Chapter 533: Tian Ru
Chapter 533: Chapter 533: Tian Ru
"Graceful is the Divine Dao, a feast in the Garden of Flat Peaches."
A leisurely recitation drifted over, and a figure soon followed the sound, arriving from a distance.
Bai Mo was busy harvesting the Qi Storage Gourds, so he couldn’t attend to his visitor.
"One moment, Brother. Let me just finish up here."
Bai Mo called out, his head tilted back as he used a porcelain knife to cut the gourd vines.
The man didn’t seem annoyed, merely watching from the side with great interest.
These Qi Storage Gourds had sprouted, climbed, and grown lush and green overnight.
Ah Er had dozed off during the night and missed the incredible sight, much to its shock the next morning.
Several vines had intertwined, bloomed on the second day, and by the third, had produced over ten shriveled, brown gourds.
Bai Mo carefully cut them down with the porcelain knife and handed them to Ah Er for safekeeping. Only then did he turn to face the visitor.
He was a strikingly handsome man with a face like white jade, seeming to emanate a faint glow.
The man chuckled and spoke first.
"Only after seeing Junior Brother’s Flat Peach Pill did I realize the sect still had a disciple capable of such masterful, all-encompassing refinement, one who makes the difficult seem effortless."
Bai Mo greeted him with a bow.
"I only just arrived and haven’t gotten my bearings yet. Are you my neighbor to the northwest, Brother, or from another direction?"
The man asked, "You’ve seen me?"
Bai Mo shook his head.
"Even the disciples of Feather Peak could hardly match your distinguished looks, Brother. If I had seen you before, I would certainly remember."
"It’s just that the other day, the steward collected my pill and then went on to the next person. Since you’ve seen the Flat Peach Pill, Brother, you must be the one he went to see after me. My as-yet-unseen neighbor."
The man clasped his hands behind his back and walked closer, watching Bai Mo tear down the gourd vines and burn them for fertilizer.
He shook his head and mused aloud,
"If it were me, I’d add some black rotting soil and spirit root water to grow these into Black Jade Gourds. With a bit of refinement, they could be made into decent Magical Artifacts."
Bai Mo gave a placid smile.
"It was just a spur-of-the-moment idea for a temporary need. No reason to go to such great lengths."
"And you are, Brother...?"
The man said, "Tian Ru."
"I know you. Brother Bai Mo. The steward told me about you."
"After the previous master of this little courtyard threw himself into his furnace and burned to death, we Alchemists haven’t had a new member in a long time."
Bai Mo was slightly stunned upon hearing this.
He had never asked about the previous owner of this place.
When he arrived, he’d noticed something was off—the life force in the area was suppressed—but he hadn’t sensed any foul or malicious energy.
’I can’t believe such a tragedy happened here.’
He and Tian Ru walked through the bamboo forest, talking softly.
"Do you know the details of what happened back then, Brother?"
Tian Ru sighed.
"That Alchemist was worthy of being called a heaven-sent genius. Over several years, he successfully refined four batches of great pills."
"After the Pills were made, he dissolved them into the clouds and scattered them over four hills, creating four miraculous lands specifically for cultivating Spirit Medicine."
"Unfortunately, he later said he had glimpsed the Great Dao. During one Alchemy session, he threw himself into the fire. By the time we found him, it was too late."
Bai Mo asked doubtfully, "Was it the work of an evil spirit?"
"No, the Pill was completed. He was a disciple of Pill Peak. The Pill is on display in the Mysterious Pill Hall on Pill Peak. You can go see it when you’re free."
Tian Ru said languidly,
"That Pill is quite extraordinary. All of us believe he truly glimpsed the Great Dao, rather than having his mind bewildered by some bizarre entity that cost him his life."
The bamboo leaves rustled. Occasionally, wind would sweep past the stalks, creating a hollow, echoing sound.
Bai Mo had read many ancient texts and knew the Alchemy Dao had spawned countless schools of thought, many of them bizarre.
’That deceased brother was likely obsessed with one such school, unable to pull himself free, and ended up martyring himself for his Dao.’
