Chapter 52: Purifying Spiritual Power (Please keep reading, please vote)

The Xuangu Mountain area is located in the northern part of [Feng Province], near the Endless Ice Plains. The terrain is dark and rocky, consisting mostly of desolate lands where not a single blade of grass grows.

Most of these caves are unique landforms carved out by the perennial howling of the north wind. Since they are hollow and pass through from front to back, how could these demon beasts and exotic insects escape from them?

Upon discovering this suspicion, Wang Yu traced the source back to its roots, finally discovering that these creatures all came from underground—the bottom of Xuangu Mountain!

This discovery immediately brought to mind Gu Zhengshun's abnormalities.

He was in no hurry to speak. If he could discover this, Liu Jinxian, who had even more people, would surely know; perhaps she had already sent people to investigate the bottom of those caves.

His most important task now was to experience the effects of the Profound Essence Flowers to see if they were as good as Gu Zhengshun had claimed.

After the harvest, Wang Yu had nine second-grade Profound Essence Flowers and nearly three hundred first-grade Profound Essence Flowers, all properly preserved in jade boxes and jade pill bottles. Such a quantity was more than enough for him to use alone.

The Profound Essence Flowers were snow-white in color, resembling blooming peach blossoms, petal by petal, with exquisite bone-like patterns growing upon them, very similar to the patterns on the Corrupt Poison Bees.

He took out a first-grade Profound Essence Flower, swallowed it, and began to circulate his energy.

This incoming gentle force began to seep into the spiritual energy cluster within Wang Yu's dantian. As his cultivation technique operated, the force followed the spiritual energy in circular rotations. By the time it had traversed the Great Zhou Meridians and returned, the hundreds of strands of spiritual energy he was manipulating had decreased slightly in number, but their quality had significantly improved.

At this rate of efficiency, three hundred first-grade Profound Essence Flowers could help him complete his second Spirit Refinement, breaking through the bottleneck from the middle stage to the late stage of Qi Refinement, condensing his spiritual energy from "Dao" into a "Stream"!

A "Stream" of spiritual energy was simply a change in the unit of measurement from the former "hundred strands."

However, he was only at the fifth level of Qi Refinement. While early Spirit Refinement was possible, there was no rush.

It was just—

"Three hundred first-grade Profound Essence Flowers just to help someone break through the late-stage Qi Refinement bottleneck? Isn't that too much consumption?"

According to Gu Zhengshun, ten flowers could help a Qi Refinement cultivator complete the transformation from "Dao" to "Stream," yet Wang Yu felt he needed three hundred.

If the other party wasn't lying, the only difference between them was...

"Spiritual Roots!"

Thinking of this, Wang Yu's expression darkened. He swallowed another Profound Essence Flower, and this time, while circulating his energy, he released a large amount of divine sense to sense the minute changes within himself.

A moment later.

He ended his cultivation with a heavy mood and sighed inwardly.

"As expected, it is because of my spiritual roots."

When the efficacy of the Profound Essence Flower was exerted, more than half of it leaked out, dissipating into the fine branch meridians within his body and being expelled.

His Five Elements Waste Spiritual Root was too short; the medicinal effect it could convert was limited. This wasn't just true for the absorption of Profound Essence Flowers.

It was the same with medicinal pills, but because he had been consuming top-grade spiritual pills, he had never noticed the issue with his spiritual roots.

In fact, he should have noticed the problem when he first purchased the high-grade Cold Blood Pill, but he had been preoccupied with many matters then. He had little time to digest the medicinal power and his cultivation progress was poor, so he had mistakenly thought it was due to his own lack of diligence.

"There is a reason why the price of top-grade spiritual pills far exceeds other grades; their medicinal properties can be fully absorbed even by someone with my aptitude. They are truly unique!"

Thus, Gu Zhengshun only needed ten flowers to break through to the late stage of Qi Refinement, and only ten second-grade Profound Essence Flowers to complete the semi-True Yuan transformation of his spiritual energy.

But for him, it would take three hundred!

This meant that the high-grade Foundation Establishment Pills that others craved would be essentially useless to him; only top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills could increase his success rate in the matter of Foundation Establishment.

