Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun in surprise: "When did you learn the skill of 'eloquent tongue'?"
Ma Zhenhua shouted: "I disagree, I want to be in a group with Brother Mu—Brother Mu, please—"
Li Ziling's eyes were filled with tears: "I want to be in a group with Brother Mu too..."
Ke Xun smiled: "We're not unreasonable people, so how about this, the minority obeys the majority, let's vote on my grouping method, raise your hand if you disagree."
Mu Yiran glanced at him again expressionlessly.
This guy knew that he had no interest in raising his hand to participate in this kind of thing, whether he agreed or not, so he said "raise your hand if you disagree."
In the end, only Ma Zhenhua, Li Ziling and Wei Dong raised their hands.
Ke Xun: "..."
Wei Dong glared at him: "What, what's wrong?"
Ke Xun looked at everyone: "Nine to three, let's group them as I just did, don't waste time, let's find the east side." As he spoke, he looked at Mu Yiran.
Li Ziling was a little angry, glaring at him: "What are you looking for? We don't even know what those things are, how are we supposed to find them?!"
The husband of the family of three, named Geng Zhigang, hesitated and said, "The five kinds of meat that person mentioned, could they be some kind of food? Since it's for sacrifices, it should be some kind of offering, usually fruits, snacks, and meat."
His wife nodded quickly as well: "Maybe there are many households nearby, we can borrow some from them, and then we can make up the difference."
Zhao Dan asked, "Then what is the five kinds of dew? Is it a drink or water?"
Zhou Bin thought for a moment: "Where can we find five kinds of drinks in a place like this?"
Qin Ci said, "No matter what, let's each group take some containers and try to make up the difference."
He pointed to the corner of the tent, where there were indeed some bottles and jars.
Everyone took a few items and filed out of the tent, heading in different directions.
Ke Xun and his group headed east, with Mu Yiran leading the way. Wei Dong nudged Ke Xun with his elbow from behind, saying, "Hey Ke'er, you're really going all out to defend your rights! Your fighting spirit is top-notch! I never realized you were this capable before!"
Ke Xun ignored him and simply said, "Logically and morally, we should try to be in a group with the big boss. I think he's already mastered quite a bit this round, so following him is definitely the right thing to do."
Wei Dong added, "You're right. Hey, why are those two girls following behind us?"
The two stopped and turned around, only to see Li Ziling and Sha Liu walking briskly towards them. Qin Ci, who was supposed to be in their group, was nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on?" Wei Dong asked Li Ziling.
"Nothing much, we were looking this way too." Li Ziling gave Ke Xun an annoyed look.
"Where's Qin Ci?" Ke Xun asked Sha Liu.
Sha Liu glanced at Li Ziling somewhat awkwardly and replied, "Dr. Qin said he can go south to look for it himself."
Ke Xun understood immediately; it must be because Li Ziling insisted on going with Mu Yiran, and Qin Ci couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he simply let the two of them do as they pleased and went to work by himself.
"Then let's go together, many hands make light work," Wei Dong said, winking at Ke Xun.
Ke Xun didn't say anything and quickly followed Mu Yiran, who had already walked quite a distance.
However, Li Ziling was even faster than him, rushing to Mu Yiran's side in an instant, practically wanting to press her whole body against him, tilting her head and looking at him with a pitiful expression: "Big brother, I'm scared, can I go with you?"
Mu Yiran ignored her and just kept walking forward, so Li Ziling took it as tacit consent and followed closely beside him.
"Ahem." Wei Dong patted Ke Xun's shoulder and also rushed ahead, the three of them walking side by side, leaving Ke Xun and Sha Liu behind.
Sha Liu, however, remained calm, adjusted her glasses, and asked Ke Xun, "Have you made any progress?"
"Not many yet," Ke Xun replied.
"I have an idea, but I don't know if it's right," Sha Liu said.
"Tell me about it," Ke Xun said.
"My mother has an old classmate who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few years ago," Sha Liu said. "He was suffering terribly, almost to the point of death, and everyone thought he was beyond help. Then, an elder from the Suota sect he knew happened to come by and gave him a few Huilu Dan pills. After taking them, he vomited incessantly, expelling a lot of stuff. Later, his cancer miraculously disappeared. From then on, he became a huge believer in this, and he used most of his earnings to build the Suota Temple."
Ke Xun asked, "You mean, the Huilu Dan pills are related to the Five Wisdom Dews that person mentioned?"
Sha Liu nodded. "When I heard about this, I specifically looked up the Huilu Dan pills online and found a theory that it's made from the Five Wisdom Dews. When that person mentioned it earlier, I didn't immediately recognize the name, but it sounded familiar. Now that I think about it, it seems to be true."
Mu Yiran, who was walking ahead, seemed to have heard what she said and suddenly stopped. Turning back to her, he said, "Tell me about it."
Sha Liu, a little nervous in front of the stern-faced Mu Yiran, adjusted her glasses and said, "This Five Wisdom Dew... it's a bit disgusting. The internet says it like this: Five Wisdom Dew refers to Big Incense, Small Incense, Red Essence, and White Essence. These are four of them. Big Incense and Small Incense actually refer to... the excrement of cultivators."
Ke Xun: "..."
Li Ziling frowned: "Disgusting!"
Wei Dong: "Big 'Incense'... Small 'Incense'... these names are too misleading."
Ke Xun: "No wonder I vomited after taking the Wisdom Dew Pill..."
