"One Qi Illusion Pouch technique…"
After his sigh, Wei Tu started to search the corpse of the late Ancestor Chishe for the Nascent Infant Pill hidden by Qingzhu Mountain, using the concealment method described by Sun Chixin.
The human body has countless acupoints, as numerous as the stars in the sky or grains of sand in the river—far too many to count.
So, for an average Golden Core True Lord to find the specific acupoint where the pill was hidden on Ancestor Chishe's corpse wouldn't be easy.
Luckily, Wei Tu had the One Qi Illusion Pouch technique that Sun Chixin had given him in advance. All he needed to do was follow the acupoint pattern detailed in the technique and use his mana to search one by one.
"Found it!"
Half a quarter-hour later, joy appeared on Wei Tu's face. A green light burst from his body as he pressed two fingers against the inner side of Ancestor Chishe's right calf.
Then, he formed a hand seal and injected several streams of mana precisely into that spot.
As the mana entered, the inner side of the right calf began to glow with multicolored light. Amidst the shimmer, a small blood-red dot suddenly emerged on the skin, glinting faintly.
Wei Tu, well-versed in the One Qi Illusion Pouch technique, immediately recognized this as the "blood aperture gate" described in the method. He muttered a few obscure incantations and shot a strange imprint into the red dot.
In the next moment…
Through microscopic vision, a flesh gate quivered slightly like a pair of lips. As it opened, a peek into a blood-colored pocket space was revealed.
This space was about the size of a baby's fist. Like a storage ring, it was completely sealed off. Without the infusion of Wei Tu's mana at that moment, even a trace of it would've been impossible to detect.
'No wonder the Mingwang Sect elders couldn't find the Nascent Infant Pill. Even after all that effort… this concealment technique is really something.'
Wei Tu smiled faintly. He reached his right hand forward and pulled out a tiny jade bottle from the blood-red space.
If his guess was right, the pill stored inside this bottle was the Nascent Infant Pill once treasured by Qingzhu Mountain.
Only a pill of this value would be worth Ancestor Chishe sealing it into his own acupoint before death.
As for how Sun Chixin knew about it…
Wei Tu suspected that most high-level cultivators from Qingzhu Mountain had practiced this technique, possibly as a means to pass on their legacy in case of unexpected death.
Even if they failed to pass it down, at least they wouldn't let an enemy benefit and build off their corpse to advance further.
But—
The moment Wei Tu opened the pill bottle, his smile vanished instantly. His expression turned cold and grim.
There was indeed a Nascent Infant Pill inside.
But the problem was—it was tainted with the deadly poison that had infected Ancestor Chishe.
That strange poison wasn't the same as the Seven-Star Begonia poison found in the Great Void Realm. It didn't spread rapidly.
It wouldn't immediately infect someone upon contact.
But that didn't mean it wasn't deadly.
If swallowed… it was potent enough to kill a Nascent Soul elder.
Let alone someone like him, a Golden Core cultivator planning to take this pill to break through.
In short, taking this pill was no different from suicide—he'd follow Ancestor Chishe into the grave.
"Did Sun Chixin trick me?"
That was Wei Tu's first reaction.
But then he shook his head.
Sun Chixin still needed his help to get the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill. It wouldn't make sense to sabotage him here and turn them into enemies.
'Most likely, even Sun Chixin didn't realize the Nascent Infant Pill had been contaminated by the poison on Ancestor Chishe's body…'
Wei Tu frowned slightly and began inspecting the corpse carefully to figure out how it happened.
Soon, he formed a rough conclusion.
Under normal conditions, sealing the pill in an acupoint space like this wouldn't cause a problem. Even after hundreds of years, the pill could still be safely passed down to future descendants of Qingzhu Mountain.
But then an accident occurred.
After the Mingwang Sect couldn't find the Nascent Infant Pill, they must have repeatedly searched the corpse.
This likely accelerated the spread of the corpse's poison into the pill.
Later on, the Mingwang Sect kept examining the body while preserving its spiritual energy.
With the spiritual energy left intact, it began leaking outwards uncontrollably. Eventually, it spread into the hidden acupoint space, slowly integrating the space and corpse into one entity.
With so much back-and-forth over the decades, keeping the Nascent Infant Pill untainted became impossible.
"If the poison hasn't corrupted the pill's medicinal properties, Fellow Daoist Wei, perhaps you could try using the Righteous Purity Divine Steel," said Bai Zhi, quietly reminding him.
Wei Tu wasn't just any Golden Core cultivator.
He possessed poison-removal techniques gathered by top-level righteous and demonic sects.
