Chapter 11 Testing the Pill

Just as Song Wen felt everything was ready and was merely waiting for complete darkness to fall, a sudden development shattered his plans.

Four members of the Heavenly Fiend Gang walked into the courtyard and took up residence in the small building. Two of them went so far as to station themselves directly outside his door.

Song Wen was instantly dumbfounded.

"Did Jiyin notice my intention to escape?"

"Impossible. I've been disguising myself perfectly. I shouldn't have exposed anything."

Seeing his avenue of escape severed, Song Wen paced back and forth within his room, consumed by irritability and anxiety.

No matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not understand how Jiyin had found out.

In truth, Jiyin had not discovered Song Wen's plan.

It was simply that the old monster was habitually cautious. He worried that leaving Song Wen entirely unsupervised might allow the boy to slip onto the second floor and pry into his secrets or steal his cultivation techniques.

Through a twisted stroke of coincidence, this paranoia completely obstructed Song Wen's flight.

Over the next few days, Song Wen lived in a constant state of unease. Whenever he felt tempted to gamble his life, risking discovery by the guards to scale the cliffside, the robust physiques of the four guards and the cold steel sabers hanging from their waists instantly shocked him back to reality.

Song Wen also noticed that the wing room area, which had been quiet for days, was becoming lively again.

A steady stream of youths was being brought into the compound and confined to their rooms, all waiting for Jiyin to emerge from seclusion and impart cultivation arts to them.

Ten days later, Jiyin finally came out.

The old man emerged radiant and in high spirits, evidently brimming with confidence in the latest batch of pills he had refined.

"Song Wen, follow Master to the second floor."

Looking at Jiyin, who had suddenly materialized before him, Song Wen's expression turned grim. He had no idea how to resist.

It seemed that ever since he encountered Gou Hang, he had been reduced to a piece of meat on a chopping block, stripped of any agency.

After a moment of agonizing hesitation, Song Wen ultimately followed Jiyin up the stairs.

"Swallow this pill. It will vastly increase your cultivation. Once you break through to the second layer, you will become a core member of the Heavenly Fiend Gang, free to enter and leave our headquarters at will."

Jiyin dangled the bait with an enticing smile.

At this point, with his life directly on the line, Song Wen could no longer maintain his submissive facade.

He glared at Jiyin with thinly veiled hostility, burning with the urge to smash his fist into that smug, smiling face. Yet, he knew with absolute certainty that he was no match for the cultivator. If he enraged the old monster, he would likely end up like that fat youth from before-blasted by a yellow talisman and reduced to a charred corpse, nothing more than a pile of ash.

Weakness is the ultimate sin.

In this moment, Song Wen understood the brutal law of this world with terrifying clarity.

A cold sneer suddenly played across Jiyin's lips.

"I didn't expect to find a clever one among my disciples. It seems you've already guessed the truth.

"However, this Master advises you against trying anything foolish. Obediently take the pill. If you survive, this Master will genuinely grant you your freedom."

With a sharp clang, an infant-palm-sized token was tossed onto the floor.

Jiyin continued, "This is my personal token. With this in hand, no one will stop you anywhere within the Heavenly Fiend Gang's territory."

Song Wen looked at the token on the ground, then at the medicinal pill in Jiyin's hand. After a flurry of rapid calculations, he made his choice.

He reached out, accepted the pill from Jiyin, and swept the token off the floor.

"I hope Master keeps his word."

When one's strength is insufficient, one can only gamble on luck. He remembered that Er Niu had survived his very first pill test as well.

"Rest assured, this Master always keeps his word. As you can see, a new batch of disciples has arrived. If you survive this trial, there will be no need for you to test pills in the future. You will only need to tend to the medicine fields for me."

'I'm just afraid that once you run out of those new medicine slaves, you'll drag me back to the chopping block,' Song Wen thought grimly.

If he could get through this immediate crisis, he would still have to find a way to escape.

Song Wen sat down cross-legged, tilted his head back, and swallowed the pill. Simultaneously, he began to circulate his cultivation art to absorb the surging medicinal forces.

The moment the pill entered his stomach, it dissolved into violent torrents of searing heat, causing his body temperature to skyrocket.

The scalding currents tore through his meridians, racing into his limbs and bones until they saturated his entire frame.

At the same time, his vital essence and blood began to drain at a terrifying speed. The color quickly receded from his face, leaving him deathly pale.

As Song Wen pushed his art, he could feel the burning energy within his meridians being gradually refined by the Everlasting Longevity Art, channeling directly into his Dantian to bolster his spiritual power and cultivation.

However, the massive loss of vital essence left his body completely hollowed out, feeling as though he had been thoroughly drained and ravaged by dozens of demanding noblewomen. Even maintaining a cross-legged posture took immense effort, and every fiber of his being screamed at him to collapse and rest.

"Do not lie down! If you stop circulating your art now, the unrefined medicinal force will violently devour your remaining Qi and blood, accelerating your death!"

Jiyin's voice barked in his ear. Song Wen had no other choice; he could only trust the old monster's words. After all, Jiyin did not want his test subject to fail either.

Song Wen gritted his teeth and persevered.

Just as he felt his vital essence nearing total depletion and his consciousness hovering on the brink of collapse, a strange phenomenon occurred.

A mysterious surge of energy abruptly manifested within his flesh. It came without warning, completely unprompted.

It was as though the extreme physical duress had unlocked a dormant, hidden trait within his constitution.

With no attention to spare on investigating its origin, Song Wen seized upon this newfound power, aggressively driving his cultivation art to refine the remaining medicinal strength.

Standing to the side, Jiyin watched the boy's reactions, his face lighting up with pleasant surprise.

Although Song Wen had suffered severe depletion of his vital energy, his body showed absolutely no signs of rapid aging from start to finish. Furthermore, the youth was already in the final stages of digesting the pill.

From the looks of it, his life was no longer in danger.

Jiyin's eyes gleamed with fanaticism. He felt that ultimate success was within his grasp.

Half an hour later, Song Wen brought his meditation to a close, having thoroughly refined the medicinal forces.

He heavily opened his eyes, only to find Jiyin's hand already extending toward him. Held between the old man's fingers was another pill, this one pitch-black.

Before Song Wen could even process the sight, Jiyin deftly shoved the object into his mouth.

"You need not worry. This is merely the Heavenly Fiend Gang's Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill. As long as you take the antidote every seven days, it will not harm you in the slightest."

Weakened to the extreme, Song Wen had no strength to resist the forced ingestion. The toxic pill slid effortlessly down his throat.

Since the die was cast and resistance was futile, Song Wen could only bitterly accept the reality that he was now poisoned and bound to Jiyin's whim.

Half an hour later, having recovered a meager shred of strength, Song Wen pushed himself up. Leaning heavily against the walls for support, he stumbled down to the first floor and collapsed back into his room.

Throughout the brief trek, he realized just how thoroughly depleted his body truly was. Merely walking required every ounce of his strength, and his legs trembled uncontrollably, feeling exactly like a man who had been excessively drained by demanding noblewomen.

Lying flat on his bed, Song Wen's mind drifted back to the mysterious energy that had saved him at the critical juncture.

If not for that sudden influx of power, he would almost certainly have shared the grim fates of Er Niu and Zhang Cheng.

Song Wen carefully examined his entire body, searching for any trace of that bizarre energy, but found nothing. It seemed to have been completely spent.