Extra's Strategy: Cultivate Protagonists, Become Invincible-Chapter 171: Here, You Cannot Afford To Gossip In Peace!

If Xiao Po had a villain’s role in the story, Crimson Snow Sect was bound to come under the line of fire because of his actions.

No sect associated with a villain would survive in a cultivation world. Not to mention, Xuan Zi had promised to get Xiao Po justice!

With rising concern, Han Xuhan quickly said, "What happened to your enemy? Did the Sect Master do anything?"

"He apparently sent some older disciples of the sect to investigate the matter. But they failed to find that hateful guy. Later, I got an expert in divination arts to search for him, who told me that he was not even on this continent anymore.

"But at least he’s alive, and he’ll probably come back someday. I hope I’ll be able to get my revenge that day. So, even now, I have not stopped cultivating."

"...How far have you cultivated with the income from your job?"

"I am at the peak of the sixth phase of the Physique Transformation realm," Xiao Po said proudly. Han Xuhan almost choked on his own spit.

Brother, you said you were in the fifth phase five years ago!

Unable to come up with an appropriate remark on this topic, but also unable to bear the awkward silence stretching between them, he decided to talk about something else.

"Brother Po, you’ve been living in these mountains for so long! Has this fog always been here? I remember that when I came here for the first time, it was a lot more dense. The way it’s getting more and more sparse, it doesn’t seem like a permanent phenomenon."

Han Xuhan’s attempt was no different than bringing in the subject of the weather in the middle of a conversation. He didn’t actually expect an answer. But Xiao Po glanced at the dark gray film covering the sky and chuckled.

"This fog has quite an interesting origin, Brother Xuhan. It appeared in the sect just a few months before you guys were recruited. The dense fog you saw in your early days here was nothing compared to what we had to endure. For the first month, none of us even saw the daylight!"

"Even the sect master and the Elders couldn’t do anything to clear it up?" Han Xuhan couldn’t quite believe it, considering how powerful those older cultivators in the sect were.

"Clear it up? Doing it isn’t as easy as saying it, Brother Xuhan. This fog appeared because one of the Elders was experimenting with an ancient pill-making formula. Something went wrong in the process and instead of a pill, we got this poisonous fog."

"...Wait, what do you mean poisonous? Is this fog poisonous too?" Han Xuhan suddenly felt a stuffy sensation in his chest, recalling the terror inside the Holy Land of Laws.

"It’s a bit hard to explain. I’m not an expert in these matters, and all I heard were rumors," Xiao Po said hesitantly.

"Apparently, the Elder invested a lot of precious materials into the pill. When I say precious, I’m not talking about the resources on this cart of yours, Brother Xuhan.

"I’m talking about resources that you might find once or twice in a century, herbs that take decades of careful nurturing, earthly treasures that no ordinary sect ever sees in their lifetime...

"Naturally, these things have impactful effects on the body and the spirit of a cultivator. The food supply from the sect’s kitchens, the water supply in every mountain peak, and even the air of the sect itself are being spiked with all kinds of antidotes and neutralizers every day just to keep the disciples safe from the harmful effects!"

"Good heavens!"

To say that Han Xuhan was shocked would be an understatement. All this time, he had been breathing in alchemic poison, and nobody had bothered to mention it in passing?

"Has anybody died yet from the poisonous properties? How did they develop the antidotes?"

"Well, a few people did fall sick in the beginning. They had to spend weeks in the medicine pavilion recuperating. One of my fellow workers was in a coma for more than a month! When she woke up, she rambled like crazy for a few days, claiming some strange things."

"What kind of strange things?" Han Xuhan asked, intrigued.

"Like she was conscious this whole time, but not in her own body. Her consciousness floated around these mountains with the fog. She even saw her own body being treated by the healers, but the fog wouldn’t let her return into it."

"Couldn’t she be telling the truth? Spiritual poisons can do some pretty wild things..."

Xiao Po shook his head. "At first, we thought the same. But a majority of what she described didn’t add up.

"She claimed that our sect is surrounded by thousands of unstable, broken arrays, which hundreds of experts are working day and night to fix. But nobody in the sect, not even any of the Elders, is aware of any such activities.

"She even claimed that many of the beasts reared in the sect’s farms are imposters, hiding trapped human souls who were floating alongside her in the fog. She said some of these souls used to be our sect’s Elders, some were our fellow disciples...

"However, all the people she named are still alive and well. Those Elders she claimed to have met are still teaching disciples in their mountains every day. And they were just as confused after hearing her say these things."

"...Seems like the fog really turned her insane. Why didn’t the sect authorities take quicker steps to drive the fog away? If a cultivator can fall into such a delirious state, what about newly recruited disciples like us? Even with antidotes, we might not have survived!"

Seeing him turning furious, Xiao Po laughed.

"The sect master was just as angry as you, Brother Xuhan. But the Elder claimed that the experiment wasn’t a total failure. He said he could slowly transform this fog into a pill that would serve its original purpose with slightly reduced efficacy.

"His explanation must have convinced the sect master, because he made arrangements to not let the fog disperse out of the mountains. Since then, every day, its density pales bit by bit. We can clearly see the sky these days. So it seems like the Elder is close to success!"

Once again, Han Xuhan found himself speechless. This world of cultivation was truly not a place where one could gossip in peace.

Every topic seemed to lead towards something highly concerning, and his blood pressure spiked up uncontrollably.

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