Cui Dan and his old servant had waited outside the gate for half a day before the primordial dan Qian Chen was nurturing finally reached the threshold of emergence. A crack of thunder rumbled within his Mysterious Gate aperture, and the primordial chaos was suddenly torn asunder as dozens of streams of spiritual qi manifested, imbued with the dao wonders of the primordial dan.
Leaping out from the Mysterious Gate, the primordial dan broke free of the aperture and hovered behind Qian Chen's head, melding seamlessly into one with his true qi like an internal dan borne outside his body.
With a mere connection to his true qi, the primordial dan immediately poured down emerald true qi, blessing Qian Chen.
With every gesture and every stray thought, the power of his spells and magical implements grew tens of times greater than before, rivaling someone at the pinnacle of Core Formation. At this moment, with an external dan upon him, Qian Chen's cultivation attainment equaled that of an unorthodox cultivator who had formed a seventh-grade core—a level that could truly be called possessing immense magical power in this mortal world.
Though this was his first time refining pills, he genuinely did not feel that the Dao of Alchemy was all that difficult. The countless formidable hurdles recorded in Geng Yuanzi's alchemy treatise had been passed by Qian Chen with effortless ease.
Thus, the primordial dan he had refined brought out the essence of the gang-sha qi to its fullest, reaching the quality of the upper seventh grade.
Unlike ordinary botanical spirit pills, this primordial dan was a foundational great dan of cultivation, akin to the very core of a cultivator's life and soul. Its grade therefore corresponded to the grades of Core Formation, belonging to a completely different system from ingestible spirit pills.
With the primordial dan's empowerment, the various primordial qi Qian Chen was refining within a single furnace used his Mysterious Gate aperture as the cauldron. Hundreds of types of primordial qi reacted and combined with one another. Following the pill formulas and the nature of each qi, Qian Chen fused them together in bundles of several or several dozen. His cultivation attainment had advanced by leaps and bounds; a step he had initially thought would prove somewhat difficult was now surmounted with ease.
Once the primordial qi within the Mysterious Gate had combined and condensed into dozens of streams, Qian Chen gave a low shout: "Congeal!"
A series of crackling sounds burst from within the Mysterious Gate. Qian Chen beckoned with his hand, and dozens of spirit pills tumbled out from the aperture in the void, solidifying into pills of varying colors and sizes, radiating a wondrous, enticing fragrance. Pulling out his little red gourd, Qian Chen drew close and stored away the vast majority of the spirit pills.
"Having first forged an external qi primordial dan, my cultivation attainment is nothing like before. Completing the pills in one breath afterward went even more smoothly than anticipated—producing seventeen varieties and over ninety pills in a single batch. Pills refined from pure primordial qi contain no impurities and are the purest of their kind, truly superior among dan. Normally, the hardest part of refining pills from primordial qi is the materials. Yet by seizing the moment when the gang-sha qi formed the primordial dan, I skillfully transformed the miscellaneous qi into primordial chaos before separating them out.
"Could the stray qi within gang-sha qi possibly be insignificant?
"Ordinary qi would have been eroded away long ago. Many of the impurities surviving in gang-sha qi are even more precious than the gang-sha qi itself—they are merely far too scarce and exceedingly difficult to utilize, like microscopic traces of gold in red copper...
"In the end, the Taishang Alchemy Book is truly inexhaustible in its profound subtleties..."
Qian Chen was initially delighted, but then quickly set his mind to recalling every nuance of the process that had mirrored a cultivator forming a core. Refining this single primordial dan was equivalent to experiencing Core Formation firsthand, bestowing upon him boundless benefits. Only now did he understand why no true transmission disciple of the Taishang Dao ever formed a core below the first grade—if one had simulated Core Formation a hundred or eighty times in a cauldron and still let the dan scatter, the cauldron fly, and the grand medicine be ruined, a Taishang successor ought to apologize to the Dao Ancestor with their life!
Other cultivators had only one chance in their entire lives, with no regrets once the core was formed... Alas! We in the Taishang Dao spend a century forming cores through thousands of simulations... While others rely on stumbling into fortuitous encounters, for the Taishang Dao—it is merely a matter of practice making perfect!
"This would draw far too much hatred!" Qian Chen shook his head. "No wonder it can never be spoken aloud!
"Just thinking about it makes even me indignant! How could the Taishang Dao be so unreasonable? Just because the Grandmaster opened the Great Dao of the Golden Dan, does that make him so special? Keeping such a trick up his sleeve..."
Though Qian Chen grinned cheerfully, his hands never ceased working. He familiarized himself with the external qi primordial dan while restoring his true qi cultivation. Once his mental exhaustion from pill refinement had mostly abated, he waved his sleeve to release the aura suppressed by the Heavenly Net Umbrella. Immediately, an indescribable, wondrous fragrance wafted out from the alchemy chamber. Standing outside the gate, tiptoeing to peer into the courtyard, Cui Dan and Uncle Wu—who was clutching his young master tightly to keep him from acting so unseemly—both caught the medicinal scent. It invigorated the spirit and sent a soothing warmth throughout their true qi, subtly purifying their cultivation.
A strange glow instantly lit up Cui Dan's eyes, and he exclaimed in excitement, "There really is an expert refining pills... This scent... Pah! The Sensing Pill the Daoist abbey sold me was indeed a defective dud! I took a huge loss!"
"Young Master, your bearing... your bearing!" the old servant urged, holding him back. "Do not compromise the dignity of the Cui clan."
Just then, the person Qian Chen had long been anticipating finally arrived. A dark shadow streaked across the sky as seven streaks of reddish-black light darted like blazing shooting stars or sparkling electric embers, aiming straight for Qian Chen's courtyard. Suppressing the manifestation of the Heavenly Net Umbrella, Qian Chen merely unfurled the Seven Baleful Banner to protect himself.
