Terrible News!!

Gurgle!

The little beast suddenly stopped, seemingly no longer in the slightest pain, and pressed its little paws over its rumbling belly.

"Simple. You just need to feed this venerable one more!"

As soon as it finished speaking, drool embarrassingly trickled from the corner of its mouth.

Qi Lin froze. "All I have to do is feed you your fill?"

"That's right!"

"You bastard, were you just putting on an act to scam food and drink out of me?"

"Shut up!" The little beast bared its baby teeth, which hadn't all grown in yet. "What this venerable one needs to eat are Evil Beasts! Do you know what Evil Beasts are? Evil Beasts have blood ties to this bunch of Symbol Gods. By refining Evil Beasts, this venerable one can strengthen the divine prison and even help your ancestors temper Divine Veins for your use! Take those seven Symbol God Twos, for example. Their Divine Veins will be more useful to you in your early cultivation."

"Then I misunderstood you?"

Put that way, Qi Lin felt a little embarrassed.

"But!" The little beast seemed to recall something. It slurped up its drool and said with an enraptured look, "You have to roast the Evil Beasts like your ancestors did, and cook them for this venerable one in different ways... You must add Sichuan pepper and chili!"

Qi Lin said, "Careful, or your butt will shoot blood."

"Get lost! This venerable one isn't picky, either. After the usual feast of fish and meat, bring me some spirit fruit to freshen my breath, a little wine now and then, and some sweet little pills that go crunch, things like that. What a life!"

Qi Lin said, "Wouldn't you get diabetes?"

"Junior, are you picking a fight on purpose?"

With that, the little black beast looked at the Great Yang Turtle.

"Hurry up and add Sichuan pepper and chili for this venerable one!"

The little black beast bounced up and down around the fire, eyes wide and spittle flying.

Over the fire, a huge golden turtle-like Evil Beast was already roasting, its fat sizzling.

"I'll make it so spicy your butt smokes!"

Qi Lin glared fiercely at the little black beast and vigorously sprinkled chili powder and ground Sichuan pepper over the Great Yang Turtle, turning it bright red.

"Wonderful!" The little black beast stuck out its tongue like a puppy. "Seeing as your roast meat smells pretty good, I'll take you as my brother!"

From junior to brother, its seniority had leaped along with the tastiness of the roast meat.

"Say, Pangpang." As Qi Lin roasted the meat, his expression suddenly tightened. "Aunt Tang said this Great Yang Turtle is of extreme yang. You won't go wild after eating it, will you?"

"What did you call this venerable one?" The little beast stared at him with wide eyes, as if struck by lightning.

"I have to give you a name, don't I?" Qi Lin chuckled. "Pangpang. How cute. Or I could call you Lord Pang?"

"Spicy my ass! You didn't become a man today, so this venerable one will make you a woman."

Qi Lin's vision went dark.

"You're nuts too, damn it!"

With that, Qi Lin furiously ruffled the fur on its head.

"Brat, stop!"

The little black beast roared, but it felt so good that it couldn't help letting out an "Awoo!" "You're infuriating me! You're treating this venerable one like a cat... Meow!"

Man and beast laughed and traded curses by the fire, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Before long, the aroma of meat filled the air.

Using the sharp Azure Soul Sword, Qi Lin carved up the Great Yang Turtle and roasted each piece through, with plenty of Sichuan pepper and chili. The little black beast yowled as it ate, smoke pouring from its pores.

Small as it was, its appetite was truly terrifying. Qi Lin had only a few bites of the entire Great Yang Turtle; the little beast polished off the rest.

"This Azure Soul Sword is decent. Use it normally!"

"If you use your ancestors' spirit tablets too much, they can easily be damaged and will need Evil Beasts to replenish them. Save them for crucial moments."

As the little black beast spoke, it suddenly flopped to the ground as though drunk, its four paws in the air, and fell fast asleep.

"..."

Qi Lin was speechless.

He picked up the Azure Soul Sword and examined it.

"This sword is said to be First Qi Middle Grade. It was forged from Azure Soul Stone and has Azure Soul Gang Qi of its own. It really is good."

Cultivation techniques, pills, weapons and the like were assigned ranks by people according to differences in their power, forging methods and effects.

From lowest to highest, they were First Qi, Two Aspects, Three Lives, Four Spirits...

Each rank was divided into upper, middle and lower grades.

First Qi Middle Grade was already a ranked weapon!

Realms were ranked heaven, earth, mystic and yellow, while techniques, pills and weapons were ranked one, two, three and four. Qi Lin remembered it all clearly.

It was easy to remember!

"I wonder if this Frost Formation Pill is First Qi Upper Grade? Could it even be Two Aspects Lower Grade?"

