A Will Eternal

Song Junwan returned to the upper finger of Middle Peak, her face a mask of rage as she flew over her blood lake and toward her immortal’s cave. Before the door could even swing open like it usually did, she kicked it as hard as she could.

A huge boom echoed out, and the door trembled as cracks spread out across its surface.

“That lousy Nightcrypt! Thinks he’s all grown up now, does he? How dare he say he won’t come back home with me!” She kicked the door again, and it collapsed into pieces, whereupon she stormed into her immortal’s cave.

The four attendants outside were shivering in shock. They had never seen the grand elder this angry; she had actually destroyed the door to her own immortal’s cave.

Soon, more bangs and crashes could be heard from inside as Song Junwan threw things to the ground and smashed them into the walls. However, she was only partially done venting her anger. She sat down where she was, her face flickering with a certain hidden bitterness that even she didn’t realize was there.

“Nightcrypt, you ignoramus! I had you sweep the paths on Middle Peak and repair the immortal’s caves so that people wouldn’t hate you so much! When someone makes a big scene like you did, people are bound to get jealous. Okay, so maybe asking you to scrub the garbage receptacles was a bit excessive, but all you had to do was come ask me, come beg me, and I would have let you off the hook!” Song Junwan was only getting more and more mad.

“But then you decided to collude with outsiders! I can’t believe you ran away! You say you’re not gonna come back? Fine! Don’t come back for the rest of your life!” She grabbed a nearby jug of alcohol and smashed it on the ground.

The attendants outside exchanged embarrassed looks, then simply looked down at their toes and pretended they hadn’t heard anything.

Meanwhile, in Corpse Peak’s Blood Master Temple, Bai Xiaochun was sitting there stewing in fury. In his opinion, Song Junwan was being far too overbearing. What right did she have to ask him to do all those things? Was she in charge of whether or not he concocted pills for people?

“That shrew’s temper is ridiculous!” he grumbled.

Blood Master Windcliff was sitting there in front of him, a strange half-smile on his face. The grand elder was also nearby, an equally odd expression on his face. The two of them exchanged a glance; by now, both of them were convinced that something was going on between Nightcrypt and Song Junwan.

“Take a deep breath, Junior Brother Nighcrypt,” said Blood Master Windcliff, smiling. “Why don’t we talk about the medicine concocting situation?”

Bai Xiaochun looked up. This was his first time actually getting a look at Windcliff. After examining him for a moment, he nodded.

Recently, he had realized that, considering how famous he was, he should act a bit more arrogantly.

“First things first,” he said, sticking his chin up. “If anything bad happens while I’m concocting the pill, you people have to take responsibility!”

“Don’t worry about anything!” Windcliff said. Smiling, he handed a bag of holding to Bai Xiaochun. Not only was he not put off by Bai Xiaochun’s show of arrogance, he actually approved of it. What he cared about was the tier-4 spirit medicine. As long as Nightcrypt could concoct it, then it meant his own refined corpses could become more powerful.

The grand elder laughed heartily. “Come, come, Nightcrypt, old boy,” he said. “Let me show you to the immortal’s cave we’ve prepared for you. If it’s missing anything, just say the word.”

With that, the grand elder gave a look to the blood master and then led Bai Xiaochun out of Blood Master Temple.

Corpse Peak viewed Nightcrypt as someone very important, and had arranged a special location just for him on the border between the lower and upper fingers. It was in a wide-open area that had already been cleared of other cultivators.

Of course, news that Nightcrypt had come to concoct medicine had already begun to spread through Corpse Peak. Upon hearing the news, many of the Corpse Peak cultivators blanched in response. After thinking about the tragic fate of Middle Peak, they decided to be more vigilant than ever.

“I heard that the blood master and the grand elder personally invited Nightcrypt over to concoct medicine. We definitely need to watch out.”

“Nightcrypt is also called Plaguedevil. The terrifying way he concocts medicine is the talk of Middle Peak….”

There were some cultivators who didn’t take the matter too seriously, assuming that the stories were mere exaggerations.

“Who cares about medicine concocting? Could it really affect us that much? That whole diarrhea thing only happened because they got careless. As long as we’re on guard, nothing bad could possibly happen.”

“Hmph! Let’s see what heaven-shaking, earth-shattering things happen when this Nightcrypt concocts medicine!”

Regardless of the various reactions on Corpse Peak, the blood master and the grand elder issued orders that the area around Bai Xiaochun’s concoction cave was forbidden. No one was allowed to get close.

Bai Xiaochun was very pleased with all the preparations, especially the immortal’s cave they had prepared just for him. After the grand elder left, he sat down cross-legged in front of another hulking cross-legged figure, a green-haired corpse. Surprisingly, it’s hair wasn’t incredibly long anymore. However, its fangs were just as razor-sharp as before, and it also had bone spurs sticking out of its skin. It had long, wicked-looking claws, and radiated a murderous aura that was completely shocking.

This was Bai Xiaochun’s emerald zombie!

Clearly, the zombie was much stronger than it had been when he had first created it. Its skin looked tougher, and overall, it seemed more brawny and powerful.

It had green eyes, and emanated an aura that made it seem strangely intelligent.

Just looking at it caused Bai Xiaochun’s hair to stand on end. Although he had personally created the emerald zombie, he still found it terrifying.

