The Sword of Five Elements, Chapter 98: Madness as Law
Huang Bao looked at the shopkeeper, poisoned and twisted by a vengeful soul, and after a brief daze, came instantly to his senses.
He ran to the shop entrance, cupped his hands around his mouth, and, just as the crash of a shattered crystal jar sounded behind him, shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Someone come quick! There’s been an incident!”
The nearby shopkeepers, along with the cultivators trading goods in the market, heard the alarm and converged like ants drawn by the call.
At the sight of the withered, stinking abomination on the floor and the shopkeeper’s corpse bleeding from all seven apertures, they knew at once that he had died from a soul’s corruption.
A tall man in a hooded robe, with half his face hidden in shadow, looked on with eyes cold as ice.
He sized up Su Ye and Huang Bao from head to toe, then said in a chill voice:
“Who are you?”
Su Ye stepped forward and cupped his hands.
“This junior is an alchemist. This one here is my attendant guard.”
They had originally disguised themselves as master and disciple, but in this underground black market concealed beneath multiple layers of formations, they had become master and servant instead.
At the word alchemist, the expressions of the onlookers all changed.
Alchemy, artifact forging, and formation mastery—practitioners of these arts could make a living anywhere across the three thousand worlds.
The hooded man’s tone suddenly softened.
“Was it an accidental fall of the spirit fetus while refining pills?”
Su Ye cupped his hands again. “Senior is indeed a master… as though seeing the scene with your own eyes from elsewhere.”
His actions could not be hidden from the naked eye, but neither could they escape spiritual sense.
Though the truth was seen through, it was left unspoken, which meant there was intention behind it.
Su Ye was far too intelligent not to understand the hooded man’s meaning.
He simply went along with the current and played along.
The hooded man studied Su Ye.
His expression was composed, his sea of consciousness utterly still.
For a cultivator at the half-step Divine Concealment realm to possess such composure, his future was boundless.
“If you truly are an alchemist, why not refine a few pills before everyone’s eyes?” The hooded man lifted his right hand. A ball of black flame drifted to the shopkeeper’s corpse and, in an instant, reduced it to nothingness. “If you have real skill, I can speak well of you before the helmsman and ensure your path ahead is smooth.”
The shopkeeper was incinerated as casually as if one were drinking tea or water.
No one cared in the slightest.
Only the fetus, from which the vengeful soul had dispersed, and the drops of spiritual liquid sliding down its face, gleamed in the firelight like tears…
“If it were only ordinary alchemy, how could I show what I am capable of?” Su Ye heard the hidden meaning in the words and knew this hooded man held an extraordinary position within the demon cult.
Such a heaven-sent opportunity could not be missed.
“Oh?” A trace of curiosity entered the hooded man’s voice. “So you have prepared a surprise?”
“The Holy Master of the Demon Ancestor used viscera to contain evil power and vengeful souls, refining them into pills capable of killing cultivators,” Su Ye said loudly. “Yet whether it is mortals or cultivators who have stepped onto the path of immortality, their flesh and viscera could never compare with those of demons or savage beasts…”
“You mean to replace the human organs in the pill formula with demonic organs?”
“Exactly.”
“Demonic organs are too overpowering. They will overwhelm the other ingredients and cause the refinement to fail.” The hooded man pointed out the difficulty in Su Ye’s idea.
The bystanders nodded in deep agreement.
They had all tried using the viscera of slain demons, even top-grade inner cores, to refine pills.
The result was exactly as the hooded man said: the evil force was too fierce, crushing the other ingredients in the formula beneath it.
It could not gather into pill form at all, only wasting materials.
Su Ye smiled calmly. “Senior, have you not heard that where there is a will, there is a way? Let me be bold and say this: your alchemy skills are far inferior to mine.”
The crowd’s approval of the hooded man instantly turned into hostility toward Su Ye.
“This kid is too arrogant.”
“Who does he think he is?”
“…”
The hooded man raised his broad palm, and the murmuring died at once.
“I admire arrogant young people, but they need genuine ability to back it up.
