Chapter 4559 — A Bath in Star Ink Essence

There was simply no reasoning with the way spirit beasts leveled up—no pattern to it at all. After all, one could hardly claim this was just how the spirit bird was meant to cultivate. Yet no matter how Wei Zhao looked at it, he refused to believe this creature possessed affinities for all five elemental attributes...

Still, no matter how wildly the bird's strength had surged, at its current late Golden Core stage it could not eat spirit ginseng raw—not even a sliver. In truth, even Wei Zhao, at the pinnacle of Golden Core, did not dare eat it raw. To be stuffed to death by the very potency of the spirit ginseng would be a death he could never rest easy over.

The only way to consume spirit ginseng was to refine it into an Embryo Condensing Golden Pill. That not only preserved more of its enormous medicinal power but also neutralized its ferocity, rendering it gentle and harmless. Besides, condensing a Nascent Soul did not require spirit ginseng alone; it had to be paired with a whole host of other rare natural treasures.

Wasting no more words, Wei Zhao immediately set about preparing to refine an Embryo Condensing Golden Pill. It was a sixth-grade pill, lofty and far out of reach, yet the task was no stranger to him.

Back when he was on the Middle Island, he had already refined one in the course of doing heaven's work, and he had pestered Cai Zhongxuan and Hou Guanqi, those two masters of alchemy, for no small amount of wisdom on the subject. One might say he knew the road well.

Even so, Wei Zhao did not use an entire spirit ginseng. There was no need—in theory, a single thin slice was enough to produce one Embryo Condensing Golden Pill. Using a whole root would be a wanton waste of heaven's bounty. Besides, even with all his careful husbandry of his spirit herb reserves, he could never have produced such a vast quantity of supplementary herbs all at once.

And although Wei Zhao had succeeded once before, this was, after all, a sixth-grade pill. Even with the Divine Farmer's Cauldron, there remained the possibility of failure. If something went wrong midway, an entire spirit ginseng would be ruined. That was a risk Wei Zhao could not afford—and had no need—to take.

Carefully, he sliced two thin pieces from the spirit ginseng. That was enough. If two slices could not yield a single Embryo Condensing Golden Pill this time, it would not mean Wei Zhao's skill at alchemy was lacking—only that his run of bad luck had not yet passed. As for condensing a Nascent Soul, he might as well forget such grand ambitions. Better to wash up and go to sleep, lest he waste heaven's bounty.

Once all the spirit herbs were assembled, Wei Zhao entered the space within the jade pendant and rested and gathered his strength for a while. Only when everything was in readiness did he take out the Divine Farmer's Cauldron and set to work refining the Embryo Condensing Golden Pill.

After the pill formula was entered, the Divine Farmer's Cauldron could begin refining on its own. In theory, so long as the cauldron could withstand the strain, the odds of failure were far lower than with ordinary alchemists—the near-perfect success rate he had achieved before was proof enough. And he already had successful experience to draw on. Even so, Wei Zhao could not help feeling somewhat uneasy.

Of course, at a moment like this, no amount of unease would help. The only thing Wei Zhao could do was control the supply of true qi properly. Beyond that, everything depended on this Divine Farmer's Cauldron that Han Jingyi had left him.

The entire refinement took a full day and night. Whether because the Divine Farmer's Cauldron could not quite bear the impact, or because he had put in two portions of spirit herbs at once, the cauldron gave out frequent humming vibrations throughout. Several times it shook with such violent frenzy that Wei Zhao thought the pill furnace was about to explode—after all, no such thing had happened during his previous attempt at the Embryo Condensing Golden Pill.

But there was nothing for it. Beyond gritting his teeth and pressing on, Wei Zhao had no choice.

Fortunately, the Divine Farmer's Cauldron held out to the very end, perilous but unscathed. When Han Jingyi's voice rang out from the tablet announcing the end of the refinement, Wei Zhao was drenched in sweat from head to toe. A whole day of fearing the worst had weighed on him harder than facing the tempering of the Five Elements Killing Qi. This was truly no work for a human being.

Letting out a long breath of turbid air, Wei Zhao eagerly opened the Divine Farmer's Cauldron. The spirit ginseng's distinctive fragrance wafted out to greet him, though compared with its original scent it now carried an added note of crisp freshness that gladdened the heart. And there, resting quietly within the cauldron, lay the freshly refined Embryo Condensing Golden Pills.

Seeing the completed Embryo Condensing Golden Pills in the cauldron, Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief—and at the same time his eyelids twitched in sheer astonishment. More precisely, he was both shocked and delighted: "How could there be three?"

The Embryo Condensing Golden Pills before him lacked the halo one would have imagined; their quality could only be called superior, not top-grade. Yet in quantity they gave Wei Zhao an enormous surprise—not the two he had expected, but three!

He had clearly put in only two slices of spirit ginseng, and the other supplementary herbs had likewise been only two portions, yet three Embryo Condensing Golden Pills had come out. No wonder there had been so many anomalies during the process; no wonder the quality had fallen short of the top grade he had hoped for. Producing three Embryo Condensing Golden Pills at once was already a stroke of tremendous luck. Had they all been top-grade as well, that truly would have defied all reason.

However it had come about, an extra Embryo Condensing Golden Pill was no bad thing. Wei Zhao's original bottom line had been a single pill; to end up with three was cause for elation beyond his hopes.

With only one Embryo Condensing Golden Pill, Wei Zhao would have felt somewhat uncertain about condensing his Nascent Soul, but now his worries were gone.

Next, Wei Zhao did not rush to begin condensing his Nascent Soul. Instead, he calmed his mind and settled his spirit, sitting cross-legged in meditation within the underground space beneath the Five-Venom Marsh. He kept at it for three full days and nights, and only once he was certain his essence, qi, and spirit had all reached their absolute peak did he slowly open his eyes.

When everything was ready, the first thing Wei Zhao did was not to take the Embryo Condensing Golden Pill directly, but to dig a pit right where he was—for no other purpose than to take a bath...

Not an ordinary bath, of course. For cultivators at the Golden Core stage, every pore of the body could be controlled at will; a brief pass of true qi left one spotless, and going a year or half a year without bathing was no matter at all. Wei Zhao ordinarily had little leisure for such indulgences, but today this bath he could not skip—because what he meant to bathe in was not water, but Star Ink Essence.

In this world, those with the means to obtain Star Ink Essence were few and far between, and even those who could manage it got at most a small bottle, always treating it as invaluable nectar, rationing every sip, reluctant even to drink it—let alone use it for bathing, which was sheer fantasy, a thing not even to be dreamed of. (To be continued..) R752