Immortal Cultivation: Starting from a Pharmacy Apprentice

Chapter 320: Chapter 320: Outrageously Bold

"The Demon God consumed a blood offering, manifesting vitality. Its divine light flared, bestowing rewards before falling silent again."

"I heard all the disciples present received considerable benefits. It really makes one envious."

Chatting amongst themselves, the group quickly exited the Black Cell.

Bai Mo turned and lowered the cell bars.

He then took out the detention talisman from the Foreign Affairs Hall, traced a pattern on it with his finger, and handed it back to its owner.

"You can now return to the Foreign Affairs Hall and report that the task is complete."

All six disciples looked relieved.

"Busy for months, and now we can finally get some rest."

"We’re fine, but it’s a pity about our senior brother. He was badly hurt. Who knows if his foundation was damaged? I saw his face earlier—it was as pale as gold foil..."

Mi Mountain was not a place for social calls.

The disciples continued talking as they politely refused Bai Mo’s offer of tea and headed outside.

The badger that had fainted earlier had already woken up and was using a rag to clean the spot where the medicinal powder had spilled.

Seeing it work so carefully and meticulously, several disciples were full of praise.

"Junior Brother, your Spirit Beast is truly wonderful. Not like others that are just dumb brutes, all strength and no finesse."

Bai Mo just smiled.

"It was its intelligence that made me go to the trouble of bringing it back to train."

However, the disciple who had taken the talisman seemed to notice something, and he narrowed his eyes.

"Junior Brother, that powder you were fiddling with... it seemed like a potent poison. Are you an expert in that particular art?"

"Not at all. I study the Alchemy Dao, so naturally I have some understanding of the Poison Dao. Poisons are often used in Alchemy."

Bai Mo said earnestly.

"Oh?"

The disciple laughed.

"So you practice the Alchemy Dao. Well then, a secluded place like Mi Mountain is perfect for people like you to bury their heads in research."

"I just hope I won’t be disturbing you when I come here in the future."

Bai Mo paused, looking at him in surprise.

The disciple cupped his hands in a salute.

"My name is Zhao Qing."

"Unlike these other disciples, I’m a Cultivator who specifically takes commissions from the Foreign Affairs Hall to hunt down heretics."

"I come to Mi Mountain often."

Bai Mo couldn’t help but study Zhao Qing for a moment longer, then introduced himself as well.

The man was only at the Foundation Establishment realm. Though Bai Mo didn’t know what specific layer he had reached, the fact that he dared to hunt all manner of fiends was a testament to his skill and courage.

After seeing Zhao Qing and the others off, Bai Mo returned to his stone house and began to organize the messy piles of herbs.

He poured the powder from the stone bowl into a pill bottle and stored it away carefully.

’An easy target has arrived in the Black Cell. For now, I won’t have to go to such great lengths.’

A pleased expression appeared on Bai Mo’s face as he spoke aloud.

"Rest up. Tomorrow, you can go up the mountain and till the soil."

Hearing this, Ah Er let out a very human-like sigh of relief, its whole body going limp.

When Bai Mo worked on his herbs, it would act as his assistant, a task it had originally found quite relaxing.

The work wasn’t hard, and during its downtime, it even got to eat Pills given by Bai Mo. The joys of paradise couldn’t be much better than this.

But that was before it got knocked out by powders twice, and another time when it was so overwhelmed by the fumes from an herb that it collapsed on the spot.

How could Ah Er not realize by now that the things Bai Mo was concocting could easily be the death of a badger?

And so, it assisted him with fear and trembling.

But the toxins were not easy to avoid. With frequent contact, some poison was bound to seep into its body, harming its organs, flesh, and blood.

It was only because Bai Mo was afraid the badger would be poisoned to death that he fed it numerous Pills, nurturing it until its fur was sleek and glossy, which was how it remained so lively.

Unexpectedly, after this happened several times, Bai Mo discovered that amid its constant terror, the badger’s intelligence seemed to have matured considerably.

"Ah Er, you’re ready to be put to greater use now."

He casually flicked a Feeding Pill, which Ah Er leaped up and caught in its paws.

Bai Mo ambled back to his room and carried out a large stack of books.

Most of them were treatises on poisons.

Finding the sections he needed, Bai Mo unfolded them and laid them out on the tables, chairs, and floor until they covered the entire room.

He then began to pace around, examining their contents with a thoughtful expression.

Ah Er was afraid of Bai Mo when he was like this and didn’t dare to disturb him.

