Chapter 421: Upgrading the Spiritual Vein, Breaking Through to Nascent Soul

Qin Ming familiarized himself with the Blood Pagoda spiritual treasure.

After his refinement and reshaping, the power of this demonic treasure had undergone a qualitative transformation.

Under the continuous nurturing of the 【Spirit Plant Seed Treasure】 attribute.

Its effects of corrupting a cultivator's magic power and suppressing their cultivation realm became even more pronounced; even an Nascent Soul old monster, caught off guard, would suffer a heavy loss against this treasure.

Furthermore, with the Qingyang Muhe Laogui presiding within the demonic treasure, Qin Ming could easily mobilize the blood-refining demonic light from the boundless sea of blood to launch attacks.

"Although possessing this fourth-grade spiritual treasure greatly increases my confidence in resisting the Nascent Soul heavenly tribulation, the more treasures the better; I must still prepare several additional measures."

Immediately, Qin Ming suddenly remembered something, took out the Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror, and asked the Qingyang Muhe Laogui indifferently:

"Muhe Muhe Laogui, as a member of the ancient Guqingyuan Sect, you should recognize this object, correct?"

The Qingyang Muhe Laogui had just become someone else's artifact spirit, living under another's roof, and was feeling extremely depressed.

Yet he saw Qin Ming pull out an ancient bronze mirror.

He immediately exclaimed again in shock: "Th-this isn't our sect's supreme treasure, the 'Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror'?"

"How did it end up in your hands?"

"The origin of this item is quite convoluted, but what Qin Mou wants to ask is: since the Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror is your sect's inherited supreme treasure, it surely cannot be merely a third-grade top-tier magical treasure, can it?" Qin Ming countered.

The Qingyang Muhe Laogui clicked his tongue in wonder, saying: "It seems Qin Xiaoyou truly has an affinity with our sect; not only have you cultivated the 'Green Emperor Art' to the tenth layer, but you also possess the complete supreme treasure, the Jin Guang Mirror."

"Indeed, the background of the Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror is substantial, even tracing back to the Upper Realm."

"In the past, our sect's two major cultivation lineages fought over this mirror, paying a heavy price in casualties."

"Then what grade of treasure is this Jin Guang Mirror exactly? Qin Mou has studied it for quite some time, yet currently can only unleash the Jin Guang Divine Flame divine ability," Qin Ming continued to ask.

Hearing this, the Qingyang Muhe Laogui became even more astonished, muttering to himself: 'I didn't expect this kid to have already used the life-shortening divine ability of the Jin Guang Divine Flame, yet how is he so young?'

'Truly bizarre!'

He then cleared his throat lightly and explained: "What Qin Xiaoyou said is correct; this mirror has a grand origin and is naturally no ordinary magical treasure."

"It is an ancient spiritual treasure, also known as an ancient treasure; its Jin Guang Divine Flame can sweep away anything, so its power naturally surpasses that of ordinary spiritual treasures."

"However, using this treasure requires pairing it with our sect's cultivation method; if Qin Xiaoyou cultivates the 'Green Emperor Art' to the twelfth layer, or cultivates the Green Emperor Wood Emperor Sacred Body to the great completion realm."

"Then the grade of the Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror can be elevated by one rank, and at that time, the lifespan consumed to mobilize this treasure will also be greatly reduced."

"Besides that, another divine ability of this mirror will be unlocked; by then, Daoist Qin will understand naturally, so this old man will not elaborate further for now."

After listening, Qin Ming stroked the ancient bronze mirror in his hand, examining the Eight Trigrams pattern on its northern side, and remarked in surprise: "An ancient spiritual treasure; no wonder this treasure possesses such heaven-defying divine abilities."

"Hehe! To be honest with Daoist Qin, during the Qingyuan Sect's most prosperous period, several Soul Transformation Venerables who ascended to the Upper Realm emerged successively; besides this Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror, there were many other powerful inherited treasures."

"However, this Hooked-Jade Jin Guang Mirror alone is enough to rank among the top five."

"I have never told Lin Zi or Xiao about these matters; that boy's fortune is far inferior to yours!"

The Qingyang Muhe Laogui said with a hint of pride.

"Then what was your position originally in the Qingyuan Sect?" This old ghost clearly knew quite a lot, sparking Qin Ming's curiosity as well.

"Hehehe! Allow this old man to keep that a secret for now; knowing too much is not necessarily a good thing for someone at your realm."

"When you break through to the Nascent Soul or a higher realm, this old man will tell you the truth; please rest assured, Qin Xiaoyou."

The Qingyang Muhe Laogui said, pretending to be profound.

"By the way, Qin Xiaoyou, this mirror will be extremely useful for you to survive the Nascent Soul heavenly tribulation; it is even related to increasing this treasure's power and unlocking its second divine ability."

