Chapter 16: Yin Qi Arrays

Chen Ye truly wished he could beg Su Chunyi to grant him another set of alchemy materials right now, so he could act without restraint, indulge in extravagance, and attempt to condense two dantian seas of Qi.

But the moment the thought arose, he immediately suppressed it.

One cannot be too greedy; asking for more materials at this moment would clearly be raising the price on the spot.

He had worked so hard to establish a connection with this high disciple of the Qinghe Sword Sect, a relationship now at a critical stage of warming up; he absolutely could not offend her due to momentary greed.

Moreover, this matter was not urgent for the moment; the book had already made it clear that this thing called the sea of Qi could be torn down and rebuilt, condensed anew, at any time.

Thinking thus, Chen Ye put away that rash mindset and instead focused entirely on refining the Qi-Condensing Pill.

Refining this Qi-Condensing Pill was not difficult; even if given a large cauldron, slow-cooking it over time would eventually succeed.

But every single material Su Chunyi provided was rare and of high quality; how could Chen Ye bear to be perfunctory and waste them casually?

Following the records in the ancient texts, he carefully arranged arrays within the cave, intending to draw upon the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth to create the best possible support for alchemy.

Seeing this, Su Chunyi intended to step forward and help, but soon she discovered that the array Chen Ye had set up differed greatly from what she had learned.

What surprised her even more was that the effect of this array in gathering spiritual Qi seemed a few points superior to her own teachings. Although the advantage was not significant, if she had acted herself, with the same materials and the same time, the final result would likely have been only about seventy percent.

In this day and age, are independent cultivators all this formidable?

Su Chunyi was full of doubts, very much wanting to ask the truth, yet fearing she would be misunderstood as stealing someone else's secret techniques.

Chen Ye, however, had noticed Su Chunyi's strange expression early on; he gave a hearty smile and said without reservation: "Miss Su, if you have any questions, just speak up. You lending me these classics has been of immense benefit to me; I was just thinking about how to repay you."

Hearing him say this, Su Chunyi's concerns vanished instantly, and she immediately began to inquire in detail.

Chen Ye likewise spoke without holding back anything he knew, and said everything he had to say.

The main function of this array is to gather spiritual Qi, ensuring that during alchemy, the surrounding spiritual Qi is dense and rich; in this way, it can effectively reduce impurities and pill poison within the medicine, greatly enhancing its efficacy.

Theoretically, this is a simple array known to everyone, yet when Chen Ye set it up, he boldly cut out many incantations, making the overall structure even more concise and clear, and the results actually reached a higher level.

Su Chunyi listened intently, frowned slightly, and offered her own insight: "In this way, indeed more spiritual Qi can be gathered, but the spiritual Qi drawn in is feared to be somewhat impure and mixed."

Spiritual Qi is not a single pure thing; in the eyes of a Spirit-Opening realm cultivator, all things in the world appear in different colors, which are actually the external manifestations of different spiritual Qi. Alchemy, artifact refinement, and cultivation each require vastly different spiritual Qi attributes, so arrays that condense spiritual Qi naturally have their own biases.

According to the principle of the Five Elements generating and overcoming each other, when water-element spiritual Qi is not needed, one must use the Kun trigram as the main focus, assisted by items like jade to set up the array, only then can water-element spiritual Qi be suppressed.

This is a complex but not extremely precise discipline; it is not the case that casually throwing a small pebble could break a sect's great array, nor is it the case that placing a small pebble could set up a peerless great array that blocks the sky and covers the sun.

The "impure and mixed" that Su Chunyi spoke of refers to the fact that Chen Ye's array cut out most of the steps used to filter spiritual Qi, blindly pursuing quantity while ignoring quality, resulting in the drawn-in spiritual Qi not only being mixed with the Five Elements, but even some decaying and filthy spiritual Qi, such as Yin Spirit Qi, being absorbed along with it.

Chen Ye, however, said: "It doesn't matter; the Qi-Condensing Pill is after all a low-grade pill; mixed spiritual Qi will not affect its quality. The key is the refining speed; the faster the speed, the better the pill's effect."

