by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
This was an ancient pill that had disappeared from the outside world. But Long Chen had long since made his preparations.
“Little fellow, let’s get to work. We’ll take it easy for the first attempt,” said Long Chen to Huo Long. This was his first time refining an eighth tier pill, and he was refining an incredibly difficult one.
“Hehe, the feeling of having money is truly good.” Long Chen took out an ancient cauldron that had runes carved all over it. It gave off a feeling of great age.
This was a top grade eighth-tier pill furnace he had bought for ten million points, and it was an inheritance pill furnace.
Other treasures were more valuable the newer they were, but this pill furnace became more valuable with age. The more medicinal pills it refined, the higher its grade would grow.
Pill furnaces were different from ordinary tools. Their item-spirits were able to help during the refinement process, increasing the chances of successful refinement. Furthermore, due to refining medicinal pills for countless years, the interior of the pill furnace would absorb the essence of all kinds of medicines. That allowed it to possess a kind of intimate energy with medicinal ingredients, which allowed it to refine their energy easier.
This was the most luxuriant pill furnace Long Chen had ever possessed. After playing with it for a while, he decided not to immediately start refining. He held the pill furnace against his chest and used his soul to nourish it. In the alchemy world, this was referred to as awakening the spirit. It was an ancient ceremony for accepting a master.
For alchemists, their pill furnaces were not just tools, but their companions. Only through perfect communication was it possible to refine higher level pills.
Buzz.
After an incense stick’s worth of time, the pill furnace’s runes slowly lit up, and a dense medicinal fragrance filled the air. Long Chen smiled.
The ten million points he had spent on it hadn’t been a waste. There was an ancient item-spirit within the pill furnace, and it had now accepted him as the master.
Flames leaped into existence in his hand. He slowly sent them into the pill furnace, and its runes once more lit up. This time it was different. The runes were lighting up one by one, like spiritual yuan flowing through acupuncture points.
The pill furnace was the same. Its runes might appear disordered, but they were carved in a set pattern. Each time a rune lit up, the pill furnace would heat up a bit more.
When the final rune lit up, the entire pill furnace began to shake, and it was like it had come to life.
Only now did the pill furnace fully wake from its slumber. Long Chen carefully increased the flame and poured in the medicinal powders he had already prepared. It was time to start his refinement.
Chapter 1096 Top Grade Medicinal Pill
Clank!
Long Chen closed his pill furnace and looked at it with an adoring expression. He had bought a true treasure this time.
This pill furnace was even better than what he had expected. Previously, he had been depending entirely on his own skills for his alchemy. But now he had a pill furnace good enough to assist him, making it much easier for him to refine pills.
Even the extremely difficult to refine Nine Sea Foundation Building Pill was refined so easily by him. The merging of each medicinal powder also became simple.
The pill furnace was exceptionally useful when there were two ingredients with conflicting properties. In order to prevent a furnace explosion, Long Chen would use his flame energy to isolate them, suppress their properties, and then slowly merge them carefully.
However, suppressing their properties would result in a small loss of their spirituality. Now that he had this ancient pill furnace, things were different. The pill furnace possessed its own spirituality, and it was able to merge the contradictory medicinal ingredients without losing any of their spirituality.
That saved his Spiritual Strength and reduced the risk of a furnace explosion in addition to preserving the medicinal energy and spirituality.
Buzz.
The pill furnace shook slightly, and its runes once more lit up. Heaven and earth’s energy flowed in like a whale inhaling water.
“It brings its own spiritual energy to the refinement. Amazing, absolutely amazing!”
Long Chen was absolutely delighted. This pill furnace’s abilities affected everything, allowing him to take it easy on many parts of the refinement. It could handle things on its own.
Furthermore, each refinement was so calm. He didn’t need to be tense during the refinement or watch closely as if he was trying to catch a hopping rabbit.
“Hehe, it’s done. Let’s see its effect.”
Long Chen slowly opened the lid, and not even the slightest medicinal fragrance floated out. Instead, several figures shot away.
Those figures were the size of a palm and looked like little apes. They rapidly fled from the pill furnace.
“Hahaha, get back here.” Long Chen couldn’t help but laugh. Waving his hand, those apes disappeared, transforming into medicinal pills that were drawn back to his hand.
Nine plump pills lay there, light flowing around them. Not even the slightest medicinal fragrance came from them. Within their light, there seemed to be a small ape running around.
“Hahaha, a top grade pill! I can finally refine top grade pills!” Long Chen laughed excitedly.
On one hand, usually only eighth tier medicinal pills could be refined to the top grade level. On the other hand, if he hadn’t possessed this ancient pill furnace, let alone a top grade pill, just refining a nine-ring Nine Sea Foundation Building Pill would be difficult enough for Long Chen at his current level.
Not only was it top grade, but it was nine top grade pills to boot. This kind of accomplishment was definitely capable of frightening a few dead alchemists back to life.
Some alchemists might spend their whole lives without being able to refine even a single top grade pill. Even if they did, it would be treated as a family treasure and used as a sign of their glory.
