Rust Pill

Li Banfeng held up the candle, searching around for the corpses of Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi. He didn't find the corpses; he only found some miscellaneous items in a corner. He found their shredded clothes. Judging by the extent of the damage, the garments had been violently ripped from their bodies by some external force. The items inside the clothes were still there; Li Banfeng found their wallets. The cloth pouches containing snake-spot chrysanthemums were also there, and the flowers inside were intact. Next to the bronze lotus, Li Banfeng also found the pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Beside the glasses lay a wooden spectacle case, and next to that was an iron cigarette case. However, one thing was missing: the folding fan belonging to Gold-Rimmed Glasses. Li Banfeng had been very interested in that folding fan with its bizarre fragrance. Its materials and craftsmanship were extraordinary: folded shut, it could serve as an iron cudgel; snapped open, it functioned both as a blade and a shield. Where did the fan go? Eaten by the bronze lotus? And the corpses? Eaten by the bronze lotus as well? It had swallowed two corpses and snatched away Gold-Rimmed Glasses' weapon. Why did a bronze lotus need a weapon? Could this lotus actually hold a weapon and fight? Furthermore, the bronze lotus had previously eaten snake-spot chrysanthemums and refined them into snake-spot pills. Now that it had swallowed corpses and a weapon, why hadn't it touched the snake-spot chrysanthemums belonging to Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi? Could it be that because it had meat to eat, it didn't feel like eating vegetarian, and followed it up with a fan to pick its teeth? That thought actually sounded quite reasonable. Then what was inside these three lotus seeds? Did it refine Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi into pills too? Li Banfeng gingerly peeled the three lotus seeds from the seven-holed lotus receptacle, and the petals immediately closed up. Two of the lotus seeds began to swell in his palm. After about a dozen seconds, the two seeds split open, each popping out a red orb. The size of these two orbs was slightly larger than a snake-spot pill, their color pure, appearing exceptionally translucent under the candlelight. What kind of pills were these? While he pondered, the third lotus seed also burst. Inside was a single orb, rust-colored. Not only was its color like rust, but its texture felt like rust too, giving off a repulsive, gritty resistance in the hand. It wasn't just gritty—there was a stinging pain. Li Banfeng tossed the rust pill aside and discovered a red streak on his palm, accompanied by a faint numbness beneath the stinging. Poisoned? Li Banfeng was unsure how to handle it, but then saw the red streak split open as a small amount of blood trickled out. Once the blood flowed out, the stinging and numbness vanished. A Dwelling Cultivator possessed strong self-healing abilities within his abode; the bleeding just now was likely an active detoxification process. Yet Li Banfeng hadn't expected a brief touch from that rust-colored orb to cause him so much harm. If the contact had lasted a little longer, or if someone swallowed it directly, could they still be saved? Even if a Dwelling Cultivator were inside his own dwelling, he probably couldn't be brought back. In the spirit of seeking truth from facts, should I conduct an experiment on myself? At that thought, Li Banfeng suddenly chuckled coldly and muttered to himself, "Do you think I'm crazy?" Li Banfeng emptied the wallets of Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi. Using the tattered clothes on the ground to pad his hands, he stored the pills separately into the two wallets, then squatted on the ground to study the characteristics of the bronze lotus. The red orbs and the rust-colored orb could tentatively be called red pills and a rust pill. The red pills likely came from the corpses of Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi. The rust pill likely came from that vanished folding fan. The bronze lotus had turned them all into pills. Li Banfeng couldn't fathom the exact mechanism, nor did he know what uses these two types of pills had for now. The question Li Banfeng cared about most right now was: on what principle did the bronze lotus select materials for pill refinement? Before, it