A red beam smashed the clouds above Skyfire Peak into fragments. The blazing red fire dyed the clouds crimson as blood, and sheets of blood-red cloud scattered in panic in every direction, turning half the sky scarlet. Amid the rolling layers of blood clouds, a pill furnace stood one hundred and eight zhang tall, supported below by three dragon claws. Round, massive, and heavy, its lid bore the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise cast at the four cardinal positions. Strange precious pearls were set into the spiritual beasts' eyes, their radiance shooting hundreds of zhang outward as the furnace drifted slowly toward the group of Daoists.
Lin Xiao had only provided a list of the materials needed for the pill furnace, diagrams of its internal structure, and the array diagrams that needed to be inscribed upon every part. He had imposed no rigid requirements upon its outward appearance.
Daoist Master Yizhen, however, was someone who pursued perfection in artifact refinement. The furnace's three legs had been fully forged into the shape of dragon claws. The five sharp talons on each leg could grip the ground tightly, and should the pill furnace be used as an offensive artifact, those three sharp dragon claws would become lethal weapons as well. Wisps of cloud qi coiled around the claws, while dragon scales protruded distinctly across them. Tiny thunder pearls were embedded in those scales—nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dragon scales in all, each bearing a thunder pearl the size of a soybean. So many thunder pearls formed an extraordinarily powerful Three Illusions Thunder Array. Once activated, it could instantly unleash forty-nine consecutive bolts of heavenly lightning against an enemy.
The Three Illusions Thunder Array was not merely an offensive technique. It was also the pill furnace's own great defensive array, sufficient to protect it from enemy ambushes or the disturbance of external demons during pill refinement.
Countless medicinal herbs had been carved upon the furnace's outer shell. Wisps of red mist, ethereal as gauze, floated above each herb. As the mist swayed, the herbs seemed alive, gently rocking upon the pill furnace. The outlines of the herbs were formed from red threads cast using melted fire-element essence crystal liquid. These lines formed the Skyfire Burning God Array upon the furnace, likewise capable of unleashing high-temperature flames to attack enemies or establish a defensive formation.
The four spiritual beasts on the furnace lid also formed the Four Spirits Demon Slaying Array. Its outward attacks possessed tremendous power, while its self-defense was incomparably solid. It was yet another spiritual array that combined offense and defense.
Daoist Master Yizhen had deliberately gone to such lengths for Lin Xiao under Yi Xing's instruction. When Yi Xing heard Lin Xiao say that the furnace could not only refine pills, but could also be refined into a portable artifact, he instructed Daoist Master Yizhen to put extra effort into it. The Three Illusions Thunder Array, Skyfire Burning God Array, and Four Spirits Demon Slaying Array had not only consumed countless precious materials from the Origin Sect, but had also cost Daoist Master Yizhen an enormous amount of mental effort. Yet with these three spiritual arrays, the pill furnace's offensive and defensive capabilities had risen to a startling level.
Daoist Master Yizhen, whose face had grown much more gaunt, stood upon a cloud with eighty-one fellow disciples, slowly controlling the enormous pill furnace as it drifted over. Smiling broadly, he cupped his hands toward Yi Xing in salute, then laughed heartily and said happily to Lin Xiao, "Little friend Lin Xiao, this pill furnace cost this old Daoist no small amount of effort! Heh, hehehe, such a massive furnace had to be formed in a single casting. Just melting those materials exhausted more than two hundred disciples from my Artifact Hall until they fainted. Hehehe, when you refine pills in the future~~~"
Lin Xiao nodded and said softly, "If I refine fine pills in the future, Senior Yizhen will naturally have first pick of one share." He cupped his hands toward Daoist Master Yizhen, then forcefully knocked his fist against his chest, indicating that he had engraved this favor deep in his heart.
Daoist Master Yizhen grinned with delight. He hurriedly grabbed Lin Xiao's hand and led him around the pill furnace, ceaselessly explaining its advantages. Lin Xiao understood the internal structure and functions of the furnace, but only Daoist Master Yizhen, its maker, understood its external arrangements and certain wondrous uses. Many minor auxiliary functions seemed inconspicuous, yet Daoist Master Yizhen and his fellow disciples had spent enormous effort discussing and devising them together. These small auxiliary functions would greatly facilitate a pill refiner's work.