"Allow this old man to explain in detail."

Several days later.

Qin Ming walked out of his cave dwelling with a smile, arriving outside the island in high spirits.

"With favorable timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony, everything is ready except for the east wind; now only the 'geographical advantage' is lacking."

"Breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm requires a terrifying quantity of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy; it must be done within the environment of a fourth-grade spiritual vein."

"Currently, the main peak of Wangyue Island is already a third-grade top-tier spiritual vein."

"Unfortunately, I didn't manage to obtain any top-grade spiritual stones during this trip to Great Jin, though I do have quite a large quantity of high-grade spiritual stones."

"I wonder if feeding large amounts of high-grade spiritual stones to the Spirit Marrow Tai Sui can upgrade Wangyue Island to a fourth-grade spiritual vein."

Saying and doing, Qin Ming followed the mountain path to the depths of the spiritual vein, where he saw the Spirit Marrow Tai Sui, resembling a mountain of flesh, currently inhaling and exhaling spiritual energy.

He first took out one hundred high-grade spiritual stones and, without blinking, fed them all directly to the Spirit Marrow Tai Sui.

Nowadays, Qin Ming's wealth was incredibly vast; having acquired numerous storage bags previously, he now possessed over ten thousand high-grade spiritual stones alone.

After Qin Ming invested one hundred high-grade spiritual stones, he stood aside and observed.

As expected, the Spirit Marrow Tai Sui, born from the purple attribute 【Spirit Vein Upgrade】, after devouring these high-grade spiritual stones, excreted Spirit Marrow with even higher spiritual energy, which continuously injected into the main peak's spiritual vein.

Qin Ming could clearly perceive that the concentration of spiritual energy nearby had increased by several points.

"It seems this still isn't enough?"

"But for the great cause of reaching Nascent Soul, everything is worth it."

Immediately, Qin Ming disregarded the pain in his heart, waved his hand broadly, and threw out another one thousand high-grade spiritual stones; a full five days passed.

In total, Qin Ming had thrown in four thousand high-grade spiritual stones, a figure that was truly terrifying.

One must know that back when three mid-Jin Dan stage demonic envoys infiltrated the Southern Wild Immortal Realm from the Yin Demon Sect, they carried barely over one hundred high-grade spiritual stones among them.

Boom-crack! After devouring these spiritual stones, the flesh-mountain of the Spirit Marrow Tai Sui expanded several times larger.

As numerous essences of Spirit Marrow were expelled and injected into the spiritual vein.

Suddenly, a shocking surge of spiritual energy echoed across the main peak of Wangyue Island, resonating with heaven and earth.

Seeing this, Qin Ming immediately took a third-grade formation array from his storage bag and covered up the spiritual vein aura of the main peak.

His preparation to break through to the Nascent Soul realm this time was to condense the infant in secret.

Now that he had already reached the perfect Jin Dan realm, if anyone detected his intentions.

Then, during the breakthrough, he would inevitably encounter numerous troubles.

For instance, some envious parties, or those Nascent Soul sects in Great Jin, would likely none of them wish to see a Nascent Soul True Person emerge in the Southern Wilderness.

Once he secretly completes his Nascent Soul condensation and survives the heavenly tribulation, the situation will be entirely different.

As the spiritual energy atop the main peak surged violently, the spiritual vein environment here also reached the fourth-tier level.

"I didn't expect this would work."

"Forcing a fourth-tier spiritual vein into existence by smashing it with spirit stones—I must be the first person in the history of the Immortal Realm to do so, right?"

Qin Ming stepped outside, feeling the dense spiritual energy atop the main peak, which was comparable to the Fox Clan's holy land, Twilight Mist Mountain.

However, the range of his fourth-tier spiritual vein was much smaller, covering only an area of several hundred zhang around his cave dwelling.

Nevertheless, this was sufficient to support his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage.

With all this done, finally everything was settled.

Qin Ming walked down the mountain to the edge of Liaowang Moon Lake to relax his mind.

The Wu family members were working in the spiritual fields below, while the Profound Water Crocodile and the Sky-Devouring Mouse were fishing and catching shrimp in the lake, bullying their underlings.

Upon seeing Qin Ming emerge, Wu Jiang hurriedly rushed forward:

"Greetings, Island Lord! You have finally exited closed-door cultivation!"

"No need for excessive ceremony; has anything changed in the outside world recently? Have those who needed to leave already been sent away?" Qin Ming asked indifferently.

"Is there something specific you need to report to me?"

Ever since he became a great cultivator at the peak of the Jin Dan realm, he would often enter closed-door cultivation for years at a time.

