Chapter 252: Alchemy

The Demon Beast air bladder was very sturdy and soon began to inflate. Meng Yifan continued to pump air inside until it was on the verge of bursting, at which point he stopped.

With everything prepared, Meng Yifan looked at the countdown on the Game Panel, then focused his mind and said, "Return!"

In an instant, the world spun and the stars shifted. Meng Yifan entered the Space-Time Channel once again. Countless stars transformed into streaks of light, flowing past at an astonishing speed, leaving one dizzy and lightheaded.

Having entered this magical place several times, Meng Yifan had formed some conjectures after careful observation.

He felt that this Space-Time Channel was very likely a wormhole, a space-time tunnel connecting the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty and Earth.

By consuming a large amount of Yin Soul Energy through the Game Panel, Meng Yifan could enter this space-time tunnel.

What kind of existence created this space-time tunnel? And who made the Game Panel? What was their intention in doing this? These questions had been troubling Meng Yifan.

He also had some guesses; perhaps it was an omnipotent deity, perhaps aliens from a high-level civilization, or perhaps some other unimaginable existence.

These speculations were not necessarily correct. Meng Yifan's strength was still too weak; for now, he was unable to explore the secrets behind the Game Panel.

However, Meng Yifan believed that as long as his strength continued to improve, sooner or later he would master his own fate. At the end of Cultivating Immortality and Seeking the Dao, one would attain the Dao and become an immortal, achieving eternal life. By then, his physical body would be able to traverse the void, and he should be able to travel back to Earth without relying on the Game Panel.

Meng Yifan shook his head, suppressed the doubts in his heart, and stopped letting his imagination run wild. Thinking about these things now wouldn't solve any problems and would only increase his worries, so it was better not to think about them at all.

He didn't know how much more time had passed when Meng Yifan suddenly felt a strong sense of weightlessness, followed by the world spinning again. The colors before his eyes shifted constantly, and when Meng Yifan could clearly see the scenery outside, he realized he was already sitting in the chair in the base Warehouse.

"I'm back." Meng Yifan looked at the clock on the wall; it was still stuck at 10:28, exactly the same time as when Meng Yifan had traveled to the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty.

In other words, during the time Meng Yifan spent in the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty, time on Earth was frozen.

Meng Yifan looked at the Game Panel again and discovered that this time, the countdown was actually as long as five days.

The first time he returned to Earth, the countdown only lasted for one hour; the second time, the countdown was three days; and for this third return, the countdown was actually five days.

It was obvious that the countdown after returning to Earth was getting longer each time.

At the same time, the time in the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty was getting shorter each time. Could it be that one day, the countdowns for both worlds would become the same?

Meng Yifan didn't know why the countdowns for both worlds kept changing every time he traveled over, but this didn't affect him much. In any case, as long as he consumed Yin Soul Energy, he could speed up the countdown flow. As long as he had a large amount of Yin Soul Energy, he could return to whichever world he wanted.

Meng Yifan walked out of the Warehouse and saw Jiang Hailong organizing the mercenaries for training. Meng Yifan did not disturb them but instead hurried toward the depths of the Earth Cave and arrived before Zhang Sanfeng.

Zhang Sanfeng had been suppressing the Earth Cave fiend for eighty years. Now, his hair and beard were completely white, his face was covered in wrinkles, and his Spirit Power was nearly exhausted.

Zhang Sanfeng had already made up his mind: at the final moment, he would perform the Great Art of Weapon Dissolution, merging his own Divine Soul into the seal to absorb the Dungeon Evil Qi. Even if he were to fall into demonic ways himself, he would absolutely not let the fiend below break out.

The fiends beneath the Earth Cave were mainly Onmyoji and Ninja from the Second World War. Having absorbed the evil qi, they had long since become neither human nor ghost.

If they were allowed to break out and invade Shenzhou again, given the current state of the cultivation world, no one would be their match, and it would be a catastrophe.

"Eh! Yifan, you've broken through to a Level 4 Mid-stage Cultivator?" Zhang Sanfeng asked in surprise. He felt as if Meng Yifan had only left for a brief moment, so how could his strength have increased by such a large margin in the blink of an eye? This was simply inconceivable.

"Master, I had some fortuitous encounters that I cannot speak of. Let's not talk about my cultivation improvement for now. Master, I have a batch of Demon Cores here; see if you can use them?"

Meng Yifan took a leather bag out of his Space Ring; inside, sorted by category, were all Demon Cores.

Everyone had their own secrets. Since Meng Yifan didn't want to say more, Zhang Sanfeng didn't ask further. He took the leather bag and pulled out a Third-grade Demon Core from an eagle-type Demon Beast. After sensing the thick Demon Power inside, Zhang Sanfeng's eyes lit up.

Zhang Sanfeng was overjoyed and said, "Eh! A Third-grade Demon Beast's Demon Core, good stuff."

Ever since Earth entered the End of Dharma Era, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi had withered. Not only had human Immortal Cultivators vanished, but even Demon Beasts could only hide in deep mountains and old forests.

However, with the great development of industry in human society and the wanton destruction of trees, the environment had continuously deteriorated, and even the Demon Beasts hiding in deep mountains and old forests were hugely affected, with many being discovered by humans.

While individual Demon Beasts were very powerful, Second-grade and Third-grade Demon Beasts were no match for humanity's formidable thermal weapons and were killed one after another.

These real events, after being adapted, became movies like *Anaconda*, *The Meg*, and so on.

On Earth today, true Immortal Cultivators were very rare, and Demon Beasts were even more like phoenix feathers and qilin horns; it was almost impossible to find them.

Zhang Sanfeng hadn't seen a Demon Core in a long time. He looked at the Demon Cores in the leather bag with some excitement and discovered that there were actually over a hundred Second Grade Demon Cores and three Third-grade Demon Cores. This gave Zhang Sanfeng a great shock; he wondered where Meng Yifan had hunted so many Demon Beasts?

Zhang Sanfeng was filled with doubts, but he didn't ask. Since Meng Yifan had said he couldn't talk about it, it would be forcing him if Zhang Sanfeng were to ask.

Regardless of where Meng Yifan got these Demon Cores, the fact that he could take them out voluntarily for Zhang Sanfeng to use moved Zhang Sanfeng deeply.

"Master, can these Demon Cores help you recover some of your strength?" Meng Yifan asked.

Zhang Sanfeng nodded and said, "Demon Cores are different from Spirit Stones. The best way to consume them is to light a furnace and practice Alchemy, using corresponding Spirit Herbs to neutralize the demon poison within the Demon Cores."

"It's a pity that conditions are limited now; there is no Alchemy Furnace, nor are there matching Spirit Herbs. However, if I consume these Demon Cores directly, I can still convert some Spirit Power, which will be enough to suppress the Earth Cave fiend for another ten days or half a month."

Meng Yifan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he hurriedly asked, "Master, do you know Alchemy?"

"Of course." Zhang Sanfeng nodded confidently. As an Immortal Cultivator who had lived for a thousand years, he had naturally studied Alchemy over the long passage of time.

Moreover, Zhang Sanfeng's attainments in Alchemy were very high and he was quite famous in the cultivation world. Back in the day, even the old Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had spent a fortune begging for a single Pill of his.