Chapter 113: The Medicine King Sect of Old

"Fellow Daoist Jiao, are you doing business at a loss again?" Li Fan teased.

Seeing a customer arrive, Jiao Xiuyuan's furious expression instantly transformed into a smile.

However, upon hearing Li Fan's banter, his face immediately darkened.

He said awkwardly, "What are you talking about, Fellow Daoist? I, Jiao, never do business at a loss."

Then, he gritted his teeth and whispered, "That kid actually dared to play me. Does he really think I, Jiao Xiuyuan, am an easy target…"

Li Fan felt like he had heard him say this more than once, so he just smiled without a word.

Looking at the small cauldron on the table, he changed the subject and asked, "Fellow Daoist Jiao, this small cauldron is…"

Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes lit up, and he immediately introduced it to Li Fan with enthusiasm. "This small cauldron is quite extraordinary. I went through immense hardships to find it in the ruins of a destroyed Sect."

"Oh? I wonder what use this small cauldron has?" Li Fan became interested. Most items that could survive the Great Catastrophe and be passed down to the present were not simple.

"Do you know of the famous Medicine King Sect, Fellow Daoist?" Jiao Xiuyuan asked mysteriously.

"Never heard of it," Li Fan shook his head.

Jiao Xiuyuan's smile instantly froze.

Fortunately, his professional quality was strong, and he immediately began to explain for Li Fan.

"The Medicine King Sect was also one of the illustrious Sects of the ancient era. It was always famous for its Alchemy and herb cultivation."

"It is said that after the Celestial Venerable of Dharma Transmission preached the Dao, but before the Great Catastrophe arrived, the Sect Master of the Medicine King Sect at that time, Liu Ruchen, had a faint premonition that a great change was about to occur in the world."

"Thus, Liu Ruchen took an extremely firm stance and led the entire Medicine King Sect, using the Medicine King Cauldron as a boat to tear through the Void Realm and depart from this world."

It was the first time Li Fan had heard such an anecdote. "Departed from this world? Where did they go?"

Jiao Xiuyuan shrugged. "That was an event from thousands of years ago. Who could possibly know? They might have gone to a nearby wandering Small World, or perhaps to a brand-new world. Regardless, that's not the point."

"The point is this cauldron!"

Li Fan nodded slightly, while his Clone, Li Fan, quickly searched for the keyword: 'World'.

Relevant information immediately surfaced.

It was quite expensive, actually requiring over a thousand contribution points.

He bought it and read.

Long ago, Immortal Cultivators had already established a basic worldview.

The Cultivation World they were currently in was not the only existing world.

Not only were there many attached Small Worlds and miniature independent grotto-heavens around the world,

But beyond the endless Void Realm, there were other existences similar to our world.

Before the Great Catastrophe, that ancient and prosperous Cultivation World had even shared many exchanges with other worlds.

At that time, Cultivators all referred to themselves as 'Xuanhuang World Cultivators'.

…

Li Fan paused slightly.

"Xuanhuang…"

His thoughts churned as he continued reading.

However, starting from a certain day, this connection and exchange suddenly broke off for unknown reasons.

There were once Cultivators who wanted to cross the Void Realm to investigate the other worlds they had exchanged with.

But none of them ever returned.

Later, the Great Catastrophe descended, and the world underwent a massive change.

The Xuanhuang World became as if it were 'self-isolated'.

Breaking through the Void Realm and leaving this place became infinitely more difficult.

Several centuries after the slaughter ended and order was re-established,

New Immortal Cultivators attempted to re-establish contact with other worlds.

But over these years, nothing had ever been discovered.

However, it seemed that related research was always ongoing and had not been abandoned.

…

"So that's how it is. The Xuanhuang World, huh."

"Could it be that the Mystic Yellow Heart Cleansing Mantra was passed down from the ancient era? But at that time, the immortal-mortal miasma clearly hadn't appeared yet. The timing doesn't quite match up."

Li Fan pondered to himself.

What exactly happened during the ancient era had no clear written records, even within the Tianxuan Realm.

What was certain was that there was no lack of Cultivators who had survived since then until now.

For example, the white-haired old man Li Fan had seen before.

But they all coincidentally remained silent about it, making this period of history seem as if it were shrouded in mist, confusing and blurred.

The Cultivators of today could only catch glimpses of the various things that happened in ancient times based on hearsay.

What Kou Hong had told Li Fan back then was the commonly circulated version in the current Cultivation World.

That the descent of the Great Catastrophe and the inability to cultivate multiple immortal methods happened before the immortal-mortal miasma became prevalent.

But later, Li Fan found the tomb of Yi Xing, an Outer Sect Disciple of the Taiyan Sect.

According to the descriptions on the murals in the tomb passage, when the immortal-mortal miasma was prevalent, the Taiyan Sect clearly still existed in the world.

Yi Xing was the one ordered to be responsible for migrating Mortals.

This contradicted what Kou Hong had said.

Li Fan was more inclined to believe the evidence obtained from 'archaeology'.

"According to Kou Hong's account, some time seems to have passed between the inability to cultivate multiple immortal methods and the full descent of the slaughter."

"Perhaps this period of time was even longer than imagined."

"It makes sense. The Cultivators of that time must have immediately thought of the consequences of not being able to cultivate multiple immortal methods, so they tried every possible way to save themselves."

"The collapse of order doesn't happen overnight. The ancient Cultivation World existed for an unknown length of time; it wouldn't necessarily be so fragile."

"Moreover, the time scale of Immortal Cultivators is much larger than that of Mortals."

"In the ancient Cultivation World, Cultivators were still very long-lived."

"A period of ten or twenty years might very likely just be a single session of secluded cultivation to them."

"True fear, despair, and slaughter should only have completely erupted when their cultivation could no longer progress and their lifespans were nearing their end."

"At first, order could still be barely maintained. But later, the immortal-mortal miasma broke out…"

Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly.

Of course, this was just his speculation based on various known clues.

The truth might still hold some other hidden details.

But overall, it shouldn't be far from Li Fan's guess.

…

While Li Fan was lost in thought, Jiao Xiuyuan saw that after he had spoken a great deal, the other party had no reaction.

So he took the small cauldron and waved it in front of Li Fan's eyes.

"Fellow Daoist, how about it? Do you want this little medicine king cauldron or not?"

Li Fan immediately snapped back to his senses, his expression unchanged. "What exactly is the use of this small cauldron? Fellow Daoist Jiao, say it once more. I was thinking about other things just now."

Jiao Xiuyuan was helpless and could only repeat his introduction. "This little medicine king cauldron was originally used by the members of the Medicine King Sect to plant and nurture various spiritual plants and herbs."

"It contains its own internal space and can continuously and automatically generate Wood-attribute Spiritual Qi to accelerate the growth of herbs."

Li Fan frowned upon hearing this. "With such a treasure, why didn't that person want it just now?"

Jiao Xiuyuan gave an embarrassed smile and didn't lie, speaking truthfully, "Don't you know yet, Fellow Daoist? The first batch of spiritual plants and herbs cultivated in that newly discovered Wood-attribute Spiritual Qi grotto-heaven by the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has already gone on sale."

"The quantity is extremely vast, so…"

Jiao Xiuyuan tilted his head helplessly.

"The price crashed."

Thanks to [list of usernames] for the tips. Thank you everyone.

Thanks to the anonymous fellow bookworm who helped promote my book, thank you.