Volume 4 Chapter 14

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Volume 4 Chapter 14: Success

A violent energy was constantly tearing apart Xu Qingfan’s body, while a gentler force was healing him. Amidst this continuous tearing and healing, some unknown changes began happening to Xu Qingfan’s body.

At this time, Xu Qingfan had to tightly guard his Divine Sense to avoid being disturbed by the wailing, while circulating Wood-type Spirit Qi to nourish his body, and organizing his Phoenix Spirit Qi to resist the attack of dead energy in the red liquid. Amidst intense pain and the demand to focus on multiple tasks, Xu Qingfan couldn’t sense the strange changes happening in his body.

Just when Xu Qingfan thought he could rely on his Phoenix Spirit Qi and strong endurance to safely withstand the dangers of the secret method, even beginning to think that the danger of using the secret method wasn’t so severe, a sudden change occurred.

The original violently destructive energy, as if provoked by Xu Qingfan’s continually healing body, suddenly began to destroy his body with a fierceness a hundred times greater than usual. At the same time, the ghostly wails in Xu Qingfan’s ears and the dead energy eroding his body intensified rapidly.

Under immense pain, Xu Qingfan’s Divine Sense relaxed for a moment, and the wailing quickly began to affect his Divine Sense. In the midst of the wailing, Xu Qingfan’s eyes gradually began to glaze over.

But this state of confusion lasted only for an instant, and sensing the danger, Xu Qingfan quickly snapped awake, swiftly gathering his Divine Sense to firmly protect his consciousness.

However, in that brief lapse, a gap appeared in the Phoenix Spirit Qi’s defenses, allowing the seemingly endless dead energy to break through and invade Xu Qingfan’s body extensively.

The power of this deadly energy was so immense, carrying an unimaginable corrosive aura, that once it touched Xu Qingfan’s body, it immediately began to wither. The life force, already being gradually destroyed, quickly faded away.

Not only was the deadly energy incredibly powerful, but its speed of corrosion was also exceptionally swift. By the time Xu Qingfan realized something was wrong, half of his body had already been eroded by it.

When Xu Qingfan tried to organize Phoenix Spirit Qi to resist and dispel it, the deadly energy, which had occupied most of his body, became unstoppable, easily suppressing the Phoenix Spirit Qi he had painstakingly gathered.

Initially, although Xu Qingfan’s body was in excruciating pain during the transformation, it at least still had sensations.

But as the deadly energy corroded him, the affected parts felt like they vanished from Xu Qingfan’s body, leaving no trace of feeling.

Xu Qingfan found himself longing for the previous pain.

He knew that once his body lost all sensation, it meant the numb parts had lost all vitality and function.

"Am I really about to die?"

Although Xu Qingfan continued to desperately gather his Phoenix Spirit Qi to fight back, the overwhelming strength of the deadly energy made his heart sink into despair.

Liu Huaxiang, who was busy casting a secret spell on Xu Qingfan, noticed Xu Qingfan’s body wilting and his face turning an ashen gray. He felt something was wrong, but his power was less than a third of his peak strength, and he had to maintain the spell, unable to stop and help Xu Qingfan. He could only worry in silence.

Despite the aggressive deathly aura, Xu Qingfan constantly resisted with Phoenix Spirit Qi. Although Phoenix Spirit Qi was the nemesis of this aura, Xu Qingfan’s body was severely damaged, and the amount he could use was greatly reduced. It was far less than the encroaching aura. Before long, the endless aura had completely eroded the Phoenix Spirit Qi and then began to invade Xu Qingfan’s internal organs.

With no other choice, Xu Qingfan organized the Wood-type Spirit Qi within him. However, Wood-type Spirit Qi’s powerful vitality was restrained by the aura, and it was quickly overwhelmed.

With no other options, Xu Qingfan had to use the only remaining Wither Qi in his body for defense.

Because of the nature of Wither Qi, Xu Qingfan had previously kept it protected in his dantian. Compared to Wood-type Spirit Qi and Phoenix Spirit Qi, Wither Qi was much more abundant and could match the amount of the aura.

Even so, Xu Qingfan’s heart grew more desperate. He was less adept at using Wither Qi compared to the other types. More importantly, while Wither Qi didn’t have the corrosive nature of the aura, its desolate energy was nearly as potent. Xu Qingfan didn’t have much confidence in using Wither Qi to resist the aura.

However, Xu Qingfan’s turning point was precisely this Wither Qi, which he had long feared as a ticking time bomb.

When Wither Qi and the aura touched, the violent clash Xu Qingfan expected did not happen. Perhaps due to their similar nature, they passed through each other without interference.

Witnessing this scene, Xu Qingfan was shocked. Didn’t this mean the aura could freely erode his internal organs?

In his heart, Xu Qingfan was extremely anxious. He exerted all his strength to control the Wither Qi within him, forcing it to fight off the encroaching death aura.

However, since the death aura and Wither Qi were so similar in nature, despite Xu Qingfan’s best efforts, he could only use Wither Qi to surround the death aura.

Yet, the Wither Qi and death aura seemed unwilling to attack each other, intertwining effortlessly once more. Helpless, Xu Qingfan could only use Wither Qi to block again.

At this moment, even a brief delay in the death aura’s advance was beneficial.

Amidst this constant blocking and intertwining, Xu Qingfan was surprised to find that the death aura within him had gradually decreased while the amount of Wither Qi increased. More importantly, the Wither Qi had slowly acquired a corrosive function originally unique to the death aura.

What shocked Xu Qingfan was that although he cultivated the Wither Qi himself, this new corrosive function affected even his own body.

However, compared to the death aura, the level of corrosion was much reduced.

