Chapter 4 Red is Black "Will cultivating immortality and Taoism turn you into a demon or evil spirit?" "Are cultivators the biggest and most difficult demons and evil spirits in the world?" "The Dunfa Dan Dao in Jinbo is even more dangerous." Qiu Zhen's eyes, which were glowing with a faint golden light, fell into the white mist, and waves of horrifying information flooded into his mind. If I am not mistaken, the white mist rising from the basin was left by the previous owner of the "gold and silk" to warn newcomers. Moreover, there was more than one “previous owner”. Although Qiu Zhen’s current cultivation level is shallow, he could sense several different auras in the white mist. They each left a “message” describing the dangers of practicing this method. Another shocking news was also revealed in the words. Immortal cultivators are not sages who live apart from the world, but are disliked by others and live in the dark. If they are not careful, they will turn into evil creatures, walking corpses, and live in a daze. This horrifying news had a huge impact on him and instantly refreshed his cognition.
"No wonder when we went to Taoist temples to seek immortals and ask for the way, the Taoist priests and monks were so secretive, fearing that they would get into trouble." Qiu Zhen suddenly realized and couldn't help but sigh, feeling a little depressed. The fact that the gold and silk fell into his hands meant that the predecessors either died or turned into demons and evil spirits, living in a daze and being hated by everyone. After getting the "mysterious gold and silk", he thought he had found a great opportunity to change his destiny. Who knew that behind the opportunity there was such danger and terror. "This Dharma" The initial excitement and joy of having achieved some success in the [Hundred Days Foundation Building] method and being about to enter a crucial step, all of a sudden disappeared. Tossing and turning all night. The next day, Qiu Zhen performed morning lessons as usual. He stood in the hills behind the courtyard facing the rising sun and practiced the "Medicine King Five Animal Exercises". The immortal methods in the gold and silk were temporarily put aside and no rash actions were taken. After finishing his practice, Qiu Zhen ate four multi-grain pancakes that he had made himself and went straight to the town’s pharmacy. Yaowang Valley is a major medical school with a very loud reputation. With the backing of a big tree, Qingmu Pharmacy has developed rapidly and has become quite large in scale. Just among the apprentices in the pharmacy, there are front and back yards, and two groups, A and B. Qiu Zhen belongs to Class B, which is in the backyard. He is responsible for backyard chores, planting medicine in the medicine field, preparing medicines, assisting the pharmacist in making medicines, refining elixirs, etc. In fact, generally I just do odd jobs and prepare medicines. The apprentices around the pharmacist are either true disciples of the master, or they are relatives and friends of the master, so it is never their turn. Qiu Zhen went straight into the backyard of the medicine shop and took the medicinal materials prepared yesterday and put them into the warehouse. In fact, the goods should have been delivered and put into storage yesterday, but Manager Kang was busy with many things at night and had no time for acceptance, so it was always delayed until the next morning. As soon as you enter the backyard, the atmosphere is a bit weird and solemn.
"You have a pig brain. You need to change the water frequently when rinsing Aconitum. How many times have you changed it? You are a sly scoundrel and a lazy bastard. I will punish you by making you weed three acres of medicinal fields." "Yes, yes, the steward taught me the lesson." "You are even more capable. I asked you to peel the skin of top-quality cinnamon, but you made it look so ugly? You can still sell this ugly thing? I'll deduct half of your wages from yesterday!" "Ah~ Manager, please don't deduct my wages. I have an 80-year-old mother and a younger brother." "Your mother is eighty years old. How could she have given birth to you when she was seventy or eighty years old? If you keep talking nonsense, I will ask you to pay the price of this batch of top-quality cinnamon." Outside the yard of the medicinal materials warehouse, a group of apprentices stood in a long queue with their heads hung and dejected, looking like prisoners going to the execution ground. As soon as Qiu Zhen entered the yard, all the apprentices were very happy and cut in line one by one to allow Qiu Zhen to pass. "Brother Zhen, you go first." "Brother Zhen, please~" "Brother Zhen, here!" It’s not that Qiu Zhen’s status is so high that everyone respects him, but no one wants to go up and “listen to the lecture and accept the punishment”, and they want to delay it as long as possible. Only Qiu Zhen was different. His roasting skills were superb and even Manager Kang could not find any fault with him. He was rarely scolded, let alone forced to do hard labor or have his wages deducted. Qiu Zhen shook his head, accepted everyone's "humility", and entered the medicine warehouse. "Brother Zhen." When the brothers Zhao Dou, who had the big head, and Shen Liang, who had the skinny monkey, saw Qiu Zhen, they looked aggrieved. Qiu Zhen was speechless. It turned out that the two unlucky guys who had just been scolded in the room were them. "Manager Kang!" Inside the house, Kang Zhuangyuan, who was a little fat, was sitting on a bench. He had an irregular face and facial features, narrow distance between his eyebrows and eyes, extremely prominent cheekbones, and a face that made him impatient, irritable, and extreme in his behavior. He also had a bad reputation among his fellow apprentices. At this moment, Manager Kang's face was full of unhappiness and irritability, as if everyone owed him money. Seeing Qiu Zhen put the herbs in front of him, he turned them over with a stern face to check the quality. Yesterday, Qiu Zhen thought that "good things" were going to happen, so he worked very hard, and roasted five large bamboo baskets of herbs to perfection. Manager Kang looked through the baskets for a long time, but couldn't find any fault. If it were in the past, he would have just waved his hand and it would have been over, but today he was too upset and had no place to vent. He felt very uncomfortable, and with his temper rising, he couldn't put out the nameless anger in his heart. Immediately, his face darkened, and he pointed at the bunch of Angelica dahurica in the basket and shouted: "Qiu Zhen, you have been working less and less seriously recently. Look, these Angelica dahurica are all burnt and black. How can you work well?" Qiu Zhen was stunned and looked over. The angelica root that Manager Kang pointed out was clearly not burnt at all, but rather had a yellow-red hue, the purest color. "Manager Kang, please take another look at the quality of this." "Don't I have eyes? It's just burnt!" Manager Kang looked around at the apprentices with a sullen face.
