Chapter 17: Thunderbolt Pearl

Just as Chen Lin left, a hunched old man emerged from the back of the house.

Seeing the old man appear, the woman spoke up immediately, her expression shifting. "It is truly as you said. This person came back again to ask about information regarding the Enlightenment Pill. Could it be that he actually followed your formula and successfully refined it? That seems highly unlikely."

The old man smiled.

"Nothing is impossible," he said calmly. "Not only did he refine it, but he refined more than one."

"What!" The woman was greatly shocked.

"Wasn't your formula just a simplified version improved by Elder He? It is only theoretically feasible. Even you couldn't refine it; how could a rogue cultivator like him manage it? Could it be that he is a hidden alchemy master?"

"An alchemy master?" The old man let out a cold sneer.

"An alchemy master could not refine a formula modified from Elder He's original Qi Fortune Alchemy technique. To succeed in refining it, one must possess immense fortune!"

The woman's embroidered brows knitted together. "Immense fortune? How much fortune could a rogue cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refinement at the age of forty possibly have?"

The old man's lip twitched from being stifled. He shook his head and said, "In the past, this person was indeed a destitute rogue cultivator, but he has changed greatly recently, as if he has become a different person entirely."

"Are you saying he has been possessed!" the woman cried out in alarm.

"Whether he has been possessed or not, I do not know, but there has certainly been a change. This man is extremely cautious. If I hadn't used Elder He's Primordial Pill formula to test Zhao Zhenyuan—which was then sold to this man—and if I hadn't happened to discover that he had refined the Primordial Pill while monitoring Zhao Zhenyuan, I wouldn't have believed it either."

After a pause, he said with certainty, "Both of these formulas were created by Elder He. Success depends entirely on luck. If he had succeeded once, it could be called a coincidence, but to succeed with both types of pills, and more than once at that, is no coincidence."

The woman nodded. "So, you mean we should let him try?"

"Mhm." The old man also nodded. "That thing will soon take shape. If we cannot sever the red thread and escape this place by then, everything will be lost. We can no longer wait."

The woman remained somewhat hesitant, frowning. "Can entering the Foundation Establishment stage really sever that red thread? Once the Blood Demon Pill is used, there is no turning back!"

The old man gave a bitter smile. "There is no turning back anyway. We can only blame our bad luck for encountering such a powerful anomaly. Fortunately, it hasn't fully formed yet, otherwise, we would have died long ago."

Hearing this, the woman spoke with an apologetic tone. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't asked Senior Brother to come here to track the traitor, we wouldn't be trapped here."

The old man smiled and said, "Why say such things? If anything, I should thank this anomaly. If not for this thing, how would I have had the chance to be alone with you!"

Then, his expression turned serious. "After Foundation Establishment, one can certainly sever the red thread. I have already mastered the method. The heads of the Zhang and Han families are using this very secret technique; they are already preparing to lead their families' core disciples out of the city."

The woman was stunned. "Really? No wonder the people from those two families don't seem panicked. It turns out the two heads didn't go missing, but rather found a way to leave."

The old man nodded. "Yes. Not just those two families, but the other three major families are likely preparing to leave as well. However, to avoid attracting the anomaly's attention, they probably won't dare to take too many people with them."

Having said that, he sighed. "It's a pity the five major families are too exclusive, and we belong to the Black Demon Sect. Otherwise, getting two spots to leave from them wouldn't be this troublesome. Now, we just have to see if this Fellow Daoist Chen can give me a surprise!"

...

Chen Lin removed his disguise and returned to his quarters, carrying a rabbit cage in his hand.

Before entering the room, he glanced at Zhao Zhenyuan's residence, hesitated for a moment, and then walked over.

He knocked on the door, but there was no response.

"Brother Zhao, I'm stewing rabbit tonight, come have a drink!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Still, there was no response.

Chen Lin frowned. He hadn't seen the other man for a long time and didn't know if it was because they hadn't met during seclusion or if the man simply hadn't returned.

Just then, the window opposite him pushed open, and the head of a sallow-faced female cultivator poked out.

"Stop shouting. That guy hasn't been back for half a month. Do you want me to drink with you?"

Hasn't been back for half a month?

Chen Lin couldn't help but feel a bad premonition. With the recent disturbances caused by demonic beasts, could he have run into some danger?

Unfortunately, even if something had truly happened, he wouldn't be able to help; he could only silently pray for him.

Ignoring the female cultivator, Chen Lin went straight back to his own room, prompting another string of curses from her. He simply treated it as wind passing his ears.

After putting the rabbit cage away, he impatiently took out the box containing the pills. He removed a pill, carefully scraped off some powder from it, mixed it into water, and fed it to the rabbit.

Then, he began to observe quietly.

While observing, he took out the manual on tool refining to read.

In the entire manual, all other pages had been ruined; only a few pages in the middle were still barely legible.

There were six pages in total, recording the manufacturing methods for two types of magical tools.

Though called magical tools, they were not conventional items like flying swords or shields, but rather two very niche objects.

One was called the Purple Light Bottle, which, according to the records, was a special container used to hold a substance called Purple Gold Glazed Liquid.

Chen Lin did not know what Purple Gold Glazed Liquid was; he had never heard of it, so naturally, he wouldn't refine it.

What he had his eye on was the other one.

The Thunderbolt Bead!

Turning to the pages for the Thunderbolt Bead, he studied them repeatedly and took out pen and ink to supplement the missing characters based on conventional understanding.

After working on it for a long time, he nodded in satisfaction.

Not much of the content for making this item was missing, and the parts that were were mostly unimportant. After his deduction and supplementation, it should be fine.

As for its function, it was similar to a bomb from his previous life; it didn't require spiritual power to activate—you just threw it, and it exploded.

The downside was that its power wasn't particularly great.

The principle of the explosion was also quite different from bombs in his previous life; it didn't use gunpowder, but was instead made from several mutually repulsive and internally unstable materials.

During production, a formation was used to keep the various materials in a state of equilibrium. Once triggered, the balance of the formation would be broken, resulting in an explosion.

Based on the power effects described in the book, Chen Lin felt it was roughly equivalent to a grenade.

It was decent against those in the early stages of Qi Refinement, but once someone reached the middle stage, they would not only have strengthened their physical constitution but could also deploy shield-type spells, easily blocking the lethality of the explosion.

If that was the case, why did he buy it?

Mainly because the manual mentioned that this item was quite difficult to refine, with a very low success rate.

Currently, he was very fond of anything with a low success rate. After all, only by refining such items could he demonstrate the importance of his talent.

It provided a sense of achievement.

Additionally, the raw materials were very cheap. Even if he only successfully refined one out of ten attempts, it wouldn't cost more than two spirit stones.

And if one wasn't powerful enough, what about ten?

What about a hundred?

Therefore, it couldn't be said to be entirely useless.

At present, he lacked offensive means; having this item would at least provide him with an extra layer of self-defense.