Chapter Eighty-One: Beacon Fire Refines Heaven's Soul-Stirring Snow, Azure Phosphorus Covers the Ground and Snatches Away the Vital Energy of Gold

  2009 seems to have passed in the blink of an eye... Time really flies, and it's been three months since I started writing this book. During this time, I received a lot of support and help from many friends, and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart. Well, let's meet again in 2010!

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  In the heart of Bashu, three hundred miles northwest of Chengdu. The mountains are steep and treacherous, with cliffs and precipices everywhere. However, this land is not a barren wasteland. Standing at the foot of the mountain and looking up, one can vaguely see countless temples and pavilions standing among the white clouds, like a mirage, making people wonder if it's a heavenly palace that has descended to the mortal world. To get a glimpse of the whole picture, one must follow the winding mountain path. The mountain road winds and turns, with steep cliffs on the left and an abyss of thousands of feet deep on the right, truly a place where one man can hold off ten thousand.

  At the end of the mountain road, there was a huge gate tower made entirely of white marble, majestic and magnificent, twenty zhang high. On top of the gate tower, a "Tang" character was inlaid with gold casting. Every time the sun rose in the east, the morning sunlight shone on the gate tower, making the "Tang" character even more dazzling and brilliant, making people look at it with reverence. However, behind the gate tower, there was no road to walk on. The only thing that could be seen underfoot was five thick iron chains. The iron chains were suspended in mid-air, and the mountain wind was strong. Without exceptional lightness kung fu, stepping on them would risk falling and getting crushed at any time.

  Red, green, blue, white and black, the five-colored iron chains lead to the five mountain peaks in all directions. On top of each peak is a palace building, connected by heavenly ladders. Only the main peak in the middle stands tall in the sky, like a sword pointing directly at the clouds, with an air of dominance over the world. The four surrounding peaks also extend a golden iron chain to the central golden summit, implying a sense of guarding and worship. The Tangmen General Altar, which has been situated here for hundreds of years, low-key but mysterious, is located right here.

  Beacon fire refining heaven, is the Tangmen Gongbu. This land's blast furnace operates day and night all year round without stopping, not only casting out the Tangmen's awe-inspiring hidden weapons, but also having a large number of military equipment being mass-produced and distributed to various factions and sects throughout the world, even to the Huihe, Tubo, Tujue and southwestern Baiyi tribes. The scale is so grand that it is comparable to the Northern Ming family, one of the four major martial arts families in the past. It is the largest source of wealth for the Tangmen.

  The Hall of Souls is where the disciples of Tangmen come to practice their skills. In addition to the four gate-keeping instruments of murder, sword, darkness and poison, all 36 unique skills and unimaginable killing techniques of Tangmen can be learned here. This is why Tangmen has produced generation after generation of talented individuals.

  Snow Factory, the Ministry of War of Tangmen. Responsible for eastern campaigns and western expeditions, as well as all assassination and covert operations. The reason why Tangmen can dominate Shu is that it has created a solid and stable iron barrel regime with one hand, and has lasted for hundreds of years without decline, thanks to the bloody killings of Snow Factory.

  Bì lín fú de, looks like a paradise on earth, with flowers blooming in all four seasons. In reality, the interior is planted with all sorts of strange and bizarre poisonous substances that ordinary people have never seen or heard of before. The Tang family's notorious reputation for being deadly, seven or eight out of ten times, comes from this.

  Duó Pò Gōng, is precisely the Tangmen's Penal Department. Living people do not enter, dead people do not leave. Inside, there are a total of 108 prison cells, each with a kind of cruel and inhumane punishment that can make people feel like they're falling into a nightmare. Whether it's a traitor or an external enemy, as long as they unfortunately set foot inside, their fate will be absolutely worse than death. Therefore, the people of Tangmen regard it with trepidation, and outsiders even have a saying: "The heavens are vast, the earth is frightening, once you enter Duó Pò Gōng, you'll see the living King Yama." It's truly terrifying and fearsome to the extreme.

