The ruins of Cloudwater Palace were unimaginably vast. Even in his previous life, after more than a decade of relentless exploration by the cultivators of the Congyun Sea, its full scope had never been completely mapped.
The cultivators who had woken up near Qin Tang’s statue quickly split into several distinct camps.
Some felt that Cloudwater Palace was far too dangerous. Being able to survive Qin Tang’s trials was already their great fortune. To continue exploring further would be a guaranteed path to death.
Since they had already committed several powerful techniques to memory, they believed they would gain a massive windfall even if they returned home right away. And so, they decisively chose to leave Cloudwater Palace immediately.
Those who chose to depart were the majority. The remainder, however, thought differently: A single statue at the ruins' entrance had offered such incredible fortune. What kind of heaven-defying opportunities might lie within the legendary Alchemy Hall, Technique Transmission Pavilion, and sect treasury that were staples of ancient sects like this?
Once greed takes root, it swells rapidly within the heart, becoming impossible to suppress.
And so, these individuals vanished one after another into the thick mist, acting like they were possessed.
By the time Li Fan caught up from behind, he found the entire group of cultivators already gone. Had he not already locked onto Sikong Yi and Baili Chen beforehand, he likely would have lost them completely.
Yet, strangely, Sikong Yi and Baili Chen seemed intimately familiar with Cloudwater Palace's layout.
The route they followed was unerringly precise, repeatedly finding paths through the mist's seemingly impassable gaps. They constantly bypassed obscured structures, driving deeper inward.
Was this how Sikong Yi had managed to seize the Cloudwater Model in the previous life?
Li Fan knew these secrets only because of his simulated experiences from that past life. So how did Sikong Yi know?
An intense curiosity welled up within Li Fan.
Simultaneously, his wariness grew. These two clearly harbored significant secrets of their own!
Concealing his presence and aura even further, Li Fan shadowed them closely.
Suddenly, the two men stopped.
After pausing for a moment, Sikong Yi and Baili Chen split up, each darting off swiftly in opposite directions.
A divide-and-conquer tactic? Have they discovered me? Li Fan's eyes narrowed. He hesitated for a brief moment, then chose the direction Sikong Yi had taken.
Pushing deeper into the mist, he eventually arrived at a pagoda-like structure.
Sikong Yi stopped abruptly at the base of the pagoda, turned back to look in Li Fan's direction, and flashed a taunting smile.
Then he plunged inside.
How interesting. Does he plan to use one of Cloudwater Palace's death traps to kill me?
Faintly visible through the white mist, the looming pagoda radiated an eerie, sinister aura.
Memories from his previous life surfaced in Li Fan’s mind.
This was the Demon-Refining Pagoda, one of the most dangerous areas within Cloudwater Palace.
In the first ten years after Cloudwater Palace opened, not a single cultivator who entered the Demon-Refining Pagoda ever returned alive. Consequently, the cultivators of the Congyun Sea had deemed it an absolute death trap, a place to be avoided at all costs.
It wasn't until Anchor Year 21 in his previous life that an alchemy master, after risking his life, finally deciphered the bizarre rules within.
If that's your plan, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. Li Fan smirked coldly and followed him inside.
The moment he stepped across the threshold, a chilling, foul wind brushed against him, carrying the stench of rot and decay.
The ground floor held a series of prison cells. But it seemed that too much time had passed; only piles of bizarre, strangely shaped demonic bones remained inside them.
Li Fan continued upward, finding the second floor pretty much the same.
He proceeded all the way to the top.
From a distance, a rambling, murmuring voice reached his ears.
"All my senior brothers and sisters are fighting on the front lines. Only I am useless, unable to help.
"I must refine more pills. Only then can I increase their strength as much as possible.
"Every additional pill I successfully refine increases the chances of my senior brothers surviving.
"But the demons and monsters in this Demon-Refining Pagoda are all dead. There are no more alchemical ingredients. What should I do?"
A man with unkempt hair, wearing loose, blue Daoist robes, sighed dejectedly, looking utterly helpless.
Beside him, suspended in mid-air, three figures were bound by invisible ropes.
One of them was Sikong Yi.
The other two were cultivators who had entered the Cloudwater Palace with Li Fan, though it was unclear why they were here.
Their faces were deathly pale, and their lips moved constantly, though he couldn’t hear what they were saying.
Before Li Fan could even react, his hands and feet suddenly felt constricted as if bound by ropes, rendering him immobile. He was then hauled into the air and fixed in place, just like the other three.
Having anticipated this very outcome, Li Fan felt no panic.
It was only then that he could make out the muttered words of the other two captives.
"How did this happen? I clearly chose to leave this place right away! My vision just blurred, and then I was tied up here..."
"My life is over, it's over! I was already outside Cloudwater Palace, and yet I was captured and brought back..."
