Chapter 240: Pills Exchanged for Nuwa Jade, Crossing the Fires and Winds of Two Disasters

"Sure enough, my conjecture was correct, or at least not far off the mark."

Fang Longye calmed his mind, sensing the bloodline that had undergone transformation within him. He could clearly see the Dharma principles swirling in the deepest recesses of his bloodline.

They flowed unceasingly, giving rise to all manner of strange phenomena.

Yin and Yang became the Two Instruments, the Two Instruments gave birth to the Four Symbols, the Four Symbols transformed into the Five Elements, the Five Elements derived the Eight Trigrams, and the Eight Trigrams evolved the natural world. Thereafter, it encompassed the four directions, split the Eight Extremes, and gave birth to the boundless universe.

It was a complete scene of a world evolving and creating all things.

He could not help but reveal a smile and said: "The Essence Blood of the Twelve Witches has been gathered; just as I expected, it possesses an extraordinary transformation."

The source of the Twelve Witches' bloodlines all originated from the Twelve Ancestral Witches. And the Twelve Ancestral Witches were themselves transformed from the Essence Blood of Pangu.

This Essence Blood of the Twelve Witches originally possessed an inexplicable connection.

Now—

Under the influence of his secret technique, the Essence Blood of the twelve lineages—gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, life, time, and space—melted into one furnace, exerting an effect where one plus one was far greater than two.

Five Elements + wind, rain, thunder, and lightning + life + time + space, what does that equal?

It is a world! At least in his own understanding, these constituted the simple prototype of a world—how well it aligned with his Inner World?

Under this bloodline convergence, his Inner World, which had just advanced to the Small World level, could not help but secretly give birth to new changes.

Fang Longye restrained his spirit, his primordial spirit hanging down and Generating Light, intersecting into a net to draw in the traces dancing within his sea of consciousness—traces that seemed to exist and yet not exist, appearing to be born and then perish.

These traces were the profound Dharma marks he had obtained from smelting the Wu Clan Essence Blood, containing all sorts of mysteries.

These traces merged into his primordial spirit one by one, and in an instant, fragmented information emerged in his spiritual platform.

Yes, fragmented—very fragmented.

Without head or tail, a complete mess.

Yet Fang Longye's expression was solemn, and he contemplated them very earnestly, for this information was nothing else but the inheritance hidden within the Wu Clan Essence Blood.

He contemplated earnestly, frowning from time to time. Because this information came only from the Wu Clan Essence Blood, it was often too scattered, not to mention very obscure and hazy; it was difficult to fully penetrate.

But it must be said, its use to him was truly not small.

The bloodlines among the Twelve Witches originally had an indescribable connection, and when the Essence Blood derived from them was melted into one, it underwent a transformation, ascending to a higher level.

Precisely because of this, even after excluding various secrets unrelated to cultivation—such as some dusty history from the past, or certain unknown secrets, or some Wu Clan treasure, and so on and so forth...

The remaining insights regarding cultivation were still substantial, and his primordial spirit's contemplation greatly elevated his realm.

After a long while—

Fang Longye opened his eyes and said with no small amount of regret: "It is a pity that the Essence Blood I melted does not count as truly pure Wu Clan."

Whether it was Li Yuan, who had previously crossed hands with him, or the man and woman who came later, all had cultivated from the status of Wu-humans.

They belonged to the Wu-human lineage.

Although—

Whether it was they themselves or the pure Wu Clan who recognized their identity as Wu Clan, their bloodlines, even after cultivation, were still not pure enough; they were somewhat mottled.

And the Wu Clan Essence Blood of other attributes obtained through equivalent exchange using their essence blood naturally also originated from the Wu-human lineage.

Of course, it was not as if he had not exchanged for truly pure Wu Clan Essence Blood; by trading quantity for quality, he had indeed traded for twelve drops of Essence Blood from pure Wu Clan. Each drop belonged to the Taiyi level.

It was just that, at first, he had no way to swallow and melt them.

Although both were at the Taiyi level, their essences were different. The essence of the latter was far higher than the former.

Fang Longye could melt the former at will, but he could not swallow the latter.

If he were the least bit careless, he feared he would be assimilated by the latter.

Even with the secret technique of the 'Yin and Yang Great Vehicle Dragon Transformation Scripture', a secret technique is not omnipotent.

