Chapter 107 - The Great Thunder Cleansing
As he was returning back to Scented Cloud Mountain, sadness welled up inside Bai Xiaochun’s heart. As for the odd pills left inside his storage bag, he didn’t dare to continue experimenting with them.
“Why is it so hard to have an ambitious goal… I can’t be blamed for this, it was Uncle Li who made me research this…” Bai Xiaochun lamented as he jogged on the way back. After returning to his immortal cave, he just sat there, staring blankly into the distance.
During the past half a year, every time he stumbled upon some hard problem in refining medicine, he would ask Li Qinghou about it. Listening to Bai Xiaochun’s questions surprised Li Qinghou greatly. Such meticulous study in the Dao of Medicine, in his opinion, was far beyond that of the average Medicine Master.
Recalling Bai Xiaochun’s results on the stone steles for herbs, Li Qinghou’s expectations regarding Bai Xiaochun’s Dao of Medicine grew. Everyone had a different understandings regarding the Dao of Medicine, and the fact that Bai Xiaochun had such determination made Li Qinghou very pleased.
He never gave Bai Xiaochun the answer straight away, but instead encouraged him to persevere, for only that way can one establish their own Dao of Medicine. If one always followed the paved road, they would never become a Medicine Master capable of uncovering the secrets of the Dao of Medicine. The origins of pill recipes, after all, were the result from the previous generations’ experiments!
“No, I have a goal, a dream. Uncle Li is right! Only what I discover it myself could a pill recipe truly belong to me. No matter how difficult it is, I will forge onwards!” After some time, Bai Xiaochun clenched his teeth. Although he didn’t intend to test the odd pills, his passion for the Dao of Medicine burned fiercer than ever.
“I must become a great medicine master!” Taking a deep breath, Bai Xiaochun resolutely walked into the Medicine Refining Room, once again immersing himself in refinement as though under a spell, forgetting everything else.
Time passed as several months passed by in the blink of an eye. Bai Xiaochun gradually got used to Grade 3 spirit medicine by resolving problems after problem, until finally, Grade 3 spirit medicine weren’t that much of a problem to him.
However, a bigger problem gradually cropped up.
Bai Xiaochun helplessly discovered that while he obtained a deeper understanding of Grade 3 medicine pills, improving the success rate wasn’t so easy. Usually, for every ten refinements, he would succeed in five. From the former, one was an odd pill that even he himself couldn’t understand, and the four remaining were poisonous pills with nearly a hundred percent impurities.
Bai Xiaochun was going crazy. He even tried spirit refinement, only to discover that even after spirit refinement, poisonous pills only produced bad results while the only Low Tier ones reached only up to the High Tier.
Between his relentless and meticulousness for medicine refinement, he didn’t notice that he was becoming obsessed with it; if something was unsatisfactory, he couldn’t rest in peace.
“Impurities, what can I do to get rid of impurities!” Bai Xiaochun glared at the large amount of poison pills in front of him with bloodshot eyes, racking his brain. He thought of asking Li Qinghou, only to remember his encouragement for perseverance. So, gritting his teeth, he continued as he immersed himself anew.
Time passed day by day, and many people thought that Bai Xiaochun had finally quieted down. There weren’t any tremors or explosions, nor any troublesome animals all around the mountain. Many of them weren’t quite used to such peacefulness.
But that didn’t last long… one night a month later, Bai Xiaochun, with his hair flowing down his face, was adjusting the flames of the furnace while constantly tossing in herbs with bloodshot eyes.
“Success, it’s going to succeed. This time I have solved all of the problems, I even used my creativity to add in a Thunder God Cane, Thunder Attracting Flower, Dead Wood Spring and Yin Yang Grass. I came up with a unique method to remove the impurities, so this is sure to succeed… This is my, Bai Xiaochun’s, very own… Thunder Cleansing!” Just as he was getting excited, the furnace before him shook, and a medicinal aroma rose up. The moon shone brightly in the dark sky, high above Scented Cloud Mountain, unobstructed by the clouds.
But in an instant, a thick layer of clouds appeared, and a streak of lightning flashed down, charging straight at Scented Cloud Mountain and crashing onto Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave with a rumble. The entire place shook, while other bolts of lightning found their way inside and landed on the furnace.
The entirety of the immortal cave was filled with lightning, and Bai Xioahcun, in his mad laughter, quickly evaded them. When the lightning faded, he excitedly ran to the furnace and looked down.
What he saw was no medicine in the furnace, just black soot with black smoke rising from it.
“Too much Thunder Attracting Flower!” Bai Xiaochun, with hair flowing down his face, seemed like a scholar gone mad. Gloomily scratching his head, he pulled out more herbs and continued experimenting.
Meanwhile, many of the Scented Cloud Mountain disciples noticed the lightning, all of them staring with their eyes wide-open as they realised it had landed on Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave.
“This Bai Xiaochun… Could it be that even the Heavens can’t stand him any longer?”
“That must be it, the Heavens are just and shot lightning down to exterminate him…”
These thoughts filled the crowd’s minds. While some were entertained by the thought of Bai Xiaochun’s demise, the few elders of Scented Cloud Mountain that had also noticed the lightning were left surprised.
“Even if it was Ancestor Li refining medicine, he would never attract lightning. In the legends, only concoctions over the seventh grade would make lightning flash out. What is that Bai Xiaochun doing?”
In the afternoon three days later, Bai Xiaochun’s laughter echoed inside his immortal cave. Staring at the furnace, his hands were forming hand seals in a blur. As Qi spread out, the Earth Fire raged. Roaring out, Bai Xiaochun slammed both his hands on the floor before the furnace.
“Thunder Cleansing!”
The furnace shook, and many clouds whirled above Scented Cloud Mountain’s peak. A flash of lightning shot down, aiming straight at Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave.
This time, countless disciples all saw the lightning, shocking them all. As the sound of thunder reverberated in their ears, Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave shook briefly.
Inside the immortal cave, Bai Xiaochun excitedly went to the furnace. But when he looked down, there weren’t any pills in the furnace. Only their remains with a black smoke rising from them. Taking in a little of it, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes grew hazy and his head became dizzy. As he backed away a couple of steps, foam started coming out of his mouth.
“Thunder God Canes… Too many…” Bai Xiaochun mumbled before collapsing on the floor. Waking up a mere three hours later, he quickly went to wash his face and consume some pills, only to raise his head shortly after, ready to continue refining once more.
In the following days, the amount of lightning increased and increased, growing more and more concentrated. The disciples of Scented Cloud Mountain would always see a flash of lightning drop down, hitting Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave. Slowly, everyone stared at it with open mouths and wide eyes, while even the elders worried after paying more attention.
They suspected that… If this went on, it was only a matter of time before Bai Xiaochun got killed by the lightning.
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