Chapter 165
The first Cloud Tribulation Pill she refined was rather unsatisfactory.
The pale, cloudy color alone made its low-grade quality obvious.
It was supposed to be a pill that could withstand heavenly tribulation, but being full of pill poison made it look shabby.
'If I'm going to make it, I might as well make it properly.'
Baek Cheong sat back down in front of the cauldron and devoted herself to the second Cloud Tribulation Pill.
But if she refined it the same way, it would probably end up more or less the same.
She wanted a method that could raise the quality even further.
While racking her brains, she remembered the spiritual herb she had tucked away in a corner of her storage pouch.
'Right, there was Cloud Root Herb.'
She rummaged through the storage pouch and found a blade of grass with whitish roots.
It was Cloud Root Herb she had salvaged from the Cloud Sea Secret Realm along with the Cloud Spirit Fruit.
It was a precious medicinal ingredient she had originally only planned to use when refining a premium Qi Condensation Pill.
Few spiritual herbs could compare when it came to raising a pill's quality.
'Herbs that grew in the Cloud Sea should work well together.'
Cloud Root Herb, like Cloud Spirit Fruit, was imbued with the qi of the Cloud Sea.
If they came from the same place, they would probably be less likely to clash inside the cauldron.
Baek Cheong added the Cloud Root Herb to the pile of ingredients without hesitation.
Then she put in the last remaining Cloud Spirit Fruit and lit the fire.
This time, it was much easier to keep the pill from floating away.
That was thanks to Cloud Root Herb calmly suppressing the medicinal properties.
With the Hunyuan Array she had set up herself supporting the Taiji cycle, even her fire control stayed steady.
After laboring for several days, she finally took a new Cloud Tribulation Pill out of the cauldron.
'Oh, this one looks completely different.'
The Cloud Tribulation Pill in the jade bottle shone brilliantly, as if it were wrapped in pale clouds.
It was a premium-grade pill with no trace of murky energy.
Its level was worlds apart from the first low-grade one.
Just adding one stalk of Cloud Root Herb had made the quality leap upward at once.
'As expected, good ingredients are the answer.'
By the time she had refined it this far, greed was starting to swell in her small chest.
Since she had managed to produce a premium-grade pill so easily, the next step was obvious.
'At this rate, I can probably engrave a pill pattern too.'
A pill-patterned Cloud Tribulation Pill with no pill poison at all.
If she could even engrave a pill pattern onto the pill meant to prepare for heavenly tribulation, there would be nothing left to wish for.
And as it happened, one Cloud Spirit Fruit still remained untouched.
Baek Cheong lifted the final Cloud Spirit Fruit with an excited heart.
But her hand, just as she was about to light the fire in the cauldron, froze.
Because an ominous aura had begun seeping in from outside the eastern dwelling.
She quietly extended the compressed divine sense she had prepared.
'...What is that?'
The sky surrounding the eastern dwelling had turned pitch-black, as if ink had been poured across it.
The dark clouds covering the clear sky swirled slowly like a typhoon.
It was far from ordinary heavenly tribulation clouds.
She quietly set down the Cloud Spirit Fruit she had placed on the cauldron.
'I haven't even made the pill pattern yet?'
It was clearly strange.
Normally, the signs would only begin to show when she was refining pill-patterned pills in a row.
But this time, she had only refined two Cloud Tribulation Pills.
One was low-grade and the other premium-grade; she hadn't touched the pill pattern at all.
And yet heavenly tribulation clouds were gathering, so something was definitely off.
'Could the Cloud Tribulation Pill be a heaven-defying pill?'
The thought briefly crossed her mind.
Because the Five Elements Pill, which forcibly raised spiritual roots, had been a heaven-defying pill that summoned heavenly tribulation.
But when she thought it through calmly, the Cloud Tribulation Pill was a different case.
The Five Elements Pill was a pill that defied the limits set by heaven.
By contrast, the very reason she refined the Cloud Tribulation Pill was to properly endure heavenly tribulation.
She had no intention of blocking or avoiding heavenly tribulation.
It was a pill meant to accept the Heavenly Dao's trials as they came.
The act itself gave even the Heavenly Dao no room to complain.
'If I'm saying I'll accept heavenly tribulation, why would the Heavenly Dao get angry?'
So the Cloud Tribulation Pill could not possibly be the cause of heavenly tribulation.
