Chapter 21: Pill Furnace Pig

Seeing Su Tan sigh and shake his head, Chen Feiyang's sallow face instantly darkened, his eyes flickering with a fear he fought hard to suppress. Or rather... it was despair!

Everyone said he had no talent for cultivation, but he stubbornly refused to believe it and refused to give up. He believed he just hadn't encountered the right opportunity yet; otherwise, he would surely soar into the heavens. Su Tan's fortune-telling was incredibly accurate. Infallible, even. Chen Feiyang had come simply to see if he was truly entirely devoid of hope. Even though he already knew the answer deep down, he still clung to the expectation of a miracle. But seeing Su Tan's expression... panic set in.

"Could it be... I really am destined for an ordinary life?" he wondered.

He couldn't accept it. They said heaven and earth were impartial, treating all beings as straw dogs. They said all living things were equal. But... why was he the only one denied the chance to cultivate immortality?

"Master, do I... do I have any destiny for cultivation?" he asked, waiting for Su Tan to deliver the final verdict.

Chen Feiyang had faced countless doubts and suffered innumerable blows on his journey here. Making it this far had been anything but easy. He was on the verge of a breakdown.

He knew it was a dead end. He knew the path was blocked, but he still wanted to walk it because it was his dream! If Su Tan told him today that he truly had no chance, Chen Feiyang might actually give up. And at the same time, a part of him would die. His spirit would die. From then on, the man who lived on would merely be a hollow shell devoid of dreams, a puppet who only knew how to farm and work.

"Do you really want to cultivate?" Su Tan asked, not giving a direct yes or no.

"Yes! I want it even if it costs my life!" Chen Feiyang answered decisively, without a single stutter. His eyes burned brightly.

"But have you ever considered whether your talent and your body are actually suited for cultivation?" Su Tan asked mildly.

Chen Feiyang's physical aptitude was simply too poor. His innate physical talent was comparable to a person with dwarfism, standing only two or three feet tall, wanting to play in the NBA. Hearing this, Chen Feiyang felt he was about to be disappointed yet again.

"Everyone has something they excel at. Why must you choose the one path you are least suited for?"

"Does Master mean... I'm still not suited for it?" Chen Feiyang's gaze dimmed.

"Why? Because I love it! Because it's my dream!

"Aside from cultivating immortality, I don't care about anything else in this world. I have no interest in anything else. I only love cultivation!"

"This man is truly obsessive," Su Tan thought. Even though he couldn't clearly see the other party's expression, he could feel that unwavering will. An obsession.

"To cultivate, are you willing to abandon everything?" Su Tan asked.

In this world, some people were destined to be mad. Whether for money, love, or something else... there were always those driven insane by their obsessions.

"Yes!" Chen Feiyang's voice remained resolute.

"Including doing things ordinary people wouldn't dare to do, even casting aside your dignity?" Su Tan pressed.

"Dignity can be bought back with strength in the future. But if I fail to cultivate immortality in this life, I'll never get another chance!" Chen Feiyang declared.

Pondering Su Tan's words carefully, he suddenly realized something. "Why would Master say these things to me? Could it be..." he wondered.

"Master... you?"

His eyes lit up, and he stared fixedly at Su Tan, desperate for a positive answer.

Knowing he had caught on, Su Tan chuckled softly and said, "That's right, you guessed correctly!"

"I guessed correctly? I... I... I..." Chen Feiyang, whose will and words had always been crisp and decisive, suddenly stammered. He felt a rush of blood surge up his spine and into his head, making him dizzy. A sliver of hope sprouted in his heart, yet he didn't dare to be certain. He didn't even dare to say it out loud, afraid... afraid it wasn't real.

After a while, he finally asked weakly, "So... I still have a chance?"

Chen Feiyang's voice trembled slightly.

"Let me ask you, did you recently catch a piglet?" Su Tan paused before asking.

"A piglet?" Chen Feiyang recalled that he had indeed picked up a piglet from the wilderness a few days ago. "Yes, I did find a piglet. Right now, it's tied up over at Chen Ge's house. Before I left, we agreed to butcher it today and eat the meat." Chen Ge was his neighbor.

