“Bang, bang, bang!”
Deafening rumblings could be constantly heard from within the furnace.
Feng Zhen was not astounded. Instead, he was delighted.
“Struggle, struggle with all your might. This way, the efficacy of the various divine materials and herbs in your body will be able to evaporate, fuse, and condense again before truly merging with your body. Then, the order of the Taoist figures will be established, and my ‘Immortal Elixirs’ will come into being.”
Saying this, Feng Zhen fetched another kind of divine herb from the treasure chest.
The herbs were arched like bridges, which was extremely peculiar. They were glittering and crystal clear, like a piece of flawless jade. Upon a closer look, the fluorescent herb was actually a fine chain of Taoist figures as thin as hair. It was naturally formed and carried the beauty of nature.
“The Divine Bridge Magic Herb!”
Feng Zhen muttered to himself, “One herb of this kind can enable a cultivator to enter the Mortal Realm from the Worm Realm and establish a Life-and-Death Bridge. It’s priceless. Normally, I wouldn’t dare to give you such a precious herb, for it can improve your cultivation. But now… hehe!”
A look of confidence appeared on Feng Zhen’s face as if everything was within his control.
He deliberately said that to the Li Mu in the furnace.
“Your body is already filled up with the energy of all kinds of magic herbs and precious ingredients and can’t take more. If you absorbed this Divine Bridge Magic Herb, it could kill you… Haha, it’s obviously a magic herb. Usually, you would dream of getting one of these, right? But now, it has become a poisonous herb that will kill you. Haha, are you mad now?”
Rumbling sounds kept coming out from the furnace.
No one said anything in response.
Feng Zhen smiled cruelly and threw the Divine Bridge Magic Herb into the furnace without hesitation.
The moment the magic herb entered the furnace, it was refined by the high temperature in the furnace and turned into a jet of pure, greenish energy, which decisively dashed into Li Mu’s body as he was howling wildly.
For a moment, Li Mu had an illusion that he was like a volcano that was about to explode and could no longer contain the energy in his body.
He forcibly endured the excruciating pain and calmed himself down. He stopped whacking and kicking the walls and began to perform the moves of the Zhenwu Boxing.
The Xiantian Skill and the Zhenwu Boxing were Li Mu’s strongest trump cards.
These were also his last resorts.
With the two peerless Cultivation Methods complementing each other, Li Mu gradually started to see the wonders they could bring about.
As the Zhenwu Boxing was cast, it drove the energy inside his body to circulate.
In the inhuman pain as severe as having bones crashed and marrow extracted, it took incredible willpower and perseverance for one to force himself to start cultivating. If it were anyone else, even if the elixir-refining fire running in one’s body hadn’t burnt one to death, this kind of agony alone would be enough to cause a mental breakdown.
The human body was like a furnace.
It had been refining the world’s greatest herbs.
Countless hours had passed. Li Mu gradually entered the state of anatman.
His eyes were unfocused and unseeing. It was as if his soul had come out of his body, but his body was still performing the Zhenwu Boxing. The inhalation and exhalation of his mouth and nose were very well matched, which was in line with the breathing rhythm of the Xiantian Skill. The elixir-refining fire first entered through his nostrils and then exited from his mouth.
If one observed carefully, one would be able to see that the color and brilliance of the flames that were inhaled and exhaled were entirely different.
From time to time, Li Mu slammed a fist into the wall of the furnace, causing rumbling sounds to ring out.
When Feng Zhen heard the noise from outside, he was under the impression that Li Mu was about to die.
His struggling was weakening, which indicated that Li Mu might not hold on much longer.
Time passed slowly. But for some, it flew.
“The refining shall last 49 days. There are only three days to go.”
Feng Zhen had stayed beside the furnace the whole time, not moving a single step from it. He had been carefully observing the refining process and had put enormous care into this project.
Now, no more sound came out of the furnace. It was dead silent.
Even Li Mu’s aura of life had completely disappeared.
