Night lay deep, and ripples shimmered across the lake like countless silver scales turning over.
Jiang Ning sat cross-legged in the waterside pavilion. Behind him, the servants and guards in the island palace had withdrawn one after another, and the entire island gradually fell silent.
With a beckoning motion, a palm-sized jade case appeared before him, its translucent surface faintly threaded with drifting cloud patterns.
The moment he opened it, an exquisite fragrance spread through the air, refreshing his heart and soul.
He flicked his fingertip, and a pill the size of a longan fruit landed in his palm.
The pill shone in three colors-blue-green, purple, and gold-its radiance flowing like a miniature star.
Its medicinal power had yet to enter his body, but merely holding it, he could feel tremendous vitality spilling out of it.
Now, a single glance told him that both the purity and magnitude of the energy within surpassed every pill he had ever seen.
"The Nine-Turn Life-and-Death Pill... it certainly lives up to its name," he murmured, his gaze steady and intent.
Then, without further hesitation, he swallowed the pill.
Its effects held little significance for him now.
Reversing life and death-with the complete flesh authority in his possession, he already had an undying body.
To kill him now, one would have to obliterate every last scrap of his flesh, physically, down to the microscopic level.
Otherwise, since his flesh authority originated from this world, he could neither die nor perish.
Even the gravest injuries could heal completely in an instant.
Given his current strength, he believed that only the Martial Saint, or the immortals left over from the previous era within the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Lands, could accomplish that.
Apart from that, only stripping away his authority could suppress his undying body.
And stripping away