Chapter 721 Powan Dan

In the sand, a silent giant statue lies quietly.

　　Its outstretched arm has been broken, leaving only the elbow, and the face seems to have been deliberately destroyed, leaving only a vague outline.

The stone statue is covered with moss and has some cracks of various sizes, but as long as you touch the cold outer wall, you can still feel the cold and vast will. It has been buried and covered for many years, but the power within it has not been affected at all by the years.

 The gray-haired Zhang Cheng stood next to the stone statue.

 He is thirty years old this year, which is already an old man in Jindan Kingdom. He already felt that his teeth were loose, and his hands, feet, waist and neck were often sore or even tingling. Whether he was walking or refining alchemy, he became less efficient.

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

 “Exchange with me, evil god.”

 “Give me your power, and I’ll pay any price.”

 The stone statue was silent.

 …

At the age of eleven or twelve, Zhang Cheng and his younger brother Zhang Ye went to the wild to pick up rags whenever they had free time, just like other people of the same age.

 Brothers working together can always gain something.

Zhang Cheng had a keen eye and a sharp mind, while Zhang Ye had a skillful and powerful hand. They dug out all kinds of valuable small things from the ruins and mountain valleys, including rusty iron sheets, broken copper utensils, missing stone pots, glass pieces, broken leather... These things were brought to the town. Can be replaced with sugar and rice.

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

 “Be careful, beware of robbers.”

Zhang Cheng always didn't care: "They can't catch us. We follow the [Divine Guards] or caravans, and they don't dare to come forward."

“There is also poisonous rain and poisonous fog. You must remember to bring a thousand-leaf umbrella and a face towel.”

 “I know, I know.”

“Don’t run around, it’s not safe outside... The most important thing is that you practice your skills well.”

Mother always said tirelessly: "Cheng'er, you have to make elixirs well, Ye'er, you have to learn alchemy well. If you two learn your skills well, you will be able to have enough food and clothing, and be safe in the city."

“Don’t worry, Mom, we came out only after finishing 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, always nagging the same words over and over again.

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

People in the Jindan Kingdom reach adulthood at the age of twelve, and they are young from the age of twelve to twenty-five. After twenty-five years, they will age visibly with the naked eye, and they will enter old age.

Poisonous rain is always falling from the sky, many places on the ground are filled with poisonous gas and pungent acid gas, and there are few clean water sources. People in the village use well water every day, but even if they use water tanks to settle it and only use the upper water to boil it for drinking, there will still be a faint smell.

But these are nothing.

 This is how everyone comes here.

 It's okay in the village, but the real danger is in the wild. In order to have enough to eat, people will still go to the wild to look for various relics and dig deep into the ground to pick up rags.

 But there are also poisonous beasts in the wild.

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

  Animals like venomous beasts are less likely to attack people because it is difficult for them to survive after being injured in the wild. But once you provoke them or make them feel that their territory is threatened, the poisonous beasts will launch the most ferocious attack. At this time, the danger is far greater than that of poisonous insects.

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

Alchemy is the transformation and enhancement of various substances, including 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 **** that can sense poisonous rain and poisonous mist.

 Alchemy is the process of refining elixirs to enhance and change the human body. Some of the elixirs are extremely poisonous and can kill you if touched, some are magical elixirs that can heal injuries after being taken, some are rare elixirs that extend life, and some are magical elixirs that make people infinitely more powerful and gain all kinds of superpowers.

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

 In the earliest times, mountain gods regulated the entire world. There was no poison at that time, people lived freely everywhere, food could be grown on large tracts of land, there was clean water in rivers and lakes, and people could live over forty years old.

 But the arrival of the evil **** from outside changed everything.

 The evil **** destroyed the past country and history, and wanted to completely destroy this place. The mountain **** launched a fierce battle with it.

 In the end, the evil **** was killed by the mountain god. The evil god's blood turned into poisonous rain. His bones were buried deep in the ground, making it difficult for the soil to grow food. His flesh was eaten by many wild beasts and turned into poisonous beasts. His curse spread across all things, making the mountain **** extremely weak.

Since then, the mountain gods have been cultivating in the earth. People prayed for the mountain gods and offered faith and animal sacrifices. People's piety can gradually restore the mountain god, and one day in the future, the whole world will return to its former brightness and cleanliness.

 This is something everyone in the Jindan Kingdom knows.

The curse of the evil **** will break out at any time, turning people into monsters, killing the people of the mountain **** and various living creatures everywhere for the evil god. In order to curb the curse, the mountain **** gave blessings to every child born and used divine seals to restrain the curse.

 It’s a pity that even so, the evil god’s hatred of death cannot be completely suppressed. The human life span is limited to forty years. All elderly people approaching the age of forty will be sent to Old Man Mountain, where they will be taken care of by the Divine Guards to prevent their curse from breaking out and allow them to spend their last days safely.

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

The God Guards will conduct forced arrests to prevent them from turning into monsters and endangering people's lives.

Zhang Cheng personally saw an old man who was cursed.

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

The old man was so frightened that he trembled all over. His mouth started to babble. Suddenly, his eyes bulged and his face began to bleed. His neck was raised back so hard that it was almost broken, but the old man's chest swelled outwards and then split, and a strange oval-shaped **** thing squeezed out from the inside.

