Inside the magnificent hall.
A towering man wearing a high crown and splendid purple robes leaned back on a dazzling golden throne.
"Whoosh~~" A scarlet serpent over a hundred zhang long, with a single horn, wound its way through the hall. Its red dragon scales rubbed slowly against the air, making a series of crackling sounds.
"Red Scale, behave yourself!" The crowned man in splendid robes fixed the serpent with a gaze as sharp as lightning. A terrifying aura burst from him like a thunderclap as he suddenly turned toward the great serpent before him.
Whoosh.
As his words fell, endless mist billowed around the scarlet, single-horned serpent. In the blink of an eye, it shrank into a snake as thick as a finger, then quietly coiled around the throne on which the crowned man sat.
"Come in," the crowned man said calmly.
"My lord." A burly man clad in ornate golden armor strode into the hall, then dropped to one knee.
"What is it?"
"My lord, Deacon Yu of Tianbao Mountain sent word. The cultivator who controls that black-sailed magic treasure is named Lei Zhan. He... did indeed visit Qianqiu Island six years ago," the burly man in golden armor reported respectfully.
"Mm. Bring me both Tianbao Mountain's intelligence and the North Sea Marquis Mansion's intelligence," the Marquis of the North Sea said calmly.
"Yes." The burly man in golden armor turned his hand over, and two thin booklets appeared in his palm. He respectfully handed them over.
"Mm. You may go," the Marquis of the North Sea ordered.
The burly man in golden armor bowed respectfully, turned, and left the hall.
"Possibly at the ninth level of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map, cultivating both Qi Refining and God-Devil Body Refining? Possibly comprehended the Domain Realm of the Dao in several different Daos? Killed two Wanxiang True Persons in succession?" The Marquis of the North Sea flipped through the pages without much care. The more he read, the more interested he became.
"To have such profound insight into the Dao at the Purple Mansion level? Possibly possesses Divine Sense? Could he be an Immortal reincarnate?" The Marquis of the North Sea's eyes brimmed with thought. "Immortal Juhua, a Loose Immortal of a million years, has always walked alone. His tribe's people have long since vanished one by one over the years. Cultivators with so few soft spots are indeed difficult to deal with. Besides, even if I called upon the Celestial Immortal ancestor, victory would hardly be assured..."
The longer cultivators lived, the more terrifying they became. Loose Immortals who had survived millions of years of the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations were even more frightening. Even some Celestial Immortals risked perishing if they faced one.
Though he was the Marquis who governed all of North Sea Prefecture, he was still only a Void Return cultivator. He might have a chance of summoning the Celestial Immortal elder of the Baili Clan, but the clan's Celestial Immortal ancestor was its very foundation—not someone to call upon lightly.
Besides, he was only acting at someone else's request. It wasn't worth paying such a steep price to provoke someone capable of killing a Celestial Immortal.
"Brother Shenrong, our bond of life and death... isn't worth dragging the entire Baili Clan into a quagmire." The Marquis of the North Sea set the booklet aside, then fell into thought.
"But Brother Shenrong is desperate to avenge his son, and it's hard to dissuade him. Yet Immortal Juhua's whereabouts are difficult to trace. Even if he seeks revenge for his son, provoking a top Loose Immortal capable of killing a Celestial Immortal for no reason would be extremely unwise."
"Now Lei Zhan has appeared. He may well be a disciple of Immortal Juhua..."
"Forget it. Though Brother Shenrong isn't a core member of his clan, even if I withhold this information, he can get it from Tianbao Mountain himself..."
The Marquis of the North Sea shook his head and put the matter out of his mind. The affairs of an entire prefecture kept its marquis extraordinarily busy. How could he constantly keep an eye on a Purple Mansion cultivator?
If Lei Zhan's identity weren't so unusual, and an old friend bound to him by life and death hadn't asked for a favor, he wouldn't have used his Marquis's privileges to personally look into him.
Inside a quiet room at North Sea Tianbao Mountain.
"The wine and food I got in exchange for an Earth-Grade Magic Treasure really are extraordinary. Not only do they taste great, they also help my cultivation a little. They're worth ten days of hard cultivation." Lei Zhan smiled, then sat down cross-legged.
The wine and food he had bought with ten jin of Essence Liquid were enough to satisfy his appetite. After eating and drinking his fill, Lei Zhan rented a quiet room at Tianbao Mountain. Now that he had plenty of Essence Liquid, turning it into strength was naturally his top priority.
With a turn of his hand, Lei Zhan produced a jade bottle. Inside was the more than twelve hundred jin of Essence Liquid he had received by selling off a large number of treasures and magic treasures.
"Whoosh."
Lei Zhan opened his mouth. The bottle's stopper sprang open on its own, and the Essence Liquid flew straight into his mouth like fine wine.
At the same time.
In the boundless, empty space of the Purple Mansion.
A vast lake floated quietly in the void. The water it held was so viscous that it rippled like a pool of quicksilver.
The Essence Liquid entered his body and made its way to his Purple Mansion dantian. Lei Zhan began refining it at a furious pace.
"Rumble~~~"
The entire Purple Mansion Space trembled. As Lei Zhan continued to swallow the Essence Liquid, countless streams of vital energy fell like rain over the lake.
One hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
Two hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
Three hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
As Lei Zhan swallowed more and more Essence Liquid, the fine drizzle, as delicate as ox-hair, gradually grew heavier. Raindrops the size of beans pelted down with a rapid patter, soon turning into a torrential downpour.
As the rain fell, Essence Liquid, shimmering like quicksilver, dripped into the Purple Mansion Lake.
