Free Web NovelChapter 147: Chapter 147: Cultivation
With Liu Ji’s help, the green horse was quickly settled.
It bounded and neighed across the pasture, no longer acting out.
Liu Ji wore a strange expression.
"So your Feeding Pill has this kind of effect, Junior Brother."
It was far more potent than the usual beast aphrodisiacs, and at least it didn’t cause any harm.
"Junior Brother, what kind of business were you running back in Immortal Arrival City?"
He cleared his throat.
"As your senior brother, I can help you out a bit."
Bai Mo’s eyelid twitched.
"Just a regular Pill Shop. When it comes to cultivation Pills, it’s nowhere near as good as what the sect produces."
Liu Ji snapped out of it.
"I was being presumptuous."
He shoved the cloth bag in his hand into Bai Mo’s arms and said quickly,
"Next time you’re free, let us see those Pills of yours, Junior Brother."
Brother Mo sighed as he watched his senior brother’s behavior. "It’s no wonder, seeing as you’re over thirty and still have no heir, Brother Liu," he chided. "But you were completely shameless."
He walked over, took the cloth bag from Bai Mo’s arms, and poured out the contents.
PLOP!
What fell out were several purplish-green objects that looked like octopus tentacles.
"Just as I thought."
"Brother Liu, where did you get these West River Fish tentacles?"
Liu Ji watched as his junior brother rummaged through the tentacles on the ground, examining their quality.
Liu Ji cleared his throat and said,
"A senior brother has been raising them. I’m on good terms with him, so getting a few tentacles wasn’t a problem."
"Just, please, don’t either of you mention this to anyone."
Noticing Bai Mo’s confused expression, Liu Ji explained,
"Legend says that the West River Fish carries the bloodline of the ancient He Luo Fish, which is why it has a conjoined twin body."
"This stuff is a favorite treat of the sect’s Green Water Salamanders. Using it to lure them out won’t be a problem at all."
A hint of pride appeared on Liu Ji’s face as he spoke.
Many disciples had come to him asking for this stuff.
However, the disciples of the Beast Taming Peak were very secretive and never let it slip, so few people knew the West River Fish even existed.
Bai Mo was immediately grateful.
"I’m lucky to have your help, Brother Liu. Otherwise, this would have been a huge pain for me."
The Green Water Salamander was actually a rare species that one of the sect elders had brought back from the outside world.
They had been raised in the sect for many years, allowing disciples to harvest their gill pouches and refine them into storage artifacts.
Liu Ji waved his hand. "The weather’s been nice lately, but Green Water Salamanders prefer shade and cold, so they definitely won’t come ashore easily."
"This is the perfect thing to lure them out. The rest is up to you, Junior Brother."
Brother Mo, who was standing by, gathered the tentacles from the ground and handed them back to Bai Mo.
"Once you’ve fed a Green Water Salamander until it’s full, it will involuntarily spit out its gill pouch."
"When that happens, just use a dagger to cut it off and bring it back, Junior Brother."
As he spoke, his expression turned serious, and he warned gravely,
"You must remember not to do anything rash. If you run into trouble, don’t try to push through it."
"The Green Water Salamanders might be a common sight for disciples in the sect, but there’s no doubt about how rare they are."
At the very least, they had never heard of any other sect raising Green Water Salamanders.
Let alone the fact that they were being raised by the sect’s higher-ups.
Only when he saw that Bai Mo had taken their words to heart did Liu Ji nod in satisfaction.
"Junior Brother, when you get back, soak the contents of the bag in water so you don’t have to worry about them rotting."
Brother Mo finished his instructions and saw Bai Mo off.
He seemed to remember something, took a brocade pouch from his bosom, and stuffed it into Bai Mo’s hand.
"I remember you saying your Feeding Pill incorporated refinement methods from a Tier Two Pill, right?"
"I’m not sure if that kind of Pill would be effective on a whole herd of beasts, but I figure it’s worth a try."
He spoke as if to himself, not waiting for Bai Mo’s reply.
After sending the bemused Bai Mo on his way, Brother Mo returned to Liu Ji’s side.
The two of them looked at the restless green horse.
