Returning Immortal

Chapter 39

Click.

When he opened the lid of the jade box, inside was a single spiritual pill as white as snow.

It was the size of a fingernail, and it gave off a clear and fragrant scent.

"What kind of medicine is this?"

"It is a Youth Retaining Pill, a medicine that maintains youth."

"What! Then the reason you, the Blood Scorpion Demoness, didn't age was..."

"..."

At the utterly absurd answer, Gwi Seongjin was at a loss for words for a moment.

A Youth Retaining Pill?

He had heard that such a medicine existed.

But he had heard that it was so precious that even cultivators of the Void Refinement stage could not obtain it.

But to think that the pill in front of him was that very medicine...

"How many Youth Retaining Pills were in the jade box?"

Gwi Seongjin, who had discovered that the jade box in his hand was quite large, asked the Blood Scorpion Demoness.

"At first, there were three. I ate one, and I offered the other one to the Grand Elder of our sect."

"Grand Elder?"

"Yes. He is the de facto master of the Hundred Poisons Sect, a person whose identity is veiled like a mist."

"Are you saying he hides his appearance even from you, the sect master?"

"That's right. I also do not know his face, let alone his age and gender. In fact, there are only a few people who know that there is a Grand Elder in our sect."

"What is the method by which he proves his identity?"

"It is a white jade plaque with a white spirit grass engraved on it."

"Is that all?"

"Yes. Although the white spirit grass is a medicinal herb that does not bloom, the white spirit grass engraved on the jade plaque has three flowers drawn on it. I don't know if it's because of that, but a subtle fragrance also flows from the jade plaque."

"I see. By the way, is there a special secret method for taking the Youth Retaining Pill?"

"No. You can just eat it."

At the Blood Scorpion Demoness's answer, Gwi Seongjin closed the lid of the jade box with a satisfied smile.

And as he was putting it into the yellow pouch, he once again picked up the old parchment.

The Youth Retaining Pill was a medicine that even masters of the Void Refinement stage could not easily obtain.

So the value of the parchment discovered with it would surely be extraordinary.

"Blood Scorpion Demoness, what did you learn the Earth Escape Technique you performed from? Did you learn it from this parchment?"

"That's right. The Earth Escape Technique I learned is an ability I obtained by feeding my essence blood to the first of the five demonic ghosts. It is a secret method I obtained after researching for over fifty years, and I have not yet figured out the abilities of the other demonic ghosts. To perform the Earth Escape Technique, you must first feed your essence blood to the first demonic ghost... and after injecting the power of the earth element..."

The face of the Blood Scorpion Demoness, who was explaining to Gwi Seongjin how to learn the Earth Escape Technique, began to turn red little by little.

It was a symptom of the final radiance before death.

"B-but the Earth Escape Technique I learned seems a little strange. It's not like an immortal who moves freely underground without leaving a trace... ugh... ugh..."

The Blood Scorpion Demoness, whose voice grew lower and lower, finally dropped her head.

Looking at the nape of her dead neck, a black stain was spreading deep into her flesh.

It was the trace of being hit by the assassination the Ghost Medicine Hall Master had thrown before he died.

Wriggle, wriggle.

When the Blood Scorpion Demoness died, the stain stirred, and from within it, white worms like maggots crawled out.

And they began to eat the Blood Scorpion Demoness.

"I will make good use of the treasures you have left me. And I will find out the abilities of the other demonic ghosts myself, so don't worry too much."

Gwi Seongjin closed her wide-open eyes.

And as he did so, he deployed his spiritual sense, and after a while, he confirmed the sight of the soul leaving the Blood Scorpion Demoness's body.

Her death was confirmed.

Gwi Seongjin, who had bent his waist and collected all the remaining barrier banners, moved his body to a place where the Blood Scorpion Demoness's corpse was not visible.

And he began to take out the treasures he had on the floor.

On top of the yellow pouch he had obtained from the Blood Scorpion Demoness, he placed the parchment, the Five Elements Divine Pearl, the jade box containing the Youth Retaining Pill, two black daggers, and the barrier banners and a large gold ingot.

The poison-repelling pearl he had obtained from the Ghost Medicine Hall Master, the box containing the Ghost-Patterned Red-Tailed Scorpions, and the Demonic Poison Pill were laid out right next to them.

On top of that, the Qiankun Pouch he had retrieved from the body of the demonic beast called the Dao Dragon Beast, the spirit stone he had obtained from the entrance of the ancient formation, and the blue jade pearl his demon friend had given him, and the Thunder Cloud Sword, the treasure of the Ghost Valley Sect...

It was truly an enormous amount.

Slide.

The first thing Gwi Seongjin reached for was the parchment the Blood Scorpion Demoness had possessed.

He also knew how to perform the Earth Escape Technique using the parchment and the Five Elements Divine Pearl, as he had heard it from the Blood Scorpion Demoness.

But looking at the gaze of the ghost drawn on the parchment, he somehow had an ominous feeling.

