Chapter 8

In front of the dilapidated little wooden hut, the Xiao Huli lay on the stone, still motionless.

Xu Chen picked it up to observe it and discovered it still had breath, but estimated it would not survive, so he could only sigh and put it down, then sat down on the grass nearby, staring blankly at the rolling, vast mountain ranges and the clear blue sky before him.

It is said that Immortals have it good, living carefree and happy in the world.

But who could know that Immortals are all this miserable, lonely, and bored.

Although Xu Chen was already accustomed to this life, there were always a few days every month when he felt decadent and lost, his mood irritable and unwilling to cultivate.

However, today was a mix of joy and sorrow.

Although he did not know if the Soul Returning Wood could survive, the Jade Bead discovered in that pile of special dung made him feel he had gained a full harvest.

If not for that Demon Wolf suddenly appearing, he could have also harvested a nest of dead foxes; just peeling off the fur alone would have fetched at least ten Spirit Stones.

That would have been a large sum of wealth, wealth he had never possessed before.

It is just a pity that everything has gone to waste now.

Of course, before leaving, he still left a small trap for the Demon Wolf.

If the Demon Wolf ate the old fox's corpse, perhaps the pile of dung hidden in its mouth would cost it its life.

But this was only a very small possibility; after all, a Third-Tier Demon Wolf already possessed high intelligence and was unlikely to be fooled, but what if?

Therefore, Xu Chen decided to lie low and wait for a few days; if there was no movement, he would go and secretly observe again.

The Demon Core of a Third-Tier Demon Wolf is worth at least several dozen Spirit Stones.

The Jade Bead was poured out again by Xu Chen and placed in a ceramic bowl.

This time he did not dare to use his Divine Sense to observe it; he stared with wide eyes for a long time, then tried touching it with his hand, discovering that apart from a cold, smooth, and refreshing sensation, there was no discomfort at all.

Thus, his courage grew quite a bit, and he simply picked up the Jade Bead with his hand; still feeling not the slightest danger, he finally let out a long breath.

It seems that although this Jade Bead is poisonous, it does not cause poisoning through direct skin contact, but only causes poisoning when observed with Divine Sense or dissolved in water to enter the body.

But for such a highly toxic thing to be eaten and then excreted, one can see just how powerful that unknown Demon Beast was.

As Xu Chen was sighing, he suddenly heard the sound of something piercing the air; turning his head, he saw a cyan figure flying over on a sword—it was Thirteenth Senior Sister Zhao Xuan again.

"Why has Senior Sister come again?" Xu Chen hurriedly put away the Jade Bead and stood up to greet her.

Zhao Xuan landed in front of Xu Chen, her face full of worry as she put away her Flying Sword and said, "Is the Soul Returning Wood really dead?"

Xu Chen gave a bitter smile: "Third Elder just looked at it; it is likely truly beyond saving!"

Zhao Xuan sighed, but then saw the Xiao Huli on the stone nearby and said in surprise, "White foxes are rare."

Xu Chen found it difficult to speak about the Spirit Fox Nest, so he just vaguely said he had picked it up near the Medicine Garden.

Zhao Xuan gently picked up the Xiao Huli to look at it, then said with a face full of pity, "What a pity, it is also an orphan abandoned by its parents; it hasn't even been weaned yet, I fear it won't survive."

Xu Chen hurriedly said, "It still has a bit of breath; if there is milk, perhaps it can still live."

While speaking, Xu Chen's gaze landed on Zhao Xuan's chest, but he immediately sighed.

Zhao Xuan was instantly both shy and angry; she kicked Xu Chen and chided, "You are not a good fellow either, where are you looking? And you still dare to sigh."

Xu Chen gave a dry laugh: "Senior Sister, why not take it back and try raising it? If it lives, it will be a meritorious deed."

Zhao Xuan seemed to have no mood for it; she put down the Xiao Huli and said, "I don't have the time. Third Elder is having Jiu Shixiong and me go to the capital of the Song Kingdom to offer birthday wishes to the Emperor; the trip there and back will likely take a month."