Daoist Master Yizhen especially emphasized a Mustard Seed Array beneath the pill furnace. Hidden within that formation was a Fire Crystal Pillar eighteen li long. Once the Mustard Seed Array was activated, the pillar would emerge from the furnace with raging skyfire, burn through the rock strata, and pierce deep underground. Once it connected with an underground spiritual vein, the crystal pillar could draw Spiritual Energy from the vein and transform it into a towering blaze that surged into the furnace, providing endless power for pill refinement. Moreover, Daoist Master Yizhen and his eighty-one fellow disciples had jointly inscribed a damaged ancient array they had comprehended within the pillar. At a moment of life and death, the pillar could draw out all the Spiritual Energy stored within the furnace, compress it into an immensely powerful red beam, and launch a surprise attack on the enemy. This was also the pill furnace's trump card.
Lin Xiao looked at the pill furnace in satisfaction, and a rare trace of a smile appeared on his face. He said softly, "Excellent. Today, I can open the furnace and refine pills, then see whether this Pill Frying Furnace is truly as incomparably wondrous as Patriarch Luo Yu claimed." After a pause, he suddenly asked, "Senior Yizhen, what grade is this pill furnace?"
Smiling, Daoist Master Yizhen stroked his long beard. With smug delight, he looked up at the sky and laughed. "This old Daoist's artifact-refining methods are considered first-rate in today's cultivation world, but to speak honestly, they cannot compare to even one little finger of the ancient artifact-refining grandmasters! The strongest artifacts this old Daoist usually refines are merely mid-grade Precious Artifacts! But because this pill furnace consumed such excellent and abundant materials, and because my fellow disciples joined forces to help, its grade should surpass that of a high-grade Precious Artifact, though it remains a tiny, 'insignificant' distance away from becoming a spiritual artifact!"
Shaking his head proudly, Daoist Master Yizhen chuckled. "Still, that is only in terms of its grade. If we speak of its inherent quality, I fear even ordinary spiritual artifacts cannot rival it."
He forcefully slapped one of the pill furnace's dragon claws, then snorted through gritted teeth. "An artifact weighing more than ten million jin—who in the cultivation world has ever seen one? The furnace walls alone are three zhang and six chi thick! And it was all forged from top-grade materials. Even a legendary Immortal Artifact would have to expend heaven-shaking effort to break this pill furnace open!"
After catching his breath, Daoist Master Yizhen patted Lin Xiao on the shoulder and said in a strange tone, "Little Brother Lin Xiao! When you travel abroad in the future, if you encounter an opponent you cannot defeat, just lift the furnace lid and hide inside. There will not be many people in the entire cultivation world capable of doing anything to you." Daoist Master Yizhen's words sounded strange, but they were the plain truth. This pill furnace was simply too huge, too cumbersome, and too sturdy. Its offensive power was still unknown, but as a means of self-protection and survival, even ordinary top-grade spiritual artifacts likely could not compare to it.
Just as Lin Xiao was about to say something, Yi Xing spoke gently from the side. "Since this pill furnace is an artifact, Junior Brother Yizhen, help Little Friend Lin Xiao collect it. Presumably, if a pill refiner can become one in heart and mind with his pill furnace, the pills he refines will possess far better spiritual efficacy."
Before Lin Xiao could react, Daoist Master Yizhen had already seized his wrist and dragged him atop a cloud, flying above the pill furnace. Daoist Master Yizhen's fingernail sliced open a blood vessel on Lin Xiao's wrist. A stream of blood sprayed forth, and drops of hot blood scattered onto a head-sized red pearl on the furnace lid. The pearl absorbed every drop.
"Hold your breath, gather your mind, and use the artifact-controlling method this old Daoist taught you to subdue this pill furnace." Daoist Master Yizhen's sharp shout roused the slightly dazed Lin Xiao. He then swiftly recited an incantation for refining an artifact. The incantation was exceedingly brief, only a little over two hundred words from beginning to end, yet every word was a pearl, every part perfectly placed—refined and subtle beyond compare. It was truly a supreme method for claiming an artifact. Compared with the half-baked methods the Great Luo Pill Dao possessed for refining artifacts and flying swords, this incantation was at least ten times deeper and more formidable!
