Chapter 302: Senior Brother, Destiny
Tap tap~
Three sets of footsteps echoed within the confined cave.
Liang Zhu followed behind Ye Anping, carefully observing his surroundings. After walking about a hundred feet into the cave, the rock walls on both sides transformed into neat walls built with stone bricks.
Some of the stone bricks also bore imprints of the firing time and location, engraved with “Immortal Calendar Year 2095, July” and the seal of the Tian’an City Earth Division.
This year was unforgettable for Liang Zhu.
It was in April of that year that he saved Ating, escaped from Jade Pass into the Central Domain, and then, by chance, met a cultivator from the Seven Kill Gate, thereby submitting his pledge of allegiance.
After following the Qi Refining Stage cultivator carrying a lantern for another few dozen paces, the path ahead suddenly became spacious, and they could faintly feel the heat radiating from the alchemy furnace.
The three of them passed a corner and arrived at a rộng stone room.
The stone room had nine pillars supporting the ceiling. In the center was a huge Double-Layered Alchemy Furnace, with raging true fire surging inside, occasionally spewing out from the ventilation holes.
Around the alchemy furnace, six young cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage were meditating on cushions, channeling Spiritual Energy into the furnace.
So far, everything was normal.
However, when Liang Zhu looked up at the ceiling, his eyes widened, and his usually poker face showed astonishment.
On the ceiling, about fifty feet above the ground, more than ten children, who looked no older than seven or eight, were suspended by chains driven through their palms. All of them were deathly pale, as if their blood had been drained, shriveled and dry.
Ye Anping frowned and glanced at the children on the ceiling, saying,
“Their essence is the main ingredient for the Reverse Star Pill. Brother Liang should know better than I do that in the Central Domain, children with Spiritual Roots, after their Spiritual Roots manifest around the age of six or seven, will basically go to Tian’an City to participate in the annual Immortal Entry Trial.”
“…”
“Some of them, after passing the Immortal Trial, will be assigned to various branch divisions. Some, due to poor aptitude or lack of ability, have to return to their original towns to seek other paths. And among them, there is a portion who, after passing the Immortal Trial…”
Hearing this, Liang Zhu finally came back to his senses and retorted,
“You mean to say these people were delivered here by the Xing Tian Division?”
“En.”
Ye Anping looked back at Liang Zhu, understanding what the Xing Tian Division meant to him and realizing that he was merely adopted as a “Sixth Brother” in his eyes.
Liang Zhu was unlikely to believe his words. Perhaps it would have been better if the Pacification Commissioner named Jiang He had told him, but after all, Jiang He was already dead.
After pondering for a moment, Ye Anping asked,
“Brother Liang, what was your initial purpose with Jiang He in coming to Yuanquan Town?”
Liang Zhu stated directly, “A child with a single Spiritual Root went missing in Yuanquan Town. The town reported it to the Xing Tian Division, and they assigned us to investigate his whereabouts.”
“What was the child’s name?”
“Sun Wuyi.”
Ye Anping nodded in understanding, then looked at the Qi Refining Stage cultivator standing beside them with a lantern and asked,
“Which child hanging up there is Sun Wuyi?”
The Qi Refining Stage cultivator looked dumbfounded, staring blankly at Ye Anping, wondering: Weren’t they here to retrieve the Reverse Star Pill? Why did these words sound so wrong?
“Sir… what are you…?”
Ye Anping narrowed his eyes slightly, rarely using his Spiritual Might, and repeated,
“Who is Sun Wuyi?”
The Qi Refining Stage cultivator’s face immediately turned pale, his legs visibly weakened. He quickly raised his hand and pointed to the small boy in the center of the ceiling: “It’s him.”
Liang Zhu looked up, gritted his teeth, and asked again,
“What Jiang He wanted to show me just now, could it be…?”
“It is this.”
“Why would he want to show me this?”
“This ‘Pill Room’ in Yuanquan Town is just one of forty-seven Pill Rooms. He just wanted a small errand boy to work for him, intending to hand over the future task of retrieving pills to you, and of course, he would also plant a蛊 poison or restriction on you.”
“…”
“Brother Liang, your current identity is a cultivator who defected from the Hundred Lotus Sect to seek refuge with the Imperial Sect. And people like you, who come from other Immortal Territories without any relatives or connections in the Central Domain, are the easiest to ‘use’.”
