Cultivating the Dao All the Way to Heavy Metal Poisoning!

"Third year and third month: Ice-Skin Jade-Bones, achieved!" "Hahaha, this Daoist Lord has done it again. This Daoist Lord truly is a genius. Now the skin and flesh all over my body are white and smooth as set cream, cool to the touch. At night I don't even need to light a lamp—this skin of mine gives off a faint glow. My fellow Daoists are all shocked when they see me. They say I have cast off my mortal frame and exchanged it for immortal bones. Hahahahaha..." "...And while he was alive, my master told me again and again to cultivate this immortal aspect slowly. He told me not to rush. I understand. He must have been afraid I would ascend too early, and then there would be no one to look after him. Master, oh Master, you have underestimated your disciple far too much. Even if your disciple ascends, he will not forget you. As the saying goes, when one man attains the Dao, even his chickens and dogs rise to heaven. Cough, cough, cough—your disciple is not saying you are a chicken or a dog. Your disciple will simply take you along when he ascends..." "No Shadow at Noon—proven!" "Hahaha, this Daoist Lord has cultivated the third immortal aspect as well. In no more than four years from start to finish, this Daoist Lord has achieved the third immortal aspect. Now, even standing beneath the sun at high noon, when this Daoist Lord looks down he sees only empty nothing beneath his feet. This Daoist Lord's shadow is gone! This Daoist Lord's pure yang body is complete. This Daoist Lord is going to ascend. This Daoist Lord is going to ascend! Hahaha... hahahaha..." One "ha" after another was carved into the wall, so Liu Xiu could well imagine how loud this cultivator's smug laughter had been at the time. But strangely, he found that Shi Jian showed not the slightest look of longing or admiration. Instead his face was as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly, with a touch of scorn and a faint sneer. Liu Xiu was puzzled, but he did not ask Shi Jian. This was not the time to ask. He turned back to the stone wall. The writing that followed was no longer in that original hand, the one that seemed to be laughing. In its place were savage characters steeped in bewilderment. "Jade-green eyes, jade bones, no shadow—I clearly cultivated all three of these immortal aspects. So why have I still not ascended? Why? Why? Why do I feel as though the sickness has reached my very vitals... Why? Why is this..." "With these jade-green eyes of mine, I can see more and more ghosts, and more and more immortals and gods. Now even with my eyes closed I can see immortals and gods. I can see the netherworld. And yet... why have I not ascended... why... why is this, in the end..." The writing was no longer smug. It was full of despair. Liu Xiu's brows drew in slightly, and he read on. "Wrong, wrong, wrong. I cultivated wrong. This is not an immortal aspect. This is not an immortal aspect... This is a toxic aspect..." "...Master lied to me. Master lied to me. I clearly achieved Ice-Skin Jade-Bones. This flesh of mine can match a body cultivator's. So why, when I was bathing and only touched my arm, did the skin there fall off..." "...It came off in whole pieces, as if someone were peeling away a sheet of paper... It was hard... like stone... and yet it did not hurt. I want to cry. I was wrong. I cultivated wrong..." "...Master did not lie to me. Master did not lie to me. Master, I am beginning to understand why you died so wretchedly... Hahaha. At the time I only took it that cultivating the gu arts in your youth had backlashed on you, and that was why you met such a miserable end. I never thought it was this... that it was this. Hahahahahaha... Daoist Wang's final writing..." The writing stopped dead. Only the words "final writing" betrayed a tinge of despair and helplessness beyond all imagining. At that very moment, the stone wall on the inner side of the cave dwelling, shut tight until now, crashed open. A white afterimage tore through the air and shot straight at Liu Xiu. Shua— A flash of sword-light laced with black electric arcs broke out within the cave dwelling, splitting the somewhat dim light inside, and Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian belatedly looked toward Liu Xiu, Heavenly Thunder Sword in hand. One of them was shocked to realize that his junior brother was this formidable. The other frowned slightly, a faintly odd look on his face, staring at a white monstrous worm on the ground, the length of a finger, cut in two by a single sword stroke. White worm... surname Liu... cut down by a sword... Shi Jian looked at Liu Xiu with a strange expression, then let out a soft "yi" as he looked at the white worm on the ground. It suddenly began to smoke, then turned into several sheets of paper. Liu Xiu paid none of this any mind. Feeling odd, he only listened to the narration cheat, which had suddenly begun to speak. [You suddenly discover that the Heavenly Thunder Sword in your hand is faintly trembling. Across the lightning-light of the blade there seems to have appeared a layer of lustrous white frost-patterns that only you can see. You instinctively recall the white monstrous worm just split apart by a single sword stroke, and your mind gives a sudden jolt...] [...In a daze, you suddenly see through it all. Of old, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han, slew the son of the White Emperor on Mount Mangdang and opened four hundred years of Han fortune. Now you, Liu Xiu, have relied on the Heavenly Thunder Sword to slay a white worm demon—borrowing the worm demon's origin to forge the foundation of your sword Dao, borrowing the Dao power of heavenly thunder to break the shackles of the world, borrowing the merit of slaying demons to steady your Dao heart, borrowing the anomalies of heaven and earth to establish your own Dao lineage. With your thunder sword Dao you sweep every domain, stand unmatched across the Ninth Heaven and the ten lands, and dominate the cultivation world through all ages!] "..." Has my sword Dao's origin and foundation been forged? Liu Xiu was doubtful. He reckoned this ought to mean that his Heavenly Thunder Sword had changed somewhat. But now was not the time to dwell on that. He cared more about the papers the white monstrous worm had turned into after it died. At the same time, the voice of the narration cheat rose again. [Heh heh heh, as expected, heaven's mandate rests with me! You lower your head and look, and you see that the white monstrous worm has turned into several pages covered in writing. In a flash you piece together what led to this. So this is the opportunity the female ghost Madam Liu spoke of. Only, you never expected this opportunity to be the inheritance Daoist Wang left behind in life! Though you are very curious how Daoist Wang could have a dharma realm... Not good. This damned old geezer actually dares to snatch, right in front of you, the opportunity that should have been yours. But since you cannot beat this old geezer, you decide to remember the matter for now!] "..." This old... Master did not steal my inheritance! Liu Xiu was speechless. He simply took it that the narration cheat was throwing a fit over nothing. He walked up beside Shi Jian, who was holding Daoist Wang's inheritance and reading it, and looked at the inheritance himself. Shi Shaojian hurriedly followed close behind to look. "Dad... cough, Master, is this really a method for cultivating an immortal aspect?" The moment Shi Shaojian saw, written on the paper, the method for cultivating the immortal aspect of jade-green eyes and square pupils, his eyes lit up and he asked. Shi Jian could not be bothered with his unfilial son. He only looked at Liu Xiu beside him, and saw that Liu Xiu's expression was odd, his eyes full of distaste. The sight left Shi Jian faintly astonished. Surprise in his eyes, he shook the immortal-aspect cultivation method in his hand and said, "You can understand the elixir formula written on this?" "I don't understand it. But I know that eating that many heavy-metal medicinal ingredients will definitely cause heavy metal poisoning!" Liu Xiu's expression was strange. In his heart, he was beginning to understand what the so-called immortal aspect of jade-green eyes and square pupils really was. It was nothing else. It was heavy metal poisoning. If he had guessed right, the elixir pills needed for cultivating the other two immortal aspects ought to be similar elixir formulas, the sort that would give whoever took them heavy metal poisoning. "Heavy metals? Poisoning?" Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian were stunned. Without standing on ceremony, Liu Xiu took the sheet on which the cultivation method for jade-green eyes and square pupils was written. "Master, Senior Brother, look. The elixir formula here calls for three medicinal ingredients: cinnabar, lead frost, and white arsenic stone. Never mind the latter two for now. First—what is this cinnabar..." "...In chemistry, cinnabar is also called mercury sulfide. Taken over a long time, the element mercury in mercury sulfide slowly deposits in the iris and the optic nerve. Then a person's iris pigment—that is, the eyes—is eroded by the heavy metal elements. The melanin is destroyed. The whites of the eyes begin to take on a blue-green cast, and the pupils show a pale jade green. I figure this is the so-called jade-green eyes..." Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian listened in a daze, nodding and going, "Oh, oh." Liu Xiu went on with the explanation, pointing at the words on the stone wall. "Daoist Wang says later that with his eyes closed he could see immortals and gods. I think his optic nerve had been damaged far too badly by the mercury, causing visual distortion. The nerves of his brain were thrown into disorder by the toxin, producing visual hallucinations..." With that, Liu Xiu shifted tack. "As for the square pupils, that should be the mercury paralyzing the sphincter muscles of the eyes, so the pupils stay contracted and stiff for a long time. The round pupils slowly stiffen and deform, gradually approaching a square, which creates the look of the so-called square pupils. Mm. That should be jade-green eyes and square pupils!" Jade-green eyes and square pupils = heavy metal poisoning! "..." ×2 Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian wore blank expressions. Shi Shaojian stared at Liu Xiu even more dully, utterly at a loss. "You... how do you know so much?" "I studied in the provincial capital!" "..." ×2 Were scholars really this formidable? ×2 Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian wore blank expressions...