However, subtle and bizarre energy fluctuations constantly spread out from the furnace.
“It must be the energy fluctuations of the Immortal Elixirs. It’s exactly like what the elixir prescription has described, hahaha…”
Feng Zhen was so excited that he couldn’t control himself.
After decades of scheming, his dream, by chance, was about to be realized today.
He had been stuck in the Soldier Realm and could not make a breakthrough for a long time. This was the only hope for him to enter the General Realm. Once he succeeded, he would undoubtedly be able to fight for the position of the head of the Tianyi Palace. At the same time, his status in the entire Brilliance Immortal Star Region would be greatly promoted and he would become one of the top giants in this Star Region.
Every time Feng Zhen thought of this wonderful prospect, he was in raptures despite himself.
“The last ingredient is this Dragon Amber.”
He took out the last black crystal from the treasure chest with a trace of fear in his eyes. At that time, in order to get this ‘Dragon Amber’, he almost got killed and lost his cultivation. It took him an enormous amount of effort to murder his master and seize it.
“The Dragon Amber contains the Dragon Qi, which can make normal objects rise to power like a divine dragon. Here comes the last key ingredient to making Immortal Elixirs…” Feng Zhen then threw the Dragon Amber directly into the furnace, then he remarked, “I bet you are already dead by this time. It’s your blessing to be refined into Immortal Elixirs. May you be a good person in your next life.”
He conjured the last seals and injected all the fire qi in the Earthveins into the furnace.
Then, all he could do was wait.
For Feng Zhen, the last three days wore on like years.
For Li Mu, who was in the furnace, he had no feeling of the pass of time at all.
At this time, Li Mu had stopped practicing the Zhenwu Boxing and the Xiantian Skill. His whole body was burnt black, and his swollen body was as black as coal. It was impossible to recognize his facial features because his skin was all chapped. Like a huge human-shaped statue, Li Mu had been sitting in the center of the furnace.
The raging elixir-refining fire wrapped around Li Mu’s carbonized crust.
His flame of life seemed to have long been extinguished.
In the Primitive Sea of Consciousness, the little fluorescent guy, who was sitting still in front of the ancient Mud-pill Palace, suddenly stood up. Step by step, he walked toward the Primitive Sea of Consciousness in front of the Mud-pill Palace.
Every time he took a step forward, a divine bridge appeared under his feet.
With every step he took, a divine bridge unfolded under the little guy’s feet like a blooming lotus and linked up with the previous one.
Ancient tiles and rocks flew up from the Primitive Sea of Consciousness, forming the outline of an ancient bridge, which was as majestic as a mountain. The bridge continued extending from the gate of the Mud-pill Palace to the end of the Primitive Sea of Consciousness along with the steps the little guy took!
It was the 49th day.
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Finally, the last moment of the last day had arrived.
The star-pattern tactical deployment on the ground had stopped moving.
Standing in front of the furnace, Feng Zhen was both thrilled and overwrought.
“The refining must have succeeded, right?”
Feng Zhen meticulously observed the furnace and tried to sense what was going on inside the furnace. Eventually, he took a deep breath to calm down and removed the lid of the furnace. He then leaped up. Floating in the air, he looked down at the inside of the furnace.
It was pitch-black.
He couldn’t see anything.
Even the faint scent of herbs that he picked up before was gone.
Feng Zhen’s heart sank. Could it be that he had failed?
No way.
It should be that after the elixirs were formed, the divine power they contained was restrained and no scent was released. That was why there was no scent of the elixirs.
“Never mind, I’ll open the furnace first.”
He made a hand seal with his ten fingers and inserted the seal into the furnace. The huge brass gourd-shaped furnace slowly cracked from the middle and burst open. Python-like, bronze flashes of Taoist figures were swirling between the split halves of the furnace, forming something like a power grid. What Feng Zhen saw behind this power grid was a human-shaped black statue made of charcoal, which was more than three meters high.
“What’s this?”
He was taken aback.
How could he wind up with a large piece of charcoal?
