Chapter 419 : Seeking Truth and Poison Master
Chapter 419: Seeking Truth and Poison Master
“I wonder what kind of treasure the Jade Family will send?”
Chen Beiwu looked toward the final congratulatory gift and activated his Heavenly Stellar True Qi.
“Click!”
The box lid slid backward, revealing two items placed side by side, one on the left and one on the right.
On the left was a pure-white jade bottle about three cun tall, with the three words “Truth-Seeking Pill” marked on its body.
On the right was a gold-stamped card made from specially tanned beast hide.
Chen Beiwu picked up the jade bottle and card. His divine sense moved, and understanding appeared in his eyes.
The congratulatory gift delivered by the Jade Family was very straightforward. Aside from congratulating Chen Beiwu on attaining the Dao as a True Monarch and presenting the gift, they also invited him to become an immortal cultivation lecturer for the younger generation of the Jade Family and teach the Golden Core Great Dao.
“Na.”
While Chen Beiwu was pondering, Snowle did not forget his duty. He stepped forward, opened the restricted bottle stopper, and sniffed it.
The pill inside the bottle was not poisonous and smelled very fragrant. It used quite a few Fourth-Rank Mystical Medicines he had never seen before, so its medicinal effect should be extremely potent.
But there was no problem with its safety, so it could be consumed without worry.
“What does the card say?” Golden Egg asked curiously.
“The Jade Family is inviting me to serve as an immortal cultivation mentor and teach the Golden Core Great Dao to the Jade Family’s younger generation.” Chen Beiwu raised a brow, somewhat surprised.
The Jade Family had shown considerable sincerity, stating that during his tenure as the Jade Family’s immortal cultivation mentor, regardless of how many times he lectured, for every fifty years he served, the Jade Family would definitely offer him one Truth-Seeking Pill as remuneration.
“Ying?”（That payment is high?）
Zhiling raised her head, somewhat astonished.
Teaching painstakingly for fifty years just to receive one pill, and this was considered sincere remuneration?
Sensing Zhiling’s doubts, Chen Beiwu slightly shook his head.
The little fellow was a princess of the Seven-Tailed Purple Fox Clan and was not a human cultivator, so she did not understand the importance of the Truth-Seeking Pill.
Ordinary Fourth-Rank Mystical Pills that increased a Nascent Soul True Monarch’s magical power and cultivation were indeed precious, but they could still be purchased with high-grade spirit stones at the Myriad Treasures Association or exchanged through other means.
But the Truth-Seeking Pill was different. Like the Heavenly Stem Star Lingzhi, it was an item that almost never circulated on the Immortal Alliance market and was effectively not for sale.
There was no other reason. The Truth-Seeking Pill was a secret breakthrough pill possessed only by the Thirteen Immortal Sects.
This pill did not increase magical power or nourish the divine soul. It had one and only one effect, which was to be consumed when encountering a cultivation bottleneck.
At that time, a Nascent Soul True Monarch could vaguely perceive the conditions required for their own seeking Truth and Position, thereby finding a method to successfully break through.
However, although the Truth-Seeking Pill was precious, it was not an absolute necessity for Nascent Soul True Monarch cultivation.
Even without consuming a Truth-Seeking Pill, a Nascent Soul True Monarch could still gradually explore their own path of seeking Truth and Position through unity of Heaven and Man and comprehending Heaven and Earth Dao Resonance, thereby learning the approximate situation of their Truth-Seeking Ritual.
It was merely that this kind of comprehension was profound and mysterious, relatively vague, and might not necessarily reveal the correct Truth-Seeking Ritual. It could even lead one down the wrong path.
Thus, unless there was no other path available, the vast majority of Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul True Monarchs would choose to consume a Truth-Seeking Pill.
However, Truth-Seeking Pills were extremely difficult to obtain and required years of service to exchange for within the Jade Purity Immortal Sect.
An ordinary Nascent Soul True Monarch serving as a resident lecturer in the Jade Purity Immortal Sect needed four hundred years of service to exchange for one Truth-Seeking Pill.
To complete Four Origins Dao Attainment and cultivate to perfected True Monarch, one needed to accumulate at least one thousand six hundred years of service.
Nascent Soul True Monarchs with exceptional teaching ability who trained enough Golden Core True Persons for the sect had it slightly better. They could serve as Scripture Banquet Scholars and obtain one Truth-Seeking Pill for every two hundred years of service, accumulating eight hundred years of service to gather all four.
But Nascent Soul True Monarch cultivation required not only Truth-Seeking Pills, but also all kinds of cultivation resources similar to Heavenly Stem Star Lingzhi（lower-grade versions）.
