Chapter 4 (1/2)
Eternal Life (永生) Ch. 4
Nine Aperture Golden Pellet
“Someone drowned in the water?”
Fang Han immediately jumped into the water, and brought the man ash.o.r.e.
“He’s not breathing anymore, it’s just a floating corpse.” Upon realizing that the man was already dead, Fang Han’s heart abruptly tightened up. There must be a frightening cause for the body in front of him.
This man was already completely dead, his body completely swollen, with one long scar running down his body. Flipping him over, one could see that the wound was completely charred.
“This man was split by lightening?” Fang Han said as he observed the wound, thinking of those in the countryside who had been struck by lightning, who also had this burnt smell.
The clothes that this corpse were wearing, however, were very sumptuous – dark golden clothing with drops of water on top, as if water had rolled onto if from a lotus leaf without the slightest contamination. The clothing was also extravagantly soft and smooth. Fang Han, as a servant of the Fang Clan, had seen enough of these types of clothing, but for the material making the cloth, he had never experienced before.
“What to do? Should I report it, or what? A dead person… it is no small matter!” Fang Han was just about to drop the corpse and report it when he hesitated and thought: the clothes this person wore is that of a rich person, why would he have died here? If I report this and get tied up in this matter, won’t it become troublesome? I might as well bury him here, let him rest in peace, and pretend that nothing happened here. An extra job is not as good as no job.
Upon reaching the conclusion, Fang Han dragged the corpse, trying to find a place to bury it.
“Guang dang!”
At this time, from the breast of the corpse, came the sound of metal, and an iron box fell out. The box, although palm-sized, was very heavy and looked like an inkstone.
At the same time, a picture scroll also fell out.
“En?”
Fang Han picked up the gold and iron box and opened the picture scroll, and upon seeing the pitch black background containing the shadow of the dragon, believed it to be a portal to an unknown s.p.a.ce, and not a simple picture scroll.
“This picture scroll is a treasure, even after soaking in water it hasn’t been destroyed, as regular paper is destroyed as soon as it gets soaked by water. Although Fang Han didn’t recognize this picture, in accordance with common sense, he was able to deduct that it was a treasure.
Afterwards, he once again took out the gold and iron box and held it in his hand, observing it. Atop the box, he found a small locked golden lock.
Curious, he picked up a rock from the riverside, and exerting his might, “Kacha!” broke the golden lock.
“This might be real gold, one liang gold, ten liang silver, the golden lock was also around four to five liang gold. But this is a dead person, to take or not to take? As the saying goes, officials love their wealth, to take is the right way to go.” Fang Han thought for a moment, “Pei, I am but a servant, what nonsense about officials, no matter what position, no matter what job, there is no sentence in the book saying I can’t take it. Might as well.”
[TL: This paragraph… btw, I just realized that liang is a unit of measurement, so the silver he received from the second lady was five liang. I will go change when I can, just a heads up]
Fang Han grabbed the gold and shoved it into his breast.
After grabbing the gold, “Ka cha!” he opened the box.
As soon as it was opened, the thing inside revealed itself.
A dark gold pellet about the size of the thumb which, surprisingly, had nine holes on it, each hole emanating a slight amount of herbal smell. As soon as Fang Han took a whiff, if felt as if everything had cleared up – it was simply divine. His body felt light and alert, his fatigue completely washed away.
Especially amazing was that these nine apertures seemed to be correspondent to the nine apertures of humans which controlled qi flow, unendingly swallowing and spitting qi, as if breathing. It seemed as if the inside contained some strange sort of vitality.
“This gold pellet, compared to the Fang Clan’s Ling’zhi pellet and Xue’can pellet, was better a thousand times.” Fang Han had seen those Fang Clan core disciples occasionally swallow such pellets during their training to help nurture them, those exquisitely refined pills. However, compared to the golden pellet with nine apertures in front of him, they couldn’t even compare, it was like the heavens and the earth.
“I also heard those disciples talk about rumors surrounding such great spiritual medicinal pellets, they can clear your muscles and bones, condition your inner organs, clear congestion, and increase vigor. Swallow one pill, and you can save many years of hards.h.i.+p in training your body, making up for a weak body. Could it be that this golden pellet is one of those medicinal pellets? Just by smelling earlier made me feel so great.”
Fang Han held the golden pellet as if he were holding a diamond, contemplating whether or not to immediately swallow it.
But after contemplating half a day, he still didn’t swallow it, as such a pill shouldn’t be eaten recklessly.
Those Fang Clan disciples, they used pellets to nurture themselves every day, always at a specified time, in specific quant.i.ties, and during appropriate moments.
Fang Han wasn’t stupid, of course he knew, even if it was a great spiritual medicinal pellet, if he didn’t use it correctly, he would receive backlash.
“Mr. Pract.i.tioner, your corpse was picked up by me, I am going to bury you, let you rest in peace, so give me these two treasures for reimburs.e.m.e.nt, and we shall not owe anything.”
Fang Han put the ‘Nine Aperture Golden Pellet’ back into the box while facing the corpse.