Chapter 721: Delusion-Breaking Pill

In the mud and sand, lies the silent giant statue.

Its outstretched arm was broken, leaving only the elbow, and its face seemed to have been deliberately destroyed, with only a vague outline remaining.

The stone statue was covered with moss and had cracks of varying sizes, but as long as one touched the cold outer wall, one could still feel the cold and vast will. It had been buried and covered for many years, but the power within it was not affected by the years at all.

Zhang Cheng with gray hair stood next to the stone statue.

He was thirty years old, which was considered an old man in the Jindan Kingdom. He could already feel his teeth loosening, and his hands, feet, waist and neck were often sore and even tingling. He was no longer so agile when walking or refining pills.

Zhang Cheng looked at the face of the stone statue that seemed to be looking at him, put his palm on the stone wall, and said softly: "I need to find the weakness of the god."

"Exchange with me, evil god."

"Give me your power, I'll pay any price."

The statue remained silent.

…

When they were eleven or twelve years old, Zhang Cheng and his younger brother Zhang Ye would go to the wild to pick up scraps whenever they had free time, just like other children of their age.

When brothers work together, they can always achieve something.

Zhang Cheng is sharp-eyed and quick-witted, and Zhang Ye is deft and strong. They dug out all kinds of valuable little things from the ruins and valleys, such as rusty iron sheets, broken copper utensils, broken stone pots, glass pieces, scraps of leather... These things can be exchanged for sugar and rice in the town.

Every time they returned with a full load, their mother would be very happy, but then worried.

"You better be careful, beware of robbers."

Zhang Cheng always didn't care: "They can't catch us. We are following behind the [Divine Guards] or the caravan carriages. They dare not show up."

"There is also poisonous rain and fog. You must remember to bring your thousand-layer umbrella and face mask."

"I know, I know."

"Don't run around, it's not safe outside... It's most important for you to practice your skills well."

My mother never tires of saying, "Cheng'er, you must make the elixir well, and Ye'er, you must learn alchemy well. If you two learn well, you will have no worries about food and clothing, and live safely in the city."

"Don't worry, Mom. We came out only after we finished our homework. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to come out."

Zhang Cheng said with a smile.

At that time, he always felt that his mother was too nagging and kept repeating the same things over and over again.

My mother is already thirty-six years old, which is indeed too old.

People in Jindan Country reach adulthood at the age of twelve. From twelve to twenty-five they are considered young adults. After twenty-five, they will age visibly and enter old age.

There was always poisonous rain from the sky, poisonous gas and pungent acidic gas filled many places on the ground, and there was little clean water. Villagers used well water on a daily basis, but even if they used water tanks to precipitate it and only boiled the top layer of water to drink, it still had a faint strange smell.

But none of this matters.

That’s how everyone got here.

The village was fine, but the real danger was in the wild. In order to have enough food, people would still go to the wild to look for various relics and dig deep in the ground to pick up scraps.

But there are also poisonous animals in the wild.

The most common poisonous animals are insects, which come in various sizes. If you are bitten by them, it will be difficult to save you without timely treatment.

Poisonous animals attack people less often, because it is difficult for them to survive if injured in the wild. But once they are provoked or feel their territory is threatened, they will launch the most ferocious attack, and the danger is far greater than that of poisonous insects.

However, people also have ways to deal with it, that is alchemy and alchemy.

Alchemy is the process of transforming and enhancing various materials such as metal, stone, leather and wood to create incredibly powerful tools, including indestructible axes and swords, wooden oxen and iron horses that can carry goods, walls that can release fire and lightning, and flying balls that can sense poisonous rain and fog.

Alchemy is the art of strengthening and changing the human body by making elixirs. Some elixirs are highly poisonous and can kill people, some are miraculous medicines that can heal injuries, some are rare elixirs that can prolong life, and some are magical medicines that can make people extremely powerful and gain various supernatural powers.

These two forces that influence the world, as well as the entire Jindan Kingdom, rely on the protection of the deity "Mountain God".

In the beginning, the mountain gods regulated the world. There was no poison, people lived freely everywhere, large tracts of land could grow food, rivers and lakes were full of clean water, and people could live past 40 years old.

