‘Haha! You’re lucky I didn’t want your clothing, or I’d have taken that too!’

　　By now, Fang Xing had already arrived at the foot of the mountain after taking a detour from the forest and changed his appearance once more so that even if Hou Qing were to somehow find him, Fang Xing would not be recognizable. As for the treasures within his pockets, they had all been transferred into his storage ring. Once all of this was done, Fang Xing could hear a muffled howl from Hou Qing some distance away and—overjoyed—he hummed a light tune as he headed back to his cottage.

　　As soon as Fang Xing reached his cottage, he fell asleep as though nothing had happened at all.

　　Four hours had passed before Fang Xing suddenly sat up from his bed and began to quietly listen to make sure nothing unusual was happening. Confirming that the area surrounding his cottage was as quiet as it should be in the middle of the night, Fang Xing released a sigh of relief before taking out the Demon Pellet for a closer look. At the hilltop, Fang Xing had only been able to check its legitimacy due to the circumstances at the time.

　　While Fang Xing focused on the pellet in his hands, the [Book of Revelation] activated within his mind.

　　‘Third tier Demon Pellet. Crafted from nine sources of raw materials. Stores Qi inside. Suitable for Spirit Stage cultivators. Methods of use:

　　Circulate the Qi for absorption.

　　Soak in wine for consumption

　　Place under tongue while practicing Qi fluctuations.’

　　On top of the basic description of what the pellet was and its quality, there were even details as to its purpose and methods of use. These specific methods, however, were not limited only to this Demon Pellet specifically, and many other pellets with a similar purpose could also be used in the same way.

　　‘This sure is some good stuff! No wonder a single one of these pellets is worth a hundred Spirit Stones on the sect’s Exchange Bulletin,’ Fang Xing mentally exclaimed in approval. Under normal circumstances, items as expensive as this couldn’t be enjoyed by an ordinary outer court disciple and were usually reserved for those in the sect’s inner court.

　　Even for Hou Qing—who had only obtained the pellet by chance—it was extremely valuable, enough so that he had been willing to risk offending someone with powerful connections within the sect in order to keep it for himself.

　　It was in fact simple math: one hundred Spirit Stones were equivalent to twenty thousand taels of gold, the same as the worth of the [Nine Snakes’ Sword]. The difference, however, was that the sword could be used repeatedly, whereas the Demon Pellet was a consumable with a single use. If the raw materials for the Poji Pellet weren’t so hard to come by, who in their right mind would want to trade anything for it? It could even be said that while Fang Xing’s second trip to the Black Market had only involved scamming one person, the resulting profit was much greater than his first had brought.

　　‘For an ordinary disciple, even if they have plenty of resources, it would normally take about three months to go from tier one to tier two, then a year from two to three. By the time they are ready for the breakthrough at tier three, a lot more time would have gone by, three years or even longer. Or they might never even reach tier four…. I’ve only just stabilized myself at tier two. I wonder how much time I’ll save reaching the next tier now that I have such a pellet!’

　　While Fang Xing thought to himself, a sense of hope formed within him. Without further ado, he sat cross-legged on his bed and immersed himself deeply into the fluctuations of Qi. This time, the Spirit Stone that would normally be floating in midair was replaced by the Demon Pellet.

　　After spending some time trying to absorb some of the Qi from the pellet, Fang Xing could feel that even though it was faster than using a Spirit Stone, it was still at a much slower rate than it had been rumored to be. Pausing the fluctuations, Fang Xing recalled the wine gourd given to him from his eighth uncle that still had quite a bit of homemade calabash wine left inside.

　　Without even sparing a second thought, Fang Xing decided to try the second method instead and threw the whole pellet right into the gourd.

　　After shaking the wine gourd lightly for a few moments, Fang Xing opened its lid to see if the pellet had started to dissolve. To his surprise, the pellet was still there, and although there were no changes to its size, the wine had become irresistibly delightful in its scent.

　　‘Oh wow! It’s like getting some free spirit wine right there…’ Fang Xing thought to himself with pleasure as he took a large gulp of the wine. A lukewarm gush surged down his throat and into his stomach and a pleasant warmth spread out over his entire body. Fang Xing hastily activated his fluctuations in an attempt to capture and convert this warmth of Qi into his meridians, similar to the method he had used with the Hwa’jin back when he was a daotong.

　　Quite a while later, the single mouthful of wine had finally been fully converted. Fang Xing estimated that even using this method, the process was not much faster. To be fair, however, a single mouthful had already left Fang Xing with a sense of lightheadedness; normally even two full gourds of the same wine would have no effect on him.

　　‘Let’s try the third method, then.’ Since the gourd’s opening was rather small, Fang Xing found himself a pair of chopsticks to try retrieving the pellet without pouring the remaining wine out of the gourd at the same time, but even the chopsticks proved to be too large to be of any help. In a fit of exasperation, Fang Xing tilted the gourd right into his mouth, guzzling down the entire bottle.

　　Including the entire Demon Pellet.

　　The original plan had been to curl up his tongue at the exact moment the pellet reached his mouth to secure it inside, but the flow of wine was so quick that the pellet had only followed along faster. Before he had even realized what had just happened, the pellet was already well on its way to his stomach. Horrified, Fang Xing threw the gourd aside.

　　‘Did I… just swallow it?’ Although the pellet surely could not be poisonous, no one had heard of swallowing it whole. Not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, Fang Xing sat on his bed and held on to his stomach as he tried to think of something quickly.

　　It didn’t take too long before the alcohol hit him. Not sure what was going to happen to him, Fang Xing decided he might as well go to sleep.

　　‘At least it’s better to be in my stomach than in someone else’s…’ he consoled himself, his body relaxing and curling up into a land of dreams.

