Chapter 332: The Pill is Formed

332. Chapter 332: The Pill is Formed

Time passed unknowingly, until the Calamity Cloud in the sky finally vanished.

However, with the disappearance of the Calamity Cloud, a vast expanse of dark clouds within the Thunder Swamp was cleared away.

Without dark clouds, no more thunderbolts would fall; a large area of the Thunder Swamp had ceased to receive lightning strikes, and it was unknown how long it would take to recover.

With no dark clouds to block it, sunlight poured down over a wide area, and the Thunder Swamp, which had never seen the sun day or night, finally brightened.

At this moment, Long Xuan sat slumped before the Devil Swallowing Cauldron, panting heavily.

Although his life had just hung by a thread, he had ultimately survived this crisis.

He felt a lingering fear; there were thirty-six bolts of Life-Extinguishing Thunder in total, each successive bolt stronger than the last. Originally, the Calamity Gu had barely endured the first few bolts, and he had thought failure was inevitable, even considering sacrificing a piece to save the whole.

Unexpectedly, this Calamity Gu proved tenacious; every time it was struck flying by the Life-Extinguishing Thunder, it would devour a portion of it.

As the Life-Extinguishing Thunder struck more frequently, the Calamity Gu devoured more of it, and its body gradually began to turn red.

Although each strike of Life-Extinguishing Thunder was stronger than the last, was not the Calamity Gu also becoming stronger with each blow?

Each time it was knocked flying by the Thunder Tribulation, it strengthened once, and in the end, it truly managed to endure until the thirty-sixth bolt of Thunder Tribulation.

After the Calamity Cloud descended the thirty-sixth bolt of Life-Extinguishing Thunder to no effect, it slowly dissipated.

Thus, the three Heaven-Defying Pills inside the Devil Swallowing Cauldron were preserved.

Thinking of these three Heaven-Defying Pills, Long Xuan was overjoyed.

He could not wait to lift the cauldron lid; immediately, Pill Fragrance overflowed in all directions, and soon, the entire space was filled with an extremely rich Pill Fragrance.

Long Xuan instinctively took a deep breath; as the Pill Fragrance entered his nose, he instantly felt a burst of clarity, and his previous exhaustion was swept away completely.

Under the control of his Soul Power, the three Heaven-Defying Pills in the cauldron slowly floated up, finally landing steadily in his palm.

The Heaven-Defying Pills were colorful, emitting brilliant multicolored light; at a glance, they were clearly no ordinary objects.

Especially after undergoing the baptism of the Thunder Tribulation, they seemed to have become even more miraculous.

Gazing at the three Heaven-Defying Pills in his palm, a smile of excitement appeared on the corner of Long Xuan's mouth as he stared at them with burning eyes.

"So these are the Heaven-Defying Pills? Their appearance is truly impressive."

After admiring them for a while, Long Xuan finally carefully placed the three Heaven-Defying Pills into three separate Pill Bottles.

He noticed that the Heaven-Devouring World Toad had somehow run out and was now staring intently at the Heaven-Defying Pills in his hand.

Long Xuan sighed inwardly; this creature was truly a treasure-hunting beast; whenever any treasure appeared outside, it would definitely appear immediately.

If the object belonged to no one, it would greedily rush forward and swallow it in one gulp; if it was an object held by its master, it would simply watch with eager eyes.

The Heaven-Devouring World Toad loved collecting treasures and valued money above life; seeing such a Heaven-Defying treasure capable of summoning a Thunder Tribulation, how could it not reveal a greedy expression?

Undoubtedly, a Heaven-Defying object like the Heaven-Defying Pill would likely cause the Heaven-Devouring World Toad's size to increase by a large margin.

Since the Heaven-Devouring World Toad did not truly eat the treasures it consumed, Long Xuan was not stingy and directly threw all three bottles of Heaven-Defying Pills into the Heaven-Devouring World Toad's mouth.

