The flying boat returned to Qingming. The disciples of the Hall of Heavenly Craft went off on their own to report to Yu Zhizhuo, while Xu Henshui led the disciples of the Monastery of Creation to settle down in a spot rich in spiritual qi.
This location was very close to the medicine garden and also near the new city populated entirely by Xu family youths and sacrificial offerings—the very heart of Qingming. A vital center of the alchemical path was naturally not something Wei Yuan wished to see compromised.
Wei Yuan allocated a thousand mu of surrounding spiritual fields to Xu Henshui as an exclusive medicine garden, while selecting three hundred clever, nimble youths to serve him as handymen.
Although Xu Henshui had brought only ten people with him on this journey, he carried four large-scale storage magical treasures alone. They held not only dozens of pill furnaces of various sizes, but an entire medicine repository filled with pre-processed herbs.
In addition, Xu Henshui had brought more than ten different varieties of fire tinder to suit different pill formulas.
After several days of nonstop labor, all the supplies and goods brought along were finally unpacked and moved. Xu Henshui then drew up blueprints, and the three hundred young servants formally began construction of the Monastery of Creation. Wei Yuan additionally dispatched two hundred cultivators to assist, allowing the work to proceed at remarkable speed.
Only seven days later did Xu Henshui find the chance to rest briefly. Fatigue washed over him, and closing his eyes, he sank into a deep slumber.
Then, he had a very peculiar dream. In it, he seemed to enter a miraculous realm where he appeared to meet a few people and discuss pill formulas with them for a long time.
Curiously, those people seemed to know very little about the art of alchemy, yet they possessed an extraordinarily wondrous ancient pill formula called the Kunyuan Something Pill.
Xu Henshui spent the entire night studying this ancient recipe.
He was indeed profoundly learned and deeply versed in the Dao of alchemy. The Xu family possessed immense heritage as well, with who knew how many treasures stashed in their vaults; his horizons far surpassed the ordinary. Thus, Xu Henshui managed to deduce roughly two of the medicinal herbs in the ancient formula and identified modern substitutes for them.
Yet amid his excitement, before he could test his theories, the time Xu Henshui had set arrived, waking him from his slumber. Upon opening his eyes, Xu Henshui only vaguely recalled fragments of the dream; most of the experience had already slipped away.
A phenomenon like an immortal imparting knowledge in a dream never occurred without cause and effect. Moreover, Xu Henshui was already a dharma idol cultivator with a steadfast Dao heart; random, meaningless dreams during deep sleep simply did not happen to someone of his level.
Xu Henshui pondered the matter carefully, then went to the Merit Sub-Hall to exchange for a batch of books. In the end, he confirmed that divine instruction through dreams truly existed. The two ancient medicinal herbs he had discovered in the dream also set his heart racing with anticipation.
Many such immortal materials had either gone extinct or their places of origin had shifted alongside worldly upheavals, making them impossible to find ever since.
To an alchemist of Xu Henshui's caliber, every single herb was a window through which one could glimpse a corner of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Lost herbs of this sort unlocked an unprecedented treasure trove.
Therefore, although it felt uncanny, Xu Henshui decided to take the risk the following day. First, he laid down a formation to safeguard the integrity of his divine sense, then ordered his disciples to stand guard outside his quarters before sitting in the center of the formation and sinking into deep sleep.
Upon entering the dream, Xu Henshui indeed returned to the place of divine transmission. Yet his consciousness remained somewhat hazy, and his field of vision was pitch black, with only the occasional silhouette flitting past.
Voices seemed to speak around him, but Xu Henshui could not discern what they were saying. Suddenly, he sensed a remarkably familiar and warm aura nearby, as if of the same kind, same origin as his own. Yet that aura immediately receded, conveying no message to him.
Even so, perceiving that familiar presence put Xu Henshui's mind at ease.
The dream that night was once again devoted to studying the ancient immortal recipe. Reinvigorated, Xu Henshui set aside all other concerns and threw himself into researching with undivided focus. Although he failed to find modern equivalents for the remaining ancient ingredients, merely studying the core principles of forming the pill from the formula yielded immense gains for him.
When he woke from the dream, Xu Henshui felt utterly exhausted in mind and spirit, while his divine sense throbbed with inexplicable waves of pain. His memories of the immortal's dreamscape had turned exceedingly faint once more, most of them forgotten. Yet the memories regarding the immortal recipe and its alchemical principles remained crystal clear in his mind, filling him with ecstasy.
Xu Henshui rubbed the back of his head, only to realize the ache was not physical, but his divine sense throbbing in pain. Groaning softly, he stood up, only for his gaze to suddenly freeze!
The formation he had set up to protect his divine sense had been completely destroyed!
Xu Henshui hurriedly summoned the guarding disciples, but they merely looked bewildered, reporting that no one had entered the courtyard and not a sound had come from the room.
