“But I was talking about a normal alchemy furnace. That pot of yours looks like it only weighs around a hundred pounds. It’s pretty useless.” Yuan Wu spread both hands and tilted her head as she looked at the excited Pu Buyi.
“My pot... Bah... My alchemy furnace weighs over a thousand pounds. Don’t underestimate it. What you’re seeing now is only its reduced form.” Seeing that Yuan Wu looked down on his beloved furnace, Pu Buyi immediately revealed the true form of the Alchemy Furnace · Rice Cooker.
With a click, the small rice cooker from moments ago transformed into a gigantic rice cooker. It crushed the table in front of the three of them and filled the entire room.
Yuan Wu was squashed against the wall like a pancake, her face distorted from the pressure. Bai Yuehan was shoved out of the room and slammed into the wall, left dazed and bewildered. Only Gu Qingxuan, who was on the bed, and the culprit, Pu Buyi, escaped unharmed.
Yuan Wu angrily grumbled, “Pu Buyi, what are you doing? Hurry up and change it back! My internal organs are about to be shoved out of place. I can’t breathe!”
“Oh dear, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I forgot we were inside a room. Hahahaha.” Pu Buyi hurriedly returned the Alchemy Furnace · Rice Cooker to its original form, then hugged the shrunken furnace to his chest, afraid Yuan Wu would come over and tear him apart.
Rubbing her distorted face, Yuan Wu rolled her eyes at him. “Can you be a little more reliable?”
“Hehe, just tell me—how impressive is my Precious Pill Furnace? With that size, if I swung it at those two Golden Core cultivators, wouldn’t it turn them into minced meat?” At the thought of that scene, Pu Buyi could not stop the corners of his mouth from twitching upward.
“Considering how unreliable you are, I’m not so sure.” Yuan Wu mocked him.
“Hey... I think you’re right. I really might not be able to deal with those two Golden Core cultivators. But I have plenty of Poison powder. Even if I can’t beat them, I can at least make them suffer.” Pu Buyi pulled a pile of bottles and jars from his sleeve.
After arranging the small bottles and jars, he began explaining them.
“This is Five-Poison Powder. As long as it touches even a little of your body, your entire body will fester.”
Yuan Wu had just picked up a beautiful pink bottle decorated with Peach Blossoms when Pu Buyi pointed at it and spoke.
Frightened, Yuan Wu quickly put it back and rubbed her hand on her clothes.
“This is the poisonous sap of the Purple Poison Plant. It will cause the blood throughout a person’s body to flow backward.”
“This is Seven-Day Laughter. Anyone poisoned by it will laugh uncontrollably for seven days before suddenly dying.”
With every new explanation, the expressions of the three people grew more horrified. In the end, the three of them huddled together.
This person was terrifying! How was he an alchemy cultivator? He was clearly a poison demon.
Yuan Wu thought that it was fortunate she had never offended this fellow. Otherwise, she would not even know how she had died.
“You should have said you were this ruthless sooner! You can completely kill those two Golden Core cultivators. You need to have confidence in yourself... No... confidence in your poisons. If you scatter all this powder, you’ll be invincible within ten meters.” Yuan Wu spoke.
“No. I don’t have any antidotes. What if I poison myself?” Pu Buyi shook his head.
.........
Yuan Wu fell silent.
Bai Yuehan fell silent.
Gu Qingxuan fell silent.
Silence is tonight’s Cambridge.........
Meow, so why did he go on about all that just now? Was he merely showing off how much poison medicine he had?
Was he sick in the head?
The three unanimously decided that this fellow might not be right in the head. With wooden expressions, they ignored Pu Buyi, who was still bragging about his poison medicine, and gathered together to begin their Discussion of what to do next.
Yuan Wu and Bai Yuehan did most of the discussing, while Gu Qingxuan lay on the bed with his neck stretched out, eavesdropping.
Yuan Wu: “First, we do this... Then this... And finally that... Do you understand?”
Bai Yuehan nodded.
Gu Qingxuan: !?? What did she say? Why was he being excluded? Was it because he was disabled... Bah... injured?
Time passed, and the third day arrived.
Sneaking around.
Sneaking around.
Doggy sneaking around.
The three of them wore black hoods and carefully moved along the corners of the walls until they reached the Crescent Moon Tower.
“I already told you your injuries haven’t healed. You should have stayed in bed. Why did you insist on coming?” Yuan Wu frowned as she looked at Gu Qingxuan, who was panting after every few steps.
“I’m fine. It’s all right.” After saying that, Gu Qingxuan coughed twice more.
Bai Yuehan hurriedly covered his mouth in fright.
Yuan Wu: .........
“What exactly is the point of your coming along, Fellow Daoist Gu?” After Gu Qingxuan coughed for the eighth time, Yuan Wu finally could not hold back the question.
Gu Qingxuan wore a serious expression. “I was worried something might happen to you two young ladies.”
Yuan Wu helplessly closed her eyes. “Thank you so much for your concern.”
Gu Qingxuan smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Yuan Wu: “6”
The Crescent Moon Tower was not large, standing only ten meters high.
The three avoided the guards and entered the Crescent Moon Tower according to the location they had scouted the day before.
It was pitch-black, so dark that they could not see their hands in front of their faces.
Yuan Wu took glowing beads that concealed their auras from her pocket and handed one each to Bai Yuehan and Gu Qingxuan. “Hold on to them. There are only three.”
Bai Yuehan carefully accepted the bead and thanked her.
When it was Gu Qingxuan’s turn, Yuan Wu said, “Consider this a loan. You have to return it. Each one costs twenty spirit stones.”
Gu Qingxuan nodded. “All right. I’ll return it to you completely undamaged.”
