Chapter 605: Back to the Moonrebel Congregation
When Xu Qing opened his eyes the next morning, Ling’er was there taking care of him. She’d been there the entire night. When she noticed that he was awake, she hurried over looking very concerned.
“Big Bro Xu Qing....”
“I’m fine.” Smiling, he reached out and tousled her hair, then checked his injuries. Thanks to the violet crystal, he was already halfway to being fully recovered. However, he still felt very weak. It was especially bad thanks to the backlash damage from self-detonating the bluegreen dragon. That said, even though the bluegreen dragon only had its head left, it still had more heavenfate power than before. What was more, it existed on a higher level now. Therefore, Xu Qing’s recovery process was also an upgrade.
According to what he could sense, once he passed this stage of weakness, his soul would be tougher and stronger.
It should take about twenty days for me to fully recover. At that point, my battle prowess will be significantly improved. If I have to fight another dao begetting expert at that point, it’ll go much more smoothly.
Xu Qing took a deep breath and sat up. As he did, the Captain strolled through the door, munching on a peach. Looking at Xu Qing, he smiled.
“I went out for a walk, and upon returning, you somehow seem different. Your gaze seems sharper than before.” He tossed an apple to Xu Qing.
Xu Qing caught it and took a bite. Then he slowly got out of bed and walked out into the main room of the medicine shop.
Ning Yan was scrubbing the floor and sighing. When he caught sight of Xu Qing, he forced a smile onto his face. Nethersprite was irritably boiling some water. Obviously she could do that with her cultivation base, yet wasn’t permitted to do so. All she could do was squat in front of the stove and stare at the iron kettle, waiting for the water to heat up. Li Youfei was introducing some medicinal pills to a trembling Qi Condensation cultivator. Wu Jianwu was at his spot by the door in his hemp garment. He had long since grown used to his role, and was proudly reciting some poetry.
And then there was the ‘grandpa’ who sat behind the counter fiddling with his pearl and smiling as he looked at all the activity. Perched on his shoulder was the indignant, featherless parrot.
The parrot spotted Xu Qing, and the Captain behind him. Glaring at the Captain, he leaned over to the Heir Apparent and grumbled, “Grandpa, I really think that Chen Erniu was behind it....”
The Captain smiled and ignored the parrot. Walking to the door, he made sure his sword was clearly visible as he crossed his arms, stuck his chin up, and resumed his guard duty.
Xu Qing felt warmth in his heart. Everything was the same as before he’d left. The coziness of the Green Spirit Pharmacy made him feel peaceful and safe.
The water finally reached a boil, so Nethersprite hurried over to the ‘grandpa’ and poured him a new cup of tea.
The Heir Apparent lifted the cup, took a sip, and nodded. Then he looked at Xu Qing. “In twenty days, your tempering continues.”
“Yes, sir,” Xu Qing said. He was actually looking forward to it. Although tempering like this was very dangerous, as long as he could struggle through it and learn some things, then he would make incredible advances.
Days passed.
Xu Qing’s injuries healed, and he could already tell that his soul was different. Specifically, he could now analyze problems faster. In the past, difficulties he needed to think about deeply could now be solved quickly. Because of that, he was able to make some progress in his curse research as he recovered.
As a result, Li Youfei was even busier than before.
Ten days later, Xu Qing was able to take advantage of the upgrade to his soul to achieve some new results. Using Li Youfei’s blood, as well as what remained of the chaotic flesh growths, coupled with his violet moon power, he improved his painquelling lozenge.
This improvement was different than before. Thanks to everything that had been leading up to this, his new painquelling lozenge could significantly reduce the curse. The previous versions of his painquelling lozenges did the same thing. However, they could only remove about 1/10,000th of the curse. But now, if assigned a value of 100 to represent the curse inside of a person, the pill would reduce that value to 99. Because of that, the pain-relieving effects were also significant.
Xu Qing got the feeling that once he put this pill on the market, people would definitely notice what it could do.
Sadly, that’s still nowhere near good enough. But at least I’m going in the right direction. Going forward, as long as I keep improving the pill’s medicinal efficacy, I’ll eventually be able to produce something that completely removes the curse.
After some thought, Xu Qing finally returned to the Moonrebel Congregation. It had now been several months since he was there. This time, he didn’t go alone. Ling’er had been so wrapped up in taking care of him recently that she hadn’t been keeping up with the books. She spent all her time with him. Because she was so curious about the Moonrebel Congregation, he decided to take her with him. [1]
***
There were seven or eight statues seated in meditation inside Xu Qing’s temple in the Moonrebel Congregation. Most were either neighbors or huge fans of his who had purchased his painquelling lozenges in the past. Even though Grandmaster Pill Nine hadn’t shown up for months, they still piously returned every day. It was almost as if they believed meditating in his temple would help them suppress the curse within them.
That was especially true of the burly bare-chested man. As someone who had heard the full ‘dao reverberation,’ he had experienced a change in personality, and now declared himself to be a follower of Grandmaster Pill Nine.
He was disgusted with all of the verbal attacks being made on the grandmaster. At the moment, he had a very stern expression on his face as he calmly spoke to the other followers present.
“It’s true the grandmaster hasn’t been back for some time. But as his followers, and as people who have benefited from his work, we have to have faith. Don’t foolishly believe all the gossip you hear. I’ve always had faith that the day the grandmaster returns, he’ll quell the pain of the Moonrebel Congregation to an even greater degree!”
