Chapter 438: The Blood-Qi Pill Is Born! All Display Their Divine Arts! The Guhuo Bird Appears!

The Serpent God’s body had been hundreds of zhang long, when still, it had resembled a coiled mountain range.

The power contained within such a primeval behemoth must have been enough to shake heaven and earth, and yet, that ancient refining furnace had completely refined it, turning it into a Blood-Qi Pill!

If one could consume such an elixir... what unimaginable strength would they gain? Everyone’s hearts burned feverishly at the thought. Perhaps they could even achieve saintly perfection in the flesh!

And that ancient furnace itself, its value was likely even greater than that of the Blood-Qi Pill. If this wasn’t immortal fortune, then what was!?

***

Boom!

Boom!

Countless primordial spirit techniques and various magical artifacts rained down upon the disheveled, half-bodied Daoist. At first, their combined attacks seemed to have little effect, but there were too many of them!

These were no common cultivators: each one was a veteran monster of the great sects, a reclusive grandmaster with profound cultivation, or a ruthless, peerless young prodigy. Were it not for the shackles of heaven and the severed Great Dao, many among them would already have ascended to the Yang Spirit realm.

The clash of such beings, fighting with everything they had, was enough to shake the very heavens. The spectacle was nothing short of cataclysmic.

Standing beside Li Yanchu, Zhang Wei watched with wide eyes, his face filled with astonishment. And when his gaze fell upon a certain towering giant, his brows drew together tightly.

“They even showed up...” Zhang Wei muttered under his breath.

“You know him?” Li Yanchu asked.

Zhang Wei nodded. “That man’s name is Zhao Shihu[1]. He was born with immense strength, and people say he carries the blood of a great demon within him. His tendons and bones are incredibly tough, and he’s a formidable body-refinement cultivator.”

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Li Yanchu wasn’t particularly familiar with the strange cultivators scattered across the mortal lands of the Kingdom of Qian. But Zhang Wei, who came from a reclusive cultivation family with an ancient heritage, was far more well-informed.

After all, Li Yanchu wasn’t really some Land Immortal who had been cultivating in the Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years.

Zhang Wei went on, “Zhao Shihu once offended a powerful Buddhist master, and he was almost executed as a monster. Later, he was rescued by members of the Long family, and since then he’s served as one of their retainers.”

“The Long family?” Li Yanchu asked.

Zhang Wei nodded. “They’re an ancient cultivation clan, they almost never show themselves in public. It’s said their bloodline carries traces of true dragon blood, not from some lowly flood dragons, but the genuine lineage of true dragons, and not even that diluted.

“They’re quite renowned in the Kingdom of Qian’s cultivation world. They’re low-key, but extraordinarily powerful.”

“True dragon bloodline...” Li Yanchu murmured.

Zhang Wei blinked and smiled awkwardly. “Daoist Master Cao Cao, you’ve been secluded in the Five Elements Mountain for years, so naturally you wouldn’t know. The Long family’s current head is a lady, they say she’s a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms, and her divine arts are overwhelmingly fierce.”

As he spoke of her, a look of admiration crossed Zhang Wei’s face. He had once followed his elders on a visit to the Long family and had caught a single glimpse of that lady, and she had stunned him utterly. To this day, the memory remained vivid and unforgettable.

Li Yanchu, however, didn’t seem particularly interested in her beauty, what caught his attention was the Long family itself.

“So it’s a bloodline inheritance, then?”

In his view, only demons and particularly famous great demons passed down power through bloodlines. Ordinary humans, no matter how gifted, relied on aptitude, comprehension, and natural talent, not inherited strength.

Yet this “true dragon bloodline” seemed to defy common sense.

“If Zhao Shihu’s here, then the Long family’s disciples must be around as well,” Zhang Wei said. “They’re just biding their time, they haven’t acted yet.”

Li Yanchu nodded.

As they spoke, the green-robed elder controlled his Corpse-Binding Cord, successfully restraining the half-bodied Daoist’s sword-wielding arm.

The red-robed elder immediately followed up, and then the burly giant Zhao Shihu, muscles bulging like iron cables, rushed forward and physically pinned down the Daoist’s sword arm. It was a perfectly coordinated control assault!

The Rakshasa King’s manifested spirit seized the chance, and his flaying knife stabbed viciously into the half-bodied Daoist’s eye socket.

A dozen or more primordial spirit experts struck together with coffin nails, soul-locking spikes, corpse-sealing talismans, and Buddhist vajra staves. They all hammered down at once, trapping the half-bodied Daoist completely.

“Truly, there’s strength in numbers,” Zhang Wei muttered.

A tinge of regret flickered in his eyes. He should have joined in earlier; now that he was too far away, he’d missed his chance to seize a share of the spoils!

Someone’s eyes lit up, and he reached out toward the ancient alchemy furnace. It was a Vajra guardian, his face covered in eyes, exuding a ghastly, sinister aura.

He was a demonic monk!

“Ah!”

