Chapter 30: Skin Pill, Sinew Pill

Xu Yuan pressed his body hard against the great door, which shook violently from the impacts, but fortunately held; he quickly slid the bolt into place.

This time, the frantic battering clearly enraged some presence; a golden light iron whip rapidly coalesced in the void, appearing far more real than those before!

Clang!

The heavy iron whip struck down, yet the corpse infant, even as the whip formed, retreated swiftly, agilely retracting its river of blood; its fat body rolled and tumbled along, escaping to the outskirts of the town in an instant!

It was all about having no backbone, bending and stretching as needed!

The iron whip landed on the street, shaking the surrounding houses several times.

Xu Yuan peered through the crack in the door, glanced outside, and finally relaxed completely.

"This tribulation has been survived."

Xu Yuan slumped against the door, the medicinal pill within his body dissolving, its power spreading through his limbs and bones to repair his injuries.

After more than half a double-hour, once his injuries stabilized, a strong sense of hunger struck; Xu Yuan felt himself over, finding nothing edible except gold and silver.

So he rose to scour the entire Zhao Family Leather Goods Shop.

Behind the kitchen lay a hidden cellar, containing seventeen or eighteen ordinary weapons.

Xu Yuan ate them in one breath; now that his Rank Dan Xiu cultivation had reached the eighth-rate level, these common metals, once swallowed, were refined into a new golden pill in moments.

Yet the hunger did not fade much, so Xu Yuan pried open the warehouse on the top floor of the leather shop.

Inside lay over a hundred beast skins and more than ten bundles of beast sinews; Xu Yuan tore them apart and ate them all!

Still feeling somewhat hungry, he looked up and spotted hanging above some strangely shaped beast meat, seemingly dried for a long time.

Xu Yuan was too hungry to examine it closely; he took it down and swallowed it whole.

Finally, he let out a burp and sighed deeply in relief.

Then Xu Yuan collapsed onto a bed; fire Xiong Xiong burned in his belly, refining the food within. In a daze, Xu Yuan did not know when he fell asleep.

The next morning, the crowing of Hua Hua failed to wake Xu Yuan.

With the sun high, a two-finger-wide beam of bright sunlight filtered through the window crack, falling directly on Xu Yuan's eyes; his eyelids twitched a few times before he finally woke.

Xu Yuan rolled over and sat up, recalling last night with lingering fear: "Night is too dangerous."

Dozens of wounds remained on his arms, and a large chunk of flesh and skin had been cut from his back.

The Inner Pill's special trait had been consumed once more, leaving only one use!

Truly a heavy loss.

This was the price of a "night journey"!

"Fortunately, the prohibition on Linhe was not in effect yesterday; if the prohibition on Linhe had been layered on top... I doubt I could have escaped with my life from the corpse infant and the small river."

Xu Yuan rubbed his face and began to examine himself.

The wounds on his back had healed considerably, and new flesh had grown over the wounds on his arms; the medicinal pill was indeed very effective.

The beast skins and beast sinews eaten as food last night had already been refined into Longzhu Waidan.

It was somewhat unexpected; waking today, he felt remarkably vigorous and spirited. By rights, having lost so much blood yesterday, he should have been listless upon waking.

Xu Yuan could not help but look up at the roof beams above, wondering what exactly those last beast meats were.

Doubt inevitably arose in his heart.

An unexpected gain was that the beast skins and beast sinews had refined into two Longzhu Waidan.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth and spat out these two pills; in his palm, they transformed, one becoming a thin cord.

It looked very much like the iron-worm that once crawled out of a mantis's belly after he crushed the mantis as a child.

However, it was much longer, roughly one zhang.

With a thought from Xu Yuan, the thing sprang open in his palm, writhing wildly like a living iron-worm.

Exceptionally nimble, as if an extension of his own arm!

This cord was formed from condensed beast sinew; its elasticity was good, and its toughness was even superior.

