Chapter 330: Inconstant Fate

Shang Xiangyu walked slowly to the side of the Great Cauldron in the corner of the cave; there was not a trace of expression on his face, and his eyes revealed a numbness like that of a dead fish.

In that corner, there were two Great Cauldrons, and Shang Xin was currently stark naked, sitting with his bottom down, huddled inside one of the cauldrons.

He seemed as if he were asleep, his expression tranquil, not moving a muscle.

Shang Xiangyu stood by the cauldron, looking at Shang Xin.

Yesterday morning, he had undone Shang Xin's Iron Chain and taken him to play in the dense forest for a day.

He had personally taken Shang Xin to catch rabbits and roast them, and he had made a swing under a large tree in the dense forest; Shang Xin sat on the swing, and he pushed him for a long time, pushing him very high...

Shang Xin had laughed very happily...

Although he was Shang Xin's older brother, from childhood to the present, this was the first time he had taken Shang Xin to play.

When they were young, back at home, every time Shang Xin came to find him, he would disgustedly push Shang Xin over; after this happened many times, Shang Xin became afraid when he saw him and never came to find him again.

The two brothers played in the dense forest for a whole day, until dusk fell; Shang Xin was already tired enough to sit on a blue stone, but his eyes remained clear, drooling as he looked smilingly at Shang Xiangyu not far away.

Shang Xiangyu squatted before Shang Xin, wiped his sweat and drool with his sleeve, stared blankly at him, and said painfully, "Xin'er, forgive your brother!"

After Shang Xiangyu finished speaking, he suddenly gave a miserable laugh and gently fed a Medicine Pill into Shang Xin's mouth; although Shang Xin did not know what the Medicine Pill was, he felt a cool sweetness diffuse in his mouth as he swallowed it down with his saliva.

The next moment, his vision went black, and he collapsed into Shang Xiangyu's arms.

At this time, in the crimson cave, Shang Xiangyu looked at Shang Xin in the cauldron; Shang Xin's naked body was covered in sweat, clearly because the magma was bubbling up and the temperature in the cave was extremely high, making him hot.

Just at this moment, Shang Xin trembled and actually suddenly opened his eyes.

Shang Xiangyu's heart stirred; the thing he had fed Shang Xin was a type of sleeping drug, only he had specially mixed in honey, peppermint, and sesame paste, wanting Shang Xin to have the feeling of eating a candy pill.

But the honey and sesame paste mixed in might have diluted the drug's efficacy; at this time, the space in the cave was enclosed, the airflow was extremely hot, and Shang Xin was covered in sweat and naked, so it seemed the residual drug efficacy had been evaporated away.

As soon as Shang Xin woke up, he saw Shang Xiangyu standing by the cauldron; he looked at Shang Xiangyu and smiled, then wanted to struggle to get up.

But his bottom was sunken into the cauldron, and his hands and feet were propped on the rim of the cauldron, so he could not exert any strength for a moment.

He raised one hand and reached toward Shang Xiangyu; Shang Xin's habitually slurred tone suddenly became clear. "Brother! Hug!"

Shang Xiangyu froze there, looking at Shang Xin with eyes full of astonishment; he thought he had misheard.

"Brother... hug!" Shang Xin struggled in the cauldron and called out again.

Shang Xiangyu's body shook like a sieve, and tears gushed out like beads with a broken string.

Shang Xin called out twice, and not only did Shang Xiangyu hear it, but Pan Yong, Duan Rong, Yin Cong, and Chen Hu also heard it; except for Pan Yong, the other three were all shocked.

So Shang Xiangyu was the older brother of the fool!

Shang Xiangyu, with tear-filled eyes, forced a smile and picked Shang Xin up, letting him sit on the rim of the cauldron.

Shang Xiangyu was crying while smiling eerily; suddenly, at the tip of his right finger, a white glow flickered slightly—it was dense and tyrannical Heaven and Earth Qi surging between his fingers.

Shang Xiangyu's hand paused only slightly, then with a sorrowful look in his eyes, he suddenly raised his fingertip and lightly tapped a spot on Shang Xin's chest.

With a 'pfft' sound, a mass of bloody filth mixed with shredded flesh sprayed out from Shang Xin's back and splashed into the cauldron; Shang Xin's innocent, foolish smile froze on his face as he stared blankly at Shang Xiangyu.