Qi Lin took out the blue box, his gaze burning.

By then, the little black beast had automatically turned back into a black wooden sword after falling asleep.

Qi Lin hung it at his waist alongside the Azure Soul Sword, carrying both swords side by side.

"This fellow even said it would help me suppress Su Lianxi after eating the Evil Beast."

Yet it was sleeping so soundly!

"Still, I have the Frost Formation Pill. If I'm lucky enough to reach Frost Descent, the second level of the Mystic Sea Realm, I should be able to stand against this favored daughter of Mystic City..."

At that thought, Qi Lin eagerly opened the blue jade box.

The moment it opened, a refreshing fragrance filled the ancestral hall.

Pill Qi rose and formed a misty ocean haze, making the hall seem to have plunged into a vast blue sea.

Dazzling sights shimmered amid boundless waves!

"And Grandpa said its quality was ordinary?"

Qi Lin hadn't seen many pills, but even he could tell it was extraordinary.

"It really is a rare pill that can help one advance in cultivation."

His eyes brightened slightly. He picked up the Frost Formation Pill, opened his mouth and slowly swallowed it.

The moment it entered his mouth, Qi Lin felt as though he had swallowed an ocean!

"Fog rises to shroud the green mountains, frost descends to temper the cold rivers, streams form and shake the earth, rivers flow with unstoppable force, and tsunamis sweep across the heavens..."

A blue sea appeared on his face as he closed his eyes and set foot on the path of cultivation in the Mystic Sea Realm.

Boom!

A vast blue sea carrying potent medicinal power crashed into the Profound Sea in his dantian.

The pill essence, refined from a combination of dozens of precious medicinal plants, met the Heaven-Penetrating Prison-Suppressing True Essence in Qi Lin's Profound Sea.

"Heaven-penetrating, prison-suppressing, unmatched under heaven..."

Qi Lin circulated his cultivation technique. The gold-and-black True Essence in his Profound Sea spun like the yin and yang fish of a taiji diagram, and like a millstone of heaven and earth, it ground down the ocean-like pill essence.

Boom! Boom!

The gold-and-black millstone turned. As the Frost Formation Pill's essence was ground down, it gradually took on the gold-and-black color of the Heaven-Penetrating Prison-Suppressing True Essence, mixing into the gold-and-black Profound Sea and gradually becoming part of Qi Lin's True Essence.

As the Heaven-Penetrating Prison-Suppressing True Essence in the Profound Sea grew, the gold-and-black mist above it gradually condensed. In a short time, it turned into frost that filled the sky and spread across the Profound Sea.

"I reached the Mystic Sea Realm Second Layer just like that?"

Qi Lin was stunned.

The reason he was so shaken was that... he had only used a tenth of the Frost Formation Pill's effect!

"Am I this efficient?"

If Lord Pang hadn't been sound asleep, Qi Lin would definitely have asked whether he was exceptionally gifted.

"Never mind. It's a good thing, anyway."

Now there was a problem: what was he to do with the remaining nine-tenths of the Frost Formation Pill's essence?

"Then let's see if I can keep breaking through."

Inside the ancestral hall, gold-and-black light shone ceaselessly from Qi Lin's dantian and his five river-like Yellow Dragon Meridians, illuminating the stone pillars, brick walls, offering table and the brand-new ancestral spirit tablets.

However!

The instant after Qi Lin succeeded in forming frost, his face suddenly twitched, and sweat poured from his head.

As the sweat ran down, brown blisters appeared across his forehead and burst open, spraying pus that burned with fire!

At the same time!

Crimson blood vessels swelled and bulged across his face like snakes and insects. The skin all over his body abruptly turned deep red, continuously ulcerating and scabbing over as copious amounts of magma-like blood rolled down.

Countless burning patterns spread from his heart through the flesh, bones, blood vessels and brain of his entire body, as well as his Yellow Dragon Meridians and dantian!

Hum!

The instant those flame patterns touched the remaining nine-tenths of the Frost Formation Pill's essence, they seemed to become a giant flaming mouth and swallow it in one gulp!

After the flame patterns absorbed the Frost Formation Pill's essence, Qi Lin's body began burning with a hum, and his entire body became a man of fire.

It had come too suddenly!

In less than two breaths, Qi Lin went from being full of vigorous blood and Qi after forming frost to a sick man plunged into a hell of flames.

"Hah, hah-"

He gasped and suddenly opened his eyes wide!

Crimson fire veins covered his eyeballs, and thick smoke poured from his eyes as though they were volcanic craters.

"Five Decays of the Heavenly Dao! Fire Burning Disease!"

As Qi Lin roared those words through trembling lips, his entire face twisted, looking like scorched black earth.

"Xiao Tao'er infected me..."