Chapter 72: Huang Biaozi’s Melancholy
Chapter 72: Huang Biaozi’s Melancholy
A day passed in the blink of an eye. The long-anticipated Divine Wind Academy enrollment had turned out to be a false start, but Tang Jinbiao hadn’t come away entirely empty-handed today.
“Hmm, if what Father says is true, and this Blood Essence Elixir really has such significant effects… after consuming it, my body will surely receive a tremendous boost. Reaching First Rank, Intermediate Grade in a short time shouldn’t be difficult. But what exactly is this ‘Nirvana Rebirth’ Father mentioned?”
Tang Jinbiao sat cross-legged on his bed, holding an immaculate white Jade Vial in his hand. He removed its stopper, shook out a crimson Pill, and a look of hesitation crossed his face as he pondered whether or not to ingest it.
The Pill was about the size of a thumb, uniformly crimson and appearing quite sinister. Instead of a refreshing fragrance, it gave off a faint, unpleasant stench, causing a slight feeling of nausea upon inhalation.
It was this very Pill that Wang Hanyu had tossed to Tang Jinbiao as she departed during the day. Initially, Tang Jinbiao didn’t know what it was; only after inquiring with Tang Zhantian did he learn its nature.
This Pill was called the Blood Essence Elixir. Its function was straightforward: for Body Refiners to cleanse marrow and purge impurities, thereby strengthening lifeforce and blood qi. In terms of its primary action of enhancing blood qi, it wasn’t vastly different from other similar pills. However, Wang Hanyu, being a Tribulation Transcendent, naturally wouldn’t furnish something so commonplace.
The most crucial point was that this Blood Essence Elixir had another name: the Nirvana Pill!
Speaking of the term ‘Nirvana,’ countless minds would instantly conjure the image of a Fire Phoenix undergoing Nirvana Rebirth. And indeed, the Nirvana Pill worked in a similar vein. At the moment this Blood Essence Elixir was successfully concocted, a drop of a Fire Phoenix’s heart’s essence blood was required. That’s why the Pill’s surface was crimson, and why it possessed that layer of faint stench.
The reason it was called the Nirvana Pill lay primarily in a hidden safeguard, a sliver of hope it granted Body Refiners fortunate enough to consume it. While it offered only negligible benefit during early cultivation stages, it secretly planted the seed of Nirvana Rebirth—a minuscule hope tucked away deep within.
If one day that Body Refiner suffered catastrophic injuries, teetering on the brink of death at their final gasp, that deeply concealed spark might erupt forth, blazing into reality like a Fire Phoenix reborn from its own Nirvana!
Although countless Body Refiners had consumed the Nirvana Pill over aeons, few actually found themselves hovering on that razor’s edge between life and death, and fewer still achieved the legendary rebirth. Therefore, it remained largely just that: a legend. Perhaps some did undergo Nirvana Rebirth, but through the erosion of time, those tales had gradually faded into myth.
“Should I take it?”
Tang Jinbiao stared at the Nirvana Pill in his palm, deeply conflicted. Logically, if he merely sought a pill to boost blood qi, he could easily approach the Third Elder. Yet, hearing his father’s words today made him hesitate. If the Nirvana Pill truly possessed such a property, it could be considered a lifesaving treasure, though the hope it offered was admittedly minuscule.
“Hmm, forget it. Training has been sparse lately; it’s not the time to take it. Best to wait a while longer.”
After some deliberation, Tang Jinbiao decided against consumption. While the immediate boost from the Nirvana Pill might be minor, it wasn’t something to take lightly or impulsively.
Thinking this way, he carefully returned the Nirvana Pill to the Jade Vial and placed it back into his Storage Pouch. He then took out something else from the pouch: a palm-sized Bagua (Eight Trigrams).
The Eight Trigrams was about the size of a palm, cast in a bronze hue. It looked utterly ordinary, like just another Eight Trigrams plate, offering no place particularly striking. Its only distinctive feature was at the very center, in the pupils of the intertwined Yin-Yang Fish: two tiny crystals, one red and one cyan, each no bigger than a grain of rice.
On the back of the Bagua plate was inscribed a Formation that looked relatively uncomplicated—as if even Tang Jinbiao himself could probably replicate it with a bit of focused effort.
“Qingyang Eight Trigrams!”
Looking at this delicate, intricate Bagua in his hand, Tang Jinbiao murmured its name softly to himself.
“Could this thing really possess such marvelous powers?”
Turning the Qingyang Eight Trigrams over in his hands, Tang Jinbiao examined the seemingly simple Formation on its reverse side, his expression one of deep skepticism.
To understand the Qingyang Eight Trigrams’ function, one must first know about the Qingyang Eight Trigrams Formation.
The Qingyang Eight Trigrams Formation was a spirit-gathering Formation, one of remarkable complexity. Even a great family like the Tang Family lacked the capacity to deploy it. Only gargantuan institutions like the Divine Wind Academy could manage to establish larger-scale versions.
Naturally, the Formation Tang Jinbiao saw etched onto the back of this Qingyang Bagua was not the actual Qingyang Eight Trigrams Formation itself. It was merely a simple activation array. The true, complex Qingyang Eight Trigrams Formation was already embedded within this very Bagua piece he held. By setting up this modest activation array, he could tap into the capabilities of the grand formation: to gather spiritual energy, thereby engaging in Body Refining by tempering his body through this concentrated ambient qi.
