Condensing Divine Essence
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Li Wei, possessing three strands of Yin energy, could naturally sense the cultivation level of the two people before him. However, Li Wei remained unmoved by their actions and words, instead stroking his chin and muttering to himself, "Hmm, not bad. The two of them together possess eleven strands of spiritual energy and one strand of Yin energy, equivalent to a month's worth of my cultivation. If I seize their spiritual and Yin energy, my chances of cultivating the Deity Transformation Chapter and condensing my divine essence should be greatly increased!"
Seeing Li Wei muttering to himself, Wang Ziqiang felt a sudden surge of danger. He thought about it carefully but couldn't find anything wrong. However, being a suspicious person, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. So he shouted, "Hey, what the hell are you muttering to yourself over there?"
Li Wei finally raised his head, revealing a smile, "I'll give you a choice: one, obediently let me take the spiritual and yin energy from your bodies; two, if you resist, I'll use force, but in the end, I'll still take the spiritual energy you've cultivated... Choose one, but don't think about it for too long!"
Both Wang Ziqiang and Meng Long were stunned upon hearing these words. Wang Ziqiang suddenly realized, "Seize spiritual energy? Damn it, wasn't this guy planning this from the beginning?"
Recalling the exchange conditions proposed earlier and the whole story, Wang Ziqiang's mind went blank for a moment before he finally came to his senses. He had forgotten a very important detail: the missing skinny man. This skinny man possessed combat strength no less than Meng Long's. His absence for so long meant he had undoubtedly fallen into the other side's trap. How could someone who could easily subdue or kill the skinny man have displayed such weak strength that day?
In other words, the opponent was hiding his strength at the time. He could have used force to compel Meng Long to hand over the Nine Yin Deity Transformation, Part Two, but he didn't. Why?
Now it seems the answer is very obvious: this guy is treating himself and Meng Long like sheep, free-range sheep, while the Qi Transformation Manual and Yin Transformation Chapter are the fodder. Once he and Meng Long are well-fed and fattened up, he will come to harvest them.
"Fuck your mother!" Wang Ziqiang finally understood everything, but it was too late. Li Wei had already pounced on him, and the aura he exuded plunged Wang Ziqiang into utter Despair.
After leaving Eagle Fortress, Li Wei's Yin energy reached four strands, in addition to two strands of spiritual energy. Having previously held an absolute advantage, Li Wei killed Wang Ziqiang and Meng Long, who were preparing to fight to the death, with minimal cost, and seized their cultivation achievements through the 'Spirit Seizing Art' and 'Yin Seizing Art'.
Li Wei originally intended to spare the two men if they were willing to hand over their spiritual and yin energy. However, Wang Ziqiang and Meng Long chose a different path, which led to their deaths.
Li Wei knew that although the mission still had three months left, he had no time left to cultivate. He had to return to Qingzhou Prefecture in the remaining time and seize the cultivation achievements of all the martial artists who had cultivated the Qi Transformation Manual.
Although it was somewhat domineering, this was the plan Li Wei had formulated from the beginning. Only in this way could he have the strength to contend with the Wolf King of the Hundred Wolf Cave.
Upon returning to Qingzhou Prefecture, Li Wei began to "visit" each of the martial artists who had cultivated the Qi Transformation Manual, from sect leaders to ordinary disciples. Anyone who had refined even a single strand of spiritual energy would have it forcibly taken away by Li Wei. Of course, some people refused to believe in this and tried to resist, but it did not affect the final outcome.
After all, they had at most three or four strands of spiritual energy in their bodies, while Li Wei possessed four strands of yin energy, which directly resulted in no one being able to withstand a single move from Li Wei.
Preliminary statistics show that out of more than a dozen sects of varying sizes in Qingzhou Prefecture, only about twenty people have successfully cultivated and produced spiritual energy within their bodies. Fortunately, almost every sect leader or sect master has refined more than one strand of spiritual energy, while Qin Wuji of the Hunyuan Sect has refined four strands. When Li Wei came to his door, he originally thought he could avenge his previous defeat, but after actually exchanging blows, he was defeated in just one move and had his spiritual energy taken away.
This scene played out repeatedly over the next seven days. Li Wei continuously seized spiritual energy, and once he had more than nine strands, he would immediately refine the yin energy. After seven days, sitting in the Fortune Comes Inn, Li Wei had gathered six strands of yin energy and eight strands of spiritual energy in his body. However, Li Wei had already seized all the spiritual energy from everyone in the entire Qingzhou Prefecture.
