Ling Realm

When the time was almost right, Xiao Ming suddenly flicked his finger, and a weak Vigor Qi struck the Gastrodia Elata Jade Stone Essence. Then, with a crack, pieces of stone fell off, finally revealing the pale white slurry hidden within.

As the white slurry appeared, Xiao Ming gradually reduced the temperature of the flames, which eventually turned into a wisp and burned beneath the stone, looking as if the flames were steaming and roasting a stone bowl.

In the bowl, some white slurry was still bubbling with tiny bubbles, and with each burst of a bubble, a faint fishy smell rose up.

This fishy smell is an impurity in the Stone Essence. Only after it has been refined can it be used to harmonize the Earth Core Soul Marrow.

This refining process required little effort from Xiao Ming; in just over ten minutes, the fishy smell within the white slurry would be completely expelled.

Having completed the refining of the Stone Essence, Xiao Ming's expression remained unchanged. With a flick of his hand, some exquisite Jade Bottle and vessels appeared in his hand. Then, with a thought, a tiny wisp of liquid from each of the three jade boxes in front of him flowed out and, under Xiao Ming's control, merged together into a transparent Jade Bowl.

"Hiss!"

The moment the three liquids intertwined, a faint mist erupted. Then, as if they were extremely hostile, they began to corrode each other, constantly releasing tiny bubbles as they came into contact.

Xiao Ming watched intently as the three liquids eroded each other. After a moment, the Pill Spirit Paste and Stone Essence completely dissipated, leaving only the slightly mottled Earth Core Soul Marrow.

"This seems somewhat unsuccessful; we used a bit too much of the Earth Core Soul Marrow..."

Seeing this, Xiao Ming gently shook his head. The successfully prepared Earth Core Soul Marrow was emerald green, but the one in this bowl was quite mottled in color, clearly a failed product.

Xiao Ming wasn't discouraged by this first failure. If he succeeded on the first try, he would be incredibly lucky.

What followed was the same routine: constantly adjusting the proportions of the three treasures. If the proportions were even slightly too much or too little, the balance between the three liquids would be broken, resulting in failure. Therefore, one must not let failure affect one's composure during the process.

"Laugh!"

After six more failures, with the drop of Stone Essence falling, wisps of smoke immediately filled the Jade Bowl. After the smoke cleared, what remained was a small bowl of viscous, jade-like liquid, full of vitality.

"Call..."

Looking at the color of the liquid in the Jade Bowl, Xiao Ming couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then, he carefully poured the liquid into a fine Jade Bottle.

Of course, this small portion of the prepared Earth Core Soul Marrow was not enough to achieve Soul Transformation. However, with this initial success, the rest became much easier. In just about two hours, Xiao Ming had successfully prepared nearly half of the remaining three Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Looking at the emerald-colored liquid that had overflowed to the top of the bottle in his hand, a look of gratified joy finally appeared on Xiao Ming's face. Although he had failed many times, the remaining successful product was enough for his use this time.

"Next comes the most important matter: whether we can advance to the Eighth Grade depends on this..."

Xiao Ming raised the Jade Bottle and poured it directly into his mouth. He tilted his head back, and nearly half of the Earth Core Soul Marrow flowed down his throat and into his body.

The moment the Earth Core Soul Marrow entered his body, Xiao Ming's head buzzed. The Soul Power between his eyebrows suddenly expanded as if it had taken a catalyst. The rapid expansion caused a sharp Swelling Pain in Xiao Ming's brow, as if his head was about to explode!

Sensing this sudden change, Xiao Ming steadied his mind and focused on the changes within his body.

The harmonized Earth Core Soul Marrow, after flowing into Xiao Ming's body, transformed into a scalding hot current that dispersed and then rapidly evaporated. Wisps of strange, deep green smoke began to surge upwards, passing through his body and reaching the space between his eyebrows, where they finally intertwined with the Soul Power residing there.

As the smoke intertwined with his soul, Xiao Ming quickly sensed that a powerful and terrifyingly strange energy was rapidly seeping into his soul. At the same time, the strength of his soul seemed to have been greatly enhanced, as if it had consumed some kind of potent tonic, and began to increase dramatically at an alarming rate!

As his Soul Power rapidly increased, the Swelling Pain between Xiao Ming's eyebrows also intensified, making Xiao Ming realize that the Earth Core Soul Marrow was indeed powerful in boosting his Soul Power, and that all the effort he had put into it was worthwhile!

More and more green smoke surged into Xiao Ming's soul, continuously strengthening it.

It has to be said that this feeling was not pleasant. It was as if someone was constantly stuffing things into his head. At this moment, Xiao Ming's temples on both sides of his head bulged high, like small drums, and kept throbbing.

When Xiao Ming Xiao Ming's soul strengthened to a certain threshold, a deep, explosive sound suddenly erupted from the depths of Xiao Ming mind, causing him excruciating eardrum pain.

"Bang!"

The explosion left Xiao Ming completely disoriented, his vision filled with golden light, and his mind a jumble of Chaos.

At the same time, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Energy seemed to be stirred by something strange in an instant. Moreover, amidst the turbulence, wisps of extremely faint air currents quietly overflowed from the space and then surged towards Xiao Ming's brow.

This airflow is naturally Spirit Qi.

These Spirit Qi energies continuously flowed into Xiao Ming's brow, eventually merging with the soul residing there. During this merging, Xiao Ming's soul felt as if it were enveloped in warm Ling Liquid, with the warm Spirit Qi quietly seeping into every part of it, thus restoring Xiao Ming's clarity.

Upon waking, Xiao Ming was delighted to find that he was absorbing Spirit Qi rapidly without using Soul Cultivation Technique, as the absorption speed was much faster than when he used Soul Cultivation Technique.

However, this level of Spirit Qi infusion was clearly insufficient to allow Xiao Ming's soul to advance into the Ling Realm.

Therefore, after this absorption lasted for nearly an hour, the strange power between Xiao Ming's eyebrows suddenly became more intense. Finally, an invisible wave, invisible to the naked eye, quietly spread out, eventually passing through the Inn and spreading across the sky.

During this time, Xiao Ming was also silently reciting the Soul Cultivation Technique to accelerate the absorption speed.

The commotion caused by Xiao Ming immediately attracted the attention of others in Holy Pill City, a city teeming with Alchemist.

At the top of the Pill Tower, a beautiful woman gazed at the enormous, invisible vortex of Spirit Qi in the sky, a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"Someone has achieved a breakthrough in their soul and entered the Ling Realm!"

Not far from the beautiful woman stood an old man with dark skin and an unusually cold and stern expression.

"It should be Xiao Ming. Qiu Ling said that this little guy's soul was already at the Half-Step Ling Realm. After obtaining the Earth Core Soul Marrow, it's quite normal for him to directly step into the Ling Realm."

"An eighteen-year-old Alchemy Grandmaster — the Pill Tower has never seen such a person before. He's truly a little monster. I wonder if he has Famous Teacher guiding him..."

"Probably. It's very difficult to reach this level without Famous Teacher. This little guy Xiao Ming even has the Myriad Beast Cauldron and Heavenly Flames. I just don't know which old monster he's a disciple of."