Perhaps to low-level cultivators like Wu Jiang, this seemed like an eternity, but in Qin Ming's eyes, it was merely the blink of an eye.

"Indeed! There is a major matter I must report to you."

Having said this, Wu Jiang respectfully presented a jade slip to Qin Ming.

"This item was entrusted to me by True Person Gu of the Mirror Snow Pavilion a few months ago to deliver to you; it is said to contain news sent back by an old acquaintance from Great Jin." Qin Ming took the jade slip and swept his consciousness over it slightly, immediately recognizing it as intelligence gathered by Hua Tianxiong.

Given the vast distance and towering mountains between Great Jin and the Southern Wilderness, this news was likely already a year old.

"Island Lord, it is said that the situation in the three kingdoms of the Central Continent has undergone a tremendous change; an unprecedented great war has erupted, and the Li Li Huogong has even dispatched high envoys to the Southern Wilderness to forcibly conscript cultivators to go fight."

Hearing this, Qin Ming couldn't help but furrow his brows.

'As expected, the war has begun. It seems that with the appearance of the Seven Wonders Treasure Tree and the opening of the Qingyuan Sect's mountain gate secret realm, a bloody struggle among the various Nascent Soul powers was inevitable.'

'Furthermore, the battlefield situation over these past few years must have reached an extremely stalemate.'

'Otherwise, the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty would not have come to this barren and backward place like the Southern Wilderness to conscript cultivators for the war.'

'To put it nicely, it's responding to a conscription call; to put it bluntly, it's serving as cannon fodder.'

'It's basically the same tactic as when the Spirit Feather Sect opened up new lands, conscripting low-level cultivators from the families under their control to serve as pathfinding cannon fodder.'

'In reality, the final victory or defeat of a war still depends on the confrontations between high-level cultivators.'

After understanding the situation.

Qin Ming dismissed Wu Jiang, then immediately immersed his divine sense into the jade slip to examine it alone.

The news sent back by Hua Tianxiong was far more detailed and accurate.

"The Qingyuan Sect's secret realm has opened, attracting contention from various major powers."

"A shocking great war erupted among the Nascent Soul True Persons of the three kingdoms."

"But in the end, no one gained any advantage; after several Nascent Soul experts negotiated cooperation and entered the secret realm together, they obtained numerous secret treasures and opportunities just in the outer perimeter."

"A few days later, all the Nascent Soul True Persons who had entered the secret realm fled out, and the realm was resealed; according to Elder Qian of the Li Li Huogong, the Nascent Soul ancestors of the three kingdoms developed disagreements regarding the distribution of ownership of the secret realm."

"Coupled with the Great Li Demonic Path invading Great Zhou, grievances accumulated over a long time finally erupted into a great chaos across the three kingdoms."

"..."

"Indeed, what Muhe Laogui Qingyang said was not wrong."

After reading through this intelligence, Qin Ming's expression fluctuated between gloom and brightness, and he let out a deep sigh.

"With the Li Li Huogong coming to press-gang laborers, these few major sects in the four kingdoms of the Southern Wilderness are naturally the first to bear the brunt."

"Now that my momentum is firmly established, no one can stop me from condensing my Nascent Soul."

"It seems it is time to take this step."

"However, since I have just finished a long period of closed-door cultivation, I should first go out and see exactly how things stand, and while I'm at it, pay respects to old friends of Xumi Shanhe and settle some past matters."

Immediately, Qin Ming summoned the two beasts from the lake, mounted the Soaring Cloud Palanquin, and flew out beyond the island.

Several days later.

Inside Lei Yuanzong, Qin Ming met Wei Wuya, whom he had not seen for a long time.

With the help of that Li Yun Pill from Qin Ming, Wei Wuya had long since fully recovered.

When he saw Qin Ming again, he was filled with countless emotions and sighed repeatedly.

Especially regarding Qin Ming's current cultivation and strength, while he felt envy, his heart was also filled with immense bitterness.

Because he knew that within the Jin Dan realm, the further one advances, the greater the difficulty; he had even failed to break through to the late stage.

Then looking at Qin Ming, who was already at the great perfection of the Jin Dan realm, it truly was a case of no comparison, no harm.

At the same time, Wei Wuya was incredibly grateful for Qin Ming's gift of the pill and his intervention to save him.

Furthermore, he presented several of the sect's most treasured items kept in reserve as a token of gratitude.

Qin Ming did not refuse and accepted them directly; when the time came to break through to the Nascent Soul, he would never have too many treasures.

From Wei Wuya, he learned that the Li Li Huogong had indeed conscripted a batch of disciples from within the sect.

"Alas! When gods fight, the fish suffer; we dare not casually defy the decrees of our superior sect."

