Phoenix Pill, the One Who Walked Through Fire

"In past years, we brought lots of eggs into the cave."

Stronghold Chief Wu said, "The main problem with these insects is that there are too many of them. Once inside, we smash eggs against the rock walls along the way. The raw eggs attract large numbers of insects."

"By throwing them as we go, we can take the opportunity to capture the other, more dangerous poisonous creatures, then deal with the insects."

Poisonous insects were drawn to raw, fishy smells and liked to feed on life force.

But humans and livestock were too large. Though their life force was strong, they could also fight back, and many insects suffered serious harm themselves after biting a person.

Eggs, on the other hand, had a pure but weak life force and a raw smell, making them the easiest way to attract those weaker Gu insects.

Among the Miao strongholds in the mountains of Yi Province, there was a custom: if someone was only lightly afflicted by Gu poison, rolling a half-cooked egg over their chest and belly was enough to draw the poison out.

Thus, eggs were also known as Phoenix Pills.

Stronghold Chief Wu waved for his people to gather eggs first, then continued, "But in past years, we only started saving eggs when winter came. There weren't many eggs in the stronghold to begin with, and we've used quite a few at the gathering these past few days..."

"Besides, the flute will stimulate the insects, so the eggs won't work as well as they did in past years."

Chu Tianshu said, "She can't be the only person in the stronghold who knows the art of Gu insects, can she? If she can stimulate them, don't you have a way to counter her and calm them?"

Stronghold Chief Wu shook his head. "These insects are wild and haven't truly been refined. Stimulating them is easy, but calming them is hard. If we compete with her by playing flutes, I'm afraid we'll only stimulate them more."

Chu Tianshu looked into the cave.

The poisonous insects startled by the flames earlier were still crawling everywhere, and wherever they went, they disturbed even more insects in the cracks.

"I think I saw some people in your stronghold brushing oil onto a few cloaks this morning."

Chu Tianshu continued, "I caught a whiff as I passed by. That smell was lamp oil, wasn't it?"

Stronghold Chief Wu sighed.

"That's right. Those clothes were originally meant for the third trial."

The Wu Clan Stronghold had three trials: Pillar in Midstream, Miao King Subdues the Ox, and Path Through Fire!

The final trial required a path eighteen zhang long to be laid with burning coals.

In fact, an ordinary person with enough courage could walk across burning coals unharmed, protected by the sweat on their soles evaporating instantly and carrying away the heat.

But such a path was at most three or four zhang long. Anything longer was very dangerous.

And mixed in with the Wu Clan Stronghold's eighteen-zhang path of burning coals were red-hot machetes, hoes, plowshares, and pieces of scrap iron.

The challenger had to wear a cloak brushed with lamp oil and cross it barefoot.

Not only did he have to find a way to kick aside the red-hot iron implements, he also had to watch out for sparks landing on the cloak.

But even if no sparks landed on it, the cloak would start burning in that searing heat by the time he reached the latter half of the path.

He had to kick aside every remaining iron implement and reach the end before the flames burned through the cloak. Only then would he succeed.

In the entire Wu Clan Stronghold, only Stronghold Chief Wu was confident he could pass such a trial.

His body had been tempered with medicines for years and was highly resistant to heat, especially his hands and feet. That was why he had dared to thrust his fist straight into the flames beneath the iron pot when they made their agreement.

"I see."

Chu Tianshu smiled. "Then could I walk through fire on a different occasion?"

Stronghold Chief Wu said in surprise, "Are you thinking of wearing one of those cloaks into the cave? Those Fire Ants and Flying Mantis Insects will definitely set you alight."

"They'd only set the outside of the cloak alight first. Wouldn't it take a little while longer for it to really burn through?"

Chu Tianshu pointed into the cave. "From what I can see, although there are flying insects in there that can produce flames by colliding, the vast majority of the poisonous insects are still afraid of fire."

"Walking through fire should scare a lot of them away."

Stronghold Chief Wu reminded him, "If that would work, I could put on a burning cloak and charge in myself. The problem is that deep in the cave, the fungal spores will become poisonous smoke when they meet fire. One little breath..."

"Then I won't breathe!"

Chu Tianshu looked into the depths of the cave. "Holding my breath while I fight my way to the very back and seize her will certainly be a challenge."

"But even without this business, the third trial would have been quite a challenge for me too. What's wrong with trying the one in front of me?"

Cai Shanjun also tried to persuade him. "There's no need to rush like this. Why not wait two days and go in late at night while she's asleep?"

"Can we be sure she keeps such regular hours in the cave?"

Chu Tianshu laughed. "She nearly caught me with a sneak attack before, so I'm going to drag her out before the day is over. I can't be bothered waiting any longer!"

Xu and Zhou were, after all, exceptionally formidable and held military power, so he had to wait.

But was the old woman in front of him worth waiting for too?

