Chapter 118

"Great!"

"So this is the charm of spending money, huh!"

Feeling the newly added insight into Wind Thunder Archery in his mind, Qin Shuo was overjoyed.

This iterated refinement mode is indeed simple and brutal—aside from being a bit costly, there's nothing wrong with it!

In just a short moment, he refined Xue Chengkong's lifetime of storm arrow intent; this speed is who knows how many times faster than the previous painful drawing of the bow and shooting arrows!

"Not bad, not bad, this round was worth it!"

"As long as I have enough exotic beast meat in the future, all the martial arts under heaven—won't I be able to learn whatever I want?"

"I just don't know what it would look like if I evolved to the third-stage refinement mode."

Qin Shuo felt wonderful inside.

After the Taotie Cauldron evolved into the second-stage refinement mode, its refinement efficiency increased by more than a hundred times compared to before.

As for the cost...

Heh, does he still lack money now?

Besides, exotic beast meat is hard to find—only in Black Water City. Once he goes to Yunzhou and joins the Demon Suppression Division, won't there be plenty of it?

Looking at it this way, the Taotie Cauldron's upgrade truly came at the perfect time.

Just think—how much demon and monster flesh must there be in the Demon Suppression Division?

As long as he casually feeds the Taotie Cauldron a bit, wouldn't divine abilities be refinable?

Even if refining divine abilities requires many conditions, at least refining his Longxiang Golden Body Divine Intent Map poses no problem.

The Great Longxiang Force he currently masters looks mighty, but in reality, it's only minor accomplishment.

If he refines the Longxiang Golden Body Divine Intent Map to the major accomplishment stage, and adds his already major-accomplished Vajra Buddha Nature,

then, by obtaining from within Dalong Temple a pearl containing major-accomplished Longxiang Divine Ability, his divine ability will rise to another level.

By that time, even if a Grandmaster attacks, he should be able to match them.

However, while the Longxiang Golden Body is easy to refine, a Buddha's relic containing major-accomplished Longxiang Divine Ability is hard to seize!

Dalong Temple is the foremost sect in Yunzhou.

A half-step Grandmaster Longxiang Monk could maim the Xiaoyue Yaowang—its foundation and strength are absolutely terrifying.

Moreover, the Longxiang Monk can cultivate Great Longxiang Force with the aid of a Buddha's relic fragment—what about the others in Dalong Temple?

Perhaps that fragment containing major-accomplished Longxiang Divine Ability has already been refined by someone, serving as a medium for displaying divine ability.

In that case, for him to seize the Buddha's relic from Dalong Temple would be even harder.

Oh well, let's take it step by step!

Anyway, he will absolutely not give up the Great Longxiang Force.

Now that the Taotie Cauldron has evolved second-stage refinement capability, it's tailor-made for him—with such conditions, he must strive fiercely.

Success! Minor divine ability becomes major!

Failure...

If it fails, then just keep striving!

Anyway, he's barefoot and unafraid of those wearing shoes—opportunity will come.

Moreover, he doesn't necessarily have to seize it by force; he can also exchange for it.

Because the Buddhist divine ability he refined is not, as Master Jueming said, dependent on a Buddha's relic for manifestation.

In fact, the moment he refines the Buddha's relic, this divine ability completely belongs to him.

However, his current strength is still insufficient—he must use the Buddha's relic as a pretext, making others believe he also needs a medium to manifest divine ability.

Otherwise, once people know he can manifest divine ability without relying on a medium or bloodline, the trouble will be even greater.

Such a method—surely all sects and clans possessing divine ability inheritance will go mad searching for him.

Once divine ability is no longer restricted by bloodline or medium and spreads, it will be utterly unimaginable.

Most importantly, Qin Shuo's refined divine ability is a complete divine ability.

Not like the Longxiang Monk and others who rely on bloodline to manifest divine ability—only able to display a fraction of its power.

For those sects and clans who dream of mastering complete divine ability, this is utterly a fatal attraction.

To obtain such a method, they will absolutely go mad.

By that time, even relying on the Great Li state apparatus will be useless.

Because the Great Li Dynasty is not monolithic—some may have mastered divine ability but suffer from inability to cultivate.

For such people, Qin Shuo is the key to unlocking divine ability—he will absolutely not let them go.

Therefore, the existence of the Taotie Cauldron must absolutely not be exposed.

Otherwise, that would truly be eternal doom!

In the following days, Qin Shuo was busy.

He found the most famous artisan in Black Water City, wanting him to forge a Mysterious Iron Halberd and a Mysterious Iron Saber, as well as Mysterious Iron Heavy Arrows.

The Jingtie Great Bow is of excellent material and needs no Mysterious Iron reforging.

But Fang Yongyuan's Iron Halberd, for Qin Shuo now, is insufficient in both weight and sturdiness.

As for the Sky Wolf Gang's Tiangang Saber, in his hands it feels as light as nothing—he must reforge a pure hundred-fold refined Mysterious Iron Saber.

Anyway, the Mysterious Iron materials he carried back from the City Lord's Prison are sufficient—he can be as extravagant as he likes.

Besides forging weapons, Qin Shuo was not idle in his remaining time.

