Chapter 360: An Accident After Forming the Pill
Time passed second by second. Inside the Earth Fire Cave, the silence was so profound that only Fang Hao’s heavy breathing and the faint humming of the medicinal mass rotating within the chaos pill cauldron could be heard.
Suddenly, the fist-sized, seven-colored medicinal mass shuddered violently. The energy churning within seemed to reach a certain critical point. Then, under Fang Hao’s intensely nervous gaze, it did not explode; instead, like a blooming flower, it suddenly split apart!
It divided into two, then four, then eight... Finally, it split into exactly twelve Medicinal Pills, each the size of a dragon’s eye, perfectly round and translucent, with iridescent surfaces, emitting a tempting medicinal fragrance and immense Spiritual Qi!
Success! A nascent soul forming pill! And it was a full batch of twelve! Usually, one furnace of nascent soul forming pills would yield three or four, which was already impressive. Six would be the work of a Great Master, and nine would be considered a miracle! Yet Fang Hao, relying on the chaos pill cauldron, the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame, perfect simulated preparation, and a touch of luck, had actually refined the legendary full batch—twelve pills!
"Collect!"
Suppressing the wild joy in his heart, Fang Hao used his last ounce of strength to cast the pill collection technique. The lid of the chaos pill cauldron opened automatically. The twelve iridescent Medicinal Pills, as if possessing sentience, vied to fly out from the cauldron, carrying a refreshing medicinal fragrance, ready to scatter and fly away!
Fang Hao had been prepared. With a flick of his sleeve, a gentle wave of Spiritual Qi caught them all, depositing them into twelve pre-prepared cold jade bottles. He quickly sealed the stoppers and applied Spirit Sealing Talismans.
After finishing this, Fang Hao could no longer hold on. He collapsed to the ground, his face pale as paper, drenched in sweat as if he had been fished out of water. He didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger. The continuous, high-intensity Alchemy of over ten days had almost drained all of his vitality and spirit.
But looking at the twelve cold jade bottles in his hands and feeling the heart-palpitating, immense medicinal power emanating from within, a brilliant and deeply satisfied smile bloomed on Fang Hao’s pale face.
Success! The nascent soul forming pill, secured! And there were twelve of them!
With these twelve nascent soul forming pills, he had at least an eighty percent chance of successfully charging toward the Nascent Soul Stage! He might even have some left over for emergencies, or... for other uses later.
"Old Jin..." Fang Hao called out weakly.
"Master." Old Jin’s figure instantly appeared by his side, its silver-white eyes watching him with a steady glow.
"I... need to rest for a while. You... act as my Protector. Don’t let even a fly... enter." After saying this, Fang Hao’s head lolled to the side, and he fell into a deep sleep right there on the ground. He was too exhausted, his mind drained; he needed the most thorough rest.
Old Jin silently turned to face the entrance of the cave. Its aura slowly rose, and its silver-white metallic body, reflected in the glow of the Earth Fire, shone with a cold and reliable luster. With it there, the Earth Fire Cave was the safest fortress.
As for the sleeping Fang Hao, a satisfied smile still hung on the corners of his mouth. In his dream, he was likely already a Nascent Soul True Monarch, right?
Fang Hao slept soundly, his snoring almost forming a duet with the gurgling of the Earth Fire magma. He was truly exhausted. Having kept his nerves taut for over ten days of Alchemy, his Divine Soul was completely drained. Right now, let alone thunder, even if half the Earth Fire Cave collapsed, he probably wouldn’t wake up.
Old Jin, that silent metallic lump, stood three zhang away from Fang Hao. Its silver-white "eyes" scanned the cave entrance and every inch of space around Fang Hao without blinking. Its Divine Sense, like the most precise radar, spread out in silent ripples from itself, covering the entrance passage, the cave dome, and even several zhang deep into the rock walls. Any faint fluctuation of Spiritual Qi or any sound that didn’t belong here could not escape its perception.
Time passed bit by bit. The cave was quiet, with only the flowing Earth Fire and Fang Hao’s snoring. Old Jin was like the most loyal sentry, motionless.