The other followers nodded gravely. However, one of them was a statue of a female immortal. After a moment of hesitation, she said, “Although a few alchemist cultivators have criticized Grandmaster Pill Nine, overall, they’re in the minority. However, a few days ago Grandmaster Sagelowe pointed out some very valid suspicions....” [2]
Everyone went silent.
The cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation thought very highly of Grandmaster Sagelowe. The main reason was that he sold more painquelling lozenges in the Moonrebel Congregation than anyone else. Some people had even calculated that about thirty percent of all painquelling lozenges on the market were his. As a result, any suspicions he voiced were taken very seriously by most people.
As the small crowd of followers went silent, the burly neighbor snorted coldly. Then he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the altar in the temple vibrated. All of the statues seated cross-legged in the temple turned in shock to look at the altar. Atop the altar was the statue of the old man with the huge bottle gourd on his back. His eyes opened.
“Grandmaster!”
“Grandmaster Pill Nine!”
Shaken, the other statues got to their feet, clasped hands, and bowed in greeting. That was especially true of the burly neighbor, who was now very excited.
“Grandmaster, you’re finally back, sir!”
A bit surprised, Xu Qing simply stood there for a moment taking in his surroundings. Focusing his gaze on the bowing statues, he said, “Who are you people?”
“Grandmaster,” the burly neighbor said respectfully, “all of us here have benefited from your grace. Over the past few months, we’ve taken it on ourselves to stand guard here. We hope to learn from your example and become your followers!”
Xu Qing didn’t respond. Looking outside of the temple, he saw that the bronze cauldron had lots of incense smoke swirling up from it. Beyond the cauldron, a few dozen statues were seated in meditation. Although Xu Qing had heard from the Captain about all this, it was very thought-provoking to see it in person.
When the statues in the temple saw that Xu Qing wasn’t saying anything, they started to get nervous. Based on everything they knew, Grandmaster Pill Nine had to be an eccentric cultivator with a very high cultivation base. Normally speaking, eccentric cultivators had unusual personalities that differed from average people. Therefore, they weren’t sure if he would be pleased with the fact that they were all sitting around in his temple meditating.
However, it made sense to at least see what would happen. If it turned out that the grandmaster was pleased with them, and approved of them being his followers, then it could be profoundly meaningful to them. Thus, they all sat there nervously, waiting to see what he would do.
For about ten breaths of time, Xu Qing stood there looking at them, his face completely expressionless, but his heart pounding.
Finally, he spoke, his voice cool. “Tell me the news from the past few months.”
When they realized Grandmaster Pill Nine wasn’t rejecting their followership, they all breathed inner sighs of relief. That was especially true of the burly neighbor. And he was the one to quickly explain all the important news from recent months, including the suspicions and gossip that had been floating around.
Xu Qing nodded. Everything aligned with what the Captain had told him, though there was more detail. After some thought, he prepared to take out the new medicinal pill. However, that was when Ling’er’s voice echoed in his mind. She sounded angry.
“Big Bro Xu Qing, after hearing all the news, I get what’s going on. The people saying all those things about you are definitely up to no good! But I have an idea.... Since you have a new pill, let’s use their own mouths against them! Just make an announcement saying that you have a new pill coming out in a few days.
“Those bad guys will definitely start bad-mouthing you, but that will just cause word to spread. And then, when you finally release the new pill, all of them will be completely humiliated! Whenever my papa’s inn got investigated in Seven Blood Eyes, it would cause all sorts of rumors to spread. But that would just make the place a lot more popular!”
Xu Qing grinned. Truth be told, he didn’t care about rumors and popularity. But considering how angry Ling’er was, he nodded. Looking at the gathered statues, he said, “In ten days, I’m going to release a new and improved version of the painquelling lozenge. It’s actually so different from the current version that it has a new name: cursequelling lozenge. Over the next ten days, spread word about this. Do well, and I’ll give all of you one of the new pills as a reward.”
Having said that, Xu Qing closed his eyes and left the Moonrebel Congregation.
After he was gone, the statues in the temple all inhaled deep breaths and exchanged shocked looks.
“It has a significantly different medicinal effect?”
“It’s not a painquelling lozenge, it’s a cursequelling lozenge?”
“That name....”
The mere name of the pill gave all of them an idea of what the pill could do.
“The pill can quell the effects of the curse?” Despite being so passionate in his devotion to Grandmaster Pill Nine, the burly neighbor couldn’t help but feel some disbelief.
“What if it’s true?” one of the statues said.
The other statues were breathing heavily.
“If it’s true...” the burly neighbor said, his heart racing, “then going forward, we followers of Grandmaster Pill Nine are going to be like gods in the Moonrebel Congregation!”
1. During my initial reading of this chapter, I was confused why Ling’er was going to the Moonrebel Congregation. I’d forgotten that, inchapter 582.2 , Xu Qing took advantage of their life-sharing arrangement to have Ling’er lead him to the mountain. I figured if I forgot about that, some other readers might, and thus this footnote. ☜
2. Sagelowe: This name is made of two characters. The first is the character for “sage, saint, holy.” The second is a character that is almost exclusively used in transliterations or place names. It has no semantic meaning, which is why I’m combining a translation and a transliteration in this term. ☜