Chapter 476 - 216: Breakthrough to Middle Stage Golden Core
Chapter 476: Chapter 216: Breakthrough to Middle Stage Golden Core
Xiao Chen swept his Divine Sense across the Storage Ring, feeling rather speechless. ’So it was a straight-up scam, huh.’
He could tell that from the very beginning, the other party had never intended to make a fair trade.
Fortunately, although there were no Demon Pills, there were four bottles of Essence Replenishing Pills, two bottles of Replenishing Essence Pills, and one bottle of Winter Grass Essence Gathering Pills.
The Winter Grass Essence Gathering Pill had the same effect as the Replenishing Essence Pill: both could help a Cultivator rapidly condense True Essence.
However, it was about three times more effective, yet five times more expensive.
’No Demon Pills, so I’ll just use this as a substitute. A bottle only has three pills, but it should be enough when combined with the Replenishing Essence Pills.’
Xiao Chen wasn’t picky. He’d take what he could get.
He had only taken Demon Pills before because they were cost-effective, not because he couldn’t cultivate without them.
Now, with the Winter Grass Essence Gathering Pills, he still had a good chance of cultivating to the peak of the Early Stage Golden Core before his departure in May.
’Huh, and Cultivation Technique manuals?’
After putting away the Elixirs, Xiao Chen discovered two thin booklets.
Curious, he flipped them open. They were the *Golden Yuan Pill Summary* and *Four Secrets of Refining the Rejuvenation Pill*.
’Jeez, are Tier Three Pill Formulas really this complicated?’
Unlike Low Tier Pill Formulas, which could be crammed onto a single page, one page was clearly not enough for a Tier Three Pill Formula.
To detail the refining process and its specific techniques, the former was four pages long, while the latter took up a full nine pages due to its illustrations.
After reading them, however, Xiao Chen found that it was mostly the explanatory material that took up so much space.
The Pill Formulas themselves only required a few more types of Spirit Grass; they hadn’t suddenly become that much more complex.
On the contrary, the detailed explanations would actually help Low Tier Alchemists learn the ropes more easily.
Besides these, after clearing out the various clutter from the Storage Ring, two Spirit Storage Boxes remained.
Xiao Chen was always patient when it came to good things.
He spent a full day and night undoing the complex Restrictions on them.
He took a deep breath. ’Open!’
He reached out and lifted the lid. Inside the first Spirit Storage Box, a Dao Crystal lay quietly.
Sealed within the translucent crystal was a faint, profound-looking rune.
Xiao Chen examined it carefully and found it was different from the one he had encountered before.
This was a good thing. After all, collecting Dao Crystals of different attributes increased his chances of finding one with the Wood Attribute.
He rubbed his hands together, picked up the second Spirit Storage Box. ’Open!’
"Huh?"
Inside was yet another Dao Crystal, different from the previous two.
However, Xiao Chen’s gaze went past the crystal, landing on what was beneath it.
At the bottom of the Spirit Storage Box, tucked beneath the crystal, was a thin journal.
.
The journal had no title, and the writing was not very neat. It looked more like a memoir casually written by some Cultivator.
It specified the attributes that corresponded to the different runes within the Dao Crystals.
It also mentioned a special place: the Sea of Darkness.
As far as Xiao Chen knew, the Sea of Darkness could be reached by traveling roughly 750,000 miles due east from the Jingkong Sea.
It was said that there was almost no order there, making it an incredibly chaotic and turbulent land.
The journal stated that to the southeast of the Sea of Darkness, there was a uniquely shaped island that looked like a sunflower when viewed from the sky.
The island was massive—over three hundred miles at its longest point and at least two hundred fifty miles at its narrowest.
The island had several large mountains, which were dotted with hot springs and caves of all sizes.
These caves were a complex maze; some were interconnected, some led directly to the seabed, and some were filled with a dense Evil Qi.
The Fire Attribute Dao Crystal from the second Spirit Storage Box had come from one of those caves.
’Evil Qi?’
Xiao Chen’s attention, however, fell upon the two words "Evil Qi." For him, collecting Evil Qi was the primary goal of his trip to the Eastern Domain.
’The Sea of Darkness has Evil Qi?’
’And the location was recorded so clearly. An island that large should be easy to find.’
Xiao Chen’s gaze sharpened. If that was the case, he would definitely have to find time to go check it out.
The Sea of Darkness was already considered part of the Outer Sea.
Coincidentally, he had already agreed to set out with the Three Immortals Sect in early May to search the Outer Sea for a new Relic.
In that case, once he was done with the new Relic, he could easily make a trip to the Sea of Darkness on the way.
And come to think of it, the Feidu Sea was right on the edge of the Inner Sea, even closer to the Sea of Darkness than the Nanlao Sea.
After leaving the Sea of Darkness, he could head straight northwest to the Feidu Sea.
A perfect plan!
’Still, first things first,’ he thought with a sigh. ’The priority right now is to cultivate.’
Xiao Chen put away the journal, took out a Winter Grass Essence Gathering Pill, and swallowed it. He skillfully circulated his Cultivation Technique to begin condensing his True Essence, later switching to the Replenishing Essence Pills.
He continued this until the second of May, finally condensing his 333rd strand of True Essence and arriving at the small bottleneck before the Middle Stage of the Golden Core realm.
Xiao Chen tried to condense more True Essence, and just as he’d expected, he felt a faint, barely perceptible barrier.
The vast majority of Cultivators would get stuck at this point for several years, or even decades.
This was especially true for those with Profound and Yellow Level Cultivation Techniques, for whom breakthroughs were even more difficult.
However, Xiao Chen was not unprepared. He unhesitatingly took out the Hundred Revolutions Profound Pill he had previously acquired.
Like the Nine Luminaries Profound Pill, the Hundred Revolutions Profound Pill was also encircled by a ring of fine Pill Patterns, indicating that it too had been crafted by a Tier Four Alchemist.
He swallowed it whole. The moment the profound pill entered his stomach, it immediately transformed into a stream of Spiritual Liquid.
As if it had a will of its own, the Spiritual Liquid rushed straight to the Flawless Golden Core within his Dantian and enveloped it completely.
Nearly four hours passed before it slowly began to seep into the Golden Core.