  Outside the five palaces, the main hall is the Golden Hall where the master of the Tang Gate resides. The ancestral temple of the Tang Gate and the wealth accumulated over generations are all secretly stored inside the Golden Hall. The master sits in it, and the life and death of the tens of thousands of disciples inside the gate are all decided by the master's word. It is indeed "the words come out and the law follows, no one dares to disobey." This is: "The beacon fire refines the heaven and shocks the soul, the green phosphorus covers the ground and takes away the golden soul!"

  The five major departments, along with the Golden Bell Hall, together form a highly efficient and rigorous machine. Over the centuries, the Tang Sect has had its fair share of brilliant and talented leaders, but there have also been many mediocre and incompetent ones. The reason it has been able to stand for hundreds of years without falling is that its organizational structure is meticulous and reasonable, allowing each disciple to do their job and bring out 100% of their abilities to protect the Tang Sect, which is the main reason.

  The sky was overcast with dark clouds, and the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance. The air seemed to have congealed into a sticky paste that made it hard to breathe. The mist that usually wafted gently around the Tangmen General Altar, making it seem like an otherworldly paradise, had all dispersed, revealing jagged rocks as sharp as knives.

  At this moment, a slender figure emerged from the Golden Hall, using her lightness skill to step over the golden iron chain and rush straight towards the southwestern direction of Bixian Fudi. The Tangmen disciples guarding Fudi saw someone approaching and were about to shout at them to stop, but suddenly they only saw that person take out a silver token from their bosom and raise it high for a moment, which was the symbol of the Tangmen Silver Rank assassin. After taking a closer look, they immediately recognized that the person was actually Tang Mianyue, the only surviving one among the seven evils of the Tangmen, and the former master's daughter. This woman's identity was not ordinary, so they didn't dare to slow down and stepped aside to let her pass.

  Beacon fire refining day, shocking soul palace, snow factory, seize the palace and Jinluan hall, architectural style or have differences, but overall are all fortress-style buildings. Only Bi Lin Fu Di is different from others, it is a low and flat house built with cypress and bamboo. The building is simple and elegant, far away, it is the most suitable place for hermits to live in. If the seven sages of the bamboo forest were reborn here, they would surely linger and forget to leave, praising without stopping.

  What a pity that this paradise on earth can only be admired from afar, but cannot be approached. Only because the closer you get, the more clearly you can see the poisonous insects and snakes crawling all over the ground. The air is filled with the strong sweet scent of grass and wood, yet it is mixed with an indescribable stench that makes outsiders want to vomit after smelling it for a while.

  As I walked further, I could hear the sound of wailing and lamenting, like the cries of vengeful spirits from the eighteen layers of hell. However, it was not really the voices of ghosts, but rather the sounds coming from the outermost rooms, where hundreds of people with deformed bodies and grotesque appearances were being held captive. It's not surprising that villagers could easily poison someone to death using toxic substances. On the other hand, the Tang family's expertise in poisoning lay in their ability to use a variety of bizarre and unpredictable toxins that could corrode flesh and bones, yet somehow "not kill" their victims. These poisons and techniques required repeated experimentation and practice to be effective in real-life situations. And it was these half-human, half-demon creatures, trapped behind steel bars, unable to live or die, who served as the Tang family's test subjects.

  The scene was as eerie as a ghostly lair, and even Tang Mingyue, who was a member of the Tang family herself, couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine. She didn't dare linger here for long, so she quickly activated her lightness skill, her toes barely touching the ground as she flew swiftly past like a swallow in flight. After passing through several courtyards, she suddenly saw a elegant bamboo pavilion appear before her, with a signboard hanging above the entrance bearing the three large characters "Du Wang Zhai" (Poison King's Abode) in silver hooks and iron strokes. In front of the pavilion stood four men wearing cloaks and thick hoods that obscured their faces, who saw Tang Mingyue's figure and immediately raised a hand to signal her to stop, saying in a low voice: "Halt."

  Tang Mingyue stopped in his tracks and cupped his fists, saying: "Mingyue has seen the four senior brothers. There is an important message coming from down the mountain that needs to be reported to the master as soon as possible. May I ask if the master is still inside?"

