Chapter 144: Avatar Outside the Body

Ten Thousand Demons Heavenly Absolute Poison Valley

"The four of you shall take turns standing watch here, and there must be no mistakes whatsoever. You must ensure that the flames within the cauldron reach the Qian position and refine the human pill; this old man will naturally not treat the four of you unfairly!" The Poison King said with a smile, instructing the four disciples standing before him.

"We accept your command, Master, please rest assured." Zeng Yanhui, Xing Shujun, Qin Bai, and Suo Mingchuan replied in unison. These four were the renowned chief disciples of the Absolute Poison Valley, each harboring bizarre and treacherous poisonous arts. Yet now, they were personally serving as stoking boys at the sacrificial refining altar to forge a human pill. Though the four felt doubts in their hearts, none dared to question him.

Although opportunities to refine human pills were rare in the past, they had occurred a few times. Usually, the process was completed in a few days, and the resulting human pill, when matched with other pills and spiritual ingredients, could yield several rare poisonous pills.

The disciples were all guessing which kind of pill the Poison King intended to refine. The old man paced up to the Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron, pointed with a crooked finger, and said, "This person is different from the past. You must use the Heavenly Heart Flame to refine him for forty-nine days without interruption. I still have to prepare several other batches of medicine, and recently external enemies will come to disturb our sect. You must not be distracted and should focus entirely on refining the pill! Begin!"

"Yes!" The four disciples bowed and accepted the order, finally understanding why their master required the four of them to personally refine the pill. Eldest Disciple Zeng Yanhui pondered slightly and said, "Junior brothers, in that case, we shall rotate every twelve hours, how about that?"

"Everything shall be decided by the Eldest Senior Brother," said the other three.

"Very well, Junior Brother Shujun, you and I shall open the furnace first. Third Junior Brother, Fourth Junior Brother, you may go about your business for now," Zeng Yanhui instructed.

"It is no trouble; let us wait until the senior brothers open the furnace first," Qin Bai laughed.

Suo Mingchuan also nodded in agreement, and none of the four left.

The Poison King watched from the side with a smile, nodding to express his utmost satisfaction. These four disciples were his greatest capital to rely upon. The reason the Absolute Poison Valley could stand among the top ten of the seventy-six cavern dwellings was precisely because these few possessed extraordinary methods and understood his intentions well. Only thus were master and disciples of one heart, standing unique and unmatched.

Zeng Yanhui and Xing Shujun stood on either side of the Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron. This massive cauldron stood over two zhang tall, its entire body shaped like a Buddha's belly, with three legs and two ears. Its internal structure was complex, allowing mechanisms to be opened to refine nine sets of spiritual ingredients simultaneously without mutual interference. Outside the cauldron were push-pull handles and liquid grooves for easy operation, and the design of the top lid was exceptionally exquisite. Through a system of pipes and mechanisms, the poisonous gas generated during the pill-refining process could be directly discharged outside the mountain wall above their heads.

The two glanced at each other and simultaneously formed incantation seals, gazing intently at the divine cauldron. *Whoosh—* Blazing flames surged upward, burning all the way up to the "Qian" position at seven-eighths of the cauldron before stopping.

"Mmm! This will do." The Poison King nodded with satisfaction, flicked his large sleeve, and left the sacrificial refining altar.

"The Arhat Annihilation Pill still requires three rare treasures. Hmm, I shall make a trip to the Medicine King Ridge to see if I can beg for those three spiritual ingredients." Overjoyed, the Poison King transformed into a streak of dark light and soared into the air.

Inside the sacrificial refining altar, Zeng Yanhui and Xing Shujun whiled away the time attending to the furnace while communicating through secret voice transmissions.

"Eldest Senior Brother, what kind of person do you suppose is being refined in this cauldron? To think it requires even you and me to do it personally." Xing Shujun had a dark complexion, a tall and thin build, and wore a brown robe. He looked somewhat listless, yet his eyes flashed with sharp brilliance.

Zeng Yanhui possessed a dignified appearance and wore a scholar's robe, resembling a gentleman of upright character. He chuckled softly at this and replied, "Junior brother, do not guess blindly. Since it is Master's strict command, you and I need only obey. The person inside here is certainly no ordinary figure; it might well be a sect leader of the righteous path."

