Chapter 128: Pill of Transcendence
Xu Min was satisfied that he had done the right thing while he looked upon the demon who turned into his sister. The heart demon was becoming weaker by the minute, and the golden hue around his body was expanding.
As long as the golden hue was there, the heart demon could do nothing to Xu Min. He instantly took his sword into his hands and saw how the golden sheen appeared on the sword's blade as well.
Lifting the sword high above his head, Xu Min swiped it down. Once it came into contact with the heart demon, the demon started screaming and twisting its body. The places the golden light came into contact with charred and the body started crumbling.
Slowly, very slowly, every single part of the heart demon turned to ash.Xu Min was stunned by the sudden change.
He felt a change within his body. It had always been heavy. Heavy because all he could think about was revenge, heavy because of the guilt he felt when he thought about her death. Everything had made him tired and exhausted, but now he understood that it did not have to be like this.
Yes, he needed his revenge, but he had come to terms with the fact that his sister had died. He needed to take revenge and bury those who had killed her, and that would be all. When he had managed to get revenge, he would still miss his sister from time to time and would think about her often. Nonetheless, he would also move on with his life. He would find Meilin and together the two of them would start a new life. A life without much bloodshed; a life filled with happiness and peace.
Xu Min's heart grew warm, and a smile appeared on his face as he thought of his resolution. Even now he was not alone. Right as he spoke two brothers were waiting for him outside the Blood Pagoda. Both of these brothers were willing to give their lives for him, and he the same.
Everything started to make sense to Xu Min. His emotions which had been frozen for a long time opened up. He smiled a warm smile expressing the will to live, the happiness found by the living.
Slowly Xu Min opened his eyes. As he did, he noticed that he was still within the Blood Pagoda. His body was stiff. There were no signs of anything having happened to it.As well, there was no golden sheen either. Everything which had happened seemed like a dream, but Xu Min knew that it was real.
"To think you actually succeeded!" The Amalgamation shockingly exclaimed while Xu Min opened his eyes. It had been certain that Xu Min would fail. Here he was, alive and kicking, having defeated his inner heart demon.
"I thank you for all your guidance, elder!" Xu Min said seriously to the Blood Pagoda’s soul. He stood up and bowed deeply with cupped hands. Although Xu Min possessed outstanding talents, it would be impossible for him to reach his current achievements was it not for the help of the Blood Pagoda.
"Do not thank me too soon," the Blood Pagoda laughed, "I still need to grant you two treasures, and the treasures I am going to grant you the most outstanding treasures I have at my disposal. I had not planned on using them for anyone, but you have changed my mind. To help a genius take shape is something I wish to be part of!"
"Although I should hand you the reward from reaching the seventh-star Warrior rank first, I am going to change the reward and give you the reward for defeating your heart demon first."
"The reason I do this is because I am going to give you the Pill of Transcendence. This pill allows you to jump a rank instantly from one rank to another. Consume this pill, and you will become an eight-star Warrior immediately."
"These kind of pills are increasingly rare. As a matter of fact, it should have already vanished from the world outside and become a pill of legends."
"Even I, as an amalgamation which has robbed the life of countless of geniuses and stolen their items, have never before seen more than one of this pill. With the memory of all these people that I have absorbed, I have never before heard of such a wonderous pill. Only for the one time, I was granted this as the main reward for becoming the soul of the Blood Pagoda."
"I have little information about the pill. However, I do know it is impossible to become an Immortal relying on this strength. Your last chance is to use the pill to become an eight-star Warrior."
"If one took the pill at a lower rank, it would possibly explode the person’s body with the sheer amount of energy that is hidden within this little pill. However, since you are such a high rank anyways, there is a chance that it will not be enough to allow you to jump a full rank. Furthermore, you are new to the seventh star. Thus it is likely the pill will not be enough. Nevertheless, it is still worth a try."
"Stay here within the Blood Pagoda and consume the pill. I will ensure that nothing will come and threaten you while you are cultivating."
"Thank you, Elder," Xu Min replied politely to the amalgamation. Right in front of him, a beam of light descended from the ceiling. Hovering within this beam of light was a small red pill which was releasing ripple after ripple of energy, such a strong radiation shocked even Xu Min.
