Tainted Blood

by Tinalynge

  “No, although there might be one or two trying to do so, the majority won’t. We of the Garden of Shadows are righteous people,” the man declared with a grin, not insulted in the least.

  “I see, well in that case it is great for us,” Xue Wei agreed readily. “We are on our way to the gathering point now,” the man who had spoken before said with his friendly voice. “Why not follow us? We will help you find the others and then we can set out all together.”

  Xue Wei was not very used to people being this friendly towards him. He had been told that they would be looked at with disdain, and although some did look down upon them, the majority of the people he had interacted with so far had been very friendly and open.

  It was in complete contrast to how people had been behaving towards him back in Chang’an. The feeling of being accepted was truly great.

  Together, the two groups made their way towards the gathering point. On the way, they engaged in idle chatter with one another.

  “I know you are from outside of the continent,” the one who had been speaking before once more spoke with Xue Wei, his curiosity clearly showing on his face.

  “We are,” Xue Wei acknowledged.

  “Well, what is the outside world like?” The one who spoke was named You Shan. He had been a student at the Garden of Shadow for three years now. He had been on various missions within Yan Dalu so far, but he had never before left the continent. In fact, almost no one was allowed to leave as it was almost impossible to survive the journey through the sea if one was not guided by the envoys.

  “I don’t know about other continents, but we came from Chang’an. It is rather far away from here,” Xue Wei said honestly. “On Chang’an, spiritual energy is also cultivated, but the majority specialize in Qi. There is a constant war raging between the Primordial Beasts and the humans.”

  Xue Wei did not withhold much information. Even if this person wished to visit Chang’an, it would be impossible. They had only managed to get there by relying on the trans-dimensional tunnel that Lan had made.

  In fact, they were unsure of where in the world they actually were. It was clearly Yan Dalu, but where in the world was Yan Dalu located? None of them knew. Even the people of Yan Dalu were unsure as they never really left.

  “A continent where Primordial Beasts and humans are constantly fighting?” You Shan was shocked. “Why would they fight? Humans and Primordial Beasts have a lot in common. They are able to fight side by side, their intellect is quite similar, and their goals in life are not too different either. Of course, it is impossible to start a family across races, but that does not mean you have to fight one another.”

  “Well, it seems as if the continent of Chang’an has been at war for many millennia. There was a time when the humans lived as slaves and livestock to the Primordial Beasts, but one day they rose in a rebellion and fought for their freedom.

  “They overthrew the power of the beasts, but they could not wipe them out. As a result, all of them are now fighting for supremacy in the continent.”

  “In Chang’an, we have legends about other continents, but we were sure that the other continents were only myth. The inhabitants of Chang’an are too busy fighting amongst themselves. They cannot focus on the outside world.”

  “I see.” You Shan went silent. “In that case, I actually don’t think Yan Dalu is so bad.”

  “Although we have bandits and schemes run deeply in the royal court, we are not in constant war.” After comparing their two worlds, You Shan suddenly felt very satisfied with living in Yan Dalu.

  As they spoke, they spotted a large group of experts in the distance. Many of these people were three-eyed. A few were two-eyed and four-eyed.

  The two-eyed were all Primordial Beasts, and they had all turned around to look at the groups led by You Shan and Xue Wei as they headed towards the gathering point.

  When they saw them, some looked with disdain at Xue Wei, but the majority knew that this group of two-eyed experts were from outside of Yan Dalu, and thus, although they had some ingrown disdain towards two-eyed experts, they could not look down on Xue Wei and his friends as they normally would.

  Many also had curiosity in their gazes, and as Xue Wei looked around, he also saw Tang Jiu.

  Noticing Tang Jiu, he saw that the man was moving towards him, with a great smile on his face.

  “My brother!” he called out, stunning Xue Wei. Were they really close enough to consider each other brothers? This was kinda weird.

  When they had met the first time, Xue Wei had felt that Tang Jiu was very arrogant, but seeing him now, this arrogance was completely gone. Instead, there was gratitude in his eyes when he looked at Xue Wei.

  “I have to thank you for helping me break through to the Ordinary Knight rank!” he exclaimed, not lowering his voice at all, and many close by heard it. They perked their ears and listened in on the conversation.

  “The pill you gave me must have been a very rare item, no?” he asked, slightly embarrassed, but Xue Wei just shook his head.

  “It is a pill I learned to refine on the way to Yan Dalu. It is not very rare, but I do not know whether or not the herbs exist here in Yan Dalu, so as to how rare they are here, I do not know.”

  How could Xue Wei not know that Tang Liu wanted to get his hands on even more of these pills, most likely to share them with his friends?

