Breakthrough 3
The door to the underground alchemy chamber groaned open with a metallic creak, the heavy scent of herbal rot and lingering toxins wafting into the cool night air. Hidden beneath an abandoned herb shed at the edge of the west courtyard, the chamber had been long forgotten by most of the Tang Clan a relic from the clan's golden era. For Tang Yun, it was a cradle of secrets and a forge for rebirth.
He stepped inside, carefully placing a wrapped bundle of ingredients on a stone table carved with poison scripture. The room's walls were lined with old cauldrons, shattered pill furnaces, and broken vials. Dust had settled thickly on everything everything except the centerpiece: a fearsome, three-legged cauldron with venomous snake engravings and a lid like a coiled cobra ready to strike.
The Thorn Cauldron.
Tang Yun wiped his brow and knelt before the cauldron. He unwrapped the bundle and laid out the ingredients for the Venom-Thread Pill a rare and dangerous tonic pill designed to stabilize and accelerate poison qi within the dantian. It was a secret method that he had pieced together through ancient clan records and his memories from his previous life.
Bloodroot Vine (Blood absorption & toxicity enhancer)
Ghost Widow's Fang (Hallucinogenic venom catalyst)
Threaded Silkworm Gall (Binding agent)
Spirit-Ghoul Ginseng (Qi recovery & purification)
Dustless Pollen (Stabilizer)
He also prepared a personal addition Ashheart Flower, a forbidden herb that could amplify the potency of any poison-based pill tenfold, but at the cost of physical strain and possible qi deviation.
"If I want to break through before the tournament, I need this to succeed," Tang Yun muttered. "Mid Qi Awakening alone won't be enough to stand out."
Stage One: The Awakening Flame
Tang Yun pressed his palm against the cauldron and infused it with his poison qi. The engraved snakes hissed as they lit up with a dull green glow. Flames burst to life beneath the cauldron not wood-fueled or artifact-generated, but formed purely from his poison qi. The Tang Flame.
It flickered erratically, threatening to go out.
"Damn. My control still isn't perfect."
Gritting his teeth, he sat cross-legged and circulated his qi in the Serpent Heart Pulse technique. Slowly, the flame stabilized, forming a steady pale green blaze.
He began the process.
The Bloodroot Vine was the first to go in. It hissed violently as it dissolved, releasing a sharp tang in the air. Tang Yun immediately followed with the Silkworm Gall and Spirit-Ghoul Ginseng, maintaining a specific heat rhythm.
Suddenly, a pop echoed from the cauldron a crack in one of the inner jade fangs.
"Shit. The Silkworm Gall's bile was too concentrated. I should've soaked it longer."
Tang Yun leaned in, adjusting the temperature and using his qi to filter out the impurities mid-refinement.
His forehead beaded with sweat.
He hadn't even added the dangerous ingredients yet.
Stage Two: The Widow's Kiss
He took a deep breath and picked up the Ghost Widow's Fang with a jade tong. As soon as it touched the cauldron's flame, the green fire turned blood-red, and the temperature spiked. The room dimmed.
Fumes rose.
Tang Yun coughed violently as a single puff entered his lungs.
"No... hallucinations already?"
He staggered, grabbing the wall for balance as visions began to swirl in his mind.
He saw a battlefield bathed in green mist.
Himself, towering and bloodstained, stepping over corpses.
His father's voice calling him a disgrace.
The Tang Clan burning.
Bai Qingmei's eyes staring at him through a haze of betrayal.
"Snap out of it!"
With a yell, he bit into his wrist hard. The pain snapped him back, and he channeled his poison qi into a detoxifying loop, dispelling the early effects.
The cauldron's mixture had turned unstable.
If he didn't act now, the entire batch would fail.
He focused all his attention on the next critical step.
Stage Three: Ashheart's Gamble
With trembling hands, he prepared the Ashheart Flower.
This was the real danger.
The flower wasn't supposed to be used until one reached the Martial Warrior Realm, but Tang Yun had a theory: if diluted and slowly integrated, it could force his poison qi to crystallize into something sharper and more controllable.
"Just a fragment... a single petal."
He dropped in one ash-gray petal.
The cauldron shrieked.
The liquid inside turned from green to black, and the room temperature dropped as a chilling aura leaked out.
Tang Yun's meridians trembled.
His dantian spasmed.
"Too much... it's rejecting the mixture..."
He gritted his teeth and forced his qi to spiral into the concoction, trying to suppress the reaction. Black mist poured out of the cauldron, and the Thorn Cauldron's lid slammed shut of its own accord.
BANG!
The impact knocked Tang Yun backward, slamming him into the wall.
His vision swam.
"I can't stop here... not after all this..."
Dragging himself back, he pressed both hands to the cauldron and poured every ounce of poison qi he had into it.
Minutes passed.
The cauldron pulsed like a living heart.
Then–
Silence.
A faint, sweet-sour fragrance rose from the vents.
Tang Yun slumped to the ground, gasping.
When he opened the cauldron's lid, a single dark-green pill sat at the bottom, surrounded by faint threads of white light and a swirling mist of stabilized poison qi.
Venom-Thread Pill. Refined.
An Uninvited Witness
Above the shed, hidden in the shadows of a broken pagoda beam, a figure watched through a narrow slit in the roof.
Dressed in servant robes, a girl with silver-threaded black hair and emotionless pale eyes whispered softly:
"He's truly dangerous. The Twelfth Young Master made the Venom-Thread Pill alone... at the cost of injury and qi depletion."
She turned, melting back into the shadows.
"Master will want to know."
Tang Yun's Reflection
Tang Yun, still breathing hard, sat with the pill cradled in his hand.
"I can't take it yet. I need to restore my qi first... but once I do, I'll break into Late Qi Awakening."
He looked at his bloodied hand, still trembling slightly.
"The tournament begins soon. I have one shot to prove the Tang Clan isn't dead."
He carefully sealed the pill in a jade bottle and hid it inside a compartment beneath the stone table.
"Let the others prepare with tutors and elixirs. I'll prepare with pain and poison."
His eyes gleamed.
[End of Chapter 39]
[Tags]: Reincarnation, Martial Arts, Poison, Scheming Protagonist, Cultivation, Weak to Strong, Anti-Hero, Cold Protagonist, Clan Wars, Hidden Identity, Revenge