Night fell.
Flower Warmth House was as lively as ever, filled with coquettish laughter, the pleasant strains of strings and flutes, and bursts of song.
It was not until well past midnight, after the guests had departed and the lights throughout the building had gone dark, that Madam Peony slipped out through the back carrying a lantern.
She was extremely cautious, looking over her shoulder several times along the way to make sure no one was following her.
What she probably never imagined was that no one was following her on the ground.
A white-feathered waterbird had simply spent the entire evening perched on the roof, listening to the performances and waiting for her.
Incidentally, that waterbird had once been a music cultivator. The guests might not notice when one of the women played a wrong note, but Qingzhu had caught every single one.
He followed Madam Peony from above.
And the farther she went, the more familiar the route became.
She was going to the Yu residence.
Qingzhu’s expression turned strange.
He watched as she knocked on the rear gate of the Yu residence, exchanged a few words with one of the guards, and was escorted inside.
Spreading his wings, he lightly landed on the roof of the room Madam Peony entered. With some effort, he pried aside a roof tile with his claws.
The room below looked even more familiar.
It was the very room where Yu Qingtang had once been displayed.
Only now, a different God of Wealth statue occupied his former place.
Qingzhu: “...”
That boy really did have a fool’s luck.
If Ye Chenyan had not made such a spectacle of carrying him away, Yu Qingtang might already have stumbled across a clue by now.
Madam Peony looked visibly restless.
Before long, the person she had been waiting for arrived.
A man entered from outside.
Qingzhu peered down at him. His features bore some resemblance to the Yu-family young lady, but judging by his age, there was no possibility he was her father.
Probably her elder brother.
Qingzhu formed a hypothesis and watched him carefully.
Sure enough, Madam Peony immediately stood and bowed respectfully.
“Eldest Young Master!”
Eldest Young Master Yu raised a hand, indicating that she should sit. “There’s no need to rush. Have some tea first.”
“You seem to have been running yourself ragged lately. You must have a lot on your plate and some excess internal heat. I added a few cooling medicinal herbs to the tea. Drink a little more.”
“All right.” Madam Peony hastily agreed and took a sip.
For one moment, she failed to control her expression and nearly grimaced.
Eldest Young Master Yu noticed.
“Good medicine tastes bitter.”
He paused, then sighed.
“Though this isn’t medicine. It’s tea. I suppose taste should still be taken into consideration.”
“Never mind. I’ll experiment with it again when I get back.”
“It’s perfectly fine!” Madam Peony hurriedly waved her hands. “Everything you make is always good, Eldest Young Master. All the girls at Flower Warmth House know that.”
Eldest Young Master Yu smiled. “You came looking for me in such a hurry. What happened?”
Madam Peony hesitated, but ultimately told him the truth.
“Eldest Young Master, do you remember how, a long time ago, someone asked me about white perilla, Omphalia, and some third medicinal ingredient?”
Normally, it would never have occurred to her to bring such a question to Eldest Young Master Yu.
She had only remembered that he loved to paint.
Ordinary people painted landscapes, flowers, beauties.
He painted medicinal herbs.
Even the girls at Flower Warmth House had mostly been given names by him, and most of those names came from medicinal flowers.
He had painted countless plants, but there was one painting hanging in his study that had always contained exactly three.
She had once worked up the courage to ask him about it.
The round, bulb-like medicinal fungus beneath the bamboo roots was Omphalia.
The broad, heart-shaped leaves with serrated edges were white perilla.
And the third was a great cluster of purple irises in bloom.
If her guess was correct, then the third medicinal ingredient those people had been asking about was iris.
Eldest Young Master Yu’s smile faded.
He gave a slight nod.
“I know.”
“What? Have they come up with some new trick again?”
“Yes.” Madam Peony frowned. “It was that Young Master Ye.”
From Qingzhu’s angle, he could not see Eldest Young Master Yu’s expression, but the man’s movements clearly showed a reaction.
Which was understandable.
Anyone would react to hearing the name of the man who had stolen a God of Wealth statue from his family.
Eldest Young Master Yu’s tone turned peculiar. “Him? What did he do?”
“You told us before to be careful around people with soul-loss sickness, didn’t you?” Madam Peony rubbed her hands together nervously. “Young Master Ye, he... well, he doesn’t seem like one of them.”
“But he really was asking about that question too. I asked the girls, and apparently he heard it from someone else. He also said he’d been ‘entrusted by someone.’”
“Mm.” Eldest Young Master Yu did not seem surprised. “Perhaps someone asked him the question and piqued his curiosity.”