But the arrival of the evil god from outer space changed everything.

The evil god destroyed the country and history of the past and wanted to destroy this place completely. The mountain god fought a fierce battle with him.

Eventually, the evil god was killed by the mountain god. His blood turned into poisonous rain, his bones were buried deep underground, making it difficult for the soil to grow food, his flesh was eaten by many wild beasts and turned into poisonous beasts, and his curse spread to all things, making the mountain god weak.

Since then, the mountain god has been recuperating in the earth, and people pray for the mountain god, offering faith and livestock sacrifices. People's piety can gradually make the mountain god recover, and one day in the future, the whole world will return to its former brightness and cleanliness.

This is something that everyone in Jindan knows.

The curse of the evil god could break out at any time, turning people into monsters, killing the people of the mountain god and all kinds of living things for the evil god. In order to curb the curse, the mountain god gave blessings to every child born and used the divine seal to restrain the curse.

Unfortunately, even so, the evil god's hatred of death could not be completely suppressed, and the human life span limit was 40 years old. All the elderly approaching 40 years old would be sent to Old Man Mountain, where they would be taken care of by the Divine Guards to prevent their curse from erupting, allowing them to spend their last days in peace.

There are also old people who refuse to escape to Old Man Mountain.

The Divine Guards will conduct forced arrests to prevent them from becoming monsters and endangering the lives of civilians.

Zhang Cheng personally witnessed an old man being cursed.

He was an old man with a ferocious face, about thirty-five or thirty-six years old. He was blocked on a small slope by the Divine Guards.

The old man was so frightened that he was shaking all over. He started to make some noises, and suddenly his eyes bulged out, and blood started to flow from all the orifices on his face. His neck was jerked back, almost breaking, but the old man's chest bulged outwards and then split open, with a strange oval-shaped bloody thing squeezing out from inside.

The soldiers rushed forward, stuffed the strange thing back into the old man's chest and tied him up tightly with a rope. Then they put the old man, whose life or death was unknown, on an iron horse and took him away.

At that time, Zhang Cheng was picking up scraps, and this scene shocked him greatly.

At that time, he secretly made up his mind to treat his mother well and not let her become like that old man - it was said that the old man ran away because he was crazy. His sons and daughters thought he was a useless person, and often beat and scolded him and did not give him food, so he ran away.

…

On the day his mother was leaving, Zhang Cheng suddenly found that he was not as calm as he thought.

The escorting Divine Guards have arrived at the doorstep.

"Mom, you are only 37 years old. You can go at 39." Zhang Cheng tried his best to persuade her.

"My health has never been good. I cough every day and my health is getting worse. I am out of breath after walking a few steps. Last time I fell, I almost lay in bed and couldn't get up. I have to feed one more person at home... It's better to go to Lao Ren Shan early. The country will support me and I won't cause any trouble or burden to you."

Mother packed her bag with a smile, stuffed her old handkerchief, clothes, and a blanket into her cloth bag, and tied it up skillfully: "It's not like we can't meet. If you want to see me, just write an application, and if it's approved, you can come to see me at Old Man Mountain in town."

Zhang Cheng felt bad when he saw his mother leaving under the escort of two soldiers.

His father died in the wild early, and his mother has passed away now, leaving the two brothers to depend on each other.

"Brother, can we still see mom?" Younger brother Zhang Ye hung his head in dejection.

"Of course! We have to learn skills well so that we can be given priority in the application!"

Zhang Cheng secretly made up his mind to become an alchemist as soon as possible.

…

Alchemists need to spend a lot of time perfecting the elixir recipe, but most new results are achieved between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, and the process of continuous optimization and improvement is continued after that.

Zhang Cheng himself possesses a boldness and ruthlessness that surpasses others. This boldness has brought him one step away from death several times. It also allows him to test the medicine on himself in a short period of time and achieve results that surpass other apprentices.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

In the second year after his mother went to Lao Ren Mountain, Zhang Cheng tried out a new elixir called "Calming Pills".

This is a kind of elixir that can make people clear-headed after taking it. Although its grade is very low due to the large number of similar elixirs, it is also an achievement recognized by the highest organization of alchemists in the capital, the [Dan Department].

