Three Corpse Fiend

Daoist Zhen was pouring all his energy into refining the spirit pill... Yet Qian Chen was using his hands to evolve the cosmic order through the spirit herbs, employing hundreds of vermin and ghosts to steal that creation, and finally sealing it into the furnace. Using the methods of alchemy, he blended these sinister anomalies, toxic miasmas, turbid yin, malignant fiends, and pestilences just like refining a gu, crafting the most bizarre and sinister pill of all. From the hollowed-out essence of the spirit herbs materialized eyeballs, strands of hair, fingers, teeth, bones, skulls, centipedes, scorpions, venomous serpents, vicious toads... Pill vermin and pill ghosts devoured and slaughtered one another, each gorging on the ferocity and unnatural malice of its kin. On one hand, this multitude of vermin and ghosts nourished and strengthened itself on the five malignant energies between heaven and earth—sinister anomalies, toxic miasmas, turbid yin, malignant fiends, and pestilences. On the other hand, they consumed the weaker beings among themselves as sustenance for their own evolution. Throughout the entire Wei estate, the hidden traps Qian Chen had planted earlier—the Three Corpses and Nine Worms that had infected most of the household—now surged toward the pill furnace at this very moment... From the unconscious Wei Taiping, hundreds of vermin manifested, carrying most of his cultivation and bodily essence before turning into a streak of spirit light that plunged into the cauldron. Faint glows and ethereal phantoms rose from his lackeys and even most of the Wei household. Though the corpse vermin had been drawn away, the drain on their vitality still left them severely depleted. Those whose infections were mild would merely feel drained for a few days. But someone like Wei Taiping, who had laid hands on the villagers of Sanyang Village and received Qian Chen's ruthless retribution, would likely be bedridden for the better part of a year! As the hundred ghosts made sacrifice to the furnace, the hundred vermin returned to the cauldron, and the turbid yin qi between heaven and earth converged upon the vessel... Cui Dan suddenly felt a chill run through him. He vaguely sensed that something was amiss with the pill on the alchemical platform. Looking up to examine the qi, he saw only resplendent divine light radiating from the furnace. He could not help but frown. "Strange... What background does this alchemist have for the Six Ding and Six Jia guardian gods to show him so much respect?" Shrouded by the divine light, he failed to see the boundless turbid yin primordial qi gathering from a hundred li around, like great serpents of black vapor drilling into the furnace to nourish the countless eerie energies within. As Daoist Zhen continued refining, he too felt increasingly uneasy. He sensed that the fire in the cauldron was not only losing its heat, but was even growing somewhat cold. Daoist Zhen moved to control the flames with a pill art, only to catch a faint glimpse of someone fanning the flames beside him. Turning his head slowly, he saw a white fox holding a plantain fan in its jaws, seated on an adjacent meditation mat and fanning the fire beneath the cauldron. Beside it, a white snake was also working hard, its tail curled around a fan. Not far from them, a white-furred mouse was picking through the spirit medicine, concocting flame-kindling powder and tossing it into the furnace fire, while a hedgehog assisted at its side. Finally, a white weasel was tumbling and dancing before the cauldron as though offering a sacrifice to the furnace god! A bone-deep chill gripped Daoist Zhen. Yet the scene had lasted only a dazed instant; the moment he focused his mind, it vanished from his sight. *Could this be a pill tribulation?* Daoist Zhen wondered at the hallucination he had just seen. *What a mindless pill tribulation... This Hundred Spirits Azure Coagulation Pill didn't use any spirit herbs with hallucinogenic poisons. How could such a vision appear?