"Ah!"

Jiyin could no longer hold on. He let out a miserable wail before collapsing to the ground, his body convulsing violently.

His blood qi was severely depleted, and his skin rapidly loosened, wrinkling and aging at a visible rate.

Downstairs, Song Wen appeared to be guarding the small building, acting as Jiyin's Dharma Protector, but in reality, his entire mind was focused intently on the second floor.

Aminst intense anticipation and anxiety, the moment Song Wen had been waiting for finally arrived.

As the thud of Jiyin collapsing upstairs echoed through the floorboards, an expression of wild joy broke across Song Wen's face.

He had finally waited for this day.

He slowly walked up the stairs to the second floor, listening carefully outside the door. His keen senses allowed him to clearly hear Jiyin's heavy panting and agonized groans.

Song Wen called out, his voice dripping with anxious concern.

"Master, what's wrong?"

Inside the room, apart from Jiyin's low, pained wheezing, there was no response.

Song Wen reversed his grip on his dagger, concealing it within his sleeve before gently pushing open the door.

He saw Jiyin curled like a bow, collapsed on the floor. His body twitched continuously, and unintelligible groans escaped his lips.

Song Wen approached Jiyin step by cautious step, asking as he closed the distance.

"Master, are you alright?"

Enduring immense agony, Jiyin finally noticed Song Wen's approach.

He looked up at Song Wen, his eyes filled with desperate expectation. "Save... save me..."

Even now, Jiyin could not understand. When Song Wen had consumed the pill, not only had he been completely fine, but he had even broken through to the second layer of Qi Refining. Why, then, was he himself suffering such severe blood qi depletion and agonizing pain?

Right now, Song Wen was his only lifeline.

He shifted his gaze toward a wooden box on a nearby table. "Ginseng... bring it to me..."

That box contained a hundred-year-old ginseng he had collected in the past, an excellent spiritual medicine for replenishing blood qi. However, given his current fragile state, it was highly uncertain whether his body could even withstand its potent medicinal power.

Yet, Jiyin could no longer care about the risks. He felt that if he did not replenish his vital energy immediately, it would not be long before he withered and died from blood qi depletion.

Song Wen glanced at the wooden box and said, "Master, wait just a moment. I'll fetch it right away."

Song Wen walked slowly toward the wooden table, though his gaze never left Jiyin.

He needed to be absolutely certain that Jiyin had completely lost the capacity to move.

The terrifying scenes of Jiyin slaughtering people with yellow talismans remained vividly etched in his mind.

When dealing with an old fox like Jiyin, no amount of caution was excessive. If the man still possessed the strength to activate a single talisman, Song Wen might very well die before him.

"Quick... quick..." Seeing Song Wen dawdling, Jiyin urged weakly, unable to hide his impatience.

"Coming, Master."

Song Wen retrieved the ginseng from the wooden box, turned, and stepped before Jiyin.

He squatted down, initially intending to place the ginseng in Jiyin's hand. Seeing that the old man truly could not even lift an arm, he directly stuffed the root into Jiyin's mouth.

But Jiyin lacked even the strength to chew and swallow. He was just about to signal Song Wen to shred the ginseng and feed it to him piece by piece.

Suddenly, a piercing pain erupted at the crown of his head. A sharp dagger had plunged fully into his skull.

Then, with a swift flash, Song Wen's figure vanished from his line of sight.

Jiyin's eyes widened, filled with sheer disbelief. He had never imagined that Song Wen would deliver a fatal strike at a time like this.

His attention had been entirely occupied by the ginseng at his lips; he had not even perceived how the blade had pierced his head.

"Why..."

Jiyin's eyes swirled with unwillingness, regret, resentment, and shock, but above all, utter confusion.

He was unwilling because he had failed to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining in his lifetime; he felt degraded because he was dying at the hands of a mere medicine slave like Song Wen; he was shocked that Song Wen actually dared to strike him; and he was filled with profound regret for not killing this boy sooner.

He was a dignified cultivator, a lofty immortal who could look down upon thousands of common mortals as mere ants. He still had so many grand ambitions to realize, yet he was dying silently within this tiny attic.

