Soon, only Su Twelve remained in the Waste Pill Room.
In the vast compound, there was not a single other person. From afar, the faint howls of wolves and roars of beasts drifted over. Su Twelve stood in the courtyard, his heart trembling with fear. No matter how bold he was, he was still just a half-grown child.
But he knew well that if he wanted to learn immortal arts, he had to overcome the obstacles before him. Lowering his head to look at the waste pill illustrated manual in his hands, Su Twelve began to flip through the pages.
The manual briefly described more than a hundred kinds of pills and showed what their waste forms looked like. Waste pills were failed products of pill refinement, filled with impurities and sometimes toxins, and were unfit for consumption.
Other children would have needed considerable effort to understand it. But Su Twelve had learned to read and write from his grandfather since childhood and had read countless books. With his sharp mind, he memorized most of the manual after silently reading it a few times.
Holding the manual, Su Twelve turned and walked into the storeroom where the waste pills were kept. He had read the text descriptions and seen the images; next was identifying the physical objects.
Inside the storeroom, all kinds of waste pills were piled up like mountains.
However, having memorized the manual, Su Twelve immediately recognized that the waste pills here came from only three to five varieties.
The most numerous were Essence-Nourishing Pills, taken by beginner disciples to strengthen their bodies, nourish their foundations, and purge impurities.
Next came Qi Gathering Pills, taken by Qi Condensation disciples to improve their cultivation speed, and Lesser Restoration Pills, used to treat injuries.
Gazing at the tens of thousands of waste pills before him, Su Twelve sighed inwardly. If only these were good pills—and if only he could have so many. What a wonderful thing that would be.
Unfortunately, for him, this could only be a fantasy.
Su Twelve stayed in the storeroom until evening. Besides those three varieties, he also found waste pills from two other kinds of medicine.
But these waste pills were all unwanted rubbish. At most, he could use them to learn a little more about pills.
The sky was growing dark, and Su Twelve planned to return to his room to rest.
Just then, waves of low, deep beast roars suddenly came from outside the courtyard, along with heavy footsteps.
The muffled sounds, like distant thunder or drumbeats, struck against Su Twelve’s heart one beat after another.
“A wild beast?!”
Su Twelve paled in shock. The image of the figure on the stretcher with severed hands and feet immediately surfaced in his mind.
“What should I do?” He stood frozen in place, not daring to move recklessly, terrified of alerting the beast outside.
But the fierce beast outside showed no intention of leaving.
The footsteps grew closer and closer. With a heavy thud, something vaulted over the courtyard wall and landed inside.
Hearing the commotion, Su Twelve’s heart raced. Holding his breath, he carefully peered outside through a crack in the storeroom door.
In the courtyard, a fierce tiger with a white-marked forehead and blood-red eyes prowled. It panted heavily, each breath sending white vapor from its nose and mouth.
Its eyes, round as copper bells, gleamed with ferocity. As if it had caught the scent of a person, the tiger let out a low growl, shook its fur, and slowly approached the storeroom where Su Twelve was hiding.
Seeing this, Su Twelve’s pupils constricted, and his whole body began to tremble. With his small frame, there was no way he could be a match for this fierce tiger. He might not even be enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
Turning to look at the mountain of waste pills behind him, a bold idea appeared in his mind.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he crept to the heap of waste pills, dug a deep hollow into it, and buried himself beneath the pills.
“Bang!”
A few minutes later, the storeroom door was pushed open. A massive, ferocious tiger head poked in, peering around.
The tiger’s teeth gleamed coldly, and its bloody maw reeked. Su Twelve held his breath, not daring to move an inch.
Fortunately, the massive quantity of waste pills masked Su Twelve’s scent. The fierce tiger looked around for a while before turning and leaving.
Seeing this, Su Twelve secretly let out a breath of relief. But afraid the fierce tiger might return, he stayed buried among the waste pills until dawn.
After repeatedly confirming there was indeed no movement outside, he finally crawled out from the waste pills.
“What kind of cursed place is this, to have such a massive fierce tiger show up right after I arrive? If I stay here, I’ll be eaten by that beast sooner or later!”
Su Twelve’s little heart pounded rapidly as he muttered to himself, his face full of lingering fear.
He certainly did not think his small frame could be a match for that fierce tiger.
“But if I leave, how will I ever learn cultivation methods?”
“If I cannot cultivate, how can I avenge Grandpa and the others? And I still need to figure out what that mysterious pill furnace can do!”
While deep in thought, Su Twelve pulled the worn, ancient pill furnace from his robes.
Looking at the pill furnace, his pupils constricted, and he froze.
“Huh? Why are there two pills?”
Inside the pill furnace lay two crystal-clear, thumb-sized Essence-Nourishing Pills, gleaming like jade.
He hurriedly poured the two pills into his palm. A rich medicinal fragrance immediately filled the air, invigorating him and sweeping away his hunger and fatigue.
Su Twelve’s spirit lifted. He grabbed a handful of waste pills and held them in his hand to compare.
The waste pills were pitch-black and gave off a faint stench. Compared with these two pills, the difference was like night and day.
After examining them carefully for a long time, he finally confirmed that the two were genuine Essence-Nourishing Pills.
“Strange. How did two Essence-Nourishing Pills suddenly appear inside this furnace?”
“Could it be… some waste pills fell into it last night?”
Thinking of this, Su Twelve immediately decided to test it. He took a waste pill and placed it into the pill furnace, then watched without blinking.
Under his unblinking gaze, the waste pill was covered in a layer of azure light. The black color on its surface faded at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It looked as if the impurities were being refined away by some kind of power.
In just a few breaths, the waste pill went from black to grayish-azure.
After another dozen or so breaths, a crystal-clear, jade-like Essence-Nourishing Pill appeared inside the furnace.
Su Twelve drew in a sharp breath.
Watching this transformation with his own eyes, he was stunned.
“This pill furnace can actually turn waste pills into good pills? Turning waste into treasure—this is incredible!”
“No wonder… no wonder those immortals wanted this pill furnace so badly!”
“I just don’t know if this pill furnace can keep refining them indefinitely…”
With his heart pounding, he stuffed a handful of waste pills into the pill furnace.
Before his eyes, all the waste pills were covered in a layer of azure light.
Over a dozen breaths later, the light vanished, replaced by a cluster of crystal-clear, flawless Essence-Nourishing Pills.
Su Twelve tested it more than ten times in a row. No matter how many waste pills he put in, as long as the furnace could hold them, it refined them into good pills in ten to twenty breaths.
And from beginning to end, the pill furnace maintained its ancient, worn appearance, without the slightest change.
Having confirmed the pill furnace’s function, Su Twelve turned to look at the mountain of waste pills beside him. His breathing became rapid.
At that moment, these were no longer unwanted rubbish in his eyes. They were pills he could use to cultivate!
“With so many pills, even with my poor spirit root, I can still achieve something!”
“No, I absolutely cannot tell anyone about this!”
He clutched the pill furnace tightly to his chest. His heart pounded, and his small face flushed red.
Although he knew little about cultivation, he understood how valuable this pill furnace was.
He hid the pill furnace against his body, then found several porcelain bottles in the storeroom and filled them with the refined pills before returning to his room.
“Now, let’s see whether these refined pills actually work!”
Thinking this, Su Twelve took out an Essence-Nourishing Pill.