Chapter 147: Forging the Golden Body in the Crucible

"One hundred gold! That's the price of a tier-two pill!" Lu Sheng exclaimed, clicking his tongue.

Though he possessed hundreds of thousands of catties of dragon meat, selling it all at the rate of one gold per catty would be enough to yield hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. However, after the experience of trading for Marrow-Cleansing Pills and living in Yujing City for so many days, Lu Sheng had come to realize something:

For the vast majority of people, one hundred gold was by no means a small sum.

Take his current title of Commandery Prince, for instance. Disregarding the yields from manors and fiefdoms, his annual stipend was a mere three hundred and fifty gold pieces.

Even if he had no other expenses and used every single coin to exchange for primordial stones, this amount would at most net him three and a half stones.

"The white jade tower can continuously produce primordial stones worth a hundred gold each. As long as cultivators have a demand for them, this stream of income will never cease."

"From this perspective, it holds immense value!"

With these thoughts in mind, Lu Sheng followed Lu Chunyuan forward and soon arrived at the ancestral heritage grounds of the Great Jing Lu clan.

"Lu Chunyuan, thirty-third generation of Emperor Jing, bringing the thirty-sixth-generation grandson Lu Sheng, has come to comprehend the heritage!"

Standing before the heritage grounds, Lu Chunyuan called out in a clear voice.

"Enter!" Following Lu Wanshan's voice, the final gate of the heritage grounds swung open, allowing Lu Chunyuan and Lu Sheng to finally step inside.

"Protect yourself carefully; the Ancestor is inside, firing up the cauldron to forge a treasure!"

Lu Chunyuan whispered a word of caution to Lu Sheng.

Immediately afterward, he unleashed his aura field, enveloping both himself and Lu Sheng within its protection.

"This is... forging a puppet?"

Even shielded by Lu Chunyuan's aura field, the moment Lu Sheng stepped past the threshold of the heritage grounds, a wave of intense heat washed over him. At the same time, a gigantic melting furnace came into his view, inside which lay the carcass of a snow-eagle beast, manipulated by Lu Wanshan as it continuously bobbed up and down within the molten blaze.

Connecting this to the fifth-tier golden wolf puppet he had seen earlier, Lu Sheng quickly guessed what was taking place.

"Indeed, I am forging a puppet!" Before Lu Chunyuan could reply, Lu Wanshan, busy with his forging beside the furnace, gave Lu Sheng the answer.

Then, Lu Sheng heard him speak:

"Come over here, refine this puppet, and use it to protect yourself when you travel abroad in the future!"

"Protect myself?" Surprised and delighted at once, Lu Sheng said, "Does the Ancestor mean that I am capable of refining this puppet?"

Speaking of puppets, he already owned one, forged from a flying dragon horse of unknown tier. However, because he lacked the ability to refine it, Lu Sheng had never been able to restore it to full function.

Hearing now that he could actually refine a tier-four snow-eagle beast puppet, Lu Sheng's heart swelled with boundless joy.

With this thought, he immediately pushed forward against the rolling heatwaves and walked up to Lu Wanshan.

"Not bad! Not bad!" Lu Wanshan looked Lu Sheng up and down, nodded, and smiled, "You have already completed bone-marrow refinement; your progress is not slow at all."

"Come, draw a drop of your essence blood and infuse it into this core!"

Marrow gives rise to blood; once marrow refinement is complete, a cultivator's blood supply becomes self-replenishing and inexhaustible, making it sufficient to condense essence blood.

Therefore, upon hearing Lu Wanshan's instruction, Lu Sheng immediately bit the tip of his tongue, forced out a single drop of essence blood, and watched as it merged into the core of the snow-eagle beast puppet.

"Once the essence blood is integrated, you can use the connection of your bloodline to barely command this puppet!"

As he spoke, Lu Wanshan linked his mind with Lu Sheng's, transmitting the incantations for controlling the puppet, while cautioning him:

"You have yet to reach the Great Grandmaster realm, let alone the Martial Ancestor realm. It is difficult for you to replenish the primordial qi for a tier-four puppet."

"Thus, if the energy inside the puppet is exhausted, you must send it back in time to replenish its consumed primordial qi."

"Unless absolutely necessary, try not to use this puppet either!"

The snow-eagle beast puppet was given to Lu Sheng by Lu Wanshan as a life-saving trump card, not for Lu Sheng to brandish the puppet and run amok in the outside world.

