Chapter 205. The Divine Pill of the Au Co Tribe (1)

From this point on, this is unknown territory.

The highest realm he had reached in both his current and past life was the Harmony Realm.

In his previous life, he had barely reached the Harmony Realm before his life was cut short, and in this one, he had used the guaranteed history to reach the Completion Stage.

Not even he knew what awaited him if he took the Divine Pill of the Au Co, which was said to grant immortality.

What lies beyond this point for me?

Thump, thump.

The thought of venturing into the unknown was exhilarating.

Since ancient times, the goal of a cultivator was to overcome the wall before them and reach the next realm. His heart was already trembling.

Let's calm down. I'll get myself riled up for no reason.

Yet, he understood that with his current mindset, achieving enlightenment would be impossible. At worst, he might fail to break through entirely.

The tribulation to break through the next realm was dangerous. If one wasn't careful, one could easily fall into cultivation deviation. In particular, if one absorbed something that contained an incredible amount of qi, like the Divine Pill of the Au Co, there was a high risk of one's qi reversing.

Zhou Xuchuan used the Violet Haze Divine Art to calm his excited mind, then grabbed the Divine Pill of the Au Co.

Known as the source of life, a Divine Pill of Extreme Yang.

From the start, it was crucial to have at least some understanding of an elixir's nature before consuming it. This was especially true when consuming an elixir regarding an Extreme.

If he took the Divine Pill of Extreme Yang without any knowledge or preparation, the delicate balance of yin and yang within his body would collapse, leading to cultivation deviation.

The conversation he had with the Divine Physician before entering secluded cultivation came to mind.

"Based on the Divine Pill's composition, it's clear that it has an extreme yang nature. So, you should either use a qi cultivation method that specializes in handling yang qi to circulate it through your meridians or take an opposing elixir of Extreme Yin together with it... actually, this should be good enough, too."

The Divine Physician handed him a bottle the size of two fingers.

Pure Stalactite Milk!

It was an elixir that could extend an ordinary person's life and health with just a single drop. For martial artists, it provided the equivalent of a sexagenary cycle's worth of cultivation.[1]

Records regarding such a precious elixir were so old and impossible to find that it was considered a legend. However, such a legendary elixir had been passed on to the Divine Physician by the Head Archivist.

"Is the Pure Stalactite Milk an elixir of Extreme Yin?"

"No, it's not. The Pure Stalactite Milk holds the power of harmony, as it's collected in a cave where the harmony of heaven and earth is preserved."

"That means..."

"Even if you consume the Divine Pill of the Au Co, an elixir of Extreme Yang, the Pure Stalactite Milk will help you absorb its power harmoniously without any problems."

It wasn't called a legendary elixir for nothing.

"Oh, just in case you didn't know, if you use the Pure Stalactite Milk for its harmonizing properties, you won't be able to gain its qi."

"That's too bad."

Human greed knew no bounds. Despite his vast qi reserves, which defied logic, and even though he was planning on consuming the Divine Pill of the Au Co, Zhou Xuchuan still wanted more.

"Fifty taels of gold."

"Huh?"

A thousand coins equaled a single guan.[2] A single guan was equivalent to a tael of silver, which was equivalent to two shi of rice.[3]

It took ten taels of silver to make a single tael of gold.[4]

Considering the Divine Physician was asking for fifty taels, the value of money he was asking for was enormous.[/ref]Fifty taels of gold are worth roughly 1,000 shi of rice, or 60,000 KILOS. The average person in Korea eats roughly 60 kg of rice a year, or a single shi. In other words, fifty taels of gold is enough rice for 1,000 people in one year, or 1,000 years of rice for one person. In today's currency, fifty taels of gold are worth roughly $170,000. That's roughly 85,000 kilos of rice purchasing power in NYC.[/ref]

"Don't look at me like that. Do you think this old man is running a charity? While the Divine Pill of the Au Co was originally supposed to go to that Dark Heavens Association or something, this Pure Stalactite Milk was something I rightfully received from that man."

The Divine Physician held out his palm and smiled sinisterly.

"I heard that the Divine Physician isn't someone who can be moved by money."

"Well, if I don't say that, I'll end up getting involved in all sorts of troublesome things; what else could I say? Moreover, medicine costs a lot more than you think. Please understand."

He wasn't exaggerating. Medicine was already expensive, research and development of new medicines cost a lot of money.

In particular, an immense amount of money was constantly poured into manufacturing new medicines and finding treatments for incurable diseases.

There was a reason why the medical fees of the Benevolence Clinic were so expensive that ordinary people couldn't even dream of going there.

"...here is a voucher from Gold Bank."

