A fight to the death

After entering the scene in the solar-term simulation, Li Fuchan pondered to himself.

According to my deductions, the Old Flood Dragon has already noticed me, but it still hasn't attacked. I don't know what it's plotting.

But since it won't attack me, I'll be reckless for once.

Here in the Flying Earthworm Cave, Li Fuchan had never managed to find a way out of his predicament. Now he intended to play the brute.

If a road wouldn't open, he would open it with his fists.

Following the directions Huaqing had given him last time, Li Fuchan immediately headed for the Golden Duke and the Maiden of Cinnabar.

He meant to snatch them first. After all, treasures and spiritual materials had always belonged to those capable enough to claim them.

With such an enormous cheat at his disposal, how could he not count among the most capable people under heaven?

Whether he died could wait. Right now, he would take his chances.

The same writhing earthworms made his scalp crawl. Li Fuchan took one look, avoided the monsters, and swiftly moved on.

He crept all the way there. Upon entering the chamber, he immediately spotted the Golden Duke Qi in the form of an old man and the Maiden of Cinnabar Qi in the form of a young girl.

Last time, ignorant of what they were, he had startled the two streams of qi into dispersing.

Looking back now, that had been a criminal waste of heaven's gifts.

This time, Li Fuchan did not rashly disturb them. Instead, he stood at a distance and worked his chest and abdomen.

Having cultivated Outer Scenery, he now possessed certain bodily capabilities that ordinary people lacked.

His chest abruptly caved inward. Then he opened his mouth and inhaled. Nearby, the old man and young girl dissolved into blue and black streams of qi, intertwined, and were sucked into his belly.

In an instant, Li Fuchan's brows knitted tightly, and pain crossed his face.

The Golden Duke Qi and Maiden of Cinnabar Qi tangled endlessly inside his belly, repelling and colliding with each other until he felt he would rather die than endure the agony.

Fortunately, his Treasure Light was powerful. Purple-Gold Treasure Light flared within his chest and abdomen, instantly suppressing them both.

It seems forcibly swallowing Pill Material isn't something I can accomplish in one leap. Otherwise, I'll surely die and see my cultivation perish. But I'm here with a cheat, so I don't need to care.

After putting away the Golden Duke and Maiden of Cinnabar from the box, Li Fuchan immediately headed for the Cave of Hidden Truth and pocketed the Flying Mercury and Sunken Lead as well.

This time, however, he did not leave the Cave of Hidden Truth. Instead, he sealed its entrance with Golden Light and began refining the spiritual objects he had obtained without another word.

His actions this time were anything but subtle, and soon stirred up a commotion.

Outside the cave sealed by Golden Light, two serpentine shadows silently swept over. They were none other than Hua Hong and Huaqing.

Hua Hong eyed the sealed entrance coldly and sneered. "Hmph, you wretched bitch. If you're going to rebel, at least pick yourself a better ally. Humans are greedy. With this brat stuffing himself so recklessly, he'll probably blow himself to ashes before long."

Huaqing glanced at her. Her voice remained cold and alluring, but carried a trace of urgency. "Enough. If we don't go in and save him, neither of us will fare well when the master holds us responsible."

Hua Hong curled her lip, her face full of disdain. "If our teacher blames anyone, it'll be you. This Lower Beast wouldn't dare act so brazenly unless you'd egged him on."

As the two bickered, a muffled roar suddenly came from above the chamber.

Both demons' expressions changed at once. Forgetting their quarrel, they attacked the golden light sealing the entrance together.

In close combat, in a fight to the death, even two Li Fuchans might not have been a match for either demon.

Yet that Golden Light held firmly over the entrance as a barrier. The demons attacked again and again, serpentine shadows flying, but for the moment they could not break through.

Inside the chamber, the Illuminating Light blazed between Li Fuchan's brows as he devoted all his strength to refining the Maiden of Cinnabar.

The Maiden of Cinnabar was an essence of yielding yin. The instant it dispersed, it was like steel tempered a hundred times turning supple enough to wind around a finger. It twined around the Illuminating Light between his brows, then united with the Golden Light, producing a wondrous transformation.

