A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Creation Spirit Liquid.

Seize the creation of heaven and earth, and absorb its magnificent power.

For a low-aptitude loose cultivator like Lü Zhong, advancing at a high tier was incredibly difficult. This was because they lacked access to two key resources: high-vintage spirit medicines to refine into pills that could bolster their cultivation, and high-level spirit veins that could provide a stable, massive supply of pure spiritual energy.

As a result, their cultivation speed would plummet.

And the Creation Spirit Liquid was the perfect solution to this problem.

Essentially, it was an Alchemy Secret Technique.

The full name of this technique was the ”Extraction Creation Returning Spirit Jade Liquid Method.” By harnessing the Spiritual Qi emanating from a Spirit Vein and employing a unique Alchemy Secret Technique, one could refine low-vintage Spirit Medicines into Creation Spirit Liquid, whose effects could rival those of standard pills.

Take the True Rhythm Pill that Lü Zhong was currently using, for instance. Its main ingredient was three 180-year-old Nine Vein Wheel Flowers. This flower grew one ”vein wheel” every twenty years, requiring a full 180 years to mature. If harvested prematurely, the Spirit Flower’s medicinal properties would be insufficient. Any True Rhythm Pills refined from it would be Wasted Pills in all but name. While perhaps effective in the eyes of a Qi Refining cultivator, they would have a negligible effect on the cultivation of a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

However, refining it into Creation Spirit Liquid was the perfect solution.

If a Spirit Medicine’s medicinal properties were lacking, one simply had to add more of it to the mixture.

Theoretically, this method could even be used to refine the rare Foundation Establishment Pill directly from one-year-old Spirit Medicines. The only prerequisite was that the Alchemist’s skill had to be superb enough to extract the useful Medicinal Spiritual Qi from a vast quantity of ingredients. The difficulty of this feat was comparable to a Five Spirit Root Cultivator reaching Nascent Soul Formation.

With this method, Lü Zhong could use 140-year-old Seven Vein Wheel Flowers, or even 120-year-old Six Vein Wheel Flowers, to refine a Creation Spirit Liquid with a potency equivalent to a standard True Rhythm Pill. Consuming it would boost his cultivation just as effectively as taking an actual True Rhythm Pill.

However, for all its immense advantages, the technique was not without its drawbacks.

As Lü Zhong read on, he discovered that refining the Creation Spirit Liquid was no easy task.

Fundamentally, the younger the Spirit Medicine, the lower its concentration of useful Medicinal Spiritual Qi, and the higher its impurity content. This caused the difficulty of refining the Creation Spirit Liquid to skyrocket. Therefore, to increase the success rate, one had to use Spirit Medicines of a similar age; at the very least, their vintages could not be drastically different.

Second, the refining process was essentially one of purification, separating the essential from the worthless. It required absorbing a massive amount of Spiritual Qi, necessitating a special Spirit Gathering Array. The total demand was so great that it required a dedicated Spirit Vein to supply the Spiritual Qi.

But securing an entire Spirit Vein for oneself was no simple matter.

Furthermore, the type of Spirit Fire used for refinement was restricted based on the intended user’s gender.

It was a matter of Qian Yang and Kun Yin. Using the wrong Spirit Fire would have extremely severe consequences. Consuming the resulting liquid would throw one’s Yin and Yang into chaos, drastically increasing the risk of Qigong Deviation.

Other requirements included one’s proficiency in Alchemy, the strength of one’s Divine Soul, and more.

All these conditions combined made the refinement of Creation Spirit Liquid an extremely demanding process.

Yet even with such harsh conditions, in Lü Zhong’s eyes, the Creation Spirit Liquid was still a Treasure Skill. ’With this, I might truly have a chance to form a Nascent Soul. And if I dare to be a little greedier, the path to Divinity Transformation might no longer be such an ethereal, unreachable dream.’

After reading the Jade Scroll, he finally understood why a Nascent Soul Cultivator like Li Qionghua had met with such a catastrophe. ’Possessing such a world-shaking secret technique, it’s almost impossible to avoid attracting the covetous gazes of others.’ She had most likely let the secret slip, bringing this fatal disaster upon herself.

This also served as a reminder to him: he had to be extremely cautious and never let this secret technique be revealed.

Otherwise, if he attracted the attention of a Nascent Soul True Monarch, he would be utterly and irrevocably doomed.

”So? Now that you have this secret technique, do you see a path to the Nascent Soul stage?” Li Qionghua couldn’t help but ask. According to the memories she had obtained from Su Xu’er, the young man before her had already delved into the Array Dao and seemed to have decent talent, as he was already a Tier Two Array Master.

In the future, if he could also master the Alchemy Dao, it wasn’t out of the question that he could successfully refine the Creation Spirit Liquid.

Of course, a possibility was just that. Li Qionghua recalled her own past, the hardships she had endured and the tears she had shed, and she knew just how difficult the process was. ’If not for my special constitution and an Innate Divine Soul that far surpassed a normal person’s, I’m afraid I too would have been unable to bear the immense strain on the Divine Soul that comes with refining the Creation Spirit Liquid.’

’After all, this is a matter of seizing the very creation of heaven and earth. How could it possibly be easy?’

”I daren’t dream of the Nascent Soul stage. I would be more than content just to form a Golden Core,” Lü Zhong replied.

The Southern Barbarian lands were vast, spanning millions of miles, yet they could only support seven Nascent Soul Sects. The total number of Nascent Soul True Monarchs could be counted on two hands. He was just a loose cultivator; it would be a true anomaly if he managed to form a Nascent Soul.

Li Qionghua smiled and said nothing.

...

「Three days later.」

Two figures appeared by the shore of the Golden Water Pool.

They were a man and a woman. The black-haired young man had the refined air of an immortal and a transcendent temperament. The female cultivator beside him was exquisitely beautiful and alluring. Dressed in a simple gauze skirt, she gave off the impression of a pure, innocent maiden.

Standing together, they could have passed for a pair of Immortal Dao Companions.

These two were Lü Zhong and Li Qionghua, who had come to fulfill their agreement with Liuu Piaoniang.

”Fellow Daoist Lü, what are you looking at?” Li Qionghua asked curiously.

Following his gaze, she saw that he was looking at a small island in the lake ahead. He ignored her question. They were merely temporary allies; it didn’t mean Lü Zhong wasn’t disgusted by her act of seizing another’s body. While he wouldn’t go as far as avenging Su Xu’Er, she could forget about him ever treating her warmly.