Chapter 18: Initiation

Su Yang had prepared for all aspects of the initiation many times and was already familiar with it. In fact, Zang Yaozong was able to achieve mass production of initiation because he had only grasped the essence of human life and potential.

Taoist Hua Shen devised a complete initiation ritual—first, using the Five Yin Immortal Vine, Danshan Secret Iron, and sixteen pieces of Cinnabar Bamboo Leaves, boiled with inferior true fire into a decoction to cleanse the body's meridians, clearing the internal organs and allowing the medicinal properties to reach their maximum potential. Next, he took one Initiation Pill and one Meridian Opening Pill—the Initiation Pill drained all life and potential from the body, then channeled the Meridian Opening Pill through the body, creating a self-circulating cycle within the body without a cultivation system. If one's physique was weak, three Bone Tempering Pills were also required.

After a person sits in the broth for 49 days, upon emerging, their cultivation level, depending on their aptitude, will be somewhere between "false Qi training great perfection" and "false foundation building great perfection," with a maximum lifespan of fifteen years. After such a quenching of the medicinal power, there's no way to extend their lifespan through elixirs or other means; it's essentially a dead end. The only option is to possess another body, but a body imbued with such a false cultivation level is incapable of cultivation, making possession impossible.

This poison method has more advantages than disadvantages for the overall situation. It eliminates the trouble that sects like Zang Yaozong have to consume a large amount of cultivated materials but find it difficult to capture them in batches. It can be said that this is the foundation for the Zang Yaozong to become increasingly powerful in the past thousand years.

But those who had experienced this certainly wouldn't thank Taoist Hua Shen. Su Yang already had a foundation in cultivation when he was captured, so he didn't receive the initiation. But over the years, he'd seen children who had been initiating and used as medicine boys and testers suffer day and night, often with twisted hearts and murderous intent. He looked at Third Sister Yi with some concern, unable to bring himself to act.

Third Sister Yi guessed what he was worried about after a quick guess: "Don't worry, Senior Brother Su. I volunteered to join Danxin Pavilion as a medicine boy. Everything I've experienced since I came here was my own choice. I don't hold any grudge against you."

Su Yang said, "How can you say it was voluntary? You had no choice, you were forced."

Yi Sanmei wanted to say that she had indeed carefully considered her decision to come to Danxin Pavilion, but was this truly her own will? It wasn't that Yi Sanmei was insensitive to pain or fear; she was even more afraid of death than many people, yet she had taken the initiative to come to Danxin Pavilion. Vaguely contemplating something, Yi Sanmei fell silent.

Su Yang brought Third Sister Yi into the initiation room. The room looked as if carved from a single block of stone, without a single trace of splicing. In the center of the dark green, candleless room stood a massive bronze tripod. The walls were covered in carvings of mythical beasts and spiritual plants, and from years of refining medicinal elixirs and decoctions, it already carried a faint medicinal aroma.

Yi Sanmei stripped off her clothes and sat cross-legged in the cauldron, her head barely below the mouth. Su Yang ordered the mechanical puppet to fill the cauldron up to Yi Sanmei's neck with water, then took out the low-grade White Lotus Fire and placed it inside. When Yi Sanmei felt the heat beneath her feet, the Five Yin Immortal Vine was immediately dropped in. It melted upon impact, transforming into a jet-black film that enveloped her from the neck down.

The water temperature was still rising, and white mist had begun to spread on the water surface. The water film isolated the heat, which made Yi Sanmei feel relieved.

When the accumulated white mist completely obscured Yi Sanmei's face, the Danshan Secret Iron was lowered into the water. As soon as it entered the water, it seemed to be peeled off layer by layer, breaking into pieces of blue iron, which then slowly decomposed into extremely fine particles. The water in the cauldron immediately became turbid and dark, the color of asphalt.

At first, Yi Sanmei didn't feel anything, just a tingling and itchy feeling on the surface of her body. However, due to the cloudy water color and the white mist shrouding the area above her neck, she couldn't see anything clearly.