Xu Chen said helplessly, "Then never mind!"

After speaking, he thought for a moment, took a Protective Spirit Talisman from his waist pouch, and handed it over, "Senior Sister is going on a long journey; this Jade Talisman is for you to defend yourself on the road. If you don't use it, return it to me when you come back."

Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up; she took the Jade Talisman, played with it for a while, and smiled, "It is rare for Junior Brother to be so thoughtful. It's a deal—if I use it, I have no treasure to return to you!"

Xu Chen waved his hand, "If you use it, perhaps it means saving Senior Sister's life; why would I ever want it back? As long as everyone is safe, that is good."

Zhao Xuan looked at Xu Chen with a half-smile and said, "Did you also give Seventh Senior Sister a Spirit Talisman?"

Xu Chen could only nod.

Zhao Xuan then put the Spirit Talisman into her pocket without hesitation, then took out several colorful Paper Talismans and said, "These are a few talismans I exchanged for when I went down the mountain before. Although they are all ordinary small Magic Spells and of no great use, let them serve as a thank-you gift for Junior Brother."

Xu Chen did not stand on ceremony; he took the Paper Talismans and said, "That is fine, these ordinary Paper Talismans are of great use to me."

"How about..." Zhao Xuan was a bit bashful, looking at Xu Chen with a red face, "Junior Brother lends me two more Great Origin Pills."

Xu Chen's face couldn't help but darken, but he still readily took out a Jade Bottle and poured out two emerald-green pills.

He had already given a Spirit Talisman; there was no need to be stingy with two pills.

Zhao Xuan happily put away the two Great Origin Pills and then flew off on her sword. Xu Chen sat down with a bitter smile; it seemed these senior brothers and sisters would not stop until they had squeezed every Spirit Pill and Magic Treasure off his body.

Of course, he could understand; after all, he stayed at the sect gate year-round picking up dung and faced no danger, while going down the mountain and traveling far involved too many unknown situations. It was not necessarily that they coveted these things; it was mainly that the Taiyuan Sect was too poor.

These treasures in their eyes were not considered scarce in those large and medium-sized Immortal Sects; whenever sect disciples went down the mountain, they could receive some for self-defense from their sect.

But in the Taiyuan Sect, the senior brothers and sisters could only find ways themselves, either by exchanging contributions, or by finding materials themselves in their spare time and asking the two Elders for help, or by exchanging treasures with other sects.

But no matter which way, it was full of difficulties.

First-grade Great Origin Pills require more than ten kinds of rare Spirit Grass and Spirit Medicine, among which there are several that the Medicine Garden does not have at all and cannot cultivate; they all rely on searching in the wild.

Even the unranked Small Yuan Pills require seven or eight kinds of medicinal materials. Although the Taiyuan Sect has them in the Medicine Garden, because the Spirit Qi in the Medicine Garden is insufficient, growth is slow, and they require more than ten years of cultivation before they can be used as medicine, so they cannot be supplied in large quantities.

And if one wants to exchange for pills with other sects, the cost is outrageously high.

A bottle of ten Small Yuan Pills requires at least three Spirit Stones, and Great Origin Pills are more than five times that.

Not to mention that poor disciples like Xu Chen cannot afford to eat them, even the three Elders cannot eat them every day.

As for the Spirit Talismans made by cultivators in the Danyuan Realm, those are even more the defensive Magic Treasures that every low-level disciple wants.

Great Elder rewarded Xu Chen with three Spirit Talismans at once, worth at least a hundred Spirit Stones; no matter which sect this was placed in, it would be considered a large sum of wealth that would make people jealous.

From this, one can also see how excited and expectant Great Elder was that the Soul Returning Wood could bloom again.

It is just a pity that this excitement did not last for many days.

Xu Chen is currently still worried about what Great Elder's mood will become when he returns and discovers the Soul Returning Wood is dead.

Therefore, he does not dare to monopolize these Spirit Pills and Spirit Talismans alone; giving them away can actually share some of his pressure.

