Renegade Immortal

Chapter 223 – Opening the Pill Seal

The origin of the Cloud Sky Sect’s seven Heaven Stealing Pilling Furnace was very mysterious. Rumor has it that the founder of the sect created nine of them. They were sealed under the Cloud Sky Sect’s mountain, waiting for disciples that could summon them.

But no matter how strong the founder was, he was still not even at the Spirit Severing stage due to the rank of the country, so even if there was some power within the pill furnaces, no one really bothered to steal them.

But the power of the Heaven Stealing Pill Furnace was great, so using the words “heaven stealing” wasn’t exactly wrong.

In the ancient records of the Cloud Sky Sect, these nine Heaven Stealing Pill Furnace were all fakes. The founder of the Cloud Sky Sect once saw the original furnace and memorized the design, then forged the pill furnace from his memories.

The reason why it was nine pill furnaces was because the founder’s cultivation level wasn’t high enough to make one pill furnace containing all of the things he had memorized, so he had to make nine pill furnaces to contain them all.

As a result, the nine Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces were created.

There was another mysterious aspect of the Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces: they couldn’t leave the Cloud Sky Sect’s mountain range. The moment they leave the mountain range, they will turn into scrap metal. This phenomenon has caused some higher rank cultivation countries to come investigate, but they found nothing. However, because of this, they gave up on the idea of stealing them and supported the Cloud Sky Sect instead.

Therefore, the Cloud Sky Sect was able to develop quickly and became the number one sect in the country of Chu.

Li Muwan had a serious expression on her face as she stared at the gas spat out by the seven dragons on the pill furnace. She whispered, “To open the pill seal, we need spiritual energy and the right time of day. We must borrow spiritual power from the seven Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces when they are in use.”

Wang Lin’s expression was calm. He stood next to Li Muwan and watched the pill furnace. He whispered, “Does the Cloud Sky Sect always make a pill once a month?”

Li Muwan gently nodded. She said, with a gentle voice, “Yes. The Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces can only be used at a certain time of day once a month to get the maximum effect. Only elders of the Cloud Sky Sect have the privilege to use them. Some rare pills require the Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces to make.”

Wang Lin slightly nodded. He pointed at the pill furnace with seven dragon heads before them and asked, “Is this also a Heaven Stealing Pill Furnace?”

Li Muwan revealed a proud smile and charmingly said, “This furnace is not a Heaven Stealing Pill Furnace, but the effect is about the same. This pill furnace was secretly made by Wan Er after studying the Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces for all these years. This was originally my ace against the Cloud Sky Sect if they ever decided to act against me. If they do, then Wan Er will use this pill furnace to affect the seven pill furnaces during a pill refining and turn them to dust. This will also release all of the spiritual energy in the pill furnaces, causing all of the Nascent Soul cultivators to be too busy trying to repair the pill furnaces to chase me. After all, these pill furnaces are everything to them.”

Wang Lin grinned. He nodded and no longer spoke as he stared at the pill furnace. After a long time, he suddenly asked, “You just said that above here are the seven Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces. Are there thousands of years of spiritual energy stored inside of them?”

Li Muwan was startled. She said, “That is true. There are thousands of years of spiritual energy in those pill furnaces. There could only be more and not less because these pill furnaces have been used to refine pills for thousands of years. After each pill is made, some spiritual energy will remain inside the furnace.”

Wang Lin’s eyes suddenly brightened. He circled the seven dragon head pill furnace. He then gently touched it. It let out a crisp sound.

He didn’t turn his head and asked, “Can you steal the spiritual energy from the Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces above us with this pill furnace?”

Li Muwan’s eyes widened as she realize what Wang Lin meant and asked, “You want to cultivate in this pill furnace?”

Wang Lin turned around. He smiled at Li Muwan and said, “Yes. If I were to cultivate in this pill furnace, it would be every effective. However, it wouldn’t be with this avatar body, but my main body.”

Li Muwan’s expression became strange. Just as she was about to speak, the amount of purple gas coming out of the dragon heads suddenly increased. Large amount of gas floated up, forming a dark cloud above the pill furnace.

Inside the dark cloud was the pill furnace with the pill seal on it. The furnace glowed red and the pill seal started to flutter up and down.

At that moment, on the ground above this chamber, the elders of the Cloud Sky Sect were staring at the sky, calculating the time of day.

