Day and night tour

Chapter 496 Past Events of Alchemy

"Changxun, is it you who did this?" Yun Ziliang felt that the eerie wind was not right and asked Li Changxun.

Li Changxun was enjoying the mellow taste of the rice wine when Yun Ziliang suddenly asked him a question, which caught him off guard.

"what?"

"Why is there an eerie wind in this shop? Are you controlling the wind?"

“Grandmaster, you’re talking nonsense. The door wasn’t closed properly, and the wind got in. And now you want me to take the blame?” Li Changxun muttered. “Besides, maybe Hua Zi came back to life and brought the eerie wind from East Market Street, which then flowed into the shop.”

Tonight was unusual anyway. Yun Ziliang pondered what Li Changxun said and thought it made sense, so he simply stopped talking and continued drinking.

The pendulum was still swinging, and the three of them drank for another twenty minutes. Several cups of yellow wine had been consumed. Zhao Wuyai's position was directly opposite the shop door. He looked at the shop door and saw a faint, ethereal shadow appear.

"what?"

Zhao Wuyai rubbed his eyes, staring at the shop entrance with great surprise, and said, "That's strange. Mu Hua's resurrection should have been placed in Sister Cui's restaurant by 'Heaven and Earth,' so why did she end up in our shop?"

"..." After hearing Zhao Wuyai's inexplicable remark, Yun Ziliang also turned his head to look. He saw a blurry figure sitting in front of the shop, but after only a glance, he immediately cursed Zhao Wuyai.
"Ya Zi, what kind of eyes do you have? That's not Hua Zi, that's Xuan Zi."

"Xuan-ge'er?"

Zhao Wuyai got off the table, leaned closer to the phantom, looked at it again, but still couldn't recognize it. He asked Yun Ziliang, "Grandmaster, Mu Hua and Xuan Ge'er look exactly alike, and this is just a phantom. How can you be so sure that he is Xuan Ge'er?"

"Can he observe life?"

After taking a swig of wine, Yun Ziliang said, "Mu Hua came from a poor background and has a deep-seated inferiority complex, which is why his back is always slightly hunched."

Xuanzi, that kid, is always so flamboyant and confident in everything he does, so he always sits with his back perfectly straight. I, Old Yun, can tell the difference between them at a glance.”

With Yun Ziliang's guidance, Zhao Wuyai examined the text more carefully and found that it really made sense.

"I didn't realize you had such hidden talents, Grandmaster. You've learned a lot from Xuan-ge'er's keen observation skills."

"Stop talking nonsense and come over for a drink." Yun Ziliang beckoned.

Zhao Wuyai asked, "So you're not going to take care of Xuan-ge'er? He's sitting right here at the door."

"Why are you worried about him? He's now both a sorcerer and a swordsman, possessing incredible skills. Who knows what he's practicing now? Why should we care what he's doing?"

After Yun Ziliang shouted, Zhao Wuyai thought about it and realized it made sense. He returned to his seat and continued to shout and even started playing drinking games.

Zhou Xuan's illusory image slowly became more real.

When his body was completely intact, Zhou Xuan felt dizzy and his mind was in great confusion.

He let out a "whoosh" and lay down on the spot, his back drenched in cold sweat and his body chilled.

"Oh, why is Xuanzi lying down?"

Yun Ziliang said he was drinking and playing drinking games, but his attention was also partly on Zhou Xuan. When he saw Zhou Xuan lie down, he quickly asked Zhao Wuya to get a thin blanket.

With the blanket draped over him, the icy feeling on Zhou Xuan's skin subsided considerably.

Zhao Wuyai chimed in from the side, "Brother Xuan, did you practice some kind of evil technique and go mad? I've heard from others that going mad can cause you to lose your manhood and you won't be able to woo girls anymore."

Zhou Xuancai snapped out of his strange "dream," his body stiff and unable to make any big movements, so he simply beckoned to Zhao Wuyai with his finger.

When Zhao Wuyai saw this, he leaned closer. As soon as he got close, Zhou Xuan flicked his forehead and then gave him a brief scolding: "You have such a sharp tongue."

"He can still curse and hit people, Grandmaster, Xuan-ge'er is alright." Zhao Wuyai said happily.

"Nothing serious is likely to happen."

Yun Ziliang poured a cup of hot water into the thermos, mixed it with some cooled boiled water, helped Zhou Xuan sit up, and fed him the water.

After Zhou Xuan finished drinking the water, he felt much better. He was finally able to pull the blanket around himself and said, "Old Yun, Mountain Ancestor, Ya Zi, aren't we all on the same side?"

"of course."

Zhao Wuya spoke first.

Li Changxun and Yun Ziliang nodded hastily.

They dare not speak for others, but the three of them had an absolute, life-or-death bond with Zhou Xuan, so how could they be so distant?