"Brother Liu, you’re so tactless."
"If a Pill like that really exists, you can’t just ask about it directly! It’s against sect etiquette to be so blunt!"
"When disciples in the sect trade privately, it’s all done under the cover of darkness, hush-hush!"
Liu Ji looked ashamed.
"My mouth ran away with me."
Brother Mo said softly, "It’s fine. As long as Junior Brother Bai understands what we meant."
...
Bai Mo weighed the brocade pouch in his arms and sighed.
When they’d first negotiated the deal for the Feeding Pills, the agreed-upon deposit was fifty Spirit Stones.
Out of respect for their status as fellow disciples, that was mostly just a formality.
But this brocade pouch clearly contained more than fifty Spirit Stones.
’I’d guess there’s a surplus of twenty stones, meant for something else.’
’Those two must have misunderstood the Fire Marrow Pill’s effects.’
’Oh well. They’ll learn the truth once they get their hands on the Pill.’
As he walked back toward the Wooden Building, he suddenly spotted a bizarre-looking bird perched on a nearby rock.
It was mostly grayish-white, with a pair of huge eyes that took up nearly half its head, and three long feathers sprouting from its crown.
"Junior Brother is back!"
"Junior Brother is back...!"
Its eyes were fixed on Bai Mo. It suddenly spread its wings and squawked as it took a few stumbling steps.
The bird was largely to thank for Brother Mo knowing he had returned in time to come down the mountain and greet him.
Those huge eyes could see everything on the nearby mountain peaks.
Bai Mo didn’t know if the Beast Taming Peak Cultivators used it to spy on their fellow disciples.
But from what he’d seen over the past few days, Liu Ji was very protective of the bird, never letting it appear in any open or obvious places.
When he asked Liu Ji about it, he’d said many disciples coveted the bird and intended to harm it.
They had even found a feathered arrow stuck in the ground on Beast Taming Peak, right where the gray bird usually hung out.
Bai Mo waved at the gray bird, then went back inside his Wooden Building.
Following his brothers’ instructions, he poured the West River Fish tentacles from the cloth bag into a washbasin to soak.
Bai Mo wiped his face, washed up a bit, and sat cross-legged on his bed.
The opening of the Divine Thought Transformation Scripture flowed through his mind, its profound subtleties revealing themselves.
Following its instructions, Bai Mo soon let his consciousness sink into a trance, becoming lost and unaware of the outside world.
In this state, even the passage of time seemed to blur.
As if in a waking dream, Bai Mo’s mind wandered, trying to capture the trajectory of his own Divine Thought, just as the scripture described.
He didn’t realize it was nighttime until he felt a chill on his skin and heard the howls of Demon Beasts, which sounded both far away and close by.
His first attempt had been a failure.
"Whew!"
’As expected of a technique from a major sect. A Loose Cultivator could go their whole life without ever witnessing something so profound!’
Bai Mo opened his eyes. Through the window, he could indeed see the sky glittering with a sea of stars.
He started to get out of bed, but as he put weight on his feet, a feeling of weightlessness washed over him. He staggered, nearly falling to the floor.
Fortunately, he managed to grab the edge of the bed just in time to save himself from an embarrassing fall.
’What’s happening to me...?’
Bai Mo scrambled to his feet and stumbled over to the bronze mirror. He was met with the sight of a haggard face with puffy bags under his eyes.
’It actually drained me this much!?’
Bai Mo was shocked.
The scripture did mention that cultivation consumed mental energy and vital essence.
But Bai Mo never expected it could drain a person so completely.
’Who on earth created this scripture? To create something like this from nothing... it’s truly awe-inspiring.’
Waves of weakness washed over his body.
Without thinking, Bai Mo rummaged through his satchel and found a pill bottle.
He pulled out the stopper, and a scorching hot Pill Qi wafted out.
With a flick of his wrist, a Fire Marrow Pill fell into his palm, and he swallowed it.
’Good thing I carry these with me. Otherwise, practicing the Divine Thought Transformation Scripture would be a real ordeal.’
’With the Fire Marrow Pills to back me up, mastering the basics of this scripture before Shui Ziming comes knocking shouldn’t be a problem!’
