Chapter 542: Beware of Yourself Secretly
Pharmacist Feng was someone Yang Haoran was meeting for the first time today; he had never seen the man before, and his understanding of him had come solely from Ma Yuanjin's oral account.
From Ma Yuanjin, he had learned that Pharmacist Feng was an extremely eccentric and difficult person to get along with. Beyond that, he had received no further information.
However, even in this brief encounter today, he found that the information he had gathered from Ma Yuanjin was too one-dimensional. Pharmacist Feng was not only eccentric and hard to deal with, but his more striking traits were decisiveness and ruthlessness.
This scene unfolding before him was a clear example.
The old exorcist had used Pharmacist Feng's life as a threat, believing he could intimidate Pharmacist Feng and force him to compromise.
But it didn't work. Pharmacist Feng showed no sign of yielding, and even snapped his neck the moment he had the chance. Such ruthlessness and decisiveness were not qualities just anyone possessed.
Yang Haoran observed the scene. Although he remained silent and a smile still played on his lips, a newfound wariness towards Pharmacist Feng's ruthlessness had taken root in his heart.
Towards such a formidable and ruthless individual, he had no choice but to heighten his vigilance, lest he suffer unimaginable harm. A ruthless character who could disregard his own life, coupled with such an eccentric personality—it was impossible to predict what unexpected actions he might take.
Even though Yang Haoran had just helped him, Yang Haoran wasn't so naive as to believe Pharmacist Feng would be grateful, or that he would receive satisfactory benefits in return. After all, with precedents in mind, he had to be cautious.
The old exorcist's eyes were wide open, his facial expression frozen—a complex mix of disbelief, fear, and resentment.
Under the influence of the potent poison, pustules began to erupt on his skin, green smoke rose from his clothes, and his flesh sloughed off in chunks.
"I will give you what you want. You won't have made this trip in vain. But before that, could you help extinguish the great fire here?"
Pharmacist Feng spoke calmly, a hint of weakness apparent in his voice. However, compared to before, his voice now held less coldness.
The entire valley was currently engulfed in raging flames. This great fire had been caused by the first exorcist Yang Haoran had slain earlier. Although Pharmacist Feng had just used the lake water to deal with the Black Talisman Master, that attack had only put out the fire unleashed by the Black Talisman Master; the valley-wide blaze remained largely unaffected.
If left unchecked and allowed to persist, it wouldn't just be the entire valley reduced to cinders, but the nearby mountains would also be engulfed in a sea of fire.
"Heh heh, no problem. " Yang Haoran chuckled, agreeing readily to Pharmacist Feng's request. As his words fell, he instantly flashed into existence high above the valley.
Yang Haoran didn't possess any talismans that could suppress flames, nor did he understand such arts. Thus, extinguishing the raging inferno here would be somewhat troublesome for him.
If he chose to use brute force, mobilizing the Spirit Power within his body to forcibly put out the fire, it would certainly work, but it would result in a significant depletion of his Spirit Power.
He didn't trust Pharmacist Feng. He had no idea what Pharmacist Feng would do next—whether he would fulfill his promise and grant his requests, or if he had some other scheme in mind. He couldn't know. Therefore, before that, he was unwilling to overly expend his Spirit Power.
Although he still had quite a few Soul Pills on him now, and even if his Spirit Power was heavily depleted, he could replenish it at the fastest speed in a short amount of time. However, his unwillingness to excessively expend his Spirit Power was a combat habit of his. It had nothing to do with whether he possessed Soul Pills or not.
Having Soul Pills meant it didn't really matter, but if he didn't have Soul Pills and had developed such a habit of wasting power, then it would be entirely detrimental and bring him no benefit whatsoever.
Not wanting to overly expend his Spirit Power, yet still needing to extinguish the fire, Yang Haoran pondered briefly, and a solution immediately came to mind.
He mobilized the Spirit Power within his body and then conjured four black walls of light around the valley. With these four black walls of light in place, the flames within the valley would be contained, preventing further spread. Once all combustible materials within the valley were consumed, the great fire would naturally die out.
