Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master-Chapter 1258 - 486: Illusion True Pill Demon (Part 2)
"Daoist Fellow Ning Zhuo’s ability to craft the Inheriting Dao Jade Page is even stronger than mine, so why has he entrusted me with this task?"
Gongsun Yan couldn’t help but feel a bitterness rise in his heart.
Upon receiving this task from Ning Zhuo, he first went to find the few people who had successfully made paper at that time. Gu Qing was of course the first to be eliminated, followed by Zhu Fenxiang.
Ning Zhuo had already contacted her through the Divine Statue of the Earth Guardian True Monarch to confirm that she had no interest in crafting the Inheriting Dao Jade Page.
Ning Zhuo was not surprised at all.
Zhu Fenxiang herself was not short on money and had the heavy responsibility of the Foundation Establishment for the Zhu Family. Spending precious time making paper for others was nearly impossible.
Ning Zhuo was merely unwilling to give up any possibility.
Gongsun Yan was tasked with action and met with repeated refusals.
The cultivators who succeeded in making paper almost without hesitation directly refused, regardless of how high Ning Zhuo’s offer was.
They were willing to be friends with Ning Zhuo, but at this critical time of the Xingyun Trial, when opportunities abound, no one wanted to waste such opportunities to make paper just for some compensation.
At this moment, facing Xiao Juxia’s question, Gongsun Yan certainly knew he couldn’t directly speak the truth.
He had already lost heart and assumed Xiao Juxia’s query was a way to ease the atmosphere as preparation for the upcoming rejection, so he said, "This was my young master’s order, asking me to specially seek out Fellow Daoist Xiao."
"Oh?" Xiao Juxia’s eyes lit up, and he stroked his beard again, showing a smug smile, "Hehehe, Daoist Fellow Ning Zhuo has eyes like a torch, he knows me."
Gongsun Yan: ?
He didn’t know that Xiao Juxia was hiding his capabilities. If he were to truly show his strength, he would undoubtedly win the top spot. He deliberately played humble, eventually allowing Ning Zhuo to become the leader of the Confucian Cultivator’s three trials.
This secret had been revealed by Zhao Hansheng.
Xiao Juxia believed Ning Zhuo actually knew, and intentionally sent Gongsun Yan as a way to express thanks.
But Ning Zhuo wouldn’t admit Xiao Juxia’s deliberate concession, so he thought up an excuse like ordering the Inheriting Dao Jade Page to show his true intentions.
"Daoist Fellow Ning Zhuo is indeed considerate." Xiao Juxia stroked his beard, smiling with charm.
Gongsun Yan: ??
How is he with eyes like a torch?
How is he considerate?
Gongsun Yan couldn’t help but think, "What did Young Master Ning Zhuo do? Did he have a plan all along?!"
Thinking of this, Gongsun Yan’s spirit lifted.
The next moment, Xiao Juxia took out a stack of Inheriting Dao Jade Pages: "These are something I crafted hastily, the quality isn’t good enough to sell. I’ll give them as a small gift to Daoist Fellow Ning Zhuo."
He was skilled in Artifact Refining. Earlier, he deliberately yielded, and had been itching for action.
Back in the Cave Mansion, he started immediately, crafting over a dozen sheets in one go, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Gongsun Yan: "Ah?!"
He instinctively stretched out his hands, taking over a dozen Inheriting Dao Jade Pages, suddenly realizing everything, "I understand now, no wonder the young master gave me this task. He either foresaw this or planned it all before!"
Bluestone Cave Mansion.
Ning Zhuo had a splitting headache.
The life experiences of Jia Luanzhen, the Illusion True Pill Demon, flashed before his eyes rapidly.
His tenth birthday.
In the flickering candlelight of the Jia Family’s ancestral hall, twelve carved red candles had just been lit. The little Jia Luanzhen in a brand new Pill Patterned Brocade Robe was kneeling before the ancestral tablet. The air was filled with the fragrance of a century-old medicine and the sweet scent of birthday cakes.
Suddenly, a shrill scream came from outside!
A mysterious, powerful enemy arrived quickly and fiercely, with overwhelming numbers.
The Jia Family had no power to resist.
"Quick, Little Zhen, hide in there, don’t make a sound!" His mother tore off the talisman jade from her neck, stuffed it into Jia Luanzhen’s arms, and then closed the medicine cabinet.
The inside of the cabinet was pitch black, carved with numerous talismans useful for preserving herbs.
The hidden compartment where Jia Luanzhen was hiding was filled with more talismans for concealment and secrecy.
All external sounds became muffled, and Jia Luanzhen was already frozen with fear, trembling all over, cold to the bones, so cold his very soul was shivering.
Through the cabinet’s vent hole, he saw his mother being run through with a sword, and the head of his father being carried by a masked leader as they passed by.
The enemies ransacked the place.
"Quick, search!"
"Found it, found it. It’s the ’Hundred Herbs True and False Chart’!"
"I’ve got it here too, it’s the ’Dan Pattern Growth Secret Technique’, hahahaha."
Jia Luanzhen tortured by fear, listened to enemies rummaging through the place, the bickering during the division of loot, and the crackling flames while they burned everything before leaving.
It was not until the seventh night, in the dead of night, that he dared to push open the cabinet door.
The medicine cabinet, having reached its limit, fell apart completely in the next moment.
