Chapter Eighty-Seven: Opening the Purple Mansion, Meridian Peak

After Xi Changfeng finished speaking, he blinked and thought it over carefully. Indeed, how could such a miraculous elixir possibly have been swallowed by a beggarly little vagrant with only a modest level of cultivation? Since the boy had not yet burst apart from within, that could only mean the elixir still lay safe inside him.

"Perhaps, Chief Li, we should wait a little longer. I still believe the elixir remains within this little thief." Seeing the cold, mocking look in Li Muqiu's eyes, Xi Changfeng could only speak awkwardly.

Xi Changfeng did not dare cut open the boy's belly to retrieve it. If he found it, all would be well. But if he did not, would that not destroy Li Muqiu's last shred of hope? And if Li Muqiu were driven mad with fury and came after him with his life on the line, would he not be the one to suffer?

"Hmph. And if anything has gone wrong with the elixir, Xi Changfeng, what then? You should know how important it is to my Green Pool Sword Sect, and how important it is to me, Li Muqiu." Li Muqiu was far less optimistic than Xi Changfeng. From his understanding of such a grade of elixir, once swallowed by a low-ranked cultivator, there were only two outcomes: success, or complete ruin. He had never even heard of a third possibility.

"Please be at ease, Chief Li. A heaven-grade elixir is not something just anyone is qualified to consume. I also believe nothing will go wrong... As long as we wait a little longer, the elixir will surely break through that beggar's body and soar into the heavens."

Xi Changfeng's tone had also grown somewhat displeased. Though Li Muqiu was the chief of the Green Pool Sword Sect, he himself was at least an elder protector of the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect. This was simply too much; Li Muqiu had made a point of shaming him again and again.

Besides, even if something truly had gone wrong with the elixir this time, Li Muqiu had no right to interrogate him like this. It was true that the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect had been responsible for transporting the medicine this time, but the matter could not be laid entirely at their feet. After all, the elixir had been swallowed by that beggar boy; it was a pure accident, one no one wanted.

What right did Li Muqiu have to question him? What qualification did he have? And why should he blame him for it?

"Fine. Then this sect will wait a little longer. But remember this, Xi Changfeng: if anything truly has happened to the elixir, I, Li Muqiu, will never let you go." Li Muqiu fixed him with a cold stare, that sharp gaze filled with menace and contempt.

It was the look of an adult warning a child after a mistake: "Boy, if you dare do it again, I will spank you soundly."

Humiliated in front of so many people by the chief himself, Xi Changfeng's face turned red. Since the day he had risen to fame, he had never suffered such an insult. Yet faced with Li Muqiu's overwhelming presence, and with all the experts of the Green Pool Sect looking on, he did not dare utter a single complaint.

Li Muqiu had been a madman in his youth. Even now, though he had become the master of a sect and had somewhat restrained his temper, Xi Changfeng still did not dare provoke him lightly. What if he truly lost his temper, tore off all pretense, and crippled him? Even if Bai Moyai were to fly into a rage afterward and lead the experts of the Heavenly Mountain Sect to demand justice on his behalf, what then? If he had already become a cripple...

Within Che Wuyou's body, the inner method of the Classic of the Wonder Physician had already been driven to its limit, yet his meridians continued to tear little by little, and even his dantian had begun to show tiny cracks. Blood seeped continuously from the corners of his mouth, and his skin too began to split, dreadful fissures spreading over his entire body until they covered him completely.

Could it really be that there was no way out? Was he truly going to burst apart and die?

He could not accept it. He really could not.

"Ahhh, ahhh..." At last Che Wuyou could no longer endure it. He roared toward the boundless sky, over and over. He still had so many things left to do; his life had only just begun. What had he done wrong to deserve such punishment from the heavens? Even in death, must he die without a complete body?

Within his dantian, the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies and the Heart-Demon Elixir were fiercely contending for territory. It seemed they heard Che Wuyou's roar, or perhaps sensed some hidden danger. Suddenly they halted, and in the next instant, entwined with one another, they began to mend his body.

Two heaven-grade elixirs joining forces to restore Che Wuyou's body—such a speed of recovery might never have appeared even once in the history of the Southern Continent. Besides, no one in the Southern Continent had ever dared to swallow these two heaven-grade elixirs at the same time, much less suppress their potency and let them tangle together like this.

Che Wuyou's body was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even the cracked skin on the outside began to grow, heal, scab over, and shed its scabs again...

His torn meridians and dantian were fully repaired as well. The slender channels that had once been narrow became broad and spacious after the healing, and even stronger, filled with elasticity.

