Chapter 257: Pharmacist

Chapter 257 The Medicine Master

Xiao Wu paused for a moment, then a smile touched his lips. He made a soft sound and lifted his gaze to the sky, his pale eyes filled with scattered moonlight, like stars filtering through cloud cover.

This wasn’t the Shangling Sect, and he no longer had to be the revered Lord Pingwu. With his cultivation destroyed, he waited alone in Wuwang Palace awaiting his end. At this point, the sect’s rules no longer concerned him. He could finally set aside his burdens and recall that grand festival from over a decade ago—the bustling shops hawking their wares in the streets, the warm glow of lanterns in the soft night, and the assortment of small curios he’d never had the chance to look at properly.

Xiao Wu said, "There actually is something."

He tried to pull out a memory from the distant past. "It was an irregularly shaped toy with many protruding edges. It seemed like it could be taken apart."

Xie Shu replied, "A Luban lock."

He committed this to memory.

Xiao Wu continued, "There was also a kind of food—heated iron sand in a pan, scooped out into round shapes with little spikes. It smelled very sweet."

Xie Shu said, "Sugar-roasted chestnuts."

He committed this to memory as well.

Xiao Wu mentioned several other things, and with each one, Xie Shu’s lips pressed tighter together. The festival where Lord Pingwu had been punished was nothing more than a small village gathering at the foot of the mountain. Though lively, it had nothing truly special to offer. The townsfolk, after a year of hard work, would treat themselves to a few hot sugar-roasted chestnuts during the Lantern Festival, maybe buy two jin of braised pork head, and that would be enough to satisfy their cravings.

Yet Xiao Wu didn’t even know the names of these things.

In Xie Shu’s conception, Lord Pingwu was a man well-versed in classics, history, philosophy, and all manner of esoteric knowledge. Whenever players encountered a problem, he was the first person they’d think to ask—a walking encyclopedia and ready sage. But when it came to these ordinary, everyday things, he had no experience at all.

"...Xiao Yu? Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Xiao Wu had finished speaking. He hadn’t actually expected Song Xiaoyu to bring him anything. Trapped in this confined space, blind and alone, he simply found it pleasant to reminisce with someone. Without realizing it, he’d said far more than he intended. When Xie Shu remained silent, Xiao Wu chuckled softly. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you buy anything. You likely don’t have much to spare, do you?"

Song Xiaoyu was the lowest-ranking servant in Wuwang Palace—he probably hadn’t saved much.

Xie Shu replied, "No need to worry, Immortal Lord."

Xiao Wu said, "Just buy whatever you like—I’ll tag along and enjoy it too."

After speaking, he placed the only surviving bird on the bedding and gathered the rest. The courtyard held a well, a sickle left behind by the wall, and scattered dry branches. Xiao Wu collected them: "Just right for a fire."

Though blind with severed meridians spasming in pain, it didn’t hinder his daily life. He moved more deftly than Xie Shu. Before long, the two were gathered around a small fire, eating roasted birds.

Xie Shu washed his hands, tore off a piece, and offered it while mentally prompting, "66?"

The system eagerly took it.

As it munched away, two animated egg icons appeared on the screen: "*Sniffle*... Now this is real food!"

Since his body didn’t need food, Xie Shu had eaten little these days. But 66, stubborn as ever, sampled every dish—sometimes making Xie Shu fear the electronic lifeform might get food poisoning.

After Xie Shu took a small taste and the system ate its fill, the birds were picked clean. When Xie Shu rose to leave, Xiao Wu stood too, lingering by the door to remind him, "Xiao Yu, don’t buy too much. You’ll need money later."

Xie Shu turned back. Xiao Wu stood framed in the doorway, brows slightly furrowed, his white robes still bearing faint bloodstains despite repeated washings. The dying embers at his feet crackled, casting flickering orange light across his jaw—giving his skin a jade-like glow.

He genuinely worried this young man, whom he’d met only briefly, might overspend for him.

Xie Shu gave a quiet hum.

To Xiao Wu, his life resembled those fading embers—time was short. But Song Xiaoyu still had years ahead: chances to leave the mountain, return home, use his savings to care for his parents or provide for his sisters. Yet Xie Shu knew the truth: time was running out.

The temple fair was set for the fifteenth. Song Xiaoyu’s fate in the plot? The seventeenth.

As for the interim period between now and the temple fair, the protagonist is neither Xie Chunshan nor Song Xiaoyu, but another person.

