Chapter 96: The Human Elixir Refiner
Chapter 96: The Human Elixir Refiner
“Lingxiu was actually a very good instructor. If it weren’t for me, she might still be cultivating within the Nine Immortals Sect!”
After Fang Cun tracked him down, Master Lan Shuang’s expression didn’t show much change. He only sighed softly and looked at Fang Cun with a smile. “Now? She’s disgraced because of refining the Human Elixir. Everyone insults and curses her. But her heart is actually kind. Back then? She didn’t want you to become my disciple. It wasn’t about making things difficult for you. It wasn’t because of your elder brother’s matters affecting you either. She was truly worried I couldn’t control myself… and she didn’t want me getting entangled with your Fang Family again…”
Fang Cun listened silently to Master Lan Shuang’s words. After a while, he asked, “And Lao Chao?”
“Lao Chao…”
Master Lan Shuang sighed lightly. “We were fellow students. We both followed the Former Academy Head back then…”
“Master,”
Fang Cun suddenly interrupted him, his voice seeming to hold a suppressed ferocity, “at this point, Master doesn’t need to treat this disciple like a fool anymore. If it was just being fellow students? Lao Chao wouldn’t necessarily have gone this far for you. An instructor of Lingxiu’s standing… definitely would not willingly shoulder all the blame for someone she didn’t share a deep past connection with. So, Master, you…”
He didn’t finish speaking, just gazed steadily at Master Lan Shuang.
Master Lan Shuang’s expression turned somber. After a long silence, he finally sighed and gave a bitter smile. “Both children of the Fang family are exceedingly clever. Trying to deceive you really isn’t easy. You’re right. Lao Chao… he was originally my servant!”
Fang Cun took a deep breath.
Admitting Lao Chao was once his servant… was tantamount to admitting he was…
“Chaorong was a very good man!”
Master Lan Shuang shook his head helplessly, smiling bitterly with a sigh. “After my Soul Seizure and new life, I severed ties with him. Set him free. Yet he remained loyal. He just couldn’t serve at my side openly anymore. I told him we’d cut all ties, truly set him free. But… when he obtained the Human Elixir… he still thought to present it to me…”
He looked at Fang Cun, offering faint praise. “Your move… it really was masterful.”
Fang Cun listened expressionlessly, but when he spoke, his voice carried a barely perceptible tremor. “I always assumed… the Human Elixir refiner was prolonging life. Now I know… it wasn’t for longevity. It was because you’d already completed the Soul Seizure! So… the current you…”
“Soul Seizure… is a troublesome affair!”
Master Lan Shuang sighed. “Not only must one select a good vessel… you must consider its talent… its identity… and constantly guard against the innate essence of the original owner fighting back. Back then, because of that Incident at Southern Mountain with the Tigers, my vital energy was damaged. My life force was nearing exhaustion. Soul Seizure was a choice of desperation. Yet… because of it, after seizing this body, my cultivation fell immensely. Day and night, I suffered the backlash from this body’s original master… the agony was unbearable. I endured for over a decade… but finally… I’m reaching my limit. Only two choices remain…”
Fang Cun asked calmly, “What choices?”
Master Lan Shuang sighed softly. “First… consume the Human Elixir. Fortify my own Innate Qi. Use its power to refine the lingering soul of the original master. Relieve myself of this torment. At least… use this body a little more comfortably…”
Fang Cun glanced at Master Lan Shuang. “The second choice?”
“The second choice…”
Master Lan Shuang also looked back at Fang Cun calmly, giving a faint smile. “Naturally… seize another body.”
The smile on Fang Cun’s face turned somewhat bitter.
After a moment, he spoke to Master Lan Shuang. “Master… how do you find… this body?”
“Supremely excellent!”
Master Lan Shuang smiled. “Whether it’s natural talent… or your family background… there’s hardly a better choice. Granted… seizing a body like yours might lead to complications due to your status… but you understand… when someone who needs to seize a body… finds a choice that seems absolutely perfect… self-control becomes… extraordinarily difficult…”
Fang Cun chuckled. “So… Master set his sights on me… the day I entered the Academy?”
“So… Master was so worried I’d practice Qi Refinement… and ruin my foundation?”
Both fell silent. The tea on the table had gone cold.
Fang Cun himself didn’t know what emotion filled his heart right then.
He forcibly suppressed the chaotic thoughts swirling inside him. Struggled to keep his thinking clear. He continued slowly, “Or rather… when Master first came to the Academy as an instructor after the Soul Seizure… was he… from the start… selecting the second vessel?”
“You taught me diligently… answering all my doubts… were you really… preparing for the Soul Seizure?”
He posed each question softly. His voice, by the end, carried anger he couldn’t quite suppress: “You once said… without my elder brother aiding you… you wouldn’t be here today. That every cause has its effect… predestined… So… this… this is…”
“That part… was not false!”
Master Lan Shuang laughed. “Back then… little more than a child… he ran into the Southern Mountains… cut off the tiger’s head… exposed my theft of Innate Qi to prolong life… before everyone! Forced me into retirement! Harshly scolded by the sect! Confined within a cave dwelling! Wasn’t that his… ‘lesson’ for me? His actions… his actions condemned me to over a decade of day and night torment… unbearable suffering… Doesn’t it all flow from the grace he bestowed upon me?”
Fang Cun heard this. He had to fall silent. He didn’t speak for a long time.
“As for my teaching you… helping you… you needn’t overthink it.”
