From the moment they started forging the pill, Fu Jiangchen’s respect for Zhang Xuan had been increasing exponentially. He could not think of a reason someone who was so skilled in pill forging would want to hurt him.
Money? Fame?
The other party could have all of that just by revealing a sliver of his true skills!
Therefore, he chose to hold himself back and allowed the silver needles to pierce his body.
He knew that he was taking a gamble, but he felt that this gamble would work in his favor.
Pu pu pu!
Surges of zhenqi flowed into his body through the silver needles, and under the gush of energy, the meridians that had been clogged up due to the accumulation of pill poison were swiftly blasted open one after another.
With this, the sealed zhenqi within his body immediately gushed forth, reminiscent of a flood crashing down in the wake of a collapsed dam.
Kacha! Kacha!
The sudden influx of energy elevated his vitality and his zhenqi to a higher level. At the same time, his disposition became more refined and powerful.
With this, he successfully took the last step forward to reach the pinnacle of the God King realm.
“I… made a breakthrough?” Fu Jiangchen was a little stunned.
The bottleneck that he had struggled for so many years to surmount was overcome so easily.
He had once used a favor that he had received from Fairy Linglong to request for her help in curing his condition, but even she was helpless. Yet, the young man before him had done it so easily?
“It has already been twenty breaths! Stop hesitating and quickly intensify the temperature in the cauldron!” Zhang Xuan bellowed anxiously when he realized that Fu Jiangchen had allowed his mind to wander.
Those words snapped Fu Jiangchen out of his thoughts, and he quickly infused his newfound strength into the cauldron.
All in all, he could only last for thirty seconds, and he had already spent twenty seconds on making a breakthrough. If he did not speed up the process, he might run out of zhenqi before the cauldron reached the required temperature, and that would effectively spell their failure.
That being said, even if it ended in failure, it would still be fine since they had not added the Grass of God King yet. Of all the medicinal herbs within, the one that was nigh impossible to procure was that. Furthermore, the pill formula could always be altered according to what Zhang Xuan had on hand.
The real issue was that… Zhang Xuan simply did not have that much time to spare!
They had spent nearly four hours trying to refine the other 107 medicinal herbs, and they would not be able to make it in time if they had to restart. Not only would they have to waste time gathering a new set of medicinal herbs, Fu Jiangchen would also need some time to recover his energy.
He would not be able to make it back to the Sky of Spirit Origin in time!
So, he had to succeed by hook or by crook!
“Alright!” Fu Jiangchen replied determinedly.
Even though he had managed to make a breakthrough to God King realm pinnacle, he had not managed to cultivate yet, so the amount of zhenqi he had within his body was still roughly the same.
He was not too sure why Zhang Xuan was so adamant about raising the temperature of the cauldron, but he knew that the most important thing that he had to do was follow Zhang Xuan’s instructions.
Xiong xiong!
A purer surge of zhenqi rushed into the cauldron, causing the flames to burn with greater fervor. With this, the temperature within the cauldron began rising.
Another five breaths passed, and beads of perspiration flowed down Fu Jiangchen’s head. He glanced at Zhang Xuan and said, “I have reached my limits again. I won’t be able to raise the temperature any higher than this…”
While he had managed to make a breakthrough, he had not had the opportunity to reinforce his cultivation. If he still had not met the required mark after that, there would really be nothing he could do anymore.
“The temperature is high enough. Maintain it!” Zhang Xuan instructed.
He was starting to feel a little tired. He should have known—a drug junkie’s cultivation foundation was bound to be weak.
He had thought that the other party would be able to easily raise the temperature of the flames beyond what was required after his breakthrough, but in the end, the other party could only just raise the temperature to what was needed.
This ‘what was needed’ referred to the minimum temperature required to melt the Grass of God King, but it would not be enough to facilitate a perfect fusion. Due to that, he no longer had complete confidence that the pill could be formed properly.
“Forget it!”
Knowing that he could not afford to hesitate at this point, Zhang Xuan took out four stalks of Grass of God King and infused his Pathos of Heaven zhenqi into them before tossing them into the cauldron.
Boom!
