Chapter 21

"It worked!"

"But this process, why does it have the feeling of ordering takeout?"

Li Yu sat cross-legged on the bed, holding the mechanical fox with its excellent texture in his arms, stroking it back and forth unconsciously, while muttering.

It was no wonder he would think so; initiating the trade, the other party preparing, arriving after a certain amount of time—as a veteran takeout expert in his past life, Li Yu was all too familiar with this routine.

And the so-called non-face-to-face transaction wasn't that just "leave the takeout at the door"?

What made him feel very relieved was that the salesperson who took the bounty was not Meng Shenji.

Half an incense stick's time passed in a flash.

In the Jiao family courtyard, Li Yu and Hongdou, who had returned to human form, were silently waiting for something.

Suddenly, both of them sensed something, and the door was knocked at this moment; a somewhat sleazy, hoarse voice squeezed through the door crack and entered their ears.

"I... am Shi Dazhu!"

"The Fire Essence and the basic alchemy furnace are all here; do you want to inspect the goods?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yu nodded at Hongdou, and the maid immediately threw a heavy cloth bag from her arms through the door.

With a muffled sound, the cloth bag containing nearly a thousand taels of silver fell into someone's hands.

The short, fat shadow weighed it, smiled with satisfaction, and amidst the dense sound of steam, this person rode some kind of strange mechanical riding gear and disappeared into the night.

Not long after, the Jiao family door opened suddenly.

Hongdou's figure darted out, and with a huge strength that did not match her delicate, girlish appearance, she hugged a huge package into the courtyard.

The next morning, in one of the most remote Smoke Qi Houses on the main street of Heavenly Secret Workshop, where customers were still coming in an endless stream.

A thin, gaunt clerk was placing items such as cinnabar, mica, niter, red iron, and gypsum one by one into an exquisitely crafted wooden box, and adding some strange pipes, glass tubes, red copper lamps, and the like.

At the same time, his mouth didn't stop, half-introducing and half-selling:

"These are all top-grade minerals, very pure; as long as you use my shop's 'Qi-Transforming Set,' you can turn them into pure Smoke Qi, refine your flesh and organs, and experience the most wonderful feeling in the world; the Qi Refiners of the ancient era cultivated exactly like this."

"But your master certainly has a heavy taste, picking all fierce medicines."

"Of course, it's not fierce enough yet."

"My shop has many more fierce goods; have your master come and experience them in person another day, I guarantee it will make him feel like he's in heaven, hehe."

"Thank you!"

Hongdou, fully armed and well-concealed, frowned slightly at the clerk's words, then paid for the items and turned to leave without any hesitation.

If it were the previous Hongdou,

she actually wouldn't have been able to complete the operation of going out to buy things.

Now, not only could she do it, but she could even show a trace of disgust toward the clerk who was trying to lure her master into depravity.

She was seen hugging the wooden box, walking through the bustling main street, cleverly avoiding the gaze of all the neighbors, entering a narrow alley, and leaping up suddenly over a wall.

When she landed again, she was already in the elegant and eerie Jiao family courtyard.

The storage room that had been used as a mysterious trading place last night now had its door wide open.

The hardwood round table and official hat chairs had been removed, replaced by an alchemy furnace two meters high, made of bronze, and equipped with a complex steam boiler and instrument panel.

Li Yu was standing in front of the alchemy furnace, adjusting and familiarizing himself with it.

It was unknown what he had suffered early in the morning; while moving, he was also clutching his abdomen.

His brows were tightly furrowed, and a look of pain occasionally appeared on his face.

Seeing his maid return, there was still not much joy in Li Yu's eyes; the reason was the horrifying song that kept echoing and resounding in his ears.

The Song of the Human Vegetable!

That's right, even though Li Yu hadn't borrowed the power of the Human Vegetable.

Starting from last night, the relevant symptoms had appeared, and they were constantly intensifying.

At the same time, the Forbidden Egg that should have been sleeping in his abdomen seemed to be waking up, and the millions of egg filaments in his body were constantly wriggling.

Every breath, his feelings were different.

Besides the vivid scenes of cannibalism that came with the Song of the Human Vegetable in his mind,

his ears could also hear various subtle sounds around him, including the bed movements of the neighbors next door, his eyes could see various horrifying and disgusting microorganisms in the air, and his hands could feel the pain of fine burrs scraping his skin when touching the alchemy furnace... his five senses were being crazily amplified.

Ordinary people encountering this kind of "torture" would either become addicted or go directly insane.

Li Yu, however, was gritting his teeth, clutching a yellow gourd, and crazily pouring Spirit-Locking Pills that had a faint foul smell into his mouth.