Mu Yiran's face remained expressionless; he simply looked at Sha Liu and asked, "What are the other three?"
Sha Liu looked a little embarrassed: "Red Essence and White Essence are... male semen and female blood."
Ke Xun reacted quickly: "... hundreds of offspring and menstruation?" Sha Liu
nodded awkwardly.
Wei Dong's lips twitched: "This batch of relatives isn't easy to deal with."
"What is the fifth type of Wisdom Dew?" Ke Xun asked Sha Liu.
"Since we've already covered male and female essence, I have a feeling the fifth type might be even more shameful," Wei Dong said.
Sha Liu's expression changed: "Different doctrines have different interpretations of the fifth type of wisdom dew. Some say it's large pieces of flesh, some say it's phlegm and mucus, and some divide it into three grades: the lowest is the fat inside the flesh, the middle is the bone marrow, and the highest is the meninges."
Wei Dong touched the coarse cloth bag on his body: "I do have some flesh in my bag, so it seems I don't need to worry about this one. Phlegm and mucus are definitely not as good as flesh, so I don't think I need to bother with that."
Sha Liu bit her lip: "…Large pieces of flesh refers to human flesh."
Wei Dong shuddered: "Then what about fat, bone marrow, and meninges… could they also refer to human flesh?"
Sha Liu remained silent, but that was clearly the answer.
Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun and Mu Yiran: "Does this mean we have to kill someone to prepare a sacrifice?"
"I'm not surprised at all that the world in the painting has set up such a task for us," Mu Yiran said calmly. "If setting up 'that kind of thing' is to take our lives, then setting up the voting and setting up this task is to take away our humanity as normal people. These 'paintings' are meant to turn us from humans into devils."
Ke Xun's face remained expressionless: "The mastermind behind this world is probably a devil. Only a devil would enjoy turning people into devils."
"Devil or devil aside for now, are we really going to kill someone?" Wei Dong asked with a bitter face.
Li Ziling's face paled: "We don't necessarily have to use human flesh. There's phlegm and snot, isn't that better than human flesh?"
Wei Dong: "Ziling is right! Phlegm and snot are the same. It's inferior, so why be picky?"
Ke Xun looked at him blankly: "Then where do we get these five things?"
"Ahem," Wei Dong looked at Sha Liu, "What do you think, sister?"
Sha Liu pointed to the tents scattered on the flat ground below the slope in the distance, and the local-style Suo Tuo Temple: "Big incense and small incense, I think we can go to the Suo Tuo Temple to find them. The Suo Tuo Temple is full of practitioners. As for red essence and white essence…"
Wei Dong coughed again: "We'll take care of the 'white' one, and we'll leave the 'red' one to the two sisters."
Ke Xun looked at him: "The rest, excrement, urine, phlegm, and snot, which do you want?"
Wei Dong hesitated for a moment with a pained expression, and finally gritted his teeth: "Urine, I'll go get the urine."
Ke Xun kicked him, but didn't say anything else, only saying: "I'll take care of the rest."
Hearing this, Wei Dong secretly glanced at Mu Yiran, and then secretly gave Ke Xun a thumbs up.
Mu Yiran didn't say anything, but walked down the slope with the four of them, heading towards the tents and the Suo Tuo Temple.
Upon arriving at the destination, the group split up. The two girls went to a house to collect female blood, Ke Xun and Wei Dong went to the temple to get the remaining four items, while Mu Yiran searched around alone.
More than an hour later, Ke Xun and a distressed Wei Dong emerged from the temple, holding the earthenware pot far from their noses, wishing they could throw it away immediately.
Wei Dong grumbled, "This elder might be a little feverish these past few days."
Ke Xun remained expressionless, not wanting to reply.
He noticed Mu Yiran bending over not far away, seemingly picking something up from the ground, so he put down the pot, quickly ran over, and asked, "What did you find?"
Mu Yiran glanced at him, opened his hand, revealing a small, bright purple flower between his fingers.
Ke Xun: "..." My god, you're so romantic! I'm dealing with poop and pee, and you're picking flowers and grass.
"A four o'clock flower," my god explained.
"It smells so good," Ke Xun said.
"Got it all?" Mu Yiran asked casually.
"Got it all, but don't ask me how," Ke Xun said, unable to bear the memory, "especially don't ask me how I got the semen."
Mu Yiran gave him a cold look, and Ke Xun quickly clarified, "Don't worry, it's not mine."
Mu Yiran's face darkened, and he walked away.
Sha Liu and Li Ziling took quite a while to emerge from the tent in the village house. Sha Liu was carrying a jar, and Li Ziling looked nauseous.
Wei Dong hurriedly asked, "Did you succeed?"
Sha Liu nodded, "Successfully."
It was like gangsters exchanging secret signals.
"Is Ziling alright?" Wei Dong stepped forward to ask with concern.
Li Ziling didn't want to speak, covering her mouth and shaking her head.
It was almost noon when they returned to the large tent. Lunch was the same as breakfast.
The other three groups also returned one after another, none of them empty-handed. Some brought back meat, some brought back locally brewed wine, and Mu Yiran had somehow managed to obtain lamps from some temple.
"Xiao Mu's group managed to get their hands on the Five Wisdom Dew?" Qin Ci was somewhat surprised after hearing Sha Liu's explanation of the Five Wisdom Dew.
After hearing this, everyone's already poor appetites churned even more, and Zhou Bin and Zhao Dan looked at Ke Xun and Wei Dong with sympathy.