Chapter 163: Refining Pills and Testing Medicine

Ever since Hu Yaozu went up to the Jin Chan Miao at Lan Shi Huo, he seemed like a different person; he no longer gambled, no longer drank, and did not even go to the old woman's place to seek thrills or earn some pocket money.

Every day, he would toil for four hours—that was set in stone—leveling the land around Lan Shi Huo, clearing wasteland, removing rocks, weeds, tree roots, or whatever else was there.

The Xiao Jinchan had burrowed into his belly and would toss and turn him at the slightest provocation; as the Jinchan governed the Greed Poison, one of the Five Poisons, this could be considered a forced labor reform.

After some time had passed, about eight or nine days, Hu Yaozu had finally abandoned the notion of being lazy and cunning, focusing his heart and mind; however, the progress on the hundred acres of fertile land was minimal, and by now, he had only cleared an area the size of two vegetable patches, less than one-tenth of a mu.

But while he was resigned, his creditors were not; that day, they blocked Hu Yaozu's path and surrounded him: "Yaozu, you haven't been yourself these past few days, working from dawn till dusk—where are you going? We've been keeping an eye on you!"

Hu Yaozu smiled bitterly: "I... sigh. I have bitterness I cannot speak of now!"

"To hell with your bitterness! What about the money you owe? Are you paying it back or not?"

With a *slap*, they knocked Hu Yaozu to the ground as if beating a dog; blood, snot, and saliva flowed from his nose and mouth all at once.

"You dog bastard, don't think that just because you're acting like a whore trying to turn over a new leaf, you can just pick up a hoe and farm in peace!"

Immediately, several thugs and hooligans began punching and kicking Hu Guangzong.

Just as one of them was about to deliver a kick to his chest to spill his guts, the thug clutched his foot in pain: "What the hell is this!"

They immediately searched Hu Guangzong from head to toe and quickly pulled out a gold bar; the gold bar was brilliant and sparkling, carrying a trace of magic.

They called for several men to stare at it intently, their breathing growing heavy.

"Dog bastard, you went up the mountain to dig for treasure, didn't you? This gold bar is of high quality; it doesn't look like it was melted down from ordinary goldware!"

The man took a bite, leaving a tooth mark.

"Speak quickly, where did the gold come from? If you can't explain its origin, I'll report you to the authorities and drag you to the government office! They have plenty of ways to make you spit it out."

A sinister glint flashed in Hu Yaozu's eyes, but when he opened his mouth, he begged for mercy; the thugs took him to the woodshed of a courtyard, intending to interrogate him further.

Hu Yaozu pretended to plead: "My ancestors were tomb keepers. More than two hundred years ago, a prince of the previous dynasty was buried at Lan Shi Huo. There are many gold bars and gold cakes there, but it's quite ominous."

"Good! No wonder you were running over there with a hoe—trying to pull the wool over our eyes, eh! Take us there tonight. Don't try to run, or I'll break your legs!"

Having said that, he weighed the gold bar and walked away.

He left Hu Yaozu crying and laughing at the same time, his expression growing increasingly ferocious: "You all forced me! You all forced me!"

When night fell, the thugs set out together, grabbing Hu Yaozu to lead the way, and brought him straight to the Jin Chan Miao.

When the Jinchan saw these thugs and hooligans, he laughed: "Hu Yaozu, you've done well. Isn't this the start of paying off your debts? For this first time, I'll count it as double—two hundred taels per head. These three men count as you paying me back six hundred taels of gold. There is still nine thousand four hundred taels left, haha!"

As for the three thugs, they were immediately lost in the Jinchan's illusion of greed, seeing countless gold and treasures.

"As a reward, I will heal the wounds on your body, and I won't charge you for it!"

The Jinchan spat out a red date: "Eat it!"

Hu Yaozu had already become a "Chao Ren" of the Jin Chan Miao, and his faith in the Jinchan had reached its peak; this was a typical faith dependency formed by "terror worship," the most stubborn kind of faith—praying out of fear of disaster, seeking only peace and not gold or silver, much like a slave pleasing a slave owner.

Hu Yaozu ate the red date, and sure enough, the pain from his injuries improved significantly.

Within the illusion, the three thugs were also guided to make wishes; they were all common scumbags and villains, and their wishes were either to get rich, become landlords, or have ten wives.

Once they made their wishes, they fell into the Jinchan's trap and became "joint debtors."

This method was actually the same as how big capitalists transfer their own debt risks to the public through banking and financial operations.

It's just that capitalists prey on ordinary families with some savings, harvesting the wealth of three generations, while the Jinchan only traps a few vermin and scumbags; it doesn't matter if such people become deadbeats. Furthermore, the Jinchan had a unique mechanism to urge them to create positive assets.

Soon, these three men also joined the army of wasteland reclaimers, and they would need to serve as slaves and servants to bring more scumbags into the fold.

As for whether they were scumbags, the Jinchan had his own set of criteria; as one of the Five Poisons, he could clearly sense whether the "Five Poisons" within a person had exceeded the limit.

In any case, while there was a suspicion of entrapment, the overall goal was still to help make the local customs more honest and simple.

It was just that the supply of scumbags was endless, and the Incense Fire at the Jin Chan Miao grew increasingly prosperous; the wasteland and vacant lots around Lan Shi Huo were all "contracted" out by people. Every day, one could see those idlers, gamblers, and petty thieves undergoing farm reform there. Of course, some wanted to beg for mercy or slack off, arguing that farming required soil, heaven, and water, but water sources were scarce there, and the soil was not that fertile.

"If the land isn't fertile, go pick some from inside Lan Shi Huo; it's very fertile there!" The Jinchan would not listen to their nonsense.

It was perfect to use them as manual labor to clear a patch of land in Lan Shi Huo.

