Pop, pop, pop!

Dozens of colorful medicinal pills were refined successfully by Yin Na, despite him using only a mere beginner’s Pill furnace. This was all thanks to the 9-Yin Treasured Jade Block that he threw into the flames of the furnace at the last seconds before failure.

In summary, Yin Na realized that without the 9-Yin Treasured Jade Block, his chances of successfully creating a medicinal pill were only two out of ten.

He had made exactly ten separate attempts to refine a Qi Refining medicinal pill, and eight of those ten times, the Pill furnace’s smoke fouled and its flames roared, threatening to explode the furnace.

“My alchemy skills still need work,” Yin Na thought. “Without the brick, those two times I would have succeeded myself would probably result in some inferior medicinal pills, with probably 30-50% potency at best.”

Yin Na stood up. After concentration, he used qi to store the beginner Pill furnace into his void ring, while also taking out spare clothing.

Dressed in a gray shirt with frog buttons and peasant pants, Yin Na looked like a typical martial artist of the Jiang Hu. He pocketed the brick and the cluster of medicinal pills for easy access.

“I now have healing items on me and therefore feel mentally less vulnerable,” Yin Na smiled. “Plus, I learned a little something about alchemy.”

The restart of Yin Na’s cultivation journey was off to a good start— he chose to begin learning the incredibly useful skill of alchemy.

During this entire time, Yin Na’s Spicy Oil Boar runt was rolling and relaxing by a nearby river. It was still grievously wounded from the Soul Overload explosion caused by Tian Ji Han, and it needed food or more precisely, pills, in order to heal faster.

Yin Na walked over to the Spicy Oil Boar.

“Hey, open your mouth,” he said, as he threw a fistful of medicinal pills into the beast’s mouth.

It swallowed them with one gulp. In the span of three breaths, some of the burns on its back began to barely heal into coagulated lumps of oily scabs.

“It’s still a desolate beast, albeit a young one,” sighed Yin Na. “It’s about as strong as a beginning stage Golden Core cultivator. Of course even a bunch of mere beginner Qi Refining medicinal pills can barely do it much good.”

The Spicy Oil Boar runt looked blindly in the direction of its master’s voice, and oinked appreciatively.

“Dumb pig,” snorted Yin Na. “Tell you what, go around the remains of the battlefield, consume any corpses of dead beasts, as well as the enemy cultivators we defeated, including that Yellow Fox Sect girl. They’ll be your reward as dinner.”

The Spicy Oil Boar runt got up from the riverbed and dutifully began to sniff for the corpses of the fallen. It munched loudly but quickly as it swallowed up the corpses of several beasts that had died fighting for Yin Na, until its nose took itself out deeper into the forest.

“Right now, you’re my main means of travel and the strongest weapon I’ve got,” thought Yin Na quietly as he watched the fat bottom of the boar and its swishing tail disappear into the trees.

The heavily-wounded tamed beasts, not including the Ethereal hounds— whose original Alpha was stored safely in the void ring, were of mostly Foundation stage; they required qi to be able to summon and continually command in battle. At Yin Na’s current Qi Refining level, he did not possess the quantity of qi to be able to do so.

“These were the only beasts I’d managed to salvage back into my collection,” thought Yin Na. “But what about the Yao Guai?”

As if on cue, Yin Na felt intense killing intent whizzing at him at an incredibly fast velocity. He dodged the attack, which was a blur of whiskers and fur just centimeters away from taking his head off.

“Rats!” said the Yao Guai. “I missed.”

Yin Na regarded the Yao Guai that attacked him coldly, with a completely calm expression.

“Liao Ya Shu,” Yin Na said with an icy voice. “You should have fled like the other Yao Guai.”

The rat Yao Guai chittered with its yellow teeth in laughter, keeping its human-shaped arms close to its body in a human-rat expression of irrepressible humor. It wore light bronze armor and leggings, and was at the Qi Condensation stage itself.

“Nice clothes, Yin Na, they’re fit for a peasant laborer. The others immediately fled upon sensing your rebirth as a pathetic Qi Refining mortal, but I’m no coward!”

Liao Ya Shu coiled its body in an animalistic stance, clearly about to attack. Grass and dirt flew in the air where Yin Na side-stepped the Yao Guai’s lunging strike.

The two individuals began exchanging blows. Yin Na still had his knowledge and experience of decades of combat intact. Now he was applying everything he remembered to use, training his freshly reborn body anew while engaging the Yao Guai in simplistic, physical close-ranged combat.

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But Yao Guai were already naturally stronger than humans, and Liao Ya Shu was at the spiritual realm as a Qi Condensation cultivator, which meant he was leagues stronger than Yin Na. It felt like the rat was simply toying with Yin Na, as the weaker Qi Refining human cultivator regularly popped the life-saving medicinal pills to restore his health.

“Hahaha, how does it feel to be a mere mortal again?” the Yao Guai taunted. “Pity, isn’t it pitiful how it takes too much of your tiny qi reserves to summon items from your void ring?”

Liao Ya Shu snickered, delighting in its moment of glory and revenge.

“Red Hare horse demon and Pervert Pig are going to have a devil of a time looking for something or someone else to undo the enslavement contract you made us sign. But me? They’ll all owe me once I kill you and be free of your tyranny!”

