Chapter 194: What Gall!
They only had one month to track down Bai Xiaochun and get the Foundation Establishment Pills, otherwise they would be failures yet again. The mere thought of it was already driving them crazy.
Their hatred of Bai Xiaochun had already reached indescribably towering heights.
“Don’t be so selfish, Nightcrypt!!”
“In the Blood Stream Sect, the law of the jungle prevails, and we succeed by climbing a mountain of corpses. But you can’t be this selfish!”
“There are ten Foundation Establishment Pills. Can’t you at least spare one for somebody else!?!?”
“Hiding in the volcano region won’t do you any good. The maze isn’t that big. We’ll find you eventually!”
Even as everyone’s killing intent raged, Bai Xiaochun was searching left and right through the tunnels. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and looked at a crack in the wall up ahead, where a big patch of three-leaf clovers could be seen.
There in the middle of them all was a single four-leaf clover!
He immediately walked forward and picked it. Examining it closely, his face lit up with excitement.
“There really are four-leaf clovers here! Hahaha! I can finally perform fourfold spirit enhancements!” After putting the four-leaf clover into his bag of holding, he excitedly proceeded along through the maze. By this point, he’d forgotten completely about the Foundation Establishment Pills and was completely focused on finding four-leaf clovers.
Four days passed in the blink of an eye. Bai Xiaochun would occasionally run into someone in the maze, but was always able to lose them easily, and would then continue hunting for four-leaf clovers.
He also ran into some bloodbeasts. He spent a bit of time observing them, and quickly realized that they were fascinating. However, they were easy to avoid as he searched for four-leaf clovers.
Another three days went by. Eventually, he found a place where a large number of passages all converged. It was a huge chasm, several kilometers wide and filled with enormous mushrooms. The smallest mushrooms were as tall as a person, and the largest were fully 30 meters tall.
The mushrooms were a very strange color, and almost translucent. They were also gently swaying in unison. Blood-colored three-leaf clovers could be seen on the ground below the mushrooms. Upon closer examination, Bai Xiaochun found that interspersed among them were occasional four-leaf clovers.
“Whoa!” he said, his eyes shining brightly. It seemed like a wonderful place, and yet, he hesitated for a moment. Just when he was about to take a step in, his eyes went wide with disbelief, and he began to tremble.
Not too far off in the distance, in the middle of a cluster of mushrooms, chomping on some three-leaf clovers and looking around innocently, was a white rabbit.
Bai Xiaochun almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There was no way he could misidentify this particular rabbit. It was none other than the talking rabbit he had created back in the Spirit Stream Sect!!
Bai Xiaochun suddenly felt like the world had become a very strange place. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that he would see the talking rabbit here. When he went to the north bank, the rabbit appeared there. Then he came here to the Blood Stream Sect, and the rabbit showed up here too.
“I came all the way here, and you’re, you’re, you’re… you’re still following me around!?” There was something very, very strange about this rabbit. Thankfully, the rabbit hadn’t noticed Bai Xiaochun. Ignoring all of the countless four-leaf clovers, Bai Xiaochun carefully backed up toward one of the passages, his heart pounding in fear.
“I must not under any circumstances allow it to see me,” he murmured. “I can’t let it know I’m here. Well, it shouldn’t be able to see through my Nightcrypt disguise anyway.” Even as Bai Xiaochun prepared to make his silent escape, a roar echoed out as a huge blood-colored earthworm burst out from further in the depths of the pit and headed directly toward the rabbit.
The rabbit leaped into the air and sped away from the earthworm with unmatchable speed. However, even as it took to flight, the ground exploded as more giant earthworms appeared, all of whom began to chase the rabbit.
The rabbit’s ears stuck straight up as it fled, and at the same time, it began to make huffing sounds that apparently were an imitation of the sound of the earthworms burrowing through the ground. Just as the rabbit was about to jump into one of the tunnels, it looked over in surprise at Bai Xiaochun. Apparently, it recognized him….
When Bai Xiaochun saw the rabbit looking at him almost like a friend, he felt like his head was going to explode. Without any hesitation, he picked a tunnel and fled in the opposite direction.
“What is going on with that damned rabbit!?!?” he thought, nearly crying. He truly was afraid of the rabbit.
