192: You call this a second-rate elixir?

The southern border of the Immortal Realm.

A small city named Frost-Falling City, where light snow falls year-round.

The Spiritual Qi here is thin, and Immortals and mortals live together; it is the most inconspicuous corner on the map of the Immortal Realm.

In the market on the east side of the city, a young girl dressed in a goose-yellow long dress set up a simple medicine stall.

There was no grand signboard at the stall, only a wooden plaque with eight elegant characters: "Free of charge, healing as fate dictates."

The young girl was none other than the fifth Disciple of the Myriad Dao Divine Sect, Gongsun Yan.

She was already at the Late Stage of the Heavenly Immortal Realm; in this small city where the City Lord was only at the Earth Immortal Realm, she was an absolute top-tier existence.

But she restrained all her aura, looking like an innocent girl next door.

She liked this feeling.

Walking in the mortal world, using her Medical Dao to bring a touch of warmth to those creatures forgotten by the Immortals.

This was her Dao.

It was different from First Senior Brother's sword and Fourth Martial Brother's halberd.

"Fairy! Please, I beg you to save my child!"

A woman, holding a young boy whose body was turning purple and twitching uncontrollably, knelt crying before the medicine stall.

The boy's breath was weak, his body covered in a layer of eerie frost, and his flame of life was like a flickering candle in the wind.

The surrounding vendors all shook their heads and sighed.

"It's no use, Sister-in-law Wang. Divine Doctor Li from the Hall of Rejuvenation said the child has been afflicted by Cold Fiend; even the gods would find him hard to save."

"Yeah, you'd better start preparing for the funeral."

Gongsun Yan ignored the comments of the onlookers.

She extended her slender fingers and lightly tapped the boy's forehead.

The Pill Dao Saint Body allowed her perception of life aura to reach an inconceivable Realm.

In an instant.

The cold, domineering force within the boy's body that was constantly devouring his life force had nowhere to hide from her eyes.

"It's not Cold Fiend."

Gongsun Yan whispered to herself.

"It's a type of Demonic Path Cold Poison I've never seen before."

She withdrew her finger and took out a most ordinary porcelain bottle from her robes.

She poured out a dull-colored, unremarkable-looking Medicinal Pill.

This was a Heart-Clearing Pill she had casually refined using the most common Spiritual Plants from the Divine Mountain.

But in the outside world, it was enough to make even a True Immortal go mad for it.

"Have him take it."

The woman looked at the inconspicuous pill, a flash of hesitation in her eyes.

But looking at the child in her arms who was about to stop breathing, she finally gritted her teeth and fed the Medicinal Pill into the boy's mouth.

The Medicinal Pill melted the moment it entered his mouth.

Just then.

An arrogant voice came from outside the crowd.

"Where did this wild brat come from! How dare you commit fraud here!"

The crowd parted.

A young man dressed in a brocade robe and holding a jade fan walked over, surrounded by a group of guards.

A Medicine Cauldron was embroidered on his chest; he was Li Xuan, the Young Lord of the Hall of Rejuvenation, the only Immortal medical clinic in Frost-Falling City.

Li Xuan glanced at the dying boy, then at the remaining gray Medicinal Pill on Gongsun Yan's stall.

The corner of his mouth curled into an undisguised sneer of disdain.

"Heh, saving someone with such a low-grade Medicinal Pill?"

"Are you trying to make him die faster!"

Behind him, the manager of the Hall of Rejuvenation also shouted sternly.

"Bold enchantress! Divine Doctor Li determined this child would surely die! How dare you question the Divine Doctor's judgment!"

"Someone, seize this charlatan!"

Hearing this, the eyes of the surrounding commoners looking at Gongsun Yan changed instantly.

There was doubt, anger, and also pity.

In Frost-Falling City, the Hall of Rejuvenation was the law.

Offending them meant only one path: death.

However.

At the very moment the guards of the Hall of Rejuvenation were about to act.

"Waa—"

A loud cry rang out from the woman's arms.

Everyone looked over in shock.

The boy, who had been purple all over and at death's door, now had a ruddy complexion and was crying loudly.

The layer of eerie frost on his body was dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Replacing it was an incredibly vigorous life aura.

The woman was both shocked and overjoyed; holding her child, she bowed repeatedly to Gongsun Yan.

"Thank you, Fairy! Thank you for saving his life!"

The entire market instantly fell into a dead silence.