It also depends on one's personal realm and strength.

The most critical point was that each drop of this Wu Clan Essence Blood contained a massive amount of Earth Turbid Qi.

The stronger the strength and the higher the essence, the more and heavier the Earth Turbid baleful qi.

Once he swallowed too much, he feared he would suffer from indigestion.

After all, he was not walking the path of the Wu Clan.

Even if he had absorbed some mysteries of the Wu Clan's path, it was only to draw inferences about other things. At most, he was walking the path of Clear and Turbid as one, with Yin and Yang mutually generating.

Even just now, the balance of Clear and Turbid within his body had already become somewhat skewed.

"Fortunately, the problem is not big! It can be solved—"

With a flip of his palm, Fang Longye summoned the Two Instruments Divine Gourd and poured out the pill that Yang Chan had previously yielded to him.

Supporting it with his palm, he lowered his eyes to observe it.

He saw that this pill was the size of a pigeon egg, bright and pure as jade, its clarity flowing to the nine heavens; just by looking at it, just by looking at it, there was a flavor of boundless creation.

One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things.

It was born containing a point of the essence of creation.

It was just right to balance the imbalance of Clear and Turbid Qi brought about by melting the Wu Clan Essence Blood.

"There is just one point—" Fang Longye stared fixedly at this pill, his gaze deep and heavy.

It was just that this pill, while appearing pure and flawless, could be seen through the 'Gazing Across Walls' technique to be faintly radiating billions of colors, its karma mottled.

How should one put it?

The method of refining this pill was, after all, mixed with too many evil methods and Demon paths.

The main medicinal ingredient in the pill alone—the Essence Blood of one hundred thousand Nuwa Remnant People—represented the deaths of one hundred thousand Nuwa Remnant People. This point alone had accumulated an unknown amount of unextinguished karma.

It was not that Fang Longye cared about eating people.

To step into cultivation is to have the resolve to eat people. To say nothing else, the Wu Clan Essence Blood he had just melted—was that not also eating "people"?

The key was that this involved the lives of one hundred thousand Nuwa Remnant People; consuming it would absolutely result in tangled karma.

Although people speak of equality for all, when placed in reality, people do indeed have distinctions of high and low, noble and base.

The lives of the one hundred thousand Nuwa Remnant People, even if one added ten billion ordinary mortals together, would be as light as a feather in comparison.

They are far from being comparable to the former.

"Oh well! In any case, with the Golden Finger, I don't need to worry about problems in this regard."

Decisive and prompt, he sank his consciousness into the Equivalent Balance, compared things for quite a while, finally selected a treasure, and let go of the pill.

……

Exiting the Equivalent Balance, Fang Longye examined the blood jade in his hand, seeing that it was shaped like a magatama, with blood-colored light swirling around it, appearing just like flames.

Nüwa Blood Jade: One of the three divine artifacts in the world of Xianjian Qixia Zhuan, refined from the essence and blood of the Great Goddess Nuwa of that world.

Through the shifting of world laws, within the Primordial World, its origin changed into the following information: Nüwa Blood Jade: A treasure formed over billions of years from the blood that the Nuwa of this world accidentally dropped when she was injured while fighting others during a time when her strength was weak.

Feeling the rich Creation Vitality upon this Nüwa Blood Jade, Fang Longye felt joy in his heart, though his expression carried a hint of strangeness; he was finding it increasingly difficult to understand his own Golden Finger.

Regarding this Nüwa Blood Jade, he had no reason to doubt that it was comparable in value to a Great Medicine refined by a Taiyi practitioner with all their heart and blood.

The world of Xianjian Qixia Zhuan is, of course, far inferior to this Primordial World.

But the Great Goddess Nuwa of that world was transformed from one of the essence, energy, and spirit of Pangu who opened the heavens and earth, and her origin was extraordinary.

And he estimated that to open up a world like Xianjian Qixia Zhuan, he was absolutely incapable of doing so at present; he would have to attain the Taiyi realm first.

Compared to it, his Inner World—in terms of size, it was unclear who would win or lose, but in terms of structure and vitality, they could not be compared together.

They were simply not in the same league.

By all sorts of analogies, the Nüwa of that world, using her own essence and blood to refine a piece of Nüwa Blood Jade, naturally had the qualifications to be at the Taiyi level.

