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Qingyun Back Cliff.

Ye Ping completed his second body tempering.

Within the Back Cliff.

As night fell, a ray of moonlight spilled over Ye Ping's body.

At this moment, after undergoing two rounds of body tempering, Ye Ping had changed completely.

His skin was like white snow, yet carried a faint flush of red.

His facial features had also changed slightly. That tiny change had transformed him from a delicate-looking youth into a handsome man.

Yes, the greatest change God-Demon Body Refining had brought Ye Ping so far was not an increase in strength, but a change in his appearance.

The former Ye Ping had looked quite refined, carrying the air of a Confucian scholar.

But Ye Ping now gave people the impression of a peerless Confucian Immortal.

His face was handsome. He did not have sword-like brows and thus lacked some of a Sword Immortal's aura, but his willow-leaf brows made him seem even more elegant.

He sat quietly where he was, exuding a sense of calm that soothed the heart. If women saw that visage, they would likely become somewhat absent-minded.

Most importantly, it was his temperament.

That was right, his temperament.

In the cultivation world, so long as one's features were not too bizarre, ugly men were rarely seen. Even if one's features truly were terrible, after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, one could reshape one's bones once.

Moreover, cultivators expelled toxins from their bodies, so things like acne naturally did not exist. Thus, there were no ugly men among cultivators. The distinction between beauty and ugliness lay chiefly in temperament.

Temperament could not be changed. It required the accumulation of time, or else one had to be born with it.

Take Su Changyu's temperament, for instance. His was naturally aloof and cold, perfectly fitting the Sword Immortal in people's minds.

Yet Ye Ping's temperament was more suited to a Confucian Dao Immortal, giving others a feeling of the Great Dao's naturalness and tranquility of spirit.

Such a temperament was exceedingly rare. Those who did not know better would likely truly believe Ye Ping to be a peerless Confucian Immortal.

However, Ye Ping did not care in the slightest about his looks or temperament.

What he cared about more was strength.

After the second round of God-Demon Body Refining, he felt his entire body brimming with power, and his fleshly body had also undergone a transformation. A layer of old skin lay around him, shed from his body.

Ye Ping's body was now incomparably tough. He tried using his treasure sword to cut the back of his hand, only to discover that the sword his eldest brother had given him could not leave even the slightest mark on his palm.

The reason he had not tried his fingers was mainly because he felt an inexplicable fear. Perhaps it was because the ten fingers were linked to the heart. Thus, Ye Ping could not understand the meaning of casually pricking one's finger, or cutting it open and dripping blood to swear an oath.

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

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, and Great Dao Ancestor God.

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

Fleshly body, sinews and bones, internal organs, Lesser God-Demon Body.

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

After tempering the fleshly body nine times, it would become tough to an unparalleled extent. As for exactly how strong it would be, Ye Ping did not know.

But Ye Ping was somewhat troubled now. It was not because he worried about whether he would be strong enough.

The main issue was that once this fleshly body reached completion, his entire body would become incomparably tough. Yet there was one particular place that was inexplicably a little awkward.

It could be called a good thing, but it was not entirely a good thing.

It could be called a bad thing, but it was not entirely a bad thing either.

It gave him a bit of a headache, though for now it was still normal and had no major impact.

What Ye Ping did not know was that although he had only tempered his body twice, once the fleshly body realm reached completion, even a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Cultivation Realm wielding a top-grade flying sword and striking with all their might would be unable to affect him in the slightest.

In other words, even if Su Changyu were given a top-grade flying sword and made to stand here slashing at Ye Ping for a hundred years, the result would definitely be the sword shattering while Ye Ping remained completely unharmed. It would not even feel as bad as a mosquito bite.

If Ye Ping truly condensed a Lesser God-Demon Body, he would be like a minor god-demon. Forget a top-grade flying sword— even a Dao Artifact blasting into Ye Ping's body would not make him feel a thing.

And to condense a Lesser God-Demon Body, he only needed another thirty-four rounds of body tempering.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack."

As he stretched his waist, a sound like beans being fried rang out. Ye Ping stood up; he had reached his limit for body tempering.

Every round of body tempering transformed the fleshly body, akin to a complete change of blood. He could not undergo too many transformations in one breath, or excessive tempering might kill him.

Secondly, every round of body tempering consumed a tremendous amount of spiritual energy. The two immortal apertures Ye Ping had opened were simply unable to sustain such body tempering.

And opening immortal apertures was even more out of the question.

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

In short, Ye Ping had encountered a true bottleneck.

He had no resources.

"What a pity I don't know any Qi cultivation techniques. If I did, I could speed up my cultivation a little."

Ye Ping muttered to himself.

Although he had opened two immortal apertures, and although those two immortal apertures were absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he had not mastered a Qi cultivation technique. It was as though he lacked an extra accelerator.