The pills that had decent efficacy at the gathering now had a negligible spiritual numbing effect on the Forbidden Egg.

At this moment, Li Yu realized: the last chance to borrow the power of the Human Vegetable was also gone; the Forbidden Egg and he were already considered one entity, and it had an instinctive perception of its own impending doom.

But this did not affect Li Yu from opening his mouth, mocking and cursing:

"The shitty thing finally realized something was wrong... unfortunately, it's too late."

"Hongdou!"

"Yes, Master." In response, Hongdou was already standing by Li Yu's side, opening the wooden box to reveal the thirty-six types of highly toxic minerals sorted and placed inside.

"Open the furnace!"

Following Li Yu's low shout, the lid of the alchemy furnace before him was suddenly lifted.

Apparently, he had already preheated it; in an instant, fire-red steam erupted from various pipes, and at the same time, Li Yu took an object from his arms.

It was a strange and eerie sphere, seemingly forcibly glued together by scarlet eyeballs, and there were red root-like things extending from the gaps, while the surface was mottled, like a shrunken, extinguished sun.

The touch was cold, but Li Yu clearly felt a scorching spirituality.

Without hesitation, his hands loosened, and this wonder item called "Fire Essence" was thrown into the alchemy furnace that had been heated to the extreme.

The next moment!

A sharp screech, as if a living creature were suffering, resounded through the storage room.

The Fire Essence, which had been a mineral, seemed to have truly come to life; it wriggled with the flames, and screeches that made one's eardrums uncomfortable issued from the gaps and holes.

Li Yu's amplified ears were directly pierced and ruined.

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But he seemed not to feel the pain, and very calmly, he threw the various highly toxic minerals onto the Fire Essence's shell that had come to life.

"True Lead!"

"Zhu Sha!"

"Mica!"

Even though he was in extreme pain, the movements and order of Li Yu's hands did not have the slightest confusion.

With the throwing and calcination, astonishing changes were occurring in the alchemy furnace.

The swaying and wriggling "Fire Essence," regardless of the size of the toxic minerals, swallowed them all into its belly.

During this process, it began to concentrate, changing toward the shape of a pill.

Waves of extremely intense, special fragrance began to drift out from the alchemy furnace.

Just one sniff was enough to make one's essence, energy, and spirit explode in full.

"Alchemist Apprentice Secret Medicine!"

The joy had just appeared on Li Yu's face when the maid beside him suddenly issued a strong warning.

"Detected that the Alchemist Apprentice Secret Medicine being refined by the master is about to take shape... there is a certain chance of escape..."

"Detected that the master's body is rapidly deteriorating... the parasite has completely awakened... it is about to break out of the abdomen..."

"Bang!"

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

A horrifying scene appeared without warning.

Li Yu's belly burst open.

But there were no organs or intestines inside, only a bloody ball of flesh; on its surface was a face exactly the same as Li Yu's, and it was pulling millions of egg filaments out of Li Yu's body, while tentacles began to grow under the ball of flesh, attempting to drill out of Li Yu's body.

Even some egg filaments and tentacles stuck with mucus and blood had already fallen to the ground first.

This scene was very much like childbirth, only far more disgusting and terrifying.

Almost at the same time, a muffled sound also came from the alchemy furnace, and a red dot like the radiance of the setting sun was about to leave the alchemy furnace and fly into the distance.

Two abrupt and terrifying incidents occurred almost simultaneously.

However, Li Yu, at this moment, seemed to completely ignore the pain, completely insane.

From the moment he began to prepare the "Alchemist Apprentice Secret Medicine," he had entered a state of abnormal focus that even he himself hadn't noticed.

At this moment, he ignored his broken belly, his hands suddenly reached out and grabbed the Alchemist Apprentice Secret Medicine that had already been refined.

Accompanied by the loud "hissing" sounds, his pair of flesh palms were directly roasted, but he didn't care at all and stuffed the pill into his mouth.

He chewed and swallowed it with a *crunch*, and then his freed hands reached down and forcibly stuffed the underdeveloped but extremely vicious Forbidden Egg back into his own abdomen.

During the process, the Forbidden Egg actually let out strange cries like those an infant would only make when in pain, enough to make anyone involuntarily feel pity.

However, this did not include Li Yu, who had already gone insane.

He was seen not only stuffing it back but also pressing down hard on that face that was exactly the same as his own, laughing loudly and saying:

"What are you crying for? Today, either you help me attain the Dao, or we perish together."

Amidst the manic laughter, Li Yu climbed directly into the red-hot alchemy furnace.

Before falling into the inner liner of the alchemy furnace, he still didn't forget to turn his head and instruct his maid:

"Hongdou!"

"Start refining!"

(End of chapter)