Time passed.
In Blackwater Town, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.
The Dao children who worked in the alchemy rooms every day moved with even greater haste than before.
Fortunately, after the official announcement of the Great Conscription, the workload in the town decreased significantly.
The Dao children no longer had to rush about, but instead found themselves with ample time to worry.
When the day of the Great Conscription finally arrived, the town transformed into something resembling a military camp.
Pedestrians carried swords, bows, and arrows at their waists, and the Dao children no longer bothered to hide the ferocity on their faces.
Some even lost all sense of restraint, believing the town would tolerate their behavior.
They drank and shopped on credit, and when refused, they resorted to violence.
Thankfully, these troublemakers were quickly subdued by the patrolling Dao children.
The Great Conscription, which occurred once every twelve years, required more than half of the town's Dao children to participate.
However, the town still had a group of seasoned Dao children who had survived for a long time, and none of them were to be trifled with.
With them managing the situation, the Great Conscription appeared chaotic on the surface but was actually proceeding in an orderly fashion.
The Dao children from the various halls and chambers were summoned in groups according to their affiliations, waiting to be led out of the town by their respective hall masters.
As for the scattered Dao children who didn't belong to any specific hall, they were gathered in the streets and alleys, overseen by assigned Dao children from the town.
The night before the Great Conscription, Yu Lie did not stay in the quiet room of the alchemy chamber.
Instead, he spent the night in his solitary stone house.
He didn't practice his cultivation, refine medicine, or even meditate.
He simply slept through the night.
The next morning, as dawn broke, the deep, resonant sound of a horn, resembling a bull's bellow, echoed through the air, startling the mynah bird in the stone house.
The bird immediately squawked, "Master, wake up! Master, wake up!"
Yu Lie slowly opened his eyes, washed up, and tidied himself.
He checked his Blood Toad Pouch and the luggage he had prepared to mask his true intentions:
"A set of talisman paper, two Armored Horse Talismans, seventy-two Blood Strengthening Pills, twenty-four high-quality Blood Strengthening Pills, sixty Beast Taming Pills, twenty-four Flesh Mushroom Antidote Pills, two large bottles of Hemostatic Powder, three bottles of Insect Repellent Powder, seven bottles of Bone Dissolving Powder, five bottles of Scent Eliminating Powder..."
In addition to the talisman paper prepared by Daoist Guo, Yu Lie had spent the past few days refining a variety of suitable pills.
He had prepared everything he could think of, especially the Blood Strengthening Pills.
These pills not only aided cultivation but could also serve as a substitute for fasting pills and had healing properties.
Yu Lie had prepared a large quantity of them.
The high-quality Blood Strengthening Pills were made from the eggs of the Black Snake Fish King, making them even more potent.
A single pill was equivalent to at least three ordinary pills, and even if Yu Lie advanced to the rank of a high-level Dao child, they would suffice for over half a month of cultivation.
If all these pills were sold, they could easily fetch another blood weapon!
After finishing his inventory, Yu Lie carefully stored everything back into his Blood Toad Pouch.
In addition to the crucial talismans and pills, the pouch contained a variety of miscellaneous items, such as fishing rods, medicine pots, and some prepared medicinal herbs.
Yu Lie had filled the pouch to its brim.
Once everything was prepared and he was certain nothing was missing, Yu Lie donned a layer of dark scale armor that fit snugly against his body, followed by a layer of tight-fitting outer clothing.
Although he had consumed the Black Snake Fish King down to its bones, Yu Lie had deliberately preserved a large piece of its skin and scales.
After tanning them himself, he had crafted an inner layer of armor.
With this armor and his own copper tendons and iron bones, even if someone attacked him with a blood weapon, they would struggle to break through his defenses.
Moreover, Yu Lie discovered that when he activated the dark energy on his skin, the armor would harden, further enhancing its protective capabilities.
It felt as though he was wearing a suit of blood weapon armor, which was quite remarkable.
Smoothing out the last wrinkle on his outer clothing, Yu Lie took a deep breath, slung a dark red longbow over his back, called for his mynah bird, and stepped out of his house.
The red bow he carried was the blood weapon he had chosen from Daoist Guo's shop.
It was made from the heartwood of the Arrow Poison Red Tree, soaked in the mucus of the Arrow Poison Red Frog for ten years, and strung with the frog's long tongue.
The bow had the unique property of imbuing any arrow placed on it with poison over time, making it a deadly weapon.
However, the bow's toxicity was so potent that ordinary Dao children had to carry antidote pills to avoid poisoning themselves.
