Creation Pill Recipe

"How could this be?"

Li Mo could not understand why, after experiencing the so-called tribulation lightning in the Mystic Dream, he had spat something like this out of his mouth.

The reason he found it so hard to understand was that this Elixir Recipe had clearly been created by humans.

In his understanding, the Mystic Dream was a void-like heaven and earth, belonging to the workings of nature—a hidden corner of the world that only he could explore. Yet the appearance of this Elixir Recipe left him utterly incredulous. Could this place actually be man-made, truly nothing more than a so-called box?

A box named Mystic?

But why had this golden paper mass come out of his mouth?

Since it had been spat out of his mouth, that proved it had originally been inside his body, only expelled after being stimulated by the tribulation lightning.

"Could it be that, as I continuously absorbed some inexplicable things along with the spiritual energy of this world, they entered my body? Or perhaps, as my fusion with this place deepened, I was gradually eroded and polluted by something, and the power of the tribulation lightning expelled it as a foreign substance?"

Li Mo tried to let his thoughts run wild.

But how could those formless, intangible things turn into a tangible mass of golden paper that even recorded an Elixir Recipe incorporating the wisdom of human cultivators?

Even from the perspective of a Qi Refining cultivator, this was truly baffling.

Li Mo was filled with confusion and bewilderment.

And then there were those voices.

At first, it had been the desperate roar of a beast. Afterward, it had become a hoarse human murmur. He always felt that there was some connection between them, as though they recorded some event. The strange changes in the Mystic Box were becoming increasingly bizarre and unreal.

This had definitely already surpassed the level of fusion reached by the mad hunter back then, entering a much deeper stage.

He lowered his head again and looked at the golden paper in his hand.

This mysterious golden paper recorded an Elixir Recipe called the Creation Pill.

The Creation Pill had only one effect after being swallowed and refined: improving one's constitution. Other than that, it contained no detailed introduction.

Li Mo stared at the Elixir Recipe, somewhat lost in thought.

By now, he had mastered all the basic knowledge of alchemy and only needed to put it into practice. Yet this Creation Pill recipe left him bewildered for a moment, because the process of refining it did not use the fire-refining method he knew, but rather the so-called Lightning Refining Method. It also included the special method by which a cultivator with a Lightning Spirit Root circulated his magical power through his internal meridians when using the Lightning Refining Method.

This required the cultivator to control arcs of lightning and continuously focus them on the alchemy furnace.

Aside from that,

the Creation Pill also required different spirit medicines of varying ages depending on the strength of the medicinal catalyst.

Li Mo glanced over them. None of these herbs were unfamiliar. If they were all less than a hundred years old, there was still a chance he could gather them. The key was that the so-called medicinal catalyst, which was also the primary ingredient, was actually something called an "Ephemeral Demon Core."

Li Mo naturally knew about demon cores.

But he had never heard of an Ephemeral Demon Core.

Since the word "Ephemeral" had been added before "demon core," it seemed to have some connection with the Mystic Box—or perhaps with the Mystic Dream.

"Could it be the inner core of a monster in this Mystic Dream?"

At that thought, Li Mo's expression turned ugly. He could not help looking up at the sky, where he happened to see a huge shadow swiftly glide across the dark clouds.

With his mere fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage cultivation, how could he possibly kill a monster and take its core?

Moreover, he had been in the Mystic Dream for so long and had never seen another living creature. Thus, the huge shadow that occasionally swept across the dark clouds was merely a natural phenomenon in his heart, not some monster at all. He had simply been frightening himself.

After regaining his senses, Li Mo swiftly rejected the idea that he could obtain an Ephemeral Demon Core in the Mystic Dream.

Although he knew very little about this place, reason told him that even if monsters truly existed here, they were absolutely beyond his reach at present. Besides, this Elixir Recipe clearly mentioned a Qi Refining Creation Pill that Qi Refining cultivators could consume, requiring only a Qi Refining-stage Ephemeral Demon Core as the medicinal catalyst.

Li Mo did not believe that such weak monsters would exist in the Mystic Dream. Furthermore, as far as he knew, depending on their talents, demonic beasts only gradually began condensing demon cores after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm. By the Golden Core Stage, all demonic beasts would inevitably condense demon cores.

"Lightning Refining Method, Ephemeral Demon Core... After I wake up, I'll find a chance to ask Aunt-Master Chen Rong."

After firmly memorizing the techniques of the Lightning Refining Method and the method for identifying Ephemeral Demon Cores, Li Mo took the initiative to detach himself from the Mystic Dream and slowly awoke on his bed.

"My head hurts!"

Li Mo's face was pale.

