Chapter 41

Qian Chen sat in the central main room of this desolate house, silently contemplating in his heart. After only a short time, three green talismans manifested from his dantian.

These three green talismans were initially as floating and unstable as clear Qi. Only after absorbing the clear and spiritual true Qi within Qian Chen's dantian did they suddenly shake, transforming into a green rainbow, traveling retrograde from Qian Chen's lower dantian to his throat, and were sprayed out by Qian Chen mixed with the golden saliva full of true Qi. These were the three fundamental magic powers that Qian Chen had temporarily refined.

The so-called fundamental magic power is the true Qi condensing into a true talisman. If the true talisman condenses into a seal within the dantian and can derive new true talismans at any time, it is the Realm of Penetrating the Law.

A true talisman is condensed from true Qi; once cast, it is a magic spell.

Ordinary practitioners who reach this realm must write talismans and then swallow them to cultivate, mixing the true Qi with the spirit of the swallowed talisman to transform it into a true talisman stored in the body; this is a magic power. Once this magic power is used, it is completely consumed and cannot be restored.

Therefore, cultivators in this realm are most wary of consuming magic power. They must condense magic power into seals hidden in the body to open the source and be inexhaustible. Once a layer of seal is formed, they can refine true Qi into virtual talismans like magic treasure seals. A virtual talisman cast out is also a magic spell, but it is not as long-lasting as a true talisman. If it is not nurtured in the body's magic seals, it often dissipates in a day or two.

A virtual talisman is the magic power that cultivators often speak of.

A seal can automatically absorb true Qi to restore virtual talismans. Such virtual talismans, after being nurtured and polished, will gradually transform into true talismans, which is called increasing fundamental magic power.

Before Penetrating the Law, the magic power consumed when using magic spells is fundamental magic power; the more you use, the less you have.

The virtual talisman magic power used after Penetrating the Law is not the foundation, but a consumable that can absorb the primordial Qi of heaven and earth at any time to restore.

The true talisman magic power used by Qian Chen, however, cost him his life's savings. Depending on the quality of the true Qi and even the different talismans contemplated, the spiritual response produced is also different. Some cultivators' magic power can only bring a small rain, condensing no more than two buckets of water vapor. While some cultivators' magic power can change the color of heaven and earth and overturn the four seas.

This is because the true power contained in the magic power is different.

Qian Chen adopted the clear and spiritual Qi of the nine heavens, and the quality of the true Qi he tempered was extremely high. The true talisman he contemplated this time was also a true transmission of the Louguan Dao recorded in the Daoist scriptures of Geng Yuanzi. These three magic powers each have different miraculousness: one for sensing, one for spiritual subtlety, and one for gathering spirits. Combined, they can replace part of the miraculous uses of Qian Chen's Heavenly Luo San. The true power contained within can be described as immense... Ordinary cultivators would find it difficult to break through the Heavenly Luo San blessed by these three magic powers even in three months.

Casting these three magic powers into the Heavenly Luo San, in just a moment, the seal of the Heavenly Luo San connected with the three true talisman magic powers. Because the nature of the magic power and the essence of the magic treasure were compatible, it could even borrow the Heavenly Luo San to collect the clear Qi of heaven and earth, continuing to nurture these three magic powers, making the magic power and true power that Qian Chen stored within it increasingly thick.

The Heavenly Luo San opened under the stimulation of this magic power, and the Hun Tian Green Luo San transformed into a clear Qi, covering the entire small courtyard. This clear Qi gradually became invisible, and only when attacked by magic spells would the seal be revealed.

"These three magic powers wasted two days of my hard cultivation... If it weren't for ensuring that nothing would go wrong when I refine the pill, I really wouldn't be willing to part with them."

While feeling the heartache, Qian Chen still gave a clear shout: "Du!"

The two-world bronze plaque beside him also flew out, manifesting two large gates at the entrance of the room. The black, miscellaneous wooden gates blocked the entrance, closed tightly and unobtrusively.

In this way, there was no luxury of using the fundamental magic power of the true talisman... Therefore, these two gates did not have the miraculous use of spontaneous protection by magic power, only a little true Qi could temporarily stimulate the instinctual response of the magic treasure. If someone touched these two gates, they would erupt with power, swallowing the intruder into the two-world plaque.

At that time, the Heavenly Luo San, which Qian Chen had left with magic power, would automatically close, sealing the two-world plaque. Inside were all worthless soldiers, armor, gold, and silver. Qian Chen wouldn't feel heartache if they were destroyed. If they wanted to break through the portal of the two-world plaque and come out, it would be even harder to break the seal of the Heavenly Luo San from the inside.

Qian Chen also hid the Seven Sha Banner at the entrance, held the Long Quehuan in his hand, hid the Green Phosphorus Five Poisons in the ring, and hung the Spiritual Light Mirror on the eaves of the door.