Otherwise… don’t blame me for being rude.”
————
The formula for the Soul-Devouring Pill included the heart and liver of a human being.
At Su Ye’s suggestion, the hooded man ordered those present to prepare two sets of pill ingredients.
The heart soaking in spiritual liquid gave off a steady, powerful beat.
In another crystal jar were stored demonic viscera.
Two spirit-grade pill furnaces of the same rank stood side by side on the ground.
Su Ye stood between the two furnaces, arms extended, and two black flames flew out from his palms.
Huang Bao, who had remained silent all this time, understood Su Ye’s intent.
He meant to divert the disaster elsewhere, to lead the demon cult members to abandon their persecution of humans.
Instead, they would go hunt demons and obtain materials for the devil pills.
To wield evil power in the service of righteous ends.
The idea was unexpected, and it filled Huang Bao with admiration.
But if the plan failed, they would never leave the underground black market alive.
He could not help but break out in a cold sweat.
With the hooded man present, no one dared interfere with the alchemy.
In the midst of apparent calm, danger lurked unseen.
They were waiting, waiting for Su Ye to reveal a flaw.
When that happened, those demon cult members whom Su Ye had offended would pounce like mad dogs and tear him apart.
His body made into a human swine, his viscera refined into devil pills.
Their only hope was that Su Ye would succeed as he claimed—using demon inner cores as medicine to refine a more potent Soul-Devouring Pill.
The medicinal materials, drawn by the Gathering Character Formula, flew into the pill furnace without the slightest deviation.
The black flames seemed like twins, not even the flicker of their fire differing by the slightest degree.
That single display was enough to subdue everyone present.
“This kid may be arrogant, but he does have some real ability.”
“Just his fire control alone leaves the rest of us far behind.”
Hearing the whispered discussion around him, Huang Bao’s tightly strung nerves relaxed at once.
With Su Ye’s alchemical skill, even if he failed, the hooded man would protect him.
It was only the plan to divert the calamity that would come to nothing.
Still, in his heart, he hoped Su Ye would succeed.
“To use demonic inner cores or viscera as medicine and still form a pill, there are two methods,” Su Ye’s voice drifted calmly through the air. “The first is to refine out the evil force and weaken it, bringing it into balance so the pill can take shape.
There is another method…”
His words came to an abrupt halt.
Everyone’s appetite was thoroughly whetted, and they stared fixedly at the viscera flying out of the crystal jar.
Plop.
Two soft splashes landed like ripples in water, striking the heart.
All at once, everyone’s heartbeat quickened.
Even Huang Bao, despite his disguise, was filled with curiosity about Su Ye’s method.
Apart from the sound of fierce flames being driven by the wind, there was not the slightest trace of sound.
The hooded man’s cultivation had not been suppressed by the formation, and he sensed that both pill furnaces had begun forming pills at the same time.
His pupils contracted sharply, and his breathing grew heavy.
Su Ye turned around to face the crowd, whose expressions had frozen in place.
The smile on his face shone more proudly than spring wind.
Spreading his hands, he said with a light laugh:
“Gentlemen, do you have anything else to say now?”
His earlier arrogance had become an invisible crown placed upon the youth’s head.
Beyond admiration, the crowd felt nothing else.
The hooded man looked at Su Ye. His appreciation for him was even stronger than when he had first entered the shop. In a low voice, he asked:
“How did you adjust the evil force so that it could gather into pill form?”
As soon as those words were spoken, the shop fell so silent one could hear a pin drop.
Everyone was waiting for the answer.
The answer that could change the Soul-Devouring Pill, and perhaps many more devil pill formulas besides.
“Coexistence has two forms. The first is balance,” Su Ye said leisurely, holding up one finger. “The pill formulas of the past all followed this principle.”
A second finger rose.
Everyone’s gaze followed it.
“The second method… is for the weak to bow before the strong and submit. With hierarchy in order, a pill may also be formed.”
For a long while, no one spoke.
In the end, it was the hooded man, whose status was highest, who broke the long silence.
“I’ll take you to see the helmsman.”