However, just when Fang Hao was sleeping most deeply and had completely lost perception of the outside world, an anomaly occurred.
It did not come from the entrance, nor from above, but from... beneath his feet!
The place where Fang Hao sat and slept was right next to the chaos pill cauldron, only a dozen zhang away from the slowly flowing dark red magma river. Originally, although this magma river was scorching, it flowed calmly and showed no abnormalities.
But at one moment, beneath the magma river near the deep rock wall of the cave, the dark red rock layer, which seemed solid and had been scorched by the Earth Fire for who knows how many ten-thousand years, suddenly squirmed ever so slightly. This squirming was extremely small; if it weren’t for the constant, all-encompassing scan of its Divine Sense, it would have been impossible to detect.
Old Jin’s silver-white eyes focused instantly on that point, and the intensity of its scan increased several-fold! But on the surface, apart from the occasional bubble rising from the magma, there was nothing unusual.
Just as Old Jin focused most of its attention on the subtle abnormality beneath the magma river, another anomaly occurred!
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Three almost imperceptible sounds of breaking air erupted abruptly from the shadows of the cave entrance passage! Not one, but three! Three gray beams, as thin as ox hair and blending almost perfectly with the surrounding rocks, shot at incredible speed toward the three major vital points of the sleeping Fang Hao: his brow, his throat, and his heart! The speed was extreme, vicious, and tricky, and there was no warning beforehand; not even a trace of killing intent had leaked out!
This was the real killing move! The abnormality beneath the magma river was likely just a lure to attract attention! Or, was it a coincidence?
But Old Jin’s reaction was faster than the three gray beams! The moment the gray beams appeared, its massive metallic body moved without warning! It didn’t dodge, nor did it intercept the three gray beams, but with a speed akin to teleportation, it shifted sideways by one step, positioning itself with absolute precision in front of Fang Hao!
"Ding! Ding! Ding!"
Three crisp sounds, like metal striking metal, rang out almost simultaneously! The three gray beams, which could easily pierce the protective Spiritual Qi of an Early Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, slammed hard into Old Jin’s chest, which was intertwined with dark gold and silver-white colors!
Sparks flew!
On Old Jin’s chest, which had fused with the essence of ten-thousand-year star wood and was incredibly hard, three shallow white dots were actually pierced! The gray beams had penetrated the metal by nearly half an inch before exhausting their force and stopping, revealing their true form—three gray, unremarkable thin needles, their tips glowing with a ghostly blue luster, clearly quenched with deadly poison!
What terrifying penetration and toxicity! If Fang Hao had been hit, even with his Physical Body strength, it would likely have been dire!
And the moment Old Jin blocked the three poison needles, a blurred figure in the shadows of the cave entrance, almost blending into the shadows, flashed and vanished like a ghost, fleeing rapidly toward the outside of the passage! Failing a single strike and fleeing a thousand miles—this was the style of a top-tier assassin!
But Old Jin’s silver-white eyes had already firmly locked onto that blurred figure! It did not pursue, because the order it received was "Protector"—to protect Fang Hao’s safety. Its left arm lifted mechanically and swiftly, and the metal plate on the outside of its arm slid open with a "click," revealing a pitch-black opening covered in intricate patterns.
"Hum—!"
With a low energy hum, a beam of scorching white light, condensed to the extreme and only the thickness of a thumb, shot out suddenly from that opening! The beam’s speed was incredibly fast, instantly crossing dozens of zhang and accurately hitting the blurred figure that was about to flee into the depths of the passage!
"Puff!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a slight sound, like a hot knife cutting into butter. The blurred figure stiffened violently, let out a muffled groan suppressed to the extreme, and then its speed soared, disappearing around the corner of the passage with a trail of afterimages. In its place, only a small pool of dark red blood quickly seeping into the rock, and a faint smell of burning in the air, remained.
The silver-white light in Old Jin’s eyes flickered slightly, seemingly evaluating the effect of the previous strike. It did not pursue because the figure was fleeing at extreme speed, and its aura had instantly converged and vanished without a trace; pursuing it might lead to falling for a "luring the tiger away from the mountain" tactic. It slowly lowered its raised left arm, the metal plate sliding back to cover the firing port. Then, it lowered its head to look at the three gray needles embedded in its chest.