If an ordinary Nascent Soul True Monarch truly wanted to rely on years of service to slowly accumulate the cultivation expenses needed for breakthroughs, then without consuming lifespan-extending Mystical Medicines, they might not even reach late-stage Nascent Soul before reaching the end of their lifespan.
Precisely because of this, although serving as an Immortal Sect lecturer was leisurely and carried high status, Nascent Soul True Monarchs who aspired toward the Immortal Dao but found it difficult to attach themselves to Dao Venerable Immortal Clans or True Venerable aristocratic clans would basically choose to join the Star Nexus.
Even if they could not become Star Conquerors, they would still throw themselves into the boundless star domains and take risks to earn Immortal Alliance Merit.
At this thought, Chen Beiwu looked toward the pure-white jade bottle, a thoughtful look appearing in his eyes.
Compared with the years-of-service salary offered by the Jade Purity Immortal Sect, the sincerity shown by the Jade Family could not be considered light.
This pill before him was probably also bait deliberately put forward by the Jade Family, allowing him to personally experience the effects of the Truth-Seeking Pill so that they could recruit him more effectively.
“Ying?”（Then should we agree?）
Zhiling tilted her head.
“No rush, we’ll see.”
Chen Beiwu shook his head, his divine sense probing toward the firmament outside the cave dwelling.
The higher one’s cultivation, the deeper one saw, and the more one understood the limits of Heaven and Earth.
For Chen Beiwu, joining a Dao Venerable Immortal Clan like the Jade Family was indeed a good choice, but only if they offered an appropriate price.
The few Truth-Seeking Pills offered by the Jade Family alone were not enough to move Chen Beiwu.
Thus, he took out the Nine Revolutions Restoration Pill sent by the Xiao Family, calmed his mind and qi, pressed his tongue against his upper palate, circulated the Primordial Origin Grotto-Truth Fundamental Immortal Art, and swallowed it.
The pill entered the Yellow Court, and a gentle warmth arose from his dantian before gradually spreading through his limbs and bones.
“Rumble!”
As the medicinal power of the pill spread, Chen Beiwu’s bones became lustrous like jade, his blood like mercury slurry, while the acupoints throughout his body simultaneously trembled, releasing resonant Dao sounds.
Before long, this medicinal power transformed into nine special streams of True Qi, following his meridians upward and converging within the Violet Palace, slowly wrapping around the Dao Seed Nascent Soul at the center of Chen Beiwu’s Spiritual Platform.
In an instant, the Nascent Soul blossomed with warm radiance. The nine streams of True Qi corresponded respectively to the Nine Truths Dao, including Flourishing Truth、Radiant Truth、Profound Truth、Supreme Truth, and others, merging one by one into the nine apertures of the Nascent Soul.
The Nine Qi revolved, each performing its own function. With every stream of True Qi that merged, Chen Beiwu’s Dao Seed Nascent Soul became more solid, more agile, and more powerful,
and in this way, the Nascent Soul that originally required a hundred years of fetal breathing and sitting in oblivion gradually approached flawlessness.
Ten days later, the strange phenomena within the cave dwelling gradually subsided.
Chen Beiwu slowly opened his eyes, the divine light within them gradually fading.
‘The功效 of Nine Revolutions, a thousand li in a day. A hundred years of fetal breathing can be achieved within ten years.’
A flash of realization arose within Chen Beiwu’s heart.
There was no need to remain in seclusion for a hundred years. Once the medicinal power of the Nine Revolutions Restoration Pill was completely digested, after roughly ten years, he would naturally step into the peak of early-stage Nascent Soul.
“How does it feel?”
Golden Egg stared intently at Chen Beiwu, keenly sensing the change in his master’s momentum.
“Very good.”
The moment Chen Beiwu finished speaking, a tremendous explosion suddenly erupted from the pill refinement room.
At this moment, outside the pill refinement room, Iron Egg tightly furrowed his brows as he looked at Snowle, who had both hands behind his back and was glancing left and right.
He had already said it wouldn’t work, that the medicinal properties would easily conflict, yet Snowle had insisted on adding medicinal residue!
“Tell me, what happened?”
Chen Beiwu looked at the billowing black smoke rising from within the pill refinement room, somewhat surprised.
With Iron Egg’s current pill refinement skill, even if refinement failed, it should not have caused such a huge disturbance.
After all, ever since Iron Egg advanced to Fourth Realm Demon King, his pill refinement skill had become increasingly profound. His success rate in refining the Fourth-Rank Low-Grade Mystical Pill 【Spirit-Nourishing Pill】 had reached a terrifying ten percent, barely enough to call him a half-step Fourth-Rank Mystical Pill Refiner.