As for Lu Sheng, while he possessed a near-omnipotent reserve of merit that could theoretically replenish the puppet's energy, he knew all too well that refueling a tier-four puppet would undoubtedly consume a massive amount of merit.

Hence, upon hearing Lu Wanshan's admonition, he nodded and replied, "Understood! Unless I am running for my life, I will not use this puppet!"

"That is for the best!" While speaking, Lu Wanshan struck the core into the puppet. Then, with a series of hand seals, he shrunk the snow-eagle beast puppet down to the size of a fist and tossed it into Lu Sheng's palm.

"Very well, after bustling about for more than two months, it is finally finished!"

"Now, take a seat inside this vessel; I am going to temper your physical body!"

Shrinking the melting furnace before them until it was just large enough to hold a single person, Lu Wanshan instructed Lu Sheng.

"Jump inside to temper my body?"

Eyes wide with astonishment, Lu Sheng blurted out.

Although he had just witnessed Lu Wanshan refining a tier-four snow-eagle beast puppet, he had never imagined that this was the method the Ancestor intended to use for his physical tempering.

"Am I about to turn into the Monkey King?" Imagining himself being placed inside a furnace just like Sun Wukong, Lu Sheng chuckled awkwardly and said, "Ancestor, I think this won't be necessary. I have already dual-cultivated the Qin family's Golden Armor Skill, which is equally capable of body-tempering!"

As he spoke, the profound qi within his body shifted, transforming into the profound qi of the Golden Armor Primordial Skill—

A martial art he had integrated into his own Primordial Skill, renowned as the premier body-tempering technique under heaven.

"Humph!" Lu Wanshan let out a cold snort and said, "What is there to boast about with the Golden Armor Skill? The Great Jing Lu Clan's Crucible to Forge the Golden Body is the true peerless body-tempering art beneath the heavens."

"If it weren't for the fact that you brat are in such a rush to leave, do you think I would let you get off this easily?"

With these words, he grabbed Lu Sheng by the collar and flung him straight into the furnace, adding concurrently:

"Brat, comprehend this furnace well. The Crucible to Forge the Golden Body is contained within the heritage left behind by Emperor Jing!"

Immediately afterward, he ignited the furnace, leaving Lu Sheng inside to temper his physical frame.

"Ancestor, will he succeed?"

Nearby, watching as Lu Wanshan tossed Lu Sheng into the furnace, Lu Chunyuan finally spoke.

Lu Wanshan was entirely correct: the Crucible to Forge the Golden Body was a far more powerful body-tempering technique than the Golden Armor Skill. Not only could it forge a physical form with terrifying defense, but it could also penetrate every corner of the body, fusing the entire physical frame into an integrated whole.

However, this kind of body-tempering technique was something even Martial Ancestors—who could resonate with heaven and earth and use primordial qi to temper their entire bodies—might not necessarily master. For anyone below the Martial Ancestor realm, borrowing external force was an absolute necessity just to barely practice it.

Because so few had ever mastered this technique, its reputation was not widely known, and it had always been treated as a closely guarded secret by the Great Jing Lu clan.

At this moment, hearing Lu Chunyuan's doubt, Lu Wanshan replied:

"Lu Sheng has already comprehended the Primordial True Intent. As long as he can commune with the true intent left behind by Emperor Jing within the Primordial Crucible, he will be able to mobilize the primordial qi inside the furnace to temper his body."

"If he succeeds, not only will he possess formidable defensive power, but he will also directly temper his physical body to perfection. He won't need to expend any mental effort on this until he reaches the Great Grandmaster realm."

Sighing softly, Lu Wanshan remarked:

"The current situation is chaotic; saving a little time whenever possible is for the best!"

"I only wonder when he will truly mature!"

Over the past two months, the various upheavals occurring across the world had left even a powerhouse who had attained the Void-Piercing realm feeling entirely disoriented.

"The Night Emperor is not the True Dragon, nor is Duan Zhengfei. Then, who on earth could the True Dragon of the Great Wilderness be?"

This was a question that had lingered in Lu Wanshan's mind for a long time.

Although, out of wariness toward the Night Emperor's terrifying strength, he had told others that the Night Emperor might be the True Dragon, Lu Wanshan—having crossed blows with the Night Emperor while holding the Mountains and Rivers Seal—knew the truth all too well:

The True Dragon was definitely not the Night Emperor!

The Northern Wastelands possessed someone else who held the potential to become the supreme powerhouse!