Chapter Ninety-Two: Seizing Heaven

Clouddragon realized at once that something was terribly wrong, and a bitter look flickered across his face. In the next instant, the beam of fingerlight that Cheng Rongxiang had thrust out struck squarely against the bottom of the bronze kettle.

Cheng Rongxiang had not used much force. He merely meant to toy with Clouddragon, to shatter the kettle and destroy every last shred of hope in him.

He hated Clouddragon to the bone and wanted nothing less than to see him die in despair, with not the slightest chance to strike back.

What he had not expected was that the pill sealed inside this bronze kettle was no ordinary medicine, but the Heaven-Robbing Pill that could drive all men mad with desire.

To contain the Heaven-Robbing Pill and withstand the power of heaven-robbing, the bronze kettle was clearly no ordinary object. Thus, although Cheng Rongxiang’s fingerlight hit the bottom, it did not smash the kettle apart.

Instead, the force of that strike combined with the power gathered at the kettle’s base by the Heaven-Robbing Pill, creating a channel through which external force was released from within.

At the same time, the spout of the kettle, stirred by the pill’s power, began to diffuse force outward in slow waves. Even if Clouddragon could bite down on the spout, he likely would not be able to draw the pill into his belly.

Yet Cheng Rongxiang’s blow had, in effect, delivered an external impulse straight to the pill from beneath the kettle. Part of the force was neutralized by the power released from the pill itself.

The remaining force passed through the kettle’s base and struck the Heaven-Robbing Pill inside.

With a soft burst, the pill, jolted by the impact, sprang upward from the bottom of the kettle and was flung out through the spout. At that very moment, Clouddragon was still holding his mouth open.

And the Heaven-Robbing Pill, newly freed, had no time to react before plunging straight into a dark, gaping opening.

Clouddragon did not even understand what had happened before he felt something slide down his throat and into his abdomen. Then his face lit up with joy. Heaven was aiding him after all. This Cheng Rongxiang had truly become his lucky star.

What had seemed like a dead end for Clouddragon was overturned by Cheng Rongxiang’s mistake, and he succeeded in swallowing the Heaven-Robbing Pill.

No sooner had the pill entered his belly than it melted away. A frenzy of warmth surged wildly through his limbs and bones, rich and gentle, yet brimming with life.

Clouddragon immediately felt that this power was healing the injuries within him at astonishing speed. At the same time, a profound and elusive force began to seep continuously into his body.

With a whoosh, a golden radiance burst visibly from Clouddragon’s body, forming a giant cocoon more than ten feet across that wrapped him completely within it.

An unparalleled force erupted outward. All the surrounding rocks and stones were ground to dust, and the immense power changed Qi Ling’s expression dramatically. He seized the stunned Cheng Rongxiang and retreated at top speed.

Only after they had withdrawn more than three hundred feet did they barely manage to withstand the shockwave, both of them unable to hide the terror on their faces.

Cheng Rongxiang, meanwhile, stood frozen in place, utterly unable to comprehend what had just happened.

The power radiating from the golden cocoon distorted space entirely. Even the workings of the heavens were driven aside by it, as if it had carved out its own path and formed a world of its own.

Bathed in that golden brilliance, Clouddragon himself was astonished beyond words. In merely a few breaths, the injuries in his meridians had fully healed, and he had once again returned to peak condition.

What was more, the medicinal power coursed endlessly through his meridians, following an uncanny route and repeatedly forcing through and around obstacles. With every pass, his meridians expanded by several degrees.

Back when Dragon Gate Pine had used that power to transform his body, Clouddragon’s meridians had already been stretched wider by the strain of such savage force.

But afterward he had poured out all his true energy. Though his meridians were broad, they had not been fully filled by his qi, and in truth they had remained in a hollow state.

This time, however, the medicinal power of the Heaven-Robbing Pill had expanded his meridians to their limits, and even his dantian was completely filled.

Boom.

Heaven and earth quaked. Clouddragon’s body shook violently. Then, one after another, the nine apertures within him lit up and began to tremble with fierce intensity.

A tearing pain crashed through his divine sense, and he nearly blacked out in a spray of blood. Yet his will was extraordinarily firm, and he forcefully endured it. The agony still continued.

