Chapter 147: Thunder-Light Python Dragon, Unintentional Mis-killing (Bonus for 4,000 monthly votes)

The Gold and Silver Boys stood on either side of the Supreme Eight-Scenery Furnace. Having consumed many of Qian Chen's spirit elixirs and divine metals, they could already transform into the size of gourds. One carried a red-skinned gourd on its back, while the other held a banana-leaf fan, earnestly watching the heat within the furnace.

This time, because there was no malevolent qi, Qian Chen adopted the method of Returning Elixir. He used hundreds of types of medicinal herbs to refine the First Returning Spirit Elixir, refining dozens of types of elixirs in a single furnace simultaneously. For each type of elixir, he took advantage of the opportunity of pill formation to extract a bit of essence and primordial qi, refining the few highest-quality spirit elixirs to serve as the "pill heads." Then, he used these to point-transform the various wind and thunder primordial qi that Qian Chen had refined, further refining the Second Returning Qi Elixir.

When the Second Returning Qi Elixir was refined, he continued to extract its essence. Using this refined qi elixir, whose quality was already approaching that of malevolent qi, he finally refined it into the lightning-essence electric snake, utilizing its spirituality to refine the Third Returning Elixir.

This process was equivalent to reversing the steps taken when refining the Ice Soul Primordial Elixir, constantly extracting essence from low-grade medicinal herbs to further refine higher-level spirit elixirs. The quantity of medicinal herbs required for this was relatively vast.

Although this did not affect the grade or medicinal properties of the spirit elixirs after they were formed, it meant that the medicinal herbs sufficient to refine thousands of spirit elixirs were consumed until, in the end, only hundreds of plant-based spirit elixirs, nearly a hundred primordial qi elixirs, and finally, a single Divine Ability Law Elixir could be refined.

Divine Ability Law Elixir—that was the name Qian Chen had chosen for this type of spirit elixir.

"Medicinal herbs for thousands of spirit elixirs! The pill tribulation for this will surely be heavy. If it weren't for the fact that I bought them and the karma was shared by eighty percent, I wouldn't dare to collect so many medicinal herbs myself."

Now, twenty-one days had passed, and the furnace had already spewed out a batch of elixirs once. Hundreds of medicinal herb elixirs rushed into the pagoda cover atop the furnace and were collected by the Gold and Silver Boys into their gourds. The Ear Dao God hypocritically went up to help, wanting to hide a few spirit elixirs, but was kicked and punched by the Gold and Silver Boys working in tandem, and was driven back.

Now, he sat on Qian Chen's shoulder, looking resentfully at the two boys busy at work.

He was preparing to find their faults and report them to Qian Chen.

But the Gold and Silver boys truly enjoyed helping with the refining; they were very satisfied just collecting the elixirs into the gourds to watch over them. They had absolutely no intention of tampering or embezzling, which left the Ear Dao God deeply disappointed.

Now, the Second Returning Qi Elixir was also about to be refined. The Jin Jin Yin Tongzi fanned Qian Chen, while the Gold Boy looked up at the furnace lid, waiting eagerly for the elixirs to emerge.

At this moment, a thunderous sound like a lightning strike erupted. Dozens of clusters of spiritual light rolled out of the tripod furnace, suppressed by the pagoda on the lid.

The Gold Boy gave a cheer and raised the gourd, emitting a light of ingestion that swept the dozens of spirit elixir clusters into it. Qian Chen glanced at it, feeling more and more that this sense of déjà vu was heavy. "Red gourd, banana-leaf fan, and the Sentient Sword within the Heaven-Luo San is also in the shape of a Seven-Star Sword... Add the Soul-Binding Rope at my waist, and all that's missing is a Jade Purifying Bottle!"

Qian Chen counted silently.

He pointed again at the Supreme Eight-Scenery Furnace. The eight trigrams rotated, drawing the dozens of most refined spirit elixirs into the lower pill chamber. Over a dozen types of lightning light, including thunder, lightning, storm, and electricity, flowed. Each one was the most refined thunder-primordial qi. If one such spirit elixir were fired out, its power would likely be no less than the Soundless Divine Thunder!

Such spirit elixirs were better described as thunder pellets, divine thunders, or thunder balls rather than spirit elixirs.

In the lowest pill chamber lurked a lightning-essence electric snake. Its essence was not high, and the quality of its primordial qi was not strong; Qian Chen had only taken a fancy to the rare bit of spirituality it had nurtured.

Using the lightning-essence electric snake as the main ingredient, dozens of refined qi elixirs rotated. Some point-transformed its spirituality, some turned into thunder-light to temper its body, and some combined with thunder to form a sea of electric plasma, wrapping the lightning-essence electric snake and gradually refining it into a round mass. The lightning-essence electric snake coiled within the fetal membrane as if gestating in a snake egg, its essence gradually being replaced.

