Chapter One Hundred: The Three-Legged Golden Toad [Requesting Monthly Votes]

Amid the endless ocean of thunder, Li Yang felt as though the shell covering his body was on the verge of melting away.

Piercing pain struck straight into the depths of his soul. It was not merely physical agony; even his spirit seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and his consciousness felt as if it would plunge into an abyss of boundless darkness.

“Boy, hold on. Use the Thunder Tempering Body Art!”

At that moment, a voice of the Dao rang out in his mind, bringing Li Yang a fleeting moment of clarity. He hurriedly clung to the last thread of lucidity in his heart and mind.

Within his sea of consciousness, the Purple Firmament Daoist also raised his hands to form a seal, and a radiant lotus of clear qi enveloped his soul.

“Ha... Ninefold Profound Heaven Transformation: Golden Body Form!”

Seeing the Purple Firmament Daoist in the depths of his sea of consciousness, his figure somewhat dimmed, Li Yang seized the protection of that clear light and rapidly contracted his body. In an instant, he transformed into a six-foot-tall, steel-roped mass of golden muscle, seated cross-legged at the center of the thunder sea.

“Thunder! Thunder!! Thunder!!!”

In a flash, Li Yang silently recited the general principle of the Chaos Heavenly Thunder, changed the posture of his entire body, and began to practice the body-tempering technique within the thunder sea, movement by movement.

Rumble... hiss... crackle...

At that very moment, the thunderstorm overhead began to churn violently, and arcs of blue-violet lightning climbed over Li Yang’s body from all directions.

Sitting in meditation atop the thunder sea, Li Yang gripped the Thunder Chisel in both hands, like a divine monarch of lightning. Above his head floated a perfectly round, gleaming golden elixir, radiating a dazzling light.

Thump, thump, thump... rumble... hiss...

With Li Yang’s movements, his blood and vital energy boiled at high speed. Waves of thunder power were drawn into his body, carried by his blood through every cell in his being. Even his heart, stimulated by that thunderous force, emitted a deep, drumlike pounding.

Hiss... sizzle...

No one knew how much time had passed before the speed of Li Yang’s surging blood grew even faster. Under the stimulation of thunder power, the cells within his body madly drew nourishment from his blood.

As the cells voraciously devoured and divided, the blood in Li Yang’s body gradually changed from a mix of gold and red into a deep crimson. After the frenzied division of his cells, a peculiar new kind of cell slowly began to emerge within him. At the center of each one, there seemed to slumber the faint shadow of a tiny six-winged golden centipede.

Rumble... crack...

Half an hour later, the thunderclouds overhead began to contract violently. Then, suddenly, a blue-violet pillar of lightning shot upward into the sky and enveloped Li Yang from all sides. It seemed as though that bolt had exhausted the thunderclouds of all their strength. After it passed, the clouds in the sky slowly dispersed.

Only a figure seated cross-legged in midair remained, his entire body wrapped in a layer of black, hard casing, with a golden elixir the size of a pigeon egg hovering above his head, bright and glittering with gold light.

Roar... howl... hiss...

The moment the thunderclouds dispersed, the venomous insects and ferocious beasts that had long been waiting in the valley could no longer restrain themselves. All at once, they charged toward the floating island.

“Big Brother Li!”

Hua Ling, who had fainted on the ground, did not know when she had been awakened by the cries of the beasts. Looking up at that black figure in the sky, tears instantly spilled down her face, her expression one of utter grief, her eyes filled with a dead, ash-gray despair.

Crack... crack crack... crack crack crack...

As though awakened by Hua Ling’s heartbroken cry, the dark figure in the sky trembled faintly. The black shell on its surface began to crack apart little by little.

With a passing breeze, a naked figure appeared in the air.

Huff...

After exhaling a long breath of turbid air, Li Yang only felt a sudden chill over his whole body. Looking down, he saw his own bare body and quickly took a coarse cloth robe from his spatial artifact and draped it over himself.

“Big Brother Li, y-you’re all right?”

Just then, Li Yang heard Hua Ling’s voice. Looking down, he saw that she had somehow already come to stand beneath him.