The Golden Light had originally been fierce and domineering. Now, permeated by this yielding yin qi, it gradually withdrew inward. Rather than blazing outward to fill the world, it slowly gathered, flowing entirely toward the point above his brows.

Next, he drew out the Flying Mercury and Sunken Lead as well.

The Flying Mercury rose, light and nimble, while the Sunken Lead sank, dense and heavy. One ascended and the other descended, one floated and the other sank, like heaven and earth joining in harmony as the clear and turbid separated of their own accord.

Amid this rising and falling, floating and sinking, the point above Li Fuchan's brows where the Golden Light resided—the "Brow Peak"—gradually began to feel solid.

Previously, the Golden Light had merely clung vaguely to a spot above his spiritual terrace, the "Brow Peak." But "Brow Peak" had only been a figurative designation, a cultivation term, indistinct and unfixed.

Now, however, after he swallowed the spiritual objects, his "Brow Peak" began to change. Like a great tree taking root or a stone settling into its foundation, it showed faint signs of stability.

At the same time, the pressure between his brows grew ever fiercer, as though something were trying to thrust its way out through his skull.

The Golden Light and Illuminating Light intertwined and darted wildly beneath his skin. His temples throbbed from the swelling, and a lump bulged between his brows.

Outside the entrance, Hua Hong glimpsed Li Fuchan through the tottering Golden Light barrier. His brow was badly swollen, and traces of blood appeared at his seven orifices. Her expression changed sharply, and she cried urgently, "Huaqing, stop holding back! If we delay any longer, he'll die!"

At those words, Huaqing instinctively looked upward. An inscrutable flicker of fear passed through her eyes.

Then she hesitated no longer. The Illuminating Light between her brows abruptly blazed, bursting like a miniature sun. Silver-white radiance poured out like a torrent, swallowing all the Golden Light sealing the entrance in an instant.

A thin fissure opened between her brows, and crimson beads of blood wound down the bridge of her nose.

The instant the Golden Light dispersed, Hua Hong became a red shadow and rushed into the chamber first.

Just then, Li Fuchan abruptly opened his eyes and slowly stood.

Facing this Lower Beast, whose features were almost unrecognizable beneath the blood flowing from his seven orifices, Hua Hong bristled with fine scales and bared her sharp teeth, malice rolling off her. "You beast! Who knows what good fortune let you cultivate the Three Lights? Instead of looking forward to being eaten by our teacher and glimpsing the immortal Dao, you came here to destroy your own life. What an idiot."

Li Fuchan's mind was somewhat muddled, but he could still tell when someone insulted him. Almost instinctively, his gift for venomous trash talk kicked in.

A string of greetings from his previous life spilled from his mouth.

Mothers took center stage, with fathers in supporting roles. Relatives formed the radius before he made a full circuit of eighteen generations of ancestors, with grandparents joining the festivities and pets lending support from the sidelines.

Win, and three generations stayed alive; lose, and the whole family tree ascended to heaven.

For a moment, Hua Hong was stunned by his abuse.

Although she could not understand his words, the malice was unmistakable.

Just then, however, a sharp pain coursed through Li Fuchan's body, and the three lights finally stopped washing away his mind.

Understanding the change, he said, "It's He Liuhun and the others. They're still operating the Turbidity-Linking Method."

Only after making sure he could continue using the Three Lights against his enemies did Li Fuchan have a chance to look at Hua Hong.

He thought to himself:

Huaqing and Hua Hong hate each other, and they're evenly matched. Now that Huaqing is injured, she certainly won't stand by and let Hua Hong remain unscathed. Instead, she'll sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, hoping Hua Hong gets hurt. As long as I can severely wound Hua Hong in an instant and leave her unable to strike back, I won't have to fear the threat of the injured Huaqing watching from the side.

In the time it took a spark to flash, Li Fuchan made up his mind. Before Hua Hong could say anything, the silver-white Illuminating Light between his brows shook violently, and he slammed all of it into her face.

Having refined the Maiden of Cinnabar, his Illuminating Light now possessed considerable mystical power. It struck Hua Hong's spiritual essence directly, hammering down the ferocity in her eyes.

Transformation Hong felt a booming explosion inside her head, as though someone had abruptly yanked her soul. For one instant, she fell into a daze.

