Like a Peerless Confucian Immortal, Xu Luochen's Smile

On the back cliff of Qingyun.

Ye Ping had completed his second body tempering.

Within the back cliff.

As night fell, a ray of moonlight fell upon Ye Ping's physical body.

At this moment, after two rounds of body tempering, Ye Ping had undergone a completely different transformation.

His skin was like white snow, yet it exuded a faint redness.

His facial features had also changed slightly. This small change had transformed him from a clean-featured youth into a handsome man.

Yes, the biggest change God-Demon Body Refining had brought to Ye Ping was not an increase in strength, but a change in appearance.

The former Ye Ping looked very refined, giving off the aura of a Confucian scholar.

But the current Ye Ping gave off the feeling of an unparalleled Confucian immortal.

His face was handsome, but his eyebrows were not sword-like, lacking some of the Sword Immortal's aura. Instead, they were willow-like, making him appear more refined and elegant.

He sat quietly, emitting a calming aura. If women saw this dignified appearance, they might become lost in thought.

The most important thing was his temperament.

That's right, it was his temperament.

In the cultivation world, as long as one's facial features were not too peculiar, it was rare to see ugly men. Even if one's features were truly poor, after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, they could reshape their bones once.

Furthermore, cultivators would expel toxins from their bodies, naturally eliminating issues like acne. Therefore, there were no ugly men among cultivators. The distinction between beauty and ugliness primarily lay in temperament.

Temperament could not be changed; it required the accumulation of years or innate talent.

Just like Su Changyu's temperament, his was naturally aloof and cold, perfectly fitting the image of a Sword Immortal in the eyes of the world.

However, Ye Ping's temperament was more suited to a Confucian immortal, giving people a sense of the Great Dao's naturalness and a tranquil state of mind.

This kind of temperament was extremely rare. Those who didn't know him might truly believe Ye Ping was an unparalleled Confucian immortal.

However, Ye Ping didn't care about his appearance or temperament at all.

He cared more about strength.

After the second round of God-Demon Body Refining, he felt his entire body filled with power, and his physical body had also undergone a transformation. There was a layer of old skin around him, which was the old skin he had shed.

The current Ye Ping's physical body was extremely sturdy. He tried to cut the back of his hand with his treasure sword and found that the sword gifted to him by his senior brother could not leave even a trace on his palm.

The reason he didn't test his fingers was a vague sense of fear. Perhaps it was because the ten fingers were connected to the heart. Thus, Ye Ping couldn't understand the meaning of cutting or piercing one's fingers for blood pacts.

Ye Ping knew that he was condensing the Lesser God-Demon body.

The Primordial God-Demon Body Refining Art had five major realms.

Lesser God-Demon Body, Greater God-Demon Body, Supreme God-Demon Body, Great Dao God-Demon Body, Great Dao Ancestor God.

Among these, the Lesser God-Demon Body was further divided into four minor realms.

[Physical Body], [Muscles and Bones], [Internal Organs], [Lesser God-Demon Body]

Each minor realm required nine rounds of body tempering to reach perfection.

After nine rounds of physical body tempering, it would become incomparably sturdy. As for how strong it would be, Ye Ping was unsure.

But Ye Ping was a little worried now, not about the strength itself.

The main issue was that after the physical body reached perfection, his entire body would become incredibly sturdy, but there was one particular area that would become inexplicably awkward.

It wasn't entirely good, nor was it entirely bad.

This was a bit of a headache, but it was still normal for now, with no significant impact.

In reality, what Ye Ping didn't know was that even though he had only tempered his body twice, once his physical body realm reached perfection, even a cultivator at the peak of Qi Condensation, wielding a top-grade flying sword and unleashing their full power, would not be able to affect him in any way.

In other words, even if Su Changyu were given a top-grade flying sword and stood here to hack at Ye Ping for a hundred years, the result would be that the sword would shatter, and he would remain completely unharmed, feeling no more than a mosquito bite.

If Ye Ping truly condensed the Lesser God-Demon body, he would be like a small God-Demon. Let alone top-grade flying swords, even a Dao artifact striking Ye Ping would not cause any sensation.

And to condense the Lesser God-Demon body, he only needed to temper his body thirty-four more times.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack."

He stretched his waist, and the sound of cracking like popping beans echoed. Ye Ping stood up; his body tempering had reached its limit.

Each body tempering caused a transformation of the physical body, akin to a major blood transfusion. One could not undergo too many transformations at once, as excessive tempering could be fatal.

Secondly, each body tempering required a large amount of spiritual energy. The two Immortal Acupoints Ye Ping had opened were insufficient to sustain this tempering.

And opening Immortal Acupoints was even more out of the question.

It required more spiritual energy, significantly more than a single round of body tempering.

In conclusion, Ye Ping had encountered a true bottleneck.

He lacked resources.

"It's a shame I don't know any Qi cultivation techniques. If I had one, I could at least speed up my cultivation."

Ye Ping thought to himself.

Although he had opened two Immortal Acupoints, and these two Immortal Acupoints were absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth, he himself did not have a Qi Cultivation Technique. It was equivalent to missing an accelerator.

A Qi Cultivation Technique is something that can speed up the absorption of spiritual energy from heaven and earth. As one's realm gets higher and more spiritual meridians are opened, the cultivation speed will become faster and faster.