“Ahem... I’m fine.”

Seeing the blush that still lingered on Hua Ling’s face and the shyness in her eyes, Li Yang could not help coughing twice to hide his embarrassment.

“Haa... that was really close. Thank goodness all that hard work wasn’t in vain.”

In truth, Li Yang’s consciousness had already fallen into a haze earlier. His awareness had been muddled and uncertain, and his body had been acting purely on instinct. If not for that thread of primordial spirit essence from the Purple Firmament Daoist protecting his soul, he would likely have already been dead by now.

“Truly worthy of the legendary source golden elixir!”

Reaching up to seize the elixir above his head, Li Yang looked at the mysterious mark on its surface and knew that this was the legendary first-turn golden elixir. Only a golden elixir that had given rise to dao patterns could truly be called a golden elixir.

Dazed, round, and brilliant. Perfect and whole, it felt in his hand like gold and stone, not the slightest medicinal fragrance leaking from it. It was nothing like an ordinary pill, which gave off a clear scent of herbs.

As the saying goes: the primal cosmos is like an egg, and when the golden elixir is complete, the world opens.

One of the characteristics of the golden elixir was its body without leak, like the immortal body of a celestial being, with not the slightest trace of energy escaping.

According to legend, when the Dao Ancestor refined pills, he was in fact opening heaven and earth and evolving a world. The golden elixir he forged contained as many as nine dao patterns, and within it even held a miniature cosmos. One could imagine the enormity of the power sealed inside.

“You’re the lucky one.”

With a flick of his hand, Li Yang reached into the void and pulled out a toad the size of a fist, stuffing the golden elixir into its mouth.

Thump, thump, thump... glug, glug, glug...

The moment the golden toad swallowed the elixir, it seemed to awaken from hibernation. Its heart began pounding violently, and the warty skin all over its body started to wriggle at high speed.

“Gah...”

Suddenly, the golden toad lifted off the ground, and a towering shadow of several hundred feet rose straight up from its body.

The instant that shadow appeared, the clouds overhead dispersed at once, revealing the utterly black starry expanse of the cosmos, where sun and moon both shone at once.

The shadow had a square head and a broad mouth, three feet planted in perfect harmony, and its whole body was covered in warty skin patterned like ancient copper coins, gleaming with a luster like gold and wealth.

The moment the shadow appeared, an ancient, savage aura from primordial ages spread through the valley. The venomous insects and ferocious beasts that had been scrambling toward the floating island only moments before instantly fell silent. They sprawled on the ground, shivering, and did not dare move at all.

“Gah...”

Suddenly, the shadow opened its mouth wide and swallowed the heavens. The light of the cosmos seemed to vanish in an instant, and between heaven and earth all brilliance was extinguished. The strange phenomena among the stars and constellations vanished together, as though the three-legged toad spanning the mountains had swallowed everything in a single gulp.

Rip... hiss hiss hiss...

At that moment, the golden toad floating in the air trembled even more violently. It no longer looked as though it were shaking so much as struggling. Several tears split open in the hide covering its body.

The instant that hide裂开的 moment, the shadow in the sky immediately contracted, turning into a streak of mysterious light that vanished into the golden toad’s body.

“Gah-gah-gah...”

Amid several earthshaking croaks, a three-legged toad identical to the shadow, with a square head and broad mouth, broke free from the shed skin and hovered in midair.

Li Yang reached out and caught the toad skin drifting down through the void, putting it away in his spatial artifact, while he looked up at the successfully transformed three-legged golden toad with delighted eyes.

“Gah... glug glug...”

Hovering in the void, the golden toad seemed to sense something. Its nostrils twitched.

Sniff sniff sniff... rumble... gah...

Then it opened its huge mouth and took a sudden, deep breath. Its body expanded rapidly in midair, quickly becoming a three-legged golden toad over a hundred meters tall. It crashed heavily onto the floating island and, facing the valley below, opened its mouth to swallow.

Roar... hiss... howl...