Today, the Fortune Comes Inn is not open to the public; all those sitting inside are Li Wei's companions.
Zhang Sanfeng and Dongfang Bubai were the first to stand up and walk up to Li Wei: "Young brother, we have been cultivating the Qi Transformation Manual for over a month, and each of us has refined six streams of spiritual energy. According to the plan you set out before, let's begin the Spirit Seizing!"
These two truly lived up to their reputation as martial arts masters. Their combined achievements were comparable to those of all the martial artists in Qingzhou Prefecture, which surprised Li Wei. However, upon closer examination, he realized that these two were, strictly speaking, more reliable than himself, a martial arts master, and their accomplishments were quite reasonable.
After saying thank you, Li Wei didn't stand on ceremony and directly used his secret technique to obtain the twelve streams of spiritual energy.
At this moment, Li Wei's dantian could hold more than twenty streams of spiritual energy, but it was nearing saturation. So he immediately began the process of transforming spiritual energy into yin energy. These twelve streams of spiritual energy, plus the eight he had before, made a total of twenty, enough to refine two streams of yin energy.
The refining process took another day. When Li Wei opened his eyes again, the Yin energy within his body had reached the eighth level.
With just one more yin energy, Li Wei could gather nine yin energies, cultivate the Deity Transformation Chapter, and condense 'divine essence'.
"I still have two more strands of spiritual energy here. Seven more strands will be enough!" Li Wei said to his companions in the room. At this moment, Zheng Yutong, Nina, Xue Yan, Liu Piaopiao, Amakusa, Green Conch, and Bao Ling stepped forward. Although they did not have the cultivation speed of Zhang Sanfeng and Dongfang Bubai, they had all refined a strand of spiritual energy to varying degrees. With their seven strands combined, Li Wei had just gathered enough spiritual energy to refine the last strand of Yin energy.
"Alright, everyone, you've all worked hard for the past month or so. Those who still have spiritual energy in their bodies, continue cultivating. Over the next few days, I will go into seclusion to refine the last bit of Yin energy. At the same time, I will also cultivate the Deity Transformation Chapter to try to condense divine essence. If I succeed, great things will be accomplished!" Li Wei was unusually solemn.
He knew that condensing divine essence was different from refining spiritual energy and yin energy. There was still a possibility of failure when condensing divine essence. The best outcome was to condense divine essence successfully, but if it failed, he could take a step back and condense the 'Nine Yin Yuan Dan', but it was far inferior to divine essence.
After realizing the gravity of the situation, the fat man offered up the most secluded room in the inn. For the next few days, he and his companions guarded the door day and night to protect Li Wei.
Upon entering the room, Li Wei did not immediately begin cultivating. Instead, he opened the Nine Yin Deity Transformation, Part Two, which he had seized from Wang Ziqiang and Meng Long, and began to study it carefully. Because condensing divine essence was extremely important to Li Wei, the entire process could not tolerate the slightest carelessness, and reading it from the beginning again would obviously be safer.
For a full day and night, Li Wei was studying the second part of the Nine Yin Deity Transformation Chapter Technique. Li Wei also practiced it many times in his mind in a virtual state. Li Wei strictly controlled every detail until there were no more mistakes in the mental practice. Only then did Li Wei slowly close the Nine Yin Deity Transformation, Part Two.
Then, he sat cross-legged on the bed and officially began his cultivation of the ' Deity Transformation Chapter.
The first step, of course, was to refine the last strand of Yin energy. Li Wei was already very familiar with this. He first exhaled the eight strands of Yin energy he had previously refined, then quickly gathered the spiritual energy within his body, causing them to converge. This was the key to refining Yin energy: when refining one strand of Yin energy, a second strand could not exist within the body, so it had to be exhaled first. Because of the accompanying incantation, the eight strands of Yin energy exhaled did not dissipate but instead formed a vortex that spun continuously. In the room, the presence of these eight strands of Yin energy reflected many dazzling silver lights; if anyone saw it, they would surely marvel at its wonder.
Soon, the ninth strand of Yin energy was successfully refined. Li Wei hurriedly followed the incantation of the cultivation technique and swallowed the eight strands of Yin energy floating in the air back into his mouth. At this moment, there were now nine strands of Yin energy in his dantian. They sensed each other but also repelled each other, emitting an even more dazzling silver light.
"It's about to officially begin!" Li Wei took a deep breath, sealed several major acupoints on his body, and then began to cycle through the 'Deity Transformation Chapter'. The nine streams of Yin energy suddenly burst out with a burst of brilliance, and were then forcibly squeezed together by a force. At this moment, a large amount of sweat seeped from Li Wei's forehead.