As soon as Zhang Xuan’s zhenqi came into contact with the boiling medicinal fluid, the flames within the cauldron suddenly intensified. With this, the temperature rose to a new high.
Huala!
The resilient Grass of God King began melting and fusing with the medicinal fluid.
Three breaths…
Two breaths…
“Hurry up!” Zhang Xuan clenched his fists tightly together.
It would take some time for the Grass of God King to fuse perfectly with the medicinal fluid, but it was clear that Fu Jiangchen was already at his limits.
One breath!
“I’m sorry. I really can’t hold on anymore…”
With a ghastly pale face from overexertion, Fu Jiangchen’s body swayed weakly like a noodle before collapsing to the ground.
He had used up the very last droplet of zhenqi he had within his body.
Losing its source of energy, the flame in the cauldron immediately died out, and the temperature within began to plummet.
Hong long!
Fortunately, the instant that the Fu Jiangchen collapsed, the fusion between the medicinal fluid and the Grass of God King had been successfully completed. An intense rumbling echoed from the cauldron as four pills dashed out of the cauldron.
The God King Breakthrough Pills had been completed!
“I don’t have the strength to chase the pills anymore…”
Looking at the pills rushing out of the cauldron, Fu Jiangchen felt a little excited yet helpless.
He was glad that he had managed to pull through at the very last moment and successfully fuse the medicinal herbs together to form the pills. It had been a long time since he felt such a sense of accomplishment when he forged a pill.
But due to him running out of strength, he was unable to seal the cauldron with his energy to prevent the pills from escaping. Pills of such tier possessed their own spirit, so if they did not catch them quickly and erase their spirit, they might walk out of this pill forging process empty-handed!
The young man before him, Zhang Xuan, was only a high-tier Celestial God whereas these four pills, despite not having reached the God King realm yet, were already not too far from that.
Even Fu Jiangchen himself would face some difficulties trying to capture those four pills prior to his zhenqi running dry, let alone Zhang Xuan!
In other words…
Even though they had successfully formed the pill, they were doomed to watch helplessly as the pills that they had painstakingly forged flew away.
Wu!
Just as Fu Jiangchen thought, those pills immediately breached the barriers he had set up around the room beforehand and escaped into the sky.
“Why are there so few pills?” Zhang Xuan frowned.
Based on his estimations, with four Grass of God King stalks and Fu Jiangchen’s precise pill forging technique, there should have been at least ten pills. He did not think that there would only be four of them.
However, this was not the time for him to be brooding. He swiftly took out his sword and leaped into the air.
Hula!
Countless surges of sword qi burst forth to form a massive net in the air.
A Heart of Intertwined Threads!
Zhang Xuan knew how formidable the pills were, so he did not hesitate to use one of his strongest sword arts against them.
This was the sword art that he had comprehended back when he was in the Azure, but as his comprehension of the Pathos of Heaven deepened, its conceptualization and prowess were enhanced as well. Furthermore, he was executing it with a God King-tier sword.
In an instant, a massive net had already spread loosely all over the sky, encircling all the escaped pills.
Then, with a tug, the net of sword qi immediately began to retract back to Zhang Xuan.
Jijijiji!
The pills struggled desperately, but they were not able to escape the net. Under the effects of the sword qi, their spirits were swiftly vanquished.
With a swipe of his hand, Zhang Xuan collected all the pills and stowed them into a jade container.
“Done!”
After capturing all the escaped pills, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to walk over to Fu Jiangchen to check on his condition, a shadow suddenly flashed past his eyes.
Another pill had emerged from the cauldron, and it bolted away at a speed so fast that before Zhang Xuan could react, it had already dived into the clouds, becoming no more than a black dot in the sky.
“Sh*t, there’s actually a Pill King!” Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes in astonishment.
Usually, the pills forged within the same cauldron would have the same level of medicinal potency. However, there were exceptions.
Too much Grass of God King had been added to the cauldron given the short fusion process due to Fu Jiangchen running out of energy. This resulted in an unequal distribution of medicinal energy across the pills.
As a result, one pill, otherwise known as the Pill King, ended up taking up the lion’s share of the medicinal energy.
In fact, the medicinal energy of the Pill King was several times that of the other pills. In terms of energy, it was already on par with a God King!
