Chapter 41: Chapter Forty-One: Yin-Yang Rotation, the Elixir of Creation is Complete

Qian Chen sat alone in the central main chamber of this desolate courtyard, silently visualizing; after only a short while, three green talismans manifested from his dantian.

These three green talismans initially floated like mist, unstable and insubstantial; only after absorbing the pure spiritual true qi from Qian Chen’s dantian did they suddenly tremble, transforming into a green rainbow that ascended in reverse from his lower abdomen’s dantian to his throat, where Qian Chen spat them out mixed with a mouthful of golden saliva and jade fluid saturated with true qi—these were the three fundamental magic powers he had hastily cultivated.

Fundamental magic power refers to true qi condensed into true talismans; if these true talismans coalesce into prohibitions within the dantian and can spontaneously manifest new talismans at will, one has reached the Penetration of Laws realm.

A single true talisman is condensed from true qi; when launched, it becomes a single spell.

Ordinary cultivators at this realm must write talismans, then swallow them to cultivate, blending the spiritual essence of the swallowed talismans with their true qi to form true talismans stored within the body—this constitutes one unit of magic power. Once expended, such magic power is utterly consumed and cannot be restored.

Thus, cultivators at this realm dread expending magic power; only by condensing it into prohibitions and storing them within the body can they establish an inexhaustible source. Once a single prohibition is formed, they can transmute true qi into false talismans, just as a magic treasure’s prohibitions do. Launching a false talisman also produces a spell, but it lacks the endurance of a true talisman—without constant nurturing within the body’s magical prohibitions, it often dissipates within one or two days.

False talismans are what cultivators commonly refer to as magic power.

Prohibitions can autonomously draw in true qi to restore false talismans. Through prolonged nurturing and refinement, these false talismans gradually transform into true talismans, known as increasing fundamental magic power.

Before Penetration of Laws, using spells consumes fundamental magic power—each use reduces it permanently.

After Penetration of Laws, the false talisman magic power used is not foundational; it is merely a consumable that can be replenished at will by drawing in cosmic spiritual energy.

The true talisman magic power Qian Chen employed, however, was a costly investment; the efficacy of magic power varies according to the quality of true qi and the specific talisman visualized—some cultivators’ single spell can summon only a light rain, condensing no more than two buckets of water vapor, while others’ single spell can alter heaven and earth, overturning the four seas.

This is due to the differing magnitudes of true force contained within the magic power.

Qian Chen had refined his true qi using the Nine Heavens’ Pure Spiritual Qi, achieving exceptionally high purity; the true talismans he visualized were drawn from the Louchuan Sect’s secret transmissions in the Gengyuan Zi’s scripture. These three magic powers each possessed unique marvels: one for sensing, one for spiritual subtlety, one for gathering essence. Together, they could substitute for Qian Chen in activating part of the Heavenly Net Umbrella’s functions. The true force they contained was immense—ordinary cultivators would struggle to breach the Heavenly Net Umbrella reinforced by these three magic powers for three months.

Upon embedding these three magic powers into the Heavenly Net Umbrella, its prohibitions instantly connected with the three true talismans; due to their intrinsic compatibility, the umbrella even borrowed cosmic pure qi to further nurture these three magic powers, deepening the true force Qian Chen stored within them.

The Heavenly Net Umbrella, stirred by this magic power, unfurled—transforming into a stream of pure qi that enveloped the entire small courtyard. This pure qi gradually became invisible, revealing its prohibitions only when struck by spells.

“These three magic powers cost me two days of arduous cultivation… If not for ensuring absolute safety during my elixir refinement, I’d truly hate to expend them.”

Despite his regret, Qian Chen still uttered a sharp command: “Zhōu!”

The Two-Realm Bronze Tablet beside him also flew out, manifesting two massive doors at the chamber’s entrance—dark, unadorned wooden doors, firmly shut and utterly unremarkable.

Thus, there was no luxury of using true fundamental magic power… these two doors lacked any spontaneous protective enchantment, possessing only a trace of true qi capable of temporarily triggering the artifact’s instinctive response—if anyone touched these doors, they would erupt in power, swallowing the intruder into the Two-Realm Tablet.

At that moment, Qian Chen’s Heavenly Net Umbrella, still charged with magic power, would automatically retract and seal the Two-Realm Tablet. Inside were merely worthless military gear and gold and silver—destroying them would not trouble Qian Chen; breaking out from within the Two-Realm Tablet’s portal was even harder than shattering the Heavenly Net Umbrella’s seals.

