Chapter 195: The Thunder Tribulation Pill, Understood!
"Roar!"
The thunder dragon roared and rampaged in the distant sky. Within that pair of golden dragon eyes, there was no emotion whatsoever. After all, in its current state, it was purely a form of energy—it did not possess even the slightest bit of intelligence or wisdom.
Jiang Yun gazed at the raging, rampant thunder dragon in the sky and smiled faintly. He could clearly and distinctly feel the violent fury and sheer power of that energy. A Nine Mysterious Golden Thunder comparable to a seven-star Dou Sheng—even with his current strength, Jiang Yun still had to focus and concentrate his spirit to deal with it.
A short while later, Jiang Yun's hand seals shifted. The Saint Demon Flame within his body swept forth like a raging, howling storm. In the blink of an eye, a pitch-black demonic dragon—several times larger than that thunder dragon—appeared in the distant sky.
Though Jiang Yun's cultivation had yet to reach the seven-star Dou Sheng level, in the sky above, the rolling, surging oppressive might emanating from the pitch-black demonic dragon's body was even more formidable, powerful, and profound than the oppressive might of that thunder dragon.
That sensation—it was as if one had encountered the sovereign and emperor of all souls. Only by prostrating and groveling could one hope to avoid being harmed and injured by that oppressive might.
"That little fellow Jiang Yun is truly, unfathomably extraordinary! In just a few short years, he's grown to such a level. I still remember when I first saw him—he was only at the Dou Zun level of cultivation. Who could have imagined that in the mere blink of an eye, he'd already broken through to Dou Sheng? Perhaps in the time it takes for another blink, he'll have reached our level!"
Atop the peak of a mountain about ten li from where Jiang Yun was located, several elderly, aged Taixu Dragon Clan elders wore faces full of wonder and amazement.
"Isn't that just perfect? To rescue His Majesty the Old Dragon Emperor—the more monstrous and heaven-defying Jiang Yun is, the better. And the Princess is about to become the third supreme Dragon Phoenix on this continent. Her husband's cultivation absolutely cannot be too lacking!"
"Cultivation is secondary. What I find even more incomprehensible is the advancement of his alchemy."
"With such scale and grandeur—he should be refining a ninth-tier arcane pill. Such alchemy is truly breathtaking, astonishing beyond belief."
"Jiang Yun not only found and brought back Princess Zi Yan for our clan, but even brought back word of His Majesty. He is truly the lucky star and blessing of our Taixu Ancient Dragon Clan."
As the few of them conversed, the dark demonic dragon within the void opened its enormous maw—like a black hole—and stretched forth from within the clouds. In a single gulp, it devoured and swallowed the Nine Mysterious Golden Thunder.
"Rumble!"
Sensing the danger, every dragon scale on that golden-light thunder dragon's body stood on end. Its giant mouth opened wide, and golden-light thunder spheres, each several hundred zhang wide, were blasted forth one after another. Finally, they smashed ruthlessly into that dragon maw, producing deafening, ear-splitting rumbles and booms.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Terrifying, dreadful thunderbolts—endlessly and continuously—bombarded that pitch-black dragon maw.
Within that dragon maw, black flames erupted and surged forth like a volcanic explosion, making contact with that multitude of thunderbolts in their entirety. Then, devouring power erupted forth, madly and frenziedly devouring and consuming that multitude of thunderbolts.
The pitch-black demonic dragon swam and moved through the golden thunderbolts, sweeping downward with a terrifying, dreadful oppressive might. It directly devoured and swallowed the body of the golden thunder dragon whole.
"Refine—"
The Nine Mysterious Golden Thunder devoured, a fierce, explosive shout suddenly burst from Jiang Yun's mouth. Then, the hand seals in his hands shifted. In the sky above, the black demonic dragon once again transformed into a mass of blazing, burning flames. From within its body came a thunderous, explosive boom.
In the next instant, the thunder dragon burst and exploded. Instantly, it transformed into a great expanse of thick, viscous golden liquid floating in the sky above. Within that golden liquid, overwhelmingly surging, peerlessly powerful energy fluctuations pervaded and saturated.
As the golden liquid appeared, the black flames pervading the sky abruptly began to change. In the blink of an eye, they shifted from black to white. A fiery cauldron a hundred zhang wide abruptly took form. The cauldron lid flew wide open. Suction force surged forth violently. Instantly, that ocean of golden liquid filling the sky—like golden rivers pouring and cascading down from the heavens—fell entirely and completely into the fiery cauldron.
