112: Chapter 112 Dan Tu Zi

Lingdan Sect, Outer Sect Elder's courtyard.

Dantuzi sat cross-legged in the Alchemy room, with a half-person-high bronze Pill Furnace slowly rotating before him. The Earth Fire at the bottom of the furnace blazed fiercely, casting a ruddy glow all over his Face.

His hair and beard were completely white, bundled messily behind his head, and he didn't know how long it had been since he groomed them.

A dusty Outer Sect Elder robe was wrinkledly wrapped around his body, and his cuffs and lapel were covered in speckles of scorch marks.

Those were marks burned by medicine dregs that splattered when Alchemy failed. Old marks overlapped with new ones, layer upon layer, and he couldn't be bothered to change into a new one.

His bad temper was famous in the Lingdan Sect.

When those young Disciples within the sect came to ask for advice on Alchemy techniques, he could scold them until they ran out crying.

When those Outer Sect stewards came to report on matters, he couldn't even be bothered to lift his eyelids, and a single word "Scram" could dismiss them.

Over time, no one else was willing to crowd into his courtyard.

The Earth Fire pill room assigned to him was the most remote, and the Spiritual Qi was the sparsest. Even the two spiritual tea trees at the courtyard entrance were drooping and half-dead.

He was also happy with the peace and quiet, closing his doors to do Alchemy and ignoring everyone.

But he couldn't practice Alchemy for much longer either.

He reached out his withered and emaciated palm, spreading it open in the reflection of the furnace fire.

The back of his hand was covered in brown spots, and his skin was so thin that the knuckle joints beneath could almost be seen.

His Lifespan was coming to an end, and his Qi and blood were decaying. He could feel that the time it took for him to recover his spiritual power after each furnace opening was getting longer and longer. Previously, it took only an incense stick's time to fully recover, but now he had to rest for more than half an hour.

His limit was approaching, short as three to five years, or long as no more than ten years.

"My limit is approaching, my limit is approaching indeed. To think that I, Dantuzi, prided myself on being a Genius at Alchemy, and once had soaring ambitions in my youth, who would have ever thought that I would stop at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, with a day when there is no possibility of making any further progress."

Right at this moment, the transmission Jade Slip at his waist suddenly buzzed.

He frowned, picked up the Jade Slip and pressed it against his brow center. A familiar voice came out from the Jade Slip, its tone taken for granted, without even polite opening remarks.

"Dad, your son is tight on money, my Spirit Stones have run out. Can you entrust someone to send some more over this month?"

Dantuzi's hand gripping the Jade Slip suddenly tightened, his beard trembling with anger, and he roared into the Jade Slip.

"Spirit Stones again! Didn't I just allocate eight hundred Spirit Stones to you last month! Do you take your old man for someone who operates a spirit mine!"

He cursed for a long time, but finally suppressed his anger, and said muffledly into the Jade Slip, "Got it, when this month's stipend comes down, I'll have someone bring it back to you."

He threw the Jade Slip onto the table and sighed.

Throughout his life, he married several wives and concubines and had eighteen children, yet only this youngest son tested positive for a Spiritual Root.

Although it was only a Five Spiritual Root with mediocre Aptitude, at least he was the only surviving sapling in Dantuzi's lineage who could still Cultivate.

Over the years, he had poured most of his savings into this son, pouring Medicinal Pills and Spirit Stones in like flowing water, yet that brat remained stuck at the fifth layer of Qi Refining and could not go up.

But what could he do? He couldn't just watch this lineage cut off in his own hands.

The courtyard door was knocked on.

An Outer Sect Disciple carefully pushed the door open, holding a letter sealed with spirit wax in his hands, and bowed to say: "Elder Dan, there is a letter for you."

Dantuzi didn't even turn his head, grabbed the letter, and waved his sleeve casually.

"Alright, you may leave."

The Disciple's mouth twitched slightly, cursing inwardly — Other Elders at least scattered a few Spirit Stones to errand-runners like them as a hardship fee, but this old thing didn't pluck a single hair, not even a kind word.

He dared not show it on his Face, and retreated while complaining inwardly.

