In the Greenhair Badlands, winds screamed everywhere, and green sand stretched out like the sea. It seemed to go on forever and ever.

For some reason, though, the sand and wind were a lot less prevalent in the mountains, which drastically improved the visibility there. In fact, from a distance, the towering mountains looked like they existed in another world. The Bitter Life Mountains were so expansive that there was even less sand and wind there than most other mountains. That said, the sound of the wind was still clearly audible. It sounded like countless demonic monsters, howling in defiance of death.

The mountain hollow Xu Qing had selected was in a rather remote part of the Bitter Life Mountains. Before Xu Qing could even use the mirror, the shadow spread out to keep guard. 𝘪𝘦.𝘤𝑜

Seeing the shadow’s quick reaction to the situation caused Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to suddenly feel more on guard than ever. He quickly flew out, trying to look like the type of dharma protector who would willingly be crushed out of existence if necessary to prove his loyalty. Ling’er was also looking around vigilantly, her eyes shining with white light.

As they stood guard, Xu Qing’s expression became vigilant. He could sense the personhood in the will pulsing in the mirror, and it gave him the same feeling as if he was looking up into the starry sky. Boundlessly majestic.

D-132 vibrated, and the god’s finger looked out briefly, then seemed terrified and quickly went back into hiding.

The might pulsing from the mirror fragment then converged as it flew out in front of Xu Qing.

The will turned into a voice that spoke into Xu Qing’s mind. It sounded like it was coming from a very great distance away, but soon it superseded the sound of the wind.

“Prehistoric rising constellation, unceasing changes and transformations, assess evil and bind demonic, safeguard and protect the body.

“Wisdom that is pure and bright; test the heart for peace and security; three spiritual souls for eternity; physical souls untoppled and preserved.”

The voice was so indistinct it was impossible to say if it was the voice of a man or woman. In fact, it sounded like many people speaking together. For some reason, it imparted a sense of calm into Xu Qing. It was as if the words that had been spoken had the ability to cleanse the heart and mind. Almost immediately, he felt incredibly peaceful and grounded. On the one hand, it felt like a lot of time had passed. At the same time, hardly any time had passed at all. The voice continued to echo in his mind, repeating the same thirty-two words. However, in Xu Qing’s perspective, the meaning of the words changed. 1

That was because two of the words were clearer than the others.

“… assess…. test….”

Xu Qing didn’t do anything rash. He just took his time to listen to the words. Gradually, he got the very distinct impression that if he allowed himself to be drawn into those two words, it would begin some sort of test. After considering the matter, he decided not to proceed. For one thing, he wasn’t in the appropriate environment for something like that. What was more, he had no idea what sort of test he would be taking.

Reaching out, he grabbed the mirror fragment and broke the connection. The sense of peacefulness faded away, and he looked up. Once again, the sound of the wind reached him.

Ling’er looked over at him. “What’s wrong, Big Bro Xu Qing? Did it work?”

Xu Qing reached up and stroked Ling’er’s head. Looking thoughtful, he said, “I think this is the right method, but I need some time to make sure.”

That seemed to placate Ling’er. And considering how Xu Qing seemed lost in thought, she didn’t do anything further to disturb him. She quietly went back into his sleeve, found a comfortable spot, and coiled up. Soon, the warmth of his body heat had her feeling very relaxed. It was as if his warmth was the source of all peacefulness to her. 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Sometime later, Xu Qing’s eyes shone with determination. He had made his decision. He would find somewhere in the Bitter Life Mountains to settle down temporarily, both to study the mirror fragment and also do research on the curse. If he was alone, he would have just found some random cave in the middle of nowhere. But he wasn’t alone. He had Ling’er…. After some consideration, he decided to find one of the mudbrick cities. He didn’t want to force Ling’er to live isolated from the world while accompanying him.

And thus Xu Qing left the mountain hollow and eventually found a rather small mudbrick city on the outskirts of the mountain range.

It was located about halfway up a mountain, and was so small it didn’t even have a name. There weren’t even a thousand residents. Virtually everything was made from mudbricks, with hardly any color visible anywhere. It was quite monotonous. Most residents were locals, although there were some outsiders who had settled down for various reasons. All sorts of species were present.

There were a few shops here and there, none of them very busy. At a glance, it looked like about a third of the buildings in the city were empty. Either the people who had occupied those locations had moved on, or had died.

Xu Qing’s first impression of the place was that it was a bleak and lonely place. However, the people here seemed more tolerant than those in other places. Although his arrival attracted some hostile gazes, no one bothered him.

Xu Qing, who was still wrapped up in clothing that left only his eyes visible, took some time to study the occupants of the city. After a while, he realized there were a lot of people with deformities. Some people were extremely obese, with massive rolls of flesh all over them. Others had multiple limbs, while some had extra faces on them. Some had growths that dragged on the ground as they walked, making them difficult to cover up with clothing.

They seemed like they had extra flesh growing on them. Perhaps it was natural, or perhaps it was some kind of mutation. Either way, they all had numb expressions on their faces. At first, Xu Qing assumed they were some strange nonhuman species he had never seen before. But eventually he realized that wasn’t the case.

They weren’t born with these deformities.

The Greenhair Badlands only seemed to get more gruish as he saw more of it.