Zhou Xuan then said, "I'll take you somewhere, and you can help me make some decisions."

"Go ahead, I'm bored anyway," Li Changxun said casually.

Yun Ziliang and Zhao Wuya naturally did not object.

Zhou Xuan nodded, his mind connecting with the stone temple in the secret realm. Then, with a wave of his right hand, a small temple appeared in the purification shop.

As soon as the temple gates opened, they led Yun, Zhao, Zhou, and Li into the temple.

Then, the stone temple continued to descend, ensuring that no one could hear anything happening inside.

To be honest, when this temple was receiving visitors, it was completely dark inside; looking into it from the outside, it was utter darkness.

But once everyone entered the temple, several torches inside were lit simultaneously.
Everyone immediately noticed that there was a child in the temple, with his head down, reciting scriptures.

Li Changxun had the sharpest eyesight; he recognized her at a glance and exclaimed in utter astonishment, "Isn't that Dan Yao? Dan Yao is still alive?"

"I am Danzi, not Danyao."

Danzi found the word "demon" rather jarring and couldn't help but remind everyone.

Yun Ziliang circled Danzi for a long time before sighing, "Xuanzi, I've always known you're bold, but I never imagined you were this bold. To dare use such tricks in front of 'Heaven and Earth,' Baiyujing, and the Heavenly Vault, allowing Danzi to escape unscathed."

"Danzi..."

Danzi's reminder had some effect; at least when Zhao Wuyai spoke again, he addressed him correctly.

"Brother Xuan, could this pill also be one you refined?" Zhao Wuya asked.

“That’s natural,” Zhou Xuan said.
"I refined two pills: one is a Qi Pill, the one that was sold to 'Heaven and Earth' as ​​a source of energy; the other is a Human Pill, the one you see here."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wuyai disregarded his own decorum and, like a strange uncle, suddenly hugged Danzi tightly, constantly sniffing the scent emanating from her body.

Danzi was very annoyed and tried to push Zhao Wuya away.

"Don't move, little one. Let me smell the aroma of the pills... I've spent half a steel mill refining pills, and they're all fake. Today I'm finally seeing the real thing... Hiss... It smells like medicine. It really does smell like medicine. This aroma is so authentic."

Zhao Wuyai couldn't hide his excitement, but Zhou Xuan persuaded him to stay calm: "Yaizi, don't be impulsive. Watch your words and actions. You're acting like a tram pervert and a Tuen Mun lecher right now."

"Don't embarrass us dragon hunters."

Yun Ziliang gave Zhao Wuyai a sharp rap on the head and dragged him away.

Zhou Xuan said to Yun Ziliang, "Old Yun, this Danzi says that in our Jing Kingdom, there is an invisible and intangible Danmu. He wants us to help him find the Danmu, and he has also set a price."

"What's his price?" Yun Ziliang and Zhou Xuan had been together for a while, and they had become a bit "mercenary."

Zhou Xuan said, "He said he wanted to help me get to know the State of Jing again."

Then, Zhou Xuan recounted in detail how the elixir had been infused into his flesh and blood, and how he had entered a strange space.

After listening, Li Changxun said to Zhou Xuan, "Master, you said you entered a strange space. Is that a side effect of taking the Human Pill?"

"Have you taken any pills?"

Zhou Xuan asked.

"The celestial elixirs are graded and named according to the twelve two-hour periods of the day. When I was in the Celestial Realm, I was relatively junior and consumed eleventh-grade Xu elixirs and twelfth-grade Hai elixirs, whose medicinal properties were mainly for preserving youth and nourishing the body."
However, one year, a celestial crane from the heavens also gave me a level ten You Dan (a type of medicinal pill), which granted me a peculiar power after consumption.

Li Changxun looked up at the temple roof and said, "After taking the medicine, I looked at the people of Jing Kingdom and felt that Jing Kingdom was in ruins, with rotting corpses and people covered in sores everywhere."

"In the heavens, I cannot move freely. Occasionally, I've heard other gods mention that they call the human world 'the Sick Village.'"

"At that time, I felt that the desolation of the world that I saw was an illusion created for me by the ginseng."

As soon as Li Changxun finished speaking, Danzi sneered again, "Another pitiful person who treats the truth as an illusion."

After repeatedly saying "poor thing, poor thing" several times, he lowered his head and chanted scriptures. His behavior was quite contemptuous, as if he were a child who could not be taught or a piece of rotten wood that could not be carved.

Zhou Xuan asked Li Changxun, "Then was my dream, in which there was a fire tower in the East Market Street, all an illusion?"

"If it were me in the past, I would have thought it was an illusion, but now... Mr. Da is talking about it in such a detailed way that I'm not sure."

