After breaking up with my girlfriend, I became a Great Sage of the Demon Clan.

"Master!"

The young Taoist priest stood at the entrance of the courtyard, bowing and clasping his hands in greeting.

"Li Yang, Corporal Li has arrived!"

"Li Yang, come in."

Li Yang straightened his clothes, grabbed the bamboo basket full of snakes, and went inside. The young Taoist boy turned and left.

After the young Taoist boy left, Zhou Yan approached the courtyard. He didn't need to go inside; he leaned against the outer wall of the courtyard and closed his eyes.

The earth spirit's roots extended outwards, and Zhou Yan, using the wall he was leaning against as a starting point, transformed half of the courtyard into part of his body.

Zhou Yan can only achieve this level by relying on the Earth Spirit.

Of course, this was enough. Zhou Yan was able to "see" Li Yang enter the courtyard through a part of his assimilated body in the courtyard, where he clasped his hands and bowed in front of a house with lights on.

“Master Zhang, today I discovered a white creature in Dayang Mountain. Its whiteness is flawless, and its eyes are deep red. It is no ordinary creature.”

"Oh……"

The door of the house, which was lit up, creaked open, and an old man with white hair and beard, who looked like a hermit, came out.

"Li Wuzhang, come in and let this old Taoist see your haul."

Li Yang walked triumphantly into the old man's house.

The old Taoist priest closed the door and walked to the desk where Li Yang was now standing.

Li Yang took out a bamboo basket from his waist, opened it, and took out a red-eyed white snake. The snake did not struggle when it was held in his hand; it just stared at its surroundings with its pure eyes, exuding the innocent beauty of a child.

The old Taoist priest, Qingxu, immediately realized that the white snake had developed sentience and was no longer an ordinary snake.

"Okay, okay..."

Qingxu Daoist's eyes lit up.

"This snake possesses a restrained essence and extraordinary spirituality. If its flesh and blood can be mixed with Gui water and spiritual herbs, it can surely be used to refine an elixir of immortality of exceptional quality."

Li Yang placed the white object into his bamboo basket and then looked intently at Qingxu Daoist.

The Taoist Qingxu was over fifty years old, and he immediately understood Li Yang's intentions.

"Don't worry, Li Wuzhang. When the pill is completed, Qingxu will certainly recommend you for credit."

Li Yang breathed a sigh of relief and clasped his hands in a fist salute.

"I feel unworthy of such an honor."

"Haha, Li Wuzhang is a man of great talent, but because he has no powerful backing in the court, he was sent to work in such a small county. When I, the old Taoist priest, ascend to the capital, I will not let Li Wuzhang's brilliance be tarnished."

Li Yang released his bamboo basket.

"Since that's the case, Master Qingxu is very busy, so I won't disturb you any longer."

The Taoist Qingxu saw Li Yang out the door, then walked back to his room with a smile. He opened the bamboo basket at his desk and took out the white snake.

"Haha, it's actually a snake demon that has gained sentience."

"Okay, okay..."

The Taoist Qingxu held the white snake and paced back and forth in front of his desk.

“Little snake demon, little snake demon, your flesh and blood can help me achieve great things.”

Master Qingxu walked to the bookshelf behind the desk and took out a small knife and a small basin.

As the saying goes, "the longer the night lasts, the more things may go wrong." If the astronomical masters of other counties find out about this snake demon, they might come knocking on our door demanding its return. So it's best to deal with the snake demon now and start refining the elixir tomorrow.

When the time comes, I can just close the door and say it's a crucial moment in alchemy, and not see anyone. Wouldn't that be great?

Having collected his equipment, Qingxu Daoist headed towards his house, but then he thought that the pharmacy was quite far from his bedroom, and walking that distance would be tiring and make him sweat.

He just took a shower, and sweating again before and after sleeping would be very uncomfortable.

In addition, he was not comfortable entrusting his disciples with such good raw materials, and he was not lacking in equipment himself. After thinking it over, he finally decided to process them in his own bedroom.

Anyway, it's just a small snake that's only half a meter long.

Master Qingxu returned to his desk, placed the white snake on the table, and with a knife in his other hand, he smiled.

“Little fellow, your essence, blood, bones and flesh have nourished me. When I become an immortal, it will be as if you are accompanying me to ascend to immortality. So don’t blame me for skinning you and taking your flesh. This is your destiny.”