With that one tap of Shang Xiangyu's fingertip, the tyrannical Heaven and Earth Qi had instantly shredded Shang Xin's heart.

Shang Xiangyu loosened his hand and watched as Shang Xin's corpse fell into the cauldron.

The moment he killed Shang Xin, his frantic heart suddenly calmed down; even he himself was surprised by this abrupt change.

Shang Xiangyu looked at the corpse in the cauldron with cold eyes and muttered, "Xin'er, brother is dead, and you cannot live either. It is not I who killed you, but this inconstant fate."

"I myself, and this hand of mine, are nothing more than pawns under inconstant fate," Shang Xiangyu said, raising his hand to look at the finger with which he had tapped Shang Xin to death.

At this moment, Shang Xiangyu glanced at the Pill Furnace not far away; the fluorescent light on the circle of Water Jade on the belly of the Pill Furnace was still shifting, sometimes green, sometimes cyan.

Shang Xiangyu's gaze tightened. The timing waits for no one.

At this time, when he looked at the corpse in the cauldron again, the brotherly affection in his body had vanished completely; looking at Shang Xin's corpse now, his gaze was icy, exactly as if he were looking at a medicinal ingredient.

Shang Xiangyu suddenly picked up a stone pestle, thicker than a person's arm, that was leaning against the cauldron, and forcefully pounded it into the cauldron, one strike after another.

The corpse in the cauldron was soon pounded into bloody filth and mush.

Shang Xiangyu pulled out the stone pestle, wiped the blood spots and meat foam splashed on his face, picked up a piece of filter cloth from the other cauldron, wrapped up a large mass of bloody filth and rotten meat, and began to wring it forcefully inside the other cauldron.

Following Shang Xiangyu's wringing, bubbling blood was squeezed out from the fine pores of the filter cloth...

Shang Xiangyu performed this operation several times until Shang Xin's corpse had become a pile of meat dregs, while in the other cauldron, there was half a cauldron of blood emitting a thick, bloody stench...

Shang Xiangyu, his hands covered in blood, turned his head away with an indifferent face.

The moment Shang Xiangyu turned his head, Yin Cong, who was standing on the wooden ladder, turned the color of a pig's liver and was almost scared into falling off the ladder.

Even Duan Rong, Chen Hu, and Pan Yong all had ugly expressions.

Shang Xiangyu had actually killed his own younger brother, and furthermore, ground him into meat paste and squeezed out the blood...

Duan Rong's eyelids twitched wildly; he had long since understood what Shang Xiangyu was trying to do—he was going to use his own younger brother to refine medicine.

Could this be the solution he had come up with to solve the problem of the furnace exploding?

A wave of intense nausea rose from the depths of Duan Rong's body; if he had not suppressed it, he would have vomited by now.

It was not the thick, bloody stench in the scorching airflow that made him nauseous.

It was Shang Xiangyu's madness and evil nature that were assaulting his inner defenses...

It was a heavy sense of nausea brought about by the collapse of his inner order...

Pan Yong was already the most composed among them, but when Shang Xiangyu walked to his side holding the Great Cauldron containing the blood, he still froze for a moment.

Shang Xiangyu held the cauldron over his shoulder with his blood-stained hands, walked to the Pill Furnace, looked at Pan Yong, and coldly barked, "Open the medicine port!"

Pan Yong shuddered, as if waking from a dream, and immediately used his right hand, wearing a beast-skin glove, to open the scalding lid of the medicine-adding port.

"Get out of the way!" Shang Xiangyu barked again.

Pan Yong retreated to one side.

Shang Xiangyu stepped sideways, lifted the Great Cauldron, and tilted it slowly, pouring the blood from the cauldron into the Pill Furnace with a 'whoosh'.

Shang Xiangyu poured the blood from the cauldron until it was empty, then with a 'bang', placed the empty Great Cauldron behind him, and then he walked slowly to the circle of Water Jade and looked into the furnace.

After Shang Xiangyu set down the cauldron, Pan Yong walked over and covered the opened medicine-adding port again.

At this moment, one could see the inside of the pill furnace was filled with blood mist, churning and roiling...

Shang Xiangyu turned his head to look at Pan Yong and said, "Go mash the Black Blood Fruit."

Upon hearing this, Pan Yong took off his animal-hide gloves and walked slowly to the side of the large stone pot in the corner. As Pan Yong walked over there, his eyelids twitched; not far from that stone pot was the Great Cauldron containing the meat dregs that Shang Xin had been pressed into.

