Just after swallowing the Elixir, Leo Blaze felt as though a warm flame was igniting within his core energy center, a flame that only seemed to burn brighter and fiercer. The scorching sensation was so overwhelming that he couldn't even pay attention to the nausea welling up inside him.<br>"Xuan Yang, you should go back and rest. The effects of the Elixir are quite intense, and it will take some time to fully absorb it."<br>"Yes, Master."<br>Stumbling back to his quarters, Leo Blaze leaned against the doorframe and dry-heaved, only to find he could only bring up some clear water. The entire Elixir had already been completely absorbed.<br>"Crack, crack." Every joint in Leo Blaze's body was cracking, his body convulsing uncontrollably. By this time, the fiery warmth from his core energy center had spread through his limbs. It felt as though he was wearing a thick winter coat in the middle of summer, his entire body seemed to be boiling.<br>The heat left his mind hazy, and Leo Blaze lay on his bed, watching the ceiling spin above him. He reflected on all that had just transpired and recalled the looks of fear and despair from everyone in the ingredient room.<br>He had become an accomplice to Master Dan's nauseating deeds, imposing the same horrors onto others that had been inflicted upon him. Though they might be illiterate, they were certainly not foolish. In the face of absolute power, whatever he did seemed meaningless.<br>"I have to kill him. I must find a way to kill him!" Leo Blaze roared internally with a crazed fury. His right hand instinctively gripped the edge of the stone bed, and as the final sentence echoed in his mind, the veins bulged on the back of his hand. With a "crack," he wrenched off a piece of the hard stone bed.<br>This change caught Leo Blaze by surprise. He looked at his hand, then at the stone fragment he held. He quickly realized that this was the result of the Elixir. It wasn't just his strength; other aspects had changed as well. Leo Blaze even felt like he could see a bit farther. The Elixir gave him a sensation akin to rebirth.<br>Yet, when he thought about how he had acquired this power, he felt a wave of nausea surge up again.<br>"Brother Leo? Are you alright?" Lily White cautiously peered in through the door. Leo Blaze lifted his head, looking at her with a complicated expression, unsure of what to say at that moment.<br>Lily White took a step forward and said, "Brother Leo, you don't have to blame yourself. We all know that you’re not free to choose. If... I mean, if Master calls on me again, don't send anyone else in my place. Anyway... it’s the same end for all of us."<br>Leo Blaze didn't want to discuss this. Seeing the bleeding on her forehead, he took out some Elixir he had prepared earlier and handed it to her. "Take it, it'll stop the bleeding."<br>Lily White looked at the Elixir in Leo Blaze's hand, and fearfully shook her head. "I won't take Elixirs, absolutely not."<br>Leo Blaze let out a dry laugh and casually tossed the Elixir aside. "Yeah, every medicine has some poison. It's not good to take them."<br>Lily White bit her lip, pondering for a moment before asking Leo Blaze, "Brother Leo, do you want to deal with Master?"<br>Leo Blaze's face changed, nervously glancing towards the door, and quickly moved to shut it securely.<br>"Don't worry, Master can't hear us now. He relies on 'Mr. You' to monitor us. Every time there's a market day, 'Mr. You' has to go back to attend it."<br>"What's Mr. You?" Leo Blaze asked in confusion, hearing the term for the first time.<br>"Mr. You is just Mr. You, invisible and intangible. I heard from my grandfather that only those with great cultivation can command them."<br>"Oh?" A thought sparked in Leo Blaze's mind, and he made a note of this crucial information.<br>"When is the market day?"<br>Hearing this, Lily White looked at him with puzzlement. "The market day is on the first and fifteenth of the month, Brother Leo. Don't you even know this? Didn't your parents take you to the markets?"<br>Leo Blaze shook his head. The memories in his mind, whether real or illusion, showed he had only ever lived in the city, never participating in these rural market gatherings.<br>"Brother Leo, let's get back to the main topic. Do you truly want to deal with Master?"<br>Leo Blaze's expression turned serious. "Of course, I'd love nothing more than to see him torn apart!"<br>Lily White took a deep breath and nodded with determination. "Then count me in, Brother. I want to help with this!"<br>Looking into her resolute eyes, Leo Blaze realized that Lily White might not be as fragile as he had thought.<br>"Alright, you're in," Leo Blaze agreed. He really did need allies right now.<br>After thinking carefully for a while, Leo Blaze said to her seriously: "Just the two of us isn't enough. Go watch over the ingredient room, see if there are others who are dissatisfied."<br>Others might not dare to resist Master Dan, but those in the ingredient room were destined to die as herbal activators. There must be some who are unwilling to accept their fate—this fundamental conflict would be key, and among them, there must be people to recruit.<br>"Okay," Lily White nodded and turned to leave.<br>After sitting for a bit, Leo Blaze picked up the round jade pendant tied around his waist and thought of the senior brother who had failed in his escape.<br>"Xuan Yang, Xuan Yang, was your group also gathered in a similar way? Hopefully, I won’t meet the same end as you did."<br>In the following days, Leo Blaze devoted himself entirely to integrating into Breezy Haven, organizing the ingredient room meticulously, both people and materials.<br>Faced with such a proactive disciple, Master Dan naturally offered rewards. He imparted various basic Elixirs to Leo Blaze, as if truly grooming him as a disciple.<br>These ordinary Elixirs weren't particularly effective, at best treating minor ailments and injuries for Leo Blaze.<br>Moreover, Leo Blaze wasn't sure if it was Master Dan's Elixirs in particular or if all Elixirs in this world were like this, but they seemed to have a limit. Consuming too many turned curing into harming.<br>There were also taboos; they couldn’t be mixed, as that easily led to mishaps.<br>Rather than saying Leo Blaze could now become a clumsy doctor, it was more accurate to say he had become an adept poisoner.<br>The Elixirs weren't the key; what mattered was that through these interactions, his relationship with Master Dan gradually warmed. Sometimes, Master Dan even let Leo Blaze assist him during Potion Making.<br>When Master Dan accepted another young disciple, Leo Blaze was no longer the youngest, thoroughly integrating into Breezy Haven.<br>Through such close contact, Leo Blaze confirmed his suspicion that Master Dan indeed couldn't read and was very resistant to others reading.<br>He didn't allow his disciples to surpass him in anything, which was why most of his chosen disciples were illiterate.<br>This made Leo Blaze feel something was off. He remembered what Master Dan had told him before.<br>"The method to Achieve Eternal Life is written in The Venerable Lord's Celestial Tome, and it was personally given to me by The Venerable Lord himself. Tell me, who else in the world can Achieve Eternal Life? He said I could, so I certainly can!"<br>Since the Venerable Lord supposedly gave him a Celestial Tome, and none of the other disciples could read, nor could he, who then had read it to him?)
