Chapter 16
Chapter 16: All Divine Abilities Return to Me, Reborn Through Fire, Reforging the Demon Body
When the last and most blazing violet pill-heart was forcibly seized and fused by Jiang Linxian's consciousness—now tempered to extraordinary resilience—
BOOM!!
A heartbeat, as though reverberating from the primordial chaos of ancient times, thundered through the interior of the alchemy furnace!
The 7-colored radiance suddenly withdrew inward. The black divine flame drew back with the docility of a subject before its sovereign.
At the heart of the furnace, something emerged that no words could adequately describe.
It was neither human nor demon, nor any ordinary pill.
At times it assumed the silhouette of a human form; at others it coiled into a serpentine body. Its entire being was crystalline and luminous, with 7-colored rivers of stars flowing within. The bones faintly shone in a pale golden-jade hue, and at its center pulsed a newborn demon core, its surface wreathed in threads of black flame.
The boundless energy transformed from the Seven-Heart Pill surged like a floodtide that had finally found its ultimate destination, pouring wildly into that single flickering flame of spiritual consciousness.
Each color represented a fragment of natural law—once given form by the 7-colored mountain—now distilled into the purest seed of divine ability.
Crimson Absolute: The immense strength it contained was no mere brute force, but the root of 【Earthly Manifestation·Mountain Bearing】—carrying the weight and power of the earth.
Orange Absolute: The thousand-li eye and wind-following ear, stripped of all surface illusion, left behind the true essence of 【Heavenly Mechanism·Wall-Piercing Sight】—perceiving the most minute details, hearing the ten thousand phenomena.
Yellow Absolute: The indestructible body shed its golden shell and settled into the supreme refinement of 【Earthly Manifestation·Guidance】—tempering sinew, bone, skin, and membrane within; warding off all manner of tribulations without.
Green Absolute: The fire assault was no ordinary flame—it was the fusion of 【Earthly Manifestation·Flame Spitting】 and 【Earthly Manifestation·Fire Command】—mastery over the blazing fire of living things.
Cyan Absolute: The water assault transcended mere flooding, touching upon the authority of 【Earthly Manifestation·Water Commanding】 and 【Earthly Manifestation·Mist Spreading】—commanding water and transmuting it into vapor, formless and traceless.
Blue Absolute: Concealment was not merely hiding the body—it contained the mystery of 【Heavenly Mechanism·Abyss Diving and Ground Shrinking】 and 【Earthly Manifestation·Invisibility】—vanishing from heaven and earth, making distances as near as a step.
Violet Absolute: The most extraordinary of all—it refined all things, and held the vastness of Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed, branding within it 【Heavenly Mechanism·Vessel-World】 and 【Earthly Manifestation·Soul Seizing】.
The 7 streams of power surged, collided, and fused in a frenzy.
Jiang Linxian's old serpent demon body evaporated entirely, then reassembled itself under new laws.
This process was ten thousand times more agonizing than death by a thousand cuts—it was the fundamental rebirth of a life form.
The Dragon Pearl released its final primal essence, acting as the finest adhesive and sublimating agent, forcibly forging the power of the 7-colored immortal pill together with the serpent demon's primal essence.
His consciousness drifted within it all.
At times he became the phantom of a great serpent capable of bearing mountains; at others, the all-seeing eye of a spirit serpent peering into the dark abyss; at still others, he seemed to transform into a strange existence woven of water and fire, flickering between presence and absence…
None could say how much time passed before the raging tide of energy within the furnace gradually subsided.
The black divine flame, as though bereft of purpose, encircled the center with docile calm, its aggression entirely gone.
At the heart of the furnace, a completely new body slowly condensed into form.
Cold light, like the soul of the moon, flowed across its entire frame.
The serpent-head bore a striking and refined countenance, yet at the crown of the brow, 2 hard protrusions of white-jade bone jutted up prominently—resembling the embryonic form of dragon horns not yet broken through the surface—with faint patterns flowing within them.
From the neck downward, silver-white scales spread broad as armor plates, their edges shimmering with a metallic chill, while along the spine a ridge of ice-crystal dorsal fins blazed with brilliant light.
Demonic energy condensed all across the body—uncanny and extraordinary beyond measure.
Still white scales—yet beneath that covering of white, 7 resplendent dark markings were evenly distributed throughout.
Like natural runes, they flowed faintly, each corresponding to one of the divine abilities.
