Chapter 1506: A New and Wondrous Use for Ink Death
"Life and death are as one, in union with the Dao lies truth. To wander free, beyond all worldly things, is the path to the pill's completion."
Li Buren carefully savored the teachings within the *Dao-Refining Scripture of the Medicine King*, finally understanding why his first attempt at alchemy had failed.
"My intent was too strong. It violates the very essence of being unfettered..."
Li Buren shook his head, a wry smile on his lips.
"It truly was too utilitarian."
"A Dao Pill is merely the finishing touch on a masterpiece. It's a fine addition, but its absence changes nothing fundamental."
For Li Fan, the success or failure of the pill itself wasn't the point.
What mattered was the process of its creation.
After witnessing the true magnificence of the Great Dao with Cheng Dao, Li Fan had come to a stark realization: trying to comprehend the world's three thousand Daos on his own would be an incredibly slow and inefficient endeavor.
Therefore, he needed a shortcut.
Beyond directly absorbing the Daoist insights of the Grandmaster and Cheng Dao, the *Dao-Refining Scripture of the Medicine King* passed down by Sun Piao Miao offered another supremely effective path.
The Great Dao manifests as all things in creation, and the process of Dao-refining could reverse this, slowly distilling all things back into their purest state as "Dao."
The effect was remarkably similar to that of [Primal]. Yet, the resulting Dao wasn't the same innate, chaotic state that Primal left behind. Instead, it was as if it had been filtered, organized, and rendered perfectly clear.
Simply put, it was the difference between merely seeing the Dao and truly understanding it.
Even if the pill failed to form, the process of the Great Dao coalescing was enough for Li Buren to observe its principles in minute detail.
Seven days later, Li Buren began the refinement process once more.
Supernatural phenomena once again filled the skies, but having survived the previous ordeal, most of the beings on the Primordial Desolation Continent were no longer afraid.
As for the five Heavenly Emperors and thirteen Heavenly Marks, who stood to gain from the process, they redoubled their efforts with even greater zeal.
Li Buren directed the process from a distance. Amidst the dance of ethereal flames, the Dao Pill took its initial form.
Compared to the flawed specimen from before, this true Dao Pill was different. Not only was it wreathed in a hazy, purple aura, but, more strangely, it seemed to possess a budding, nascent consciousness.
As it faced Li Buren, the one who would consume it, the Dao Pill showed no fear. Instead, it radiated a sense of eager anticipation.
"The Dao Pill," he realized, "is essentially a condensation of countless principles of the Dao. Consuming it wouldn't make it disappear."
"Instead, it would merge with my own understanding of the Great Dao, becoming one with me..."
As this understanding dawned on him, Li Buren paused, the Dao Pill hovering just before his lips.
His long-cultivated caution took over, and he ultimately abandoned the idea of consuming the pill—even though this was merely a clone.
"A gift for you," he declared.
He tossed it out just as casually as before.
It sent the Heavenly Emperors and Heavenly Marks into a frenzied scramble.
For these created beings, a single Dao Pill was worth more than tens of millions of years of arduous cultivation—in fact, its value far surpassed that.
This was because on the Primordial Desolation Continent, Li Fan had rigidly defined and fixed all duties and jurisdictions.
Even a Heavenly Emperor was restricted to observing only the Dao principles within their designated domain. Li Fan's Dao Pill, however, transcended these boundaries.
"This," he thought, "is true power."
"The power to break rules, to ignore rules, and even..."
"...to create rules."
As he continued to refine one Dao Pill after another, countless insights accumulated within Li Fan's mind.
Combined with the knowledge gained from Cheng Dao, his progress advanced by leaps and bounds.
After the nineteenth pill, Li Buren stopped bestowing them upon the inhabitants of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm.
Instead, he began to collect and hoard them himself.
This collection of Dao Pills represented an irresistible temptation to any living creature, a lure thousands, even tens of thousands of times more potent than that of a Heavenly Spirit to a cultivator in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Yet throughout it all, Li Buren's mind remained as calm as still water.
As his proficiency grew, so too did his ambition. Beyond simply refining the pills with effortless grace, Li Buren began to entertain some unique ideas of his own.
"Ink Death can manifest as a Heavenly Spirit," he mused. "Theoretically, it should be possible to integrate it into a Dao Pill."
The thought sparked an idea. During his next refinement, Li Buren began to draw upon the power of Ink Death's Immortal Soul.
But Ink Death itself, much like Dao Annihilation, possessed the ability to erode the principles of the Dao. The infusion of its power caused the refinement to fail.
And yet, in that failure, Li Buren saw a glimmer of hope.
The pill hadn't dissipated the instant he infused Ink Death's power; it had held its form for a short while before breaking apart.
"This means the proportions are simply wrong. They just need to be adjusted."
After a full half-year of experimentation, Li Buren finally succeeded in refining the first [Ink Death Dao Pill].
On the outside, it was still wreathed in a sacred, purple aura.
In fact, the aura was more than twice as dense as that of a normal Dao Pill.
What was truly astonishing, however, was the surface of the pill itself. Patterns resembling the Mountain and Sea had naturally emerged upon it.
This lent the pill an even greater sense of mystique.
Li Buren stared at it intently for a long while, unable to determine if this Mountain and Sea phenomenon was a mere coincidence.
And so, he refined another.
The result was the same.
"Interesting," Li Buren murmured, tossing the "poison pill" out of his Dao Palace.
No Dao Pill had appeared for some time, and this one, which looked to be of extraordinary quality, sparked a violent conflict among the beings of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm.
The ensuing struggle was more brutal than all the previous ones combined.
In the end, a fortunate Earth Spirit, one of the first beings born at the dawn of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm, claimed the prize.
Trembling with excitement, it swallowed the Dao Pill.
Wreathed in a storm of purple aura, the Earth Spirit began to rise, seemingly against its will.
It soared straight up, ascending towards Li Buren's Dao Palace.
It vanished completely from the sight of the other beings, leaving behind a chorus of astonished and envious cries.
Meanwhile, Li Buren stroked his chin, observing the Earth Spirit before him. It had been completely transformed into purple qi, and seemed to have lost all consciousness.
"This is..."
"Dao-ification?"
The Earth Spirit's life form had vanished, leaving only its shape behind. But there was no such thing as a "Dao of the Earth Spirit" in the world.
Thus, the scene before Li Buren was utterly bizarre.
The Earth Spirit should have consumed and assimilated the Dao Pill, but instead, it had been consumed by it.
Furthermore, Li Buren discovered that within the Dao-ified Earth Spirit, there was no trace of Ink Death's power.
The scant power of Ink Death within the pill had been completely consumed during the process of Dao-ification.
"So, this is another way to use the power of Ink Death's Immortal Soul?"
A single experiment was not enough to understand how this profound and mysterious transformation occurred.
Over the following days, Li Buren proceeded to refine another fifteen [Ink Death Dao Pills].
As a host of strange, purple statues appeared one by one at his side, Li Buren gradually began to understand the cause.
This time, he skipped the refinement process entirely. With a mere thought, the power of Ink Death shot forth, descending upon the realm to lock onto a target.
Normally, a being struck by Ink Death would be utterly annihilated, its essence erased without a trace.
But now, the result was "Dao-ification."
It revealed the being's primordial form—the very image of its creation.
(End of Chapter)
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