Chapter 42

Chapter 41: Because I am a Volcano (1)

"Uuuuuuuh!"

In the dark cave.

A bandaged hand pushed its way into the pitch-black, empty cave.

"Uuuuuuuuuh..."

Then, a face that seemed unable to contort any further suddenly appeared.

"Aaaaaaaah!"

Thud! Thud!

Qingming stretched out his hands and clutched the ground, crawling into the cave.

"Huff! Huff! Huff! Plum Sword Master, you damn bastard!"

What was he thinking, making a hideout in such a place? Did he go crazy from practicing martial arts in the mountains all the time?

Ah, it’s me, Plum Sword Master.

"Ouch, I’m going to die."

Qingming lay flat on the ground. The realization that he had managed to reach the cave made him feel strangely like crying.

'Really, I almost died.'

Climbing a cliff that he couldn’t even ascend with a healthy body, with both hands broken, was definitely not an easy task. Any person with a brain and the ability to think would have known their limitations and waited for a better time.

Unfortunately, Qingming was a person who had a brain but no sense of reason.

"No! If I can’t climb now, it will take more time!"

Qingming, as if making an excuse to himself, shouted and then groaned as he lay back on the ground.

"Ouch. An old man is dying."

No, I’m a child now. I get confused sometimes.

Still, he managed to make a sturdy rope and successfully climb in. If the rope had broken again, he would have really met King Yama.

If that had happened, King Yama would have probably struggled to hold back his laughter.

It was fortunate that he didn’t see that.

"Uuh."

Qingming, who had forced his creaking back to straighten and stood up, looked around.

He couldn’t see anything.

Not because of the pain, but because it was too dark to see anything.

"Tsk. This must be about..."

Feeling around, his fingers caught onto something.

"Right."

Pulling on what his fingers had caught, a cloth was lifted, and the inside suddenly brightened. Qingming smiled wryly as he looked at the light-emitting object.

"Really, I had no plan at all."

The light from the night pearl was truly brilliant and vivid.

He couldn’t light a fire in the cave. The entrance was at the bottom, so if he lit a fire, the cave would quickly fill with smoke.

Even if he were Qingming, he couldn’t drink alcohol in that smoky environment. To be precise, it was possible, but why would he do such a thing?

'So, I embedded the night pearl here.'

How much did that cost?

'I took one of the tribute items when I entered the volcano.'

At the time, so many things were coming and going that taking one of those wouldn’t have been noticed at all. Later, the accountants in the Treasury Hall and the Chief Disciple would have bled to death trying to balance the books, but what could be done?

"What can be done about something that’s already passed?"

Qingming, once again, realized how irresponsible the past Plum Sword Master had been.

Ah, that’s me.

I keep forgetting.

Qingming calmly looked around the now-lit interior of the cave.

"Hmm."

The interior, neither too large nor too small, contained only a bed to lie on, a small table, and a chest.

Yet, it felt somewhat ancient. Perhaps due to the passage of time and weathering, even the simplest things seemed to have a certain presence.

"Wow, this is how it happens?"

A sudden realization hit him.

If Qingming had died and not come back to life, and someone from the volcano had discovered this place in the distant future, wouldn’t they have thought it was the retreat of a great master and caused a commotion?

Or, if someone had fallen from the cliff and accidentally discovered it?

"That would be the Cliff Ascension Technique. The Cliff Ascension Technique."

In reality, it was just a place where he had been stuck and drank, but the eyes of his successors would never have seen it that way.

They would have thought there was definitely a hidden secret in the cave and tried every possible thing.

"Upon closer inspection, isn’t the Cliff Ascension Technique created in just such a way?"

Qingming chuckled and walked towards the chest. He opened the lid with a smooth motion. Dust that had accumulated for nearly a hundred years rose thickly.

"Cough! Phew! Cough!"

Waving away the dust, Qingming examined the inside of the chest.

The first thing he saw was a bottle of alcohol. Seeing the various bottles, his mouth watered...

No, no! That’s not important right now.

Forcing himself to look away from the bottles, Qingming shifted his gaze to a small box beside them.

'This is it!'

Qingming quickly picked up the box. It was a bit larger and heavier than he remembered.

"Huuuuu."

Taking a deep breath, Qingming carefully opened the box. At the same time, a strong plum fragrance spread throughout the cave.

It felt as if the cave was surrounded by blooming plum trees.

Click.

When he fully opened the lid, he saw a round pill filling the box. The bottom of the box was lined with something fine, and on top of it were five snow-white pills.

"Ugh!"

Emotion overwhelmed him, and tears welled up in his eyes.

The things at the bottom were not just cushions to protect the pills.

They were plum pills.

"Really, what an idiot."

Even if plum pills were common, to stack them like this... How greedy must a person be to do such a thing? If Chief Disciple Zhang had seen this, he would have choked and fallen over.

"But I didn’t hoard the Zisuan Pills, Senior Brother."