Perceiving these changes, Xu Qingfan was alarmed, and his thoughts raced rapidly as he soon understood the reason. It was likely that while he was forcibly commanding the Wither Qi to block the invasion of the death aura, or perhaps because their essences were similar, a part of the death aura had merged with his Wither Qi, leading to an increase in Wither Qi and a decrease in death aura.

Even though it incorporated the death aura, the Wither Qi inevitably inherited its corrosive power. This corrosive ability was so overbearing that it didn’t spare even its master’s body.

Although Xu Qingfan was terrified, he only paused for a moment and then, without hesitation, continued to control the Wither Qi to forcibly block the merging of the death aura. After all, the mutated Wither Qi would corrode his body too, but to a much lesser extent than the death aura.

Thus, by constantly stopping and merging, the death aura gradually decreased while the Wither Qi increased, and the merging process became faster and faster. Finally, just before the death aura could corrode Xu Qingfan’s heart, Wither Qi completely fused and refined all the death aura within the red liquid. However, Wither Qi also gained strong corrosive abilities, although not as intense as the death aura. Under Xu Qingfan’s strong control, the damage to his body became minimal, but over time, it would still be a threat.

At this moment, Xu Qingfan couldn’t afford to care about these concerns. After managing to fuse and refine the death aura, he immediately began to use his Divine Sense to examine his body, and the results made him smile bitterly.

At this point, about two-thirds of his body had been invaded and corroded by the death aura.

Could it be that I am destined to fail this time?

Just as Xu Qingfan was in despair, his body’s transformation continued. A violent energy kept tearing apart Xu Qingfan’s corroded body, while another energy reassembled the torn pieces. The medicinal power from the black pills Xu Qingfan had taken before continuously nourished the reassembled parts, restoring vitality and life.

After a long while, Xu Qingfan was pleasantly surprised to discover that the reassembled parts of his body had regained sensation!

This time, it was all thanks to Liu Huaxiang’s careful planning. The pills he gave Xu Qingfan, although made with cruel methods and materials, had strong medicinal properties that could quickly restore a cultivator’s vitality after injury.

Normally, with Xu Qingfan’s phoenix constitution, his body’s vitality was already far greater than that of ordinary people, so these black pills wouldn’t have mattered either way. However, to prevent any mishaps, Liu Huaxiang had still prepared these pills, which increased the chances of success by a little.

This time, it was thanks to his carefulness that Xu Qingfan was able to save his little life. Otherwise, the Phoenix Spirit Qi inside him would have been completely gone, and the phoenix traits in his body greatly reduced. The Wood-type Spirit Qi was entirely exhausted as well, and even if his body could rebuild itself, it could never maintain its previous vitality and functions.

Thus, the two forces within the red liquid constantly tore apart and rebuilt Xu Qingfan’s body. Without the attack of the death aura, Xu Qingfan only needed to firmly guard his Divine Sense from the interference of the ghostly wails, and endure the excruciating pain of his body being destroyed and rebuilt. For a time, it eased a fair bit.

However, despite this, the piercing ghostly wails and the recurring agony in his body still made Xu Qingfan feel like time was passing extraordinarily slowly.

In this cycle of repeated tearing and rebuilding, Xu Qingfan had no idea how much time had passed, nor how many times his body had been torn apart and rebuilt during this time. He was powerless to detect what changes occurred in his body amidst this process, only feeling that as time went on, the two forces in the red liquid seemed to be gradually waning, with the speed of tearing and rebuilding slowing down.

Finally, after completely destroying Xu Qingfan’s body one last time, the violent energy never appeared again, and after reconstructing Xu Qingfan’s body once more, the other energy disappeared completely.

In the mysterious big vat, the red liquid completely turned into ordinary clear water.

Seeing that Xu Qingfan safely survived this mystical transformation, Liu Huaxiang let out a long sigh of relief, only to realize that his clothes were drenched in cold sweat—a rarity indeed for a cultivator.

"Kid, I don’t know the effect of this transformation, but congratulations, you successfully made it through."

Upon hearing Liu Huaxiang’s words, Xu Qingfan’s nerves, which had been tightly wound and enduring torment, suddenly relaxed. Although it hadn’t seemed long, Xu Qingfan felt as if he had fought countless battles, exhausted beyond measure. Without even having the chance to greet Liu Huaxiang, he completely passed out in the big vat.

…

The faint, almost nonexistent sunlight of the setting sun slipped through the cracks of the thatched hut, casting a glow on Liu Huaxiang’s aged face, making him appear even more like a man approaching the twilight of his life.

Gazing at Xu Qingfan, who lay unconscious in bed, Liu Huaxiang let out a slow sigh, yet a small, contented smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

Three months ago, on the entire day he performed the secret ritual, the tension he felt was no less than when facing off against Zhang Xusheng.

Thankfully, Xu Qingfan, with his perseverance and an inexplicable stroke of luck, managed to safely overcome this crisis. Reflecting on it now, Liu Huaxiang still felt as if it were a lifetime ago.

Could it be that Xu Qingfan truly succeeded? Had he really become one of those less than thirty percent who were fortunate?

Only when he looked at Xu Qingfan’s serene expression in his deep sleep could Liu Huaxiang feel a sense of reality.

Having lived for over a thousand years, always striving for immortality and the wellbeing of Jiuhua Mountain, it wasn’t until the brink of death that Liu Huaxiang realized he had found a grandfatherly affection for Xu Qingfan.

However, although Xu Qingfan successfully overcame the transformation, the immense mental and physical exhaustion led him into a profound coma, from which he had not awakened for three months.

But Liu Huaxiang reckoned that after a full three months of rest, Xu Qingfan was about to wake up.

Coincidentally, just as Liu Huaxiang thought this, Xu Qingfan’s eyelids twitched slightly and then slowly opened.