But this was a fight to the death. In that instant of distraction, golden light blazed above Li Fuchan's head, then draped down like silk.

Having learned his lesson last time, he held nothing back. He poured every last measure of Golden Light toward Hua Hong.

With the force of dry wood snapping and rotten timber crumbling, the Golden Light smashed down. It was as though a blazing sun had exploded inside the chamber.

Transformation Hong did not even have time to scream before taking the full force of Li Fuchan's Golden Light. Half her body was ground into pulp on the spot. Red Scales mingled with flesh and blood showered onto the floor, while scorched smoke still rose from what remained of her.

Transformation Hong lay collapsed on the ground, howling in agony, her voice shrill and twisted.

Perfect!

A ruthless gleam flashed in Li Fuchan's eyes. He was about to press his advantage and kill her while she was crippled.

Just then, a blue shadow wrapped in a biting gale lunged at him from the side.

It was Huaqing.

She held a Vajra Sword in each hand. Cold light flowed along the blades, their edges humming with wind and thunder as she brought them down toward Li Fuchan's head.

Li Fuchan had no choice but to abandon his pursuit of Hua Hong and dodge sideways.

The two Vajra Swords slashed down past his shoulder. Wherever their edges passed, they carved two deep grooves through the stone wall as though it were tofu, sending shattered rock flying.

After forcing Li Fuchan back with her swords, Huaqing kept moving. With a flick of her slender hand, a celadon medicine bottle traced an arc and landed neatly beside Hua Hong's mutilated body. She shouted, "Take the medicine, quickly!"

With that single sentence, Huaqing attacked Li Fuchan again.

Seeing this, Hua Hong seethed with pain and hatred.

Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! If you hadn't sat on the mountain watching the tigers fight, if you'd attacked alongside me, this beast would have had to hold something back. How would he have dared fire all his Golden Light at me?

Even knowing Huaqing had done this to get her injured and weaken her, with their teacher watching, how could she dare not give her all?

Hua Hong glared venomously at Huaqing as she fought Li Fuchan. Once our teacher succeeds, your time to die will come.

Inside the chamber, sword light and human shadows now crisscrossed and flew.

Li Fuchan refused to give ground. Illuminating Light between his brows flickered repeatedly, smashing straight at her face again.

This move had hammered down Hua Hong's spiritual essence and left her dazed.

But when it struck Huaqing's face, it was like a clay ox sinking into the sea. Illuminating Light between her brows glimmered faintly, receiving the attack without letting a drop slip through. Her smile remained radiant, while her killing moves grew ever more vicious.

This demon has cultivated for many years. Her Golden Light and treasure light must be powerful. After swallowing them with Illuminating Light, she can match mine even while injured, despite my having swallowed the Maiden of Cinnabar.

Li Fuchan was inwardly alarmed.

He simply unleashed himself fully. Golden Light focused on attack and slaughter, golden radiance pulsing between his fists and palms and forming incomparably sharp blades of light that blasted toward Huaqing again and again.

Purple-gold radiance swirled around his chest and abdomen, while Golden Light shone upon his Brow Peak as though cast from the blazing sun. The two lights illuminated each other, rising and falling, surging and receding, brightening and dimming without end.

With every breath, they bathed his entire body in a thousand magnificent manifestations.

The sight alarmed Hua Hong so much that she began to suspect this captured Lower Beast was a disciple of some Immortal Sect or aristocratic clan.

It forcibly gathered its mangled flesh together. After stabilizing its injuries with Huaqing's medicine, it once again became a streak of red light and charged. "Stop fighting! This beast is about to explode. Hurry and help me capture him so we can hand him over to our teacher."

Sensing a gaze descend from overhead, Huaqing dared not delay. She answered, "I'll support you. Seize him quickly."

"All right."

With the two demons joining forces, Li Fuchan immediately began losing ground.

"Just what I wanted!"

Yet at that moment, he felt delight rather than alarm. Three Lights shone together, their radiance interweaving as they swept across the battlefield.

Buoyed by a momentary rush of blood and having gained the upper hand again, Li Fuchan briefly could not even feel pain. Only when the swelling between his brows worsened until it seemed about to split did he abruptly come to his senses. He staggered two steps and nearly fell.

