Flesh Fox

Mysterious Peak Sect, Li Flame Mountain

The Hu Mang's escape light appeared above Li Flame Mountain.

It was right at noon, and the heat was extremely high, probably due to the poisonous fire veins.

Countless tiny wisps of smoke rose slowly from the mountain amidst the heat, carrying a pungent sulfurous odor, like ignited gunpowder, with an indescribable spiciness and burning sensation.

The Hu Mang had just mastered the "Tiger Skin" technique, and now its entire body was covered in sensitive skin. The spiciness of the food sent shivers down its spine.

"Damn it, weren't you supposed to have completely eradicated the poisonous fire veins at the foot of Li Flame Mountain? How can I still feel the toxicity? What kind of lousy project is this? It's like a gas leak."

Hu Mang complained in dissatisfaction.

However, there was no other way. The Mysterious Peak Sect only had two places for alchemy: Li Flame Mountain and Pure Water Cliff. In terms of stimulating the medicinal properties, fire-based alchemy was generally considered to be stronger than water-based alchemy.

Therefore, Hu Mang had no choice but to choose this place.

Fortunately, after entering the Alchemy Chamber inside the mountain, the stimulating feeling was reduced by 90%. It seems that the people of Li Flame Mountain also know that if the fire poison gets into the Pill Furnace, the pills refined will be contaminated with poison, which would be a big problem.

Hu Mang scanned the main hall of the Alchemy Chamber and found that only one-tenth of the Alchemy Chamber, hidden among the various crevices in the mountain walls, were lit up, emanating intense heat from the flames. Of these one-tenth, only one-tenth had their formations activated.

It seems to be less than the last time.

"It seems there aren't many alchemists among the disciples of Li Flame Mountain," Hu Mang muttered to himself.

Of course, it's also possible that he came at the wrong time. Who refines pills in broad daylight? Shouldn't everyone be carrying bricks during the day?

In fact, Hu Mang was originally on his way to becoming a bricklayer.

With Jiang Mingshan working as his construction ox and Wu Hun guiding his martial arts realm, Wanshun Sea Hall in Java has temporarily calmed Java, and he is living a good life.

He could take this opportunity to push his martial arts skills to their limit and then continue his research on the "Art of the Human Body's Great Elixir".

However, after he finished refining his tendons and skin, Wu Hun stopped him from continuing to consume the Yao Qi blood soup, saying that consuming too much in a short period of time would be harmful rather than beneficial.

Only after this part of the demonic nature within the body has been completely refined can we continue. Otherwise, not only will the body be affected, but even the martial arts realm will be interfered with by the demonic nature, becoming impure and mixed.

Hu Mang had already vaguely sensed something; don't forget, he was a half-demon, and in his Crimson Moon Fox bloodline's perception, many "guests" had arrived at his home.

According to Instructor Wu, this is a stage that every martial artist in the Liang Kingdom must go through. If you can sense it, there's no problem. Just keep practicing, just like honing your strength in boxing. You'll eventually get it right.

He asked the other person how long it took to hone his skills, and he said it took three years, and his boxing skills had just reached Higher Vehicle level. He then asked how long he needed, and the martial arts instructor said that his martial arts level had Higher Vehicle a superior level, and it would only take about a year.

Hu Mang was speechless.

It wasn't that he couldn't bear to spend a year.

However, he had many things to do. Things were a bit better in the Azure Mysterious Realm, but in the Nanyang, there was the Celestial Person wave, the Golden Core business of Heavenly Gate, Wanshun Sea Hall, and the listing of the Lust Abstinence Software. He didn't have the mood to calmly study martial arts.

With that kind of skill, he could have shattered and reformed his elixir several times over.

As soon as the idea came to mind, Hu Mang suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

His primary reason for cultivating martial arts was not to increase his combat power, but to strengthen his "Golden Core" with the Qi and Blood and qi refined through martial arts.

Conversely, wouldn't it be just as effective to use the "Golden Core" within the body to dispel impurities?

The classic text on Pill Classic says something like this, "The fire in the cauldron cleanses the impurities, washing away all the dust and filth from the medicine, leaving only the original essence."

So he went back to fight again.

After circling around, Hu Mang found a small opening in the fire, crawled inside, and activated the sealing formation.

This time he won't make the same mistake as before, letting people see him practicing alchemy naked—how perverted!

Inside the Alchemy Chamber, flames roared, spewing out true earth fire that had been cleansed of its poison from the openings of the fire array.

Putting everything else aside, just considering the quality of the alchemical fire alone, Li Flame Mountain is no worse than some major alchemical sects.

As for the Pill Furnace, it is the most common type of Pill Furnace for outer disciples. It is no more than five feet tall, made of bronze, and not very large. One person can barely move it. It is a three-legged round cauldron.

The furnace feet are thick and solid, engraved with simple fire patterns. Unlike the elaborate star patterns of High Antiquity divine furnaces, they are only lightly cast with the Kan and Li trigrams to guide the elixir energy and harmonize water and fire.

The furnace belly is round and bulging, and the outer wall is engraved with crude alchemical inscriptions, which state the basic principles of gentle fire for nourishment, strong fire for refining, and sealing the qi to solidify the medicine. The patterns are just engravings, not array patterns, and the disciple must control the fire with his own Divine Sense.

What Hu Mang wanted was simple operation, entirely manual. If it were some kind of Law Treasure Pill Furnace, he worried that if he jumped in, he wouldn't be able to get out. After all, he wasn't Monkey Sun; he was the Giant Spirit God.

