Perhaps this rule had been established to prevent the Witch Clan's Nascent Soul experts from taking the supreme treasures within the Hall of Seven Killings. After all, Core Formation cultivators had limited cultivation and certainly could not outcompete human Nascent Soul cultivators.
Thus, the Nascent Soul Patriarchs of the Witch Clan were barred entry.
Yet Witch Clan cultivators did not have to fear being ambushed and slaughtered in the Hall of Seven Killings. In order to join forces and combat the demon race in the Storm Demon Sea, humanity and the Witch Clan had forged an agreement.
At least in the Canglang Sea, the two races maintained an outward display of amity. There had been no major war for a long time, and relations were far less tense than before.
Moreover, concerning the Hall of Seven Killings, humanity had made promises to the Witch Clan. They naturally would not tear up their pact and disgrace themselves over mere Core Formation cultivators.
For this reason, whenever word spread that the Hall of Seven Killings was opening, a group of Witch Clan Core Formation cultivators would cross the distant ocean to seek treasures, and Du Han had been one of them.
As for why Du Han had journeyed tens of thousands of li in the early Core Formation stage to brave a human secret realm, it was tied to the path he had chosen.
This also cleared up Qin Sang's earlier confusion.
The Canglang Sea differed little from what Qin Sang had learned previously: spiritual materials and medicinal pills—especially supreme treasures on the level of heavenly materials and earthly treasures—were exceedingly scarce, nowhere near as abundant as in the Lesser Cold Domain.
Yet human cultivators here actually found it easier to achieve Core Formation than those in the Lesser Cold Domain.
This was tied to a pill known as the Fiend Demon Pill.
Similar to the Blood Bone Pill, this pill was refined using demon beasts as the primary ingredient, supplemented by common spiritual herbs, and had the miraculous effect of aiding Core Formation!
That both the Witch Clan and humanity coincided in choosing demon beasts for pill refinement was not because the Blood Bone Pill and Fiend Demon Pill shared a connection, but out of sheer necessity.
Lacking other resources, they had no choice but to treat demon beasts as their resource.
Though hunting demons in the Storm Demon Sea was fraught with danger, it was far more attainable than heavenly materials and earthly treasures that simply could not be found anywhere.
However, taking the Fiend Demon Pill carried massive risks, just like the Blood Bone Pill.
Because the Fiend Demon Pill was refined from demon beasts, once completed, it contained a trace of demonic fiend qi that even the grandmasters of alchemy in the Canglang Sea could not purge.
When a False Core cultivator refined the pill's medicinal power, it stimulated the spiritual power in their dantian, increasing their chances of breaking through. At the same time, however, the demonic fiend qi within the Fiend Demon Pill invaded their body and took root in their origin soul!
The more Fiend Demon Pills one consumed, the more demonic fiend qi accumulated in the body.
If the demonic fiend qi erupted, the cultivator would succumb to madness and lose their sanity beyond cure. Thus, there was a strict limit on how many Fiend Demon Pills one could take; no one could consume them recklessly.
Even so, their odds of forming a core were substantially higher than those of cultivators in the Lesser Cold Domain.
The hidden peril of demonic fiend qi entering the body manifested gradually after Core Formation. Not only would a faint, phantom trace of demon qi cling to the cultivator, but it also impaired their combat prowess post-breakthrough.
Worst of all, if the demonic fiend qi in the origin soul was not purged, it would hamper subsequent breakthroughs.
When breaking through minor realms, the impact was barely tolerable.
Yet when striving for the Nascent Soul stage, if even a single trace of demonic fiend qi remained in the origin soul, successful Nascent Soul formation was utterly impossible!
Every cultivator who relied on the Fiend Demon Pill to break through had to embark on a long and arduous journey of cleansing their origin soul and purging the demonic fiend qi after succeeding. Rooted in the origin soul, this qi was exceedingly stubborn; many cultivators reached the late Core Formation stage and still could not purge it completely, left with nothing to do but sigh in frustration before the Nascent Soul realm.
Therefore, among an equal number of False Core cultivators, far more could achieve Core Formation in the Canglang Sea than in the Lesser Cold Domain, but when it came to those who could break through to the Nascent Soul stage, the numbers were virtually identical.
Such Fiend Demon Pills could only be crafted by Canglang Sea cultivators with the Storm Demon Sea at their backs; the Lesser Cold Domain had nowhere near enough demon beasts for cultivators to slaughter.
