Chapter 4: The Recognition of Dan and Gongde Shenni

  A gentle breeze blew by, and the fragrance of night flowers wafted in. Zhou Liang took a deep breath, turned back into his room, and finished his tendon-changing and bone-forging exercises. He remembered everything clearly. Next was the cultivation process. Zhou Liang's thoughts fell on the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir he had obtained along with the tendon-changing and bone-forging exercises. It was a divine elixir personally refined by the Supreme Old Lord, collecting precious materials from heaven and earth, and refined through nine cycles of purification. As the greatest evil of the Three Evils of the North Sea, it could advance to the Golden Body, which was the effect of the Golden Elixir, extremely precious.

  Zhou Liang can't even use it, such a divine elixir, can make the Condensing Elixir cultivator advance to the Golden Body, can make the Golden Boundary continue to break through. Zhou Liang has not even entered the door, even if he enters the Cultivation of Truth door, in a short time, he will be unable to digest such a divine elixir. Once he rashly takes it, the final result will definitely be to explode his body and die.

  He took out the jade bottle, poured out the elixir inside, and suddenly heard two loud noises. Zhou Liang was stunned. According to legend, wasn't there only one Nine-Turn Golden Elixir? Could it be that there were actually two? Or perhaps one of them had been wasted?

  Carefully observing the two elixirs, they didn't seem much different from ordinary Return to Origin Elixirs - yellow and round. Zhou Liang carefully used his spiritual sense to examine them, and soon felt a difference in one of them. When his spiritual sense entered it, he clearly felt its layered structure. The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, with nine cycles of refining and returning to the truth, had all its power contained within. As his spiritual sense passed through the outer nine layers, he suddenly felt an enormous internal power. Zhou Liang was a master of the Shaping Body level in his past life, but under this power, he felt that even all the power he possessed in his past life couldn't compare to the elixir's.

  It's indeed the ancient divine elixir, Nine-Turn Golden Elixir. It should be the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir that the ruthless old Daoist had consumed. I reckon the ruthless old Daoist was also out of options; as a major calamity, he no longer had his sect to rely on, so how could he possibly break through to the golden body? Consuming it at the Embryonic Stage is slightly wasteful, but there's no other choice.

  One has been confirmed as a Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, what about the other one? Could it be another one too?

  His divine consciousness poured in, vast and endless, without any sensation or power. Was it a fake elixir? Zhou Liang's heart rose with a thread of doubt. A fake elixir was a discarded elixir from the alchemy process, looking just like real medicine because of the mistake in alchemy, its power almost completely consumed. Taking it rashly would have no effect, and after consumption, there would be big problems. Some scammers among the scattered cultivators took out fake elixirs to deceive people, mostly deceiving newbies who had just entered the gate of true cultivation. Once his divine consciousness exceeded the level of Tong Gong, he could penetrate deep into the elixir's interior, and whether the elixir was real or fake would be obvious at a glance. Only cultivators at the Ru Xi level couldn't tell them apart.

  If it were seen outside, Zhou Liang would definitely think it was a fake pill. This was dug up in the tomb of Emperor Donghua, and Emperor Donghua put it together with the "Dao Cang Rou Jin Du" and the "Nine Turns Golden Pill". Would it be an ordinary thing?

  Condensing his divine consciousness, he carefully examined the Dan medicine, not letting go of any suspicious points. Suddenly, a faint wave of fluctuations came from within the Dan medicine. The fluctuations were extremely subtle and fleeting, almost escaping Zhou Liangquan's attention as he concentrated his mind.

  Could it be? Zhou Liang's face showed a hint of surprise, and another name emerged from the depths of his heart, Shi Dan.

  Shi Dan is a legendary elixir, Zhou Liang can confirm that in the entire Xiuzhen world, those who know it probably do not exceed one hundred. Zhou Liang saw records of it in Youquan Ghost Path, it was an ancient special inheritance method, often used in sects for more important or special inheritances.

  In his past life, he saw the records of Shi Dan, Zhou Liang just smiled and wanted to record the inheritance with Dan medicine, this is too ridiculous, the records are more than Yu Jian, which is impossible. Today, in front of Zhou Liang, along with Jiu Zhuan Jin Dan, there is another Dan medicine with obvious characteristics of Shi Dan, it's not Shi Dan, what is it?