Butchering a piglet? It was simply because he couldn't afford to feed it!

"Why did Master suddenly bring this up? Could it be he wants me to offer the pig as payment for his fortune-telling and guidance?" Chen Feiyang wondered.

Understood! Loud and clear!

Chen Feiyang patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Master! As long as you show me a clear path, once that pig is butchered, I won't touch a single piece of meat. I'll send it all to you. How about that?"

Trading a pig for an opportunity of a lifetime? It was a bargain!

Su Tan shook his head. Knowing that Chen Feiyang had completely misunderstood his intentions, he quickly clarified, "No, no, no... you misunderstand me.

"I don't want to eat your pig. I merely wanted to tell you that your opportunity is tied to that pig."

"Tied to the pig?" Chen Feiyang was taken aback. "Master, please enlighten me."

"I just read your fortune and discovered that your fate is exceedingly ordinary. You are destined to miss out on countless opportunities throughout your life and achieve nothing of note... But just as I was about to advise you to give up on cultivation, I saw something rather interesting," Su Tan explained calmly.

"That pig!"

"That pig?" Chen Feiyang asked.

"Exactly. That pig is your opportunity!" Su Tan said.

"Does that mean as long as I eat that pig, I'll seize my destiny and embark on the path of cultivation?" Chen Feiyang asked, thrilled.

"You misunderstand me again. I am not telling you to eat the pig," Su Tan replied.

"There are countless rare treasures in this world, many of which are incredibly bizarre. Have you ever heard of a Divine Tree that can bear various elixirs as fruit? Or certain grasses that release dense Spiritual Qi, allowing anyone who cultivates near them to achieve twice the result with half the effort?"

"???"

Chen Feiyang actually knew about these things. Because of his obsession with cultivating immortality, he had read a massive amount of cultivation texts and strange anecdotes. He had heard those legends, but he didn't understand what Su Tan was getting at.

"That pig is the same. If my divination is correct, it has undergone a mutation. It shares the exact same wondrous properties as those Divine Trees that bear elixirs!" Su Tan declared.

"What? That pig can bear elixirs too?!" Chen Feiyang was astounded. How could a pig bear fruit?

"It doesn't bear them... it shits them!!!" Su Tan corrected.

PFFT!

Chen Feiyang nearly coughed up blood.

"Shits?!" His jaw dropped all the way to the floor.

"The dung it produces has mutated. It can be used as a Treasure Medicine for Foundation Establishment and Body Refinement!" Su Tan explained.

"How is that possible?" Chen Feiyang remained skeptical. "Could Su Tan be tricking me into eating pig shit?" he wondered.

However, seeing Su Tan's deadpan expression, it didn't seem like a joke. He felt incredibly conflicted.

"If you can't grasp the concept, I'll put it in simpler terms. You can think of the pig's stomach as a Pill Furnace. The dung it excretes are the elixirs refined within that Pill Furnace!"

This was indeed a Fantasy World; nothing was too bizarre to exist. It was Su Tan's first time encountering such a thing as well. When he read Chen Feiyang's fortune, he had seen the dung the pig excreted and witnessed the creature's extraordinary nature.

"Is what Master says... really true?" Chen Feiyang asked once more.

"Of course. Otherwise, why would I have asked if you were willing to cast aside your dignity and do things ordinary people wouldn't dare or want to do?" Su Tan replied.

GULP! Chen Feiyang stood frozen in place, at a complete loss for what to do.

"This is your opportunity. Perhaps, it's your only opportunity," Su Tan said. "However... I advise you to make a decision quickly. I can sense that the pig might not last much longer. Your neighbor is about to butcher it!"

"What? Butcher it? No, no, no... let go of my pig!!" Hearing this, the stunned Chen Feiyang jolted back to his senses.

As if pumped full of adrenaline, he set down the eggs he had brought and sprinted toward home like a gust of wind, not daring to waste another second.

"Master, I'm leaving first! See you later!"

He had to stop them and save the pig first. As for whether or not he would actually use it... he could think about that later. After all, that was a "living Pill Furnace"—one that performed Alchemy automatically.