had chosen the snake-spot chrysanthemums. Why was it completely uninterested in them now? Could it develop an interest in me someday and turn me directly into a pill? Li Banfeng took the pouch of snake-spot chrysanthemums and walked up close to the bronze lotus, but the lotus showed no reaction at all. Then why did the snake-spot chrysanthemums I picked earlier turn into snake-spot pills? Thinking back to when I returned last night, what was different about the situation? As he pondered, dizziness washed over Li Banfeng's head again. This was a normal reaction to inhaling the poisonous mist. After dizziness came the urge to vomit. Vomit! Li Banfeng remembered something. The first thing he had done upon returning to the Portable Abode was vomit. Unable to find a suitable spot, he had vomited straight into the cloth pouch holding the flowers. Before that, Li Banfeng had dumped the snake-spot chrysanthemums out of the cloth pouch. Could it be that through a cloth pouch, the bronze lotus had no perception of the snake-spot chrysanthemums? Li Banfeng opened the pouch and dumped the forty-odd stalks of snake-spot chrysanthemums picked by Gold-Rimmed Glasses near the bronze lotus. The moment the snake-spot chrysanthemums hit the ground, the bronze lotus's petals began to quiver. Hiss—hiss— The sound of metal scraping against metal rang out, and the lotus's seven petals unfurled one by one. Li Banfeng was once again awed by this exquisite mechanism. He couldn't tell which was more advanced—modern civilization or these bizarre techniques. After the seven petals spread wide, Li Banfeng clearly saw the seven-holed lotus receptacle. He felt the air in the Portable Abode flowing in an unnatural direction. The air swirled into a vortex, and the center of that vortex was precisely the seven-holed receptacle. The forty-odd stalks of snake-spot chrysanthemums on the ground gradually lifted with the vortex, dancing up and down in the room. This scene must have happened last night too, but I slept so deeply that I didn't notice it at all! Li Banfeng instinctively took two steps back from the bronze lotus, afraid he might get sucked into the receptacle. A total of forty-three stalks of snake-spot chrysanthemums were sucked into the lotus, and the petals closed once again. So they really have to be exposed directly to the bronze lotus's line of sight for it to sense them. Line of sight? The word seemed somewhat improper. Could a bronze lotus actually see? Amid his contemplation, Li Banfeng suddenly heard a crisp snap. Holding up the candle, he looked around the ground for a while, only to find that the rust pill had fallen onto the floor. Didn't I put it in the wallet? Li Banfeng picked up the wallet and looked at it. A hole had formed at the bottom of the leather wallet, surrounded by dark bluish-black scorch marks. Was this corroded? The rust pill actually had corrosive properties? What would happen if someone swallowed the rust pill? Let alone a Dwelling Cultivator, even a Poison Cultivator most likely couldn't endure it! Li Banfeng grew increasingly intrigued! Padding his hands with the tattered cloth from the floor, he gingerly placed the rust pill into the iron cigarette case. Could an iron case withstand the corrosion? It couldn't! The corrosive effect was even more obvious than on the wallet. The moment the iron cigarette case touched the rust pill, it began to rust rapidly. By the time Li Banfeng took the rust pill out, the cigarette case was completely encrusted with rust, its original appearance unrecognizable. An iron box didn't work; would a wooden box work? Li Banfeng placed the rust pill into the spectacle case. After observing it for a moment, he found that the rust pill did not corrode wood, and only then did he place the spectacle case in a corner of the room with peace of mind. Li Banfeng waited quietly beside the bronze lotus. Estimating that half an hour had passed, the petals opened once more, revealing a lotus seed inside. Li Banfeng held the seed in his palm, and leaving the receptacle, it swelled rapidly. Bang! After a dull pop, black-and-white pills burst out. These were snake-spot pills! Li Banfeng counted them: ten pills in total. Previously, he had refined eight pills from thirty-seven stalks, which meant the bronze lotus refined one pill per four and a half stalks—far superior to the methods of the major medicine shops. This time, it had consumed even