As time pa.s.sed by, some of the cultivators who were not afraid of death still kept trying; however, once they entered the Yellow Sand Lake, no one could even get to the heart of the lake in front of the Earth Origin Bead before falling.
Instead of trying to quench one’s thirst in such a lake, it would be better to look for Spiritual Gra.s.ses elsewhere. In any case, even if one managed to obtain the Earth Origin Bead, so what? Could one still keep it after coming out? The cultivators who understood this started to leave.
Ning Cheng still did not leave, he sat at a corner of the Yellow Sand Lake and kept sending out one Spiritual Consciousness blade after another. Plus, coupled with his Spiritual Consciousness having a particular penetrating effect over Spiritual Consciousness Shielding Restrictions, he quickly found that his Spiritual Consciousness blade also had some impact over the Spiritual Consciousness shackles in this place. It was just that even after sitting in this place for a long time, Ning Cheng had to stop shooting out blades to restore his Spiritual Consciousness. Otherwise, he would eventually end up exhausting his Sea of Consciousness.
However, once his Spiritual Consciousness blades tore through the surrounding Spiritual Consciousness shackles, he could then bring out the Everlasting Blue Thunder City. With the protection offered by the Everlasting Blue Thunder City, maybe he could really block the Yellow Sand Lake’s earth-attributed a.s.similation law.
However, to split open the Spiritual Consciousness shackles of the Yellow Sand Lake and protect himself with the Everlasting Blue Thunder City, his Spiritual Consciousness would need to grow even stronger.
His starry sky Sea of Consciousness was already far superior compared to the average cultivator, so how could he make his Spiritual Consciousness grow even stronger? Ning Cheng sat in the distance and thought over this matter for a long time before standing up. The only way that Ning Cheng could think of to improve the strength of his Spiritual Consciousness was to advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm.
However, to advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm, he also needed the Harmonising Celestial Pills. Within the Immortal Jade Star, it would be impossible to obtain any Harmonising Celestial Pills unless he went on a murderous rampage. The only other option then would be to turn towards Alchemy. Since entering the Immortal Jade Star, Ning Cheng obtained a significant quant.i.ty of Spiritual Gra.s.ses. Therefore, if he wanted to refine Harmonising Celestial Pills, then he would first have to advance to a Grade 4 Celestial River Pill King.
Currently, Ning Cheng was only a step away from advancing to the level of a Grade 3 Celestial Pill Master. With his Mysterious Yellow Formless Cultivation Method and so many starry sky Spiritual Gra.s.ses, it should not prove too challenging to become a Grade 4 Celestial River Pill King.
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng finally peeled away from the side of the lake. He planned to leave this place temporarily as he felt that it was better to retreat with the closed net than be the jealous fish.
Ning Cheng secretly left behind a hidden Monitoring Array Disc on the side of the lake before quickly leaving. He felt worried that during his absence, someone might manage to take away the Earth Origin Bead.
Although many cultivators kept leaving the side of the Yellow Sand Lake, more cultivators came in filling their empty spots. As such, the lakeside looked full at all times.
……
In a newly opened concealed cavern, Ning Cheng, who originally wanted to craft a Pill Furnace suddenly took out a rusty and old-looking furnace. It was the one he had found when he looked inside his storage ring for raw materials to craft an Alchemy Furnace. Ning Cheng had initially discovered this furnace within the Angry Axe Valley, he had won this furnace from Gui Yutang after their fight.
Ning Cheng felt that this furnace might be a good treasure as he had tried to refine it a few times before in the past before giving up. Mainly because his Spiritual Consciousness could not penetrate it at all during all those attempts. Recently, he had gotten himself busy with crafting artefacts and improving his cultivation, causing him to forget about this furnace. Now that he saw the furnace once again, he immediately recalled everything relating to it. The average pill furnace had a three-legged configuration, but this pill furnace had five feet.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness penetrated into the furnace, but unlike before, this time, his Spiritual Consciousness did not encounter even the slightest hindrance as it easily penetrated into the rusty pill furnace.
As Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness began to refine the pill furnace, the rust on the outside of the pill furnace started to fall off automatically, causing the original colour of the pill furnace to emerge. This pill furnace was of a humble grey colour, if one did not refine this pill furnace by oneself, then even if one left it by the side of the road, no one would have taken any notice of it.
The more Ning Cheng refined this pill furnace, the more he felt the peculiarities of this pill furnace. The grade of this pill furnace was high enough that even Ning Cheng thought that he would not be able to craft it with his current abilities.