Seeing this, Jiang Yun's expression remained unchanged. With a great sweep of his sleeve, a vast, mighty, overwhelming expanse of over ten thousand medicinal ingredients drifted and flew forth, blanketing the sky, forming an entire sea of medicinal ingredients. The dense, rich medicinal fragrance—with just a single breath, one would be intoxicated and lost within it.
Heaven Realm Great Perfection soul power circulated and operated madly. Within the cauldron, every time the white flames swept and coiled, a great expanse of medicinal ingredients was cleared and swept away. Under such absolutely, supremely precise control, the hundred-plus ingredients swept up each time were all methodically, systematically, and orderly refined into pure, refined medicinal liquids.
In merely half a day's time, the tedious, massive, colossal task of refining over ten thousand medicinal ingredients had already been completed by Jiang Yun alone. And what was more—Jiang Yun felt not the slightest trace of mental or spiritual fatigue.
As the many medicinal essences made contact, a shocking, astonishing energy fluctuation spread forth from within the medicinal cauldron, completely shattering space within a radius of several thousand zhang.
Allowing this fluctuation to spread forth unchecked, Jiang Yun did not suppress or stop it. Instead, his hands formed seals.
"Power of Heaven and Earth—gather!"
As Jiang Yun's shout fell, fierce gales suddenly howled and raged around Ancient Dragon Island. The heaven-and-earth energy within a radius of ten thousand li, under the control of Jiang Yun's soul power, began to be swiftly, rapidly converged and gathered, surging and flooding madly toward the fiery cauldron.
Vast, mighty, colossal heaven-and-earth energy converged and gathered within this stretch of heaven and earth, actually gradually forming an enormous energy storm that spun and roared in the distant sky. The base of the storm connected to the fiery cauldron, like a funnel, extracting and channeling the heaven-and-earth energy into it.
Jiang Yun's hand seals continuously, unceasingly shifted and transformed. His gaze was fixed upon that giant cauldron's interior. At this moment, a brilliantly multi-colored lake of energy had already formed within the giant cauldron.
The waves churning and surging across that lake's surface—even an ordinary Dou Sheng expert, upon encountering them, would be struck and knocked into the lake by those waves, then completely submerged and drowned by the pure, concentrated energy within.
The sheer vastness and immensity of the energy within this lake, compared to an ordinary Dou Sheng, was far, far greater in volume.
The white flames swept and coiled madly, sorting and refining the violent, raging energy within. This was a fine, meticulous, precise process. Jiang Yun was in no hurry. The refinement of a ninth-tier arcane pill could not be completed within a single month.
Jiang Yun sat cross-legged within the void, quietly and silently awaiting the pill's birth.
"That just now... was that the Nihility Devouring Flame?" Just as Jiang Yun was quietly and silently gestating the pill, a voice of puzzlement and doubt emerged from among the crowd of Ancient Dragon Clan elders who were watching and observing.
"The Nihility Devouring Flame is in the Hun clan! That can't be it!"
"How vast and boundless the world is! I've never seen either of Jiang Yun's two heavenly flames on the Heavenly Flame List. Perhaps they're newly born heavenly flames!"
"Cough, cough..." Hearing the discussion and debate of the elders behind him, Zhu Kun gave a light cough and spoke up. "Enough. Enough about the matter of the heavenly flames. In any case, you rough, crude brutes can't make use of them anyway. Why are you so concerned?"
Hearing Zhu Kun's words, the elders who had just been heatedly debating and discussing immediately ceased their discussion. They exchanged glances and looks.
In the end, it was Zhu Ming who was the first to speak up. "True enough. Heavenly flames are things for alchemists to play with. To our clan, they're not even as useful as a pair of fists!"
"Hahaha!" Hearing Zhu Ming's words, great waves and bursts of laughter immediately rang out from the crowd.
Over the month that followed, above Ancient Dragon Island, rumbling thunder rang out all day long. The enormous fiery cauldron hovered and floated high in the distant sky. The white flames that spread and pervaded seized and captured the heart and spirit.
Just then, Jiang Yun abruptly opened his eyes. Ten zhang before him, within that hundred-zhang giant cauldron, golden light pervaded and saturated. The lake of golden liquid had already completely dried up and been depleted.
