Chapter 4: Refining the Golden Elixir
Tiantai Mountain
When Li Qingyun arrived at the foot of the mountain, the master's figure had been waiting here for a long time.
"How?"
Qingyang Palace's leader gazed at Li Qingyun in front of him, his expression slightly complex. "After flipping through all the books in the Zangjing Pavilion, you still can't find a way to break through the Yuan Ying period?"
As a powerful cultivator on the verge of transcending his tribulation, Qīng Yáng Zhēn Rén, the leader of the Azure Goat Palace, was well aware that Lǐ Qīng Yún's chances of entering the Yuan Infant stage were extremely low.
Cultivators start to refine their divine soul from the embryonic stage, using it to nourish their original spirit. Whether it's the subsequent refinement of gods, body merging, great vehicle, or crossing tribulations, and even after successfully crossing tribulations to condense an immortal body and ascend to the immortal realm, almost all of these processes rely on the divine soul refined from the three souls and seven spirits. Li Qingyun was born with four souls and seven spirits, in addition to the three souls of heaven, earth, and man, there is also a residual soul mixed in, which is the key to his inability to break through the embryonic stage.
To condense the yuan Shen, one must have a clear and calm mind. This confused and disordered remnant soul seems to be rejected by the heavenly spiritual energy!
It's as if this world doesn't accommodate me at all.
These three souls and seven spirits are the root of human beings, not like the primordial spirit, yin spirit, divine soul and so on that can be cultivated later in life. Unless reborn or reincarnated, there is no way to change them at all.
"My disciple is incompetent."
Li Qingyun slightly bowed his head and shook it, saying: "After flipping through countless books, I still can't find a way to break through the Yuan Ying period."
"What do you plan to do now?"
Li Qingyun sank into thought for a moment before bowing his head and saying: "I plan to go out and travel for a few years, see if there's any opportunity."
To be honest, Yu Yang's attitude towards Li Qingyun is also very complicated.
On the one hand, he was a talented disciple nurtured by Xū Yáng Zhēn Rén with all his might. On the other hand, to save him from the stolen Huà Hé Dān, it was a treasure left behind by Qīng Yáng Gōng for cultivators about to cross the tribulation. Now that the entire Qīng Yáng Gōng had only him who was about to cross the tribulation, even Xū Yáng Zhēn Rén had some confidence in crossing the tribulation, but if he had Huà Hé Dān in hand, he would have one more way out. Therefore, when he learned that his master Lóng Nǚ áo Lì had stolen Huà Hé Dān, Xū Yáng Zhēn Rén was really angry for a moment.
Otherwise, the Dragon Girl would not have been punished to go to Tongtian Peak for 300 years, day and night receiving the baptism of the wind and rain.
"Alright."
Xuanyang Zhenren waved his hand, and a auspicious cloud lifted Li Qingyun up and sent him to the top of Tongtian Peak. "You won't gain anything by staying on the mountain either, you can go down the mountain in two days."
Xu Yang Zhen Ren's expression was cold and indifferent, and then he disappeared on the spot.
Originally, Li Qingyun was the best candidate to take over as the next leader, and with concentrated resources and training, he could have entered the Mahayana realm in just a hundred or two years. However, now that Li Qingyun is unable to break through the Yuan Ying period, he can only select the next leader from among the various sect elders. Although the Qingyang Palace has been passed down for over 6,000 years, it once experienced a great disaster, and all of its elite disciples were lost. Except for the leader, Virtual Sun True Person, who is in the Duojie period, the strongest of the other elders is only at the peak of the Huashen period.
Cultivating Qi, Building Foundation, Void Elixir, Golden Elixir, Primordial Infant, Transforming Spirit, Unifying Body, Great Vehicle, Crossing the Calamity.
If the leader of a sect is only at the Nascent Soul stage, it's likely that the Qingyang Palace will have some difficulty supporting itself in the future.
In order to cultivate a successor, the True Man of Virtual Yang has suppressed his boundary upgrade for over 100 years. However, the longer he drags on, the greater the difficulty of crossing the tribulation will be in the future. Within a hundred years at most, he must face the heavenly tribulation.
Perhaps for human beings, a hundred years is already a vast and profound change.
But for a cultivator who can live for hundreds or even thousands of years, a hundred years is still too short.
