It was still the same towering, ancient hall, and the enormous meditation cushions beneath it remained exactly where they had been a hundred million years ago.
Whoosh!
A handsome young man in a black robe appeared out of thin air in the hall, a smile that had endured for years on his face.
"I'm back." Lei Zhan looked around and spotted his master, Immortal Juhua, and the Water Mansion's magic treasure spirit, Yellow-Haired Great Bear, at a glance.
Lei Zhan said respectfully, "This disciple pays his respects to Master and Senior Big Bear."
"Perfected Purple Mansion?" Immortal Juhua looked at Lei Zhan, a knowing smile in his eyes. "Not bad. In less than four years, you've cultivated the Qi Refining Path from the early Purple Mansion stage to perfection."
The progress from the early Purple Mansion stage to perfection might not seem remarkable, but Immortal Juhua knew how difficult it was. Aside from his daily cultivation, Lei Zhan had to fight and compete for resources to obtain a large amount of Essence Liquid.
An ordinary Myriad Phenomena True Person who sold off every magic treasure he owned would be lucky to get a few hundred pounds of Essence Liquid at most. For a cultivator at the Purple Mansion level to find a way to obtain a vast amount of it... that was incredibly difficult.
"That fragmentary Qi Refining technique you found somewhere really is rather strange. Just going from the early Purple Mansion stage to perfection requires over a thousand pounds of Essence Liquid..." Yellow-Haired Great Bear shook his head. Over the past few years, he had personally examined that Qi Refining technique, the Nine Directions Fragment, and had naturally noticed its oddities.
As a magic treasure spirit who had once followed the True God Daoist Sanshou, his discernment was exceptional. Immortal Juhua had never encountered a Qi Refining technique at the Pure Yang or even Great Encompassment level in his life, but Yellow-Haired Great Bear had some vague suspicions.
"Master, Senior Big Bear, my cultivation speed... is indeed a little slow." Lei Zhan nodded. "But I came back this time to break through to the Myriad Phenomena True Person level! I've already prepared all the Essence Liquid and magic treasures I'll need for the breakthrough."
"Hm?"
"What?"
Immortal Juhua and Yellow-Haired Great Bear were both stunned. Immortal Juhua looked at Lei Zhan. "For you to break through to the Myriad Phenomena True Person level, the magic treasure is easy enough to deal with. But you'll need more than ten thousand pounds of Essence Liquid. If you want to build a more solid foundation..."
"If you build a more solid foundation, you may well need around sixteen thousand pounds of Essence Liquid," Yellow-Haired Great Bear added.
Sixteen thousand pounds of Essence Liquid would be a fortune enough to make even a Primordial Spirit Daoist's eyes turn red, let alone a low-level cultivator like Lei Zhan.
"Disciple has everything prepared." Lei Zhan smiled faintly and said no more. "I ask Master and Senior Big Bear to protect me while I cultivate!"
With that, Lei Zhan found a nearby enormous meditation cushion and sat down cross-legged.
Lei Zhan had asked them to protect him, but in truth, the Water Mansion was perfectly safe. Without the magic treasure spirit Yellow-Haired Great Bear's permission, even Celestial Gods and True Immortals would have to spend endless ages forcibly refining the Water Mansion before they could enter.
As Lei Zhan sat on the cushion, he immediately felt his soul grow a little more serene. Even his thoughts seemed to move much faster and more nimbly.
Whoosh.
Without another moment's hesitation, Lei Zhan flipped his hand, and a yellow-skinned jade gourd appeared in his palm.
The gourd opened on its own. Essence Liquid vaporized into mist and poured out, filling the surrounding space with a richer flow of the energy of heaven and earth.
"Looks like this little fellow wasn't joking!" Immortal Juhua and Yellow-Haired Great Bear exchanged a glance, each catching a hint of approval in the other's eyes. No matter how Lei Zhan had obtained all that Essence Liquid, the fact that he could produce it proved his capabilities.
"Juhua, your disciple..." Yellow-Haired Great Bear nodded and sent him a secret transmission. "Even if you fail to survive these Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations, your disciple is more than capable of growing into a renowned powerhouse in the perilous Three Realms!"
"Oh?" Immortal Juhua raised an eyebrow. The magic treasure spirit had always been lofty and hard to impress, so such praise was rare.
"Hmph!" Yellow-Haired Great Bear couldn't be bothered to argue with Immortal Juhua. He stood to one side and silently watched Lei Zhan.
After Lei Zhan sat down cross-legged, Immortal Juhua and Yellow-Haired Great Bear communicated through secret transmissions. Lei Zhan, immersed in cultivation, knew nothing of what they were saying.
"Whoosh!"
Lei Zhan opened his mouth, and a stream of emerald-green Essence Liquid, as sweet as jade nectar, flew straight inside.
As soon as the Essence Liquid entered his mouth, it instantly transformed into an immense flow of the energy of heaven and earth, surging toward the Purple Mansion Space within Lei Zhan.
The energy of heaven and earth gathered like clouds above the sea of the Purple Mansion. Soon, raindrops the size of beans began to fall, then came a downpour like a curtain of rain.
The Purple Mansion Space within Lei Zhan began to refine the energy furiously, and the entire sea of the Purple Mansion expanded at a frantic pace.
It continued to spread...
To expand...
