Inside Wei Suo's body, True Essence rotated and flowed through four purple seas of consciousness.
Stone Spirit Milk, a condensation of Heaven and Earth spiritual energy that was scarcely recorded in the present-day Cultivation World, was simply astonishing. Even if Wei Suo cultivated day and night, it would originally have taken him many days to possibly break through to the fourth level of the Sea of Consciousness Realm. Yet this Stone Spirit Milk had allowed him to open a new sea of consciousness in one stroke, making him a cultivator at the fourth level of the Sea of Consciousness Realm!
Relishing that feeling of spiritual energy violently surging forth and rapidly merging with his True Essence, Wei Suo smacked his lips, then could not help bending over the broken hole again and taking several hard pulls.
If there had been more Stone Spirit Milk, he might have directly broken through to the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm. Once he reached the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm, he would be able to use some powerful spells and would no longer be an ordinary low-level Rogue Cultivator.
But to Wei Suo's immense disappointment, the hollow jade-tube-like crystalline pillar was completely empty. There was not even a single drop of Stone Spirit Milk left.
"Old man, is the crystal in here useful?"
Feeling thoroughly disappointed, Wei Suo carefully sent out an Azure Water Blade and cut the crystalline pillar open a little further. Its inner surface was covered in sparkling grains like grains of salt.
"These are only ordinary glazed crystals. They are of no use. This stalactite was probably originally a stone pillar. Water dripping from the ceiling of the cave ran down along the pillar, then wrapped it in another layer of stalactite on the outside. The Stone Spirit Milk merely happened to flow out from the glazed crystals within this stone pillar." The Green Robe Old Man shook his head with a trace of regret as well.
"Then is that Jade Cloud Ganoderma useful for raising cultivation?" Wei Suo could not help taking out the Jade Cloud Ganoderma again. He looked as though he wished he could swallow it whole in a single bite.
"Cultivation most fears impatience and reckless advancement." The Green Robe Old Man gave a cold laugh. "Just as demon cores gather a great deal of spiritual energy but cannot be directly refined, Jade Cloud Ganoderma, like most spiritual medicines, forms many unique components within itself as it grows. Demonic beasts can strengthen their demon cores by consuming Jade Cloud Ganoderma, but if you swallow this Jade Cloud Ganoderma, your entire body will likely harden, and you will not be able to leave this cave at all."
"I was too impatient." Wei Suo's eyes flickered several times. He took a deep breath, nodded, and calmed down.
A strange light flashed through the Green Robe Old Man's eyes at the rare sight of Wei Suo looking so serious. From what Wei Suo had said before, he had always thought this fellow was desperately cultivating solely to pursue Shui Ling'er, one of the great beauties of the Cultivation World. Yet the change in Wei Suo's expression at that moment suddenly made him feel that Wei Suo was cultivating so desperately and seeking to raise his cultivation for some other important reason.
"You need not be disappointed either. At least your luck has been fairly good. You obtained some Stone Spirit Milk and broke through to the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm. Your speed in advancing from the Second Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm to the Fourth Level has already been extremely fast. And now that you have reached the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm, there are some things I can tell you. I guarantee they will be no less useful to you than this Stone Spirit Milk!" After glancing at Wei Suo, the Green Robe Old Man narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "But since we are partners, and I am following your lead, some matters should be laid bare and discussed openly. You must tell me why you are cultivating so desperately aside from Shui Ling'er."
"To stay alive... Before this, if I did not fight hard, I could not have survived in Lingyue City." Wei Suo gave a bitter smile. For the first time, his face lacked its usual frivolous, grinning expression. "And... I want to go to the place beyond the Heavenly Dome where my father and mother met with disaster and take a look. At the very least, I need to know how they died..."
"Do you know where beyond the Heavenly Dome they met with disaster?" the Green Robe Old Man asked as he looked at Wei Suo.
"I don't know. Later, I only found out that they had probably left the Heavenly Dome in the direction north of Lingyue City. I went there once to take a look, but my cultivation was too low. I could not go outside the Heavenly Dome." Wei Suo let out a long breath and looked at the Green Robe Old Man. "All right, I've said everything I should say. Now you should tell me what you can tell me."
"Fine." The Green Robe Old Man glanced at Wei Suo and nodded. "I will tell you the method for refining a kind of pill. This pill is called the Heaven Mending Pill."
"Heaven Mending Pill? What kind of pill is that? Can it rapidly restore True Essence, or can it raise one's True Essence cultivation?" Wei Suo immediately returned to his usual gold-eyed state.
"It is neither of those." The Green Robe Old Man said with some pride, "But it is more useful than those pills! It is a pill that can continuously temper the body and strengthen the seas of consciousness!"
"What does that mean?" Wei Suo asked, thoroughly confused.
The Green Robe Old Man said, "For all current cultivation techniques, once the size of the seas of consciousness reaches a certain extent according to the rank of the technique, it becomes fixed. When the power of True Essence within a sea of consciousness reaches a certain level, a new sea of consciousness is opened, and one's cultivation advances another stage. The higher the rank of the cultivation technique, the larger the seas of consciousness it opens, the more True Essence they can store, and the more condensed that True Essence becomes. Thus, even at the same cultivation level, cultivators who practice superior techniques are many times stronger than cultivators like you who practice lousy techniques. But the Heaven Mending Pill can continuously enlarge your existing seas of consciousness. Just as spiritual medicines can strengthen a demonic beast's inner core and allow even a level-three demonic beast to possibly surpass the strength of a level-four demonic beast, my Heaven Mending Pill can, in essence, continuously advance your trash cultivation technique. In the end, it may even surpass Heaven Tier Cultivation Techniques!"
