Chapter 4: Chapter 4 — Nine-Orifice Golden Elixir

“Someone’s drowning?”

Fang Han immediately leapt into the river and dragged the man ashore.

“No breath… A corpse,”
he muttered. His heart clenched. The scene before him was truly unsettling.

The man was thoroughly dead. His entire body was swollen from soaking in water, and across his torso ran a long wound. When Fang Han turned the body over, he saw the flesh along that wound was charred black.

“Struck by lightning?”
Fang Han frowned. He recalled villagers who had been hit by lightning before—their flesh was also burned and stank of scorched meat.

The dead man’s clothes, however, were magnificent—a suit of dark-gold garments. Water beaded on the fabric and rolled off like drops on a lotus leaf, not clinging in the slightest. The cloth felt incredibly soft and smooth under Fang Han’s fingers. Though he had seen some luxury as a Fang family servant, he had never seen such material before.

“What do I do? Report it to the authorities?”
Fang Han hesitated. “A dead man… That’s no small matter.”

He started to turn away to look for officials, then stopped and thought again.

A man in clothes like this is no commoner. How did he die here? If I report this and they investigate, I might get tangled up in something I can’t escape. Better to bury him quietly, let him rest in peace, and pretend I never saw anything. Less trouble is better than more.

Having decided, Fang Han grabbed the corpse by the arms and began to drag it to a more secluded spot.

Clang.

Something dropped from the corpse’s chest—a palm-sized box, neither quite gold nor iron, heavy as a brick inkstone.

At the same time, a rolled-up scroll slipped free and fell into the sand.

“Hm?”

Fang Han picked up the metal box, then unrolled the scroll. The painting within was eerily dark; in that blackness, something like the shadow of a jiao-dragon lay coiled. It felt less like a painting and more like a window—an opening into some unknown space.

“This thing didn’t soak to pieces in the river… Definitely a treasure. Ordinary paper would’ve turned to mush.”
Fang Han couldn’t read calligraphy or judge art, but even by common sense, he knew this scroll was no ordinary object.

He examined the metal box. A small golden lock fastened it shut.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Fang Han picked up a stone from the riverbank and brought it down hard.

Crack.
The golden lock snapped.

“This… This is real gold. One tael of gold equals ten taels of official silver, and this lock weighs at least four or five taels…”
Fang Han swallowed. “But it belongs to a dead man. Do I take it or not? They say, ‘A gentleman loves wealth, but takes it in the proper way.’”

He thought for a moment, then snorted.

“Bah. I’m just a house slave—what gentleman? People in different stations do different things. Didn’t the books say, ‘If you’re not in that position, you don’t meddle in its affairs’? I’ll take it.”

He stuffed the gold lock into his clothes.

Then he opened the box.

Inside lay a thumb-sized, black-gold pill. Strangely, the pill had nine small holes in it. From those nine apertures came a faint medicinal fragrance. Fang Han took a cautious sniff and instantly felt his mind clear, his body light; all his fatigue washed away.

Even more uncanny, those nine orifices seemed to breathe—gently drawing in and exhaling air, as though a mysterious life force pulsed within.

“This pill makes the Fang family’s best Reishi Pills and Snow-Ginseng Pills look like dirt.”
Fang Han had seen the young masters take refined medicinal pills while training—costly treasures, honed through countless refinements—but compared to this nine-orifice golden pill, they were like clay compared to jade.

“I’ve heard the Fang disciples talk—about legendary spiritual pills that can open the meridians, regulate the organs, clear stasis, brighten the spirit. Swallow one and you can save years of bitter physical training, make up for lack of natural vitality. Could this golden elixir be one of those? Just smelling it cleared my head…”

Fang Han pinched the pill between his fingers like a diamond, tempted to toss it straight into his mouth.

But after thinking a long time, he didn’t.

Medicine was not something to swallow recklessly.

The Fang disciples only took their nourishing pills on strict schedules and measured doses, carefully considered each time.

Fang Han was no fool. Even miraculous medicine, if taken the wrong way, could ruin the body.

“Sir, your corpse washed up and I found it. I’ll bury you, give you peace in the earth, and in return I’ll take these two items as my payment. Then we’ll be even.”