Reaching out his hand, he took the pill. Just touching the pill, he felt his heart tighten, and his mouth go dry. This was going to be dangerous. Although he was of a high rank, the pill was still a pill of legends. It was a pill which contained so much energy that it would allow a cultivator to jump a rank instantly.
"I can't back down now," Xu Min mumbled to himself. "If I manage to consume this pill then I will be able to contend with the Zhong, family leader! I will be able to gain my revenge!"
Determination shone in Xu Min's eyes as he sat down on the ground and instantly placed the pill within his mouth.
The moment it touched his tongue it started melting. The pill became layers upon layers of energy. This energy erupted like a volcano and released powerful energy in the body of Xu Min, flooding his meridians, filling every organ and cell in his body. He felt a pressure he had never felt before.
It was as if his body, which was at the seventh-star ranking, was not enough to hold in all the energy that was being released from the pill. Xu Min hurriedly started to rotate the energy through his body and place it in his dantian.
The dantian had a small core of pure energy. This core was not very big but as the energy from the pill of transcendence appeared it started to show visible changes. Not only was the white color of the core turning even lighter it almost started shining, but it also grew at a rapid speed.
Although his body was greedily absorbing the energy of the pill, Xu Min understood that there was so much energy on this pill that it was impossible for him to absorb it all. Some of it would naturally dissipate into thin air. However, Xu Min was determined to let as little energy as possible leave his body. He grit his teeth before he picked up his sword.
Xu Min was using absorption from the sword to absorb the energy which left his body. At the same time, he rotated the energy from the pill through his body so that he could merge the waves of energy with his core.
This was the most intense experience that Xu Min had ever before experienced. Because he was absorbing such enormous amount of energy, his entire body was in excruciating pain.
The pain occurring in his body was so intense that Xu Min could not help but gasp out loud, but he quickly contained himself and focused solely on absorbing the energy. He had never before had such an opportunity. From what he understood with the rarity of this pill, he would never again get such an opportunity. This was his only chance, and he would accept the pain and absorb the energy as well as he could.
While he was cultivating, Xu Min did not think about anything else than consuming the energy of the pill. He did not think about the heart demon nor did he think about the fact that his brothers were waiting for him. He did not even consider how long it would take him to consume every last ounce of energy from within the pill.
It was not that these matters were now useless to him, but his body and mind understood that the smallest bit of preoccupation would cause him to fail. For Xu Min, failure was not an option.
As he absorbed the energy of the medicinal pill, the energy waves sent out from the pill was slowly becoming smaller and smaller. The pain was becoming less and less; the pill in his mouth was also turning smaller and smaller, every time a wave of energy has released a layer was peeled off the pill.
Xu Min could feel an abundant amount of energy within his core. He had still not reached the eight star, and he was not willing to give up. He pushed forward, absorbing both from the pill and the surrounding air.
He was slowly coming closer and closer to the borders of the eight-star ranking. He could feel how more and more energy was gathering up, becoming compressed and making it harder to enter the core. It was as if the core could not accommodate more of the energy that was poured into it, but Xu Min did not hesitate to continue to force the energy to enter the core. As he did, cracks appeared on the surface.
The pain was even more intense than when he had forcefully withstood the pain of the pill pouring into his body. Now he was turning pale as he felt that his core was going to explode.
"This is a gamble. Either I force it to expand and become an eight-star warrior, or I break it, and my cultivation will be crippled. It;s either everything or nothing!"
Sweat appeared on Xu Min's forehead as he kept pouring the weakened waves of energy into his core. He felt how he was breaking it apart.
Although it was breaking apart, he would not leave it broken.Instead, he was constantly mending it by using the energy which was within the core. He was healing more and more of the core and slowly watching as it was growing. Every time a crack appeared he would mend it, allowing the core to grow slightly.
Suddenly the core shook within the dantian. As it shook, it started to rapidly absorb all the essence of the heavens and the earth in the surroundings. It devoured everything around him. He became like a big black hole, sucking in all the energy that he could.
The core, which had been on the verge of breaking, was no longer cracking. Instead, it shone with a pearl-like luster as it grew with every single ounce of energy that it was absorbing. Clearly, Xu Min excitedly knew he had managed to break through into the ranks of an eight-star warrior.
"I did it!" He exclaimed filled with excitement, "I did it! I am now an eight-star warrior. Now I will take my revenge on the Zhong family!"