Chapter 35: Yang Xin Dan

Yang Xin Dan was an elixir for nourishing the heart meridians and was one of the most common types of elixirs; many rogue cultivators and alchemists could refine it. Liu Xiaolou had also seen this elixir. It was one day two years ago when his teacher returned injured and asked him to buy it in the town's market. He had indeed managed to buy it, at the cost of two spirit stones for one Yang Xin Dan.

At such a price, it was the cheapest among all kinds of elixirs.

Of course, even the cheapest elixir was not easily affordable. Liu Xiaolou certainly wouldn't be willing to spend his own spirit stones to buy it, but Xingde Jun had them—there were two spirit stones lying in the pouch.

He said angrily to Xingde Jun, "Didn't you tell me to leave? Do you want the Yang Xin Dan or do you want me to leave? If I really leave, just wait to die!"

After venting his anger, Liu Xiaolou hurried down the mountain, rushing overnight to the Tianmen Mountain market a hundred miles away. He found a shop called "Chunhua Fang" and asked, and sure enough, the shop had Yang Xin Dan, but the asking price was three spirit stones!

Liu Xiaolou disliked the high price and ran to five shops in a row. Three of them had Yang Xin Dan in stock, and the other two required waiting three to five days. Of course, the price was the same: three spirit stones.

Liu Xiaolou couldn't negotiate the price down, and the shopkeepers and clerks of several shops didn't seem to have any intention of negotiating with him. After coming out of the sixth shop, he couldn't help but feel a bit lost: did he really have to pay one spirit stone out of his own pocket? Or let Xingde Jun compensate him in the future? But with Xingde Jun's personality of turning his back on people, making him repay would probably be difficult. At most, he would count the debt towards the forging of the array plate? But if that happened, wouldn't he be at a huge loss? He had saved his life, so having him forge the array plate should have cost no spirit stones in the first place.

Just as he was hesitating, someone suddenly said in a low voice behind him, "Brother, are you buying Yang Xin Dan?"

Liu Xiaolou turned his head and saw a sleazy-looking man wearing a bamboo hat talking to him, his gaze drifting uncertainly over the people coming and going on the street.

Liu Xiaolou was very familiar with this way of doing things—wasn't it just the same old trick played by the heroes of Wulong Mountain?

So he shook his head, not wanting to pay attention, and planned to dodge away.

The sleazy man followed closely behind him and continued, "One spirit stone each."

Seeing him sticking to him like a dog-skin plaster, Liu Xiaolou lost his patience and directly exposed him: "Brother, if you want to use fake goods to fool people, you've found the wrong person..."

The other party immediately said, "Verify the goods before paying the spirit stones."

Liu Xiaolou sneered: "Looking for a quiet place to knock me out?"

The other party said again, "Verify the goods right here."

Liu Xiaolou sighed: "Brother, who knows what kind of ghost stuff you're verifying for me? What kind of incense or medicine? Is yours the 'three-step collapse'?"

The other party was stunned, a smile appearing on his face: "You are an expert... rest assured, sir..." As he spoke, he retreated three large steps, leaving a safe distance, and tossed a small bottle over: "You can take your time to look, sir. By the way, you can hold your breath."

Liu Xiaolou subconsciously caught the bottle and looked left and right. This was a bustling and lively place in the market, with crowds flowing endlessly, and occasionally cultivators sent by some major sect patrolling, watching every passerby vigilantly.

He really couldn't think of any other tricks. Liu Xiaolou turned his brain a few times, held his breath, and carefully opened the bottle.

Inside the bottle lay a round, dark-red glowing elixir.

His heart stirred. He poured the elixir into his palm and gently shook and rolled it, discovering that the color and luster were exactly the same as the Yang Xin Dan he had bought back then.

He slightly released his breath, and a clear, faint fragrance mixed with spiciness entered his nose, making him almost sneeze.

