by Gore, A. P.
Blood Sucking Beast Plant was a well-known herb among array cultivators because of its weird habit of sucking beast blood. This high-tier Silver Grade herb sucked up beast blood and stored it in its roots. It also refined and purified the blood, and the longer time beast blood remained inside the root, the more precious it would be for array cultivators. Until a person reached a certain realm in array cultivation, one had to use beast blood to carve arrays. So, this herb was in high demand in the Martial Realm. It even removed the stench from the absorbed blood, so it became a highly sought-after source of natural ink for array carvers and talisman painters. And the one he’d uprooted had reached ten years’ age—it had even bled when he ripped it from the soil.
The Blood Sucking Beast Plant he’d uprooted had four thick roots, so it would contain a lot of purified beast blood.
Chuckling, he tore a small slit in one of the roots and picked up the herb with the brush-like roots and dipped them in. Although the herb had brush-like roots, he had to make sure it wouldn’t suck too much beast blood in. Like other artifacts, an array carving brushes were also divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and so on grades. A good brush would only absorb enough ink to maintain its thickness, and this root fell under a good brush category. It sucked up enough to retain the blood on its roots, but not so much that it became unusable.
Now it was time to find the root veins of the Dragon’s Breath and Cat’s Paw herbs.
For others, this might be a tough thing. Root veins, as per the compendium, were difficult to spot with one’s eyes. One had to have years of practice to spot it correctly. Many people would just fail to identify the root vein.
But not him.
With a smile, he spread his divine sense inside both plants. Having a divine sense was a blessing because he could easily inspect the internal workings of these plants. Every single vein that carried essence energy appeared in his mind, like he had shrunk and entered inside the herb.
His divine sense moved through both herbs, and he searched for the root vein that connected with every tiny vein. It was like his greater meridians that connected with smaller meridians reaching his organs. The structure was a complex one, but he didn’t need to understand it. He just had to find the root vein, and he soon found it. It was the biggest vein inside the stem, beaming with pure essence energy. According to the compendium, he had to find the weakest point of the vein and cut there. And with the internal workings exposed, it wasn’t a difficult job for him. In five minutes, he had spotted the weakest point of the root vein and cut there.
“Perfect.” Smiling, he attached the two root veins together, but they rejected each other like two concubines fighting each other. Now he had to work his magic to stabilize them.
In fact, he could use the roots of some of the other herbs he had pulled out.
Shaking his head, he pushed that idea away. Grafting was a delicate process, and one had to know the exact pressure required to stabilize the repelling force between the two different herbs. If he used too little force, it would fail, and the same if he used excess force. That’s why he couldn’t use his hands to do this work. This stabilizing process used a special rope called a Three-Staged Flexible Rope. This rope could exert three different types of force to make Stabilization Grafting possible.
But he had something better than a Three-Staged Flexible Rope: Force Sealing Array. It was a high-tier Bronze Grade array that was used to suspend material in the air during the refining process. A refiner often needed to work with different kinds of molten metals and mix them, and finding a furnace that could separate these liquid metals was almost impossible, so refiners and artificers used array discs with Force Sealing Arrays to suspend two different liquid metals in air.
He was planning to use this array to suspend the two herbs together, and he had a high-quality Qi Stone embedded in the stone tablet to help him.
Wasn’t this a tailor-made platform for him to showcase his talent?
Chapter 28
Level five trial
After failing for the fifth time, Sun Nuan was thrown out of the trial chamber. There was no time limit for the level four test, but one could only try it five times. Anyway, she wasn’t expecting a miracle here. Performing a Stabilization Grafting with herb roots was almost impossible, and a thousand years of failures vouched for it.
