A brutal glow flickered within the eyes of the three Cultivators. Patriarch Big-head laughed heartily and then once again slapped his bag of holding to produce what appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary grain of rice.

It was plump, glossy and white. At first glance, the sight of it would make you hungry.

The eyes of Patriarch Rubicund and Patriarch Pockmarks narrowed. "That's…."

"This object was pried from the mouth of an ancient Giant Locust," said Patriarch Big-head, his voice cool. "It was passed down through generations to me. After studying it thoroughly, I refined it anew. It can be used to break any spell formation in Heaven and Earth." He waved his hand, and suddenly, waves of rice grains flew out from his hand, pouring in sheets toward the black, foggy wind ahead of them.

The pure white rice instantly began to turn dark. It only took the space of a few breaths for it to become pure black. Patriarch Big-head gasped, and a strange look appeared in his eyes. His body trembled, and he began to shrink as if he were being withered. Veins of blood appeared in his eyes.

"Fellow Daoists, I need power from your Cultivation bases!" He lifted his right hand, and Patriarch Rubicund and Patriarch Pockmarks immediately began to transmit power from their Cultivation bases. Patriarch Big-head absorbed it without hesitation.

Other surrounding Cultivators heard the words uttered by Patriarch Big-head. Patriarch Pockmarks glanced at the remaining Han River Sect disciples, and soon, a mutual understanding was reached by everyone. Power poured out from the Cultivation bases of the hundreds of surrounding Cultivators. Patriarch Big-head turned into a black hole as he sucked in the power. His eyes turned bright red, and he raised his hand straight up into the air and extended a finger.

"Luminous Rice…" he said, his voice hoarse. Instantly, the blackened sheets of rice began to emit blinding rays of light, which shot out, forming together into a vast sheet of brightness. The light illuminated the surrounding darkness of the foggy wind, and if you didn't look too closely, everything suddenly didn't seem as mysterious as before.

Patriarch Big-head bit down on the tip of his tongue and spit out a mouthful of blood. The glowing blood, which was filled with the power lent by the surrounding Cultivators, melded into the shining rice grains within the foggy wind.

"Heavenly Army Transformation!"

A powerful boom filled the air, and the surrounding Cultivators instantly saw a vast array of emaciated figures appear within the fog. They were short, about half the size of an average person, and did not appear to be any sort of Heavenly Army. In fact, they looked more like evil spirits that had just crawled out of hell. All of the grains of rice transformed into such evil spirits.

In the blink of an eye, there were hundreds of them!

The bodies of the evil spirits were indistinct, as if they couldn't quite fully manifest into the world. Even still, a cruel and bloodthirsty viciousness emanated out from them.

Patriarch Big-head's face was pale as he retreated a few steps, clasped hands and bowed. "Heavenly Army, I beseech you to break this formation! The more than one hundred people inside are my sacrifices to you, oh Heavenly Army!" Up ahead, the fog roiled as the massive phantoms began to slam into the evil spirits. Shocking explosions rang out.

Inside the spell formation, the parrot's eyes went wide with both fear and irritation.

"Dammit! That's an Immortal divine ability that's supposed to turn rice into soldiers. Who was it that changed it into something that summons evil spirits!? That's not something a Core Formation Cultivator could pull off, and it's also not a technique from the Ninth Mountain. That's something from… the League of Hellfire from the Fourth Mountain!

"Somehow that guy managed to get his hands onto an incomplete legacy…. Dammit, everybody else can pretty much ignore these evil spirits, but considering the current state of my body… it could cause some big problems if I ran into them." For the first time, the parrot looked somewhat nervous. "So annoying…." it said, taking in a deep breath.

Meanwhile, back in the Immortal's cave in the short mountain, Meng Hao's eyes glowed brightly as he looked at the black pill furnace he held in his hand. On the surface of the pill furnace was the face of a youth, which looked back at Meng Hao with an expression that said it would never yield.

This was none other than the pill furnace he had acquired in the Violet Furnace Lord trial by fire.1. However, from the moment he had acquired it, it had showed no sign that it would ever submit to him. At the moment, Meng Hao looked at it with brow furrowed. Finally, he gave a cold snort and performed an incantation with his right hand. Then, he pushed his finger down onto the face of the youth. It twisted and filled with a look of pain.

Meng Hao was currently surrounded by countless threads of Qi, visible only to himself. They swirled toward him from all directions to pour into the pill furnace.

"If you still won't give in, fine," said Meng Hao coolly. "A pill furnace with a spirit inside is a bit better, but I'm already used to the kind without." Meng Hao pushed down, and the Demonic Qi in the area poured in, transforming into a cage. The cage surrounded the image of the youth, and then transformed into something that looked like a net, which completely suppressed it.

The youth screamed, filled with anxiety. However, the scream was weak.

"If I want to let you live, then you can continue to exist. If I want you dead, it will take a mere thought." Meng Hao's voice was cold, and even as he spoke the words, the net tightened, thoroughly restricting the youth in all aspects. The blackness of the pill furnace began to grow dim, to be replaced by a violet color.

Glancing at the pill furnace, Meng Hao waved his right hand, whereupon a vast quantity of medicinal plants emerged. His left hand flickered like a ghost as he began to catalyze, extract fluids, make adjustments, and feed ingredients into the pill furnace. A flame appeared in his right hand; it was not red, but violet.