Splash, splash~~~
Splash, splash~~~
Fed by a vast amount of pure essence, the waves of the Purple Mansion Lake surged and churned, spreading in every direction and continually swallowing up more of the surrounding void.
Five hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
Six hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
Seven hundred jin of Essence Liquid.
Lei Zhan continued refining the Essence Liquid, and the Purple Mansion Lake within him grew deeper and broader.
Time passed slowly, and the Essence Liquid in the bottle dwindled.
"My Purple Mansion has reached perfection."
Beneath the hazy glow of a luminous pearl, Lei Zhan opened his eyes as he sat cross-legged on a jade bed in the quiet room. He glanced at the nearly empty emerald-green bottle in his hand and shook his head gently.
"Just reaching Purple Mansion perfection cost me more than eleven hundred jin of Essence Liquid. If I want to break through to the Wanxiang level and expand the Purple Mansion Lake into a Purple Mansion Sea..." Lei Zhan sighed inwardly.
If he relied entirely on cultivation to gather the vast amount of Essence Liquid this breakthrough required, then at the pace the Nine Directions Fragment absorbed the vital energy of heaven and earth, a year would yield at most the equivalent of a little over three hundred jin.
To break through from Purple Mansion perfection to Wanxiang True Person and transform the Purple Mansion Lake into a Purple Mansion Lake, he would need at least ten times the vital energy it had taken to advance from early Purple Mansion to perfection. That came to a staggering fifteen thousand jin of Essence Liquid.
Even if he didn't use Essence Liquid and slowly accumulated it through cultivation, it would still take at least thirty years!
"Fifteen thousand jin of Essence Liquid? Even those Wanxiang True Persons probably need only a little over ten thousand jin to break through and become Primordial Spirit Daoists!"
"Still, though my Qi Refining Path has only reached Purple Mansion perfection, it's already comparable to my God-Devil Body Refining, which has cultivated the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map." Lei Zhan sensed the vastness of the immense lake within his empty Purple Mansion Space, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
By cultivating the Nine Directions Fragment—a Qi Refining method that might be a fragment of either a Second-Grade Golden Core or a First-Grade Golden Core method—Lei Zhan was destined to walk an extraordinarily difficult path.
The method demanded a high threshold, but it also brought a marked increase in strength.
From what Lei Zhan could sense, the abundant, pure Purple Mansion essence within him was enough to rival that of a mid-stage Wanxiang cultivator, even though he still couldn't use Earth-Grade Magic Treasures.
"Essence Liquid... I'm short on it! Magic treasures... I'm short on those too!"
"To get a vast amount of Essence Liquid, I'll have to take risks and fight!" Lei Zhan drew a long breath and shook his head helplessly.
Of course, Lei Zhan still had two paths open to him.
The first was to sell his treasures!
Of the three treasures Immortal Juhua had bestowed on him, not counting the final jade tablet, both the Great Teleportation Dao Talisman and the sword energy containing Immortal Juhua's full-strength strike were priceless. They were worth at least several hundred thousand jin of Essence Liquid.
But Lei Zhan would never be so wasteful as to sell them. These treasures were all tied to his life—they were trump cards he kept for a desperate moment!
He could always earn more Essence Liquid, but once he sold these treasures, he couldn't buy them back even if he wanted to.
The second path was naturally the War God Hall in the Water Mansion.
"Earlier, Senior Big Bear said I had less than a thirty percent chance of clearing the third level of the War God Hall. Now that my Qi Refining Path has reached Purple Mansion perfection, it can rival my God-Devil Body Refining as well."
"If I can improve my insight into the Dao... or comprehend a few more stances of the Red Snow Spear Technique, I'll be able to try clearing the third level of the War God Hall." Lei Zhan thought to himself.
Lei Zhan had been stuck at the ninth level of the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map for several years. Now he was on the verge of fully comprehending the Dao of the Azure Sea, while his Way of Blazing Fire had advanced deeply into the Domain Realm of the Dao. He had a feeling that the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map was actually the path most likely to break through to the Wanxiang level first.
But once the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map broke through, he would waste his remaining chance to challenge the War God Hall at the Purple Mansion level.
Now, with Lei Zhan lacking both treasures and Essence Liquid, there was no way he would squander it.
Today's Street-Pavement Diary, Part Two
Official self-mockery: This chapter feels a little padded! The pace is a little slow! But some groundwork needs to be laid.
The protagonist wants to cultivate the strongest methods, so naturally he'll need more resources than the average person! In other words, he's a "big eater"! The Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map is powerful because it's like a self-sufficient, solar-powered method. It can absorb the power of the sun and Taiyin on its own. When breaking through major realms, it can even draw down a wisp of True Water and True Fire from the Supreme Star to forge the perfect divine body.
But the protagonist's Qi Refining method is only a fragment, so naturally it isn't nearly as smart. He has to rely on external forces—refining the strongest magic treasures and absorbing the greatest amount of essence—to create a divine body that can rival the strongest one forged by the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map. Still, the Qi Refining Path alone can already crush a lot of people.
As the story unfolds, more of the cheat's wondrous uses will be revealed. It may not be impossible for him to cultivate a Second-Grade Golden Core without the help of a World God, or a First-Grade Golden Core whose power rivals that of Body Refiners at the same level.
Stay tuned, brothers!
Maybe I'll have to find Lei Zhan a rich older woman who can take care of him soon!
Key point: Please keep reading! Please keep reading! Please keep reading! There'll be another bonus chapter during the second round of recommendations. I'll post it on a day when I'm feeling good and manage to write an extra chapter! Thanks for your support. Reads really matter! Thank you, everyone!