The instant his hand touched the ancient furnace, it was burned away completely by the blazing, surging blood-qi. It was completely and utterly gone. The injury struck straight at his primordial spirit, a wound far more terrifying than a mere severed arm.

It was clear now that this heavy, ancient alchemy furnace was protected by a powerful restrictive enchantment. And now, of all times, it was actively refining a pill.

Everyone exchanged uncertain glances. That ghostly Vajra guardian had lost an arm and suffered a crippling spirit wound from just a single touch, so none of them dared step forward recklessly.

Could it be that they had to wait until the Blood-Qi Pill was completely refined before they could act?

But, whether it was that half-bodied Daoist who had just been temporarily subdued, or the two terrifying figures still battling furiously in the sky, if any of them rejoined the fray, the outcome would be impossible to predict! It was entirely possible they’d end up doing all the work, only to let someone else reap the benefits.

Suddenly, a billowing violet mist surged from the half-bodied Daoist’s body! Whether it was the coffin nails, the soul-locking spikes, the Daoist corpse-suppressing talismans, or the Buddhist golden alms bowl, all of them were instantly shredded apart by the violet aura, reduced to dust and completely annihilated! Everyone was stunned as they stumbled back in alarm.

At this time, the two elders in crimson and green robes felt a stab of pain in their hearts. Those Corpse-Binding Cords had been painstakingly refined over decades, yet they were now destroyed in an instant!

The violet energy exploded outward, and the half-bodied Daoist broke free in an instant, the giant sword in his hand gleaming with a cold, lethal light.

And just at that moment, a rich, overwhelming medicinal fragrance wafted from the furnace. Merely smelling it washed away all fatigue, causing one’s blood and qi to boil, vitality to surge, making everyone feel as vigorous as dragons and tigers!

The divine pill is about to be born!

That thought flashed through everyone’s mind.

Sure enough, the furnace erupted in a blinding crimson radiance, instantly illuminating the entire world. Multicolored auspicious clouds rose one after another above the furnace, swirling upward into the heavens.

The astonishing heavenly phenomenon instantly drew the attention of the Arhat Dharma manifestation and the mysterious coffin that had been fiercely battling in the skies.

Suddenly, the two paused their fight, and silence befell the place. A deathly stillness descended upon the world.

Everyone held their breath in unison, eyes blazing with feverish greed and anticipation.

Boom!

A thunderous sound shook the air as a golden pill, about the size of a chicken egg, slowly rose from within the alchemy furnace, shining with a dazzling brilliance. The dense, surging power of blood and qi it released made everyone’s spirits soar and their hearts pound violently.

Then, without warning, madness seized the crowd. Countless cultivators shot forward at once, beams of divine light streaking across the air, dazzling to behold.

The speed of the primordial spirit flight-lights was so fast that no one could react in time before.

Boom!

A violent clash erupted as divine powers collided, each contender locking onto another in desperate combat. In an instant, chaos engulfed the scene! No one held back anymore, and every last cultivator unleashed their strongest divine arts, all vying for the Blood-Qi Pill.

Even the half-bodied Daoist, still radiating that terrifying violet aura, was momentarily suppressed under the onslaught.

The pill itself seemed to possess a strange sentience, and it drifted slowly back toward the ancient alchemy furnace, as if seeking to return to its birthplace.

But to these primordial spirit experts, that didn’t matter in the slightest. No matter what, they had to seize the Blood-Qi Pill hidden within this Blissful Land. And the furnace itself was also a priceless treasure, so it, too, must not be left behind!

Boom! Boom!

The clash of primordial spirit divine powers reached a frenzied intensity.

Cultivators who had been lurking in the shadows could no longer restrain themselves, and each one transformed into streaks of light, surging forward.

One sinister, bestial primordial spirit was the fastest of all. It pierced straight through the half-bodied Daoist’s sword aura, overtaking everyone, and in the blink of an eye arrived right beside the alchemy furnace.

The figure revealed itself: it was a woman’s body, voluptuous and captivating, yet exuding a strange, divine aura.

The fierce, otherworldly bird of prey was a creature recorded in the

Classic of Mountains and Seas

: the Guhuo Bird[2]!

1. "Zhao" (趙) is a very common Chinese surname and ranks among the most frequently used in China and Chinese-speaking communities. Its prominence is partly because it was the imperial surname of the Song Dynasty, which led to it being the first surname listed in the Hundred Family Surnames text. The given name 狮虎 (Shīhǔ), meaning “lion and tiger,” combines two of the most powerful and fearsome animals in Chinese culture.

To me, they symbolize courage, strength, and dominance. ☜

2. The "Guhuo bird" (姑获鸟), also known as the Guhuoniao, is a legendary bird from Chinese folklore. It is described in ancient texts and is sometimes depicted as a "wench bird". While its exact origins and characteristics are subject to interpretation, its name suggests a connection to "wench" or female deities and it appears in historical Chinese natural history works and encyclopedias.

Here is a reference

image

. ☜