Zhou Xuan then asked Yun Ziliang, "Old Yun, what do you say? Old Yun, Old Yun..."

Everyone immediately noticed that Yun Ziliang was standing there, stunned and silent.

"Old Yun, what are you thinking about?" Zhou Xuan leaned close to Yun Ziliang and scolded him again.

The shout was so loud that Yun Ziliang was startled and shuddered: "What, what?"

"What were you thinking about just now?"

Zhou Xuan asked. A look of sorrow appeared in Yun Ziliang's eyes, and he stammered, "I...I...I think...I also took the Human Pill once."

"What?" Zhou Xuan could hardly believe his ears.

Li Changxun, standing to the side, scoffed, "Grandmaster, some pills you've never taken are simply never taken. There's no need to pretend you take them all the time."

"I really have eaten it."

Yun Ziliang said, "I didn't know it was a human pill before, but after hearing Xuanzi's description just now, I realized that I had taken a human pill before."

"When did you eat this?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"Three hundred years ago... before Hidden Dragon Mountain was completely massacred."

Yun Ziliang recalled his experience of consuming the elixir years ago, saying, "Before the incident at Canglong Mountain, I was traveling around. It was during that time that I teamed up with Brother Peng to travel west in search of the dragon."
Meanwhile, in Hidden Dragon Mountain, one of my junior brothers was obsessed with alchemy and elixirs. He not only refined elixirs day and night, but also loved writing "alchemy texts," one of which was called—"The Search for Elixir Something Something Carriage."

“The Miscellaneous Records of Seeking Elixir and Startling Dragons,” Zhao Wuyai said, reciting a book title.

Yun Ziliang clapped his hands together and said, "That's right, that's right, it's 'The Miscellaneous Records of Seeking Elixir and Startling Dragon'. Ya Zi, how did you know the name of this alchemical text?"

Zhao Wuyai gritted his teeth and said, "I refined the pills according to this alchemy manual... and half a steel mill was turned into a pile of slag."

Yun Ziliang: "..."

Zhou Xuan: "..."

Zhou Xuan couldn't help but shake his head, saying that this was fate; the Dragon-Seeking Pill Scripture from three hundred years ago had tricked a young disciple seeking dragons three hundred years later.
It was only because Zhao Wuyai had a wealthy family that he could refine pills like that. If it were any other disciple, they would have been ruined long ago.

Yun Ziliang continued, "After I returned to Canglong Mountain from my travels, my junior brother often let me taste the pills he refined."

"How was the result?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"The effect is better than taking those miracle pills sold on the street."

Yun Ziliang said, "The 'power pills' on the street are just mixed with some herbal powder, flour, and talisman ash. Eating too much of them is not good for your health. I dare not say about other pills, but at least they are not harmful to your health."

"So, the pills your junior brother refined were also fake?"

“Who says otherwise?” Yun Ziliang said.

Zhou Xuan then remembered that after he first learned about "alchemy," he returned to Jingyi Shop and asked Zhao Wuyai whether the matter of alchemy was true or false.

Zhao Wuyai cursed, saying that alchemy was the most shameless thing in the world.

Then, Zhou Xuan asked Yun Ziliang,
Yun Ziliang also said that "alchemy is the most useless thing in the world." So both of them were deceived by Yun Ziliang's junior brother's "alchemy".
A fake alchemist, spanning three hundred years, tricked the Grand Master of Dragon Seeking and his junior disciple. This... is probably what Taoists call "Taoist affinity".

Yun Ziliang continued, "However, the pills my junior brother refined weren't entirely useless. Three days before the massacre at Canglong Mountain, my junior brother refined a batch of pills..."

That batch of pills contained only one pill. The pill shimmered with iridescent light, and after I consumed it, I felt as if I had entered a dreamlike state.

"What kind of dream is it?" Zhou Xuan asked.

Yun Ziliang said, "I also saw a fire tower, and then I saw many demons and monsters appearing at the foot of Hidden Dragon Mountain, which was very terrifying."

"What happens next?"

"Then, I can't remember the scenes in the dream very clearly," Yun Ziliang said. "But that dream lasted for a long time. When I opened my eyes again, it was three days later, and Canglong Mountain was brutally massacred."

At this point, Yun Ziliang recalled, "By the way, Xuanzi, there is one difference between my dream and yours."

"Where?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"You said that in your dream, you had no supernatural powers and didn't even dare to jump off a building tens of meters high by yourself."
But I am not like that. In my dream, my supernatural powers are like 'the will descending to earth,' capable of swallowing the sun and moon, plucking stars from the sky. The lantern I carry is without light or fire. I pluck starlight and pour it into the cage, illuminating Hidden Dragon Mountain brightly..."

"Hoo ho ho!"