Poverty, loneliness, and worry!

(Brewing a Great Disaster)

Xu Chen muttered as he released his Flying Sword, climbed onto it, and wobbled toward a patch of woods not far away.

A moment later, he flew back with a few bird eggs in his hand.

Placing the bird eggs in a ceramic bowl, he went into the house to fetch a wood-chopping knife, cut a thin piece of bamboo, and quickly fashioned a small water squirt gun with a 'click-clack' sound.

Since there was no milk, but he could not just watch Xiao Huli starve to death, he decided to use the bird eggs to feed it and see if he could save it.

After the water gun was finished, he cracked two bird eggs, stirred the egg whites and yolks together, sucked them into the small water gun, slowly injected them into Xiao Huli's mouth, and once finished, found a piece of animal hide to wrap it in and placed it on the grass to continue sunning.

He cracked the remaining eggs into his own mouth, smacked his lips a few times, and then sat cross-legged to begin circulating his Qi.

A day passed quickly.

Early the next morning, Xu Chen observed Xiao Huli and discovered that its aura was actually much stronger, and it could even begin to slightly open its eyes, so he breathed a sigh of relief, rode his sword out for another half an hour, brought back a basket of bird eggs, and fed two to Xiao Huli in the same manner before going to the Medicine Garden to inspect the situation.

But upon looking, he was scared out of his wits; overnight, not only had the Soul Returning Wood completely died, but the new shoots and two flowers had all withered and fallen off, and the dozens of medicinal herbs in the Medicine Garden had all wilted and turned yellow, clearly all dead as well.

"It's over, this... what should I do?"

Xu Chen stood at the entrance of the Medicine Garden, his face pale and cold sweat rolling down his forehead.

He could accept the Soul Returning Wood dying, as it had already been near death before, but two or three acres of medicinal herbs had also died; after the Great Elder used Spirit Stone to fertilize them a few days ago, these herbs had been growing vigorously as if they had taken a potent pill, and now they had all died suddenly—let alone him not being able to accept it, he reckoned the entire Taiyuan Sect could not accept it either.

Although these medicinal herbs were nothing special, they were essential materials for daily pill refining.

For them all to die off suddenly like this was practically the same as digging up everyone's ancestral graves.

He had anticipated the beginning, but he had not anticipated the ending.

He never expected that a pile of feces he had picked up for no reason would actually poison all the medicinal herbs of the Taiyuan Sect to death.

"What to do, what to do?"

Xu Chen paced back and forth in a panic, but in the end, he dared not hide it and could only bite the bullet, ride his Flying Sword to Zhaoyang Peak, and report to the Third Elder.

The Third Elder was meditating and seemed to be in a bad mood.

Xu Chen did not dare to mention his reckless fertilization, only stating the current situation of the Medicine Garden.

After listening, the Third Elder's aged skin twitched violently, yet he did not blame him, finally just sighing and waving his hand:

"I am already aware of this matter; it seems some mishap has occurred in the Medicine Garden. I will go personally to check the situation. Since the medicinal herbs are all dead, you do not need to guard the Medicine Garden every day. In two days, follow two senior brothers and sisters to Jingshi to offer birthday congratulations to the Emperor, and take the opportunity to gain some experience down the mountain to see if there are any opportunities. Everything will wait until the Great Elder returns. You may go first!"

"Yes, this Disciple takes his leave!" Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief and exited the room.

Returning to his residence, Xu Chen felt somewhat excited, but also felt a sense of loss.

Five years after coming up the mountain, he finally had the chance to go down.

But he feared the days ahead would be even harder.

Without the Medicine Garden, pills would be even scarcer in the future, cultivation would be even more difficult, and if he encountered danger, without pills for timely replenishment, it would be even more dangerous.

And as for him wanting to obtain pills, he feared he would have to rely on his own efforts just like the other senior brothers and sisters.

It seemed he had been too reckless this time.

But the consequences had already been wrought, and apart from being annoyed, he had no other way.