This was not a rare occurrence.
With this in mind, Bai Mo looked at Tian Ru beside him.
"With that brother as a precedent, why are you, Brother Tian, also walking such an unorthodox path?"
This Tian Ru hadn’t been born so handsome, though his natural features weren’t bad to begin with.
The man treated himself as a Pill, using Spiritual Qi as the furnace fire and consuming medicinal herbs and minerals to refine himself into his current state.
Tian Ru burst out laughing, threw his head back, and clasped his hands behind his back.
"The so-called orthodox, mainstream path is too difficult. Those who walk it are as numerous as carp crossing a river, but how many ever achieve mastery?"
"My path is better. I may be like a walking Great Pill and don’t dare venture out carelessly, but with the sect backing me, who would dare lay a finger on me?"
At that moment, he had the air of a Grandmaster.
’Bai Mo had no doubt that Tian Ru’s skills were, in some respects, truly astonishing.’
But he still shook his head.
"The Pill Formulas the steward gave me are all of a balanced and moderate nature, orthodox and magnificent."
"I imagine that’s partly because of you, isn’t it, Brother?"
"You, Brother, probably find it difficult to control the orthodox qi within a Pill now, don’t you? Unlike me. I can casually gift the Pills I refine to my Spirit Beast companion."
Tian Ru’s expression changed slightly.
Turning his head, he happened to see Ah Er not far away, yawning and slowly processing medicinal herbs.
The creature had eaten one of the Pills Bai Mo had given it. The medicinal power was so immense that it had yet to fully digest it, making it feel sleepy from time to time.
"Not bad at all. But a thousand years from now, there will be legends in this sect about me, the Pill Monarch of the Unorthodox Path. As for you, Junior Brother... your future is still uncertain..."
Bai Mo watched his fellow disciple leave.
Thanks to the various tasks arranged by the Foreign Affairs Hall, his colleagues all around were constantly exposed to all sorts of rare and bizarre things.
In the past, debates and arguments between the Alchemists of different schools must have been a common occurrence.
Otherwise, this Brother Tian wouldn’t have acted in such a way.
Bai Mo let out a soft sigh. He returned to his courtyard, lit the furnace, controlled the heat, and resumed his Alchemy.
Six months wasn’t a lot of time to begin with, and now he had another task: a field inspection at Five Elements Ridge.
He couldn’t afford any more delays.
...
Two days later, the large Flying Ship from the Foreign Affairs Hall arrived on time.
Seeing the smoke curling up from the furnace fire in the courtyard below, a disciple on the Flying Ship called out.
"Junior Brother, could you please stop for a moment?"
"One moment, Brother! Let me just put out the fire and open the furnace."
Bai Mo called back his reply. He opened the furnace lid and, ignoring the intense heat within, dug out the Pill and put it away.
Before long, he and Ah Er were standing on the large Flying Ship.
The Flying Ship was streamlined, its entire hull radiating a silver glow.
Just standing on deck, Bai Mo could feel the surging power of the Array beneath his feet.
The fur on Ah Er’s neck bristled and fell intermittently; its Spirit Beast instincts left it deeply unsettled.
’This was clearly no simple transport vessel.’
The Flying Ship set off toward the southwest.
They hadn’t flown far when a soft sedan chair rose up in the distance, carried aloft by puppets.
Zhu Tong leaped from it and landed on the deck, looking simultaneously exhausted and bizarrely energetic.
Bai Mo greeted him.
"Brother Zhu."
Zhu Tong gave a wave, then went to see the steward on the Flying Ship, handing over an Array Map.
"I was in a rush coming back. Stayed up for two days just to draw this much of the Array..."
The Red-Eyed Steward glanced at it, his expression noncommittal.
"There seem to be blank spaces in it."
Zhu Tong nodded.
"There are some areas I can’t complete until I’ve seen Five Elements Ridge for myself..."
The Flying Ship didn’t stop, but people continued to catch up and board it along the way.
Tian Ru arrived as well, nodding a greeting to Bai Mo. The rest were all unfamiliar faces, already forming their own small cliques.