The Wonders of Profound Yin Divine Water

Those places of extreme yin and baleful energy were all exceedingly dangerous.

The slightest carelessness could bring disaster.

Before he was absolutely confident he could protect himself, Xia Dong certainly wouldn't try anything rash.

Besides, not condensing a Talisman Seed for the time being wouldn't affect his ability to make low-grade talismans.

What else could he do? He'd just have to make do.

At his current stage of cultivation, as long as he had Spirit Stones coming in, that was enough.

Xia Dong was quite relaxed about it. Since condensing a Talisman Seed was too difficult for now, he simply set the matter aside and focused his attention on researching the "Profound Yin Divine Water."

Over this period, his success rate in alchemy had been extremely high. Under the strain of intensive refining and the nourishment of pill energy, the originally battered pill furnace had gradually begun to change in remarkable ways. The mottled verdigris on its body was slowly fading, and a faint spiritual glow even seemed to shimmer across its surface.

In Xia Dong's view, if the furnace continued to endure long years of tempering, it might truly transform into a mid-grade magical artifact.

It was a pity that he didn't know how to refine artifacts himself. Otherwise, he could have tried making a pill furnace or some other magical artifact.

But he also knew very well that artifact refining was far more difficult than alchemy.

Artifact refining demanded extremely precise temperatures and, more importantly, required the use of natural earthfire.

Those were conditions only available to relatively powerful cultivation forces or sects.

Even if an ordinary Rogue Cultivator had heaven-defying luck and found an earthfire vein in the wilderness, he absolutely wouldn't be able to keep it. It would only bring him a fatal calamity.

So Xia Dong had no plans to learn artifact refining for the time being.

What was more, learning artifact refining also required mastery of formations, since spiritual power circuits had to be carved inside magical artifacts. In the cultivation world, even basic jade slips on formations were extremely precious. The great forces guarded them jealously and never revealed them lightly.

Take the formation in the secret chamber of his cave abode, for example. It concealed his aura, and had originally been provided by the Profound Yin Sect for its disciples. Even Zhang Ping didn't truly know how to set up such a formation. He had merely taken a ready-made formation disk and copied what he'd seen as best he could.

The reason the formation disk could keep working for so long was that it had been placed right over a spiritual acupoint. Since the formation had only one function—to conceal one's aura—and had no offensive or defensive capabilities, it consumed very little spiritual power and could sustain itself on the nourishment of the spiritual acupoint.

The same principle applied to the secret chamber at the bottom of the Withered Well in Changchun Medical Hall, in the city. The reason the well had remained dry year-round was that an extremely weak spiritual acupoint lay beneath it. But in terms of spiritual energy density, Changchun Medical Hall's weak spiritual acupoint was still far inferior to the one here at Tiger Hill Cave Abode.

Thinking of the Withered Well at Changchun Medical Hall, Xia Dong's thoughts drifted.

Even now, he still didn't know the true identity of the Profound Yin Sect senior whose skeleton had died in that secret chamber beneath the well.

As far as he knew, before the Great You Dynasty was founded, the Profound Yin Sect had been a mighty, top-tier demonic sect. But now, it had fallen into decline and could only skulk in the shadows, barely clinging to life.

Still, in his spare time, Xia Dong had read many books from this world. From a few scattered fragments in surviving records, he had discovered hints that the founding emperor of the Great You Dynasty had once been a member of the Profound Yin Sect.

But judging by what happened after the Great You Dynasty was founded, the Profound Yin Sect had clearly reaped none of the benefits of its founding. The emperor had probably even ruthlessly suppressed it afterward.

When the crafty hare is dead, the hounds are cooked. So it has been since ancient times.

For that reason, the Profound Yin Sect now acted with great secrecy.

When its disciples ventured into the secular world, they rarely revealed their true origins as members of the Profound Yin Sect. They usually had all sorts of respectable identities to conceal them.

Xia Dong took a deep breath and circulated his cultivation technique for a while, restoring his energy and spirit to their peak.

He shook his head, cast aside these jumbled thoughts, and focused on what lay before him, preparing to start refining pills.

For this batch, he planned to make Qi-Gathering Pills.

At the crucial final step of fusing the pills, he planned to add a drop of the Profound Yin Divine Water he had condensed himself, to see just how much this divine treasure could enhance the pills' medicinal effects.

Now that his cultivation had advanced, Xia Dong could condense roughly one drop of pure Profound Yin Divine Water a day. However, the Divine Pool of Creation in the "Kidney Divine Palace" within his body could currently hold a maximum of only nine drops.

So once he had stored nine drops, he wouldn't be able to condense or accumulate any more unless he used up some of the divine water.

The surviving fragment of the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture mentioned that preserving and containing Profound Yin Divine Water outside the body for a long time required an extremely rare special material: "Yin Spirit Jade."

Xia Dong naturally didn't have such a heavenly treasure.

He had also tried other methods before, using ordinary jade and porcelain bottles, but there was nothing he could do.

Once this Profound Yin Divine Water left his body, its wondrous power would rapidly dissipate if it wasn't used at once, evaporating away completely in no time.

The Spirit Firewood at the bottom of the furnace burst into flame. Under Xia Dong's precise control of his Qi Refining Fourth Layer mana and spiritual sense, one by one, the auxiliary and primary ingredients were added to the furnace in orderly succession, purified, stripped of impurities, and suspended.

Soon, more than a dozen drops of colorful medicinal essence floated inside the furnace.

At the crucial "pill fusion" step, Xia Dong took a deep breath and didn't force the medicinal liquids together as he usually did. With a slight movement of his thoughts, he guided the Divine Pool of Creation in his two Kidney Divine Palaces and carefully separated out a single drop of deep, azure "Profound Yin Divine Water."

