Chapter 70: Tribulation Fire Refines Golden Core
A fierce wind, carrying Profound Yin Evil Qi, swept over the thousand-foot stone steps. Lu Qingyang crouched behind a coiled Dragon pillar in the Taiyi Pavilion Ancestral Master Hall, his fingertips clutching half a charred turtle shell.
The tattered page of the "Taiyi Azure Sky Record" he had torn from the bottom of the Burial Dragon Abyss three days ago was now seeping golden threads into the qingmu spirit pearl. The hourglass illusion above the medicinal field within the pearl had solidified, and the inverted flowing sand cascaded into his Dantian Qi Sea.
"Daoist Lu certainly knows how to pick his timing."
Ye Wuchen's sword scabbard tapped against the green jade bricks, startling the copper bells on the eaves into a melodic chime. This Taiyi Pavilion's Head Disciple's moon-white Daoist robe was dusted with stardust, and the cinnabar mark on his brow was even more vibrant than three years ago.
"Taking advantage of the Three Calamities Tribulation Fire burning down the mountain protection Formation, you even dared to pry open the Ancestral Master's coffin lid."
Two Dragon Blood Fruits slipped from Lu Qingyang's sleeve. The frost patterns on their skins precisely echoed the Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation within the hall.
"Senior Brother Ye must be joking. Your esteemed sect's Ancestral Master's coffin... *cough*, his Golden Core, attained during his sitting meditation, was long ago burned into sarira by the Three Calamities Fire."
As he spoke, he deliberately flicked a fruit pit towards the Southeast Xun position, causing the ground Formation patterns to flicker — that was where he had buried the rotten bone flower seeds three days prior.
Outside the hall, thunderclouds suddenly surged, and the third wave of Tribulation Fire transformed into a Red Dragon, diving down.
Ye Wuchen formed a hand Seal with his fingers, and seven Sword Qi bursts erupted from the jade pendant at his waist, only to collapse into starlight the moment they touched the Tribulation Fire.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to roll towards the Kun position Formation eye. The essence of plants and trees gushing from the qingmu spirit pearl poured into the earth's pulse, and the profound iron Formation Foundation, which had been forged by thunder and fire for a thousand years, actually bloomed with spiderweb-like green patterns.
"Three steps to Kan, five steps to Xun!" Su Li's voice transmission exploded amidst the thunder.
Lu Qingyang glimpsed the corner of a plain skirt flashing across the glazed tiles outside the hall, then backhanded a Dragon Blood Fruit towards the seven-star lamps on the dome.
Where the fruit pulp splattered, the rotten bone flower seeds buried three years ago burst forth and grew wildly. Poisonous vines wrapped around Ye Wuchen's ankles, following the Formation patterns.
Ye Wuchen sneered and swung his sword, but the Sword Qi struck a suddenly raised green brick — Lu Qingyang had already used the spirit pearl to activate the earth's pulse, shifting the Xun position Formation Foundation by half an inch.
The Tribulation Fire Red Dragon broke through the hall's roof at that very moment, and a rain of fire, laden with starfall iron fragments, poured down.
Lu Qingyang's coarse cloth robe ignited with azure flames, but he grinned, revealing his white teeth: "Senior Brother Ye, do you know that the Three Calamities Fire loves to devour Taiyi Azure Sky Qi the most?"
Before his words finished, the seven Soul Lamps enshrined in the Ancestral Master Hall all extinguished.
Ye Wuchen's hand Seal abruptly froze, and the Spiritual Qi surging within his body churned like boiling water.
Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to pounce towards a hidden compartment in the hall pillar. The qingmu spirit pearl illuminated a bronze casket suspended within the compartment — precisely the secret treasure Su Li had desperately protected three years ago.
"How dare you!" Ye Wuchen roared, and his Natal Flying Sword transformed into a streak of light, heading straight for Lu Qingyang's back.
In the nick of time, the ancient bronze mirror thrown by Su Li refracted the Tribulation Fire, and a tongue of fire from the Red Dragon swallowed the sword light.
The moment Lu Qingyang's fingertips touched the bronze casket, the hourglass within the pearl exploded with a roar, and the stagnant river of time unleashed a surging tide.
Countless images flooded his Sea of Consciousness: three hundred years ago, a Taiyi Pavilion Elder sacrificed a hundred thousand Mortals with their blood to refine Tribulation Fire; eighty years ago, the Old Drunkard stole the qingmu spirit pearl and was branded with a Soul-Chasing Mark; three days ago, Su Li deliberately led him to break through a weak point in the Ancestral Master Hall's Formation...
Lu Qingyang bled from his seven orifices, yet he laughed wildly as he tore open the Seal of the bronze casket: "So, all of you have long treated Mr. Lu as a chess piece!"
What burst from the casket was not a secret treasure, but a pulsating ball of Three Calamities Fire Essence.
The moment the Fire Essence lunged towards Ye Wuchen's brow, Lu Qingyang shook seven Illusory Talismans from his sleeve — from the ashes of the burning talismans, seven figures identical to him emerged.
Each illusion held a fragment of the bronze casket and fled in a different direction.
By the time Su Li's flowing cloud sleeve caught his true body, Lu Qingyang had already escaped a hundred miles by using the earth's pulse, which had been scorched through by the Fire Essence.
He slumped in an unnamed cave, looking at the charred bronze fragment in his palm with a bitter smile: "What a clever move, killing three birds with one stone: destroying Taiyi Pavilion's Foundation, refining the spirit pearl with Tribulation Fire, and finally, letting Ye Wuchen take the blame..."
The qingmu spirit pearl suddenly trembled violently, and the spiritual mist in the medicinal field within the pearl condensed into the illusion of a Pill Furnace.
Lu Qingyang inwardly examined his Dantian, discovering that a cracked Golden Core had formed within the Qi Sea vortex — the Three Calamities Fire Essence absorbed in the earlier chaos was now furiously clashing with the qingmu essence.
"Three steps to Kan, five steps to Xun..." He murmured Su Li's prompt repeatedly, and suddenly, inspiration struck.
Using his finger as a pen, he carved a remnant of the Taiyi Azure Sky Record onto the cave wall. When the last stroke fell, the Pill Furnace within the pearl exploded with a roar, and the gushing Spiritual Qi condensed into a miniature thundercloud on the cave ceiling.
When the first Lightning Tribulation struck, Lu Qingyang pressed the spirit pearl to his chest.
The flow of time drastically changed; one breath outside was ten days within the pearl.
He watched with his own eyes as the Golden Core shed its Impurities through hundreds of shattering and reassembling cycles. When the ninth Lightning Tribulation transformed into a Fire Phoenix and dove down, the hourglass within the pearl finally ran out of flowing sand, and a solidified Pill pattern depicting the qingmu spirit pearl totem emerged.
Outside the cave, approaching footsteps suddenly sounded. Lu Qingyang spat out a mouthful of clotted blood and pulled out the Nine-Ringed Saber he had stripped from the Black Heart Tiger three years ago.
When the blade reflected the face of the approaching person, his pupils constricted — it was actually the Taiyi Pavilion Enforcement Elder, who should have already passed away, his Daoist robe still clinging with the embers of the Tribulation Fire.
"What a 'Green Dust Seeking Dao'." The elder clapped his hands and laughed heartily. The bronze mirror that slipped from his sleeve reflected the spirit pearl pattern on Lu Qingyang's Golden Core.
"Three Calamities for Body Refining, nine tribulations for forming the Pill. This method of refining is far more interesting than that child Ye Wuchen's..."