For Clouddragon, it was only a matter of time. But he was uneasy, for he could feel that force assailing the positions of the nine apertures, and this filled him with dread.

He was already a peerless genius with the nine-aperture qi-condensing constitution. If this power were to damage his apertures, then all of his cultivation and all of his effort might be ruined in an instant.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, his vision went black. It was as though heaven and earth had shattered apart. A tremendous explosion rang out, and Clouddragon’s mouth twisted into a faint bitter smile, for he could feel that the nine apertures had actually exploded under that impact.

The apertures were gateways for drawing in true energy. Now that the nine had exploded, it meant he would never again be able to absorb true energy from the outside world, and his cultivation would never advance another step.

At that thought, Clouddragon felt more anguish than death itself. If he could not cultivate, then all hope would vanish. He would be forced to watch helplessly as time slipped by, unable to take revenge.

Then his awareness returned once more. He hurried to examine his apertures, and the smile on his face turned bitter and helpless, mixed with fierce, unyielding resentment.

As expected, all nine apertures had vanished. Not sealed, but utterly gone. From this day forward, Clouddragon would have no possibility of cultivation. This path, after all, had still been cut off.

He let out a soft sigh, and his eyes turned slightly red. Countless turns between life and death had never made him yield even half a step, but now this cruel reality had left him in despair.

Just as tears shimmered in Clouddragon’s eyes and he lamented the failures of fate, every pore on his body suddenly opened. Each pore was like a tiny aperture, and the golden radiance that surrounded him was being drawn in by the billions of pores across his body at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Clouddragon sensed this change at once. His entire body trembled, and when he tried to circulate his cultivation art, he discovered that the pull had abruptly ceased. He could not help but nod inwardly.

In this world, all cultivation methods had been created using the nine apertures as their medium. But now that his nine apertures had disappeared, his pores, though capable of absorbing spiritual energy, had no matching technique to guide them.

Yet the grief in Clouddragon’s heart instantly transformed into wild delight. Though the pores were tiny, they won by sheer number. With the billions of pores across his body absorbing spiritual energy all at once, the speed was more than ten times greater than that of the nine apertures together.

Added to that, his meridians had already been stabilized by the Heaven-Robbing Pill’s medicinal force, fixed at their current breadth. The amount of true energy his body could contain was now more than a hundred times greater than that of others at the same level.

This gave Clouddragon a kind of combat power and endurance no one else possessed. It could be said to be a tremendous breakthrough, and it had elevated the foundation of his cultivation to a terrifying degree.

Though his former technique had become useless, the world contained no fewer than tens of millions of cultivation arts. If the ancients could create them, then so could he.

At that thought, Clouddragon’s confidence returned to him once more, and the path before him seemed brighter than ever.

The medicinal power of the Heaven-Robbing Pill was immensely formidable. Not only did it completely fill the true energy within Clouddragon’s body, it also finally shattered the bottleneck of the Marrow-Rebirth Realm and began transforming his energy toward innate true qi.

Once all true energy was converted into innate true qi, that would mean Clouddragon had stepped into the Innate Realm.

But for now, only at the Returning-to-Innate Realm could he not yet contend with Cheng Rongxiang and Qi Ling, because Clouddragon could feel that he was unable to mobilize the true energy within his body at all, as though it were not his own.

The true energy in his body grew ever purer. A great amount of it was continuously transformed into innate true qi. By the time the golden radiance finally faded away, Clouddragon’s cultivation had already reached the peak of the Returning-to-Innate Realm.

He was only one step away from drawing in the spiritual energy of the outside world and guiding it into his body. Once that was done, all the true energy throughout his body would be transformed into innate true qi, and he would attain the supreme Innate Realm.

Clouddragon opened his eyes.

At once, he saw Cheng Rongxiang and Qi Ling standing more than three hundred feet away, and his expression changed.

He turned and fled in the direction of the Wolf Gorge.

But in his haste, he unconsciously activated the Dragon-Rising Step. The moment his true energy began to circulate, a sharp, twisting pain stabbed his dantian. He could not help but grunt and nearly collapse to the ground.

Clenching his teeth, he cursed, "Damn it, I can’t even use my true energy. What am I supposed to do now?"