Yu Xiaogang's hand froze mid‑air, teacup trembling. The three young men leaving the pharmacy caught his eye: unsteady steps, slack limbs, yawning faces, dark circles carved beneath their eyes. They swaggered and boasted of fighting until dawn, yet their bodies betrayed them. The contradiction lodged in Yu Xiaogang's mind like a splinter.
Across the White World, reactions split. Bibi Dong scowled at the heavenly curtain, disgusted that Yu Xiaogang would even consider such matters. Hu Liena, curious but cautious, glanced to Elder Yue Guan for guidance. At Shrek Academy, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang sneered and dismissed the idea as nonsense, ordering his disciples back to training. Tang San obeyed, trusting his master's certainty. Only Ning Rongrong lingered, stubbornly determined to watch the whole broadcast.
Back in Blue Lightning City, Ye Hengchuan returned with the booklet and found Yu Xiaogang staring after the departing youths. He scolded at once: "Don't follow their example. They wasted their lives on false shortcuts." Yu Xiaogang smiled, not offended. He had not been thinking of vice but of method. If those men had used drugs to appear stronger, why did their bodies remain weak? If the potions had any real effect, could they be applied differently, more deliberately, to strengthen the incarnation body itself?
Ye Hengchuan frowned and admitted he did not know. The old apothecary had seen many remedies, but never a reliable way to permanently raise a cultivator's physical baseline through such means. Yu Xiaogang proposed an experiment: test the medicines on animals first. If the drugs could alter physiology in a controlled way, the results would show up faster and safer in livestock than in humans.
Reluctantly amused, Ye agreed. They gathered a stock of tonic herbs and stimulants—deer antler powder, tiger bone wine, goji berries, whale glue, dried seahorse—and prepared dozens of pigs from the sect's supply. The animals were restrained and force‑fed the concoctions. Yu Xiaogang watched with a mixture of scientific curiosity and grim determination as the first effects began to take hold.
That night the pens erupted. The pigs, bound and drugged, howled in a chorus that shook the neighborhood. The screams drew the ire and bewilderment of nearby residents for years to come. For Yu Xiaogang, the noise was the sound of an experiment finally underway—messy, crude, and necessary.
Ye Hengchuan, though uneasy, kept his promise. If the trial failed, they would have wasted only common herbs. If it succeeded, the payoff would be enormous. Yu Xiaogang's grin never left his face; he had moved from theory to practice. He had cataloged patterns, drawn conclusions, and now he would test the limits of those conclusions with his own hands.
He knew the risks. The records were full of tragedies—cultivators who died when they absorbed rings beyond their capacity, spirits that turned malignant when pushed too far. But the memory of mocking glances at his Awakening hardened his resolve. If changing fate demanded danger, he would accept it. If evolution required sacrifice, he would pay it. The Douluo Continent had taught him one lesson above all: destiny could be studied, measured, and challenged. Tonight, in a cramped pharmacy and a screaming pigsty, he began to prove it.