Chapter 106 - 103: Surging Undercurrents
Chapter 106: Chapter 103: Surging Undercurrents
The next morning, He Qing arrived.
As the sound of footsteps reached him from outside the medicine garden, Li Yuan was in his stone house, circulating his energy.
He opened his eyes, got up, and walked outside.
He Qing looked even more haggard than he had two days ago. There were dark circles under his eyes, his lips were chapped, and the cuffs of his short robe were stained with mud and bits of grass, as if he hadn’t rested at all on his way here. Two cultivators from the He family followed him, one carrying a beast-trapping cage and the other a storage pouch.
The moment he entered the medicine garden, He Qing’s gaze first swept over the medicine plots and the Array.
After confirming everything was still intact, he let out a breath and turned to look at Li Yuan.
"They came again last night?"
"Four of them. Killed three, captured one alive."
The corner of He Qing’s mouth twitched. He walked over to the stone railing.
The captured badger demon was still tied to the side of the stone railing. The ropes were tight, and the scrapes on its body had already scabbed over. It lay on the ground, struggling occasionally, but without much strength.
He Qing squatted down, placed his fingers on the badger demon’s neck, and infused a trace of Spiritual Power to investigate.
After a good while, he withdrew his hand and stood up.
"I can’t find anything."
He dusted off his hands, his voice hoarse.
"It’s not just the medicine garden. Demon Beasts are appearing all around our family’s territory—in the Spirit Fields to the north, at the watchtower to the west. The night before last, six Tier One Low Grade beasts came from the north. The guards on duty repelled them, but two plots of the Spirit Field were ruined."
He Qing rubbed his face, as if trying to scrub away his exhaustion.
"The strangest part is that the Demon Beasts come in waves, but there are never that many of them, and they aren’t particularly strong. It doesn’t seem like someone is driving them here—if they were, the numbers should be much larger. But if this is just normal Demon Beast activity, it makes no sense for them to come every single night."
Li Yuan didn’t respond.
He Qing turned and jutted his chin at the two He family cultivators behind him.
"Take this Demon Beast back. Have someone study it carefully and see if they can find anything."
The two men stepped forward, stuffed the badger demon into the beast-trapping cage, and carried it away.
He Qing took out a small pile of Spirit Stones from his storage pouch and placed them on the stone platform.
Li Yuan accepted them.
"There’s something else," Li Yuan said directly. "Do you have any Wood Element medicinal pills on hand?"
He Qing shook his head.
"No. The family has no stockpile of medicinal pills. What little we had was all used for defense."
"What about Body Refining elixirs?"
"None of those either."
"Talisman making materials?"
He Qing thought for a moment, then shook his head again.
"The family doesn’t really keep those things in stock. If anyone has them, they’re personal belongings. I can’t get them for you."
He paused, then added,
"But if you’re not in a hurry, you can wait a couple of days. There have been traveling merchants passing through this area recently."
"Traveling merchants?"
"Mhm." He Qing leaned against the stone railing and caught his breath. "Ever since the fighting broke out between the market cities, the proper trade routes have been cut off. The traveling merchants, on the other hand, have become more active. They specifically operate in the gaps between the various factions, going wherever there’s demand."
He pointed a finger to the east.
"A couple of days ago, a caravan of traveling merchants passed by our territory. They said they came from the north and were carrying a lot of miscellaneous goods. I told them to come back in two days. You can trade with them then."
Li Yuan nodded.
He Qing didn’t stay much longer.
He had to hurry back to oversee the defenses at the northern Spirit Fields, so he left in a rush.
Once he was gone, the medicine garden fell quiet again.
Li Yuan returned to the stone house, sat on the bed board, and began to circulate his energy cross-legged.
He first circulated the Spirit-Introducing Skill. The Spiritual Power flowed through his meridians for one full cycle before sinking into his Dantian. With Pure Spiritual Power equipped in his item slot, the clean, smooth feeling of Spiritual Qi entering his body was still distinct—most of the impurities were filtered out before they even reached his meridians, and the Spiritual Power that settled in his Dantian was more condensed than before.
Then, he switched to the Nourishing Essence Skill.
Qi Blood surged out from the Sea of Qi and Blood next to his Dantian and began to circulate along the path of the Nourishing Essence Skill.
The moment the Qi Blood began to flow, Li Yuan felt a difference.
After the Microelement Meridian Introduction Skill had cleared all the meridians in his body, there were more channels for his Qi Blood to flow through, resulting in fewer detours and obstructions during circulation. It was as if the roads had been widened.
Li Yuan rolled his shoulders and took out the bottle of Qi Blood Pills from his storage pouch.
The dark red pills rolled slightly inside the bottle. A faint scent of blood mixed with a bitter medicinal smell wafted out if you got close.
Seven pills.
’I’ll save one to equip later and consume the other six.’
Li Yuan tipped one out and put it in his mouth.