However, this time, Bai Xiaochun was overjoyed that he had noticed the rabbit when he did. Otherwise, a slip of the tongue could have led to the entire Blood Stream Sect knowing that he was Bai Xiaochun. The thought of that left him trembling.
“If they found out, they’d probably cut me into a million little pieces and send me back to the Spirit Stream Sect in a box….” Heart pounding, he reminded himself again that the rabbit was behind him, and that he must not under any circumstances say too much out loud.
“I can’t just wander around in the open. With the rabbit in the area, it’s too dangerous.” He quickly dug a hole into the wall of a nearby tunnel, then crawled inside to hide.
“Ah well, I might as well ‘reach Foundation Establishment’ now. That will make things much easier.” Sighing, he crossed his legs and thought for a moment. Then he pulled out some other random medicinal pills, which he began to compare to the Foundation Establishment Pills. After a moment, his eyes shone with bright light as a new idea occurred to him.
Meanwhile, in other locations in the maze, the other disciples were going mad.
Their eyes were bloodshot as they scoured the tunnels. Ten days had already passed, and they had searched virtually the entire place.
Actually, some of them were very close to where Bai Xiaochun was located, and were just on the verge of stumbling into him. However, it was at that point that he suddenly burst into the open, speeding away as quickly as possible, and simultaneously releasing a slight Foundation Establishment aura.
All of the disciples were immediately enraged!
“He’s breaking through to Foundation Establishment. Get him!”
“No wonder we couldn’t find him for the past ten days. He was actually trying to break through. We can’t let him succeed!”
Even as they converged to chase him, Bai Xiaochun sighed and then waved his hand, sending several medicinal pills flying out, all of which emitted the aura of Foundation Establishment Pills. As he tossed them in different directions, he shouted, “Fine, take the Foundation Establishment Pills. If anybody dares to cause problems for me, I’ll wipe out your whole clan after I reach Foundation Establishment!” Bursting with a murderous aura, he then sped off into the distance.
Shocked, the disciples in the area sensed the Foundation Establishment aura on the pills, and quickly scattered to try to get them. Fierce fighting broke out instantly.
The result was that the five strongest disciples got the medicinal pills, and immediately began to flee. Other disciples gave chase, and yet, it only took a moment before howls and curses rose up into the sky.
“Fake! This isn’t a Foundation Establishment Pill! Damn that Nightcrypt!! I forgot he could concoct pills!!”
“This is fake! It’s a real fake!!”
“This isn’t a Foundation Establishment Pill! It’s another pill coated with some dust from a real Foundation Establishment Pill!!”
Of course, none of the other disciples were convinced. They continued to fight over the pills that had been abandoned, until everyone saw for themselves that they really were nothing more than ordinary tier-2 pills. At that point, their hatred for Nightcrypt reached indescribable levels. Obviously, only an apothecary could accomplish something like that, and there were few apothecaries in the Blood Stream Sect.
“Nightcrypt!! I’m gonna kill you!!” Furious, the disciples searched for another ten days, until everyone was growing gaunt and disheveled.
By now, there were only ten days left, and everyone was nearly collapsing with anxiety. They were fighting amongst themselves, and also fighting the bloodbeasts, and feeling worse as time went by.
Eventually, they found Bai Xiaochun.
However, to their despair, he emanated a powerful aura of Foundation Establishment!
Sticking his chin up, he waved his sleeve and loftily said, “What gall! How dare you fail to offer greetings to an important Dharma protector like me!”
In the Blood Stream Sect, rankings were strictly adhered to. After reaching Foundation Establishment, one was no longer a disciple. One could select one of the four mountain peaks to live on, and would also be named a Dharma protector. Those who reached Earthstring Foundation Establishment were even more powerful, and became elders.
Of course, both elders and Dharma protectors were people who the Inner Sect disciples feared. In fact, their lives were completely in the control of such people.
The Blood Stream Sect disciples looked like they might cry at any moment. Despairing, they looked at Bai Xiaochun flicking his sleeve, and their hearts surged with hatred. Moments ago they had been clamoring about how they wanted to kill him, but now they had no other choice but to bow their heads deferentially.
“Greetings, Dharma Protector Nightcrypt! Greetings!”
“Greetings, Dharma Protector Nightcrypt!”