Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation.
Qin Sang reviewed the past, reflecting upon the path he had walked.
Compared to his previous breakthroughs, forming the Nascent Soul this time seemed far less fraught with struggle, carrying an air of effortless inevitability, like water flowing naturally along a dug channel.
Yet when he looked back upon each leg of his journey—the grueling efforts he had poured into preparing for this breakthrough, the trials and tribulations he had endured—which chapter of it had truly been simple?
The Nine Illusions Heavenly Orchid.
Back when he was still in the Qi Refining stage, enslaved through insect gu arts by Yi Tiannie, a Core Formation cultivator of the Kuiyin Sect, he had risked his life to infiltrate the Yuanzhao Sect and stolen it amidst the turmoil.
When he obtained the spirit herb, it still required more than five hundred years to mature.
Qin Sang had thought he would never live to see the day he could use it.
Who could have known that Yi Tiannie was not dead? Under Qin Sang's very nose, he had lurked inside a refined corpse for decades, biding his time until Qin Sang unleashed the Void Sky Thunder before seizing the opportunity to strike.
At the time, Qin Sang had only been at Foundation Establishment. Fortunately, he had condensed a corpse core within his body, allowing him to turn calamity into fortune, slay Yi Tiannie in a counterattack, and obtain that supreme treasure, the Three Light Divine Water.
After that, he had drifted across the Sea of Canglang for over a hundred years and ventured three times into the Hall of Seven Kills before finally locating a teleportation array. Returning to the Xiaohan Realm, he nurtured the herb with the Three Light Divine Water to hasten its maturity, and asked Yunyouzi to refine the Calamity-Transcending Pill for him.
The Soul-Cleansing Liquid.
When the Hall of Seven Kills opened ahead of its cycle, the yield of spirit liquid was far less than in previous eras, and Venerable Ye, a Nascent Soul cultivator from the East Pole Alliance, was lurking in the shadows.
Qin Sang was only at the Core Formation stage. Though he cooperated with Mingwei and bargained with Su Nü, peril still hemmed him in at every turn. Straining every resource at his command, he snatched away the Soul-Cleansing Liquid before the watchful eyes of all.
Then, caught in an unexpected upheaval atop Yitian Peak, he was forced to flee into the poison pool, where he had nearly fed the liquid entirely to Yagu.
The Heavenly Eye Butterfly.
A natal insect gu was an esoteric art of the Witch Clan.
As a human, he lacked the innate gifts of the Witch Clan and was forced to forfeit a slot for a natal magic treasure.
Without the jade Buddha protecting him—sparing him any fear of the insect turning against its master—and without the exceedingly rare Scarlet Fire Flowing Gold in his possession, Qin Sang likely would never have embarked on this path, much less dared to choose an extraordinary insect like the Heavenly Eye Butterfly as his natal insect gu.
The journey to obtain the Scarlet Fire Flowing Gold had been harrowing at every step: as a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, he had been used as a pathfinding pawn by Old Man Dique, and later came within an inch of having his body seized by Daoist Xuanyu.
Only after undergoing a mutation and acquiring the divine ability to wield lightning did the Heavenly Eye Butterfly reach where it stood today, devouring the Green Luan's essence blood to break through to its fourth transformation.
Body refinement.
A demon cultivation method!
Sealed within a bone flute, the technique had been cleaved into three and scattered across three cultivation realms, only to be assembled piece by piece by Qin Sang.
Once again, it was the jade Buddha that made it possible for Qin Sang to practice such an art.
Visualizing the Green Luan, he forcibly refined his body. Straining for every possible breakthrough, he had infiltrated the Landou Sect in the Sea of Canglang, and upon returning here, entered the treasury of a demon king while still in the Core Formation stage, stealing the treasure and making his escape right before the eyes of a Transformation stage demon king.
And of course, even more crucial was his fundamental technique.
The hardships endured throughout its cultivation went without saying.
Having weathered all of this, he had finally reached today's height!
Qin Sang cast his mind over those arduous journeys, reliving the emotions of each moment and losing himself in the memories.
Every impassable obstacle.
Every brush with death.
Every joy of harvest.
...
At times his brow furrowed deeply; at times he was lucid, at times elated. Gradually, the ripples of emotion faded from his face until his mind grew as tranquil as still water. From that depth of calm arose an inexhaustible spring of confidence.
*I have braved ten thousand perils—who else could claim the Nascent Soul if not me!*
*Crack!*
The jade bottle popped open on its own.
The Calamity-Transcending Pill leaped out from within.
