Chapter 1727: The Pill Emerges, Phenomenon Fills The World

“Look. The pill is going to finish any moment now...”

Rumble...

As if on cue, the fire of Pill Furnace Island began burning much stronger than before. Even from this distance, the heat waves washing over the Cloud Boat could only be described as terrifying. Clearly, the fire was no ordinary fire.

At the same time, thick clouds of black smoke were rising into the sky. The entire Pill Furnace Island was rumbling and shaking as well.

Slowly, the black smoke transformed into colorful, beautiful ribbons of light. It dyed the boundless sky in all sorts of colors. It was like a dream.

Not only that, thin wafts of fragrance were leaking out of the Pill Furnace Island. Although the scent was faint, it seemed to contain some sort of profound, mysterious power. Just smelling it instantly invigorated Ye Qing by a hundredfold.

“As expected of a pill that only reaches completion once a century. Its scent alone tells you how extraordinary it is.”

As Ye Qing spoke, he lowered his hand and filled the air with his energies. It covered up both the scent and the fantastical illusions taking place at the island.

This was an opportunity that fell into his lap of its own accord. Naturally, he wasn’t going to risk giving it up to others. That was why he covered up the scent and the illusions. He did not want anyone to notice and bring unnecessary trouble to themselves.

But as time passed, the phenomenon grew increasingly grandiose, and the scent grew increasingly strong. It eventually got to the point where even Ye Qing was unable to cover it up completely. As a result, countless Strangers followed their senses and arrived at the island.

At first, the Strangers only dared to linger at the edges because they were intimidated by Ye Qing’s energies. But as the scent grew thicker and thicker, both the sapient and non-sapient Strangers ultimately succumbed to their base desires and began charging toward the Pill Furnace Island.

Even Ye Qing was feeling a tiny bit of unnatural temptation.

What an anomalous pill!

Ye Qing thought to himself. If even he could not resist the pill’s influence completely, the Strangers could only do worse.

Unfortunately for the Strangers, they were burned into ash as soon as they got close to the Pill Furnace Island.

However, not even the threat of death could stop the Strangers’ advance. They kept charging toward Pill Furnace Island like moths to flame and died continuously.

Strangely, the Strangers’ life force and energies did not dissipate with their deaths. Instead, they were absorbed by the Pill Furnace Island.

“Withdraw your powers, lad. I suspect that the Strangers’ life force and energies are critical in completing the pill,” Old Man Turtle suddenly spoke up.

“Got it.”

And so Ye Qing withdrew his energies and stopped trying to conceal the scent and illusions.

Without Ye Qing’s energies to rein them in, the Strangers lost all restraint and charged toward the Pill Furnace Island like crazy. At the same time, more Strangers were flooding in from every direction.

Technically, it wasn’t just Strangers. All flesh-and-blood beings were attracted toward the island.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

For a time, the sea churned, and the sky darkened as countless animals and Strangers rushed toward Pill Furnace Island from both the sky and the sea.

Every creature who caught a whiff of the scent had lost their rationality and become fearless toward death. They all charged toward Pill Furnace Island only to be caught up in its flames and burned to ashes. While this was going on, Pill Furnace Island was absorbing their lifeforce and energies.

“What on earth is Pill Furnace Island concocting that requires this much lifeforce and energies?” Even the worldly Old Man Turtle could not help but be stunned by this.

As the Pill Furnace Island consumed more and more lifeforce and energies, the scent grew richer, and the illusions grew increasingly gorgeous as well. Ribbons of colorful light covered the area, dragons and phoenixes flew through the sky. Celestial music filled the ears, and celestials could be seen dining with each other. Demons were dancing, and cyan lotuses were raining...

Thump! Thump! Thump!

At some point, loud thumps began reverberating from Pill Furnace Island. It was loud like a celestial hitting a gong, and rhythmic like a beating heart.

“The pill’s about to appear...”

The thumps reached its climax when Old Man Turtle said this, and everything fell silent. Sometimes, the loudest sound was also the quietest.

Then, a red sun slowly rose into the air. For a time, the entire world was dyed in red. Nothing could be seen except red.

It wasn’t actually a sun, of course. It was a pill. It was the pill the Pill Furnace Island was concocting.

“Roar!”

“Scree!”

“Moo!”

The moment the pill appeared, a golden Profound Gold Demonic Flood Dragon burst out of the sea, a fish-scaled, bird-headed Moyun Sky Hawk descended from the sky, and a mountain-sized Blue-eyed Gold Bull galloped across the waves.

All three Strangers were Disaster-class Strangers. They were as powerful as they were terrifying.

Their objective was, naturally, the precious pill that resembled a red sun.

However, the instant they got close to the pill, it emitted a red light and burned the three Strangers to ash in an instant. Then, it devoured their lifeforce and energies.

After consuming the three Disaster-class Strangers’ life force and vitality, mysterious yet profound patterns began appearing on the pill’s surface. They formed the image of a human’s face.

At the same time, a pair of penta-colored wings appeared at the pill’s flanks. They were giving off a shocking amount of energy and aura.

“A spirit! The pill is growing a spirit!” Old Man Turtle could not help but exclaim in shock when he heard this.

What did he mean by “a pill is growing a spirit”? It meant that the pill was becoming sapient. Only a godlike, legendary pill had a chance of gaining sapience when they emerged from the pill furnace.

In other words, this pill was at least on that level. Its value was immeasurable.

After the pill turned sapient, it seemingly sensed the trio’s presence and glanced at their direction. Human fear and panic flickered in its pitch black eyes for an instant before it took off in the opposite direction.

The pill moved very quickly. It took just the blink of an eye to flap its colorful wings and cross dozens of kilometers.

“Wow. It is seriously intelligent.”

Ye Qing remained calm and unhurried though. He reached out in the direction of the pill and bent his fingers slightly.

It was like his hand could blot out the sky, and his fingers could scoop up the earth. His energies rushed in from every direction and sealed off the area like a cage.

Caught off guard, the pill smacked into the cage of energy so hard that its pitch black eyes were spinning, and it swam circles in the air for a time.

When it finally recovered, it cast a fearful glance at the invisible wall blocking its path before taking off in a different direction. However, it was bounced back the next moment.

The pill refused to believe that it was trapped and tried a couple more directions. It met the same fate every time.

In the sky, the pill swayed left and right with eyes full of indignation and frustration.

“Ya ya ya!”

The next moment, the pill started throwing a tantrum like a kid as anger took over. Mysterious patterns appeared on its surface, and layers of red light washed out toward the surroundings.

As it turned out, the red light was stronger and fierier than before. It boiled the sea and even melted the space around it.

“Interesting...”

Even Ye Qing’s palm felt a little warm after the outburst. The power the pill just unleashed was on par with a first level Sage!

Who would have thought that a mere pill could rival a Sage in terms of power? How interesting!

If he was anyone else, forget obtaining the pill, they would be lucky to keep their lives.

The three dead Disaster-class Strangers earlier were the example.

Alas, its opponent was Ye Qing. As powerful as the red light was, it could not destabilize his energies even a little.