In an instant, a tremendous storm arose. The venomous insects and ferocious beasts in the valley that had been drawn by the scent of the golden elixir were all swallowed into its belly.

“Excellent... what divine ability!”

Looking at the giant toad towering a hundred meters high, though it was far smaller than that hundred-foot shadow from before, it was still imposing and mighty.

Just as Li Yang was overjoyed, the divine ability rune in his mind, representing the golden toad, suddenly changed. In an instant, it drew him in.

Li Yang’s vision went black. When he came to himself a moment later, the scene before him had changed completely.

He saw a massive three-legged toad straddling the stars of the cosmos. No one knew how enormous it truly was. Its three huge feet were planted upon three giant stars.

Now and then it would raise its head and swallow the heavens. In the river of stars above, a fierce storm would break out at once, and the constellations would slip from their original courses, all of them swallowed in a single gulp. Even Li Yang was not spared; together with the many stars, he too was swallowed into its belly.

Within the belly of the three-legged golden toad was a vast sea of chaos. When the stars fell into it, they did not stir up even a ripple. In an instant, they were melted away by the rolling currents of chaotic qi.

Then the scene before him vanished in an instant, and Li Yang came back to himself. In his mind, the rune representing the golden toad’s divine ability had already completed its transformation.

“Chaotic World, Dissolve Heaven and Earth!”

These eight words had already replaced the previous “Swallow Heaven and Devour Earth, Absorb Heaven and Earth!”

...

“Th-this is the three-legged golden toad Big Brother Li spoke of?”

Looking at the colossal creature crouching on the floating island, Hua Ling was instantly stunned, her mouth hanging open so wide she could not recover for a long time.

“Gah...”

At that moment, the golden toad suddenly lowered its head and glanced at Hua Ling on the ground with its orange-yellow pupils, shaped like coins, before letting out a low croak.

“Ah...”

“Be careful!”

Seeing Hua Ling back away in fright and nearly fall to the ground, Li Yang hurriedly reached out and pulled her into his arms.

“Hmph. I’m not afraid of you. You bad thing, how dare you scare me? Let’s see whether I still make delicious food for you in the future!”

Only then did Hua Ling come back to her senses as well. She glared fiercely at the golden toad crouching on the ground, her little face full of that fierce, childish threat.

“Hahaha...”

Seeing Hua Ling’s adorable expression, Li Yang could not help laughing heartily.

“Big Brother Li! Y-you’re laughing at me too!”

Stepping out of Li Yang’s embrace, Hua Ling looked at his joyful laughter and immediately blushed. Stamping her foot, she ran off in embarrassment.

“Boy, this time you can be said to have turned misfortune into fortune. You borrowed the power of heaven’s thunder tribulation to refine the golden centipede energy in your blood. But I must go into slumber. When we meet again, I hope you can bring me good news.”

Just as Li Yang was still filled with joy, the weak voice of the Purple Firmament Daoist suddenly sounded in his mind.

Staring intently into his sea of consciousness, where the Purple Firmament Daoist had already fallen into slumber and become a wisp of clear qi hanging high above it, Li Yang’s joy at the golden toad’s successful transformation could not help but fade somewhat.

Ever since he had met the Purple Firmament Daoist, the old man had always served as both teacher and friend. Though at times he was sharp-tongued and a little proud, there was no denying that Li Yang had benefited greatly from him. He was like a living encyclopedia, pointing out the path of cultivation ahead of Li Yang.

Indeed, many times Li Yang had needed his reminders just to avoid the obstacles on the road of cultivation and make it safely to where he stood now. And this time, in order to save him, he had further damaged the already scant remnants of his primordial spirit.

If Li Yang had once held some measure of wariness and doubt toward the Purple Firmament Daoist, after this, that doubt had no doubt faded greatly. What remained was a feeling of gratitude rising from the very depths of his heart.

Had he never met the Purple Firmament Daoist, Li Yang’s path of cultivation might not have been cut short, but to hope for such smooth progress as he had now would have been utterly impossible. Just speaking of the flaws in the cultivation arts inherited from his family, repairing them was not something within Li Yang’s present insight or cultivation to accomplish.