Chapter 2983: Return-to-Youth Elixir

The fact that the Holy Mother of Jin Du brought this up showed that his deduction path was generally correct in direction.

Shuang Ye's heart sped up from eagerness, thumping rapidly several times.

"You ate too few good things when you were born; logically speaking, no matter how much you supplement afterwards, it's impossible to advance by leaps and bounds." During the first ten days after an Abusive Eater is born, the more and higher-grade food it consumes, the greater the boost to itself. This is also one of the few species between heaven and earth that can make its physical functions and cultivation advance by leaps and bounds purely by "eating."

But once this precious window period passes, even if you eat immortal flesh, there's no way to directly convert it into cultivation anymore. Otherwise, with Shuang Ye's current status, if he truly wanted to aid his cultivation, what treasure couldn't he obtain?

"However," the Holy Mother of Jin Du revealed a strange smile, "wouldn't it be fine to simply repeat that process once more?"

Here it comes — there really is a way, and it's about the same as he envisioned! Shuang Ye's expression was one of pleasant surprise: "You mean I can still return to the state I was in when I first came into the world?"

How to do it — stuff him back into his mother's womb?

Thinking of this, a chill ran through Shuang Ye's heart. If he needed to be reforged, would his current consciousness be erased by the Holy Mother of Jin Du at the opportunity? "Correct." Fortunately the Holy Mother of Jin Du didn't know what he was thinking, "In ancient times, a spirit medicine appeared in the mortal world, its effect being 'returning from old age to youth.' As long as you eat this medicine, your physical state can be readjusted to when you first came into the world, and you'll have the chance to devour ancient powerhouses again and rapidly raise your cultivation."

"So Mother had a plan long ago." The moment Shuang Ye heard this, he knew the Holy Mother of Jin Du's solution wasn't something thought up on the spot, "Not hiding it from you, I've also thought of this method, and found many Return-to-Youth Elixir formulas, but without exception none are applicable!"

Methods to improve himself, Shuang Ye had of course thought of countless times. The most likely shortcut still had to start from his own special talent.

But life-extending elixirs are easy to obtain in the world, while returning-to-youth elixirs leave no trace to be found.

"The Jianyao Immortal Gate has always researched this medicine, until Immortal Yunshang appeared and produced the true Return-to-Youth Elixir. The Jianyao Immortal Gate earned a fortune with this medicine, while the formula was always held by Immortal Yunshang and never leaked out. Later Immortal Yunshang was killed by the Heavenly God Ju Li, and the formula was taken away as spoils of war. Later, all Return-to-Youth Elixir formulas circulating in the mortal world are fake, copied, or incomplete — either ineffective when eaten, or very weak in potency. The God Ju Li built his own residence in the mortal world and hoarded many things, but in the late stage of the great war he only took away the treasures he considered important. The rest"

The Holy Mother of Jin Du took out a palm-sized tortoise shell: "For example, this was left behind in its old residence."

What use would a Heavenly Demon have for a Return-to-Youth Elixir formula? Something the Jianyao Immortal Gate treasured, the God Ju Li discarded like a worn-out shoe, not even bothering to bring it back to the heavenly realm, treating it as mere miscellaneous goods.

Shuang Ye recognized at a glance that this was a Spiral Tortoise Shell, but green moss had grown all over it. He sent his divine sense into it and saw only a formula, which not only listed nineteen medicinal ingredients but also detailed the refining method and precautions.

Shuang Ye had a photographic memory; one glance and he memorized it all.

He wanted to return the tortoise shell to the Holy Mother of Jin Du, but she said: "You keep it."

"Unfledged Phoenix feather?"

"Thousand-year Lightning-Struck Wood?"

And some other strange and exotic medicines.

"Has anyone successfully refined it?"

"Of course." The Holy Mother of Jin Du nodded, "Just the ones I know of number several. In the ancient period, immortal sects stood in great numbers; some immortals' specially favored descendants or disciples strayed onto the wrong cultivation path and had limited lifetime achievements, so the immortals went to the Jianyao Immortal Gate to buy this Return-to-Youth Elixir, letting them turn back into children and restart cultivation."

A second chance at life.

"In the ancient period, this wasn't considered any earth-shattering major event; after all, once humans cultivate to become immortals they can live forever, and many demon beasts themselves are very long-lived, casually living hundreds or thousands of years." She added, "But it's said this medicine can only be used once by a person; taking more has no effect." "One chance to start over is enough." Shuang Ye was full of confidence, "I'll have people go and properly gather the medicinal ingredients."

The ingredients on this formula, placed a few decades ago, might have been completely unfindable. But now heaven and earth's spiritual energy is abundant, all kinds of strange objects have entered the world, and the difficulty has dropped in a straight line.

Moreover, he now holds power over all under heaven; with just a word from him, countless people are willing to run their legs off for him. Finding some rare spirit medicines is nothing more than a piece of cake for him.

"Red-Heart Lighthouse Jellyfish." The Holy Mother of Jin Du recited the name of one of the medicinal ingredients, then said, "The others are all easy to handle; only this one is troublesome."

Even the name is very strange.

"This jellyfish is innately able to return from old age to youth; when it's about to grow old and die, it secretes a kind of medicinal factor that lets it revert to a juvenile body and grow again, cycling many times." "Wouldn't that be eternal life?" Eternal life is the dream of cultivators; could it be that this ordinary organism can naturally achieve it without needing to strive?

"It's not that miraculous either; sometimes it inexplicably stops secreting, and then dies like an ordinary organism."

"This thing lives in the deep-sea cliff crevices of the West Sea; it's said there are some in the Yada Trench. Its body is smaller than a teacup, inherently hard to catch, and not all Red-Heart Lighthouse Jellyfish carry the rejuvenation factor. So, if you want to make one Return-to-Youth Elixir suitable for you, conservatively estimated, you need to catch at least twenty thousand of them."

"The quantity isn't small, but I can mobilize the aquatic tribes to go into the sea and catch them for me."

"Most importantly, this thing loses activity two hours after leaving water, with no medicinal value left." The Holy Mother of Jin Du had done plenty of homework beforehand, "And the Return-to-Youth Elixir you need is a living medicine; do you know what that means?"

The concept of "living medicine," as opposed to dead medicine, means medicine that can be stored for a long time after being made.

"Medicine that must be taken while hot after being made." Grand Preceptor Shuang Ye was widely knowledgeable and was himself a master of pill-making, "Once it cools, the medicinal potency is much worse."

"Right. Cooled Return-to-Youth Elixir, though easy to store, can at most revert a human to the age of three or four. That's enough for ordinary people, but for you it's trash!" An Abusive Eater must return to the just-born state to have the "crazed eating, crazed gains" BUFF bonus, "So you need to make and use it on the spot, cannot entrust it to others."

Grand Preceptor Shuang Ye summarized: "Meaning I have to bring the aquatic tribes to the deep trenches of the West Sea, catch large quantities of Red-Heart Lighthouse Jellyfish, and within two hours of catching them make them into living medicine and hurriedly eat it?"

"Right. Just the first step isn't easy, because these jellyfish all gather in small groups and rarely act on a large scale."