“Oh, those two pills.”
Dai Zifu nodded slightly.
“You took them?”
Not many people knew about the side effects of Luo Han’s pills—only Luo Xing, Pei Qingshuang, Chen Anqi, Bai Li Qin Mo, Ye Li, and Dai Zifu.
As for Luo Han, the one who refined them, she was completely unaware.
After all, the prescriptions were given by Pei Qingshuang, who had the final say on what effects they had—the ultimate right of interpretation belonged to her.
“Yeah, I took them.” Luo Xing laughed bitterly. “But those side effects… why didn’t you guys warn me? Why didn’t you stop my sister?”
He recalled what happened last time after taking Nourishing Spirit Pill and Qi Gathering Pill…
‘Tsk… too painful to look back on, too painful to remember.’
“There was no other way.” Dai Zifu shrugged. “Master is currently using the excuse of improving the prescription to fob off Junior Sister. If she found out that all the pills she refined have side effects, it might affect her state of mind.”
But now there was a solution: every time Luo Han refined a new pill, Pei Qingshuang and the others would immediately take it to the Punishment Hall and have the imprisoned heretics test it. After observing any side effects or effects, they would tell Luo Han.
If the side effect wasn’t harmful, it was treated as the “main effect”; if it was minor, it became an “additional effect.”
For example, with the Clarity Nourishing Pill, Pei Qingshuang said it was a Youthful Appearance Pill, with the additional effects of cleansing impurities and purifying spiritual power. She recommended not moving after taking it and cultivating on the spot for the best results.
As for other pills with minor side effects, like the Clarity Pill that could turn someone into a direction idiot, she explained that its effects were better than ordinary Clarity Pills.
It was the same for the other pills.
After hearing Dai Zifu’s explanation, Luo Xing nodded.
‘Mm… that’s fine, I suppose…’
‘After all, as her younger brother, he didn’t want his sister to be sad because she couldn’t refine a single normal pill…’
‘How does she even do it?’
‘This ability is almost conceptual—isn’t it godlike?’
“This time was an accident.” Dai Zifu said to Luo Xing. “Your sister was rushing to refine the Nourishing Spirit Pill and Qi Gathering Pill for you back then, so we couldn’t stop her from giving them to you.”
Moreover, according to Pei Qingshuang’s observations, any pill personally refined by Luo Han had surprisingly good effects—it was just the side effects…
Dai Zifu: “Anyway, Master said it won’t kill you. And even if you die, as long as your soul isn’t completely destroyed, there’s still a way to save you. Otherwise, the concept of possession and reincarnation wouldn’t exist.”
“What are the side effects of the Clarity Nourishing Pill and Qi Gathering Pill?”
“The Clarity Nourishing Pill makes people abnormally confident—even to the point of arrogance.”
“What about the Qi Gathering Pill?”
Hearing the words “Qi Gathering Pill,” Dai Zifu’s eyebrows twitched involuntarily.
Her expression turned somewhat odd, and she said to Luo Xing, “It seems to… make people unlucky…”
Luo Xing: “…”
‘So that’s how it is…’
‘The side effect of the Qi Gathering Pill…’
‘So that was what led him to a series of suicidal behaviors.’
‘He knew it—how could it be such a coincidence that just as he broke through, Ye Li happened to return?’
‘At the time, he was puzzled: he had clearly posted a note on his door saying he was in seclusion. No matter how domineering Ye Li was, she would never come in if she saw it, yet she did anyway.’
‘Afterward, he went out to check and found that the note he had stuck on his door had blown away somewhere.’
‘Putting it all together, he suspected at the time that among the Nourishing Spirit Pill and Qi Gathering Pill, one definitely had a side effect that made people unlucky.’
‘Even though he had already guessed, hearing it with his own ears still made Luo Xing feel incredible.’
‘After all, bad luck…’
‘…was too mysterious…’
‘This kind of luck-based thing was no longer a conceptual ability.’
‘Is my sister Luo Han really the same Luo Han from the original novel “Han Li Jie”?’
‘Could she be a transmigrator with a system?’
Dai Zifu was equally baffled.
After all, she was the one who tested the Qi Gathering Pill.
The heretics who took the Qi Gathering Pill all made some breakthroughs, more or less—for example, from the late Foundation Establishment stage to the Golden Core stage, or from the mid Foundation Establishment stage to the late Foundation Establishment stage.
At the time, she didn’t see any significant side effects on them, so she thought the Qi Gathering Pill was an exception and had no side effects.
But then, nine days later, she learned from the Punishment Hall disciples about the miserable experiences of those heretics who had taken the Qi Gathering Pill…
Some heretics were mistaken for enemies by other disciples and beaten to a pulp; some were conveniently used as test subjects for pills or as targets for spiritual techniques by other disciples or elders.
And some had it even worse—they experienced every stroke of bad luck possible. Especially that one named Zhu Zhengben…
According to the Punishment Hall disciples, after that day, he confessed to everything he had ever done, and even admitted to things he hadn’t done, just to get it over with…
He even admitted that it was he who stole Yushuang Fairy’s belly pouch three hundred years ago.
The Punishment Hall elder was shocked at the time.
Not to mention that he was only thirty years old at the time—the age didn’t match at all—just the distance…
Yushuang Fairy’s Snowflake Palace was tens of thousands of miles away in Beiliang. How could a Foundation Establishment cultivator have gotten there?
Thus, Pei Qingshuang and the others learned that the side effect of the Qi Gathering Pill was to make people unlucky…
Unlucky… Wait?
Mentioning this, Dai Zifu suddenly remembered something.
Chen Anqi had mentioned wanting to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm recently—she wouldn’t have used the Qi Gathering Pill, would she?
The Qi Gathering Pill had some effect on cultivators below the Soul Formation stage, but the effect varied with cultivation level.
Best for Foundation Establishment, second best for Golden Core, minimal for Nascent Soul.
So could it be that Chen Anqi had been missing lately because she took the Qi Gathering Pill during her breakthrough, became unlucky, and something went wrong?
It wasn’t impossible.
After all, when they learned about the heretics’ experiences, Chen Anqi wasn’t there, and she had been almost invisible in the following days. So she didn’t know that the side effect of the Qi Gathering Pill was bad luck.
Meanwhile, Luo Xing was also deep in thought…
‘Compared to the heretics’ experiences, his seemed…’
‘If it wasn’t as bad, then it was fortunate.’
‘But this also elevated his understanding of Luo Han’s “special ability” to a new level…’
‘A pill that could make people unlucky—that was no longer just a side effect; it was a nearly conceptual “Debuff.”‘
‘Was this a skill an ordinary person could have?’
Luo Xing now seriously suspected that his sister Luo Han also had a system…
Or…
“Senior Sister Dai.”
Just as Dai Zifu was wondering if something had happened to Chen Anqi, Luo Xing suddenly spoke up: “Can I try refining pills?”
‘Perhaps…’
‘…he had that ability too?’
“You?” Dai Zifu looked at Luo Xing with a strange expression. “You want to try refining pills?”
Luo Xing nodded: “Yes, I want to try.”
“But…” Dai Zifu looked Luo Xing up and down for a while. “Aren’t you a sword cultivator?”
Sword cultivator?
Refining pills?
These two…