Pan Yong opened the lid of the stone pot, and there, at the bottom of the pitch-black pot, he saw two Black Blood Fruits, their red fluorescent glow flickering dimly, like two beating hearts...

Pan Yong's gaze shifted, and he turned his head to ask, "Master Shang, should both Black Blood Fruits be mashed?"

"Mash both of them!" Shang Xiangyu said, staring fixedly into the furnace through the Water Jade without even turning his head.

Upon hearing this, Pan Yong placed both Black Blood Fruits from the bottom of the pot into a medicine jar and gently ground them with a pestle.

Duan Rong stood on the wooden ladder, his heart stirring slightly.

The last time they refined medicine, even one Black Blood Fruit had caused the furnace to explode, yet this time Shang Xiangyu actually wanted to put two in.

Duan Rong kept his eyes fixed on the pill furnace; he was prepared to jump away the moment the furnace trembled even slightly. Last time, the medicinal power extracted from a single Black Blood Fruit had impacted him so hard that he had temporarily lost his internal energy.

This time it was two Black Blood Fruits; if the furnace exploded again, it might just kill him.

At this moment, Pan Yong was already standing by the additive port, holding the medicine jar, waiting only for Shang Xiangyu's command.

Shang Xiangyu stood before the Water Jade, watching the blood mist roil inside the pill furnace; a thick, bloody stench steamed up with the mist, permeating the cave...

Shang Xiangyu suddenly glanced at Pan Yong and said, "Add the Black Blood Fruit in!"

Upon hearing this, Pan Yong immediately opened the lid of the additive port and used a wooden spoon to pour the slurry from the medicine jar into the pill furnace.

Following the addition of the Black Blood Fruit, after a few breaths, faint threads of light appeared, flickering in and out of view within the thick, roiling blood mist...

Those threads of light became visibly denser and denser, weaving and floating amidst the blood energy...

A look of excitement mixed with nervousness flashed in Shang Xiangyu's eyes.

As the threads of light within the blood mist grew denser, the pill furnace suddenly began to tremble.

The instant the pill furnace began to shake, Duan Rong suddenly leaped down from the wooden frame and landed a zhang away from the furnace; Chen Hu also leaped out more than half a zhang almost the same instant Duan Rong jumped away.

Yin Cong saw Duan Rong across from him suddenly jump away and only then reacted; just as he was about to jump down, he suddenly heard Shang Xiangyu coldly say, "Don't move! It won't explode!"

As Shang Xiangyu's words fell, the slightly trembling pill furnace truly quieted down and stopped shaking.

Yin Cong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and let out a breath of stale air.

Shang Xiangyu glanced at Duan Rong and Chen Hu and said, "Go back. Put all the remaining medicine into the furnace!"

Duan Rong leaped, drifting onto the wooden ladder like a falling leaf; the movement technique he displayed in that instant caused the expressions of both Pan Yong and Chen Hu to change.

The four of them added all the various bottles, jars, and remaining medicinal herbs beside the pill furnace into the furnace, and then the four of them left the furnace and stood in the open space a zhang away.

Shang Xiangyu remained standing by the pill furnace, looking into the furnace, a look of wild joy emerging in his eyes.

Inside the pill furnace, the threads of light and the blood mist were slowly dissipating...

As the blood mist gradually thinned, the threads of light that had originally filled the pill furnace also vanished...

Shang Xiangyu knew that the Blood Pill was about to be completed!

He walked slowly to the corner and pressed the large black stone at the place where the magma was bubbling out back down.

As the large black stone, which resembled a stone coffin, was pressed down, the hot, iron-like magma ceased to gush out.

Without the replenishment of the boiling new magma, the surface of the magma in the channels and the large pit began to develop volcanic ash, which gradually floated and covered the upper layer of the magma like a layer of foam...

With the change in the magma's temperature, the bottom of the pill furnace, which had been burned red-hot, also gradually returned to its original black color.

Inside the pill furnace, the blood energy dissipated and the threads of light vanished; at the bottom of the pitch-black pill furnace, more than thirty Blood Pills had successfully formed!

On the surface of the Blood Pills, faint, ethereal threads of light wrapped around the pill bodies, flickering like weaving! They flashed like more than thirty eyes in the darkness!

"Finally, the pills are formed!"

