Second Elder suddenly felt his mouth go dry.
Wasn’t this boy blessed with only Five Spirit Roots?
How had he reached the Qi Condensation Twelfth Heaven within ten years?
This was comparable to a Heavenly Spirit Root! Could Old Ning have made a mistake in his assessment back then?
Shu Han dropped to his knees and kowtowed before Second Elder.
“For these ten years of Master’s guidance, this disciple is eternally grateful! Yet even a sparrow holds the ambition of a swan; this disciple wishes to leave this valley.”
Hearing these words, Second Elder seemed to age another decade in an instant.
He asked with immense difficulty, “If you leave the valley, what are your plans?”
Shu Han replied, “To pass the assessment at the Dragon Profound Sect’s Heaven-Reaching Stone and proceed to the Heavenly Profound Sect to continue my cultivation. I ask Master to grant my wish!”
“No!”
Second Elder suddenly roared in agitation.
His aged chin trembled, his beard bristling upward as if Shu Han’s words had struck his ultimate taboo.
“You are not going anywhere! Stay right here in the valley and behave yourself!”
Faced with his furious master, Shu Han remained calm and composed. He answered, “Disciple does not understand the meaning behind Master’s words. Master said years ago that if I could break the restriction you placed here, you would permit me to leave. To be frank with Master, today I have reached the Qi Condensation Twelfth Heaven. With a mere wave of my hand, I can shatter your restriction.”
Upon hearing this, Second Elder clutched his chest, staggered back several paces, and collapsed to the ground in utter dismay.
Shu Han hurried forward to support him, but Second Elder’s withered hand gripped Shu Han’s arm with fierce strength. Panting heavily, the old man rasped, “Child! It seems Old Ning misjudged you back then. You are certainly not a holder of Five Spirit Roots. You may leave the valley, you may join a more profound sect-Master would allow all of that-but you must never go to the so-called Heavenly Profound Sect! Absolutely not! Master has only you as a disciple. All my arts and skills rest upon your shoulders!”
Though Second Elder spoke in a bizarre manner, Shu Han remained unperturbed.
“There is no such thing as the Heavenly Profound Sect! Do you hear me? None!”
The old man shouted suddenly, but upon seeing Shu Han’s steady expression, he stammered in shock, “Child, you have known all along…”
Shu Han drew out a fragment of a medicine bottle and presented it to Second Elder. His vision blurring slightly, he said, “This is the medicine bottle I gave to Erdan, intended for him to take back to Shu Village for my parents. Yet I discovered these fragments within the Rear Mountain Forbidden Ground. Master, I knew the truth even then. There is no Heavenly Profound Sect at all…”
Clutching his forehead in despair, the old man cried out in anguish, “What a heinous sin! What a sin! This is all the fault of this old master! I should have perished upon Hunyuan Mountain back then rather than live on to wreak havoc upon the world!”
Shu Han helped his master back to the reclining chair. At that moment, Second Elder resembled nothing more than a lonely, helpless old man.
“Master, speak of this slowly.”
Second Elder let out a long sigh. “This is a long tale, child. You have followed me for ten years yet never knew your master’s true name. It is not that I wished to hide it; rather, I have been too ashamed to use it, lest I disgrace the name of the Bai family!”
“I am a cultivator originally from Great Yun, named Bai Yunxuan. Great Yun is unlike this desolate Northern Yan region; spiritual qi flows abundantly there, and immortal sects stand like a forest. My ancestor was a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator. After he failed his breakthrough to Core Formation, he poured his heart into alchemy and artifact refining. Achieving some renown, he left behind the Bai Clan Treasure-Refining Record for our descendants, bringing a brief era of glory to the Bai family.”
“Perhaps it was karmic retribution, but later generations produced few talented descendants, and the family steadily declined. Five generations later, we could scarcely produce a single Foundation Establishment cultivator. With such shallow roots, we naturally could not survive in Great Yun’s competitive environment. Eventually, covetous villains targeted the Bai Clan Treasure-Refining Record, slaughtering our family members to seize it.”