　　—

　　Soaking the Demon Pellet in wine would have magnified the alcohol’s strength over tenfold, plus there was the entire pellet itself as well. As Fang Xing slept on, streams of Jing were released from the pellet in waves that spread all throughout his body, saturating even into his bones. He was gradually beginning to fill with an abundance of Qi within while grime could be seen oozing out of his pores on the surface of his skin, filling the room with an unbearable stench.

　　The concentration of Jing continued to flow and steadily forced Fang Xing’s meridians to stretch beyond their maximum capacity. Even though he was sound asleep, Fang Xing could not help but to unconsciously turn his body over, the discomfort difficult to bear.

　　Though he did not know it, swallowing the entire pellet was a dire mistake on its own.

　　The [Book of Revelation] had described three different methods to make use of the Demon Pellet, yet the most direct path of swallowing the pellet itself was not included and this omission alone would be enough grounds for concern. It had to be understood that one such pellet contained the entire Qi of a third-tier beast, whereas Fang Xing had only just stepped into the second tier; the Demon Pellet on its own contained more Qi than Fang Xing had ever had, and much, much more.

　　To look at it another way, it was akin to the difference between a man and an elephant. Could one person consume an entire elephant? Perhaps it was possible, but even then it would take an excessively large amount of time before that man could digest it entirely.

　　For Fang Xing, it was as though he had just swallowed the entire elephant in one go. The only outcome for this should have been for him to explode from overeating. As it happened, the alcohol had sent Fang Xing into a deep sleep and he had no idea what was currently happening to his body.

　　Fang Xing’s meridians gradually swelled up while his tiny face colored an unnatural tone of red.

　　As Fang Xing tossed and turned in his sleep with great difficulty, he saw that he was the eight-year-old Fang Xing again. The group of enemy bandits of the Guiyan Valley had caught him and were hanging him upside down, trying to drown him by submerging his head in a lake.

　　“I… I’m going to kill all of you!” Fang Xing waved his fist fiercely in the air. The air was empty, yet in his dream there were countless malevolent faces laughing cruelly towards him.

　　As the Jing and Qi both reached the absolute maximum of what Fang Xing’s body was able to handle, the [Book of Revelation] automatically activated itself. Millions of meaningless facts passed through his brain as it absorbed the overflowing amount of Qi and eased the pain Fang Xing was experiencing. As the Jing continued to be released, however, the matter was only worsening.

　　The [Book of Revelation] was an enormous library of information. Most of it consisted of different spirit weapons, tools, treasures, and a variety of other things. It was like the memory bank of an extremely powerful cultivator, and the reason Fang Xing was able to appraise various items and the cultivation levels of some people was all thanks to the existence of this vast, ocean-like memory bank.

　　Finally, at the last moment right before his meridians exploded, the [Book of Revelation] activated itself to its maximum potential and suddenly absorbed a large chunk of both Jing and Qi. In a flash, a speck of twinkling light rose from the top of Fang Xing’s head and ascended into the highest of the heavens.

　　With a span of time that couldn’t be measured, the twinkling light had escaped from all forms of worldly restrictions and dived right into the vastness of the heavens.

　　Stars flickered within the vast, boundless galaxy.

　　Within this starry realm stood an enormous black coffin. It floated unmoving amongst the stars, its presence sealed for all eternity.

　　That single sparkle of light dived straight towards the coffin the moment it had drawn close. Some time later, the lid of the coffin opened ever so slightly, releasing a ray of splendor of its own.

　　It was the first time in thousands of years since the mysterious coffin had moved.

　　That ray charged straight to a planet with an average saturation of Qi, breaking through the barriers of the atmosphere and magnetic fields as it headed right towards South Zhanbu Continent, Chufung Kingdom, and then finally arrived at the Qing-Yun Sect.

　　In this entire land that housed hundreds of thousands of cultivation masters, the handful of cultivation freaks—those who had lived more years than anyone could count—opened their eyes in astonishment, their gazes locked towards the heavens.

　　Within this same starry realm, for the past ten thousand years there had been a total of nine mysterious coffins suspended in nine different directions.

　　‘If only…’

　　Upon second glance, the mysterious coffin had returned to its deathly stillness.

　　As though nothing had changed.

　　As though nothing would ever change.

　　At this very moment, an extremely difficult to translate excerpt had appeared in Fang Xing’s mind… but for some reason, it was then translated into words that had grown much easier to understand, as though the passage was made for him and him alone. It poured into his heart and bathed his meridians until his Qi began to work autonomously.

　　“Mom…” softly, Fang Xing spoke an unfamiliar word. A word he had never used before.

　　Fang Xing was still bound within his dreams, but the cunning faces and cruel laughs were no more. Instead, it was replaced by the warmth and tranquility of a sweet dream.

　　In a flower garden, Fang Xing laid his head quietly upon the legs of a white-robed woman, her face unclear. She gently stroked his tiny, aching body, her voice mellow as she sang the lines of an ancient script…

　　“With hair of white spanning three thousand yards

　　a revered spirit’s scripture through which to know

　　the spirit veins shift and defy their course

　　through the refining of spirit, life does flow

　　consuming the earth and plundering the heavens.”

　　“Mom!”

　　Awaking with a sudden jerk, Fang Xing desperately tried to grasp on to something in front of him… but there was nothing but air.

　　Fang Xing only truly came to his senses later on due to the violent sensation of the forces within him. It was then then that he involuntarily recalled the ancient script from his dreams.

　　“With hair of white spanning three thousand yards… a revered spirit’s scripture through which to know…” Fang Xing repeated the lines to himself, sitting cross-legged as he started to convert the remaining Jing into Qi.