What the Heaven-Devouring World Toad ate was the Treasure Qi released by the treasures, which would not affect the treasures in the slightest.

However, living creatures produced Treasure Qi continuously, whereas after inanimate objects had their Treasure Qi absorbed, it took a very long time for them to recover.

Therefore, Long Xuan decided to utilize the Heaven-Defying Pills to the maximum extent; it would be fine for him to consume them only after the Heaven-Devouring World Toad had absorbed all their Treasure Qi.

After swallowing the three bottles of Heaven-Defying Pills, the Heaven-Devouring World Toad immediately displayed a satisfied expression, then left after eating, running back into the Insect Breeding Bag to fall fast asleep.

With the Heaven-Defying Pills successfully refined, Long Xuan finally decided to go out and relax; having just broken through a major Cultivation Realm, he had a large number of Gu Worms that needed upgrading, requiring him to collect massive amounts of materials in the outside world.

The next thing he needed to do was go out and collect Transformation materials for his army of Gu Worms.

He possessed so many Gu Worms that this was truly a significant task for him.

The Second Team Gu Worms did not need worry; their strength was weak, and their Transformation materials were cheap; as long as one had Spirit Stones, one could find a place to directly purchase Transformation materials anywhere.

He only needed to find a City, and he could upgrade the entire Second Team of Gu Worms in one go.

Only the Transformation of the Straw Gu was somewhat troublesome.

A Straw Gu that had transformed only once could only transport Gu Cultivators at the Cultivation Stage: Essence Refining, and since he had now become a Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator, the Straw Gu Hut was completely unusable.

Thus, he lost contact with the Divine Dragon Ship again, and he did not know whether Di Xin had achieved a Breakthrough after consuming the Earth Spirit Pill.

Long Xuan sighed inwardly; unable to return to the Divine Dragon Ship via the Straw Gu Hut, he had no way to trade Gu Worm Transformation materials with that wealthy woman.

Otherwise, just from this one person alone, he could have collected more than half of the Transformation materials needed for his Gu Worms.

As for the Heavenly Dream Dragon Silkworm and the Medicine Gu, they did not need attention; their Tui Bei Lian was to collect Heaven-Defying Spirit Medicine, and he happened not to lack these things, so these two Gu Worms had already completed their Transformation.

The transformed Heavenly Dream Dragon Silkworm was already busy manufacturing Third Stage Soul Armor for him.

The Heaven-Devouring World Toad also did not need attention; its Tui Bei Lian was to absorb the highest quality Treasure Qi, requiring the search for the most Heaven-Defying treasures, and he happened not to lack Heaven-Defying treasures.

The Heaven-Devouring World Toad's upgrade speed was even faster than his; if not for the rule that a Gu Worm's level could not exceed its master's, the Heaven-Devouring World Toad would have already undergone Transformation countless times by now.

He had not yet figured out the Tui Bei Lian for the Repair Gu, but its Transformation was optional anyway; limited by Aptitude, no matter how much it transformed, it could not repair Heaven-Defying treasures.

Even without transforming, it could repair the vast majority of treasures in the Gu World.

For its abilities to improve significantly, it would be necessary to refine it anew in the future and change the quantity of its materials.

The Water Bear Gu's Transformation required an opportunity and did not need his attention.

The Calamity Gu still needed a Pill Formula developed that was sufficient to summon the Ninth Thunder Tribulation Rebirth Thunder.

This matter was too Heaven-defying, so there was no rush for now; the Calamity Gu could release Thunder Tribulations, and even with only one Transformation, it was sufficient to pose a threat to Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivators, which was enough for the time being.

The Tui Bei Lian for the Calamity Poison Gu was to collect rare poisons from across the world; he only needed to find time to research the Polonium Poison from his Past Life.

Polonium was a radioactive Metal element; merely 0.1 Gram was enough to poison 100 billion people to death, and such toxicity could fully satisfy the Transformation conditions of the Calamity Poison Gu.