Without the main acceleration, Ye Ping naturally felt a bit uncomfortable.

Of course, after reading so many books, Ye Ping also knew that there were several other ways to obtain spiritual energy.

The first method is spirit stones. The simplest method is to directly absorb the spiritual energy contained within spirit stones. However, this is very extravagant because the effect of one spirit stone is definitely more than ten times greater than directly extracting spiritual energy from it.

Using spirit stones to set up a Spirit Gathering Array can effectively increase cultivation speed by dozens of times and can be maintained for an hour.

Unless encountering enemies and having one's internal mana depleted, forcing one to directly extract spiritual energy from spirit stones, few people would be extravagant enough to use spirit stones for cultivation. Doing so is pure wastefulness.

The second method is heavenly treasures and earthly materials. Some medicinal herbs or treasures contain terrifying spiritual energy. As long as they can be refined, establishing a foundation in a day is not a problem. However, such things are extremely rare. Not to mention that there will definitely be powerful cultivators guarding them, even if there aren't, they are not found everywhere.

The third method is even more direct: consuming pills. But medicine has three parts poison. True prodigies would not rely on consuming pills to improve their realm, unless they are stuck at a bottleneck. Under normal circumstances, they would meditate and cultivate, or use pills to assist them slightly.

This is to avoid consuming too many pills, and when crossing major realms, their bodies would be filled with toxins, getting stuck for hundreds of years or even dying without breaking through.

"That's right, pills."

Suddenly, Ye Ping remembered pills.

Didn't Senior Brother Er teach him the Creation Alchemy Technique?

He could refine pills himself!

With this thought, Ye Ping excitedly took out the alchemy book.

He reviewed it again.

After a while, Ye Ping had a good understanding.

Senior Brother Luochen's 'Creation Alchemy Technique' is very simple: use Qi to guide spirit, use spirit to transform essence, and use essence to condense pills.

On the back cliff, Ye Ping sat down cross-legged, calming his mind.

After a while, Ye Ping suddenly raised his hand, and a stream of incomparably pure spiritual energy appeared.

After the spiritual energy appeared, Ye Ping tried to let this stream of spiritual energy attract other spiritual energy.

After the spiritual energy from all directions gathered, Ye Ping opened his eyes.

He stared intently at the spiritual energy in his palm.

This was the most crucial step.

The Creation Alchemy Technique clearly stated that whether or not a 'non-toxic pill' could be refined depended on the strength of one's mental power. The stronger one's will, the greater the possibility of condensing a pill.

The spiritual energy spun in his palm like a miniature hurricane, its speed increasing, gathering towards the center.

Soon, a beam of white light appeared in Ye Ping's palm.

The light became more dazzling and brighter, eventually condensing into a light the size of a grain of rice.

Gradually, the light the size of a rice grain took shape.

Ye Ping was overjoyed. He hadn't expected to succeed on his first try.

However, Ye Ping did not show any excitement. Instead, he became even more focused.

Soon, the light the size of a rice grain gradually enlarged.

Three hours later.

It was already dark.

The light the size of a rice grain in Ye Ping's palm had grown to the size of a soybean.

Another hour passed.

Finally, all the spiritual energy dissipated.

Ye Ping also appeared exhausted.

His two Immortal Acupoints had operated frantically for four hours to barely condense it to the size of a soybean, and a pill needed to be about five times larger to be formed.

However, the spiritual energy in his body simply couldn't sustain that long.

At Mao Shi (5-7 AM).

The sky had dawned.

Ye Ping felt somewhat weak, but he showed a relieved smile.

Although his first attempt at alchemy was not completely successful, it was not a failure either. It was considered half successful.

It was just that the final step was not done well; everything else was successful.

At this moment, looking at the soybean-sized spiritual pill in his palm, Ye Ping was filled with joy.

The pill in Ye Ping's palm was white, like a diamond, shining in the sun. It could be described as crystal clear.

It also emitted a faint, fresh fragrance.

Although it was just a small pill, if this pill were brought out into the world, it would likely shock countless alchemy masters.

Not only because Ye Ping's pill was non-toxic.

More importantly, Ye Ping's pill was a top-grade Spirit Gathering Pill, yes, a top-grade Spirit Gathering Pill.

The so-called Spirit Gathering Pill is a type of pill that surpasses the Qi Cultivation Pill. Qi Cultivation Pills still require refinement, but Spirit Gathering Pills are different; after swallowing, they directly gather spiritual energy within the body, and their value is several times that of Qi Cultivation Pills.

This one pill is equivalent to the medicinal effect of a hundred top-grade Qi Cultivation Pills.

One Qi Cultivation Pill can save Su Changyu a day of arduous cultivation.

Ye Ping's Spirit Gathering Pill can save Su Changyu a hundred days of arduous cultivation.

This is because Ye Ping spent four hours to condense this pill, and the full operation of Ye Ping's two Immortal Acupoints for four hours is indeed equivalent to Su Changyu's hundred days of arduous cultivation.

It's just that Ye Ping himself is unaware of all this; in his eyes, this pill is still a semi-finished product.

At this very moment.

As beams of sunlight shone upon the Qingyun mountain cliff.

Xu Luochen's figure also slowly approached.

The sun was very gentle.

The smile on Xu Luochen's face was even gentler.

And at the same time, within the Cloud Mist Mountain Range.