It was refined into a point of Innate Thunder-Light.

Next, one only needed to grind away its spiritual self to turn it into the spirituality of a spirit elixir, and this Divine Ability Law Elixir would be refined.

Qian Chen followed the method of Heavenly Thunder to refine that point of Innate Thunder-Light, gradually refining it into the shape of a python dragon with brows and eyes. The thunder traversing the sky, winding like a dragon, already possessed a dragon nature. Seeing this change, Qian Chen did not know if it was good or bad.

He simulated the changes of yin and yang within the furnace, the process of generating heavenly thunder, and gradually comprehended many wonders of the Heavenly Thunder Method. According to his thoughts, after this Innate Thunder-Light was refined by him, it should split his entire body's magic power, turning it into yin and yang qi, and then recombine it to refine it into a thunder-method divine ability.

But the spirituality within that point of Innate Thunder-Light was too strong; he found it somewhat difficult to grind away.

For the first time, Qian Chen felt that re-deriving a new pill formula was actually this difficult. After all, refining pills was like creation; trying to grasp the various mysteries within creation was truly too difficult. Even the ancestor of alchemy, the Supreme One, had refined a monkey with great divine abilities, hadn't he? Although Qian Chen still didn't know if he had done it on purpose.

Moreover, after the spirit elixirs emerged twice, Qian Chen felt that the mechanism of heavenly thunder was echoing the elixirs that had emerged, gestating a thunder mechanism above his head.

In these few days, dark clouds had gradually gathered. It was likely that the impending pill tribulation would descend as a lightning tribulation... Such a commotion would inevitably be great, and it might even trigger some unpredictable external tribulations.

While Qian Chen was refining the Third Returning Spirit Elixir, two monsters over there had already deceived the outer seals of the Wuling Immortal Gate and were quietly sneaking into the Great Spirit Peak.

This place was, after all, only the edge of the Wuling Immortal Gate's mountain gate, an outer spirit peak, and the seals were not very tight.

One of these two monsters had the head of a deer and the eyes of a rat, with a wretched appearance; it was a mutant rat demon with a natural sensing ability, known as the Treasure-Seeking Rat.

If it weren't for this, the Xin family wouldn't have valued it so much and had been secretly recruiting it all along.

But such natural mutants were the most greedy. Influenced by their innate divine abilities, they wanted to steal or snatch every treasure they saw; a rat's nature was hard to change. Its companion was a toad essence with a fat neck and bulging eyes, speaking in a muffled voice: "Shu Laibao, is the information you gathered true? If we sneak into the Wuling Immortal Gate to commit crimes and get caught, I'm afraid the person who wants to recruit you won't be able to protect us!"

"Who has the patience to rely on those humans? They want to recruit me just to use my innate divine ability to find treasures and wealth for them! Seeing treasures but not being able to get them—my heart feels like it's been dug out; how painful that is. Asking me to find treasures for others is worse than killing me! I'm just humoring them... According to my informants, this person has almost bought half of the Wuling Market; he's a big fat sheep. If we can beat him, we rob him; if we can't, we steal... Otherwise, why would I bring you here?"

"Once this job is done, we'll flee overseas... That's where we can be carefree."

"The atmosphere overseas is free, but without money, it's absolutely impossible. If we don't pull off this job, we won't do well overseas!"

The rat-headed monster chuckled, an indescribable slipperiness in its tone. The toad monster's neck bulged twice, a fierce light flashing in its eyes as it stared tightly at the corner where the courtyard Qian Chen was staying in was located. One had a divine ability to find treasures and people, the other was good at lurking and launching surprise attacks; they lived the lives of great bandits, which was quite happy and carefree.

As long as they acted cleanly, they didn't fear those who cut down demons and eliminated devils.

And even if there were those with high divine abilities, seeing the rare bloodline of the Treasure-Seeking Rat, most would likely have the heart to subdue it. By then, it wouldn't be difficult for the Treasure-Seeking Rat to feign consideration and secretly escape.

The Treasure-Seeking Rat Shu Laibao's mung-bean-sized eyes stared fixedly at the direction where Qian Chen was. The sensing in its heart was incomparably intense. It said with a trembling voice: "It didn't lie to us... It really didn't lie to us! There is an incomparably powerful spiritual mechanism in that place; it is definitely a rare treasure!"

The toad monster said with some worry: "The owner of such a treasure is likely not weak either... We might not be their match!"

"Relying on our innate divine abilities, I will drill through the seal, you swallow the treasure, and then we'll fly away. With the treasure in your belly, its spiritual mechanism will be isolated, and it will be hard for anyone to find us!" The Treasure-Seeking Rat said greedily: "If this job is done, it will be worth it no matter what!... The treasure's spiritual mechanism is still changing, it seems to be getting more and more powerful... What on earth is this thing?"