Had He failed?!
Feng Zhen was bitterly disappointed all of a sudden.
However, the next moment, he detected a strange energy fluctuation coming from this human-shaped black charcoal. This was definitely not the energy produced from a failed refining. Instead, it was extremely pure and balanced, potent and profound.
Yes, the Immortal Elixirs must have been wrapped in this human-shaped black charcoal.
This black charcoal was what was left behind after the undying body being refined to death.
Feng Zhen came to his senses and felt elated instead of sorrowful.
He immediately went forward and ran his supernatural power to directly summon the human-shaped black charcoal out of the furnace and placed it on the floor.
“Now, as long as I cut open this piece of black charcoal, I can get the Immortal Elixirs.”
Feng Zhen came to the front of the human-shaped black charcoal. With a spot of sword light flowing on his fingertip, he was about to cut the black charcoal open and take out the elixirs inside.
Right at this moment—
“Crack, crack!”
All of a sudden, cracks appeared on the surface of the human-shaped black charcoal, and chunks of charcoal on the surface began to fall.
Feng Zhen was startled and quickly stepped back. He continued to run his Cultivation Method to prepare himself for what would come next.
More and more cracks appeared on the human-shaped charcoal.
And more and more chunks of charcoal fell onto the floor.
In the meantime, the energy that spilled out was also getting richer and richer.
“Haha, this kind of energy… is issued by Immortal Elixirs. It’s definitely Immortal Elixirs. Hahahaha, I made it! I made it!” Feng Zhen could no longer contain the ecstasy inside him. He threw his head back and laughed frenziedly.
At this precise moment, two beams of divine light suddenly shot out from the human-shaped black charcoal.
At the same time, the black crust completely fell off in an instant, and a figure covered in divine light jumped out of it.
It looked like a person just jumped out of a black stone.
“What?”
Feng Zhen was shocked.
“What the heck is going on?”
“Who are you?” Feng Zhen asked, looking at the man. He wasn’t the cultivator with the undying body who had been tossed into the furnace, but rather… looked a bit familiar. However, under the impact of the huge shock, he couldn’t help but let out a cry of alarm.
“Didn’t you want to kill me by all means and get the bounty?”
That figure was, of course, Li Mu.
He had changed his appearance before he had been thrown into the furnace. Now, after being refined for so many days, he had recovered his original appearance. That was why Feng Zhen didn’t recognize him at once.
But this cultivator in the Soldier Realm was, after all, seasoned. He cottoned on very quickly. “Are you Li Mu? That mad killer? It turns out that it’s you… Why haven’t you been…”
“Been refined to death?” Li Mu laughed, then he continued, “Speaking of which, you really brought me great luck. Haha, not only am I still alive, but I have also entered the higher realm and built the Life-and-Death Bridge. I gotta thank you for that.”
“You…” A mouthful of blood almost squirted out from Feng Zhen’s mouth and landed ten meters away.
He still found it hard to believe.
It was impossible. After 49 days of being refined in the furnace, even those in the Soldier Realm or the General Realm would hardly be able to survive. The instructions the ancient elixir prescription gave were quite clear and accurate, but how could it turn out to be like this?
“It’s all destined,” Li Mu said.
Hearing that, Feng Zhen almost really spat out a mouthful of blood.
What Li Mu just said was exactly what he had said to mock Li Mu. But now, Li Mu had thrown all those spiteful remarks back in his face.
“I’m gonna kill you,” Feng Zhen roared.
He unleashed the Sword Qi and pointed a finger at Li Mu’s forehead.
The Sword Qi was as overwhelming as a gale.
So what if he didn’t die?
So what if he rose to the higher realm?
The higher realm next to the Worm Realm was merely the Mortal Realm. In front of Feng Zhen, Li Mu was still as vulnerable as a worm.
However, Li Mu directly launched his Blade Punch, which instantly cut that bit of Sword Qi into pieces.
By contrast, not even a hair on his palm was hurt.