"He wanted to make both of them fall in love?" Liu Xing repeated, blinking several times. The idea had come out of nowhere. As the cogs in his head spun, however, he began to understand. A normal grass was struck by golden lightning and turned into golden grass. Then, two people ate it. But those who contained the energy from the grass were not the two people who ate it; it was their children. The woman passed the energy to her child, and the man passed it to his wife, who then passed it to her child. This was a key piece of knowledge. It meant the energy could be passed around. The first thing he thought to do to unify the split energy was to kill both children and refine them into a single pill. However, since the energy could be passed, that meant...

"The energy from the golden grass could be passed again!" Liu Xing shouted, his eyes widening.

When he came to this conclusion, it was as if he had been struck by lightning once again. It made sense. He could understand why Jin Wuyi had decided to make the two fall in love. Their child would inherit both halves of the energy and contain the whole power of the golden grass. As comprehension formed in his mind, he looked at the book intently, but his vision blurred as if he were swimming in murky water. His hands trembled like a beggar who hadn't eaten for three straight days and was on the brink of death. His heart hammered against his ribs as if screaming to be let out. In a panic, his mind flashed to his meeting with Qing Lian—how she was accused of being a thief, how she had tried to kill her own son. Then his thoughts focused on his son.

"Qing Yuan," he muttered.

With blurry eyes, trembling hands, and a panicked heart, he tried as hard as possible to distract his mind from forming the one true conclusion. His fingers moved as if they had a mind of their own, and he began to flip through the pages rapidly. From that point on, Jin Wuyi's journal was about how he planned and executed the scheme to make Jin Mingjue and Qing Lian fall in love. For reference, he had read one hundred romance novels—since he had no experience—and then began conducting his masterful plan. It started with a meeting under the snow, where he allowed Jin Mingjue to be bullied so that Qing Lian could save him. Both of them attended the Academy, where their love bloomed. There were many obstacles in their way, and it was worthy of becoming a love story read by many people. It was subtle but terrifying to think about. This man had manipulated a love story for his own sinister goal.

However, Liu Xing paid no attention to any of it. As he continued to read, his mind scrambled for anything else to suppress the one logical conclusion.

"When they were both grounded for six months so they wouldn't meet again, I pursued knowledge related to my goal. It's called a Living Pill. This knowledge led me to a demonic sect. While I had to trade many of my resources for it, it was worth it. A Living Pill refers to a person or animal nurtured by a demonic cultivator in a specific manner for the purpose of consumption. I thought the term was both unfitting and perfectly fitting at the same time. A living creature is not a pill. They aren't pill-shaped, after all. However, as I thought about it, wasn't what I was doing akin to concocting a pill? It just wasn't the usual process of mixing herbs and controlling fire. The end result, if consumed, would produce a certain effect. I soon learned more about this Living Pill. They said the highest form of a Living Pill had never been seen in this world before. It was only hypothetically possible and, weirdly, closer to a living treasure than a pill. A Living Pill would still resemble its original form, whether human or animal. However, it would be fully conscious and able to wield qi like a conscious treasure."

As he neared the end of the journal, Jin Wuyi's words struck him mercilessly, and they were even worse than what he had imagined.

"At that point, the Living Pill was considered perfect. Like a treasure that could transform and then revert to its original form, it too could transform from its original shape into a pill. When Qing Lian became pregnant, the energy from the golden grass that had been split in two became whole again, and I am sure that the baby born from her was already in the state of a Perfect Living Pill. Thus, this month, when Qing Lian finally gives birth to her child, I, Jin Wuyi, will have successfully concocted the most precious pill in the world!"

At this point in the journal, Jin Wuyi's plan was almost complete. He had written the latter part of the journal right before he decided to return to the Alchemy Hall to prepare for Qing Yuan's eventual birth. There were additional notes about his despair when the twenty gigantic spirit beasts appeared, preventing him from leaving. He lamented and cursed and even pleaded for help in the journal. But by then, Liu Xing didn't care about Jin Wuyi at all.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

His mind was focused on one thing and one thing only.

"The Heaven Severing Pill… is Qing Yuan."