After eliminating many options, he now only needed to collect Transformation materials for four types of Gu Worms: the Heavenly Mechanism Eye, the Wine Gu, the Dragon Gu, and the Blade Gu; the workload was not particularly large.

Long Xuan did not leave the Thunder Swamp immediately; returning to the Floating Island, after waiting for a period of time, he threw the Heaven-Defying Pills, whose Treasure Qi had been fully absorbed, into his mouth and began closed-door cultivation to refine the medicinal power within the Heaven Mending Pill.

Three days later, Long Xuan opened his eyes, sensed the state of his current Aptitude, and immediately displayed a joyful expression.

The Aptitude of a Gu Cultivator was divided from First Grade to Seventh Grade, with First Grade also known as Heaven Grade Aptitude.

His original Aptitude was merely Fifth Grade, but the medicinal effect of the Heaven-Defying Pill was to unconditionally raise a person's Aptitude by two Grades, meaning he now possessed Third Grade Aptitude.

With Third Grade Aptitude, he was only a single step away from the Earth Grade Aptitude of Second Grade; he could now be counted among the Heavenly Prides.

After such a massive increase in Aptitude, his Cultivation Speed would improve dramatically.

Long Xuan excitedly clenched his fists tight.

Once the Aptitude enhancement was complete, he finally ceased lingering and prepared to head out to search for materials for Gu Worm Transformation.

Although the Straw Gu Hut was unusable at this time, he still hid a Mithril Hut within one of the caves in the Thunder Swamp.

He would definitely return to this place in the future; he would not let go of the Heavenly Water at the center of the Thunder Swamp.

If he ever wished to refine something capable of summoning a Heavenly Phenomenon again, coming to this location would be an excellent choice.

For the convenience of traveling back and forth, he left behind a Straw Gu Hut at this very spot.

After emerging from the Thunder Swamp, Long Xuan took a deep breath of the fresh air outside and walked briskly outward.

However, before he had gone far, he was blocked by two Gu Cultivators dressed in black robes.

"Kid, you just came out of the Thunder Swamp, didn't you?"

"You sure are fast on your feet; upon hearing that the Thunder Power in the Thunder Swamp had vanished, we brothers rushed here day and night without rest, yet we never expected you to be one step ahead."

"Could you tell us what treasures lie within the Thunder Swamp?"

A middle-aged burly man leading the pair blocked Long Xuan's path, his gaze filled with malicious intent.

Sensing the aura of Spirit Sea Early Stage emanating from him, Long Xuan's heart sank.

He had not expected that once the Thunder Swamp stopped striking with lightning, it would actually attract Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivators.

Those wishing to enter the Thunder Swamp to seek treasures were likely not just these two; behind them, a steady stream of Gu Cultivators was probably rushing over, and one could not rule out the possibility of the Gu King arriving as well.

It was even possible that some had already entered the Thunder Swamp, simply having not crossed paths with him.

To most people, what lay inside the Thunder Swamp remained a mysterious unknown; likely, many would think just as he once did—that a forbidden land inaccessible to humans must be filled with treasures everywhere.

Therefore, this was absolutely not a place to linger.

Just as Long Xuan fell into deep thought, the frail old man beside the burly fellow said impatiently, "Why waste words with him?"

"I observe that this person's aura is unstable; clearly, he has only recently broken through to the Spirit Sea Stage and has not even stabilized his Cultivation Realm."

"The Gu Worms on his person surely haven't had time to upgrade; with the two of us, both Spirit Sea Early Stage Gu Cultivators, joining forces, we can easily annihilate him."

"No matter what good treasures he brought out of the Thunder Swamp, they will all be ours."

The burly man glanced back, and upon discovering a group of Spirit Sea Stage auras rapidly approaching, he hesitated no longer; his face turned sinister and cruel as he said, "Attack together, end this quickly!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he immediately released a giant beetle clad in heavy metal armor, charging straight at Long Xuan.