His dantian had expanded to more than twice its former size, and at its very center stood a square, irregular object. From a distance it looked almost like a purple house. Though small in area, it was strikingly conspicuous and carried an air of solemn majesty.

Che Wuyou was also examining his body with inward sight. He felt astonishingly well now, every part of him filled with an indescribable sense of power. According to Miao Shilin's terminology, his Classic of the Wonder Physician seemed to have already reached the peak of the meridian realm. This injury had actually propelled him straight past the late meridian stage and into the summit of that realm. He was even only a hair's breadth away from entering the next major realm: the marrow realm.

If measured by the standards of cultivation, he was now only a sliver away from entering the Return-to-Origin realm. This was absurdly exaggerated. Since when had he become so formidable? Even Lan Zhi, gifted as she was, had not long since entered the Return-to-Origin realm, yet he had unknowingly caught up with her.

Could it be that he, too, was a once-in-a-generation genius? But whenever he thought of how the Classic of the Wonder Physician was that nameless manual Miao Shilin had forced upon him, he could not help feeling a chill. Miao Shilin was a man of deep schemes, one who did nothing without some enormous purpose. From what he could see now, that man had never meant him well. Then perhaps the Classic of the Wonder Physician he had given him was not bestowed for any benevolent reason either...

Che Wuyou set aside those troubling thoughts for the moment and looked at the house standing in the center of his dantian. He could not help but smile with understanding. It seemed his cultivation level had, without his noticing, entered the Purple Mansion realm. If he was not mistaken, this little house was the so-called Purple Mansion mentioned in the books.

The house looked very small, which suggested that he was only in the early stage of the Purple Mansion realm. Even so, Che Wuyou was overjoyed. Without this calamity, how difficult would it have been to enter the Purple Mansion realm? With his aptitude, under normal cultivation, it would likely have taken at least thirty or forty years before he could reach it. Yet now, through the power of the elixir and the green medicinal force, he had entered this long-cherished realm in one stroke.

Only... why had his dantian become so enormous? According to the books, when the Purple Mansion finally grew to the same size as the dantian, that would be the moment of breakthrough into the Return-to-Origin realm. But his dantian was astonishingly large; when would the Purple Mansion ever grow to match it? Che Wuyou frowned, worried.

He turned inward again to examine his Purple Mansion. The Purple Mansion was the core chamber for storing power, and to every cultivator it was of vital importance.

"This... this..." Within the Purple Mansion, Che Wuyou saw two strands of energy, one white and one green, entwined yet clearly separate. So these two forces had not disappeared at all. They had instead occupied his Purple Mansion. He had thought that after repairing his body they would have been exhausted, or dispersed into the air. Yet they had never left his body; rather, they had seized his Purple Mansion.

Che Wuyou hurriedly searched for the energy he had painstakingly cultivated himself. That was the power useful to him, the only force he could truly command. At last he found it: his hard-earned true essence was tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of the Purple Mansion, and seemed to have grown much stronger than it had been at the level of Energy Refinement... but compared with those two white and green strands, it was utterly negligible...

Time passed slowly, yet the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies still did not appear before everyone's eyes. Even the people of the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect were growing impatient...

"Boy, wake up... Boy, open your eyes for me!" Bai Hansong could no longer endure it. That beggar child had kept his eyes closed all this time, no one knew what trick he was playing, and no one knew what had become of the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies. He decided to wake Che Wuyou first and ask him carefully.

"What? What did you say?" Che Wuyou had been examining his body inwardly when Bai Hansong's shout suddenly reached him. He blinked in bewilderment at Bai Hansong. After staring for a while, he finally understood. Right, he seemed to have swallowed their Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies. Before the elixir disappeared, they had all been shouting murderously at him. Now they surely would not let him off even more easily.

"Stop pretending, you little bastard. Where is the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies? Where exactly have you hidden it? How come I can't sense even the slightest trace of its aura anymore?" Bai Hansong said, his tone laced with both suspicion and anger.

"Oh, the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies? It's already been destroyed by me," Che Wuyou replied, blinking innocently.

"What? Destroyed? You dare destroy the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies? I'll peel your skin off!"

"Wait, Senior Bai. I have something to say," Che Wuyou said quickly when he saw Bai Hansong about to strike.

"You little thief, you really refuse to cry until you see the coffin. Speak. Where exactly did you hide the Elixir of Repairing Deficiencies?"

"Didn't I already tell you I destroyed it? Why do you keep asking?"

"You cunning little thief, didn't you say you had something to say? It seems unless I strip your skin off, you won't tell the truth." Bai Hansong was genuinely enraged by Che Wuyou. If he had not needed to know the elixir's whereabouts, he would never have wasted words with this boy.