Hearing their conversation becoming increasingly strange, the Qi Refining Stage cultivator beside them couldn’t help but swallow and quickly took a step back, thinking of secretly escaping to report.
Ye Anping had naturally noticed, but he didn’t make a move for the time being, just quietly watched Liang Zhu.
And at this moment, he suddenly heard a “ding ling ling” bell sound in his Spiritual Sense. It seemed Su Wan’er had probably followed them in secretly.
Ye Anping pondered for a moment and decided to ignore Su Wan’er. If she wanted to eavesdrop, then let her. He just needed to keep his Storage Bag secure.
Liang Zhu was silent for a long time, then carefully asked,
“Is the Xing Tian Division responsible for this matter?”
“Within the Xing Tian Division, cultivators above the Nascent Soul stage basically all know about it.”
“In other words… the Xing Tian Division is colluding with Demonic cultivators? If the Central Domain Emperor knew about this, he definitely wouldn’t stand by and do nothing…”
Ye Anping shook his head slightly. He couldn’t blame Liang Zhu for thinking that way. The Central Domain Emperor was the Immortal cultivator who governed the four domains and held a status comparable to Xuan Siji and the cultivators of the Taibai Sect.
“But what if this was ordered by the Central Domain Emperor himself? Think about what we experienced in the Chi Long Mansion. You know what the Chi Long Mansion was like.”
“The Central Domain Emperor is colluding with Demonic cultivators?!”
“Naturally not. That person is also a Void Realm cultivator; how could he cooperate with Demonic cultivators? This Reverse Star Pill was his own creation.”
As Ye Anping spoke, he looked at the alchemy furnace, then took out a Spirit Sword from his Storage Bag and made a Sword Finger gesture.
The Spirit Sword flew directly from his hand towards the alchemy furnace and pierced its outer shell.
The next moment.
Boom—
Flames erupted inside the stone room, and four golden Pills flew out from the furnace’s crack.
He reached out and grabbed one, picking it up between his fingers:
“This Reverse Star Pill concentrates the destiny of the children above throughout their lives. By consuming it, one can take their destiny for themselves.”
“Destiny?”
Liang Zhu looked at the pill in his hand, feeling somewhat unreal.
Although cultivators often spoke of destiny, it was actually a formless concept.
“Can destiny be made up for with a pill?”
“After eating this pill, your luck will improve. Perhaps you’ll encounter a powerful cultivator who will impart their cultivation to you when you pass by, or maybe you’ll fall off a cliff and meet an ancient treasure and a kind old man…”
Liang Zhu looked at the Golden Core in Ye Anping’s hand, hesitating for a long time.
There was a legend among the four domains about an Immortal Pill that could turn a Qi Refining Stage cultivator directly into a Deity Transformation cultivator.
Although this legend sounded unreliable, some people believed such a pill actually existed.
But to say that a pill could increase a person’s destiny?
“Heh…”
“Don’t believe it?” Ye Anping raised an eyebrow and asked.
“Don’t believe it.”
“I don’t believe it either.”
Ye Anping looked at the pill in his hand and shook his head, suddenly recalling a rumor in the game that every game account had a destiny stat.
Accounts with high destiny stats were more likely to draw the best items during in-game lotteries.
But such a ridiculously mystical thing made many people believe it wholeheartedly, even willing to spend a large sum of money to buy those starting accounts with “high destiny stats.”
“However, the Central Domain Emperor has absolute faith in this Reverse Star Pill.”
After saying this, Ye Anping looked up at the Qi Refining Stage cultivator who had led them in earlier.
During the time he and Liang Zhu were talking, the cultivator had stealthily moved ten steps away to a stone switch.
Seeing Ye Anping look over, the man immediately turned around and reached for the switch.
However, as soon as he extended his hand.
Swish—
A white light flashed.
Seeing the mechanism to seal the cave entrance right before his eyes, he couldn’t move his finger an inch further. His vision slowly tilted, and then he fell from his shoulder, landing on the ground.
Whoosh—
Ye Anping flicked the blood off the Spirit Sword in his hand, retracted it into his Storage Bag, and looked back at Liang Zhu, saying,
“Brother Liang, I have another question for you.”
… …