Across the surface of the serpentine body, extremely faint silver dragon-scale patterns appeared and disappeared like a mirage.
A pair of blue vertical pupils underwent a sudden change of color: the left eye was clear as glazed glass, seemingly capable of piercing through the nine abyss of Wall-Piercing Sight; within the depths of the right eye, a 7-colored vortex turned slowly, reflecting the shifting transformations of the various divine abilities.
The Dragon Pearl had transformed into a demon core and now circulated within the body—though there was no time to examine it closely, for turbulent demonic energy surged through the brand-new body. It was not something that could be measured by the simple accumulation of a hundred or a thousand years of cultivation.
The heavenly essence and divine ability seeds contained within the 7-colored immortal pill had directly elevated him to an unimaginable degree.
Even though the greater part of that essence had been expended in reforging his body, his present cultivation still surpassed that of a century-old Great Demon.
Jiang Linxian could no longer be called a serpent demon at this moment. In appearance, he was not far from a half-flood dragon—and in many ways, even more extraordinary.
These 300 years of cultivation.
Were nearly comparable to the accumulated effort of ordinary demons cultivating in bitter practice for several thousand years—and his foundation was incomparably deep and solid.
Even more precious were the 7 divine ability seeds, now deeply branded into both his spiritual consciousness and his bloodline.
With continuous tempering and contemplation in the days ahead, he would gradually be able to manifest the greater and lesser divine abilities corresponding to each.
This was the true fortuitous encounter.
Reborn through fire. Completely reforged.
Jiang Linxian slowly opened his eyes. A flash of keen divine light crossed through his vertical pupils.
With the slightest movement, his new serpentine body radiated a surge of power so immense it felt as though it could tear space itself.
With a gentle thought, his body at times shimmered with the pale gold of Guidance, at times became nearly transparent, while the water and fire spiritual energy around him submitted in gentle obedience.
The alchemy furnace could no longer restrain him.
He even sensed that a subtle new connection had formed between himself, this furnace, and the earth veins of Seven Absolute Mountain beyond.
Not the authority of a mountain god—rather, because he had devoured the 7-colored immortal pill born of this very mountain, he now carried within himself a portion of this land's most primal creative essence.
He raised his head. His vertical pupils pierced through the furnace wall.
He gazed directly at the mountain god outside—utterly spent, like a lamp drained of oil—awaiting the moment to open the furnace and retrieve the pill.
Jiang Linxian did not immediately erupt into action. Instead, he familiarized himself with the various divine abilities.
Compatible divine abilities could be layered and combined. The divine ability seeds transformed from Seven Absolute Mountain were exceptionally remarkable—almost forming a complete system unto themselves.
Relying on his current cultivation, he could briefly manifest the power of Mountain Bearing, temporarily manifesting a partial colossal form in localized areas—such as a sweeping tail as massive as a mountain range.
Then, drawing upon the solidity of Guidance to reinforce his body's capacity to withstand pressure, and finally using the principles of Vessel-World to preliminarily compress or stretch the space immediately surrounding himself—causing a limited expansion of his physical form.
Enlarging his body by several zhang or a dozen zhang.
Jiang Linxian called this Gigantification, or Demon Body Manifestation—for since he was not yet well-versed in the divine abilities and lacked sufficient cultivation to support them, only his physical size would grow larger.
It was a pity that Jiang Linxian's cultivation was insufficient. Otherwise, if he were to completely comprehend and thoroughly integrate the 3 core divine ability seeds—Mountain Bearing, Guidance, and Vessel-World—
It was not impossible that he might, as water flows naturally into channels, reach out and touch the true pinnacle divine ability: Conformation to Heaven and Earth.
Alas, even the lesser divine abilities required over a thousand years of cultivation before they could be barely manifested—let alone something like Conformation to Heaven and Earth.
This was merely one of Jiang Linxian's long-held ambitions at this point; for now, he had only just begun to touch the threshold of divine abilities.
And this was only possible because he carried divine ability seeds within him—left to his own comprehension, none could say how many ages it would require.
Time passed slowly. The mountain god began to grow impatient.
He sensed what was transmitted from beyond the furnace—that vast force belonging to the mountain god, which now faintly radiated exhaustion and urgency.
The mountain god was focusing all his attention on driving the final stage of refinement, awaiting the moment the pill would be complete.
His spirit's connection to the furnace and the earth veins had also reached its peak—yet it was precisely the most strained and the least tolerant of error.
The moment was nearly at hand.