The Fallen Vampire

"And then, I combined one thousand year old ginseng, and a bit of wild everbloom to my other materials and I had done it. Behold!"

Dan Master Hideyoshi of the Profound Pill Union held up an item between his fingers.

A small brown pill with four and a half golden striations running along the circumference. There was no doubt about it- this was a rank seven pill.

Meaning that Dan Master Hideyoshi had become the first Pill Venerable that Tayar had seen in 1,800 years.

"The legendary Blue Dream Blood Pill!"

"I thought the recipe was lost..!"

"Ohhh..!"

"I can't believe it. A rank seven pill in front of my own eyes."

"And for him to have become an official Pill Venerable, that means that..."

Dan Master Hideyoshi smirked to himself proudly as he dug in his back pocket and pulled out two more pills just like his first ones.

"No way!"

"Three in the same place! You have to be shitting me!"

"Oooohhh..!"

"Those things are supposed to be able to cure someone of any internal injury and correct any faulty physique! Just one goes for millions of gold!"

"He is a genius...!"

Dan Master Hideyoshi sucked in the praise and hushed whispers of the crowd.

He reveled in this feeling of elation as he celebrated his accomplishments after so many years of hard work.

As a dwarf, only one path was posed to him when he was growing up. Metal work and smithing.

He was expected to help arm the other races of light so that they could cut down and pillage more fallen lands and violate their people.

Unlike his brothers and father, he didn't

want

to participate in such barbarity.

So, he turned to medicine.

His family was accepting at first, but when he revealed that he wanted to help fallen and light races alike, they were outraged.

He was forced to leave home shortly after- completely reduced to the town pariah in only two nights.

But he didn't care. His goal hadn't been changed, only strengthened.

He set out on the path of becoming a Dan Master with the goal of healing all bodies through dao- not sharpening arrows to pierce the one's people deemed 'unsavory'.

It had been almost 2,000 years since then.

Dan Master Hideyoshi had devoted himself to every single area of pill study that he could find.

No matter how obscure, outdated, or useless the information seemed, he studied all of it.

He had not much talent for cultivation, but he was able to follow along enough to keep his youth and strength for a bit longer- at least until he knew all that this world was keeping hidden from him.

Because his travels took him just about everywhere in the world, he came across many likeminded individuals.

He founded the Profound Pill Union, and together he educated his disciples in the way of the pill.

Even though his Sect is the weakest in terms of manpower, it holds some of the most influence in the world.

Dan Master Hideyoshi has sold pills to human kings, elven royalty, Ayame, dark elves, the list goes on.

But the work of himself, or his sect members, is never cheap- which also means that his Sect is one of the richest.

Despite all of his success, he still lived for moments like this.

It felt wonderful to see his hard work and study being acknowledged so passionately by the masses.

You could say that praise was one of his largest weakness- alongside drink and study, of course.

Which was why when he noticed certain spectators behaving as if they were amused with his effort, he began to feel just a little bit insulted.

- Approximately Two and a Half Minutes Ago...

At the back of the room, Aveena, Lucia, and Vermeil were watching Dan Master Hideyoshi's pill demonstration.

It was Vermeil's idea to come here, since she thought that it might help broaden her horizons in the area of pill study.

And to their credit, the three sister-wives were actually paying attention at first.

...At first anyway.

But all of them were first time parents.

So it wasn't surprising that after only five whole minutes, all of their thoughts started to sound the same.

'Do you think that we should celebrate Christmas with our daughter this year?' Vermeil thought telepathically.

'That's one of your old earth holidays, right? Why the sudden interest??' Lucia tilted her head.

Vermeil scratched her cheek absentmindedly.

'Oh, you know... I didn't have that great of a childhood growing up, so I want to do better for her... I will do better. Christmas was always one of those things that I thought would be really nice as a family. Decorating, cute clothes, Santa Claus, the whole thing.'

Aveena nodded her head in approval. She was sold as soon as she heard 'cute clothes'.