"Gold Bank is a trustworthy place. Thank you."

Zhou Xuchuan had a way to find an elixir of Extreme Yin. However, since the process wouldn't be easy, he had chosen the easy way.

It was uncertain whether he could properly balance the two extremes in the first place, so it was better for him to choose the Divine Physician's guaranteed method, even if it cost him a little money.

Normally, he never had to use his own assets, let alone gold, since everything was usually paid for by the Martial Alliance. Still, to think everything he had could vanish in an instant.

With the offered product being Pure Stalactite Milk, Zhou Xuchuan had no room to negotiate.

Especially if one drop offered close to a sexagenary cycle's worth of cultivation, its value went without saying. At fifty taels, it was almost cheap.

You eccentric old man. Just wait if this turns out to be a mistake.

After pushing aside his ill feelings toward the Divine Physician, Zhou Xuchuan took the Divine Pill of the Au Co and placed it into his mouth.

Gulp.

He swallowed the pill before he could even taste it, immediately following it with a drop of the milky liquid. The bottle slipped from his hands as he began circulating his qi.

Here it comes!

As soon as the pill entered his stomach, his body reacted immediately.

Gurgle, gurgle.

Ugh!

His esophagus felt hot, as if something had burned it. The heat spread through his body in an instant, tearing through him like wildfire.

His stomach churned like molten lava, his heart pounded furiously, and cold sweat poured down his back like a waterfall.

The extreme yang qi (極陽氣) started in his heart, penetrated his diaphragm, and went down to his small intestine, traveling down the primary channel of the Hand Shao Yin Heart Meridian (手少陰心經).

The Hand Shao Yin Heart Meridian originates in the heart and has two secondary branches. One runs from the heart, moving up past the neck to the eyes, while the other branches from the heart to the lungs through the Jiquan Acupoint (極泉穴) under the armpit, along the underside of the arm, the wrist joint, the inside of the little finger, and ending under the fingernails.

From there, another meridian starts from the other side of the little finger, passing through the lower back of the hand, the ulna (尺骨) of the wrist, and through the radial groove and the lower back of the outer upper arm.

It then goes around the scapula (肩胛骨), crosses over to the Dazhui Acupoint (大椎穴), and heads to the supraclavicular cavity (鎖骨上窩).

Here, it divides into two. One branch connects to the heart within the chest, passing through the diaphragm and returning to its origin, the small intestine. The other branch passes through the neck and cheeks, moving up to the corner of the eye before branching out.

The secondary branch continues forward without changing direction, traveling past the corner of the eye toward the ear, descending to the zygomatic arch, and ending at the corner of the eye again, connecting to the bladder meridian.

This meridian is called the Hand Taeyang Small Intestine Meridian.

The Hand Shao Yin Heart Meridian and the Hand Taeyang Small Intestine Meridian belong to the Twelve Regular Meridians (十二正經) and correspond to Fire of the five elements of the body.

The extreme yang qi, searching for pathways, surged into the parts of his body most connected to yang qi, flowing vigorously through the two meridians.. In addition to the Twelve Regular Meridians, it passed over the gallbladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine, bladder, and the

san jiao

[5].

In other words, the six bowels.

It burns!

As the extreme yang qi exceeded the limits of his body, it overwhelmed his meridians. His organs began to fail, screaming under the pressure. For the first time since he obtained the Extreme Temperature Immunity, Zhou Xuchuan felt a scorching heat rise from within, sending his body into unbearable agony.

His face turned red, and his eyes became bloodshot, then yellow. His esophagus felt like it was on fire, and the burning sensation below his navel was excruciating. His tongue cracked as if he was in a desert, and his lower jaw swelled horribly.

AGHHHHHH!

Medicine could become poison if taken incorrectly, and that was precisely what was happening now.

Zhou Xuchuan had taken the legendary elixir called the Divine Pill of the Au Co. But, the sheer amount of extreme yang qi led to strange, uncontrollable phenomena throughout his body.

Since everything was happening so quickly, he had no time to address any of it, meaning that the fire ran wild and unchecked.

Get it together!

If he opened his mouth, even slightly, it would be the end. If he breathed incorrectly, his six organs would rupture, and his dantian would also be damaged.

Even though he had reached the Harmony Realm, he wasn't free from the possibility of falling into cultivation deviation. On the contrary, the possible backlash was even greater.

Come! Pure Stalactite Milk!

If the human body could display a color, Zhou Xuchuan's body would definitely be dyed red.

Then, what pierced through the red flames and descended was a silvery line that seemed to form a harmony with yin and yang.

AGHHHHH!!!!!

