Gu Ning looked at those four large characters, nodded slightly, and fell to thinking.
The cultivation world held a great many physiques, such as the Desolate Ancient Holy Body, or the original owner's own Mystic Maiden Violet Yin Body.
All of them stat monsters.
And this Ashen Extinction Pill Body was surely something of the same order.
Thinking that, Gu Ning read on.
"Using the blood essence of a living creature as the guide, take pills of the five attributes and temper it with each in turn, then give it a body of thousand-year spirit clay."
"Before long it will give rise to a mind of its own, no different from an ordinary person's. The method follows..."
And below that came the refining method with its formation diagrams and its categories of pills, enough to make Gu Ning's head swim.
Seeing there was nothing further.
Gu Ning turned the jade slip over, and found another line of small characters carved on the back.
The hand was hurried, though, as though set down in haste.
"Pill Body Number One was stolen when the sect fell. Whereabouts unknown, and its mind already formed. The loss of so supreme a treasure is truly a misfortune for the sect."
Gu Ning frowned faintly, and looking at all this, one possibility occurred to her.
"The Ashen Elixir Pavilion was destroyed eighteen years ago. Qiuyin entered the sect at that same time, and her talent for alchemy is extraordinary..."
The corner of her mouth twitched a few times.
Everything lined up.
Su Qiuyin was not an abandoned orphan. She was made. She was the Ashen Elixir Pavilion's manufactured Ashen Extinction Pill Body.
Which also explained why Yu Ruo went out of her way to get close to Su Qiuyin in the original plot. There was this layer to it as well.
Gu Ning's heart lifted. This secret realm had not been a wasted trip after all, with this much loot swept up and intelligence like this on top.
And just as Gu Ning was absorbed in reading, Yu Ruo drifted over without a sound.
"Ashen Extinction Pill Body..."
Yu Ruo's lovely eyes were on the jade slip in Gu Ning's hand, her lips parted, her voice pleasant to hear.
"Gukk— gakk—"
Gu Ning jumped at the sudden closeness and could not help making a noise.
But the moment it came out she broke into violent coughing, croaking and rasping.
Yu Ruo looked at Gu Ning's startled state and made a show of concern.
"Forgive me, Senior Sister. I did not know that would frighten you." Yu Ruo put on an apologetic expression. "I shall be more careful next time."
That said, she drifted away again.
Gu Ning braced a hand over her chest, her pretty face faintly red, and watched Yu Ruo's back.
No need to think about it. That was deliberate.
Though it was natural enough. With this many rare treasures about, an utterly ordinary jade slip would of course draw attention.
Add to that how intently Gu Ning had been reading it, lost to the world.
It was only natural that Yu Ruo's suspicions were raised.
"Still, thank goodness she didn't see the small characters on the back. She shouldn't be able to connect it to Su Qiuyin."
Su Qiuyin's small face floated up in Gu Ning's mind whether she wanted it or not.
Soft and frail, pitiable enough to move a stone.
"Do I really tell her the truth?"
Gu Ning could not quite bring herself to it.
She glanced toward Yu Ruo's figure and thought.
"If it were her, she'd probably invent some lie to farm Su Qiuyin's goodwill, I expect, then lock her in place step by step and use her."
Gu Ning had met Su Qiuyin only a handful of times, but she still could not do the thing that would shatter a young girl's illusions.
Since Yu Ruo had no reason to move on her, she supposed she would swallow this secret too.
Surely no one else could possibly know?
Gu Ning consoled herself, and settled on telling a white lie.
At that thought, she put the jade slip away.
After which she split the remaining medicine formulas and pill formulas evenly with Yu Ruo.
While Dumpling sat off to one side with a carrot-shaped spirit herb clutched in its paws, gnawing away.
Eating and crying at the same time.
"Woof... it's been so long since I ate anything this good... it reminds me of my mother's cooking."
Gu Ning looked at this dog with no words at all.
"Your mother was a spirit herb?"
Stowing the goods in her storage pouch, Gu Ning walked to the far end of the chamber.
And on the floor in the shadow of the stone rack, a ring of circular formation lines had been carved.
Gu Ning recognized it. A simple teleportation formation, and rather well preserved.
"Looks like it should still work."
Around the formation's core were four notches, presumably for spirit stones.
Gu Ning called the other two over.
"If there is nothing else, let us go out."
Yu Ruo nodded.
And Dumpling seemed to have eaten far too many spirit herbs. Its once flat belly was bulging out, and it was hiccuping besides.
"Quick... woof, let's go, I can't wait to breathe some fresh air out there."
Gu Ning took out four spirit stones of the same size, crouched down, and set one in each notch.
Instantly the dulled formation lines lit up, and ring after ring of golden light spread outward from the center.
The three figures drew close together.
The next instant the golden light gathered at the center and burst out in one blinding flash that lit the whole room.
The light faded, and there was silence.
***
Gu Ning felt as though she had been stuffed into a washing machine and spun for a whole day. It was thoroughly sickening.
"What, this feeling again..."
Gu Ning braced a hand against her forehead and needed a good while to recover.
She had heard of carsickness. Never teleport-sickness.
Before her lay an unfamiliar forest.
And just as she was wondering where Yu Ruo and Dumpling had got to.
Gu Ning became aware of that familiar voice coming from overhead.
"Quick!! Catch me, damn it!"
Above her was a ball of something like cotton, performing a textbook free fall.
Dumpling had opened its eyes to find itself dropping through the air.
Thinking it was about to be flattened into a dog pancake, it looked down and saw Gu Ning directly beneath it.
And thought it was saved.
Gu Ning put out her hands to catch it.
She had not counted on a branch getting there first.
Splat—
"Uargh—"
Dumpling produced a damage-taken sound effect.
What Gu Ning caught was something very like a dead dog.
"Catching a dog... you're supposed to... catch it better than that, hurgh—"
Dumpling felt the spirit herbs it had just eaten mounting an assault on it, and let out one wail after another.
Yu Ruo came out from one side.
"Senior Sister, I found you."
She had opened her eyes to find nobody around, but hearing Dumpling's wailing she followed the sound to the one person and one dog.
Gu Ning fed Dumpling a healing pill, faintly apologetic.
Once it was down, Dumpling slowly came back to itself.
"Holy heck, I nearly got solo-killed by a tree!"
Dumpling put out a paw and stroked its swollen red belly, still shaken.
Having been that close to the gates of hell, it was never using an unidentified teleportation formation again.
Gu Ning took one as well, and the stabbing in her throat eased considerably, until at last she could speak normally.
After probing with her divine sense, Gu Ning knew they were still in the Cangwu Town area.
Which set her mind at rest.
"About two days have gone by?"
Gu Ning had not expected that much time to have passed.
There was no daylight in the secret realm, and she had lost all sense of it.
Once she had regulated her breathing, she walked over to Dumpling.
"We agreed that I would let you go once we were out. You may leave now."
Gu Ning paused, then added.
"Though I would be willing to take you as a spirit pet. I will not press you."
Foul-mouthed as the creature was, for some reason Gu Ning had no resistance whatsoever to fluffy animals.
The urge to keep a pet had come over her naturally.
Who does not want something soft to hold while falling asleep?
Naturally, Gu Ning was not about to say that part out loud. Far too embarrassing.
Dumpling had been looking at Gu Ning's stern face and assumed she had no intention of letting it go.
It had been getting ready to defend its dog-given rights, and had not expected her to release it this easily.
And to want to keep it as a pet?
"You..."
Dumpling's face filled with suspicion.
"Don't tell me you're into furries..."