Mortal Alchemy

"Brother Chen!"

"Mm!"

Chen Ping walked along the road, greeted by passersby.

However, regardless of who it was, their faces looked unwell, their eyes were dull, and their lips were purplish-black.

The poison had entered their organs.

Chen Ping was no exception. At fifteen years old, his face was pale, his eyes were lifeless, and his lips were purplish-black.

This was the Pill Hall of the Immortal Clan, the Mu family.

He was a non-Mu family member with immortal potential brought back by the Mu family, but he was not yet at the fifth level of Qi Refining, making him a mere servant.

The duty of these servants was to test pills.

Only by passing the assessment could they become apprentice alchemists.

Before that, they had to continuously test pills.

It was said that the Mu family was nurturing them, allowing them to take pills to increase their cultivation for free.

Once they reached the fifth level of Qi Refining through pill testing, they could be promoted to apprentice alchemists.

However, many would become disabled or even die before that due to pill testing...

Therefore, the Mu family had many non-Mu family members with immortal potential like him.

"Chen Ping, this is the pill you will take today." Deacon Tang handed Chen Ping a somewhat dark pill.

"Yes, Deacon Tang." Chen Ping expressionlessly took the pill and swallowed it in front of him, then sat down on a prayer mat to refine it.

He swallowed a Qi Essence Pill, which could speed up Chen Ping's absorption of spiritual energy.

However, the quality of this pill was poor, and it contained a lot of pill toxins. After taking it for a long time, the pill toxins would enter the body, blood, and organs, and finally, the bone marrow, turning him into a useless piece of dregs.

Each small room had five prayer mat positions.

Chen Ping randomly chose a position to sit down and began to refine the pill. A familiar feeling surged into his heart, followed by the intensified attack of pill toxins, causing Chen Ping's facial features to twist and his body to twitch uncontrollably.

If he stopped cultivating at this moment, he would feel much better.

However, he came from a rural family of cattle herders, and it was not easy to become a cultivator. Even though the pill toxins were bad for his body, Chen Ping was unwilling to waste the medicinal power and seized every opportunity to improve his cultivation.

He hoped to reach the fifth level of Qi Refining as soon as possible and end this inhuman life.

The four people beside him were also gritting their teeth and persevering like Chen Ping.

Chen Ping's mother passed away when he was six years old, and his father passed away even earlier, leaving him an orphan.

Before his mother passed away, she gave him two things: a small token and an ancestral grayish-white bead.

After his mother passed away, his aunt's family took over his home and treated him harshly, only giving him one meal a day.

This situation improved when he was nine years old. A female cultivator descended from the sky and told him that he had an immortal token and might have immortal缘, allowing him to enter the world of cultivation.

Chen Ping seized the opportunity to change his fate. Under the female cultivator's guidance, he cultivated for a hundred days and became a first-level Qi Refining cultivator.

Then, he was brought to the Immortal Clan, the Mu family.

He thought his fate would improve, but he never expected that becoming a Mu family immortal seed from a cattle herder was just jumping from one pit to another dark pit.

The Mu family was a large clan in the world of cultivation, backed by the Eastern Xuan Sect. Their ancestor was a Golden Core cultivator of the Eastern Xuan Sect who could live for four hundred years!

And the world of cultivation was dark, strict, and cruel. Immortal arts such as alchemy, talisman-making, and cultivation techniques were tightly concealed. It was as difficult as ascending to heaven for others to obtain knowledge about these arts.

Thus, immortal seeds like Chen Ping came in handy. The Mu family recruited cultivators with spiritual roots like Chen Ping at a very low cost, taught Chen Ping cultivation techniques, and made Chen Ping work for the Mu family like a beast of burden.

Moreover, to obtain freedom, one had to work like a beast of burden for the Mu family for sixty years.

Many people did not even live to sixty years old.

Chen Ping had been in the Mu family for six years and was at the fourth level of Qi Refining, not yet qualified to work like a beast of burden for the Mu family.