It was just that cultivating a high-rank pill refiner required enormous resources.
In order to continue training Iron Egg into a Mystical Pill Refiner, Chen Beiwu had specifically selected the Spirit-Nourishing Pill, a Fourth-Rank Mystical Pill with relatively low refinement costs that could be purchased using high-grade spirit stones, for the little fellow to practice with.
Once Iron Egg could raise the success rate of the Spirit-Nourishing Pill to thirty percent, he would become a genuine Fourth-Rank Mystical Pill Refiner.
“It was me and Snowle refining pills together that caused the furnace to explode.” Iron Egg truthfully replied.
Hearing this, Snowle’s gaze darted away, not daring to look at Chen Beiwu.
Chen Beiwu did not blame them and instead became interested,
As far as he knew, Snowle was highly skilled at planting, but was not particularly adept at pill refinement.
Why had the two little fellows suddenly teamed up to refine pills?
“Na.”
Snowle lowered his head and responded, indicating that he had simply wanted to improve the Spirit-Nourishing Pill formula.
“It’s fine, it’s only a pill refinement room.”
Chen Beiwu’s divine sense moved, and the pill dregs and black smoke within the pill room immediately compressed and converged together, forming a pitch-black pill suspended in midair.
“Hm, that’s not right. The Spirit-Nourishing Pill formula doesn’t seem to include the Third-Rank High-Grade Treasure Medicines Purple Jade Lingzhi and Star River Fleeceflower.”
After spending so much time around Iron Egg, Chen Beiwu had more or less learned some pill refinement knowledge.
“Na.”
Seeing that Chen Beiwu was not angry, Snowle immediately explained his thoughts.
If Iron Egg failed pill refinement once or twice, that was one thing, but after seeing him fail too many times, Snowle could not help developing the urge to instruct him in pill refinement.
In any case, he could not allow Iron Egg to waste perfectly good Treasure Medicines and Mystical Medicines for nothing.
Hearing this, Chen Beiwu’s expression became somewhat strange.
Interesting, a classic case of an amateur instructing an expert.
He had not expected Snowle to dare give instructions, nor Iron Egg to actually believe him.
These two little fellows together truly made quite the pair of unmatched geniuses!
Iron Egg at the side nodded, indicating that things were roughly as described.
Chen Beiwu shook his head. His divine sense moved, and he was just about to activate Primordial Origin True Qi to destroy the black pill.
Suddenly, his divine sense detected something strange.
“Hm, something seems off about this pill!”
Chen Beiwu’s gaze fell upon the strangely colored charred-black pill, keenly sensing a trace of discordant spiritual force.
He extended a fingertip and pointed, activating Primordial Origin True Qi. The charred residue covering the pill gradually dispersed, leaving behind only a pitch-black granule as tiny as dust.
After pondering for a moment, Chen Beiwu took out a Third-Rank magical sword obtained from True Monarch Upper Second’s storage ring and gently touched the pitch-black granule with the sword tip.
In the next instant, a scene that astonished Iron Egg occurred.
The granule was not annihilated by the magical sword. Instead, the treasure radiance contained within the latter rapidly dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye before turning into flying ash within only a few breaths.
This annihilation was not simple destruction, but more like a form of plundering and contamination of spirituality and spiritual force.
“What is this?”
Iron Egg subconsciously looked toward Snowle, surprise in his eyes.
Could it be that he had misunderstood Snowle?
Snowle had not been causing trouble, but had genuinely been instructing him in pill refinement, and had truly refined something good!
“Na.”
Snowle blinked, then folded his arms across his chest and proudly raised his head.
Although he also had no idea what this thing actually was, that did not matter. Snowle could faintly sense the threat contained within it.
In any case, from now on, this was the Fourth-Rank Mystical Pill he had instructed Iron Egg to refine.
No, more accurately, it should be called a Fourth-Rank Poison Granule.
“I didn’t expect the two of you working together to have……quite some accomplishments in the path of poison refinement.” Chen Beiwu chuckled softly.
This Poison Granule appeared simple, yet contained multiple characteristics such as concealment、spirit corrosion、perception stripping、and Qi contamination. It could evade a True Monarch’s divine sense perception and resemble an ordinary speck of gravel or dust, making it quite suitable for ambushes and assassinations.
Hearing Chen Beiwu’s praise, Snowle raised his head even higher, his expression increasingly proud.
Iron Egg came back to his senses, looking utterly speechless.
Did Snowle not understand the difference between praise and sarcasm?
Perfectly good pill refinement had turned into poison refinement, and he could still be proud of that?
