“Mm… His technique is practiced, and his cultivation of the Water Control Art is not poor. To think he could shatter the Qi-Refining Flower in an instant… He has already gained complete control over this second-tier spirit spring.”
At the side, Elder Han watched Fang Qing make his move, his alchemy technique incomparably smooth, and could not help nodding to himself.
Several days later, Fang Qing formed seals with both hands, and a batch of Qi-Refining Powder came straight out of the pool.
“Not bad, not bad…”
Elder Han took it and sniffed lightly. “The various main ingredients have fused quite perfectly. It is undoubtedly genuine…”
“Many thanks for Elder’s appraisal.”
Fang Qing adjusted his breathing for a while, then began refining the “Qi-Replenishing Pill.”
He had also studied this formula before, and had even tried his hand at it a few times, so he was rather confident.
Even so, while deliberately hiding his divine sense and not using it, his first pool still failed.
“I possessed divine sense while still in the Qi Refining stage, which is a mark of genius, but the tree that stands out in the forest… Besides, I don’t have any power backing me. It’s better to keep a card hidden.”
“Before a Foundation Establishment elder, as long as I don’t use divine sense, he won’t take the initiative to force his own divine sense into my sea of consciousness and discover this secret…”
“Precisely because of that, I can also conceal some of my alchemy skill, changing it from originally outstanding to merely acceptable…”
Fang Qing remained neither arrogant nor impatient. He drained away a pool of waste water and continued pouring in the main ingredients.
“Mm?”
When Elder Han saw this scene, a slight fondness for talent arose in his heart.
He had seen many alchemy geniuses. Perhaps when things went smoothly, everything would go as they wished, but how they performed when they encountered adversity was another matter.
This disciple named Fang Qing, even after ruining an entire pool, remained calm and unhurried. At the very least, his steady state of mind was comparable to that of a first-tier high-grade alchemist.
Fang Qing had no idea Elder Han was thinking so much. He successfully refined the Qi-Replenishing Pill.
After that, he began refining the “Origin-Restoring Pill.” This pill was a first-tier high-grade healing pill. Though it did not possess the effect of the second-tier “Flesh-Regrowing Bone-Mending Pill,” which could revive the dead and grow flesh on bare bones, if a heavily injured Qi Refining cultivator swallowed one, it could likewise greatly alleviate their injuries.
However, the difficulty of refining this pill was clearly much higher.
Fang Qing barely ruined two pools of spirit materials before he managed, with both hands forming seals, to make a scarlet pill fly out from the spirit pool.
“Not bad, not bad… You are called Fang Qing, yes? For your age, your Water Control Art can already be considered outstanding.”
Elder Han took the pill and appraised it for a while. “It is only a pity… Many of your alchemy techniques can be seen at a glance to have been learned from books. You do not know how to apply them flexibly… Sometimes, a single pointer from a teacher can save a disciple an unknown amount of painstaking effort.”
He praised him for quite some time, waiting for Fang Qing to take him as his master.
Who would have thought that Fang Qing seemed to have completely failed to understand his hints, and even his explicit suggestions, merely listening respectfully.
“Forget it… In the end, we lack the fate of master and disciple.”
Elder Han sighed and waved his hand to open the formation. “Go to the Pill Hall. Now that you have advanced to a first-tier high-grade alchemist, you can fully be called a core disciple of the sect… You may look up a portion of second-tier pill formulas, pill scriptures, and even rent a second-tier spirit pool…”
“Many thanks for Elder’s guidance.”
Fang Qing showed gratitude on his face and followed Elder Han to the Pill Hall to update his disciple token.
“Congratulations, Junior Brother… on advancing to a first-tier high-grade alchemist.”
Hua Lingsu offered her congratulations with a face full of spring breeze. “With Junior Brother’s talent, I’m sure you will soon be able to refine a type of second-tier pill and advance to a quasi-second-tier alchemist, and then to a true second-tier alchemist.”
To become a second-tier alchemist, one needed to refine at least three different kinds of second-tier spirit pills!
If one could only refine one or two, then within the sect one could only be called “quasi-second-tier”!
Of course, among rogue cultivators outside, that would make one a proper second-tier alchemy master!
When Elder Han at the side heard this, the corner of his mouth curled slightly.