But then when Long Chen thought about it, he had a Pill Sovereign’s control over flames, Huo Long’s cooperation, and the assistance of this pill furnace. It seemed this accomplishment wasn’t anything to boast about and was only reasonable.
Looking at the nine top grade pills filled Long Chen with delight. The medicinal energy in top grade pills could be rated as terrifying, as it was ten times greater than in nine-ring pills. Its strongest aspect was that its trace of spirituality was able to thoroughly ignite the medicinal energy once it was in the body.
After a long while of excitement, Long Chen put the nine top grade pills away and continued refining. With this ancient pill furnace, he learned what it meant to be relaxed and refine effortlessly.
With each furnace of pills he refined, the faster he went, and the more adept he became. The speed of his refinement delighted Long Chen.
Day after day passed. While Long Chen was rapidly refining pills, Hu Guishan and Fan Song felt each day to be as long as a year.
Each day, they would stealthily inquire about the state of Crouching Dragon Mountain. The only thing that comforted them was that all the Dragonblood Legion’s people were spending each day just eating and playing.
Right now, other than the Dragonblood Legion, the other factions’ disciples had gone to a certain location of the Xuantian Dao Sect to undergo tribulation.
Each day, there were hundreds of disciples successfully going through tribulation and becoming Foundation Forging experts.
Day after day passed, and more and more disciples succeeded in advancing. But there were some exceptions; some disciples turned to dust during their tribulation.
Nevertheless, the disciples here were all Celestials. Failing during a tribulation was always due to unexpected accidents. For example, some disciples would suddenly become defiant during their tribulation, and they refused to advance according to the tempo of the heavenly tribulation. And so, they were mercilessly erased.
/> But for the majority of disciples, as long as they didn’t resist and protected themselves with Heavenly Dao energy, the chances of their tribulations killing them were almost nonexistent.
More and more disciples successfully advanced. Once they did, they entered seclusion to solidify their cultivation bases.
But Fan Song and Hu Guishan were unable to calmly solidify their cultivation bases after advancing. They were too panicked.
During this half a month, the absolute majority of the disciples from the five factions had succeeded in their tribulations. There was also a small portion still waiting. However, not the slightest movement came from Crouching Dragon Mountain.
They had tried probing them several times, but the Dragonblood Legion simply ignored them. They were panicking, not knowing what tricks Long Chen had up his sleeve.
After another five days, Long Chen came out of seclusion and directly gathered all the Dragonblood Legion’s members. After sending word to the Elder Hall, they borrowed the Dao Sect’s transportation formation to arrive in a secluded mountain valley in the surroundings of the Xuantian Dao Sect.
“Brothers, there’s more candy for you,” laughed Long Chen. He had Guo Ran distribute the medicinal pills.
“Boss, you wouldn’t!”
All the disciples’ faces were green. They still remembered the candy from last time like it had happened yesterday. Just hearing him say this gave them terror.
But once the medicinal pills were distributed, they had no choice but to swallow them. The new healing members of the Dragonblood Legion looked at the others with uncomprehending expressions. They saw them swallowing the pills like they were poison.
As soon as they swallowed the pills, all their expressions changed.
“Don’t be afraid, there’s no poison. Do you feel like your qi sea is about to explode? Then that’s the right feeling,” laughed Long Chen.
At this time, Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er were both slightly pale. But they had absolute trust in Long Chen, and they bitterly endured.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM…!
Suddenly, successive explosions rang out from their bodies. They felt like their qi seas had truly exploded, but when they carefully looked, they felt that something was off. Each of their qi seas had all transformed into nine qi seas within their Dantians. Endless energy circulated within them, shocking all of them.
“These are Nine Sea Foundation Building Pills, and each of them is top grade. It will cause a detonation within your Dantian and create eight more qi seas that will superimpose over your original qi sea. Now you temporarily possess nine qi seas.
“Eight of those qi seas are fake. However, only we know that. The heavens don’t know, so… you understand. Begin to attack the barrier! When you succeed in advancing to Foundation Forging, you will be able to look down on others in the same realm, hahaha!” Long Chen laughed loudly.
Hearing this, everyone was delighted. Looking at the nine qi seas in their bodies, they roared and went all-out attacking the barrier. The nine qi seas exploded and then rapidly compressed.
The nine qi seas were just temporary. It was similar to the effect of the Qi Explosion Pill. With nine Dantians’ energy overlapping, the original runes they condensed would be nine times stronger than other people’s.
That powerful original rune would also be temporary. But once it formed, it would be sensed by the Heavenly Daos. The Heavenly Daos would unleash heavenly tribulation based on the strength of that rune.
Once that rune absorbed the energy of the heavenly tribulation, it would immediately transform, going from fake to real! This was a way to cheat the heavens.
Cheating the heavens was disrespectful to the Heavenly Daos. But Long Chen had never had any respect for them. He had an urge to pee all over the heavens. What could the heavens do to him?
The Dragonblood Legion’s warriors were all going all-out attacking the barrier. The wood cultivators’ expressions changed because they innately feared thunderforce. If they underwent tribulation with the others, they would definitely die. They looked at Long Chen with terror.