Having made all the preparations, he took out a small jade hoe, waved his hand to split it, and escaped into the ground.

This earth-escaping divine weapon protected Qian Chen as he dived dozens of feet into the ground, and the protective yellow light gradually could no longer push away the surrounding soil and rocks.

At this time, Qian Chen saw a trace of black Sha Qi rising. He immediately input true Qi repeatedly and struggled to dive down a few more feet, reaching a depth of about seventy-five feet underground.

"Although the essence of this divine weapon is not bad, it lacks a complete seal. Being able to dive to here is already the limit. It seems I overestimated that Day-Chasing Divine Lord. If I were to refine this divine weapon into a magic treasure with the seals I know, not only would earth-escaping be silent from now on, but even if I only refined one layer, I could dive a hundred feet below."

Qian Chen looked at this pure but weak Sha Qi and shook his head, saying: "It is fortunate that this Sha Qi is not hidden deep, otherwise I would have wasted another month re-refining the magic treasure."

At this time, at a depth of nearly eighty feet underground, it was pitch black all around. At this depth, there were only a few water veins passing by Qian Chen. Those cold springs of soil and rock were pushed away by the yellow light around Qian Chen, splitting to both sides. Clearly, it was a place blocked by soil and rocks underground, yet a cold air blew against his face like wind from below.

Qian Chen used the Long Quehuan to collect the surrounding soil and rocks, gradually hollowing out a space that could accommodate several people.

Standing in the hollow, the yellow light gradually stabilized, and the black Sha Qi rushed towards his face with a chilling cold, causing the yellow light emitted by the jade hoe to fluctuate. Fortunately, Qian Chen had used the Long Quehuan to open up a space early, otherwise, if he dived further, the pressure of the Sha Qi and earth-escaping would attack together, and this divine weapon might not be able to hold on. If the yellow light couldn't hold on and shattered, Qian Chen would be in big trouble.

"Kun Yuan Mysterious Yin Sha... it is quite compatible with the Dry Heaven One Qi Clear Gang... even quite suitable for the Ice Soul Cold Light Gang. Although it is not the best combination, it can still condense a third-rank primordial pill!"

"It's a pity, it's still too weak. Even if the essence is compatible with the Gang Qi, it can at most raise the quality of the Qi pill to the seventh rank."

As the Sha Qi became more fierce, Qian Chen gradually became careful and dug down another three feet. When he approached the source of the Sha Qi, the black Sha Qi already had a layer of silver light. A thin layer of black Sha Qi, appearing and disappearing, in strands—this was the Mysterious Xuan Xuan Yin Shuang Sha Qi that Qian Chen wanted. Its name comes from the fact that its appearance is like a thin layer of silver frost on the black earth.

Because it is ranked among the twelve Sha of Kun Yuan, it is also called Kun Yuan Mysterious Yin Sha.

Qian Chen followed the method of collecting Sha in the Louguan Dao, forcing out a true Qi to merge into the black Qi, which was filled with thin silver light. Suddenly, a chill came, and the clear and spiritual true Qi instantly became extremely heavy, stained with a layer of black frost. Qian Chen immediately withdrew his true Qi and forced that trace of pure Sha Qi into the Xuanguan.

Only after waiting for the Sha Qi to be hidden in a pill room within the Xuanguan could it be considered that a trace of Sha Qi had been collected.

"I have the secret method of Louguan, and collecting Sha Qi is so difficult. What kind of heaven-defying luck did Fu Ying and Hong Sihai have to have ready-made Gang Qi condensed in the meteorite from beyond the heavens and the ten-thousand-year Ice Soul?" Qian Chen's spiritual sense was frozen by the cold in the true Qi, his forehead was icy, and he couldn't help but envy.

Controlling his true Qi to absorb the Yin Sha Qi from the ground strand by strand, this was a hard work that consumed a lot of patience.

Qian Chen was busy for a whole day before he collected most of the Mysterious Xuan Xuan Yin Shuang Sha. The remaining Sha Qi could only be called Yin Sha Qi, and it no longer carried the silver frost of the Mysterious Yin. Only then did he give up... He escaped back to the surface and took out the strange stone from beyond the heavens, carefully extracting the remaining strands of Dry Heaven Gang Qi.

Only after the Gang and Sha Qi were all taken into the Xuanguan and stored in the two pill rooms in the pass could Qian Chen truly begin to refine the external Qi primordial pill.

He had no pill furnace and no true fire, so he could only contemplate the divine intent of the Tushita Taiyin Zhenhuo, manifesting the true Qi into a spiritual fire state, and using the secret method of the Supreme External Pass Alchemy to transform the Xuanguan into a cauldron! The true fire cauldron refines the primordial pill internally. He closed his doors in the desolate house for seven days before he refined the Gang and Sha Qi in the Xuanguan, transforming them into clear and turbid Qi in the acupoint, with clear Qi rising to heaven and turbid Qi sinking to earth.

