Tap-tap~
Three sets of footsteps echoed in the hidden cave.
Liang Zhu followed Ye Anping while carefully surveying the surroundings. After walking about a hundred feet into the cave, the rocks on both sides turned into neat walls made of stone bricks.
Some of the stone bricks still had imprints of the time and place of kiln firing, like " Seventh month of the Immortal Calendar 2095 " and the seal of the construction chief of the Heavenly Gate City engraved.
That was an unforgettable year for Liang Zhu.
It was in April of that year that he had rescued Ating and escaped from the Jade Pass . Then, by chance, he met a cultivator from the Seven Slayers Sect and submitted his application.
After following the Qi Refining stage cultivator who carried the lantern, for about a dozen steps, the road ahead widened, and heat waves emanating from the alchemy furnace could be vaguely felt.
After the three rounded a corner, they came to a spacious stone room.
In the stone room, there were nine stone pillars supporting the roof, and in the center was a huge two-tiered furnace. The fire in the furnace was raging, and sometimes it spurted out of the ventilation holes.
Around the alchemy furnace, there were six young cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, sitting cross-legged on mats and delivering spiritual energy to the furnace.
So far, it was all quite normal.
However, when Liang Zhu raised his head and looked up, his eyes suddenly widened. There was a look of shock on the poker face he maintained in all circumstances.
On the ceiling about five feet above the ground, more than a dozen children who looked to be seven or eight years old were hung there with chains nailed through their hands. They were thin like sticks, and their faces were pale as if their blood had been drained out.
Frowning, Ye Anping glanced at the children on the ceiling and said, "They are the main ingredient of the Heavenly Reverse Pill . Brother Liang, you should know better than me. In the Central Region , children with spiritual roots will go to the Heavenly Gate City to participate in the annual immortal examination after their spiritual roots appear at the age of six or seven."
"..."
"After passing the exam, some of them are assigned to serve in various divisions. Some have to return to their original towns and find something else to do because of poor qualifications or lack of skills. And a part of them, after passing the exam..."
Hearing this, Liang Zhu finally came to his senses and asked, "You mean, these kids were sent here by the Justice Division knowingly?"
"Exactly."
Ye Anping looked back at Liang Zhu. He understood what the Justice Division meant to him, and he also understood that he was just a 'sixth brother' to him.
Liang Zhu was unlikely to believe his one-sided statement. Perhaps it would have been better for Inspector Jiang He to tell him these things, but Jiang He was already dead.
After a while, Ye Anping asked, "Brother Liang, what was the original purpose of you and Jiang He coming to the First Spring Town ?"
Liang Zhu answered directly, "A child with a single spirit root went missing. The town reported it further, and the Justice Division sent us to come and investigate his whereabouts."
"What's the child's name?"
"Sun Wuyi."
Ye Anping nodded, then looked at the Qi Refining cultivator standing beside them with the lantern and asked, "Which of these kids is named Sun Wuyi?"
The man was dumbfounded and looked at Ye Anping blankly, wondering in his heart: Didn't they come to get the Heavenly Reverse Pill ? Why does this sound so wrong?
"Sir... what are you..."
Ye Anping narrowed his eyes slightly, activated his rarely used spiritual power, and repeated, "Who is Sun Wuyi?"
The Qi Refining cultivator's face suddenly turned pale, and his legs were shaky. He quickly raised his hand and pointed at the little boy in the center of the ceiling, "It's him."
Liang Zhu looked up, gritted his teeth, and asked again, "Jiang He said he wanted to show me something, could it be..."
"Yes, this was it."
"Why would he want me to see it?"
"This Alchemy Chamber in the First Spring Town is just one of forty-seven. He wanted someone to help him run errands and leave the matter of getting the pills to you in the future. Of course, he was also going to plant a poisonous bug or a restriction on you."
"..."
"Big Brother Liang, your current identity is that of a cultivator who ran from the Hundred Lotus Sect to join the Imperial Sect. This kind of person who came from another region and has no relatives in the Central Region is the best to 'use'."
Listening to the increasingly strange conversation between the two, the Qi Refining disciple gulped and stepped back to the side, thinking of quietly escaping to report the news.
Of course, Ye Anping noticed him, but he did not take action for now. He just looked at Liang Zhu in silence.
It was also at this time that he suddenly heard the jingle of a bell in his consciousness. It seemed that Su Waner had followed him secretly.
Ye Anping simply ignored her. If she wanted to eavesdrop, then just let her. He would guard his storage bag anyway.
Liang Zhu was silent for a long time. After careful consideration, he asked, "Did the Justice Division do this?"
"Basically, all the cultivators above Nascent Soul in the Justice Division know about it."
"That means... the Justice Division is in cahoots with a demonic cultivator? If the Central Region Emperor knew about this, he would definitely not sit back and do nothing..."
Ye Anping shook his head slightly. There was no wonder Liang Zhu thought so. The Central Region Emperor was an immortal cultivator who controlled an entire region among the four, and his status was comparable to that of Matriarch Si Xuanji and several Bright Star Sect cultivators.
"But what if this was ordered by the Emperor himself? Think about what we have experienced in the Dragon House . You know what happened there."
"The Emperor of the Central Region having a deal with a demonic cultivator?!"
"Of course not. That man is a Void Returning cultivator, after all. How could he cooperate with a demonic cultivator? This Heavenly Reverse Pill is his original creation."
As Ye Anping spoke, he looked at the alchemy furnace, then took a sword out of his storage bag and raised it with his spiritual power.
The sword flew directly from his hand to the alchemy furnace and penetrated the outer shell.
The next moment.
Boom---
Inside the stone room, fire flared up and four golden pills flew out from the cracks in the furnace.
He reached out and grabbed one, twisting it with his fingers. "This Heavenly Reverse Pill condenses the lifelong qi luck of those children above. Take it and you can take their qi luck for yourself."
"Qi luck?"
Liang Zhu looked at the pills in his hand, feeling a little confused.
Although cultivators often talked about qi luck, in reality, this was just a concept without any substance.
"Can qi luck be condensed in pills?"
"After taking this pill, your luck will improve. Maybe you will meet a powerful cultivator to teach you some skills when you pass by somewhere. Maybe you will find an ancient treasure when falling off a cliff..."
Liang Zhu looked at the golden pill in Ye Anping's hand and hesitated for a long time.
There was a legend among the four regions about a pill that could make a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage directly reach the Deification stage.
Although this legend sounded improbable, some people still believed that there really was such a pill.
But, to say that a pill can increase a person's luck?
"Heh..."
"Don't believe it?" Ye Anping asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope."
"Neither do I."
Ye Anping looked at the pills in his hand, shook his head, and suddenly thought of a rumor in the game that everyone's game account had a luck value.
Those accounts with high luck values were more likely to get the best things in the game lottery.
But although it was such an abnormal, almost metaphysical thing, many people believed in it, even going so far as to spend a lot of money to buy those original accounts with "high luck values".
"However, the Emperor of the Central Region strongly believes in his Heavenly Reverse Pill ."
Saying this, Ye Anping looked up at the Qi Refining cultivator who had led them inside.
While he was talking to Liang Zhu, the man had quietly moved to a stone switch ten paces away.
Seeing Ye Anping looking over, he immediately turned around and wanted to press the switch.
However, just as he reached out...
Swish---
A white light flashed.
The mechanism that sealed the door cave was right in front of him, but he couldn't move his finger an inch. The vision angle slowly tilted as his head fell from the shoulders to the ground.
Whoosh---
Ye Anping shook off the blood on his sword and put it back in the storage bag before looking at Liang Zhu. "Brother Liang, I have another question to ask you."