"I know that guy. He’s from Mentougou Village. He must be here to sell game today, right? I’ve never heard of him having any fits... He was perfectly fine, how could he just go crazy?"

The crowd buzzed with discussion.

Wanshui was just a small market town. The regulars all tended to know each other, so for one of them to suddenly go mad was truly baffling.

"HOLY SHIT! Look, the body!"

Just as the crowd was murmuring and the boy was wailing over his father’s body, someone suddenly let out a horrified shout.

The crowd instinctively looked toward the corpse...

The dead madman’s body was suddenly undergoing an incredibly terrifying transformation!

His body was shriveling at a rate visible to the naked eye!

His full head of black hair began to turn white in the blink of an eye. His face, though contorted, had been youthful, but now it was rapidly hollowing and withering...

In an instant, the robust man—who looked to be in his thirties and had been struggling so hard under Jiang Xin’s knee just moments ago—transformed into a white-haired, deeply wrinkled septuagenarian!

The abrupt transformation stunned everyone!

Jiang Xin, who was closest, yelled "Holy shit!" and leaped several feet back, scrambling away...

Even Qin Fang was a little dumbfounded by the sight.

...A man in his thirties had died and, in the blink of an eye, turned into a wizened old man?!

This...

The crowd erupted, every single person stunned by the utterly unnatural sight.

Yuan the Second sucked in a sharp breath, trading bewildered looks with the gang members around him.

’How could something like this happen?’

"Damn, that freaked me out... I need a drink of water!"

"Shit, me too..."

Just as Qin Fang was reeling from the corpse’s transformation, the trembling voice of a Nanhe Gang member beside him snapped him out of it.

And then...

He noticed something even more bizarre.

A huge number of people were suddenly scrambling to find water to drink.

Some ran to the riverbank and drank straight from the water’s surface.

Others drank directly from the wooden barrels used to hold fish.

Still others pulled out their own waterskins and began chugging...

Drinking water was a perfectly normal act.

But seeing it happen right here, right now, sent a chill down Qin Fang’s spine, a cold that seeped into his very bones.

’...He instantly recalled the day he went to kill Xu Meng. After the intense confrontation, Xu Meng had also desperately chugged water.’

’...Is there a connection?’ 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

On one side was a murder scene with blood everywhere and a dead body on the ground—a body that had just transformed from a young man into a white-haired elder.

And on the other side, the onlookers who should have been shocked, even terrified, were all looking for water?

The scene made Qin Fang’s scalp crawl.

’No matter how I look at it, this is just too bizarre!’

But it was as if none of them noticed...

’As if they thought it was perfectly natural?’

Just then, Yuan the Second, who had just chugged several mouthfuls of water, let out a long breath and grumbled under his breath, "Damn it, this Qi Blood Pill is great and all... but it’s a real pain in the ass how it makes you thirsty all the time!"

The Qi Blood Pill...

The Qi Blood Pill?!

A chill ran through Qin Fang, his limbs turning to ice.

"Brother, I... I’m a little scared..."

Xiao Jiu’s voice trembled from behind him.

Qin Fang snapped back to reality, his eyes fixed on the scene before him...

The people who had been desperately drinking water were now back to normal, once again buzzing with discussion about the astonishing transformation...

Qin Fang’s expression shifted uncertainly. He turned and walked back toward the courtyard.

Xiao Qi quickly pulled Xiao Jiu along and followed him...

’Something’s wrong!’

’Something is seriously fucking wrong!’

’There’s definitely a huge problem with the Qi Blood Pill!’

’It might even... be related to that monster!’

’But Senior Brother said they already investigated the Qi Blood Pill and didn’t find anything strange...’

Qin Fang paced in the courtyard, the bizarre scene replaying endlessly in his mind.

He had seen it clearly. Just now, at least ninety percent of the crowd had been looking for water.

Only some of the older folks hadn’t been affected... They, too, had been somewhat startled by the strange sight of the ’mass water search.’

’There’s definitely something fishy about that Qi Blood Pill!’

’What should I do?’

’What should I do?’

Qin Fang’s brow furrowed. Even he felt his composure starting to crack at that moment.

The Qi Blood Pill had been sold all over True Martial County. Even in the surrounding towns and villages, huge numbers of people were taking it.

In a small market like Wanshui, which didn’t even have a Ganlu Hall branch, this many people were already taking the Qi Blood Pill...

One could only imagine how terrifyingly high the total number of people taking the Qi Blood Pill must be.

He suddenly thought of the madman again. ’Even without direct evidence, I just feel like... his madness is also connected to the Qi Blood Pill!’

’Madness, bloodlust, black hair turning white after death...’

’All these completely illogical changes, all happening to one person!’

’...How is this fundamentally different from the likes of Wang Hu and Yan Jun?’

’Could it be...’

’...that monsters are actually hiding inside their bodies?!’

’No, that can’t be. I haven’t heard any rumors like that... If people who took the Qi Blood Pill died, word would have gotten out... At the very least, I killed Xu Meng myself. He had obviously taken the Qi Blood Pill too, but he didn’t transform like that.’

’Today was the first time something like this has happened... Is it a matter of time? Or...’

Suddenly, he thought of something.

That was the Qi Blood Pill, billed as the budget replacement for the Qi Blood Pill.

But Ganlu Hall hadn’t just released the ’Qi Blood Pill’... there were several other elixirs in the same series.

With tiered pricing, each more expensive than the last, all the way up to the Qi Blood Pill...

’...If there’s a problem with the Qi Blood Pill.’

’Could the other elixirs... possibly be fine?’

For a moment, Qin Fang was in a daze...

Until...

"Master Qin?"

Xiao Qi’s voice rang out, finally startling Qin Fang from his thoughts...