novelraw Chapter 179
Chapter 179
Dragon Veins are born hidden. They can ignore all types of searching secret arts under heaven and earth. Only by relying on terrain and knowledge of Feng Shui and divination can one judge whether a place may contain a Dragon Vein.
At most this can only allow one to mark out a general area. If one truly wants to see it, they must descend into the earth and search inch by inch. It is said that anyone who sees a Dragon Vein will obtain great fortune.
Yet beneath Jade Spirit City, there are only the most ordinary earth veins and multiple spirit veins. The strongest among them is no more than a third-rank middle-grade spirit vein. Wang Yu had cultivated the Purple Dragon Earth-Walking Technique.
It was a variant of Earth Escape. Even though he had only occasionally comprehended its entry-level mysteries, it was enough for him to use here.
The arrangements around the spirit vein were made by experts of the Blood Reversal Sect.
Not only were they highly concealed, but they also possessed extremely strong defensive power. At critical moments they could even activate the spirit vein, allowing it to respond to any danger on its own.
This was truly the crystallization of the wisdom of predecessors.
Wang Yu led Snowjade, his four disciples, and a large group of miners from a side hall near the first-level storage area, descending through a hidden passage into the underground.
Here lay a crisscrossing and pitch-dark cavern environment. The walls had been scraped repeatedly, as if polished like prayer beads for decades, gleaming with reflected light.
With a wave of his hand, all the ever-burning lamps lit up.“Move. Stay close.”
Within the cave were bats controlled by Corpse Beetles. They required no food or water. By nature, they could listen to all sounds within the cavern, serving as a method of preventing intruders.
After advancing for less than half an hour, they reached their destination.
Before them was an ancient underground plaza. All around stood many stone houses in the style of small buildings, embedded in the walls and covered with thick dust.
These had all been built by the predecessors. Wang Yu only needed to make use of them. Spending a small amount of divine sense, he cast the Searching Mountain and Hunting Demon technique to check, and after confirming there was no problem he said:
“Guan Yingdong, Guan Yingxue, Jiang Li, Jiang Chuan. The four of you will stay here to supervise the miners. Their daily food will be sent to the tunnel entrance. This place will be in your charge.”
“Yes, Master.”
After giving instructions, Wang Yu continued forward with Snowjade.
Not long after, a patch of azure radiance shone from a small man-sized cave ahead, casting a hazy halo. Stepping closer, it was as though a dazzling starry sky appeared before their eyes. The entire thing resembled a faint-blue transparent river, both liquid and gaseous, filled with countless shimmering points of light.
Around it swirled vortex-like changes, magnificent as the starry heavens, carrying the wondrous marvel of heaven and earth’s creation.
This—was a Spirit Vein.
According to legend, regardless of rank, any spirit vein or earth vein had an extremely small chance of giving birth to intelligence. This was a spiritual essence of heaven and earth, like the ruler of spiritual qi.
At the moment of its birth it possessed might comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator. If refined and devoured, even immortals would gain immense benefits. It was a top-tier fortune.
The most recent record dated back to ancient times, when a Blood Demon shattered the firmament and descended upon this world.
Ancient sects and immortals from the lower realm joined forces to resist but were no match. In desperation, an immortal scoured the entire world for a spiritual essence and found the Spirit of a Fire Vein. He devoured it, burned away a sea of blood, and sealed the Demon of Blood within the abyss.
That abyss became the cultivation holy land of the Blood Reversal Sect—the Blood Abyss.
From what Wang Yu currently knew, there were three great Demons: Life, Desire, and Blood. The source of demonic cultivation in this world came from these nearly undying and indestructible beings.
The Heavenly Cold Yin Blood Art Wang Yu currently cultivated did not actually count as an orthodox demonic art. He merely walked the demonic path.
True demonic arts required absorbing demonic qi to cultivate. This was not only exceedingly rare but also required the Nascent Soul threshold. Compared with that standard, what demonic disciples practiced were degraded versions.
The current inheritances of the demonic path could all more or less be traced back to one of the sealed demons.
Of course, such methods of transmission were not actively spread by those demons.
Instead, they were imitations by living beings coveting that power. Each secret and tale made this world seem even more mysterious.
With Wang Yu’s level of authority in the Blood Reversal Sect, the hidden history and ancient records he could access were nothing more than a few dozen words of rough outline. He expected that once he became a Core Formation elder, he would be qualified to learn more.
Returning to the main subject.
Centered on the dazzling spirit vein, the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual qi was so rich it defied reason. When it naturally condensed upon the stones, it formed spirit stones.
Thus spirit stone mines were born. Within a set area, spirit stones would continually emerge. Miners did not need to see the spirit vein directly.
The predecessors had also set up small formations nearby to attract spiritual qi, creating fixed mining points.
In fact, there were three simple methods of producing spirit stones.
Besides cultivators consuming cultivation base to condense them, and the natural byproduct of spirit veins, there was also the method of using colossal Spirit-Gathering Formation to mass-produce low-grade and middle-grade spirit stones.
This method was also developed in the Taihu Spiritual Domain, created by imitating the properties of spirit veins.
The demonic path also learned it. However, this type of spirit stone production through formations comes with certain side effects.
Because the spiritual qi being gathered is forcibly absorbed by the formation, cultivators staying here cannot absorb the heaven and earth spiritual qi that gathers.
Therefore, such “printing machine” style formations are usually set up in vast and remote lands with few people. Only guards are stationed outside, since cultivation inside the formation is completely impossible.
The side effect of a giant Spirit Gathering Formation is that it causes certain damage to the world itself.
One of the demonic overlords, the Yellow Springs Monastery, has its sect gate facing one of the greatest deserts of this realm: the Deathly Silence Desert.
