Rabbit Must Die
Chapter 247 - 244: Eight Trigrams Furnace, Ash at the Bottom of the Pot [Subscribe Please]_1

Chapter 247: Chapter 244: Eight Trigrams Furnace, Ash at the Bottom of the Pot [Subscribe Please]_1

On either side of the main hall, the left side was the residence hall where the child servants lived, and on the right was a large ox pen, in which a green ox lay with its head inside and its buttocks facing outside, snoring loudly as if in a pleasant dream, occasionally twitching its behind.

Outside the ox pen was a layer of blue prohibition that flickered from time to time, its purpose unknown.

When Qin Shou saw the green ox, he was truly startled—in "Journey to the West," this green ox had descended to the Lower Realm and fought the Monkey, who was completely helpless against it, as if it were all just play. This old ox was too fierce; Qin Shou instinctively kept his distance.

Going around to the back to the Alchemy Room, he pushed open the huge door and saw a bronze Pill Furnace situated right in the center atop the Taiji Eight Trigrams diagram. At this moment, the fire had been extinguished, giving it a somewhat desolate appearance.

Qin Shou carefully observed the furnace—it was entirely bronze in color, with the eight directions corresponding to the Eight Trigrams on the ground, each inscribed with a large character—Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui.

After examining everything, Qin Shou laughed, "So this is the Eight Trigrams Furnace? Doesn’t look all that remarkable..."

Having said that, Qin Shou wasn’t in a hurry to take the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Instead, he looked around, noticing many pill jade bottles and gourds of varying sizes on the surrounding shelves. His eyes lit up at the sight!

He thought of how Sun Wukong had eaten the pills here, and after refining them in the furnace, achieved a Chaos Yuan Body, transforming from a reckless monkey into the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

Although the Monkey didn’t cause much of a stir in the end, it was clear that the pills here were good stuff!

Qin Shou knew there was something peculiar about his body—it seemed lively, but he had no idea when he might keel over...

If there was anything Qin Shou truly desired, it was health and strength.

The purpose of wanting strength was also to become powerful enough to resolve the strangeness in his body and live a long, carefree life.

Now with the pills in front of him, Qin Shou had no intention of being polite; he climbed onto the pill shelf, grabbed a porcelain bottle at random, opened it, and poured it towards his mouth...

But after pouring for a while, nothing came out.

"Hey! I refuse to believe it," said Qin Shou. He put down that bottle, picked up another, and yet it was still empty!

Qin Shou continued his search, going through all the porcelain bottles, clay pots, flowerpots, and whatever else might hold pills. He scoured the entire collection to find they were all empty!

"This is excessive! The venerable Doushuai Palace without a single pill—what kind of Doushuai Palace is this... Could it be that I’ve found the wrong place?" mumbled Qin Shou.

"Tsk..." A faint sound suddenly rose. Qin Shou’s large ears twitched, and he spun around, demanding, "Who’s there?"

But the Alchemy Room was empty; there was no one there.

Qin Shou’s brows furrowed. He jumped down from the pill shelves and searched the Alchemy Room again, but still found no one.

"Could it have been an illusion?" muttered Qin Shou, then shook his head, saying, "Well, no pills then. The furnace looks decent enough, I can take it back and clean it up for use."

Having decided, Qin Shou approached to try lifting the Alchemy Furnace.

But the very moment Qin Shou moved closer, a voice suddenly emerged from the Alchemy Furnace, "Stop right there! You little rabbit brat, daring to steal the Dao Ancestor’s magic treasure, are you tired of living?"

Startled, Qin Shou yelled, "There’s someone else?"

"Pah! You’re the someone else!" An extremely displeased voice came from the Alchemy Furnace.

Qin Shou had never been scolded with such wording in all his life. Tilting his head to ponder for a moment, he asked, "Brother He, are you insulting me or praising me?"

Then he heard the voice from the Alchemy Furnace continue, "Of course I’m insulting you! Silly rabbit! Can’t you even understand that? Humans are nothing but creatures molded from clay by Lady Nvwa, inherently weak, unable to even win a fight against a pig when unarmed. Isn’t calling you a human more offensive than calling you a pig?"

Qin Shou was speechless; he had to admit that, from a certain perspective, this guy made a lot of sense.

So Qin Shou sat down in front of the Alchemy Furnace and said, "Well, it’s a good thing I, Rabbit, am just a rabbit and not a human then."

"Idiot! Rabbits are even worse than humans, the dregs that can’t beat humans at any time..." The Alchemy Furnace scolded as soon as it opened its mouth.

Upon hearing that, Qin Shou’s ears instantly perked up, and with a raise of his hand, he smacked the Alchemy Furnace, creating a loud clang that left his ears ringing!

Qin Shou was taken aback; if this noise brought the child servants from outside, it wouldn’t be so easy to take the Pill Furnace.

Although the girl had his back, Qin Shou had no idea how much clout this backing from the girl really carried.

The Jade Emperor had claimed that he killed the girl, yet she was still full of life and hopping around.

But Qin Shou had his doubts about how strong the girl really was.

Otherwise, why would she hide in the Imperial Garden and refuse to come out? That seemed more like house arrest.

Yet, she also said she could stir up trouble in Lingxiao Hall...

Looking at it, Qin Shou always felt there was something odd about this place, no matter how he analyzed it, things just didn’t add up.

If he had to come up with an explanation, it was that these two people must have reached some sort of agreement to be able to deceive the world so harmoniously.