After all, refining Fiend Demon Pills had requirements for the demon beasts used: beasts at the peak of the Demon Spirit stage or the early Demon Core stage yielded the best results.
If the cultivation was too low, the medicinal potency was insufficient.
If the cultivation was too high, the demonic fiend qi within the pill became too intense for the consumer to withstand.
Furthermore, Fiend Demon Pills were divided according to the Five Elements, and there were strict rules regarding which kind a cultivator should ingest.
The temptation of the Fiend Demon Pill was simply too immense, offering hope to those who could not otherwise achieve Core Formation.
While quite a few still chose to form their cores through their own strength alone, those were standout elites blessed with outstanding talent and absolute self-confidence. The vast majority of cultivators found the temptation of the Fiend Demon Pill impossible to resist.
Qin Sang understood this mindset well; he had felt much the same way when selling himself into servitude to achieve Foundation Establishment.
Break through first, then deal with the hidden troubles later.
For Qin Sang, this was actually good news: any opponents he faced in the future would have their strength diminished by the demonic fiend qi, making them easier to handle.
Qin Sang even considered finding a few Fiend Demon Pills to consume so he could feign weakness to his enemies.
In any case, he had the jade Buddha and did not fear demonic fiend qi invading his origin soul.
After learning of the Fiend Demon Pill's effects from Du Han, Qin Sang could not help drifting into thought.
Protected by the jade Buddha, the hidden dangers of the Fiend Demon Pill were practically nonexistent for him; he could have eaten as many as he wished. If he had ended up in the Canglang Sea back then, why would he have had to toil so bitterly, refining himself into a corpse just to find a chance at Core Formation?
Then again, had he landed here, he would never have obtained the Origin Soul Sword-Nurturing Chapter.
On one hand was the difficulty of breaking through; on the other was the speed of cultivation.
Which mattered more was something only Qin Sang could weigh for himself.
Earlier, Qin Sang had felt that Du Han did not live up to his reputation, precisely because Du Han had consumed a Fiend Demon Pill.
Effective as the Fiend Demon Pill was, only a minority of Witch Clan cultivators chose to take it.
First was naturally due to those drawbacks.
Second, for reasons unknown, once demonic fiend qi entered a Witch Clan cultivator's body, they would lose their innate talents, becoming unable to suppress the backlash of their natal insect gu and leaving them no choice but to abandon it.
Not only would their strength plummet, but years of painstaking effort would be undone in an instant.
Furthermore, it was said that the chance of breaking through with a Fiend Demon Pill was not significantly higher than doing so with a natal insect gu. Witch Clan cultivators would only consider it when driven to a dead end.
It was under circumstances of hopeless Core Formation that Du Han had hardened his heart, abandoned his natal insect gu, and relied on a Fiend Demon Pill to achieve Core Formation in one stroke.
Once that step was taken, there was no turning back.
After forming his core, Du Han had traveled abroad to gain experience, making friends with many human cultivators and switching to human cultivation methods. His entry into the Hall of Seven Killings this time was for the exact same reason.
Little did he expect that on his very first venture into the Hall of Seven Killings, he would witness a major event: an ancient corpse falling from the sky!
The sight had left an indelible impression on the cultivators present, and an alert individual had sealed the image within a crystal, a piece of which lay inside Du Han's mustard seed bag.
The descent of the ancient corpse had occurred at the most magnificent ancient pagoda in the Hall of Seven Killings.
Encircled by layers of clouds and piercing high into the firmament, this ancient pagoda was known as the Heaven Tower.
Inside the Heaven Tower lay countless restrictions, fraught with extreme peril; legend had it that not even humanity's Nascent Soul Patriarchs had managed to reach the summit.
In such a place, an ancient corpse had suddenly fallen from the heavens. This was a sight never seen before, and one could imagine the sensation it caused.
Many suspected that the severed-arm ancient corpse belonged to an ancient cultivator from the top of the Heaven Tower. Even if it did not, any cultivator capable of breaching the tower's summit was no ordinary figure and might well carry supreme treasures.
At that time, many cultivators near the Heaven Tower were drawn over, among them no small number of Nascent Soul Patriarchs.
Yet despite so many present, they could only watch helplessly as the severed-arm ancient corpse vanished into thin air.
Chapter 661