Lin Xiao had no time to think of anything else. A strand of searing energy from the pill furnace surged into his body through their invisible blood essence connection, drilling straight toward his sea of consciousness. Lin Xiao held his breath and gathered his mind, silently circulating his mysterious art. Following the spirit formula Daoist Master Yizhen had taught him, he formed a hand seal to claim the artifact. Following the vague information transmitted through that strand of energy, he cautiously extended his divine sense into the pill furnace and slowly imprinted his spiritual mark upon the cores of its several hundred arrays.
Neither the observing old Daoists nor Lin Xiao himself noticed that a strand of seven-colored spiritual qi, transformed from a Lotus Seed hidden within his body, followed the pathways opened in the pill furnace by his divine sense and entered it as well. This tiny strand of spiritual qi fused with Lin Xiao's divine sense, condensing into shining marks as solid as gemstones at the array cores. Fine strands of seven-colored spiritual qi linked every mark together, forming a dense great net that tightly enveloped the entire pill furnace. Only later did Lin Xiao gradually discover that this furnace possessed far greater spirituality than Patriarch Luo Yu himself had guessed. When Lin Xiao controlled it, it moved as easily as an arm obeying a hand, incomparably nimble.
After several hand seals were completed, the entire pill furnace trembled slightly. Its massive body, one hundred and eight zhang tall, shrank a little, reducing from one hundred and eight zhang to roughly one hundred and seven zhang and eight chi.
Lin Xiao stared foolishly at the enormous pill furnace. Qingchu also stared blankly at it, then asked in great confusion, "Why doesn't Big Brother Lin make the pill furnace tiny and place it in his palm?" Though Qingchu was merely one of the lowest-ranking servant disciples of the Origin Sect, she knew more or less that flying swords, artifacts, and such items could all be shrunk to an extremely small size, or even absorbed directly into the body.
Yi Xing rolled his eyes. Daoist Yi Yi and Yi Xin simultaneously raised their heads to look at the sheets of blood cloud rolling endlessly through the sky.
Daoist Master Yizhen smiled awkwardly at Lin Xiao and shook his head helplessly. "The pill furnace is too large, and it consumed too many materials. Compared to Little Friend Lin Xiao's cultivation, its grade is also slightly too high. Hmm, to refine it to the point where it can be carried around... probably~ perhaps~ possibly~ presumably~ if nothing goes wrong~ would require the cultivation of a Loose Immortal?"
Lin Xiao, who was applying medicinal ointment to the wound on his wrist, nearly sprayed a mouthful of blood onto Daoist Master Yizhen's face when he heard this! The cultivation of a Loose Immortal? It required the cultivation of a Loose Immortal to refine this pill furnace to the point of controlling it freely? A Loose Immortal? In today's cultivation world, finding even a single hair from a Loose Immortal would be a heaven-shaking event, much less seeing a genuine Loose Immortal appear!
Still, Lin Xiao did not feel disappointed. His original intention in forging this pill furnace had been to refine pills. He had never considered using it as an offensive or defensive artifact—although Luo Yu's design included such functions, Lin Xiao understood his current circumstances. His cultivation was too low. Even with a high-grade Precious Artifact pill furnace, what could he possibly do against a demonic giant like the Blood God Ancestor? It was better to honestly refine pills in the Origin Sect and sit quietly while awaiting the right opportunity!
Lin Xiao had become very realistic. He no longer thought about personally avenging his fellow disciples and Yao'er. He only wanted to rebuild the Great Luo Pill Dao and bring Yao'er back to his side! In truth, ever since learning that Hua Wuniang had poisoned his mother to death, while even Lin Shan could do nothing about it, Lin Xiao had become realistic—very, very realistic! He never thought about arduous tasks beyond his power to accomplish. Of course, once he possessed sufficient strength, what would he do? Even he himself did not know!
Yi Xin gently patted Qingchu's little head and said softly, "Cultivation advances gradually. Little Friend Lin Xiao need not be anxious."
Lin Xiao nodded gratefully to Yi Xin and said calmly, "This junior is not anxious. The Dao Path is boundless, so what is there to be anxious about? In any case, if one walks forward step by step, there will surely be a result."
