Looking at Xu Qing expressionlessly, the old man said, “Those pills are fake. Consuming them won’t do anything.”

Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at the old man, all while committing to memory the feeling of consuming the pills. “I’ve reached a bottleneck in my curse pill project. I need to make headway in another direction first. Therefore, even if these pills are fake, I can still learn something from their behavior that might be able to get me past this bottleneck.”

The old man looked deeply at Xu Qing, then glanced at the collection of multicolored pills spread out in front of him.

Xu Qing took a deep breath, picked up one of the pills, then put it in his mouth and continued with the same work from before.

In that manner, half a month passed.

Xu Qing had already concocted about ninety percent of the poison medicines and poison pills he had locked in his memories. He even managed to create some new ones. As he consumed more pills, his pupils dilated until they eventually spread out to cover the whites of his eyes, leaving his eyes pitch black.

In the following days, the old man in white came out on a few occasions to watch.

At first, he didn’t understand what Xu Qing was doing. After all, the pills were all fake. So what was the point of consuming so many of them? But then… he noticed what was happening with Xu Qing’s eyes, and the old man came to realize.

The plants, vegetation, and pills are all fake. But the feelings they impart are real. This kid… is memorizing the sensation of consuming all of those plants and pills! He’s using his memory to plunder the essence of this place!

The old man’s facial expression was no longer apathetic. Instead, he seemed a bit excited, but at the same time, angry. “The trial ends in two hours! If you can’t finish by then, you’ll be punished by being sealed!”

Xu Qing’s black eyes glittered. He was now very close to being finished. He just had one more thing to do. After a slight nod, he closed his eyes, performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and then summoned numerous poisonous plants.

In the blink of an eye, thousands appeared. Xu Qing didn’t immediately begin concocting. Instead, he opened his mouth and sent the pills streaming inside. Some of them he crushed, creating a cloud that surrounded him. A howl escaped Xu Qing’s lips as the power of taboo poison exploded.

The white-robed man was visibly surprised, and came to the conclusion that this trial-taker had clearly become unstable. With the wave of his hand, he sent frigid energy expanding from beneath him to surround Xu Qing.

As the frigid energy built up, the sealing power within it started to stretch toward Xu Qing. Cracking sounds rang out from the lake water as it froze. The frigid energy was just about to completely cover him.

But then the poisonous miasma around Xu Qing swept out in all directions. Xu Qing became like a black hole, instantly sucking in all of the miasma. As the miasma disappeared, Xu Qing became clear. And then he opened his eyes! His pitch black eyes were like bottomless pits. And anyone who looked into them would feel like those pits were looking back at them. They were incomparably deep, and seemed to contain the darkness of countless ancient nights. Anyone who looked at them would be shaken to the core. Most shocking of all was that his gaze… contained mutagen!

It was a unique mutagen that caused whoever he looked at to be instantly infected by taboo poison, including both their body and their soul. It was a taboo poison gaze!

The old man shivered as a black stain appeared on the surface of the mirror lake, which spread like ink.

“What incredible gall!” the old man roared. The water seethed, and frigid energy exploded everywhere.

But then Xu Qing retracted his gaze. Ignoring the surrounding frigid energy, he looked down at his right hand. A pill rested on his palm.

As his gaze came to be fixed on that pill, and he sent taboo poison power into it, the pill transformed. Its ability to reduce the curse skyrocketed. Xu Qing’s taboo poison didn’t just contain the curse of a god. It also contained all of the poisons he had ever consumed. And then that power had been gathered into his eyes before being sent into the cursequelling lozenge.

Granted, those poisons were illusory, but their effects could still be combined, balanced, and unleashed. The cursequelling lozenge’s effectiveness rose sharply, passing the level of twenty percent, bursting past thirty percent, and continuing even past that.

In the end, the pill had a violet color. As the frigid energy closed in, Xu Qing looked up.

“The pill’s finished. It can reduce the curse… by fifty percent!”

Even as the words left his lips, the frigid energy surrounded him. There were magical laws at play that he couldn’t resist, and thus, he quickly turned into an unmoving ice sculpture.

The medicinal pill in his hand dropped down onto the surface of the mirror lake, where it glittered with violet light. It almost seemed illusory. The pill melted into the icy surface, then dropped down into the hand of the old man. He looked closely at the pill, and his expression flickered. It started with shock, then turned into confusion, blankness, and finally, suspicion.

During his entire life as a spirit automaton, he had never seen a medicinal pill like this one. After a long moment passed, he exhaled onto the pill. That breath caused the pill to transform from illusory into corporeal.

Then he waved his hand, causing an ice sculpture to appear. The ice instantly melted, revealing a burly, middle-aged man. His cultivation base erupted with Void Returning power as he looked around, stunned. He initially seemed inclined to flee, but instead, clasped hands respectfully to the old man in white.

“Well met, exalted one.”

“Eat this,” the old man said apathetically, sending the medicinal pill floating over.