It is far from enough for him to cultivate a qualified successor.
Perhaps he once had a hint of master-disciple affection for Li Qingyun, but unfortunately, with the theft of the Cihai Dan, this affection has been completely consumed.
A disciple who will never be able to break through the Golden Elixir stage is no longer worthy of his attention.
………
"You're here."
When Li Qingyun's figure appeared on Tongtian Peak, the white-clothed woman sitting cross-legged on the altar also slowly opened her eyes.
"Ready to head down the mountain?"
"Yes."
Li Qingyun bowed and said, "I'm ready to go down the mountain to find an opportunity for a breakthrough."
"That's fine too."
The white-clad woman's breathtakingly beautiful face revealed a faint, gentle smile. Ten years of solitude seemed to have changed her not one bit. She smiled as she stood up, lightly floating down in front of Li Qingyun, and gently stroked his hair. This was something only she could do, for no one else could touch Li Qingyun's head like a child. The familiar warmth made Li Qingyun feel as if he were still a kid, just like when she had stroked his hair back then, asking him if he wanted to cultivate with her.
"I saw your sword."
"Great!"
"In these ten years, you have polished your heart and nature into a brighter mirror."
The woman in white returned to the altar, and with a wave of her snowy wrist, a seven-colored flowing ring appeared before Li Qingyun.
"This is a treasure obtained during the journey as a teacher."
"You've lost all your progress now, everything needs to be started from scratch again, but with this it will be much more convenient."
Lingbao?
Li Qingyun's face was complex, and she silently reached out to take the ring.
Throughout the entire Immortal Realm, there are many treasures, but most of them are merely magical instruments, precious instruments, and spiritual instruments. As for things that qualify as Spiritual Treasures, when added up, they are not many.
"Alright."
A woman in white lifted her hand and waved it, and a force lifted Li Qingyun up and sent him down towards the foot of Tongtian Peak.
"You should also go down the mountain."
It's one o'clock.
A fierce gust of wind blew in from all directions, and a look of pain appeared on the absolutely beautiful face of the woman in white, and even her words seemed to be torn apart by the wind.
………
Under Tongtian Peak.
Li Qingyun gazed at the summit for a long time before silently walking down the mountain.
What he promised, then must be done!
No matter what price is paid.
Three hundred years is really too long. The lonely ten years in the Scripture Pavilion, only he himself knew how hard it was to endure.
He put the Phantom Ring on his ring finger, and with a faint, dim light, Li Qingyun had transformed into an ordinary-looking scholar. As a non-combat spiritual treasure, the Phantom Ring seemed to only have the ability to change the appearance of its wearer, but this transformation was extremely realistic, even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator couldn't see through it. Only a True Lord who had entered the Unity stage could use their divine sense to peek through this disguise and see the wearer's true face.
Li Qingyun descended from the mountain and tempered himself for five years, killing countless evil demons and external devils, naturally also making enemies everywhere.
Now that his cultivation is completely lost, if he were to walk around in his original form, he would likely encounter danger easily. This was probably also the reason why Master gave him the Huan Ling Jie.
However.
As an extremely rare spiritual treasure, is this really all the use of the Phantom Ring?
………
Jingzhou City.
Li Qingyun walked into this ancient city with a dusty face.
Although he had already exhausted his cultivation, the physical body of Jin Dan Zhen Ren was still there. After traveling continuously for several months, he still didn't feel a bit tired.
Inside the Scripture Pavilion, he had flipped through 160,000 volumes of scriptures, yet he still hadn't found any way to break through his current stage of cultivation.
However, he found a glimmer of hope in a note left behind by his predecessors! That is, even if he can never cultivate the yuan infant, he can still find ways to improve his cultivation and ultimately reach the realm of flying ascension!
Ancient Times
There was no such thing as a "primordial infant" in the first place. This cultivation method of refining the primordial infant only emerged after the War of the Gods.
In ancient times, practitioners of Qi cultivation were the precursors to all Xian cultivators. They didn't have Golden Elixirs or Primordial Infants; instead, they relied on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to temper their physical bodies, ultimately reaching the realm of ascending to immortality. Whether it was the Golden Elixir or the Primordial Infant, both were created by later Xian cultivators after the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth had dried up following the War of the Gods.
