Contrary to all his expectations, Cao Yun's work was incredibly easy. In fact, the pills were helping him perform the refinement. Alchemy had never been that easy. There was now no doubt that he would be successful. To what degree was another matter entirely. However, the real question was about what would happen next. Indeed, Cao Yun had always been more worried about the final step once all nine circles were inscribed on each pill. Honestly, he didn't think they would get this far with that many pills. Unfortunately, it would also mean that the final step would be more difficult.
Ironically, the better they were doing in the refinement itself, the worse the last step would be.
At the moment, Cao Yun decided not to think about it at all. Instead, he focused entirely on making the pills the best they could be. There was a slight exception, though. He absolutely wanted the first pill to be the best of the batch. Indeed, it had to be the one offered to Emperor Weide, and it already contained most of the poison. With his Black Heart Flame, Cao Yun had hidden the very last ingredient of his poison, his ultimate trap. Not even Xiao Xuefeng and the others were aware of it. If everything else failed, he wanted to make sure he had the means to kill Emperor Weide for good.
With Sun Liao's help, his plans were almost complete. More and more, they had a very clear view of what would happen. However, Cao Yun was still worried about killing Emperor Weide. Even with the Shattered Soul Hellbloom, he wasn't absolutely sure it would be easy. As such, he would put all the cards on his side. After all, Cao Yun had never fought someone who was so close to becoming a Sage. Emperor Dao even had a pseudo-Domain. Not even a Sage could form a Domain...
Putting his worries and his plans aside, Cao Yun only focused on the moment. Thanks to Huang Cixi and the cooperation of both the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute and the Wubei Sect, Cao Yun was almost certain that everything would go well so long as Emperor Weide was slain. Then, that pill was essential for that endeavor. As such, he had to succeed right here and now, not worry about a future that might not even come to pass if he failed.
After a few hours, Cao Yun was successful. The ninth circles were formed. All circles had sunk into the pills. Right now, the pills were full of the souls extracted from the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. Suddenly, a powerful medicinal fragrance emerged and flooded the entire Thirteen Celestial Pyre. In fact, it overflowed and even went through Sun Liao's array formations.
According to what Cao Yun had told him, it meant that the final battle was about to begin. Thus, Sun Liao was ready, but he didn't want to tip his hand just yet. After all, the pills had a form of awareness. In fact, they were much more cunning than either Cao Yun or Sun Liao expected.
Even after their refinement, they stayed coy and docile. All twelve alchemists around Cao Yun were exhausted. Staying afloat was becoming too hard for them, but they knew that it wasn't completely over yet. Cao Yun was extremely cautious and vigilant. However, he too was exhausted.
For a few minutes, the world stood still. Then, the alchemists tried to retrieve the pills. All of a sudden, the pills all flew in various directions. They had chosen spots where the spiritual senses of the alchemists were the weakest. Without delay, the alchemists all tried to catch the pills. A pill quite literally flew through the hand of a younger alchemist. It tore his flesh and pierced through his hand in order to fly away. Immediately, Sun Liao activated his last array formations. He had kept them inactive until now. This array formation was linked to the Core Earthly Life Master. Sun Liao had simply named it Core Earthly Life Thief.
All the flames from the Core Earthly Life got sucked into the array formation, they were used as if they were strands of Wandering Qi. All around the cauldron and Cao Yun's group, a giant net appeared. The net was so dense that not even a pill could fly through it. Two pills still tried to pierce through the array formation. The net got deformed a little, but it stayed strong.
The fifth pill was too unstable, it was the weakest of the batch. Three alchemists grabbed it with their spiritual senses. Without a moment's delay, they applied various seals Cao Yun had taught them beforehand. Then, they put it in a metallic box made of pure Void Nurtured Platinum. Although the pill was still agitated, it couldn't pierce through the box, and it couldn't even be sensed by anyone else, including the other pills.
All four remaining pills were flying all over the place as the alchemists were trying to grab them. Only Cao Yun stayed immobile, he knew that the pills wouldn't just try to escape now that they had nowhere to go.
The four pills let out a strange screech that pierced the souls of the twelve alchemists. Even with Sun Liao's array formation, it caused pain and anguish among the alchemists around the Thirteen Celestial Pyre. The Core Earthly Life was now completely silent as all its flames surrounded the cauldron and the pills.
As if they had a mind of their own, the pills gathered. A terrifying aura emanated from them. Only Cao Yun recognized it clearly, it was the aura of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. Although it was dead, it was still barely aware. Of course, it only wanted to kill all the humans around, but it lacked the sheer strength it once had. Although it was just a remnant of its soul, it was still incredibly frightening. Without the power to destroy the flesh of the thirteen alchemists around them, including Cao Yun, the pills could still strike their souls. And they did.
Thanks to Cao Yun's warning, the alchemists were ready for it. Although it pained them, they did as Cao Yun instructed them. All twelve of them simply left the Core Earthly Life Thief. Sun Liao was ready for them and opened the array formation just long enough for them to leave with the box containing the fifth pill. At the very least, the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute had produced one 5-star Spirit pill. However, no one had celebrated that incredible accomplishment yet. Indeed, they were all waiting to see how Cao Yun would perform. Because of Sun Liao's array formation, barely anyone could see or even sense what was going on within. Only Spirit Masters Xiao and Hua could really sense it clearly, apart from Sun Liao himself, of course.
As if the pills recognized Cao Yun's presence, they let out a powerful wave of pure hatred. Of course, they didn't understand anything. Even though they looked alive, the awareness in the pills was very limited, they were reacting out of pure instinct. At least, that was Cao Yun's conviction. The cunning they had demonstrated most likely came from some remnant of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu's soul. But it wasn't important. No matter how aware or not those pills were, Cao Yun had to face them head-on.
