Elara Stonefield had already traveled a considerable distance from that mountain cliff, but she could still faintly hear the clamorous sounds of the youths arguing, carried from behind her. As for how the grudge between "Glutton" Billy and Charles Blackwood would ultimately be resolved, Elara no longer cared to pay it any mind.
The mere thought of "The Calculator" Sammy Kindler's blankly stunned, foolishly comical appearance after hearing her deliberately profound words made her want to burst out laughing inwardly. At this moment, she suddenly felt her mood become unprecedentedly light and cheerful, completely free of the gloom and oppressive feeling caused by her slow progress when she had been cultivating alone in Quietstream Valley.
She lightly made her way out of the pine forest where Senior Apprentice Rory had previously disappeared and then strolled towards the deeper, more remote, and unfrequented parts of the mountain forest. After wandering aimlessly for a considerable distance, a small, gurgling stream with crystal-clear water suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Elara looked up at the still somewhat scorching afternoon sun in the sky, then looked down at the slowly flowing, cool, pure stream water. She instantly thought that in this hot weather, it would be a rather good idea to wash herself thoroughly in this cool little stream.
Thus, just as she bent down and had just plunged her hands, slightly weary from long walking, into the refreshingly cool stream water, a series of groans filled with extreme pain and suppression suddenly, intermittently, came from upstream.
Elara felt very surprised. She had never expected that in such a desolate and unfrequented place, practically in the middle of nowhere, there would actually be other people.
She immediately followed the direction from which the painful groans came, carefully searching upstream. Before long, she discovered not far away, a person also dressed in the Stonefist Outpost inner apprentice uniform, currently lying face down at the edge of the stream. Their entire body was convulsing violently, and their limbs were uncontrollably trembling like chaff in the wind, looking to be in a very bad state.
With just one glance, Elara could tell from the person's pained posture and violent reactions that this apprentice must have suddenly contracted some extremely dangerous and acute illness. If immediate aid was not administered, their life would likely soon be in danger.
She hesitated no longer and dashed forward in a single bound. She quickly took out a small, exquisitely carved wooden box made of precious sandalwood from the small leather pouch she carried with her. After opening the lid, she skillfully retrieved several hair-thin, special silver needles that glinted menacingly in the sunlight. Then, with clean and decisive movements, she accurately inserted these silver needles into several important energy nodes and magical conduits on the person's back.
She quickly finished treating all the key nodes on the person's back. Then, she laboriously and carefully turned the person's entire heavy body over, preparing to treat other important nodes on their chest and abdomen.
However, the moment she completely turned the person over and could clearly see their face, Elara couldn't help but gasp sharply! Because this person, who currently looked to be in mortal danger and extreme pain, was none other than Senior Apprentice "Lightning" Rory, who had just recently displayed his mighty prowess in the contest on the mountain cliff and defeated a strong opponent!
Elara's mind jolted violently, and she froze for a moment. She moved closer and carefully observed the young face she had just seen not long ago, flushed with the spirit of victory.
At this moment, Senior Apprentice Rory had none of the dashing and composed demeanor he had shown when he defeated his opponent on the contest field. His usually cool and resolute face was now contorted into a painful knot from unbearable agony. White foam was constantly trickling from the corners of his mouth. Clearly, this usually imposing Senior Apprentice Rory was now in extreme pain, perhaps even his consciousness was somewhat unclear.
Elara quickly recovered her composure from the initial shock. She pondered for a moment, a hint of decisiveness flashing in her eyes. Suddenly, with the slender silver needles in her hand, as smoothly as flowing water, she rapidly pierced and twirled them on Senior Apprentice Rory's chest, abdomen, and limbs. She continuously inserted dozens of needles without pause. When she finally inserted the last life-saving silver needle, Elara raised her hand as if a heavy burden had been lifted, gently wiped the fine beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead from intense concentration, and let out a long sigh. This silver needle first-aid technique, requiring high precision and rapid response, was also a considerable mental and physical strain for her current self.
When Senior Apprentice Rory's entire body was covered with those gleaming, slender silver needles like a hedgehog, his previously somewhat unfocused gaze finally reconvened. After coughing violently a few times, he finally awoke from his near-comatose state, barely regaining some of his senses.
"You... you are..." He seemed to be trying hard to say something, but due to extreme physical weakness and severe lack of strength, he ultimately only managed to utter these few mumbled words, unable to continue.
