Chu Yueshuang’s expression shifted in alarm. “I’ll go find the Deputy Valley Master.”
“Wait,” Shen Qinghe called out to her. “May I ask why there’s a maze-like corridor leading to the Valley Master’s chambers?”
Chu Yueshuang explained, “The Valley Master once kept a demonic beast here. That beast wasn’t afraid of formations but couldn’t tell directions, so the Valley Master designed the corridor this way to keep it from getting out.”
“And what was the purpose of raising that beast?”
Chu Yueshuang shook her head. “That I wouldn’t know. I can’t come to the Valley Master’s residence on ordinary days either.
This is a matter of great importance, so I must leave immediately. Please look after the Valley Master’s body on my behalf.”
She was about to hurry off when Shen Qinghe said, “Let’s go together. There are Demonic Creatures in the valley right now—it’s not safe for you to go alone.”
Chu Yueshuang’s eyes reddened slightly. “Thank you. Once the valley’s affairs are settled, come to me for Medicinal Pills, and I’ll give you an internal discount of ten percent off.”
Shen Qinghe: “…Thank you in advance, then.”
The Deputy Valley Master’s residence was far less complicated than the Valley Master’s, with no blood and no Demonic Creatures either.
An elderly man lay on the bed with his eyes tightly shut. Chu Yueshuang reached out with trembling hands to check his breathing.
Shen Qinghe said, “His chest is rising and falling. He’s not dead.”
Chu Yueshuang also detected the Deputy Valley Master’s breath and let out a slight sigh of relief. She called out to him several times, shook him, and even used spells, but the Deputy Valley Master kept his eyes closed with no reaction whatsoever.
“No poisoning—he’s just unconscious,” Chu Yueshuang said after examining him.
Shen Qinghe thought of what the shop attendant had mentioned. After a moment’s consideration, she said, “Check the others. Maybe they’re all unconscious too. Otherwise, how do you explain not seeing anyone else on the road today?”
Chu Yueshuang’s expression changed, and she went to check the other rooms.
In the end, everyone—from Chu Yueshuang’s master down to the outer sect servant disciples, including those who had come to help search for the Demonic Creatures—had all fallen into a state of unconsciousness, each with a wound mark on their wrist.
Aside from them, the only ones still awake were the test subjects—the medicine men.
The medicine men huddled together, looking at them with timid eyes. Some had been rendered mute, some had lost hands or feet, and some had sores covering their faces.
The youngest among them looked no more than eight years old—a tiny thing whose skin had already ulcerated all over, shrinking behind the crowd as they watched.
Shen Qinghe felt her stomach churn again. Lizhu directly scooped her up by the waist. “Let’s go outside first.”
“No need, put me down…” But looking at the fearful eyes of those medicine men, she couldn’t bring herself to say the word “disgusting.”
Lizhu set her down but continued to watch her expression closely, his face showing rare signs of nervousness, afraid she might be uncomfortable anywhere.
Shen Qinghe couldn’t help but ask, “Why treat the medicine men like this?”
Chu Yueshuang let out a sigh. “There’s no helping it. Testing medicines always produces various reactions. Some people’s hands swell up severely, endangering their lives, and when there’s no time to treat them, amputation is the only option.”
Shen Qinghe: “Then why not use Bone Regeneration Pills to help them regrow?”
Chu Yueshuang: “I asked my master and the others about that before. They said a Bone Regeneration Pill costs more than a medicine man himself. If we used them on all of them, after just a few more rounds of medicine testing, Spirit Medicine Valley would soon become the poorest sect—or even vanish entirely.
But our Spirit Medicine Valley produces over a hundred new medicinal pill formulas every year. That said, the medicine men haven’t sacrificed themselves in vain.”
Shen Qinghe let out a sigh, took out a medicine bottle from her Storage Ring, and poured out some pills to hand over. “These are top-grade Bone Regeneration Pills. Whatever ailments or problems you have, they can be resolved quickly.”
Chu Yueshuang stared in disbelief, her eyes wide. “Shen Qinghe, no matter how rich you are in Spirit Stones, there’s no need to use top-grade Bone Regeneration Pills. Do you know that a single top-grade Bone Regeneration Pill can buy at least a hundred medicine slaves?”
Shen Qinghe said, “I didn’t know that, but I’ve seen everything now. I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”
Yet she held out the pills for a long while, and the medicine slaves only stepped back a few paces, staring at the pills in her hand with fear.
Shen Qinghe looked at Chu Yueshuang. “Do they understand human speech?”
Chu Yueshuang gave a light cough, a bit embarrassed. “They’re human, of course they understand. It’s just that they’re afraid you’re going to use them for pill testing again.”
The implication was that they had likely been deceived by such tactics before—believing they were swallowing miraculous pills that would restore them to normal, only to be pushed into an even more terrifying abyss.
Shen Qinghe looked at the fearful expressions on everyone’s faces, and her heart ached with a dull pain.
She knew the Cultivation World was cruel to ordinary people, but she hadn’t imagined it could be this horrifying.
She softened her expression. “Whoever eats one of these, I’ll grant them their freedom.”
The crowd exchanged glances, their expressions uncertain and wary.
Shen Qinghe took out a pouch of Spirit Stones. “These are High-grade Spirit Stones. Whoever eats one, I’ll give them three High-grade Spirit Stones—enough to buy back their freedom.”
Some began to stir with temptation.
The first to step forward was the eight-year-old boy. As he drew closer, the mottled scars on his body looked even more gruesome. Several wounds seemed to have been scratched open by his own hands, seeping blood. Looking closely, there wasn’t a single patch of skin left intact.
“Sister, are you telling the truth? Will you really give me Spirit Stones after I eat it?”
Shen Qinghe smiled. “Of course. But after you swallow it, it might hurt a little.”
Despair flickered in the boy’s eyes. He probably thought he wouldn’t survive. He looked back at the people behind him. “If something happens to me, remember to give the Spirit Stones to my mother. With this much money, she can definitely be cured.”
Everyone behind him wiped their tears.
The boy swallowed the pill, and soon his entire body began to flush red. He writhed in agony on the ground.
His skin was already tattered, and soon he was scraping bloody marks into the dirt, chunks of flesh tearing off and leaving a trail of blood. The stench of blood spread through the air.
The medicine slaves all wore grief-stricken expressions. A woman with a limp hobbled forward unsteadily, reaching out her hand. “Immortal, could you give his Spirit Stones to me first?”
Shen Qinghe shook her head in refusal. “No, he has to come and get them himself.”
The limping woman’s face turned deathly pale. With the child in such pain, how could he possibly survive?
Everyone here was either old, weak, sick, or disabled to begin with, or came from families desperately short on money. In the eyes of Cultivators, their lives weren’t worth as much as a single pill.