The young man circulated all of his soul cultivation and used his 'Weeping Asura' soul attack. His eyes turned red as blood. A shiver went through the four pills. Cao Yun's Black Heart Flame coiled around the four pills while they were stunned, but they reacted violently. All four pills stayed together and began to rotate insanely fast, producing a strident screech that made Cao Yun's ears hurt and even bleed a little.
From his spatial ring, the young man took out his most powerful weapon, 'Dark Abyss Wrathful Serpent Spear'. The very moment he took it, it was as if his presence was magnified. Fully unleashing his Spear Heart, it suppressed the pills even without striking or making any move at all. However, they were still moving away from the Black Heart Flame and Cao Yun's seals. He had to put seals on the pills in order to tame them. Dian Mo was now fully helping Cao Yun as he didn't need to monitor Sun Liao.
From the outside, fantastic sights appeared. Around the Core Earthly Life Thief array formation, four large snakes began to form. Those were not Qi Manifestations, in fact, they were akin to the phenomena caused by Martial States, forms of illusions. However, they felt absolutely real. For all intents and purposes, they were real, they were manifestations of the souls within the four pills. Those large snakes coiled around the cauldron and their heads appeared above it, ready to dive down in order to tear apart the net of fire created by Sun Liao.
If Cao Yun had been outside the net of fire, he would have recognized those four heads. Indeed, they were the heads of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. However, they had no bodies. The snakes were really their necks. Instead of being attached to their bodies, it was as if the Thirteen Celestial Pyre itself was their main body. Xiao Xuefeng and Hua Fenfei intervened immediately. They were exhausted but they still tried to intervene. Knowing the full recipe, they knew that this was the very last stage of the refinement. The pills had to be tamed or they would either fly away or try to slaughter everyone.
Xiao Xuefeng and Hua Fenfei took several alchemists with them and poured their Qi directly into the Thirteen Celestial Pyre, using Sun Liao's array formations. A powerful screech echoed, completely different from everything else. It was as if it originated from everywhere at once, it didn't really echo from a spot to spread. Instead, it was born from all of space at the same time. Above the net of fire, a large golden form appeared. It was a gigantic bird, even larger than the cauldron itself. In fact, its body was barely contained by the Calamity Wing.
Everyone could recognize the shape of a titanic vulture. On its body, it had many thin and long wings. In fact, it had exactly thirteen pairs of wings. Honestly, they almost looked like fins as they were very thin compared to the large body of the bird. Compared to anything else, they were obviously huge. From the massive golden body, a thin and light neck led to a severe head, covered in perpetually fresh blood. With no hesitation at all, the giant bird attacked the four snakes. Its beak grabbed the nearest snake and began to tear it apart. The other three snakes tried to coil around the large bird, but its vast wings always pushed them away. Even when they were able to hold one wing, the other wings all over its body were free to push them away.
The fight was absolutely frightening as the giant bird was devouring the four snakes alive despite all of their efforts.
Within the net of fire, Cao Yun was also fighting the four pills. They flew straight toward him while rotating. In fact, they almost looked like an arrow shot toward Cao Yun's heart. 'Dark Abyss Wrathful Serpent Spear' stabbed toward the pills. The image of a black snake with dragon scales all over its body appeared. Its head crashed against the four pills. The shock was so intense that the scales of the dragon broke apart, leaving its flesh visible. On the other hand, the four pills were scattered as they couldn't maintain their cohesion.
Before they could gather again, the large black dragon swallowed one pill. Black Heart Flame spread throughout the image of the dragon and Cao Yun was able to put one seal on the captured pill. As it couldn't resist anymore, the pill stopped moving around. Immediately, it was grabbed by Cao Yun's spiritual senses and put in an identical box to the one held by the twelve alchemists outside. Then, Cao Yun put the box in his spatial ring. Obviously, he had twelve boxes ready, but he would only need five in total.
As Cao Yun was busy dealing with this pill, a pill attacked him from behind. It crashed directly into his head, as if it were trying to destroy his Upper Dantian to get to his sea of consciousness. Honestly, even Cao Yun was not fast enough to react, the pills were so small and so fast that it was hard to follow them all. Fortunately, a single pill wasn't powerful enough to pierce Cao Yun's flesh and bones. That being said, it was still painful. Before Cao Yun could grab the pill, it flew away. So the young man focused his spiritual senses and his Black Heart Flame. A hand made out of pure Death Energy appeared and grabbed the pill in the air. Some of Cao Yun's soul had been turned into Death Energy for this.
With yet another pill subdued, only two remained. Among those two was the first pill. It was hard to tell, but Cao Yun was almost certain it had reached the Pure stage. Sensing that they were losing, the two pills grew desperate. Cao Yun felt the pills begin to consume their own medicinal essence to strike back. He had to stop them immediately. Indeed, they would deteriorate themselves just to try and break free. He couldn't let them do that.
Cao Yun pushed his cultivation to its limit while keeping his asura cultivation hidden. The hand made of Death Energy grabbed the lesser pill while Cao Yun's spear struck toward the best pill, the poisoned gift for Emperor Weide.
In this final confrontation, the pills tried to resist but Cao Yun's Black Heart Flame snuck up on them. Although they had awareness, they lacked genuine intelligence. Besides, they were not used to actual fights. As such, Cao Yun was able to grab them both and began to put seals on them. From his spatial ring, two boxes appeared. Using all of his will, Cao Yun forced the two pills into the boxes and immediately retracted them into his spatial ring.
All that being done, Cao Yun wasn't done yet. The Thirteen Celestial Pyre was still full of medicinal essence. Before the refinement, Cao Yun had already thought about it, but he couldn't be sure how much medicinal essence would remain. Now, he knew what to do with it all instead of letting it go to waste.