He put the Nine-Orifice Golden Elixir back into the box and spoke to the corpse as though to a living man.

As he talked, he grabbed the body again and tugged.

The corpse suddenly sat bolt upright.

“The Divine Ability Realm truly is extraordinary.”
The “corpse” muttered to himself. “The Yuhua Sect lives up to its name as one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects. Fang Qingxue… You really are a remarkable disciple. The world has birthed another powerhouse. Let’s see if you can use the path of Divine Ability to reach the Longevity Secret Realm. The Divine Ability Realm still dies after a hundred years. Only by stepping into that Longevity Realm is one truly beyond life and death…”

“Corpse rising—! No, that’s not right. They say corpses don’t talk. And under the broad daylight, no zombies should be walking around…”
Fang Han’s heart nearly burst. The dead body he’d just dragged had not only sat up, but was now muttering to itself.

“Was it you who pulled me out?”
The “corpse” turned its charred face toward him, eyes suddenly sharp.

“So you’re still alive.”
Fang Han forced himself to steady his breathing and answered calmly.

“Impressive composure for someone dressed like a slave,”
the man said coldly. “Most servants who found me would run to the authorities. You know, there’s a thousand-tael reward for turning me in.”

His tone floated oddly, and his gaze was icy, clearly testing Fang Han—ready to kill at the slightest hint of threat.

“More trouble means more danger. Get a reward like that and your life will become someone else’s business target,”
Fang Han said. “Besides, I already took two treasures from you. Better to make a silent fortune—that’s the winning path. But since you’re still alive, these two things are yours.”

He took out the Nine-Orifice Golden Elixir and the Dragon Lurking in the Yellow Springs Map and placed them respectfully before the man.

Life as a servant in the Fang estate had taught him one thing above all: read people’s faces. Offend the wrong person, and you’d die without knowing how.

The man before him was clearly no ordinary figure. Fang Han had no doubt that with a single move he could end his life.

“‘The true king’s way is to get rich quietly’—I, Bai Haichan, understand that all too well,”
the man said with a ghostly smile, looking down at the treasures. “Which household do you serve?”

“Longyuan Province. I’m a slave of the Fang family,”
Fang Han replied, licking his dry lips.

“A Fang slave?”
Bai Haichan’s expression darkened, then eased. He glanced around the sandy ground. “So you’re not content with being a servant. That’s why you’re here in secret, training your body. These footprints—this is the Fang family’s strength-training method. You stole it, didn’t you? A slave stealing martial arts—that’s a capital offense. Clearly, you’re not a well-behaved one.”

Just one glance and he saw all that… A chill ran down Fang Han’s spine. Under Bai Haichan’s eyes he felt as if every secret he had was laid bare.

“Not well-behaved… Good. Not well-behaved is very good. A Fang slave… And a Divine Ability Realm Fang Qingxue…”
Bai Haichan’s burned face twisted into a ghastly grin, making him look like a specter from hell.

“A slave like you, with no money and no backing, wants to cultivate martial arts and rise above others? Impossible. Forging the flesh costs mountains of silver—food, medicine, recovery. But your luck isn’t entirely bad. You’ve met me. I can give you a chance to rise, if you agree to do a few things for me,”
Bai Haichan said slowly.

“And how exactly will you give me that chance?”
Fang Han asked warily.

“This Nine-Orifice Golden Elixir has unfathomable power. It can remake your body, sweep away your weakness, and give you a foundation no one else can rival. Then I’ll teach you a high-level martial art. You’ll advance by leaps and bounds. As for whether you can one day step into the Divine Ability Realm—that’ll depend on your own fortune.”

Bai Haichan straightened his back a little as he spoke.

“The Divine Ability Realm… You can help me reach that?”
Fang Han’s heart pounded.

“Oh? You’ve heard of the Divine Ability Realm?”
Bai Haichan’s eyes flashed with renewed interest. “Looks like you’ve eavesdropped on more than a few things.”