"A sect leader? Eldest Senior Brother, what you say makes sense. When Master and the others went out into the world this time, I heard rumors from Cavern Master Liangzi of the Black Blood Cavern and others that they were precisely going to deal with the leaders of the Taoist and Buddhist sects. Who is to say the person inside here isn't one of them?" Xing Shujun said.

Zeng Yanhui laughed again, teasingly saying, "Alright, stop letting your imagination run wild. I was just speaking casually, yet you took it seriously. Do you remember that person Master brought back a few days ago? He didn't look like a big shot at all. If my guess is correct, he is the one suffering in this furnace right now."

"Uh..." Xing Shujun was dumbfounded and speechless. He stared at the furnace and strained his ears to listen for a moment, but there was no movement whatsoever.

Zeng Yanhui sat cross-legged and reminded him, "Focus, and be careful controlling the flame!"

"Oh," Xing Shujun acknowledged, then also sat cross-legged. The two sat facing each other at a distance, each extending a finger, letting the flames continue to spew forth...

Inside the Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron, Lin Feng, who was unconscious, gradually felt the surroundings become exceptionally stifling and increasingly hot. Sweat continuously accumulated, only to be immediately vaporized into steam, making breathing more and more difficult.

His consciousness soon awakened from the chaos, though his eyes remained difficult to open. He hurriedly inspected his inflamed heart and dantian; the twenty-four-petal lotus leaves and the golden core were both wrapped in a web-like black Qi and a ring of yellow radiance, cutting off all connection with his body.

"Damn it, what kind of restriction is this? Right, the Primordial Yellow Daoist Ancestor! The sarira of Venerable Jiyuan! Master!..." In an instant, he remembered everything that had happened, and his eyes snapped wide open!

"A pill furnace!" His current predicament left him aghast. Looking closer, he felt even more terrified, his heart pounding wildly. He was completely stark naked, lying flat and straight inside the sealed pill furnace.

What was most terrifying was that the Xuanheng Jade Bi and the Glazed Buddha Beads had all been stripped away. Precious items such as the Water-Mirror Disc, the Stone Tiger, the Tuotian fragments, and the *Lotus Division Scripture* were all lost. Overnight, he had plummeted from a wealthy man to a death row inmate, thoroughly reduced to a pauper!

"Heavenly Heart Flame! They are trying to refine me into a pill!" Feeling the terrifying temperature within the pill furnace, Lin Feng sat up in shock. The mechanisms inside the Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron were all retracted into the ceiling at this moment, leaving a spacious area capable of holding three or five people.

"Hey, Eldest Senior Brother, there's movement inside. Nine chances out of ten, that person has been burned awake..." Xing Shujun laughed.

"Mmm, steady the flames; do not be impatient for success," Zeng Yanhui said with a slight nod.

Refining a human pill required strict control over the heat, ensuring the furnace was heated evenly, much like roasting sweet potatoes in winter. Slow-refined over a low flame, it took a long time, ultimately condensing all the essence into an amber-colored pill to be considered a complete success.

Inside the pill furnace, Lin Feng forced his mind to calm down as he pondered a method to break free. The first thing he had to do was shatter the black and yellow magical restrictions on his inflamed heart and golden core. Only then could he burst out of the cauldron and kill the fire-controller outside.

Although the Heavenly Heart Flame was fierce, in the past, Lin Feng would never have feared this level of burning. But now that his entire cultivation base was bound, apart from having tendons, bones, and muscles stronger than an ordinary person's, he had no advantage whatsoever against these blazing flames.

If he could not break the dual restrictions within his body in a short time, death would be his only outcome!

Faced with the doom of being turned into a spiritual pill, he laughed bitterly while his thoughts raced. Most of the knowledge inherited from Venerable Jiyuan had not yet been digested and absorbed; organizing and fusing these thoughts would take at least several years. Lin Feng hurriedly filtered out the trivial parts, tense and extremely fast in his search for Buddhist techniques or insights to break the restrictions.

