Chapter 61: Refining the Eerie Pill

At the Hour of the Rooster, at the intersection of the main city street.

Li Yu carried a delicate box in his hand and politely declined the invitation from the six members of the Ninth Pioneer Team to visit the Soul-Entrancing Club.

Since they were "new teammates" who had only just met, the six did not insist; they simply laughed at him for being a fledgling and left together.

After spending a few hours together, Li Yu had already gained some understanding of these six powerhouses:

The captain, Zhan Kui, appeared hot-tempered and fierce on the surface, occasionally showing a bit of craftiness. He followed the Blood God Path, Sequence 7, and was undoubtedly the Ninth Pioneer Team's greatest combat strength.

Luo Sheng acted much like a strategist, appearing to possess the strange power to see through everything.

Sang Zhu, while appearing to be a simple and innocent bald boy on the outside, bore various marks that made him seem mysterious and eerie.

Zhu Wugou, despite cultivating the Plague God Path and being a person of decay, seemed to have a mysophobia; he was unwilling to let even a trace of his own stench escape, even covering his rotting shell with a strange artifact.

Shu Fu, a practitioner of the Hanged King Path, seemed to share a similar style; he constantly exuded an aura of sorrow, yet he maintained his composure and never truly hanged himself to death. However, whenever he looked at others' necks, he would feel an impulse; if anyone were to harbor suicidal thoughts, even the captain Zhan Kui, he might just reach out to "help."

Mi Wuniang, a jade maiden, was as holy as snow. Her words were constantly "seducing" him, yet she made no substantive moves, making one mistake it for a mere illusion.

"It seems I have some understanding, even knowing what kind of vicious backlash they suffer."

"But this is likely an illusion too; the six of them must have true faces they haven't revealed, and I know nothing of their combat styles and the like."

"However, this is enough for now. There is plenty of time; as long as no accidents occur, I am quite happy to do this job."

With this thought, Li Yu reached out to hail a monster bus, returning to his residence a few streets away.

That’s right, his home was not far from the main city street, saving him from having to plan any moving arrangements.

Returning quickly, he stood before his door but did not enter immediately.

Instead, he opened the employment box, finding four items placed inside:

Five thousand taels of silver notes, the survival compensation given to him by the camp.

A Ghost Candle, compensation from Sang Zhu, a rare strange artifact.

A token, a pass for entering the Pioneer Team camp, which also allowed free rides on monster buses, city-patrol airships, and other transportation.

A giant bronze badge, the mark of a City Lord's Mansion employee. A large "Fortune" character in the center seemed to possess some kind of strange power; as long as one stood before the door, one would involuntarily look at it.

"Thinking back!"

"Sun Sanniang and Jiao Qing would occasionally express their envy of the City Lord's Mansion in their conversations."

"They said if anyone in a family could join the City Lord's Mansion, it would be a stroke of great luck. Once that [Ten Thousand Fortunes Badge] was hung on the door, ordinary evil cultivators and villains wouldn't dare to harass them, and they could even pay ten percent less in taxes."

"This couple only dared to dream of being promoted to 'vegetable people' and expanding their meat shop business; as for joining the City Lord's Mansion? They never dared to hope for it."

"Unexpectedly, I managed to do it while wearing this shell."

Thoughts flickered in Li Yu's mind as he took the badge and hung it directly above his front door.

As if it truly held divine mystery, the heavy pressure that had always been in Li Yu's heart dissipated a little.

"Hanging this thing up will likely keep the people from the Three Saints Gang from coming to trouble me, and they won't think about cutting out my organs to sew onto those three beasts."

"But it still cannot avoid calamities like 'a powerful madman passing by and killing me for no reason,' 'being caught in the crossfire of major factions,' 'forbidden ghosts from outside the city breaking in and slaughtering everyone,' or the exposure of my identity as the Demon Star Order Master, leading to the Forbidden God Sect discovering my past identity as a Son of the Forbidden God, and other such disasters."

"But at least, it counts as some psychological comfort."

"Welcome home, Master!"

Before Li Yu could finish muttering, the moment he pushed the door open, the originally gloomy and dark courtyard was suddenly illuminated by the orange-yellow light of an electric eel lamp.

He saw Hong Dou dressed in a Warring States robe, wearing the face of a fox-girl, carrying the lamp as she walked out gently, greeting him with a smile.

In a daze, the pressure in Li Yu's heart dissipated even more.

"Of all the deals these past few days, in terms of cost-effectiveness, Hong Dou was truly the most worthwhile purchase; it was an absolute steal."

"If there is a chance, I will continue to try and repair her."

Li Yu muttered a word, then brought his mechanical maid back to the master bedroom.

