The black-clad youth skidded to a sudden halt, his boots splashing into the lake water.
This was the end of the land route.
At that moment, the morning sun broke over the eastern horizon.
As the first rays of dawn spilled across the wilderness, the Emperor's Flowing Dew still clinging to leaves and branches vaporized instantly. Without producing so much as a faint hiss, it dispersed into the world and vanished.
This treacherous, unpredictable night had finally drawn to a close.
The rising sun also marked the definitive failure of his pursuit.
The youth in black stood dazed on the shoreline for a long while before stretching his arms with a leisurely yawn.
"Enough, enough!"
His prey had been far too cunning, tossing tattered clothes into a den of wild boar demons to mislead the trackers and buying himself a precious half-quarter of an hour.
The fellow had even found the leisure to dig pits and plant explosives along the unavoidable paths.
With a few jars of black powder left in his storage ring, He Lingchuan had rigged up a small surprise. Having some snap snappers on hand—the kind of throw-down firecrackers that exploded upon hitting the ground—he had used them as hair-trigger fuses.
The youth in black had stepped squarely on one of those snappers, immediately detonating the concealed gunpowder.
By the time He Lingchuan plunged into the lake, the youth was left completely helpless.
Now that the sun was up, the lingering scent of the Emperor's Flowing Dew vanished into thin air. The lake before him was vast and wide; who knew where the prey would crawl ashore?
He had no choice but to let it go.
When his winded subordinates finally caught up, they found their young master sauntering out of the bamboo grove with his hands clasped behind his back.
"No chance now. Let's head for Fufeng City."
The men stared in disbelief. "Y-You didn't catch him either, Young Master?"
The youth smoothed his sleeves, completely unperturbed. "Lost him."
Why wasn't the young master furious?
"What comes to me is my fortune; what escapes me is my fate." He could only cloak his helplessness in calm nonchalance. "Besides, last night's harvest was already exceedingly rich."
They had harvested Emperor's Flowing Dew all through the night, then scoured and looted other monsters and martial artists at dawn. They were returning loaded with spoils. Snagging that final lump of Emperor's Flowing Dew paste would have merely been the icing on the cake; missing out on it did no real harm.
"Our mission takes priority."
***
When He Lingchuan leapt into the water, the Emperor's Flowing Dew adhering to his hair dissolved into the current, drawing a frantic swarm of fish.
He threw out a prepared scent bun.
The instant the foul stench burst forth, the fish scattered in panic.
Seizing the opening, he swam far away and went ashore in a patch of tall, concealed reeds thousands of paces out.
A few large lake beasts attacked him along the way, but he drove them all off with his scent buns, enduring a few close calls without real danger.
Once on land, he was in no hurry to flee. After confirming that no creatures in the vicinity were paying attention to him, he took out Lord Boshan's invisible snakeskin, draped it over himself, and regulated his breathing into deep meditation, closing all his pores to prevent his scent from leaking.
The surging roar of the wind through the forest canopy masked his breathing to perfection.
The clear lake water had washed away every trace of his scent.
Even if a beast leaped right past him, it would scarcely sense his presence. He Lingchuan watched two squirrels squabbling over territory on a branch to his left, and a quarter of an hour later, a shrike flew down with its prey, skewering a fat bug onto a twig like a kabob.
If even they failed to notice him, He Lingchuan felt completely at ease.
He remained there, meditating and circulating his breath for half a day.
During that time, several humans and monsters passed beneath the tree, but He Lingchuan did not twitch a muscle.
Anyone bold enough to collect Emperor's Flowing Dew out in the wilderness the previous night and still manage to walk out alive this morning was bound to possess formidable skill.
Not until the sun slanted low in the sky did the possessed tiger return. It rubbed against the tree trunk, and a tiny creature scurried upward, slipping right to He Lingchuan's side.
"Good work," he said, gently stroking the returned eyeball spider.
