Chapter 43 – Old Friends
The centipede before him was a hundred feet long. The poison it contained must have reached an unimaginable level. Wang Lin was no stranger to centipedes. Many children caught them to play with, and many used them to feed their chickens.
Sometimes, they are accidentally bitten by a centipede, but all they need to do is wash the wound with plenty of water, then at most lie in bed for a few days and they will be fine.
There was even a time when he collected centipedes for their poison. The village doctor said that if used correctly, the centipede venom could cure diseases. Initially, his father couldn’t afford wood for his work, so he went into the mountains to chop wood, allowing the cold air to penetrate his body. This nearly cost him his life.
At that time, the prescription the doctor made contained centipede poison.
Although his father’s illness had been cured, it remained in his body. Every time it rained, his father would be in excruciating pain. The prescription the doctor prescribed to help ease the pain also contained centipede poison, so Wang Lin had caught many centipedes for his father.
Until now, Wang Lin still remembers what happened at that time.
Looking at the hundred-foot-long centipede, Wang Lin rubbed his chin. If the poison from that small centipede could cure his father’s illness, then the poison from this centipede might be able to eliminate the root of his problem once and for all.
However, the centipede in front of him was too big, and Wang Lin was too small in comparison. He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get the poison and injure himself in the process.
Suddenly, Wang Lin remembered a method for obtaining centipede poison. This method had been passed down through generations. It involved making a pill and feeding it to the centipede. After the centipede consumed the pill, it would vomit out the poison.
While thinking, he stared at the centipede and walked towards the pill house. The pill house contained the most ingredients in the sect. He hadn’t seen Wang Hao for four years, so it would be great if he could meet him.
It was getting dark when Wang Lin arrived at the pill house and saw Wang Hao cautiously exiting the side door. Wang Hao saw Wang Lin and motioned for him to be quiet. He motioned for him to exit.
Wang Lin was stunned. He sent out his divine sense and found the third elder staring at the pill furnace with a serious expression on his face.
After walking away for a while, Wang Hao saw Wang Lin quietly following him out. He grabbed Wang Lin and ran quickly. After running for a while, he finally let out a breath.
Wang Hao was out of breath. He looked warily at the pill house and quickly asked, with a glimmer of hope, “Wang Lin, I heard you underwent intensive training four years ago. What layer are you at now?”
“The 3rd layer… what is this?” Wang Lin scanned Wang Hao with his divine sense and discovered that Wang Hao was already at the 1st layer, but the spiritual energy in his body was very strange. The spiritual energy wasn’t flowing properly, but was moving along a strange path.
Every time the flow circulated through Wang Hao’s body, it would take a little bit of Wang Hao’s life essence from his organs and absorb it.
In this condition, Wang Lin was worried that it would not be long before Wang Hao ran out of life essence and died.
Wang Hao smiled bitterly and said, “Have you seen it?”
Wang Lin nodded and said, “Wang Hao, tell me what this is about.”
Wang Hao clenched his fists and said, gritting his teeth, “Back when we went to the exchange, I always regretted not being able to get a Foundation Establishment Pill. Then, Master, bah, Lu Yunie gave me a Foundation Establishment Pill to repay me for being his servant. I was very surprised at the time. He also gave me a cultivation method and told me it was better than the one the sect provided. I didn’t think much of it and cultivated with it.”
Wang Lin took a deep breath and asked, “What? Let me see!”
Wang Hao took out a thread-bound book and tossed it to Wang Lin. He continued, “But after I practiced for two years, my body became weaker. Although I could condense spirit power within my body, I couldn’t use it. Later, I secretly bribed a disciple to look it up and discovered that the cultivation method Lu Yunjie had given me was called the Trial of the Fire Furnace.”
Wang Lin opened the book and read it. The more he read, the more shocked he became. What was inside the book was completely different from what was contained in the Three Layers of Qi Condensation. Instead of using spiritual energy to refine the body, the book gathered spiritual energy into a vortex. This vortex would expand as one accumulated spirit power, and would soon be able to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth to refine the body from the outside, achieving something similar to Qi Condensation.
In simple terms, Qi Condensation is slowly refining the body from within.
And finally, there’s a particularly cruel method. If one is lucky, the vortex will expand beyond the body before the body collapses and reaches Qi Condensation, but if not, the body will disintegrate before the vortex expands beyond the body.
Wang Hao gritted his teeth and said, “The sect archives hold several copies of this Fire Furnace Imprint cultivation method. It’s said to have been obtained from the extinct Lu Nation. Only two out of ten cultivators will survive using this method. It all depends on luck.”
Wang Lin asked an important question, “What benefits will Lu Yunjie get from all this?”
Wang Hao’s gaze turned cold. He said gloomily, “He wants to use me as a pill furnace. When the disciple from the archives gave me the information, it was recorded that if someone dies from cultivating the Trial of the Fire Furnace, if a certain method is used, a pill that can extend one’s life by three years can be concocted.”
Wang Lin took a cold breath and thought that this 3rd elder Lu Yunjie was too cruel.
Wang Hao’s expression turned bitter. He said harshly, “I didn’t dare discuss this with the other elders and the sect head. After all, I’m Lu Yunjie’s servant. According to the sect’s rules, my life is no longer mine, but Lu Yunjie’s. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have agreed to become his servant. Ah, it’s too late to regret it now. Lu Yunjie found out that I knew his secret and threatened me with my parents. Now, I have no control over my own life. Every day I have to take several Qi Gathering Pills, and the vortex in my body is getting bigger by the day. Based on my calculations, I only have about a year left to live.”