—The Mad Pharmacist.

Having endured enough suffering at this point in the plot—first the Water Prison, then experimental drug testing—Xiao Wu's story had already been sufficiently harrowing. According to the storyline structure, it was time for a rebound from rock bottom. Thus, the developers arranged for another character to help Xiao Wu rebuild his meridians.

In the game’s early stages, many background details remained unfinished, with only vague hints. The Mad Pharmacist had no concept art, no voice acting—just a barebones character blurb in the script: "Neither hero nor villain, obsessed with medicine."

Though nominally affiliated with the Medicine Hall, the Mad Pharmacist operated beyond its jurisdiction. He roamed the mountains of Wuwang Palace day and night, seeking rare herbs, hybridizing them in his quest to create never-before-seen medicinal strains.

And he succeeded.

By chance, he cultivated a herb seed that, when attached to the inner meridians, behaved like soil—rapidly growing into meridian-like conduits. These could forcibly break through severed meridian blockages. Paired with the proper Art, they allowed the damaged pathways to rekindle qi flow, offering a chance to return to the immortal path.

The only problem?

Agony.

Meridians span the entire body. For someone like Xiao Wu, even basic movements were painful—let alone having them ruptured from within.

Now, Xie Shu felt a twinge of regret. (Xie Shu, the real-world game developer, now regretted this storyline.)

Had he known the game would become reality, that Xiao Wu would stand before him as a living person, he would have forced the writers to change this segment.

But in the original setting, severed meridians were a game-breaking flaw. Aside from the Mad Pharmacist’s solution, there was no fix. For Xiao Wu to escape Wuwang Palace and reclaim his identity as Lord Pingwu, this was the only way.

Originally, Xiao Wu met the Mad Pharmacist’s Art with distrust. The technique was unorthodox, riddled with side effects, and he refused to try it. But the seeds required the Art to work. Though the pharmacist was eager, Xiao Wu’s reluctance left him powerless.

The turning point came with Song Xiaoyu.

On the seventeenth of that month, Song Xiaoyu once again sneaked into the Water Prison with porridge. As luck would have it, he collided with Palace Lord Xie Chunshan.

Xie Chunshan treated Xiao Wu like pure cat-and-mouse games. With his rival in his grasp, he neither wanted him dead nor alive—only to torment him intermittently before tossing him back to recover. This time, he arrived on a whim, hatching a fresh scheme.

A few of Xiao Wu’s meridians remained intact. Xie Chunshan considered crushing them one by one.

But spotting Song Xiaoyu, he reconsidered.

Where’s the fun in forcing it? Far better to make Xiao Wu do the deed himself—to willingly sever his last remnants of qi.

So Xie Chunshan seized Song Xiaoyu and declared, "If the Immortal Lord severs them for my amusement, I’ll release him from the palace."

True to Xiao Wu’s nature, he agreed.

The brutality spoke for itself. Yet Xie Chunshan broke his word. His "release" meant shoving Song Xiaoyu off the Hundred-Step Pavilion before Xiao Wu’s eyes.

Below lay a chasm of unfathomable depth—where not even yellow cranes could fly across, let alone survive the fall.

All Xiao Wu heard were the boy’s screams, fading into the abyss.

The script described Lord Pingwu as expressionless, his face icy as a winter peak. Yet his fingers clawed into his palms, drawing blood.

Xie Chunshan clapped in mock delight. "Immortal Lord, spare me that look. The land beyond the pavilion isn’t Wuwang territory. Since he’s left, it counts as ‘released.’"

Now, Xiao Wu had no choice but to accept the Mad Pharmacist’s Art.

A prodigy who’d once touched the pinnacle of cultivation, he regained staggering power within months. Despite his wounds and the Art’s corrupting influence, he evaded Xue Sui’s pursuit. Under cold moonlight, he descended the Hundred-Step Pavilion, gathered Song Xiaoyu’s scant remains from the scavengers, and vanished from the palace.

Xie Chunshan raged, but with Xiao Wu gone, the ocean was wide for the fish to leap, the sky boundless for the bird to fly. Even the Lord of Wuwang Palace was powerless. Their next meeting would be at the Immortal-Demon Grand Tournament.

