Hui was floating in the darkness of the cauldron. Molten flesh assailed her nostrils, along with incinerated herbs. She didn't mind it. She didn't allow her body to touch any of the sides of the cauldron, lest she burn as well, keeping herself above the blood that boiled beneath her. Using the excess qi inside, she wrapped it around herself, protecting her body from completely liquifying.
Forged in blood. She didn't understand those words until this moment, as her body was ravaged with pain on every side. She could feel her years of effort lost, as her cultivation fell down, level after level, her weak qi burnt away by the heavy flame spiritual power, that she'd used as her protective layer. Fiery qi cut through her vessels, followed by the healing of the herbs, the ingredients in the pot healing her dismantling body as fast as it was destroyed.
she felt her body restructured in the way she directed it, her bones melted, and then reformed, stronger than before and full of life, her skin also fell off and was replaced anew, her fat was burnt away, and so was her muscle, and then replaced with harder muscle and only the bare necessity of fat deposits. Her entire frame reshaped itself according to her will. And it took everything in her not to remake her own gender. She knew she shouldn't. Doing so would be tantamount to changing her bodies natural functions, which would not only cause heaven's ill will, but would impair her cultivation from reaching higher heights, since it went against nature. She also wasn't confident in the inner workings of a masculine body, and one mistake, one wrong placed hormone, and her growth would be forever stunted. It was a shame, but no matter how many things she did to change it, she had still been born with the body of a woman and would have to live with it for eternity. Maybe, one day, she could get her hands on the Yang Golden Pill, which could completely change a female's natural constitution into that of a man's. Although, it couldn't replace every organ, it would give her the appearance, and some of the same strength as one, but it would also impair her cultivation. So it was, in the end, not enough. She would get the appearance of a man, but without the cultivation strength, without the natural functions to create life, without the natural instinct of a man, she knew she could never consider herself one, and all the reasons she wanted to be one, would thus be gone.
She put that out of her mind for now. What was important was growing her power, and all the qi she had slowly saved in her dantian, was quickly being burnt away, with nothing to replace it. Also, the spiritual qi all around her was littered with demonic energy, which would cause deposits of impurities throughout her body as she increased in strength, which, although it was faster than the Daoist cultivation, it would mean she would never have the chance at true immortality. The deposits were definitely going to be a problem, but for now, she used them to merely reforge her meridians.
She bit her tongue in half, in an attempt to handle the pain, when she realized it, she quickly grew a new one to replace it. Thus the pain continued, until her dantian was empty, and the ingredients around her finally began to combine to form round pills.
Hui finally let her consciousness go, as she forced the remaining fiery qi outside of her, along with all the ingredients and spiritual energy, just keeping enough medicine inside her, lest her body get burnt again as she went under.
Such was the image that greeted Hei Jingyi and Li Haoli as they opened the lid to see the final product.
Four pills sat on the top of the cauldron, along with a little girl, completely naked, her body laying next to the inconspicuous black marbles.
Hei Jingyi immediately picked up the pills to check it, completely ignoring the girl.
"Oh! Basically perfect! Wonderful! Only.." He turned to glance at the girl also presented with the pills. Not even her hair was burnt, although the tie holding it had been incinerated. How was this possible? "...It seemed one less sacrifice didn't affect it like I would've thought."
"Or maybe she did sacrifice something in there, that made the cauldron happy and was able to survive." Contributed Li Haoli. They could both sense that she was still alive, not only because she was currently breathing, but her life force felt even stronger.
"Perhaps." Shrugged Hei Jingyi, as his focus solely went to each of the pills, inspecting them thoroughly, smelling their incredible scent, and then locking each away in its separate box, made to preserve it.
Hei Jingyi obviously didn't have the right to try his own creations, unless he made them with excess ingredients that weren't on the logs, or he was given direct approval.
In this case, these pills were far above his station. In fact, these pills would definitely change the makeup of the demonic sect completely. If used for what Li Haoli was afraid they would be, perhaps the world too. Hei Jingyi glanced at the girl, before leaving to deliver the news of the success. "You can have her if you want, she's already a used product." Basically, it was too risky to put someone who had survived one cauldron run, into another cauldron, lest it cause an undefinable error.
Li Haoli thought for a moment, his eyes filled with thoughts as he glanced down at the lava that flowed and boiled below, before an even better idea popped into his mind, and he scooped the girl up, putting her into a spacial ring, that was definitely not made for living things, leaving for his own chambers.
Entering in, he took a moment at the door to enjoy his place. Everything was in just the right places, and the quietness of being completely alone was a welcome gift.
He marched over to his lower office and put Hui into a cage that he sat on a small rock pedestal, before securing the cage to the roof by a chain. Then, just for flair, he added special magical chains he'd gotten from a friend a long time ago, when he'd killed him during intercourse. The guy had asked to have his sword stab him up to his belly button after all, and he wasn't someone who'd refuse a man that.
Using the large chains, meant for magic beasts, (the guy he had stabbed had used them on himself that time to 'increase the thrill') he made sure to lock up the wrists and ankles of Hui, along with one around her neck for good measure. They all shrunk to fit her.
Looking at his masterpiece, he felt very satisfied, before he turned around and got to work on all the documents waiting for him at his office at the fortress.
Hui opened her eyes, and out from the cauldron, rather than falling into the fire, she had been directly packaged onto a shelf and been left to rot. She could vaguely see things around her, a dark figure shifting among the shadows. But even without seeing him clearly, she knew who he was.
Li Haoli, immediately noticing her movement and uneven breathing, came over to stare down at her through the bars of the cage.
"Hello, Little Hui, how was the cauldron? Was it fun? Do you want to have more fun? I have lots of things I still want to do with you!"
However, as Hui tried to open her mouth to speak, nothing came out.