With the massive medicinal herbs and pills seized from the Sky Wolf Gang and City Lord's Prison, his cultivation progress during this period can be described as a thousand miles a day.

After all, in the Tongmai Realm, the most time-consuming part is Inner Strength transforming into Qi, then clearing the meridians.

Inner Strength transforming into Qi—Qin Shuo has the Meta-Magnetic Earth Pearl in hand, so his Qi transformation speed far exceeds ordinary imagination.

The only thing restricting his progress was, on the contrary, the generation of qi and blood within his body.

Grasping blood to generate strength, condensing strength into qi, using qi to open the meridians...

All of this fundamentally relies on the flesh and blood of the physical body.

And the replenishment of qi and blood, aside from eating exotic beast meat, the fastest method is taking pills.

The Tianlang Blood Pills he previously stole from the Sky Wolf Gang were all exhausted in the great battle against the Xiaoyue Yaowang.

And although among the pills seized from the City Lord's Mansion there were some that supplemented qi and blood, they were few and far from sufficient to meet his current needs—a mere drop in the bucket—so he directly tossed them to Qin Lan.

With his current physique, opening up the meridians is no easy task.

Others might only need one bottle of Blood Qi Pill to open a meridian, but he estimates he needs ten bottles, and they must be of the highest quality.

This, too, could be considered a case of gains and losses!

Therefore, in his spare time, he began researching pill refinement again.

Said to be research, it mainly consisted of reviewing the pill formulas left behind by Xue Chengkong.

These formulas number over a hundred sheets; some were created by Xue Chengkong himself, some were rubbings he brought out from Wind Thunder Valley, and all are precious renowned formulas.

Back when Xue Chengkong's Heavenly Meridian shattered, in order to rebuild it, he has spent over a decade researching formulas capable of reconstructing the Heavenly Meridian.

The Heaven Reaching Pill is one of his research achievements.

According to the formula's records, the Heaven Reaching Pill can gather the body's qi and blood and spirit through medicinal power, constructing a Heavenly Meridian that connects heaven and earth.

Unfortunately, Xue Chengkong's soul was severely damaged; even with the Heaven Reaching Pill, he could only forcibly gather his shattered spirit,

but the Heavenly Meridian reconstructed in this way is extremely fragile, like shattered porcelain forcibly glued together—once struck by the power of heaven and earth, it would instantly collapse and crumble, worsening his existing soul injury instead.

Precisely for this reason, he ultimately abandoned the Heaven Reaching Pill and turned his attention to the Myriad Spirit Blood Pill, which can repair the soul.

However, while the Heaven Reaching Pill is useless for Xue Chengkong, whose Heavenly Meridian is shattered, it is of great use to Qin Shuo.

His soul is intact and unharmed.

As long as he refines the Heaven Reaching Pill, he can use it to condense the Heavenly Meridian and break through to the Condensing Truth Realm.

Unfortunately, the Taotie Cauldron currently lacks sufficient stored energy; otherwise, he could refine Xue Chengkong's Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace.

It bears Xue Chengkong's over a decade of pill-refining experience.

Once refined, Qin Shuo could instantly become a pill-refining master equal to Xue Chengkong, and refining a furnace of Heaven Reaching Pills would pose no difficulty whatsoever.

Just as Qin Shuo was busy to the point of having no time to touch the ground.

The Xiaoyue Yaowang appeared at Black Water City in Songyang Prefecture, and the news that he was overwhelmingly subdued and slain by a mysterious youth using Buddhist Supernatural Power spread like a storm, sweeping across Yunzhou.

……

In the vast mountains, within the magnificent palace.

A handsome youth in white clothes and white hair stood with hands behind his back, his gaze seeming to penetrate the luxurious hall's roof and fall upon some distant, unknown place.

At this moment, a graceful, enchantingly beautiful young woman walked in from outside the hall.

The maiden in green clothes and bare feet, upon seeing the handsome youth in white clothes and white hair, immediately knelt respectfully.

The surging waves, like an inverted bell tower, were squeezed by her long, jade-like beautiful legs into a mass, the ravines striking, snow-white and alluring.

"My lord, you summoned me."

The green-clad woman spoke, her voice like heavenly music, soft and alluring.

"Qingyi, the Xiaoyue is dead!"

The handsome youth in white clothes and white hair turned, his gentle face bearing a trace of reminiscence, as if still immersed in his memories of the Xiaoyue Tianlang.

The green-clad woman did not respond.

Because she knew, as the supreme ruler of the Ten Thousand Mountains, the lord would not summon her merely for the death of a demon king.

Moreover, she was not acquainted with the Xiaoyue Yaowang.

"I command you to immediately go to Yunzhou and bring back the Spirit-Linking Profound Jade and the World-Suppressing Divine Weapon."

"The World-Suppressing Divine Weapon is crucial to my demon clan's revival plan—no room for error!"

"I have ordered the Mountain Lord and the Ying Wang to accompany you, and you shall direct them."

"Yes."

The green-clad woman departed upon receiving the order.

The handsome youth in white clothes and white hair, however, stared in the direction the maiden had gone, murmuring softly:

"Just who is it? Actually able to erase the aura I left on the Spirit-Linking Profound Jade."

"Could it be, the Martial Saint made a move?"

……