Chapter 886

Red Dan Daoist spat out a mouthful of blood, his whole body's blood and qi, his magical power fell into great disorder, and his state of mind was almost on the verge of collapse.

The alchemy furnace before him shook slightly, and with a few muffled "puff-puff" sounds, large clouds of black smoke spewed out; all the medicinal ingredients in the furnace were utterly ruined, refined into flying ash by the runaway spiritual flame.

"You…… how could this be……" Red Dan Daoist's body swayed slightly as he stared at Wu Tie in disbelief.

Just now, when Wu Tie was refining pills, his technique, his hand seals, his fire control—all gave the impression of being perfunctory. Yet it was precisely this perfunctory method, which utterly violated the basic rules of pillcraft, that allowed him to produce so many supreme-grade pills.

"Maybe I'm just lucky?" Wu Tie chuckled, looking at Red Dan Daoist: "But whether it's luck or strength, I've won this round, haven't I?"

Red Dan Daoist drew a deep breath, then slowly nodded: "That's right, Martial King—you've won this question. So please, Martial King, pose the next one."

Wu Tie pondered for a moment, then took out a jade tablet, opened his third eye of law, and a thread of divine light flowed into it; he swiftly inscribed an extremely strange pill formula onto the jade tablet and tossed it to Red Dan Daoist.

"Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill," a water-attribute secret pill, is used to aid those who have just embarked on the path of cultivation and are still tempering their flesh—to temper tendons and bones, cleanse essence and blood, temper marrow, and strengthen the five viscera.

Its medicinal nature is extremely gentle and enduring; a single pill residing in the abdomen, according to the number of "thousand revolutions" of the pill, can last from several hours to several months, continuously and steadily enhancing all aspects of the cultivator's physical form during daily activities, walking, sitting, and lying down.

For cultivators who have just stepped onto the path, their bodies are frail and their souls barely existent; a slightly stronger medicinal pill, if misused, poses a mortal danger to them.

Yet the "Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill" can compress the vast medicinal power equivalent to a Grand Dao precious pill into a low-grade auxiliary pill, lodging it in the cultivator's abdomen for a sustained, gentle release.

A properly refined Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill can accompany a novice cultivator from the Body-Tempering realm all the way to the Perception of Mystery, Double Loops, Life Pond, and Embryo Store stages—enough to bring them to the pinnacle of the Embryo Store realm.

One dose brings benefits for years.

The wonder of this pill can be seen in a single aspect.

Red Dan Daoist took the jade tablet, carefully examined the formula word by word, then could not help exclaiming in admiration: "Marvelous beyond words—this approach to pill refinement is indeed exquisite… it turns out to be a sustained-release type of pill?"

"Um, thousand revolutions, thousand revolutions—like a vortex, layer upon layer the medicinal power is stacked, and likewise relying on the vortex's force to restrain the power, releasing it slowly within the body. Such an ingenious idea is truly marvelous."

"Moreover, it is not limited to specific medicinal ingredients; as long as they are water-attribute, they can be used in conjunction… the only thing that matters is the fine control of medicinal power, layering and sealing the power according to an absolutely precise ratio."

"This pill formula……" Red Dan Daoist looked at Wu Tie with a complex expression: "Martial King, did you devise this formula yourself?"

Wu Tie produced a large pile of miscellaneous water-attribute medicinal ingredients, casually dividing them into two heaps of roughly equal volume and weight: "Daoist, please pick the ingredients first… this formula, heh, is merely the legacy of our predecessors; I, the king, have no leisure to ponder such things."

Red Dan Daoist silently selected a heap of ingredients, closed his eyes to ponder the method of refining the Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill, opened the furnace, and tossed in a stalk of water-attribute spiritual herb.

Regarding Wu Tie, Red Dan Daoist's thoughts grew ever more complicated.

Should we say he is an enemy?

It seems not yet to that point.

Should we say he is a friend?

He has ruined the plans of the Qinglian Observatory.

If one were to say he feels fondness toward Wu Tie, such fondness certainly will not exist.

But if one truly regards Wu Tie as a mortal enemy… the formula for the Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill he produced would be a foundation of strength for any faction.

As long as one can refine the Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill, any major power's efficiency in cultivating disciples will increase manifold. This secret pill, while promoting cultivation progress, also subtly improves the aptitude of novice cultivators, making their bodies pure and flawless, thus more easily absorbing heavenly and earthly primordial energy.

Wu Tie just casually tossed out this formula.

Capable of becoming a sovereign of a nation, Red Dan Daoist does not believe Wu Tie is unaware of this formula's value; to exaggerate a bit, this most basic secret pill could serve as the foundation of hegemony.

Wu Tie just threw it out like that, giving Qinglian Observatory a free bargain!