A thick, jet-black mist suddenly descended, enveloping the small cottage, within which seven streams of baleful qi swirled.
With a single strike, the seven reddish-black lights shattered the other buildings in the courtyard, startling and scattering the cluster of sprites outside. Only the inner room where Qian Chen resided remained securely shielded by the black mist.
From a distance, someone laughed. "You must be the thief who killed my junior brother! In consideration of your hard work refining pills, offer up the spirit pills and bind yourself to plead for mercy, and I might just spare your life! Otherwise, did you think disciples of Mount Mei were so easily pushed around? I'll have your head rolling!"
"So the fellow brandishing a tiger-head banner that day, looking neither Buddhist nor Daoist, was your junior brother!" Qian Chen sneered. "He had no sense of life or death, and you are no virtuous soul either. It works out perfectly to kill you as well, making a pair so he won't be all alone on the road to the Yellow Springs—how pitiful that would be!"
With a flick of his right hand, the Dragon Sparrow Ring swept out with incredible swiftness, scooping up all seven sparks of flame in a single pass.
Then, retracting the Heavenly Net Umbrella, a heavenly net of clear qi spread across several li in an instant before sweeping downward, cloaking the entire surrounding area. As Qian Chen reeled in the umbrella and the clear qi closed in, Cui Dan and the old servant merely felt their bodies lighten as the clear qi drifted past them. Only a dark silhouette not far away was flushed out by the qi. As the clear qi converged, having no power to resist, the figure was instantly sucked into the Heavenly Net Umbrella in Qian Chen's hand.
Qian Chen gave the Heavenly Net Umbrella a shake, refining the person to death in a split second.
"A mere Spell Comprehension cultivator who hasn't even formed an unorthodox internal dan... and he dared come looking for trouble with me!"
Seeing everything unfold in the blink of an eye—taking only the span of two sentences for a heterodox demonic cultivator of no small skill to be drawn in and refined without the slightest power to fight back—Cui Dan and the old servant were struck with bewilderment. Why was this Mount Mei heterodox cultivator so heedless of his own survival, rashly charging in without even knowing the extent of the master's cultivation within?
Heaven knew that the man had first visited the Fox Grave and deduced from subtle clues that Qian Chen's cultivation could not possibly exceed Spell Comprehension. Moreover, having calculated that his enemy was expending mental energy on alchemy, he had believed this to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where he could also walk away with a furnace of spirit pills for free. Little did he imagine that after a mere two months, Qian Chen's strikes would already carry the power of Core Formation.
The old servant's gaze went blank, murmuring to himself in shock, "Are the waters in Guangling Commandery truly this deep?
"How could the young master casually take a stroll and run into such a master? Cultivation like this is not inferior even to a true transmission disciple of the Daoist orthodoxy. We waited outside the gate with less than impeccable etiquette; if he decides to take offense, how am I to protect the young master? I can only hope the Master's name still carries some weight..."
Cui Dan, on the other hand, was simply overjoyed at having encountered a true master. Straightening his clothes and headpiece immediately, he bowed with utmost respect. "Cui Dan, a junior of the Qinghe Cui clan, pays respects to the senior."
Qian Chen coughed lightly and cleared his throat, lowering his voice to disguise the overly clear tone of youth. "So it is Young Master Cui. Handsome and elegant indeed... Forgive this old man for my lack of hospitality. Please, come inside!"
Overjoyed, Cui Dan personally carried the gifts and stepped inside to pay his respects.
Upon entering the room, he was not surprised to see Qian Chen's exceedingly youthful face. But when his eyes landed on more than twenty spirit pills hovering in midair before Qian Chen, buoyed by a wisp of cloudy mist, his eyes could not help widening.
"These pills... why are they so pure?
"It is as if they possess not the slightest trace of turbulent heat..."
The old servant gently tugged at the corner of his robe and whispered, "Young Master, these are primordial qi pills—spirit pills refined by an eminent senior from the primordial qi of heaven and earth. They are the purest and rarest of all, free of any pill poison. None save a grand Core Formation cultivator could ever form pills this way. They are nothing like the botanical spirit medicines you usually see..."
The qi of the spirit pills formed the shape of lingzhi beneath the medicines, and the lingzhi qi took root atop an auspicious cloud—a spiritual wonder that Cui Dan had never witnessed in his entire life.
Qian Chen sat cross-legged, an auspicious cloud supporting him from below and another floating before him. Upon the cloud in front of him, the colorful spirit pills were either borne by pill qi transformed into lingzhi, or spinning nimbly, or swimming like wisps of spiritual light, or resting serenely like fine jade, or encircled by pill qi like a bubbling clear spring...
Qian Chen casually picked up a jade-like spirit pill and nonchalantly crushed it between his fingers, scattering it across the floor.
Cui Dan could not help letting out a gasp of surprise, only to see the Dengtuzi sprite hidden in his eye, the Ear Canal Deity in his ear, along with the Gold and Silver Boys, the Camphor Willow God, Miss Hua, and the other spirits that had fled earlier but lingered nearby watching from the shadows... as well as white-furred mice, twig-bearing magpies, and other spiritual creatures, all swarming forward to Qian Chen's feet, gathering and consuming the jade crumbs in their hands.
Qian Chen smiled and said, "Gathering the baleful qi of this courtyard to refine pills disrupted a portion of your fortunes as well. Consider this my repayment!"
Several sprites bowed cautiously, and the odd little beasts also stood upright on their hind legs, clasping their paws in salute... Cui Dan and Uncle Wu came to an enlightened realization: "No wonder this master stayed here to refine pills. Could there truly be a vein of yin-sha beneath this deserted manor?"
Chapter 44