When she appeared back in the gathering grounds, she found around ninety-five people had also failed at one level or another. Of the six lights hovering above the trial door, only four of them were lit, so a few of the candidates were still in the level four trial. When she looked at the people who had already come out, some of them looked happy while others looked disappointed. Glancing around, she sat cross-legged on a nearby grassy patch and started cultivating. This trial ran for ten days, and they had only spent one day inside the trials. Although everyone was booted out in a day or two, they didn’t complain as this was an excellent environment for cultivation. After nine more days, the final treasure would appear in this open space and everyone would fight over it after dividing up into teams.
“What did you get?” a male voice asked someone else.
“I got a Three Points Healing Pill. It’s a low-tier Silver Grade pill. Once I sell this to the Divine Fragrance Palace, I’ll definitely get enrolled in the sect,” another voice replied.
Sun Nuan sighed inwardly. The royal alchemist had this pill recipe, so she didn’t have to try to recruit this young man. In the Mortal Realm, pill recipes were treated as precious objects. Various alchemy sects controlled them, so even royal families had very few of them. So, their only chance of getting one was through ancient sites like this. The Alchemy Comprehension Tower was one of the richest sources of alchemy recipes infused in the Mortal Realm, so many sects and governments competed fiercely to buy them. The remaining nine days of this test would be used for this sole purpose.
That’s why she’d brought two guards with her. Although they were doomed to fail in the test, they could protect Sun Nuan and Sun Hua. It was too bad one had had to give up his place to Wei Lin, so only Juan Gu traveled with them.
“Sister Nuan, did you reach level four?” Sun Hua dropped next to her with a smile as big as her face could accommodate.
Sun Nuan nodded.
“Sister Nuan, I too reached level four and obtained a Bone Mending Pill. Can you believe it? With this pill, father will be happy with our performance.”
“You fool.” Sun Nuan clamped a hand over Sun Hua’s mouth. Why was she acting like a fool? Did she want to die in this place? There were ninety plus people around them, and they were all prominent figures from sects or other royal families. They wouldn’t mind killing the two of them to snatch their treasure.
“Sorry.” Sun Hua ducked her head and looked around. “Juan Gu, where’s that stupid person who came with us? I don’t believe he is still in the trial.”
“He will be back,” Sun Nuan replied. Before coming here, she had told Juan Gu to meet with the Shu family to establish an alliance in order to survive this place. Once everyone came out, they would fight for the treasure appearing on the gathering grounds. If they had the Shu family’s support, they might win one or two more pill recipes.
A youth in a dark gray robe stepped forward. “Princess Nuan, we meet again.”
“Tiang Chi, stop pestering my elder sister. Didn’t I tell you to never show your face in front of me?” Sun Hua lost her temper and reached for her spear.
Sun Nuan grabbed Sun Hua’s shoulder and eased her. This wasn’t the time or place to fight with Tiang Chi. He was one of the prodigies of the Destiny Mirror Sect, an alchemy sect that specialized in poison pills. They specialized in all sorts of harmful pills, and most people feared them because of their tyrannical ways.
“Sister Nuan, did you talk with your father about our engagement?”
“Tiang Chi, we will talk about it some other day. I have something else to attend to.” Saying this, Sun Nuan stood up and turned away, but before she could step away, Ti
ang Chi jumped in front of her.
“Nuan’er, you shouldn’t be rash in front of your future husband. How about we have a nice chat somewhere quiet? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from these morons.”
“How dare you.” Juan Gu pulled his sword out.
“Impudent.” Tang Chi threw a tiny green pill at Juan Gu.
“Juan G—” Sun Nuan shouted, but before she could do anything, the pill had hit Juan Gu. As soon as pill hit his chest, it turned into a gas and drilled inside his nose. Juan Gu dropped dead in a blink of an eye.
“How unfortunate.” Tiang Chi collected a brown leather pouch from Juan Gu’s body and threw it toward Sun Nuan.
“Look, someone cleared level four!” Someone shouted, and everyone’s eyes shot for the six lights hovering above the trial door.
Sun Nuan gasped. This was insane. A genius had appeared after a thousand years, and she had to try her best to recruit him for the royal family.
