Chapter 375

Ghosts of the Mine (XVI)

"Do you know what this is?" Lao Shun asked.

"Vaguely," I replied sagaciously.

"Is your entire goal in life to startle my heart so much that you kill me?" he asked further.

"Perhaps," I played along with a smile.

"... haah," he sighed as the flame vanished from sight, as though consumed by his hand. "What if they noticed?"

"I gambled," I shrugged; I mean, it wasn't really a gamble; knowing Long Tao, he'd isolated us the moment we started talking.

"Hm. Fine. I'll play along. I've already sworn to just pretend everything is fine... though, truth be told, it's getting harder."

"Just consider it your mental training."

"I used to endure having my soul scorched as a form of mental training," he said. "Somehow, that was easier."

"..."

"Here," he procured a pill--a very, very small one, practically a fingernail-sized pearl, with strange, amber luminescence just under the haze of its coating. "I originally intended to use this to attempt to be classified as a Tri-Aspects Rank, but I'm not quite sure that matters any longer. With what you've given me already, I'll probably become World-Gathering Rank within a decade."

"Oh. What is it?" I asked, taking the pill. It was both soft and hard, oddly; it was also rather smooth, so much so that I found myself needing to use Qi to actually maintain my grip on it.

"A man of your means, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out."

"... a bet?"

"A bet. But--" he quickly added. "You can't ask that weird thing over there you call a Disciple."

"... tsk."

"Did you just click your tongue?"

"No. Something was stuck in my teeth," I said. "Fine. How much time do I have?"

"An hour."

"... really?" I felt my patience snapping a bit. "Very well, you unfilial Disciple." his expression immediately distorted. "If I figure it out within an hour, forget Master, I'll have you call me Grandfather for a month."

"F-fine," his conviction wavered slightly, though he still agreed. "If you can't... you'll have to do me a favor one day, no questions asked. Good luck, Master~"

He seemed quite confident that I wouldn't be able to figure it out--and, true enough, if it were just me... no way in hell was that happening. I've got less than zero knowledge about alchemy, though the pill did actually remind me of quinidine tablet just a touch.

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Alright, system! I summon you! What is this thing?

...

Hey.

...

Oh, come on! Please!

...

You can charge me points; you don't have to do it for free!

...

Oh shit. What kind of a favor will that crazy bastard ask of me? He already knows that I say 'Yes' to pretty much anything my 'Disciples' ask of me, so the fact that he explicitly asked for it... I have a feeling it'll be monumental. Haah. Why did I agree to the damn thing? I should have known the system would just ignore me...

[--Eternity offers an explanation for the strange pill]

[Cost: 500 Creation Points]

[Would you like to pay?]

... eh? Right! I forgot about that little fella! He, she, it, whatever it was--it hadn't really interacted much as we ventured, though I could always 'sense' it, namely because even when it tried to hide, it wasn't really that good at it. Right now, for instance, it was pretending to be a 'loose' strand of grass next to my foot. Except there's not a single other blade of grass that looks like it... anywhere.

Whatever, who cares? It offered to explain, and all I have to do is pay 500 points! Pay, pay, of course I'll pay!

[--500 deducted]

[...]

[Eternity has identified the strange pill as 'Enduring Qi Pill' (???)]

... huh? Wait, why does that name sound familiar?

[Enduring Qi Pill (???) -- prevents physical death for the next 60 minutes. The body cannot be destroyed by anyone under '???' Realm. It prevents the destruction of meridians and the dantian and ensures that there is a constant flow of Qi. One of the most desired pills for those undergoing Heavenly Tribulation. However, it can only be consumed once and will lower all lifespan gains from future breakthroughs massively]

[Note: Host is naturally shielded from the negative effects of the pill]

Right!

The fucking breakthrough pill!

For the fourth path, it recommended quite a few things, and one of them was this pill. I'd honestly kind of forgotten about it since it ain't happening any time soon, but to think the guy had something like this already... and gave it to me entirely unprompted.

Huh.

Lao Shun, Lao Shun, yet another lucky star of mine.

Interesting.

I almost ran over to him to brag about identifying the damn thing, but I stopped myself; I really didn't want a 500-year-old man to call me "grandfather" for more than one reason. Even the system qualified him as Proud, and yet he still kowtowed toward me, someone basically ten times younger than him, to express his wishes. Just how much did that take out of him? Asking him to call me grandfather... might just break him a touch too much.

Besides, regardless of what the favor is, I'm pretty sure I was going to do it regardless, so long as it wasn't about hurting any of the kids.

In a morbid sense, I can actually kind of guess what he would want of me; the likelihood is that he'd ask the favor once he reconciles with the reality he won't be able to 'cleanse' himself of the Heart Demon. It will either be that I help him then (unlikely) or that I kill him myself before he succumbs to it.

"So, did you figure it out?" he came up to me after an hour and asked, seeming rather nervous.

"... no," I said. "It looks like it's beyond me."

"Hah! I knew it! Ha ha ha, finally, a victory!" Wait, you're really that happy to pull one over on me? "Aah, that feels good."

"So, what is it? The pill?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Enduring Qi Pill. If you're ever undergoing Heavenly Tribulation and feel like you'll fail, consume it. It will save you."

"... oh. That sounds rather powerful."

"It is. I barely concocted one of the lowest quality purely by luck. I was also bedridden for about a year after because of how much I damaged my meridians in the process, not to mention that the alchemy flame that I was using at the time was completely destroyed, as I needed to use it to solidify the pill at the end of the process. I gather that there are no more than ten of them on the entire continent, as-is."

The system knew this, didn't it? That he already had the pill. That's why it listed it as one of the recommendations.

Scary.

That's some scary shit.

... just what the hell is behind it for it to know so much? Dao? Some god-emperor? The creator of everything? Aah, when will I learn...

It was about a month and a week or so into our climb that we finally reached Spirit Peak, the place where Qian Shuren was set to put those mummies of hers to final rest. Two things of importance happened that day: the kids actually managed to complete the Demonic Beasts quest, and we suddenly found ourselves encircled as we reached the flat plateau just below the peak.

Not by beasts, but rather cultivators.