"I am from Quietstream Valley. You'd best not speak much now; focus on recovering your strength first." Elara said in a deep voice, simultaneously extending her hand to gently feel Senior Apprentice Rory's cold wrist, carefully taking his pulse. She couldn't help but frown tightly and continued, "I can only temporarily stimulate your life potential with silver needles to awaken you for a short while. The illness you are suffering from now is very peculiar and dangerous; I have never seen it before. I estimate that within the entire Stonefist Outpost, only my master, Physician Morus, might be able to cure you. Unfortunately, he is not on the mountain right now; he went down to gather medicinal herbs some days ago."
"Medicine... medicine is... is..." Senior Apprentice Rory's face, upon hearing Elara say Physician Morus was not on the mountain, immediately became even more anxious and panicked. His lips trembled violently from agitation, and he seemed to want to raise his arm to point at something, but ultimately failed due to his lack of strength.
"Are you saying you have the specific medicine for this strange illness on your person?" Elara, being exceptionally sharp-witted, immediately understood his meaning and asked back with a hint of speculation and uncertainty.
"Mm! Mm!" Seeing Elara accurately grasp his meaning, the extreme tension and anxiety on Senior Apprentice Rory's face relaxed slightly. He used all his strength to nod with great difficulty, indicating affirmation.
Seeing this, Elara no longer stood on ceremony. She immediately reached out and carefully searched and rummaged through Senior Apprentice Rory's clothes, which were already soaked with cold sweat. Soon, she found many miscellaneous items in his tunic. Among them, a small, exquisite white jade phial, warm to the touch, was immediately singled out by her. In her opinion, since this jade phial itself was so precious and exquisitely made, and its mouth so tightly and perfectly sealed, then what it contained must be the life-saving specific medicine Senior Apprentice Rory had wanted to tell her about earlier.
She picked up the small white jade phial and looked back at Senior Apprentice Rory's expression as he lay on the ground. Indeed, just as she had predicted, Senior Apprentice Rory's face was now filled with a joyful look of relief, and he was desperately and continuously blinking at her, signaling that what she held in her hand was exactly what he needed.
Elara hesitated no longer and carefully opened the cap of the small white jade phial. However, unexpectedly, no refreshing aroma of medicinal herbs wafted out from the mouth of the phial as she had imagined. On the contrary, an extremely strong, nauseating, fetid stench, almost tangible, rushed out from the small mouth of the phial, nearly making Elara faint on the spot.
After smelling this peculiar fetid odor, Elara's expression instantly became exceptionally unsightly. She suppressed the discomfort in her stomach and carefully poured out a peculiar, pinkish pill, about the size of a fingertip, from the small white jade phial. This pill, with its pinkish color, looked quite beautiful and alluring, but the strong fetid stench it emitted was so foul and nauseating; the huge contrast between these two was truly somewhat unbelievable.
"Is this pill what you were looking for?" Elara's expression quickly returned to her usual characteristic calmness, but her voice was somewhat low and hoarse from the foul smell she had inhaled earlier.
Senior Apprentice Rory was now so anxious he couldn't even utter a complete sentence, only able to desperately and continuously blink his eyes, hoping Elara would understand his meaning.
"'Bone-Gnawing Pill,' refined from a total of twenty-three extremely rare and precious magical materials, including Helan Grass, Scorpion-Tail Wonder Flower, hundred-year-old Blue Fire Ant eggs, and so on, through a special secret method. After the pill is refined, its appearance usually presents an alluring pinkish hue, but it emits a peculiar, strong fetid odor completely inconsistent with this. After consuming this pill, one can greatly overdraft the user's body potential and life essence in a very short period, thereby forcibly enhancing the user's existing abilities and strength in a short time, at the cost of burning several decades of their future lifespan. Is everything I've said correct?"
Elara stared coldly at Senior Apprentice Rory lying on the ground, enunciating each word clearly and distinctly, delivering the shocking statement above. Her tone carried an undeniable authority and certainty.
Upon hearing Elara's words, Senior Apprentice Rory's face immediately turned as pale as a corpse, without a trace of blood. His eyes were instantly filled with the extreme panic and fear of someone whose deepest secret had been thoroughly exposed.
"Moreover, once this medicine is taken, it's like drinking poison to quench thirst; it must be taken again regularly after a certain period, otherwise one will immediately suffer unimaginable pain. And, each time the medicinal power takes effect and is suppressed, the user must endure intense pain and torment, as if their sinews and bones are being extracted and their marrow consumed—pain unbearable by any human. If one dares not to continue taking this medicine on time, the mildest consequence will be the severance of all magical conduits in the body, complete paralysis, and becoming a cripple; the most severe will be immediate loss of life due to depletion of life essence, soul scattered. And, even if one can strictly take this medicine on time and in the correct dosage every time, within ten years of the first use, the user will inevitably die due to complete overdraft of life potential, their life force depleted." Elara did not pause because of Senior Apprentice Rory's terrified expression, but continued to speak coldly and mercilessly.