In front of him was a ruin of the house, charred, with the bodies of his relatives scattered everywhere. The ten-year-old Jia Luanzhen walked through it all like a Mechanical Puppet. His tears had long since dried up, leaving only numbness.
...
On a nameless deserted island, the Illusion Sea Elder coughed up blood and stuffed an oilcloth bundle into the arms of the young boy. The sea breeze lifted the elder’s graying hair, revealing three strange black pill poison lines on his neck.
"Remember," the elder coughed up blood with every word, "Elixir Pills have no righteousness or evil; the human heart divides good from bad. A True Pill can kill, a Fake Pill... can also save."
After speaking, he passed away.
The boy, Jia Luanzhen, was stunned for a moment before crying out in anguish: "Master!!"
He knelt on the ground, threw himself onto the elder’s not yet cold corpse, and the coarse oilcloth bundle scattered open. Inside, the Jade Slip recording the "Nine Essentials of Fake Pills" reflected a cold light under the sun.
...
Medicine King Valley.
Having joined and become an entry-level disciple, Jia Luanzhen swiftly searched through the pharmacy.
Suddenly, his movements froze.
The spell he secretly maintained was proving to him: the herbs before him were indeed from his Jia Family.
Holding the Elixir Pills, his heart roared, "What an absurdity!"
"It turns out, the influence that slandered my Jia Family for making fake pills and fake medicines is actually the Righteous Influence, Medicine King Valley!"
"My father only testified the truth about Fake Pills, yet he suffered annihilation at the hands of Medicine King Valley in secret."
"Hehehe, good, good, good!"
Jia Luanzhen let out a wild laugh from his heart.
In the midst of laughter, his resolve for revenge became as firm as mountains and iron.
...
A cultivator knelt on the ground, desperately pleading for Jia Luanzhen’s Elixir Pills.
"Senior, I have a token, I have a token!" the cultivator shouted, his face full of anxious distress.
Jia Luanzhen took the token: "Here are the Healing Pills you need."
After taking it, the cultivator’s injuries visibly healed, and his aura returned to peak condition. He knelt in ecstatic gratitude: "Thank you, senior, for the pill! I will surely repay this kindness!"
Three days later, the cultivator’s injuries relapsed, blood pouring from his seven orifices, and he died.
Jia Luanzhen squatted beside the corpse, calmly and carefully observing the death process, pondering in his mind: "Needs a bit more. To deceive Medicine King Valley’s Valley Master, it needs to be a bit more real."
"But, just a bit more."
...
The Ten Thousand Pills Conference is the largest pill trading event in the Cultivation World.
At the Medicine King Valley booth, a "Nine Transformation Infant Pill" hovered in a crystal cover, its pill body displaying nine flowing golden patterns, emitting a Dao resonance that made Nascent Soul cultivators’ hearts palpitate.
Many cultivators flocked to it, vying to bid.
The bidding price soared, about to reach its peak.
Suddenly someone screamed sharply: "Everyone wait, this is a Fake Pill, it’s fake!"
...
Ning Zhuo tiredly opened his eyes, finding himself soaked in cold sweat.
"Illusion True Pill Demon, Jia Luanzhen..." the big-headed youth murmured softly.
The greatest gain from this Demon Soul acquisition was Jia Luanzhen. The other Demon Souls were unimpressive.
Combining the purchased intelligence, Ning Zhuo had gained comprehensive and deep understanding of Jia Luanzhen.
Born into the Hundred Herbs Jia Family, his family lived by identifying the authenticity of herbs. His father revealed Medicine King Valley’s Fake Pill business, inviting the valley’s annihilation calamity. Jia Luanzhen narrowly escaped, becoming a beggar wandering three thousand miles, and was sold overseas.
There, he was taken as a Pill Child by the "Illusion Sea Elder." The latter noticed Jia Luanzhen’s talent and taught him the basics of Illusion Pill techniques.
Hunted by enemies, the Illusion Sea Elder was killed, and on his deathbed, he passed his lifelong research on the "Nine Essentials of Fake Pills" to Jia Luanzhen.
After mastering it, Jia Luanzhen returned to the mainland, infiltrating Medicine King Valley upon obtaining clues, confirmed the identity of his enemies. Through various means, not only did he succeed in his revenge, but also learned all the alchemy techniques of Medicine King Valley.
Thereafter, he traveled the Cultivation World under various identities, selling Fake Pills to seventeen super sects one after another, amassing resources.
His continuous innovation, production, and sale of Fake Pills led countless cultivators into calamity, gradually inciting public outrage.
Jia Luanzhen was relentlessly hunted and pursued and ultimately fell defeated and wounded into Myriad Images Sect’s prison.
In the end, his residual soul was absorbed by Ning Zhuo, becoming nourishment for another’s cultivation.
"I didn’t expect this kind of alchemy technique." Ning Zhuo felt quite surprised.
Jia Luanzhen’s expertise in manufacturing Fake Pills opened Ning Zhuo’s eyes.
"To make outstanding Fake Pills, one must extensively research True Pills. Therefore, Jia Luanzhen’s knowledge is extraordinarily vast, encompassing countless Elixir Recipes."
"After digesting these, my alchemy capabilities will surely see a leap!"
At this moment, Gongsun Yan returned to report, bringing ten-odd Inheriting Dao Jade Pages.
"Great! Truly a double blessing." Ning Zhuo felt quite delighted.