At the original position of the liquid's center, a pill about the size of a fist, its entire body dazzling and brilliant like pure gold, hovered quietly and silently.
Around the pill, streak after streak of golden thunder continuously, unceasingly seeped and shot forth, producing rumbling, thunderous booms.
Dazzling, blinding radiance spread forth from its surface.
Looking closely, within that endless, boundless radiance, there seemed to be a blurry, indistinct dragon silhouette flickering and moving. A terrifying, dreadful aura spread forth from within the giant cauldron in vast, mighty waves.
"Boom!"
A deafening, thunderous crash rang out from within the fiery cauldron. And at the same time, in the void above Jiang Yun's head, the sky was instantly covered in dense, dark clouds. Dark and oppressive, they shrouded and enveloped the entire Dragon Island. Black thunderbolts, carrying the power of sheer annihilation, shuttled and darted madly through the cloud layers.
The deep, low, rumbling thunder made quite a few of the Ancient Dragon Clan's elders wear expressions of sheer, horrified shock. Such terrifying, dreadful pill lightning—this was the very first time they had seen it in all their lives.
Jiang Yun raised his head and gazed at the black thunderbolts in the sky above. With a fierce, violent flick of his sleeve, the lid of that fiery cauldron was automatically blasted and flipped open.
A pill fragrance so dense it seemed utterly incapable of dissipating rapidly spread and pervaded. Toward the very end, it actually coalesced and condensed into pearl-like granules of different hues and colors. Densely, overwhelmingly packed, they descended from the heavens—like a grand, magnificent rain of pills!
Seeing this scene, a trace of a smile surfaced on Zhu Kun's face. Turning his head, he looked at Zhu Ming beside him. "When the pill rain descends, the arcane pill emerges. That kid Jiang Yun truly didn't disappoint me. Zhu Ming—you'd better keep being this old man's Guard Commander for another few hundred years!"
Hearing Zhu Kun's words, a look of fervent, surging emotion also surfaced on Zhu Ming's face. He spoke softly and quietly, "Alright. I can be Your Majesty's Guard Commander for a lifetime."
"Rumble—"
Streak after streak of pure, refined thunder power poured and cascaded down from the thunderclouds, falling entirely and completely upon that golden, brilliantly, dazzlingly shimmering pill within the fiery cauldron.
"Weng! Weng!"
As these streams of thunder power surged and poured in, the very last, final trace of impurities within that pill was also tempered and refined completely clean.
Instantly, a beam of dazzling, brilliant golden light shot forth violently from within the medicinal cauldron. And the cauldron lid was also forcibly blasted open. The Thunder Tribulation Pill within transformed into a streak of light and shot out, charging toward the distant sky at an astonishing, shocking speed.
"Letting it escape right here in this Emperor's territory—wouldn't that just be a slap to this Emperor's face?"
Before Jiang Yun could even make a move, Zhu Kun's voice, tinged with amusement and laughter, rang out from the distance. In the next instant, his vast, mighty soul power transformed into a giant hand that directly pierced through the void. With a single palm, it seized that fleeing, golden streak of light and captured it.
Then, a pill, its entire body radiating golden light, quietly and silently floated before Jiang Yun just like that.
"It's not yet time to consume you!" Looking at the Thunder Tribulation Pill and feeling the vast, mighty energy within it, Jiang Yun pondered in silence for a moment, then shook his head. Reaching out, he produced a jade bottle from his ring and placed it within.
After putting away the Thunder Tribulation Pill, Jiang Yun's gaze shifted toward the direction of the Central Plains continent. In his heart, he murmured quietly, I wonder, after all this time, what the situation of the various clans is now!
Shaking his head, Jiang Yun temporarily set aside the doubts in his heart and gazed into the distance at Zhu Kun and the others, who were flying over with faces full of smiles.
Just as Jiang Yun was refining pills, the Gu clan's coming-of-age ceremony was smoothly held and completed. Xiao Yan had also defeated the several great geniuses the Gu clan had sent to challenge him, preliminarily gaining the Gu clan's acknowledgment.
After the members of the various clans had departed, at Gu Xun'er's request, Gu Yuan forcibly opened the Heavenly Tomb and sent Xiao Yan and the Gu clan disciples inside.
