Chapter 516: Backlash
Chapter 516: Chapter 516: Backlash
After a great deal of effort, Bai Mo finally collected all the essence blood he needed.
He bid farewell to the two stone men before leaving Mi Mountain.
"Please take good care of the ones I injured today, Senior Brothers. Don’t let anyone take them away."
"If that doesn’t work, I’m afraid I’ll have to come back again."
The two stone men earnestly agreed.
"We wish you success, Junior Brother."
None of the prisoners in the black jail had a low cultivation level; their essence blood was highly active.
Bai Mo and Ah Er hurried back to the small courtyard by the cliff.
The essence blood was still warm. Bai Mo instructed Ah Er,
"Quickly, go catch thirty-six toads. They must be of the same kind, preferably from the same brood."
The task was a headache for Ah Er, but he nodded anyway. He went out, cut a bamboo tube, and ran into the mountain forest.
He had two helpers.
One was a great wild boar with nascent intelligence. It had plenty of strength and could now understand simple human speech.
The other was the Spirit Beast with the body of a snake and the head of a civet.
However, the latter had only recently arrived and wasn’t acclimated. It had mistakenly eaten some mushrooms and was now suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, its mind muddled.
When it looked up, it saw seven versions of Ah Er.
Each of the seven Ah Ers was busy with something different: one was chopping vegetables, another forging iron, and others were brandishing sabers and spears.
But after looking at it for a moment, all seven Ah Ers shook their heads and ran off.
「Half a day later.」 The great wild boar rooted open a mud pit, revealing a brood of large toads huddled together.
Ah Er squinted, comparing them for a long time. Deciding they all looked more or less the same, his spirits lifted, and he got to work.
Running back to the courtyard, he emptied the toads from the bamboo tube.
Thirty-six toads, with their cheeks puffed out, hopped all over the ground.
Ah Er hurriedly caught them one by one and presented them to Bai Mo to be fed the Pills.
Once the tiny black pellets entered their bellies, the toads immediately grew drowsy. They didn’t even try to run when dropped on the ground.
Bai Mo waited overnight. When he got up, red lines had appeared on the backs of all the toads.
The red lines intertwined to form the character for "Pill" in an unknown script.
Ah Er found this incredibly novel. He picked one up and examined it from every angle, holding it right in front of his face.
The tattooed toad had become remarkably docile. It just puffed its cheeks in and out, letting him play with it as he pleased.
Bai Mo explained, "These are Blood Toads."
They were a type of creation from the Alchemy Dao.
He poured the essence blood from the thirty-six prisoners into a porcelain bowl and placed it before the Blood Toads. The toads opened their mouths and inhaled, swallowing all of it.
Soon after, the toads’ bellies began to swell.
They quickly grew from their original fist size to the size of a human head.
The skin on their backs stretched taut, looking as if it would burst at any moment.
Ah Er resisted the urge to poke one with his claw and looked anxiously at Bai Mo.
Bai Mo just shook his head, paying it no mind.
This was the Spiritual Qi from the essence blood being released, causing the toads to inflate.
After about an hour, the thirty-six Blood Toads deflated, returning to their normal size.
Bai Mo stepped forward, grabbed one in his hand, and squeezed hard. The Blood Toad opened its mouth and spat out a stream of blood, filling half the bowl again.
But this essence blood, having been processed by the toads, was now a more vibrant red, thicker, and gave off a metallic stench.
He set the Blood Toad down. It immediately opened its mouth again, swallowed the essence blood in the bowl, and its belly swelled once more.
Ah Er watched, fascinated.
Bai Mo repeated this process seven times with the toads until only a finger-deep layer of essence blood remained in the bowl, which was the perfect amount.
After ordering Ah Er to release the Blood Toads, Bai Mo carried the refined essence blood back to his room. He arranged it in a formation and began calculating the medicinal potency needed for each point in the array.
Ah Er stuffed the Blood Toads into the bamboo tube and carried them back to the mud pit where he had found them.
