Void Cultivation

When Grey ran out of the corroded zone, his gaze went up to the red clouds. His gaze lingered for a few seconds on God's hand before he let out a sigh.

In the time it takes for a candle to burn out, he was already seeing the edges of the corroded zone. As he came out, he breathe in a breath of warm air.

The corroded zones were just too cold. Luckily, today he had not met any dangerous creatures and the things he did meet avoided him just as much as he wanted to avoid them.

He had come back successful today. Refining poison had given him insight to refining pills.

"If blood petal rose can increase the density of corrosive substance, then ghost blood grass can probably dissipate it. Adding two ratios to one of poison demon roots and shallow willow stalks can increase the effects by four fold." A sharp glint could be seen in Grey's eyes as he said this.

"Ah, but blue silver grass does not mix well with poison demon roots. Both their effectiveness will be affected. So it's better to add double the amount when about to start mixing." Grey pondered heavily on this thought as he sped up.

After several hours, he could see the vague outline of the outer settlements of the scavenger camp. His speed inadvertently slowed down until he stopped running altogether.

His breathing was laboured but his grey eyes were clear. As he exhaled one last time, mist drifted out of his mouth. One of the signs that he was practicing the Sky Mist art.

As he slowly caught his breath, his gaze focused on a convoy that was approaching the scavenger camp from miles away.

Because of the far distance, he couldn't determine how many of them were coming. But he could guess the number of convoys resulted to or were more than six.

His face darkened and a frown appeared on his face, but he averted his gaze and focused on the scavenger camp instead.

After catching his breath for a few minutes, he burst out into a run again he suddenly ran and exploded with the speed of an artillery shell.

When he entered the outer settlements of the corroded zone, he pulled up his hood to cover his grey hair. Tying it in a small bun to prevent it from falling down.

As Grey walked slowly into the scavenger camp, he caught quite a few gazes. But when they saw his attitude and the way he was vigilant, they retracted their gazes.

Grey's eyes darted left and right. That was true, he was acting like a scavenger at this moment. But who could blame him for it. After all, he had lived in the corroded zone for a week and survived. Lived in a scavenger camp full of murderers and thieves and backstabbers and survived. Why should he not be vigilant.

Despite his fifth level cultivation base, he could not say he was the strongest. And they were some people who were as strong as the Captain's team members living in the scavenger camp. They could cause trouble for him if they wanted.

So why wouldn't he be vigilant. Having died twice for not protecting his back, he had learned his lesson. After all, twice bitten, forever shy.

On getting to Luo's shop, he carefully looked around to see if anyone followed him, and entered inside.

Grey's gaze was indifferent as he walked inside the small shop. Seeing Luo's office closed, he knew she was in. He heard some sounds coming from the pharmacy and knew Ange would be ready to refine pills soon.

So with nothing to do, he sat down in silence and began to meditate. His thoughts grew distant and his head was clear as he entered a semi conscious state.

In this state, the spirit energy slowly gushed into his body and his thoughts entered a state of clarity.

He began to review all that he had done today starting from when he refined poison. As his thoughts went back to a few hours, he began to decipher all that he had done and the effects of his mixing.

Several hours later, his eyes slowly opened and a comprehensive glint could be seen in his eyes. It was already evening and everywhere was getting dark.

Ange and Luo were getting ready to close shop. As soon as they saw him awake, they nodded at him in greeting and he responded with a curt nod.

They were used to his routine meditation, so they didn't say anything. Having learned the Dao of medicine from Ange and Luo, they had grown familiar with each other.

When Grey stood up, Ange handed him a couple of buns with a soft smile on her face. Grey's indifferent expression melted and let out a warm smile and nodded in appreciation.

Publication courtesy of M|V|LE-MPYR.

He then hesitated and brought out a single bottle before handing it to Ange.

Ange took it with a confused expression on her face, but when she realized the contents, she almost threw the bottle away in shock.

"You..."

Grey interrupted her by placing his hands on her mouth. When he was assured that she wouldn't shout, then did he release her.

"You refined poison!? But how... and since when? Why didn't you tell me?" Ange bombarded him with questions in a low voice but the excitement and fear in her face continued to grow.

"Just this morning. This is the first time I successfully refined one." Grey said in a calm voice. His voice was not wavering, as if he had not just done something that could be said to be impossible.

"But how?" Ange cried lowly.

"I have my ways."

Grey said indifferently. Ange was already used to his indifferent expression so she didn't mind him and continued to look at the poison pill in the small bottle. Fascination was on her face.

Grey just calmly stood as she examined the pill. One had to know that refining poison was a really arduous affair. Not only did you have to have a certain level of immunity, but you also had to be ready for corrosive substance as well.

Since poison pills were made from materials found in the corroded zones, the poison emitted were normally dense amount of corrosive substance.

Grey not only risked dying by his own poison, but he also risked mutating while creating the pill itself. But those major problems were eliminated by the purple and his shadow.

With the purple crystal's amazing healing effect, and his shadow absorbing any corrosive substance that entered his body, he was free to refine as much as he liked. As far as the poison he was creating was not super powerful that it killed him before the purple crystal could heal him, then he was fine.

But even with all those said factors, refining poison was very hard. Because unlike medicinal pills where you had the directions and the materials and the proportions, poison was guess work.

There was no particular way to make poison. Most poison were said to be in powder form. Some were even liquid, but Grey's own... Grey refined poison pill. A poison pill.

The most difficult kind of pill to refine because it was very unstable, yet Grey did it. Although the materials he used were not very potent, with some practice it could be a very terrifying form of attacking.

Just imagine throwing a poison pill on the floor and it explodes and before you know it, corrosive substance starts seeping into your body without your knowledge. You then go pop. Turn into blood mist or you Mutate.

"You must have tried so hard to refine this poison pill. I would have liked to studied it more, but I can't take it with me." Ange had an expression of pity on her face as she was about to return the bottle.

Seeing her actions, Grey spoke up.

"Oh, don't worry. You can keep it. I have another one."

"Eh! You created two?"

Ange's eyes opened wide when she heard his next words.

"I created more than that so you can keep it." He then started to walk away slowly. "Tell me tomorrow if you have any ideas on how I can improve it." He said while he gave a small wave and walled away into the distance. Leaving Ange completely stunned.

"He refined a poison pill. No, he created refined poison pills..." Ange muttered inadvertently as she looked at Grey in the distance with a complicated expression.

"What's that?" Luo said as she heard Ange's low mutter.

"No, no. It's nothing." Ange said and looked once more at the small pill bottle in her hands with a solemn gaze.

"He did it. He really refined poison. A genius..." Ange said silently.

Grey did not want to show Ange his latest creation. But when he thought back at how she was teaching him the Dao of medicine and how she was gaining nothing from it, he decided to risk it and show her. Examining poison was a way to get comprehension on Medicine.

He was not afraid if she told anyone anyways. He noticed that the poison pills would not stay too long if mixed with oxygen. A few minutes later they would start to dissipate into dust.

So he opened the bottle slightly for little air to get in. The poison pill would slowly turn to powder and then dissipate into the wind. Of course this was harmless.

But unless he spread some of the poison on him, it would not do anything and keep being harmless. If she did tell anyone though, by the time she did, the pill would have dissipated into nothingness and he doubted Luo would believe her. After all, poison was very hard to refine much less poison pills. How could a 15 year old refine something like that.

But in the end, Ange decided to keep quiet so he would not have any problems with her. These poison pills would be one of trump cards.