After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, we reached the bottom of the steps and found ourselves in a long passageway with torches burning on both sides.
They blew out the tinderbox and walked forward carefully, hand in hand.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, light and voices appeared ahead.
Su Ruojin pulled Zhao Jingning close to the stone wall and moved forward.
Upon arriving at the cave entrance, looking out, one can see two enormous alchemy furnaces and a high platform in the middle of the cave.
An old Taoist priest in his sixties was sitting cross-legged on a high platform, while several people wearing silver masks directed the priests to add bundles of medicinal herbs into the alchemy furnace.
Zhao Jingning moved her lips, silently telling Su Ruojin that the old Taoist priest was Master Tianyi.
But isn't the Taoist priest in seclusion?
How did I end up here?
Su Ruojin looked at the group of people wearing silver masks. Why did their masks look so familiar?
The medicinal herbs were put into the alchemy furnace, and the young Taoist boys sitting around it began to fan themselves frantically to make the fire of alchemy burn even brighter.
Before long, the medicinal herbs in the alchemy furnace seemed to be almost refined. Master Tianyi raised his hand on the high platform, and a person wearing a silver mask dragged two children who looked about five or six years old out from the other side of the cave.
The two children had their limbs bound, their mouths gagged with cloth, and they kept making muffled noises with tears in their eyes.
The children struggled desperately to break free of their restraints, but how could their strength possibly contend with that of an adult man?
Before long, the two children were dragged to the alchemy furnace.
The lid of the alchemy furnace was opened, and before Su Ruojin could react to what these people were going to do, she saw two children being picked up and thrown into the two furnaces respectively, and the lid was closed again.
The fact that children were thrown into the furnace seemed commonplace to everyone else; no one reacted, as if they were just ordinary medicinal herbs being thrown into the furnace.
The young Taoist boy simply fanned himself even faster.
Su Ruojin stared wide-eyed in disbelief, clenching her fists.
Zhao Jingning was so shocked she almost screamed. She covered her mouth with her hand, and tears streamed down her face.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Zhao Jingning looked at Su Ruojin, whose eyes were also red.
At most, she thought that the Taoist priest Tianyi would treat patients and save lives by using some strong medicines that fight poison with poison, which only treats the symptoms and not the root cause, and could be considered a quack doctor who harms people.
But to everyone's surprise, he actually used children to make medicine!
Su Ruojin had read in ancient books that some Taoist priests would use young boys and girls to refine elixirs, which were said to have the effect of bringing the dead back to life and reversing aging.
Su Ruojin never believed in any magic pills that could bring the dead back to life or make one young again.
Even in her previous life, when technology and medicine were many times more advanced than those in the Nine Provinces, there were no such miraculous medicines, let alone in Yun Qi now.
Su Ruojin was afraid that she was ignorant, so she asked her master about this question. Her master told her that there was no medicine to bring the dead back to life, but there was a medicine that could make people young again.
This medicine is considered a toxic and insidious drug. When taken, it can make people feel young again for a short time, but in reality, it accelerates their death.
The master also gave her an example: an old man, though frail, could still live for ten years. After taking this medicine, he instantly felt like he was young again, and even his white hair could turn black.
However, life expectancy may be shortened from ten years to five years, three years, or even one year or a few months, depending on the dosage of the medication.
As for how this medicine was made, the master didn't know either. His master only told him that the method of making this kind of medicine was too cruel, and it was originally developed by an evil cultivator in a certain Taoist temple.
In order to refine this medicine, this evil cultivator secretly killed many children.
After being discovered, this evil cultivator struck first, killing his own master and fleeing the sect. He was pursued by righteous people of the martial arts world to no avail, and there has been no further news of this evil cultivator since.
The method for making this medicine was lost after that.
Seeing Master Tianyi using children to refine medicine, Su Ruojin subconsciously thought of the insidious medicine her master had told her about.
Then she thought of what Yun Hao had told her about how Emperor Yun Qi's health suddenly improved after taking the medicine presented by the Third Prince. Wasn't that exactly the same as the symptoms her master had described when taking a poisonous medicine?
Could it be...?
With tears in her eyes, Zhao Jingning looked at Su Ruojin and asked what they should do now.
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