Mu Cheng also wanted to know if his master was okay, so he did not rashly knock on the window but listened carefully.
Lian Yunzhi sighed. “I’m fine now. It doesn’t hurt anymore. It was probably because Mu Cheng recovered from the brink of death.”
“Mu Cheng? What does it have to do with Mu Cheng?” Fang Tianxin asked.
What does it have to do with me? Mu Cheng tilted his head.
Lian Yunzhi irritably rubbed his temples, tossed the book into Fang Tianxin’s hands, and pointed to a few lines. “See for yourself. It’s the Beast Taming Contract.”
Fang Tianxin read aloud as he looked: “…The Beast Taming Contract is a Soul Contract that upgrades with the demon beast’s level… At the highest level, the demon beast can take human form. If the cultivator dual cultivates with the contracted human-form demon beast… the Beast Taming Contract automatically upgrades to a Demon Beast Dao Companion Contract?!”
Fang Tianxin rubbed his eyes, reading faster: “At that time, the demon beast enjoys the same rights as the master. The demon beast can initiate communication with the master. If the demon beast is near death, the master feels heart pain; if the demon beast dies, the master perishes…”
Fang Tianxin looked up dryly: “How is that possible? Can it be undone?”
Lian Yunzhi: “There’s only one way to undo it.”
Fang Tianxin: “What way?”
Lian Yunzhi gave a miserable laugh: “Sign a real Dao Companion Contract with someone else, and it will displace this fake Dao Companion Contract.”
Fang Tianxin: “…Then I’ll sacrifice myself?”
Lian Yunzhi laughed and cursed: “Get lost.”
…
Mu Cheng stood motionless outside, recalling the words Lian Yunzhi had said to him, pointing at his own heart while drunk in the flower cluster at the Beast Taming Sect Ruins.
“…Don’t die. The last time you were near death, it hurt so much here, it was so uncomfortable.”
…So that’s how it was.
It was literal pain.
He thought, no wonder Lian Yunzhi was willing to feed him the second Immortal Pill.
It was out of necessity.
…
Just then, Fang Tianxin sighed again and asked, “So what now? Mu Cheng has been captured. He’s eaten the Immortal Pill and has a special constitution—who knows how they’ll torment and exploit him. Won’t you end up in agony… The Mu Family is too much. If they want Immortal Pills, they should find their own. What’s the point of grabbing someone who’s eaten one?”
Lian Yunzhi sneered: “Immortal Pill? He didn’t eat any Immortal Pill.”
Fang Tianxin: “What?”
Lian Yunzhi looked up at the beams and said faintly, “The Immortal Pill was fake. Mu Cheng’s special constitution isn’t because he ate an Immortal Pill—it’s because his physique was special to begin with.”
Fang Tianxin: “What do you mean?!”
Lian Yunzhi said, “There was no Immortal Pill at all. Yesterday, they tricked me saying my mother was dying and made me hand over the Immortal Pill. I did take one out—I had obtained two ‘Immortal Pills’ in total, fed one to Mu Cheng, and had one left. But guess what? After I took out the ‘Immortal Pill,’ an alchemist came. He sniffed the pill and said it wasn’t any Immortal Pill—it was a Supreme Aphrodisiac Pill! Ha! Aphrodisiac Pill! No wonder—I knew the Hehuan Sect wouldn’t have any real ‘immortal’ pills!”
Lian Yunzhi’s tone grew agitated as he spoke. He exhaled softly, calmed himself, and continued: “So they questioned me, asking how Mu Cheng recovered without an Immortal Pill?”
Fang Tianxin: “What did you say?”
Lian Yunzhi murmured, “What could I say… My mother was coughing up blood beside me, waiting for the Immortal Pill to save her life, and all I could produce was an aphrodisiac pill. What could I say? I had to tell the truth… I said Mu Cheng recovered on his own. He has the Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root, the Spirit Washing Body, and is a Peerless Furnace Cauldron. He’s innately different from others. I’ve seen him come back from the dead with my own eyes…”
As soon as he said those words, he knew he had made a mistake.
Spirit Washing Body, Peerless Furnace Cauldron, resurrection from death.
He did not need to think to know what kind of disaster those terms piled on Mu Cheng would bring.
His heart began to panic. He wiped his face and stood from the chair: “I’ll go out first. Mother, rest assured—I’ll scour all of Xiaoze State to find pills that can cure you. And don’t spread what I just said about Mu Cheng…”
But before he finished speaking, he stopped. He had just stood when he staggered and fell back into the chair.
He looked incredulously at the cup of tea his father had personally handed him from the side, then lost consciousness and fell into darkness.
When he woke again, Mu Cheng had already been captured. Even captured by the Mu Family.
Lian Yunzhi took a deep breath and looked up at Fang Tianxin, wanting to ask him for a lot of Qi-Gathering Spirit-Replenishing Pills, wanting to recover his spiritual power early and rescue Mu Cheng…
But before he could speak, he heard a strange noise from the window.
He turned his head.
There stood Mu Cheng outside the window, expressionless, his face deathly pale, his eyes pitch black, a cold and sticky mist coiling around his body—like a vengeful ghost that had crawled up from the underworld, ready to claim lives.