Shang Xiangyu tilted his head back and let out a breath of stale air, and a tear fell from the corner of his eye without him realizing it.

This tear of his was no longer shed for Shang Xin, but for himself.

Only he himself knew clearly what he had paid to refine this furnace of Blood Spring Pill; it was by no means just his younger brother's life.

Pan Yong stepped forward, stood behind Shang Xiangyu, bowed, and cupped his hands, saying, "Congratulations, Master Shang, this pill has reached Great Accomplishment!"

Shang Xiangyu turned his head to look at Pan Yong and nodded slightly.

Shang Xiangyu walked slowly to a nearby platform and sat cross-legged, while Pan Yong stood by his side.

Shang Xiangyu's gaze swept over Chen Hu, Duan Rong, and Yin Cong not far away, and he said, "This pill has reached Great Accomplishment, and you all have contributed to it."

As Shang Xiangyu spoke, he flicked his robe sleeve in front of him, and three brown porcelain bottles appeared on the ground before him.

Shang Xiangyu looked at the few of them with a cold gaze and said, "Inside these porcelain bottles are ten Xuanyuan Pills!"

"These Xuanyuan Pills are the highest quality pills for cultivation at the True Qi Realm First Stage."

"In the past, I had only given pills to Pan Yong," Shang Xiangyu said, glancing at Pan Yong beside him, then continued, "However, this time, everyone has a share. Come, come over here; these three bottles of pills, you three, one bottle each."

"Xuanyuan Pills?!" Upon hearing that they were Xuanyuan Pills, not only was Yin Cong unable to contain himself, but even Duan Rong felt his heart grow hot.

Yin Cong had always felt resentful that Pan Yong was hogging the benefits and secretly receiving pills from Shang Xiangyu; he had not expected that after being here for more than a year, he would finally receive pills from Shang Xiangyu's hands, and they were Xuanyuan Pills at that.

The quality of these pills was far better than the basic Zhengyang Pill.

Yin Cong felt secretly delighted and stepped forward to stand before Shang Xiangyu.

The moment Yin Cong walked over, Duan Rong prepared to follow, but just as he took half a step, his figure suddenly faltered and he stopped there.

Duan Rong was shocked to discover that Chen Hu, not far to his side, was standing there motionless, his body tense, his back slightly hunched, and a layer of fine sweat seeping from his forehead; his eyes were staring in terror at Shang Xiangyu, who was sitting cross-legged on the platform.

Yin Cong's eyes were fixed on the three porcelain bottles on the ground, and he had not noticed at all that Duan Rong and Chen Hu had not followed.

Seeing Yin Cong approach, Shang Xiangyu picked up a porcelain bottle and handed it to him; Yin Cong was overjoyed and took the porcelain bottle from Shang Xiangyu's hand.

Yin Cong clutched the porcelain bottle tightly as if he had obtained a treasure; only then did his heart suddenly jolt with shock as he discovered that Duan Rong and Chen Hu were both standing behind him, nearly a zhang away in their original spots, and had not followed.

Yin Cong's eyelids twitched, and he vaguely felt that something was wrong.

Just at this moment, Shang Xiangyu's gaze swept past Duan Rong, who had taken half a step out and then retreated, and fixed instead on Chen Hu beside him, smiling: "Chen Hu! It seems you are the one who understands your master best! How did you know that I wouldn't give you pills? This master-disciple relationship of ours was truly not in vain!"

Just as Shang Xiangyu was speaking, Yin Cong had already turned around; clutching the porcelain bottle containing the Xuanyuan Pills, he stared blankly at Chen Hu and Duan Rong, who were standing behind him with their bodies taut.

Suddenly, Shang Xiangyu leaped up lightly, a white radiance flickering at his fingertips, and tapped onto Yin Cong's back.

With a *puff* sound, a cloud of blood mist sprayed out from Yin Cong's chest, and within that blood mist were clearly mixed many fragments of internal organs...

Yin Cong's body convulsed, the Porcelain Bottle in his hand fell to the ground and shattered... Yin Cong's lips trembled, and he collapsed to the ground with a *thud*; his heart had been crushed to mush in an instant by the Heaven and Earth Origin Qi that flashed from Shang Xiangyu's fingertip when he tapped his back...

Where Yin Cong fell, one could see that inside the shattered Porcelain Bottle nearby, there was actually nothing at all... Where was there even a single Xuanyuan Pill?

(End of this chapter)