"Now, don't tell me that this pill I'm holding in my hand is not that extremely vicious 'Bone-Gnawing Pill'." As Elara said this, she deliberately paused, her gaze as sharp as a blade, staring intently at Senior Apprentice Rory, waiting for his answer.
Hearing this, Senior Apprentice Rory's face now completely showed that unique expression of shame, despair, and helplessness that comes after one's deepest hidden secret has been ruthlessly exposed in public. However, deep in his eyes, there was still an unimaginable, utterly astonished, and incredulous look of confusion, as if he couldn't understand how Elara knew all this.
"Are you very surprised and astonished that such a vicious 'Bone-Gnawing Pill,' whose formula and refining method have been lost for many years and are extremely rare and secret, could be recognized by a mere junior apprentice like me, and that I would know its properties and side effects like the back of my hand?" Elara seemed to have completely seen through all the questions and confusions in his heart at this moment, her tone suddenly shifting as she spoke mockingly about herself.
"Actually, the reason is very simple. Because, I too have personally consumed a pill of this vicious forbidden drug." Elara's words were truly earth-shattering. As soon as they were spoken, Senior Apprentice Rory, who had still harbored a sliver of wishful thinking, was completely stunned on the spot, unable to utter another word. But then, a look of utter disbelief and doubt immediately appeared on his face.
"However, the way I took this forbidden drug back then was completely different from your current method of directly swallowing the whole pill," Elara continued to explain. "Back then, by a stroke of luck, I also only obtained a single pill of this medicine. Moreover, I was very careful to divide that entire pill into exactly ten portions, and then took them in ten separate doses. Each time I took it, I only used a small portion of the powder as a potent medicinal catalyst to be used in conjunction with some other mild, nourishing medicines, to stimulate and enhance the medicinal properties of those main drugs. Therefore, that level of micro-dosing did not cause any overly severe, irreversible harm or side effects to my body. And it is precisely because the contrast between the appearance color of this 'Bone-Gnawing Pill' and the peculiar fetid odor it emits is so huge and obvious that my impression of this forbidden drug has always been very deep and clear. I used to think that apart from the single pill I took in small doses back then due to ignorance and helplessness, there shouldn't be anyone else in this world who would actually risk their life to take such a vicious secret medicine with endless future troubles. I never imagined that right here in our Stonefist Outpost, there would be such an audacious individual." After saying these words, Elara looked quietly at Senior Apprentice Rory lying on the ground with a complex gaze that seemed to carry both heartfelt admiration and a deep sense of pity and regret.
Senior Apprentice Rory seemed unwilling, or perhaps afraid, to meet Elara's gaze, which was filled with such complex meaning. He just gently closed his eyes, no longer looking at Elara, as if trying to escape this cruel reality. However, his violently heaving chest still clearly indicated how chaotic, struggling, and uncalm his current mood was.
"You must have been taking this medicine for several years now, right?" Elara said again after a moment of silence. "If you can make up your mind right now to stop taking this harmful 'Bone-Gnawing Pill,' then I can go and plead with my master, Physician Morus, to specially prepare another secret medicine for you that can neutralize the poison and replenish your deficiencies. That secret medicine might not be able to completely recover all the lifespan you've overdrawn by taking the forbidden drug these past years, but it can at least allow you to live safely and healthily for another twenty or thirty years. However, the price for doing so is that you will likely lose this powerful martial skill and strength you've painstakingly cultivated and are so proud of, ultimately losing all your power and becoming an ordinary person. But if you choose to continue taking this 'Bone-Gnawing Pill,' then, judging from the dangerous situation of your medicinal power suddenly flaring up violently today, you probably only have another five or six years to live, at most, just dragging on a miserable existence. Of course, during these few short years, your martial skill and strength will indeed progress faster and faster due to the continuous stimulation of the medicinal power, even much faster than your current already astonishingly rapid rate of improvement. Since you dared to risk your life to take such a vicious forbidden drug back then, you must be a person of strong will and decisive character. Now, for your own body, whether you want to choose a path of life that is mediocre but relatively long, or a path of glory that is short but can bloom with ultimate brilliance, it's up to you to decide. This 'Bone-Gnawing Pill,' are you going to swallow it right now, or discard it completely?"