Up to this point, it hadn't been a big deal, but as soon as the cinnabar bamboo leaves were placed in the water, the tingling tingle immediately turned into an intense, sharp, and all-pervasive pain! The cinnabar bamboo leaves were like sharp knives, each cut cutting through Yi Sanmei's skin. Blood oozes from her body, instantly dyeing the dark blue into blood.

It hurts so much!

At first, Yi Sanmei gritted her teeth and tried not to cry out. But as her skin was cut, the fine particles of the Danshan Secret Iron flowed directly into her wound, wedging themselves into the tiny blood vessels and tendons. The coarse particles tortured her delicate body, and the blood was practically squeezed out of the wound by countless particles! The pain was no less than the torture of peeling skin and pulling out muscles.

But it’s not over yet, this is just the beginning.

After three days of this torture, the puppet and Su Yang finally came in again. Yi Sanmei had initially endured the pain without crying out, but the prolonged torture had nearly destroyed her will. She screamed and wailed unconsciously, her throat now so swollen and bleeding that she couldn't utter a single sound.

The mechanical puppet tried to pry open her mouth and stuff the medicine down her throat, but found that she didn't even have the strength to swallow.

Fortunately, the auxiliary equipment had been perfected over the years. Su Yang took a long, hollow tube and pointed it at Yi Sanmei's pried open mouth. With ruthless force, he penetrated her throat and stomach. After the puppet dropped the Guanding Pill and Tongmai Pill into her, he withdrew the tube. Throughout the whole process, Yi Sanmei's already battered body only swayed slightly.

What came next was even more important. Four puppets brought a lid, slightly smaller than the cauldron's mouth, and placed it directly on the bronze tripod. Third Sister Yi felt her head suddenly pressed down, and finally, unable to support herself, she bent like a hook and slid into the water.

Her own blood and the Danshan Secret Iron poured into her head through her ears and nose, and only then did Yi Sanmei regain some strength and consciousness.

Am I going to die?

Survival instinct compelled her to desperately try to rise from the cauldron and return to the surface to breathe, but all she managed was a few small movements of her arms in the water. Yi Sanmei could only watch as she slowly descended, lying flat on the bottom of the cauldron, the excruciating pain radiating from her lungs. Suddenly, she realized she could no longer see.

No, I will never die here. Having lost her sight, Yi Sanmei was no longer afraid. She found herself strangely calm, able to clearly catch a glimmer of light in her blurry vision. She patiently grasped that glimmer, and slowly, she saw clearly what it was.

It was Yi Sanmei's hand. In her "sight," it was no longer a human hand made of flesh and bone, but a palm-like shape formed by several rays of light. Looking more closely, she discovered even more tiny rays of light forming a complex hand pattern, layered on top of each other, covering the entire body.

Besides the light, there was something else. Yi Sanmei couldn't see it, but she could sense its presence. It was like some invisible flow, flowing from her body into this complex web of light, carrying a power that Yi Sanmei found both familiar and unfamiliar.

It felt like she'd overdrawn something. The pain started again, but this time it wasn't physical pain. It was like something had seized her soul and was playing with it, tearing it apart, making her struggle like crazy.

But at this point, Yi Sanmei was no longer concerned with the pain. She had no way to relieve it, yet she knew she couldn't pass out. She had to stay awake and endure this torture, which seemed to have no end. She tried to think of something cheerful to ease the pain, but all she could think of was the meal she had eaten the previous night. She simply reviewed the article she had memorized the previous night in her mind, trying to distract herself by pondering its meaning.

Forty-nine days passed. Su Yang stayed by the water clock day and night. When he saw the time was up, he didn't dare to let Yi Sanmei stay any longer. He even rushed in and knocked open the top cover with his own hands, dragged Yi Sanmei out and wrapped her in a clean cloth.

Yi Sanmei stared blankly at her white and tender arms which had no scars at all and did not look like her own arms. She finally fainted in Su Yang's warm embrace.