***
"Ah! It's time to refine pills!" Just then, the man in Daoist robes suddenly snapped out of his rambling.
"Refine pills, refine pills..." The man reached into his robes and dug around. Shortly after, he pulled out two black pills.
"The pills are refined, but I don't know how effective they'll be this time." He scratched his head, seeming troubled.
Then, he suddenly slapped his thigh. "Right! I just caught a few insects, didn't I? Perfect for testing the medicine!"
With that, he turned his gaze toward Li Fan and the others bound in the air, his eyes shifting between them. "Which insect should I choose?"
Faced with the man’s stare, an inexplicable sense of dread washed over them. They all froze, not daring to move, holding their breaths and remaining silent.
"This one." The robed man contemplated for a moment longer before his gaze settled on one of them. He immediately reached out and made a grasping motion.
Seeing this, the chosen man could no longer maintain his composure. But his struggles were clearly futile, and no sound escaped his lips.
His body flew toward the robed man, shrinking rapidly in size until he had truly become a tiny flying insect, landing in the palm of the robed man's hand.
The insect's head still faintly resembled a human face, its expression one of extreme terror.
As the robed man lightly pinched the human-faced insect, it emitted a frantic, buzzing wingbeat.
But it was all useless.
The robed man held the insect in one hand and a black pill in the other.
The pill was many times larger than the insect itself, yet it was forcibly shoved into the insect’s mouth.
The human-faced insect struggled in agony as it was compelled to swallow the pill.
Its abdomen swelled to many times its original size, becoming a gigantic, bloated sphere.
The insect's aura gradually faded, but its suffering had only just begun.
Once inside its stomach, the pill seemed to be digested and began to shrink in size.
However, a buzzing sound, like that of a swarm of mosquitoes, was suddenly emitted from the insect’s body.
The human-faced insect's body suddenly began to convulse uncontrollably.
Tiny black specks began to burrow their way out from its swollen abdomen one after another.
A closer look revealed that each black speck was, in fact, a newly born flying insect.
After emerging, these new insects did not fly away randomly. Instead, they settled on the body of the human-faced insect and began to greedily devour it.
Soon, the human-faced insect was consumed completely, not even a speck of residue remaining.
The robed man shook his head, a look of regret on his face.
"It seems the test has failed. The potency must have been too strong."
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and inhaled the cloud of black insects into his stomach.
Even though he already heard about the events within the Demon-Refining Pagoda and had prepared himself mentally, Li Fan still couldn't stop his eyelids from twitching violently.
This scene was truly horrifying.
The robed man looked at the remaining pill in his hand, seeming somewhat troubled.
"Should I test this one as well?"
His gaze flickered towards Li Fan and the other two.
All three of them held their breath.
After a long moment, the robed man sighed. "Forget it. They were refined in the same batch. The results should be similar."
With that, he opened his mouth and casually tossed the black pill inside.
Even after swallowing the pill, the man seemed completely unaffected, simply slipping back into his previous deranged state.
He began muttering to himself again, complaining about not having enough alchemical ingredients while completely ignoring the three individuals bound in the air.
Among the three survivors, Li Fan remained silent. Sikong Yi's face was an expressionless mask. The remaining man had already completely broken down.
"I'd have been better off dying at the hands of that Qin Tang. At least that would have been a quick death."
***
Time seemed to lose all meaning within the Demon-Refining Pagoda.
Their survival depended entirely on the whims of the robed man.
An indeterminate span of time passed before the man snapped out of his deranged state once more.
Again, he retrieved two pills from his voluminous robes, though this time they were an eerie green.
"Which insect should I test these on?"
The man hesitated for a moment. Then, his eyes settled on Sikong Yi.
"This one will do!"
Li Fan immediately focused his attention. He wanted to see just what Sikong Yi was relying on that gave him the confidence to lure Li Fan into this deathtrap.
To Li Fan's utter astonishment, Sikong Yi did not employ any means of resistance whatsoever.
After being transformed into an insect and forced to swallow the green pill, he dissolved into a puddle of green liquid.
Sikong Yi was dead!
What's going on? What changed? Did the course of events diverge from my previous life because I followed him?
That can't be right. Sikong Yi clearly lured me to this Demon-Refining Pagoda. How could he die so easily?
He knew this was a deathtrap. Did he lead me here just to trade his life for mine?
***
Just as Li Fan was drowning in endless confusion, he suddenly sensed something and raised his head.
Through Formless Killing Mechanism, he could sense that Baili Chen was outside the Demon-Subduing Pagoda, slowly approaching.
And beside him, Formless Killing Mechanism, which had previously lost its target, had locked onto a new one: Sikong Yi.
Sikong Yi, who should have been dead, had reappeared outside the Demon-Subduing Pagoda.
A puppet? An external incarnation? Neither seems to fit...
Li Fan stared at the puddle of green liquid on the ground and couldn't help but smile.
