The immortal's residence, Beihong.

On a thick, round coiling-dragon pillar, a dark-gold dharma form more than ten zhang tall hung its head.

A red-lacquered wooden wedge was driven deep into its heart, giving its broad, solid chest a strange, shriveled, withered look. Dark-gold fluid seeped from the wound, ran down along its muscles, and soaked the talismans and ropes on its body.

“Hhh…”

The towering Prison Golden Body breathed faintly. Its gilded eyes stared blankly at the floor. There was none of the old dominance left in them, only endless numbness and struggle.

“Open your mouth. Take your pill.”

A coarse black dragon claw clamped down on its left shoulder and slammed it against the pillar. The instant the golden body was forced to raise its head, the black dragon shoved a glittering pill straight into its mouth.

The golden body slumped back against the pillar. It felt the potent medicine spread through it and stared silently at the black dragon in front of it.

For a pill to have any effect on a body built from the power of faith, it couldn't have been refined from ordinary heaven-and-earth treasures.

“What are you looking at? Even This Exalted One rarely gets to see an immortal pill like this. It's wasted on you.”

Qi Tianchuan's eyes were full of contempt. He grabbed the golden body's head in one claw and shoved it brutally down.

A petty cultivator who only matched Dao-merging thanks to pills from heaven—if it hadn't taken some crooked path and tricked the Immortal Court into noticing it, it wouldn't have been fit to look him in the eye in all its life.

“Qi Tianchuan, watch yourself. Don't drag this old man into it.”

An old man in a yellow robe frowned at the black dragon and went on calmly repairing the cracks in the golden body where it had broken under the strain of the seal.

Even if it was only the immortal's food, it wasn't something people like them could insult lightly.

Spoiling food was a grave taboo.

“It just seems like a waste, that's all.”

Qi…