What made his expression strange and left him not knowing what to say lay elsewhere—

Previously, even an innate spiritual fruit like a Flat Peach could not be exchanged. Yet this time, it involved a great figure like Nuwa who stands at the pinnacle of the Primordial World.

And yet, it could grandiosely change the specific information of an item within the world.

Could it be because the former involved a physical object, while the latter only changed a name, belonging to a modification of information?

Fang Longye did not understand.

One must know that even if it only involves information that leaves a trace in the world, that is still involving the person themselves.

Even he, a mere Golden Immortal, was already able to gather and restrain the information leaking from himself.

To quietly alter the past information of Nuwa's traces in the world, and yet not let her notice.

This is, of course, not impossible, as it is a Golden Finger after all! But previously, the Golden Finger couldn't even trade for a single Flat Peach.

Now it has infinite power again~ "Forget it~ I won't think about it so much! There's no clue, why think so much? As long as the result is good."

Fang Longye cast aside his doubts and began to smelt this Nüwa Blood Jade.

……

Exotic flowers and rare herbs were planted everywhere.

Fragrance wound around the jade terraces; beneath the pine shade, the rocks were stained with emerald, and the deep pools reflected shadows, secretly hiding crouching dragons.

Between the cover of branches and leaves, before the rugged and graceful rocks, or around the scattered deep pools, pavilions and towers complemented each other, a scene of quiet seclusion.

Fang Longye wandered through the garden at will, a smile on his face, finding everything he saw full of interest; clearly, he was in a very pleasant mood.

One could see that above his crown, a celebration cloud hung high, shedding ten thousand layers of light, pouring down freely like water dripping from eaves.

Looking closely, within the radiance, Yin and Yang and Clear and Turbid were the main elements, but from time to time other colors would emerge, then vanish in an instant.

Faintly, there was a foundation of the creation of the universe. After some effort, he successfully smelted the Nüwa Blood Jade he had obtained through the exchange into his body.

Beyond balancing the Clear and Turbid path of his own cultivation, it made his Creation Vitality even more magnificent.

With this, this period of seclusion came to an end.

Looking back, one would find how incredible the degree of growth in his strength was compared to before the seclusion.

Divine abilities, Bloodline, true form, primordial spirit, Dharma power, and so on... all had experienced a leap.

If someone could see through the heavy obstacles into Fang Longye's interior, they would see a Dragon Pearl the size of a chicken egg constantly wandering around inside his body.

Within the Dragon Pearl, Clear Qi rose and Turbid Qi sank, and along with a flow of Yin and Yang Two Qis, it constantly evolved the scene of opening the heavens and earth and creating all things.

Rotating without end, it was incomparably profound.

Do not look at him wandering in the garden enjoying the scenery as if he were relaxing; in reality, he was multitasking, feeling all the changes within himself.

The pores all over his body opened and closed, and the Yin and Yang and Clear and Turbid of the world flowed in and out, breathing incessantly.

His whole person appeared radiant and dazzling.

Amidst this miraculous rhythm, mysterious light bloomed from his entire body.

His flesh and muscles, at an unimaginable speed, were destroyed and regenerated thousands of times in a single instant.

Under the effect of the Dragon Pearl, he was now in a state of cultivation at all times, regardless of what he was doing in his daily life.

"This isn't over yet! After the Three Calamities, the changes surely won't be small either~"

Fang Longye chuckled, happily fiddling with the fallen fragrant petals beside him.

Now that his Qi was full and his spirit complete, it was time to go and overcome the remaining two calamities!

He enjoyed the scenery for a while longer, smoothing away the restlessness that had arisen from his surprise.

Afterward, he returned to where he had previously been in seclusion, preparing to trigger the remaining two of his Three Calamities.

……

Inside the palace chamber, it was empty, vast, and simple.

Light hung down from the dome, sparse into threads, condensing into pearls, illuminating the surroundings.

Beside the Cloud Couch was a wooden side table, upon which sat a Bronze Crane-Beak Tripod Furnace, with sandalwood incense curling upward.

Fang Longye sat upright on the couch, light settling between his brows; he checked himself, chuckled, and muttered to himself: "With my accumulation, whether it is the 'Fire Calamity' or the 'Wind Calamity', I have nothing to worry about!"