But for Yu Lie, this wasn't a concern.
He could easily apply poison to his arrows or even lick them if necessary.
The real reason he chose this bow was its nickname—the Self-Shooting Bow.
As a blood weapon, once a Daoist dripped their blood on it and refined it, they could shoot arrows with the precision and speed of a frog's tongue, achieving pinpoint accuracy.
The longer the bow was used, the more accurate the Daoist's shots would become.
Over time, the Daoist would develop an intuitive sense for archery, making it easier to use other bows in the future.
This was the main reason Yu Lie chose the bow.
He wasn't skilled in archery and didn't have time to practice, but since he wasn't afraid of poison, he could use the bow indefinitely, fully unlocking its potential.
With the addition of gunpowder arrows, he could even kill enemies from nearly a thousand paces away.
With his bow and arrows slung over his back, Yu Lie carried his luggage and stepped out of his courtyard.
To his surprise, his female landlord was lounging on the wall in broad daylight, lazily observing the surroundings while munching on melon seeds.
Seeing Yu Lie, the landlord waved at him and said flirtatiously, "Little Yu, don't die out there. I'm still waiting to have some fun with you."
Yu Lie didn't look back, simply waving in response as he strode toward the alchemy chamber.
The weather was unusually clear that day, and the road was dusty.
When Yu Lie arrived at the Poison Hall, all the Dao children who were supposed to participate had already gathered, waiting only for him.
As soon as he arrived, they surrounded him, creating a noisy commotion, accompanied by the sounds of mules and donkeys.
It turned out that Radish Head and a few others had managed to acquire some small horses and donkeys.
Although these animals couldn't be ridden, they could carry supplies and navigate mountain paths, making them useful for the journey.
After some comforting words and anxious waiting, a Daoist wearing a mask and riding a black leopard arrived, leading a group of people.
He gestured toward Yu Lie, and someone immediately ran over to brief him.
A thick stack of documents was handed to Yu Lie, detailing various tasks and rewards, including talisman coins, pills, weapons, and even rare items like high-level cultivation techniques and blood weapons.
These were the tasks the town's Dao children needed to complete after descending the mountain, with both rewards and punishments.
However, Yu Lie only glanced at the documents, noting the words "Marrow Cleansing Pill," before handing them to Radish Head to distribute among the group.
For lower-level Dao children, the Great Conscription was merely a matter of scouring the mountains and forests to complete tasks, much like corvée labor for ordinary people.
But for mid-level Dao children like Yu Lie, it was a trial—a chance to gain experience and resources to advance to the high-level Dao child rank.
Suppressing his thoughts, Yu Lie waved his hand and led the Poison Hall Dao children to join the leopard-riding Daoist's group.
The streets of Blackwater Town were bustling as various groups of people passed through, drawing the attention of the town's ordinary residents.
The Dao children descending the mountain were filled with a mix of excitement, anxiety, and fear, chattering non-stop.
But once they left the town and entered the vast wilderness, their voices quieted, leaving only tension in their hearts.
Fortunately, within a hundred miles of the town, there were roads leading to various villages and mountain peaks, and Dao children who had been scouting ahead came to meet the groups from the different halls.
Yu Lie's group was led to a village sixty miles from Blackwater Town.
Since all the Dao children were at least mid-level, the sixty-mile mountain journey wasn't too difficult, and no one fell behind.
They arrived at the village without incident.
Contrary to the expectations of many Dao children, the village was well-prepared.
The villagers had voluntarily offered their homes, moving themselves into pigsties and sheep pens to accommodate the newcomers.
Each Poison Hall Dao child was given their own room, and the villagers provided fruits, meat, and wine, with men, women, and children all pitching in to serve the group.
This sudden comfort surprised some of the Dao children, who had expected a harsh life outside the town.
After all, many of them had been crammed into small spaces in the town, with little room to call their own.
"Hey! This trip out of town isn't so bad after all!" one Dao child exclaimed.
"True," another agreed.
"This place will be our base for the next while, and with high-level Dao children stationed here, it shouldn't be too rough."
Someone else muttered, "Maybe the herb gathering will be tough, but for now, let's enjoy this."
And so, most of the Dao children indulged in the rare comfort, some even borrowing wives from the villagers—more than one in some cases—and retreating to their rooms.
Yu Lie, however, remained cautious and warned his subordinates not to let their guard down.
But after a few words of advice, he let them be, seeing that some couldn't resist the temptation.
The Dao children's revelry continued late into the night.
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the village finally quieted down, returning to darkness, with not even the sound of dogs barking...
(End of Chapter)