Chapter 186

"Qingling thanks Daoist friend for saving my life." Qingling Fairy smiled warmly; her disheveled hair added a touch of fragile beauty.

But her face still showed an odd flush, growing more obvious, even her originally snow‑white neck and arms seemed dyed with a layer of red gauze.

Yunhe gave an embarrassed laugh.

If he lingered longer at this moment, he would be thought to have improper designs.

Although he claimed not to be a paragon of virtue, certainly not a Liu Xiaohui, to say he felt nothing before a frail, peerless beauty is impossible; otherwise he would not be a normal man.

But it depends on who is opposite—this is Fairy Qingling; a single "Wood Thunder Divine Pearl" nearly instant‑killed the "rascal" Fei Ling.

Who knows if she still has such divine pearls, or perhaps she hides a few more?

With such a woman, he dare not provoke her casually; he hasn't lost his mind to lust yet.

As for the "Wood Extension Elixir",

Although this elixir is potent, it holds no allure for Yunhe; he isn't even sure whether taking it would alter his lifespan, likely it would be like cultivating the "Great Longevity Five Elements True Scripture"—no increase at all.

As for trading this elixir for resources, that's possible, but Yunhe currently isn't that desperate for resources.

Just the inner cores of two early‑stage third‑rank demon beasts plus the inner gall of a mid‑stage third‑rank demon beast are already quite valuable.

So, after laughing, Yunhe clasped his hands and said, "Then I'll take my leave."

Having spoken, he didn't linger, turning into a streak of light and departing.

This instead left Fairy Qingling startled.

She had been guarding against Yunhe's violent outburst, but she didn't expect him to be so decisive.

Having secretly breathed a sigh of relief, she felt a strange urge rise in her heart and, as if possessed, shouted: "Wait a moment!"

"Hmm?"

Hearing this, Yunhe paused his motion, turning his head in surprise toward Fairy Qingling.

However, Fairy Qingling's face was already red at this point, so one couldn't see the additional flush.

Qingling Fairy bit her lip, lightly brushed her jade hand over the storage pouch at her waist, and said, "Qingling knows you seek an elixir formula, but I truly have none on me; the only thing I possess is a refining method I happened to obtain, which I offer as a token of my regard—please do not refuse."

Saying this, she tossed over an ancient‑looking bronze iron plate, then immediately added:

"If you ever need anything I can help with, just speak up—I will have no second thoughts!"

Receiving the bronze plate, Yunhe didn't examine it closely, merely storing it in his storage bracelet and nodding:

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

After speaking, Yunhe suppressed that fluttering feeling, pinched a seal, and unleashed the "Five‑Element Escape Technique" to flee swiftly.

Watching the departing streak of light, Qingling Fairy inexplicably felt an empty hollowness in her heart; she couldn't help but lightly bite her lip and pinch her thigh.

'Qingling, Qingling, don't let the "Indecent Powder" cloud your mind; you must know to respect yourself. Besides, people all'

She hastily took several elixirs from her storage pouch and stuffed them into her mouth.

She also retrieved whatever object she had been clutching tightly in her other jade hand back into her storage pouch.

Just as Yunhe had anticipated, Qingling Fairy would not simply yield; if truly cornered, self‑detonating her Golden Core is possible.

'After sending the "Wood Extension Elixir" to my mother's hands and auctioning the remaining elixirs, I ought to return to the sect to wall‑face and reflect.'

Qingling Fairy let out a soft sigh.

A flying shuttle sped swiftly across the vast, turbulent sea of clouds.

The Corpse‑Controlling Heavenly Capital piloted the Flowing Cloud Falcon vessel, while Yunhe sat cross‑legged aboard, inspecting the gains from this secret‑realm excursion.

"Although this 'Earth‑Black Sand' was destroyed by the 'Wood Thunder Divine Lightning,' its essence remains unchanged; 'Earth' is still decent refining material, and after re‑refining it should still be usable."

Yunhe also collected Fei Ling's box of "Earth‑Black Sand" without waste, intending to see later whether it could serve as material for crafting a magical treasure.