“I stole some teachings, that’s all. I know there are ten stages of the flesh—the Tenth is Divine Transformation. Train the body to its limit and with a powerful physique to support it, the brain produces mana, and with mana one can cultivate all kinds of divine abilities.”
Fang Han repeated what he had heard from Fang Tong, the Giant Spirit Hand.

“Correct. In this body, the brain is the most mysterious organ, and no physical martial art directly trains it. That is the source of Divine Ability,”
Bai Haichan said. “What I want you to do isn’t much. First, you will take me as your master. Then, once your cultivation has some accomplishment, you must enter the Yuhua Sect through the Fang family and obtain the Feathered Ascension Sutra. Second—you will kill Fang Qingxue.”

“Yuhua Sect… And the Fang family’s eldest miss, Fang Qingxue…”
Fang Han was shocked again.

He knew the Fang clan’s ancestor had been a disciple of the immortal Yuhua Sect who, a hundred years ago, followed the founding Emperor of Great Li in conquering the world. The eldest young miss, Fang Qingxue, had been cultivating at the Yuhua Sect, walking the path of immortals.

“But joining the Yuhua Sect doesn’t sound like ‘rising above’ in the mortal sense. Kings and dukes are made, not born. If I want to rise, I should be the one commanding the world, unifying the realm, becoming emperor…”
Fang Han ventured, testing the waters with his boldness.

He knew a man like Bai Haichan would only value someone who dared to think big.

“That’s all you aim for? You’re still trapped in a mortal frame of mind,”
Bai Haichan sneered. “True supremacy is not in becoming emperor of a secular dynasty, but in stepping beyond the Divine Ability Realm into the Longevity Secret Realm—becoming the Sect Master of one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects. To rule a sect is to shake the universe. Even ten thousand mortal kingdoms must bow.”

He seemed to see straight through Fang Han’s thoughts.

“The Great Li Dynasty may have vast lands and billions of people, but in the eyes of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, it’s nothing but a toy. If the Innate Dao Emperor of the demonic path—Heaven’s peerless Devil Emperor—grew dissatisfied with Great Li, he could obliterate it a hundred times over with a single thought. Under the Innate Emperor are his disciples, ruling mortal dynasties such as the Wave-Moon Dynasty, the Great Venerable Dynasty, the Great Inception Dynasty… The territory of any one of those kingdoms is no smaller than Great Li.”

“So there are that many dynasties in the world? And this Innate Emperor… He dares to call himself ‘Emperor’?”
Fang Han was utterly stunned.

As a Fang servant, his horizons were broader than ordinary peasants, but he still believed that “under heaven, all lands are the Emperor’s lands,” that the world was nothing but the Great Li Dynasty. Now he learned the world was far more vast than he’d ever imagined.

“The world is big. The heavens are bigger. The void is bigger still. Your mind is as big as the world you can see,”
Bai Haichan said. “I’ll have to pry your eyes open a bit. The Innate Dao Emperor is the supreme Devil Emperor of the demonic path, standing equal with the Ten Great Immortal Sects, living for ten thousand years. The Great Li Emperor calls himself Ten Thousand Years, but can he truly live that long? The Innate Emperor can.

Any disciple of the Ten Great Immortal Sects who reaches the Divine Ability Realm and visits Great Li would be treated as an honored guest by its princes and nobles, who would fear offending him. Now that Fang Qingxue has stepped into the Divine Ability Realm, the Great Li court will probably name her a princess immediately and cling to her with all they have.

As for this Dragon Lurking in the Yellow Springs Map—it’s a magic treasure left behind after the demonic Huangquan Emperor ascended. Its power is vast beyond reckoning.”

Bai Haichan looked at Fang Han as if at an ignorant child.

“If you step into the Divine Ability Realm, you can truly come into contact with such things and enter the world of the immortal path. If you don’t, you’ll spend your life groveling in mortal courts, a kneeling insect.

It’s a pity… I had hope of stepping into Divine Ability, but in the end, I failed.”

He shook his head slightly. “Anyway, what I’ve told you is just to broaden your eyes. To truly get close to that world, you’ll still need to rely on the Fang family and the Yuhua Sect. Now then—kneel and acknowledge me as your master. I don’t have much time left.”