Su Chunyi was just about to continue seeking instruction when suddenly a chilling, bone-piercing wind howled into the cave; the wind sounded like a child weeping bitterly in the dark night, like a woman's ghastly scream, and even more like the faint gasps of a dying person...

Chen Ye and Su Chunyi's expressions changed abruptly.

This was absolutely no illusion, nor the work of nature's uncanny craftsmanship, but the real deal of ghosts causing trouble.

They were human remnant souls, attracted by Chen Ye's array; at this moment, these remnant souls had long lost their ability to think, leaving only the grudges from their lives, constantly emitting terrifying and horrifying sounds.

Such remnant souls, let alone Su Chunyi, even Chen Ye did not take them seriously, but the problem was, where exactly did these remnant souls heavy with grudges come from?

A human's soul is inherently extremely fragile; even a cultivator with Mo Ci's cultivation level, after death, their soul would dissipate rapidly. Now, with such chaotic and disordered grudge-filled screams, and these numerous remnant souls actually maintaining themselves without dispersing, it is clear there must be an extraordinary place nearby.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing through to what the other was thinking.

Chen Ye put down the pots, ladles, bowls, and spoons in his hand and said to Su Chunyi with a solemn expression: "Miss Su, let us first go investigate the source of this Yin wind."

Su Chunyi nodded; she had not expected that ghostly things were lurking near this cave. Although they were only remnant souls, it was best to disperse them as soon as possible to avoid harming the innocent.

Chen Ye chanted incantations, formed hand seals with his fingers, drew talismans to drive away evil; his eyes instantly turned into brilliant gold, and he wielded this Spirit Eye technique with increasing skill and ease. Looking at Su Chunyi, she merely blinked lightly, and those clear eyes like autumn water rippled with layers of dazzling golden light.

"Ah, this..."

Chen Ye sighed inwardly; no wonder she was a cultivator whose realm far surpassed his own; the speed at which she cast spells was unknown how many times faster than his.

However, the speed difference did not matter; the effect was ultimately the same.

In Chen Ye's eyes, several faintly appearing black lines emerged; those were the manifestation of Yin Qi.

Chen Ye and Su Chunyi walked side by side, winding forward along the Yin Qi. The two had not gone far; circling around two small mountain peaks and traveling less than ten li, a huge mountain basin suddenly came into view.

But when their gazes fell upon that mountain basin, Chen Ye and Su Chunyi's faces instantly became extremely ugly.

For in that mountain basin, over a hundred rotting corpses were piled up, and their manner of death was miserable and terrifying.

These corpses varied in their degree of decay; some had already turned into a pool of rotting flesh, while others still retained some human form; obviously, the times of death were different, this was clearly an atrocity that had persisted for a long time.

If one looked more carefully, one would discover that hearts had been dug out of all these corpses.

Chen Ye could not help but shudder all over; Su Chunyi, even more so, made no attempt to conceal the anger in her heart.

"This is the Demon Sect's Blood Refining Art! A demon is using human blood to cultivate."

Su Chunyi's words were like a tangible sword edge pressed against the skin, making Chen Ye's whole body turn ice cold.

Chen Ye sighed in his heart; it was truly no wonder the Righteous Path killed the Demon Sect so ruthlessly; the Demon Sect's methods sometimes were unbearable even for their own people to watch.

Among this pit full of corpses, there were even three-year-old children; Chen Ye wanted to kill the murderer.

Chen Ye said: "Miss Su, looking at the corpse at the very top, it is feared to have been dead for several days; that demon might not be nearby."

Su Chunyi, however, said: "It doesn't matter; I can find him."

Su Chunyi was seen forming a sword seal with her right hand; ten thousand sword lights turned into threads, weaving a net in the void that covered this corpse pit.

The sword lights were too fast, so much so that Chen Ye's Spirit Eye could not see clearly, and he did not know what use this sword net had.

And a moment later, this sword net transformed into tens of millions of runes, exploding like fireworks.

Light and shadows scattered, yet leaving behind a bright path of light pointing straight ahead.

Su Chunyi said to Chen Ye: "That demon is three hundred li away to the northeast!"

Chen Ye:...

A tracking distance of three hundred li; Master, our Demon cultivators still have too little experience.