Those who had accompanied him to Qingming were all outstanding disciples of the Monastery of Creation, irreproachable in both ability and loyalty; Xu Henshui naturally had no reason to suspect foul play. Furthermore, these disciples were merely at the Dao Foundation realm, while Xu Henshui himself was at the dharma idol realm. If even he had failed to sense anything amiss, how could these disciples have noticed anything?
For the entire following day, Xu Henshui remained on edge, nearly forgetting even his skincare routine.
Yet by the midnight hour, his mind was consumed solely by the alchemical principles he had labored over the previous night.
This ancient immortal recipe was clearly quite complete. The entire pill-forming process was displayed before his eyes, separated from a direct true-intent inheritance by only the thinnest veil. Every such immortal formula was infinitely precious; after only studying it for a single night, Xu Henshui already felt his alchemy had advanced another step.
He turned the matter over in his mind, finally stomping his foot with a soft sigh before leaning back on the couch and sinking into slumber.
This time, he did not even bother laying down a formation to guard his soul.
At that moment, Wei Yuan was studying a map, contemplating the surrounding situation, when a sudden stirring touched his heart—he sensed another disturbance within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.
As soon as Wei Yuan sent his divine sense into the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, he saw Xu Henshui's figure materialize.
Xu Henshui was clearly suspended between waking and dreaming. As he drifted in a muddled daze, the Yin-Yang Maiden appeared behind him and slipped a black cloth sack straight over his head, cutting off most of his senses.
Immediately after, the Yin-Yang Maiden vanished alongside Xu Henshui, reappearing inside a stone hall. In the center of the hall hovered an orb of light; other than that, it was completely empty.
Xu Henshui proved thoroughly docile, sitting down cross-legged beneath the orb of light and immediately beginning his comprehension.
Wei Yuan was all too familiar with this orb of light: it was none other than the ancient immortal recipe for the Kunyuan Longevity Pill, which he had received as a true-intent inheritance. It was just that Wei Yuan's alchemical attainments were ordinary and he had never found the time to delve into it, leaving the formula sitting idle.
Yet Xu Henshui was a dharma idol cultivator, and no ordinary one at that. How had he been hauled inside as well?
The categorization of dharma idols mirrored that of Dao Foundations, divided into the four ranks of Immortal, Heaven, Earth, and Mortal. A Mortal Tier dharma idol generally corresponded to Earth Tier and Heaven Tier Dao Foundations; an Earth Idol corresponded to Heaven Foundations and immortal foundations.
Heaven Idols and Immortal Idols naturally could only be achieved from an Immortal Tier Dao Foundation. Thus, even among cultivators with immortal foundations, the disparity between them was massive—even greater than the divide between an immortal foundation and a Mortal Foundation.
Xu Henshui's dharma idol was the Orchid Immortal, which by all measures was a Heaven Idol. Thus, Wei Yuan never could have imagined Xu Henshui could be dragged into his own dharma idol's heaven and earth. It seemed the grade of his Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World needed to be reevaluated.
However, once inside, Xu Henshui's Orchid Immortal idol had been sealed directly by the Yin-Yang Maiden, who also shut down nearly all of his sensory faculties, leaving him to interact solely with the ancient immortal recipe.
As for Xu Henshui, being a true scholar, the moment he laid eyes on the ancient recipe, he threw himself into comprehending it with single-minded devotion, forgetting all else.
Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing the fellow's senses were sealed; otherwise, with the Yin-Yang Maiden completely unclothed right now, wouldn't it be an immense loss if that fellow laid eyes on her?
The instant the thought crossed Wei Yuan's mind, the Yin-Yang Maiden turned her head to look at him. Wei Yuan inwardly cried out in dismay, having nearly forgotten that she had now developed sentience and was no longer the puppet he could manipulate at will.
The Yin-Yang Maiden looked down at herself, and garments suddenly materialized over her body one by one. The final layer was a scholar's robe, identical in style to Zhang Sheng's.
Wei Yuan felt an overwhelming urge to slap himself. Wild wandering thoughts were truly unacceptable.
After a short while, the time arrived for Xu Henshui to awaken. Xu Henshui withdrew his divine sense, exceedingly reluctant to depart. At that moment, the Yin-Yang Maiden quietly materialized behind him and struck the back of his head with a palm strike, smacking him out of the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains while shattering almost all of his memories, leaving him only the portions related to the immortal recipe.
Where Xu Henshui had been sitting, several glowing orbs of various sizes remained—each containing his comprehension of the ancient immortal recipe. The Yin-Yang Maiden picked up the orbs and sorted them together, and just like that, a wealth of alchemical knowledge flooded into Wei Yuan's consciousness.
Standing off to the side, Wei Yuan was left utterly dumbfounded, unable to believe even now that such a thing had taken place inside his own dharma idol heaven and earth.
Had he, the Domain Lord, been reduced to a mere ornament?
Chapter 423