Chapter 328: Exchanging for the Azure Pupils

"Duan Rong, are you afraid?"

Yin Cong suddenly raised his head, the flickering candlelight swaying across his face.

His gaze was fixed on Duan Rong, as if he were a drowning man trying to grab onto something.

Duan Rong also looked at Yin Cong.

Yin Cong's pale face and fearful eyes, illuminated by the dim candlelight, made Duan Rong's heart tighten involuntarily.

In a trance, he felt as if he were in some horror movie he had watched in his past life...

In that horror movie, everyone died in the end, and only the demon king survived, continuing to search the world for the next batch of prey...

And in it, the expression of a certain person was exactly the same as Yin Cong's right now.

Duan Rong understood what Yin Cong meant.

He sensed danger and wanted to huddle together with him for warmth.

However, Duan Rong really did not want to take him along.

Because stupidity is incurable.

Duan Rong sighed, his eyelids drooping slightly, seemingly to ease the awkward atmosphere, before he raised his head again after a moment, looked at Yin Cong, and said, "Yin Cong, don't do anything, and you might just survive. You cannot defeat them. Do you understand?"

Duan Rong felt that as long as Yin Cong did not make a foolish move to provoke Pan Yong and Chen Hu, he should be safe for the time being.

Because, in the eyes of Pan Yong and Chen Hu, he was the existence with the lowest risk factor.

"Don't do anything?" Yin Cong's eyes flickered, pondering the meaning of Duan Rong's words.

"Yes," Duan Rong said. "As long as you don't pose a threat to them, they won't move against you for now."

"Then, what if..."

Yin Cong seemed to want to say something more, but Duan Rong interrupted him directly.

"There are no 'what ifs'! Even if there really were, do you truly think you could change anything?"

Duan Rong's piercing gaze stared at Yin Cong.

Yin Cong's spirit instantly deflated. "Perhaps you are right."

"Get some rest early. I'm heading back first." Yin Cong stood up, turned, and walked out of the cave.

Duan Rong watched Yin Cong's back, his expression calm.

He knew that Yin Cong had come to discuss a strategy with him. But Duan Rong had only told him to do nothing, so Yin Cong must be very disappointed right now.

However, Duan Rong was like a clay bodhisattva crossing a river—barely able to save himself. He really could not afford to carry Yin Cong, this ticking time bomb.

Yin Cong might do something at any moment that would cause Pan Yong and Chen Hu to start targeting him.

Because the biggest flaw of a stupid person is not actually being stupid, but that they always think they are smart.

If he had the spare capacity, he might help. But at this moment, he could barely survive himself; how could he have the energy to look after this person?

Just now, Yin Cong asked Duan Rong if he was afraid. Duan Rong did not answer him.

Now that Yin Cong had left, Duan Rong understood clearly in his heart that he was actually filled with fear, and everything around him made him feel dark and oppressed.

Unconsciously, a strong desire to escape had risen within him.

He had to find a way to leave this place.

Shang Xiangyu was an extremely dangerous guy.

Duan Rong's expression was grave; he was very certain of his intuition.

If necessary, he could even leave the Taiyi Sect... change his identity, and start over...

It was just that the Taiyi Sect's rules were strict; once one entered the mountain, one could not leave at will.

Registered Disciples were under the jurisdiction of the Lower Courtyard, and they needed a permit from the Lower Courtyard to leave the mountain; otherwise, they couldn't even walk out of the mountain gate.

Duan Rong's eyes flickered; this matter could not be rushed, and he had to take it one step at a time.

He suddenly frowned, immediately rolled up the bedding on the stone bed, swept some items from inside the cave into his arms, strode out of the cave, stood at the edge of the cliff, and threw the things in his arms forcefully toward the bottom of the cliff.

Following two or three crisp clanging sounds—the sound of a bamboo tube for drinking water hitting the cliff wall—the various items had already sunk into the rolling white mist.

Duan Rong walked back into the cave, spread the animal skin blanket he had received from the Lower Courtyard onto the stone bed, and only then blew out the Candle Lamp and sat cross-legged on the stone bed.

However, after only a few breaths, Duan Rong's heart was already as still as water, and he sank his mind into cultivation.

Cultivation, improving one's own strength, was the foundation of everything. It was also the most powerful reliance for survival. This is what is called "upholding the orthodox to produce the extraordinary." Without this "orthodox," all so-called extraordinary strategies and devious plots are but reflections of flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water.

Duan Rong cultivated bitterly all night and only lay down to sleep for two hours until dawn.

After waking up and washing up briefly, he headed to the Medicine Pavilion.

Duan Rong walked along the edge of the cliff, his footsteps pausing slightly as he passed the iron chains of the Stone Workshop and the Weapon Workshop.

In truth, he felt very oppressed and really wanted to find Xiao Yu and Ximen Kankan to confide in them.

But after a moment of consideration, Duan Rong decided against it.

He did not want to drag Xiao Yu and Ximen Kankan into the matter regarding Shang Xiangyu, and Duan Rong felt that they could not really help anyway.

In terms of cultivation realm, neither of them had yet entered the True Qi Realm.