No wonder it was never heard of in ancient times that someone with a waste spiritual root could achieve Foundation Establishment.

He should have struggled even to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement, yet he had reached the fifth level within a few years, relying entirely on the merit of the Placement Slot.

To change one's fate against the heavens—how difficult it truly was!

Judging solely by the situation of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills were unheard of. This didn't mean it was as simple as refining a low-grade Reverse Blood Pill into a top-grade one.

Foundation Establishment Pills, Golden Core Pills, Nascent Soul Pills... these types of auxiliary pills for breaking through major realms had different formulas depending on the various lineages.

Low-grade was called the Reverse Blood Pill, mid-grade was the Blood Spirit Pill, and high-grade was the Mortal Shedding Pill; these were all Foundation Establishment Pills, yet their refining methods and formulas had no connection to one another.

The Reverse Spirit Blood Sect simply did not possess the formula for top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills.

Therefore, he must either prepare three hundred high-grade Foundation Establishment Pills and consume them like candy to win through sheer quantity, or obtain a demonic secret method that could reverse aptitude to change everything at its root.

No sect possessed the formula for top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills.

"Perhaps only the method of seizing spiritual roots is most reliable."

As for whether the Placement Slot could help him overcome this hurdle, he wasn't actually sure, as he had never tried.

Theoretically, it could.

He didn't know how long it would take, as the Placement Slot was like another version of himself, cultivating a single thing for twelve hours a day, essentially identical to him.

However, because of the effect of the Placement Slot, every attempt yielded some harvest. Following this rule, he could brute-force his way through.

With a heavy burden pressing on his heart, Wang Yu stood quietly in front of the stone house, organizing his state of mind while waiting for news from Liu Jinxian's side.

No matter what, he had to cross over any number of hardships and obstacles, and then... return to Stone Lake City!

Thus, after half a day.

A disciple from Gu Poison Peak flew over and knocked on the outer layer of the formation.

"Senior Brother Wang, Senior Sister Liu requests your presence."

"I'm coming."

He had no time to lament these difficulties; all he could do was hack through the thorns. There were unknown opportunities at the bottom of Xuangu Mountain, and he was determined to explore them.

Another incense stick's time later.

About ten miles away from Xuangu Mountain, in front of an unnamed cave.

Liu Jinxian was waiting with eighteen late-stage Qi Refinement disciples. Seeing Wang Yu arrive, she called out directly.

"Let's go."

Gu Zhengshun's formation could not be broken, and Situ Hong was unwilling to intervene, but when she shifted her attention from Xuangu Mountain to the secrets beneath the earth...

She naturally discovered that the bee swarm and the Bone Lions were coming from underground!

There might be a connection between these two parties.

In the crowd, Su Qingshan gave Wang Yu a friendly smile, and Wang Yu responded with an equally strange smile; both were well aware of Xu Jiaojiao's situation.

As for how to handle it specifically, he leaned towards killing this wretch.

If Zhao Shang was a venomous snake still in hibernation, then this Su Qingshan was a cuckoo occupying a magpie's nest—both a petty man and malicious, definitely plotting against him.

At this moment, seeing Wang Yu, Su Qingshan felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Five months ago, after learning that the other party had taken over two layers of Xuangu Mountain, he had done the math. Since the flowers had just been picked, the other party surely hadn't had time to refine them yet.

Hundreds of Profound Essence Flowers, along with a large number of second-grade ones, were enough for him to take a risky gamble.

Considering that Xu Jiaojiao had died at Wang Yu's hands, bringing along a few extra helpers to ensure safety and then splitting the proceeds would make for a good business deal; this trip would surely offer many opportunities.

Little did he know that Wang Yu was thinking the same thing. Seeing that the disciples of Gu Poison Peak had heavy purses after swallowing the resources of two mountains, perhaps they could scrape together even more second-grade Profound Essence Flowers.

Soon.

Deep inside the unnamed cave, a pit about ten feet wide and bottomless came into view. A disciple stepped forward and said

"Senior Sister Liu, those demon beasts came out from inside here."

(End of Chapter)