The two monsters restrained their spiritual mechanisms and approached cautiously.

The spiritual mechanism of the primordial elixir in Qian Chen's furnace was becoming increasingly powerful, beginning to connect with the thunder mechanism gestating within the heavens and earth. Qian Chen had already calculated that this elixir could not be perfected without the tempering of a lightning tribulation, so he prepared to release the seals and let it bathe in the lightning tribulation. With the help of the Supreme Eight-Scenery Furnace, the probability of surviving the lightning tribulation was very high.

The Ear Dao God gripped Qian Chen's shoulder tightly, his eyes looking at the furnace with some terror.

The Gold and Silver Boys were full of anticipation and were not very afraid of that terrifying spiritual mechanism. At this time, dark clouds had already gathered over the Great Spirit Peak, gestating a powerful thunder mechanism. Cultivators in various caves were somewhat confused; when they divined the heavenly secrets, they hadn't calculated that there would be a great thunderstorm today?

The Bronze Sparrow Tile-End that Qian Chen had placed outside the pill chamber began to chant the sparrow sound...

The two monsters stared at the thunder mechanism above their heads with great apprehension and began to quietly ambush near Qian Chen's cave to observe. At this moment... Qian Chen suddenly opened his eyes. The pagoda cover on the tripod furnace opened suddenly, and a thunderclap resounded through the Wuling Mountain Range. Rolling thunder poured down, and in the horrified eyes of the two monsters, it struck toward the pill chamber where Qian Chen was located.

A Heaven-Luo San appeared silently above the cave, and the unfolded clear light enveloped the entire cave. The thunder slid past that layer of clear light, blasting the surrounding mud and rocks into the air. The mountain stream was blasted into a large pit by the thunder fire. Under the ravages of the thunder, the two monsters fled with their heads in their hands, scared out of their wits.

A bolt of electric light shot out from the tripod furnace and rushed into the sea of thunder above.

Cultivators within a radius of hundreds of miles could clearly see a single-horned python dragon bathing in lightning light, spitting out infinite electric rays. The spiritual mechanism was sharp and fierce, making people shudder.

Qian Chen stared blankly at the single-horned python dragon rolling on the thunder clouds, with ten thousand things he wanted to complain about in his heart.

After the single-horned python dragon refined the endless thunder, the thunder-light condensed, finally completing its own spiritual mechanism. Seeing the infinitely powerful thunder-light, the Treasure-Seeking Rat could no longer restrain its own nature, even surpassing its fear of thunder. It transformed into its original form, a rat the size of a yellow ox, and opened its mouth to swallow the python dragon in the sky.

The toad essence gave a miserable cry: "Don't!"

But it still couldn't stop Shu Laibao. At this moment, the Thunder-Light Python Dragon seemed to sense that demonic qi. The python dragon opened its eyes, transformed into a bolt of electric light, and flashed past in an instant. The Treasure-Seeking Rat was pierced by the electric light, and in an instant, countless thunders flashed, turning it into charcoal. The toad essence, which was crying out, did not escape either and was immediately blasted to death by the thunder-light.

Its body uniformly turned to ash amidst the electric light.

Qian Chen walked out of the cave dwelling, frowning as he said: "How is this a spirit pill? What kind of magic treasure have I refined? A thunder essence? This thunder-attribute spirit is not quite a spirit, the pill is not quite a pill, and the magic treasure lacks any seals. Refining this object can indeed grant mastery over thunder-method divine abilities, but this thunder-method divine ability takes the form of an electric-light dragon, yet it is nine-tenths like a magic treasure... What kind of bizarre thing is this?"

"It seems I also accidentally injured something? Is it a monster? Does the Wuling Immortal Gate even accept monsters?"

"I accidentally killed a monster raised by someone else... I'm afraid I'll have to pay compensation again! What a sin! You say this spirit pill's external tribulation came looking for me, so why did you all come to join in the fun? Didn't you just block the tribulation for me?"

Qian Chen shook his head and sighed. Following the energy of that thunder light, he retracted his hand, and a chain-like radiance shot out like lightning from the pit where the toad spirit had perished. Resembling a thunder snake and an electric cable, it plunged into Qian Chen's sleeve.

Slightly connecting with its aura, he refined that streak of thunder light. Since it was created by his own transformation, refining it was easy, and he quickly turned it into a pale yellow rope. It could be unfurled at any time to transform into an electric cable to hook a person, and then the thunder would erupt along the cable; anyone hooked would likely be refined on the spot.

"The killing intent is very heavy!" Qian Chen was somewhat bewildered: "What kind of spirit pill is this?"

"Why is it different from what I imagined?"