Chapter 113 Divine Elixir! Great Evolution Technique, Level 3!
Having broken through to the mid-stage of Core Formation, and having tested the heaven-defying divine skill "Sealing Spirit Light" awakened by Xiao Jin, Zhou Ding felt exhilarated and his Dao heart was clear.
He did not rush to engage in deeper cultivation, but instead took several days to spend with Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei.
Or stroll atop Lingmu Peak to admire the sea of clouds and sunrise, and watch the mythical birds take flight.
Or, in the cave's medicinal garden, together we tend to the carefully cultivated spiritual plants and explore their medicinal properties.
Or perhaps in a quiet room, one can listen to Xin Ruyin explain her recent insights into the "Tianyuan Array Classic," watch her delicate hands outline array patterns, and hear her clear voice elucidate its profound mysteries.
Xiaomei would often come over and chatter away, sharing her progress and interesting stories about drawing talismans.
Inside the cave, everyone was happy and harmonious, filled with warmth and peace.
Zhou Ding knew that the path of cultivation required a balance of tension and relaxation.
Appropriate relaxation and emotional support can sometimes be more effective than arduous practice in stabilizing one's resolve and eliminating the restlessness that may result from rapid breakthroughs.
Looking at Xin Ruyin's serene and focused profile, and listening to Xiao Mei's cheerful laughter, his desire for power and his expectations for the future became even more firm and grounded.
He wants to become stronger, not only to seek immortality for himself, but also to protect the hard-won peace and warmth before him.
Several days later, Zhou Ding's mind was completely calmed, and he had no more distracting thoughts.
He stepped into that familiar quiet room once again, and with a wave of his hand, the stone door closed tightly, and layers of protective light flowed, isolating the inside from the outside.
Sitting cross-legged on a warm jade futon, Zhou Ding looked solemn. He flipped his hand, and a cold jade box covered with spirit-sealing talismans appeared in his palm.
Uncover the talisman and open the box. A cool, pure, and strange fragrance that seemed to cleanse the soul immediately wafted out. It was the Soul-Nourishing Lotus, a thousand-year-old spiritual herb that had cost eight thousand spirit stones to acquire.
Seven blood-red lotus leaves were crystal clear, and the dark golden lotus seedpod at the center exuded a Daoist aura. This lotus was an excellent substance for nourishing and strengthening the primordial spirit. Zhou Ding intended to use it as the main ingredient to refine an ancient elixir, the Spirit-Nourishing Pill, recorded in the "Heavenly Origin Elixir Scripture," specifically for tempering and replenishing the soul!
He did not act immediately.
Instead, he first took out the jade slip containing the recipe for the "Spirit-Nourishing Pill," and immersed his consciousness into it. He carefully considered, comprehended, and simulated the seventeen auxiliary medicines required for refining the pill, the pre-processing requirements for each medicine, the seventy-two key points for changing the heat, the thirty-six changes in the fusion of medicinal power, and the special "Concentration Seal" that needed to be injected when the pill was made, from beginning to end, several times.
Only after he was certain that he understood every step and every possible change did he slowly open his eyes, his gaze clear and bright.
"We can begin."
He took out the red copper alchemy furnace and placed it in front of him. He did not light a fire immediately, but first used his own pure wood-attribute magic power to slowly warm the inner wall of the furnace, allowing every inch of the furnace to be soaked in and familiar with his magic power, reaching the best resonance state.
This process lasted a full day.
The following morning, as the sun rose and purple clouds appeared in the east, Zhou Ding opened the furnace, took a wisp of his own elixir fire to ignite the bottom of the furnace, and gently warmed it with a low flame.
Once the furnace walls were evenly heated and gleamed with a reddish-copper luster, and the temperature inside the furnace reached a delicate equilibrium point, he moved with fluid grace, putting the first pre-processed auxiliary medicine, "An Shen Hua" (a type of herb), into the furnace.
For the next seven days, Zhou Ding was completely focused, his mind and spirit immersed in the small world within the alchemy furnace.
His divine sense was so powerful that it was comparable to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm. At this moment, it was being used to its fullest extent, transforming into countless tiny tentacles that permeated every corner of the alchemy furnace, precisely sensing the extraction, fusion, and changes of the medicinal essence of each herb at a specific temperature.