It is said that this land was once verdant with mountains and rivers, brimming with spiritual qi. But the Yellow Springs Monastery set up thirty thousand giant Spirit Gathering Formations, extracting spiritual qi for a full ten thousand years to condense spirit stones.
Thus it became what it is now: a desolate wasteland that can be called a deathtrap for all living beings.
From the founding of their sect, they forcibly drew upon the qi for ten thousand years. Although some spiritual qi still remains in the Deathly Silence Desert, no spiritual veins exist underground, and even the earth veins have been turned to sand.
Various natural disasters formed, enough to threaten Core Formation cultivators, with signs of spreading into an Endless Icefield.
This transformation accumulated over the ages, and the omen was obvious. Other demonic overlords all stopped and moved such “spirit stone printing machines” to the Chaotic Ancient Sea.
Only the Yellow Springs Monastery never stopped. Perhaps they deliberately wanted to create such a deathtrap for all living beings. Who can know for sure.
……
……
On the scene, Wang found a suitable place and commanded: “Snowjade, open a cave dwelling beside the spirit vein.”
“Wu—”
“Hurry, later I will refine pills for you. Supreme-grade Snow Fox Pill, Nurturing Jade Pill, Fox Fragrance Pill, everything will be there.”
“Wu~ (●°u°●)”
The snow-white fox, beautiful in appearance and able to serve as a mount, stretched out its paw-like forefoot and quickly dug out a simple and tidy cave dwelling.
No gate was needed. After Wang Yu entered and prepared for half a day, he formally began alchemy.
Using second-rank Cold Flame together with Cold Chi Alchemy, pills of the ice attribute could gain nearly fifty percent stronger effects. This also applied to Snowjade’s pills.
The one who created this alchemy method must also have been a powerful cultivator who specialized in ice.
Cultivation-type pills have always been hard to digest. One pill could last for years, and the effect of raising cultivation was excellent.
The Ice Spirit Pill requires three years to fully digest. A supreme-grade one takes only two years, increasing true essence by around one hundred drops.
A high-grade Ice Spirit Pill sells for nearly forty thousand spirit stones. Output is limited, and it increases true essence by about fifty drops. This price is not considered expensive, only about eighty times what a Qi Refining cultivator would spend.
Foundation Establishment cultivators are wealthy and earn far more. The price is roughly equivalent to the premium on a high-grade Foundation Establishment Pill. Buying two would be enough to break through to the second layer of Foundation Establishment within a few years.
Escaping the weak state of early entry, absolutely worthwhile.
The problem is that supply is scarce. Even when available, most are sold at markup. It is truly a treasure that has a price but no market. On the demonic side, it is even rarer, only places like Cold Blood Peak keep reserves.
Normal five-element cultivation pills are cheaper and more abundant.
After all, attributes like wind, ice, thunder, yin, and others all belong to the category of variant spiritual roots, always a minority.
With his perfected second-rank alchemy skills, plus assistance from the Cold Flame, Wang Yu refined ice-attribute pills as if blessed by heaven. The difficulty was greatly reduced, and the medicinal effect was further enhanced.
The result was sheer extravagance. Without accident, the next period would be a time of rapid cultivation advancement for him, only slowing down at late Foundation Establishment.
At that stage, just the accumulation of true essence is astronomical, not to mention the bottleneck of Condensing Essence.
After calming his mind, Wang Yu began furnace work as usual.
Although the Idle Slot allowed dozens of refinements in a day, in the real world his alchemy was slow.
He could not replicate the Idle Slot’s unnatural state of endless peak condition, without hunger, exhaustion, or rest.
Refining, fusing, condensing, nurturing: four steps.
Refining and fusing alone required several days, even though they were the simplest steps. Once condensing began, it was the most taxing process.
He had to switch between different condensation seals, constantly watch the Cold Flame’s temperature and intensity. This step was short, but the success or failure of the pill depended entirely on this operation.
It was extremely exhausting for divine sense. Only at the final nurturing stage did things become easier, the closing phase of alchemy. A truly skilled master could even nap through it.
Wang Yu dared not. He had to watch the Cold Flame.
The essence of Cold Chi Alchemy lay in the final nurturing step. Whether the Cold Flame’s power could greatly enhance the pill depended on nurturing.
The word “nurture” held profound meaning.
Fire refinement was fierce, nurturing time short and direct, yet still able to draw out a pill’s full medicinal power. It embodied efficiency.
Water refinement was gentle and steady, with a low failure rate, but long in duration. Its mystery too lay in the word “nurture.”
It is said that in ancient times there was a water-method alchemy master who nurtured a pill for one hundred years, using a fourth-rank recipe to refine a fifth-rank high-grade treasure pill, breaking through the limit of his rank.
This too was the wonder of nurturing.
Perhaps it also combined the use of pill cauldron, talismans, formations, and many auxiliary methods. The outcome was remarkable, proving how deep the path of alchemy truly was.
Most people, even in a lifetime, never advance past the doorway.
Wang Yu could refine supreme-grade pills. Though he relied on feedback from countless repetitions in the idle slot, it was still dependent on his own comprehension. Rounded off, it was still his innate talent.
Why would that not count. Compared to most, his alchemy was already at a true master’s level. Even for third-rank pills he had great confidence, though the quality would mostly be low-grade.
Ten days later.
The pill furnace erupted with waves of spiritual light. Wang Yu, radiant in spirit, opened the furnace with a palm strike.
One supreme-grade Ice Spirit Pill, crystal-clear and shining with spiritual qi.
Five high-grade Ice Spirit Pills, sparkling in light blue. Six pills in total.
“Not bad, not bad. Wasted a little medicinal strength though.”
After silently reflecting for a while, Wang Yu swallowed the single supreme-grade Ice Spirit Pill.
Not long after.
“It actually increased…”