What the hell is an Eating Dates Pill and how can it be the antidote to every kind of poison? Aren't you just a liar?
Li Qingjun looked unhappy and was about to say something, but Li Qinglin waved his hand to stop him, gave Qin Yi some money and said, "Us brothers are going to venture into the mountains to seek immortals, but we don't have much time to spend. Brother Qin has lived here for a long time and is familiar with the area. Could you follow us up the mountain and act as a guide? You will be rewarded heavily."
"Won't go." Qin Yi stood up lazily, turned around and walked into the house. "Seek what immortal? If you eat well, sleep well, and have no worries, wouldn't you be an enlightened immortal?"
Li Qingjun exclaimed angrily, "Hey! What's with your attitude!"
Qin Yi had already entered the house.
Li Qingjun was about to get off his horse in a huff, but his brother held him back. "Don't make trouble."
"Why are you so polite to him? He is obviously a liar. There's no antidote to all poisons!"
Li Qinglin reined in his horse and departed. "Li Liu reported that there were quite a few people who went into the mountains recently who were poisoned, and the young man named Qin in the village cure with a singular antidote. Perhaps he is familiar with the special poisonous miasma in the mountains and the medicine was prepared accordingly. It should be better than ours. Besides, after witnessing all that, don't you think this young man is a bit different?"
"He is most likely putting on a show, and the villagers cooperate with him to create a mysterious atmosphere in order to better deceive people."
Li Qinglin burst into laughter.
Li Qingjun quickly followed his brother and asked, "Since older brother thinks he is useful, why don't you insist on hiring him as a guide?"
Li Qinglin smiled faintly. "Don't worry... The guide can lead the way, but can he lead you to an immortal?"
Li Qingjun was again stunned.
Obviously not.
They did not come to climb the mountain to sightsee, but to try to seek the immortals in the mountains. The mountain was not too big, and the rumors of traces of immortals have been circulating for countless years. Is there any area that has not been investigated? So, there is no so-called destination at all, and naturally there is no such route to it. Going in was just a matter of testing your luck, so why do even you need a guide? Li Qingjun was discouraged for a moment, and his straight shoulders slumped down. "So my older brother is just like everyone else, he didn't take this journey to look for immortals seriously..."
Li Qinglin looked back behind him. "What that Qin Yi said at the end was quite intriguing..."
"He's just a country bumpkin, self-pretentious and speaking nonsense. I'll stab a hole in him with my spear, and we'll see if he can still be as carefree."
"Hah..."
As the sound of the two talking faded away, Qin Yi was lying in his room with his arms folded behind his head, and the mace resting on the bedside. He could still vaguely hear the conversation between the two brothers, and at the end, he laughed, as if he thought Li Qingjun's words were quite funny.
A voice appeared in his sea of consciousness. "Laugh all you want but these two brothers seem to be at least decent in martial arts. Maybe they really can poke a hole in you."
This voice spoke direct into his soul, and there was no way to tell where it came from. In reality, it couldn't really be considered a voice. It was impossible to whether it belonged to a man or a woman. It was like each sentence formed directly in your mind. It was strange and unsettling. However, Qin Yi seemed to be used to it, and said indifferently. "I'm laughing because there are little girls in this world who think they can dress up as men and no one will see the difference."
The voice was stunned for a moment and said, "How do you know she is a girl? It is normal for young people to have an insignificant Adam's apple and a thin voice."
"Because you don't have a nose and can't smell her fragrance."
"..."
"Besides, how can there be such a beautiful young man? That little round face is covered in collagen, her eyebrows are as beautiful as brush strokes, her lips are red, teeth are white, and she pretends to be all heroic. You can sense her girliness with your eyes closed, okay? What, you thought 'he' was using a beauty filter?"
"What is collagen? And what the hell is a beauty filter?"
"...None of your business."
The voice sighed. "It doesn't matter whether she's a boy or a girl. You've seen how many people in the world are looking for immortals and so piously too. If you really gave them immortality, they'll be happy even if they had to kneel for three days and three nights. I offered you a way to cultivate yet why are you so unwilling to do so?"
"I'm already cultivating immortality. You see, I plan to stay up all night again..."
"You call this cultivating immortality? Don't try your tricks on me."
Qin Yi said coldly. "Then don't try your tricks on me either!"
Then, he casually threw the mace into the foot-washing water beside the bed.
The voice in his sea of consciousness was absolutely furious. " Use me to pound medicine, use me to hammer nails, and I've said nothing. But stuffing me into the footbath again, now I've had it with you!"
The mace jumped out of the water and struck at Qin Yi. He leaned on the bed and kicked upwards, hitting the handle of the cudgel. The mace spun a few times in the air, hit the wall with a "thud", slid down, and bounced off of the ground once or twice until it stopped moving.
Deep resentment overflowed in the mace.
"Hey, Bangbang..."
"I've told you a thousand times over, my name is Liu Shu."
"The spirit of a mace is called Liu Shu... Do these two things even have any connection? Who is your original owner? Is he dumb?"
Liu Shu sneered and said nothing.
Qin Yi asked again: "Bangbang, do you think those two can handle the problem in the mountains?"
Since Qin Yi transmigrated over, the mountain had begun to change. First, there was a poisonous miasma in the mountain, and people got sick after entering it. Second, a strange winged tiger appeared inexplicably from among the rubble. The poisonous miasma wasn't poison, but the aura of resentment brought out from within that special realm by Liu Shu. The winged tiger had nothing to do with Liu Shu but was the result of the 'Demon Seed' planted by the two people who killed the original Qin Yi.