He felt that his divine sense had suffered severe damage, and his spiritual perception of his surroundings had been greatly reduced. He could not even sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Fortunately, he had no magical artifacts on him; otherwise, they would have been no different from scrap metal, completely impossible to control.

After quite some time,

Li Mo finally managed to put on his clothes and wash up a little.

"It's the second quarter of the Chen hour."

After taking a deep breath, Li Mo pushed open the door, only to find Ma Ling pacing back and forth nearby.

When Ma Ling saw Li Mo, she immediately lowered her head, her manner somewhat awkward. Clearly, because of Li Mo's firm refusal earlier, she had not known how to interact with him after returning.

Li Mo was just about to say something when his body suddenly went limp, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Ma Ling was startled. As someone trained in martial arts, she reacted quickly and caught Li Mo, forgetting all about her awkwardness as her expression changed drastically.

"Li Mo, why are you so weak?"

"I may have injured my divine sense. I'm a little dizzy."

It took Li Mo a long while to recover.

He knew this was the aftereffect of being struck by lightning in the Mystic Dream. Damage to the divine sense was equivalent to damage to the soul. Apart from a few legendary miraculous elixirs that could treat it, he could only slowly nourish and recover it.

"So the tribulation-crossing methods recorded in the Mystic Box were actually meant for this."

Looking at Ma Ling, a sturdy, broad-built girl, caring for him like she was tending a calf, Li Mo felt a jumble of emotions.

"Don't cry."

Ma Ling pouted and gave an aggrieved "Mm."

When Niu Li and Yang Guang saw how weak Li Mo was, they were also startled. With the three of them supporting him, Li Mo then walked toward the Sacred Tree Plaza.

Two barriers had already been set up in the Sacred Tree Plaza.

One of them covered a larger area, while the other covered a smaller one.

Li Mo guessed that the larger barrier was meant for the graduation assessment of the third-year disciples.

The plaza was already packed with disciples from the Advanced Study Hall. Some working disciples from the inner sect halls had also come to join the excitement, pointing at the two barriers and whispering, as though reminiscing about the past.

Li Mo's head grew dizzy again. Ma Ling, Niu Li, and Yang Guang hurriedly supported him to the Advanced Study Hall's kitchen, where he could rest for a while.

Ma Ling looked worried.

"You're already like this. Can you still take part in the assessment?"

"I'll do my best."

Li Mo was still thinking about asking Aunt-Master Chen Rong about the Lightning Refining Method and Ephemeral Demon Cores.

Compared with the strange Elixir Recipe that had appeared in the Mystic Dream, Li Mo did not consider this assessment particularly important. After all, he was only a first-year disciple. Whether he could achieve a good result depended more on luck than strength, so he answered absent-mindedly.

Niu Li brought over the morning meal.

"How did you manage to turn yourself into this?"

A bitter smile appeared on Li Mo's face.

"I originally planned to master a high-grade basic spell before the assessment. I didn't expect to overestimate myself and end up like this."

Yang Guang's expression became solemn as he furtively glanced around.

"There's a half-immortal in my hometown. I heard that whenever a child nearby was frightened out of his soul, the family would go to him to summon it back. Why don't you go..."

Li Mo was rendered speechless and immediately rejected Yang Guang's suggestion.

After the morning meal, the annual assessment officially began.

Li Mo glanced at the drawing list. His luck was fairly good.

Not only was he scheduled to appear in the afternoon, giving him some time to rest, but his opponent in the arena battle was also a first-year disciple—a male cultivator named Wu Xin.

By comparison,

Ma Ling and Niu Li had much worse luck. They had both drawn second-year disciples.

The luckiest of all was Yang Guang. He had actually drawn a bye!

The reason there were byes was that the first round of the assessment had to determine the top two hundred fifty-six. After entering the second round, there would be a so-called losers' bracket to compete for the top two hundred, along with rewards.

"I know Wu Xin."

Yang Guang looked slightly solemn.

"When I was carrying out a duty assignment before, he and I were placed in the same group. He seems to have come from a hunter's family and knows a bit of barehanded fighting. He's also very familiar with Tao Ran. A few days ago, he even followed Tao Ran and Zhou Zheng in confronting those disciples from the Aristocratic Clans. I heard he's pretty capable, so be careful."

"Mm, thank you."

After thanking him, Li Mo looked around and spotted where Aunt-Master Chen Rong was. He then said to the three of them, "I'm feeling a little better. I'm going over there to ask Aunt-Master Chen Rong about the alchemy assessment."

"All right. Be careful."

After bidding farewell to the three, Li Mo walked toward Aunt-Master Chen Rong. Along the way, he heard Guo Hongjuan's mocking voice.

He turned his head.