  The four were named "Birth, Old Age, Sickness and Death", the masters of the Bixi Fudi, the four great apprentices directly under the Poison King Tang Du. They were collectively known as the "Four Great Evils". The one who spoke first was the Eldest Brother Tang Sheng. Upon hearing Tang Mingyue's response, he nodded solemnly and said in a low voice: "The Master and our respected teacher have been inside for five days and nights without coming out. If you want to enter and report, please take this Golden Life-Saving Pill first." As he finished speaking, he took out a small medicine bottle from his bosom and poured out a golden-coloured pill the size of a silkworm bean.

  Bi Li Fu Di was not only skilled in making poison, but also in detoxifying. This Golden Life-Preserving Pill was the legendary antidote that all martial artists dreamed of having. One pill could save a person's life within three hours, even if they had been poisoned by the most potent and mysterious toxin in the world. Everything inside the Poison King's chamber was extremely toxic, and Tang Mingyue was not a disciple of the poison sect. Without the Golden Pill to protect her, entering would be equivalent to suicide. She took the pill without hesitation, thanked Tang Sheng, lifted the bamboo curtain on the door, and stepped inside.

  The interior of the Poison King's chamber was dimly lit, and Tang Mingyue narrowed her eyes, taking a good half a moment to adapt to the environment. In the spacious central hall, she saw two figures standing shoulder to shoulder with their backs to her. The taller one was none other than the current master of the Tang Sect, Tang Wu Yi. And beside him, the old man leaning on a staff, with a hunched back, was the Tang Sect's top poison expert and master of the Biliu Fudi, Poison King Tang Du. In front of these two men, a huge bronze cauldron was placed, filled to the brim with ***, and vaguely visible inside was a red-haired child who had shaved off all three thousand troubles of his head, soaking in it, unknown whether he was alive or dead.

  This woman was the eldest daughter of Tang Wuyi, a concubine of King Yang Xiu of Shu, and the first woman in two lifetimes that Yang Zhao had fallen in love with. On that day, at the Chengdu Prefecture government office, she had originally intended to use the poisonous medicine "Seven Great Limits" she had concocted to secretly harm the young king, but unexpectedly, due to a mistake, the poison ended up entering her own throat instead, and the antidote was taken by Yang Zhao, who only gave her half of it. Although the toxicity was temporarily suppressed, it merely delayed until seven days later, without truly resolving it. The young king thus used this to control Tang Zhongqin, extracting the secrets of Yang Xiu and the Seven Slayers of the Tang Gate. Afterwards, although Tang Zhongqin also participated in the journey to Lingyun Mountain to seize the treasure, she fell behind by half a step on the way up the mountain, and thus did not enter the Lingyun Cave.

  Yang Xiu seized the Yellow Emperor's dragon bone, causing the divine state's dragon veins to be invaded and leading to heavenly anomalies. The soldiers who stayed outside the cave and tens of thousands of civilians in the nearby Longyou County were all swept away and killed, with no survivors. However, Tang Zhongqing and Tang Mingyue were rescued by an unknown master and narrowly escaped. After waking up, they immediately left Lingyun Mountain and returned to the Tang Sect. But because of the disappearance of the young prince, the remaining half of the Seven Great Limit's antidote was also lost, and it was barely possible to hold on to the Golden Hall, with the poison no longer being suppressed. Under duress, Tang Wuyi had no choice but to send his daughter to Bixi Fudi and order Tang Du to treat her. It has been five days and nights now. Tang Wuyi is worried about his daughter and has remained in Bixi Fudi without leaving.

  With the abilities of Tang Wu Yi and Tang Du, not a single movement within tens of meters could escape their notice. As soon as Tang Ming Yue entered the Poison King's chamber, they naturally knew about it too. However, with Tang Zhong Qing facing a life-or-death situation, no one dared to divide their attention. Just as Tang Ming Yue was about to speak up, he suddenly saw Tang Wu Yi raise his left hand and say in a deep voice: "Wait. Whatever it is, let's put it off for now." After a pause, he continued: "Poison Old Man, has the time arrived?"

  Tang Du nodded, tapping his cane on the floor, and said in a hoarse voice, "People have come, let's begin."