At the base of the Tianyi Palace in Star Wind City…
Mu Shun logged out from the Immortal Net with a gloating smile on his face.
“Hehe, let’s see how you can turn things around this time.”
He was very satisfied with the framing operation he had staged all by himself.
Although he hadn’t located Li Mu yet, he believed that in the face of such a large-scale reprimand and the determined search launched by the cultivators across the Brilliance Immortal Star Region, Li Mu would soon be found even if he was transformed into a mouse and crawled into a hole in the ground. Then, Li Mu would definitely have no way to defend himself.
“This time, Master will certainly be pleased with my work.”
Mu Shun was thrilled.
At the thought of his master, Mu Shun’s heart swelled with anticipation.
This time, Mu Shun’s master was going to refine the Immortal Elixirs. If there were a couple of extras, would Mu Shun be able to get one? Even if Mu Shun couldn’t have an Immortal Elixir, he surely would obtain some dregs of the elixirs, which would also increase his cultivation by leaps and bounds. Then, he would have a chance to enter the Soldier Realm in the future, wouldn’t he?
Of course, it would be best if he could get hold of the Immortal Elixir.
Mu Shun could not stop fantasizing about that moment.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
The face of Feng Zhen the Bloodless Sword was written with fatigue as well as expectation.
A third of the prepared divine herbs, minerals, and catalysts had been put into the furnace. According to the assorted signs and reactions that the furnace had shown, the refining process was going on smoothly and there was nothing special to take heed of.
“It takes 49 days to complete the refining of the Immortal Elixirs. When that time comes, this cultivator will probably still be alive.”
Feng Zhen conjured up 10 seals of tactical deployments in a row and injected them into the star-pattern tactical deployment on the ground, so as to continue to bring the fire underneath to heat the furnace.
After that, he sat cross-legged on a praying mat and began to regulate his breathing, while running his cultivation method to regain energy.
Refining elixirs was a job that consumed quite a lot of natural qi and energy.
In a trice, another three days had passed.
Feng Zhen had fully recovered his energy. Now, he was in high spirits, and his natural qi was unobstructedly coursing through his veins.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
He tapped the furnace and said, “Hehe, still haven’t died, have you?”
Li Mu’s voice came from inside. “I’ll still stick around even when the day you die comes. You want to refine me into elixirs? You wish! I’ll do my best to waste your time.”
Feng Zhen nodded with satisfaction.
“Well, not bad. You’re still alive. Judging from your voice, you’re still full of energy… But this is just the beginning. Haha, the longer you hold on, the better the effect of the Immortal Elixirs I refine will be. Start to struggle and scream! Haha, to me, your howling is the most wonderful music.”
“Really? But why do I feel quite at ease now? Wow, it’s like I’m bathing in the sun.” Li Mu’s voice came from the furnace again. He sounded energetic and was in no pain at all. He continued, “Your elixir-refining skills are so lame. But the divine herbs and precious medicines you threw in are really delicious. Do you have more? I want some more.”
Feng Zhen was so ticked off that his teeth were clattering. He sneered and said, “You’ll start to cry very soon.”
According to the ancient elixir prescription, Feng Zhen continued to add the rest of the ingredients into the furnace.
In a flash, another 10 days went by.
“How are you doing now? You already have no tears even though you want to cry, am I right?”
Feng Zhen sensed that inside the furnace, Li Mu’s movements gradually subsided, and he had stopped making any sarcastic remarks. Even so, his aura of life was still there, which indicated that he was still alive.
The last few days of the refining were the most critical.
When all kinds of divine herbs and other ingredients were added into the furnace according to the order and quantity that the elixir prescription required, they would bring about a special effect. Like a chain reaction, those ingredients would generate the authentic elixir energy to create the elixirs.
Therefore, for the cultivator being refined in the furnace, the last few days were the most tormenting period because the medicinal effects would break out. Just like cooking a frog in tepid water, before one had noticed, death already befell him and there was no escape.
The cultivator in the furnace no longer gave any response to Feng Zhen’s provocation.
“Haha, how is it? Do you still insist on denying the fact? Is the pain about to reach your limit? This is your destiny. Just embrace it. Haha, though I have no idea what kind of sect you are from or what your name is, you really brought me great luck.”
Feng Zhen laughed loudly.
But Li Mu, who was inside the furnace, still did not respond.
“Haha, you must be doing your best to hang in there. Don’t hold it back. You can struggle and howl. Haha, the more you suffer now, the more painful your death will be, and the more perfect the Immortal Elixirs will be.”
Feng Zhen looked forward to the result very much.
As time passed, the various divine herbs and precious ingredients he had prepared were gradually placed into the furnace. An odd fragrance began to overflow from the furnace and permeate the entire Elixir Room.
“There are only three kinds of divine herbs left. When I add them in, it means that victory is just around the corner…” Mumbling to himself, Feng Zhen solemnly opened a case.
Inside the case was something shining brightly.
“Swoosh!”
A small purple shadow rushed out of the case, attempting to escape the Elixir Room.
“You can’t get away!”
Feng Zhen cast his magic power and grabbed the purple shadow in his hand.
The purple shadow turned out to be a kind of ginseng with a forked bottom part that resembled a pair of legs. Its roots were thick and robust, and its top part looked like a human face. At first glance, it highly resembled an old man with long eyebrows and a long beard. Its skin was pale purple, shining with naturally condensed Taoist figures. Clearly, it had already developed intelligence. The ginseng was struggling in Feng Zhen’s hand. Its roots were moving and reeling, trying to break free.
This was definitely a supreme divine herb.
