Once the Eternal cultivators got onto the Bridge of Coping, they no longer needed Ning Cheng’s encouragement. They directly jumped off the bridge to rush into the blood river. The yin winds billowing on the bridge even affected quite a few Dao Sculpting Holy Emperors. Therefore, they also walked off the bridge and into the blood river after a moment of confused hesitation.

  A few Dao Sculpting cultivators came to their senses when they jumped down into the blood river. But they couldn’t do anything but scream out in misery. On the other hand, Ning Cheng remained emotionless and wouldn’t let any of them go just because they begged for mercy.

  Disregarded that these people wanted to grab Yan Ji and forced her into a coma, his breakthrough had exposed almost his secrets. As such, Ning Cheng could never let these people live; if he spared even one of them, there was a good chance that Ning Cheng would end up besieged and torn to shreds in the next moment.

  “I’m Mu Yuxiong of the Mu Clan. If you dare kill me……” Mu Yuxiong shouted frantically the moment he came to his senses.

  A cold smile of disdain finally appeared at the corners of Ning Cheng’s mouth. His light tone, devoid of any emotions, fell on Mu Yuxiong’s ears the next moment. “I even dared to kill Man Huishan’s son, Man Jiuren. So who the hell do you think your Mu Clan is?”


  Shock appeared in Mu Yuxiong’s eyes as he opened his mouth to shout, “You……”


  Unfortunately, that was the end of his words as the rolling rivers of blood swept him away. The only thing one could see on his face was an endless sense of regret. He never imagined that he would end up forfeiting his little life in a small trash place like Furnace Sands.

  After so many cultivators jumped off the Bridge of Coping, the first bridge of the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique became more solid. Ning Cheng, however, felt slightly overwhelmed and drained. Even if he had succeeded in achieving dao enlightenment, it wasn’t an easy task for him to control the Bridge of Coping and kill so many cultivators at once. Especially when his dao rhythm hadn’t stabilised yet.

  The Dao Raising Holy Emperor kept hovering on the bridge while showing a struggling expression as if he wasn’t willing to jump off. In the end, he even began to turn around, wanting to rush out of the Bridge of Coping.

  Ning Cheng gave a cold snort, and his Sea of Consciousness stimulated the Seven Bridges Realm Book. The next moment, yin winds started rolling over like raging waves over a turbulent sea.

  From underneath the bridge, a netherworld-like voice emerged once again, “No hope for a home, no reincarnation, only a river of blood to wash away the sins……”


  The Dao Raising Holy Emperor’s expression showed even more struggle. Ning Cheng frowned. He knew that the difference in strength between himself and his opponent was somewhat significant. Nevertheless, Ning Cheng wanted to force the Dao Raising Holy Emperor to jump into the blood river. In truth, without the incomparable Seven Bridges Spirit Technique, he wouldn’t be able to trap this Dao Raising Holy Emperor.

  Thinking of this, Ning Cheng no longer had the patience to wait. He rushed onto the Bridge of Coping and punched down at him. “Get the hell down.”


  The violent winds raked up by the fist completely scattered the surrounding yin winds., causing the concentrated spirit essence to rush towards this Dao Raising Holy Emperor like a tsunami. The Dao Raising Holy Emperor came to his senses in this instant. Unfortunately, he had no time to counteract and could only put his hands in front of him to block the punch.

  “Boom……” Spirit essence exploded on contact, shaking the pale white stone arch bridge incessantly.

  A powerful backlash erupted, and Ning Cheng spurted out a mouthful of blood. However, that punch also managed to push the Dao Raising Holy Emperor out of the bridge. He fell into the rolling blood river, never making another sound.

  Ning Cheng immediately raised his hand and put away the Bridge of Coping while feeling a little excited in his heart. Not long ago, he was still a mole who had to run away from Dao Sculpting cultivators. But now, he had blown away an early-stage Dao Raising expert into the river of blood with a single punch.

  Although this punch had the help of the Bridge of Coping, it was still quite effective even without it. One must know that he had just shaped his dao and hadn’t even stabilised his dao rhythm or foundation yet.