A premonition that he shouldn't rashly imitate it.

In the end, Gwi Seongjin placed the parchment on the floor.

The next thing Gwi Seongjin picked up was the Qiankun Pouch he had obtained from the Dao Dragon Beast's stomach.

He also knew well how to use the Qiankun Pouch.

It was because there was also a Qiankun Pouch remaining in the Ghost Valley Sect.

However, Gwi Seongjin could not guarantee whether he could open the Qiankun Pouch placed before his eyes.

It was because he had heard that some cultivators would cast a restriction spell on the entrance of the Qiankun Pouch.

Slide.

Fortunately, the Qiankun Pouch before his eyes did not have a spell cast on it.

When Gwi Seongjin injected his spirit energy, the entrance opened right away.

There was nothing special about the method of taking out the items inside the Qiankun Pouch.

He just had to examine the inside with his spiritual sense and pull the desired item with his spiritual power.

However, before it came out of the entrance, he had to adjust the size of the item with his legal power.

Legal power was the purple energy that enveloped the primordial spirit.

It was an energy absolutely necessary for using not only spiritual sense and spells, but also the Qiankun Pouch.

Gwi Seongjin, who had examined the inside of the Qiankun Pouch with his spiritual sense, made a surprised expression.

The Qiankun Pouch passed down in the Ghost Valley Sect had a capacity of about three and a half chi.

It meant that items larger than that could not be stored.

But the Qiankun Pouch he had obtained from the Dao Dragon Beast's stomach was over a zhang in width.

The size of a small room.

This was a treasure that only a cultivator of the Void Refinement stage could carry around.

When he checked with his spiritual sense, there were over a hundred jade boxes and wooden boxes inside the Qiankun Pouch.

Among them, there were also very large ones, and some jade boxes were a whopping two chi in size.

On top of that, there were even unknown legal tools and books.

Without hesitating any longer, Gwi Seongjin took out all the jade boxes and wooden boxes inside the Qiankun Pouch.

And as he opened them one by one, his face became more and more distorted.

Inside the jade boxes were spiritual herbs, spiritual fruits, and small trees.

But they were all rotten and mushy.

The same went for the one-chi-sized jade box made of red jade.

Since there were four talismans attached to the outside, he had opened it carefully with a pounding heart, but... inside was only crumbled bone powder.

Gwi Seongjin, who had poured out the bone powder contained inside on the floor, closed the lid of the box again.

Then he looked at the talismans he had taken off.

A somehow profound pattern...

Since the momentum it gave off was also not ordinary, Gwi Seongjin attached the talismans again.

In the end, what Gwi Seongjin had retrieved from the box was only one ugly and large mushroom and one small, withered tree.

The greatly disappointed Gwi Seongjin this time picked up a small jade bottle painted silver.

It was a bottle as small as a finger.

Clink, clink.

When he shook the jade bottle, the sound of liquid shaking inside was heard.

Pop!

Gwi Seongjin, who had opened the stopper of the jade bottle with his spirit energy, quickly moved his hand and closed the stopper again.

A clear fragrance had flowed out in an instant and had filled the cave.

When he smelled it, even the primordial spirit in his spirit platform twitched its nose.

Gwi Seongjin, who had calmed his breathing for a long time with a startled heart, put down the jade bottle and this time picked up a book.

Perhaps because it was made of the hide of a demonic beast, it was a rather hard and thick booklet.

Secret Book of Immortal Pills

The title was grand.

But Gwi Seongjin, who had turned the pages, was disappointed again.

It was because the pages, which would have originally been over a hundred, had only six or seven remaining.

Only a few pages at the front and back were fine, and the pages in the middle had either rotted away and disappeared, or were illegible even if they were there.

Thinking it was fortunate that there was at least something left, Gwi Seongjin carefully put down the booklet.

Now, what was left inside the Qiankun Pouch were two legal tools.

Only a green legal tool that looked like a net and a purple ring made of Kunlun jade remained.

Gwi Seongjin, who had taken them out and blown his spiritual sense into them, smiled brightly for the first time in a while.

The net was a legal tool called the Chasing and Capturing Net, and since its usage was simple, he could use it right away.

Moreover, it was a three-stage transformation body.

Although he could only use the first stage now, it was a legal tool that could exert a much stronger performance if his legal power increased.

However, the ring made of Kunlun jade mercilessly repelled his spiritual sense, so he couldn't even know its name, let alone how to use it.

Still, where was it that he had obtained a legal tool?

Gwi Seongjin blew his spirit energy into the legal tool according to the method recorded in the Chasing and Capturing Net.

And when he specified the target with his spiritual sense, the net spread wide, flew, and tightly bound the targeted stalagmite.

Gwi Seongjin, who had made a pleased expression, formed a hand seal and removed the Chasing and Capturing Net from the stalagmite.

And when he exerted his spiritual power, the Chasing and Capturing Net was sucked into his palm.

Swish!