"Otherwise, what awaits us is the wrath of the Li Li Huogong."

Even Wei Wuya, as a Jin Dan ancestor, felt quite helpless about this matter.

Because, at any unpredictable moment, once the Li Li Huogong gives the order, even these Jin Dan stage ancestors like them would have to join the battle.

After leaving Lei Yuanzong and bidding farewell to Wei Wuya.

Qin Ming traveled in fits and starts, touring the four kingdoms to temper his heart in the mortal world, while also gathering treasures capable of resisting heavenly tribulation.

Several years later, he arrived at Xuanxi Valley in the State of Liang.

Inside the ancestral hall on the rear mountain of Xuanxi Valley, Qin Ming offered sacrifices to Elder Qingxuan and Grandmaster Gongsun Yang.

He then sought out Xuan Yu Laozu, exchanging some Jin Dan realm pills for two treasures.

After offering some guidance to the disciple named Fang Han, Qin Ming returned all the way to Wangyue Island; after all, he had once promised Gongsun Yang that he would look after his direct disciple if the opportunity arose.

What he had just done was merely a simple favor.

Fang Han possessed good character and temperament, bearing an innate Dandao spiritual body; after Qin Ming's guidance, he could sense that Fang Han was only one final step away from breaking through to become a third-tier Dandao Sect master.

"Thank you for your guidance, Qin Qianbei; this junior has benefited immensely."

"I will keep Qin Qianbei's teachings of these past few days in my heart; should you ever have need of me in the future, I will rush through fire and water without hesitation."

Fang Han had now shed his youthful immaturity, becoming a mature and steady young man with handsome features.

"There is no need for me to command you; the future banner of Xuanxi Valley will still rely on you to uphold."

"Do not betray your master's painstaking efforts in cultivating you."

Qin Ming said to him indifferently.

"This junior will strictly obey Qin Qianbei's teachings! I dare not forget my master's grace!" Fang Han's eyes were firm, his tone extremely decisive.

"Mm!" Qin Ming nodded.

Next, Qin Ming toured the four kingdoms once more, settling his state of mind before attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul.

Several years later.

Qin Ming returned to Wangyue Island once again.

He first entered the Small Xiao Lingjing and came before the Lei Yuanmo date tree, where three golden entries appeared before his eyes: 【Name】: Lei Yuanmo Date 【Entry】: Space-Time Leaves x5 (Maturity 100%, harvestable) 【Name】: Lei Yuanmo Date 【Entry】: Abundant Lifespan x5 (Maturity 100%, harvestable) 【Name】: Lei Yuanmo Date 【Entry】: Origin Demonic Qi x1 (Maturity 100%, harvestable). Qin Ming waved his hand, harvesting all the ghostly, sinister demonic dates from the tree; holding them, he studied these third-tier upper-grade demonic dates and concluded they must be of great use to cultivating the demonic path.

Subsequently, three entry leaves appeared in his sea of consciousness, with that 【Origin Demonic Qi】 entry still being a purple leaf.

After consuming those five 【Abundant Lifespan】 entries, his lifespan reached a terrifying three thousand years! Having done this.

He summoned Wu Jiang and said, "For the coming days, this island lord will enter closed-door cultivation once more; no matter what happens, no one is permitted to disturb me."

"All of you should also temporarily move off the island for a while; simply return to Baiyan Island and await my orders."

"Yes! We strictly obey the island lord's orders!" Wu Jiang replied heavily, a vague, inexplicable premonition stirring in his heart, yet it felt unreal.

Immediately after, Qin Ming released the three beasts, the Shi Tian Shu, and instructed, "I am about to attempt breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm; you three will guard the formation for me outside the island."

"Really?! Master is truly one in a hundred million; we wish Master immediate success!"

"As for guarding outside, Master need not worry; leave everything to us! Not even a single fly will be able to get in!"

The Shi Tian Shu revealed an expression of extreme excitement, then dragged the Xuan Shui E and Yin Yi Shuangfeng away into the distance.

"Second Brother, Third Brother, did you hear? Master is about to condense an infant!"

"We are about to take off! Hehehe!"

"In the future, if we can kill a few human Nascent Soul cultivators to eat, reaching the fourth-tier Demon Saint realm will be within sight!"

Looking at these unreliable spiritual pets, Qin Ming helplessly shook his head.

He then went to the spirit fields on the main peak and released his natal spiritual plant, the Yang Xuanteng, from within the Small Xiao Lingjing.

The Yang Xuanteng shared a heart-and-mind connection with Qin Ming; it seemed to realize what he was about to do, as its black vines danced with extreme excitement.

Looking up at his natal spiritual plant, Qin Ming said slowly, "Old partner, we have finally reached this step; let us begin."

(End of Chapter)