As long as one was willing to pour resources into it, a first-tier alchemist could very easily be raised to high-grade.
But to break through to second-tier? Without the aid of divine sense, how difficult was that? He was still clear on this point.
If Fang Qing were his disciple, he would certainly repeatedly admonish him not to develop arrogance and conceit.
As for now? Forget it…
“It’s finally settled. I can first go look up pill formulas, then collect materials. While I’m at it, I’ll rent a second-tier spirit pool…”
“It’s just that I’ll have to spend a bit more time, giving people the impression that I accumulated for a long time and only barely gathered one set of materials to take a gamble… In reality, I’ll prepare eight or ten sets and break through to second-tier alchemist in one stroke!”
Fang Qing took his identity token, and a heroic feeling surged up in his heart.
But in the next instant, a peculiar fluctuation of spiritual power came over.
“Hm?”
Elder Han was the first to sense it. He transformed into a streak of light and flew out of the Pill Hall.
Together with Hua Lingsu, Fang Qing saw that above one of the cave abodes on Pill Island, spiritual qi had suddenly gathered like clouds, forming a massive vortex.
That vortex was like a funnel, wildly devouring the surrounding spiritual qi and sinking into the cave abode.
What followed was a surge of magic power fluctuations far surpassing the Qi Refining stage!
“Foundation Establishment!”
“Is a disciple of this island attempting Foundation Establishment?”
Elder Han was experienced and knowledgeable. Stroking his beard, he smiled and said, “From the looks of it now, both the Essence Origin Pass and the Qi Origin Pass have been crossed, allowing such a celestial phenomenon to form… Next, as long as he transforms and gives birth to divine sense, passing the Divine Origin Pass, this island will have gained another fellow Daoist.”
“Judging by the location of that cave abode, it belongs to Senior Brother Wulongzi.”
Hua Lingsu observed for a while, then suddenly spoke, her expression somewhat strange as she looked at Fang Qing.
Fang Qing did not think too much of it. He had never seen a cultivator attempt Foundation Establishment before, so he observed with great interest.
“Mm, this breakthrough of the Qi Refining path is not small in momentum… but it does not seem to possess the profundity of the Qi-Ingestion path…”
After all, he had witnessed the Mixed-Sea Flood Serpent undergoing its tribulation. Its momentum had indeed been vast.
But to say it affected the lands of an entire commandery, or even manifested strange phenomena that hindered other fire-attribute cultivators from breaking through in their cultivation techniques… that was completely impossible!
Looking at it this way, Core Formation cultivators of the Qi Refining path were likely inferior to Purple Mansion cultivators of the Qi-Ingestion path!
At this moment, outside Wulongzi’s cave abode, quite a few disciples had already gathered, all pointing and discussing.
“I heard that Martial Uncle Cui Zhe had long since smoothly reached Foundation Establishment and successfully emerged from seclusion. He even received orders to go out and returned after cutting down the Hua family’s Foundation Establishment ancestor, Hua Tianfeng, with his sword. He is a peerless sword Dao genius…”
“By comparison, the other Senior Brother Ruan seems to have failed in his breakthrough?”
“Now, it all depends on Wulongzi…”
Cultivators all had very good patience. Everyone waited for an entire day and night.
Suddenly!
The spiritual qi vortex trembled, and a long sigh came from within the cave abode.
The spiritual qi vortex in midair collapsed all at once, scattering into countless multicolored specks of light that flew into the surrounding void and vanished…
“Wulongzi… failed at Foundation Establishment?”
“That’s only natural. One genuine Foundation Establishment Pill only gives a thirty percent chance of success…”
The watching disciples either felt regret or took pleasure in his misfortune.
Fang Qing’s expression, however, was solemn. He saw several Foundation Establishment elders send out transmission talismans. The cave abode opened, and Wulongzi walked out with a deathly pale face and blood staining his robes, accepting treatment.
“Good… It seems the Foundation Establishment Pill can ensure that one does not die after failing Foundation Establishment. Its effect is rather decent.”
“This Wulongzi had already completed more than half of Foundation Establishment, yet he actually fell at the divine sense pass?”
At this thought, Fang Qing understood just how extraordinary his “Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art” and “Spirit-Concentrating Powder” were.
……
Late at night.
