Mid-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill

However, after cultivating the Spirit Movement Stage technique to the fourth layer, Lin Xuan encountered a problem as well: the Marrow Cleansing Pill's efficacy had greatly diminished, making his cultivation difficult once more and slowing his progress.

The path of immortal cultivation grew harder and harder the further one went. Clearly, as Lin Xuan's power increased, Low-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills could gradually no longer meet his needs.

Ordinarily, if a pill's quality was poor, one could make up for it by taking more of them. But the Annotations on Pills stated clearly that no more than nine Marrow Cleansing Pills should be taken each day.

That put him in a difficult position.

After carefully considering the matter, Lin Xuan had no choice but to make a decision: he would once again attempt to purify Mid-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills.

According to the Annotations on Pills, the daily limit for Marrow Cleansing Pills was nine, but it did not specify what grade they had to be. In other words, one could take at most nine Low-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills a day, but could likewise take nine of the more effective Mid-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills.

Since low-grade pills could no longer meet his needs, he naturally had no choice but to set his sights on mid-grade ones. When he had first discovered the wondrous uses of the Blue Star Sea, Lin Xuan had tried using it to purify Mid-Grade Pills. It had been extremely arduous, and he had ultimately failed.

But things were different now. Back then, he had only been at the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage; now, he stood at the peak of the fourth layer. Moreover, the Blue Star Sea grew in step with his spiritual power. After his cultivation had advanced, the Star Sea's volume had expanded considerably as well. Lin Xuan did not dare claim he would succeed with absolute certainty, but with low-grade pills becoming less effective, purifying mid-grade pills was his only option.

Having made up his mind, Lin Xuan began his attempt. He rested for a while first, waiting until his spirit, magical power, and the Star Sea within his dantian had all recovered to their best condition.

Then Lin Xuan sat down cross-legged, poured a Low-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill from a jade bottle, and held it in his hand. He released his divine sense. Now that his cultivation had reached the fourth layer of the Spirit Movement Stage, not only had his spiritual power surged, but his divine sense had also greatly strengthened. When fully released, it could cover an area within a ten-meter radius, revealing every last detail. Even an ant crawling or the sound of a needle falling to the ground could not escape his perception. It was an extraordinarily wondrous feeling.

Of course, this was nothing much. Legend had it that high-level immortal cultivators could scan a hundred li around them with their divine sense, while Nascent Soul Realm cultivators could even let their spirits roam the Taixu. Naturally, those were merely legends. With Lin Xuan's current strength, it was simply impossible for him to have any chance of meeting such lofty figures.

His most urgent task was still the purification of the Mid-Grade Pill.

With that thought, Lin Xuan began mobilizing the Blue Light Spots within his body. Countless blue lights gathered together, converging into a beautiful blue ribbon that moved along his meridians. This process had once been immensely difficult, exhausting him beyond measure, but now it was much easier. After all, Lin Xuan had purified several thousand Waste Pills; practice made perfect. Furthermore, as his power increased, his meridians had become tougher than before and could endure more. Thus, the process no longer felt as unfamiliar and awkward as it once had.

Very quickly, the light spots traveled through his meridians to his right wrist. Lin Xuan focused his divine sense and directed all of it onto the pill.

At once, something marvelous happened. The Marrow Cleansing Pill expanded several times over in his mind, and Lin Xuan's divine sense easily entered its interior, allowing him to see the essence and impurities with perfect clarity.

He carefully controlled the flow of the light spots, guiding them one by one into the pill. Then the purification began. Within the snow-white pill lay scattered patches of black matter. These were the impurities that affected its medicinal efficacy. Purification meant removing them.

The process was extremely difficult, because the impurities were tightly entangled with the essence. Yet the Blue Light Spots could accomplish it. Whenever they encountered the white essence, they passed straight through without the slightest obstruction. Whenever they encountered black impurities, they pushed them outward by a certain distance.

But this differed from purifying Waste Pills into low-grade pills. Back then, the impurities had been powdery—in other words, solid—so the light spots could push them more easily. Now, however, the impurities were thick, semi-liquid matter. Separating them from the essence took enormous effort.

For impurities of the same size, a single light spot had been enough to move them in the past. Now, it took at least three, sometimes even five. His previous purification attempt had failed because the energy in Lin Xuan's Blue Star Sea had been insufficient. So could the current volume of the Star Sea sustain the process until purification was complete?

One had to know that the purification process could not be interrupted. He could not purify half of it today and continue tomorrow. Either he succeeded in one go, or the pill was completely ruined. And once a pill was ruined under such circumstances, Lin Xuan had no way to purify it again. It would truly become garbage.

Still, Lin Xuan had considered this before attempting it. With the Star Sea's current energy, the chance of success should be above seventy percent. However, that was assuming no accidents occurred.

So far, Lin Xuan had purified plenty of low-grade pills, but this was only his second attempt at purifying a Mid-Grade Pill. The first had ended in failure, so he could not be sure whether some unexpected situation would arise.

But even if one did arise, it did not matter. He had plenty of Low-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pills. Even if purification failed, it would not be a pity. He could simply keep summarizing his experience and trying again. Sooner or later, he would succeed. It was like when he had purified Waste Pills into low-grade pills: at first, he had been unskilled and his success rate low, but now it felt effortless and pleasant. This was a process of becoming familiar with and mastering it.

With such mental preparation, Lin Xuan was not afraid of failure. He purified the pill boldly and without worry.

At the beginning, everything went fairly smoothly. Although pushing the semi-liquid impurities consumed more light spot energy, the Blue Star Sea's current volume should have been enough.

But as the impurities gradually separated from the essence and were pushed by the light spots toward the edge of the pill, they stopped moving no matter what he did. In other words, they could not be expelled.

Why was this happening?

He had never encountered such a situation while purifying low-grade pills before. Lin Xuan frowned, but he did not panic. Anxiety could not solve the problem. When a problem arose, he needed to analyze it calmly.

He concentrated his divine sense and examined the edge of the pill. Unlike its interior, the pill's outer edge appeared to be semi-liquid as well.

"So that's it." While maintaining the flow of blue light, Lin Xuan began to analyze the matter. When purifying Waste Pills into low-grade pills, the impurities had also been powdery and solid, so they could pass through more easily. But when purifying them into Mid-Grade Pills, the impurities were semi-liquid and more viscous, making them difficult to expel.

That had to be the reason!