Vessel of Worlds

Andy hovered quietly in the air not far from the building.

Cultivators came and went from the pavilion at intervals; most gave him a single glance and paid no further mind.

Now and then a low-level Qi Condensation cultivator, sensing the unfathomable fluctuations about him, dared not approach and swung wide around instead.

An hour and more later, the stout and lean late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators emerged together from the second floor.

Andy drifted toward them without hesitation.

"Fellow cultivators—Zhao has a matter to ask about. If you'd favor me with a word or two of guidance, these two Essence-Consolidating Pills are yours!" Andy transmitted, halting in the air some twenty zhang away. With a light lift of his right hand, a jade-green bottle three cun tall floated slowly toward them.

"Essence-Consolidating Pills!" The stout cultivator started. He swept the green bottle carefully with his spiritual sense and found nothing amiss—but didn't reach for it at once. He nodded to the lean cultivator, who accepted the bottle with a grave expression and blew the stopper open. A clean medicinal fragrance drifted out at once.

"Essence-Consolidating Pills indeed—no mistake!" the lean cultivator said in delight. Refined from rank-five beast cores, the pill was precisely suited to late-stage cultivators like himself—a medicine to advance one's cultivation enormously.

"You would be the Fellow Cultivator Zhao who just rented a dwelling. What is it you'd ask? We two mostly keep to quiet cultivation within our sect—I fear we may not have your answer," the stout cultivator said, brow furrowing with caution.

"You're both late-stage cultivators, doubtless preparing for Core Formation yourselves. I simply wished to ask: I've heard talk of a treasure-ground discovered on the Immortal Island of Yingzhou—containing treasures of great use for forming the core—but I don't know the particulars. By your dress, you're cultivators of the Orthodox Dao Alliance's Upper Mystery Sect. Might you share any specifics? A word of guidance, and these two Essence-Consolidating Pills—of great benefit to late-stage cultivators—are yours with my compliments." Andy saluted as he spoke.

"So that's your errand. In truth you needn't ask—all will be public knowledge soon. And we know only the surface of it ourselves. They say a great sect of Yingzhou opened an ancient sealed space containing two treasures: Three Flames Heavenly Fire Liquid and Nine Colds Mystic Nether Water. The three great powers have since taken joint control of the place and mean to select Foundation Establishment cultivators to enter the space and hunt for the treasures. In half a year at most—perhaps as little as a month—the Orthodox Dao Alliance will announce it. If you're interested, you may enroll to take part," the stout cultivator said with a smile.

"Three Flames Heavenly Fire Liquid and Nine Colds Mystic Nether Water—treasures of such benefit to Core Formation? Naturally I'm interested! Yet I confess I don't understand: if the treasures were discovered, wouldn't they have been carved up long ago? Why leave them for Foundation Establishment cultivators like us to seek?" Andy asked.

"Heh—the inner workings I couldn't tell you. As I heard it, the sect that found the space was detected by the three great powers almost immediately, and never managed to send in cultivators in force. Only a bare few dozen went—mostly to scout—stayed inside only briefly, and seem to have brought out little treasure at all," the stout cultivator said, holding nothing back.

Andy nodded. "I see. My thanks to you both—the pills are yours. I've matters to attend; farewell."

"Our thanks for the pills!" The two returned his salute.

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Not long after Andy departed, the stout cultivator said quietly: "Heh. That one is no simple man."

"Oh? Why do you say so, Senior Brother?" the lean one asked, still elated over a free Essence-Consolidating Pill.

"He asked no one else—came straight to us. He must have overheard our voice transmissions just now."

"What! His cultivation is barely above ours—how could he possibly?"

"Either he practices some secret art, or his spiritual sense is extraordinary. His cultivation may be near ours, but look at his aura—drawn inward, dense as deep water. His power plainly stands a cut above the ordinary peak late-stage cultivator."

"So that's why Senior Brother poured out everything we knew! Well—the Alliance will publish it all within half a year anyway. No sense offending a man like that."

"Just so. And if we meet him in that dangerous place—you and I had best tread very carefully."

...

Several hours later, Andy flew to Jade Clarity Peak. Wreathed in cloud and mist, green and graceful, the peak did not rank among Penglai's largest—by comparison with the distant colossus of Penglai Peak, that is. Taken alone, it stood a full three or four thousand zhang high and a thousand-odd kilometers broad.

Jade Clarity Peak was divided from base to summit into terraces of a hundred-odd zhang each—more than thirty in all. Every terrace bore its dwellings and pavilions: the lowest packed with thousands, the topmost holding only one or two. The higher the terrace, the denser the spiritual energy. The seventeenth, where Andy's dwelling lay, sat at the mountain's waist.

Following the jade slip's directions, Andy soon found his dwelling and, with the jade plate in hand, entered without difficulty.

The dwelling was built on a grand scale: a green stone manor covering several kilometers of ground, fronted by twin green-jade doors a dozen zhang high, finely carved with rare birds and strange beasts. Before the entrance, four white jade pillars stood to either side—twenty-odd zhang tall, a zhang thick, inlaid with five-clawed golden dragons.

Beside the manor spread a flower garden several kilometers wide, rare blossoms and strange grasses growing thick—some breathing faint spiritual energy, clearly spirit herbs of some kind. Bees, butterflies, and songbirds played among the beds: a scene of birdsong and fragrance.

Andy drew a deep breath—and felt the extravagant richness of the heaven-and-earth energy settle comfort into his limbs and organs.

He inspected the dwelling's appended restriction and found it formidable indeed. Even so, he deployed every higher-grade formation set he carried throughout the dwelling. Trusting the original restriction alone was not his way—extra layers always were.

Only with the formations laid did Andy gently push open the stone doors and enter. The vast manor was partitioned into a dozen-odd chambers of varying size, each with its own function.

Alchemy chamber, crafting room, meditation cell, bedchamber, spirit beast room... everything, without exception.

More: every room came furnished to its purpose—pill furnace, meditation cushion, tables and chairs, bed and stand—each piece meticulous and distinctive.

Feeling the dense spiritual energy pressing in from every side, Andy judged his fifteen thousand stones very well spent.

He released the Ice-Wind Python from its pouch and let it roam the dwelling at will.

More than a decade had passed since the python reached rank two. In that time, lacking Dragon Transformation Pills, its cultivation had advanced little—but the Azure Ice Pearl within it had been fully refined at last, and its ice-attribute powers had grown considerably. The frost it breathed now would overwhelm an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

By rights, the Azure Ice Pearl—though no Core Formation treasure—should have been beyond any common rank-two beast to refine completely. Likely this was the mutated beast's nature showing: slow to advance in rank, but gifted beyond measure in the ice arts. Beyond swift flight and the effortless instant-casting of Qi Condensation level spells like the Wind Blade Technique, what unique wind-attribute gift the creature might yet possess, none could say.

Andy's plan was simple: before entering seclusion, purchase a modest stock of rank-three and rank-four flood dragon cores, then withdraw into the dwelling and not emerge until his core was formed. That way, even if someone marked his wealth and conceived designs on him, there would be no opening to exploit.

And once he formed his core, his strength would surge—and the petty and covetous would no longer dare come looking for trouble.

If he succeeded in condensing the Primal Unity Golden Core, then by the sheer might of a technique that cultivated all five energies at once, his power would stand above even the ordinary early-stage Core Formation cultivator's. And he already held two dharma treasures—the little ruler and the golden bell. Both had been left deliberately by Recluse Ximen, a late-stage Core Formation cultivator; they were certainly no common goods.