Chapter 21: Refining the Forbidden Egg

"Done!"

"But this process, why does it feel like ordering takeout?"

Li Yu sat cross-legged on the bed, holding the mechanical fox with its excellent texture, stroking it back and forth involuntarily while muttering to himself.

It was no wonder he thought this way; initiating a trade, the other party preparing, and arriving after a certain amount of time—as a veteran takeout enthusiast in his past life, Li Yu was all too familiar with this routine.

And this so-called "contactless trade" was just another way of saying "leave the takeout at the door."

What brought him great relief was that the salesman who accepted the bounty was not Meng Shenji.

Half an incense stick of time passed in a flash.

In the Jiao family courtyard, Li Yu and Hongdou, who had returned to her human form, were silently waiting for something.

Suddenly, both of them sensed something, and the door was knocked upon at that very moment. A rather sleazy, hoarse voice squeezed through the door crack and reached their ears.

"I... am Shi Dazhu!"

"The Fire Essence and the basic-model alchemy furnace are here. Do you want to inspect the goods?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yu nodded at Hongdou, and the maid immediately threw a heavy cloth bag from her arms through the doorway.

With a dull thud, the bag containing nearly a thousand taels of silver landed in someone's hands.

The short, fat shadow weighed it, smiled with satisfaction, and amidst a dense sound of hissing steam, the person rode off on some strange mechanical mount, disappearing into the night.

Before long, the Jiao family gate swung open.

Hongdou’s figure darted out, and with a massive strength that completely belied her delicate, maidenly appearance, she hugged a giant package and carried it into the courtyard.

The next morning, in a smoke-vapor house on the main street of the Heavenly Mystery Workshop—the most remote one, yet one that still had an endless stream of customers.

A clerk, thin as a rail, was placing items such as cinnabar, mica, saltpeter, hematite, and gypsum one by one into an exquisitely crafted wooden box, adding some strange pipes, glass tubes, and red copper lamps.

At the same time, his mouth didn't stop, half-introducing and half-pitching:

"These are all top-tier ores, pure as can be. As long as you use our 'Vaporization Set,' you can turn them into pure smoke-vapor to refine your flesh and organs, experiencing the most wonderful sensation in the world. That is exactly how the Qi-refiners of the ancient era cultivated."

"But your master certainly has heavy tastes; he picked all the potent medicines."

"Of course, it's still not potent enough."

"I have plenty of even more potent goods here. Have your master come over to experience them himself another day; I guarantee it will make him feel like he's in heaven, hehe."

"Many thanks!"

Fully armed and covered tightly, Hongdou frowned slightly upon hearing these words from the clerk, then paid, took the items, and turned to leave without a hint of hesitation.

If it were the previous Hongdou!

She would actually have been unable to perform the task of going out to buy things.

Now, not only could she do it, but she could even show a trace of disgust toward the clerk who tried to lure her master into depravity.

She was seen carrying the wooden box, walking through the bustling main street, cleverly avoiding the gazes of all the neighbors, entering a dilapidated alley, and leaping fiercely over a wall.

When she landed again, she was already in the elegant and eerie Jiao family courtyard.

The storage room that served as a mysterious trading place last night now had its doors wide open.

The hardwood round table and official-hat chairs had been removed, replaced by an alchemy furnace two meters tall, made of bronze, and equipped with a complex steam boiler and instrument panels.

Li Yu was standing in front of the furnace, performing tests and familiarizing himself with it.

It was unclear what he had suffered early in the morning; as he moved, he kept clutching his abdomen.

His brows were tightly furrowed, and a look of pain occasionally appeared on his face.

Seeing his maid return, there was still little joy in Li Yu’s eyes, the reason being the horrific song that kept echoing and resounding in his ears.

The Song of the Food-Person!

That’s right, even though Li Yu had not borrowed the power of the Food-Person.

Since last night, the related symptoms had appeared, and they were constantly intensifying.

At the same time, the Forbidden Egg that should have been sleeping in his belly seemed to be waking up, and the millions of egg-filaments inside his body were constantly writhing.

Every breath, his sensations were different.

In addition to the vivid scenes of cannibalism that came with the Song of the Food-Person in his mind.

His ears could hear all sorts of subtle sounds in the surroundings, including the bed movements of the neighbors next door; his eyes could see all kinds of horrific and disgusting microorganisms in the air; his hands could feel the pain of tiny burrs scraping his skin when touching the alchemy furnace... his five senses were being crazily amplified.

Ordinary people encountering such "torture" would either become addicted or go straight insane.

Li Yu, however, gritted his teeth, clutched a yellow-skinned gourd, and frantically poured Spirit-Locking Pills with a faint stench into his mouth.