And the black walls of light he had conjured with Spirit Power, though possessing no offensive power, were incredibly strong defensively. The valley's inferno simply couldn't burn through the black walls of light—of this, Yang Haoran was absolutely confident.
After completing all this, Yang Haoran approached the corpse of the first exorcist he had slain. Gazing at the body, split in two, he decisively extracted the soul from within the corpse, forcibly coalescing it into a Spirit. Throughout the entire process, he wore a smile, his movements so practiced it was almost chilling.
The soul was tossed into a Soul-Gathering Bead. The souls of those he personally slew he had no intention of sending to the Underworld, to avoid inviting trouble upon himself. Thus, he collected them separately, intending to use them to refine Soul Pills once he returned.
After collecting the soul, Yang Haoran cast out two fire talismans, igniting the two severed limbs. He then moved to where the Black Talisman Master's bones had fallen, and from the scattered bones on the ground, Yang Haoran extracted his soul.
In a situation like the Black Talisman Master's, where the body was devoid of flesh and blood, his soul would undoubtedly be hidden within the bones. If undisturbed by external forces, the soul would naturally coalesce after seven days.
If a corpse was cremated, reduced to a pile of ashes, the soul would naturally hide within that pile of ashes. If the destruction was so complete that not even ashes remained, then the soul would hide in the area where the physical body had turned to dust.
For an Underworld Official like Yang Haoran, as long as the deceased's soul hadn't undergone Soul Transformation, then whether the deceased had a corpse or not, condensing their hidden soul into a Spirit was all the same.
After collecting the Black Talisman Master's soul, Yang Haoran also gathered the soul of the Black Talisman Master's young girlfriend into a Soul-Gathering Bead. Only then did he return to Pharmacist Feng's side.
Under Pharmacist Feng's gaze, he forcibly extracted the soul of the old exorcist, now a pile of white bones, from his body. He also found the man's magical artifact not far from the corpse, and, as if utterly alone, placed the artifact into his independent spatial storage.
From the moment Yang Haoran moved to contain the fire's spread, to him collecting the old exorcist's magical bronze mirror—all this, though lengthy in description, had actually transpired in mere minutes. When he had completed everything, he turned his gaze to Pharmacist Feng.
After a few minutes of rest, Pharmacist Feng's body had not only failed to recover, but had grown even weaker. Just a few minutes prior, when Yang Haoran had left, he had still been standing. Now, upon Yang Haoran's return, he was already seated in the mire.
"I don't possess effective means of extinguishing fires. Thus, I could only contain the blaze, preventing its further spread. This method of handling it—I wonder if Pharmacist Feng is satisfied with it? If not, I can only resort to brute force to put out the fire."
Yang Haoran said, a smile on his face, as he looked at Pharmacist Feng. His body appeared to be standing on the ground, but in truth, his feet hovered, not touching the earth. The soles of his feet maintained a distance of ten centimeters from the ground.
He could have floated higher, but doing so would have appeared highly disrespectful. However, if he were to step directly onto the ground, it was mire down there, and also poisonous black water. That was why he chose to keep his body suspended at this particular height, neither being impolite nor having to sink deep into the mud.
"You've already done this, so why bother asking if I'm satisfied or not? It's enough that the fire doesn't spread further. My valley burned, so be it."
Pharmacist Feng spoke, then struggled to rise from the mud.
"Where do you wish to go? Do you require my assistance? " Yang Haoran asked with a smile.
"No need. I don't require anyone's support to move. Follow me. I'll take you to a place. Once there, I can give you what you desire."
Pharmacist Feng said as he continued speaking and walked forward. Yang Haoran watched Pharmacist Feng's retreating back. Though the smile still graced his features, his heart grew a little more wary.
"This old fellow, what tricks does he intend to play?"
Yang Haoran mused to himself. After a brief hesitation, he, bearing his doubts and vigilance, followed behind Pharmacist Feng.
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