With the clear and turbid separated, and the true fire running within, the clear and turbid were mixed, and the Gang and Sha were combined.

A subtle spiritual rhyme gradually was born, as if after the opening of heaven and earth, the nature of life was ignorant. This is the Three Yuan Pill Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Man, with infinite mysteries. It is a miraculous method of seeking the Dao that tests the beginning of heaven and earth and imitates the opening of heaven and earth in the internal pill art.

Heaven and earth separated and man began, Yin and Yang opened and the three talents were formed!

Gradually, something round like an egg was born in this process of mixing clear and turbid and returning to chaos. Subtle spirituality was born within it. Qian Chen just immersed himself slightly, and he felt that his spiritual sense had been nourished.

When the pill embryo was achieved, the essence of the Gang and Sha Qi was all contained by the round egg.

Only the various miscellaneous Qi discharged when the Gang and Sha were mixed still supported the pill embryo like chaos. Reaching this step, it was the hard work of nurturing the pill embryo. Qian Chen calculated that his external Qi primordial embryo would have to be painstakingly refined for forty-nine days before it could be taken out of the furnace.

The previous step of mixing clear and turbid and combining Gang and Sha took twenty-one days.

Reaching the stage of nurturing, Qian Chen had to continue to collect the primordial Qi of heaven and earth. On one hand, it was to continue to painstakingly cultivate true Qi and not waste any time. On the other hand, it was also to nourish the pill embryo with various subtle primordial Qi of heaven and earth and mellow the essence. If Qian Chen was not so anxious, he could actually nurture it for forty-nine years, collecting the essence of the primordial Qi of heaven and earth. Perhaps he could make up for the shortcoming that the Gang and Sha Qi were too weak and refine a supreme primordial pill of the top three ranks.

The Supreme Alchemy Art is just that heaven-defying.

Even if Qian Chen couldn't wait, he could collect other primordial Qi of heaven and earth and refine the miscellaneous Qi discharged when refining the pill embryo—that is, the chaos supporting the pill embryo—into other types of spiritual pills with the external pill art. After all, although these miscellaneous Qi are impurities when refining external Qi primordial pills, they essentially possess the miraculousness of the creation of the separation of clear and turbid and the birth of human spirit, and the opening of Yin and Yang and the formation of the three talents.

They are spiritual herbs comparable to many rare treasures.

Qian Chen only needs to use the various miscellaneous primordial Qi differentiated after the opening of chaos when the pill embryo was born as the main medicine, supplemented by other collected primordial Qi, to refine many different types of Qi pill spiritual medicines.

This is also a secret alchemy art of the Supreme Dao, called the Small World of the Pill Furnace.

The medicinal properties of spiritual herbs are mixed. Refining spiritual pills often only intercepts the main medicinal properties, with the monarch and minister assisting in refining into pills. Other medicinal properties that do not meet the pill nature to be refined are rejected as impurities and discarded. Only the Supreme Dao is proficient in alchemy, emphasizing the Small World of the Pill Furnace. Heaven and earth are born, how can there be useless things? Nurturing all living things, mixed but not wasted.

They use the medicinal properties of those precious spiritual herbs that are rejected as impurities, combined with other lower-level spiritual herbs, to refine other slightly inferior spiritual pills outside the main pill.

When the Supreme Dao Ancestor personally refined pills in the past, one Nine-Turn Golden Pill would be accompanied by dozens of Eight-Turn Golden Pills, hundreds of Seven-Turn ones, and then layer by layer. In the end, the impurities that were really difficult to use could also refine tens of thousands of One-Turn Golden Pills. The quality of these One-Turn Golden Pills is the lowest, and they are similar to the main pill that Qian Chen is refining now.

Of course, when the Supreme refined pills, it is said that the Bagua Furnace was a real universe.

Once, there was a mistake in refining, and a monkey jumped out, kicked over the pill furnace, and escaped. It was because the spirituality of some pills in that pill furnace universe was truly fierce, and they had already turned into living beings, stealing the essence of that furnace of pills and the entire universe, cultivating into a great being and running out. The Supreme naturally would not kill such living beings with opportunity and luck, so he let them leave.

Later, the Supreme Dao Ancestor's alchemy art advanced further. One furnace could refine countless different types and levels of spiritual pills, and one could also refine twenty or thirty Nine-Turn Golden Pills in one furnace. It was even possible to refine a Dao Venerable, a dozen Dao Lords, or even a heaven and earth world... This kind of alchemy art is already close to the creation of the Great Dao.

It is rumored that many worlds in these countless realms were refined in the last furnace before the Supreme merged with the Dao.