His ten fingers moved like butterflies flitting among flowers, constantly changing hand seals, sometimes flicking his fingers to adjust the size and temperature distribution of the flames.
Sometimes it would draw lines in the air, outlining "Green Wood Rejuvenation Seals" full of vitality, soothing the irritating medicinal power.
Sometimes he would clasp his hands together, forming the profound "Gathering Spirit and Condensing Elixir Seal," guiding the essence of medicinal power of different attributes to slowly converge towards the core.
The Soul-Nourishing Lotus, as the main ingredient, was added at noon on the eighth day, when the yang energy was at its peak.
Lotus leaves, lotus pods, and even parts of lotus roots, under Zhou Ding's skillful control, dissolve one by one in a specific order and proportion, merging with the essence of the auxiliary medicines that had already been partially integrated.
The aroma of medicine in the burner was sometimes crisp and refreshing, sometimes rich and fragrant, and eventually gradually settled into a deep and restrained fragrance that seemed to have a direct effect on the soul.
The array patterns on the furnace wall also began to light up automatically, absorbing the spiritual energy from the outside world and flowing into the furnace to assist in the formation of the pill.
On the ninth day, at midnight, all was quiet, and the moonlight was at its brightest.
Inside the alchemy furnace, all the medicinal essence finally fused perfectly, transforming into a fist-sized, constantly churning, viscous liquid of a chaotic, pale purple color.
Zhou Ding's expression was extremely solemn. He knew that the most crucial and dangerous moment of "condensing the core" had arrived!
He suddenly formed an extremely complex hand seal with both hands, and the powerful dantian energy in his body poured into the dantian furnace without reservation. At the same time, a wisp of extremely condensed divine consciousness power from the ancestral aperture between his eyebrows also silently poured into the ball of dantian liquid along with the hand seal!
"Freeze!"
Zhou Ding let out a low shout, and the hand seals in his hands suddenly changed!
"Buzz—!"
The alchemy furnace trembled violently, and the chaotic, pale purple liquid inside suddenly contracted, spun, and solidified! A dazzling purple light burst forth from the cracks in the furnace lid, illuminating the entire quiet room!
An indescribable, powerful wave, seemingly capable of repairing the defects of the soul and strengthening the origin of the spirit, accompanied by a refreshing fragrance of elixir, suddenly spread!
The radiance lasted for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before slowly dissipating.
Zhou Ding took a deep breath to calm his slightly rapid breathing and his exhausted mind.
He reached out and grabbed at the air, and the stove lid opened with a snap.
At the bottom of the furnace, three pills, roughly the size of longans, with a deep, pure dark purple color, naturally cloud-like patterns on their surfaces, and seemingly nebulae slowly rotating inside, lay quietly, radiating a spiritual aura that soothed the mind and soul.
The Spirit-Nourishing Pill is complete!
Moreover, they are three high-quality, near-perfect finished products!
A relieved and joyful smile finally appeared on Zhou Ding's face.
It was worth all the effort he put in. The difficulty of refining this Spirit-Nourishing Pill far exceeds that of the Snow Lotus Pill and the Purple Spirit Pill, and the requirements for spiritual sense and control are abnormally high.
Fortunately, his spiritual sense was strong enough and his foundation was solid enough, which enabled him to succeed in one go and form three pills.
He carefully placed the three Spirit-Nourishing Pills into a specially made Soul-Nourishing Jade Bottle and sealed it.
He did not take the medicine immediately, but instead sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.
Refining elixirs for nine consecutive days without sleep and with complete concentration took a considerable toll on his spirit and magical power.
He needs to restore himself to his best condition in order to take this elixir, which can greatly benefit his soul, in the most perfect state.
After three days of recuperation, Zhou Ding felt that his energy and spirit had returned to their peak. In fact, because he had successfully refined a high-difficulty ancient pill, his willpower had been tempered, and his condition was even better than before.
"It's time."
He took out a Spirit-Nourishing Pill and put it into his mouth without hesitation.