This flame was none other than the East Pill Everburning Flame, the legacy alchemic flame stoked by his Violet Core. This ever burning alchemic flame would allow him to employ the Spirit Summoning Incantation.1

Just when Meng Hao was about to begin concocting, the anxious voice of the parrot was transmitted into his mind. Meng Hao immediately sent out his Spiritual Sense, whereupon he saw the fog in the outside world, as well as the hundreds of vicious evil spirits.

He was silent for a moment, and then looked at the pill furnace. His eyes filled with determination as well as a cold glow.

"I don't care what price you have to pay, give me three days!" he transmitted back. Then he severed his connection with the outside world and began to concoct.

"Three days…" thought the parrot, a feverish light shining in its eyes. A flicker could be seen at its feet, and the meat jelly appeared.

"Lord Fifth gets it, b*tch! How annoying! I never imagined that someone would have a Hellfire legacy. Even though it's not complete, it still… could restrain Lord Fifth!" The parrot eyed the meat jelly earnestly. "Three days. You need to cooperate with me for three days. If Meng Hao isn't finished by that time, then we'll just have to flee."

Only on rare occasions would the meat jelly not be talkative. However, as soon as it heard about the Hellfire legacy, its eyes grew wide.

The meat jelly shivered and nodded repeatedly. "The League of Hellfire from the Fourth Mountain…. How is it possible for them to appear here?!"

Time passed slowly. Meng Hao's expression remained calm the entire time. Rumbling sounds were already detectable from outside of the Immortal's cave, the results of the unanticipated problems the parrot had mentioned.

Meng Hao wasn't the type of person to lay blame on others. True, it had been the parrot's idea to lure all the people here. However, even though unexpected problems had cropped up outside, Meng Hao was still confident that they could be handled.

This was the self-confidence of a Cultivator.

"As long as there are no Nascent Soul Cultivators, then all I have to do is put on the blood-colored mask, and I can take care of everything myself if I have to. This is a good opportunity to teach the parrot a bit of a lesson." Meng Hao's left hand flickered as he poured more medicinal plants into the pill furnace, along with a mouthful of Violet Qi. This Qi was not Core Qi, which could give birth to divine abilities, but normal Cultivation base Qi.

The purpose of this action was to cause his alchemic flame to grow even stronger. A variety of complex thoughts filled his mind as he began to concoct the Perfect Gold Core Pill.

Under normal circumstances, this pill would require quite a bit of time to concoct. However, Meng Hao was a Grandmaster of the Dao of alchemy. Furthermore, he had his legacy flame and the Spirit Summoning Incantation. Considering all of that, he was confident that he could reduce the concocting time by quite a bit.

Time passed. Three days later, the squawks of the parrot echoed out throughout the foggy wind. Explosions filled the air. The fog had already subsided by about half. The killing intent of the Cultivators from the three great Sects billowed to the Heavens. They had been trapped for days now, and had constantly been sending power out from their Cultivation bases. They were growing more exhausted, but their hatred for Meng Hao caused them to intensify their efforts.

Of the hundreds of evil spirits, only about half remained. As for the more than one hundred Cultivators who ran about within the spell formation, many were coughing up blood and their bodies were stooped over. They did not seem to fear for their lives; nonetheless, they slowly began to slip into unconsciousness.

As more and more of them passed out, the forces of the three great Sects grew nearer. Patriarch Big-head pulled out more rice, flinging it out into the air. Darkness filled the area, even the sky itself. There were no clouds; this darkness bore the appearance of a turbid magical river.

"The yellow springs appear…. This is definitely the work of the League of Hellfire…." The parrot laughed bitterly. Inside the fog, a light glittered as the meat jelly appeared. It flew through the air listlessly, looking dispirited. The two of them had used quite a variety of special defensive techniques throughout the past three days, but now they were running out of steam.

"Dammit!" said the parrot hatefully. "If I had just one more year to practice, or five hundred Cultivators, then the power of this trifling incomplete legacy couldn't possibly break through Lord Fifth's Celestial spell formation!" Suddenly, an explosion could be heard from within the Immortal's cave.

Meng Hao's eyes were bloodshot. He had used all the energy he could muster to concoct the Perfect Gold Core Pill. At the critical moment, the pill furnace began to shake. Strands of golden light began to emanate out from within, bathing the entire Immortal's cave with a golden glow.

Meng Hao's hair was in disarray, his expression listless. And yet, determination still glowed within his bloodshot eyes. His alchemic flame burned as he continued to refine the pill, increasing its medical strength.

At this moment, the sky in the outside world, which was dark and gloomy to begin with, suddenly filled with massive amounts of black clouds. The black clouds churned and seethed, covering an area fifty kilometers in diameter. The illusory visage of the yellow springs was concealed, and the gruesome darkness banished. However, the Earth below only grew darker. Booming sounds filled the air as countless bolts of lightning writhed up above like silver snakes.

This was not the Heavenly Tribulation of Perfection. This was Pill Tribulation caused by a medicinal pill!

However, if the pill was successfully concocted, and Meng Hao consumed it, then the Tribulation would change. Its explosiveness would increase exponentially, and it would transform into a horrifying, exterminating Heavenly Tribulation!

He acquired the black pill furnace in chapter 281The Spirit Summoning Incantation was one of the three gifts given to him by Grandmaster Pill Demon in chapter 294