Chapter 77: Refining Vital Energy, Enhanced Hearing (Please Bookmark, Please Continue Reading)

No, these are not human pills.

Shang Lu quickly regained his composure.

With San Niang’s temperament, it was impossible she would commit such a sinister act as refining pills from human flesh.

Recalling the rat demon meat San Niang had prepared earlier, Shang Lu came to a conclusion.

“San Niang, are these meatballs made from rat demon meat?”

San Niang nodded in affirmation.

Shang Lu let out a sigh of relief. “That startled me. From their appearance, I thought they were human pills.”

Unexpectedly, San Niang nodded again.

“They were indeed made using the method for refining human pills, only I replaced the human flesh and heart with those of the rat demon.”

Was that even possible? Shang Lu was dumbfounded.

But he quickly understood: if human pills could be refined from human flesh and heart, naturally, pills could also be made from demon flesh and heart.

Of course, the effects would differ.

Yet San Niang would never harm him, and with the protection of the Liver Spirit, he need not fear being poisoned… or so he hoped.

There was another question that puzzled him. “San Niang, how do you know the method for refining human pills?”

“You burned it for me,” she replied.

San Niang shoved the dish and wine cup at Shang Lu, flipped her small hand, and a page of pill recipe appeared, the very one Shang Lu had burned before her.

Shang Lu was stunned.

Thinking back, he had indeed burned that recipe in San Niang’s presence.

So burning something in this way did not destroy it completely, but rather transferred it to San Niang?

Upon reflection, it made sense. Isn’t burning paper money and paper clothing at gravesides meant for this purpose?

Having resolved his doubts, Shang Lu lowered his gaze to the pills on the plate.

Since these pills were not made from human flesh and heart, they could no longer be called human pills.

He considered calling them demon pills, but the omen seemed unfavorable, so after some thought, he named them flesh pills.

The flesh pills had an excellent texture—firm and elastic—but the flavor was somewhat lacking, perhaps due to the heavy medicinal herbs, resulting in a pronounced herbal taste.

The fruit wine, however, was sweet and tangy, extremely pleasant on the palate. Its strength was surprisingly high; after a single cup, Shang Lu felt lightheaded and slightly intoxicated.

With the wine coursing through him, Shang Lu continued his cultivation in the courtyard, practicing the Five Beasts Health Technique and the Internal Meridian Refining Diagram.

Both the flesh pills and fruit wine produced a surge of blood energy, but also generated a fair amount of toxins. Thankfully, the Liver Spirit absorbed these toxins instantly, preventing any harm to his body.

Seeing this, Shang Lu relaxed completely.

It seemed that after opening the pathways of the liver and gallbladder, the Liver Spirit’s detoxifying power had grown significantly.

Moreover, once the Liver Spirit absorbed the toxins, Shang Lu no longer needed to rush to the latrine to expel them, as he had in the past, or risk soiling his trousers.

He could let the Liver Spirit hold them for a while and wait until it was convenient to purge.

At this moment, Shang Lu was letting the Liver Spirit hold it in.

He planned to first use the abundant blood energy from the flesh pills and fruit wine to nourish the five viscera meridians, break through the Small Intestine Meridian, and only then attend to detoxification.

After several rounds of the Five Beasts Health Technique, Shang Lu felt the time was right and began to channel his blood energy, guided by the Internal Meridian Refining Diagram, to attack the acupoints of the Small Intestine Meridian.

He chose the Small Intestine Meridian because it is paired with the Heart Meridian. Once opened, it would further dispel the mist shrouding the Heart Spirit statue.

By now, Shang Lu had gained considerable experience in breaking through acupoints and meridians.

Furthermore, the Internal Meridian Refining Diagram was a technique perfectly suited for this stage, allowing him to make swift progress.

As the blood energy surged, faint “crackling” sounds issued from his body, marking each acupoint as it was opened.

Finally, after nineteen such sounds, all the acupoints of the Small Intestine Meridian were cleared.

As blood energy entered and circulated through the Small Intestine Meridian, Shang Lu noticed something remarkable:

After a circuit, the blood energy, though diminished in quantity, became more refined and potent.

This discovery delighted him.

He knew the small intestine separates the pure from the impure, but he hadn’t expected that, once the Small Intestine Meridian was opened, this function would apply to his blood energy, purifying and eliminating impurities.

With the Liver Spirit detoxifying and the Small Intestine Meridian refining the blood energy, Shang Lu’s blood would grow ever more pure.

This would greatly benefit his current cultivation, future marrow cleansing, and even his eventual transition from acquired to innate stage!

Shang Lu stopped breaking through acupoints and instead focused on channeling his blood energy in batches through the Small Intestine Meridian for refinement.

Even the blood energy stored within the Liver Spirit was sent through the Small Intestine Meridian, refined, and then returned to the Liver Spirit for later use in cultivation and breaking through acupoints.

Once he had finished, Shang Lu finally went to the latrine to purge toxins.

During this process, he didn’t remain idle; he used his internal vision technique to inspect his body.

More precisely, he examined the benefits brought by the fruit wine and flesh pills.

These two items not only brought a surge of blood energy, but also caused some unusual changes in his body.

The fruit wine bestowed upon Shang Lu a wisp of energy.

This energy was different from blood energy; it resembled the kind of power rat demons and corpse tamers wielded when performing their spells.

Shang Lu was unsure whether this energy counted as spiritual energy or incense power.

Previously, the court had rewarded him with spirit fat, said to be refined from spiritual liquid found in secret realms.

Yet, he had not obtained this kind of energy from the spirit fat.

Shang Lu also did not know what purpose this wisp of energy served.

He tried to channel it, guiding it through his organs and meridians.

The energy was obedient, but after several circuits, nothing changed.

He could only continue to study it slowly.

Additionally, with this wisp of energy, another layer of mist around one of the statues in the Temple of Five Viscera was dispelled.

Now, among the statues in the temple, the heart, liver, and spleen spirits had been confirmed.

The remaining two were the Lung Spirit and Kidney Spirit.

Since the lungs govern energy, this wisp likely reduced the mist around the Lung Spirit.

The last statue, then, must be the Kidney Spirit.

Unexpectedly, the bloody flesh mud was actually beneficial to the kidneys.

Likewise, Shang Lu hadn’t anticipated that the flesh pills refined from rat demons would also have a kidney-strengthening effect, dispersing some of the mist surrounding the Kidney Spirit.

More than that, they greatly enhanced Shang Lu’s hearing.

Even while purging toxins, he could hear the movements outside the courtyard, in the street.

He could distinguish not only voices, but footsteps, breathing, and so forth.

Shang Lu could even infer height, build, gender, and age from these sounds.

As for accuracy, only time would tell.

The dramatic improvement in hearing brought Shang Lu immense joy.

In the strange fog of Yunhua Mountain, no matter how sharp one’s vision, the distance one could see was limited.

In such an environment, hearing was crucial.

Now, with his hearing greatly enhanced, Shang Lu would find hunting and exploring in the fog much smoother.

But with the influx of demons and ghosts into Yunhua Mountain, what new chaos and eerie scenes awaited within the strange mist?