Red Dan Daoist was in a very complicated mood, and because his state of mind had not yet fully settled, his hand seal slipped slightly, and with a "hiss" the spiritual herb in the furnace was scorched a bit.

Red Dan Daoist hastily gathered his thoughts, steadied his mind, silently recited the Qinglian Observatory's secret mantra for subduing inner demons, and with full concentration began refining the Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill.

What caused the Yellowskin Daoist and other observing elders of the Qinglian Observatory to break down was that Wu Tie then dumped a heap of medicinal ingredients the size of a small hill, rolling it all into the Grand Dao furnace.

"This brat…… is really unreasonable." The Yellowskin Daoist's eyes twitched; Wu Tie's manner of refining pills truly made him barely able to endure.

Wu Tie placed both hands on the Grand Dao furnace; the Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill involves few complex hand seal variations, focusing instead on the most basic fire control and refinement techniques—essentially, when layering the medicinal power, the demand for the ratio and purity of each layer is extremely high.

It even reaches a level that could be called exacting—to put it in terms ordinary people can grasp, this pill's demand for precision in control reaches the molecular level.

Patterns on the surface of the Grand Dao furnace flickered, and Wu Tie's hands actually left the furnace, letting it run on its own.

He even turned around, wearing a kindly smile as he looked at Red Dan Daoist.

Red Dan Daoist sensed Wu Tie's malicious gaze, continued silently chanting the mantra, and with ever greater caution controlled the fire, refined the medicinal power, and drop by drop infused it into the already-formed medicinal qi vortex.

One rotation, two rotations, three rotations……

The medicinal qi vortex spins at extreme speed—dozens of turns in the snap of a finger. As the pill grows, the vortex's speed continues to increase.

Red Dan Daoist dared not be careless, he continued to control the vortex's spin…… one thousand turns…… two thousand turns…… five thousand turns……

Suddenly, Wu Tie burst into laughter, he slapped the Grand Dao furnace with a "hum," and a fist-sized pill, entirely azure-blue, with a layer of lively water mist spinning rapidly on its surface, forming hundreds of tiny vortices, shot out.

Red Dan Daoist jerked his head to look at the pill in Wu Tie's hand, then spat out another mouthful of blood.

In his furnace, that formed medicinal qi vortex had undergone only 127,800 layers of stacking, whereas Wu Tie had already refined a supreme-grade Canghai Thousand Revolutions Pill.

The tiny vortices on the pill's surface each represent 99,999 layers of stacking; hundreds of such vortices represent tens of millions of layers of medicinal power stacking…… what a terrifying attainment in pillcraft!

Red Dan Daoist asked himself, even with all his effort he could probably produce only a hundred water-mist vortices on the pill—that is his limit.

Yet Wu Tie, in such a short time, produced a pill that can be called terrifying and unreasonable—a supreme-grade pill.

A "ke-ke" sound echoed in his throat, and blood continually seeped from the corners of Red Dan Daoist's mouth.

He gave a bitter smile, smashed the remaining heap of herbs beside the furnace into powder with a palm, stood up, kicked the Shennong cauldron far away with a foot, and looked up to sigh: "Tens of thousands of years of bitter cultivation, not as good as your little child…… ha, ha, ha…… poor Daoist, I shall never speak of pillcraft again."

Transforming into a flame that shot skyward, Red Dan Daoist flew straight up to an altitude of tens of thousands of li, then turned and dove downward, howling as he crashed headfirst into a great mountain.

With a tremendous boom, the mountain shattered; the flame into which Red Dan Daoist had transformed remained intact, directly escaping into the observatory below, after which there was not a trace of sound.

"Red Dan Daoist, you admit defeat." Wu Tie rose, gave a slight smile to the stiff-faced Yellowskin Daoist: "Then this round, have I won? As for the Shennong cauldron, do you lot of the Qinglian Observatory still want it? If not, I'll just take it."

Beside the Yellowskin Daoist, a daoist whose face was slightly greenish, with a swirl of blue-black qi around his brow, turned into a gust of wind and rushed out, running to the Shennong cauldron kicked away by Red Dan Daoist, and carefully retrieved the cauldron.

"Junior Brother Qingguo, you don't need to compete in the next match." The Yellowskin Daoist gave Wu Tie a deep look.

Nine daoists have already lost two matches; Wu Tie's attainment in pillcraft…… cannot be called terrifying, only strange.

Perhaps it is all because of the Grand Dao furnace?

This damned furnace is likely the secret behind Wu Tie's effortless refinement of supreme-grade spiritual pills.

The Qinglian Observatory had originally prepared to have Daoist Qingguo and Wu Tie compare their proficiency in the Poison Dao, each poisoning the other and then detoxifying. But now, the Yellowskin Daoist's confidence in Daoist Qingguo has become somewhat lacking.

