There was no time for Bai Luochu to feel the pinch of her rapid spending as the gold coins she once had disappeared almost instantly. After exiting the merchant house, Bai Luochu hurried back to her prison cell.
When Bai Luochu arrived at the prison cell, a portion of the people who weren’t going to battle in the arena were already resting in the corner of their cells as they met with Duke Zhou[1] in their dreams.
One of them was bragging to the person next to his cell about surviving for another day without risking their life. Very few individuals were seated cross-legged in cultivation. They were the ones who were struggling to grasp a trace of hope to survive in the battle with the ferocious beasts when they had to in the near future.
Those who were still awake stopped speaking the moment Bai Luochu walked in. Even the braggart shut his mouth and those deep in cultivation opened their eyes. Countless eyes landed on Bai Luochu as she walked into her designated prison cell. Only after she entered her cell did they return to what they were doing. Within the next few moments, the prison cells returned to their original state.
Bai Luochu wasn’t afraid at all. When recalling her past life as an evil dao witch, there were plenty of people who had their eyes on her. They were both in the dark and in the light. If those countless gazes could materialize into flying blades, she would have been stabbed countless times and her body would be riddled with holes.
Compared to those so-called people of the righteous dao, the stares from everyone in the prison cells were much more genuine and virtuous.
Bai Luochu was thinking silently in her heart, “These people are probably unsatisfied with the fact that I obtained the spirit medicine and boldly consumed it in front of everyone. Either that or the gold coins..”
Well, it was really a pity as the rewards she had just obtained were completely spent.
The next thing she had to do was heal her injuries before starting to cultivate.
Right now, her meridians were closed and her spiritual energy wasn’t even one ten-thousandth of her pinnacle state. Without any self-preservation methods, she was truly going to face a hard time inside the b.e.s.t.i.a.l Battle Arena.
In the end, the facilities in the prison cell were too crude. Let alone the tools she needed to handle the herbs, she didn’t even have a bowl or basin. Bai Luochi had no choice but to use the most primitive method to solve her problem.
First, Bai Luochu chewed the herbs in her mouth and when the bitterness started to spread, she would spit it out onto her palm. She would then put the herbs on the injured area and wrap her arm firmly with bandages to prevent the wound from reopening.
She didn’t know if it was a psychological effect or the herbs taking effect... but the moment she completed her treatment, she felt as though the pain had reduced significantly and her movements felt much smoother.
It was time for the next step, tempering the silver needles. As an evil dao witch in the past, she was most proficient in handling poison!
Considering the state of her current body, she added in the wealth of knowledge she possessed in her previous life. She was extremely adept in the ways of poison and knew the flaws of the spirit beasts. Bai Luochu chose to use the silver needles tempered with poison to influence the spirit beasts’ movement. She would then take advantage of the time when the poison took effect to find the beast’s weak spot before killing it with a dagger in a single strike.
Since it was poison, it was natural for her to process the herbs differently.
Bai Luochu examined the prison cell and finally spotted a barely usable large rock in the corner of the cell. Taking off the sheet on her bed, she covered the stone plate on the ground before placing the poisonous plants down. She started to smash it with the rock she had just found.
Gradually, Bai Luochu managed to turn the poisonous plants into a paste. Taking out the silver needles hanging around her waist, she dipped a third of the needle into the poisonous plant paste. She patiently waited for the poison to seep into the needles.
Since Bai Luochu had focused all her attention on the poison, the time it took to burn two sticks of incense seemed like it pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. Keeping the silver needles one by one, she noticed that the tip was black as the entire needle emitted a blueish-green l.u.s.ter. She knew that the poison tempering was a complete success.
It might not be comparable to the poison needles she used in the past but it was definitely enough to deal with the low rank spirit beasts whose fatal weak points were known to her.
After taking out the silver needles and drying them, she strapped them onto her waist again. Bai Luochu then tore some clean cattail from her bed to wrap up the sheet stained with poison. In order to avoid rousing suspicion, Bai Luochu bundled it all up and chucked it to the corner of the cell.
After doing these two things, Bai Luochu sat in a position where her palms, feet, and head faced upwards. She started to meditate as she attempted to absorb heaven and earth spirit qi around her.
Bai Luochu gently closed her eyes and took an inner look at her spirit platform. She was pleasantly surprised to see a strand of spirit qi slowly forming as she quickly started to circulate her qi around her body. All she wanted was for the strand of spirit qi to move into her meridians.
Initially, her spirit qi was traveling smoothly through her meridians. However, when it approached an obstruction, her spirit qi quickly dissipated.
Bai Luochu opened her eyes abruptly and large beads of sweat rolled down from her forehead to her chin before dripping on the ground. This body was still too weak and a simple attempt to circulate qi required too much effort!
The more she thought about it, the bigger her frown became. A vexed feeling made its way into her heart.
Nevertheless, she was a pinnacle expert in her previous life and her mentality was naturally incomparable to ordinary people. A moment later, she regained her composure. If an ordinary person’s cultivation path was obstructed, they would definitely experience some mental hindrance. They might even walk down the wrong path of cultivation.
This cultivation process took up the entire day and the familiar sound of a gong interrupted Bai Luochu’s cultivation state.
“Gong! Gong! Gong!” The scheduled ear-piercing sound of the gong caused Bai Luochu to snap awake. She finally realized that she had spent most of her time cultivating.
“Get up quickly! Same old rules. In the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, you better be in the main hall! Don’t waste everyone’s time!”
The man ringing the gong looked at Bai Luochu, as if he had finally remembered there was a little lady in the cells.
The current Bai Luochu maintained her current state and didn’t move. When the person who rang the gong saw her, he couldn’t help but let out a disdainful scoff. Turning around, he muttered to himself, “She is just a wastrel with blocked meridians. Right now, she is just a lowly slave in the b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l Battle Arena. How dare she think of cultivating? Haha, what a joke.” After muttering under his breath, he walked towards the main hall.
Perhaps due to the absence of rewards, no one dawdled around and all of them quickly made their way to the main hall. There were more than 40 of them standing in the main hall the day before… however, the number seemed to have reduced by a whole lot. It was pretty obvious that those who entered the arena yesterday were food in the spirit beast’s belly.
“Ahem, everyone is here. Those names that I call out shall partic.i.p.ate in the battle today!” As the person ringing the gong completed his sentence, he took out a beast skin parchment and read out the names.
Bai Luochu’s brows suddenly jolted and an ominous premonition appeared in her heart. Before that premonition dissipated, the voice of the person who rang the gong resounded in her ears, “No.8 human slave, Luochu!”
1. Duke Zhou is also known as the G.o.d of Dreams