He had practiced diligently day and night, never daring to slack off for a single moment, all in the hope of reaching the mid-stage of Qi Refining and truly crossing the divide between immortal and mortal. He had never expected everything to vanish like a bursting bubble.

Even in death, he could not fathom why Song Wen had been perfectly fine after consuming the pill that morning, while he had drained his own essence blood to the very last drop.

Song Wen stood silently behind Jiyin for a full quarter-hour. Only after confirming that the old man had completely stopped breathing did he slowly step forward.

"Why? You can go down to the underworld and ask Er Niu and Zhang Cheng why."

Song Wen thrust his hand into the wound on Jiyin's head, activating his innate ability to devour the man's essence blood.

Although most of Jiyin's blood qi had been consumed by the unstable pill, he was, after all, a cultivator at the third layer of Qi Refining. The residual essence blood within his body was still far more potent than that of an ordinary adult.

As he absorbed Jiyin's essence blood, Song Wen noticed a distinct difference.

He only absorbed pure blood essence; the intense, euphoric mental rush he usually experienced was remarkably faint.

Could my previous guess be correct? What I absorb isn't just their essence blood, but also their souls?

With the previous victims, I absorbed them the moment they died. But Jiyin has been dead for a quarter-hour, so the strength of his soul has already partially dissipated?

Song Wen did not dwell on his speculations. After draining Jiyin into a desiccated corpse, he began to search the body.

However, though he ransacked Jiyin's entire room and practically stripped the clothes from the corpse, he failed to find anything of value.

"That's impossible. Where did Jiyin hide his cultivation methods, pills, and talismans? I clearly saw him carrying them every day."

"Could it be that he possesses a legendary treasure, like a spatial ring or a pocket dimension?"

Song Wen checked Jiyin's fingers and wrists again, but found nothing.

"I refuse to believe it."

Song Wen meticulously searched every inch of Jiyin's discarded garments, finally discovering a palm-sized cloth pouch tucked deep inside a wide sleeve.

He carefully guided his weak spiritual sense into the pouch, and sure enough, it met no resistance.

This small cloth pouch was indeed a Storage Bag!

It contained a space of about one cubic Zhang, and everything Song Wen had been looking for was neatly stored inside.

There were several text scrolls, a few small porcelain bottles, yellow talismans, a miniature cauldron, and various other items.

Song Wen did not rush to examine the contents. Instead, he pulled a quilt from the bed, wrapped Jiyin's withered corpse tightly within it, and shoved the entire bundle into the Storage Bag.

He then took a damp cloth, thoroughly wiped away the bloodstains splattered on the wooden floor, and tossed the cloth into the bag as well.

Song Wen swept his gaze across the room one last time to ensure no traces were left behind, before descending the stairs and returning to his own quarters.

Only now did a surge of intense relief and excitement erupt in Song Wen's heart. With Jiyin dead, the greatest threat hanging over his head had finally been eliminated.

Now, the only thing remaining that could jeopardize his life was the Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill.

"I wonder if Jiyin kept the actual antidote for the Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill in here."

Song Wen immediately retrieved all the items from the Storage Bag and began examining them one by one.

Anxious to rid himself of the poison, he prioritized the small porcelain bottles.

There were three bottles in total, each bearing a small paper label.

One was labeled 'Blood Qi Pill' and contained two remaining pills.

Another was labeled 'Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill' and held a single pill. Song Wen poured it out to inspect it; it was identical to the toxic pill he had been forced to swallow.

With a heart full of anticipation, Song Wen uncorked the final bottle, which bore the characters 'Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill Antidote'.

Inside were three pills. Two were the familiar dark red pills he had taken before-the temporary suppressants required every seven days.

The third pill, however, was a deep, glossy crimson.

Song Wen stared at the deep crimson pill for a long time before swallowing it down.

Having broken through to the second layer of Qi Refining, Song Wen's perception had strengthened significantly, allowing him to perform a basic internal inspection of his own body.

Within his perception, he could feel a trace of sinister, icy energy rooted deep in his viscera, waiting to erupt at any moment.

As the crimson pill dissolved in his stomach, a warm current spread, and the sinister, icy energy gradually began to dissolve until it vanished without a trace.

Song Wen was instantly overjoyed. The lingering poison of the Seven-Day Heartbreak Pill was finally entirely cured.