Chapter 1209 — All Remedies Fail
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
In the few short months since they had parted, the Pill Master's cultivation had actually surged; his present realm had caught up with the Village Chief, the Silent Artisan, and the others—he had cultivated to the Yaochi realm!
Shen Mu was astonished.
The Pill Master had always been the slowest cultivator among the Nine Elders of Hidden Cripple Village, his realm even lower than that of the Deaf Elder!
He had toiled bitterly to reach the Venerable God realm, and beyond that could not take a single step further! Yet in a few short months he had broken through the Venerable God realm, then the True God realm, and cultivated his way to the Yaochi realm!
"The Medicine Dao Heavenly Palace you asked for—I have it ready. " The Pill Master took out a spirit pill and smiled. "The Medicine Dao is within this pill.
Whether you can comprehend it depends on your own ability.
" Shen Mu pinched the spirit pill between his fingers and examined it closely. The medicinal power within the pill had actually formed the apparition of a heavenly palace, exceedingly sacred, and from within came the sound of gods and demons chanting the Dao. His heart was somewhat uneasy, and he probed, "Is there poison in this pill? " The Pill Master, beaming, patted his shoulder and said unhurriedly, "The moment you entered the Ancestral Court, you stabbed me a dozen times over.
Little Shen, you have grown up; your wings have hardened. But after all, I raised you—how could I possibly put poison in the pill I give you?
" Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly. The moment the Pill Master said such a thing, it meant the pill certainly contained poison—and a poison absolutely ferocious!
The Pill Master said, kindly of face, "We who make pills—poison is medicine too.
Swallow it first, and see what it does.
" Shen Mu did not hurry to swallow the pill. The vertical eye at the center of his brow opened, and he observed carefully.
The Pill Master smiled faintly and did not press him, letting him study it as he pleased. Under the gaze of his third sage pupil, every secret within the pill was reflected with utter clarity in that pupil.
What amazed him was that the medicinal power in the pill was a seamless whole; look closely as he might, he could not see any composition of medicinal power at all. Stranger still, the medicinal power in the pill had congealed into patterns of runes of the great Dao of every kind, and it was precisely these rune patterns that projected the apparition of the heavenly palace!
A heavenly palace inside a spirit pill—such a thing Shen Mu had never heard of!
Moreover, as the medicinal power shifted in the finest degrees, the rune patterns within the pill shifted with it, impossible to fathom. Shen Mu had studied under the Pill Master, learning the Dao of medicine and the Dao of poison, and had achieved no small success; but ever since he cultivated the Three Prime Gods' Indestructible Spirit Sense and the Flawless Creation Mystic Art, he had grown lax in advancing further in the medicine and poison Daos.
The Pill Master's attainments in the two Daos had long ago reached the point where medicine and poison flowed as one, the Dao of medicine and the Dao of poison each completing the other. What stage he had now reached, Shen Mu could not see through. He could not even see through whether the medicinal power of this pill was medicine or poison!
The Pill Master watched him, smiling. Shen Mu's face shifted between light and dark, and of a sudden he opened his mouth and swallowed the pill!
The Pill Master laughed heartily.
Shen Mu's expression changed drastically.
The instant the pill entered his belly, he felt an incomparably violent medicinal power erupt! In the very instant of that eruption, he felt a poison that would annihilate all things spread through his whole body in a flash, and all his vital essence melt away like snow!
Not only could his vital essence not withstand it—even his spirit sense could not; his spirit sense melted!