These elders were all master alchemists of the Cloud Sky Sect and one of them was one of the three rank 5 alchemists, Ouyang Zi.

Ouyang Zi was originally the disciple of the inner sect’s sect head, but he willingly gave up the chance of becoming sect head to focus all of his attention on alchemy.

This person’s passion for alchemy had reached an unimaginable degree. He didn’t care about cultivation or power. It could be said that he didn’t care about anything other than alchemy.

Ouyang Zi’s goal in life was to refine the legendary rank 9 divine pill.

But his goal was just too far out of reach. Even rank 6 countries could only make rank 6 pills. Even the few geniuses that would sometimes come along could only make rank 7 pills.

Precisely because of how difficult alchemy was, the Cloud Sky Sect was protected by a giant demon sect from a rank 4 country. It has to be said that rank 5 pills are the limit of what a rank 4 country can make.

All of this showed the importance of the Cloud Sky Sect to the Giant Demon Sect.

Ouyang Zi was a rank 5 alchemist and had reached the early stage of Nascent Soul. If he wasn’t so focused on alchemy, he would have already reached late stage and would’ve become one of the sect’s ancestors.

Although he was only at early stage of Nascent Soul, his status was much higher than Li Muwan, who was an outsider.

Today, he was going to refine a rank 5 pill. He had prepared for several years for this. Besides himself, he asked six other people to come help him with sacrifice refining.

Sacrifice refining was a pill refining technique Ouyang Zi invented himself.

In his mind, pill refining was an act that defied the heavens, so there needed to be sacrifices. It was similar to the Ancient God’s Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony, only the sacrifices he was making were pills.

Ouyang Zi had a head full of white hair and looked very old, but his eyes shined a demonic light. He let out a very mysterious aura that made none of the other six alchemists dare to look at him directly.

It has to be said that this demonic light had the ability to affect one’s soul, but if used in alchemy, it allowed one to see inside of the pill furnace.

He obtained this ability when took a Ghost Sight Pill. This Ghost Sight Pill was very mysterious. Only one out of ten people that take the pill manage to obtain this vision. Everyone who fails goes blind.

Such a vicious pill obviously had very good effects. If one successfully absorbs the Ghost Vision Pill, they will gain ghost vision.

Ghost vision was one of the reasons he was able to walk this far on the path of alchemy.

Currently, Ouyang Zi was wearing a large gray robe while staring at the sky. After a while, he frowned and said, “When I refine a pill, I hate it when other people are watching. Junior brother Sect head, do you not know this?”

Three people walked out of the main hall. One of them was the sect head of the inner sect. He let out a bitter smile and said, “Didn’t I tell you guys already? When elder martial brother refines a pill, he doesn’t allow anyone to watch.”

With that, he clasped his hands at Ouyang Zi and said, “Elder martial brother, these two are guests from the cultivation country of Tianwu. They want to see elder brother refine a pill, what do you say…”

The two people behind him were both thin and tall, but both of them emitted a very powerful aura. Clearly, their cultivation levels were very high.

Ouyang Zi frowned. He coldly said, “Scram!”

The sect head’s expression remained normal, but the two guests’ faces changed. They displayed a mocking expression, but they didn’t do anything and left.

The Cloud Sky Sect’s head, Yuan Tian, already told them about this before, but they insisted on coming. After letting out a sigh, he accompanied the two and began chatting with them.

In his view, these two were here to buy pills and their offer was very attractive, so he still needed to accommodate them a little.

After the three left, Ouyang Zi continued to calculate the time. After about ten breaths, his eyes lit up. His hand formed seals as he jumped into the air and shot out seven rays of light onto the seven pill furnaces.

Currently, his large robe fluttered in the wind, making him look very majestic. The six alchemists watched him with looks of admiration.

The seven Heaven Stealing Pill Furnaces began to move after the light landed on them. They moved in a circle as if there was a giant hand moving them from above

Six of the pill furnaces formed a circle with the seventh at the center.

At the same time, in the underground chamber, Li Muwan’s dragon pill furnace also reacted.

Li Muwan took a deep breath. She bit her finger and immediately formed several seals with her hand. She shot the seals at the seven dragons on the pill furnace. The seven dragons moved as if they were alive and floated around the chamber. They all coiled up.

Soon, the seven dragons turned into illusionary pill furnaces. Six of them formed a circle while the seventh one fused into Li Muwan’s dragon furnace.

Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. Without a word, he waved his hand and shot an illusionary circle onto the ground. Then, his hand formed a seal as he shouted, “Main body, appear!”

Wang Lin’s main body with white hair and a purple star on the forehead appeared without a sound through the illusionary circle.

The moment he appeared, the chamber became cold. Even the illusionary pill furnaces in the air became a bit blurry.

Li Muwan stared at Wang Lin’s main body with a look of longing. Soon, her eyes lit up. This was the person she had been waiting for for more than 200 years. The avatar was just way too inferior compared to the main body.

After the main body appeared, he walked toward the center of the chamber. When he arrived before the dragon pill furnace, he turned to look at Li Muwan. Li Muwan’s heart felt cold after seeing the cold gaze. She was too familiar with this gaze. It was exactly the same gaze that Wang Lin had when they met 200 years ago. After 200 years, the coldness in his eyes was even more intense than before.

Li Muwan took a deep breath and quickly formed a seal. Under her control, the lid of the pill furnace slowly moved aside.

Wang Lin’s main body jumped into the pill furnace and started cultivating without any hesitation. Soon after, the lid of the pill furnace was closed.

At this point, at the ground above the chamber, Ouyang Zi raised both of his arms and held them wide open. He then muttered something to himself. After a short while, he stared at the pill furnace in the center. Suddenly, green gas came out of the pill furnace until it formed a giant hand that began to grow.

Ouyang Zi took a deep breath and took out a bag of holding. He dumped countless heavenly treasures into the giant hand.

Then, the giant hand closed and turned back into green smoke as it returned to the pill furnace.

Ouyang Zi’s eyes lit up as he shouted, “Pill sacrifice! First sacrifice, rank 4 Demon Blood Pill!”

The moment he finished speaking, one of the six people took a few steps forward and slapped his bag of holding. A white jade bottle appeared from the bag of holding. He walked up to one of the pill furnaces and broke the seal on the bottle. He carefully poured out a blood-red pill. The moment the pill appeared, the area was filled with the smell of blood.

Currently, the person’s face was a bit pale. His right hand was trembling as he held the pill, but he clenched his teeth and put the pill into one of the six pill furnaces.

The moment the pill entered the pill furnace, the furnace let out a loud roar. Immediately after, a blood-red light shot up into the air, forming a pillar of light that reached the sky.

The same scene happened in the chamber as one of the illusionary pill furnaces formed by one of the dragons shot out a pillar of red light. Aside from the size, the pillar of red light was identical to the one outside.

Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. Looking at the scene before him, he asked, “What kind of pill refining technique is this?”

Li Muwan’s eyes were filled with respect as she whispered, “This is Ouyang Zi’s own refining method called sacrifice refining. Basically, he is using various rank 4 pills to make a rank 5 pill. Although the success rate isn’t high, it is still much higher than normal methods.”

Currently, at the ground above, Ouyang Zi’s eyes lit up and he shouted, “Second sacrifice, rank 4 Luo Lin Pill!”

Another person arrived next to a pill furnace. He took out a blue pill and carefully placed it inside the furnace.

Suddenly, a pillar of blue light appeared from that pill furnace.

Then, Ouyang Zi went out all and put in four more rank 4 pills. Now, six pillars of light shot out into the sky. These pillars of light could be seen even outside of the Cloud Sky Sect mountain range.

Ouyang Zi was very nervous. He stared at the pill furnace in the middle and muttered, “This must succeed! This must succeed! If I succeed this time, I will have three rank 5 pills. Combined with the three rank 5 pills the sect has, I will have six. With six of them, I could use the rank 5 pills as sacrifices and have a taste of what it’s like to refine a rank 6 pill.”

His eyes shined a never before seen light as he stared at the pill furnaces. After taking a deep breath, he shouted, “You six, the refining has started!”

The six alchemist revealed looks of excitement. If they succeeded this time, then they would have helped created a rank 5 pill. This was something all alchemists dreamed of.

The six of them jumped into the air and floated above the six pill furnaces. They sat down cross legged in the pillars of light and urged the spiritual energy in their bodies to move.

Ouyang Zi didn’t hesitate at all. His body slowly landed on top of the last pill furnace and he closed his eyes.

At that moment, in the underground chamber, the six illusionary pill furnaces also emitted their own pillars of light.

Inside the center of these pillars of light was the pill furnace with the pill seal on it. Below the pill seal was the pill furnace Li Muwan made, with Wang Lin’s main body inside of it.

