Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 89

Since these matters had already been told to Su Qian’er, Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue had no need to keep her behind. They had promised the sect master to send Su Qian’er to the Qiao family, so Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue naturally would not go back on their word.
However, before leaving, Yan Zhuguang still specially reminded her, “This matter concerns Fenghua Immortal Sect. We told Junior Sister Su because we did not want to deceive you. However, I ask Junior Sister Su not to leak it.”
Su Qian’er smiled. “Compared with the sect, I am probably the person who least wants this matter leaked, right? Senior Sister Yan worries too much.”
Yan Zhuguang said, “That is good. Junior Sister Su can just treat today’s matter as if you never heard it.”
After this was settled, the three left Fenghua Immortal Sect and headed toward the Qiao main family.
Speaking of it, Yan Zhuguang had never gone to the Qiao main family before. Among the three of them, only Yun Mixue knew the way because she had once attended a pill gathering held by the Qiao main family.
They flew on swords along the way. To take care of Su Qian’er, who was new to sword flight, the three slowed down quite a bit. By the time they reached the Qiao main family’s territory, five days had passed.
Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang were all right. One was at Nascent Soul, and one was at Golden Core. Matching Su Qian’er’s speed was not tiring at all.
But Su Qian’er was different. She looked soft and weak on the outside, but inside, she was extremely strong-willed. Even knowing that there was a huge gap in strength between herself and Yun Mixue’s group, she was unwilling to drag them back. She used all her strength to travel the whole way.
Even when Yun Mixue considered her and asked her to stop and rest, she would rather squeeze out the remaining spiritual energy in her body than rest for even a moment longer.
Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang could not forcefully press her down and make her rest. They could only let her do this. So by the time she arrived at the Qiao main family, she was almost so tired that she might fall to the ground in the next moment.
“Now that we have reached the area near the Qiao family, Junior Sister Su does not need to keep torturing herself. Before entering the Qiao family, it would be best for Junior Sister Su to rest first. Otherwise, with your mind so exhausted, even if you want to ask the Qiao family about the investigation’s progress, you will not have the energy to think, right?”
No matter how strong-willed Su Qian’er was, she could not make herself instantly recover to full condition out of thin air. She knew Yan Zhuguang was right. She truly should rest.
The three stopped in Pill Saint City, where the Qiao main family was located. They did not immediately go to the Qiao main family. Instead, they rented a small cultivation courtyard to rest.
Su Qian’er stayed there to recover. Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang went out to ask about the current situation.
In truth, saying they were going out to gather information was less accurate than saying they were announcing to all the forces in every direction that they had arrived.
There was no helping it. Either of these two alone was enough to draw attention. When they appeared at the same time and walked together, it was not as simple as double the amazement.
Two women, one in red and one in white. One bright and open, the other reserved. One fiery, the other cold. Their heights were similar, and their auras blended. Walking together, they were extremely harmonious, as if forming a whole that no one else could insert themselves into.
Yan Zhuguang looked left and right. “As expected of Pill Saint City, where the Qiao family, a great pill Dao family, is located. Walking on the street and looking around casually, there are pill halls and medicine shops everywhere. Looking at the bearing of these shops and smelling these pill fragrances, they are much stronger than Danye City back then.”
The fragrance and appearance of pills were important standards for judging a pill’s quality. After all, one could not swallow the pill first and then identify its true quality. What use would that be?
Logically speaking, a pill’s fragrance was also part of its medicinal effect. If too much of it leaked out, the pill’s quality would drop.
So, aside from the unavoidable fragrance that spread during the pill-making process, ordinary alchemists would use special alchemy methods to seal the pill’s scent when the pill formed.
Usually, a situation where pill fragrance drifted through the whole street was not likely.
However, since pill fragrance was a way to judge pill quality, using it to draw cultivators who wanted to buy pills was also a pill hall’s method.
People said the fragrance of wine feared no deep alley, but the premise was still that the wine had to be fragrant enough.
Pills were necessities for cultivators to save their lives, break through, and cultivate. To almost every cultivator, they were indispensable.
But likewise, everyone wanted to keep good things for themselves. If strength was lacking, then they had to compete with backup resources like pills, formations, and talismans. If I have a good thing in my hand and you also have it, then how can it save my life? So, when some cultivators discovered a high-quality pill hall, not only would they not widely promote it, they would instead hide it. They might even wish to silence every other person who knew, making that pill hall refine pills only for them.
But if things were like this, would pill halls that existed to obtain resources not suffer huge losses?
They could not rely on a good reputation as promotion. In the cultivation world, where one might lose one’s life at any moment, pill halls also could not expect those returning customers to live forever. So, at some unknown point, one pill hall started it. Gradually, using pill fragrance to attract customers became popular among pill halls, even becoming an accepted custom.
Most pill halls would use the pills they were best at, which did not consume too many resources, and maintain the release of their fragrance through secret arts, allowing cultivators to judge the pill hall’s strength.
Of course, fake cases were not rare among these. If one was careless, one might become an easy fool.
Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang walked side by side on Pill Saint City’s main street. They ignored the gazes that fell on them from time to time, thinking themselves hidden, and spoke softly.
“Zhuguang has also studied alchemy?”
Since Yan Zhuguang had specially mentioned pill fragrance, her judgment of Pill Saint City and Danye City was not only based on existing impressions. Perhaps she truly had studied pills.
