Chapter 157: Chapter Twenty-Four: Heavenly Demon Steals the Elixir

Using a single furnace to contain the entire earth cavity's magnetic true qi, without other means, is like talking nonsense. I, with my primordial spirit cultivation, could manage it easily—but now that I haven't yet formed a golden core, attempting to draw forth the magnetic true qi's transformations demands careful consideration!

Brother Qian Chen gathered the spiritual radiance of the Heaven-Roving Umbrella above his head and slowly pushed forward the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace.

He sat cross-legged atop the magnetic peak, where torrents of thunder grew ever fiercer above him, as if countless green-purple dragons coiled and writhed.

Crack!

A deafening boom—a violet lightning bolt struck the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace; the scattered lightning rays were blocked by the Heaven-Roving Umbrella's spiritual light.

Refining elixirs here, beneath this surging thunder, was also a trial for Brother Qian Chen.

Brother Qian Chen drew the thunder's essence into the furnace; as lightning surged within the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace, fine lightning rays shot out from its nine apertures, and the surrounding magnetic true qi gradually flowed into the elixir furnace.

Brother Qian Chen flipped his hand and cast in numerous spirit herbs—those required by the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir formula.

When a cultivator forms a golden core, they resonate with heaven and earth; inner and outer scenes manifest spontaneously, naturally triggering vast changes in spiritual energy.

This is the principle: when fortune arrives, heaven and earth lend their strength.

If a cultivator were to form a golden core here, they would naturally trigger massive shifts in the earth cavity's magnetic qi—succeeding, they could harness this magnetic true qi to form their core; failing, they'd be struck dead by the magnetic qi's summoned thunder, or have their flesh and spirit worn away to nothing by the magnetic qi.

But Brother Qian Chen was not forming a golden core—he could not trigger the resonance with heaven and earth, and thus struggled to mobilize the magnetic true qi within the earth cavity.

So Brother Qian Chen resolved to employ the Ninefold Elixir Method: using the external scene of the elixir's completion to provoke heaven and earth's resonance and the magnetic true qi's transformations. He would leverage the external scene generated during elixir refinement to slowly pry open the entire earth cavity's magnetic true qi, ultimately harvesting all the transformative power of this place to forge a grade-one primordial elixir.

The first elixir Brother Qian Chen planned to refine was a simplified version of the Five Thunder Elixir: the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir he had previously succeeded in refining.

As soon as the spirit herbs entered the furnace, before Brother Qian Chen activated the Qianyuan Taiyin Zhenhuo, dozens of herbs—due to their internal thunder-affiliated qi—triggered the furnace's lightning. The lightning flashed, reducing the herbs to ash. The first step faltered, but Brother Qian Chen was not worried; he merely replenished the spirit herbs for the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir.

This chaotic lightning was largely intentional—unless he familiarized himself with the method of combining fire and thunder during the first transformation, adapting to this environment and absorbing experience, he might initially succeed through sheer skill—but what of the Five Thunder Elixirs after? Or even the grade-one primordial elixir? How would he control them?

Thus, in the first transformation, Brother Qian Chen deliberately increased the difficulty by inviting violent thunder into the process.

Using thunder essence to refine the spirit herbs.

But the second batch of herbs also suffered damage when Brother Qian Chen activated Qianyuan Taiyin Zhenhuo to refine their properties—the lightning disrupted the integration of their essences. Brother Qian Chen replenished the herbs again and continued refining…

Qianyuan Taiyin Zhenhuo transformed into a flame dragon, which Brother Qian Chen guided to harness the thunder, drawing the violet lightning into its body; the fire's hue shifted to interwoven green and violet.

After absorbing heavenly thunder, the Qianyuan Taiyin Zhenhuo grew restless. Brother Qian Chen transformed the Primordial One Qi Supreme Clarity Talisman into chains, binding the agitated flame dragon. Just as he had tamed the Great Earth Fire, he let the Qianyuan Taiyin Zhenhuo devour the thunder's power, then re-tame the flame dragon itself—thus using fire to control thunder, and man to control fire, he could claim the thunder as his own.

The true fire dragon exhaled a thread of flame interwoven with lightning, each violet lightning thread refining the herbs' essences.

"Using fire to control thunder, using man to control fire—I learned this from the demonic path's root principle: using demon to control demon, and from mastering the earth's lung fire. If I could still use the White Bone Stupa to control heavenly thunder and true fire, it might be even simpler. Such violent fire and thunder, used to refine fragile elixirs and blend their essences, is far harder than refining metal to forge magic treasures!"