The pill did not dissolve upon entering his mouth, but instead sank directly into his throat. It then transformed into a strange, warm current that was cool, gentle, and yet so vast and indescribable. Instead of spreading throughout his limbs and bones, it flowed directly and entirely towards the ancestral aperture of his brow, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!
"boom!"
It was as if a massive boulder had been thrown onto the calm lake!
Zhou Ding felt his entire sea of consciousness tremble violently, and an indescribable sense of fullness, expansion, and sublimation from the deepest part of his soul instantly overwhelmed him!
The medicinal power transformed from the Divine Elixir did not violently impact him, but rather, like the finest and most nourishing spring rain, it permeated, nourished, tempered, and strengthened every inch of his sea of consciousness. His already incredibly powerful divine consciousness source, like a parched sponge encountering sweet rain, began to absorb, grow, and transform wildly!
At the same time, the cultivation path of the third level of the Great Evolution Technique automatically flowed through his mind.
He immediately suppressed all distracting thoughts and fully activated this supreme soul-refining technique, guiding and refining the massive amount of nourishing medicinal power, launching the most fierce and determined attack on the invisible barrier that had been blocking him for so long, representing the bottleneck of the third level!
This "seclusion" is completely different from the "movement" of meridian expansion and boiling magic power when breaking through the realm of magic power in the past. It is a restrained, spiritual transformation that is silent yet extremely intense.
Zhou Ding seemed to have turned into a stone statue, with only a faint purple spiritual light flowing between his eyebrows, his aura ethereal and profound.
Time, in this profound tempering of the soul, loses its meaning.
Spring goes and autumn comes, and the seasons change.
Outside the cave, the Spirit Wood Peak has once again experienced a complete cycle of the four seasons.
Inside the quiet room, Zhou Ding remained in the same cross-legged posture for a whole year without moving an inch.
A thin layer of dust had settled on him, but his aura became increasingly deep and restrained, like a piece of divine jade that had been polished by time and was about to shine.
It was noon on this day.
"Buzz—!"
There was no burst of light or surge of spiritual energy around Zhou Ding.
But the instant he opened his eyes, an indescribable, vast, profound, and terrifying wave of divine consciousness, seemingly capable of piercing through the void and illuminating the underworld, silently rippled outwards from him!
The air in the quiet room seemed to freeze for a moment, as if the floating dust particles were fixed in the air by an invisible force.
He slowly opened his eyes. The brilliance in his eyes was gone, replaced by a calm and profound stillness, like the eternal starry sky. His gaze seemed to see through illusion and reach the essence of things.
After a long while, the unsettling depth gradually subsided and returned to normal, but upon closer inspection, it seemed as if a galaxy was flowing deep within his eyes, concealing wisdom.
"The Great Evolution Technique, third level... complete." Zhou Ding murmured to himself, his voice calm, yet carrying a joy and satisfaction that came from the depths of his soul.
With a slight thought, his vast divine sense spread out once more. This time, the divine sense spread faster, covered a wider area, and was more condensed and controlled with greater precision.
One hundred li, one hundred and fifty li, two hundred li, two hundred and twenty li, two hundred and fifty li!
Finally, the range of divine sense steadily stopped at a radius of 250 miles!
Two hundred and fifty li!
This is already within the range of spiritual strength of a cultivator who has just entered the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm!
It should be noted that many cultivators who have just broken through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm only have a spiritual sense of about 230 to 240 miles.
Zhou Ding, with his mid-stage Core Formation cultivation, relied on the breakthrough of the third level of the Great Evolution Technique and the immense medicinal power of the Divine Replenishing Pill to push his divine sense to such an astonishing level!
"Mid-stage Core Formation, late-stage Nascent Soul Divine Sense..." Zhou Ding felt the vast divine sense that was like his own body, capable of clearly perceiving the movement of grass and the presence of living beings within a 250-mile radius. His heart was filled with excitement, and he could hardly contain himself.
This is simply defying the heavens!
It was a miracle that defied the norms of the cultivation world!
Ordinary cultivators would never imagine that a "little guy" in the mid-stage of Core Formation could have a spiritual sense strength that could overwhelm most mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators and even approach the late-stage Nascent Soul stage.
"If the third level of the Great Evolution Technique has such an effect, then if one breaks through to the fourth level... how much will one's divine sense increase? In addition, the feedback power from Little Gold's future advancements will continue to strengthen it..."
