to participate in some event where more than ninety percent die... Eh… Another headache!' Arguing with himself at every step, he still approached the gate and turned his head toward the stove.

"I'm going. For how long, I don't know. Behave yourself!" Having said that, he turned back and opened the gate." Bawk!" Obeying, Baldi began nodding his head. Stepping outside and breathing this air for the first time in several months, An headed toward the Outer Hall. Arriving unhurriedly at the Hall and stepping inside, he walked straight to the reception window responsible for sect missions. On the other side sat an outer disciple with chubby cheeks and a low cultivation, only at the fifth layer.

"I received a notification about a mandatory mission. Here's my plaque." An took out his plaque and placed it on the table, sliding it toward the disciple behind the glass." Ahem, the location of your immediate appearance: beyond the Sect's northern gates, adjacent to the Beast Lands." After looking at the plaque, the disciple handed it back and waved his hand.

"What about the immunity from mandatory missions granted to those with Practitioner status in a non-combat path?" An took the plaque in his hand and asked.

"Does this look like a help desk to you? I already told you everything you need to know! Now get out of here, you're ruining the view!" Seeing that he was starting to get bothered, the disciple snapped, trying to scare An away.

"H-hey! AGH!" The disciple only saw the hand pass under the glass and grab him by the scruff of his neck, sharply yanking him and smacking him right into the glass, smearing blood from his broken nose across it." Aaagh! Kha! Kha!" The disciple wanted to scream and call for help, but because his face was pressed against the glass, every time he opened his mouth, blood poured in.

"I repeat my question, what about the immunity?" An repeated his question in a quiet, low voice, while looking around to make sure there were no officers nearby. At the same time, he didn't care about the opinions of the disciples around him who had seen what happened. And the elders, he had looked around in advance, when he first entered the Outer Hall, that there were no elders on the first floor today, only disciples like him." Ah! I-I don't know! It's described in the order...

that is, in one of the clauses, it says that this mission carries with it the cancellation of all status immunities! Th-that's all I know!" Feeling the grip loosen, allowing him to freely open his mouth, the disciple laid out everything he knew." Hmm..." An released the chubby disciple and awkwardly, with difficulty, pulled his hand back through the narrow gap, turned around quickly, and headed for the exit." Haaa … How tired I am of this job... Ptoo!"

Falling to the floor, the disciple began wiping and spitting out blood, while grumbling and rubbing his broken nose.

"Just wait! I'll find you and then! Wait… If he has that much physical strength, then… Ha! Ptoo! Today is your lucky day, today I am all-forgiving…" Standing up, the disciple began wiping the glass of his blood, trying to clean up his workspace as quickly as possible.