Master Lan Shuang sighed lightly. “Teaching a disciple with such remarkable talent… is genuinely a joyous thing. This old tutor felt truly happy teaching you. Lingxiu was always worried I couldn’t restrain myself near you… that I might do something. That’s why she stopped me repeatedly. But she underestimated me. Honestly… if I could get the Human Elixir… use its power to suppress my torment temporarily… why would I willingly endure another Soul Seizure?”
“The Human Elixir…”
Fang Cun sighed quietly, his expression gloomy.
Two Human Elixirs. Six hundred lives…
Silent for a moment, he suddenly looked straight at Master Lan Shuang. “Who refined the Human Elixir… behind Ghost Fang Peak back then?”
Master Lan Shuang remained silent. He didn’t answer Fang Cun’s question.
Fang Cun gritted his teeth slightly, speaking in a low voice, “I judged at the time… the refiner wasn’t highly skilled… merely borrowing the array’s power. But… if you were there… Master… you possessed ample strength to slaughter us all… silence every witness…”
Master Lan Shuang shook his head slowly. After a long pause, he said, “Why force things to such an extreme?”
Fang Cun suddenly felt words fail him. A strange emotion surged in his heart. After a long time, he raised his head, meeting Master Lan Shuang’s eyes. “Master… was it only after the second Human Elixir vanished… that you decided to seize my body? Starting then… the Human Elixir was gone… Instructor Lingxiu died… leaving you near-zero chance of obtaining it? Plus… you saw me wildly consuming Qi Refining Pills? That’s why you came to stop me? Why you transmitted the Nine Immortals Sect Moonlight Body Refining Art? Was it… because if I cultivated that same art… my foundation would align with yours… making Soul Seizure… easier?”
“You… really take after your elder brother…”
A chuckle escaped Master Lan Shuang. “When your brother first entered the academy? Although talented… he caused much trouble. The old instructor backing him then… couldn’t have shielded him easily. It was me… silently helping him a few times. Yet… I never imagined… the young genius I admired and subtly supported… would ultimately become my enemy… forcing me onto this desperate path…”
Fang Cun listened impassively. His face seemed blank. Or perhaps the emotions were too tangled to express.
“You’re just as clever as your brother. But… you’re far craftier!”
Master Lan Shuang looked at Fang Cun with a smile. “If it were him? He’d only rummage through dusty records like those Nanshan Alliance youths… searching for proof. He adhered too strictly to rules… acted too straight… naturally easy to lead by the nose… easy to scheme against. But you? You are different. You chose to weave a trap step by step… forcing us to walk according your plan. Just like Lingxiu turning back for the elixir. Just like Lao Chao… knowing it was a trap yet delivering the Human Elixir to me. Just like me… perceiving the danger… yet still taking the pill…”
Fang Cun’s expression tightened considerably.
If he’d known… that the Human Fiend finally uncovered… would be Master Lan Shuang… would he have done any of this?
Perhaps… there are no ‘if’s.
From the moment he decided to chase the Human Fiend… it was already…
You possess greater cunning than your brother. But… I wonder… are you also as stubborn?”
Master Lan Shuang looked at Fang Cun and spoke softly, “Although I didn’t formally take you as a direct disciple… we were still master and pupil. Let’s let this matter rest. I will take the Human Elixir… leave far away. Pretend this visit never happened. What do you think?”
A trace of grim resolve flickered across Fang Cun’s face.
He remained silent for a long moment before finally addressing Master Lan Shuang. “This is precisely the question I asked Master earlier. Please enlighten me…”
“Us Qi Refiners… when we encounter one who refines the Human Elixir… should we kill?”
Master Lan Shuang suddenly fell silent. He looked into Fang Cun’s earnest eyes, his expression gradually turning solemn. After a pause, he spoke, his voice quiet but firm. “As your teacher… I tell you: Refining the Human Elixir… is the greatest crime a Qi Refiner can commit. Once discovered… it incurs the wrath of heaven and the hatred of the common people… despised by gods and spirits. Even one’s closest kin… may be slain. Those who know and fail to report… those who condone it… are equally guilty!”
Fang Cun’s expression hardened for an instant, a barely discernible note of sorrowful despair flashing through it. Locking eyes with Master Lan Shuang, he forcibly controlled his stiffening body. He stood up. And bowed deeply.
“Thank you for the instruction, Master!”
…
…
At some point, wisps of mist had begun to drift through the academy.
Especially before the cave dwelling where the three great willow trees stood, the mist clung persistently, like a curtain veiling the stone table at the entrance and the figures beside it. Master Lan Shuang, within this mist, appeared indistinct, his features blurred. His voice passed through the damp haze, low and resonant, carrying an oppressive, heavy weight.
“I answered you as your teacher… Now… I ask you… as an old man…”
He gazed with equal calmness at Fang Cun. Yet… he felt utterly different. Through the veil of mist, Fang Cun faintly perceived… it was no longer the elegant master in the blue robe he saw… but a man… an ancient man… with profoundly shadowed features.
“Was I… a good teacher?”
Fang Cun listened to the voice. After a long silence, he replied, “You were.”
The aged voice reverberated within the mist. “For sixty-four years… I taught at this Academy… Instructing uncountable disciples… Is my Merit not vast?”
Fang Cun answered, “It is.”
The atmosphere grew palpably colder, sharper, thick with biting scorn. “Having already cultivated so many accomplished disciples for Great Xia… for this world… having built such vast Merit… If I live longer… I will teach many more disciples! Cultivate many more Qi Refiners… beneficial to the world… helpful to the people! My future contribution… will surpass that of anyone else at Willow Lake!”
“In that case…”
The voice pressed on, relentless. “If I merely… gather some vagrants… whose lives and deaths go unnoticed… to refine a pill to prolong my existence… what wrong… is there in that?”