Everyone looked at the still-calm girl in the yellow dress as if they were looking at a monster.

The arrogance on Li Xuan's face completely froze.

The disdain in his eyes was quickly replaced by shock and greed.

Impossible!

A Cold Fiend that even his father, a dignified Alchemist of the True Immortal Realm, was helpless against.

Was actually cured by a low-grade Medicinal Pill?

It's not a matter of the Medicinal Pill!

It's the Pill Formula!

This woman must have some sort of Heaven-Defying ancient Pill Formula!

"Stop right there!"

Greed flared in Li Xuan's eyes, and with a flash, he blocked Gongsun Yan, who was about to pack up her stall.

"Where did this Medicinal Pill come from!"

He questioned sternly, his tone brook no argument.

"Speak! Did you steal the secret Pill Formula of my Hall of Rejuvenation!"

Gongsun Yan lifted her eyes, and for the first time, a trace of coldness flickered in her clear pupils.

"Move."

"Move?" Li Xuan laughed out of extreme anger, "Little girl, do you have any idea who you're talking to!"

"Today, you won't leave this place even half a step unless you hand over that Pill Formula!"

He suddenly reached out his hand, grabbing for Gongsun Yan's shoulder.

The guards behind him also simultaneously released the pressure of the Earth Immortal Realm, sealing off the surroundings.

Gongsun Yan sighed softly.

She didn't move.

She just looked at Li Xuan calmly.

"Revered Master said that a healer should have a benevolent heart."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"But one must also have the methods of a guardian deity."

As her words fell.

The ground beneath her feet came to life without any warning.

The hard bluestone slabs of the market shattered inch by inch.

Countless emerald-green vines, like awakening flood dragons, burst out from the ground!

Those Earth Immortal Realm guards didn't even have time to react.

They were bundled up like rice dumplings by these vines containing terrifying life force and hung in mid-air.

Their immortal essence and their blood and Qi were being frantically devoured by the vines!

Li Xuan's hand, reaching for Gongsun Yan, froze in mid-air.

He looked at this scene in horror, his body shaking like a sieve.

"You... who on earth are you!"

Gongsun Yan didn't answer him.

She extended her finger and pointed at Li Xuan from a distance.

A wisp of emerald-green light, finer than a strand of hair, entered Li Xuan's body.

"Ah—"

Li Xuan let out a shrill scream that didn't sound human.

The brocade robe on his body instantly turned to ash.

His body began to grow frantically in an extremely bizarre manner!

His hair grew to several yards in an instant, and his nails became like the sharp claws of a beast.

On his skin, patches of emerald bark and tender sprouts even began to grow!

He wasn't injured.

But the life force within him was being forcibly stimulated to a critical point on the verge of collapse!

This feeling was ten thousand times more terrifying than death!

"I said, move."

Gongsun Yan withdrew her finger, her voice still calm.

The mutation within Li Xuan's body came to a sudden halt.

He collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, losing control of his bowels and bladder, smelling foul.

He looked at Gongsun Yan, with only the most primal fear remaining in his eyes.

"Senior, have mercy! Senior, please spare my life!"

Gongsun Yan didn't even spare him a glance.

She walked to the woman and placed the last Heart-Clearing Pill from the stall into her hand.

"Go on back."

Then, she packed up her small wooden plaque, turned around, and slowly walked away.

Leaving only a sentence echoing for a long time over the silent market.

"Within three days, all medicinal materials in the Hall of Rejuvenation are to be distributed to the entire city at half price."

"Otherwise."

"The entire Hall of Rejuvenation will be turned into a dead forest."

No one dared to stop her again.

Everyone watched the yellow figure disappear at the end of the street with eyes full of awe, as if looking at a deity.

Walking out of the market.

Gongsun Yan opened her palm.

A wisp of imperceptible black cold Qi lingered in her palm.

It was a trace of Cold Poison Origin she had just extracted from the boy's body.

The Pill Dao Saint Body allowed her to clearly perceive it.

This wisp of Cold Poison was not naturally formed.

It carried a trace of bloodiness and resentment from being artificially refined.

"Someone is refining poison using living people..."

A bone-chilling coldness flashed through Gongsun Yan's clear eyes.

She looked up toward the north of Frost-Falling City.

The source of that Cold Poison was right there.

It seemed.

This experience of hers, traveling to save the world, would not end peacefully.