"As for this 'Yellow Wind Light Sand Fan,' it is also a decent earth‑attribute magical treasure, but unfortunately Fei Ling's background is too tangled to just pull it out and use casually."

Having slain Fei Ling this time, Qingling Fairy undoubtedly bears the chief responsibility and cannot escape involvement, so Yunhe does not worry she will leak secrets or speak further.

Moreover, I believe that after experiencing this incident she will certainly not utter another word in aid of Fei Ling or his family.

As for Li Yuanfan, Fan Sanjin and the like, since nobody saw him do it, even if suspicion arises they cannot spout nonsense.

Besides these, Fei Ling's storage pouch still contains plenty of good things.

"It's a pity that, aside from some materials, anything else must either be re‑smelted or quickly disposed of; the Heavenly Ancestor's male favorite is not someone to offend."

After transferring everything from Fei Ling's storage pouch into his own storage bracelet, he waved his hand and directly burned the pouch to ash.

Having slain a mid‑stage Golden Core cultivator who also possessed family background, Yunhe reckoned that if everything were converted to Spirit Stones, it would amount to at least seventy or eighty thousand.

This doesn't even count the considerable amount of materials he retained.

A windfall!

Afterwards he again took out the three ancient elixir formulas obtained from the thatched cottage.

The inscriptions are in an ancient script, yet they pose no difficulty for present‑day Yunhe.

He quickly flipped through them one by one.

His expression shifted with his perusal—sometimes delighted, sometimes contemplative, sometimes anguished, sometimes bewildered.

"Huu—"

After a few hours, he simply scanned all three elixir formulas once.

Undoubtedly the one that pleased him most was the formula etched for an elixir called "Spirit Grain Elixir."

This "Spirit Grain Elixir" is suited for Golden Core cultivators to advance their cultivation base, and it is precisely what he needs now.

Like many ancient elixir formulas, its main ingredient is the inner core of a third‑rank demon beast!

It seems that during the era when ancient cultivators were active, demon beasts were abundant in the ancient immortal realm, and those cultivators favored using demon beast cores as the primary material for elixirs; the resulting elixirs are not only potent in effect but also quite good.

"The only snag in this formula is a spiritual herb called 'Golden Stalk Grass' that poses some trouble."

To make the elixir's effect stronger, the materials used in this formula are beyond what a "Marrow‑Yuan Elixir" can compare to.

But it can be anticipated that, if this elixir is successfully refined, its effect will far surpass that of the Marrow‑Yuan Elixir.

Find an opportunity to inquire.

Besides the recipe for the Linghao Elixir, the other two recipes gave Yunhe a headache.

It's not that the elixirs recorded in these recipes are bad; rather, they are too good, making him eager yet unsure how to gather the materials.

One of them is called the Wisdom Spirit Elixir; its effect is surprisingly the same as the Three Tribulation Bodhi Seed that Yunhe once took—it is a Dao-Comprehension Elixir that can briefly boost a cultivator's comprehension.

Another is even more extravagant, called the Demon‑Breaking Elixir; it can increase a cultivator's success rate in forming a Nascent Soul.

As everyone knows, a cultivator must pass the three trials of essence, energy, and spirit when breaking through Foundation Establishment and Golden Core, but forming a Nascent Soul is different.

Forming a Nascent Soul is a kind of tribulation, and one of its trials is the Heart‑Demon Tribulation.

The effect of the Demon‑Breaking Elixir is to increase a cultivator's success rate when facing the Heart‑Demon Tribulation.

However.

What troubles and helpless Yunhe is that most of the ingredients listed in these recipes are things he has never even heard of, let alone refined.

Not only the Demon‑Breaking Elixir, but the Wisdom Spirit Elixir also contains many ingredients Yunhe has never heard of; the few he does know he realizes are rare and not easily obtainable.

In other words.

Although these two recipes are precious, he simply cannot refine them.

He let out a soft sigh and carefully put away the three recipes.

"At least there's something to hope for; it's not in vain."

He could only console himself in this way.