The Righteous Purity Divine Steel technique that Bai Zhi mentioned was the poison-cleansing secret art Wei Tu had received over twenty years ago from Hu Shan on the Cold Crystal Platform within the Great Void Realm.
At that same time, the Demon Lord Gui Luo had also passed Wei Tu a ghost path detoxification technique—Demonic Ghost Poison Summoning Technique.
However, the latter method clearly wasn't suitable for a refined pill like the Nascent Infant Pill.
"Righteous Purity Divine Steel?"
Wei Tu's heart stirred.
It was a high-level Daoist poison-purging technique. According to the cultivation manual, once fully mastered, the divine steel qi it produced could resist the invasion of spiritual toxins and dissolve over ninety percent of common poisons in the cultivation world.
"You're right, Daoist Bai Zhi."
Wei Tu nodded in agreement.
This whole endeavor of coming to Mingwang Sect to seize the Nascent Infant Pill had always been a matter of luck.
If he got it, great. If not, he wouldn't cling to it obsessively.
Besides, the pill wasn't entirely beyond saving.
"According to Sun Chixin, this kind of baleful poison can be resolved by cultivating the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill of Mingwang Sect…"
"Even if Righteous Purity Divine Steel fails, there's still the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill as a backup."
After weighing gains and losses, Wei Tu steadied his mindset.
Now, in helping Sun Chixin obtain the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill, he wasn't just bound by their heart-devil oath—he now had his own reasons too.
He needed the technique himself.
…
From the time Bai Zhi pulled Ancestor Chishe's corpse from the bottom of Silver Moon Pool to when Wei Tu retrieved the Nascent Infant Pill, not even half an hour had passed.
The process was quick. Add to that the clever techniques both of them used, and by the time they secretly left the herb garden by the pool and headed for the Thunder Sound Hall, none of the Mingwang Sect cultivators had noticed anything unusual about Silver Moon Pool.
"Daoist Sun, quick and clean!"
When Wei Tu met up with Sun Chixin, his tone was urgent and concise.
From what he had observed, they had at most one day before Yuan Chunhe, the elder in charge, would discover the pool had been tampered with.
So if they wanted to leave the sect unharmed, they had to secure the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill fast—preferably within half a day.
"Daoist Wei, if we're acting like this…"
Sun Chixin understood the urgency and didn't ask questions. He immediately laid out the preparations he had made and the strategy he planned to use.
After explaining everything, he added in a low voice, "Liu Kun's strength isn't high. With our abilities, killing him outside the sect would be easy. But the challenge is… doing it quietly inside the Mingwang Sect."
Liu Kun was the Thunder Sound Hall steward that Sun Chixin had been watching for the past two months.
He had his concerns about the coming operation.
Neither of them were known for raw combat strength.
Wei Tu, in particular—though a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator—had broken through only recently and was distracted by his pillcraft. Among cultivators of the same stage, he likely ranked at the bottom in terms of fighting ability.
A few years ago, Wei Tu had a conflict with Fu Dalu. Though Wei Tu came out on top and Fu Dalu backed off, Sun Chixin had seen the entire fight clearly—Wei Tu only used spirit talismans. He hadn't shown any techniques that a proper Golden Core True Lord should have.
That meant Wei Tu's combat ability, without relying on talismans, was probably very weak.
And killing Thunder Sound Hall steward Liu Kun…
Sun Chixin hoped Wei Tu wouldn't use his talismans. They made too much noise.
"Don't worry, Daoist Sun. I've got this," Wei Tu said with a confident smile.
Back on the Ascending Cloud Flying Boat, he had dealt with three early-stage Golden Core cultivators from Qingming Sect without breaking a sweat.
Now that his physical cultivation had advanced, taking out someone like Liu Kun wouldn't be a problem at all.
"I trust you, Daoist Wei…"
Sun Chixin pushed aside his doubts. At such a critical moment, even if he had his reservations, he wasn't about to question Wei Tu's strength.
With their plan settled, they moved out.
In less than fifteen minutes, Sun Chixin had gained Liu Kun's trust. He casually made up a reason and got Liu Kun to lead both of them into a secluded cave-dwelling.
"Now!" Sun Chixin signaled to Wei Tu with his eyes. They were ready to strike while Liu Kun was off guard.
But the next moment—
Sun Chixin froze.
Inside the cave, Wei Tu moved with terrifying speed. In the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of Liu Kun. His muscular arms shimmered with scale-like jade patches as he twisted Liu Kun's head—
Liu Kun was decapitated instantly.