Zhou Ding's thoughts raced, his eyes flashing with astonishing light: "Perhaps, when I truly condense my Nascent Soul, the strength of my divine sense... will be comparable to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator?!"
God!
That is the true pinnacle of the human realm, a supreme being who, according to legend, can initially communicate with heaven and earth and possesses unfathomable supernatural powers!
Its spiritual power far surpasses that of a Nascent Soul cultivator; it is said that a single thought can cover ten thousand miles!
Although Zhou Ding was still incredibly far from that realm, just thinking about the possibility made his heart surge with excitement and he couldn't calm down.
This means that he has embarked on an unprecedented shortcut to heaven on the path of "secondary cultivation" of divine consciousness!
After a long while, Zhou Ding finally calmed down from this extreme reverie and excitement.
His Daoist heart returned to its tranquil state.
While power is certainly gratifying, the mindset with which one controls that power is even more important.
He closed his eyes again, his mind sinking into the depths of his consciousness.
There, originally suspended, was a secret technique called "Soul-Destroying Thorn," which he had previously condensed from his divine consciousness and used for single-target soul attacks.
The principle behind this technique is to compress and condense one's own divine consciousness to an extreme degree, forming an invisible and intangible yet incomparably sharp "spike" that specifically targets the enemy's soul, making it impossible to defend against.
However, this technique has a fatal flaw: it can only be effective against enemies whose spiritual strength is lower than one's own.
If the opponent's spiritual sense is stronger, the Soul-Destroying Thorn will not only be ineffective, but may also backfire.
Therefore, in the eyes of many cultivators, this secret technique is rather useless, since the difference in spiritual sense among cultivators of the same level is not too great, and the spiritual sense of higher-level cultivators is generally stronger than that of lower-level cultivators.
However, what others considered a tasteless and useless "chicken rib" technique was, in Zhou Ding's eyes, an absolute "divine skill" that could be used as a trump card!
The reason is simple: the strength of his spiritual sense has far, far surpassed his level of magical cultivation!
"I am currently in the mid-stage of Core Formation, but my spiritual sense has already reached the strength of the late-stage Nascent Soul..."
With a thought, Zhou Ding felt the original Soul-Destroying Thorn in his sea of consciousness slowly dissipate, transforming into pure divine power.
Immediately, he began to use his vast and refined Nascent Soul level divine sense to re-condense and temper a brand new "Soul-Destroying Thorn"!
This is a slow and meticulous process. He needs to peel away, compress, and refine his immense divine power bit by bit, removing all impurities and insufficiently refined parts, and finally condense it into a "thorn" containing his strongest divine soul attack will.
This process lasted for a full seven days.
Seven days later, deep within Zhou Ding's sea of consciousness, a "spiky" only as thick as a hair, about an inch long, with a nearly transparent pale gold color and faintly flowing destructive ripples inside, floated quietly.
It may seem small, but it exudes an aura of extreme sharpness and danger that stings the soul!
This Soul-Destroying Thorn, condensed from the divine sense of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, is more than ten or even a hundred times more powerful than before.
"With this..." Zhou Ding slowly opened his eyes, a cold glint flashing in them.
He could almost foresee that in future battles, against any enemy below the Nascent Soul stage, he only needed to think once, and this Soul-Destroying Thorn could ignore most physical and magical defenses, directly invade the opponent's sea of consciousness, and instantly annihilate their soul!
No matter how powerful your magical treasures, how strong your spells, or how robust your physical body, if your spiritual defense is insufficient, you will be a lamb to the slaughter!
Even against early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, or even some mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators with weaker spiritual senses, the Soul-Destroying Thorn is enough to pose a deadly threat. At the very least, it can cause the opponent's soul to tremble violently, causing them to lose their senses instantly and reveal a huge flaw!
With his powerful divine sense, combined with this secret technique specifically designed to kill the soul, Zhou Ding transformed his originally auxiliary and probing divine sense power into the most concealed, most unpredictable, and most deadly trump card in his hands!
This undoubtedly elevated his overall combat strength and survival ability to a new level that is difficult for cultivators of the same level to reach.