“Not cute at all….” he said, glaring. “Put those fangs and claws away, and shorten that hair a bit.” As soon as the words left his mouth, the emerald zombie shivered. Its fangs and claws, as well as the bone spurs, all vanished. As for its hair, it shrank down until it was almost invisible.

Its murderous aura also faded a bit. It was still green, but now it looked a lot more normal. After a moment, it looked over at Bai Xiaochun, seemingly a bit sluggish.

“That’s better,” Bai Xiaochun said, pleased. With one last glance at the area outside of the immortal’s cave, he opened the bag of holding the blood master had given him, which was filled with a large amount of medicinal plants. Although there weren’t as many as the Song Clan patriarch had given him, they were equally valuable. There were even some plants which were more valuable than the ones the Song Clan patriarch had provided, and of higher quality.

“It seems that Corpse Peak’s blood master has quite a bit of resources on his hands!” There were also plenty of bloodflame stones and pill furnaces in the bag of holding, as well as a jade slip that had the medicine formula for the Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill.

Bai Xiaochun took the medicine formula and began to study it. Soon his eyes widened. The medicine formula was actually not very easy to understand, and there were many areas where the explanations were quite vague. Without true knowledge of how to concoct tier-4 spirit medicine, it would be impossible to understand.

In fact, even with such skill, the formula was still difficult. Thankfully, Bai Xiaochun’s skill in the Dao of medicine had already reached the point where he could concoct tier-5 spirit medicine. Therefore, after studying the formula in detail, he started to understand it. Eventually, he took a deep breath.

“This Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill uses corpses as furnaces to brew corpse pills. Forty-nine corpses have to be withered into the form of corpse pills. Then, the forty-nine corpse pills are combined together to make the Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill!

“This is not a pill designed to be consumed by the living. It’s meant to be fed to a refined corpse. With this pill, a shadow zombie could be upgraded to a Core Formation-level flying ghoul!!” Strange light gleamed in his eyes as he looked at the medicine formula.

“This isn’t a tier-4 spirit medicine, this is more like tier-6 medicine which has been simplified to some extent by some almighty practitioner of the Dao of medicine. Only by splitting it up into forty-nine smaller processes can it be successfully concocted by someone at the tier-4 level!

“A simplified spirit medicine like this would be much weaker than the original, and would have a limited success rate. However, in combination with certain other techniques, the success rate could be pushed a bit higher.

“So, spirit medicines can be concocted in this way too, huh?” Bai Xiaochun almost couldn’t believe it, so he decided to continue to study the formula. Muttering to himself, he would occasionally look up at the emerald zombie.

After years of refinement performed by the grand elder of Corpse Peak, the emerald zombie had reached a battle prowess equivalent to the great circle of Qi Condensation. If it could make a breakthrough, it would be like a shadow zombie, equal to the Foundation Establishment stage.

“It would be a big waste to give a spirit medicine like this to the blood master. It would be way better to concoct it and use it on my own zombie….. But in that case, how would I explain things to Corpse Peak? I can only imagine what bad things might happen then….” Rubbing his chin, he looked at the medicine formula. Eyes shining, he continued to do more research.

Time passed. Half a month later, Bai Xiaochun suddenly looked up, panting. Eyes shining, he began to cackle maniacally.

“If I keep the first steps the same, but make some alterations to the final steps, I should be able to make a synchronization Blood Corpse Refining Pill!

“After refining the forty-nine corpses into pills, I can use my emerald zombie to serve as an enormous pill cauldron, and in the end reverse its blood flow. After the pill is finished, it will produce a secondary pill, a synchronization pill. I could give the synchronization pill to the blood master, and if he used it to successfully refine his corpse and break through, then my emerald zombie would be able to control it!”

Bai Xiaochun slapped his thigh, then threw his head back and laughed uproariously. Hair in disarray, expression one of excitement, he simply couldn’t wait to try out this concoction method. After looking around, he began to chuckle derisively.

“So, this part was just a test, huh? You can’t even create Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pills with a pill furnace.” After some thought, he decided that the medicine formula really was a test. If he couldn’t understand it, then naturally, he wouldn’t be able to concoct it.

Only after truly understanding the formula would he be able to truly concoct the medicine.

With that, he rose to his feet and called over Corpse Peak’s grand elder. When he arrived, he said that he needed forty-nine corpses, as well as more bloodflame stones. The grand elder didn’t seem surprised at all, but rather, began to laugh excitedly. He quickly performed an incantation gesture, and then waved his finger at the immortal’s cave. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a passageway appeared.

Shockingly, the passageway led to an underground necropolis!

Inside the necropolis was a lake of blood, surrounded by forty-nine zombies, all of which radiated murderous auras.

Bai Xiaochun looked around. Hands clasped behind his back, he stuck his chin up and tried to look displeased.

The grand elder clasped hands respectfully and said, “Nightcrypt, old boy, this is the true place to concoct the medicine!”

By this point, he was completely convinced of Bai Xiaochun’s skill in the Dao of medicine. The truth was that the blood master had given that very same medicine formula to many other apothecaries, and yet none of them had truly understood it. It was only because he and the grand elder had access to certain ancient records that they were aware of the true concocting method.

And yet, Nightcrypt had only used half a month to see through to the critical aspects. The grand elder was very excited. Seeing that Bai Xiaochun didn’t look very happy, he politely clasped hands again. After offering an explanation, he handed over a large collection of medicinal plants, whereupon Bai Xiaochun’s expression softened.

“Please leave,” he said coolly. “Without my permission, no one is to enter!”