Body Tempering (淬体) and Forced Qi Infusion (灌体) differ by only a single character, yet their natures lie worlds apart. Body Tempering focuses fundamentally on tempering—strengthening and enhancing your inherent vitality bit by bit. Forced Qi Infusion, conversely, is precisely what its name suggests: forcibly pumping power into the cultivator, stuffing it in, much like force-feeding, forcibly accelerating growth at all costs. Exactly like the Demonic Qi Infusion proposed by the Azure Dragon—a drastic method that risks overwhelming the body, potentially causing it to explode.
Gifting Tang Jinbiao both the Nirvana Pill and this Qingyang Eight Trigrams clearly indicated Wang Hanyu’s desire for him to advance further along the Body Refining path. Her care and affection for him were evident here.
“Ah, enough, enough! No matter how miraculous this thing is, it’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll go discuss this with Ah Hu and the others. Besides, I don’t even have any Spirit Stones on me right now. Right! How come I never thought to ask for some Spirit Stones before?”
After fiddling with it a while longer, Tang Jinbiao concluded it wasn’t the time yet either. Similarly, he put the Qingyang Eight Trigrams away. He then took out two final items from his Storage Pouch: a Jade Slip and a small, black orb!
“Tch! Damn that unscrupulous Huang Biaozi! Next time I see him, I swear I’ll cut him down with a Watermelon Cleaver!”
Upon seeing that black orb, Tang Jinbiao spat in disgust, glaring like he couldn’t wait to kill Huang Biaozi.
He cursed aloud, then quietly tucked away the black bead. Though he wasn’t sure whether it truly was the “Yin”—a “fragmented world” as Huang Biaozi called it—he’d vaguely witnessed the once-invincible Azure Dragon vanish into it. Moreover, Huang Biaozi had lodged himself inside it too, leaving Tang Jinbiao disturbingly untroubled all these days.
Storing the bead felt… unsatisfying, hollow—like something important had vanished. Deep down, an unacknowledged bond had formed between him and Huang Biaozi.
…
Little did he know that just as he cursed Huang Biaozi silently…
Within a nebulous space, Huang Biaozi sat cross-legged, perched atop a dragon over thirty meters long, a lecherous smirk plastered on his face.
“Hey! Green Worm Demon King! Something’s brewing about five hundred million miles ahead—speed up!”
His expression was indecent, though the tone turned stern the instant he barked the command.
AAAAOOOO!
Beneath him, the Azure Dragon let out a pained wail. But the cry froze instantly when Huang Biaozi lashed out savagely with a kick.
“Damn it! Scream for your sister another time! I demand quiet! Hear me? Where I tell you to go, you go!”
His foot slammed down ruthlessly as he yelled rabidly.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
That’s when it happened: a hundred miles away, a chunk of the gray sky—dozens of feet across—suddenly splintered with that harsh snapping, bursting like shattered glass.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Where the fractured space disintegrated, molten fragments dissolved into nothingness, exposing a terrifying Black Hole beneath. Horrifying suction exploded outward, clawing apart nearby spatial debris. And the hole itself—it began widening.
AAAOOOO!
The Azure Dragon jolted backward in terror, fleeing thousands of feet in an instant before halting, only to whip its head wildly about. It had to check: was solid ground still holding underfoot? Because not long ago, it’d been snared by one… sucked into one… its body near disintegrated, its soul nearly torn apart. Had Huang Biaozi not intervened, the dragon’s dead mother would have had company long ago!
“Hmm… the fragmentation accelerates.”
Huang Biaozi muttered, eyes fixed on the widening Black Hole. All lewdness vanished from his face as deep wrinkles carved his brow. Only rigid alertness remained.
He tilted his chin up then, surveying the vast expanse. Everywhere… endless gray stretched beyond sight. No clouds. No horizon. Just infinite, bleak gray. And scattered inside it: countless Black Holes like this one. Perhaps one day they would swallow this entire space—everything consumed, erased into emptiness.
Nor was there land below—no mountains, no lakes, no rivers. The hollow eternity held gray and those rare, deadly holes. Though sparsely distributed, scanning all directions unveiled dozens of them.
All of them expanding.
Sigh…
Huang Biaozi let a lonely breath escape him.
“If what he said is true… this might be… the next gateway? But a gateway… to where exactly?”
He muttered softly at the distant holes, a melancholic shadow darkening his eyes.
————
“Ugh! That damn traitor Huang Biaozi! Let me see you next time—I’ll slice you apart with my Watermelon Cleaver!”
Just then, a voice erupted into the void… from one of those Black Holes. Hearing it, Huang Biaozi froze, an indescribable twitch shaking his expression. He instantly raged skyward as though confronting a storm:
“DAMN IT! This insolent punk wants the skies to shatter under him!”
“I—”
The Azure Dragon trembled all over. But that voice… familiar? Impossible! A baffling, human-like look crossed its eyes: someone… had just cursed this untouchable deity riding on its head…?
Driven by confusion, it too tilted its head skyward toward the gaping Black Hole…