Chapter 26: Elder Lao's Villa
We arrived at Grand Elder Lao's home, unexpectedly, it was not as big as I thought it would be. The whole terrain was no larger than a normal villa, which compared to some disciples was small. But it had a great smell coming out of it, herbs.
The elder took me on a tour around his villa.
The walls around the garden of the house were short enough to allow people to take a peek at the Elder's beautifully designed garden of spiritual herbs. And the house inside it was small enough for him to live in and have a few extra rooms for study and what seemed to be alchemy.
"So many furnaces…" I muttered.
"And none of them is worth a fart if one cannot use alchemy. While being inflicted with this cursed poison, I could no longer handle this, every time I would touch a spiritual herb it would wither or turn to ice." The old man sighed in sadness.
"I think this is why you took in a disciple." I deduced.
"Right, I remembered you had a beef with my disciple." The old man pointed.
"Yeah, but that's not the problem right now. I think he won't dare harm anyone related to me anymore." I replied in a shrug.
"The vengeance of a vindictive person can go beyond reason. I would be a failure of a master if I were to go against my own disciple. But the only advice I could give you is to keep your distance. Right now, even with the sect master's symbolic protection, he could still apply sneaky methods to harm you, so be careful." Elder Lao advised.
"Thank you elder, I'll keep it in mind, and out of respect for you, I won't kill him," I replied.
Elder Lao had a worried look on his face, he probably knows that I would be no match for his disciple who is leagues above me in terms of cultivation. Yet my poison technique doesn't really care about the cultivation gap. Or at least, the gap of cultivation I know of. Perhaps people in higher realms would outright dismiss my poison breath and would whack me before I even realize I was killed. So, it is better to keep being discreet.
Once we were inside the Elder's abode, I asked him to hand me his hand. I used the same method of absorption and took in the poison from the elder's fingers. He too had enough will to suppress screeching from pain. But compared to the sect master's grunt, the old man was huffing and looked to be resisting pain rather forcefully. He was definitely below the sect master's level in cultivation due to the immense amounts of sweat that came out of his forehead from the extraction.
After a few minutes, the elder was fully healed up.
"T-thank you," the elder said, his tone betrayed his demeanor, it was shaky and weak.
"No worries, this is actually beneficial to me too," I replied to the old man.
"Speaking of which, why aren't you gaining more Qi?" the Elder questioned as he rubbed his hands.
"Oh, even you know about this now," I replied.
"Basically, all four of us would understand now, me and the sect master and her two disciples. But fret not, none of us will speak a thing. I'm bound to the sect master, and she had informed me to keep everything secret so I will, even at the cost of my life." the old man waved his hand.
"You don't need to make it sound so serious," I replied.
"But it is, child. You'll know in the future how grave your methods are. Anyway, if there is anything you wish me to do, I'll help you with it." he said in a kind nod.
"Right, I was always interested in the topic of Alchemy, do you have any way for me to start on that path?" I questioned.
"Hmm, most people who begin the road of cultivation begin by cultivating their bodies, and only when they are encountered with a bottleneck that stunts their growth, would they seek alchemy to keep moving forward in the world of cultivation, yet you wish to start by the second choice?" the old man gave advise in a question.
"Well, I only need general information," I replied as I didn't want to expose many of my secrets.
"I don't mind teaching you, but it will not be easy, it will cost you a lot of your time. And most of the alchemy is memorizing herbs their attribute and their reaction to one another, so you'll be wasting time that you should be using in cultivating in memorizing things." the old man tried to persuade me out of it.
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"Did you forget that I don't need to actively cultivate to increase my cultivation base?" I bragged.
The elder began mentioning more herbs.
It was so much that he was engrossed in it more than I was, as he pulled up a note and began writing on it, he said that some of the notes I gave him were more exhaustive than what he had, and with this newfound knowledge he could increase the potency of his pills. We kept on exchanging ideas and knowledge about plants for a while until the Elder had to stop, looking at the time it was well in the night.
"You'll need a place to rest, you don't need to walk all the way back to your cave, I have a guest room you can use it's upstairs," the Elder kindly offered.
"Right, but I'll need to contact Elder Yun for the cultivation manual that the sect master asked me to obtain," I replied.
"Just tell me which cultivation manual you need and I'll have it delivered to you by morning." Elder Lao offered.
"Right, that would be perfect, I'm feeling a bit exhausted, and I'll need to be fresh enough to help the sect master in tomorrow's curing session," I thanked the old man.
"Right, off you go Shen Bao, I'll manage the rest." Replied the elder and pointed me to where I'll be spending the night.
Usually, cultivators don't need sleep, nor do I, but what I meant with rest was to go into meditation for the rest of the night, tomorrow was gonna be a good day, and I'll be learning the Star Weaving technique.
****
Eldritch Lord: Alejandro Velasquez.
Also, our beloved Lord of d.a.m.nation Tony, who had contributed 50$ yesterday has kindly increased his donation and has become the d.a.m.nation Deity Tony.
All hail he who rules the d.a.m.ned!
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