"Look, is it burnt?" The apprentices were silent, and many of them nodded in approval, trying to please the manager. "Good fellow! Calling red black" Qiu Zhen was speechless and realized that the manager was angry and unreasonable. In fact, it is normal to have some mistakes and losses in the preparation of medicinal materials, and the pharmacy is not so mean, otherwise a group of apprentices would take out loans to work, not only would they not earn wages, but they would also be in debt. He usually does his job well, so occasionally he might make a mistake and spoil the medicinal materials, but it's no big deal. Qiu Zhen did not argue with Manager Kang at that moment, but bowed: "Manager Kang, next time I will be more careful in my work and ensure the quality." "Humph~" Manager Kang was just in high spirits, but seeing Qiu Zhen immediately gave in, he had no place to vent his anger. He snorted coldly and then relaxed his expression: "You work meticulously on weekdays, and I've seen it. Forget it, I'll waive the fine. You can go now." Not long after, Qiu Zhen came out of the medicine warehouse and came to the courtyard where everyone usually went. As the saying goes, good things don’t go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles. The scene of "pointing red to black" in the medicinal materials warehouse quickly spread among the apprentices. Zhao Dou and Shen Liang, who were friends with Qiu Zhen, were even more indignant. "Kang Bangchui is going too far. He even said it was burnt black when it was clearly burnt red. It's too black." "Brother Zhen prepared such a good plan, but he still found fault with it and made up stories out of nothing. We let him trample on us and bully us to death. Damn it, he deducted half a day's wages from me!" An apprentice in the courtyard heard this, shook his head and sighed: "Actually, there is a reason for this." Qiu Zhen raised an eyebrow and asked, "Manager Kang lost money again? Did he lose a lot this time?" “It’s a big loss.” As he was talking, an apprentice in the yard looked towards the medicinal material warehouse and continued: "I heard that Manager Kang lost most of his half-year salary and all his personal savings playing dice last night, so he got really angry and furious." "No wonder." Qiu Zhen suddenly realized that although Manager Kang had a bad temper, he was usually restrained. But today he was so angry that he was completely out of control and there was no point in talking to him. Damn it! Qiu Zhen, who is good at cultivating his qi, couldn't help feeling a little aggrieved and depressed at this moment. What had he done to offend anyone? "Snapped!" Just as Qiu Zhen was stunned and sighing, the skinny monkey Shen Liang, who was drinking porridge, suddenly stood up, stepped on a group of ants on the ground, and crushed them all to death to relieve his depression. "I'll let you deduct my wages, I'll let you deduct them!" There was also an apprentice who was so angry that he kicked the tree to vent his unhappiness. These scenes seemed commonplace and nothing surprising in the yard.
However, Qiu Zhen, who had been silent all this time, was stunned when he saw the tragic death of the ant. Manager Kang lost money and took his anger out on everyone else, and everyone else took their anger out on the ants and the tree. To some extent, what is the difference between them, the apprentices, and these ants and big trees? Today, Kang Guanshi can "point out red as black", and in the future "Let's go, let's go to work." Everyone chatted for a while, but did not stay for long, as they were afraid of bringing bad luck to the boss, so they all went back to work. Seeing that everyone was about to leave, the skinny Shen Liang and the big head Zhao Dou only stood there in a daze, they hurried forward and asked with concern: "Brother Zhen, what's wrong?" Qiu Zhen woke up as if from a dream. Seeing the familiar faces of Shouhou and Datou, after a moment of trance, the depressed look on his face disappeared without a trace, and he smiled brightly: "Skinny Monkey, Big Head, please ask for two days off for me." After saying that, Qiu Zhen walked out of the pharmacy without looking back. There was a sense of detachment and freedom in his steps. Last night, he tossed and turned, thinking about whether to continue practicing Jinbo's immortal method and whether to take the last step. He was in a state of entanglement and distress. At this moment, he saw "pointing red to black" and "living like an ant". At this moment, his thoughts became clear. If you hear the truth in the morning, you will die in the evening! (End of this chapter)