When Yun Ziliang recounted his experience of consuming the elixir, the elixir-bearer burst out laughing.

Zhao Wuyai stood up for his grandmaster and scolded, "Kid, what are you laughing at?"

"Not all human pills are the same."

“My Danzi, with its blood and flesh sacrificed to create pills, can help you to see the Jing Kingdom in a new light, but the human pills that old man took can only make him worry about the unpredictable rise and fall of the kingdom.”

Danzi raised his head and looked at Zhou Xuan with his snow-white eyes, saying, "What you saw was real." He then pointed to Yun Ziliang and said, "What he saw... was an illusion."

Zhou Xuan asked, "They're all human pills, so why is there such a big difference?"

"The difference isn't that great, so why does the Heavenly Vault divide pills into different grades?" Danzi said.

Zhao Wuyai then said, "You mean, my grandmaster was tricked by my great-uncle and ate a low-quality human pill?"

Danzi shook his head and said solemnly, "Human pills are a vast system. Besides the differences in grade, there are also differences in type."

Some human elixirs are created specifically to corrupt people's minds, causing them to become mentally unstable and confused.

Judging from the dream described by the old gentleman, the elixir his junior brother refined was of a high grade, at least at the level of a seventh-grade elixir.
However, the elixirs he concocted primarily had the effect of corrupting people's minds.

Danzi said, "A pill refiner who can refine pills of level seven or above is not so common in Jing Kingdom. Old sir, your junior brother has been hiding his talents."

The meaning behind his words couldn't be clearer—Yun Ziliang's junior brother was already a master alchemist before he refined that human pill, but he must have had a purpose in refining fake pills every day.

"What purpose could he possibly have? We Dragon Seekers are all free spirits."

Yun Ziliang murmured.

Zhou Xuan then asked Yun Ziliang, "Old Yun, what's your junior brother's name? With such high alchemy skills, he must be quite a figure in the alchemy circle."

"His name is Yun Ziyan, and the people of Canglong Mountain all call him 'Master Ziyan.'"

"I can help you find out if there is a person named Yun Ziyan among the alchemists in the Sky Dome."

Zhou Xuan originally wanted to meet with Yun Ziliang and Li Changxun to see Danzi and help confirm whether the dream was due to the effects of the human pill or the real Jing Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, this incident stirred up a past event of Yun Ziliang's, which led to the discovery of an alchemist named "Yun Ziyan".

"Alright, let's leave the stone temple first." Zhou Xuan felt that there was no point in continuing the secret meeting, so he waved his hand to make the stone temple sink and return to the real world.

Danzi then asked, "Mr. Zhou, is it possible for us to form a cooperative relationship?"

"Let me think about the cooperation for a couple more days."

Zhou Xuan did not make up his mind to cooperate with Danzi.

……

After the three of them came out of the stone temple, Zhou Xuan called out to Xiao Fuzi, and then woke up the dozing White Deer Taoist from the secret realm, and invited them to go out for breakfast together.

By this time, it was already mostly daylight.

When everyone came out of the shop, the doors of Sister Cui's restaurant were tightly closed.

Xiao Fuzi asked, "Young Master, do you think Hua Zi has returned?"

"I don't know. I'll ask Sister Cui when she opens her door."

Zhou Xuan led the group eastward along the street. To the east, there was a sesame seed cake shop that also sold soft drinks and meat soup, which tasted pretty good.

As they walked towards the restaurant, they came across a paper horse shop where a funeral was being held.

This funeral was not held for a customer, but because Yu Guisheng, the owner of the paper horse shop, had passed away.

"Why did Old Yu suddenly leave?" Zhou Xuan, seeing that it was a neighbor who had passed away, asked the "concierge" for an incense stick and lit one for Old Yu.

At the same time, he took out two whole bills from his wallet and placed them under the bronze incense burner on the incense table.

After offering incense and gifts, one can then admire the statue.

They're all neighbors, and this whole process has to be followed.

Zhou Xuan walked around the coffin, intending to finish after just one lap, but he froze the moment he stood in front of it.
He noticed that Yu Guisheng had a jade-green thumb ring on his right thumb, with the character "寿" (longevity) carved on its surface and the edge of the ring inlaid with pure gold.

Zhou Xuan had seen this ring not long ago—after entering that dream space, he saw an old man burning people's hands and feet.

One of the severed hands was wearing a jade-green thumb ring, which was the one Yu Guisheng was wearing.

"So that dream wasn't an illusion after all?"

Zhou Xuan gripped the coffin with one hand, muttering something to himself.

Just then, a slippery hand swam over and wrapped around Zhou Xuan's right hand.

"Has Old Yu come back to life?"

Zhou Xuan felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of disgust and immediately tried to summon Bone Fang to sever the hand...

(End of this chapter)