In many disciples’ cave abodes on Pill Island, the matter of Wulongzi’s failed Foundation Establishment was still causing an uproar.
Compared with that, the news of Fang Qing advancing to first-tier high-grade alchemist seemed completely unimportant.
After all, Wulongzi had long since become a high-grade alchemist.
Inside the cave abode.
Fang Qing was copying pill scriptures.
“The Hua family is worthy of being a Foundation Establishment clan. They collected quite a few pill formulas. They even have the second-tier ‘Flesh-Regrowing Bone-Mending Pill’… This has saved me a sum of contribution points for copying pill formulas from the Heavenly Book Pavilion.”
Although after advancing to first-tier high-grade alchemist, he had the authority to look up pill scriptures and copy pill formulas… all of this required contribution points.
Fortunately, Fang Qing had previously killed Hua family cultivators and seized quite a few Hua family books.
“This ‘Flesh-Regrowing Bone-Mending Pill’ uses the Flesh-Regrowing Flower and Bone-Mending Grass as its main ingredients… Each is worth around a hundred spirit stones. Adding the other supplementary ingredients, one set of materials costs several hundred spirit stones… If one ruined it a few more times and lost over a thousand spirit stones, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would feel pained, right?”
Fang Qing clicked his tongue inwardly.
After finishing copying the pill formula, he took out a bottle of fruit wine, laid out several plates of good food, and began satisfying his appetite.
As he ate and drank, he also flipped through the miscellaneous books obtained from the Hua family.
“After Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment come Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Soul Transformation… Upon perfecting Soul Transformation, one can ascend to the Immortal Realm?”
In one cultivator’s notes, Fang Qing saw several of the major realms of the Qi Refining path and could not help yearning for them. “I wonder what sort of power Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation possess? Ascension? Could it be one can truly go to the Immortal Realm?”
“But what is written here is certain and precise. In the East Sea cultivation world, around ten thousand years ago, there was indeed a Soul Transformation mighty figure who ascended…”
He continued reading the next travelogue and discovered that it was the journal of a certain Hua family ancestor.
“Who decent… writes a diary?”
Fang Qing swept his eyes over it a few times, but became interested.
After all, this involved the various powers of the Little Huan Sea, as well as local customs and practices.
Suddenly, his wine cup paused. He saw one sentence: “…I heard that in the hands of the founder of the Blue Sea Sect, Perfected Bihai, there was a supreme treasure, the ‘Tide-Rising Pearl,’ which could allow a Foundation Establishment cultivator to immediately obtain Core Formation magic power… It was later lost. What fortune!”
The brushstrokes were filled with gloating!
“Tide-Rising Pearl!”
Fang Qing’s expression darkened as he thought of the hint he had obtained from his last divination. “External core method… Tide-Rising Pearl? So that’s how it is. I understand now!”
“So the so-called ‘Tide-Rising Pearl’ requires a third-tier demon core and is refined using the external core method?”
“It seems this Hua family ancestor also only knew that this supreme treasure existed, and did not know its origins or the main materials used to refine it… Otherwise, how could the Zhong family and the Tianxin Chain Islands remain seated so calmly now?”
He remembered very clearly that the previous Mixed-Sea Flood Serpent had definitely already condensed a third-tier demon core. Otherwise, it would have been utterly impossible for it to draw down a heavenly tribulation!
And that serpent belonged to the water attribute, which was extremely compatible with the Blue Sea Sect’s “Blue Sea Art”!
“Core Formation cultivators can use magic treasures. In terms of the subtleties of combat, they may even surpass third-tier demonic beasts… Before long, the sect will have two great Core Formation battle powers. As long as we find an opportunity to ambush the Zhong family ancestor or Hermit Yuyao, the overall situation in the entire Little Huan Sea will immediately be settled!”
Fang Qing secretly grasped the thread of the Blue Sea Sect’s great rise. What made him even happier was that his cultivation of the “Plum Blossom Divination” had taken another step forward.
“If I want to interpret the hexagram images in greater detail, I need more clues…”
“It’s just that the Tide-Rising Pearl refined from the peak third-tier demon core in Patriarch Bihai’s hands—can its effect be the same as a Tide-Rising Pearl refined from this demon core that has only just entered the third tier?”