Yet Brother Qian Chen felt no fear. Having refined spirit elixirs multiple times, controlled the Great Fire, and even forged the grade-two Guanghan Ice Soul Elixir, Brother Qian Chen now stood at a high enough height on the elixir path. He harbored a thought that might sound absurd—but it was his greatest ambition: to cultivate his own body, the Supreme Dao Dust Pearl, into an internal elixir.

If this idea truly succeeded,

Brother Qian Chen would use this physical body as a crucible, refining within the Supreme Dao Dust Pearl a dantian within a dantian.

His elixir art would then fully break free from the confines of the Supreme Elixir Scripture, truly forging a new path—worthy of the title Grand Master of Elixir Art.

After all, refining a golden core inside a divine treasure.

Such a concept, if not unprecedented in history, was certainly something no one had ever conceived.

"Isn't this just the Ninefold Jin Dan? To refine a grade-one primordial elixir requires only three transformations! I absolutely can do it!" Brother Qian Chen's confidence surged—he felt as if the Ninefold Jin Dan was not the pinnacle of elixir art, not some forbidden technique even the Dourou Palace's Supreme Dao heirs struggled to forge.

The violent fire and thunder had been refined by Brother Qian Chen into something as gentle as flowing water, swirling around the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir in the furnace.

At this moment, the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir within the furnace finally began to stir an external scene, drawing forth the thunder's mechanism.

Outside, such a thunder mechanism would merely begin to lie dormant, only barely sprouting when the elixir emerged—producing a small, insignificant lightning bolt that wouldn't even stir a hair on the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace. But here, that single spark drew in the thunder's power from ten li around.

A li away from the magnetic peak, the Xin sisters, guided by the Gold-Silver Children, were catching fleeting magnetic stones in the void.

Sister Xin Thirteen raised her hand, releasing waves of pink peach-spirit miasma to block occasional passing magnetic stones. In this earth cavity's void, countless metals had been swallowed and exhaled by the earth veins, then refined by thunder and magnetic qi into strange metals. These magnetic stones accelerated within the magnetic field; when too close to a large magnetic mountain, they were captured and absorbed into it.

If a magnetic mountain's pull failed to catch the flying metals, they would slightly slow, break free, and continue drifting through the void.

But some metals reached a balance between the mountain's attraction and the centrifugal force of their orbit—thus they circled the magnetic mountain.

The Gold-Silver Children had led the Xin sisters toward just such a small meteor belt.

The Xin sisters used peach-spirit miasma to slightly impede the flying stones' speed, then the Gold-Silver Children seized the chance to hurl the Azure-Yellow Yellow Ruyi, wrapping the stones in spiritual light and retrieving several pieces of magnetic strange metal.

The spoils were split eight to two: eight for the Gold-Silver Children, two for the Xin sisters.

These two little foxes had tried resisting before—but the Gold-Silver Children's temper was stubborn, unmoved by their beauty; after several failed rebellions, they had resigned themselves. Now, treated as laborers by the Gold-Silver Children, their peach miasma and brocade scarves were riddled with holes from the flying magnetic meteorites. Their palm-sized lanterns were scarred from constant impacts.

Yet the Xin sisters remained cheerfully tireless—for the captured strange-metal meteors were incredibly valuable!

At this moment, the Xin sisters noticed distant thunder suddenly transforming into countless serpentine dragons, surging toward them. They shrieked, nearly clinging together—then saw the thunder sweep past them, ignoring them entirely, rushing back toward the magnetic peak.

Ten thousand threads of green, violet, silver, and gold lightning surged together toward the peak's summit.

Infinite thunder mechanisms surged, coalescing into nine thunder dragons, diving toward the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace.

Brother Qian Chen, merely brushed by a stray lightning ray, saw the pure light hanging from his Heaven-Roving Umbrella ripple faintly. Yet the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace stood unmoved amid the lightning—Brother Qian Chen couldn't help but marvel at the worth of these thirty moral flowers; had the furnace been of inferior quality, it would never have survived to the second transformation.

The nine thunder dragons plunged into the furnace, resonating with the thunder mechanism nurtured by the Inner Vision Thunder Elixir, opening their jaws to devour it.

Brother Qian Chen fought desperately, coiling the Qianyuan True Thunder Flame Dragon around the hundreds of spirit elixirs, battling the nine thunder dragons as scales flew—yet still, some elixirs were destroyed under the thunder dragons' lightning. Sometimes the dragons had already clamped an elixir in their jaws, only for Brother Qian Chen to trigger its self-explosion.

In the end, three-quarters of the elixirs turned to charcoal; the most refined essence of the destroyed elixirs merged into the remaining ones, while most of the energy exploded into thunder orbs atop the nine dragons.