The Divine Pill of the Au Co and Pure Stalactite Milk.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He had swallowed not one but two elixirs that could cause bloodshed if they were revealed to the

murim

. So, the qi contained within the Divine Pill was truly immense.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

The Violet Haze Divine Art, Ten Thousand Convergence Art, Ten-Thousand Jin Sword, Eclipse Divine Archery Art—the cultivation methods that he used so freely until now were rendered useless.

Even when he attempted to temper the extreme yang qi with harmony qi, the force of the wave of qi was like a typhoon, leaving him powerless to withstand it.

Divine Physician! Just what the hell have you refined?!

Even the Pure Stalactite Milk, which offered close to a sexagenary cycle's worth of cultivation with a single drop, wasn't an ordinary elixir. The effects it had when combined with the Divine Pill of the Au Co were enormous.

Could they really be the descendants of the Au Co?

The Divine Pill carried such an immense amount of qi that even Harmony Realm Masters would never dare attempt to contain it. This wasn't something just on the level of an elixir that offered sixty years of cultivation.

This was an elixir that had truly reached the realm of the divine through the Cinnabar Refinement Art.

It wasn't for nothing that the Head Archivist of the Dark Heavens Association, who had categorized all the elixirs and resources of the

murim

, had come all the way to the Southern Jungles.

The Cinnabar Refinement Art of the Au Co tribe was beyond imagination, and it combined all kinds of rare materials and the techniques of the Divine Physician to achieve the Dao of Extremity.

It's too much.

Zhou Xuchuan's consciousness was fading away. He tried his best not to let go, but he was quickly losing the battle.

Is it even possible to endure this?

Ugh!

This wasn't something a human could endure. The pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced. It was even worse than Bodily Reformation.

The veins on his face bulged, and his face turned crimson as if it would explode at any moment.

But thanks to the harmonizing effects of the Pure Stalactite Milk, his body barely managed not to explode. Little by little, he began to absorb the Divine Pill's overwhelming energy.

Don't make me laugh!

Still, even though it worked slowly, this was way too slow. It was impossible for him to endure this sort of excruciating pain any longer.

Let alone an hour, a minute—no, even a second was too much.

A!

R!

G!

H!

Eventually, when his consciousness had faded to the point where he couldn't tell if it was a dream or reality, a scream escaped his lips.

He couldn't tell if the scream was truly coming from his mouth or if it was all in his head. However, he let it all out.

Squelch!

As soon as he screamed, something exploded.

Huh?

His eyes opened. The darkness cleared, and light rushed in.

Before him were pieces of bone visible between stumps of torn flesh where his arms should have been.

A Qi of Extremity that a human body couldn't contain.

In the end, his body was unable to endure it, and his arms exploded.

Is this the end?

Strangely, Zhou Xuchuan didn't scream anymore. Nor did he feel shock at losing his arms, a death sentence for a swordsman.

He just thought, 'It's all over,' and gave up.

—Is this really something a human can't control?

—It contained the essence of Au Co, the Incarnation of Fire and the Immortal Fairy.

—This is a Divine Grade Elixir.

—This isn't something a human can possibly overcome.

Zhou Xuchuan couldn't even process his thoughts fully. The qi cultivation methods he tried to use somehow didn't work either.

With his arms gone, he began to accept death.

Then, at that moment—

"Don't fucking mess with me! Ugh!"

Zhou Xuchuan screamed, letting out his frustration. It hurt. It hurt so much he had to scream.

Every time he spoke, he vomited blood.

"It hurts! It hurts!"

The fragments of shattered bones rose up from the ground. Starting from his shoulder blades, the bones connected and found their place once again.

Then, one by one, the flesh that had scattered like flower petals began regrowing over his reformed skeleton, slowly reconstructing his arms.

He couldn't tell if this was reality or a dream.

His head spun so wildly that he couldn't determine whether his arms had truly exploded and healed themselves or if none of it had happened at all.

Even though talking while absorbing an elixir and circulating qi was dangerous, Zhou Xuchuan shouted in irritation.

Things have already gone this far, fine, I'll go as far as you want!

1. Sixty years worth of qi. ☜

2. Literally a string of a thousand coins. ☜

3. Roughly 120 Kilos of rice (one shi is roughly 60 kg of rice). A tael of pure silver is worth roughly $40 in today's currency, which gets you nowhere near that amount of rice. In NYC, that's barely 20kg worth of rice. ☜

4. Ten taels of silver are worth roughly $400, while a tael of gold is worth roughly $3,400 right now. ☜

5. This is not an actual organ but more of a concept. Called the Triple Burner, it's the hollow space within one's torso that holds the other organs and is split into three sections that do different things. Think along the lines of the three dantians, upper-middle-lower. ☜