What Master wanted was a Spirit-Nourishing Pill that enhanced a True Monarch’s cultivation, not a relatively useless Poison Granule.
“Snowle, aside from Purple Jade Lingzhi and Star River Fleeceflower, what other Treasure Medicines did you add? Can you continue working with Iron Egg in the future to refine this kind of Poison Granule?” Chen Beiwu asked with great interest.
To him, a single Poison Granule was insignificant. What was rare was the latter’s unusual nature, seeming like baleful qi yet not baleful qi, belonging to none of the Five Elements, and capable of corroding and contaminating a Nascent Soul True Monarch’s Heavenly Stellar True Qi and divine sense.
This meant that if enough Poison Granules could be produced and their might could stack, perhaps he could specifically develop an insidious Mystical Ability for Zhiling.
Allowing Zhiling, while still a Third Realm Demon General, to possess some offensive and protective means that even Nascent Soul True Monarchs would fear.
“Na.”
Snowle looked somewhat hesitant, indicating that he could not guarantee successful refinement.
That was because the supplementary material he had used was actually very simple: special medicinal dregs condensed from Treasure Medicine and Mystical Medicine residue within the Five Qi Origin Forest mixed with Five Elements Mystical Qi. They contained rich vitality and were normally mostly used to fertilize fields.
This pill refinement experiment had merely been a sudden idea of his. He wanted to see whether those medicinal dregs could be used to increase Iron Egg’s pill refinement success rate.
“It’s fine, there’s no need to force it. Just give it a try.” Chen Beiwu conveyed through thought.
The main ingredient of the Spirit-Nourishing Pill was one Fourth-Rank Low-Grade Mystical Medicine, while the remaining supplementary materials were all Third-Rank High-Grade Treasure Medicines that could be purchased at the Myriad Treasures Association using high-grade spirit stones.
With Southern Wilderness resources supplying him, even if the experiments failed more than a dozen times, Chen Beiwu could afford the loss.
Hearing this, Iron Egg and Snowle exchanged glances and nodded together.
……
The next day.
Southern Wilderness, border of the Earth Evolution Realm.
Within a secluded cave dwelling, Chen Beiwu’s figure slowly appeared.
There were still eighteen days until the Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul Formation Grand Ceremony began.
To avoid any unexpected accidents, Chen Beiwu temporarily did not plan to return to the sect. Instead, he intended to travel through the Earth Evolution Realm and learn about the current situation of the war among the Three Realms.
But he still remembered the agreement he had made with the Heavenly One True Dragon.
If the war situation among the Three Realms was stable, Chen Beiwu planned to wait until the Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul Formation Grand Ceremony ended before returning to the sect to pay respects to the Mirror Moon Sect’s foundation, the Primordial Unity Dao Artifact 【Heavenly One Northern Abyss Mirror】, perhaps gaining the recognition of the Heavenly One True Dragon.
Conversely, if the war situation among the Three Realms was poor and the Mirror Moon Sect had fallen into disadvantage, Chen Beiwu could communicate with the sect Ancestor in advance and formulate a counterattack strategy, using warfare to plunder the fate of other sects and accumulate the fate of a Heavenly Fate Purple Dragon as quickly as possible, then test the enlightenment effect of the Fate Decree Embryo Divine Ability.
Without the slightest delay, Chen Beiwu stepped forward, his figure disappearing amid spatial ripples.
An hour later, a handsome figure suddenly appeared among the people lining up at the entrance of Cloud Ridge Market.
Chen Beiwu restrained his aura and stood at the end of the queue, his divine sense sweeping around.
‘These are Foundation Establishment cultivators rotated down from the front lines. Has the sect already joined forces with the Azure Wood Sect?’
Chen Beiwu’s heart stirred. At the front of the queue, he could see seven or eight Azure Wood Sect cultivators with exhausted expressions, travel-worn appearances, and traces of bloody scent upon them.
Cloud Ridge Market was located at the border where the Hidden Moon Mountain Range and Mirror Sky Mountain Range met. It was thirty thousand li away from the crucial frontline stronghold Mirror Sky City, placing it behind the front lines, where frontline cultivators could often be seen.
Once Mirror Sky City fell, the allied cultivator armies of the Red Sun Sect, Azure Spirit Sect, and Blood Fate Sect would drive straight through and threaten the entire Cloud Ridge Market.
If Chen Beiwu wanted to obtain the latest information on the war among the Three Realms, Cloud Ridge Market was undoubtedly the best choice.
Standing quietly among the crowd and listening to the surrounding cultivators converse in low voices, Chen Beiwu’s gaze suddenly shifted, his divine sense locking onto a masked female cultivator slowly approaching from behind.