“I managed to escape by sheer luck, only to be tracked down by enemies. More than a dozen cultivators at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation and above cornered me upon a peak called Hunyuan Mountain. It was then that I encountered the old thief of Dragon Profound.”
“At the time, I was practically the sole remaining heir of the Bai family, and I begged the old thief to save me. Yet the cultivation world holds no concept of selfless rescue. No matter what treasures I promised, the old thief remained unmoved. Left with no alternative, I produced a pill formula deemed taboo within the Treasure-Refining Record to secure his aid.”
Shu Han frowned. “A taboo pill formula? What was that?”
“To understand why that formula moved the old thief, one must understand the fatal flaw of the Dragon Profound Three Revolutions Divine Art.”
At these words, Shu Han’s heart skipped a beat.
That cultivation technique possessed a fatal flaw?
“I know not where the old thief obtained the Dragon Profound Three Revolutions Divine Art, but it is undoubtedly a peerless manual. However, if one who practices it remains stuck at a major cultivation bottleneck for too long, the spiritual power within their meridians begins to churn wildly at the obstruction. In the end, the heavily compressed spiritual power detonates within the Dantian and meridians, leaving the practitioner with body and Dao extinguished.”
“The old thief’s natural aptitude was mediocre. He barely scraped into Foundation Establishment, only to stall at the early stage for over thirty years without a shred of progress. Just as he was about to be destroyed by his own technique, he was saved by the Bai family’s taboo formula.”
“The pill is known as the Deficiency-Mending Pill. My ancestor once associated with demonic practitioners and derived this formula from unorthodox arts.”
Deficiency-Mending Pill?
Second Elder continued his grim explanation, “The primary characteristic of this pill is that it grants the consumer a temporary surge in talent. The extent of the enhancement depends on the quality of the principal ingredient. As for that principal ingredient… it must be someone under the age of twenty who practices the exact same technique as the user! Furthermore, it requires numerous children under the age of ten to serve as medicinal guides.” Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
Hearing this, Shu Han trembled violently and stumbled backward to the floor.
He suddenly recalled Sister Wan’er’s past words-how the Seven Great Factions had suddenly begun trafficking children after the establishment of the Dragon Profound Sect.
So that was the truth!
“Such a heaven-defying and ruthless pill!”
Pain etched every line of Second Elder’s face as he confessed.
“Since coming to Northern Yan, the old thief has refined countless Deficiency-Mending Pills using these methods. Many of the children he sacrificed grew up eating the Qi-Fusing Pills I brewed for him! Were it not for me, so many innocents would never have met such a fate! This is entirely my sin!”
No wonder his master had remarked on his extraordinary luck during their first meeting, and why he grew so desolate each month when the pills were handed over.
The root of it all lay here.
Shu Han drew a deep breath to steady his reeling mind.
“Master, this guilt does not rest solely upon your shoulders; the true culprit is the Dragon Profound old thief. Thank you for revealing all of this to me. Take care of yourself hereafter. If this disciple returns safely, I shall come once more to kowtow and thank you for your teachings.”
With those words, Shu Han turned to depart.
Panicked, Second Elder stumbled from his chair and cried out, “Child! Where are you going?”
“To the Dragon Profound Sect! To the Heaven-Reaching Stone!”
Distraught, Second Elder shouted, “Did you not hear a word I said? You are no match for him! He is at the very least at the peak of Early Foundation Establishment-you cannot possibly win!”
“Match or no match, I must go!”
With reddened eyes, Shu Han spoke in a low, steely voice, “Master, you once told me that the immortal path is heartless, that one should not let the life and death of others sway them. This disciple understood your words. Yet Erdan and Goudan were brothers who grew up alongside me! If I were to become entirely devoid of feeling, how would I differ from the Dragon Profound old thief? If that is what the immortal path requires, then I care nothing for it!”
He raised his voice, ringing with fierce determination, “That old thief murdered my brothers to refine his pills; I will never let him go! If I did, Shu Han would be too ashamed to ever face the elders and folk of Shu Village again!”