The Essence Liquid in the yellow-skinned jade gourd steadily dwindled.
Five hundred pounds of Essence Liquid!
One thousand pounds of Essence Liquid!
Two thousand pounds of Essence Liquid!
Lei Zhan refined it without pause.
"Hm? In three years, I've gradually refined more than eight thousand pounds of Essence Liquid. Adding what I've accumulated through daily cultivation and breathing in the energy of heaven and earth, that's equivalent to another thousand pounds." Lei Zhan thought to himself. "The sea of the Purple Mansion has now refined the equivalent of the sixteen thousand pounds I'd estimated... and it still hasn't reached its limit?"
"Fortunately, that Water-Splitting White Shark Great Demon lived for thousands of years and amassed countless treasures, along with what the Demon Race contributed."
"Then let me see!"
"Just how far can my sea of the Purple Mansion expand?" Lei Zhan continued refining the Essence Liquid without the slightest hesitation.
The sea of the Purple Mansion inside him spread outward, encroaching upon the surrounding void. Its range grew larger and larger, and the entire Purple Mansion Space became increasingly solid.
After a long while.
"Phew!" Lei Zhan gently exhaled a breath of stale air. He had refined another six thousand pounds of Essence Liquid. Only a thin layer remained at the bottom of the yellow-skinned jade gourd, and only then did he sense that the sea of the Purple Mansion within him had expanded to its limit.
"Counting what I'd accumulated before, I actually refined more than twenty-two thousand pounds of Essence Liquid..." Lei Zhan clicked his tongue. If he continued relying on himself to plunder the Demon Race, he would have to go after those at the Primordial Spirit Daoist level.
But every Primordial Spirit Daoist was a pillar of the Great Xia World, almost all of them connected in one way or another to powerful factions...
Lei Zhan shook his head and set the thought aside.
With a thought, he put away the jade gourd. Then he waved his hand, and a battle saber radiating powerful fluctuations appeared in the air.
"This battle saber is the finest magic treasure I found after sweeping through the lairs of hundreds of Myriad Phenomena Great Demons, large and small. Tianbao Mountain appraised it at the top-grade Earth rank." Lei Zhan's gaze swept over the streamlined blade in his hand, and he gently tapped it with a finger.
"Rise!"
At once, a faint ripple spread through the empty, ancient hall, like a pebble tossed into a still lake.
In an instant, with a whoosh, an invisible giant hand seemed to seize the battle saber in Lei Zhan's grasp and lift it into the air.
Lei Zhan focused his thoughts. He had long since memorized the contents of the Nine Directions Fragment. His rich, golden-purple vital energy surged like a raging tide, winding and intertwining into countless complex, ancient runes that enveloped the battle saber.
His movements were practiced and fluid, as if he had rehearsed them countless times.
"Fuse!" Lei Zhan pointed from afar. In the blink of an eye, the Earth-rank, top-grade magic treasure, which radiated a powerful aura, melted like ice frozen for ten thousand years, becoming a pool of jade liquid the same purple-gold color as his vital energy.
The Qi Refining technique moved with his thoughts and continued to circulate. Lei Zhan swallowed the pool of purple-gold liquid.
Rumble~~~
Thunder boomed through the Purple Mansion Space. As if heaven and earth were being created, the purple-gold liquid entered and triggered a violent reaction.
The Myriad Phenomena began anew.
The boundless sea of the Purple Mansion surged, and enormous stars condensed one after another, densely filling the endless sky.
Then the sea of the Purple Mansion continued to surge with monstrous waves.
The bright moon rose over the sea...
The morning sun rose in the east...
Within the Purple Mansion Space, the three great visions that accompanied the breakthrough to the Myriad Phenomena level appeared in succession.
Just then.
A massive amount of the energy of heaven and earth suddenly rushed toward Lei Zhan, pouring into him at an astonishing speed. The aura emanating from him grew just as astonishing as the energy flooded into his body.
A moment later.
Lei Zhan opened his eyes, unable to suppress the delight on his handsome face.
"Little fellow, you've reached the Myriad Phenomena level!" Yellow-Haired Great Bear smiled. "I saw you refining Essence Liquid like mad just now. How much did it take to break through from Purple Mansion perfection to the Myriad Phenomena level?"
Immortal Juhua, standing nearby, looked at Lei Zhan as well.
"From the early Purple Mansion stage to perfection took about fifteen hundred pounds of Essence Liquid. From Purple Mansion perfection to the early Myriad Phenomena stage took about twenty-two thousand pounds." A wry smile appeared on Lei Zhan's face.
"More than twenty-two thousand pounds?" Immortal Juhua was secretly astounded.
Even after living for several million years, this was the first time he had heard of anyone needing more than twenty thousand pounds of Essence Liquid to break through to the Myriad Phenomena level.
The Heaven-rank, top-grade magic treasures sold by Tianbao Mountain generally cost around ten thousand pounds of Essence Liquid. A Heaven-rank, low-grade treasure only cost around a thousand pounds. That would be enough to buy more than twenty Heaven-rank magic treasures.
And this was only for breaking through to become a Myriad Phenomena True Person. What about a Primordial Spirit Daoist? What about a Return-to-Void Earth Immortal? How much would they need?
Street-Pavement Diary
The failed author said nothing and just kept updating!
Thanks to Eagle Eye 112 for the Starting Point Coins tip.