Qian Chen then concealed the Seven Fiend Banners at the entrance, clasped the Dragon Sparrow Ring in his hand, hid the Azure Phosphorus Five Poisons within the ring, and suspended the Spirit Light Mirror above the lintel.

Having made all preparations, he pulled out a small jade hoe, waved his hand, and plunged into the earth.

This earth-piercing divine weapon protected Qian Chen as he descended dozens of feet underground; the protective yellow light gradually could no longer repel the surrounding soil and rock.

At this point, Qian Chen saw faint threads of black demonic energy rising; he immediately poured in more true qi, forcing himself down another few feet, reaching a depth of roughly seventy-five feet underground.

“Though this divine weapon’s base quality is decent, it lacks complete prohibitions—this depth is already its limit. I must have overestimated the Sun-Seeking Divine Lord; had I used the prohibitions I know to refine this weapon into a true artifact, its earth-piercing ability would become utterly silent, and even a single layer of prohibition would allow it to descend a hundred feet.”

Qian Chen gazed at the pure yet feeble demonic energy and shook his head: “Fortunately, this demonic energy isn’t buried deep—otherwise, I’d waste nearly a month re-refining an artifact.”

At nearly eighty feet underground, darkness surrounded him; only a few water veins flowed nearby. The soil, stones, and cold springs were pushed aside by the yellow light encircling Qian Chen. Though buried deep in earth and rock, a cold wind-like chill brushed his face from below.

Qian Chen used the Dragon Sparrow Ring to gather the surrounding soil and rock, gradually carving out a hollow large enough to accommodate several people.

Standing within the hollow, the yellow light stabilized. The black demonic energy, carrying a chilling frost, surged toward him, causing the yellow glow emitted by the jade hoe to flicker. Fortunately, Qian Chen had already used the Dragon Sparrow Ring to carve out this space—otherwise, descending further would have brought simultaneous pressure from demonic energy and earth-piercing resistance; the divine weapon might not have held, and if the yellow light shattered, Qian Chen would be in grave danger.

“Kunyuan Yin Yin Sha… perfectly compatible with Qiantian Yi Qi Qing Gang… even somewhat suited to Bingpo Han Guang Gang. Though not the ideal pairing, it can still refine a third-grade Nascent Soul elixir!”

“Pity—it’s still too weak. Even with perfect compatibility, it can raise the quality of the Qi Elixir to only seventh grade.”

As the demonic energy grew sharper, Qian Chen became increasingly cautious, digging down another three feet. Near the source, the black demonic energy shimmered with a faint silver glow—a thin, elusive layer, fine as threads—this was the Xuan Yin Shuang Sha he sought, named for its appearance like a thin silver frost over black earth.

It was also known as Kunyuan Yin Yin Sha, one of the Twelve Yin Yin Sha of Kunyuan.

Following Louchuan Sect’s method of gathering demonic energy, Qian Chen expelled a thread of true qi into the black gas, now faintly silvered with Xuan Yin Shuang Sha. Instantly, a chilling cold surged through him; his pure spiritual true qi grew heavy, coated in a layer of black frost. He immediately retracted the true qi, forcing that single thread of pure demonic energy into the Xuanguan acupoint.

Only when the demonic energy was stored within one of the dantian chambers in the Xuanguan acupoint did he count it as having gathered a trace.

“Even with Louchuan’s secret methods, gathering demonic energy is this arduous. How did Fu Ying and Hong Sihai acquire such heavenly fortune to find ready-made gangqi condensed within meteorites and ten-thousand-year ice cores?” Qian Chen’s spiritual sense, numbed by the cold in his true qi, winced, his forehead icy—he couldn’t help but envy.

Controlling his true qi to slowly draw in the subterranean yin demonic energy was an exhausting task requiring immense patience.

After a full day of labor, Qian Chen had gathered nearly all the Xuan Yin Shuang Sha; the remaining demonic energy could only be called yin demonic qi, stripped of its silver frost. He abandoned it… returned to the surface, retrieved the celestial strange stone, and carefully extracted the lingering threads of Qiantian gangqi.

Once the gang and sha energies were both stored within the Xuanguan acupoint, sealed in two dantian chambers, Qian Chen truly began refining the external qi Nascent Soul elixir.