It was only a simple sentence, yet it drew simultaneous sighs from Yi Xing, Yi Xin, Daoist Yi Yi, Daoist Master Yizhen, and the others. They raised their heads to gaze at the rolling blood clouds in the sky and could not help falling silent in thought. The Dao Path was boundless, but life had limits. If one walked forward step by step, would there truly be a result? Yi Xing sighed softly. "The Dao Path is difficult! Difficult! Difficult! Difficult! We can only do our utmost to climb upward."
Yi Xin was slightly lost in thought for a while. Her beautiful eyes, rippling like water, turned toward Yi Xing's profile once more. She sighed almost imperceptibly and murmured in a voice too faint to hear, "Can there truly be a result? Yi Xin does not ask for much. All Yi Xin seeks is... if he could look at me one more time each day, Yi Xin would be content."
Standing close beside Yi Xin, Qingchu only felt that Yi Xin had suddenly become so pitiful, so pitiful—just like a rabbit Qingchu had once found in the medicinal garden behind the mountain, its hind leg broken from a fall. Incomparably pitiful. Qingchu carefully reached out and gently stroked the back of Yi Xin's hand. Qingchu quietly looked at Yi Xin, her gaze filled with innocent, pure, utterly untainted... pity!
A servant disciple of the Origin Sect who had not even entered the door of the most basic qi-refining arts was actually looking upon a sect elder seven or eight generations above her with such pitying eyes! Had it been any other elder, Qingchu might have suffered greatly for it. Yet Yi Xin merely glanced at Qingchu, gently pinched Qingchu's earlobe with her fingers, and slowly lowered her head.
Meanwhile, Yi Xing and the others had already gotten busy.
With Lin Xiao's cultivation, he simply could not operate this enormous, exceptionally heavy pill furnace. He could only ask Yi Xing and the Origin Sect elders to slowly move the furnace to an open area beside the lake where he lived. Nearly a hundred Origin Sect elders surrounded the huge furnace, while a patch of multicolored cloud carried the furnace and the elders. Behind them followed nearly a thousand senior disciples who held positions and duties within the Origin Sect. This mighty procession headed from Skyfire Peak toward Lin Xiao's lakeside residence, disturbing who knew how many Origin Sect disciples along the way.
Those with low cultivation stood on the ground or mountainsides, gazing upward eagerly. Those with profound cultivation flew into the air on flying swords or artifacts, trailing the procession from afar as they stared in shock at the enormous pill furnace. There were even dozens of disciples piloting flying boats who could not suppress their curiosity. Amid their fellow disciples' loud shouts aboard the boats, they maneuvered their flying boats after Lin Xiao's group, pointing and gesturing as they followed all the way.
Not long afterward, nearly a thousand sword lights caught up from behind, making the procession even more massive. These were the managing disciples of Medicine Mountain, carrying the various medicinal ingredients Lin Xiao required in storage pouches. Daoist Yi Yi had sent out a command signal midway and summoned them over.
The procession arrived at the lakeside where Lin Xiao lived. A vacant area several li across had already been cleared by magic. White jade slabs had been laid across the ground, making it perfectly level. Huge warehouses had also been built around the edge of the clearing, with arrays arranged around them to maintain constant temperature and humidity. These had been prepared for the vast quantities of medicinal ingredients Lin Xiao had requested. At the center of the flat ground stood two hundred young Daoists in green robes, their hands hanging respectfully at their sides as they watched the direction from which the pill furnace was approaching. Daoist Yi Yi had arranged them for Lin Xiao. They were sect members with more than twenty years of experience working at Medicine Mountain, specially tasked with preparing medicinal ingredients according to Lin Xiao's requirements and handling the various miscellaneous matters involved in his pill refinement.
Such treatment was far better than when Lin Xiao had first arrived at the Origin Sect over a hundred days ago. Ever since they learned that he had memorized a Great Luo Pill Scripture, he had been elevated to the Origin Sect's highest rank of Heavenly Mechanism Guest Official, something utterly incomparable to the Starlight Guest Official rank he had held when he first entered. Heaven, earth, sun, moon, star—these were the five ranks of Origin Sect guest officials. With the complete inheritance of the Great Luo Pill Scripture, Lin Xiao naturally ought to become a Heavenly Mechanism Guest Official. Even the Spirit Gathering Array he had contributed alone was enough for the Origin Sect to grant him such treatment.
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