After walking around the city for a while to get a sense of the layout, he found an abandoned building that he took over. It was very dusty, and there were broken bottles and jars everywhere. There were also some rickety shelves. From the look of it, the place used to be a medicine shop.

After looking around, Xu Qing started cleaning up. Ling’er took human form, examined the place curiously, and then started helping.

“Big Bro Xu Qing,” she said excitedly, “are you planning to open a medicine shop?”

Xu Qing thought about it and smiled. After all, the very first time he ever saw Ling’er was when she and her father were running an inn on Plankspring Way. To Xu Qing, it didn’t make much of a difference whether he was just living there or running the place as a shop. But since Ling’er had suggested the latter, he decided it wouldn’t hurt.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Awesome! Let me tell you, Big Bro Xu Qing, I actually know a lot about running businesses. I can handle everything!”

Ling’er’s eyes glittered with excitement as she dusted, cleaned up the debris, and then took out some rags to start cleaning more deeply. Such things could be accomplished with magical techniques, but Ling’er clearly enjoyed doing things herself.

When Xu Qing saw that, and noticed how happy Ling’er was, he sighed inwardly. He had come to understand Ling’er a lot more during their travels together. She was very smart, but at the same time, humble and innocent. Sometimes, very small things could keep her happy for days on end.

With Ling’er in charge, all it took was a day before the abandoned little medicine shop was open for business again. Ling’er came up with the name for it. It was the Green Spirit Pharmacy. 2

Xu Qing already had a big collection of medicinal pills, the majority being white boluses. After all, that was the first pill formula he had mastered. Though white boluses weren’t of any use to him, they were a staple for virtually all other living beings in the world, and were thus common everywhere. Xu Qing had learned a lot by studying Bai Xiaozhuo’s methods in Sea-Sealing County. Although Bai Xiaozhuo had ultimately changed white boluses to add poison to them, the reality was that he truly had improved them in terms of quality and purity.

Thus, the Green Spirit Pharmacy focused primarily on selling white boluses.

After taking human form, Ling’er disguised herself as an ugly girl who looked exactly like a shopkeeper’s assistant. That said, there weren’t many people in this city, and considering the shop had just opened, they didn’t get many customers. That didn’t do anything to curb Ling’er’s enthusiasm.

When Xu Qing saw how much Ling’er looked forward to running the shop, he gave her free rein to do whatever she wanted. After taking the seed the Captain had given him and planting it in a flower pot, he went into the back room of the shop to focus on cultivation and research. He needed to do more experiments with the mirror fragment, and also wanted to use some local animals to start studying the curse.

Time slipped by slowly but surely.

At first, hardly any customers showed up. But eventually a few people came to buy white boluses. After all, the white boluses were both cheap and effective.

After the shop started making money, Ling’er got even more motivated. Every day she would carefully calculate all the spirit coin profits, and even started keeping accounts in a little book.

Every so often, Xu Qing would take a break from cultivation. When he saw Ling’er working so hard to balance the accounts, he felt peaceful and calm. Ever since his time in the city of fireflies by the Heavenfire Sea, he had come to realize that he enjoyed life when things were calm. And living in such peace and tranquility did something to his heart and mind. He wasn’t exactly sure what changed, but he could sense something different deep inside himself.

He started spending more time on study and research. Things went well with the mirror, but progress was very slow with the curse. On multiple occasions, he sent the power of the violet moon into animals to try to suppress the curse. The results weren’t good. His efforts failed every single time.

At the moment, he was studying a trembling scorpion. Putting his hand onto the scorpion, he sent violet moon power inside. The scorpion’s color changed. It went from brown to violet. At the same time, Xu Qing could sense the curse inside of it.

The curse in Moonrite Region affected all living beings. It existed in the blood, which made it very hard to extrude. When it flared up, it quickly dissolved the subject.

When Xu Qing’s violet moon power contacted the curse, it would instantly change from being dormant to active. It was almost like it was a living being that would quickly absorb his violet moon power. Apparently, Xu Qing’s violet moon was extremely attractive to the curse. After doing quite a few experiments, Xu Qing confirmed that if the curse in a subject devoured enough of his violet moon power, it would flare up. When that happened, the test subject would dissolve rapidly into a pool of blood. The process was irreversible.

He could suppress the effect by constantly sending more violet moon power into the subject. However, that would only work to a certain point, whereupon the flare-up would occur. The difference was that when he didn’t attempt to suppress the flare-up, the subject would dissolve into blood. If he did suppress it, then when the flare-up occurred they would melt into black ashes.

It’s almost like they’re burning up.

After watching the scorpion collapse into black ashes, he frowned. He had studied the black ashes in detail, all to no avail. The feeling he got was that the curse, after being suppressed temporarily, chose to end itself along with the blood of the subject.

I need to do more experiments, and also use more species.

With that, Xu Qing took out an animal the shadow had captured and continued working.

1. The original Chinese features two lines of poetry

/verse that are 16 characters each, broken up into 4 parts, with each small section being 4 characters. I did not try to match the number of characters to the number of words. ☜

2. Green Spirit: The name combines characters from the names of Xu Qing and Ling’er. Qing=Green. Ling=Spirit. ☜

𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