Seven hundred and twenty degrees, seven hundred and fifty degrees. The flames from the wood could only get so hot, and now, the temperature inside the Lotus Crucible was rising slower and slower.
Sweat poured off her, her mouth parched, but it was like she was trapped in a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. Her survival instincts kicked into overdrive—the Secondary Meat Pill she swallowed was instantly broken down and absorbed, and life essence surged through her like a flood. Crack! The Iron Techniques Set was pushed to its highest, eighth level. At the same time—snap!—the Supreme Skill broke through its tenth gate, putting her in the fifty-year mastery league. With that power, the Golden Techniques Set also broke through to the eighth level.
Brighter golden light shone from her body, boosting her cooling effect.
But at seven hundred seventy, seven hundred eighty degrees, the heat kept climbing. It was a bizarre tug-of-war—raise the temperature, survive the temperature—with both the Lotus Crucible and Jill Young running out of steam.
"Ugh... hot... so hot... too hot..." Jill Young muttered in her sleep, her voice raspy and dry, her face twisted in pain. Eyes squeezed shut, she was still analyzing the eleventh diagram with her Prajna Skill. She was a thousand times faster than normal, but in this situation, even that wasn’t enough. The Supreme Skill at fifty years' mastery kept the Golden Bell Shield up, but fifty years' worth of power sounds great—until you see what it’s up against.
In this brutal environment, her internal energy was burning up at a terrifying rate, and the golden light around her started to flicker and scatter.
Eight hundred degrees!
Flames roared, the whole Lotus Crucible was pumping out waves of heat, and the air around it twisted and squirmed. For a chunk of metal this size, with this much surface area, eight hundred degrees was already pushing it. Even raising it by one more degree was impossible now. And for the person inside, this was the absolute limit too.
No sweat could be seen on Jill Young—any moisture instantly steamed away. Her face even showed signs of dehydration, and she looked ready to collapse. The analysis of the eleventh diagram got stuck at the last line, just one final push needed, but no matter what, she couldn’t break through. The Supreme Skill was about to give out. Her pure, blazing internal energy kept circulating, refining blood and replenishing her qi, but the golden light around her was still starting to fall apart.
The Golden Bell Shield was about to break.
"Hot..." Jill Young frowned tightly in her dream, weakly mumbling, "It's way too hot... I need... air conditioning... I want AC... I want to turn on—the—air—con—di—tion—er—!!!"
Whoosh—a golden profile suddenly shot out from her right hand and merged with her whole body. At the same time, in a distant spatial dimension, another profile echoed back. The next instant, a tiny but ultra-high quality stream of icy blue true energy crossed over from another dimension, flowing into Jill Young’s meridians. Meanwhile, a surge of powerful mental energy flooded into her Mental Sea.
The audience outside the scene started sending support.
A stream of pure cold met the Supreme Skill in the middle of all that heat, adding a touch of extreme chill. Instead of clashing or canceling each other out, they sparked a miraculous reaction. The Supreme Skill, which had been on its last legs, suddenly steadied, and the golden light about to collapse flared up again.
Not only that—Diamond Leg, Golden Radiance Palm, Golden Bell Shield—all the protective glows that used to operate separately were now starting to fuse together. The skill levels didn’t go up, but the defense kept getting stronger. The golden glow kept fading and shrinking, but it wasn’t disappearing—it was being melted into her flesh, truly becoming one with her, no more separation.
Such a magical transformation—even among ten thousand Golden Bell Shield masters, nobody had ever seen it happen.
Yin and Yang, helping each other, creating each other.
Two forms, creating all things.
With that huge mental boost, she finally broke through the eleventh diagram.
A series of ding-ding-dong-dong sounds, like someone playing piano, rang out in every meridian. Magical vibrations rippled through her, and the faint reddish-gold glow clinging to her meridians finally stabilized. If it was just paint slapped on before, now it was cement plastered in—way sturdier, and a whole lot more effective.
At this point, the Prajna Skill finally took a break, not forcing the analysis of the twelfth diagram any further.
Having reserves and not exhausting them is also a kind of martial wisdom.
Whew...' Jill Young's face finally relaxed into a look of comfort. She smacked her lips and chuckled, 'With the AC on... it's just so comfy... whew...' She mumbled in her sleep, curling up and lying down again, and actually managed to sleep soundly inside the Lotus Crucible at eight hundred degrees.
The Three Realms Ablaze, like a house on fire.
But even in a house on fire, you can still find sleep.
This time, after burning through so much mental energy, she really fell asleep.