The Taoist Qingxu plunged the skinning knife in his hand toward the white snake.

But just as the 7th stab was about to penetrate the white snake, a white light flashed. Qingxu Daoist's eyes were fixed on it. After a short while, Qingxu Daoist's head shook, and his good head fell to the ground, rolling for a long time before stopping.

The white snake, which the old Taoist priest had been holding, also fell to the ground. After falling, the white snake crawled up the old Taoist priest's arm and, when it reached his chest, breathed on his broken neck.

This was the spiritual energy that the white snake had accumulated over hundreds of years by breathing in and out the sun and moon. She saw that the old Taoist priest seemed to be injured and wanted to treat him.

However, the injury seemed to be quite serious. After the white snake exhaled a few breaths of spiritual energy, apart from the old Taoist's severed wound healing slightly, the rest of the body was completely unaffected.

The little snake tilted its head in confusion, its tail curling up in front of its head as it began to rub against the scales on its head.

"Squeak..."

The old Taoist priest opened the bedroom door, and a young man walked in.

The little snake looked up at Zhou Yan with a puzzled expression, and Zhou Yan reached out his hand towards the little snake.

"Let's go, I'll take you away."

The little snake instinctively took a step back, but Zhou Yan's hand was faster. Before the white snake could leave, he grabbed its body. The white snake instinctively opened its mouth to bite, but it knew that its venom could kill people, so it stopped when its mouth was in front of Zhou Yan's palm.

Zhou Yan patted the little snake's head, walked out of the old Taoist's bedroom, and closed the door behind him.

Outside the gate is the courtyard, with an open space in the center. In the center of the open space is a tree, and under the tree is a stone Go board. There are also several stone benches around it. It looks quite charming, and you can tell that the owner of this courtyard is a rather refined man.

But despite his refined taste, this old Taoist priest was no good.

Zhou Yan walked out of the courtyard and along several paths until he reached the back gate of Jingtian Temple, where two adult Taoist priests were carrying two large burlap sacks as they walked out.

Zhou Yan stared at the large burlap sack for a while, then sneaked off to the row of shared sleeping quarters behind the back door.

Inside the house were more than a hundred young girls. Some of them were crying, some were tossing and turning with their stomachs in their hands, and some were huddled together whispering.

"Sister, my stomach hurts so much..."

"Just bear with it, just bear with it..."

"Ahua and the others have been taken away by the Taoist priests for treatment. Will they be able to come back?"

"Waaaaah..."

"...I have never seen anyone who was taken away by Taoist priests come back."

"I want to go home, I want to see my mother and father..."

Refining elixirs with Gui water.

After arriving at Jingtian Temple, Zhou Yan, by combining the conversation with the Xuanyi Guards, the words of Master Qingxu, and the old herb gatherer's account of how young women were taken away from the county town every so often, roughly figured out what was happening in this era.

The inside story is quite simple: it must have been during this era that Emperor Jiajing, the "Great Meng Emperor," sought immortality.

So how can one achieve immortality?

Alchemy.

As luck would have it, the raw material for this alchemy was the virgin's menstrual blood.

It's not as simple as just capturing young virgins and waiting for them to produce their menstrual blood each month. To ensure the quality of the raw materials, these captured girls are fed Chinese herbal soups containing strange ingredients every few days. These herbal soups are extremely harmful to the body.

Secondly, every now and then, some young girls from Zhou Yan's village and several surrounding villages would be captured, supposedly to serve as maids for wealthy families in the city, but in reality, they were just used as raw materials for alchemy.

When one batch dies, another batch is replaced.

What Zhou Yan saw at the back door just now was the body of a girl who died from damage caused by long-term drug use.

Lingjingtian Temple was a den of thieves. Zhou Yan was so angry that he lost control and killed the thief leader, Qingxu Daoist.

I've hardly ever seen any Awakened Ones eat people, and you, a pure human, are already using people as medicine?

Disgusting, so disgusting!

This chapter has not been approved.

According to the Ming Dynasty Records, in February of the 26th year of the Jiajing reign (1547), 300 girls aged 11 to 14 were selected from the capital region to enter the palace.

In December of the 31st year of the reign (1552), another 300 people were selected.

In September of the thirty-fourth year (1555), 160 women under the age of ten were selected from the common people; in November of the same year, more than 20 women from the common people of Huguang were selected; in January of the forty-third year (1564), 300 palace maids were selected, for a total of 1,080 people.