'It sounds like a good idea, but if we do it or her then we should do it for all of the kids in the sect. Maybe the adults would like to participate too.'

Vermeil was already getting excited about the idea, and quickly started running through ideas with the girls.

But just because the girls were talking about this didnt mean that they were the only ones in attendance today.

They had brought Velreth along so that he could hopefully impart his own little bits of knowledge in whenever the moment fit.

Of course, no else in here could see the tens of thousands of years old immortal. Meaning he was free to float around and judge as he saw fit.

When Dan Master Hideyoshi first pulled out his pill from his pocket, Velreth's expression became downright ugly. And of course, his words even more so.

"Is this some sort of crude fallacy?! THAT is the pill he's sticking out his chest with such gusto over?! This is nonsense! No, it's shit! Complete and utter griffin shit!"

The girls took a break from gushing over their daughter to check out the source of the old man's irritation.

'What's wrong, Grandpa Vel? They look fine to me.' Lucia shrugged.

Velreth spun around like a barber chair- with clear incredulity in his eyes.

'Fine!? FINE!?!'

'''Yea.''' The trio of girls nodded at once.

Velreth looked so angry that he could have died again.

'Those dirty, sad, shriveled up things look FINE to you three?! Unthinkable! They look like testicles that haven't seen the oasis of soap and water!' Experience more content on empire

Vermeil and Lucia had a real fourth-grade sense of humor. Aveena did too, but being Sect Leader to children had given her a way better poker face.

So even though Velreth was genuinely upset and not trying to crack jokes with the three of them, they couldn't help but let a little something slip out.

*Snicker!*

They regretted it as soon as the noise left their lips.

The girls were at the very back, with the rest of the Sect Masters and their closest disciples. They all heard them.

And even though he was at the front, Dan Master Hideyoshi had heard it too.

"Dai-Shi, and the Ladies of Black Myth. Was there something about my presentation that did not satisfy?" He asked.

Velreth: 'You tell this fucking dwarf that he's a shitty hack who wouldn't know what a good pill was if it bent over and lifted up it's-'

'''Shut up, Old Man!!''' The girls screamed internally.

Aveena quickly put on her most business-like demeanor. "Not at all, Master Hideyoshi. It was a most impressive spectacle."

"Was it..? You didn't seem all that interested."

Dan Master Hideyoshi stepped down from the podium into the sea of people.

...Due to his height, he quickly got lost.

But eventually, the metaphorical sea parted and he was standing in front of the girls holding his dirty testicle pills.

His face was calm, but he had a look in his eyes that Vermeil knew all too well. The look of a man who's pride had been insulted, and his lively-hood trounced upon.

"...I know. You must have seen pills much more interesting than this meager thing in your time as Sect leader, eh? Some truly riveting stuff." He chuckled.

A few of the older Sect members chuckled within the room- adding to the feeling that was becoming eerily similar to hazing..

And yet, Aveena had to maintain her cool. You don't always get respect by flying off the handle and snapping necks.

When it came to individuals like these, they had to be beaten on equal intellectual fighting grounds.

So even though she was beginning to boil inside, Aveena smiled cooly as if not a thing was wrong.

"Not quite, Dan Master. But our darling Vermeil here is a bit of a pill prodigy herself. If you must know, we were exchanging some playful marital banter about the kind of rewards we would give her if she could make such a thing herself."

Several men coughed and averted their gazes.

Vermeil's face turned beet red. 'Stop! Why do I have to be used as the excuse!?'

'Make it up to you later. Promise.' Aveena thought back.

'Licking my ass is not going to make me agree to-'

'I'll give my time to hold Yukiko to you, so you'll get her for twice as long.'

'Okay, you can keep going.'

Aveena's smile only widened further with Vermeil's approval.

"In fact, I'm glad you've come to me, Dan Master Hideyoshi. My darling sister would like to try her hand at making this pill you are so proud of. You wouldn't be open to a small competition, would you?"