Weapon Liberation into Immortality, Flawless Inner Elixir

In San Francisco, a warm Western-style wedding was underway. The couple was none other than Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang.

There were not many guests, most of them Shirley Yang's relatives.

According to them, they would hold another wedding after returning to China.

Huang Bai walked up to the two and handed Hu Bayi a thick envelope.

"Congratulations on your marriage. This is a gift for you two. Open it and take a look."

Hu Bayi opened the envelope and found a stock transfer agreement. Huang Bai had transferred all shares of Panda Express to Hu Bayi.

"This... is far too valuable."

"Take it. I don't have time to manage Panda Express."

Panda Express was worth only a million dollars, while the money Huang Bai had gained from subduing Ying Caihong amounted to hundreds of millions.

Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang exchanged a glance, then called Fatty over.

Half an hour later, Hu Bayi handed Huang Bai a box.

"Open it and take a look."

Huang Bai opened the box. Inside lay three claw-like objects, jet-black yet translucent, engraved with the seal-script characters "Gold-Seeking" and inlaid with gold thread at the lower ends.

They were Gold-Seeking Talismans made from pangolin claws, tokens of Cao Cao's Gold-Seeking Commandants during the Eastern Han. Soaked in wax for forty-nine days and nourished by earth veins for eight hundred days, they could ward off evil when worn.

There had originally been nine of them. The other six had already been lost.

Besides that, there was a small booklet bearing the title—Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art.

"Anyway, we have no use for it anymore, so it's yours," Hu Bayi said with a smile.

The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art was only half a book and lacked the ability to arrange formations or regulate qi, but it could perform Earth-Splitting and Acupoint-Fixing. In certain situations, one could use that skill to escape danger.

"Thank you."

Other than the Flower of the Other Shore, this was the greatest gain he had obtained in this world.

Three months later.

A heavily guarded estate in the suburbs.

This was the place where the Global Spiritual Cultivation Society held Ying Caihong's lectures and sermons.

Devout believers sat cross-legged, listening to Ying Caihong preach from the stage.

"The boundary between the yin and yang realms is the boundary between life and death. Through these Yin-Yang Eyes of mine, you can see departed loved ones. Who among you has a wish?" Ying Caihong's amber eyes swept over the crowd.

"Cult Leader, me!"

"Me!"

The crowd eagerly rose to their feet.

Ying Caihong pointed at a white woman in the back row. "You. Whom do you wish to see?"

"Cult Leader, I want to speak with my eldest son, who passed away."

"As you wish."

The instant she finished speaking, Ying Caihong's left eye emitted a faint glow. A howling chill wind seemed to rise from the void, and a humanoid shadow gathered before the white woman.

"Oh my God, God!"

"Long live the Cult Leader!"

Such a miracle left everyone awestruck, and the Spirit Cultivation Society's followers grew even more devout.

Where they could not see, faint powder drifted from the central air-conditioning vents.

After the lecture ended, Ying Caihong went to the garden behind the villa.

From deep within the garden came a faint, unusual medicinal fragrance.

Dressed in a Daoist robe, Huang Bai sat cross-legged beside the pill furnace, refining medicine with fire.

"You're here?"

"My lord." Ying Caihong bowed respectfully, then lay down beside the pill furnace and lifted her shirt. A huge scar covered the dantian on her lower abdomen, with black mold growing inside it.

This was the Golden Toad Elixir Technique. Huang Bai was cultivating pills for Ying Caihong according to the method Xie Yali had used in the original work.

Splash!

Very soon, pill radiance turned purple. The pill emerged from the furnace while still hot, and Huang Bai used a Dao Gui to scoop up the scalding powder and pour it over Ying Caihong's wound.

"Mm..." Ying Caihong let out a muffled groan of pain.

"How does it feel?"

"It feels wonderful. My headaches are gone, and I can manipulate illusions now. My eyes seem to be able to see the sins upon other people."