However, both problems were related to Qin Yi.
Liu Shu said lazily, "I asked you to learn cultivate with me, but you refused. Otherwise, how could you not be able to deal with a tiger that had only just transformed into a demon for a few days?"
"Because it can't kill me, but you can."
It had been some time since the Qin Yi transmigrate here. He recalled that scene where he first arrived and was now able to fully understand what had happened.
That was Liu Shu trying to seize this body, and just as he transmigrated into this body, they wanted to directly devour his own soul as well. However, the drastic differences in culture that were completely incompatible with this world made them spit out Qin Yi, and instead, this body was taken over by Qin Yi as a result. Liu Shu's soul power, which they had accumulated for countless years, was severely damaged and became extremely weakened. They retreated into the cudgel to recover.
So, Liu Shu offered to teach him to how cultivate immortality, and in exchange, he would help Liu Shu rebuild their body in the future.
But Qin Yi didn't dare to accept.
It must be known that the soul of the original owner of his body had been devoured by Liu Shu, which was definitely not a good sign. Who knew if any of the cultivation techniques they taught him secretly have a 'backdoor' that would allow them to seize his body again? Qin Yi conceded that even he was not that reckless and did not dare to even try.
Originally, Qin Yi even wanted to throw away the mace, but he was too curious about the world of cultivation, so he decided to keep it with him. It's weakened now anyways, isn't it?
How ironic.
Liu Shu sneered and said: "Anyway, I can tell you that this aura of resentment will dissipate soon enough, and no one needs to solve it. But this tiger has begun to turn into a demon. It's up to me to teach you the demon-binding formation. Especially since you haven't practiced yet, you can't restrain it at all. If you leave it alone for too long, sooner or later it will start to hurt people. To completely resolve this problem, you have to practice cultivation with me."
Qin Yi pursed his lips and held it for a long time before saying, "I'll deal with it myself."
Liu Shu sneered: "Your method is to spread these rumors of immortals that no one cares about again to attract immortal seekers to get rid of the tiger?"
"They are more reliable than the villagers after all. I think these Li brothers are quite capable."
Liu Shu smiled and said, "If I were to follow your line of thought, I have a much more reliable solution."
"What solution?"
"The Li brother and sister are either rich or nobility. As long as they are trapped with the tiger and killed, the tiger will be guaranteed skinned alive by somebody else, with absolutely no chance of survival. But you reminded them to run away if they are defeated, now the tiger won't chase them..."
"Bah!" Qin Yi stood up, ran to the corner of the room, picked up the mace, and stuffed it into the foot-washing water again.
Liu Shu cursed loudly in the water, "Soft hearted idiot! If they escape from the tiger injured, they'll take their anger out on you first!"
Qin Yi ignored them completely, turned around and walked to the corner of the room. There was a small stove in the corner, the pottery pot atop it was slightly hot, and there was the faint yet fragrant smell of elixirs.
The art of medicine and alchemy, and some basic arrangements of formations was not only Qin Yi's side project to satisfy his curiosity about cultivation in this world, but also Liu Shu's hopeful attempts to prove that 'I can really teach you how to cultivate immortality'. The two cooperated in this respect, Qin Yi studied seriously, Liu Shu taught attentively, without any noisy arguments.
Qin Yi stared at the stove flame for a while, silently counting the time, then took a pot of wine, walked to the window and drank a few sips.
The sky had turned completely dark, and the moon and stars were shining all across the sky.
There was no sight of humanity anywhere around him, the insects were buzzing, the cicadas were chirping, and he slightly tipsy from the wine. Qin Yi had always felt this place itself was truly close to enlightenment. Away from the hustle and bustle of carriages and horses, far away from worldly intrigues, how many people in the secular have noticed the clear brilliance of the moonlight and the beautiful smell of open fields? Seeking immortals, seeking immortals, all you'll find in the end are just the lies that you've told to distract yourself.
Qin Yi had always felt that if the problems in the mountains were solved, there was nothing wrong with staying here for the rest of his life. In his previous life, he fell off a cliff and died. Transmigrating here was like regaining his life again. Wouldn't it good to just enjoy life?
When he sang "The Good Song", he was not pretending to be in a state of enlightenment, but he was truly inspired by it after seeing many people seeking immortality.
"Tell me, how beautiful this night sky is..." He murmured, as if in a dream.
Liu Shu, who was in an awkward state, snorted, as if they were disdainful.
In fact, it was precisely for this reason that they believed that Qin Yi was very suitable for cultivating immortals. He had a tranquil aura, was not attached to anything, was not arrogant, and had no desire to join the world and become a prince. He seemed to be able to accept spending his whole life in a thatched cottage. This kind of person was actually more suitable for cultivation than those who practiced devoutly and insisted on hard work.
It was a pity that he refused to cultivation.
However, in fact, only God knows that his so-called indifference to the world actually had another name in Qin Yi's world, it was called being a NEET.
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Note 1:
Bang means "stick". So Qin Yi is calling Liu Shu 'sticky stick'.
Note 2:
The Good Song was the song that the woodcutter was singing.
"All men long to be immortals, yet to riches and rank each aspires. The great ones of old, where are they now? Their graves are a mass of briars."
"All men long to be immortals, yet silver and gold they prize. They grub for money all their lives, till death seals up their eyes."
"All men long to be immortals, yet dote on the wives they've wed. They swear to love their husband evermore, but remarry as soon as he's dead."
"All men long to be immortals, yet birthing sons must be done. Although loyal parents are a plenty, who ever saw a truly filial son?"