So!
If he can find the legacy of the ancient times and create his own technique according to his situation, maybe he can achieve the condition of flying up without using yuan ying.
And now he already has a clue.
After the fragmentation of Jindan, he also tried to restore his cultivation, but the progress of restoring his cultivation was abnormally slow.
It's not that his innate talent for cultivating immortality has become useless.
On the contrary.
His talent is even more outstanding than before!
Because he had just re-cultivated, the condensed liquid in his body was actually the golden elixir that only a Golden Elixir Realm cultivator could nurture.
Cultivators have three chances to change their physical constitution.
The first is the refining Qi period.
At this time, the cultivator's body begins to condense the pre-heavenly energy, and the so-called spiritual root is also referring to whether the cultivator has the foundation of condensing the pre-heavenly energy.
If one's physical constitution is too poor, the innate energy will be lost early on.
In any case, it's difficult to get started with cultivation, and even if you use some special tools to produce acquired spiritual roots, your future progress will be very slow.
The second is the foundation period.
Building the foundation is the most crucial step for a cultivator, and only after completing it can one be considered to have truly entered the ranks of a cultivator.
In this process, the congenital Qi will gradually transform into True Yuan, at which point the cultivator's physique will undergo a tremendous improvement, and their speed of absorbing spiritual energy during cultivation will also increase exponentially.
The third is Jindan period.
After a cultivator forms their Golden Core, ordinary mortal weapons can hardly harm them.
At the same time, the speed at which Jindan cultivators absorb spiritual energy becomes extremely terrifying, often absorbing all the spiritual energy within hundreds of meters with just one breath.
After the Golden Elixir period, cultivators began to transform and refine their primordial spirit.
No matter whether it is the later Yuanying, Huashen, and Hé Tǐ, or the final Mahayana period and Duàn Jié period, they are all a process of further refining the Yuánshén. Only after successfully passing the Duàn Jié will there be an opportunity to refine the body of an immortal.
………
Now.
His cultivation had just recovered to the first layer of Qi Refining, and the essence condensed within his body was already Golden Elixir.
So when he refines himself back to the foundation period, how strong will his body be? From the refining period to the foundation period is a process of re-tempering and strengthening the flesh! It's just that in the refining period, it's already using golden elixir jade liquid to temper the body. So after successfully passing through the foundation period, what will come out again next?
What kind of heights will one's own physical body be elevated to?
Li Qingyun made a bold conjecture after searching through all the books in the Qingyang Palace.
That's why he is very likely to condense his immortal body during the foundation building period!
Even if it's not possible to reach the level of a celestial body, at the very least, one can refine and cultivate a loose immortal body! If one were to recover their cultivation back to the Golden Elixir stage, then the possibility of directly cultivating a celestial body would be extremely high!
Perhaps there have been many cultivators throughout history who had to restart from scratch after their cultivation was ruined, but they absolutely did not have the Nirvana Pill that cultivators in the Tribulation period could use to save their lives. Moreover, it's unlikely that anyone else has such astonishing innate talent for cultivating immortality, as well as a Golden Dan True Body preserved intact thanks to the Nirvana Pill. Those who lose their cultivation either re-condense their physical body or are forced to transmigrate and restart their cultivation.
These four souls and seven spirits have restricted his further improvement in cultivation, but they also brought him an unimaginable opportunity!
………
However.
This restored Dharma also has its greatest drawback.
That's when he condensed the Golden Elixir and Jade Liquid during the Refining Qi stage, and the amount of spiritual energy he needs to absorb to upgrade his realm has already reached a terrifying astronomical figure!
This terrifying astronomical figure, even if a sect were to exhaust all its resources, might not be able to afford it!
If others need 100 points of spiritual energy to pass the tenth layer of the Refining Qi period, then he needs 10,000 points of spiritual energy to complete the Refining Qi period.
Others need a total of 10,000 points of spiritual energy to cross the foundation period, which is about 100 times that of the refining period. However, if he wants to cross the foundation period, he needs an astonishing 1,000,000 points of spiritual energy. These spiritual energies, whether replenished with spirit stones or taken as elixirs, are unimaginable in their enormous quantities.
So.
He must go down the mountain because the mountain can't provide him with such an astonishing demand for resources.
………
