Chapter 227

  Legend of the Sage Alchemist (IX)

  Long Tao stopped by a bakery at the side of the street and bought a freshly made bun with some sour cherry before finding a nearby bench, plopping himself on top of it, and slowly eating away.

  It wasn't all that good, but it was at least sweet.

  He lazily observed the passing strangers who seemed to not even notice he existed, walking by as though he were a ghost. He'd forgotten just how much he hated cities.

  Soulless furnaces packed with apathetic creatures playing at childish politics... it was the same, everywhere. So many hopefuls, so many hopeless, the scent a mix of dreary despair and blind optimism.

  Almost like home.

  Finishing off the bun, he stood up and lazily stretched; Master should have started the ritual by now, he gathered, glancing over at the tall pavilion next to which that basement existed.

  He wasn't in a particular hurry; he already knew where the vine was, so instead of rushing over, he simply walked at a brisk pace--toward the other tall pavilion gently looming over the other side of the street.

  His initial suspicions were kind of all true; it was a local doing it, but, just like in that village, the vine itself came from elsewhere. He did not care who the local was (based on the compound, it was another local sect or clan) or why they were doing it, as none of it mattered in the slightest. Though all journeys contained therein a story, he'd seen millions of them and found most dull beyond reason by now.

  He passed by the gates and the guards standing still, and past all the kids coming in and out, and into the depths of the terraced dungeon, where levels beneath held prisoners in varying states of dehumanization.

  At the very bottom, there were no people any longer, just a singular vine draped around a flickering beam of light, upheld at a marble pedestal.

  It was... fancier was perhaps the best term compared to the other two they've encountered thus far. That likely had to do with the fact that it was near its growth limit, as it had been sucking away at the girl's vitality for a long time now. It was as thick as a grown man's forearm, writhing like a serpentine worm, each pulse drawing in visible plumes of Life Qi.

  He observed it for a moment longer before he donned a fox mask of his own make--made from porcelain and wood and an ancient array--and undid the cloaking, revealing himself.

  And yet, nothing happened.

  Shrugging inwardly, he walked up to the vine and was just about to reach out toward it to yank it free when the air behind him stirred. He praised the shadow inwardly, though he still easily dodged the stab of a rapier toward his heart, grabbing the figure's wrist, breaking it, and sealing their acupuncture points all within a singular breath.

  Beneath him now lay a cloaked and masked figure--a woman, judging by her build. Leaving the vine alone for now as it wasn't time just yet, he crouched and removed the mask; she looked to be in her mid-twenties at the most, matching her bone age.

  Stolen story; please report.

  And yet, shockingly, she was actually at the early stages of the Void Transformation Realm.

  For this region of the world, that was massively impressive.

  He grabbed her wrist yet again and sent a pulse of his Qi through her meridians, checking it. The deeper he went, the more his brows furrowed; there were signed marks across every inch of her meridians, all in the shape of an iris.

  Oddly, though, they were all self-inflicted.

  Thinking for a moment, he soundproofed the room before unsealing her speaking organs, eyeing her as she remained silent.

  "You're not going to ask me who I am?"

  "You're a dead man, is what you are," she spat back.

  "Oh, the irony of you being truly correct, though for such a wrong reason," he chuckled, sitting down momentarily. "What is someone of your talent doing here, guarding this thing?"

  "..." She remained tightly lipped.

  "Hmm. Your Master is probably looking at us right now," Long Tao said. "Are you capable of Spiritual Bonding?"

  "What is--a young pup knows of the Bonding?" Though her voice and her looks remained the same, the countenance changed immediately. "No... you're a wolf in the guise of a sheep."

  "Are you one of the Sages?"

  "Ha ha, if I were one of the Sages, you'd already be dead, child."

  "What exactly are you trying to accomplish with so much Life Qi?" Long Tao said, standing up and facing the vine yet again. "Just this one vine is enough to keep a dying mortal alive for fifty years and is almost enough to actually recover a partially shattered dantian. Are you trying to keep some old monster alive or reignite life into someone who is in stasis?"

  "... who are you, child? Where is your Master?"

  "My Master? Oh, he's undoubtedly cursing me out for dragging him into this," Long Tao chuckled. "But my Master needn't be your worry. I am not a good man, I'll admit. I haven't been a good man in a long time. But there are certain things that even I abhor, and using a parasite to rob a child of her future certainly ranks high among those things. Higher than that, however, is the simple fact that you've tried to kill me." He grabbed the vine with his hand; though there were a thousand countermeasures put in place in an attempt to stop him, none of it mattered. He squeezed the vine tightly and turned to face the young woman. "That act alone has marked you all for death." His fingers ripped the vine apart as blood-like liquid began to pour out.

  "Ha ha ha, stupid child; you really think simply destroying the vine will fix everything? And you have the courage to threaten us? Be smarter in your next life, and certainly far less arrogant."

  "..."

  "..." Silence permeated as the blood-like liquid remained suspended midair for a moment before Long Tao shuffled it invisibly.

  "Huh?" a gasp escaped. "What, what is happening?! How--how are you doing this?! Stop it! No, no, stop it! Please, please spare me!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

  Whatever happened, it happened thousands and thousands of miles away. Though he could venture a guess, he didn't particularly care--because the voice on the other side was not a Sage.

  "Hah!!" The young woman gasped for breath and woke up, looking around in shock for a moment.

  He'd already informed the old Master to 'finalize the treatment', so things on that end should soon be concluding as well. He crouched by the woman and smiled as gently as he could.

  "I always say that the children ought not pay for the sins of their Masters," he said. "But everyone must pay for their own."

  He flicked a finger across her throat as an array of swordlight emerged from the fingertip, easily cutting through her neck and severing the head. It was so immediate that her eyes still held a look of confusion as the light of life was drained from them.

  Standing up, he snapped his fingers invisibly as he began walking out; a burst of flames erupted silently behind him, rapidly consuming everything--the woman's body, the remnants of the vine, the altar, even the stone itself—until it was all polished rock with no traces of anything else.

  More and more he found himself curious about the Sages--though it was still a bit too soon to pay them a visit. He needed to break through at least the Void Transformation Realm.

  It shouldn't be too long, he felt; perhaps half a year, at most. Even quicker if his Master was clever enough to extract some rare pills from the Alchemist.