  Carefully recalling, in the Huangquan Ghost Road's records about Shi Dan, Zhou Liang was fortunate that he didn't dismiss it as too unbelievable and thus didn't look into it. He carefully read through the entire inheritance. Distinguishing whether it was Shi Dan was very simple: Shi Dan had a special substance on its surface that water couldn't penetrate and fire couldn't destroy. Even if consumed, it wouldn't be digested; after circulating in the body, it would ultimately be excreted. Zhou Liang naturally wouldn't consume it - heaven knows what this thing is. Water and fire tests should work.

  He took a basin of water and put Shi Dan in it. At the moment he was put in, the water in the basin was automatically separated, and Shi Dan fell to the bottom of the basin. Almost all the water was rejected and splashed out. Zhou Liang's eyebrows were raised, and indeed, water could not invade; Next, when the incense stick was lit, Shi Dan was still more than a foot away from him, and the incense stick went out directly. After several consecutive times, Zhou Liang was sure that this should be Shi Dan, otherwise it would be impossible to explain the magical scene he saw.

  At the very thought, Zhou Liang's heart couldn't help but stir with excitement. The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir was indeed a precious treasure, and using it now would be somewhat wasteful in his opinion. In the future, when he reached the pinnacle of the Golden Body, he would consider using it to see if he could break through the boundaries. As for the ancient practitioners, they had long since vanished into obscurity, but their legends had become myths that spread throughout the Nine Provinces and even the entire cultivation world. According to legend, in ancient times, cultivators were merely ordinary people, and anyone could cultivate. True practitioners of Qi could control the rise and fall of the sun, summon stars from the sky, and split open the earth. It was said that the Nine Provinces were formed when several powerful beings condensed nine fragments after a great battle between ancient Qi practitioners.

  In his past life, Zhou Liang survived in a chaotic world. He had seen cultivators at the Embryonic Breath stage and even those with Golden Bodies. When facing them, Zhou Liang was no match, but they could only split open mountain peaks at most. Compared to the divine abilities of ancient Qi Refiners, it was simply incomparable. If this Recognized Dan contained a thread of inheritance from the ancients, then...

  Zhou Liang carefully recalled some records about Shi Dan. It's not difficult to open Shi Dan, its outer shell is said to be made of Gong De Shen Ni (a kind of magical mud). Gong De Shen Ni can separate water and fire, it won't sink in weak water, nor will it change shape in the wind. However, it has a natural enemy: Tong Zi Xue (Virgin Boy's Blood). Tong Zi Xue is not the blood of a cultivator, but rather the blood of a boy with no yin or yang properties. Gong De Shen Ni doesn't stick to karma, but it fears Tong Zi Xue. Once it encounters Tong Zi Xue, it will automatically shrink back into its original form.

  Zhou Liang's hand suddenly appeared with a knife, cutting towards the tender arm, and the bright red blood splashed onto Shi Dan, making the normally calm-looking Shi Dan look filthy.

  Heaven and earth gave birth to all things, one thing overcomes another, only to see the calm and peaceful surface of the Dan furnace, without any change. A golden light flashed, as if under a mysterious force, the surface layer of the Dan furnace was stripped away, turning into a small cluster of dark black mud.

  With a flicker of his consciousness, the wound was instantly stanched. Although Zhou Liang wasn't a flying absolute trace cultivator, his powerful consciousness still allowed him to do things that ordinary people couldn't. With his other uninjured hand, he gently picked up the small black block, which looked no different from ordinary mud. Even when Zhou Liang's consciousness probed inside it, he couldn't feel any fluctuations within. This was the Guardian of Merit Mud on the surface of the Dan tablet, said to be impervious to water and fire, untainted by any karma or cause-and-effect. Legend had it that this ancient treasure was so precious that even in the underworld, there were no methods for utilizing it - only that it was even more valuable than the Dan itself.

  Such a treasure, its value is probably not much different from that of the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir. Zhou Liang carefully put away the Gōng Dé Shén Ní and casually placed it in his bosom. This lump of mud-like substance didn't make him worry about being recognized as the Gōng Dé Shén Ní, nor did he worry about being discovered. Currently, he couldn't utilize it, but who knows if it might be useful later? He turned to look at the other side, where the true form of the Zhì Dān had appeared. With a heart full of anticipation, he wondered what this sudden appearance was all about. Faintly, his heart held a thread of expectation.