Gwi Seongjin, who had tested the performance of the Chasing and Capturing Net a few more times, exerted his spiritual power and put all the treasures placed on the floor into the Qiankun Pouch.

The box containing the Ghost-Patterned Red-Tailed Scorpions was stored separately in his bosom.

It was because living creatures could not be stored in the Qiankun Pouch.

Gwi Seongjin, who had organized all the treasures, sat down and began to circulate his qi and regulate his breathing.

Although he didn't know the reason, this cave was strangely rich in the primordial qi of heaven and earth.

It was to the extent that he would mistake that there was a spirit vein nearby.

Gwi Seongjin, who had circulated his qi and regulated his breathing for almost two shichen, examined his realm with his spiritual sense.

He was still at the realm of the second stage of Qi Refinement.

However, what had been the mid-stage of the second stage had now risen to the late stage.

Was it thanks to the Three-Eyed Toad's blood and the Child Ginseng?

More than that, the effect of eating and refining the evil ghost would have been greater.

Happy with his faster-than-expected growth, Gwi Seongjin slowly stood up.

It was to explore the cave.

Thud!

Thud!

Gwi Seongjin, who had flown up and had thoroughly examined the inside of the cave, made a disappointed expression.

Far from a hole to get out, the cave was completely blocked.

The same went for when he examined with his spiritual sense.

His spiritual sense, which could detect up to sixty zhang outside, could only detect about twenty zhang underground.

Especially in places made of rock walls, the form became faint even if it was only about ten zhang away.

Still, since there was no other way, he had exerted his spiritual sense while overdoing it, but what Gwi Seongjin had obtained was only a long sigh.

The tunnel the Blood Scorpion Demoness had brought Gwi Seongjin through was also in a state where only a trace remained.

Since the Earth Escape Technique she had learned was a spell that softened the earth in front and sent it to the back, there was no way a hole would remain.

The cave was not recently made.

Millions of years ago.

There was a high possibility that it was even older than that.

Perhaps because of that, there were many places where the stalagmites on the floor and the stalactites on the ceiling had joined to form large stone pillars.

Stones of bizarre shapes were also visible, and in some places, the ceiling height was a whopping twenty zhang.

Of course, there was no hole to get out there either.

But what if it was above that...?

Gwi Seongjin, who was looking for a place as close to the ground as possible, found the place with the highest ceiling.

Jump!

Gwi Seongjin, who had climbed up a thick stalagmite, flew up and clung tightly to a large stalactite.

Then he crawled like a spider and climbed up to the ceiling.

He exerted his spiritual sense there, but not even a crack was visible.

Still...

Gwi Seongjin, who had jumped and clung to another stalactite, this time exerted his spiritual sense again.

After doing that about ten times.

Gwi Seongjin, who had been clinging to the ceiling and deploying his spiritual sense, took out a dagger from his Qiankun Pouch.

It was the sword the Blood Scorpion Demoness had used.

Snip!

When he injected his spirit energy into the sword, the rock wall was cut powerlessly.

The same went for making a hole in the wall.

When he moved his hand a few times, a hole to support his two feet was dug, and after a little more time, a stone cave that could even fit his torso was made in the ceiling.

Inside it, Gwi Seongjin exerted his spiritual sense once again.

A crack was visible at a height of four zhang above.

It was not wide.

It was to the extent that one person could barely pass through.

Although he didn't know what was beyond it, the crack was the only hope Gwi Seongjin had discovered.

The problem was how to get there.

The material of the rock was so hard that he couldn't even attempt to break it without spirit energy.

Thud!

It was no use with his fist.

So he swung the dagger with spirit energy, and the stone fragments fell off more easily than he had thought.

Gwi Seongjin, who had been swinging the black dagger for a long time, stopped his work and looked at the rock wall.

Even though he had swung the dagger for half a shichen, the depth of the hole he had dug was only three chi.

Still, he could now fully support his body.

When he worked with his two feet on the ground, the work efficiency certainly increased.

But as time passed, the efficiency gradually dropped.

Later, he had dug four chi in one shichen.

It was when six shichen had passed since Gwi Seongjin had started digging the stone cave.

Clang!

The dagger in his hand had broken in two.

It was because his concentration had been scattered as his body and mind were tired, so he had not been able to continuously put spirit energy into the dagger.

Still, there was one more dagger left in the Qiankun Pouch.

Gwi Seongjin, who had checked his body's condition, came out of the narrow stone cave and stood on the cave floor.

And after resting sufficiently, he climbed up to the stone cave again and began to dig a hole in the rock wall. After working like that for four shichen, Gwi Seongjin ended up lying down in the narrow stone cave.

At his feet, a single dagger was rolling around, broken.

It was the last remaining dagger.

Although there was not even half a zhang left, he felt that even the heavens were cruel.

If he just dug a little more, it would be the end...

Gwi Seongjin, who had barely appeased his hunger with the food that had been in the Blood Scorpion Demoness's pouch, fell asleep as he was, leaning against the stone wall.

(End of Chapter)