However, the woman was ultimately in the Imperial Garden, and even though Qin Shou might bluff with borrowed power, without the tiger’s presence, stealing in the wolf’s den and catching the wolf’s attention, he feared he could only fight his way out. But as for his own combat ability, Qin Shou had no confidence whatsoever...

Therefore, he chose to steal rather than rob.

But, once discovered, stealing would naturally turn into robbing, and Qin Shou reckoned that he would mostly likely fail at that.

After all, Golden Horn and Silver Horn, those two child servants, were impressive figures in "Journey to the West." Even without their magic treasures, at the very least, their mountain-moving skill could have kept Sun Wukong pinned underneath, eating dust.

Not to mention, there’s a bull...

Although all this was recorded in "Journey to the West," and not everything in there was necessarily true, sometimes, being a bit cowardly is for the best.

All these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

However, after waiting for a while, Qin Shou noticed there wasn’t a single noise coming from outside. Glancing at the two doors, he speculated that the soundproofing in the Alchemy Room must be exceptionally good; otherwise, there would have been some reaction from outside.

Thinking this, Qin Shou looked towards the Eight Trigrams Furnace with a mischievous smile and said, "Kid, you dare to curse me? Today, I’ll teach you a lesson on how to behave!"

"What are you doing? I’m telling you, don’t mess around! I am the Dao Ancestor’s Alchemy Furnace, ouch... you’re actually hitting me!"

Bang bang bang... Thud thud thud...!

"Ouch, the damn rabbit’s hitting the Furnace! Won’t anyone take care of this?" the Eight Trigrams Furnace howled, though its voice was filled with strong confidence, as if it wasn’t hurt at all by the beating.

Qin Shou mounted the Pill Furnace and started lashing out, but no matter how he hit it, he couldn’t leave even the slightest mark on it.

"Rabbit, you can’t hurt me, haha... You’re hitting the Eight Trigrams Furnace, not me, haha..." The Eight Trigrams Furnace chuckled with pride.

After a few hits, Qin Shou realized something was off. The sound was coming from inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Could he be attacking the wrong target?

Qin Shou said, "You’re not the Eight Trigrams Furnace?"

"Why don’t you look and see for yourself?" said the voice inside the Furnace, brimming with smugness.

Qin Shou lifted the lid of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and peered inside, only to find it completely empty!

Just as Qin Shou was about to investigate further, the Eight Trigrams Furnace suddenly jolted, and Qin Shou, caught off-guard, tumbled in!

The lid of the Eight Trigrams Furnace flew into the air and clanged shut, trapping Qin Shou inside.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace laughed heartily, "Little rabbit, fell for it, did you? You think you can compete with me? I’ve refined more pills than the rice you’ve eaten! Just stay in there! When Golden Horn and Silver Horn arrive, they’ll take you to face the charges!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Shou realized he’d been tricked. Yet he wasn’t in the least bit anxious; instead, he casually looked around. The interior of the Eight Trigrams Furnace wasn’t dark at all, but rather quite bright.

Inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, it was divided into eight sections, each corresponding to one of the eight directions, marked with the trigrams Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui...

The only thing that irritated Qin Shou was the blackness on the inner wall of the Eight Trigrams Furnace. When he wiped it with his hand, it left a trail of black ash.

Apparently, the soot was a result of too much alchemy practice.

"No wonder the Monkey got Fiery Eyes Golden Gaze after coming here. It wasn’t from smoke inhalation; probably the residue at the bottom of the pot got into his eyes..." Qin Shou said with a malicious chuckle, showing no realization of having been trapped, not afraid, but rather quite content.

"What Monkey? I’ve never refined a Monkey." said the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Qin Shou smiled, "You might have the chance in the future... hm, maybe you’ll even meet your end at his hands."

Qin Shou wasn’t joking. In the original "Journey to the West," the Monkey’s first act after leaping out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace was to kick it over... sabotaging one corner of it to fall into the mortal realm, and creating the Flame Mountain, which became one of the Eighty-One Trials.

"Pah! I am the Dao Ancestor’s Pill Furnace, how could a mere monkey ha.rm me?" snorted the Eight Trigrams Furnace disdainfully.

"Oh, not convinced? Then why is there so much black ash in your belly?" asked Qin Shou.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace was about to say something when it suddenly stopped, sniffed disdainfully and said, "Rabbit, are you trying to trick information out of me? I absolutely won’t tell you anything!"

Qin Shou replied, "Stop bragging, will you? Tell me something? With all the black grime inside you like a lump of coal, what could you possibly know? And you call yourself the Dao Ancestor’s Eight Trigrams Furnace—don’t embellish yourself too much. I reckon you’re just used by the Dao Ancestor for burning coal to keep warm. Now that you’re so black, he probably doesn’t even use you anymore, right?"

Upon hearing that, the Eight Trigrams Furnace became enraged: "Nonsense! I am the one and only Eight Trigrams Furnace between Heaven and Earth! The pills refined by me using the Dao Ancestor are as numerous as the stars! The black ash you see, that’s not just any ash, it is the excess medicinal power left by the formation of pills... uh... damn rabbit, you tricked me again! What are you doing? Don’t lick, it tickles... ahahaha... stop... stop, hahaha... don’t lick anymore, hahaha..."

Inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, upon hearing that the black ash was actually the residual power of excess pills, Qin Shou’s eyes immediately lit up, and he pounced to take a lick.