After these 1,080 teenage girls were selected, they were fed so-called elixirs and magic pills every day, and waited for their virgin menstrual blood to appear. The menstrual blood was collected and then used to refine red lead pills.

This was not a peaceful process. Every day, some of the palace maids who were recruited died because of the experimentation with medicines and the washing of their bodies with elixirs. Most of the young girls were called "dregs of the medicine" and were subjected to various forms of torture in the palace, making their lives worse than death.

As a result, in 1542 (the 31st year of Jiajing's reign, the year of Renzi), Yang Jinying, a palace maid in Yikun Palace, launched a rebellion and attempted to assassinate Jiajing (but failed), which is known in history as the Renyin Palace Coup.

This was the only palace maid uprising in the history of the Great Xia Dynasty, demonstrating the extent of the suffering these palace maids endured during the Jiajing era.

Now, this torment was laid bare before Zhou Yan. He squatted outside several dormitory rooms, silently listening to the sobbing and suppressed groans of pain coming from inside.

Amidst the groans, several cries grew weaker and weaker, eventually fading away after a few breaths.

Not long after, several Taoist priests in robes came over and carried out several small, thin girls from the shared rooms. These girls appeared to have suffered from poor nutrition in their previous lives, resulting in stunted growth.

Once they were a bit further away, the Taoist priests started chatting.

"Have more people died these past few days?"

"What do you know? The abbot is getting old and a bit impatient lately. He used a stronger dosage of the Huiying Pill formula. I think many of the pills that have been delivered these past few days will die."

"If that's not enough, we'll go to the nearby countryside and get some more."

"Yes, yes, catching people is much simpler than catching snakes. Catching snakes requires going to the mountains, but catching people only requires giving an order."

The Taoist priests went to the back door, took out several burlap sacks, put the dead girl inside, and then walked out the back door.

Zhou Yan followed behind these Taoist priests as they left the northern county town.

To the right of Beiyang County is a small river, and on the opposite bank of the river is a mountain. When these Taoist priests arrive at the mountain, they hold a talisman in their hands. When they arrive at the spot, they throw the talisman on the ground, and the ground automatically cracks open.

The Taoist priests skillfully threw the sack of people into the crack in the ground, and then covered the cracked ground with a thin layer of soil.

"OK OK."

"I hope no one dies tonight."

"Never mind, we've already moved twice tonight anyway, let's just go back to sleep. If someone dies again, we'll deal with it tomorrow."

"These little wench, they never die together, but a few of them die every now and then, making it hard for us Taoist priests to carry them around."

The Taoist priests, cursing and swearing, crossed the mountain and returned to Beiyang County.

At the foot of the mountain, Zhou Yan, who had been hiding behind a tree, came out after the Taoist priests left. The young man looked up at the mountain where people had just been buried.

Mass graves...

A veritable mass grave...

As Zhou Yan walked uphill from the foot of the mountain, his expression changed after a few steps.

Relying on the earth spirit's senses, Zhou Yan felt that there were several half-rotten female corpses buried under his feet.

As you walk further, you see more and more corpses under your feet, ranging from skeletons to half-rotten corpses to those that have just died and are not yet decomposed.

All of these corpses had one thing in common: they were young girls.

After walking from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, Zhou Yan suddenly stopped on a piece of soil and then hurriedly ran to a piece of land that was dark in color and had a clear color difference from the surrounding soil.

Zhou Yan didn't even need to dig; relying on the earth spirit's abilities, he only needed to think for the shallow layer of soil on the ground to separate on its own.

Beneath the soil were two girls. One girl was deathly pale and had begun to show signs of rigor mortis on her body, while the other was breathing weakly but her eyes were still open.

Zhou Yan rushed forward and helped up the girl who was still breathing. When Zhou Yan's hand touched the girl, he could clearly feel that the girl was shockingly thin, and there seemed to be bones with an unusual texture under her skin.

"me……"

The girl, who had been helped up, spoke tremulously.

Zhou Yan grabbed the girl's hand, and with just a gentle pull, her fingernail fell off. Her poor physical condition terrified Zhou Yan.

Even so, Zhou Yan reassured him.

"Tell me what you want to say, and I'll help you with everything I can."

"It hurts..."