The Three Calamities consist of the Thunder, Fire, and Wind calamities. The 'Thunder Calamity' tests the physical body, the 'Fire Calamity' tempers the primordial spirit, and the 'Wind Calamity' targets Dharma power.

He had already passed the 'Thunder Calamity', so the next one to be triggered would naturally be the 'Fire Calamity'.

Without hesitation, he immediately released his Aura, circulating it along a mysterious trajectory to communicate with the void and trigger his own Calamity.

There were no signs, no sounds; only after he triggered the Calamity did a thin flame, white with hints of blue and green, suddenly ignite from the Bubbling Spring point on the soles of his feet, instantly piercing straight to his Mud-Pill Palace.

It was not heavenly fire, nor was it mortal fire, but was called "Yin Fire," specifically targeting the primordial spirit; it passed through everything without causing physical damage.

Just like the Thunder Calamity that Fang Longye had survived, it was born from the void of heaven and earth and could only be endured head-on.

There were no other means to weaken it; Dharma Treasures and divine abilities were all useless.

If a cultivator's own primordial spirit foundation was insufficient, they would inevitably be burned clean by this Yin Fire, with their five viscera turned to ash and their four limbs decayed, ending in a fate where all their arduous cultivation became nothing but an illusion.

"Hiss—damn it, that hurts!"

As the tongue of "Yin Fire" spreading to his Mud-Pill Palace licked him, Fang Longye's head felt as if it were splitting, his brows twitched, and he could not help but cry out.

This pain was different from physical pain; it was a pain that pierced straight into the soul and will, and even though Fang Longye had experienced much suffering throughout his cultivation journey, it was still hard to bear.

He could not stand this sensation—the "Yin Fire," which originally caused no harm to anything else, flared up violently the moment it touched his primordial spirit, as if gasoline had been poured on it.

It used his primordial spirit as fuel and began to burn.

Gradually, Fang Longye could no longer perceive the pain, and all sorts of lewd and gorgeous illusions began to appear before his eyes, becoming increasingly real.

Fang Longye knew that this was the Yin Fire stirring his inner Demon, spontaneously manifesting an illusion.

The moment the thought arose, his entire mind had already fallen into the illusion.

His vision blurred, and when he looked up again, he felt that his surroundings were somewhat dim.

He scanned his surroundings and was stunned to find that he had arrived in a bedroom. The walls were covered in pictures of fairies fighting, and the decorations were extremely suggestive.

On a bed over ten zhang wide, Qingli, Ao Ying, Jinghuan, Yang Chan, as well as Yun Ting and Hu Qiuyue... all wore thin gauze garments, posing seductively as they lay there, batting their eyes at him and saying in sweet voices: "Husband/Master, come quickly, I can't hold it anymore..."

All around were a crowd of handmaidens in gauze garments, each one looking at him eagerly.

And standing on his left and right were two beauties also dressed in gauze, namely Iron Fan Princess and Long Xuan.

The two of them looked at him with beautiful eyes in a very respectful posture, looking fawning and ingratiating.

Fang Longye was so angry his face flushed red, and he cursed inwardly: "Am I this kind of person? How could my inner Demon be this?"

"Shouldn't it be treasures covering the ground, or scenes of me attaining the Great Luo? If not that, then it should be me ascending to heaven to become the Heavenly Emperor~"

"Who would have a brain full of yellow waste?"

"This is definitely not my own inner Demon! There must be an outer Demon invading!"

"Not testing me with power, wealth, or cultivation? Just testing me with beauty?"

"Pfft—"

"Which cadre could withstand such a test?"

Fang Longye stomped his feet for a moment, and then, unknowingly, he stepped into the pile of beauties, surrounded by soft jade and warm fragrance.

A long time later~

His spirit became increasingly dazed, as if he were drunk, and only then did he wake up, exclaiming: "Oh no!"

He had actually fallen deep into it without realizing! And once trapped in this illusion, his own desires would turn into firewood for the "Yin Fire," continuously burning until he was reduced to dry bones and ashes.

He hurriedly steadied his mind and spirit, and shouted: "Begone!"

He roused his will and shattered this illusion.