  Although Xue Wei had the materials on him to create around a thousand of these pills, he would never admit it. They were made to increase the absorption of the essence of the heavens and the earth. It could be used to increase one’s cultivation. Since they could help him, why would he give them away for free?

  On the other hand, if they brought their own materials, creating the pills was no problem. He would gain experience in pill concocting at the same time as he would increase his spiritual energy. Only an idiot would decline.

  “What materials do you need?” Tang Liu asked curiously. His eyes were shining. Xue Wei took out the requisite herbs from his storage ring.

  “I need Copper-Leafed Magnolia as the main component of the pill, and on the side of the Magnolia I also need a Spiritual Orange Blossom and a Thousand Nebula Flower.”

  The three herbs he mentioned were indeed the three herbs needed for the Spring Powder Pill. The reason he took out the herbs was because he was unsure of what they might call the plants on this continent.

  It was hard to say if they had the same herbs but called them different names. It was another continent after all.

  Chapter 49 - Bandit’s Lair

  “We have them,” Tang Liu said hesitatingly as he looked at the three herbs in Xue Wei’s hand.

  “But they are rarely used since they are mainly aimed at Qi cultivators. It is not something that I am carrying with me right now, nor are the other cultivators that specialize in spiritual energy.”

  “I have a couple hundred of each,” one of the Primordial Beasts suddenly said, stunning everyone present. Although they were listening in on the conversation, they had never expected that someone would jump into the conversation, but all of them were elated by his words.

  “Let me buy a set!” someone exclaimed instantly, and when one began, another took over and soon everyone was gathering around the Primordial Beast to buy his herbs.

  “How many pills can you make from these herbs?” the Primordial Beast ignored the many spiritual energy three-eyed and even four-eyed experts in front of him and asked Xue Wei.

  Looking at the mountain of herbs that appeared in front of them, Xue Wei did a slight calculation.

  “The quality of these herbs is rather high. If I distill them a few times, I should be able to make high purity pills, and I should have the ability to make around a hundred and seventy pills from your herbs.”

  “How long does it take you to make that many pills?” the Primordial Beast asked again. This time, Xue Wei was slightly hesitant.

  He walked to the herbs and looked them over again. Although he had made a rough, averag
ed estimate of the quality, he had to respond differently to each herb to know how many times he had to distill them before he knew exactly how long it would take him.

  “I think it will take me around a day and a night to create all those pills,” Xue Wei said honestly. The Primordial Beast was now the one to descend into silence.

  He looked around and did a headcount.

  “We have a hundred and fifty-seven experts here who focus on spiritual energy. I would like to request you to make a pill for each of them,” he said seriously.

  “I will be shouldering the expense of the plants. I will not ask for money for these herbs, I just want us to increase our fighting strength before we go to the bandit lair.”

  The Primordial Beast was quite a straightforward man. He was very honest and selfless. He wanted to help everyone, but mostly because he looked at the greater picture.

  He understood that if they wanted a chance to survive the raid on the bandit’s lair, then they needed to be as prepared as possible.

  Xue Wei understood this as well and did not ask for compensation for his labor.

  Instead, he found a place in the grass and sat down. He took out his cauldron from the storage ring and lit it with his spiritual energy.

  He then began working. Everyone looked at him with curiosity. Alchemists were in no way rare in Yan Dalu. In fact, alchemists and formation masters were rather common because it was only natural that spiritual energy professions, in a continent where spiritual energy was the main method of cultivation, were everywhere.

  However, the alchemists only had pills that specialized for spiritual energy. They had nothing that helped the physical body or Qi enhancement.

  Since this was the case, everyone was curious about how he created the pills.

  Xue Wei grabbed a handful of all three herbs and tossed them into the cauldron. Seeing his actions, many’s eyes widened in surprise and shock. This was not the way of creating pills they had learned.

  They had been taught by someone who had learned the trade earlier and it was passed down through countless years, but Xue Wei was self-taught. He had learned that adding all herbs and distilling them at once was the easiest.

  He continued to distill the herbs before he slowly merged them with one another. The process was painfully slow and it took him a full hour to finish the first batch of medicine, but as soon as the hour was over, a scent wafted out of the cauldron and Xue Wei reached out his hand and grabbed the nine pills of Spring Powder Pills he had just created.

  “Here,” he said and handed them to the Primordial Beast who was the owner of the herbs. He would not handle the distribution of the pills as he was already busy concocting them, so he left that job to the Primordial Beast, who quickly gave out the nine pills.

  The nine people who were given the Spring Powder Pills were filled with excitement. Smiles were on their faces as they sat down and calmed themselves.

  Amongst the nine who got the pills were five four-eyed experts. These were the only four-eyed experts in the entire group. No one questioned their right to be the first to get the pills. This was the hierarchy of Yan Dalu; the number of eyes one had truly mattered.

