Li Huowang lay on the bed wearing a hospital gown, silently staring at the IV hook above his head, as if waiting for something.

The door of the ward creaked open. "Hey, Xiaoli, you were recovering well before. What happened now?" Li Huowang's attending doctor walked in, disappointedly looking at him.

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang, with his head wrapped in bandages, grew anxious and began to explain, "Doctor, they attacked Yang Na first! I had to retaliate to protect her!"

The doctor pushed his glasses up with his index finger and said, "Is that what you call retaliation? You almost sent Liu Jianye to the ICU with that kick. Haven't you considered his condition before resorting to violence? I thought you were a sensible kid."

Thinking of the frightened Yang Na, Li Huowang became defiant. "So what if he is mentally ill? Does that give him the right to do whatever he wants? If I had to choose between letting Yang Na get hurt and going to jail, I'd choose the latter."

"You..." The attending doctor was rendered speechless by Li Huowang's response.

He sighed and shook his head. "Forget it, forget it. The hospital director has already called both families. You don't have to worry about these things."

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang curled up on the other side of the bed, his mind calculating whether the jade pendant worth 400,000 yuan would be enough for compensation.

But at that moment, he felt strangely calm. After realizing the effectiveness of the medicine, Li Huowang suddenly found himself with many new choices in life.

Sensing that his young patient was feeling down, the doctor spoke to comfort him, "Xiaoli, don't worry, you won't go to jail. We can provide you with a medical certificate. Don't think about these things, focus on recovering. We will take care of the rest."

Li Huowang sensed the doctor's concern in his words and said, "Thank you, doctor."

"No need to thank me. I'm your attending doctor, after all. You're still young, so I have to take care of you." The doctor patted Li Huowang's shoulder.

"But, Xiaoli, tell me honestly, how did you manage to injure them like that? It's not something an ordinary person can do. Were you in a normal state of mind, or did you experience some new kind of stress-induced hallucination again?"

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately focused on the pocket of his jacket. "Well... I..."

"I specialize in psychology, and I have some expertise in this area. Don't try to hide your condition. You better think carefully before answering, because I don't like it when my patients deceive me."

Although the doctor's tone was gentle, Li Huowang felt an invisible pressure in the room. He thought desperately about how to escape this predicament. He couldn't let the doctor find out about the medicine.

But just as he was searching for a way out, everything around him started to become unstable, and the doctor's voice became increasingly muffled.

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Within seconds, he realized he was once again trapped in a hallucination, lying on a stone bed in Xuan Yang's single-room cave.

Sitting up and holding his head, Li Huowang smiled at the simple furnishings around him. "Heh, well, this is also a solution."

This time, he didn't plan to return so quickly, in case the doctor stayed by his side.

As he walked out of the room, Li Huowang observed the fellow disciples coming and going in the tunnel of the cave, and he began to calculate his next move.

Since the medicine was real, he couldn't be as casual as before. He had to manage this place carefully in order to extract more benefits from it.

Fortunately, his identity had changed from a medicinal apprentice to a registered disciple under Lai Zi Tou. This gave him more freedom in his actions.

When he saw a Daoist disciple with long mustaches passing by, Li Huowang's eyes lit up, and he quickly followed after him. "Senior brother, senior brother!"

The mustached Daoist turned his head and noticed Li Huowang, his tone indifferent. "Xuan Yang junior brother, what's the matter?"

Li Huowang imitated the way they spoke and answered, "I just became master's disciple. Please enlighten me, senior brother. What should I do next?"

"Don't blame me for speaking bluntly. Although you were personally accepted by Master, your seniority is the lowest. For now, you can only run errands within Qing Feng Guan."

"If you want Master to teach you the path to immortality, that's a privilege reserved for closed-door disciples. You're not qualified yet. For now, just wait outside the pill room with me."

"Path to immortality...?" Li Huowang muttered to himself. He had never heard of anyone becoming immortal by refining people into pills.

"Can Master really become immortal?"

The mustached Daoist's face revealed a hint of self-satisfaction. "Of course, Master has great supernatural powers. Serve him well, and you'll see."

Through this senior brother named Xuan Yin, Li Huowang gained a new understanding of the people in the cave. There were five registered disciples, one direct disciple, and the head of the sect, Dan Yang Zi.

Apart from these people, the others were peripheral members, such as cooks, apprentices in the medicinal room, and general laborers. There were about a hundred and eighty of them in total.

This was the first time that Li Huowang had a complete understanding of the entire sect. The number of people in the sect was relatively small, and one could even say it was crude, especially after the recent large number of deaths.

During their conversation, the imposing alchemy furnace appeared in front of Li Huowang again, with wisps of white smoke drifting out as if something was being refined inside.

This time, in addition to Dan Yang Zi, there was also his closed-door disciple, a gloomy-faced young man.

After waiting with Xuan Yin for a while, Li Huowang received his task and went to the medicinal room with a list to count the ingredients, just like he used to do in Xuan Yang.

As he entered the medicinal room covered in white dust, everyone working there looked at him with nervous eyes, tinged with fear.

The albino girl took a few steps forward, pursing her lips, but ultimately didn't say anything and retreated with trepidation.

His identity had changed from being oppressed to becoming an oppressor.

Li Huowang looked at them, his mind becoming more active. Their roles had completely reversed, and perhaps he could benefit from this.

"Um, do you guys have any money on you?" His words stunned everyone. "Money? Don't you understand? I mean silver, gold, or jade pendants."

To be honest, Li Huowang really needed money. He didn't know how much compensation Old Liu Tou would need, and his family was just an ordinary one. If the compensation was significant, his mother might have to sell their house. This was something he desperately needed to avoid.

"Don't bother, I guess you guys don't have any money. Just give it all to me then. Consider it protection fee. From now on, you're under my protection."

He was being so direct, and the others finally understood. The people in the medicinal room started searching their pockets. They didn't expect Li Huowang to protect them; they just wanted to avoid being bullied by him.

A piece of blackened silver about the size of half a thumb, a copper hairpin, forty-odd round copper coins — that was all he obtained.

Looking at these things, Li Huowang sighed. It seemed like he had miscalculated. These guys didn't have any money. The value of these items probably didn't even exceed what he had in his medical insurance card.