"Martial King, in this next match, let Junior Fellow Disciple Xuanguang compare the Way of Talismans with you." Huangpi Daoren smiled and said: "To be honest, I don't even believe it, Martial King—you could also display astonishing talent in the Way of Talismans, just like in the Elixir Way."

Wu Tie smiled and nodded, but said nothing.

Talismans are merely an imitation of the Dao patterns condensed from the Great Dao of heaven and earth—starting from the most basic Dao traces, forming Dao patterns, filling them with Dao resonance, infusing them with magical power, and binding them with sealing arts; when used, a slight stimulation of magical power makes them unleash their full might—this is the most basic mystery of the Way of Talismans.

The foundation of the Way of Talismans is the Dao patterns manifested from the Great Dao's laws.

Wu Tie cultivated the Primordial Scripture, fully comprehending the Three Thousand Great Dao and the Eighty-four Thousand Side Gates.

This Xuanguang Daoist, comparing the Way of Talismans with Wu Tie?

After just a quarter of an hour, Xuanguang Daoist spat blood and directly conceded defeat.

Huangpi Daoren's face twitched, and he had Xuanguang Daoist's junior fellow disciple, Xuangji Daoist, go up.

Xuangji Daoist was even worse than Xuanguang Daoist—within half a quarter of an hour, Wu Tie shattered with a single finger the extremely complex combined lightning talisman that Xuangji had just carved on the spot, leaving it completely destroyed.

Xuangji Daoist's body swayed; he gritted his teeth, so he didn't spit blood, but blood water sprayed from the corners of his eyes, nostrils, and ears.

"You've already lost four matches." Wu Tie smiled at the pallid Qinglian Daoists: "You nine people total—nine rounds; if I win five, that's a complete victory."

"So from now on, you cannot lose a single match—you must win them all!"

Huangpi Daoren stood stiff-faced in midair.

Qingguo Daoren's face twitched; he stepped forward, then retreated.

He wanted to fight, but feared he would lose as badly as Huangpi and Hongdan.

As Wu Tie said, he had won four in a row, and the nine Daoists of Qinglian Temple were already driven to desperation; the next match must be won, and then the remaining four must all be won as well.

Huangpi Daoren remained silent for a long, long time, until a fierce wind blew from the horizon, stirring his hair and robes.

He pointed to a Daoist with a gentle aura, surrounded by faintly visible myriad Dao flags: "Fengjia Shidi, this round is yours… you must give it your all."

Fengjia Daoist nodded slowly, then shot straight up into the sky: "Martial King, come—up here it's open and empty; I, the old Daoist, have set up a formation up high; if you can break my 'Ten Directions Illusory Annihilation' formation with the Way of Formations, you'll be mighty today."

The Six Desires Demon Lords laughed in unison: "Isn't that right? Defeating five Qinglian Daoists in a row, forcing them to eat dirt and roll away—something we brothers couldn't even do!"

The Six Desires Demon Lords laughed eerily, their voices wavering high and low, unpredictable, piercing straight into people's souls and hearts, stirring the seven emotions and six desires, arousing a thread of yin fire within, specially aimed at damaging the primordial spirit and essence blood—nothing could be more vicious.

Fengjia Daoist's face twitched slightly, and hundreds of formation flags around him burst forth, a great radiance enveloping his body, blocking out the Six Desires Demon Lords' laughter.

Wu Tie smiled and nodded: "Good, formations—I also know a bit about them."

So-called formations are merely a programmed use of the power of heaven and earth; for anything involving that power, at this moment Wu Tie actually finds no mystery at all.

After half an hour, countless illusory lights drifted down from the high sky.

Burning formation flags drifted down from the sky one after another, accompanied by the heart's blood that Fengjia Daoist spat out.

Several pallid Huangpi Daorens gazed at Fengjia Daoist; they stood blank in midair for a long time, then finally a whistle blew, turning into a fierce wind that swept down toward the Daoist temple below.

Not long after, that splendid Daoist temple below rose into the air, fluttering and swaying as it transformed into a scroll over a hundred zhang long, accompanied by a strong fragrance, flying straight eastward.

As the Daoist temple shot up into the sky, within Qinglian Temple azure long rainbows pierced the heavens, countless fierce sword qi swirled and danced in the air, transforming into countless azure sword lotuses a Chinese foot in diameter, spinning rapidly.

"You brat Wu Tie, hateful, hateful… how unreasonable, simply utterly without reason!"

"Good, good, good, very good… ha, we of Qinglian Temple will of course keep our promise; all disciples will return to the mountain gate, not meddling in the internal affairs of the Fire Dynasty."

"But those traitors who broke out back then—we can't control them anymore."