Liu Xing closed the journal and put it down on the floor. His mind felt muddled, like a drunkard trying to focus on something as elusive as the wind. His eyes were blurry, his hands trembling. Too many emotions swirled in his mind, and it became too much. Too much.

Liu Xing put both hands on his face and closed his eyes, wishing the ground would swallow him whole.

What Jin Wuyi wrote in the journal matched his experience with Qing Yuan. The boy was an anomaly. He was clearly mortal, yet he could control his qi and do many things, including floating in the air. After he absorbed the Spirit Flower, he had suddenly grown, as if he had undergone a breakthrough, yet he was no cultivator, which had confused Liu Xing. But now, he realized that Qing Yuan had many similarities to Tide Walker. Both of them could float, both were not cultivators but could control qi, and both grew stronger by absorbing qi—Tide Walker using his own potent qi, while Qing Yuan used the qi from the Spirit Flower. When he thought that Qing Yuan was not human, suddenly everything made sense.

"It makes sense," he muttered softly, his hands still covering his face. "But it also doesn't make sense. How? How can a human be a Living Pill? How the hell is the pill I'm looking for actually Qing Yuan?"

He finally lowered his hands to his lap, and the first thing his eyes saw was the corpse of Jin Wuyi. The sight made his stomach burn, and he gritted his teeth as fury began to ignite in his heart. He stood up, and with powerful steps that stirred dust and wind, he closed the distance to Jin Wuyi's corpse until he was standing right in front of it. Liu Xing clenched both fists as he began to cycle qi inside his body. He didn't channel any technique, but the cycling effect made his body stronger, his muscles coiling like springs.

He remembered his thoughts as he had walked toward this room. He had checked his token and thought about consuming half of the Heaven Severing Pill. The memory made his stomach churn as if a storm were swirling inside it. Stomach acid rose in his throat, and he felt like he was about to vomit. The thought made him irrationally angry, and he knew that while everything was this man's fault, he was already dead. He couldn't torment him, punish him, or hurt him. These were merely unfeeling bones. However, the anger in his heart blazed like a giant bonfire, and he felt the need to do something to channel it.

"Bastard," Liu Xing said as he raised his right foot. He held it in the air for a second before bringing it down as hard as he could. The sole of his shoe landed squarely on the skull, shattering it into dozens of pieces. The impact of his foot hitting the floor was hard enough to crack the stone. Dust and debris spread, causing several bones to fall from their piles. He lifted his foot again, intending to crush the skull fragments into dust. But a few moments later, he put his foot back on the ground. His anger still burned, but he decided this bastard didn't deserve his effort. He wouldn't bring this corpse out of the Alchemy Hall. In fact, he decided it would be best to bury this vile place.

Liu Xing turned, and his eyes landed on the green notebook. Seeing it, he clenched both fists and gritted his teeth. But this time, while his heart was still thumping rapidly in his chest, he was a bit calmer. In this state of mind, he began to think about the implications of Qing Yuan being the Heaven Severing Pill he needed to bring back to the sect.

Obviously, he would not consume him, and he would never, ever let anyone else consume him. At that moment, he decided to take the boy fully under his wing and protect him as best he could. The problem was how to do it. His sect wanted the Heaven Severing Pill, and his mission was to bring it back. He could take Qing Yuan to the sect, but what would they do to him? His sect claimed to be a righteous sect, but he knew that didn't mean everyone there was a good person. Could he guarantee that Qing Yuan would be safe if he brought him back? In the first place, what were his sect's intentions with Qing Yuan? Did they even know that the Heaven Severing Pill was a human? If they knew, did that mean his sect intended for Qing Yuan to be consumed?

The other option was not to bring Qing Yuan back. But that was worse. The news that he was looking for an important treasure was already spreading, and he was sure that sooner or later, everyone would know about Qing Yuan. When that happened, would the boy be hunted down as a cultivation resource?

"I don't know what to do," Liu Xing muttered as he pinched his chin. He had finally found the Heaven Severing Pill, but the situation had suddenly become infinitely more complex.

Liu Xing grabbed Jin Wuyi's green notebook and began tearing out the pages. Then, with a simple application of lightning qi, he burned the pages, sending black smoke rising from the small fire.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.