Long Xuan furrowed his brows; having just broken through to become a Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator, many of his Gu Worms had not yet had time to upgrade, so he truly did not have many usable Gu Worms available.

Subconsciously, he took out the newly refined Calamity Gu to face the enemy, even though this Calamity Gu had only undergone one Transformation and was merely a Spirit Gu suitable for a Cultivation Stage: Essence Refining cultivator.

However, he reckoned that with the terrifying destructive power of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder, the Calamity Gu should possess the strength to fight opponents above its own grade.

At this moment, the Calamity Gu took the form of a Snake; this Thunder Snake crawled out from the mouth of the Heaven-Devouring World Toad, then emerged from the Insect Breeding Bag, and under Long Xuan's command, immediately spat a streak of red Life-Extinguishing Thunder at the charging giant beetle.

This giant beetle was draped in thick metal, basically allowing it to ignore most attacks of the same grade.

Yet, in the face of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder, the iron shell covering its body was like paper paste; in an instant, a large hole was blasted right through its forehead by the Life-Extinguishing Thunder.

Before this giant beetle could even let out a single cry of agony, it collapsed to the ground, instantly devoid of any sound or breath.

Having resolved this beetle with a single strike, Long Xuan shook his head in dissatisfaction, his brows knitting tightly together.

The true Life-Extinguishing Thunder was not this weak; he clearly remembered that the Life-Extinguishing Thunder descending from the sky that day had blasted a bottomless pit into the earth.

With such power, it should have pierced straight through this beetle, not merely blown a hole in it.

The power of this streak of Life-Extinguishing Thunder was far inferior to that of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder from that day, not even reaching one percent of its former might.

Long Xuan could not help but reveal a look of disappointment.

It must be that the materials used to refine the Calamity Gu were too shoddy and cut corners, resulting in this level of Calamity Gu being utterly unable to unleash the full power of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder.

Then again, if the current Calamity Gu could truly wield the Life-Extinguishing Thunder at full strength, it could easily annihilate even a Gu King.

However, while Long Xuan was dissatisfied with the power of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder at this moment, the two opponents across from him were utterly shocked by the might of this lightning.

Song Qian was a famous Insect Armor Master in the City of Sin; the Insect Armor he crafted possessed extremely high defensive power, basically unbeatable by anyone of the same grade.

Yet that Gu Worm opposite them, whose aura was clearly below Third Stage, had actually instantly killed Song Qian's most defensively powerful Gu Worm with a single strike—could you believe it?

At this moment, both men's eyes widened in shock, revealing looks of utter disbelief.

"Red lightning! Oh no, this seems to be the Life-Extinguishing Thunder from the legends!"

"Damn it! How does he have such a thing! Run!"

The burly man, Song Qian, roared loudly, turned around, and fled.

Thunder Tribulation suppresses all Demon Cultivators and all Demon Path Gu Worms; once a Demon Cultivator is struck by Thunder Tribulation, their soul scatters and spirit vanishes instantly, leaving not even a chance for rebirth.

And these two happened to be notoriously evil Demon Cultivators who had refined a heap of Demon Path Gu Worms on their persons.

People like them viewed Thunder Tribulation just as mice viewed cats; they were terrified to the core, so how could they dare harbor thoughts of killing someone to steal their treasures?

These two Demon Cultivators were now frightened out of their wits, running with all the strength they could muster, nearly growing four legs in their haste.

However, Long Xuan knew well the principle that to cut weeds one must dig up the roots; how could he let them escape back?

Watching the retreating figures of the two men, Long Xuan revealed a cold sneer.

Under his control, the Calamity Gu spat out two more streaks of Life-Extinguishing Thunder, striking toward the backs of the two men respectively.

How incredibly fast was the speed of the Life-Extinguishing Thunder? How could normal people possibly dodge it just by saying so?

