Chapter 30

29, The Great Essence Heart Pill Scripture

Splash!

Seeing Yang Rui in this state, Shi Danzi was so frightened he plopped down on the ground, then scrambled backward on hands and feet!

Zhou Sanji's face went stiff!

Zhou Chang felt a chill rise from his spine, shooting sharply up the back of his neck!

He had previously seen Shi Danzi pretend to be possessed by spirits with his own eyes, and at that moment had instantly realized the child was deliberately bluffing.

Now, seeing Yang Rui act as if possessed by a 'fairy', Zhou Chang could not tell what was real and what was fake!

Only when Yang Rui himself sobered his strange expression and coughed a few times did the strange and heavy and solemn atmosphere ease slightly.

He looked at Shi Danzi, who had retreated several steps away, raised his head, met the gaze of Zhou Sanji who was staring unblinkingly at him, and finally felt a bit embarrassed: "I originally thought I didn't look convincing enough in this guise, but I didn't expect to frighten you...

It seems Shi Danzi really learned this trick of pretending to be possessed from me."

"Yes, Master!" Shi Danzi, eyes brimming with tears, hurriedly knelt and crawled to Yang Rui's side.

Yang Rui's expression was somewhat desolate, his tone somewhat low: "As for ghosts and gods, it seems I am ultimately not destined for them.

I cannot approach them...

Shi Danzi, I do not blame you for this.

Just treat the words Master spoke earlier as the ramblings of a confused dream."

"Thank you, Master! I bow in gratitude to Master!"

Shi Danzi had finally passed this difficult trial; he was filled with gratitude and repeatedly kowtowed to Yang Rui.

At this moment, Zhou Sanji, who had been silent all along, suddenly said: "More than forty years have passed, Senior Brother... such a long time, even a corpse would have turned to dust by now; what are you still deluding yourself into trying to recover?"

"I have long had no thoughts, long let it go," Yang Rui said, shaking his head with a smile as he took the wine gourd from his waist and took a sip.

Then Zhou Chang heard his almost catchphrase: "Wine is medicine; it can cure heart-sickness..."

"Mu Shidi, recently I found a method to refine a 'Thought Demon' into a 'Heart Pill', called the Great Essence Heart Pill Scripture." Yang Rui's tone became excited, his eyes shining, "Once this method is mastered, one can trap a Thought Demon within one's own mind!

Perhaps Ah Cui can use this method—"

"Huang Acui has been dead for over forty years, Senior Brother.

You still say you have let it go." Zhou Sanji looked steadily at Yang Rui. "Where did you get that scripture of yours?"

Speaking of this, Yang Rui's expression became somewhat unnatural: "I expended great effort before I finally obtained this Great Essence Heart Pill Scripture."

"What kind of great effort?"

"I walked many roads, sought out everywhere, and visited all kinds of experts and oddities rumored in the martial world..."

"And then?"

"At a street stall by a bridge in one place, I bought this book for five copper coins."

"..."

"Bring that scripture over; I will study it with you." Zhou Sanji's expression turned serious as he spoke to Yang Rui.

"Good! Good!" Yang Rui did not expect his junior brother this time to neither admonish nor stop him, but even voluntarily propose to study the Great Essence Heart Pill Scripture with him.

He stood up excitedly, walking toward his bedroom while saying, "At the time, I thought, if only there were a scripture people could cultivate to transform Thought Demons into something usable, that would be wonderful!

Then I happened to meet this street stall at the local bridge and bought this scripture there!

This is fate, Mu Shidi; although the price printed at the back of this book was only three copper coins, I still spent five copper coins to buy this book from the stall owner!"

"..."

Yang Rui brought out the Great Essence Heart Pill Scripture from his room, which contained only a dozen or so pages, and the several of them flipped through it together.

The scripture used the first ten pages to introduce its specific wonderful uses, describing the various supernatural effects cultivation of the scripture would bring; the final three pages provided the specific cultivation method—pages full of unreadable 'pseudo-Chinese characters', some missing radicals, some with twisted forms, or some pieced together haphazardly.

"You saw the cultivation method of this scripture in these ghostly scribbles?" Zhou Sanji asked Yang Rui, frowning.

"Yes, can't you see it? Mu Shidi?" Yang Rui pointed to those 'pseudo-Chinese characters' on the scripture and said to Zhou Sanji, "Look at this passage; this passage says... it says..."

