Transcendent Dawn

Chapter 622: Chapter 0622: Pill Refining (Extra Update Request for Monthly Tickets)

Xu Changqing moved into the hut by the grass.

Every day, he would go up to the mountains to chop wood, make charcoal, and provide the old Taoist with what he needed to refine pills. Gradually, he became acquainted with the young Taoist apprentices, Qingfeng and Mingyue.

Both of them were orphans, taken in by the old Taoist from a young age. The boy was called Qingfeng and the girl was Mingyue.

After eating the pastries he prepared, they would sweetly call him ‘brother’, reminding Xu Changqing of the innocent faces of the children in Xiaozhai Village.

Strange enough, after the Grandpa arrived here, he basically remained silent, only allowing Xu Changqing to eat the food provided by the two Taoist apprentices.

Thus, half a month passed in a flash.

During this period, he gained several more ‘companions’!

A scholarly man in a green robe, a young Taoist with strange eyes, and a young girl in red.

It seemed they had also come in search of immortal teachings. They were all put to work by the old Taoist. Among them, the girl ‘Hongying’ seemed to be prepared, bringing several very precious medicinal herbs.

One of them was a human-face-shaped Huangjing. When it was put in the furnace, Xu Changqing thought he heard a sobbing sound.

Regardless, the arrival of these three people at least relieved him from his heavy workload, and the progress of the old Taoist’s pill refining quickened.

Occasionally, the old Taoist would perch on the rocks with delight, starting to speak about ‘Dao’!

Although some of his words were confusing, muddled, and seemingly delirious, sometimes, he did indeed speak of genuine abilities.

The old man asked him to listen often, saying it was beneficial for one’s ‘entry into Dao’, even if there were no ‘Dao Method’.

After a few days of perseverance, he even gathered several life-nourishing and demon-capturing talismans, which made Xu Changqing feel that his journey was worthwhile.

…

One day, as Xu Changqing piled up the chopped wood, he saw a flash of a red skirt nearby and heard a giggling sound like a silver bell: “Hehe…”

“Miss Hongying,” he slightly bowed, “Today’s firewood is all here.”

“Uh huh…”

Hongying swept over the pile of firewood and looked at Xu Changqing, “Who are you with? How can you get up so early?”

“Who am I with?” Xu Changqing was taken aback, “I’m not with anyone, I just heard that there are hermits in this mountain, so I came to visit.”

“Oh…”

Hongying responded meaningfully, “No wonder… Your name is Xu Changqing? I’ll call you Little Qingzi from now on… Don’t die so easily.”

“What? Die?”

Xu Changqing was stunned, but saw Hongying walking away without looking back.

He touched his head: “Grandfather, what’s going on?”

“That girl is not simple… She must be a real cultivator, seeing that you have a magic artifact, she came to test you…”

Su Lu answered.

“Test? Test what?”

“I’m not sure, but for the search for Dao, we have to take risks! Just play it by ear.”

…

In a blink of an eye, another half a month passed.

“Crap…”

The old Taoist was staring at the pill furnace, his face ugly: “We’re missing a major herb. Without it, all efforts will be wasted!”

Xu Changqing, the scholar, the young Taoist, and Hongying were all present, and they asked, “What is the herb? We’ll find it, there should be one!”

“We’re missing a ‘human herb’!”

The old Taoist shook his head, “I’ll have to find this herb, you guys can leave.”

He apparently wasn’t in the mood to teach Dao anymore.

The four of them looked at each other and had no choice but to leave.

The next day, when Xu Changqing brought the charcoal to the pill furnace, he was shocked to see the old Taoist dancing in front of it: “The ‘human herb’ has arrived, my Dao is complete!”

“Congratulations, Taoist master.”

He sniffed, indeed detecting a ghostly medicinal fragrance that was both rich and strangely sweet. And so, he congratulated the Taoist with a fist and palm salute.

“Rest assured, when the pill is completed, everyone will have a share.”

The old Taoist was in great spirits, making a guarantee, and then ordered Qingfeng to bring food. However, Mingyue was nowhere to be seen.

By the second day, Qingfeng was nowhere to be found, and the medicinal fragrance from the pill furnace was even stronger.

Then on the third day, the young Taoist also disappeared.

“What…what’s going on? Grandfather!”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Xu Changqing looked at Hongying, who didn’t seem worried at all, and the scholar, who was beginning to look a little anxious, and the old Taoist, who was in front of the pill furnace looking delirious, feeling more and more that something was amiss.

It was as if he had fallen into a nightmare, unable to extricate himself.

“Do not sleep tonight, stay with the scholar, and you’ll see…” Su Lu’s voice called out.

“Alright!”

Xu Changqing reached into his robe and grasped the black bone, his voice coolly affirming.

…

Midnight.

In the temporary straw hut.

He pretended to be asleep, lying next to the scholar named Li.

Everything was silent, save for the chirping of insects.

As the moon rose to the centre of the night sky, the chirping suddenly ceased.

Silence!

Complete silence surrounded him!

A shadow slowly approached the hut, a dagger’s razor edge in its grip.

The figure crept closer, the tip of the dagger aimed at the scholar.

“Hey!”

Xu Changqing made his move at the critical moment.

He threw a punch, striking the assassin’s wrist that held the blade, followed by a kick to the midsection.

“Ah!”

The shadow collapsed on the ground, emitting a guttural cry of pain.

“So it’s you, old Taoist!”

Xu Changqing lit an oil lamp, unsurprisingly revealing the wild-eyed and frenzied old Taoist with crimson eyes.

However, it was too easy.

From the previous fight, it was astonishing that a being classified as ‘inhuman’ by the old man was so easily defeated?

“Ah!”

The scholar woke with a start, saw what had happened, and screamed out, “Old Taoist…what…what are you doing?”

“He’s trying to kill you!”

Xu Changqing responded coldly, noticing Hongying’s face peeking in through the window.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and yawned, “Little Qingzi…you really don’t have any power. You’re even ignorant of the ‘Source’ around here and causing all this commotion in the middle of the night.”

“Hey, wait…he was trying to kill someone!”

Xu Changqing watched Hongying, sleepily walking away, and he wondered to himself, either he was going mad, or the world was.

“Man medicine! Man medicine!”

The old Taoist muttered vacantly, his eyes glazed.

“You demon.”

Frustrated, Xu Changqing dragged him to the Pill Furnace, opening the furnace lid.

Boom!

Underneath the red flames, several faces swirled in the Pill Furnace, including that of the naive Taoist and Qingfeng and Mingyue…

“Ah!”

Seeing this, the scholar vomitted, “I…I don’t want immortality anymore, I want to go home…I want to find my parents…”

He was so terrified that he was streaming tears, seeming like he was on the brink of insanity.

“Demon! I won’t spare you!”

Xu Changqing was overwhelmed with rage, he drew his blade, beheading the old demon, the head thrown into the furnace.

…

The next morning, he called over Red Infant and the scholar by the Pill Furnace, “I’m planning to escort the scholar out of the mountain, Miss Red Infant, and you?”

Red Infant twirled her hair and chuckled faintly, “Continue with the chores, alchemical training!”

“Huh?”

Xu Changqing was taken aback.

Suddenly, something even more astonishing happened.

The old Taoist walked out from the straw hut, his demeanor one of sangfroid as always, “I’ll be refining pills today, you two go gather firewood!”

In the blink of an eye, Xu Changqing was covereved in a cold sweat.