And after three days of such calm and quiet, a single piece of news was transmitted into the Gu Realm, instantly causing an immense, colossal, heaven-surging uproar.
All of the Gu clan's experts were shocked and stirred into action.
The Yan clan—this imperial clan, whose strength, among all the clans, was second only to the Hun clan and the Gu clan, firmly standing in the second tier—had actually been, without a god's knowledge or a ghost's awareness, completely and utterly annihilated. Not a single living soul had been left behind.
The Gu clan's members instantly felt their hands and feet turn ice-cold. They knew this was not something they themselves had done. Then, only the Hun clan had the strength and capability to accomplish such a thing.
But this kind of method and means of the Hun clan—it had already surpassed and exceeded the Gu clan's own capabilities and sphere of ability. Could it be that the Hun clan was still concealing and hiding an even more terrifying power?!
Within the great hall, the atmosphere heavy and oppressive, a great many of the Gu clan's elders had all hurried over in full attendance. At the head seat, Gu Yuan, his face as dark and heavy as water, gazed down at the elders below and spoke in a deep voice: "Gu Dao—you, give a detailed and specific account of the situation."
To Gu Yuan's left, Gu Dao nodded. Gazing at the crowd within the great hall with a grave, solemn expression, he spoke in a deep voice: "The cause of this matter originated because this time, the Yan clan did not come to attend our clan's coming-of-age ceremony. After the coming-of-age ceremony, I went to the Yan clan to inquire—and discovered that the entire Yan Realm was completely and utterly empty. Not a single one of the tens of millions of the Yan clan's denizens could be seen. It was as if they had all vanished into thin air..."
Even though they had already mentally prepared themselves beforehand, upon hearing Gu Dao describe the situation, the great hall immediately resounded with the successive, continuous sounds of wine cups shattering and exploding. Many elders abruptly raised their heads, their eyes filled with utter, sheer disbelief.
"Clan Leader..." Just then, a voice tinged with terror and fright rang out from outside the great hall. A three-star Dou Sheng elder stumbled and staggered as he dashed madly inside. Words that filled every single person with terror and dread echoed and reverberated within the great hall.
"Clan Leader... the Ling Realm, the Shi Realm... they... they've all been sealed shut!"
"What—!"
This time, even Gu Yuan's expression changed. Soul power surged and churned. A figure emerged from within his body. In the next instant, that figure vanished from within the great hall in the blink of an eye.
If the Yan clan's annihilation had been a magnitude-eight earthquake—then this, now, was a magnitude-ten mega-earthquake. Within the great hall, one white-haired elder after another swiftly, hurriedly rushed up before that man, throwing out question after question in a chaotic, clamorous jumble.
"Gu Qian—did you see this with your own eyes?!"
"In the Ling Realm and the Shi Realm—just like the Yan Realm—not a single living soul was seen?!"
"Did you see anyone from the Hun clan?! What are those bastards trying to do?!"
"..."
"A great catastrophe has befallen us!" Gu Lie listened to the voices within the great hall and spoke with a face full of heavy, somber gravity.
Within the great hall, not a few elders also watched all this in grim, heavy silence. The Hun clan had already made it abundantly and plainly clear—they were targeting the various clans. Or rather—they were targeting the Tuo She Ancient Emperor's Jade in each clan's possession.
In that case, between the two sides, it would inevitably be a battle to the death, with no room for coexistence. But if they truly intended to go to war with the Hun clan... then it would inevitably be an exceedingly, exceptionally, brutally bloody and tragic great war. This war—they might win. Or they might lose.
If they won—they would survive. If they lost—they would lose everything!
Several breaths later, Gu Yuan's soul clone walked in from outside the great hall. At this moment, his face was as dark and heavy as water. No one knew what he was thinking—what he had seen in the various clans just now.
With Gu Yuan's arrival, the clamorous discussion of the crowd also came to a halt. Gaze after gaze turned toward Gu Yuan, as if awaiting his decision.
Under the countless, numerous watching gazes, Gu Yuan looked at Gu Lie and spoke in a deep, heavy voice: "Send word to the Yao clan and the Lei clan. Invite the leaders of the two clans to come—and together, discuss this matter of life and death, survival and extinction!"
Hearing Gu Yuan's decision, the expressions of the elders within the great hall momentarily became somewhat complicated and conflicted.
They knew—the days of peace and calm were gone, never to return!