Chapter 113 Live Encounter
The downpour hadn’t stopped when the next morning arrived, the landscape outside still shrouded in a foggy mist. Within his shelter, Su Ming looked spent, but his eyes still shone with alertness.
On his right hand, a ball of black fluid pulsated as it seemingly attempted to coalesce. But after several attempts, it still could not amalgamate.
Su Ming remained unaffected as he continued to manipulate the flame in his hand. A moment later, the flame suddenly swelled into a ball of fire, entirely encompa.s.sing the black-coloured fluid within.
Following this, Su Ming’s face turned drained of blood. It was just too much for him to utilize the fire from his blood qi now that his body was in such a weakened state. Breathing coa.r.s.ely, the flame slowly dissipated from his right hand. Eventually, three black pills could be seen in his palm.
Catching wafts of the herbal aroma, Su Ming’s mind became alert at once. Placing the three pellets before him, he scrutinized them carefully. Although they were not green, their scent was familiar to Su Ming. Without hesitation, Su Ming took and placed one in his mouth. The pill was still warm, but this could not harm Su Ming.
It dissolved instantly in his mouth. Closing his eyes, Su Ming contemplated in silence.
“There are some differences, but this is certainly still an enlightenment pill.” Su Ming muttered as kept the remaining pills. The fatigue within him had dissipated quite a bit. Looking at the pile of herbs, he made a decision.
“Since the enlightenment pill can be made from a lightning-struck tree’s core, the same method should be usable for the southerner’s pill. But just what effect would it have… I am seventy percent confident that it would not increase blood qi like the mountain spirit pill. After all, the opening of the second door gave the recipe for three types of pills. Not counting the spirit gathering pill, the southerner’s pill is unlikely to replicate the mountain spirit pill’s effect of restoring blood qi.” Su Ming touched the center of his brows. He is placing his hopes on this southerner’s pill. If his a.n.a.lysis was wrong, he will be forced to leave this place in his weakened state to search for other methods of recovery outside.
Eventually Su Ming chose not to refine the southerner’s pill immediately, but rather he took a long rest to ensure an optimal state during refinement. It was only after an entire day’s rest and when the night fell that he began refining the southerner’s pill that is of utmost importance to him.
Time inched forward but quickly, half a month had pa.s.sed. Su Ming had already spent nearly two months in this unfamiliar land. As he refined the southerner’s pill for the last half a month, his body steadily grew weaker.
It was inevitable that he failed during his initial attempts at refining the pill. But with perseverance, he had finally succeeded in producing two southerner’s pills at the end of this fortnight.
His face was pale, yet Su Ming’s gaze was calm. He looked at the purple pellets that were slightly bigger than an enlightenment pill which gave off no aroma and looked ordinary.
Hesitating for a moment, Su Ming then took one of the pill and placed it in his mouth. Having been through so much, he was no longer an undiscerning child. Since he began refinement, besides unintended blood pills, his other products were of no harm. More significantly, he never spared even a pill to experiment with.
Inside his mouth, the pill did not dissolve immediately, but disintegrated into pieces instead. A bitterness seeped down his throat and diffused into his body. A moment later, Su Ming retrieved an enlightenment pill and swallowed it too.
Having d
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one this, Su Ming shut his eyes and meditated, feeling the effect of the southerner’s pill as his circulated his blood.
Time inched forward and an hour later, Su Ming’s body suddenly shuddered. Two hundred and thirty four blood veins surfaced on his body, but only slightly more than eighty shone red, the rest were dim.
The shaking of his body became even more intense and Su Ming’s expression was one of pain. An instant later, his eye suddenly opened and he spat a mouthful of black blood. Landing on the ground, the black blood gave off a putrid, rotting stench.
Su Ming’s face flushed the instant the black blood was expelled. Out of the dimmed blood veins across his body, nearly ten got rejuvenated and gradually emanated a red glow.
After a long while, Su Ming’s breathing eased, and he looked at the remaining southerner’s pill in his hand.
“This southerner’s pill has healing properties! If only I had made them before the tribal conflict…” Closing his eyes, Su Ming gave a soft sigh.
On this mountain range in the depths of the rainforest, Su Ming settled down. He rarely ventured out, and when he did, it was only to collect herbs or lambent twigs when his supply depleted.
Fortunately, the rainforest was so vast that lightning-struck trees were not a rarity. A single one of it could provide him with large supplies of refinement materials.
Time waits for no one and in the blink of an eye, a year had pa.s.sed.
During this period, six months went without the rain, nor snow that Su Ming was familiar with. It was as though this land had no winter.
The extent of his injuries were very severe. After a year on conspicuous amounts of southerner’s pills, he had only recovered about a hundred and ninety blood veins, still quite some distance away his peak condition.