For some reason—perhaps due to the long ordeal—over ten of the toads thrashed about in the mud pit a few times, then went belly-up and died.
Others, relying on their newfound strength, dug open their previous burrows and squeezed inside.
The rest puffed their cheeks a few times and hopped off in all directions.
Regardless, these toads had undergone a unique experience, breaking free from the life-and-death cycle of their ancestors and forever changing.
Ah Er scratched his head. Considering they had helped him out, he didn’t bother chasing down the escapees to play with.
When he returned to the courtyard, Bai Mo immediately put him to work with a series of tasks.
The medicinal herbs had to be measured by mace; not a sliver more, not a sliver less.
Ah Er sliced the various dried herbs into thin strips. Eyes wide with concentration, he carefully weighed them with a scale weight before delivering them to Bai Mo.
Bai Mo tended the Pill Furnace with a low flame for five days, finally finishing the refinement of thirty-five Blood Pills.
WHUMP! BANG!
Outside the courtyard, a dark figure fell from the sky, making a huge noise.
The gate was immediately smashed open, and Yuan Chu burst into the courtyard like a wild donkey.
"Junior Brother Bai, help me!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he collapsed to the ground.
The fire beneath the Pill Furnace flickered violently in the gust of wind, and a burnt smell wafted from within.
"Huh? What’s that? It stinks! Junior Brother, what are you messing with?"
Yuan Chu’s long arms flailed on the ground as he struggled to get up.
Bai Mo abandoned the Pill Furnace and looked over at him, only to see Yuan Chu fumbling around as if blind.
He and Ah Er helped Yuan Chu to a stone stool.
The man’s senses seemed gone. He sat obediently on the stool and said,
"I’ve formed my Core."
"That’s wonderful. Congratulations, Senior Brother," Bai Mo said sincerely.
Yuan Chu tilted his head to listen, then cupped his hands in Bai Mo’s direction.
"It is a good thing, but I think it’s because of things I’ve done in the past. I suffered a backlash, which you could call a form of Celestial Punishment."
He spread his hands.
"Now I can’t see a thing. Do you have a solution, Junior Brother?"
He had forced himself to run all the way to Bai Mo’s place, relying on his last bit of Spiritual Qi as his vision grew increasingly blurry.
Fortunately, his seclusion spot wasn’t far, so he had just managed to make it.
His only hope was that Bai Mo could help him.
Bai Mo was stunned to hear this.
"A backlash from tribulation energy... This is no small matter. Curing it will likely be extremely difficult."
Yuan Chu pointed to his own eyes.
"It’s not that serious. The tribulation energy has dissipated, but the damage remains. It’s left me unable to see, even with my Divine Thought."
Bai Mo waved a hand in front of his face, then brought his sword up, gesturing between Yuan Chu’s nose and brow.
Seeing no reaction from Yuan Chu, Bai Mo knew the injury was severe.
The breeze from the sword’s movement brushed against Yuan Chu’s face, making him flinch in confusion. He tilted his head, nearly impaling himself on the tip.
"Junior Brother, what are you doing?"
Bai Mo shook his head and said,
"Senior Brother, your symptoms are quite severe. I’m afraid you’ll have to stay here with me for a while."
Yuan Chu nodded.
"As long as you have a way. Allow me to gather the payment after I’m healed. I’m completely penniless right now."
There were no spare rooms in the house, so Ah Er used wood and bamboo to build a simple hut next to the original cottage.
It was similar to the ones on Mi Mountain, and not very large.
Yuan Chu could touch all four walls just by reaching out, which he found quite satisfactory.
"Now that I can’t see, a place like this is perfect. You’re very thoughtful, Junior Brother..."
As for his Flying Ship, the crash had cracked its planks. It was damaged and could no longer be activated.
Bai Mo righted the Flying Ship and ordered Ah Er to replant the bamboo that had been knocked over. Then, he set off for Mi Mountain once again.
The last Blood Pill had been ruined because of Yuan Chu’s interruption.
Which meant some poor fellow in the Mi Mountain black jail would have to pay the price.