Last time, Duan Rong went with Yin Cong once, and he was already very clear about the whole process of exchanging medicine. He was sure he could discreetly exchange the Green Pupil without Yin Cong noticing.
However, there would definitely be traces left on the accounts at the Medicine Pavilion.
Although according to what he gathered from Yin Cong, even if there were loose ends, the chances of being caught were not high, it still bothered him.
Duan Rong suddenly remembered, that the middle-aged woman at the Medicine Pavilion with excellent body technique, asked him to help with accounting, offering two contribution points per day.
In the coming time, Shang Xiangyu would certainly be closed off, pondering hard, improving the alchemy methods. This means, they would be quite free for a while.
During this time, he could go to the Medicine Pavilion, further understand its operations, and perhaps manage to exchange the "Green Pupil" without leaving any trace?
Even if it was unavoidable to leave traces, Duan Rong was still inclined to first exchange the "Green Pupil".
Because, only when the auxiliary medicine is in hand, combined with the devouring tree spirit nourishing his cultivation, the Fourth Layer of Fetal Concealment Scripture could be achieved quickly.
And his current situation is in dire need of enhancing his own strength.
Achieving the Fourth Layer of Fetal Concealment Scripture would also bring new Divine Soul Techniques.
The previous Divine Sense envelopments and Divine Soul Waves were all considered unpredictable weapons, and Duan Rong believed, the new Divine Soul Techniques wouldn’t disappoint him either.
Having thought this through, Duan Rong confirmed the main task for the next while: Scout the Medicine Pavilion, exchange for the Green Pupil, and achieve the Fourth Layer of Fetal Concealment Scripture.
Thus, tomorrow morning, he would head to the Medicine Pavilion.
After deciding, Duan Rong extinguished the candle, sat cross-legged on the stone bed, circulated his energy slightly, and after a few breaths, tossed a Yang Pill into his mouth.
Usually, he could refine two Yang Pills in a night, but tonight there clearly wasn’t enough time, and he was actually very tired, but Duan Rong still decided to refine one more Yang Pill before sleeping.
The crisis lurks everywhere, there is no room for slacking!
Shang Xiangyu was in his own dim and cramped stone chamber.
A makeshift desk reinforced with bamboo rods held a dim candle, shedding faint light.
The desk was piled with various open books and bamboo scrolls, Shang Xiangyu’s eyes densely lined with red, his pale and delicate face occasionally flashing expressions of madness and fear intertwined.
Shang Xiangyu looked at a sheet of paper filled with small, cramped writing in his hand, shaking his head in torment.
He repeatedly simulated it several times, confirming there was no problem with the pill formula.
And during the refining process, the medicinal power of the Black Blood Fruit was indeed extracted.
"Why?"
"Why did the furnace blow up?"
"Where exactly went wrong?"
Shang Xiangyu suddenly looked up, gazing at a point in the void, muttering to himself: "Since the medicinal power of the Black Blood Fruit was extracted, and once the light threads filled the pill furnace, it blew up."
"This means, the issue lies in the process from completely extracting the medicinal power of the Black Blood Fruit to pill formation..."
"Pill formation?! It’s pill formation!"
As if realizing something, Shang Xiangyu frantically swept the books off the desk to reveal a bamboo scroll underneath, holding it up to the dim candle, his hands trembling slightly as he read.
Shang Xiangyu finished one bamboo scroll and moved to the next one...
Until he finished all the bamboo scrolls on the desk and frantically flipped through several yellowed books, Shang Xiangyu suddenly collapsed, then went mad, sweeping the bamboo scrolls and books off the desk with a clatter.
The candle was knocked over, hitting the wall, then falling onto the books, with a whoosh, the flames leaped up...
In the glow of the fire, Shang Xiangyu’s head of silver hair, bloodshot eyes, he laughed maniacally, appearing insane, he tore open his clothes, ripping at his sagging old skin on his belly, laughed: "Beautiful bones, white flesh, all is illusory! Illusory! I’ll tear you apart!"
As Shang Xiangyu shouted, he really ripped off a strip of old skin from his abdomen with a tearing sound, instantly drenched in blood...
His stomach was a bloody mess, but he seemed to feel no pain, still giggling foolishly. In the firelight, he tugged at that bloody old skin, muttering: "Ripping it like this, it seems quite taut..."
As he thought this, he suddenly threw the bloody wrinkled skin into the fire...
He collapsed on the ground, a sinister smile at the corner of his mouth, his eyes went black, and he fainted...
With the burning pile of fire, after the bamboo scrolls and books burned out, there was nothing else to consume, the fire gradually weakened into ashes...
When the ashes extinguished, the cave went pitch black.
In the thick darkness, it was unknown whether Shang Xiangyu was dead or alive.
Over an hour later, as daylight gradually brightened, the faint daylight seeping through the side door, a faint light finally illuminated the dim side stone chamber.
The faint daylight lingered in the dim stone chamber for a long time, before Shang Xiangyu suddenly leaped up, as if recalling something.
He glanced at the black ash under the stone wall a short distance away, then quickly walked to the stone bed, rummaging in the pile of bamboo scrolls beside it.
At this point, the blood streaks in Shang Xiangyu’s eyes had faded, his eyes bright and spirited in the faint daylight.
In the hour of fainting just now, he suddenly thought of a method to solve the quandary of pill formation.
After rifling through two or three bamboo scrolls, he suddenly picked up a scroll and studied it closely, and after reading just a few lines, his eyes shone like stars.