As a successor of the Three Mystical Sect, Liu Xiaolou was definitely an expert in playing with incense. The cultivation technique of the Three Mystical Sect had an extremely high sensitivity to smells and an extremely strong ability to distinguish them. He wouldn't dare say it was the best in the world, or even the best in the Jingxiang land, but it was about the same for Western Hunan. With the technique circulating slightly at the tip of his nose, he immediately identified the characteristics of this fragrance—it was exactly the Heart Nourishing Pill he had bought before!

The elixir was correct, but why was the price so low?

"Where did you get this elixir..." Liu Xiaolou was worried that it was dirty goods, or even an elixir from one of the major sect shops in this market. If the source was improper, accepting it rashly might bring trouble.

The other party smiled and approached again, saying in a low voice, "You are indeed a fellow traveler. To tell you the truth, this elixir comes from Miaofeng Mountain and was refined by a great alchemist of the Miaofeng Dan Sect. Its efficacy is no less than that of the elixirs of major sects."

"Miaofeng Dan Sect?" Liu Xiaolou was very puzzled. It seemed that this sect was not among those occupying the blessed lands.

The other party chuckled: "The alchemist's cultivation is profound, and the alchemy is superb, but the reputation is not prominent. If you have any needs in the future, you can find me again. I am stationed at the Tianmen Mountain market, and it is easy to find me."

Liu Xiaolou nodded: "Brother, what is your name?"

The other party cupped his hands: "I am Yan Sanfei. What is your surname, sir?"

Liu Xiaolou said vaguely: "My surname is Liu."

So the deal was concluded. Xingde Jun's injury was quite heavy, and he didn't know if one Yang Xin Dan would be enough, so Liu Xiaolou bought two, using up both of Xingde Jun's spirit stones from the pouch.

Having bought the Yang Xin Dan, Liu Xiaolou didn't stay for a moment and hurried another hundred miles, returning to Xingde Temple late at night.

As soon as he entered the room, he saw Xingde Jun lying under the bed, his face as white as paper, unconscious. He didn't know when he had fallen.

He hurriedly helped him onto the bed and checked his pulse again, only to feel that the pulse was weak to the extreme. The true qi that had previously blocked his investigation was scattered and sealed in the Yuan pools of various acupoints, unable to gather, and the situation was extremely dangerous.

He took out a Yang Xin Dan, forcibly stuffed it into Xingde Jun's mouth, used a technique to make him swallow it, and then passed a stream of true qi into his body, sending the medicinal power transformed by the Yang Xin Dan into his heart meridians bit by bit.

One Yang Xin Dan was indeed not enough. In the second half of the night, Liu Xiaolou had no choice but to give him the other one. After tossing and turning until dawn, Xingde Jun's complexion finally improved, showing some vitality, and he opened his eyes.

After he woke up, he sat cross-legged and operated his cultivation. Only then did Liu Xiaolou stop, no longer using his true qi to help him heal, but he was already quite exhausted.

After this night, Liu Xiaolou had basically figured out Xingde Jun's cultivation. He knew that Xingde Jun had opened ten meridians—the Hand Three Yang, Hand Three Yin, Foot Three Yang, and Foot Taiyin among the Foot Three Yin—and the Foot Jueyin he was currently cultivating had also opened a large part of the acupoints, with only seven left unopened.

Although he hadn't reached the tenth stage of Qi Refinement, he was already at the ninth stage—a proper expert!

He wondered what kind of loss such an expert had suffered to be injured so heavily? He figured it must have been done by a Foundation Establishment expert, right?

But it was hard to say. Combat strength and cultivation level were not necessarily closely related. If one provoked a disciple of a major sect, even if the opponent's cultivation was not at the ninth stage, as long as they had high-grade artifacts and elixirs, Xingde Jun would definitely suffer—he hadn't seen him have any remarkable treasures yet.

This day, Xingde Jun finally got out of bed, looked at Liu Xiaolou, and said, "I want to eat meat, fresh meat." ===== CHAPTER 36 =====