But no matter what, the Linghao Elixir truly can boost the cultivation base of Golden Core cultivators; according to the recipe, it works best for mid‑stage Golden Core cultivators, and even late‑stage Golden Core cultivators can still feel some effect.

As for early‑stage Golden Core cultivators,

As long as one isn't afraid of the elixir's potent medicinal power shattering the meridians, it can naturally be taken, and the effect is expected to be extraordinarily strong.

After putting away the recipes, Yunhe took out the bronze plate that Qingling Xianzi gave him, which records the artifact‑forging method.

According to her, it was obtained from some secret realm; if nothing unexpected, it should also be the artifact‑forging method of ancient cultivators.

He infused his divine sense into it.

As expected.

The characters inscribed therein are all ancient script.

Moreover, they are older than the text on the recipes he just saw, and much older.

Given his current knowledge, reading it feels extremely obscure and hard to understand.

After spending a long time, he barely managed to make out the name of the artifact‑forging method.

But even just understanding the name made Yunhe quite astonished, even astonished.

"Slaying Immortal Gourd."

Just hearing that name made Yunhe think of the renowned treasure—the Slaying Immortal Flying Blade!

But after thinking carefully, he felt it might just be his overthinking.

"How could the forging method of such a treasure possibly appear in the cultivation world? Even if it were in the realm of immortals, I wouldn't be surprised. But to dare use the two characters 'Slaying Immortal' as its name, it must certainly be a remarkable magical treasure."

It's a pity that he currently can't even read it.

"Wait!"

Yunhe suddenly seemed to think of something, and again sank his divine sense to look at the bronze plate.

"Is this the demon tribe's script?!"

His previous preconception prevented him from even considering the demon tribe's script.

How could demon tribe script appear in the human cultivation world?

But after careful consideration, he found that although the script resembles some ancient writing, it is actually closer to the demon tribe's script he has seen before.

If Qingyao hadn't previously taught him some demon tribe script, he might not have thought of this at all.

But the more he looks, the more it seems like an ancient demon tribe script.

Demon artifact!

This 'Slaying Immortal Gourd' is a demon artifact!

But then many doubts followed.

Why would ancient demon tribe script appear in the cultivation world? And why is it in some secret realm?

"Could it be that in the era of ancient cultivators, the human realm and the demon realm could still communicate?"

Although it sounds unrealistic, it also well explains why many ancient elixir recipes use the inner cores of demon beasts as ingredients.

You know, in the ancient cultivator world, inner cores are not lacking, but precious spiritual herbs are also plentiful.

"Next time I meet Qingling Xianzi, I'll ask her which secret realm she obtained this bronze plate from."

Yunhe's eyes flickered.

If the human realm could communicate with the demon realm, would that mean his cultivator body and demon beast body could possibly meet?

"No no no, even if they could meet, maintaining the two realms is what maximizes benefit."

As for that, Yunhe was not confused.

Besides these recipes and the artifact‑forging method, Yunhe also took out the token engraved with curling vine patterns, as well as a withered vine segment.

He didn't know what these two things were.

"If you want to figure it out, perhaps you first need to clarify who the master of the ancient alchemist's secret realm is."

But Yunhe felt he currently couldn't access those.

He soon gathered his mind.

He tightened and clarified his next goal.

"On one hand, continue refining the Five Elements Thunder Sword; on the other, try to gather the ingredients for the Linghao Elixir."

This time, the Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Sword displayed considerable power; although he hadn't refined this natal magic treasure for long, when the five flying swords emerged together, its power was already not inferior to those top-tier magic treasures, and with further refinement, perhaps a single flying sword could rival them.

What pleased Yunhe most was undoubtedly the heavenly thunder power displayed by the Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Sword.

It breaks yin evil, dispels filth, shatters souls — advantageous in all endeavors.

The drawback is also insufficient refinement; the true might of the heavenly thunder power has not been fully unleashed.

Thus it is said that a magic treasure's power depends not only on its material, forging method, and manner of use, but also on the duration and sincerity of its refinement.

If we're looking for materials, returning to 'Yun Palace City' would indeed be more suitable, right?

(End of chapter)