With another thought from Xu Yuan, the sinew cord changed accordingly.

It shortened and thickened, then, in Xu Yuan's hand, became a short staff whose toughness and elasticity surpassed imagination.

Xu Yuan muttered to himself: "Although its size and length can change at will, what use could this thing possibly have?"

Xu Yuan could not think of anything for now.

Afterwards, Xu Yuan shifted his attention to the other Longzhu Waidan; this pill rapidly "melted" in Xu Yuan's palm, enveloping his entire hand and extending about one cun up to his wrist.

Xu Yuan had put on a "leather glove," yet this layer of glove did not hinder any sensation at all—unusually thin and light, it felt as if he wore nothing!

Moreover, Xu Yuan tested it; the defensive effect of this glove was extremely formidable, comparable to the iron armor of the Huangming Army!

Blades could not cut through it; spears could not pierce it.

Now it could cover only one hand, but if he continued to feed on beast skins in the future, there would surely come a time when it covered his entire body!

Xu Yuan did not expect such a surprising gain within the Zhao Family Leather Goods Shop.

Having wasted one use of the Inner Pill's special trait for nothing last night, Xu Yuan had thought he would be one trump card short when pursuing the Holy Maiden today, yet unexpectedly, another had been replenished.

Yes, Xu Yuan now had no intention of returning home just yet.

The Holy Maiden and her maid had also suffered heavily.

With two talisman sheets bolstering him, Xu Yuan had not been able to return to the town before nightfall; the Holy Maiden and the other woman certainly could not have returned either.

They spent last night in the mountains; if luck was on their side, the evil anomalies in the mountains had already solved the problem for him.

Even if they survived, they were likely injured on top of their existing wounds; estimating their strength at thirty percent of their original would be generous.

Their backing was the Pingtian Society; letting them return alive would bring endless trouble.

When there was no opportunity, Xu Yuan ran faster than a rabbit. But once an opportunity appeared, Xu Yuan decided without hesitation to risk everything to eliminate the threat forever!

As for how to find the two...

Xu Yuan found a set of coarse cloth apprentice clothes in the Zhao Family Leather Goods Shop and put them on; the set he wore was already so tattered it could barely cover his buttocks.

Then Xu Yuan slipped out the back door, head bowed, hurrying along while trying not to attract anyone's attention.

Before leaving, Xu Yuan glanced at the almanac: Today, entry to Linhe River, shouting at the mountain, raising the ridge beam, and making alliances are forbidden.

Xu Yuan avoided "Beauty Dam" and left the town from another direction.

Yet someone saw him at the very last moment.

Uncle Rong Kui was sitting at the back of a merchant caravan's carriage, a thick felt hat pulled over his head, obscuring most of his face.

"Xu Yuan!" Uncle Rong Kui muttered in surprise: "Why has he gone into the mountains again? Since he returned to the town with no one blocking him, he should have hurried back to the county town immediately."

Uncle Rong Kui grumbled to himself for a while, then thought it over, jumped down from the carriage, dared not follow, and instead ducked into a roadside teahouse to wait.

After entering the mountains, Xu Yuan climbed the nearest Shanfeng as fast as possible, then cast his gaze outward.

In some place within the mountains, a trace resembling "fate" rose high like a beacon of wolf smoke, faint yet unceasing.

Only Xu Yuan could see it.

There were two traces in total: one slightly thick, the other very thin.

The scorched skin Xu Yuan had shed during his last transformation served this purpose: anyone who had touched it would leave a trace that Xu Yuan could track via this near-"fate-gazing" method.

Provided they were still alive.

Xu Yuan was also surprised: "After spending a night in Ghost Wushan, both of them are still alive!"

The thicker trace belonged to the Holy Maiden; she had crushed the scorched skin.

Xu Yuan roughly determined the direction, plotted a route to avoid the powerful anomalies in the mountains as much as possible, then descended the mountain and rushed toward that location.

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(End of this chapter)