The soldiers swarmed up, stuffed the strange thing back into the old man's chest, tied it tightly with a rope, and then put the old man who didn't know whether he was alive or dead on an iron horse and took him away.

 Zhang Cheng was picking up rags at that time, and this scene shocked him extremely.

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

 …

 The day his mother was about to leave, Zhang Cheng suddenly realized that he was not as calm as he thought.

 The escorting Divine Guards have arrived at the door of the house.

“Mom, you’re only thirty-seven, you can go again when you’re thirty-nine.” Zhang Cheng tried his best to persuade her.

"I'm not in good health to begin with. I cough every day and my health is getting worse. I can't take more than two steps and I'm out of breath. I fell down last time and I almost lay in bed and couldn't get up. I still need food for one more person at home. ...It would be better to go to Old Man Mountain as early as possible. The country will support you and won’t cause you any trouble or burden." Mother smiled and packed her bags, stuffing old handkerchiefs, clothes and a blanket into her bag, and tied them up skillfully: "Also It’s not that you can’t meet me. If you want to see me, just write an application. If approved, you can come to the Old Man Mountain in town to see me.”

 Watching his mother leave under the **** of two soldiers, Zhang Cheng felt uncomfortable.

The father died early in the wild, the mother left again, and now the two brothers are left to depend on each other.

“Brother, can we still see mom?” Zhang Ye, the younger brother, was dejected.

 “Absolutely! We must learn our skills well so that we can give priority to the application!”

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

 …

 Alchemists spend a lot of time perfecting the alchemy formula, but most new results are produced between fifteen and twenty-five years old, and then they are constantly optimized and improved.

Zhang Cheng himself has a kind of boldness and ruthlessness that surpasses other people. This boldness has brought him one step away from death several times. It also allows him to test medicine on his own in a short period of time and achieve results that are beyond other apprentices.

The second year after his mother went to Lao Lao Mountain, Zhang Cheng tried a new elixir [Calm Pill].

This is an elixir that can make people clear-headed after being eaten. Although the grade rating is very low due to the large number of similar elixirs, it can be regarded as an achievement recognized by the highest organization of alchemists in the capital [Alchemy Department].

Zhang Cheng concealed his real achievement [PoWu Dan], and the tranquilizing pill was only a part of PoWu Dan.

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

In addition, the effect of Powangdan is extremely unstable, and it is essentially a poison. The toxin temporarily destroys people's vision, hearing and other perceptions, making it difficult for other external abilities to take effect on it. When the elixir enters the body, but before the toxins completely erupt and cause the five senses to be temporarily lost, it is the period of efficacy.

Zhang Cheng wants to find a magical elixir that can completely solve the problem of the evil god's curse and allow his mother to continue to live.

 To solve the curse, you 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 together with his younger brother Zhang Ye, came to the Old Man Mountain behind the town. After passing many levels of checkpoints, he arrived at the halfway point of Old Man Mountain, where many old people lived and met with the visitors in their respective homes.

 Most of the old people are in good spirits. Although their hair is white and their movements are slow, their skin is rosy. It seems that they are not treated badly on weekdays.

Mother also slowly walked out of a room inside, her eyes lit up when she saw them: "Are you here? Ye'er is really tall, Cheng'er, you are not as tall as your brother, right? Didn’t you have a good meal?”

  “Where there is.”

 Brothers Zhang Cheng and Zhang Ye both laughed.

 Then the two brothers chatted with their mother about their current situation.

In order to confirm the current status of the curse on his mother, Zhang Cheng took out the prepared Powang Dan from his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Cheng'er, are you hungry? I have some cakes here, and the cakes on the mountain are delicious." Mother opened the cloth bag she had with her and took out a hot pancake.

 Zhang Ye took it and ate it, with a smile on his face: "It's so delicious!"

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

 “No, it’s okay.”

“You said you’re fine? You’ve got a nosebleed. What’s wrong? What’s wrong with you?” The mother looked worried.

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

"Um."

Zhang Cheng wiped his nosebleed 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 under the power of the barrier-breaking pill, Zhang Cheng saw that his mother had turned into a white skeleton, and the bones of her hands could still move. The black skull made his hair stand on end.

More than that, the old people around are all skeletons. However, the people watching them were completely unaware of this, and neither were the guards nearby.

 It should be some kind of magic that confuses everyone.

This is not Old Man Mountain, but a skull grave.

 Old Man Mountain was built in towns one after another by the prophet under the orders of the mountain god. It is impossible not to know this situation.

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

 The old people who entered the mountains had long since died.

 The mountain **** who used to feel upright and heroic now shows his true face of gloom and evil.

 Zhang Cheng wiped his nosebleed with his sleeve.

The world is not what it seems.

 …

Zhang Cheng returned home, closed the door, and made sure no one was prying around before telling Zhang Ye about the incident.

 My younger brother didn’t believe it at all at first. But during another visit two months later, he also took three PoWan Dan and saw horrific scenes he had never seen before, and had to accept this cruel fact.

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

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

 “We need to get away from here, as far away as possible.”

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

 Because behind the Old Man Mountain and the monsters it feeds, there stands a mountain **** that cannot be resisted.

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

 Let’s live well first.

 As long as Powang Dan is there, there will be a chance.

 (End of this chapter)