The onlookers sighed with emotion, recalling how during the last Immortal-Demon Grand Tournament, Xiao Wu, the Righteous Path's once-in-a-century genius, had clashed with Xie Chunshan, the demonic cultivators' once-in-a-century genius. Xie Chunshan lost by a hair’s breadth, leaving a scar an inch long on his shoulder blade. Two decades had slipped by since then—Xie Chunshan had become the Palace Lord of Wuwang Palace, ruling over the demonic sects, while Lord Pingwu had vanished without a trace. No one knew if he had died somewhere within Wuwang Palace, become a nameless grave.

Yet, just as the tournament concluded, a veiled figure landed gracefully onto the arena, wielding a three-foot-long sword, calling out Xie Chunshan by name.

Xie Chunshan glanced down at this reckless challenger, noting the Withering aura swirling around him—clearly a practitioner of demonic arts.

According to the demonic sects’ rule, the position of Palace Lord belonged to the strongest. Whoever killed Xie Chunshan would become the next Lord of Wuwang Palace.

Naturally, Xie Chunshan agreed.

They exchanged over a hundred moves on the arena, their blades clashed, shaking the earth. In the end, the challenger raised his sword, its edge piercing skin, tracing the scar from twenty years ago—before plunging straight through Xie Chunshan’s heart with a wet *thunk*.

Xie Chunshan stared at his chest in disbelief, his face went slack, before collapsing in excruciating pain. His eyes widened as he hissed, "Who… are you?"

The man did not answer, but through the gaps of the swirling sword energy, Xie Chunshan caught a glimpse of the face beneath the veil—

A face both icy and regal.

Lord Pingwu.

This demonic cultivator shrouded in Withering.

Blood poured in rivers from Xie Chunshan’s chest, staining the opulent robes of the Wuwang Palace Lord a deep crimson. Blood bubbled at his lips, his pupils dilating in shock. His lips trembled, trying to speak, but only broken gasps escaped his throat.

Xie Chunshan wanted to ask: *Did you hold back?*

The same sword technique. The same spot. A scar from twenty years ago, now a fatal wound in the present.

The Lord Pingwu of today bore no resemblance to the gentle, composed youth of two decades past. Exhaustion lined his brow as he sheathed his sword, closing the chapter on their feud.

"Back then, we were young. Sparring with swords didn’t require life or death. But now…" Xiao Wu looked down at him, his eyes like pale quartz empty, his demeanor as cold as ever—yet his aura was that of a drawn sword, brimming with overwhelming fury.

He said icily, "Xie Chunshan, you should die."

*Xie Chunshan, you should die.*

With that, Xie Chunshan’s role came to an official close. Once completed, Xie Shu would return to the 21st century, resuming his mundane life, while Xiao Wu remained in the game world, living incognito as a rogue cultivator in the Zhongnan Mountains—unaffiliated with any sect, spending his days in idle freedom, tending to flowers and herbs. Occasionally, he would casually guide young disciples who had lost their way in the mountains and showed potential. Only centuries later, when the main timeline of the game began, would he finally become the Xiao Wu that Xie Shu knew.

It seemed Xie Shu’s part was nearly over.

He waited for the Mad Pharmacist to sneak into the Siyou Pavilion and deliver the Art to Xiao Wu.

As for that scene of severed meridians—well, he could skip past it.

Thus, the period before the temple fair and the Mad Pharmacist’s arrival became Xie Shu’s brief respite. He continued pretending to be Song Xiaoyu every day, chatting and laughing with Xiao Wu, all the while secretly keeping an eye on the Mad Pharmacist’s movements.

If the Art proved too painful to cultivate, Xie Shu, as Song Xiaoyu, would leave Xiao Wu a few pain-numbing remedies.

But as days passed, the Mad Pharmacist… did nothing.

Xie Shu waited one day, two days, three… five! By the time the temple fair was just around the corner, the Mad Pharmacist still hadn’t made a move!

Xie Shu & System 66: "?"

They put their heads together, scouring the script again and again—the timing was clearly written. It was supposed to happen now.

Where was the hiccup?

Xie Shu’s identity made it inconvenient to investigate the pharmacy, so System 66 slipped in instead.

A day later, it came back looking weird.

Xie Shu: "What happened?"

66 hemmed and hawed before finally giving up and said: "Host, do you remember that energy blast you threw to scare Wu Buke at Hundred-Step Pavilion?"

Xie Shu suddenly got a bad feeling.

66: "The Mad Pharmacist happened to be gathering herbs on the mountain you blew up at the time... well... he got caught in the blast, broke his leg, and is now bedridden, barely alive."

"..."

Great.

Author's Note:

Mad Pharmacist: "Jesus Christ, are you insane?!"