In the heart of the Alchemy Comprehension Tower, the ethereal blue tool spirit gawked at the trial room where the young man had finished the fourth level trial.
He had done it using an ingenious array. He’d used the high-quality Qi Stone embedded in the stone tablet to power his array and then completed the grafting process by applying variable pressure using his array.
He was a peerless genius in array carving. The grafting output was top class.
While using the Qi Stone to power up his array, he had also used excess qi to cultivate and had reached layer seven of the qi Refinement Realm.
It was genius, but unacceptable. He was supposed to do it with the herb roots the tool spirit’s master had planted in the trial chambers. Shaking his head, the tool spirit vanished from the heart room and appeared in the level five trial chamber.
The young man sat next to the stone tablet, absorbing the pure qi from the stone tablet to increase his cultivation.
“Young man, you can’t do that.” The tool spirit spoke in a hoarse voice. The Qi Stones should only be used to replenish the candidate’s qi, not to cultivate.
The young man opened his eyes and stared at the tool spirit like he could see through its secrets, and then the tool spirit felt a formless energy enveloping him for a moment.
“This can’t be.” The tool spirit floated higher and stared at the youth with an astonished gaze. “How did you obtain divine sense?” He sent his own divine sense toward the young man. Suddenly he looked at a purple mark residing inside the young man’s body, and then his divine sense was thrown out. He couldn’t probe anything else.
What was that purple thing inside his soul, and why did he have a soul in the first place?
The tool spirit’s eyes shone with a strange light. Maybe this was the prodigy he was waiting for.
“Senior tool spirit, why are you here?” the young man asked in a calm voice.
“Young man, what is your name?”
“Li Wei.”
“I hope you can complete the fifth and sixth trial,” tool spirit said excitedly and then vanished.
Maybe his wait was over. Now everything depended on this young man.
Chapter 29
Layer eight qi Refinement Realm
Li Wei sat in the enclosed fourth level trial chamber with his eyes closed. With his palm pressed to the rough stone tablet, he circulated pure qi as per the Five Elemental Way Qi Cultivation Art. A pure stream of qi constantly flew inside his dantian and then rushed through his qi path and nourished his qi channels and internal organs. With every strand of pure qi he refined, he reached closer to the next cultivation realm.
But he wasn’t doing this just to gain power. Currently, he wanted to search his own inner self. Power was just a side effect one received from cultivating. In his previous life, he’d only run after that bitch Wang Zia. Every action he’d performed, he’d had a goal in mind, and that was to impress her, to win her heart, and so on. In the end, he’d lacked a life goal.
Once, he had the fortuitous chance to listen to the strongest person in the Martial Realm, Danmu Su. He had unfathomable cultivation, and he’d said something that stuck with Wei.
He’d said everything one wants from the world rests inside their own body. The ultimate truth is one’s soul, and when one finds a path to connect with it, one achieves their goal. He also said everyone has a different path, and his own path was inner peace.
That one sentence had made Wei ponder for days afterward. What was his path? Chasing after Wang Zia? No, that wasn’t his path.
Unfortunately, before he could find his own path, he’d died at the hands of that bitch.
In this life, he wanted to achieve something. Something he sought from his life.
Shaking his head, he concentrated on the task at hand. After finishing the fourth level trial, he didn’t appear in another chamber, so he’d placed his hand on the same stone tablet and obtained his next task.
And that was fucking difficult.
The task required him to concoct a low-tier Gold Grade pill. Whoever had designed this test must have been a crazy bastard. This test prohibited people above the Foundation Realm from participating, and yet they wanted one to concoct a Gold Grade pill.
Insane. A Gold Grade pill required a huge amount of qi to control fire, and only an alchemist in the Marrow Cleansing Realm would have that much qi in their dantian. Sure, he could use a dream space to concoct this pill and he would have endless qi, but what about comprehension? How could a mere Foundation Realm cultivator gain the comprehension to work on thirty or forty different herbs?
