Chapter 110: Reward

Clatter! Clatter! Several thoroughbreds galloped along the main road and arrived at the eastern gate of Dingjiang Prefecture.

Five riders dismounted, showed their waist tokens, and each deployed their movement technique. Weaving through foot traffic, leaving behind gusts of wind or flickering afterimages, they made for Dangkang Temple.

Watching their figures quickly disappear, the Brightnight Sect disciples on duty exchanged glances and began to murmur among themselves.

"What on earth did Junior Sister Zheng and Junior Brother Ding get up to? They came and went in such a rush."

"I have no idea. Marshal Yi forbade anyone from asking, only saying it involved a major case."

"A major case? Junior Sister Zheng’s swordsmanship has matured and she can kill fourth-rank Mortal Surpassed fighters, so it makes sense for her to be involved. But Junior Brother Ding has barely been a sect disciple for three months."

"Maybe he has some exceptional talent?"

As they debated, Ding Songyan and the others had already arrived at Dangkang Temple in the eastern part of the city and found Caretaker Zhu in his brown ritual robe.

Caretaker Zhu’s face lit up with joy. He stared at them with gleaming eyes, excited and anxious at once.

Ding Songyan, Xie Fengchao, Xing Chang, and Pan Yunzhou all looked toward Zheng Zhuxi at the same moment.

Zheng Zhuxi stepped forward without hesitation, took the peachwood box from Xing Chang, and said with a clear smile, "We have not failed your trust!"

Caretaker Zhu’s breathing turned heavy all at once, like a barnyard pig transformed into a wild bull. He hurriedly took the peachwood box and opened it to look.

"It’s here!" Caretaker Zhu was so moved that tears welled in his aged eyes.

What a struggle it had been! To finally see it again!

My fortune was not spent in vain!

Closing the lid, Caretaker Zhu said to Zheng Zhuxi, Ding Songyan, and the others with some embarrassment, "My family wealth is exhausted. I have nothing else to offer as payment. Once I refine the Youth Restoration Pill, would you accept the companion products from the same furnace?"

"Companion products?" Ding Songyan made no effort to hide his ignorance.

Caretaker Zhu explained quickly, "When refining a Youth Restoration Pill, seven or eight companion pills may form alongside it, weaker in potency or with different effects. For example, ones that extend lifespan."

That’s something valuable! Ding Songyan’s eyes lit up.

He desperately needed something like this. For other people, cultivation cost wealth. For him, it cost years off his life.

Besides, lifespan-extending pills were impossible to buy at any price without the right connections. All the silver in the world couldn’t get you one.

Zheng Zhuxi and the others naturally had no reason to refuse.

Caretaker Zhu’s expression relaxed. With his free right hand he patted his protruding belly.

"I’ll begin refining right away, before anything else can go wrong!"

"The supplementary ingredients are all ready?" Xie Fengchao asked in surprise.

"They arrived last evening." Caretaker Zhu’s expression was full of excitement as he led the group toward the side courtyard of Dangkang Temple.

Ding Songyan asked with concern, "Caretaker Zhu, what are the chances of successfully refining the Youth Restoration Pill?"

"For anyone else, the chance would be only 20-30%." Caretaker Zhu said with full confidence, "But I have an 80-90% chance."

"What makes you so different, sir?" asked Zheng Zhuxi, still slightly weak but curious.

Caretaker Zhu answered with spirited confidence, "I will spend every last bit of my remaining fortune on it!"

All the time spent in preparation for one moment of action!

The words left Ding Songyan and the others at a loss for what to say.

Once in the side courtyard, Caretaker Zhu had the servants bring fragrant tea, then took his pill-refining attendant and withdrew to the alchemy room.

Watching him go, Ding Songyan, Zheng Zhuxi, and the others gradually settled into a calmer state of mind.

The tension and vigilance they had carried dissipated for the most part in this moment.

Crossing the river, pursuing the fugitives, killing the Three Fiends, escaping the treacherous mountains, and returning from both sides of the great river in a single day—all of it had at last become something real and tangible.

After a brief silence, the Headless, Xing Chang, opened his navel and burst into laughter.

"What a rush!"

Who wouldn’t want an adventure like this in their youth, full of spirit and soaring ambition?

"What a shame there’s no wine!" Xie Fengchao slapped the wooden table lightly, equally elated.

Zheng Zhuxi sat quietly, carefully savoring the details of the past day and night, a smile reaching her eyes.

Ding Songyan felt that aside from the wyrm’s pursuit, everything else had been within their capabilities; yet, he was still a little pleased with himself.

More than any reward or praise, the satisfaction and joy of having taken on such a task and seen it through was far more intense and intoxicating.

Pan Yunzhou had always lived cautiously, pursuing the hope of completing his family’s cultivation arts. He had never done anything as unrestrained as this cross-border manhunt, and he couldn’t help but feel his heart surge with exhilaration.

Men and women of the jianghu, born between heaven and earth—they ought to achieve something legendary!

After letting themselves enjoy the feeling for a while, Ding Songyan exchanged a few quiet words with Zheng Zhuxi, then rose and addressed Xie Fengchao and Xing Chang.

"Young Master Xie, Commander Xing, I have an uncomfortable request."

"None of this Young Master Xie. I’m the fifth child in my family, so just call me Fifth Xie." Xie Fengchao looked at Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan, puzzled as to how he could possibly be of help.

Ding Songyan’s expression turned serious.

"Regarding this pursuit and capture of the Three Fiends of Xiao City, I ask that the two of you not spread word of my senior sister’s, Brother Pan’s, or my involvement.