"A pill that can advance cultivation techniques!" Wei Suo's pupils abruptly contracted. "Old man, are you sure you're not joking with me?"
"If you do not want to know, then forget it." The Green Robe Old Man looked at Wei Suo and smiled.
"Damn, if I didn't want to know, I would be a complete idiot! But isn't this pill way too monstrous?" Wei Suo knew very well what kind of difference lay between low-rank and high-rank True Essence cultivation techniques. Back when he could not afford much Qi Replenishing Powder, he had to calculate every Azure Water Blade he cast. But if a cultivator practiced Heaven Tier Cultivation Techniques, even at the Second Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm, they could probably fire hundreds of Azure Water Blades in succession. A pill that could continuously enlarge his seas of consciousness and make the Purple Profound True Art, which he had always wanted to replace, possibly surpass even Heaven Tier Cultivation Techniques—what kind of concept was that?
"Monstrous? Of course it is monstrous. But this pill must be taken over a long period before it has any effect. And one or two ten-thousand years ago, its ingredients were extremely difficult to gather in full." The Green Robe Old Man looked at Wei Suo and said, "One can only say that you, a trash little Rogue Cultivator in other people's eyes, and I, a trash artifact spirit in other people's eyes, have both welcomed our era!"
"Since this pill can continuously advance one's cultivation technique, will it affect cultivation speed?" Wei Suo took a deep breath and asked.
The Green Robe Old Man nodded. "Of course. Just as when your cultivation technique becomes slightly more advanced and your seas of consciousness grow larger, your cultivation speed will naturally slow down. But I can guarantee that compared with the progress speed of cultivating Heaven Tier Cultivation Techniques, it will still definitely be somewhat faster. That is because the Heaven Mending Pill itself continuously transforms your body, effectively raising your talent and the speed at which you absorb spiritual energy."
Wei Suo gritted his teeth. "Since there is such a good thing, why did you have to wait until I reached the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm to tell me?"
"Very simple. Because this pill only works on cultivators at the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm or above." The Green Robe Old Man gave an answer so simple it made Wei Suo roll his eyes.
"Then what exactly are the ingredients for this Heaven Mending Pill?"
"Silver Moon Grass, Purple Void Grass, Seven Leaf Orchid, Cold Dew Root, and the demon core of a level-three Green Armored Beetle," the Green Robe Old Man said.
"A Green Armored Beetle demon core?" Wei Suo calculated inwardly. Among these materials, only the demon core of a high-level level-three Green Armored Beetle was relatively valuable. The rest were not precious items. And there were quite a few Green Armored Beetles around now, so he could acquire them even by spending spirit stones.
"Only the Green Armored Beetle demon core is worth much now." The Green Robe Old Man seemed to see through Wei Suo's thoughts at a glance and said with some emotion, "Do not think that merely because Green Armored Beetles are level-three demonic beasts, they have always been common. One or two ten-thousand years ago, they had nearly been hunted to extinction and were very difficult to find. Who would have thought that their numbers would multiply so greatly now? They can even be found within the Heavenly Dome."
"Let's go." After a pause, the Green Robe Old Man looked at Wei Suo and continued, "Go back and prepare the materials for pill refinement. Refining the Heaven Mending Pill requires an Earth Fire Pill Furnace. Once we return, I will tell you how to refine it. This Heaven Mending Pill also requires careful control of the heat. It cannot be successfully refined in one attempt."
"All right, but wait just a moment." Wei Suo nodded, then swiftly took out his Treasure Pouch.
"What are you doing?" To the Green Robe Old Man's bewilderment, Wei Suo took out the Golden Silk Talisman Brush and the materials for refining an Illusionary Light Talisman from the Treasure Pouch. Then, Wei Suo released all nearly thirty Ice Snow Mantises.
"I'm going to refine an Illusionary Light Talisman. Speaking of which, I broke through to the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm so quickly this time because of Nangong Yuqing. I'll refine an Illusionary Light Talisman and give it to her. An Illusionary Light Talisman that conjures thirty Ice Snow Mantises at once should still be enough to give an opponent a scare. There isn't enough room in the little stone house to lay out so many Ice Snow Mantises, so I might as well refine it here." As he explained, Wei Suo began arranging the Ice Snow Mantis corpses, positioning each one in all kinds of vicious, ferocious poses.
"Damn it! There are so many holes in these Ice Snow Mantises. Won't your opponent immediately see that they're fake?" The Green Robe Old Man was left speechless when he saw the holes the Wind Spirit Howler had punched through the Ice Snow Mantises.
"It's fine. I just need to dress them up a little. I'm good at this." What left him even more speechless was seeing Wei Suo take out a bottle of white paint made from some unknown substance and begin painting the Ice Snow Mantises.
"This fellow!" Although he found Wei Suo's actions rather pointless, for some reason, the Green Robe Old Man increasingly felt that Wei Suo differed greatly from most Rogue Cultivators. Thus, in a rare occurrence, he did not mock Wei Suo this time. He merely watched quietly as Wei Suo refined the Illusionary Light Talisman.
Before you continue