Moreover, like himself, they had only just joined the sect and were completely in the dark, not understanding many things.

At the very least, he had been to the Medicine Pavilion and the Guanglu Courtyard, and had received his Star Disk.

The two of them had been confined to the Stone Workshop and the Weapon Workshop; they might not have even received their Star Disks yet. He remembered Yin Cong complaining that it had been over a month since he arrived before Pan Yong took him to get his Star Disk.

The situation for Xiao Yu and Ximen Kankan might be the same.

When Duan Rong arrived at the Medicine Pavilion, he only balanced the accounts in that cramped room for two hours before leaving.

Five days later.

On this day, having finished his two hours of work, Duan Rong was just about to leave when he was suddenly grabbed by Xia Honghua at the curved counter.

Xia Honghua said quite sharply, "What is the matter with you? I give you two Contribution Points every day. You run off after only two hours every single day; do you really think this lady is so easy to cheat?!"

"Stop pulling and tugging." Duan Rong twisted his arm, and by employing the Bone Shrinking Technique, his arm slipped out of Xia Honghua's grasp.

Xia Honghua let out a soft sound of surprise, looking at Duan Rong with quite a bit of astonishment.

Duan Rong said, "We had an agreement beforehand. You cannot interfere with when I come or when I go."

Xia Honghua let out a cold snort through her nose and said, "The premise for me not interfering is that you can get the work done for me!"

"How do you know I haven't done it well?"

"You only come for two hours a day; can that even be considered doing it well? Are you trying to fool a ghost?"

Duan Rong looked at Xia Honghua with an expression as if looking at a fool and said, "Come, follow me."

"Do what? Go where?"

"To look at the account books!"

The two of them went together to the room where the account books were kept; Duan Rong took out a Fire Folder and lit a Candle Lamp.

They saw that on the long table in the middle of the cramped room, several account books were laid out.

Duan Rong pulled one out from among them, pushed it across the table toward Xia Honghua, raised an eyebrow, and said, "There, see for yourself."

Xia Honghua flipped it open; it was indeed the account book for the third month that she had transcribed and registered. She saw that among the originally messy entries, almost every page had several corrections and notes, and the handwriting was elegant and graceful, clearly not written by her.

Xia Honghua flipped backward rapidly and saw that more than half of the account book had already been annotated, with only a few pages left; this entire account book was clearly about to be finished.

Xia Honghua raised her eyes to look at Duan Rong and asked, "Were these all done in these five days?"

Duan Rong sat down carelessly on a chair and said, "What else?"

"You are welcome to examine it carefully again. See if I have been changing things randomly."

"That won't be necessary."

Xia Honghua had already picked a few places to look at just now; the corrected parts had indeed fixed the errors and omissions she had originally made.

Xia Honghua smiled awkwardly: "At this rate, the accounts for the first half of the year will definitely be finished before the third day of the seventh month."

Duan Rong stood up, looked at Xia Honghua, and said, "I have already said that I will definitely let the Madam finish her task. Please, Madam, do not be suspicious anymore in the future. Is there anything else? If not, I am going back to my master's side; there is other work to do over there."

"No... nothing else."

Duan Rong and Xia Honghua walked out of the room one after the other.

When Duan Rong passed the counter, he said to Xia Honghua, "See you tomorrow, Aunt Xia."

Xia Honghua had originally wanted to reply, but her smile suddenly froze on her face. "Aunt?!"

Xia Honghua watched Duan Rong's back and shouted angrily, "You brat, who are you calling Aunt? Am I that old?"

Duan Rong did not even turn his head, just waved his hand.

Not long after Duan Rong left, Xia Honghua sat before the counter, and the more she calculated, the more she felt she was losing out.

"This brat, he only comes for two hours a day and earns two Contribution Points from me. And he doesn't even come every day; he only comes whenever he feels like it."

"This is too easy to earn."

"No! Next time I see this brat, I have to haggle with him."

But then Xia Honghua had a second thought: what if this brat just quit? With time being so tight, where would she find someone else?

Forget it, better to play it safe for now and wait until the half-year accounting period is over.

Xia Honghua remembered Duan Rong's elegant and handsome handwriting again, as well as those clear and crisp accounts, and her furrowed brows finally relaxed a little.

"Brat, it's only because your work is good. I'll let you take advantage of me this once... after the half-year accounting period is over, I'll settle the score with you..."

Duan Rong left the Medicine Pavilion and returned to the mountain peak of Shang Xiangyu.

In the dense forest, he first practiced each of his four martial arts a few times, then calculated the days; today was the day to feed the Black Blood Vine.

He caught two Sacks of poisonous insects and carried the bulging Sacks toward the depths of the cave.

Duan Rong had already walked through this cave several times and was familiar with it, but he never dared to wander around here.

It was not only because the Black Blood Vine was inherently terrifying and strange, but also because Duan Rong already knew what species the Black Blood Vine was.

The Black Blood Vine was an exotic species originating from the space-distorted Underground World.

That the Black Blood Vine could grow in the depths of this cave indicated that the depths of the cave were already very close to the distorted underground space.

In the distorted underground space, there were many dangerous exotic species; even a Martial Artist of the Qi Refining Realm might not be able to retreat unscathed if they entered.