A Qi cultivation technique could accelerate the absorption of heaven and earth's spiritual energy. Furthermore, the higher one's realm, the more spiritual meridians one opened, and the faster one's cultivation speed would become.

With no acceleration method, Ye Ping naturally felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Of course, having read so many books, Ye Ping also knew there were several ways to obtain spiritual energy.

The first was spirit stones, the simplest method. The spiritual energy contained within spirit stones could be directly absorbed, but doing so was extremely extravagant, because a spirit stone's use was absolutely more than ten times greater than merely extracting its spiritual energy directly.

Using spirit stones to set up a Spirit Gathering Array could effectively increase cultivation speed by dozens of times, and it could last for one hour.

Unless one encountered an enemy and exhausted all the dharma power in one's body, leaving no other choice but to directly draw spiritual energy from spirit stones, few would be extravagant enough to cultivate with spirit stones. Doing so was simply throwing away one's fortune.

The second method was heavenly materials and earthly treasures. Some medicinal herbs or treasures contained terrifying amounts of spiritual energy. So long as one could refine them, achieving Foundation Establishment in a single day would not be a problem. But such things were exceedingly rare. Not to mention that powerful experts would surely guard them, even if no one did, they could not be found everywhere.

The third was even more direct: swallowing pills. But medicine carried poison in three parts. True geniuses would not rely on swallowing pills to raise their cultivation realm unless they were stuck at a bottleneck. Under normal circumstances, they would still meditate and cultivate, or use pills only as a slight aid.

Otherwise, after consuming too many pills, when crossing a major realm, one's entire body would be full of toxins. One might be stuck for hundreds of years, or even remain stuck until death, unable to make a breakthrough.

"That's right, pills."

All of a sudden, Ye Ping thought of pills.

Hadn't his second brother taught him the Creation Alchemy Technique?

He could refine pills himself.

Thinking of this, Ye Ping immediately took out the alchemy book with great excitement.

He reviewed it once more.

After quite a while, Ye Ping more or less understood it.

Brother Luochen's Creation Alchemy Technique was very simple: use qi to draw in spirit, use spirit to transform into essence, use essence to condense a pill.

At the Back Cliff, Ye Ping sat down cross-legged and calmed his mind.

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

After the spiritual energy appeared, Ye Ping tried to have it draw in other spiritual energy.

Once spiritual energy from all directions had gathered.

Ye Ping opened his eyes.

He stared intently at the spiritual energy in his palm.

This was the most important step.

The Creation Alchemy Technique clearly recorded that whether one could refine a "Poisonless Pill" depended on the strength of one's spiritual power. The stronger one's intent, the greater the possibility of condensing a pill.

The spiritual energy spun continuously in his palm like a miniature hurricane, moving faster and faster as it gathered toward the center.

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

The light grew increasingly dazzling and resplendent. In the end, a grain-of-rice-sized speck of light condensed.

Gradually, that rice-grain-sized light took shape.

Ye Ping was overjoyed. He had not expected his first attempt to succeed.

Yet Ye Ping was not excited in the slightest. Instead, he became even more focused.

Soon, the rice-grain-sized light gradually grew larger.

Three hours later.

The sky had long since turned dark.

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

Another hour passed.

In the end, all the spiritual energy dispersed.

Ye Ping also appeared completely exhausted.

His two immortal apertures had operated at full force for four hours, only barely managing to condense something the size of a soybean. Yet for the pill to take shape, it needed to grow roughly five times larger.

But the spiritual energy in his body simply could not last until then.

At dawn.

The sky had brightened.

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

Although his first attempt at alchemy had not fully succeeded, at least it had not failed either. It counted as half a success.

He had merely failed to complete the final step; everything else had succeeded.

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

The pill in Ye Ping's palm was white, like a diamond, glittering beneath the sun. Calling it crystal-clear would not be an exaggeration.

It also emitted a faint fragrance.

Although it was only a tiny pill, if this pill were brought outside, it would likely astonish countless alchemy masters.

Not merely because Ye Ping's pill was poisonless.

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

A Spirit Gathering Pill was a type of pill surpassing the Qi Cultivation Pill. Qi Cultivation Pills still needed to be refined, but Spirit Gathering Pills were different. After swallowing one, spiritual energy would directly gather within the body. Its value was several times greater than that of a Qi Cultivation Pill.

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

One Qi Cultivation Pill could spare Su Changyu one day of arduous cultivation.

Ye Ping's Spirit Gathering Pill could spare Su Changyu one hundred days of arduous cultivation.

That was because Ye Ping had spent four hours condensing this pill, while the full-force operation of his two immortal apertures for four hours truly equaled Su Changyu's hundred days of arduous cultivation.

Yet Ye Ping himself did not know any of this. In his eyes, this pill was still only a half-finished product.

And it was at this moment.

As beams of sunlight shone upon Qingyun Mountain Cliff.

Xu Luochen's figure 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.