Chapter 1306: Chapter 491: Human Pill Elixir Properties (Part 3)
The electric light in the hall still remained brightly lit, and the power seemed stable as the lamps showed no signs of flickering.
The shop counter, however, was particularly clean, not a speck of dust to be found.
"Something’s wrong, completely wrong."
Zhou Xuan remembered, before entering the Secret Realm, Zhao Wuya, Yun Ziliang, and Li Changxun were drinking wine, eating braised and pickled meat.
Fuzi was not good with alcohol, he should have fallen asleep.
Drink and eat until the counter is filled with crumbs and grease, and Zhao, Yun, Li, these three elders certainly won’t clean up,
it is customary that after an overnight drinking party, Little Fuzi would get up early the next day to clean up the mess; it should never be this spotless like now.
"No one in the shop, a clean counter, slowed time."
Zhou Xuan felt he was not in the real world, but an alternate space.
"If the space I’m in isn’t the real world, then where is it?
Spirit Realm? Not quite; netherworld? Even less."
Neither Spirit Realm nor netherworld, Zhou Xuan had been there, never seen such strange sights.
"Go check out the street."
Zhou Xuan moved forward to the shop door, suddenly pushed open the wooden door, then stepped outside as usual.
Before and after the door, Zhou Xuan had walked countless times after arriving at East Market Street.
Outside the door is a section of cement ground, a short half meter forward leads to three short steps extending to the street,
but this time, as Zhou Xuan stepped out, he felt he was stepping into thin air; though agile, he barely managed to withdraw his foot.
At that moment, Zhou Xuan looked over and discovered it was not the street outside but mid-air!
He saw his shop door was fifty yards up in the sky.
He looked down and saw a stretch of apricot-yellow mud ground, with a fire tower in it.
The fire tower resembled a factory chimney, with a stove door at the bottom.
The stove door was open; an old man in rags, wearing a leather apron, was throwing pieces of matter into the stove for burning.
Zhou Xuan focused his gaze; the matter being burned was none other than human hands, legs, thighs, and other parts.
These limbs, once burned, emitted thick white vapor, which rose through the chimney.
The white vapor reached the chimney top and split into several streams before slowly disappearing.
This sight fell into Zhou Xuan’s view; he felt as though unseen "people" at the chimney were eagerly consuming those white vapors — vapor forged from burning limbs.
"What kind of place is this? Whose limbs are being burned?"
Zhou Xuan couldn’t comprehend; he wished to rely on his Divine Skills to descend fifty yards underground to see everything clearly.
But he found — his Divine Skills, in this mysterious space, were unusable.
As he tried to jump outside the door, his body’s instinct warned him that jumping would lead to his death.
The body’s alarm was strong; Zhou Xuan, for experimentation, tried to summon his Bone Teeth.
But no matter how he activated his mind, the Bone Teeth wouldn’t obey and couldn’t be summoned.
"Indeed, my Divine Skills are utterly unusable."
Without Divine Skills, Zhou Xuan couldn’t descend to the ground tens of yards away.
He could only sit at the doorway, watching the old man continuously throw limbs into the stove, which burned to produce white vapor, then consumed by the chimney "people."
These scenes kept playing out; Zhou Xuan watched, becoming bored,
nonetheless, when the old man burned the eleventh limb — Zhou Xuan noticed this limb’s fingers wore a green Ring.
This Ring, Zhou Xuan had seemingly seen somewhere before, but where exactly, he couldn’t recall.
Not remembering, he simply stopped trying.
"Perhaps, this isn’t another space but hallucinations from taking the Human Pill."
Previously, Zhou Xuan heard Alchemist Bai Lu mention, the Human Pill could enhance the consumer’s Incense Battle Power, and offered other benefits, but had side effects — the most significant being mental confusion.
"Since it’s confusion, it naturally leads to strange hallucinations."
Zhou Xuan shook his head, sitting on the threshold, continued waiting — waiting for this "hallucination" to dissipate.
Hallucinations stem from the effects of the elixir; once the effects fade, the hallucinations would naturally cease.
"Let’s just wait."
"If these are truly hallucinations, then the effects of the Human Pill are truly terrifying, able to build such an illusory world for the consumer."
Zhou Xuan thought of this, subconsciously took out his Pocket Watch, checked the time — six twenty.
...
East Market Street, Zhou Family’s Jingyi Shop,
Yun Ziliang along with Li Changxun and Zhao Wuya, drank with enthusiasm.
"Changxun, this red wine tastes good; initially, I thought it was just sweet water, something kids drink, but this slight tartness and bitterness has quite a flavor."
"Indeed, though I still think it’s not as tasty as yellow wine."
Li Changxun stood up holding himself up, went to the kitchen, and brought out two jars of yellow wine, poured three cups, distributing them to Zhao Wuya and Yun Ziliang.
Zhao Wuya pushed the cup back, pointed at the clock not far away and said: "It’s already six twenty...Daybreak is near, I’m done, going back to sleep."
"I’ll advise you not to tempt fate, just stay here and drink, nothing will happen."
Yun Ziliang pulled Zhao Wuya over, pressing him onto a seat."
"What do you mean by tempting fate?" Zhao Wuya asked.
"Did you forget what day it is today?" Yun Ziliang said: "Today is Hua Zi’s spirit return; ’Heaven and Earth’ might be doing something in East Market Street now, we mortal beings should be cautious to avoid."
"Is there such a saying?"
"If not for your Grand Master, you’d be in trouble — this martial world is slippery everywhere, heed the elders’ advice."
Yun Ziliang handed the yellow wine to Zhao Wuya, scolded: "Drink! No one leaves until eight...Hmm...why is the wind so strong tonight."
He looked towards the shop entrance, though the door was tightly shut, he felt a cold draught relentlessly blowing into the shop...