Not to mention that Duan Rong had only just stepped into the True Qi Realm.

Since the depths of this cave were already close to the space-distorted Underground World, if Duan Rong were to explore randomly in this cave, he might accidentally wander in from somewhere; if that happened, he would likely die without even a bone left...

Duan Rong was already well-versed in feeding the Black Blood Vine.

Holding a torch, Duan Rong had just reached the edge of the black rock layer when he saw that on another Black Blood Vine, two fruits were both flashing with red fluorescence, and black Qi was floating within that fluorescence from time to time...

Duan Rong's gaze shifted. "Two more Black Blood Fruit have ripened."

Duan Rong knew that this Black Blood Fruit was the main ingredient for Shang Xiangyu's pill refining.

Although Duan Rong saw that the two Black Blood Fruit had ripened, he still skillfully scattered the two Sacks of poisonous insects around the two Black Blood Vines.

Afterward, he turned and left.

Duan Rong passed through the dense forest, walked a distance along the edge of the cliff, arrived at the entrance of Pan Yong's cave, and shouted a few times there.

At this time, it was the bright afternoon, and he did not know if Pan Yong was in the cave or not.

Duan Rong shouted a few times and saw no movement, so he prepared to leave; just as he turned around, he saw a figure walk out from the cave.

As soon as Pan Yong saw Duan Rong, he smiled and said, "It's Disciple Duan Rong. What is it? Do you have something to find your Senior Brother for?"

Looking at Pan Yong's seemingly honest smile, Duan Rong felt a wave of nausea, but he still said with a calm expression, "Ah, Senior Brother. I just finished feeding the Black Blood Vine and discovered that the two fruits on the other Black Blood Vine have ripened."

"Both have ripened?"

"Yes," Duan Rong said with a firm tone.

Pan Yong laughed and patted Duan Rong on the shoulder, saying, "Good, I know. I will go tell Master Shang in a moment."

Duan Rong cupped his hands and said, "Then Senior Brother, I will head off first."

"Good, Disciple. Go do your work."

Duan Rong turned around and cast a look of disgust at his own shoulder. That was where Pan Yong had just patted him.

The moment Duan Rong turned away, the smile on Pan Yong's face vanished; he waited there for a while, and once Duan Rong had walked further away, he headed toward the dense forest.

He wanted to see for himself if two Black Blood Fruit had truly ripened.

Although he felt that Duan Rong would not lie to him about this matter, he never trusted anyone. Regardless of whether the matter was big or small.

After leaving Pan Yong's side, Duan Rong put his whole heart and mind into his cultivation.

Early this morning, while he was still in a hazy dream, he heard someone calling him.

Duan Rong woke up, his eyes shifted, and he walked out of the cave.

As soon as he stepped out of the cave, he saw Yin Cong at the entrance, and he saw that Yin Cong had the same bag from last time tied around his waist.

When Duan Rong told Pan Yong yesterday that two Black Blood Fruit had ripened, he had already been wondering if Yin Cong would come looking for him this morning.

Sure enough, Yin Cong had come!

This indicated that after these few days, Shang Xiangyu had already found a way to solve the problem of the furnace exploding.

Regarding whether Shang Xiangyu could successfully solve the furnace explosion problem, Duan Rong felt conflicted inside.

The last time the furnace exploded, Shang Xiangyu's reaction had been so intense; if it exploded a second time, there was no telling what Shang Xiangyu might do.

Perhaps he would go mad overnight and kill them all!

Duan Rong felt that this possibility absolutely existed.

Based on this reason, Duan Rong naturally did not hope for a second furnace explosion.

But Duan Rong also did not know what it would mean once Shang Xiangyu truly succeeded in refining the pills...

However, these problems were not things Duan Rong could control; he could only adapt as the situation unfolded.

But there was one thing he had already decided on a few days ago.

That was, this time when going to the Medicine Pavilion to exchange for medicine, he would secretly exchange for "Green Pupil," the auxiliary medicine for the fourth level of the Womb Treasury Sutra.

Now that the accounts all passed through his hands, he would erase a small trail in the ledgers without leaving a trace.

For Duan Rong's mastery of accounting, this was no longer a difficult task.

In this way, there would be no more risk in this matter.

There was no time to lose; it was best to get it done early.

Duan Rong and Yin Cong crossed the iron cable together and arrived at the three-story building with gray walls and black tiles that was the Medicine Pavilion.

Seeing that Duan Rong had arrived more than an hour earlier than usual today, Xia Honghua was immediately somewhat delighted, thinking that the lecture she had given him yesterday had taken effect.

As it turned out, the next moment, she saw another person walk out from behind Duan Rong; it was none other than Yin Cong, with the bag tied at his waist and a worried look on his face.

Xia Honghua's smile immediately dropped; she glanced at the bag at Yin Cong's waist and muttered, "I thought this kid had changed his ways and knew to come early. Turns out he didn't come here to work for me at all!?"

Xia Honghua clearly saw that the two of them had come to the Medicine Pavilion to exchange for medicine for Shang Xiangyu.

(End of this chapter)