Dantuzi tore open the spirit wax seal, unfolded the letter paper, and the handwriting that could not be more familiar came into view. The strokes were vigorous, horizontal and vertical, as smelly and hard as this old fellow's temper.

He narrowed his eyes and read on word by word under the light of the furnace fire.

"Old friend, this should be the last letter I write to you."

Just reading the first sentence, Dantuzi was stunned.

His hand paused slightly, his rough fingertips lingering on the two words 'last' for a moment, and then he continued to read down.

"I don't have many good days left to live in this life. Thinking about it before death, what is most nostalgic is still those years when we traveled and adventured together in our youth."

"That year we lost our way in the Monster Mountain Range, if you hadn't brought a full three bottles of antidote pills, this old man's life would have long since been forfeited."

"Do you still remember? This old man remembers it all for you."

Dantuzi's hand holding the letter paper trembled slightly.

Of course he remembered.

That time he was chased all over the mountains by a Yao Beast, half of his pants were torn off, and he was in a sorry state. Old Wang Tou had mocked him for many years.

The corners of his mouth curved involuntarily, then he straightened his Face again, snorting heavily through his nostrils, but that thin sheet of letter paper was unconsciously squeezed a bit tighter by him.

He continued to read down. Before the emotion had dissipated, the next paragraph made him blow his beard and stare in anger.

"Enough nonsense, let's talk about business. This old man has a grand-nephew named Wang Shoudong, at the eighth layer of Qi Refining, with an especially outstanding Divine Soul talent. I want to send him to your place to learn Alchemy for a few years."

"You teach him well for me, no holding back, no perfunctoriness. This old man puts the words upfront: if you don't teach him well, when this old man goes down to see you, the first thing I will do is beat you up. I mean what I say."

Dantuzi was so angry that he slapped the table with a palm, shaking the teacups to jump three times.

"This old bastard! A person about to die and still so tyrannical!"

He gritted his teeth and turned the letter paper to the next page, then saw the last paragraph.

"As for the stipend, don't worry. Recently, we just wiped out a few nests of blind bandit cultivators, and made a small fortune."

"The stipend will be calculated at fifty thousand Spirit Stones a year, and all Materials required for Alchemy will be provided by the Wang family."

"You just teach the person, no need to worry about anything else. Live well, live a few more years, and watch over the little brats of the Wang family to make something of themselves for me. As for the friendship between the two of us, I don't want it to end after I die. Although descendants naturally have their own blessings, having more interactions won't be in vain for our century-old friendship."

Dantuzi fell silent.

He slowly put down the letter paper, the furnace fire reflecting on his wrinkled Face, flickering uncertainly.

Throughout his life, his temper was bad and his popularity poor. Having stayed in the Lingdan Sect for most of his life, he was merely an Outer Sect Elder, with an annual stipend of no more than three thousand Spirit Stones, and he still had to look at the Faces of those in the Inner Sect.

An Inner Sect Elder's stipend was no more than twenty thousand Spirit Stones a year.

Yet that old fellow who was about to die smashed fifty thousand Spirit Stones at him, not to trade for some Heaven And Earth Treasure, but simply to let his grand-nephew learn Alchemy here for three years.

Of course he knew this was not only old friend affection, but also a transaction. What the Wang family wanted was not Dantuzi's true esoteric inheritance; with Wang Shoudong by his side being influenced day by day for three years, he could learn as much as he could.

But the price offered by the Wang family gave him plenty of Face, and also gave a way out for those unpromising descendants behind him.

"If this were placed back in my youth, I would have already dragged you out for a fight. Spirit Stones are nothing!"

He tucked the letter paper into his bosom, suddenly chuckled, then straightened his Face again, talking to himself facing the letter paper, "... However, fifty thousand a year is enough for your grand-nephew to blow up all the furnaces in this old man's Alchemy room once. Fine, let him come."

He picked up the transmission Jade Slip, glanced again at the message sent by his son just now urging for Spirit Stones, sighed helplessly, threw the Jade Slip back onto the table, picked up the brush dipped in ink, and began to write a reply letter to Wang Chongyang.