“Exactly.” Madam Peony nodded repeatedly. “That’s what I thought too.”
“The person who entrusted him also gave him a new line.”
“What?”
Eldest Young Master Yu turned his head slightly, revealing half his profile.
He was clearly no longer young. His bearing was steady, gentle, and restrained, with an inexplicable quality that made people instinctively like him.
“He said...” Madam Peony looked up. “Half a pound of Du Heng, eight ounces of Sanqi. It cures gloom and melancholy and leaves people laughing with delight.”
Eldest Young Master Yu’s head snapped up.
Madam Peony had apparently rarely seen such an obvious change in his emotions. Startled, she hurriedly asked, “Eldest Young Master, is something wrong?”
He fell silent for a moment.
“The young master of the Ye family.”
“He truly seemed no different from usual?”
“Well...” Madam Peony frowned. “I don’t think there was any difference, but I’m not especially close to him. Perhaps I simply wouldn’t notice.”
“Still, everything at the Ye residence seems normal. I haven’t heard any rumors about soul-loss sickness.”
Eldest Young Master Yu slowly let out a long breath.
He closed his eyes and murmured,
“Du Heng. Sanqi.”
“Knowing those two names means nothing. But that sentence...”
“Only one person knows it.”
Madam Peony grew nervous. “Eldest Young Master, then...”
She had always known there was something mysterious about him.
He seemed to know everything and could settle anything, yet somehow possessed almost no presence at all within Pill City.
Everyone knew the Yu-family young lady was beautiful and talented, but hardly anyone ever remembered that she had an elder brother.
He was already past thirty and remained unmarried, yet not the slightest rumor had ever circulated about why.
And on top of that...
People in Pill City always seemed to be searching for him.
“Arrange a meeting with Young Master Ye for me,” Eldest Young Master Yu said, finally making up his mind. “At Flower Warmth House. You’ll meet him on my behalf.”
Madam Peony immediately lowered her head.
“All right.”
Qingzhu lay flat against the roof.
By now, he was almost completely certain that this Eldest Young Master Yu was the old Pill King.
Once Madam Peony left the room, Qingzhu did not hesitate.
He swept aside the roof tiles, deliberately making enough noise to attract the man’s attention.
“Who?”
Eldest Young Master Yu instantly looked up.
His gaze met that of the waterbird staring down through the hole in the roof.
Qingzhu looked deeply at him.
Then he spoke in a human voice.
“Open the window.”
For a brief instant, Eldest Young Master Yu looked stunned.
But he did not panic much. After a moment’s hesitation, he actually went over and opened the window, allowing Qingzhu inside.
Qingzhu landed on the table.
Despite his current form, his presence had lost none of its weight.
He went straight to the point.
“Old Pill King.”
“That’s me,” the old Pill King replied. “And you are...?”
“Qingzhu of the Heavenly Music Sect.” Qingzhu remained reasonably polite. “We met once before, in front of the sect master of the Heavenly Music Sect.”
The old Pill King nodded in surprise. “So it’s you. Has this matter even alarmed the Heavenly Music Sect?”
“Not this matter.” Qingzhu gave a simple explanation. “I came because of the Jinzhou disappearances. I followed the clues to Fire Cauldron Sect.”
“I happened to meet your disciple Du Heng, who was running around trying to find someone to save you, so I lent him a hand.”
The old Pill King fell silent for a moment before shaking his head helplessly.
“If that is the case, you should never have entered.”
“Everyone inside the Reincarnation Pill is reduced to an ordinary mortal. Now that you’re in here, all your abilities are useless.”
“Mm.” Qingzhu had always been direct. “Which is why we’re leaving. If we leave now, they probably haven’t discovered us yet.”
“The Reincarnation Pill has a fixed exit.”
The old Pill King looked toward the eastern side of the city.
“There is an unnamed Daoist temple outside Pill City. No matter which direction you leave the city from, you will ultimately arrive at that temple.”
“Light a stick of incense there, then step outside the temple, and you’ll leave the pill.”
“Understood.” Qingzhu looked at him. “Fire Cauldron Sect is practically turning itself upside down. Aren’t you leaving?”
“I can’t leave right now.” The old Pill King shook his head slightly. “Someone is guarding the exit, waiting for me.”
“The Reincarnation Pill is somewhat unusual. Its underlying principle is similar to a storage ring, so spiritual artifacts can enter, but a cultivator’s physical body cannot.”