The burly man hesitated briefly, then chose to comply. He took the pill, examined it, then put it in his mouth and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, he started shaking from head to toe. His eyes widened, and then he coughed up a huge mouthful of crimson blood. Astonishingly, that blood contained strong curse elements and also an aura of decay. It converged on itself in midair, turning into the shape of a red moon, bursting with curse power.

The old man snorted coldly, and rumbling echoed out as immense pressure weighed down. Instantly, the blood turned into ice and dropped onto the lake, where the fluctuations there sealed it. Having accomplished that, the white-robed old man looked at the burly man, eyes glittering, and his expression changing once again, this time to astonishment.

The burly man was equally astonished. Having sensed the changes to himself, he exclaimed, “My curse… it’s been permanently reduced by half!! Exalted one, what pill was that?”

The old man didn’t answer the question. The flick of his sleeve sent frigid energy to surround the burly man and turn him into an ice sculpture again. He sank down into the lake.

Having accomplished that, the old man stood there in a daze for a long moment. Then he also sank down into the lake.

Shockingly, he reappeared a moment later right in front of the ice sculpture of Xu Qing. After looking at the sculpture for a while, he silently reached out and touched Xu Qing’s forehead. The ice melted into water vapor, which rapidly dispersed.

Xu Qing shivered and opened his eyes. “Well met, Senior.”

Xu Qing wasn’t very surprised. It didn’t matter what the old man thought of his behavior during the trial, the important thing was that he had proven through action that everything he was doing was part of the cursequelling lozenge process.

That final glance at the medicinal pill was what had truly raised it to a higher level.

The old man looked at Xu Qing with a strange look in his eyes. Finally, he said, “From ancient times until now, there have only been seventy-nine people who passed the first phase of the trial. Not many have come through during this epoch. Only three. You are the fourth. Those who came before you stated ambitions that they were able to see to fruition. However, none of them became the archbishop. All of them received a lesser rank.

“The reason for that is that passing this phase doesn’t qualify you to become the Archbishop of Moonrebel…. In a moment, you’ll find out why. You have half a year. If you can’t succeed in that amount of time, you’ll have no choice but to agree to the lesser rank.”

The white-robed old man kept his eyes on Xu Qing as he pointed at the lake. The water seethed as a profoundly ancient stone door rose up. It was fully 3,000 meters tall, and seemed to have witnessed the passage of countless years. There was no need to open the door, as it was already cracked open enough for a person to slip inside.

Through the crack, Xu Qing could just barely make out an interior palace hall.

Xu Qing hesitated briefly, thinking back to what the white-robed old man had said, and wondering about the Captain. He clasped his hands respectfully.

“Senior, I came here together with another trial-taker. Did he pass?”

“His ambitions were too lofty, and thus, he reaped what he sowed.” He stamped his foot down, and a ripple spread out, which revealed the dozens of ice sculptures below.

Xu Qing looked down and quickly spotted his Eldest Brother. He looked like he was in the middle of laughing maniacally. Xu Qing frowned. This wasn’t exactly how he’d predicted things would turn out. And then he thought about what the Captain had said before they entered the trial. Given what Xu Qing knew about his Eldest Brother, it seemed about ninety percent certain that the Captain had intentionally gotten himself frozen.

“If you pass the trial,” the old man said, “then you’ll become the Archbishop of Moonrebel, and you’ll have the right to give amnesty to the sealed individuals. Now, enter.”

With that, the old man sank down into the lake and vanished from sight.

Now, Xu Qing was left alone with the huge stone door. Standing in front of it, he took a deep breath, then walked forward and entered through the crack in the door. He walked and walked. The palace hall got closer and closer. Light reached his eyes, filling his world.

***

The Moonrebel Congregation was in an uproar.

A few hours ago, the Moonrebel Congregation’s Paramount Temple had started shining with light. That attracted the attention of quite a few cultivators. There were even two vice-bishops present.

A few hours had passed since then, and as word spread, more and more cultivators showed up. Discussions raged everywhere.

Statues were visible as far as the eye could see. They included Grandmaster Pill Nine’s followers, who had no idea that the event was actually precipitated by their revered grandmaster. However, that didn’t diminish their attitude, and they continued their promotion efforts.

The leader of that group of followers was Xu Qing’s neighbor, the burly, bare-chested man. At his direction, hundreds of Pill Nine followers circulated through the crowd, singing the grandmaster’s praises.

As the clamor of activity filled the Moonrebel Congregation, Paramount Temple suddenly flared with a 30,000-meter pillar of light. It emanated a holy sensation as it climbed high. Everyone in the crowd noticed it.

“A success?”

“Don’t tell me… the Moonrebel Congregation is going to have an archbishop??”

“This is so sudden….”

Such talk could be heard everywhere, and all the cultivators in the congregation were looking up into the air with keen anticipation. The countless statues all looked closely at the door of Paramount Temple as they waited for it to open.

However, after enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the door didn’t open, although the temple continued to shine brightly.

The faces of the old-timers darkened.

“Don’t tell me that old story about the Moonrebel Congregation is actually true….”

This chaptr is updatd by (f)reewb(n)ovl.com