Life Devouring Pill, Body Snatching

Chapter 21: Life Devouring Pill, Possession

Xiao Yang walked over and headed straight for the white jade shelves lined with numerous jade boxes.

"Heaven Essence Grass, Blood Spirit Ginseng, Jade Jadeite Fruit, Seven-Colored Soul Revival Mushroom..."

"Dou Ling Pill, Imperial Zenith Pill, Transformation Pill?" Xiao Yang's eyes widened. Holy shit, did a pie just fall from the sky, or is the Xiao Clan Dou Di Ancestor watching over me?!

Xiao Yang continued looking over the white jade shelves on either side. Aside from the many medicinal ingredients and pills, the rest were scrolls made of strange materials—presumably Pill Formulas.

Then, Xiao Yang pushed open the lid of the enormous Medicine Cauldron before the skeleton.

Several items came into view.

A black-and-white ring, a somewhat translucent and peculiar jade bottle, a blood jade scroll set beside it, a top-quality purple jade bottle, a strange black-and-white ore the size of a human head, and finally, a blood jade box.

Xiao Yang could guess that the two pills inside that somewhat translucent jade bottle, along with the blood jade scroll, were likely the Life Devouring Pills and their Pill Formula—the primary targets of this journey.

As for the other items, Xiao Yang was not sure what they were.

However, according to the original work, the Life Devouring Pill was an extraordinary pill that had once shocked the entire continent many years ago. It could be considered a peak seventh-tier pill.

Its creator had also been a highly renowned master alchemist, but he had vanished without a trace overnight.

Yet in the original work, his second brother, Xiao Li, had obtained only two Life Devouring Pills and their Pill Formula. So where had the rest of that master alchemist's collection gone?

The original work had said that he disappeared overnight, and no one knew where he had gone. His lifetime collection should have been taken with him.

Moreover, refining a peak seventh-tier pill and creating the formula for one were two entirely different concepts! Even Yao Lao, an eighth-tier peak grandmaster of pillmaking, had marveled at both.

Someone capable of creating a seventh-tier Pill Formula had to possess attainments in alchemy at least at the eighth tier.

After all, Pill King Gu He, a sixth-tier alchemist, was nothing but crap in Yao Lao's eyes.

Fa Ma, whom Yao Lao had casually given a few pointers to, was the president of the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemist Guild and a peak fifth-tier alchemist.

As for seventh-tier alchemists, they might qualify to earn a second glance from Yao Lao, but they absolutely would not make even Yao Lao marvel.

And this was the purpose of the Opportunity Card: obtaining all the treasure within the limits of what conditions allowed.

Trusting his instincts, Xiao Yang reached out, picked up the blood jade box, and opened it!

However, at that very moment, a sudden change occurred! The object within the box transformed into two streaks of bloody light and shot directly into his eyes.

Immediately afterward, the scene before Xiao Yang shifted, and he arrived in a space filled with towering buildings.

"This is... the inner world of a Zanpakuto? Or rather, my inner world?!"

Suppressing the shock in his heart, Xiao Yang looked up ahead. An old man with blood-red eyes, dressed in black-and-white alchemist robes, stood opposite him and stared at him intently. "Boy, what place is this?!"

A cold smile curled upon Xiao Yang's lips. "What? You hid your remnant soul inside that blood jade box, intending to seize my body and live another life, only to find that your plan failed. Is that right?"

"And," Xiao Yang said, pointing at the surrounding skyscrapers, "you discovered that you recognize none of these buildings. You've never seen anything like them on the Douqi Continent, right?"

"Hmph! Insolent junior! It is your fortune that I have taken a liking to your body!" The blood-eyed old man remained arrogant. In his eyes, Xiao Yang was merely a tiny Dou Shi—what waves could he possibly stir up?

"As expected..." Xiao Yang sighed softly. "I should have realized it long ago. Someone capable of developing a pill like the Life Devouring Pill clearly wouldn't be any respectable alchemist."

Looking solely from the perspective of Xiao Yan, the protagonist of the original work, a Dou Wang might seem like nothing impressive—a mere ant in the late stages.

But at this level, one could already be said to have transcended the realm of ordinary people on the Douqi Continent and entered the ranks of the strong.

This was also the standard of Jia Nan Academy graduates, and many of the academy's elders were only at this level as well.

Among the Jia Ma Empire's population of at least tens of millions, there were only a handful of Dou Wang experts.

Someone like Xiao Yang's Old Dad, Xiao Zhan, would likely only reach the Dou Ling level at most in his lifetime if nothing unexpected happened.

The Life Devouring Pill's effect was to use Da Dou Shi as consumable materials to mass-produce Dou Wang.

Never mind the side effect of having only three years of lifespan remaining—did cultivation not require time?

An ordinary Da Dou Shi could cultivate for an entire lifetime, and even when he had only three years left to live, he still would not become a Dou Wang.

Strictly speaking, this was actually a very fair trade.

But from this alone, it was clear that the person standing before him was certainly no kind soul.

"Enough, junior. Offer up your body obediently, and I can ensure your family enjoys wealth and glory for a lifetime. Your name will also resound throughout the Douqi Continent from this day forth."

The blood-eyed old man in alchemist robes spoke again, but this time, he switched to temptation.

Xiao Yang did not answer. He merely spread his five fingers and pressed them over his face. Then, a ghastly white, savage bone mask marked with bloody patterns covered his face.

Black-red light gathered at Xiao Yang's fingertips. "King Hollow's Flash!"

The black-red beam mercilessly pierced through the blood-eyed old man's chest. Even at the moment of death, his face remained frozen with astonishment, shock, and confusion.

His remnant soul shattered, turning into countless motes of light that merged into Xiao Yang's soul, causing his Soul Power to rapidly grow stronger.

A moment later, Xiao Yang slowly opened his eyes and burst into laughter. "Good, good, good! Heaven truly favors me! You old bastard, thank you very much."

After devouring the remnant soul of an eighth-tier alchemy grandmaster at the Spirit Realm, Xiao Yang's own Soul Power surged explosively, directly elevating him to captain-class in Bleach.

Now, he finally had enough Reiatsu to perform Bankai.

After Bankai, Xiao Yang would be able to rely solely on Soul Power to unleash combat strength from the Dou Ling to Dou Wang level and pass the Inner Courtyard examination.

After entering the Inner Courtyard, he only needed some time to advance to Dou Wang. Everything would then fall naturally into place.

After dealing with the alchemist who had tried to seize his body, Xiao Yang began taking stock of his gains.

First were the two blood-red, eyeball-shaped objects inside the blood-jade box.

They were not pills, but Heavenly Demon Blood Eyes refined with the eyes and Heart Blood Essence of a Rank 7 Peak Heavenly Demon Phoenix as the main ingredients, supplemented by forty-nine rare medicinal herbs of heavenly-material-and-earthly-treasure grade, along with the blood essences of over a thousand magical beasts possessing eye-based innate talents.

Once absorbed and fused into his own eyes, they would grant his eyes a variety of ocular arts: x-ray vision, farsight, microscopic vision, hypnosis, illusion creation, spiritual attacks, divine light projected from the eyes, and more.

They could basically be called a fantasy-world enhanced version of the Sharingan. Of course, that referred to the ordinary tomoe Sharingan, not the absurdly overpowered Mangekyō kind.

The old man's remnant soul had previously resided within this pair of eyes.