Huaqing and Hua Hong rejoiced at the sight and were about to press their advantage and capture him.

But in the next instant, a deep voice suddenly sounded in both demons' minds. "Damn it. It's too late."

"Teacher?!"

"Master?!"

Before either could voice her confusion, an indescribable heat surged through their blood.

"It's so hot! What's happening?"

"Is this the beast's doing?"

The two demons stopped attacking, crying to each other that the heat was unbearable, their faces full of alarm and bewilderment.

Li Fuchan leaned against a corner of the cave wall, watching them with lingering dread.

Two masses of flame had risen from their bodies out of nowhere, one blue and one red, one cold and one hot.

Their flesh twisted and warped in the flames, sizzling. The demons fell to the ground, screaming and rolling, but the flames did not weaken. Instead, they burned ever fiercer.

Watching this, Li Fuchan recalled what that alchemical scripture had recorded and was horrified.

So this is Blue-and-Red Harmony Fire.

Waves of heat surged through the cave. Trapped in the corner, Li Fuchan could not retreat, and the blue and red flames quickly spread until they reached him.

The instant they touched him, Li Fuchan felt the Three Lights within him surge violently like boiling water. Without any need for his control, all three lights burst out of his body and began burning within the encirclement of the blue and red flames.

Amid the roaring blaze, a tearing pain suddenly stabbed between his brows. A pale-gold Yellow Sprout broke through his flesh and slowly emerged, unfurling tender leaves.

The Three Lights shone, giving birth to a Yellow Sprout...

Muffled roars rolled through the sky, shaking loose showers of stone from the mountain walls.

"Now! Now!" The voice brimmed with uncontrollable ecstasy and madness. "Immortal, can you see? I've done it! I've done it!"

The voice battered Li Fuchan into a near-fatal stupor, leaving his head filled with buzzing.

The Three Lights within him burst out together and swept across his entire body, washing away all his tribulations and consciousness. His awareness gradually became a blank, and he stood there witlessly, like a newborn infant.

Carrying the Yellow Sprout that had grown between his brows, the Three Lights gradually transformed into an object under the refining heat of the blue and red flames.

It was neither truly round nor truly square, rising and sinking without settling, shifting between the insubstantial and substantial.

The infant was the substance of primal simplicity, the truth untouched by carving.

This was the Nascent Infant Pill.

At that moment, the Old Flood Dragon once again smashed through that layer of stone.

In an instant, heavenly waters poured down and heavenly fire descended. A colossal creature broke through the wall, its body stretching for untold hundreds of miles, its scales like iron and its twin horns towering into the sky.

A flood dragon.

Braving the great tribulation of heaven and earth, its body wreathed in lightning and electric fire, it roared like thunder. "Hahahaha! The great Transformation of water and fire! Swallow the infant and become a dragon—now!"

Drawn by a force, the infant pill ascended toward the heavens. Radiance flowed around it, and it seemed about to soar beyond the sky and fall into the gigantic creature's mouth.

Yet at that very moment, a hand reached out steadily. Five fingers closed, gripping the Infant Pill in its palm.

"You dare!"

Thunderbolt rolled through heaven and earth, becoming a furious roar.

Hidden in the Flying Earthworm Cave, He Liuhun knelt on the ground. Beside him lay two corpses that had already bled to death.

He raised his head to look at the seemingly world-ending scene overhead.

"In the end, I put my trust in the wrong person."

With that, he reversed his blade, aimed its point between his brows, and killed himself.

Through the Turbidity-Linking Method, Li Fuchan instantly felt pain between his brows. That sliver of pain forcibly dragged back the last of his consciousness.

He looked at the Nascent Infant Pill he had grasped while in a daze.

Then Li Fuchan turned his gaze toward the colossal creature in the sky. Illuminating Light blazed between his brows, and Purple-Gold Treasure Light shone brightly within his chest and abdomen.

At this moment between life and death, spurred by Illuminating Light and Treasure Light, he finally pierced through to the true meaning of those ten characters in the Flying Earthworm Cave.

Thus, when he looked at that colossal creature once more, not a trace of reverence or fear remained in his eyes.

"I finally know what you are."

He paused, his tone indifferent.

"Lower than a beast."