Chapter 57: Early Core Formation Realm, Fire God Refining Physique
...….
"!?"
Azmodeus looked all around him but saw no one.
After which, he used his divine sense but once again failed to find the existence of anyone.
In fact, his divine sense wasn't even able to extend past the three-meter radius mark due to some esoteric restrictions put on this space…
So in the end, he decided to voice his question to whoever may be lurking in the shadows.
"Who are you?? And why did you bring me here??" He questioned.
"Ha! I will do you a favor just this once, boy. After all, you will be dying soon, and the pills oftentimes have more impurities if the materials die with too many grievances," the voice responded with a mocking tone.
After a moment, he stopped laughing and said, "You have been taken into my pill cauldron and will be used as pill material for my Heaven-Defying Dan Pill. But fret not, for your death will go toward a good cause… My cause!"
The voice started cackling again, as he was most definitely laughing his a*s off outside the pill cauldron.
Azmodeus knew this as well, but his expression never morphed into anything other than the unamused look that was plastered on it.
"Nevertheless, you don't need to worry about leaving any unfinished business in the world of the living, as I will be going back to that tiny city you came from and have all the people there become a part of my soul flag!"
The voice continued its speech, as it was quite obvious that this man belonged to the cruelest group of cultivators in Prometheus.
Namely, he was an Evil Cultivator!
Furthermore, it didn't seem like he was your average Evil Cultivator, as from what Azmodeus could tell, he should be in the Peak Stages of the Half-Step Nascent Soul Realm!
A Half-Step Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator… Someone like that would be rare even if one scoured every inch of the Fire Nation…
Azmodeus was unsure of why such a powerful evil cultivator would be aiming for his life, but it wasn't like it really mattered.
After all, this person had come after his life, and if there was one thing he hated most, then it was people who thought they could take something that was his.
I still have a system to repay for all its help, so I'm sorry to ruin your fun, but I will find a way out of this thing, and when I do, I will have your strength become my own…
His thoughts swirled around inside his head as he looked toward every inch of the inside of this 'Pill Cauldron', attempting to find something—anything…
However, after a few minutes of getting nowhere in his search and feeling the heat within the space increase by a massive amount, he was about to dump all of his Evolution Essence into his level and break out by force.
But before he made such a drastic decision that may not even work, he saw the large, glowing sigil out of the corner of his eye.
After looking at it for a good second, a sudden flash of inspiration came to him as he rushed over to the sigil before touching it.
And just as he expected…
BLING!
*Ding!* *Would you like to Assimilate a Trait of the 'Poison Pill Refining Furnace (High Mortal Rank)'?*
"Yes, show me the Traits that would allow me to resist extreme amounts of heat."
BLING!
*Ding!* *According to your specifications, the following Traits are presented before you.*
[Fire-Poison Resistance], [Fire Oblivion], [Extreme Fire Resistance], [Fire Control], [Fire God Refining Physique (Partial Descension from the genuine article)]
*Ding!* *Which one would you like to purchase? You can only choose to buy one.*
Azmodeus thought the matter over for a second before deciding to purchase the Fire God Refining Physique. After all, it was not only the cheapest out of the bunch, but it was also because the full version of the Physique was able to be obtained through the spending of Evolution Essence.
Although the exact cost of the full physique was utterly ludicrous, it still left the option for further improvement in the future.
Furthermore, in addition to all of this, the Fire God Refining Physique was capable of giving the user unbelievable levels of control over the use of pill flames.
In other words, the physique could allow him to one day become an alchemist, even though he previously possessed not even the smallest amount of talent in Alchemy!
All in all, the choice of which Trait he wanted was a simple one, and after spending 8 Billion Evolution Essence, an unknown energy washed over his body.
It elicited a plethora of mysterious effects inside his faintly developed Core!
WAAA!
Azmodeus's 'Core', in which all of the various Qi cyclones orbited around, started to throb and vibrate as something appeared to be changing within the very essence of his existence!
After a few seconds of the 'Core' inside his body spinning around and gathering Qi from the ten meter-wide Qi cyclones, it ultimately started to solidify.
This resulted in a genuine 'Core' forming inside his Dantian Space!
Which was all to say that he successfully broke through from the Foundation Establishment Realm into the Core Formation Realm!
Nevertheless, that was only a side benefit of acquiring the Fire God Refining Physique, as the real boons were the ability to control a unique pill flame called 'Fire God's Essence' and the subsequent ability to start concocting pills!
But for the meantime, the most beneficial boon was the 'Tremendous Improvement to All Fire Resistance' that came as a passive ability with the Fire God Refining Physique assimilating in his existence.
After breaking through and obtaining all the benefits, Azmodeus decided to check up on his system interface to see what had changed.
BLING!
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{[Infinite Evolution System]}
[Host: Azmodeus]
[Race: Human]
[Lifespan: 12/1350]
[Cultivation: Initial Stages of the Early Core Formation Realm.]
[Overall Combat Power: Peak Stages of the Late Core Formation Realm]
[Level: 66]
[Evolution Essence needed for the next level: 1,200,000,000]
[Evolution Essence Bank: 13,302,000,000]
{[Stats:]}
[Strength: 28 Million + 18 Million (46 Million)]
[Speed: 29 Million + 19 Million + 36 Million (84 Million)]
[Defense: 29 Million + 17 Million (46 Million)]
[Qi: 35 Million + 23 Million (58 Million)]
[Cultivation Talent: 22 Million (Early -HeavenRank)]
[Spiritual Roots: Crystallized Embryo] (Rank: ???)
{[Assimilated Evolution Traits/Qualities]}
[Inherited Traits and Active Species Alterations:
[Stealth - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Mirror Mirage - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,0000]
[Super Strength - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Shadow Cleaver - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Speedster - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Fortress - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Spirit Animal - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Qi Storer - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000]
[Element Coalescer - Level 2] (H Rank)] → [0/1,000,000,000] (Allows for easier combining of various elements derived from mortal laws.)
[Death Beam - Level 1] (G Rank)] → [0/100 Trillion]
{[Physique(s) and various external power augmenters]}
[Fire God Refining Physique (Partial - 0/10 upgrades)] → [0/100 Trillion]
[Reminder: All obtained Traits can start at varying ranks, and thus, you don't have to spend the necessary amount of Evolution Essence in order to use them. (All further Trait Level ups and Rank Ups remain the same.)]
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