The answer lay elsewhere.
If she insisted on finding a reason for the gathering tribulation clouds,
'Well, it must be because of me.'
Nine times out of ten, the Heavenly Dao was constantly watching her.
Come to think of it, her very existence contained many things that went against heaven.
Her past life, the Five-Element Heavenly Spiritual Root, the latent spiritual root—they were all things cut off from the natural order.
And on top of that, there was the karma she had accumulated from the Nameless Forum.
So it was only natural that the Heavenly Dao would react more sharply than usual.
It was acting like it would bring in dark clouds at the slightest hint.
'Was it getting more sensitive because of my karma?'
If she forced the pill-pattern Cloud Tribulation Pill here too, the picture was obvious.
Pill-patterned pills were themselves considered heaven-defying, the sort that could shock heaven and earth.
With tribulation clouds already hanging overhead,
if she engraved a pill pattern on top of that, heavenly tribulation would surely fall.
'This might be a little premature.'
Baek Cheong extinguished the fire beneath the cauldron without hesitation.
If she were preparing to face heavenly tribulation head-on, she had already been ready for that for a long time.
But she had not even the tiniest intention of meeting a heavenly tribulation unrelated to Qi Condensation.
If she was going to take it, she wanted to do so only in a place she had carefully prepared herself.
She carefully put the last Cloud Spirit Fruit back into the jade box.
Putting the pill-pattern Cloud Tribulation Pill off left one thing nagging at her.
She had refined it to premium grade, but whether the Cloud Tribulation Pill actually worked was still uncertain.
She needed to check whether it could really produce fake tribulation clouds inside the body, just as she had imagined.
'The fastest way would be to eat it myself, though...'
The problem was the quality of the Cloud Tribulation Pill in her hand.
She wanted to save the premium-grade one, and the only thing left was the first low-grade pill.
Unfortunately, the low-grade Cloud Tribulation Pill was a pill packed full of pill poison.
She had only just used the Purification Pill to wash all the pill poison out of her body not long ago.
'And you want me to shove pill poison back into a body I just cleaned so carefully?'
Just thinking about it made her shake her head.
She had no desire whatsoever to dump a clump of pill poison into her newly cleansed dantian.
But it was also unsettling to ignore it without checking its effect.
In the end, there was only one answer.
'I just need to find someone who'll eat it for me.'
She needed someone to test the Cloud Tribulation Pill in her place.
But when she tried to think of a suitable candidate, she quickly hit a wall.
She couldn't even thrust it at family or other people without warning.
She didn't even have the nerve to explain the Cloud Tribulation Pill and the Cloud Spirit Fruit one by one.
If they asked where she had gotten the Cloud Spirit Fruit, she would have no excuse.
Besides, she couldn't put someone close to her on the test bench for a pill full of pill poison.
'As expected, this is where the Nameless Forum comes in.'
The answer, as always, had already been decided.
Baek Cheong lay down on the black jade bed and moved her divine sense.
She accessed the Nameless Forum as usual and posted an entry.
『Dao friend(913.14): Interested in a pill that helps you weather lightning tribulation?』
[There's no need to draw down the heavenly tribulation clouds themselves; swallowing the pill alone can create the same effect as fake tribulation clouds inside the body, helping you withstand and endure lightning tribulation. As a quasi-2nd-grade low-grade pill, its effect may be somewhat reduced once you get beyond the early Qi Condensation stage.]
After posting the information she'd inferred about the Cloud Tribulation Pill, she watched the Dao friends' reactions.
[Dao friend(76.2): A pill that helps withstand lightning tribulation? There's such a thing?]
[Dao friend(118.9): Oh? So it doesn't block heavenly tribulation, it helps you accept it.]
[Dao friend(899.91): A pill like that in the lower-realm Nameless Forum?]
The Dao friends found the pill's ability to withstand lightning tribulation novel, but they remained half skeptical.
Since heavenly tribulation was something they normally hated with a passion, being told to accept it did not sound pleasant.
Just then, one Dao friend left a reply.
[Dao friend(45.88): Was the pill recipe also from the Upper Realm?]
└Dao friend(913.14): You could say that.
Baek Cheong glossed over it vaguely.
Even if she said she had personally drawn up the pill formula, no Dao friend would believe her.
If she started blabbing about it, it would only arouse suspicion.