A moment later, the sunlight at the cave entrance dimmed.

A human shadow stretched out into the cave.

Everyone outside watched intently.

Wearing a large hooded cloak, Chu Tianshu walked inward without making a sound.

He had not brought any raw eggs.

What mattered next was speed. Using raw eggs that way was not suitable for him; bringing them would only weigh him down.

When he first entered the cave, he made no sound at all with his footsteps, so the old woman guarding the shrine deep inside did not notice him.

Only after he had gone a full thirty or forty meters in did the poisonous insects that had yet to be stimulated by the flute begin gathering around him in ever greater numbers, driven by their instinctive ferocity.

Dozens, even hundreds of patterned-legged spiders descended from the cave ceiling one after another, while masses of centipedes scurried swiftly toward him across the ground.

The poisonous insects on the rock walls were also taking flight in rapidly growing numbers, nearly gathering around him into something like that "insect smoke."

Chu Tianshu drew a slow, slender, but long breath, then his eyes flew wide and he stamped his foot.

Boom!!!

His stomp cracked the rock beneath him, and he shot inward like a crossbow bolt.

He moved so fiercely that he scattered the insect smoke with a single impact.

Some insects struck his face, but before they could do anything, the powerful oncoming rush of air swept them away.

In the blink of an eye, he took another two or three strides and charged a full twenty or thirty meters farther.

The person deep in the cave realized something was wrong and sounded the flute.

The poisonous insects in the cave were stimulated and guided by it.

Several particular kinds began flying together before Chu Tianshu reached them.

By the time he arrived, the insects were colliding.

Bang!!

A fierce blaze erupted in midair.

But the instant it erupted, a dark shape slashed down from above and split it apart at high speed.

It was Chu Tianshu's arm.

With a whipping strike, he split the fiercest part at the center of the flames, and his body passed straight through.

Fire caught the edges of his cloak on either side and spread rapidly along the lamp oil on its outer layer.

But Chu Tianshu was so fast that the cloak fluttered behind him like a great banner in a gale.

Just as the flames began to spread, the strong wind and the cloak's flapping smothered them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!

Bursts of fire exploded one after another in the long, narrow cave.

Only when Chu Tianshu charged out of the fifth burst did the outer layer of his cloak catch fire completely.

His whole body was like a streak of fire flying close to the ground as he raced through the winding cave.

At sharp turns, he even leaped into the air and planted his feet directly against the rock walls beside him.

The poisonous insects ahead grew denser and denser. Many were no longer the kind that could produce bursts of flame, but were adept at biting and stinging.

Chu Tianshu grabbed the cloak with his left hand, pulled it in front of him as a shield, and charged on with his head down.

Now he truly had become a rapidly moving ball of fire.

He smashed through the cloudlike masses of poisonous insects one after another, scattering them and sending them flying.

The fire on his body also ignited the fungi growing in the cracks and the fungal spores floating among the soil.

A pale green smoke began to drift through the cave.

The flute deep inside the cave grew more and more urgent.

The old woman guarding the shrine leaned against the rock wall deep in the cave, too tense to blink. Her eyes were slightly red from dryness, and she blew her bamboo flute into a shriek piercing enough to cut through stone.

But she still saw the light and shadow in the distance drawing nearer. At the bend ahead, flames flashed suddenly, and he burst around it.

Crack!!

In horror, the old woman guarding the shrine crushed the bamboo flute in her hand. She suddenly switched to her right hand and blew into the jade flute.

"Woo-"

The sound from the jade flute was hollow and exceedingly long.

Its tone was so low that it did not sound like something a flute could produce, but rather like a jade xiao.

The rocks of the deep cave seemed to resonate with the sound.

Chu Tianshu, who had come flying toward her, suddenly grunted and slowed.

He felt as though something had struck his internal organs.

Nothing had hit the surface of his body, but his internal organs had been struck directly. His heart was pressed down, his lungs squeezed, his stomach and intestines shriveled, and his liver and gallbladder trembled.

The old woman guarding the shrine also clutched her belly, as if in extreme pain.

But her right hand still held the jade flute, and she used a distinctive breathing technique to keep its sound from stopping, making it suddenly deeper and more distant.

Suddenly, a thunderous shout, like a war drum shattering and a grenade exploding, completely drowned out the flute.

"Get lost!!!"

Chu Tianshu spread his arms, exerted force with his internal organs, and sent power bursting outward from the muscles throughout his body. It passed through the clothes against his skin and into the cloak on the outside.

The burning cloak burst apart on the spot, its pieces flying in all directions.

The flute's effect on his internal organs was suppressed at once by that violent release of force, until he could hardly feel it.

The instant the old woman guarding the shrine heard the bomb-like roar, her vision went black.

Chu Tianshu pressed a palm against her face and shoved her head against the rock wall. She instantly lost consciousness.