Ordinary cultivators, even if they could judge pill fragrance, could only judge the few pills they commonly used. In a situation where all kinds of pill fragrance mixed together, if one did not carefully taste them shop by shop, only a particularly experienced alchemist could likely tell with one breath, right?
Yan Zhuguang nodded slightly and smiled at Yun Mixue. “Did Eldest Senior Sister forget my spiritual root attribute? Although I do not have the fire and wood spiritual roots most alchemists have, I am naturally quite sensitive to some pills.”
Yun Mixue smiled. “Zhuguang seems to know everything. I truly do not know how that little head of yours grew.”
Yan Zhuguang could not say she had learned it in her previous life, so she could only smile and let it pass.
Yan Zhuguang had indeed studied pills. However, most of them were poison pills. Of course, by understanding one thing, she understood related things. She did know something about other pills too. If she truly started, it would not be difficult for her.
Before her special poison spiritual root was rebuilt, it had still been somewhat hard for her to refine proper pills. But now, if she had time, she could try refining some pills.
Of course, now was not the time to refine pills.
Yan Zhuguang sniffed and pointed at one large pill hall. “The quality of this pill hall seems good, and there are many kinds of pills. Why not go look at this one?”
They had originally come out to gather information. However, since Yan Zhuguang said she wanted to look at that pill hall, Yun Mixue did not refuse.
The two walked toward that pill hall.
The pill hall was very busy, with people coming and going. After the two entered, what they saw was cultivators everywhere. They moved back and forth before several large medicine counters, asking the pill hall workers about medicines and taking pills.
Strangely, even though it was so busy, the pill hall was not too noisy. Getting pills was a cultivator’s private matter. Aside from some very common pills, no one would foolishly ask loudly in public for the pills they wanted.
So, inside this pill hall, there were only the voices of cultivators asking for ordinary pills and the workers answering whether they had them. Aside from that, there was only some unavoidable gossip that came from gathered crowds.
Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue walked to a counter with relatively few customers. Yan Zhuguang smiled at a worker who had just become free. “Brother, please give us three bottles of Yellow-rank top-grade Spirit Recovery Pills and three bottles of Mystic-rank top-grade Spirit Recovery Pills.”
The worker froze for a moment, then pinched himself and raised a smile three times warmer than usual. “All right! Immortal, please wait a moment!”
Spirit Recovery Pills were not rare pills. They were in the large medicine cabinet behind him. However, not many Mystic-rank pills were placed outside. Spirit Recovery Pills had high demand, and there were none left outside now, so he had to go to the inner hall to get them.
While waiting for the worker to bring the pills, the two began listening to the news passed between the cultivators in the pill hall.
“This pill hall belongs to the Qiao family?”
“Does that need to be said? In all of Pill Saint City, which pill hall can surpass the level of the Qiao family’s alchemists?”
“Was the Qiao family not… How are things on Danye City’s side?”
After all, the Qiao branch family being wiped out by demonic cultivators had caused a huge stir in the cultivation world. Even after a year, the attention had not faded much. If any new news appeared, it would likely be stirred even hotter.
“I heard the Qiao family split off a side legitimate branch from the main family and temporarily put them in charge there. From the look of it, they plan to create a new branch family and station them near Danye City again.”
“That makes sense. Danye City’s side is also a big piece of meat. The direct branch itself does not have enough to eat. How could it fall to other branch families? The ones jumping up and down before still ended up drawing water with a bamboo basket.”
“In my opinion, whether Danye City’s branch was really destroyed by demonic cultivators…”
The person who said this was given a look by someone beside him. He looked around the pill hall, and the words at his lips still failed to come out.
“Do you think Fenghua Immortal Sect and the Qiao family’s matters were truly done by the same demonic cultivator force?”
“Who knows what these large forces are thinking?”
“If it is one, that is still fine. If they are different forces, and one after another can bully us immortal cultivators, does the righteous immortal path still have face?”
“Sigh. It has been more than a year, and there is still no news.”
“Who said there is no news?” Another voice cut in. It seemed to hide where it came from, making it impossible to know who was speaking. “I heard that recently, the Qiao family has already caught several clansmen possessed by shadow demons.”
Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue exchanged a glance. Could it be that the sect master’s side had acted?
“Shadow demons?” These two words caused a small wave of panic. “Demonic cultivators are too arrogant. They actually dare use shadow demons.”
“Was it not said that these large forces have methods to prevent and treat shadow demons? How could someone be possessed?”
“Maybe the shadow demons took advantage of the chaos after the branch family’s destruction and possessed them during the disorder.”
“Are the shadow demons connected to the Qiao branch family’s destruction?”
“How could they not be connected? Although shadow demons have little strength, they are very good at gathering and passing information. If they send information out, would we immortal cultivators not be laid bare before demonic cultivators?”
“Frightening. What if a shadow demon possesses us one day?”
“Hahaha.” The whole hall laughed.
“What could they gain from possessing you? Do not think too highly of yourself. We small fry only need to avoid getting swept into the fights of those large forces. Can the sky still fall on our heads?”
“Immortal, the Spirit Recovery Pills you requested. The total is three hundred low-grade spirit stones.”
The worker brought over six bottles of pills. Yan Zhuguang naturally took them and paid him three mid-grade spirit stones. She did not ask him to make change and pulled Yun Mixue’s hand as they left.