fewer snake-spot chrysanthemums for a higher yield, likely because the stalks picked by Gold-Rimmed Glasses were on the larger side. Li Banfeng dumped out all the remaining snake-spot chrysanthemums, including Qin Xiaopang's, Youtao's, Caoye's, Lao Yanpao's, Hu Gaozi's, the bald man's and his lackeys'... A total of 332 flowers were all drawn into the receptacle by the bronze lotus. After another half hour or so, the petals bloomed again. This time, there were three lotus seeds in the receptacle. Li Banfeng peeled off the seeds and waited quietly for them to burst open one by one. A few minutes later, Li Banfeng gathered up the seeds that had burst across the floor, collecting a total of seventy-six snake-spot pills. Counting the eighteen snake-spot pills he and Gold-Rimmed Glasses' harvest had produced earlier, he now had ninety-four in total. Money! Stacks upon stacks of money! Li Banfeng had bought two cloth pouches at the general store, but in reality, he only used one to hold pills, while the other had been used for his vomit. He packed the pills into the remaining clean pouch and took a moment to sort through the estates of Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi. Gold-Rimmed Glasses had 2,613 dollars in cash, while Hu Gaozi had 3,528 dollars and fifty cents. The current Li Banfeng didn't care about these small sums; keeping the money was purely out of respect for the two deceased. After all, they had known each other and formed a partnership; their relics had to be properly preserved! After resting in the Portable Abode for another two-plus hours, Li Banfeng left Bitter Mist Mountain and walked to the gathering spot of the medicine shops. The cultivators carrying snake-spot chrysanthemums were still arguing with the medicine shops. They claimed they wouldn't sell, but none of them walked far away. If they didn't sell to the medicine shops, who else could they sell to? They only hoped to fight for a slightly better price through this resistance, just as a middle-aged cultivator said: "Even thirty would be fine! Twenty-five is just bullying us." Li Banfeng had no interest in watching their squabble; Xiaopang and the others were still waiting for him in a secluded spot. Li Banfeng had been gone for nearly three hours, driving Xiaopang frantic with worry! "I shouldn't have let him go alone! In these vast mountains, where is he supposed to find that old woman? He spent the whole night on the mountain too—this is going to kill him!" Xiaopang paced back and forth, rubbing his hands together. Caoye kept her head lowered and said, "If Brother Baisha really manages to trade for pills, I only need half..." Youtao muttered to herself, "An old woman... what kind of old woman could she be? Did he run into a Lucky Star..." When they caught sight of Li Banfeng, everyone was overjoyed. Li Banfeng had no patience for their thanks or pleasantries; he went straight to distributing the pills. "Youtao, you had thirty-eight flowers. That traded for four pills." Youtao was taken aback. "Aren't we two stalks short?" Li Banfeng said, "I covered the difference for you to round it off." Youtao looked at Li Banfeng, filled with both gratitude and guilt. Li Banfeng brought out another six pills. "Caoye, you had sixty-one stalks. The number is too far off, so I couldn't cover the difference; I had to round down." Caoye was thrilled and hurriedly checked the authenticity of the pills. Next was Xiaopang. His tally was a bit harder to calculate. Xiaopang originally had twenty stalks of snake-spot chrysanthemum, which was worth two pills. Splitting Lao Yanpao's and the bald gang's chrysanthemums, Xiaopang had eighty-four stalks. Together, that made 104 stalks. Factoring in Xiaopang looking out for him along the way, Li Banfeng gave him eleven pills. Holding the pills, Xiaopang's hands couldn't stop shaking. "One pill is ten thousand dollars! Let's go sell them right now!" Caoye stopped Xiaopang. "Brother Pang, where do you plan to sell them?" "To the medicine shops! Aren't they right there?" Caoye shook her head. "You can't sell them to the medicine shops. We can't explain where these pills came from." Xiaopang frowned. "Why can't we explain? Aren't they... didn't we just... that thing..." Indeed, the matter couldn't be explained clearly. Even if explained, nobody would believe it. Caoye said, "I was an apprentice in a medicine shop before. If the origin of a pill can't be