Before escaping that chaotic stretch of forest, he had planted this spy behind, which had allowed him to watch the entire spectacle unfold in real time.
If he hadn't dispatched the tiger to retrieve it, how long would it have taken for the eyeball spider to catch up on its eight short legs?
Now that his spy had been retrieved, it was time to find a place to refine medicine. Emperor's Flowing Dew did not stay fresh for long; getting it safely into his stomach as soon as possible was best.
Still, He Lingchuan did not intend to leave the forest rashly.
Earlier, he had clearly seen the crows circling above before heading northeast.
Those petty, narrow-minded scavengers would never rest until they had their revenge.
They were not his immediate concern, however. He Lingchuan hopped down from the tree and spoke to the heart-protecting mirror: "I need to find a nearby cave to refine medicine."
The mirror stayed silent for several breaths, as if inquiring, before replying: "Easy enough. The tiger demon knows of an underground den nearby that's a black bear den, exceptionally well hidden. Every year as winter sets in, they drop by to check if a bear is hibernating inside."
Led by the tiger, they headed southwest for seven or eight li.
The terrain here was steep and rugged, riddled with fissures and choked with small-leafed scrub. Almost no monster or human would choose to collect Emperor's Flowing Dew in such a place.
The tiger led He Lingchuan down to the bed of a dry ravine, where all paths seemed to end, before squeezing into a thick patch of wild grass over ten feet tall.
Following behind, he discovered an irregular crevice tucked behind the tall weeds and tangled scrub—or rather, a fissure in the earth whose widest opening was barely four feet across.
A living person hoping to enter would have to crouch low or crawl.
He Lingchuan surveyed the interior first and found a water-carved cavern extending several dozen paces, with no second exit.
The cave opened up wider inside. In the depths lay piles of dry grass and thick mats of moss packed flat like a mattress, though by what manner of beast was impossible to tell. Various wild mushrooms grew throughout the damp corners.
A musty odor filled the air, mingled with the faint musk left behind by wild bears or boars long ago.
"A good spot. This will do." He Lingchuan was thoroughly pleased. He stationed the tiger outside as a guard, instructed the eyeball spider to seal the entrance with silk, and draped the Cloud Brocade over the opening.
Then, he retrieved the cauldron, auxiliary herbs, and the vital Emperor's Flowing Dew from his storage ring, preparing to begin refinement.
He would start with the Emperor's Flowing Dew paste.
He Lingchuan rubbed his hands together. Leaving such a perfect lump of paste unrefined into a God-Slaying Pill would be a reckless waste of heaven's gifts.
His harvest the previous night had been astonishingly bountiful. Nearly all the spiritual rain caught in the spider silk nets had been gathered without waste, leaving four small wine jars resting in his storage ring, each filled to eighty percent capacity.
Back at Fengling Ferry, the Emperor's Flowing Dew he had obtained barely coated the bottom of a vial; it could not compare to what he held now.
Naturally, all of this liquid dew was to be refined into Hundred Virtues Pills to aid his future cultivation.
Fortunately, he had prepared an ample supply of auxiliary ingredients; otherwise, where in this desolate wilderness could he have assembled the necessary herbs?
Wasting no time, He Lingchuan ignited his true fire and fired up the cauldron.
He had frequently observed the medicine ape Lingguang refining pills. Even if he hadn't raised many pigs himself, he had certainly eaten enough pork to know the craft.
More importantly, he had rehearsed and performed test runs in his dreams no fewer than fifteen times, with Sun Fuling standing by with the formulas to guide him.
With Teacher Sun overseeing the process, every minor slip and minute detail had been dragged into the open, dissected, and firmly corrected!
Thanks to that relentless practice, though He Lingchuan felt tense now, his movements were orderly and calm, busy yet unhurried.
The recipe itself was not exceptionally difficult; the true challenge lay in handling the pill's potency once consumed. As long as the heat and steps strictly adhered to the requirements, failure was unlikely!