Seizing this chance, the Qianyuan True Thunder Flame Dragon bit down on the seventh scale of one thunder dragon's neck, seized four others with its claws, and despite its own body riddled with wounds from the other dragons, devoured one thunder dragon whole—its aura surged back to full strength. Under Brother Qian Chen's manipulation of the flame dragon's nasal ring, after hundreds of grueling rounds, the nine thunder dragons were finally slain one by one.

The thunder's essence scattered within the furnace, absorbed by each spirit elixir.

Having absorbed the refined essence of the destroyed elixirs and devoured the thunder's essence,

The remaining ninety-odd elixirs each dimmed their lightning, brimming with spiritual energy—not inferior to Brother Qian Chen's finest qi elixirs—and their spiritual radiance slowly grew, each now able to inhale thunder essence and magnetic true miasma, drawing forth the earth cavity's magnetic true qi to thicken their essence.

As the nine thunder dragons were refined, the Qianyuan True Thunder Flame Dragon's power surged wildly, becoming restless.

Brother Qian Chen continuously cast chains of magic power, beginning once more to suppress and tame the true fire.

Under the agitation of the Qianyuan Heavenly Thunder Taiyin Zhenhuo, dozens more Inner Vision Thunder Elixirs were destroyed; the flame dragon, formed from the Qianyuan Heavenly Thunder Taiyin Zhenhuo, sought to devour the elixirs—but Brother Qian Chen held it fast, even resorting to the Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace's spiritual light to suppress the Qianyuan True Thunder Flame Dragon.

Another half of the elixirs were destroyed, leaving only about twenty-four Inner Vision Thunder Elixirs, which had absorbed the refined essence of all others.

Brother Qian Chen began the most arduous refining journey of his life—each slightest mistake would destroy one or several elixirs. He had to deploy every technique just to survive until the elixir's gestation. Previously, his refining had always gone smoothly; every problem fell within the scope of the Supreme Elixir Scripture—he had never truly felt the hardship of elixir art. Now, for the first time, he understood the agony experienced by masters like Ge Hong.

The thunder within dozens of li had been drawn in one wave; all surrounding magnetic thunder mechanisms were exhausted—any further nascent mechanisms were now reserved for Brother Qian Chen's tribulation.

The moment Gu Gu Shiye, Tao Young Master, the Xin sisters, and others had awaited had finally arrived.

The Gold-Silver Children urged the Xin sisters to carry them farther away—they had chosen a magnetic peak over ten li distant, two zhang tall. Though dwarfed by Brother Qian Chen's two-hundred-zhang peak, it was still sufficient for the two little demons to accumulate a decent stash of snacks.

Meanwhile, Tao Young Master, following Ear God, had gathered many things he didn't understand—such as a flying stone containing two tender sprouts, glowing faintly with electric sparks. Ear God took this away, giving him only the broken stone.

He also collected a pool of condensed thunder-water into the Dragon-Phoenix Ring.

Tao Young Master could only grasp a handful of damp, glistening sand.

Gu Gu Shiye headed toward the two-yin-two-yang magnetic qi he sensed—passing countless opportunities without pause…

Finally, the gestation stage arrived. Nine Inner Vision Thunder Elixirs pulsed with astonishing vitality, like living beings inhaling and exhaling lightning and magnetic qi. Brother Qian Chen exhaled in relief, pulling out a Pure Yang Elixir to replenish his true energy and magic power—he had felt this shortage for the first time… But at that very moment, three demonic heads silently pierced through the magnetic thunder sea, descending from the void into the furnace.

The Supreme Eight Scenery Furnace barely managed to suppress one demonic head before two others possessed the elixirs, hiding within their spiritual essence as they gestated.

Instantly, the nine elixirs erupted, beginning to devour each other's spiritual energy and essence.

Brother Qian Chen knew this was the external tribulation of "Heavenly Demon Stealing the Elixir." He hadn't expected demonic heads to descend even here, in the magnetic thunder sea… One could only say demonic paths were truly omnipresent, their methods extraordinary. If those two possessed elixirs devoured the others' transformative power, Brother Qian Chen's entire batch would become a gift to the demons—eventually birthing a mighty Thunder Demon.

"My avatar is the Supreme Heavenly Demon! My heart-mind can slay infinite demonic natures! I am called the Eternal Demon Tribulation! You petty demons dare steal my elixirs… You seek your own death!" Brother Qian Chen roared in fury!

He carefully discerned the spiritual essence of each elixir, seeking the ones harboring demonic heads.

But in that brief moment, seven of the nine elixirs had devoured the other two, and one more teetered on the brink.

If he did not refine the demons before this,

Brother Qian Chen's first transformation would be a total failure!