explained, the shops won't accept it. If they dig into it, we'll only bring trouble on ourselves." Indeed, they couldn't sell to the medicine shops. Li Banfeng said nothing, quietly watching what the others intended to do. Hearing this, Xiaopang was utterly deflated. "Then what do we do? We traded for pills, but now they're stuck in our hands." Youtao laughed. "How could they get stuck in your hands? Plenty of people want pills, and they're all wealthy. You might not even buy one for ten thousand dollars. You take their money, and they still have to remember your favor. You couldn't ask for a better deal in your dreams." Li Banfeng's brow relaxed. There were channels after all. It was just that this channel wasn't quite suitable for him. What Youtao meant was selling them through private channels to people who wanted to buy. Li Banfeng was a stranger here and couldn't find suitable buyers. He wanted to see if Xiaopang had an outlet. The fat man scratched his scalp. "But this isn't something that can be sold off overnight." Youtao said in surprise, "What's your rush? The pills won't spoil overnight!" "That's true, but..." Youtao had no desire to bicker with Xiaopang. She turned and cupped her fists toward Li Banfeng. "Great kindness requires no words of thanks. I owe you for these pills, and I owe you for my life. If you ever come to Mazhu Village in Waigou, ask for You Xuetao and you'll definitely find me. If you ever need anything, just say the word. Mountains of daggers or seas of flames, this lady won't bat an eye!" You Xuetao, Youtao—her nickname and real name were quite close. She gave her address; if Xiaopang couldn't find an outlet, it wouldn't be too late to seek out Youtao then. Caoye bowed to Li Banfeng. "Brother Baisha, my name is Xue Yingying. Just ask for the Xue family in Sanpuzhuang in Waigou, and you'll find me." Youtao took out two pills and said, "This debt of gratitude isn't something the two of us can repay right away. Please take these pills as a token of my regard." Caoye also took out two pills. "I have a token of regard as well." Li Banfeng waved his hand, refusing their pills. The two women thanked him profusely, though if they knew Li Banfeng still had sixty-five pills in his hands, who knew what they would think. Looking at Li Banfeng, Youtao did harbor some thoughts. A Joy Cultivator's thoughts were straightforward. If she could meet a man like him, cylindrical might not necessarily lose to flat. Caoye's thoughts were a bit more complex. Although she hadn't seen the fight clearly at the time, the bald man's crew had truly died at his and the fat kid's hands. This was a man capable of great things! With him looking out for her, opening a medicine shop might truly be possible! The two women took their leave one after the other. Li Banfeng stood in place, pondering his itinerary back to Yuezhou. Reasonably speaking, with so many pills, he certainly wasn't short on money. However, until the pills were sold off, they couldn't count as cash. How could he sell the pills quickly? Li Banfeng looked at Xiaopang. Xiaopang seemed to need money urgently as well. Yet after sitting in silence for so long, Xiaopang, who had been frantic moments ago, had gradually calmed down. He felt Youtao had a point: "There's no rush to sell the pills. That woman was right—these are fine goods. Not only can I fetch a good price, but I can also use these pills to make plenty of good friends. So there's really no need to rush!" You're not in a rush anymore? That won't do! "I'm in a rush!" Li Banfeng sat down beside Xiaopang. "I urgently need money." Even though Li Banfeng had gathered quite a bit of cash from Gold-Rimmed Glasses and the others, taking these pills back to Yuezhou seemed rather useless. Xiaopang was curious. "What do you urgently need money for? Want me to lend you some first?" Li Banfeng waved his hand. "I don't want to borrow money; I just want to sell the pills as soon as possible." "Sell them as soon as possible..." Qin Xiaopang could understand Li Banfeng's thinking. Li Banfeng came from Outer States and was a stranger in Yaowanggou. He hardly knew ordinary people, let alone rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and powerful. After pondering for a moment, Xiaopang pinched his chin. "There is a place that can let you unload the pills quickly. It's just that the price will take a hit." Li Banfeng's eyes lit up. "What kind of discount?"