Ning Cheng had initially planned to start with Alchemy as soon as possible, but he ended up spending almost half a month in refining this pill furnace.
At last, the pill furnace gave out a crisp ringing sound, and the entire structure, shape and composition of the pill furnace appeared in Ning Cheng’s mind. He found that this pill furnace even had a peculiar name, the furnace was named ‘Traceless’.
Finished with refining this Traceless Pill Furnace, Ning Cheng could not wait to take out some starry sky Spiritual Gra.s.ses and start the pill refining process. However, what surprised Ning Cheng was that he could only refine Grade 2 Celestial Pills before, but with this pill furnace, he quickly managed to refine Grade 3 Celestial Pill, becoming a Grade 3 Celestial Pill Master.
From this, Ning Cheng also realised that he was already a Grade 3 Celestial Pill Master. It was just that the grade of the pill furnace that he used before was too low.
Not just that, but even Ning Cheng’s pill refining speed had also increased significantly compared to the past. In the time it took for Ning Cheng to refine a batch of medicinal pills using the previous furnace, he could now refine two batches of medicinal pills using the current furnace, with still time left to spare.
As Ning Cheng continued with the refining process, piles after piles of Starry Sky Spiritual Gra.s.ses transformed into piles of Celestial-grade medicinal pills. After a month, Ning Cheng’s stock of Starry Sky Spiritual Gra.s.ses had reduced by half, while bunches of medicinal pill bottles started to gather around him.
On this day, Ning Cheng finally refined a batch of Grade 4 Celestial River Medicinal Pills from the furnace, making him realise that he ultimately advanced to become a Grade 4 Celestial River Pill King. This was the first time that his Alchemy level had surpa.s.sed his cultivation. Previously, whenever Ning Cheng needed to advance to the next realm, he would have to purchase medicinal pills from other sources. But from now on, as long as he could keep his Alchemy level on par with his cultivation level, he would no longer need to turn to someone else to purchase the medicinal pills that he needed.
Three days later, Ning Cheng finally took out the Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruits, wanting to refine the Harmonising Celestial Pill.
Harmonising Celestial Pill was a Grade 4 Celestial River Medicinal Pill; however, now that Ning Cheng advanced to become a Grade 4 Celestial River Pill King, he could refine Harmonising Celestial Pills without any pressure. The only downside that Ning Cheng faced right now was that the level of his Celestial River Flame was a bit lower than required. Fortunately, the Celestial River Flame was of a much higher grade compared to ordinary flames. Therefore, even though it had some shortcomings in its level, combined with Ning Cheng’s mighty Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness and formidable Celestial Essence, it did not have much impact on the over process and quality.
Under Ning Cheng’s careful Spiritual Consciousness control, the Starry Sky Spiritual Gra.s.ses, quickly merged, before separating once again and coagulating…..
If someone used their Spiritual Consciousness to peep into Ning Cheng’s pill furnace, they would be shocked to find that Ning Cheng’s Alchemy did not contain any form of pill art.
Ning Cheng had not systematically studied Alchemy like others; as such, he did not know the importance of pill arts. Rather, all Ning Cheng knew that he did have a pill art, but this pill art regularly changed with his understanding of Alchemy. This was just like the cultivation method he cultivated, which varied according to the need. Moreover, it was also because of this peculiarity was it called ‘Formless’.
With Ning Cheng refining increasing number of medicinal pills, he found himself without any pill art; instead, he relied more on his Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness and his thoughts to form medical pills in accordance to his will. As long as he managed to refine the first batch of medicinal pills from the furnace, he would never encounter another miss. Moreover, all the subsequent pill batches would come out as premium quality medicinal pills.
In just half an incense stick worth of time, Ning Cheng took out a dozen medicinal pills from inside and quickly transferred them into an already prepared jade bottle.
Twelve Harmonising Celestial Pills, twelve premium-quality Harmonising Celestial Pills.
Even if Ning Cheng found it easy to refine these Harmonising Celestial Pills, he still felt excited while holding the jade bottle. Being able to refine Harmonising Celestial Pills meant that Ning Cheng could now advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm whenever he wanted. Once he advanced to the Celestial Bridge Realm, it also indicated that he could get the chance to obtain the Earth Origin Bead.
……
At a canyon millions of miles away from Ning Cheng, a huge Exploding Golden Wasp King darted back and forth around the entrance to the canyon. Around this Explosive Golden Wasp King were dozens of slightly smaller Exploding Golden Wasps. However, outside the canyon, hundreds of cultivators had surrounded and enclosed the Exploding Golden Wasps near the canyon’s entrance.