The moment the pill entered his stomach, a burst of heat erupted from its pit, surging outward in all directions across his abdomen. It wasn’t Spiritual Power, but a pure impact of Qi Blood, like a huge basin of water being dumped into a dry riverbed. The Sea of Qi and Blood instantly swelled.
When the heat spread to his limbs, a tingling, swelling numbness arose in his fingertips and toes, and the sensation of his muscles being stretched from within was extremely distinct. The muscles in his forearms bulged slightly, and a fine, reddish flush appeared on the surface of his skin.
Li Yuan circulated the Nourishing Essence Skill, guiding the heat into the technique’s pathway.
The Qi Blood, carrying the medicinal power, circulated through his meridians for a full cycle. The heat gradually subsided, seeping into his muscles and bones instead of radiating outward.
The effects of one pill lasted for about an hour.
After the heat receded, Li Yuan clenched his fist.
The strength in his hand was slightly greater than before. Not by much, but he could definitely feel it.
Without hesitation, Li Yuan took out another pill.
The effect of the second pill was a little weaker than the first—his body had already adapted to some of the medicinal power, and the absorption rate had slowed. But it was still useful.
He took the third and fourth pills at intervals, circulating the Nourishing Essence Skill in between. The permanent trait from "Medicinal Power Refinement" was working in the background, allowing him to absorb twenty percent more of the effective ingredients from each pill than normal, while the dregs and impurities were expelled more quickly.
By the fifth pill, his body’s absorption had slowed significantly, and his Sea of Qi and Blood was nearing saturation. Li Yuan consumed the last pill and used the Nourishing Essence Skill to slowly grind down its medicinal power. His body’s Qi Blood was a layer thicker than it had been half a day ago.
One last pill remained in the bottle. Li Yuan put it back and stored it deep inside his storage pouch.
’This one is for equipping.’
For the next few days, Li Yuan’s life revolved around cultivation and talisman making.
He made talismans during the day, circulating his Nourishing Essence Skill in the breaks. At night, he stood guard on the outskirts of the medicine garden, and if there was no activity, he would sit cross-legged and cultivate.
His focus in talisman making shifted from Fireball Talismans to other types of Talismans.
He still needed to build up his proficiency with the Rejuvenation Talisman. Although his Cleaning Talismans and Exorcism Talismans had already reached the Skillful Realm, he could still improve by continuing to draw them. The Warning Talisman was also on the verge of reaching Skillful.
Li Yuan consciously rotated between drawing the different types of Talismans.
After drawing a batch of Fireball Talismans, he would switch to Rejuvenation Talismans. After a few of those, he would switch again to Warning Talismans or Exorcism Talismans.
Switching between different Talismans increased his overall proficiency in the Talisman Making Skill much more than specializing in just one type.
During this time, his Warning Talisman skill also reached the Skillful Realm.
[Warning Talisman: Skillful (0/400)]
The medicine garden hadn’t suffered any more large-scale Demon Beast attacks during this period.
There were a couple of sporadic incidents, but they only involved one or two Tier One Low Grade beasts, which the on-duty He family cultivators repelled on their own without Li Yuan needing to intervene.
But the news from outside wasn’t good.
Every two or three days, the He family would send people to the medicine garden to rotate the guard shifts. The cultivators coming on duty always brought some news from the outside.
That night, two He family cultivators on shift were squatting by the stone railing, gnawing on dry rations. Li Yuan was circulating his energy cross-legged nearby, his ears open.
"The Chen family to the east was also attacked by Demon Beasts a couple of days ago," the younger one said in a low voice.
"The Chen family? Their territory is large, and their clan elder is at the Qi Refining Seventh Level. How could they get attacked too?"
"More Demon Beasts, that’s how. They say it was a Tier One Top Grade beast leading seven or eight Tier One Low Grade ones. They charged straight for their outer Spirit Fields. The Chen clan elder had to personally intervene to drive them off."
The older one hissed in a sharp intake of breath.
"Even a Tier One Top Grade beast has appeared?"
"And it’s not just Demon Beasts." The young cultivator lowered his voice. "I heard there’s been trouble at the Loose Cultivator settlements to the south, too. People were attacked, not by Demon Beasts, but by other Cultivators. Small squads of three to five people. They strike and then run. No one knows who they are."
The older cultivator took a bite of his dry rations and chewed for a long time before swallowing.
"It’s getting more and more chaotic."
The two of them muttered a few more words, their voices gradually trailing off.
Li Yuan took in their words.
’More and more Demon Beasts, and now attacks from other cultivators are starting to happen, too. Things are unstable around the He family’s territory, and it’s the same for the Chen family.’
He pushed aside his stray thoughts and continued to circulate his energy.
The night outside the medicine garden was deep. The blue light screen of the Array flowed slowly, reflecting off the leaves and branches of the various Spirit Medicines in the plots.
From the direction of the mountain pass in the distance, the faint, intermittent roars of a Demon Beast or two could be heard.