It was impossible. He had thought about giving up and lingered in the fourth level to absorb pure qi and increase his cultivation. It would be a complete waste to not use this chance.
His body trembled when the stream of pure qi performed eight cycles through his qi path and he finally entered layer eight of the qi Refinement Realm. Nine more circulations, and he should reach the peak of the Refinement Realm and then, if the heavens permitted, he would break through to the Foundation Realm in qi cultivation in one go. Thanks to the forbidden technique, Essence Burning Art he had used, he had a smooth path through the qi Refinement Realm.
“Young man, why are you not heading to the level five trial chamber? You only have ten minutes to walk through that door, or you’ll lose your chance.” A blue ethereal man appeared in his vision.
“Senior tool spirit, I don’t have the confidence to concoct a Gold Grade pill. This junior lacks alchemy knowledge.”
The tool spirit had an unsightly expression on his face. “Young man, I shouldn’t, but let me tell you something. The level five trial is carried out inside the dream space. In that space, you can conjure anything you can think of that belongs to Silver Grade. It’s a tough challenge, but if you don’t try, how will you know if you have it in you?”
“Dream space?” Wei’s eyes widened. A dream space was a mysterious place where one could practice techniques without worrying about failure. Even if he failed, he could always remember the pill recipe with the help of the system and trade it to enter the Divine Fragrance Palace.
Whatever. He shouldn’t give up on this chance. If he couldn’t concoct a pill, he could at least use the dream space to improve his comprehension. Dream spaces used illusions to allow one to comprehend something without actually using it. It was by far the best cultivation method for practicing alchemy, arrays, formations, and talismans. Even in the Martial Realm, only a few sects had a dream space chamber where disciples could practice. These were all reserved by sect elders and core disciples in advance. Even after becoming an Array Master, Wei could only access the Firmament Sect’s dream space chamber once every six months. Once in six months. That’s how popular it was.
So, there was no point in wasting this chance to practice alchemy in a dream space. “You’re right. I should give my best to this.” Getting up, he started through the door but was bounced back by an unknown force.
What was wrong with this thing? Once again, he tried to go through
that space, but an unknown force threw him backward.
“Senior tool spirit, is there something wrong with the door?” He threw his hands in the air.
“You’re carrying a Soul Stone, and dream spaces are not compatible with Soul Stones. Leave it behind,” the tool spirit said.
A Soul Stone. Yes, he carried the Demon Killing Crossbow with him, and that had a Soul Stone embedded in it. He’d wanted to break it apart and use the Soul Stone to power up his system, but it had broken his palm and he’d given up. He pulled out the Demon Killing Crossbow and studied it again.
“Senior tool spirit, can you separate this Soul Stone from this weapon?” He raised his chin to look in the tool spirit’s eyes. This space was controlled by the tool spirit, so he should be able to do that.
“Why do you want to break a perfectly fine weapon? If you leave it behind, I’ll give it back to you once you complete your trial.”
“I need this Soul Stone to increase my power.”
“No, I can’t help you,” the tool spirit replied in a flat tone.
Wei rubbed his chin. He understood the tool spirit’s logic. Normally a tool spirit wouldn’t go against the rules set by its master, but hadn’t he already gone against the rules when he attacked Wei?
Chuckling, Wei grabbed a bunch of herbs and pulled them out without caring for their roots.
“Young man, what are you doing?” the tool spirit shouted.
“Senior, if you want to hit me you should at least use layer five Foundation Realm power, or you won’t beat me.” Wei snorted and continued pulling out herbs on a whim.
“You idiot. I shall not rest until I beat you to half death.” A huge wind blade appeared in tool spirit’s hand and shot for Wei.
Smirking, Wei attacked with the Demon Killing Crossbow. Blood pearls burst inside his right hand, increasing his physical strength to an unprecedented level. If he wanted to destroy the crossbow, he had to give it his all.
