Even if an untouched medicine garden lacked spiritual herbs capable of repairing one's foundation, there might still be other fine treasures; in any case, the trip would not be in vain.
All of Qin Sang's baleful corpses had been destroyed, leaving him with only a few zombies.
However, after weighing his options, Qin Sang decided to concentrate on nurturing the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman, hoping to restore it fully before setting out.
On the one hand, the corpses of Foundation Establishment cultivators were difficult to come by; in the past, when he went "fishing" for them, long periods would pass between successes. On the other hand, from the perspective of self-preservation, the talisman was far more valuable than baleful corpses.
While Qin Sang could not yet determine the secret talisman's true power, he estimated that once it was restored, activating it would grant him speed at least comparable to a late Foundation Establishment cultivator.
In many perilous situations, that would allow him to respond with ease.
Holding the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman in his palm, Qin Sang communicated with the flood dragon spirit soul within. He learned that its soul had first been severely wounded by the golden bell, and resisting the encroaching magma had consumed immense energy, meaning it too would require a long time to recover.
If the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman could be repaired, its recovery would accelerate as well.
Since Qin Sang had already subdued the flood dragon spirit soul, he did not fear any backlash once it returned to its peak. Moreover, the spirit soul was not a true flood dragon, but more akin to an artifact spirit; its primary function was to boost the talisman's flight speed, and it lacked sufficient strength to aid him in combat.
Having communicated with the spirit soul and gained a deeper understanding of the talisman, Qin Sang drew it back into his dantian, circulating his spiritual power with all his might to envelop it.
As threads of spiritual power entered the secret talisman, it shone brilliantly, accompanied by the faint roar of a flood dragon. The two halves of the talisman drew tightly together, a milky-white luminescence gleaming along the fissure.
Clearly sensing that the repair of the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman had sped up, Qin Sang nodded to himself. Pausing for the moment, he turned his attention to the bone slip.
Both the Soul-Seizing Incantation and the Void Origin Seal were essential to master, and aside from those, several other incantations within the Dutian Demonic Sound were also very practical, which Qin Sang planned to practice as well.
Sinking his spiritual sense into the bone slip, Qin Sang closed his eyes, and the cave dwelling lapsed into quiet serenity.
A month later.
Qin Sang abruptly opened his eyes, divine light bursting from his gaze as he uttered a low cry: "Congeal!"
Before him, an illusory great seal took shape in an instant. The seal was square, bearing no ordinary words, only mysterious seal script. With a thought from Qin Sang, it shrank sharply and flew into the space between his brows.
Within the origin soul space, the jade Buddha's yellow light emerged. Outside that yellow glow, the Heart-Devouring Insect lay motionless.
The Void Origin Seal descended precisely over the Heart-Devouring Insect, sealing it and suppressing its emitted fluctuations to an absolute minimum.
At long last, a portion of this troubling affliction was resolved.
Qin Sang felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his chest, his entire being considerably lighter. A slight smile surfaced on his face. Without resting, he went on to master the Soul-Seizing Incantation and several other incantations one by one. Afterwards, he focused on nurturing the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman while awaiting Yunyouzi's arrival.
Time slipped by unnoticed during cultivation, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, the restrictions outside the cave dwelling were stirred.
Qin Sang awoke from his meditative trance. The secret talisman rotated slowly within his sea of qi; the fissure down its center had narrowed considerably, leaving only a faint line scarcely visible to the naked eye. The flood dragon spirit soul had also recovered significantly, far less feeble than before.
For now, the talisman could be used at a pinch, likely granting him speed equivalent to the middle Foundation Establishment stage.
Yet it remained fragile, demanding caution whenever employed.
Pensive, Qin Sang opened his eyes and swept his spiritual sense outward, only to discover with surprise that the visitor was not Yunyouzi, but Yu Daiyue.
What was he doing here?
Puzzled, but unwilling to turn a guest away, Qin Sang dispersed the cave dwelling's restrictions and stood to welcome him.
"Senior Brother Yu, what brings you to my humble dwelling? Please, come in!"
Qin Sang wore a warm smile as he cordially invited Yu Daiyue inside.
"Hearing that you were deep in closed-door cultivation, Junior Brother Qin, I hesitated for a long time before deciding to disturb you, fearful of interrupting your progress," Yu Daiyue said with a smile, cupping his hands as he walked in.
"An honored guest brings luster to my crude abode—I could not be more delighted!"
With a wave of his hand, Qin Sang condensed ice into a table and chairs, set out clear tea, and gestured. "Please take a seat, Senior Brother Yu. Forgive the crudeness of my dwelling."
Yu Daiyue glanced around the chamber, which held nothing more than a solitary ice bed, and sighed with admiration. "You harbor no desire for comfort and remain undisturbed by worldly things, Junior Brother Qin. That is truly the temperament an immortal cultivator should possess. No wonder your cultivation advances by leaps and bounds, leaving me behind."
Hearing this, Qin Sang felt helpless.
Ever since their encounter in the trial space, Yu Daiyue had been convinced that Qin Sang's strength had surged. No matter how Qin Sang tried to explain, the man simply refused to believe him, so Qin Sang had stopped wasting his breath.
After sitting down, Yu Daiyue got straight to the point. "Junior Brother Qin, not to take up too much of your cultivation time, I shall be direct. Does your life spirit sword still need to consume spirit wood?"
Qin Sang's heart stirred. Back at the Heavenly Corpse Sect station, Yu Daiyue had promised to keep an eye out for spirit wood; he hadn't expected the man to remember.
"Thank you for keeping that in mind, Senior Brother Yu. My life spirit sword is exceedingly gluttonous, so the more spirit wood, the better. If you have any fine spirit wood on hand, I would gladly pay a generous price to buy it from you—I certainly won't let you come away disappointed."
Qin Sang figured that with more than ten thousand spirit stones on him, he could afford most types of spirit wood. As for anything rarer, Yu Daiyue likely wouldn't be willing to part with it anyway.
To his surprise, Yu Daiyue shook his head. "You misunderstand, Junior Brother Qin. I don't possess any spirit wood myself, but I know of an Earth Fire Coiling Tung within the ancient cultivator's abandoned abode. That is why I came to invite you to return there with me."
Seeing Qin Sang's surprise, Yu Daiyue explained, "You've been in secluded cultivation all this time, so you probably haven't heard..."
As it turned out, after their departure, Che Yutao and the others had enlisted several more Core Formation cultivators to help purge the abode. Among them was the cultivator surnamed Du whom they had met via the ancient teleportation array at Shangyuan Qingjing Palace, who had traveled here in person from the palace.
Only now did Qin Sang learn that this man was an expert at the late Golden Core stage, just a step away from Nascent Soul formation—no wonder Che Yutao had treated him with such deference.
Qin Sang could not resist asking, "Did Martial Uncle Che and the others manage to rescue Old Man Dique and Daoist Xuan Yu?"
Unfortunately, Yu Daiyue had few details. He only knew that the abode had largely stabilized, and that the vast majority of the fire spirit beasts had been slain, with the remainder no longer posing a coordinated threat.
Naturally, to Foundation Establishment cultivators, those beasts were still exceedingly dangerous; yet as long as several people entered together and exercised caution, they could handle them.
It was said that some of the restrictions on the peaks had been battered, losing their former rigidity, making the chances of breaking them quite favorable. By now, quite a few people, just like Yu Daiyue, had gathered companions to venture back into the ancient abode in search of treasures.
"I discovered that Earth Fire Coiling Tung earlier, but my strength was insufficient to break the restriction alone, and then the upheaval struck, forcing me to put it aside until now."
Chapter 274