"The Brightnight Sect has old grievances with the Demon Sovereign. If the Demon Sovereign learned that we played a significant role here and flew into a rage, it would be bad for our sect’s elders and disciples out in the world."

The Brightnight Sect was not, after all, a top-tier power, with no Supreme Master to hold the fort.

"Just the two of us couldn’t have handled the Three Fiends; nobody would believe it anyway." Xie Fengchao thought it over and reckoned that if credit were to be measured, Heroine Zheng alone deserved seven-tenths of it.

"Doesn’t it show how formidable your signature hidden weapon is, Fifth Brother Xie?" Ding Songyan took the opportunity to flatter him.

By Xie Fengchao’s own account, he was twenty-one, about a year older than Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi.

That phrase sounds strangely familiar... Zheng Zhuxi’s gaze shifted to Ding Songyan.

Pan Yunzhou had no desire to attract the Accumulated Evil Way’s attention either and added,

"Just say that Fifth Young Master Xie and Commander Xing, with the assistance of a few wandering heroes, pursued and captured the Three Fiends. No need to mention our names."

"Fine," Xing Chang agreed readily.

The Headless had no fear for the Accumulated Evil Way.

Xie Fengchao, with the Fang clan behind him, felt the same.

With that settled, the group fell into casual conversation.

Ding Songyan turned to Xing Chang with considerable interest.

"Brother Chang, is it true that the Headless don’t need aperture forging, meridian condensation, or viscera installation?"

He had originally wanted to say "Brother Xing," but that was a homophone for "commit violence" in the language, which didn’t sit right.

"That’s right." Xing Chang sat in his chair, his navel opening and closing as he said in a rumbling tone, "We simply refine our apertures in sequence, which has advantages and disadvantages. The drawback is that we can’t train any martial arts outside of our ancestral techniques—with the exception of the Celestial Thearch and Taotie lineages. We also have to pass the threshold of the void aperture resonance and can’t enter the Dharma Realm without any obstacles."

As a commander in Dingjiang Prefecture, he knew that Ding Songyan, a former storyteller who had only joined the Brightnight Sect a few months ago, was still unfamiliar with all manner of martial arts fundamentals, so he explained in some detail.

As for why Ding Songyan had advanced so rapidly to reach greater mastery of aperture refinement, Xing Chang couldn’t be bothered to speculate. Everyone had their own secrets.

The Headless had always been bold and open, unconcerned with such trifles.

"You have void apertures too?" Ding Songyan was a little surprised.

The two eyes on Xing Chang’s chest glanced at him.

"Many supernatural beasts do too."

So that’s it. Void apertures aren’t only the ones that correspond to supernatural beast features that can’t be proportionally mapped onto a human body. There are also those that originally exist in the void itself... Of course, for a supernatural beast to influence heaven and earth, the first step would also have to begin with the void apertures... It all clicked for Ding Songyan.

He glanced at Xing Chang, started to speak, then stopped himself.

"What else do you want to ask?" the frank and direct Xing Chang said.

"I’m just genuinely curious, Brother Chang, does your species have women?" Ding Songyan made clear he meant no offense.

Xing Chang had been asked this too many times to count. He answered with practiced ease, "Yes. They nurse from their armpits."

Fascinating... Ding Songyan’s curiosity was fully engaged.

"If you married a human woman, could you have children?"

"Yes, perhaps a Headless child, or perhaps a human with the Headless’s will and sturdy build," Xing Chang answered earnestly.

Xie Fengchao gave a chortle.

"Second Ding, even yao can mate with humans and have children. The Headless, who descended from humans in the first place, are hardly an exception."

The group chatted and laughed until around midday, when a faint fragrance like fresh grass suddenly reached them.

"It’s done?" Xie Fengchao sat up straight and looked toward the entrance of the reception hall.

Before long, Caretaker Zhu walked in wearing his brown ritual robe.

He still had his round protruding belly, pig-like large ears, and thick broad nose, but all the fine lines on his face had vanished, replaced by the vigor of youth.

Evidently, the moment the refining was done, Caretaker Zhu had taken the Youth Restoration Pill himself.

Behind him, the pill-refining attendant carried a black lacquered tray lined with thick leaves, bearing five pills in colors of pale blue, light green, dark red, and apricot-yellow.

"There are exactly five companion pills." Caretaker Zhu beamed at Zheng Zhuxi and the others.

"What a coincidence?" Ding Songyan was a little sensitive to coincidences.

"I spent my fortune to bring exactly five of you together to help. For the companion pills to number exactly five, isn’t that perfectly natural?" Caretaker Zhu’s expression said it was entirely to be expected.

All right then. Fortune is a kind of fate, and a bit of coincidence comes with the territory... Ding Songyan waited for Caretaker Zhu to introduce the five companion pills.

Caretaker Zhu pointed to the two pale blue pills.

"Grass-and-Wood Longevity Pills. Each extends one’s lifespan by 20 years. Taking more than one has no effect."

He then pointed to the light-green pill.

"My supplementary ingredients included xun grass, so this pill has a similar function. Taking it bestows a beautiful complexion—one that stays fixed at its current state and never ages. It also extends lifespan by 5 years."

"Bestows a beautiful complexion" meant that one’s skin would become remarkably radiant after taking it.

Caretaker Zhu then introduced the dark-red pill.

"The Essence-Restoring Pill replenishes one’s essence, so that techniques that consume the essence no longer shorten one’s lifespan. It can only be used once."

Then he turned to the apricot-yellow pill.

"The Minor Youth Restoration makes the taker appear five years younger, but all lifespan gains previously accumulated from longevity items and cultivation breakthroughs will vanish."

Holy shit, that’s devastating... The corner of Ding Songyan’s mouth twitched slightly.

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