According to Qiao Zhi, the followers of the Immortal Dao would travel throughout the Spirit Province, distributing the elixir of undying to create living corpses. Hence, the corpse reanimation case was far from an isolated incident.

As it turned out, there was indeed an Immortal Dao base near Azure Sun County. It was called Inkstone Village, and it would later be razed to the ground by the Azure Sun Daoist Temple.

"Inkstone Village? That's not far from the county town," Chu Qiguang mused. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Thus, under Qiao Zhi's instructions, Chu Qiguang sent the cat fiends out of the county town to search for Immortal Dao followers in Inkstone Village.

At this point, Chu Qiguang had already fully tamed the cat fiends through a combination of punishment, reward, and daily ideological reform, and he had a lot of confidence in their stealth and reconnaissance abilities.

In the meantime, he continued with his original plan, buying pills and cultivating as usual.

He visited Daoist Master Law Origin at the Daoist temple and purchased seven Ear Opening Pills for two hundred and eighty taels of silver.

After returning home, he rested for a while, then took his first Ear Opening Pill and began cultivating.

As soon as he took the Ear Opening Pills, Chu Qiguang felt a rush of heat surge into his head. Immediately afterward, the entire world seemed to have become much noisier and more chaotic.

All kinds of sounds overwhelmed him, from the swish of Chen Gang's sleeves as he practiced his fist techniques to the normally inaudible footsteps of the cat fiends.

He immediately covered his ears in discomfort. However, after slowly adjusting to his heightened hearing, he discovered that he had become far more sensitive to his own body. He could detect his heartbeat, breathing, and blood circulation.

From there, he began using the Dragon Subjugation Mantra Qiao Zhi had taught him.

The Dragon Subjugation Mantra likened one's qi and blood to a dragon. The goal was to gain control over this dragon, allowing one to direct their qi and blood at will and send them to the body's four extremities.

With each movement that he made, Chu Qiguang carefully listened to the sounds within his body, slowly and meticulously sharpening his bodily sensitivity.

However, this state of heightened hearing didn't last very long, and he returned to normal after just fifteen minutes.

Eager for more, Chu Qiguang immediately swallowed another Ear Opening Pills.

"You can only take two or three of these pills a day at most," Qiao Zhi cautioned. "You need to stop once you start feeling a little faint or foggy."

However, Chu Qiguang continued taking the pills one after another. Even after consuming all seven in succession, he still didn't feel any side-effects, much to Qiao Zhi's astonishment.

"What the meow?! Does this mean you're immune to pill poison? But how is that possible?"

Qiao Zhi circled Chu Qiguang repeatedly, his eyes wide with shock. He pressed his paws against different parts of Chu Qiguang's body to assess his condition, but all his health parameters were perfectly normal.

The pill poison that was feared like the plague by all Daoist priests hadn't manifested in his body at all.

Qiao Zhi was stunned speechless. All he could do was let out shocked meows as he continued circling Chu Qiguang.

The cultivation aptitude that Chu Qiguang had displayed so far hadn't shocked him nearly as much as this.

"If you're immune to pill poison, then you can take as many pills as you want to supplement your cultivation!" Qiao Zhi exclaimed. "If you take like twenty or thirty pills a day, you'll reach the third state in no more than half a month! Make sure you don't reveal to anyone that you've reached the third state until at least three or four months have passed. Otherwise, you'll attract far too much unwanted attention."

"Looks like I'm going to be short on funds again very soon," Chu Qiguang sighed.

Why do I have all of these advantages? My aptitude, my transmigration, and now my immunity to pill poison... Does all of this have something to do with that Purple Mansion Sacred Scripture?

Unfortunately, Chu Qiguang hadn't found any leads on the Purple Mansion Sacred Scripture yet.

Over the next two days, Chu Qiguang spent most of the two thousand taels of silver he had just acquired on Ear Opening Pills.

This pay-to-win method of cultivation rapidly accelerated his cultivation progress, far beyond even what Qiao Zhi had expected. Before long, he was already able to direct his qi and blood into his fingernails.

That's one of the four extremities done, but I've run out of money. If I want to reach the third state as soon as possible, I'll need at least six thousand more taels of silver.

Chu Qiguang couldn't help but sigh at his current financial situation.

Over the past two days, the Wu and Hao Clans had been searching across the entire county, but they still couldn't find any Immortal Dao followers, and they were starting to lose hope.

All of the rabble-rousers in the fiend tax case had been detained for investigation by the Demon Vanquishing Department. As a result, the unrest in the entire county had instantly died down, allowing He Wenyan to continue the implementation of his land reforms, much to the dismay and panic of the Wu and Hao Clans.

One afternoon, Chu Qiguang had only just returned from Wise Hero Academy when he spotted an exhausted-looking White Rice lying in the yard.

White Rice sprang to his paws as soon as he saw Chu Qiguang and reported, "I was able to track down the cult members, Mr. Chu."

Chu Qiguang's eyes lit up at the news. He picked up White Rice and began stroking him affectionately.

"You must be exhausted. What's happening over there right now?"

***

Inkstone Village was located among a cluster of steep mountains. There was little arable land, so the villagers mostly made a living from hunting and weaving. As a result, Inkstone Village was one of the poorest villages in Azure Sun County.

One night, all of the poorest, most vulnerable, and most oppressed villagers gathered in a foul-smelling forest at the foot of a mountain behind Inkstone Village.

They sat around a fire, their faces filled with fervent longing.

Among them, a wretched-looking old man muttered, "We all know what the Azure Sun Daoist Temple is like. We make so many offerings every year, but our Spirit Province has suffered through years of drought. When has the Profound Origin Dao Lord ever done anything for us? Corrupt officials have destroyed countless families, yet the Profound Origin Dao Lord has turned a blind eye to it all!

"Where is the Profound Origin Dao Lord when all of us are struggling just to eat one meal a day? In a few days, those Daoist priest scoundrels will come again to collect offerings! How are we supposed to give offerings to the Profound Origin Dao Lord when we can't even feed ourselves? The heavens are blind, and the Profound Origin Dao Lord is useless, so why not turn to the Immortal Dao instead? We can all become undying immortals!"