He saw Guo Hongjuan with her arm linked through that of a male cultivator, standing before Lu Tianyou and taunting him sarcastically.

"Isn't this our heartthrob arsonist, Young Master Lu? I heard that some time ago, he actually overestimated himself and pursued the young lady of the Ye Family. Not only was he turned away at the door, but the Ye Family even taught him a harsh lesson. Tsk, tsk, is this what they call a toad lusting after swan meat?"

Lu Tianyou lowered his head without saying anything. The youthful vigor he once possessed was completely gone.

Li Mo sighed inwardly.

Lu Tianyou had changed far too much over the past six months. Although Li Mo knew that Lu Tianyou was also at fault, he still could not bear to watch his friend continue being humiliated. Thus, he forced himself to walk over and put on a conciliatory expression.

"Hongguo, Fairy Guo, look at him now. There's no point mocking him anymore. Let it go."

Upon hearing this, Guo Hongjuan snorted. Then, to his surprise, she actually turned around and left with the male cultivator beside her, arm in arm.

From this, it seemed that she was not some so-called vixen, but rather a good girl who dared to love and hate. Unfortunately, Lu Tianyou did not know how to cherish her. In matters of love, Li Mo could only sigh helplessly at Lu Tianyou.

"How are you?"

Li Mo was very worried that Lu Tianyou would become completely dispirited. He still preferred the Lu Tianyou from before.

Upon hearing him, Lu Tianyou took a deep breath, seemingly trying to pull himself together.

"I'm fine. A few days ago, I broke through to the third level of the Qi Refining Stage."

Li Mo's expression changed slightly.

"You circulated the Greater Celestial Circuit in the Advanced Study Hall? Wasn't that too reckless?"

Lu Tianyou gave a cold laugh.

"I'll prove to everyone that I, Lu Tianyou, am worthy of her!"

Li Mo sighed. His friend seemed to have become somewhat extreme, very much like himself after Zhao Siman's death—or, more accurately, like a reincarnation of the Shi Yazhou who had died before.

But outsiders could not help with such matters. He could only leave the healing to time.

"All right. I still have something to do and need to go over there. When will you take the stage? I'll cheer you on."

"In half an hour."

"All right."

After bidding farewell to Lu Tianyou, Li Mo found Aunt-Master Chen Rong and asked her about his doubts regarding the Lightning Refining Method and Ephemeral Demon Cores.

Chen Rong frowned upon hearing this and fell silent for a long time.

"Although I've never heard of the Lightning Refining Method, I do know a senior who has mastered the Water Refining Method. According to that senior, alchemy in ancient times was not restricted to fire refining. Therefore, I suspect that the Lightning Refining Method you mentioned was a special ancient alchemical technique suited to certain pills."

At this point, she paused.

"However, analyzing it by nature, although using lightning to refine pills should have miraculous effects when removing impurities, greatly increasing the efficiency of refining low-grade pills, and perhaps producing extraordinary results when refining spirit pills that use demon cores as their primary ingredient, it should not be very suitable for mid- and high-grade spirit pills centered around thousand-year or ten-thousand-year spirit medicines. I'm afraid it would greatly increase the rate of shattered pills."

Li Mo was startled when he heard this.

Yet he still held onto a sliver of expectation and said nothing, merely nodding silently.

"So, using lightning arts to cultivate alchemy and become an alchemist may be relatively easy, but becoming an alchemy grandmaster or an alchemy patriarch would probably be extremely difficult. It can only be considered a side path, not the right and glorious road. At least in the current environment of heaven and earth, the fire-refining method is the first choice, while the other alchemical methods can only be regarded as secret arts suited to specific circumstances."

Chen Rong analyzed the matter in detail based on her knowledge, while Li Mo listened attentively.

The longer the two of them interacted, the more Li Mo admired this aunt-maternal senior—not only for her knowledge, but also for her character. There was nothing to criticize.

It seemed that people from Aristocratic Clans could not all be lumped together.

"As for the so-called Ephemeral Demon Core, I've never heard of it. Since the word 'Ephemeral' was added before 'demon core,' it most likely refers to a specific type of demonic beast. It could be some rare species, or perhaps a demonic beast from a particular region with a special environment."

"Thank you for clearing up my confusion, Aunt-Master."

Li Mo had benefited greatly and immediately expressed his thanks.

Chen Rong smiled. "Whatever opportunity you discovered, it seems that you truly are suited to cultivating alchemy. You don't need to worry about the assessment. It's merely a formality. During these few days of the year-end assessment, once you're ready, you can contact me at any time. I'll take you to meet Head Chen of the Alchemy Hall, who is also my aunt."

"Thank you, Aunt-Master."

Li Mo hurriedly expressed his thanks.