Yang Rui clearly wanted to describe something, but no matter how he scratched his head and ears, he could not articulate his specific feelings.

Zhou Chang looked at Yang Rui, certain that the thoughts of these people could no longer connect with the real Yang Rui.

Just as ordinary people cannot understand the mentally ill.

Zhou Sanji looked deeply at Yang Rui, then closed the scripture, walked into the woodshed, and threw the scripture into the stove opening, burning it completely clean.

After reciting the Purification Scripture at the doorway, Zhou Sanji and Yang Rui went to Meng Mountain outside the town.

Today they were going to Tiehan Village to inquire about the end-of-month 'Tiehan Gathering' donation for the threshold fee.

Zhou Chang went with Guan Shitou to the Yongsheng Wine Brewery.

After experiencing some twists and turns, Guan Shitou was somewhat dazed and did not speak a word the entire walk with Zhou Chang.

Only when they neared the brewery did he pull Zhou Chang and say, "Brother Zhou, I heard that going to Yuni Tan to watch the water means finishing work half a double-hour later than you.

By then it will be almost dark, and my master won't come to pick me up; can you come find me so we can go home together?"

"That's fine." Zhou Chang nodded.

Hearing this, the youth immediately sighed in relief, and the anxious look on his face faded considerably: "Brother Zhou, you are truly a person with a cold face but a kind heart!"

He smelled a rich braised aroma from his nostrils; following the scent with his gaze, he saw the braised meat shop diagonally opposite—'Li Braised Meat'.

"When I get my wages this month, I will treat Brother Zhou to braised meat!" Shi Danzi said.

Zhou Chang also saw that braised meat shop; a long queue had already formed in front of it.

A slightly plump woman wearing a leather apron used an iron hook to lift strips of braised, bright-red dogs from the boiling large iron pot at the door.

"Dog meat smells so good!"

Shi Danzi swallowed his saliva: "Master says, 'Boil dog meat three times, and even immortals cannot stand steady'!"

"Nowadays, people struggle to eat their fill; who would have the spare capacity to raise dogs?"

"Where did this braised meat shop get so many dogs?" Zhou Chang looked at the rows of meat dogs hanging in front of the shop, frowning slightly. "Is this dog meat proper?"

"Perhaps they are wild dogs caught from outside," Shi Danzi's eyes flickered.

He knew the diet of those wild dogs all too well; among them were not only corpses, but even frail living humans.

"Perhaps so."

Zhou Chang nodded, raised his left thumb, brought his ear close to the bone ring on his thumb, and listened carefully.

In the seven holes on the ring, there was now neither the cry of a boy nor the whimper of a puppy.

When Zhou Chang arrived at the Wen Yongsheng Winery today, the winery's clerks had just opened the front hall doors.

As yesterday, a sea of heads had already gathered before the entrance hall.

Bringing Shi Danzi, Zhou Chang found the winery's manager from yesterday. That manager handed Shi Danzi to a clerk to take to the Jade Maiden Pool, while he himself led Zhou Chang to the rear courtyard.

In the rear courtyard.

Qian Chaodong, who had just arrived for work, was sitting in a round-backed chair. On a high stool beside him sat a pot of wine and a plate of salted meat.

The fat man held a snow-white dog in his arms, doting on it and playing with it, picking up salted meat from the plate to feed the white dog.

The white dog was chubby, its fur spotless, clearly well-cared for.

It showed little interest in the salted meat Qian Chaodong offered.

Often chewing twice, it would spit it out and drop it on the ground.

Seeing this, Qian Chaodong took no offense, smiling affectionately. He looked up, saw Zhou Chang approaching, his smile faded, and he nodded lightly: "Wait a while. You are the first to arrive today. We will descend into the cellar once the first batch of you is complete."

"Good."

Zhou Chang nodded and also sized up the fat dog in Qian Chaodong's arms.

At that moment, the ring on his thumb trembled slightly. Zhou Chang raised his hand and heard from the seven holes in the ring a chorus of puppies growling lowly, as if issuing a warning.

Did they see their own kind?

Then why were there no sounds in the holes when they saw the dogs hanging in front of the braised meat shop just now?

Or does this white dog have something unique about it?

Turning these thoughts over in his mind, Zhou Chang asked Qian Chaodong accordingly: "Manager Qian, with your daily affairs so busy, do you still have the energy to tend to a dog?

This dog is truly beautiful; its fur has not a single mixed color. To raise it so beautifully is no small feat."