At a time like this, a shred of insight might just be of great help. He knew that one of these two restrictions must have been left by the Primordial Yellow Daoist Ancestor; even at his peak, he could not break this restriction, and could only pin his hopes on the Buddhist treasure sarira left behind by Jiyuan.

"Great Compassion Buddha Handprint!" "Fuduo Arhat Palm!" "Burning Wood Sword Technique!" "Indestructible Golden Body!" "Akasagarbha Bodhisattva Sutra!" "Purifying World White Lotus Sutra!" These top-tier techniques left Lin Feng clicking his tongue in astonishment. However, right now he had no time to practice them, not even time to look closely! This feeling was just like entering a mountain of treasures and discovering a huge stash, only to face imminent doom where he couldn't carry a single one away and had to fight desperately to escape.

"Escape! Isn't what I am doing right now precisely trying to escape this pill cauldron?"

Suddenly, he caught a trace of something. That's right! Escape! As long as either the golden core or the inflamed heart lotus leaves could break free from their restraints, the other problem would be solved effortlessly. But the question was, how to escape? These two fellows had never moved their positions; how could they break free like a person?

Amidst a whirlwind of thoughts, the flames beneath him grew hotter and hotter. His hair had long since turned to ash, and his skin seemed to have become tender and soft; a little more roasting and he would be half-cooked.

"A flower is a world, a step is a lotus blossom."

Ethereal and melodious Buddhist chanting suddenly came from his sea of consciousness. In that instant, billions of rays of light bloomed, piercing outward from within his body!

"Master Jiyuan!" At that moment, Lin Feng felt Venerable Jiyuan's compassionate, serene, and boundless breadth of mind, along with his pure, limitless Buddhist magical power and divine abilities.

Following the billions of rays of light, within the sea of consciousness, white lotus flowers emerged untainted, spreading out into the boundless void as if they were tangible.

"A step is a lotus blossom... What on earth does it mean?" Deeply engraving this wondrous phenomenon into his mind, he seemed to feel his consciousness grow clearer and stronger, faintly showing signs of overflowing. Driven by this wondrous realm, the twenty-four-petal lotus leaves of the inflamed heart trembled slightly, as if brushed by a breeze.

"Ah! How foolish! Without cultivating the Nascent Soul, the golden core can certainly not leave the body; only this inflamed heart can be utilized!"

"A step is a lotus blossom, lotus blossom, Buddhism! The *Lotus Division Scripture*!" A series of thoughts connected in succession, instantly bringing a sense of open skies. The inflamed heart lotus leaves slowly unfurled, leaping with joy.

A familiar feeling rushed into his heart, and Lin Feng understood completely. He gradually entered a state of neither thought nor non-thought, meditating upon the fire of the inflamed heart with his hands forming the posture of holding an infant. Suddenly, faint Buddhist chants and incantations seemed to come from the edge of the horizon!

The twenty-four-petal red lotus suddenly vanished and reappeared, shaking off the entanglement of the black Qi and yellow ring to present itself before him.

Red radiance circulated, seven-colored ripples blossomed, and the twenty-four-petal inflamed heart lotus leaves transformed into flocculent dragon claws that gently rippled. A Buddhist maxim encircled the void, solemn and dazzling!

"Manjusaka!"

Lin Feng's eyes were like lightning, looking in pleasant surprise at the Buddhist flower that had reappeared in form.

Manjusaka, the avatar of the flesh! Having undergone thousands of trials, it finally reappeared in the world.

With a thought, this flower broke into his body, and the scorching red radiance drove straight down, instantly sweeping away the turbid demonic Qi. The brilliance of the golden core burst forth anew, and his limbs and bones were filled with infinite power.

"Eldest Senior Brother, did you hear anything?" The Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron was exceptionally thick, but the strange noises and light inside still startled the two outside.

"It's probably just the flames refining that person; there's no need to make a fuss!" Zeng Yanhui said coldly.

Xing Shujun uttered an "oh" and did not bring it up again.

Lin Feng inside the Myriad-Stream Divine Cauldron had calmed down by now. He raised his hand and struck out a handprint, which then underwent myriad transformations. Handprints surged forth like a spring, and a faint phantom resembling a peacock spreading its tail appeared behind him—the Buddhist Great Compassion Buddha Handprint!