Unable to wait, he reached into his robes and took out an object.

Ghost-Entrenched Sacrificial Flesh!

Today, in order to survive the ravages of the Skin-Peeling Forbidden Ghost, Li Yu had to use his sixth Truth Bubble and a Sorrow-Crying Pill.

But unexpectedly, he had fished this item back; he just hadn't dared to take it out while at the Pioneer Team camp during the day.

Now, it was time to study it.

In Li Yu's palm lay a filthy and ugly mass of eerie flesh and blood.

It looked like a puddle of melted "snow mud," mixed with colorful incense ash, minced meat frozen for who knows how many years, unidentified bone fragments, bronze shards, and blood in a semi-coagulated state... the composition was truly extremely complex.

And as Li Yu focused his gaze on this mass of flesh, an extremely intense, ominous aura began to permeate the air.

It felt as if a thousand cold palms were gently stroking his body. His scalp began to tighten.

But that was all; Li Yu soon adapted to the strange sensation.

He hesitated for a few breaths, glanced at Hong Dou standing beside him, gentle as a Warring States handmaiden, and recalled the "commands" he had set for her in advance, feeling slightly more at ease.

Thoughts also surfaced in his mind:

"This mass of [Ghost-Entrenched Sacrificial Flesh] comes from that Skin-Peeling Forbidden Ghost; that kind of rule-based power is truly unsolvable."

"At least below Sequence 7, once one encounters this thing without my luck and reliance, it is almost certain death."

"The result of my peering with the Truth Body has already made it clear: this item can be used to refine pills."

"If I can use the inner-refining technique of pill fire to refine a Skin-Peeling Ghost Pill... the means are a bit brutal and eerie, but at least it can make me nearly invincible below Sequence 7."

"In this way, whether it's the dangers in the city or the Demon Star Order summons that could appear at any time, my chances of surviving and gaining a great harvest will skyrocket."

"A massive profit!"

=9+Book_Bar

"Taking a little risk is also quite reasonable."

"Besides, I am a pill apprentice to begin with."

When the final thought fell, Li Yu directly extended a finger.

He dug out a fingernail-sized piece of icy, rotten flesh from the mass of Ghost-Entrenched Sacrificial Flesh and stuffed it into his mouth.

The Art of Consumption!

It began to operate at an unprecedented speed.

That's right, Li Yu wanted to use this mass of Ghost-Entrenched Sacrificial Flesh to create his own pill formula and refine a Ghost Pill capable of stealing part of the Skin-Peeling Forbidden Ghost's rule-based power.

If it were an ordinary pill formula, he wouldn't need to be this cautious.

But this sacrificial flesh came from a "Forbidden Ghost" that could be called unsolvable, so being careful was never wrong.

And the subsequent facts proved that his choice was correct.

The moment the icy, viscous, unknown sacrificial flesh entered his mouth, Li Yu's entire body went rigid; he felt as if his clothes had been stripped away—no, his skin as well.

Naked, he was stuffed into permanently frozen permafrost.

Endless icy cold surged in, and an unbearable emptiness and hunger drowned him; he began to crave being wrapped in warmth.

But the reality was that his muscles were stiffening, his blood was turning into ice shards, and even his brain matter was about to become a lump of ice.

It was also at this moment that fragments of blurred, horrific, and terrifying illusions suddenly flashed in his mind.

As if?

At this moment, he himself had become a Skin-Peeling Forbidden Ghost.

With a void body, he wandered across an endless plateau of eternal permafrost, where he caught a glimpse of unknown, extremely horrifying sights.

Although his body was suffering, Li Yu's heart and soul cheered.

The seventh Truth Bubble!

In an instant, it was complete.

The eighth bubble also began to flicker and charge.

Peering into secrets seemed to have become a quirk of Li Yu's; he couldn't wait to immerse himself in it.

Until the next moment, a terrifying noise erupted from the outside:

"Beep, beep, beep!"

"Warning, warning: Master is falling into an unknown negative state; preparing to initiate emergency command..."

"No, no need, I'll handle it myself."

This cold, mechanical voice immediately pulled Li Yu out of the illusion.

Within his body, which was about to be completely frozen, an extraordinary, alien flame was born from nothingness, sweeping through his limbs and bones in the blink of an eye.

It burned away the remaining ghost-entrenchment that he had almost finished consuming and refining, turning it into wisps of icy energy that sprayed out from his various acupuncture points.

Inevitably, a naked man appeared amidst that eerie, cold mist.

And at this moment, a brilliant smile was emerging on the naked man's face.

Clearly, although he had suffered no small amount of torture during the process, the harvest from this consumption was not small.

"This Ghost Pill, I am determined to refine it."

(End of chapter)