Fortune smiled on him this time. Over the course of eight hours, not a single creature approached the cave to disturb him.
Perhaps the battle for the Emperor's Flowing Dew the night before had been so vicious that most beasts were exhausted, and those lucky enough to secure a share were busy refining it themselves.
The God-Slaying Pill was completed, and the Hundred Virtues Pills were finished as well... mostly.
Through the repetitive labor, he had accidentally ruined one batch. He Lingchuan could only console himself:
*A ten-percent defect rate isn't bad at all.*
Thankfully, even a flawed batch was edible enough; its medicinal potency was merely heavily reduced.
The heart-protecting mirror had also contributed its share of effort during the fight for the paste. He Lingchuan was a man who rewarded merit, so he tossed the remaining scrap of Emperor's Flowing Dew paste to the mirror.
The mirror was ecstatic.
The fragment that had awakened it months ago had not been nearly this large!
In an era where heaven-and-earth spiritual energy was scarce and everyone else had to make do with scraps, it was savoring pure Emperor's Flowing Dew paste. What greater bliss could there be?
Indeed, happiness and inequality were all born of comparison.
This master was a keeper—a true keeper!
He Lingchuan paid no mind to its inner thoughts. Holding the freshly refined God-Slaying Pill in his palm, he pondered for a long moment before deciding to take it while it was fresh.
Holding onto something so precious felt like clutching a burning coal. To avoid complications born of delay, it was best swallowed immediately.
He sent the eyeball spider to scout the surroundings, hung the mirror at the cave entrance, and even examined the night sky to ensure no sudden downpour would flood the fissure. Only then did he let out a long breath and sit cross-legged in meditation.
He failed to notice that, deep in the stone cave upon the dried moss, two fresh white mushrooms had quietly sprouted at some unknown moment, their caps tilted directly toward him.
He Lingchuan circulated his true power through several cycles to warm his meridians, invigorating his body and smoothing his breath, before bringing out the God-Slaying Pill and swallowing it in one gulp!
After undergoing nine cycles of brewing—or rather, refining—the egg-sized lump of Emperor's Flowing Dew paste had condensed into a God-Slaying Pill slightly smaller than a jujube. It did not melt upon touching the tongue.
He Lingchuan chewed it like a dried date several times before swallowing. It tasted sweet and fragrant, though a bit dry, catching in his throat.
...It truly was just like a dried date.
Helian Chen had never mentioned what a God-Slaying Pill was supposed to taste like. Surely this refinement hadn't been a failure?
Barely a dozen breaths later, a colossal torrent of scalding heat erupted from his dantian with a deafening roar. It struck him like an astronomical spring tide bursting through a dam, or the shockwave ripping through an enclosed chamber after an explosion. No matter the precautions he had taken, he was caught entirely unprepared.
*Isn't this far too violent? This isn't what Helian Chen described!*
In his haste, all he could do was desperately channel that immense surge of power toward his Shanzhong acupoint, preventing it from straying off-course or bursting its banks.
Straying off-course meant qi deviation.
Bursting its banks meant shattered meridians.
It felt as though a natural disaster had abruptly detonated inside his body—the greatest crisis he had faced since embarking on cultivation.
Helian Chen had never anticipated that He Lingchuan would have the extraordinary luck to obtain such a massive piece of Emperor's Flowing Dew paste. The medicinal potency contained in the pill He Lingchuan had refined was more than twice what Helian Chen had projected!
The liquid rain of Emperor's Flowing Dew often carried impurities that required purification after collection. Natural paste, however, bypassed that refinement entirely, and its efficacy could not be measured by simple multiplication. Moreover, the piece He Lingchuan had obtained even held a core of crimson dew marrow.
He was like an unfortunate soul sprinting ahead of a stampede of hundreds of mad bulls. If he could not guide them swiftly and effectively, he would be gored, crippled, and trampled into paste.
Chapter 380