Qingming, feeling a bit embarrassed, made a weak excuse.

Actually, he hadn’t hoarded them. To be precise, he couldn’t touch the Zisuan Pills. Like the Dahuang Pills of Shaolin, the Zisuan Pills were treated as top-tier elixirs within the volcano. Even as an elder, he couldn’t touch them freely.

Both the Medicine Hall and the Chief Disciple’s approval were required to remove them.

Other plum pills could be taken by an elder. Of course, to touch the Xumai Pills, one had to be a powerful elder. But who was Qingming? The greatest master of the volcano, Plum Sword Master.

-He’s the volcano’s biggest troublemaker!

It sounded like a hallucination from somewhere.

"So what if I am."

What mattered now was that he had the pills in his hands. With these, he could heal his body.

Qingming carefully took one Xumai Pill from the box and gently closed the lid. What was once a hangover cure was now invaluable. The value of things changes with one’s circumstances. To Qingming, these elixirs were now priceless treasures.

"Ah, I’m trembling."

Qingming gently placed the box back in the chest and looked at the Xumai Pill in his hand with great care.

A clear fragrance continuously flowed from the white pill. Just smelling it made him feel as if his body was recovering.

"People say you don’t realize the value of something until it’s gone."

In the past, when the volcano was vying for the position of the top sect, Xumai Pills were not even given a second glance. The only thing valued was the Zisuan Pills.

That’s why Qingming could hoard so many plum pills.

It wasn’t just Qingming. This attitude was prevalent within the volcano. It made sense. When better elixirs were available, who would pay attention to lower-grade ones?

But now, in this situation, those once insignificant elixirs felt incredibly precious.

"Ouch. How did I end up like this?"

I’d rather die than suffer.

Qingming immediately sat cross-legged. There would be plenty of time to lament his fate later. Now, he needed to fully recover his body. If he could build up some more internal energy in the process, that would be even better.

Sitting cross-legged, Qingming put the Xumai Pill in his mouth. The pill dissolved instantly, sliding down his throat without him even having a chance to chew.

A clear fragrance filled his mouth.

But Qingming didn’t have time to savor it as he began to circulate his energy.

Eating an elixir doesn’t automatically increase one’s internal energy. To enhance one’s internal energy, one must fully assimilate the energy of the elixir.

Here, a subtle problem arises.

When one’s internal energy is insufficient and one is young, the energy from the elixir cannot be fully absorbed due to the lack of ability to control it.

On the other hand, when one is older and more skilled in controlling energy?

Even then, the effect is not complete. This is because one already has a lot of internal energy. Elixirs are meant to fill in what is lacking, not to increase what is already abundant.

'If eating elixirs automatically filled one’s internal energy, the Shaolin monks would have eaten ten Dahuang Pills each and become the top warriors in the world.'

Elixirs are meant to fill in what is lacking. The younger and weaker one is, the more effective they are, but the younger one is, the less able one is to fully absorb the energy.

But Qingming?

'I can absorb it all, down to the bone!'

There is only one person in the world, a young child with perfect control over energy.

A true legend, a seasoned newcomer. No, a newcomer with incredible experience.

"Huuu."

The Xumai Pill began to surge through his meridians.

Rumble.

Energy surged within his body. The immense energy, felt after a long time, made him feel proud.

'I need to focus!'

Sealing the energy in the dantian by gathering it and preventing it from escaping through the meridians? That was nothing to the current Qingming. But what Qingming needed to do now was not that simple.

He needed to fill his incomplete innate energy.

His thick and dull consciousness sharpened like a blade. But Qingming went further. Sharpening his consciousness to a fine point, he perfectly controlled the energy of the Xumai Pill and pushed it into his dantian.

'Be careful. Be careful.'

Handling it as gently and delicately as a newborn baby.

In his mind, his dantian appeared vividly, as if he could touch it.

But Qingming’s goal was not the dantian. It was the deepest part of the dantian, the source of energy that a person is born with.

'No!'

Just as Qingming was about to push the energy into his dantian, he suddenly reversed the flow of energy.

'It’s impure.'

Elixirs are made to extract the good energy from the world’s herbs. In other words, they are refined to extract only the pure energy.

But even the volcano’s renowned Xumai Pills were too impure to enter Qingming’s dantian. If the energy in his dantian was like pristine mountain water, the energy of the Xumai Pill felt like stagnant, rotten water.

Qingming made a firm decision.

'I will filter it!'

Filtering the energy of the Xumai Pill would mean discarding most of its efficacy. It was not an easy choice.

But accepting all of the energy would be meaningless. Hadn’t he come this long way to create the most complete and perfect foundation? He couldn’t ruin things out of impatience.

'I will keep only the purest energy and discard the rest!'

The energy circulated through Qingming’s body, gradually being refined. The impurities from the Xumai Pill mixed with the impurities in Qingming’s body and were expelled.

Soon, thick, black sweat began to seep from Qingming’s body.