* Daoist Zhen was thoroughly baffled. Qian Chen had turned the Five Poisons into furnace gods to absorb the five malignant worldly energies—sinister anomalies, toxic miasmas, turbid yin, malignant fiends, and pestilences. Using primordial qi alchemy to intercept the turbid yin qi between heaven and earth as medicine, this was harvesting the medicine of Heaven. Next, he used the qi of the hundred ghosts to steal the essence of the spirit herbs, turning it into medicinal ghosts and medicinal vermin. These hundreds of vermin and ghosts could be called stealing the medicine of Earth. Finally, he set the Five Immortals to stoke the flames, drawing upon the hollowed-out vitality of the Wei household who were afflicted with the Three Corpses and Nine Worms, stealing the essence of their cultivation as the medicine of Man. In this way, the three great medicines of Heaven, Earth, and Man converged in a single cauldron. Though rooted in dark, turbid evil, Qian Chen was refining them into a pill through the method of gu refinement. What emerged would inevitably be a fiendish entity that absorbed the essence of the three realms and was favored by the turbid yin of heaven and earth. When such a fiend came into being, cultivators in the vicinity intuitively sensed the turning of fortune and disaster, receiving an inner warning. Cui Dan felt a stifling aura hang over the area, as though some great calamity were gestating within the cauldron. He could not help but ask in bewilderment, "Uncle Wu... do you feel anything? Something seems off with this pill!" Uncle Wu was equally perplexed. "Given the spirit herbs this man added, it shouldn't show such an omen under any circumstances. Could my eyesight truly be failing me, so much that I can no longer discern its profound mysteries?" Aboard the Greenstone Boat, the guests also felt a tightness in their chests, but they consoled themselves. "Master Zhen's spirit pill is about to emerge, and the cosmic qi is shifting! For this pill's birth to make our hearts pound like this... it truly shows how extraordinary it is." Standing closest to the cauldron, Daoist Zhen was already blinded by the tribulation. Completely oblivious to anything amiss, he felt as though he had divine assistance, confident he was about to produce something miraculous. Inside the City God Temple, City God Wei gazed toward the Wei estate, where the yin, baleful, turbid, and malignant qi of heaven and earth was converging. In his eyes, dark vapor was already billowing across the sky, surging like a tide toward the Wei residence. The City God shook his head. "Sowing the seeds of their own destruction! Day Patrol ghost officer... this official commands you to go to the Wei estate and sound the alarm! In the end, this is the sin of one man; it should not bring ruin to so many innocents." The Day and Night Patrol ghost officers could only brace themselves and answer, "This lowly one obeys!" Looking toward the Wei estate, they groaned inwardly. *With a commotion like this, how could it be any minor affair? Forget giving a warning—we might not even make it back alive... Ah, well, since it's the master's orders, we'll go and return as fast as we can. We should be able to escape this calamity! These Wei people are so blinded by greed, can't they even see such an evil omen?* They did not realize that while onlookers saw clearly, the complex tangle of auras during the pill refinement aboard the Stone Boat, combined with the cover provided by the Six Ding and Six Jia, prevented those present from sensing the vast negative qi directly. In other words, their spiritual sense was blinded by the tribulation! "The pill is about to emerge!" Without realizing it, Cui Dan was drawn back in. "It's about to succeed! Strange—it's clearly just a batch of mid-grade spirit pills, so why does it make my heart pound with dread?" *The pill is formed!* Daoist Zhen thought to himself. *This is a pill born of my sudden enlightenment, the crowning achievement of my lifetime in the alchemical path! I'm letting these people off far too cheaply!* His eyes remained fixed on the furnace. Without him noticing, the flames inside had turned pure black, almost bursting through the restraint of the lid. The fire crows restrained within the furnace ears grew restless, barely daring to breathe fire any longer. Yet the furnace fire seemed to need no further replenishment from them; the flames spiraled, turning pale one moment and jet-black the next. One moment they were bone-chillingly cold, the next filled with a violent urge to incinerate all things. Finally, the black and white flames swirled together like the two complementary polarities... Unlike Qian Chen's natural, shapeless path when refining a primordial dan, this gu-like refinement gestated a peerless calamity. Its momentum before emerging was ferocious and grand, perfectly matching the expectations of Daoist Zhen and the onlookers. Amidst the rampage of black and white flames, a strange sound arose from inside the cauldron. A faint *crack* caused Daoist Zhen's expression to sink abruptly. Twisting his neck, he stared at the purple-red furnace body sculpted with eight exotic beasts, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks... Across the thick, solid red copper, a fine crack was quietly spreading! Aboard the Greenstone Boat, the dew condensing on the stone turned blood-red, trickling down like streaks of blood... Yet no one noticed it any longer! The two ghost officers wiped nonexistent sweat from their brows, thinking, *Master, we did our best! The thing inside that furnace is just too terrifying! Just coming a little closer felt like we were about to be devoured!