“The purpose of this pill is primarily to temper the heart. Only a cultivator’s consciousness needs to enter. Once inside Pill City, they receive a new identity and experience a portion of someone else’s life.”
“However, I was worried that cultivators might wreak havoc inside the pill. The destruction they could cause would be enormous. So I deliberately isolated spiritual power from this place.”
“As a result, most spiritual artifacts that require spiritual power cannot be used here. Only a small number of unusual ones still retain some effect.”
“They must have already worked out how the Reincarnation Pill functions. Someone is waiting at the temple with a Soul-Seizing Bell.”
“If I go there, I’m afraid I won’t come back.”
“No wonder.” Qingzhu understood immediately. “With so many people searching Pill City for you, you must have realized something was wrong long ago.”
“Naturally.” The old Pill King smiled bitterly.
“But I’ve reached a deadlock here and have no easy way to escape. All I can do is hope that someone outside breaks the situation open for me.”
“My two disciples...”
Qingzhu looked at him. “Du Heng and Sanqi?”
The old Pill King nodded. “Yes. They should be trying to find a way.”
Qingzhu was silent for a moment.
“Du Heng was expelled from Fire Cauldron Sect.”
“Sanqi has already submitted to the Tianyuan Pill King.”
The old Pill King: “...”
Qingzhu asked, “White perilla. Omphalia. What exactly is the third ingredient? And why does that question let them identify you?”
The old Pill King sat down at the table.
“Disciples of Fire Cauldron Sect have always taken medicinal ingredients as names. Before my junior brother and I became famous, naturally, we had such names as well.”
“My name was White Perilla.”
“He was Omphalia.”
“As for the last one, naturally, it was our master’s name.”
Realization dawned on Qingzhu. “The previous Pill King was active perhaps a thousand years ago as well. Very few people alive today would still know her name.”
“The moment I heard that ‘formula,’ I knew who was looking for me.” The old Pill King lowered his eyes. “At first, I wasn’t suspicious. I thought Omphalia urgently needed to find me.”
“But I couldn’t leave at the time, so I sent someone to ask what the matter was first.”
“That person went.”
“A few days later, they returned having lost a section of their memory.”
“In Pill City, the people created by the Reincarnation Pill have predetermined fates. If they die before their appointed time, they do not truly die. They simply come back to life, with at most a few days left blank.”
“That was how I realized it was a trap.”
“And the person trying to kill me...”
“Was Omphalia.”
Qingzhu regarded him deeply. “What are you planning to do now?”
“At most, we have another two days before they discover our physical bodies lying beside yours.”
The old Pill King said nothing.
Slowly, he turned to look at Qingzhu.
“Without outside help, there is only one option.”
“The unnamed Daoist temple.”
“Then gamble on it.” Qingzhu looked at him. “Go to the temple. Pretend to hand yourself over, then seize the Soul-Seizing Bell.”
The old Pill King: “...”
He could not help laughing.
“Hahaha! That old brat from the Heavenly Music Sect told me about you once. Said you looked as calm and detached as a drifting cloud, but inside you had the fiercest temper of anyone he knew.”
“He even asked me for two prescriptions to cool your internal heat.”
Qingzhu: “...”
The old Pill King sighed.
“Fine.”
“We gamble.”
He lowered his gaze to the teacup before him and idly nudged it with his fingers.
“The reason I have stayed here, aside from being trapped, is that I did not want matters to reach the point of mutual destruction.”
“If I could hide a little longer, delay things a little longer, perhaps there might still be room to turn things around.”
“After all...”
“We were once fellow disciples.”
Qingzhu glanced at him.
The old Pill King gave a short laugh. “Boy, if you have something to say, say it.”
So Qingzhu did.
“Indecisive.”
The old Pill King stared at him wordlessly.
“You really don’t hold back at all.”
“You told me to say it.”
Qingzhu hopped back onto the windowsill.
“There will always be people in this world who don’t know what’s good for them.”
“But at least someone is willing to risk his life to save you.”
“We go to the temple tomorrow. I’ll bring the others.”
The old Pill King asked, “That young master from the Ye family?”
“And a God of Wealth statue.”
Qingzhu included Yu Qingtang as well.
“Ye Chenyan of Guiyi Sect.”
“Yu Qingtang of Biehe Sect.”
“The helpers your good disciple found for you.”
“Guiyi Sect?”
The old Pill King froze.
Then he suddenly smacked himself on the forehead in alarm.
“Oh, no. I’ve been living in here so long that I’ve gotten completely muddled. I think I forgot something important!”
“That brat Tianji Zi must be cursing me to death behind my back!”
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