  Xue Wei did not waste any time. As soon as he had finished the first batch of pills, he reached out and took another stack of herbs before he began refining once again.

  This process repeated itself three times before he had used up all his spiritual energy. He then popped a different pill into his mouth—it was a pill that increased spiritual energy. And then he sat down to meditate.

  At the current point in time, seven of the first had already broken through to the Ordinary Knight rank, while another twenty were still cultivating, trying their best to absorb the energy and break through.

  Like this, the day and the night passed. More and more sat down on the ground and cultivated, while the Primordial Beasts all kept watch of the surroundings and protecting them as they cultivated.

  As the hours passed, more and more woke up from cultivation. Smiles were evident on all faces, and the glances that were sent to Xue Wei were filled with reverence and respect. Although he only had two eyes, he had done something that caused them all to respect him and acknowledge him.

  As the sun rose in the sky the next day, Xue Wei finally stood up and stretched his body. He was sore in every inch of his body as he handed the final pills over to the Primordial Beast. Afterwards, he found a few spiritual fruits that had been stored in snow jade boxes.

  Although they were months old, they were all fresh and juicy. He picked a few and started eating them before sitting down and cultivating.

  These spiritual fruits had the ability to restore spiritual energy and physical strength. That was the reason he had picked especially these fruits.

  As the time neared lunchtime, everyone had awakened from their cultivation. All of them were now Ordinary Knights in terms of Qi cultivation level, which was something that made Xue Wei gape in astonishment. These multi-eyed experts were truly god’s favorite children.

  All the experts present were in high spirits. Their bodies were bursting with a strength they had never felt before, and on the way towards the bandit lair, they all tried to get used to their newfound strength.

  Although they now had much more physical strength than in the past, they also understood that they could only use this physical strength defensively.

  They had no martial arts that could make them use their physical strength in battle, but now that their bodies were stronger, they would be able to sustain more damage before drawing blood.

  “On behalf of our group, I would like to thank you for your assistance,” one of the four-eyed experts went next to Xue Wei and nodded his head.

  “We were originally expecting at least half of us to leave our lives behind in this assault on the bandit lair, but with your assistance and our newfound strength, we might be able to leave less than one third behind.”

  “Are the bandits truly that much of a challenge?” Xue Wei could not help but ask. He knew nothing about the actual strength of the bandit leader and his top people.

  “There are seven four-eyed cultivators beneath the bandit leader. The bandit leader is a Primordial Beast. He is a ninth layered Earth Knight, and his original shape is an Ivory Blight Boar and it’s not to be slighted. His bloodline is incredibly pure and he has some outstanding physical strength.”

  “Although he does not focus on spiritual energy, he is considered a very dangerous foe. He has a movement technique that allows him to teleport, and as soon as he gets close to your body, you are likely to die.”

  “He has innate abilities, something that is able to make him even stronger. I know you have quite some strong experts on your side, but do you think you can hold him down?”

  Xue Wei pondered for some time and then nodded his head. “If all four of us go together, we can take him down,” he agreed. “But if we do that, we will lose out on merits, and merits are very much what we need right now.”

  “The merits from taking down the leader of the bandit group surpasses the sum of taking down the rest of the bandits,” the four-eyed expert assured Xue Wei, who then nodded his head.

  “Since that is the case, just leave the boar to us. You guys can focus on taking care of the small fries then. Try to not let anyone die,” Xue Wei said.

  While they spoke, they had been marching at a fast pace deeper into the grassland. However, even though they had encountered corpses on the way, they had not seen anyone alive.

  The tension in the atmosphere intensified as they came closer and closer to the bandit lair. It was clear that every bandit had been called back to their lair.

  “What is the lair like?” Xue Wei could not help but ask. The four-eyed expert by his side answered honestly.

  “It is an old castle. At the very end of the grassy expanse is a mountain, and the castle is carved out from the mountainside. It is indeed a fortress and breaking in will be difficult. That is also why I expect we will lose quite a fe
w men in the process.”

  Xue Wei nodded his head. It made sense that they would have some strong foothold.

  They marched a full two days and two nights before they finally reached the end of the grasslands. Being this deep in, everyone was tense and worried, but the long travel had also allowed them to become much more familiar with their newfound strengths.

  The sun was rising on the horizon, casting its rays upon the grassland and the mountain wall in the distance.

  A large fortress had been carved into the mountain wall itself. It looked dominating and overwhelming, its sheer size so magnificent that it could take the breath away from anyone who saw it.

  This was the bandit’s lair. This was where Xue Wei’s and his friends’ first real battle in Yan Dalu would be held.