The magical changes kept deepening—those slow, grinding techniques would need some time to settle in.
Who knows how much time passed in her dream, or what happened. In a daze, Jill Young just felt that at some point the "AC" was gone again. But the temperature around her kept dropping, and it wasn’t uncomfortable anymore. After a while, her ears twitched—she seemed to hear shouting and the sounds of battle. The noise was both near and far, a mix of clashing weapons and dying cries.
Hmm...' The sound was almost inaudible through the Lotus Crucible, but she still frowned and began to wake up.
Then she heard several angry shouts—Om Mani Padme Hum, the Six Syllable Lion's Roar Kung Fu echoed through the sky. But after a few breaths, it stopped abruptly, like someone slammed on the brakes.
Hmm...? That familiar sound made her eyelids twitch. She rolled over, almost waking up.
Suddenly, a wave of intense, eerie killing intent erupted in the distance. It was so massive and strange that, to anyone with strong spiritual senses, it felt like a giant ghost fire drifting across a dark wilderness—both obvious and deeply unsettling.
It was far away, but impossible to ignore—no one could sleep through it.
That weird feeling was familiar to Jill Young.
Huh?!' Whoosh—she opened her eyes, and it was like two tiny suns lit up inside the Lotus Crucible. A streak of reddish-gold flashed through her pupils.
A moment later, she blinked, the glow faded from her eyes, and she was fully awake.
Where is this...? Why are there so many of my fist prints here?' She seemed to have no memory of what just happened. Looking down at herself, she was immediately stunned: 'Eh?! Where did my clothes go? And why are there two of these weird stones now—did they multiply or something?! Most important—why do I feel like I’m locked up again—!!'
Sigh, waking up in a cramped, sealed space after falling asleep for no reason—yeah, that’s not exactly a new experience.
Luckily, since her power kept wrecking her clothes, she always kept at least two spare outfits in her storage space. She grabbed one and changed in a flash, stashed the two weird stones, and quickly spotted the exit. Standing up, she slapped the lid—and with a deafening crash, it shot through the roof like a cannonball, howling away into the distance.
What the—?' Jill Young stared at her hands in shock, clenching her fists: 'How did my strength jump by thirty percent? And how did all my bones suddenly heal up?'
She suddenly realized she’d gotten a lot stronger without even noticing—clearly, she’d picked up some good stuff while asleep. But now wasn’t the time to dig into it. She shot skyward, blasting through the hole in the roof and into the night. It was still dark outside, and her internal clock told her it’d only been a little over an hour since she left Fengteng County.
Just over an hour ago, this was the ancestral home of Zen Buddhism, the treasured ground of Shaolin.
But now, she heard countless shouts, the clash of weapons, and dying screams in the distance. The ancient temple, famous for a thousand years, was now ablaze, the air thick with the stench of blood and burning, assaulting her senses.
Is this... an enemy attack?' Jill Young instantly grasped the situation: 'Not good, that little brat!' She flared her nostrils, catching a familiar scent: 'This way!'
She kicked off with her lightness skill and dashed forward. With one stride, she realized her physical strength had grown by thirty percent, her internal power had improved a lot, and she might’ve even mastered some high-level martial arts. All good stuff, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
Her nose told her the little brat was with Jueyuan and Zhang Junbao, heading toward the back mountain of Shaolin. Apparently, Monk Jueyuan was running with the two kids in a big iron bucket. But what made Jill Young frown was that the weird killing intent had erupted in the same direction they were escaping.
Killing intent isn’t rare in the world of refining spirit into qi—King Golden Blade can even use it to create illusions of blood-soaked mountains and rivers. But in this world of refining essence into qi, it was Jill Young’s first time encountering such intense, bizarre mental energy.
This feeling...' A flash of insight hit Jill Young. 'Could it be that bastard from Qingcheng Mountain?'
That evil, chilling feeling—the kind that makes you feel like you’ve stepped in dog crap—no mistaking it. It was just like that old Taoist... or more precisely, like the greenish aura he coughed up with his blood. Last time it wasn’t nearly this strong. How did it get so much worse in just a few days?
As she sped ahead, that eerie presence suddenly ballooned several times over, like someone unleashed a massive attack. But just as quickly, it shrank and went silent, impossible to track any further.
This doesn’t feel good...' Blood and energy surged as she pushed herself harder. Outside the dragon-shaped shadow of her qi, she vaguely sensed another, smaller dragon shape wrapping around her legs. With both dragon shadows entwined, she shot skyward like a cannonball, leaping higher and farther than ever before—flying over peaks and valleys, racing to the scene.