In the blink of an eye, the Life-Extinguishing Thunder caught up to the two men and precisely struck the centers of their backs.

After the Life-Extinguishing Thunder instantly pierced through both their bodies, the two men let out a cry of agony before collapsing to the ground, soon falling completely silent.

Long Xuan could not help but feel a jolt of surprise in his heart; the battle ending so quickly had greatly exceeded his expectations.

After all, they were two Gu Cultivators of the same grade; he truly had never imagined that, with insufficient Gu Worms, he could annihilate two fellow same-grade Gu Cultivators so easily.

Nevertheless, he could also discern the reason: if he had not brought out the Calamity Gu, even if they could not defeat him, they would still have been able to produce other Gu Worms to stall for some time without issue.

But the Thunder Tribulation inflicts the greatest damage on Demon Cultivators; almost a single touch means death.

It was simply their bad luck; of all people to provoke, they had to provoke someone carrying a Thunder Tribulation.

And this place happened to be a region teeming with Demon Cultivators; with Long Xuan carrying only a Calamity Gu here, he could kill until he went mad, and whoever saw him was doomed.

Long Xuan ran over to confiscate the two men's Storage Bags, and additionally performed a Soul Search Technique on Song Qian's soul, which had not yet dissipated.

His purpose in coming out was to gather Transformation items for various Gu Worms, so he intended to check whether this person's memories held any intelligence regarding these Transformation items.

The Soul Search Technique was a supporting Soul Technique from the 'True Soul Transformation'; having drawn reference from the 'True Soul Transformation' Cultivation Method, he naturally still knew how to use the Soul Search Technique.

Through Song Qian's memories, he also quickly learned this person's Identity.

Song Qian was a famous Insect Armor Master in the City of Sin, possessing superb skill in refining Insect Armor, and was addressed by people as Master Song.

His reputation within the scope of the Sinful Land was extremely great, and many Gu Cultivators would seek him out to refine Insect Armor.

Song Qian had caught the wave of the Insect Armor Master trend, earning a fortune, but alas, he betrayed his master and destroyed his ancestors, daring to rob the founding ancestor of Insect Armor Masters, ultimately meeting an end of being reduced to ashes and smoke.

Long Xuan indeed discovered intelligence regarding the things he sought within his memories.

The City of Sin was going to hold a large Auction in half a month.

And the Grand Finale Auction Item of the Auction was a Heaven Grade Spirit Medicine called the Moon Tree.

The Moon Tree had many Heaven-defying effects, among which one miraculous function was that squeezing the juice of the Moon Tree leaves into the eyes could grant a person the ability to see through all Illusion Techniques.

It could be said that as long as someone washed their eyes with the juice of Moon Tree leaves for a long time, that person would possess the ability of Immunity to Illusions.

One must know that Illusion Techniques are the most difficult abilities to defend against; they often cause people to be struck without the spirit knowing or the ghost perceiving, making them impossible to guard against, so who would not want to possess the ability of Immunity to Illusions?

To speak without exaggeration, just by this single function, the Moon Tree was sufficient to make every Gu King in the world go mad, willing to pay any price to obtain it.

Therefore, without needing to think, this Grand Finale Auction Item would surely fetch a sky-high price at auction.

Moreover, there was a high probability it would even trigger a chaotic battle among the Gu Kings.

Snatching food from the tiger's mouth amidst the hands of numerous Gu Kings was obviously not an easy matter.

Long Xuan frowned deeply, his eyes revealing a color of contemplation; the Moon Tree was something he was determined to obtain, and he absolutely did not wish to give it up easily.

The Tui Bei Lian for the Heavenly Mechanism Eye was that every time it underwent a Transformation, one had to drip a certain kind of Heaven-defying Eye Drops into the eyes for a long period.

And the juice of the Moon Tree leaves was simply too suitable for use in making a kind of Heaven-defying Eye Drops; how could he be willing to let it slip away?

