Initiation

"Condense!"

Wei Zhong formed a hand seal with his fingertips, and a pill flew out of the pill cauldron, landing in his palm.

The pill was green, its surface uneven and its appearance poor, but it was undoubtedly a low-grade first-order pill.

Wei Zhong looked at the Status Panel.

Alchemy · Water · First Order (Initiation 1%)

As expected, I've initiated it.

After several days of effort, Wei Zhong had finally refined a Qi Nourishing Pill and initiated this Water Alchemy method.

Unlike the conventional fire-refining method, which extracted the essence of spirit herbs, the Water Refining Method used a ball of spiritual water to slowly nurture and extract them.

It took a long time, but it rarely resulted in failure during the extraction process.

For the first step of extraction, one could say it traded time for a higher success rate. The only problem lay in the pill-condensing stage.

What proportions should the various spirit-herb essences be condensed in, and in what sequence? That was the great difficulty of alchemy.

Wei Zhong had no idea how many times he had failed at this step. Only today had he finally succeeded in refining a low-grade Qi Nourishing Pill, officially becoming a first-order alchemist.

He had initiated water alchemy, but had yet to find the time to learn the fire-refining method.

Wei Zhong had cultivated for many years and could manipulate water spiritual power as easily as turning his hand over. That was why he had begun with water alchemy. As for the fire-refining method, he could put it off for now.

After all, one who bit off more than he could chew could not digest it. If he encountered a bottleneck in the future, he could then draw upon it for reference.

Putting away the pill cauldron, Wei Zhong looked toward the desk in the cultivation room. Upon it lay jade slips of every size, all inheritances of the hundred arts of cultivation that he had collected from the Li family during this time.

Without exception, they were all first-order inheritances, and some were even more than half incomplete.

The only one that barely caught Wei Zhong's eye was a talisman inheritance. It recorded methods for making talisman leather and talisman ink, as well as the crafting methods for several first-order talismans.

There were household talismans such as Dust Removal Talismans and House Guarding Talismans, as well as combat talismans like Qi Recovery Talismans and Wind Blade Talismans.

Yet after obtaining this inheritance, Wei Zhong had no intention of immediately beginning to draw talismans.

First-order talismans were truly of too little use to him. Even if he raised the skill to grandmaster or even master level, their power would still be limited by the talisman ink and talisman paper.

Rather than spend time crafting talismans, Wei Zhong would be better off learning several more second-order spells. Once second-order spells underwent their qualitative transformation, they would surely bring him unexpected surprises.

With a hand seal, Wei Zhong's body was immediately wrapped in a thin, faintly black membrane. This was one of the accompanying spells recorded in the Spring Autumn Water Refining Art.

A second-order defensive spell:

Black Water Spirit Armor · Initiation (17%)

Wei Zhong had the Flying Throwing Art for offense, the Soaring Cloud Art for escape, and the Aura Concealment Technique and Invisibility Art for hiding. Defense alone had been lacking.

Thus, he had chosen this spell from the Spring Autumn Water Refining Art to round out his abilities.

He would no longer have to rely solely on artifacts for defense. He himself could now withstand a certain amount of damage.

Wei Zhong condensed a water bullet at his fingertips and fired it at his own chest. The instant the two met, ripples spread across the water garment.

Against a sharp blade, the soft water garment seemed to transform into hard steel, blocking the blade's intrusion.

That was the effect of the Black Water Spirit Armor: blunt impacts had their force dispersed, while sharp blades met steel. It continuously changed its own state to resist whatever attack it encountered.

Satisfied, Wei Zhong dismissed it, walked out of the cultivation room, and stretched as he looked at the newly planted spirit rice within the grotto-heaven outside.

He had personally planted all this second-order spirit rice in recent days, since the secret of the grotto-heaven could not be revealed to outsiders.

Aside from being one of the ingredients for second-order Green Vine Intoxication, Wei Zhong had planted second-order spirit rice in the grotto-heaven because he wanted to see whether rice grown atop a Third-Order Spirit Vein would be of better quality than that grown on Black Lake Island.

If it proved better, he could use it for brewing spirit wine in the future, or even make it his staple food.

Though Foundation Establishment cultivators had already abstained from food, Wei Zhong still missed the pleasures of the palate.

At a small corner of the spirit field stood a low patch of ganoderma.

This ganoderma was the Flesh-Eating Ganoderma Luo Mingyan had gifted him. Following Luo Mingyan's words, Wei Zhong had chosen to plant it within the grotto-heaven, where spiritual energy was denser.

Parting the ganoderma patch revealed fish remains beneath it. These were spirit fish Wei Zhong had caught from the lake, used to propagate the Flesh-Eating Ganoderma.

After letting it grow for a while longer, he could begin harvesting the ganoderma and attempt to brew Azure Ganoderma Wine.

Compared with advancing his alchemy to the second order to refine Harmony Qi Pills, Wei Zhong believed brewing Azure Ganoderma Wine would succeed faster.

After leaving the grotto-heaven, Wei Zhong tidied his appearance and sent a voice transmission to Xie Linghua, informing her that he would soon head to the Azurewood Sect to offer congratulations and instructing her to take proper care of Black Lake Island.

He then flew to the cliffside and put away Da Jin and the Yuan Water Pearl.

After several days of condensation, the Yuan Water Pearl had become even heavier.

It was ultimately gathering on its own, so the effect was still somewhat lacking. If I could control it from the side, its condensation speed would be much faster.

But that would be more trouble than it was worth. I still need to cultivate, including practicing spells and alchemy. I truly have no energy to spare for this treasure.

Slow is slow. In any case, it will not be of use anytime soon.

After putting it away, Wei Zhong raised a hand and released an Azure Boat. This was a second-order flying artifact he had purchased from the Li family. It could use either a cultivator's own spiritual power or spirit stones.

It was a full tier above the flying artifact Luo Mingyan had used before.

Wei Zhong rode the Azure Boat toward the Azurewood Sect. In less than a day, he reached his destination.

Looking at the bustling market ahead, Wei Zhong felt as though he had returned to the time when he had first come here as a Qi Refining cultivator.

When did Bright Moon Market become so lively?

After entering, Wei Zhong found a place to settle down, then paid Ning CanKun a visit.

He learned that this Core Formation Grand Ceremony had attracted not only every force around the Azurewood Sect, but also quite a few cultivators fighting in the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range. They had all returned to join in the excitement of the ceremony.

There will be an auction three days from now.

Upon learning this, Wei Zhong was greatly excited. An auction serving as the prelude to a Core Formation Grand Ceremony was surely bound to have many good things.

Now that he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Wei Zhong finally had the chance to show his prowess at an auction.

Taking advantage of Bright Moon Market's bustle, Wei Zhong inspected the surrounding stalls and found that there truly were quite a few good items.

He even saw quite a few of the three crucial spirit herbs required for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

These probably all came from the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range.

When he walked to one stall, Wei Zhong was somewhat surprised by the Azure Bamboo Swords displayed there.

The Azure Bamboo Swords were lined up as though cast from the same mold. It was the first time Wei Zhong had seen so many spell swords that were so similar, almost identical.

"Senior, are you looking to purchase a spell sword? These Azure Bamboo Swords of mine were personally refined by Grandmaster Jiang of Hanzhu City and his disciples. They are fine goods at fair prices..."

Wei Zhong looked at the young-faced stall owner and asked,

"You are from Hanzhu City?"

The latter nodded.

Wei Zhong then asked several more questions and learned that he was indeed one of Grandmaster Jiang's disciples, and that all these spell swords had been personally refined by him.

"Wishing everyone a happy New Year's Day!!!"