Primarily responsible for security at Southern Heavenly Gate.

"The fire should be almost extinguished by now."

The Hu Mang adjusts the temperature of the elixir fire not through alchemy techniques, but purely through physical sensation.

When he felt the time was right, he filled the Pill Furnace with the "body tempering" external medicine that the Wu Hun had prepared for him. However, he only filled it to one-third full, so Hu Mang then filled it with two large buckets of mineral water.

Heavenly Gate only has bottled water, but there might be a spiritual spring here, so Hu Mang decided to keep an eye out for it when he had time.

Once the water temperature was about right, the Hu Mang stripped off its clothes, leaped onto the surface, and began the formal human alchemy process.

The Hu Mang sat cross-legged in the Pill Furnace, the medicinal liquid covering its chest, with only its shoulders, neck, and head exposed. The medicinal liquid churned slowly under the heating of the earth fire, covered with a layer of fine bubbles, which burst open and released wisps of hot steam carrying the fragrance of the medicine.

He closed his eyes and focused his mind deep into his Dantian. The Golden Core, like a miniature sun, hovered in the very center of his Dantian, slowly rotating and radiating a warm golden glow.

Soon, as the Golden Core shone brightly, the demonic nature within his Qi and Blood and qi was swept away one by one, surprisingly easily.

The demonic nature is like a series of invisible wild beasts, coiling around the veins of Qi and Blood, trying to lead that Qi and Blood towards an uncontrollable wildness.

The Hu Mang counted them; there were at least seventy or eighty different types of "demonic nature."

This is enough to prove the sheer number of protected Demon Beast he has consumed in the past few days.

These demonic beings possess an indescribable stubbornness and obsession, as if even in death, they wish to leave their mark on the other's body.

Instead of using his Golden Core to expel the demonic nature at the beginning, he first tested the "Shattering the Void" level martial arts intent.

The feeling was like punching a wave; though the waves crashed one after another, the demonic nature, like the tide, was relentless and unstoppable.

The two sides remained deadlocked for a full half hour before the tide slowly receded, but the demon was only injured and not killed.

"Truly vicious!"

Hu Mang sighed with genuine emotion.

The strange soul said that this kind of cultivation is the most mentally taxing, either driving a person or a demon insane, it's one of the two.

However, when Hu Mang switched to using the Golden Core technique to suppress it, an unexpected change occurred.

The Golden Core, like a rising sun, slowly released strands of pure Daoist True Intention. Under the cleansing influence of this Daoist True Intention, the demonic nature did not melt away like ice and snow, but rather, like a tamed wild beast, slowly lowered its head, displaying an indescribable gentleness and submission.

"Huh, what's going on?"

In the Hu Mang's perception, the demonic nature was not completely expelled, but was slowly tamed by the Golden Core conception, transforming into strands of pure power that merged into his Qi and Blood, like a herd of tamed wild horses, transforming from their original unruly nature into a gentle yet powerful existence.

"Could this be what the 'Pill Classic' describes: 'The Golden Lord controls Yin, the True Fire extinguishes madness. Demonic impurities return to the cauldron, violence is subdued. Kan and Li restrain each other, do not indulge in recklessness. Refine the primordial essence, and together they become elixir.'"

So it turns out that demonic nature can indeed be refined by the Golden Core.

Moreover, the Hu Mang could sense that after refining the demonic nature, the quality of the Golden Core began to rise without needing to be broken down.

Among the transformed demonic beings, a dragon and a tiger suddenly emerged. The python transformed directly into a dragon, exuding an indescribable majesty and nobility, and let out a deafening dragon roar. The tiger-shaped demonic being, like an invisible tiger, leaped out from the fleshy mountain range with an indescribable savagery and domineering aura.

The dragon and tiger, like two invisible commanders, slowly hovered above the Qi and Blood and qi, looking down on the countless tamed demons, like two majestic kings ruling over their thousands of subjects.

At the same time, foxes suddenly emerged from the Hu Mang's flesh and blood, swaggering behind the tiger and taking advantage of its power.

Sinewy python, Skin Tiger, and Flesh Fox.

Just as Hu Mang was completing the three refining processes of tendons, skin, and flesh in the Four Refinings, an old man suddenly appeared in the main hall of the Alchemy Chamber.

The old man was Xu Nuoning's grandfather, the biological grandfather of the ginseng girl. He had a peach-shaped face, red lips and white teeth, white hair and a youthful face, and he leaned on a cane. He exuded a kind of intoxicating medicinal fragrance.

The old man scratched his head, muttered something to himself, looked around, and stepped directly into an Alchemy Chamber with an activated sealing formation. The light from the formation in the crack in the mountain wall seemed to have no effect on him at all.

Then, the old man saw an inner disciple alchemy skills were very clumsy. He immediately looked utterly disgusted, as if he had stepped in shit. He didn't even bother to say a word and simply walked away.

Then he crawled into another crevice and saw a disciple whose alchemy skills were quite good. He glanced at him and made a few comments.

"It's too craftsman-like and doesn't deserve a refined taste."

Then he wandered over to another spot, where a female disciple dressed in the robes of the Pure Water Cliff shook her head.

What is the purpose of Pill Furnace in water-based alchemy?

The old man wandered around to several other places, but was not satisfied with any of them. Then he wandered over to the place where the Hu Mang was refining pills.

Passing through the array's light, the old man paused, blinked, blinked again, and finally couldn't help but rub his eyelids before looking again.

After confirming that he hadn't misread it, he said with a look of astonishment:

"This child..."

"This child..."

"This kid... he's sick!!"