Liao Ya Shu suddenly spun and used its tail, after humoring Yin Na strictly with human-based martial arts. Its tail was swift and flew with the precision of a sharp sword, as it slashed across Yin Na’s exposed midsection, spraying blood everywhere.

“Red Hare horse demon and Pervert pig are Foundation stage Yao Guai,” Yin Na said calmly as he consumed another medicinal pill. “They would repay their thanks by killing you, if you so brazenly demand anything from them.”

Liao Ya Shu hissed in response: “I saw you concocting those pills, I don’t know how you did it but you managed to create ten batches of pills in a row without failure. Sooner or later, you’ll run out of pills. I’ll kill you, take that special pill furnace, and using your so-called ‘Dao of benefits,’ start a pill business and fund my progression into Immortality!”

At this threat, Yin Na’s eyes turned pitch-black.

“For you to mistake the shoddy beginner furnace as the real treasure is one thing,” he said to himself as he blocked a strike towards his throat. “But for your small, arrogant rodent brain to think you are able to fully grasp the Dao of benefits, you truly are stupid!”

Yin Na then took a big risk by summoning a large portion of qi to withdraw something from his void ring. It was…

“T-The treasure Pill furnace!” Liao Ya Shu cried. He had expected Yin Na to take out some secret weapon that would have been able to obliterate him with one swing, but did not expect his former master to take out the Pill furnace instead!

Upon looking at it closer, the rat Yao Guai noticed that the construction of the Pill furnace was falling apart, it was in bad condition.

“Hehehe, gonna bargain for your life now, Yin Na?” sneered the Yao Guai. “I’m going to take that treasure from your cold, dead hands regardless if you beg-”

Without another word, Yin Na threw the Pill furnace at the Yao Guai, who caught it carefully, fearing damaging it. But just as the Pill furnace landed in its arms, Yin Na had already closed the distance. He viciously kicked upwards towards the Yao Guai’s groin.

“Ah!” the Yao Guai nearly dropped the Pill Furnace, but caught it just in time before its fragile-looking surface hit the ground.

Yin Na maneuvered behind the Yao Guai and once again, concentrated hard and kicked him in the groin again.

“You!” Liao Ya Shu felt extreme agony and loss of breath, as kicks to the groin affected any male, beast or man… especially when they were delivered with extra qi!

“You think you’re clever?!” Liao Ya Shu threw the Pill Furnace thirty meters into the air. “No more playing around! I’ll kill you before the Pill Furnace even begins falling to the Earth!”

But Yin Na had disappeared from his sight.

Liao Ya Shu looked in all cardinal directions before realizing that unexpectedly, Yin Na had jumped after the Pill Furnace.

“What’s he- oh, no!” Liao Ya Shu jumped up to catch Yin Na, but it was too late.

With a single punch, Yin Na shattered the Pill furnace, scattering its bits and pieces everywhere. Liao Ya Shu’s eyes widened in shock and dismay, as it dodged just in time from a third attempt at his testicles from Yin Na’s feet.

“Y-you! You destroyed what could have been a never-ending source of revenue! You…you are petty garbage, Yin Na! Truly, you can’t stand the sight of your benefits going into the hands of others!”

The rat demon was foaming spittle in rage. It then lunged at Yin Na with all its speed and power, not allowing any time for Yin Na to counter-attack or rest.

Every attack from the Yao Guai could potentially end Yin Na’s life in an instant, as Yin Na blocked and dodged with all the skill he had. He did not even have time to consume medical pills, as his forearms, legs and vast areas of his body were cut to ribbons by teeth, claw and tail. Despite the fact that Yin Na was clearly losing, from behind his blocking guard, he was smiling.

Yin Na’s Qi Refining body and mind was gaining considerable experience and inspiration from fighting with his life on the line for such a long period. The extraordinary feeling is like someone instantly relearning a song one has forgotten on an instrument in just a few seconds.

“Fighting like this without flashy spells or assistance, with only my life on the line,” Yin Na thought. “Truly: risk, pressure, and the reminder of one’s own mortality are what a cultivator needs to start off his journey strong!”

The saying that pressure makes diamonds applies perfectly to the situation. Because Yin Na fought with desperation and everything he got with his life at stake, he gained experience and insight much faster than the countless majority who leisurely trained on compliant sparring partners or friendly matches.

Finally, when the rat Yao Guai lost his patience and its balance from one over-committed strike, Yin Na took out the brick he was hiding in his clothing, and countered with a swing.

CRACK!

The brick made contact with Liao Ya Shu’s jaw, instantly breaking it as well as its two front teeth.

The Yao Guai was disoriented, demoralized and thrown into incredible agony, as two yellow teeth flew away into the grass. Blood poured from its face, as it lost the incisors it was so proud of.

CRACK!

Yin Na swung the brick in a returning arc, which the Yao Guai blocked with its two forearms. His forearms were instantly shattered, bones could even be seen poking through its skin!

CRACK!

Yin Na then broke the Yao Guai’s ribs, which punctured its lungs, causing blood to overflow its breathing.

“Ahhhh!” The cries of the Yao Guai rang in the forest. If there were any birds left they would have flown into the air in fright.

CRACK! CRACK!

Yin Na then swung the brick at the Yao Guai’s kneecaps. They were instantly destroyed into powder by the force and density of the brick, as the Yao Guai collapsed in a bloody heap onto the grass.

“Mercy!” Liao Ya Shu cried, coughing blood. “Please, spare my life, master!”