If nothing else, this "Lan Shi composting method" was actually a good idea; it served both purposes.

The government had always supported reclaiming wasteland and farming, but having so many idlers, petty thieves, gamblers, and thugs reclaiming land near Lan Shi Huo still alarmed the authorities.

One day, the County Magistrate went out and discovered that the people on the street were thriving; there were many more street vendors and cargo haulers than before, and the streets were noisy. He couldn't help but ask: "Why is no one here to regulate and manage this?"

The Registrar beside him sighed: "There is no one available to use lately. Previously, there were some ruffians and idlers who had a bit of a fierce reputation; if we called them, they could get these things done. Collecting a tax of five or ten wen from these small vendors wouldn't be difficult."

"Usually, these thugs and ruffians also help the tax officials go to the countryside and help the patrol officers catch thieves; they were half of our usable force in the government."

"But recently, they've been acting as if they're possessed, drilling into one place to reclaim wasteland and farm? Is there treasure to dig up there or what? It's gotten to the point where no one is left to do things like patrolling the streets and regulating management."

The County Magistrate thought for a moment and said: "When things are abnormal, there must be demons. A few days ago, that County Commandant Lu was giving me attitude because of the Longevity Sect, refusing to cooperate with anything. Now that the time to conscript summer labor is almost here, we cannot let him be so willful."

"The imperial court has its own troops to suppress the Longevity Sect; it really has nothing to do with us local officials. He is just a Martial Scholar with no connections—not a Metropolitan Martial Graduate or a Martial Top Scholar—and obtaining a Ninth Rank official post was already a blessing from his ancestors. Yet he still wants to climb higher. If you climb higher, trouble will arise. If trouble arises, who will take the blame? Isn't it me? Besides, no trouble has even happened yet. Look at those nuns at Dizang An; they died cleanly, yet they had thousands of acres of fertile land and had lent out tens of thousands of taels."

"As long as the people don't riot, isn't that just fine?"

This County Magistrate had previously been called "County Magistrate Lu," a man who just muddled along, caring only about education, running schools, and sightseeing, ignoring civil affairs. Now that these ruffian minions had been brought to heel by the Jin Chan Miao, these local officials who were like wolves and dogs could no longer hold the advantage.

Therefore, although the County Magistrate claimed to be curious about these things, he had actually begun planning to conscript good families to replace the minions arranged by these local officials; this was an excellent opportunity.

Xu Jia, on the other hand, did not care much about the petty squabbles in Yushan County. He was focused on cultivation and gathering herbs to strengthen his heart spirit and kidney spirit, while simultaneously contemplating the topsy-turvy scripture from the Demon Examination of his past life, harmonizing his own essence, Qi, spirit, form, flesh, and the five internal organs.

Previously, he had only manifested a young boy from his heart spirit and a young boy from each of his two kidneys; now, what he formally needed to do was address the remaining three organs.

Fortunately, the Five Elements Pill made by Xiao Hong was sufficient. Xu Jia also took the two stalks of Red Lingzhi he had gathered last time, paired them with the old Ginseng and old Solomon's Seal that Niu Congcong had stolen again from Niu Dafu, and added Poria and nine-times-processed Fleeceflower Root to personally concoct a batch of "Ginseng-Lingzhi Equilibrium Pills."

Today, they were finally refined. Xu Jia had refined these pills to the size of malt candies; they were made of medicinal powder, mixed with Lingzhi and Ginseng boiled into a paste, and combined with honey, giving off a unique medicinal fragrance.

However, as soon as they were refined, Xu Jia picked up a pill. Xu Mu and Xiao Hong, who had been assisting with the alchemy these past few days, were both curious: "How effective are these pills?"

Xu Jia shook his head: "I don't know yet. This is a new medicine; I can only say it is highly nourishing and needs to be tested."

At this moment, the war eagle landed. She had some extra pheasant feathers on her, which were from the previous Feather-Reversing Chicken. As for the Wind Pill that Xu Jia had taken from the Feather-Reversing Chicken, it was together with the Wood Bird Wind Egg. Xu Jia had checked it with a candle several times and confirmed that the hatching date was within these few days; he was looking forward to hatching a Qing Luan or something similar.

Although that might be wishful thinking.

"Great Immortal, let me try, let me try!" She was well-informed and knew that Hu Jinhua had only eaten a slice of Red Ganoderma and transformed into a beautiful young man; she wanted to eat it too, and after eating it, transform into a light and graceful beautiful young girl! Gui Linggao, acting as Xu Jia's father's Paperweight, had not followed them this time, and he also opened his mouth wide: "Great Immortal, me, me!"

Just smelling the medicinal fragrance made them feel very moved.

Xu Jia then broke the pill, and the bird and the turtle each ate half a pill.

"With this pill, if you two eat a whole one, I'm afraid your blood vessels might explode, or your kidneys, or your liver or something; if any one of those has a problem, eat half a pill first!"

The two little fellows swallowed them whole; Gui Linggao was fine, as the Inner Landscape Origin Sect is a proper cultivation technique, so he tucked his head in and began to refine it, falling into a sleep.

But Zhan Ying was different; she was only a sparrow, and she began to itch all over, so she started plucking out her feathers one by one until she had no feathers left, bare and bald, just a little bit of flesh, turning red and purple, and after a while, she tipped over and fell asleep.

"Is this dead?" Xu Mu held the stiff, featherless little sparrow that had fallen to the ground in her palm: "Isn't this the little bird you raised?"

Xiao Hong also flipped Gui Linggao over, but there was no movement: "This one doesn't seem like it will live much longer either!"

"Young Master, I told you that using a wok to refine pills wouldn't work; you told me before that you were going to use ceramic to refine them."

"It's just an overdose of nourishment."

(End of this chapter)