Its metallic fingers precisely pinched the ends of the needles, applying slight force.
"Sss..." The three gray needles were easily pulled out, and the ghostly blue luster of the tips quickly dimmed after leaving the metallic body. Old Jin didn’t even look, its fingers rubbed, and the three vicious, thin needles turned into a pinch of gray powder, falling in a rustle. The three white dots on its chest, under the circulation of the Power of the Stars, were fading and disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye, returning to normal in a moment, as if it had never been hit.
After finishing all this, Old Jin returned to its original position, its silver-white eyes once again scanning the entire cave in all directions, including the magma river that seemed to have returned to calm. Its posture was exactly the same as before, as if the thrilling assassination and counterattack had never happened.
Inside the cave, only the gurgling of the Earth Fire and Fang Hao’s still even, and perhaps even louder, snoring remained. He turned over, smacked his lips, muttered a dream phrase that no one could hear clearly, and slept even more sweetly, completely unaware of the life-and-death crisis that had just occurred right under his nose.
Time continued to pass. I don’t know how long it had been, but the sleeping Fang Hao’s body suddenly twitched slightly and unconsciously, and his brows furrowed, as if he had dreamed of something bad. But this was only momentary; soon, his breathing became stable and long again.
Meanwhile, dozens of miles away from the entrance of the Earth Fire Cave, deep in a dense, miasma-filled primeval jungle.
A black shadow stumbled out of the shadows of an ancient tree and fell heavily to the ground. The black shadow barely managed to prop up its body, leaning against the tree trunk, and coughed violently. With every cough, it spat out a large mouthful of dark red blood foam mixed with fragments of internal organs.
This was a person shrouded in black tights, wearing a pale white mask with no facial features, revealing only a pair of thin, sinister eyes, which were now filled with shock and resentment. At his left shoulder, there was a charred hole the thickness of a thumb, piercing through front to back. The flesh and clothes at the edges had been instantly carbonized; there was no bleeding, but a smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. The skin around the wound appeared a strange grayish-white and was constantly spreading, as if some strange energy was eroding his vitality.
"Cough... cough cough... Damn it! What the hell was that thing?!" The man in black’s voice was hoarse, filled with disbelief. His meticulously planned ambush, those three silent "Shadowless Needles" quenched with "Spirit-Eroding Soul-Severing Powder," had actually been blocked by a Puppet using its own body? And that Puppet’s counterattack... that scorching white beam, its speed was so fast that he couldn’t react at all, and its power was terrifying. If it weren’t for a life-saving substitute jade pendant on his body that shifted the trajectory of the beam at the critical moment, it probably wouldn’t have been his shoulder that was pierced, but his heart!
"The intelligence was wrong... there is a Puppet Protector of at least the Late Nascent Soul Stage beside the target... the strength far exceeds the estimate..." The man in black endured the severe pain, fished out a medicine bottle from his bosom, trembling as he poured out a few foul-smelling Medicinal Pills and swallowed them. He then tore open his clothes, busily dealing with the horrific wound on his shoulder. The energy remaining from that scorching white beam was extremely troublesome, constantly eroding his Meridians and vitality.
"Must... report immediately... mission failed... the target is guarded by a Late Nascent Soul Stage Puppet, need... re-evaluation..." The man in black struggled to get up, merged into the shadows again, and stumbled away into the depths of the jungle, leaving behind a shocking pool of blood on the ground.
Inside the Earth Fire Cave, it remained calm. Old Jin, like the most loyal guard, stood beside the sleeping Fang Hao. Fang Hao’s snoring gradually lowered, as if he were sleeping more deeply and more peacefully. The short and deadly confrontation just now seemed to be nothing more than an insignificant little interlude in this scorching underground space.
Only the three white dots on Old Jin’s chest, which had long since vanished, and the small, dried, and hard-to-detect scorch mark in the shadows of the cave entrance, silently told that while the master was sleeping, there had been a silent guardian who blocked a fatal blow from the darkness for him.
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