  In general, a Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor couldn’t take out a Dao Raising Holy Emperor. In theory, it was a feat hundred times tougher than an Eternal cultivator taking out a Dao Sculpting expert. But today, he did it. With the strength of a newly promoted Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor, he had finished off an early-stage Dao Raising Holy Emperor.

  However, when Ning Cheng looked down and saw the silent Yan Ji in his arms, the elation he felt from his newfound power dissipated without a trace.

  “9-Revolving-Sacred-Dao-Pond……” Ning Cheng spat out these words one by one. But he also knew that if he hadn’t gone to the 9-Revolving Sacred Dao Pond to confirm something, he would have gained false enlightenment regarding Returning-to-one Dao.

  Ning Cheng tilted his head up and roared, roared like an enraged beast emerging from the depths of insanity.

  It was a long and intense roar to blow off the long-standing stagnation. Ning Cheng had waited and gone through countless hardships to prove his Returning-to-One Dao. The roar encompassed the feeling of opening an unprecedented path of shaping his dao from the essence spirit to the physical body. But more importantly, it was mainly for Yan Ji’s suffering.

  A stirring spacial fluctuation came from afar, and Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness immediately swept over. Sky-rushing pillars of fire appeared in Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness along with countless cultivators surrounding the pillars of fire.

  Pill flame and pill rhythm?

  As a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity, Ning Cheng quickly realised some things from the dao rhythm surrounding the pillar of fire. For a pill flame to produce such an intense dao rhythm, it also hinted at the accomplishments of the alchemist who used this pill flame. He also understood that this particular alchemist had a deep understanding of the Dao of Alchemy. But more importantly, this type of dao rhythm would only come into existence after the alchemist used this pill flame to produce incalculable kinds of pills.

  I can’t miss out on such a pill flame. Ning Cheng thought and immediately decided to grab that pill flame.

  Ning Cheng confirmed that Yan Ji had not fallen, but rather had fallen into a deep state of coma with her senses cut off from the world. Ning Cheng believed he wouldn’t have any problem trying to save Yan Ji with his Alchemy level. Unfortunately, it would take up quite some time.

  This pill flame seemed to have just obtained a dao rhythm. Still, if Ning Cheng got it, his Alchemy level would definitely go up by another step. In any case, the higher his Alchemy level, the more beneficial it would be for helping Yan Ji.

  However, Ning Cheng didn’t immediately head out. Instead, he removed the thin jade strip on Yan Ji’s neck. The jade strip had a crack in it, but Ning Cheng understood with a glance that it was a pendant to cover up Yan Ji’s Heavenly Fragrance Body.

  Even though he couldn’t refine such a pendant, he could at least repair it to its original state, considering his attainments in artefact refinement and dao of formations.

  In half an incense stick worth of time, Ning Cheng finished repairing the jade piece. He put the jade piece back on Yan Ji’s body before securing her to his back and rushing towards where he found the pill fire in the Black and White Mountain Range.

  The number of cultivators who had left after Mu Yuxiong found Yan Ji’s Heavenly Fragrance Body earlier were just a minority. Most of the cultivators stayed here observing the eruption of pill flame, waiting for it to calm down so that they could go and grab something.

  Therefore, Ning Cheng’s arrival here didn’t attract anyone’s attention at all. Ning Cheng was just another person for the cultivators next to this pill flame to compete against.

  Was there a supreme pill furnace here? Ning Cheng noticed something as soon as he arrived. He had refined countless pills, so he naturally felt the aura of a pill furnace as soon as he arrived. Not only did he sense the aura of the pill furnace, but he also sensed that this pill flame was connected to the furnace’s core.

  The pill furnace that Ning Cheng had been using was the Traceless Furnace, which he considered a top-tier furnace. Unfortunately, once Ning Cheng started to refine spirit-grade pills, the Traceless Furnace could no longer keep up as it did earlier.

  Ning Cheng could craft spirit-grade pill furnaces with his artefact-crafting skills. But it would take a long time for the furnace to reach Traceless’s level, let alone go beyond it. Besides, his artefact-crafting level was only ordinary within the Grand Essence Realm and focussed solely on weapons.

  Moreover, the most crucial characteristic of a pill furnace was its dao rhythm, which couldn’t be reproduced through artefact-crafting. Rather, it was something that coalesced after refining pills with the furnace for a long time. Thus, the more pills one refined with it, the stronger the dao rhythm it would produce.

