Thunderbolt Bead

No sooner had Chen Lin left than a stooped old man emerged from the back of the house.

Seeing the old man, the woman immediately said with a strange expression, "It happened just as you said. He came back to ask about the Enlightenment Pill. Could he really have refined it using your pill formula? That seems impossible, doesn't it?"

The old man smiled.

"Nothing is impossible," he said calmly. "Not only did he refine it, he made more than one."

"What!"

The woman was stunned.

"Wasn't your pill formula the simplified version Elder He developed? It only works in theory. Even you couldn't refine it, yet a rogue cultivator managed it? Could he be a Pill Refining Grandmaster hiding his abilities?"

"A Pill Refining Grandmaster?"

The old man gave a cold chuckle.

"Even a Pill Refining Grandmaster couldn't produce pills from a formula modified using Elder He's original Qi Luck Pill Refining Technique. Only someone blessed with great fortune could succeed!"

The woman's delicate brows drew together.

"Great fortune? How much fortune could a rogue cultivator have if he only reached Qi Condensation Layer 4 at forty?"

The old man's lips twitched at her retort. Shaking his head, he said, "He certainly used to be a down-and-out rogue cultivator, but he's changed a great deal lately. It's almost as if he's become someone else."

"You mean someone possessed him!"

The woman cried out.

"I don't know whether he's been possessed, but something has definitely changed. He's extremely cautious. If Zhao Zhengyuan hadn't resold him the Chuyuan Pill formula I used to test Zhao, and I hadn't happened to discover him successfully refining Chuyuan Pills while watching Zhao Zhengyuan, I wouldn't have believed it either."

After a pause, he said with certainty, "Elder He devised both formulas. Whether they produce a pill depends entirely on luck. One success could be called a coincidence, but successfully refining both kinds of pills, and more than once at that, is no coincidence."

The woman nodded.

"So you mean to let him try?"

"Yes."

The old man nodded as well.

"That thing will take shape soon. If we still can't sever the red lines and escape, everything will be over. We can't wait any longer."

Still hesitant, the woman frowned. "Can reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm really let us sever those red lines? Once we use the Blood Demon Pill, there'll be no turning back!"

The old man gave a bitter smile. "What way back do we have left? We can only blame our bad luck for encountering such a powerful monstrosity. Fortunately, it hasn't fully formed yet, or we'd have died long ago."

At his words, the woman immediately said apologetically, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't asked you to help me track down that traitor here, senior brother, we wouldn't have been trapped."

The old man smiled. "Why bring that up? If anything, I should thank this monstrosity. Without it, how would I ever have had the chance to be alone with you?"

Then his expression grew serious. "We'll definitely be able to sever the red lines after Foundation Establishment. I've already learned the method. The heads of the Zhang Family and the Han Family are using this very secret art. They're already preparing to leave the city with their lineages' core disciples."

The woman froze.

"Really? No wonder neither family seems panicked. So their family heads haven't disappeared-they've found a way to leave."

The old man nodded. "Yes. Not just those two families, either. The other three great lineages may also be preparing to leave. But to avoid attracting the monstrosity's attention, they probably won't dare take too many people."

With that, he sighed. "Unfortunately, the Five Major Families are too hostile to outsiders, and we're from the Black Demon Sect. Otherwise, getting two places among those leaving would have saved us all this trouble. Now we can only see whether Fellow Daoist Chen can give me a pleasant surprise!"

Chen Lin removed his disguise and returned to his lodgings, carrying a rabbit cage.

Before entering his room, he glanced at Zhao Zhengyuan's quarters, hesitated, then walked over.

He knocked on the door but received no response.

"Brother Zhao, I'm stewing rabbit tonight. Come have a drink!"

He craned his neck and called out.

Still, there was no response.

Chen Lin frowned. He hadn't seen Zhao Zhengyuan in a long time. He didn't know whether they had simply missed each other because of secluded cultivation, or whether Zhao had never returned.

Just then, the window opposite opened, and the Sallow-Faced Female Cultivator poked her head out.

"Stop shouting. That fellow hasn't come back for half a month. Want this old girl to drink with you instead?"

He hasn't come back for over half a month?

A bad feeling rose in Chen Lin's heart.

Monster beasts were running rampant a while ago. Could he have run into danger?

Unfortunately, even if something really had happened, Chen Lin couldn't help. All he could do was silently pray for him.

Ignoring the female cultivator, Chen Lin went straight back to his own room, provoking another torrent of curses from her.

He let them pass like wind by his ears.

After setting down the rabbit cage, he eagerly took out the box containing the pill. He removed the pill, carefully scraped off a little powder, mixed it into water, and fed it to the rabbit.

Then he quietly watched.

As he observed the rabbit, he took out the Artifact Refining Tome and began reading.

The rest of the tome's pages were ruined. Only a few pages in the middle remained barely legible.

There were six pages in total, recording the methods for making two magical tools.

Though called magical tools, they weren't conventional flying swords or shields, but two highly obscure items.

One was called the Purple Light Bottle. According to the text, it was a special vessel used to collect and hold a substance called purple gold glazed liquid.

Chen Lin had never even heard of purple gold glazed liquid, much less knew what it was, so naturally he had no intention of crafting that item.

What interested him was the other one.

The Thunderbolt Bead!

Turning to the pages on the Thunderbolt Bead, he studied them repeatedly, then took out brush and ink to fill in the missing text according to his understanding of the usual principles.

After working on it for a long time, he finally nodded in satisfaction.

Little of the crafting instructions was missing, and the gaps were all in relatively unimportant sections. With his careful deductions filling them in, there should be no problem.

As for its function, it was much like a bomb from his previous life. It required no mana to activate; he could simply throw it, and it would explode.

Its drawback was its unimpressive power.

The principle behind the explosion was also completely different from the bombs of his previous life. Rather than explosives, it used several mutually repelling materials with unstable internal structures.

During crafting, a formation kept these materials in a balanced state. Once activated, the formation's balance broke, producing an explosion.

Judging by the effects described in the book, Chen Lin felt its power should be roughly equivalent to a hand grenade.

It would work against someone in the early Qi Refinement Realm. But upon reaching the mid Qi Refinement Realm, cultivators not only had stronger bodies but could also cast protective barrier spells, easily blocking the blast's destructive force.

In that case, why had he bought it?

Mainly because the tome mentioned that this item was relatively difficult to craft, with a very low success rate.

He now liked anything with a low success rate. After all, only by crafting such items could he demonstrate the importance of his talent ability.

It gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Another reason was that the raw materials were truly cheap.

Even if he produced only one bead in ten attempts, it would still cost less than two spirit stones.

Besides, if one wasn't powerful enough, what about ten?

What about a hundred?

So it couldn't be called completely useless.

He currently lacked any means of attack. With this item, he would have one more way to protect himself.