The inside of the Crescent Moon Tower was like a Maze, full of winding passages that made it impossible to tell where to go. When Yuan Wu saw the mark they had left for the fifth time, she broke down.
“Damn it, how are we supposed to get through this awful place? Why do we keep coming back here every time we go around?”
“Don’t panic yet. Could there be some kind of mechanism?” Bai Yuehan comforted her.
“But it’s completely empty here. There’s nothing at all.” Tired, Yuan Wu leaned against the wall and fanned herself with her hand.
There was a click.
A sound came from somewhere unknown.
The three people who had been standing there just moments ago vanished without a trace.
“Oh, my glorious bottom!” Yuan Wu landed hard on the ground. The floor had suddenly vanished beneath her feet, and she had fallen straight through.
She slowly stood up, picked up the bead from the ground, and used it to illuminate her surroundings. “Hanhan? Gu Qingxuan? Hanhan? Gu Qingxuan?”
Her voice echoed, but no one answered.
Yuan Wu realized that she had been separated from Bai Yuehan and Gu Qingxuan.
This was bad. They had to reunite as soon as possible.
Yuan Wu stared at the two forks in front of her, unable to decide. In the end, she used her ultimate technique, the Little Chick Pointing Method, to choose.
“Little chick points, points, points. Whoever gets pointed at is not chosen! All right, we’ll go this way.” Yuan Wu’s finger landed on the right, but she immediately turned and walked left without the slightest hesitation.
The light was extremely faint, illuminating only the area within a meter around her.
Yuan Wu took every step with exceptional caution, afraid of triggering another mechanism.
She had simply underestimated her own luck.
Click.
A sound came from beneath Yuan Wu’s foot, and a hole opened in the ground.
She fell downward again.
“Seriously? Am I really this unlucky?!” Yuan Wu shouted. This time, she fell much deeper, and when she landed, she even crashed a large crater into the ground.
Fortunately, she had created a protective shield around herself, so the fall did not hurt as much.
Trembling, Yuan Wu climbed out of the crater. Noticing a faint light ahead, she patted the dust from her clothes and stealthily moved forward.
Ahead, she saw a person in black clothing and a black mask walking with a lantern in hand.
Yuan Wu followed him for a while. After confirming that no one else was around, she pulled a large sack from behind her, rushed forward, knocked the man unconscious, and stuffed him inside.
After reaching a secluded place, Yuan Wu opened the sack.
The man happened to wake up. Upon seeing Yuan Wu, he looked terrified. “Who are you? How did you get in here? Untie me at once, or you’ll regret it!”
His threats greatly displeased the naturally rebellious Yuan Wu. She pulled out a fist as large as a sandbag and slammed it into his face twice. “I don’t know whether I’ll get any good fruit, but you’re definitely going to get a big sinus.”
With a pair of panda eyes, the man was no longer as arrogant as before. He looked at Yuan Wu fearfully and asked, “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything. Please stop hitting me. Waaaah~”
Yuan Wu put her hands on her hips, patted his head, and said with a smile, “That’s more like it. If you had been this obedient from the start, you wouldn’t have had to suffer a big sinus.”
“Tell me, what are you going to do? Where are the Demon Beast Cubs being held? What do you need so many younglings for?” Yuan Wu narrowed her eyes and stared at him until his back turned cold. Trembling, he began to answer.
“I... I’m here to check on the younglings. The Demon Beast Cubs are being held at the very back. I... I don’t know what they need so many Demon Beast Cubs for. That’s all I know... Please... don’t hit me.”
“Tsk. All right, I understand.” Yuan Wu raised a hand and rubbed her chin, then looked at the man in black. “Are you going to faint on your own, or should I do it?”
The man in black looked aggrieved. “Do I really have to faint?”
“You can die instead.” Yuan Wu revealed a devilish smile.
The man in black: ......... How terrifying.
“You... You do it, then. I can’t bring myself to do it. Since I’ve been so obedient, could you go easy on me?”
Yuan Wu pulled out a large brick. “I’ll do my best.”
Bang! The man in black fell asleep.
Yuan Wu thought for a moment, then stepped forward and stripped him completely, leaving him wearing only a pair of trousers.
She changed clothes, put on the mask, and disguised herself as him.
When she reached the place at the very back that the man in black had mentioned, she saw two more men in black chatting.
Black Mask Number One: “What on earth does the gang leader want to do? Why capture so many Demon Beast Cubs, and only Demon Beast Cubs?”
Black Mask Number Two: “I heard he wants to practice some kind of cultivation technique.”
Number One: “An evil technique?”
Number Two: “How should I know? Probably not. Although our Moon-Seeking Gang isn’t exactly good, we can’t become fiends either.”
Number One: “But what good technique can be practiced by capturing Demon Beast Cubs?”
Number Two: “Why do you care so much? Don’t you know that the more you know, the faster you die? Shut up already. If the gang leader hears you, watch your dog life.”
Number One: “What are you afraid of? Who else is here besides the two of us?”
Yuan Wu: “Hehe, me!”
Yuan Wu, who had been hiding to one side, rolled her eyes and walked out.
The two immediately stood at attention when they saw Yuan Wu. “Show us your token.”
Yuan Wu froze for a moment, then hurriedly felt around her clothes. In a hidden pocket inside her sleeve, she felt something hard. She pulled it out and found a token engraved with a moon.
After examining the token, the two men let Yuan Wu pass.
After entering, Yuan Wu could still hear them muttering quietly.
Black-Clothed Number One: “Why does it feel like the people coming in are getting shorter and shorter? Have our recruitment standards dropped?”
Number Two: “I don’t think so. They’re all still much taller than the gang leader.”
Yuan Wu: ......