'If I say I wrote the formula myself, they'll probably start calling me an old monster again.'
Soon, replies asking about the conditions began lining up.
[Dao friend(112.40): The conditions?]
└Dao friend(913.14): I'll sell it cheap for one standard spirit stone. Just write a proper review in return.
One standard spirit stone was practically a pittance.
There was no reason to ask a high price.
After all, it was a low-grade pill she couldn't use and would just let sit around.
If she could get even one review out of it, she'd more than make back her cost.
Then one Dao friend who had been lingering around since earlier hesitated to reply.
After lingering for a long while, they cautiously added a reply.
[Dao friend(217.6): It really works for sure up through Qi Condensation, right?]
└Dao friend(913.14): Our lower-realm Heavenly Dao certified it.
Since the tribulation clouds themselves had just come out to welcome it, it was fair enough to count that as certification from the Heavenly Dao.
In the end, the Dao friend who had shown their desperation finally made up their mind.
[Dao friend(217.6): Fine, I'll buy it. Where do I go?]
Baek Cheong immediately listed the low-grade Cloud Tribulation Pill on the marketplace.
『Dao friend(913.14) For Sale: Cloud Tribulation Pill. 1 standard spirit stone.』
[A pill that helps you withstand lightning tribulation. Review required.]
As soon as she posted, that Dao friend snatched the item up in a flash.
[Dao friend(217.6) has purchased the item. 1 standard spirit stone has been credited.]
[The item you sold has been transferred to Dao friend(217.6)'s storage pouch.]
'Good, they took it.'
All that remained now was to wait for the review.
The Dao friend seemed to be at the Qi Condensation stage, and judging by how desperate they looked, they were probably about to face heavenly tribulation.
The review would tell her whether the Cloud Tribulation Pill really did its job.
.
.
.
Baek Cheong waited leisurely for the post to go up.
There was no news for a day or two.
It was only natural that it would take time to handle a heavenly tribulation at the Qi Condensation stage that had already come crashing down.
And then, after several full days had passed,
the awaited review finally appeared on the Nameless Forum.
『Dao friend(217.6): Now even a ghost-path cultivator can weather heavenly tribulation!』
[I swallowed it half doubting, but it was real. The moment I ate the Cloud Tribulation Pill, something like tribulation clouds formed inside my body and let me take the falling lightning tribulation in several rounds. I had become a ghost-path cultivator to avoid heavenly tribulation, only to hit my limit and almost get dragged off to the Netherworld. Thankfully, this life-or-death gamble paid off and I got through safely. It was low-grade, so there was a bit of pill poison, but if it gets me through heavenly tribulation at this price, it's practically free.]
[Dao friend(11.23): A ghost-path cultivator... taking heavenly tribulation...?]
[Dao friend(21.23): What kind of freakish hybrid is that...]
[Dao friend(661.11): Where can I get one?]
Baek Cheong nodded in satisfaction as she read through the review.
For a ghost-path cultivator who handled yin energy, lightning tribulation was practically a natural enemy.
A single bolt of lightning could scatter their yin energy and leave them as ashes.
For even such a Dao friend to have gotten through heavenly tribulation meant the Cloud Tribulation Pill had done its job splendidly.
Through someone else's body, she had cleanly confirmed that the idea in her head was not in vain.
'As expected, my idea was right.'
The notion of using fake tribulation clouds to withstand lightning tribulation had worked exactly as planned.
More importantly, through the Cloud Tribulation Pill she could even imitate fake tribulation clouds inside the body.
At this point, the precautions she could take against heavenly tribulation were more than sufficient.
'It seems about time to make the pill-patterned Cloud Tribulation Pill too.'
Though only a few days had passed, perhaps because it was a trivial matter, the tribulation clouds had already dispersed long ago.
Since she had not refined the pill pattern and had quietly withdrawn, even the Heavenly Dao seemed to have subtly looked away.
'Let's make it quickly.'
Baek Cheong took out the last Cloud Spirit Fruit she had kept in the jade box.
She had already refined a premium-grade one and confirmed its effect, so there was no reason to hesitate.
All that remained was to refine the pill-patterned Cloud Tribulation Pill.
She glanced at the sky where the dark clouds had cleared and took her seat in front of the cauldron.
And then, with a rare burst of excitement, she began kindling the fire beneath the cauldron.