He had no elixir furnace, no true fire; he could only visualize the Doushu Zhenhuo divine intent, elevating his true qi into a spiritual flame state, using the Supreme Outer Acupoint Elixir Refining method to transform the Xuanguan acupoint into a crucible! Within this true fire crucible, he refined the Nascent Soul. In this desolate courtyard, he secluded himself for seven days, refining the gang and sha energies within the acupoint until they separated into clear and turbid qi—clear qi ascended as heaven, turbid qi sank as earth.

With clear and turbid thus divided, true fire circulated within, blending the clear and turbid, uniting the gang and sha.

A subtle spiritual resonance gradually emerged—like the primordial consciousness of life after heaven and earth’s opening. This was the Three Yuan Elixir Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Man—profound and inexhaustible, a wondrous method of seeking the Dao by mirroring heaven and earth’s primordial creation.

When heaven and earth separated, humanity’s origin emerges; when yin and yang split, the Three Talents are formed!

Slowly, a round, egg-like form emerged during this process of blending clear and turbid, returning to chaos; subtle spiritual vitality stirred within. Qian Chen merely sank into it slightly, and felt his spiritual sense nourished.

When the elixir embryo matured, the essence of the gang and sha energies was fully contained within the round egg.

Only the myriad impure energies expelled during the gang-sha unification remained, like chaos cradling the elixir embryo. At this stage, the arduous work of nurturing the elixir embryo began. Qian Chen calculated that his external qi elixir embryo required seventy-seven days of intense refinement before it could be completed.

The previous step—blending clear and turbid, uniting gang and sha—had taken twenty-one days.

Now, in the nurturing phase, Qian Chen must continue gathering cosmic spiritual energy: partly to further cultivate his true qi without wasting time, partly to nourish the elixir embryo with subtle cosmic energies, enriching its essence. Had Qian Chen not been in such a hurry, he could have nurtured it for seventy-seven years, gathering cosmic essence—perhaps compensating for the gang and sha’s weakness and refining a top-grade elixir.

The Supreme Elixir Refining art is precisely this—defying heaven.

Even if Qian Chen could not wait, he could gather other cosmic energies to refine the impure energies expelled during elixir embryo formation—the chaos cradling the embryo—into other types of spirit elixirs using external elixir techniques. Though these impurities were discarded during external qi elixir refinement, they inherently bore the wondrous transformation of clear-turbid separation and the birth of human spirit, the splitting of yin-yang and formation of the Three Talents.

They were comparable to many celestial treasures.

Qian Chen needed only to use the impure energies differentiated from chaos at the elixir embryo’s birth as the main ingredient, supplemented by other gathered cosmic energies, to refine many different types of qi elixirs.

This was also a secret elixir-refining art of the Supreme Dao, called the Small Heaven and Earth Elixir Furnace.

Spirit herbs have complex properties; refining spirit elixirs usually extracts only the primary medicinal essence, combining sovereign, ministerial, and auxiliary herbs into a pill, discarding any incompatible properties as impurities. Only the Supreme Dao excelled in elixir refinement, practicing the Small Heaven and Earth Elixir Furnace—creation of heaven and earth produces no useless things; nourishing all life, complexity is never discarded.

Thus, they utilized the medicinal properties discarded as impurities from precious spirit herbs, combined with inferior-grade spirit herbs, to refine lesser elixirs alongside the main pill.

In ancient times, when the Supreme Dao Ancestor personally refined elixirs, one Nine-Transmutation Golden Elixir would be accompanied by dozens of Eight-Transmutation Golden Elixirs, hundreds of Seven-Transmutation, and so on layer by layer—until even the most unusable impurities could be refined into tens of thousands of One-Transmutation Golden Elixirs. Even the lowest-quality One-Transmutation Elixirs rivaled the main elixir Qian Chen now refined.

Of course, when the Supreme Dao refined elixirs, legend says the Eight Trigram Furnace contained an actual universe.

Once, a mishap occurred—a monkey leapt out, overturned the furnace, and fled. The spiritual essence of certain elixirs within the furnace had grown so potent they had become living beings, stealing the entire furnace’s essence and cultivating into great beings before escaping. The Supreme Dao naturally would not kill such blessed, fate-endowed creatures, and let them go.

Later, the Supreme Dao Ancestor’s elixir art advanced further—he could refine countless varieties and grades of spirit elixirs in one furnace, or refine only nine-transmutation golden elixirs, producing twenty or thirty in one batch; even aspiring to refine a Dao Sovereign, ten Dao Lords, or an entire world was possible… such elixir art approached the Dao of Creation.

Legend says many worlds in this myriad heavens and realms were the final batch refined by the Supreme Dao before he merged with the Dao.