He had to cultivate to the fifth level of Qi Refining, undergo the first transformation of spiritual power, generate mana, and then enter the Pill Hall to become an alchemy apprentice and start refining pills to earn spirit stones for the Mu family. Only then would the sixty years begin to be counted.

Many people couldn't hold on until then and died.

The servant courtyard where Chen Ping lived initially had six immortal seeds, just like him.

The remaining five quickly couldn't bear the pain of pill testing and chose to use their family connections, bribe, and dredge relationships to transfer to other departments of the Mu family to work.

But Chen Ping came from a rural background, where would he have connections? He could only be a pill-testing boy under the Pill Hall, suffering day and night!

He had been cultivating for six years and understood the rules of the cultivation world.

Without background, resources, or money, what cultivation are you doing?

Just cannon fodder.

The money here refers to the spirit stones of the cultivation world.

Chen Ping had a five-element mixed spiritual root, and his aptitude was very poor.

Normally, he would never be able to cultivate to the third level of Qi Refining in his life, but with the pills provided by the Mu family, he entered the fourth level of Qi Refining at the age of thirteen.

Deacon Tang told him: "Chen Ping, you must be grateful, otherwise, how could a five-element mixed spiritual root like you cultivate to the fourth level of Qi Refining?"

Chen Ping suffered torture and was treated like a beast of burden, yet the Mu family wanted him to be grateful.

This Deacon Tang was also just a beast of burden of the Mu family, but he was even speaking well of the Mu family.

Chen Ping, who had suffered torture and pain, vowed that when he cultivated to the fifth level of Qi Refining, he would refine pills to earn money, and when he cultivated to the tenth level of Qi Refining, he would apply to leave the Mu family and search for Foundation Establishment resources.

Foundation Establishment was the dream of every Qi Refining cultivator, to live for two hundred years, join the Eastern Xuan Sect, and become a big shot!

He smiled bitterly: "...I might not even pass the fifth level of Qi Refining and will die from pill toxin backlash."

But even so, Chen Ping had no regrets.

At least it was much better than being treated harshly by his aunt's family at home, at least he could eat and dress warmly in the Mu family.

Perhaps the fate of a cattle herder like him was supposed to be like this.

Pill toxin backlash not only made his body very bad but also dragged down Chen Ping's cultivation speed and eroded and polluted his spiritual root.

This was even worse for Chen Ping, who already had a five-element mixed spiritual root.

As the last trace of medicinal power dissipated, Chen Ping's pill-testing session for today ended.

Chen Ping's facial features returned to calm, and he gasped for breath, as if a drowning person had finally come ashore and could breathe.

The Deacon Tang at the door just looked at Chen Ping with a indifferent expression:

"Chen Ping, you can go back to eat and rest."

Chen Ping's lip color seemed to be even darker. He stood up and walked, his legs were weak and seemed to be shaking.

He barely cupped his fist and said with a firm expression:

"Yes, Deacon Tang."

"Sigh." Deacon Tang sighed: "Chen Ping, you're already like this, aren't you willing to bow your head?"

"As long as you agree to be the Mu family's son-in-law, these bitter days will be over."

The Mu family was so kind, making people pill-testing boys and torturing them to the extreme. Seeing that you couldn't hold on, they changed their methods to torture you.

Let you marry a collateral daughter of the Mu family and become the Mu family's son-in-law, and the children born would be surnamed Mu.

Not only would they make you work like a beast of burden for the Mu family, but the Mu family also wanted your descendants to work like a beast of burden for the Mu family.

And once you stepped into the fifth level of Qi Refining, you wouldn't have to be a son-in-law, but marry a concubine daughter of the Mu family as your wife.

But many people died before they could hold on to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

A suffocating feeling enveloped Chen Ping, making him a little breathless.

He barely squeezed out a smile:

"Deacon Tang, I appreciate your kindness, I'll hold on a little longer. If I really can't hold on, I'll be the Mu family's son-in-law."