  After sensing the fragrance and dao rhythm, many cultivators sat down on their knees and tried to comprehend it. However, many stared at the pillars of fire in front of them with greed. They all were waiting for the flame to weaken. Once it happened, they would immediately rush in and try to snatch whatever they could.

  “I just have some simple wishes. As long as I can obtain a bottle of spirit pills, I’ll be satisfied. As for Dao Pills, if there’s one……”


  “This pill furnace definitely is a spacial artefact; maybe it even contains some dao fruits inside. Otherwise, how could it produce such a pill fragrance? Now that the pill furnace and pill fire both appeared, it pretty much solidifies the legend of the pill sage of the Black and White Mountains.”
……

  The chatter around let Ning Cheng know that this place was the Black and White Mountains. And that this Black and White Mountains had formed because of a pill refining attempt. The pill sage used this furnace and flame to refine a batch of pills back then, but it failed, and he left in anger.

  As soon as the words ‘pill sage’ came up, Ning Cheng immediately thought back to Pill Sage Min Kong. It’s just that he had never met Pill Sage Min Kong, nor had he received the legacy of Pill Sage Min Kong. However, the Empyrean Consciousness Transformation Pill derived from the jade strips left behind by Pill Sage Min Kong had benefited him immensely. Otherwise, even if he could come up with the recipe for the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, it would have taken him more than a few decades. He couldn’t deny that he only managed to refine the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill so quickly because he stood on the shoulders of Pill Sage Min Kong’s experience.

  Now another pill sage had appeared here, and one with a seemingly complete and untouched Alchemy heritage. It even included a pill furnace and pill flame. Considering all of it, Ning Cheng secretly determined in his heart to snatch this pill furnace.

  His spiritual consciousness swept the surroundings and found three Dao Raising Holy Emperors. The rest were all below Dao Raising Realm, with quite a lot of Eternal cultivators.

  The flame from the pill furnace still kept burning. However, everyone noticed that it was slowly weakening. Some anxious cultivators even secretly brought out their defensive artefacts, ready to rush down in one go once the time came.

  Another half an hour passed before the pillar of flame finally weakened and started to go down. Although the temperature was still too terrifying, to the Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor here, this temperature wasn’t enough to hinder them.

  Therefore, as soon as the pillars of fire started to die out, several figures rushed down. Then, with a few people leading the way, the rest of the cultivators at or above Dao Sculpting Realm rushed down one after another. Finally, Ning Cheng also followed the many Dao Sculpting experts and rushed into the flames below.

  He had only taken out an ordinary defensive shield and didn’t use any of his other defensive treasures. With Ning Cheng’s current cultivation, the current temperature naturally couldn’t hurt him. Plus, he was also a body-refining cultivator with a perfected Starry Sky Body.

  The reason he took out a shield was to not stand out from the crowd. After all, most of the cultivators here had to bring out powerful defensive artefacts to protect themselves. If he didn’t bring out one, it would immediately attract the crowd’s attention and indicate that the flames here had virtually no effect on him. After all, he wanted to snatch the pill furnace and the pill flame here, without drawing attention, if possible.

  But more importantly, this defensive shield was to protect Yan Ji from the flames, as he couldn’t put her in his True Spirit World or the Mysterious Yellow Bead.

  By the time the many experts rushed below ground, the remnant flames had also died down. Ning Cheng followed after the many cultivators and, in just a minute, landed on a hard surface. To be exact, he landed on one of the feet of a colossal pill furnace.

  Ning Cheng’s gaze swept out and immediately noticed that the pill cauldron lay upside down on the ground. To Ning Cheng’s surprise, this pill cauldron looked precisely like his Traceless Cauldron, not only in shape and design but also with five feet. Even the intricate carvings on the surface looked exactly the same as the ones on Traceless. In observing the furnace, he noticed several cultivators standing on the other feet and the faint pillars of flame surrounding each foot.

  Some of the more astute people had started rushing towards the bottom of the furnace, where its mouth lay. If one wanted to obtain this pill furnace, one had to go through its mouth to reach its core before doing anything.