Zhang Cheng concealed his true achievement [Pohuan Dan], and the Tranquilizing Pill was only a part of the Pohuan Dan.

This is a kind of elixir that can break many spells, but it has many side effects, including vomiting, nausea, bleeding, and tinnitus. To ensure that it works, you have to take at least three pills at a time, which is extremely harmful to the body.

In addition, the efficacy of the Delusion-Breaking Pill is extremely unstable. It is essentially a poison. The toxin temporarily destroys a person's vision, hearing and other senses, making it difficult for other external abilities to take effect on it. The efficacy period is when the pill enters the body but before the toxin completely explodes and causes the temporary loss of the five senses.

Zhang Cheng wanted to find a magic pill that could completely solve the problem of the evil god's curse so that his mother could continue to live.

To resolve a curse, one must first see the curse.

Time is running out and he must cherish every day.

After becoming an alchemist, Zhang Cheng successfully passed the application and came to the Old Man Mountain behind the town with his brother Zhang Ye. After passing through layers of checkpoints, he arrived at the halfway point of the Old Man Mountain, where many elderly people lived and met with visitors from their respective families.

Most of the elderly people are in good spirits. Although their hair is gray and their movements are slow, their skin is rosy, which shows that they are not treated badly in their daily lives.

The mother also walked out slowly from a room inside. When she saw them, her eyes lit up: "You guys are here? Ye'er has grown really tall. Cheng'er, you are not as tall as your brother. Did you not eat well again?"

"No way."

Brothers Zhang Cheng and Zhang Ye both laughed.

Then the two brothers talked to their mother about their recent situation.

In order to confirm the current status of the curse on his mother, Zhang Cheng took out the prepared pill to break delusion from his pocket and put it into his mouth.

"Cheng'er, are you hungry? I have some cakes here. The cakes in the mountains are delicious." The mother opened the cloth bag she carried with her and took out a hot cake.

Zhang Ye took it and started to eat it, smiling: "It's delicious!"

"Slow down, slow down." The mother smiled and touched his face. She turned her head and looked at Zhang Cheng next to her: "Cheng'er, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"No, it's okay."

"You say it's okay? You have a nosebleed. What's wrong? What's wrong with you?" The mother's face was full of worry.

Zhang Ye said, "Don't worry, my brother is in good health. He is now an alchemist. He must have stayed up too late."

"Um."

Zhang Cheng wiped the blood from his nose and forced a smile on his pale face.

He tried hard to suppress his fear and confusion, and clenched his trembling fingers into fists.

Because of the effect of the Barrier Breaking Pill, Zhang Cheng saw that his mother had turned into a pile of bones. The bones of her hands were still moving, and the black skull made him shudder.

Not only that, the old men around them were all skeletons. However, the people who visited them were completely unaware of this, and the same was true for the guards beside them.

There must be some kind of magic that confuses everyone.

This is not Old Man Mountain, it's a skull mound.

Old Man Mountain was built by the prophet on the orders of the mountain god, in each town. It is impossible that he was unaware of the situation.

The only possibility is that this is the true face of Old Man Mountain.

The old people who went into the mountains had died long ago.

The mountain god, who seemed righteous and heroic in the past, now revealed his true face of gloomy evil.

Zhang Cheng wiped the blood from his nose with his sleeve.

The world is not what it seems.

…

Zhang Cheng returned home, closed the door, and made sure that no one was around to hear what happened before he told Zhang Ye.

The younger brother didn't believe it at first. But when he visited again two months later, he also took three pills of Polu Pills and saw a horrifying scene he had never seen before. He had to accept this cruel fact.

"Brother... why is this happening... Mom is dead..." Zhang Ye was distraught: "What should we do?"

Zhang Cheng looked into the distance, where was Old Man Mountain in the darkness.

"We need to escape from here, as far away as possible."

He wanted to say we wanted revenge, but he couldn't say it.

Because behind Old Man Mountain and the captive monsters stands an irresistible mountain god.

Zhang Cheng clenched his fists tightly, and finally he slowly loosened them.

Live well first.

As long as you have the Pill to Break Delusion, there is a chance.

(End of this chapter)