Over this year, on several occasions when he went herb-gathering, he spotted traces of man-made tracks. He even once saw a group of over ten that was hunting a giant python in the rain forest.
These man-cultivators were of the fifth to sixth layer of blood condensation. One of the young man had even reached the the seventh. From the bearing of those around him, he seemed to possess some influence.
Their clothes were not made from beast hide, but rough cloth. Most wielded a spear for a weapon, a few had bows. Moreover, a black-coloured, belled-wristguard was tied to all of their wrist, but it never gave off a sound.
While everyone else had only one bell on each wrist guard, that young man had two. However, Su Ming noticed that among them that, an adolescent of the fifth layer of blood condensation whom seemed pale and ill, was guarded by those around him. On his wrist, he saw four bells.
This was a tribe completely distinct from that of Wu Shan and Feng Zhen, and Su Ming chose not to close the distance between them as he kept watch. Even so, the young man of the seventh layer of blood condensation still managed to sense something amiss. He did not make a sound, and while pretending that everything was normal, slowly moved towards Su Ming’s location.
To Su Ming however, his actions were still amateurish. Turning his body around, Su Ming left, knowing that the group cannot at all catch up to his speed.
Su Ming did not pay attention to those people, but continued his search for herbs. When dusk approached, he b.u.mped into the group once more on his return trip.
While guarding the adolescent with four bells, the group was pitching a simple makeshift tent to spend the night in the rain forest.
Resting against a tree with his spear in hand, the young man’s eyes glinted as he kept watch of the surroundings.
Some distance away, Su Ming laid low among the branches of tree, looking at the group. His eyes flashed, even though he has yet to restore his full cultivation base, he could still fight. He desired to know where he was, as well as what tribes there were in the vicinity.
However, it was obvious that the group was distrustful of outsiders. If he approached them like this, the other party might just attack without listening to him at all.
Lowering his gaze, Su Ming retreated backwards without a trace, disappearing into the rainforest. Time trickled by. Two hours later, the group had lit a campfire to dissipate the dampness of the night. Suddenly, the young man’s expression changed, and his grip on his spear tightened.
At the same time, a few others have also sensed that something was amiss. Following immediately, the roar of a beast rumbled from the dark of the rainforest. A tiger-like creature suddenly pounced forth, charging towards the group. Its back was full of razor-sharp spines nearly a feet long.
“A black-thorned beast!” Some in the group yelled out in shock as the situation began to get messy.
“This creature is drawn to fire, quickly douse the flames!” The young man of the seventh layer of blood condensation called out at once. Spear in hand, he dashed towards the beast. The beast was strong, the equivalent of the seventh layer of blood condensation, and was a match for the young man.
The instant he left the group to engage the black-spined beast, his tribesmen extinguished the campfire. The surroundings became pitch-black at once. In the span of time it took for their vision to adjust to the darkness, a silhouette darted in their direction at lightning speed, towards the adolescent under their protection.
So fast was his speed such that by the time the others could react, he was already beside the adolescent. Without giving him a chance to retaliate, the silhouette pressed his palm on the adolescent’s neck, knocking him out before wrapping him under his arm. With another flash he was gone.
The rest of the group was stunned, and their faces fell. Even the young man’s expression became severe at once. He wanted to give chase but was unable to repel the black-spined beast. With this slight delay, the silhouette, together with the adolescent, had disappeared into the distance.
Su Ming hurried forth within the rainforest, the adolescent wrapped in one arm. He did not have a vengeance against the group, and so will not kill without reason. Even the beast that he lured was one that they could repel without the risk of death.
His target was just this adolescent. His status was certainly special, and so would know much. Su Ming to find out where this place was, and he had to do this.
“Answer my questions, and you are free to go.” Su Ming’s figure blinked within the rainforest as he hasten towards the distance. After making a detour, he arrived at a desolated corner of the rainforest. Placing the adolescent down, he crouched and watched him, and seemed to gain some understanding.
On the first occasion he set his eyes on the adolescent, he could see that something was off. Their contact earlier confirmed his guess. After some pondering, Su Ming retrieved a southerner’s pill and enlightenment pill and placed them on the adolescent’s mouth.
Slowly, he took some steps backwards. Taking out a piece of beast hide obtained from a year of hunting from a tattered sack, he placed it over himself, covering his torso and face, before sitting on a tree not far away.
Picking up a small fragment of wood, he flicked it lightly, aimed at the adolescent’s forehead, with just sufficient force to wake him.
Coming to his senses, the adolescent opened his eyes. His initial confusion quickly faded into calmness. Even though his face was sickly pale, it did not reveal fear. Instead, he looked at the cloak-covered Su Ming who sat close by.
“Who are you!”