“This thousand-year-old Purple Jade King Ginseng has developed intelligence. It knows that it will be cooked as a part of the medicine, so it wants to escape. Too bad that you are not a 10-thousand-year-old Purple Jade King Ginseng, which can transform into a human being and have the power of half of an Immortal Elixir. If you were, I would certainly let you live.”
Feng Zhen smiled faintly and then mercilessly erased the only trace of intelligence in the ginseng with the elixir-refining seal method and tossed it into the furnace.
Shortly after—
“Kaboom, kaboom, kaboom!”
Something was banging against the walls of the furnace with deafening noises.
The huge furnace shook violently as if it was going to be overturned.
Feng Zhen was shocked at first, but then he was overjoyed.
“Alright, you finally can’t take it anymore, can you? Hahaha, give up! You can’t possibly escape from this furnace… The Elixir Suppressing Incantation!”
He shouted and stepped into the star-pattern tactical deployment on the ground.
As Feng Zhen’s 10 fingers moved rapidly, hand seals were cast one after another, which burst out like a cluster of flowers or mountains being relocated. Carrying imposing momentum, the endless seals darted out from his hands and shot into the furnace.
On the surface of the vibrating furnace, the Eight Diagrams seemed as if they would fly out. The mysterious Taoist figures swirled rapidly. Then, they gradually quieted down as if they had been put under a huge stone weighing tens of thousands of pounds.
The suppression succeeded.
Feng Zhen had cast his elixir-refining techniques to their fullest potential.
“If it goes on like this, I would be filled to the point of bursting by the energy of the herbs, wouldn’t I?”
In the furnace, Li Mu’s face was flushed as if he had been roasted.
His body was appallingly swollen as if he had been floating in the water for months. His entire face had been completely deformed. There were raging flames around his body, constantly roasting Li Mu’s skin and make a sizzling sound, but it couldn’t hurt him at all.
In the past month, Li Mu had had a taste of the feeling of being refined.
In a nutshell, it was “both painful and enjoyable”.
Hundreds of magic medicines, precious herbs, catalysts, and all kinds of minerals and crystals had been refined into pure energy by the furnace and stuffed into his body. With the energy of all the elixirs that he had swallowed before and were stuck inside him, Li Mu’s body now contained a huge amount of terrifying energy.
Thanks to the Zhenwu Boxing and the Thunder Tribulation, his body managed to bear and accommodate such a huge amount of energy.
If it were anyone else, their body would have already exploded thousands of times.
However, Li Mu now felt that this was almost the limit of what he could bear.
Previously, he tried banging on the furnace walls to make the energy flow in his muscles, bones, veins, and organs. That proved to be quite effective. Yet, it was still far from fixing the problem.
“If I completely refine the energy, perhaps I’ll be able to go beyond the Worm Realm and enter the Mortal Realm in one go. However, now that my natural qi has been sealed, I have to find other ways to refine the energy.”
Li Mu forced himself to stifle the urge to jump up and scream in order to keep his mind clear.
Even if he broke the furnace and got out now, he would not be a match for Feng Zhen, who was in the Soldier Realm.
“Perhaps I can make use of the furnace’s fire?”
Li Mu pondered, trying hard to figure out a way.
The old faker once said that the human body was also a big furnace. Cultivating was just like refining elixirs. If one refined his body and spirit, one would practically be in possession of a ton of precious elixirs. All the cultivation methods in the world were actually the methods of refining the human body into elixirs. Therefore, it was better to refine one’s own body instead of refining external objects.
Li Mu was coming up with a theoretically-feasible plan in his mind.
In the end, he hatched a plan and gingerly carried it out. First, he directly swallowed a bit of a flame that had filled the furnace according to the breathing rhythm of the Xiantian Skill.
This kind of flame was the elixir-refining fire condensed from the fire qi in Earthveins. It was as destructive as an explosion.
However, Li Mu had an incredibly strong physical body.
After several bold attempts, Li Mu made sure that his physical body could bear this kind of extremely dangerous elixir-refining fire, which gave him quite a relief.
In tune with the breathing rhythm of the Xiantian Skill, he mobilized the power of the elixir-refining fire and used it as the natural qi to attack the many seals that Feng Zhen had injected into his body.
This was an extremely audacious attempt.
For most people, drawing the elixir-refining fire into their body was tantamount to burning themselves to death.
When the elixir-refining fire passed through Li Mu’s meridians and muscles, he felt like his soul was burning. Even though Li Mu’s endurance for pain had reached an incredible level because he had practiced Zhenwu Boxing, at this time, he still couldn’t help but open his mouth and let out a cry of pain!
“Pain!
“It’s too painful!”
Nonetheless, Li Mu also sensed that while being burned by the elixir-refining fire, the congested energy in his body gradually showed signs of merging with his physical body and meridians, like the silt on a riverbed being washed away by a flood.
“Ah…”
Li Mu roared and jumped up. He kept waving his fists and kicking to relieve the sharp pain inside.
Even so, the breathing rhythm of the Xiantian Skill was still continuing as if it was an instinctive behavior. As he breathed, the elixir-refining fire went in from his nostrils, ran through his meridians, and then was exhaled from his mouth.
Then, he repeated the process again and again.
The intense pain made Li Mu howl wildly.
But when his howls left the furnace and reached Feng Zhen’s ears, it became completely melodious.
“Haha, you finally can’t take it anymore, am I right? Hahaha, it’s fine. In nine days, this batch of Immortal Elixirs will ripen, and your suffering will stop. Hahaha… Don’t blame me for being cruel. If you have to blame someone, blame your bad luck.”
Feng Zhen’s face twisted with excitement.
He continued to urge the star-pattern tactical deployment on the ground, extracted all the power of the underground fire in a radius of hundreds of miles, and injected it into the furnace. Victory was right in front of him, and it was time for the final sprint of this elixir refining.