“I know that you’re an Exploding Golden Wasp King. As long as you give me the Spiritual Soul Contract and recognise me as your master, I promise you that you would remain fine today.” The one talking was a cultivator wearing a full-bodied white coloured robe. The three distinct Celestial Wheels behind him made it clear that this fellow was a powerhouse.
Not waiting for the Exploding Golden Wasp King to make a move, a purple-robed cultivator, who stood not far from the canyon, laughed before speaking, “Nong Jiu, did you think that wearing a full-bodied white robe would make you whiter than the others? There are more than a hundred people here, whomever this Exploding Golden Wasp King would want to take its master would be its master. You are not someone special. If you don’t believe it, why not ask the other friends here?”
The white-robed cultivator’s expression immediately changed and he spoke up coldly, “Zhong Sunhong, you’re from the Demon Domain, what kind of companion beast can you not get. Why do you want to compete with me for this Exploding Golden Wasp King?”
The purple robed cultivator spoke with disdain, “Everyone wants the Exploding Golden Wasp King. You are not alone in that.”
The white-robed cultivator seemed afraid to talk with the purple-robed Zhong Sunhong. Even when Zhong Sunhong spoke in such an unbridled manner, he still had not turned his face to him. Instead, he gave a reply, “Why not focus on our abilities? Whoever can make this Exploding Golden Wasp King recognise as its master, would be the one to own it.”
“Ok, although it’s unlikely that this Exploding Golden Wasp would recognise a master, it’s not bad to try.” Zhong Sunhong also agreed to the words of the white-robed cultivator Nong Jiu.
As Zhong Sunhong and Nong Jiu confronted each other, the nearby cultivators immediately started whispering among themselves.
“I heard that the Exploding Golden Wasp King would only recognise a master when it’s still inside its egg. Once it breaks out of its sh.e.l.l, it would be hard to make it recognise a master, almost impossible.”
“That’s because your cultivation has not reached a particular level. As long as one’s cultivation is far higher than the Exploding Golden Wasp King, the Exploding Golden Wasp King would be able to recognise a master through a Spiritual Soul Contract. However, it is challenging to force it into a Spiritual Soul Contract. Moreover, Exploding Golden Wasps are also not afraid of death, which means that wanting to form a Spiritual Soul Contract with it would prove extremely difficult.”
“Although it might be challenging to accomplish, it does not mean that it cannot be done. I might be able to do it when it is my turn with the Exploding Golden Wasp King. Just thinking about moving around with a bunch of Exploding Golden Wasps, it really brings many expectations to my heart.”
“I don’t want the Exploding Golden Wasps, I just want to go into the canyon and see what’s inside. There has to be something good inside; otherwise, these Exploding Golden Wasps wouldn’t have blockaded this place for no reason.”
“Yes, I have the same thought as you. I just want to enter the canyon.”
……
With Nong Jiu’s first strike, hundreds of cultivators brought out their weapons and blasted out at the Exploding Golden Wasp King.
With the Exploding Golden Wasp King under attack, the Exploding Golden Wasps around the Exploding Golden Wasp King immediately rushed out and almost desperately rushed into the crowd to attack.
However, these dozens of Exploding Golden Wasps’ strength could not compare to this one-hundred-man group of Celestial Gatherer Cultivators. Not only did the numbers vary a lot, but even the cultivation levels also had significant variance. Only a few Exploding Golden Wasps among the group had managed to reach Starry Sky Grade 3 and above.
With Exploding Golden Wasps dying one after another, of the first dozens of Exploding Golden Wasps, only a dozen managed to survive after a breath. As for the group of Celestial Gatherer Cultivators, they only suffered a single casualty. If it were not for the attempts of these cultivators to keep the Exploding Golden Wasp King alive, even the Exploding Golden Wasp King would have died.
……
Ning Cheng found an empty place to get ready to advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm. He had already readied a significant quant.i.ty of Perpetual Moon Pills, along with the dozen Harmonising Celestial Pills. If he could not advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm even after preparing this much, he should really commit suicide by bashing his head into soft tofu.
Looking at the surrounding terrain, Ning Cheng took out a few Array Flags and was about to arrange a Spiritual Gathering Array and a Defensive Array when he suddenly felt like his Explosive Golden Wasp King was under attack. This immediately made Ning Cheng furious, whoever was attacking his companion beast was just looking for death.
Wielding the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, Ning Cheng instantly disappeared from the place that he had chosen to surmount the tribulation.