Leo Blaze raised the pestle in his hand, monotonously pounding it into the medicine mortar, grinding the luminescent green stone mixed with silt into powder. <br>Although the cave was damp and cold, he only wore a rough cloth garment. Yet, he seemed indifferent, as if none of it mattered to him. <br>He was not alone in the cave; there were other men and women present, all with tied-up hair and dressed in the same rough cloth and hemp rope. <br>The only difference between them and Leo Blaze was their visible physical defects. Among them were albinos and those with polio. <br>This small storeroom cave appeared like a museum of deformities, showcasing various congenital and acquired physical abnormalities. <br>These people's jobs were the same as Leo Blaze's: pounding things, though the items varied. Some dealt with metals and stones, while others with herbs. However, it was obvious that some were not content with their work. <br>"Ah!" A woman's terrified scream drew everyone's attention. <br>In one corner of the cave, a lecherous grin appeared on the face of a fat boy with a cleft lip as he tried to pull an albino girl into his arms. <br>"I'll just do it once, just once, heh heh heh~" <br>Leo Blaze ignored the commotion, closing his eyes as he continued his task. <br>Listening to the increasingly pitiful cries of the woman beside him, the annoyed Leo Blaze cursed under his breath, and single-handedly picked up the stone medicine jar, standing up. <br>"Thunk." The stone collided with bone, producing a dull thud. <br>The fat boy with the cleft lip, now bleeding profusely from his head, sat in a daze on the ground, evidently stunned by the blow. After two seconds, his expression twisted in pain as he clutched his wound and howled. <br>The white-haired and white-skinned girl, spared from a fate of defilement, clutched her clothes and hid fearfully behind Leo Blaze. <br>"I'll tell you! You're done! Do you know who my master is? If he finds out, he'll kill you!" the cleft lip fat boy threatened angrily. <br>"He is nothing, not even worth a fart!" Leo Blaze's words shocked everyone into silence. <br>The others present had never thought this man before them would dare to speak such words. <br>Seeing the expressions of his so-called senior and junior brothers and sisters, Leo Blaze took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in his heart. <br>"What’s wrong with me? Why am I angry with these things? My character is not supposed to be so flamboyant. I can't let these things affect my personality. That wasn't the real me just now. Calm down." <br>As Leo Blaze was calming himself, he heard someone calling him from the door. <br>"Senior Brother Leo, Junior Sister Wang, the Master calls you both over." The tall young man calling them clearly held a different status from Leo Blaze, wearing a blue Taoist robe. <br>Although the robe looked old, with cuffs washed white, it was far better than Leo Blaze's tattered burlap by countless degrees. <br>This man held a horsetail whisk in one hand, a hint of arrogance in his eyes as he looked at the juniors before him. <br>Seeing the young Taoist, the fat boy with the cleft lip immediately donned a gleeful expression. "Haha! You're finished!! Today’s your turn." <br>But Leo Blaze completely ignored him, turning to follow a crooked-mouthed, drooling woman to the door. Her complexion was waxy pale, looking very unhealthy. <br>After taking just two steps, he felt someone tugging on his sleeve, stopping him. Leo Blaze turned to find it was the albino girl he had saved. <br>Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head, filled with terror. <br>Unmoved by this, the cold Leo Blaze shook off her grip with a forceful sweep of his sleeve and strode forward with large steps. <br>Leaving the storeroom led to a larger cave, with many more caves along the walls serving different purposes, resembling the crude craftsmanship of the place’s builder. <br>The entire cave network was vast, with winding tunnels crisscrossing like a magnified anthill. <br>Rotting peach wood was nailed over each cave entrance, deeply carved with names like Spiritual Palace, Old Laws Hall, Ancestor Celebration Hall, and Four Emperors Hall. <br>A naturally formed cave had been transformed into the semblance of a Taoist temple. <br>As the two continued walking through the cave, the crooked-mouthed woman pulled out a lump of blackened substance from her pocket and suddenly offered it to Leo Blaze, saying in her dazed voice, "Want… a sweetener?" <br>Leo Blaze furrowed his brow slightly, seemingly aware of her foolishness, impatiently accepting it and stuffing it into his sleeve. <br>Seeing him take it, she pulled another piece from her pocket, stuffing it into her own mouth, and continued with her silly smile, "Master is good… With Master, there are sweets to eat…" <br>Leo Blaze chose not to say anything, and the two continued walking. After about a quarter of an hour, an ancient, dark, towering elixir furnace loomed before him. <br>The smoking furnace extended all the way to the cave ceiling, its immense size resembling a metallic mountain. <br>The closer they drew, the larger it appeared until its shadow completely swallowed Leo Blaze, filling him with oppression. <br>Besides the massive five-layer furnace, another oppressive presence was the figure in front of it. <br>From the back, he wore a blue Taoist robe, his hair pinned and crowned, sideburns white, exuding an aura of immortal grace. <br>Seated cross-legged on the ground, he seemed engaged in the same task as Leo Blaze, wielding a much larger pestle, appearing more like a giant pillar. <br>With each rise and fall, the sound of metal and stone clashing echoed throughout the cave. <br>"Master… Master!" The crooked-mouthed woman clumsily pinched her left thumb with her right hand, placing her left fingers over her right, bowing to the figure with reverence. <br>As she spoke, the piercing sound of pounding ceased. <br>The figure turned, and despite being somewhat prepared, Leo Blaze's pupils still shrank in shock. <br>The Taoist's front was starkly different from his back; from behind he seemed of immortal grace, but from the front, he was an unsightly old man with a patchy scalp and only a few yellow teeth protruding from a prognathous mouth. <br>"You've come? Good disciple, kept me waiting." <br>With a dirty wave of his robe, the old Taoist levitated, grabbing the crooked-mouthed woman's neck and pulling her back. <br>Before the foolish woman could utter another word, she was tossed into a waist-high stone jar, and the master, with a sinister expression, hefted the stone pestle and pounded it down heavily. <br>"In the year of Dingchou prolong my life, the year of Dinghai protect my soul, the year of Jiazi protect my body, the year of Jiaxu preserve my form, the year of Jiashen fortify my fate, the year of Jiwu guard my soul, the year of Jiachou affirm my spirit!" <br>He lifted the hundreds-of-pounds stone jar with one hand, emptying it into the elixir furnace before him. Immediately, with feverish excitement, he raised his hands to the air. <br>"Ignite the furnace, refine the elixir!" <br>Two overly made-up acolytes emerged from the shadows, fanning the flames and adding various ingredients to the furnace, including metal powders and numerous wriggling creatures. <br>In a short while, a bizarre, intense fragrance filled the air. <br>At this moment, the patchy-scalped master closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stroked the sparse whiskers on his chin, a satisfied expression on his filthy, hideous face. <br>Then, as he slowly opened his eyes, he folded his hands behind his back and turned to look at Leo Blaze. "I heard you called this Taoist priest a fart? Is it true?" <br>In an instant, the air around seemed to freeze. <br>Facing this murdering master, Leo Blaze remained unmoved, slowly closing his eyes to calm his somewhat rapid breathing, silently chanting in his heart, "You can't fool me; it's all fake, all fake." <br>"Speak! Cat got your tongue? Hmm?!" The master's footsteps drew nearer, his blood-soaked stench assaulting like a wall. <br>Trembling, Leo Blaze gritted his teeth, using all his strength, and forcefully opened his eyes. <br>The dark, oppressive cave and temple vanished instantly, replaced by a bright, clean, fresh-scented hospital room. His lower body was tightly bound to the bed with cloth straps.)