Ignoring the Yin Fire still burning in his sea of consciousness, Fang Longye said with a blushing face: "This is not my fault! I was careless! I didn't dodge~"

After some self-justification with no one else around, he immediately gathered his mind and focused all his efforts on dealing with the Yin Fire burning his primordial spirit.

He did not know how much time had passed.

His primordial spirit had been burned by the Yin Fire until it was only three inches in size, crystal clear and unstained by dust, as transparent as crystal.

Finally, the white Yin Fire with hints of blue and green had nothing left to burn, and after a flicker, it extinguished itself.

Thus, the second of the Three Calamities—the "Fire Calamity"—was passed just like that.

Fang Longye let out a breath, his spirit refreshed and his face glowing, and he thought to himself: "I said so, the actions in that illusion just now were just me being careless. Relying on my foundation, it was still easy for me to pass."

"Hmm, the 'Fire Calamity' is over, next should be the 'Wind Calamity'!"

Strike while the iron is hot!

First, he meditated for a good while to readjust his state, then stabilized his mind and followed the same method to trigger the third of the Three Calamities.

It was also the final Calamity—the "Wind Calamity."

As his Aura triggered the Calamity, a manic black wind immediately arose from the void.

The black wind blew, but it did not affect anything in the surroundings. The sandalwood incense in the incense burner beside him remained straight as a line, just as before. Even Fang Longye's hair was not blown in the slightest.

If not for the fact that it was visible to the naked eye, a black wind shaped like a tornado swirling above Fang Longye's head, over seven feet high, one would not be able to perceive that a wind was truly attacking.

This black wind was not the wind from the southeast, northwest, nor was it the gentle golden wind, nor the flower-willow-pine-bamboo wind, but was called "Bie Wind," specifically targeting a cultivator's Dharma power.

If one could resist it, then naturally everything would be fine, all Three Calamities would be passed, and the future would be bright.

If the Dharma power could not withstand it and was blown away, this Bie Wind would not retreat, but would descend upon the true body.

At that time, heaven and earth would add their great power, and the Bie Wind would sweep away everything, inevitably causing flesh and bone to dissolve, the body to disintegrate, and all one's arduous cultivation to be washed away.

The Bie Wind was silent and soundless, pouring directly into Fang Longye from the fontanelle on his crown.

It passed through his five viscera, went through his six bowels, entered his dantian, pierced through his nine orifices, and circulated throughout his entire body. It wanted to blow Fang Longye's Dharma power out of his body and dissipate it into nothingness.

During this process, Fang Longye could only use his Dharma power and persist with all his might, not letting his Dharma power be blown away by the "Bie Wind."

Whoosh—

Fang Longye gathered all his Dharma power and returned it to his dantian, forming a vast Abyssal Sea.

And the "Bie Wind" tightly coiled around his Dharma power, like a black wind dragon, constantly swirling endlessly within the sea of Dharma power.

Wherever it passed, the imprints on the Dharma power related to him were largely erased under the blowing of the Bie Wind.

The Dharma power that should have been as responsive as an arm was now losing its connection to Fang Longye, teetering on the edge of collapse.

Fortunately, Fang Longye had anticipated this, and he focused his entire mind, once again strengthening his connection with his Dharma power.

And this was only the beginning; in the void above, a ceaseless stream of "Bie Wind" continued to be born from the unknown, pouring down into Fang Longye.

It bolstered the "Bie Wind" within his body, causing the wind dragon to grow larger and larger, howling without end.

Fang Longye was neither panicked nor flustered; instead of avoiding or yielding, he continuously drove his Abyssal Sea of Dharma, whipping up monstrous waves and using his Great Strength to bind the "Bie Wind" without letting go.

It was as if he were capturing a dragon and dragging it into the sea, borrowing its power to temper his own Dharma and hone the connection between himself and his Dharma.

Time passed bit by bit.

Perhaps the moment had arrived, for Fang Longye's Dharma, already reaching the pinnacle of purity, suddenly erupted with brilliant divine radiance, accompanied by the rising of wondrous sounds.

The Bie Wind abruptly dissipated; the "Wind Calamity" had been perfectly overcome.

With this, the "Three Calamities" of thunder, fire, and wind were all completely overcome! Fang Longye had finally become a Golden Immortal with the Three Calamities perfected, truly having no need to worry about the length of his lifespan from this point on, his life now equal to the heavens. (End of chapter)