It seems the secrets these two carry are even greater than I imagined.
However, once I set my sights on them, secrets cease to be secrets.
In Li Fan's perception, Sikong Yi and Baili Chen continued to venture deeper into Cloudwater Palace.
With Formless Killing Mechanism locked on, I'm not afraid of them escaping. I just need to extricate myself from this Demon-Subduing Pagoda as soon as possible.
But the robed man did things at his own pace; Li Fan had no control over the situation and could only wait patiently.
Soon, the third round of pill testing arrived.
This time, Li Fan was still not chosen. He found it both amusing and frustrating, unsure whether it was fortune or misfortune.
The robed man took out two pink pills and fed them to the human-faced flying insect.
The insect exploded with a poof , transforming into a cloud of pink smoke.
Within the smoke, faces contorted in agony constantly surfaced.
As the pink mist drifted, the faces stretched and twisted, becoming even more grotesque.
Watching from the side, Li Fan felt goosebumps rise on his skin.
Ultimately, it was the robed man who inhaled the smoke into his body, putting an end to the suffering.
The robed man then fell back into his murmuring soliloquy.
The fourth round of pill testing finally arrived.
By now, Li Fan was the only one left inside the Demon-Subduing Pagoda.
Just as the robed man was about to use Li Fan for the test, Li Fan suddenly spoke.
"Junior Brother Chong, I heard you've run out of pill refining materials?"[1]
Daoist Chong’s outstretched hand froze as he nodded subconsciously. "Yes, my pill refining materials are indeed insufficient."
He spoke with a tone of guilt. "It's been a long time since I've been able to refine any new pills..."
Daoist Chong's words trailed off. He stared at Li Fan for a moment, taking in the robes he wore, and suddenly became flustered. "So it's Senior Brother! I mistook you for an insect!
"Senior Brother, I'm truly sorry! I'll release you immediately."
As Daoist Chong spoke, Li Fan felt the restraints on his body loosen, and he regained control.
Daoist Chong covered his head with his hands, looking down as if too ashamed to face his senior brother.
He lamented, "I've messed up again. It's always like this. I’m not good at pill refining, and my cultivation progress is slow; I keep holding everyone back..."
Li Fan stepped forward, placed a hand on Daoist Chong's shoulder, and said gently, "Don't say that, Junior Brother Chong. The pills you refine are very effective. Everyone enjoys taking them."
Daoist Chong jerked his head up upon hearing this, surprise and delight filling his eyes. "Really, Senior Brother? Everyone really likes the pills I refine?"
"What, you don't believe your senior brother?" Li Fan's expression turned stern.
Daoist Chong hurriedly shook his head. "Of course I believe what you say, Senior Brother."
Then he slumped, dejected. "But I have no more alchemical materials left. I can't make any more of the pills everyone loves."
Li Fan gently patted Daoist Chong's head, his voice soft. "It's alright. I'm still here, aren't I?"
"Refine me into a pill. That way, everyone will have pills to eat again."
"Senior Brother, you..." Daoist Chong seemed stunned by Li Fan's words. His eyes widened as he stared at Li Fan.
Li Fan let out a long sigh and continued, "Although I entered the sect early, my talent is insufficient. My cultivation level has always been low. Our senior brothers and sisters are fighting and dying on the front lines, and only I am unable to help in any meaningful way.
Li Fan gripped Daoist Chong's hand, speaking with intense emotion, "Every time I think about it, it tears me up inside. I can’t stand how useless I am.
"So, refine me into a pill. This way, I can at least be of some help."
Daoist Chong stared blankly at Li Fan, appearing deeply moved.
"So you are the same as me, Senior Brother.
"But you are far greater than I am. You would rather sacrifice yourself to help our brothers and sisters on the front lines.
"And I... I only know how to run away. To hide away in this tower." Daoist Chong clutched at his own hair in agony.
"No! I absolutely cannot stand by and watch you sacrifice yourself!"
Suddenly, he thought of something.
He turned to Li Fan excitedly. "Senior Brother! I can refine pills for you! As long as you eat the pills I refine, you certainly won’t be weak anymore! Then you can go to the front lines and help too!"
Daoist Chong seemed to have found a purpose to strive for. "Refine pills! I must refine pills!"
He reached a hand into his wide Daoist robes, fumbling around.
Before long, he pulled out two golden pills.
"Senior Brother, these pills are for you."
Daoist Chong held them out in both hands, offering the pills to Li Fan with a wide smile on his face.
Li Fan did not take the pills. Instead, he loosened Daoist Chong's robes.
Beneath the wide Daoist robes, there was only an empty, hollow skeleton.
Only a few barely visible remnants of flesh and blood clung to the bones.
Daoist Chong had been using his own flesh and blood to refine the pills.
1. 虫 (chong) means insect lol ☜