Enveloped in spiritual mist, dense vapors immediately swirled before Qin Sang.
Keeping his eyes closed, he opened his mouth and swallowed the pill. A refreshing coolness burst within his body, and his true essence surged as though coming to a boil.
With a solemn look, Qin Sang channeled his full strength to refine the pill's medicinal power, opening his comprehension to the Great Dao.
...
Outside the island.
Li Yufu and the others had already waited for half a month.
The island remained extraordinarily serene.
Knowing this was not a matter to be rushed, they carried out their duties diligently to protect Qin Sang, regularly patrolling the perimeter to guard against any unforeseen mishap.
Several more days slipped by.
Returning to Bai after a patrol, their eyes held traces of worry. Qin Sang had sent no word and made no appearance for so long; they wondered if the conditions had simply not yet ripened.
"Senior..."
Li Yufu parted his lips, just about to ask something, when Bai suddenly jerked his head up and stared straight toward the island.
An instant later, Li Yufu and the three demons finally sensed the anomaly.
Fierce winds erupted out of nowhere, churning massive waves to the sky!
In the blink of an eye, the tranquil waters of the lake were thrown into utter turmoil.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth grew wild and restless, fluctuating violently before rushing madly toward the island where Qin Sang sat—a spectacle identical to the scene when Yunyouzi had faced his tribulation.
"The Nascent Soul is beginning to coalesce!"
Bai's face lit up with joy, and he swiftly issued instructions.
Li Yufu and the three demons dispersed to their stations.
*Rumble...*
The colliding streams of spiritual energy grew impossibly dense, congealing into a visible spiritual tide that hovered at the eye of the tempest, emitting muffled peals of thunder.
As the spiritual energy mutated, black clouds rolled across the sky. Though it was broad daylight, darkness fell rapidly, and genuine lightning began to flicker within the dark clouds.
As time passed, the celestial phenomenon grew increasingly astonishing.
The spiritual energy of the world was swept up wholesale, gathering toward the heart of the storm. Building thicker and denser, its radiant glow gradually became blinding, as though an ocean of light had materialized above the island.
Bai kept his gaze fixed on the sea of light, tension showing in his eyes.
He knew well that what came next was the most critical step. Qin Sang had surely ingested the Calamity-Transcending Pill.
Succeed, and the Nascent Soul would form.
Fail, and who knew when another opportunity for breakthrough would ever present itself again.
*Whoosh...*
The sea of light whirled rapidly with colossal momentum, expanding its reach farther and farther, yet it hesitated to descend.
At this sight, Bai's gaze grew heavier by the second.
Suddenly, a dramatic shift overtook the sea of light. Every speck of fluorescence converged madly toward the center, compressing the spiritual energy to its absolute limit. With a resonant hum, it plunged straight down into the island!
In an instant, the sea of light dispersed, giving way to waves of multi-hued radiance.
A seven-colored sunset glow blossomed into view, breathtaking and resplendent—the unmistakable harbinger of a successfully formed Nascent Soul!
The onlookers let out a collective breath of relief. Even as they rejoiced for Qin Sang, their expressions held traces of envy and yearning, longing for the day they might reach such a height themselves.
Yet coalescing the Nascent Soul was merely the beginning.
The supernatural phenomena did not fade; rather, they intensified.
At the crest of the island's mountain, Qin Sang sat cross-legged with eyes closed, his body trembling faintly as invisible yin fire manifested out of the void.
The instant Qin Sang's Nascent Soul took shape, the heavenly tribulation struck. Yin fire ignited from within his body, burning through his five viscera and four limbs until he felt completely engulfed, as if his entire being would be reduced to ash.
This tribulation was not exceedingly difficult.
For Qin Sang, who was thoroughly versed in body refinement, there was even less cause for worry. Though his frame trembled, he withstood the yin fire purely through fleshly might, enduring the searing agony without uttering a single groan.
When enduring the impact of the Green Luan's essence blood, the tearing pain had been every bit as excruciating as this; Qin Sang had long grown accustomed to it.
He even had enough strength left to use the tribulation to temper his physique, reaping considerable benefits and advancing another step forward.
By the time the yin fire tribulation came to an end, Qin Sang consumed healing pills, and his condition quickly recovered to near perfection. He was even left with a lingering sense of wanting more.
As the yin fire faded, the bifeng wind arose!
The world around Qin Sang plunged into gloom as grey bifeng wind gathered thicker and thicker about him.
The very ordeal that had befallen Yunyouzi was now repeating itself upon him, and Qin Sang's heart sank.
Chapter 1153