Wrapped in mana, the drop traveled along his meridians and was forced out through his fingertip. He flicked his finger, sending it precisely into the center of the furnace.

Hiss.

The moment the Profound Yin Divine Water entered the furnace, it didn't cause an explosion.

On the contrary, this water, the very essence of yin and softness, seemed like the perfect lubricant. Its extreme cold and abundant vitality instantly spread through the medicinal liquids.

The various liquids, which had been restless because their attributes clashed, became astonishingly docile the moment they touched the divine water. Water and fire balanced; yin and yang harmonized. They melded together with extraordinary ease.

Condense!

Xia Dong formed a spell seal, and the furnace lid lifted.

Three Qi-Gathering Pills lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace.

Unlike the dull gray, inferior pills he'd made before, these three pills, infused with Profound Yin Divine Water, still lacked cloud patterns, but they were much rounder and gave off a faint azure glow. Their pill fragrance was also purer.

"The quality has indeed improved."

Xia Dong's face brightened with delight. He immediately picked up one "Mysterious Yin Qi-Gathering Pill," swallowed it, and sat down to refine it.

Half an hour later, however, Xia Dong opened his eyes, and an unmistakable trace of disappointment flashed through them.

Was it less than a tenth more effective than an ordinary Qi-Gathering Pill?

So it really could only improve the quality of pills a little.

He shook his head, put the two remaining Mysterious Yin Qi-Gathering Pills into a jade bottle, and tucked it away. Then he stood up and drew several large bundles of "waste pills" and medicinal dregs that had accumulated in a corner over the past while into his hand from a distance.

He followed the underwater passage out of the secret chamber and came to the edge of the quiet pool outside.

Xia Dong crushed the waste pills in his hand and scattered them into the clear pool like fish food.

It had become a habit of his lately.

At first, he'd only disliked the waste pills taking up space in the secret chamber, so he'd casually brought them out and fed them to the ordinary wild fish in this mountain pool.

At the beginning, nothing changed in the pool, and the fish showed no signs of anything unusual after feeding.

But lately, Xia Dong had noticed a new development.

As the crushed waste pills entered the water, the surface immediately began to churn.

Schools of bluegill and grass carp, which had originally been no bigger than a palm, leaped out of the water one after another. They had grown a full size larger, and their scales even seemed to reflect a faint spiritual glow in the sunlight.

"These ordinary wild fish have eaten so many waste pills containing traces of medicinal power that they've begun absorbing spiritual energy and evolving toward becoming spirit fish."

Xia Dong leaped into the icy depths of the pool again.

A thick layer of silt had settled at the bottom. Xia Dong grabbed a handful of dark brown mud and brought it close to inspect.

This was no ordinary silt.

It was clearly excellent "spirit fertilizer," infused with gentle spiritual energy.

Xia Dong thought, These fish can't fully digest the medicinal power in the waste pills. Their excrement settles at the bottom of the pool and ferments, turning into natural spirit fertilizer.

Xia Dong surfaced and looked at the land around the pool. A thought stirred in his heart.

Now that he had the spirit fertilizer at the bottom of the pool, he could completely reclaim a patch of spiritual soil nearby.

"If I succeed in reclaiming it, I'll only need to get some spirit herb seeds. Then I can build a secret medicinal garden of my own here."

But once the medicinal garden was built, it would inevitably give off spiritual energy and the fragrance of herbs. If he wanted to keep the place for the long term, he would still have to find a way to get a formation to conceal it.

Of course, that was for later.

Xia Dong gave his clothes a light shake. His qi and blood surged, and the clothes dried on their own.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked to the cliff beside the pool.

He gazed down at the endless stretch of poison-miasma forest across Tiger Hill Mountain, his mind turning over plans for the medicinal garden.

Just then, his Qi Refining Fifth Layer Perfection spiritual sense suddenly pricked.

An oppressive sensation, intensely cold and heavy, tinged with danger, was silently closing in from behind him on the right.

Xia Dong's heart tightened, and he abruptly glanced sideways.

In the shadow of a nearby giant tree, the enormous snake—with its newly shed skin, terrifying length, and faint azure water patterns along its belly—had somehow slithered close to him.

Its icy, vertical pupils watched him fixedly. Its massive body slid over the fallen leaves without making the slightest sound.

"What is it trying to do?"

Xia Dong didn't hesitate for a moment. His thoughts stirred, and the Mysterious Yin Mana in his dantian burst forth.

Wind-Riding Technique!

Whoosh.

A whirlwind rose from the ground, lifting Xia Dong's body like a light feather. He shot into the air and floated more than a dozen yards above the ground, putting a fairly safe distance between himself and the Great Serpent.

From above, Xia Dong warily watched the Great Serpent below, ready to deal with an attack from this beast, which was comparable to a Late Qi Refining Realm monster.

"Hm?" Xia Dong sensed a ripple of thought without words.

The other party seemed to be expressing goodwill.

A thought stirred in Xia Dong's mind. He remembered that the Great Serpent carried the bloodline of the Black Water Profound Snake, the sacred beast of the Profound Yin Sect.

Could it be?

Xia Dong took out a Mysterious Yin Qi-Gathering Pill and flicked it toward the Great Serpent.

The Great Serpent swallowed it without hesitation, then radiated an emotion of overwhelming delight.

After the Great Serpent swallowed and refined the Mysterious Yin Qi-Gathering Pill, Xia Dong's mind unexpectedly formed a faint connection with it.