* Daring not look back, they fled as fast as they could in the opposite direction... "What is this..." Drenched in cold sweat, Daoist Zhen's heart leapt into his throat. *Is it going to explode?* *What in the world have I refined? It seems the properties of over a hundred pills have been merged into a single spirit pill... Could this be a pill king? Legend has it that if a pill possesses excessive spirituality, one pill might awaken sentience and devour the essence of all other pills in the same furnace, becoming a pill king!* *With a divine object like a pill king, I can use it to form my core... A pill king is a primordial dan; refining it is equivalent to Core Formation!* *Why would I still need any flood dragon pearl?* Daoist Zhen felt suffocated. Just as his eyes nearly tore from their sockets in a desperate bid to salvage the pill, the overtaxed cauldron finally shattered with a resounding blast! Dozens of fire crows flew out from beneath the lid, fleeing in panic, and the exploding cauldron swept across the entire Stone Boat. Despite the protection of its restrictions, nearly half the vessel collapsed in ruins. Countless furnace fragments shot in every direction, intercepted only when several Wei clan elders joined Uncle Wu in raising their magical implements, averting total disaster. "Wait..." Despair gave way to wild delight as Daoist Zhen saw, where the furnace had stood, a perfectly round spirit pill hovering in midair. Emitting a faint azure glow, it seemed almost alive with sentience. "How is that possible?" Cui Dan was utterly shocked. "Even when that senior refined pills with gang-sha qi, it only held a trace of spirituality. How could an ordinary batch of spirit herbs produce a pill that seems alive?" Uncle Wu wore a strange expression and smiled bitterly. "Young Master, I fear we were mistaken!" "The grand alchemist refining pills at this assembly might not have been that senior at all, but rather this black-robed Daoist... One truly cannot judge a book by its cover! While that expert's alchemical skill was certainly miraculous, an isolated place like Jiuzhen Commandery also has masters who can turn the rotten into the divine!" Stepping up before the spirit pill, Daoist Zhen could not suppress his ecstatic joy and burst into wild laughter. "Hahaha... My alchemy has reached perfection! I have created an eternal pill king!" Wei Lecheng could no longer maintain his composure. Looking at Daoist Zhen with profound astonishment, he abandoned all his plans to exploit the man and strip him clean, turning his thoughts instead to how he might win his favor... An alchemist of this caliber was no ordinary figure; perhaps the entire Wei clan would have to look to him for sustenance in the future! "My alchemy has reached perfection!" Daoist Zhen laughed maniacally. "This pill was born of the Hundred Spirits Azure Coagulation Pill, brought to fruition through my sudden enlightenment." "It shall be named the Hundred Spirits Azure Primordial Pill... Another peerless primordial dan will be added to the alchemical records!" ... "My pill is finally complete..." Dozens of li away, Qian Chen stood with his hands behind his back, looking into the distance as he spoke calmly. "This pill began with the thought of a contest of arts and an opportune flash of inspiration. Using the qi of the hundred ghosts to steal the essence of the spirit medicine, using the spirits of the Five Poisons to draw in the turbid yin qi of heaven and earth, and using the Five Immortals to draw the Three Corpses and hundred vermin from the bodies of the Wei clan, sealing them into the cauldron like nurturing a gu king, allowing it to absorb myriad toxins to form." "It could be called the Three Corpses Ten Thousand Poisons Pill..." "Or perhaps..." Under gazes filled with greed, shock, reverence, or horror, Daoist Zhen reached toward the primordial dan, intent on taking it... By then, someone had already secretly activated a magical implement. With his back to the crowd, Daoist Zhen gripped his black banner tightly, a cold sneer playing on his lips. Fully prepared, his hand was just about to touch the spirit pill... Suddenly, a streak of black light burst through the pill and plunged straight into Daoist Zhen, who stood closest. The light possessed eyebrows and eyes like a ghostly creature, yet it bore the exact face of Daoist Zhen. Far away, Qian Chen slowly finished naming it— "Or perhaps... the Three Corpse Spirit!"