Chapter 244
Several days later, the remaining poison of the third-rank spiritual item Myriad Spirits Venom Marrow was completely devoured by the Immaculate Jade Toad. Wang Yu emerged as though he had crawled out from water, his entire body drenched.
The torment of venom corroding his body was a pain no ordinary man should endure. Fortunately, it had finally ended, and the results perfectly met his expectations.
The essence blood accumulated within his dragon spine had reached over eight thousand six hundred drops. With a bit more effort, he would soon reach the peak.
In his hand, he held a spiritual item obtained from the Heaven Treasure Pavilion by exchanging a Molten Core Fruit via Glazed Lotus Heart Liquid, used to break through to the third rank of body refining.
During the past two years, his true essence had only increased to 2,822 drops. Even after refining five stalks of Black Sky Cordyceps, it only rose by four hundred drops, still some distance from breaking through to the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment.
It would be better to focus all his energy on body refining for now. Once he reached the third rank, combined with his divine sense power, he would absolutely be able to confront Core Formation cultivators head-on.
Speaking of which, it was his divine sense secret technique that was holding him back. Otherwise, with his current spiritual capacity, his combat power would be even greater.
“When I complete the inheritance of the Ancient Soul Art, everything will fall into place.”
Turning his head, he glanced at Long Yiran beneath the ancient carvings on the stone wall. A mysterious spiritual aura surrounded her. Rather than merely meditating, she seemed to be merging with some spiritual object.
Her soul aura was strengthening. Perhaps she would reach the third rank before him. “The inheritance of an Earth Formation Master… does it involve the Soul Path as well? No wonder she’s interested in the Heavenly Soul Sect’s inheritance. Looks like she found something.”
He observed quietly for a while, then secretly extended his divine sense toward the stone wall. Finding that without the 'Scripture Guidance' he could detect nothing, he could only leave in disappointment.
He decided to explore the underground medicinal garden nearby. Since there were Black Sky Cordyceps here, perhaps there were also spiritual herbs suitable for body refining. He had just used poison for tempering his body, so he knew it worked.
“In the Demonic Bone Forest, the poisonous plants beneficial for body refining are… the Bone Barrier Poison Flower, Blood Thorn Cane, and Corpse Poison Earth Fruit.”
These were the three most famous types for Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Wang Yu had seen the first type before — during the first Fragrance Gathering Assembly, the Blood Blade Cultivator had offered a Bone Barrier Poison Flower, which was later traded away by Daoist Rainflower.
Walking through the shadowy medicinal garden, he actually found some of them: one Blood Thorn Cane and three Corpse Poison Earth Fruits. Both only grew where corpses were buried and the Demonic Bone Forest had corpses beyond counting.
The spiritual essence of the remains near this garden had likely been completely absorbed by these two plants.
He found even more Bone Barrier Poison Flowers six in total.
“This place truly is a treasure ground.”
Wang Yu inspected the entire garden. Aside from what he harvested, there were tens of thousands of first-rank herbs, a hundred second-rank herbs, and twelve third-rank herbs.
Many had withered. Among them, Wang Yu recognized ninety percent, while the remaining ten percent were mutated poisonous variants affected by the unique environment.
These required custom pill formulas based on their properties to be perfectly utilized, though they could also be used directly.
After exploring, Wang Yu burned the Blood Thorn Cane into a pool of blood essence with his Ice Flood Pill Flame and applied it over his body. Then he swallowed all three Corpse Poison Earth Fruits.
The six Bone Barrier Poison Flowers circled around him, releasing granular pollen that seeped into his body through the meridian acupoints.
Having endured the baptism of Myriad Spirits Venom Marrow, his body’s resistance to poison had greatly increased. Ordinary toxins were now useless to him. Such an extreme refining method could only be carried out by someone like him.
The Ice Chi Pill Flame burned from within, tempering his body and fusing the medicinal essence of the poisons into his blood and bones.
After several days, Wang Yu still felt it was not enough.
He took out the Starfall Cold Furnace, sealed himself inside using a furnace-sealing technique, recreating the same act he performed years ago in the Thunderfall Abyss—only this time, the Ice Chi Pill Flame burned even fiercer.
As he circulated the Yin Nether Demonic Flood Dragon Technique, his blood essence surged violently out of his body, forming the shape of a demonic flood dragon, beginning a new round of body tempering.
Within his dragon spine, blood essence increased at a speed far beyond before.
One year and two months later, his blood essence reached exactly 9,999 drops.
He had achieved the peak of second-rank body refining.
“Hu—”
Exhaling deeply, Wang Yu released a stream of white breath that struck the pill furnace with a loud bang, as if it had been smashed by a boulder. The vibration echoed throughout, proof of the immense strength of his internal organs.
As the saying goes, breath like an arrow, exhale like thunder.
So it was.
Once he broke through to the third rank of Body Refining, he would gain the power to lift and throw mountains. Moving a million catties with one arm would be trivial. The mountain-throwing power was literal, he could uproot a mountain and hurl it at an enemy.
At this point, however, breakthroughs became exceedingly difficult.
The final condensation of the three essences and their dispersion was immensely challenging. Moreover, this final drop of fused true blood not only had to be diffused throughout his body but also condensed within his spine into the foundation of a Third-rank Body Refiner—Divine Marrow.
Just as breaking through Foundation Establishment granted “Protective True Qi” and “Flesh Flight”, or Core Formation granted “Tricolor True Fire” and “Undying Golden Core”, each realm came with accompanying supernatural transformations.
These were postnatal divine endowments, transformations of life itself deeply imprinted into one’s bloodline. It was also one of the reasons why high-rank cultivators found it difficult to bear children.
Such traits could be inherited, but their expression took the form of different spiritual root qualities, or even innate spiritual constitutions.
When yin and yang combined, if one side was too strong or too weak, the resulting offspring could vary drastically, from Heavenly Spiritual Roots to Wasted Spiritual Roots, entirely a matter of fortune.
When two strong beings united, they either bore no child at all, or produced a genius without exception.
However, not everyone could pass down such realm-endowed traits. Even Nascent Soul cultivators could not. Only Spirit Transformation Venerable possessed the ability to do so.