"Your little butterflies have some merit; they can indeed corrode a spiritual shield. Unfortunately, there are too few of them."
"A dozen of them against a Foundation Establishment master? A fool's dream!"
The distance between him and Chen Gensheng closed rapidly. Ten yards. Five yards. Three yards.
Bai Jingzi reached out, his fingers curving into a claw, aiming for Gensheng’s elegantly lined neck. Right then, the fleeing Gensheng dived into a crossroads ahead. It led into a relatively spacious subterranean grotto, its ceiling dripping with countless grotesque stalactites.
Without a second thought, Bai Jingzi charged in after him. But the moment his foot hit the grotto floor, he realized something was wrong. The cavern was too quiet. And the scent of that grey-blue phosphorus powder was a hundred times more potent!
He snapped his head up.
Tucked into the shadows of the walls and clinging to the stalactites were thousands of tiny, vibrating wings. Over three hundred Grey-Blue Ashen Butterflies. Every single one radiated a heart-stopping aura of annihilation.
They flapped in silence. A wall of grey-blue death-powder closed in from all directions, silently contracting toward Bai Jingzi in the center of the cave.
"This!" The blood drained from Bai Jingzi’s face.
Those first dozen butterflies hadn't been an attack—they were bait. They were meant to numb his caution and lure him into this meticulously prepared slaughterhouse.
"OPEN!" he roared, pouring every drop of his spiritual energy into his protective shield. The mottled barrier flared with brilliant light, sealing him inside.
But this time, he was facing over three hundred.
Sizzle! Hiss!
The sound was like a billion invisible insects gnawing at his shield. The surface turned dull and cracked at a visible rate, the spiritual light hemorrhaging away.
"You bastard!" Bai Jingzi’s eyes bulged with fury as he stared at the cave entrance.
There, Chen Gensheng had stopped running. He slowly turned around, set the heavy Corpse-Nurturing Coffin down with a soft thud, and leaned against it. He watched Bai Jingzi trapped in the storm of death. The panic and dishevelment on his handsome face had vanished completely.
"Is this all the brain a Foundation Establishment master has?"
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"You!" Bai Jingzi shook with rage. "A mere Qi Condensation ant dares to insult me!"
He slapped his storage bag, and a green-glowing flying sword shot into the air, whistling sharply as it tried to tear a path out. But the moment the sword left his proximity, it was swamped by the endless grey powder. The green light dissolved instantly. Within a breath, the Low-Grade Spirit Tool let out a mournful hum, lost its spirituality, and fell to the ground as a heap of scrap metal.
A cold chill ran down Bai Jingzi’s spine. What the hell are these things?
"Don't you enjoy dual-cultivation?" Gensheng let out a malicious smile. "Look, my three hundred little darlings are surrounding you now. They will merge with your flesh and spirit so you can comprehend the Great Dao together. Are you satisfied with such treatment?"
"I'll kill you!"
Bai Jingzi went berserk, hurling fireballs, ice spikes, and wind blades like they cost nothing. But the moment these spells touched the grey-blue storm, they vanished like mud sinking into the sea, neutralized before they could even form a ripple.
"Don't waste your strength," Gensheng said, watching him like a monkey jumping in a cage. "These are Grade-3 High-Tier exotic insects. Even a 'watered-down' Foundation Establishment like you will lose a layer of skin trying to survive this."
He paused, then added: "Oh, wait. You won't even have skin left."
CRACK.
Bai Jingzi’s shield finally buckled. A wisp of grey-blue powder drifted through a fissure and landed softly on the back of his hand. He watched, paralyzed, as his well-manicured hand silently turned to ash.
Skin, flesh, bone... layer by layer, it decomposed into basic particles and scattered in the wind.
"AAAGH!" A piercing shriek finally tore from his throat. He tried to hack off his own arm, but the ashen decay moved faster than his blade. In the blink of an eye, his entire right arm vanished before his very eyes.
Gensheng watched expressionlessly, his six arms crossed over his chest. He waited in silence. The screaming gradually faded into a whimper, then silence. The grey-blue storm dispersed, transforming back into butterflies that flew into Gensheng’s mouth to be stored in the Casket.
In the center of the grotto, Bai Jingzi was still "standing." Or rather, an empty shell of a moon-white robe was standing. A gust of wind blew through, and the beautiful silk, along with a storage bag and a jade fan, collapsed into a heap on the floor.
The man was gone. Reduced to nothing but dust.
Gensheng walked over, knelt, and skillfully retrieved the storage bag. He swept his consciousness inside. As expected of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the wealth was substantial. Twenty mid-grade spirit stones alone, with pills, talismans, and materials piled like a small mountain.
But the real prize sat in the corner: a thin, weathered booklet.
《The Five-Element Root Dao-Body Foundation Manual》
Foundation Establishment. He had risked his life and traveled to this black market for those very words. Suppressing the tremor in his heart, he read on.
The content was brief, but every word reeked of a hair-raising evil. This wasn't a standard pill recipe. It didn't talk about herb ratios or heat control. It talked about one thing: Refining Humans.
It treated living people as the primary medicinal ingredient to forge a pill that guaranteed Foundation Establishment.
"Take five individuals possessing the 'Pseudo-Roots' of Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth..." "Must be virgins; the heavier the resentment, the better the quality..." "Place the living subjects into a specialized furnace. Simmer them with the cultivator's True Fire and five toxic herbs for eighty-nine days..." "Once the flesh dissolves and the souls turn to pulp, and the Five Elements return to One, a 'Dao-Body Human Pill' is formed."
At the end of the booklet, a self-satisfied note was written in cinnabar:
"This pill’s efficacy surpasses the common Foundation Establishment Pill a hundredfold. Consuming it not only guarantees success but also cleanses the marrow and reshapes the Dao-body, ensuring a smooth path to Immortality."
Gensheng closed the booklet. He remained silent for a long, long time.