Long Xuan pondered for a moment, calculated the gains and losses, and finally his gaze flashed as he decided to participate in the struggle for the Moon Tree.

From Song Qian's memories, he learned that the Sinful Land was everywhere filled with Demon Cultivators, brimming with slaughter and chaos.

And the City of Sin was the only place in the entire Sinful Land that possessed order.

Outside the City, you could kill people at will, but inside the City, if you accidentally killed someone, then even if you were a Gu King Peak, you would have to pay with your life.

This was the order of the City of Sin, and precisely because the City of Sin had order, did Merchant Associations dare to hold such a large Auction within the City of Sin without fear of being robbed.

Even if one bid for a Heaven-defying Heavy Treasure at the Auction, there was no need to worry about being robbed; of course, if you carried the Heavy Treasure out of the City, then whatever happened was beyond the City of Sin's jurisdiction.

Since that was the case, so what if he went a bit crazy and managed to bid for that Moon Tree amidst the bidding of a crowd of Gu Kings?

He had now made up his mind: he would let his Disguised Clone make the move to bid for the Moon Tree, and once obtained, he would tear up the Hundred Li Talisman to immediately teleport away, exhausting those groups of Gu Kings to death so they would never find him.

Exchanging one Hundred Li Talisman for one Moon Tree was absolutely worth it; Long Xuan's eyes brightened.

Finally, Long Xuan stripped Song Qian's clothes off, set fire to the two corpses, and only then departed from this place.

The reason he stripped Song Qian's clothes was that he prepared to transform into Song Qian's appearance and mix into the City of Sin using Song Qian's Identity.

He had obtained all of Song Qian's memories via the Soul Search Technique, so perfectly imitating him was not difficult.

Not long after he left, the auras that Song Qian had detected finally arrived.

After passing through this place, they did not linger, heading straight for the Thunder Swamp.

Each person's gaze upon the Thunder Swamp was like looking at some sort of treasure land, their eyes filled with greed.

Not long after this group left, Long Xuan suddenly appeared from behind a tree, gazing at the backs of that group, his face revealing a strange expression.

What were these people rushing in for in such a fiery hurry? Were they rushing to deliver themselves to death?

It was true that part of the Thunder Swamp region had stopped striking with thunder; that was because the Calamity Cloud had swallowed the dark clouds in that region, and with no clouds in that region, naturally, there would be no more thunder.

But this was only temporary; that place had not been permanently altered in terrain.

As long as some time passed, dark clouds would reform there once again, and the sound of thunder would continue day and night.

And during these days while he was refining the Heaven-Defying Pill, the dark clouds in that region had long since re-condensed.

When he had just come out, he had already discovered that many of the dark clouds were already showing over 90% Progress, not far from striking with thunder.

Yet that group had chosen to rush in precisely at this moment; Long Xuan could not help but shiver.

He did not rush to leave, but watched with his own eyes as more and more Demon Cultivators rushed into the Thunder Swamp; finally, suddenly the sky rumbled with thunder, and abruptly bolt after bolt of Lightning descended.

The large batch of Demon Cultivators who had already rushed in were caught off guard and struck squarely.

Everyone in the Thunder Swamp was stunned, their faces instantly turning deathly pale, and then they ran for their lives like madmen, lacking only growing four legs of their own.

For a time, screams of agony rang out continuously within the Thunder Swamp.

Witnessing this inhumane scene, Long Xuan could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth; after observing for a while, he finally departed.

In this matter, he truly had no way to kindly remind them; otherwise, if they asked him one question: 'How do you know this?', how should he respond?

One must know that the people here were all Demon Cultivators, each having committed every evil deed and killing without blinking an eye; if he went over to kindly remind them, not only would he gain no good, but he might even be killed and have his treasures robbed.

Therefore, Long Xuan could only watch with his own eyes as this group of Demon Cultivators rushed in to deliver themselves to death.

(End of Chapter)