Ying Caihong savored the marvelous changes. Ever since falling ill, pain had tormented her without respite. Only after submitting to Lord Huang Bai had she finally enjoyed even a day of peace.

"However, the doctor said the tumor in my brain is still growing."

"No matter. The fleshly body is useless. Once you kill the Human Fiend, you can cast aside your body and become an immortal."

A Human Fiend had to punish five kinds of sinners through ice, blazing fire, heart extraction, gut pulling, tongue pulling, and other methods. Finally, with another person's help in achieving Corpse Liberation, one could ascend into immortality.

"Yes, this subordinate understands."

The United States gathered scoundrels from all over the world. It had never lacked sinners of this sort.

Ying Caihong looked at the unfathomable Huang Bai. Beneath her meek expression lay ambition she could not suppress.

Once I become immortal, I'll definitely subdue Huang Bai and make him refine pills for me every day.

She had originally been an orphan in China's mountain regions. Later, she had been adopted by a wealthy Japanese merchant. After coming of age, she turned the tables, seized the merchant's estate, and came to the United States to establish the Spirit Cultivation Society.

This time would be no different. She was an evil wolf who could never truly be tamed.

"Leave."

Watching Ying Caihong's retreating figure, Huang Bai revealed an enigmatic smile.

The mold grew in the dantian of the lower abdomen, feeding on the human body's spiritual power.

Over the next two months, people died one after another in bizarre ways, yet it caused no stir.

In a place like the United States, where the strong preyed upon the weak, the police would never investigate their way to the wealthy patrons of the Global Spiritual Cultivation Society.

"My lord, I can sense a mysterious power breaking through the earth."

Ying Caihong gained a strange spiritual vision. Even with her eyes closed, she could sense the things around her.

Several days later, the final Tongue-Pulling Hell was complete.

In a dim secret chamber, candlelight flickered weakly.

Ying Caihong's face was pale, veins bulged beneath her skin, and her amber eyes radiated a mysterious glow. The surgical scar atop her head looked even more vicious.

The Daoist stood with sword in hand, the candlelight making his face shift between light and shadow.

"Form the hand seals and visualize the Five Prisons," Huang Bai shouted in a low voice.

Ying Caihong sat cross-legged, formed hand seals, and visualized the Five Prisons.

At times, her body turned icy cold; at times, scorching hot; at times, all manner of wounds appeared across her body.

Her body trembled nonstop, on the verge of collapse.

Huang Bai stood before her, his longsword pressed against her throat.

This was the final step—Corpse Liberation.

To achieve immortality through Corpse Liberation, another person had to help the soul leave the body. Burning it with fire was called Fire Liberation; drowning it in water was called Water Liberation.

The current method was called Weapon Liberation.

Buzz!

The divine sword pierced Ying Caihong's throat, and blood sprayed out.

Ying Caihong's physical body began to shrivel, trembling continuously as her blood gathered toward the black mold in her dantian.

The mold absorbed the blood and gradually formed a dark-gold bead. This was an Inner Elixir, which Huang Bai called the [Five-Ganoderma Inner Elixir].

The final step of Corpse Liberation was for the bead's External Elixir to become an Inner Elixir, then shatter, returning all its medicinal power to the soul and helping it leave the body and ascend.

A stream of green light emerged from Ying Caihong's head, taking the shape of a human face.

"Now!"

At the critical moment, Huang Bai pulled aside Ying Caihong's clothing. With a light flick of his sword tip, he gouged the Inner Elixir from her lower abdomen.

The green human face twisted violently, bursting with bone-deep hatred. Its gaze locked onto Huang Bai with misery and despair. "I curse you... to sink into the Five Prisons for all eternity..."

The shrill, piercing voice echoed endlessly through the secret chamber.

The next instant, the green light shattered with a bang.

"This Inner Elixir is not bad." Huang Bai held the warm Inner Elixir and smiled without speaking.

That was right. This was exactly what he wanted: a flawless Inner Elixir.