The pills that had decent effects at the gathering now had a negligible numbing effect on the spirituality of the Forbidden Egg.

At this moment, Li Yu realized: the last chance to borrow the power of the Food-Person was gone; the Forbidden Egg and he were already considered one, and it had an instinctive perception of its own impending doom.

But this did not stop Li Yu from opening his mouth, mocking and cursing:

"You piece of shit finally realized something was wrong... too bad it's too late."

"Hongdou!"

"Yes, Master." In response, Hongdou was already standing by Li Yu’s side, opening the wooden box to reveal the thirty-six types of highly toxic minerals placed in categories.

"Open the furnace!"

Following Li Yu’s low shout, the lid of the alchemy furnace in front of him was slammed open.

Apparently, he had already preheated it; in an instant, fiery red steam gushed out from various pipes, and at the same time, Li Yu took an object from his arms.

It was a strange and eerie sphere, as if forcibly fused together from individual scarlet eyeballs, with red root-like things extending from the gaps, and its surface was mottled, like a shrunken, extinguished sun.

The touch was ice-cold, but Li Yu clearly felt a scorching spirituality.

Without hesitation, he loosened his hands, and this strange object called "Fire Essence" was thrown into the alchemy furnace, which had been heated to the extreme.

The next breath!

A shrill screech, as if a living creature were suffering, resounded through the storage room.

The Fire Essence, which had been an ore, seemed to truly come alive, writhing with the flames, and emitting roars from its gaps and holes that made one's eardrums ache.

Li Yu’s enhanced ears were directly perforated and rendered useless.

=9+Shu_ba

But he seemed not to feel the pain, and with extreme calmness, he tossed the various highly toxic minerals onto the body of the now-living Fire Essence.

"True Lead!"

"Cinnabar!"

"Mica!"

Even though he was in unbearable pain, his hand movements and the order of operations never had the slightest confusion.

With the addition and calcination, astonishing changes were taking place inside the alchemy furnace.

The swaying and writhing "Fire Essence" did not refuse anything, regardless of the size of the toxic minerals, swallowing them all into its belly.

During this process, it began to condense, changing toward the shape of a pill.

Waves of intensely concentrated, special fragrance began to drift out from the alchemy furnace.

Just one whiff was enough to make one's essence, energy, and spirit erupt completely.

"Secret Medicine of the Pill Disciple!"

Just as joy appeared on Li Yu’s face, his maid suddenly issued a strong warning.

"Detected that the Secret Medicine of the Pill Disciple being refined by the Master is about to take form... there is a certain probability of escape..."

"Detected that the Master’s body is deteriorating rapidly... the parasite has completely awakened... it is about to break out of the abdomen..."

"Bang!"

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

A horrific scene appeared without warning.

Li Yu’s belly burst open.

But there were no organs or intestines inside, only a bloody ball of flesh, its surface bearing a face exactly identical to Li Yu’s. It was pulling the millions of egg-filaments out of Li Yu’s body, while tentacles began to grow from beneath the flesh ball, attempting to crawl out of Li Yu’s body.

Some of the egg-filaments and tentacles, still coated in mucus and blood, had already fallen to the ground.

This scene looked exactly like childbirth, only far more disgusting and terrifying.

Almost simultaneously, a dull thud came from inside the alchemy furnace, and a red dot, like the radiance of a setting sun, was about to break free from the furnace and fly away into the distance.

Two abrupt and terrifying incidents occurred almost at the same time.

Yet Li Yu, at this moment, seemed to completely ignore the pain, completely possessed.

From the moment he started preparing the "Secret Medicine of the Pill Disciple," he had entered a state of abnormal focus that even he himself had not noticed.

At this moment, he ignored his shattered belly, his hands reaching out fiercely to grab the already-refined Secret Medicine of the Pill Disciple.

Accompanied by the loud "hissing" sounds, his palms were directly roasted, but he ignored it entirely, stuffing the pill directly into his mouth.

He crunched and swallowed it, then his free hands reached down and forcibly stuffed the underdeveloped but extremely ferocious Forbidden Egg back into his own abdomen.

During the process, the Forbidden Egg actually emitted strange cries like those of an infant in pain, enough to make anyone involuntarily feel pity.

However, this did not include Li Yu, who had already gone mad.

He was seen not only stuffing it back but also pressing down hard on that face identical to his own, laughing wildly:

"What are you screaming for? Today, either you help me attain the Dao, or we perish together."

Amidst the maniacal laughter, Li Yu climbed directly into the red-hot alchemy furnace.

Before falling into the inner chamber of the furnace, he did not forget to turn his head and instruct his maid:

"Hongdou!"

"Start refining!"

(End of chapter)