It scurried to the foot of the wall, lifted a meditation cushion, and took out a hidden pill bottle, skillfully tossing the Feeding Pill inside.

This was its personal stash.

Bai Mo had rewarded it with many Pills, but their medicinal potency was too strong for a badger equivalent to the Qi Refining Second Layer to handle all at once.

Whatever it couldn’t eat, it saved for later.

The next day, when he saw Ah Er leave the pill bottle under the cushion and head up the mountain alone to till the soil,

Bai Mo knew the badger had truly settled in and committed to staying.

’Of course it would stay,’ he thought. ’Following me is dangerous, especially when I’m working on herbs, but at least there’s an unlimited supply of Pills.’

’Fortune favors the bold,’ a principle that applied just as well to Demon Beasts and Spirit Beasts.

「A few days later.」

While heading up the mountain to inspect Ah Er’s labor, Bai Mo saw a Flying Ship descending in the distance.

The surface of the Flying Ship shimmered with an iridescent light, unlike any he had seen before. Clearly, the arrivals were no ordinary people.

He offered Ah Er a few words of praise, encouraging it to keep up the good work, then hurried back down the mountain to await the visitors.

After waiting for half a day, he finally saw An Caiwei sneaking over, glancing around furtively.

"Senior Sister, what are you doing here!?"

Bai Mo led her inside, noticing the nervous look on An Caiwei’s face.

"I came with my senior sisters from the Silkworm Valley. They’re searching for mulberry seeds nearby, so I came to find you."

As An Caiwei spoke, she couldn’t help but glance toward the passageway to the Black Cell.

She had heard what her senior sisters said about the Mi Mountain Black Cell and knew it was a truly wicked place where fiends were imprisoned.

Her mind in a whirl, An Caiwei walked into the stone house and was immediately greeted by the sight of books strewn all over the floor.

"Hah! Junior Brother, you haven’t changed one bit."

"Even after entering the Inner Sect, you still don’t pay any mind to anything else!"

Bai Mo just smiled.

"The duties on Mi Mountain aren’t demanding. It’s just difficult for me to travel far."

"If I want to take a long trip, I have to report it to the Foreign Affairs Hall first, so the people they send don’t make the journey for nothing."

An Caiwei spotted the stone bowls, teacups, and kettle tossed about the stone house and couldn’t help but ask disdainfully:

"This place is a mess. You certainly don’t look idle. What have you been so busy with?"

"Oh, just testing a Poison Pill that can take down a Core Formation Cultivator."

"Hm?"

An Caiwei was taken aback.

"For what purpose?"

Bai Mo replied casually, "I’ve already grasped some of the true essence from the Alchemy Dao opportunity in the Jade Plate Secret Realm."

"Originally, I was thinking of taking on a Core Formation Cultivator just to understand their capabilities and limits, so I’d have a better sense of where I stand."

"But then I discovered an ancient method that requires a cultivator for an experiment, and it’s quite profound. That’s when I started to have other ideas..."

He spoke casually, but his words sent a chill down An Caiwei’s spine.

"Y-You can’t just do whatever you want."

"It took our senior brothers and sisters immense effort to capture the fiend in that cell. How dare you try to do something to him?"

Bai Mo waved a dismissive hand and said slowly,

"Isn’t that why I’m trying to come up with a foolproof plan?"

"The foundation of a Core Formation Cultivator is the Golden Core. If I can defile their Golden Core, I can neutralize at least sixty percent of their power."

"As for the rest, I’ll apply a potent poison to their body and use... let’s say, one hundred and sixty percent of my strength. I estimate that should be more than enough..."

Seeing how seriously he was speaking, An Caiwei grew even more terrified.

"Don’t do anything reckless! You have to at least report this to the elders!"

Bai Mo nodded.

"Of course I wouldn’t dare act without authorization. I will certainly make thorough preparations."

"By the way, Senior Sister, since you’re in the Silkworm Valley... I hear it’s a treasured land, filled with natural spiritual treasures. Could you help me collect some of the Silkworm Valley’s ’Rosy Glow’?"

"Though that Rosy Glow is a treasure, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. There are always... other uses."

Bai Mo rambled on, laying out a torrent of ideas in one breath.

In the past, An Caiwei had seen him immersed in the Alchemy Dao, often lost in long periods of deep contemplation. He had always had ideas beyond the scope of ordinary people.

Seeing him again now, she felt that her junior brother had fallen into a dangerous obsession, his audacity growing more boundless than ever.

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