Long Chen gave them a glowing smile like the sun. It was very warm, very intimate. “Don’t worry, if the heavens collapse, I will hold them up.”
Looking at that warm smile, listening to that confident voice, they felt their terror fade. Clenching their teeth, they closed their eyes and continued attacking the barrier.
RUMBLE!
A torrent of lightning began to fall from the heavens. When it landed on their bodies, it unleashed crackling sounds. Everyone hastily drew that thunderforce into their Dantians.
The instant this tribulation thunderforce entered their Dantians, the illusory runes that they had just formed in their Dantians immediately became solid.
They went wild with delight. This rune had been formed based on nine of their qi seas. Now, this seed had received the recognition of the Heavenly Daos, and it would be the foundation of their immortal platforms.
Seeing that everyone had properly condensed their original runes, Long Chen said, “Gu Yang, release your aura! There’s no time to waste, so quicken the pace!”
Gu Yang roared, his aura erupting. The lightning rain immediately became lightning swords piercing down on them.
“Don’t just stand there! Block them!” Gu Yang swept out his spear, shattering a large area of lightning swords.
The Dragonmark warriors were still dumbfounded. They were under the impression that heavenly tribulation could not be cheated. They had to follow the sequence laid out by the heavenly tribulation, allowing it to baptize their bodies without fighting back. Those who went against it would be annihilated. But now, Long Chen’s orders completely toppled their understanding.
“If you don’t even dare to fight against the heavens, what will you be capable of in the future? Could it be that you’ll simply allow yourselves to die if the heavens will it? If you’re so cowardly, how are you fit to be members of the Dragonblood Legion?” shouted Gu Yang.
Those Dragonmark warriors took a deep breath and then let out roars of fury, also attacking the lightning.
The lightning swords were blown apart, transforming into lightning runes that were absorbed by their bodies. The impurities in their bodies were forced out.
The wood cultivators were scared witless and didn’t even dare to move. They had never imagined that such a pack of crazy people who would fight against the heavenly tribulation existed.
However, there was no need for them to do anything. As wood cultivators, attacking the lightning would be useless in any case. They just stood there, absorbing their share of lightning runes. There were naturally people to protect them.
“Gu Yang, increase the firepower.” Once Long Chen saw that everyone was used to this, he called out for Gu Yang to continue.
Chapter 1097 Begging to be Saved
Gu Yang’s aura rose to a new level. The runes around him began to charge against the heavenly tribulation.
This was a provocation, a defiant action. It was a kind of contempt for the Heavenly Daos. In the view of outsiders, such action was pure suicide.
But Long Chen had to make sure each warrior of the Dragonblood Legion had the courage to fight against the heavens. Otherwise, there was no way for them to cultivate a heart that would never waver.
The Dragonblood warriors had long since grown accustomed to this, treating heavenly tribulation like it was nothing. Compared to the heavens, they revered Long Chen far more. In their eyes, Long Chen was even stronger than the heavens.
The heavens only gave them an ordinary body, ordinary talent, and an ordinary fate. But Long Chen had changed everything about them. They were full of reverence and gratitude toward Long Chen.
Furthermore, after fighting for so many years, they had long since grown accustomed to this kind of style of being unafraid of heaven and earth. Under the Dragonblood warriors’ guidance, the Dragonmark warriors also began to toss aside their understanding of cultivation and fight against the Heavenly
Daos alongside them.
The Dragonmark warriors had trod the line between life and death several times now. Their wills were firm enough, but they still possessed an innate reverence for the Heavenly Daos and didn’t dare to fight back. What Long Chen wanted was to temper their wills.
Rumbling filled the world as the lightning tribulation continued. Everyone could sense a kind of anger. The heavens were angry and wanted to destroy them.
All the Dragonmark warriors were pale, their hearts almost leaping out of their bodies. That wasn’t because they lacked courage, but because of the terror that formed in the depths of their souls.
As for the wood cultivators, they were even more terrified. The pressure coming from the heavens made it so they didn’t even dare to move. They were relying entirely on the others to block the lightning tribulation.
The lightning was still growing stronger. The lightning swords transformed to become lightning spears and then lightning hammers that grew bigger and bigger. After two hours, the lightning hammers were several meters long. When they smashed into the Dragonmark warriors, they coughed up blood.
On the other hand, the Dragonblood warriors were still fine. That was the difference. Although they were both rank four Celestials, the Dragonblood warriors’ physical bodies were several times stronger than the Dragonmark warriors’. That was the difference created by experiencing bitter tribulations several times.
“Not bad, but do you think this is enough? Are you going to collapse just because of this?” Long Chen frowned at the pale Dragonmark warriors.
“Boss, we can keep going!” cried a Dragonmark warrior with an ashamed expression.
They all saw that while it felt like their combat power was rapidly catching up to the Dragonblood warriors, making it so they felt like they weren’t much weaker, this tribulation revealed that there was still a large gap between them and the Dragonblood warriors.