Although Wang Lin’s main body was inside the pill furnace, it was currently not absorbing any spiritual energy as everything was being prepared for the opening of the pill seal. As for absorbing spiritual energy, Wang Lin could wait until after the pill seal opened.

Li Muwan’s expression was serious. Her hand constantly formed seals as she shot them to their respective pill furnaces. Shortly after, countless slivers of light came from the six pillars of light and went toward the pill seal in the middle.

Slivers of spiritual energy was stolen by Li Muwan from the sacrifice of the rank 4 pills. This was how the problem of needing plenty of spiritual energy to open the pill seal was solved.

In reality, Li Muwan only needed two things to open up the pill seal. One of them was location. She needed a place with plenty of spiritual energy, but no spirit vein in the ground. This problem was solved by Ouyang Zi.

Now they only had to wait for the right time to open the pill seal.

Aside from location, the second requirement was the time. Only by opening the pill seal at the same time of day as when it was sealed would the requirement of time be met.

The smaller the time difference, the less damage the pill will suffer. If the time difference was too large, then the pil will suffer damage.

Wang Lin already knew all of this after Li Muwan explained it. Now the question was: what was the correct time to undo the seal?

Li Muwan checked many books and found one time. That time would be at 45 minutes past midnight.

As a result, the best time to refine pills and seal pills was 45 minutes past midnight. It has to be said that when it comes to refining pills or sealing pills, the best time to do so is when the Yang and Ying separate.

Of course, this only applies when refining a very precious pill. As for normal pills, people wouldn’t bother with it.

But this guess wasn’t very accurate. In reality, there were some alchemists who were afraid of other people stealing their pills. They would purposely alter the time when sealing the pill. As a result, even if someone steals the pill, they wouldn’t be able to properly open it without knowing the correct time.

Li Muwan’s solution to this was to use a method that would use a massive amount of spiritual energy to overload the pill. This sacrificed a bit of the pill’s effectiveness to open up the pill seal.

In a way, as long as the time wasn’t too different from when it was sealed, the pill seal would be removed and the pill would also suffer a lot less damage compared to normal methods. But if the time difference was too large, it would make the pill useless.

Li Muwan’s expression was serious as she whispered to Wang Lin, “Because of the existence of this pill furnace, the chance of Ouyang Zi succeeding is not high. Knowing his personality, he will use a blood sacrifice technique. At that moment, there will be a burst of spiritual energy. That is the time to open the pill seal.”

Time slowly passed. Currently, at the ground above, Ouyang Zi opened his eyes. He noticed that the spiritual energy in the area was rapidly decreasing. There wasn’t enough spiritual energy to make a rank 5 pill.

This was the first time he had encountered something like this. Right now was the critical moment in the refining process, so he didn’t have any time to think about it. A cold light flashed across his eyes as he shouted, “Blood sacrifice!”

The expression of the six surrounding alchemists suddenly changed, but they soon showed determined expressions. Without any hesitation, they all exploded their own cores. A series of booms occurred as the area was covered in a bloody mist. As a result, the spiritual energy in the area suddenly increased.

The spiritual energy in the area reached its peak. Ouyang Zi’s eyes lit up as his hand formed a seal and shot at the pill furnace before him. The pill furnace started to absorb the spiritual energy in the surroundings like crazy. Soon, even the six pillars of light started to converge toward the center pill furnace.

Ouyang Zi’s expression became even more serious. This was the make or break moment, so he couldn’t make any mistakes. He had already failed multiple times before, so he wasn’t sure if he would succeed this time.

At that moment, in the underground chamber, Li Muwan pointed at her brow and spat out drop of core blood. This drop of blood floated in the middle of the six pill furnaces. Suddenly, all of the pill furnaces shook as the pillars of light collapsed and moved toward the pill furnace at the center.

The pill furnace released a rainbow colored light. Under the pressure of all that spiritual energy, the pill seal started to slowly curl up until it was completely rolled up and fell off the pill furnace.

At the same time, an unimaginable amount of pressure from the spiritual power inside the pill furnace appeared, causing the pill furnace to explode. A round, cyan colored pill appeared.

But at that moment, a crisp crackling sound filled the air as cracks appeared on the pill.

“A rank 7 spirit pill!” Li Muwan’s eyes widened. Although she was prepared, she still couldn’t help but burst out in surprise.