"It's only the beginning, and it's already depleted half of my stamina? That's too exaggerated! No wonder the Nine Yin Spirit Transformation Deity Transformation Chapter says that while mastering the Nine Yin is easy, achieving Nascent Soul is difficult. If one out of ten people can truly achieve it, they're considered very lucky!" Li Wei couldn't help but sigh. But having come this far, he couldn't give up. Besides, Li Wei already knew that Nascent Soul was difficult. If it weren't difficult, the manual wouldn't have said that reaching the Divine Origin Realm would allow one to roam freely throughout the world.
It's difficult, but you have to master it!
Li Wei gritted his teeth and continued to exert his power, forcing the nine streams of Yin energy to merge together. This process almost exhausted all of Li Wei's strength. He didn't know how much time had passed. Only when Li Wei felt that his clothes were already soaked and his head was a little dizzy did he stop the pressure because he was too weak to continue.
Generally speaking, this is a rather dangerous step in the process of transforming into a divine essence. Those who lack physical strength will fail immediately if they cannot fuse the nine yin energies together. The nine yin energies will also collide with each other due to mutual repulsion. If they are lucky, the yin energies will dissipate and all their power will be lost. If they are unlucky, they will explode and die. Conversely, if they succeed, the external force will disperse and the nine yin energies will form a large mass without producing a violent reaction.
When Li Wei was exhausted, the fused mass of nine streams of Yin energy neither dissipated nor exploded, indicating that the first step had been successful. Although Li Wei was tired, he was overjoyed, but this was not the time to celebrate, because the process that followed was even more dangerous.
After a brief recovery, Li Wei took the opportunity to swallow a few 'Qi-restoring pills' made by ordinary martial artists. Although they were just ordinary pills with some effect, they were better than nothing at the moment. After his strength was restored by half, Li Wei hurriedly began the next step of condensing his divine essence.
The energy cluster formed by the fusion of nine yin energies still needs to be refined according to the incantations in the Deity Transformation Chapter. This process determines the final success or failure. If the condensation is successful, 'divine essence' will naturally be obtained, while if it fails, what will be condensed is the 'Nine Yin Yuan Dan'.
So Li Wei spent the rest of the time in this final condensation process. For three whole days, Li Wei didn't leave the house, and he didn't even leave his bed. All his time was spent condensing. At this time, the Nine Yin Qi ball had been refined to less than a third of its original size, only its color was darker. In addition, the surface of the Qi ball gradually became fluid, and many small spikes appeared.
Seeing this, a slight smile appeared on Li Wei's lips, which were slightly dry from lack of water.
... Zheng Yutong and the others who were waiting outside had not left in the past few days. They had all read the Deity Transformation Chapter and naturally understood the dangers and difficulties of condensing 'divine essence'. It could be said that none of them would be confident of successfully condensing it.
Only Green Conch and Zheng Yutong retained some spiritual energy after providing it; the rest had been completely drained. All their previous cultivation successes had vanished. Li Wei was their only hope. If Li Wei failed to condense his divine essence, killing the Wolf King would be impossible, but he could at least kill six ordinary demonic beasts to complete the mission.
The only ones who seemed relatively relaxed were Fatty and An Hei. One was carefree and optimistic, while the other was steady, mature, and unflappable.
The fat man hadn't been paying attention to the inn these past few days. He'd ordered the cook to work, so he'd been eating fish and meat at every meal, thoroughly enjoying himself. Thinking about the meal he'd just had—the pure, fresh grass carp and braised roe deer were simply divine—the fat man looked on with a lingering sense of satisfaction. Seeing everyone's solemn and worried expressions, he slammed his hand on the table and stood up.
"Hey, why are you all doing this? There's nothing our boss can't do. Don't worry, everyone. Eat and drink as usual. Even if he fails and doesn't condense that 'divine essence,' we won't lose anything. After all, you're just worrying here without helping him at all!" The fat man's words, though crude, were quite reasonable. Nina immediately smiled, "Fatty, you're right. At this point, our worry is unnecessary. We should focus on getting ourselves in good shape. By the way, I haven't eaten well these past few days because of worry, and I'm hungry now. Fatty, hurry up and tell them to bring up the leftovers from lunch..."
Xue Yan and the others standing nearby also smiled, clearly knowing that Nina was using this as an excuse to comfort them.
"Yes, there's no use in worrying. We might as well just wait here for the results!" Zheng Yutong had come to terms with it, and the women then started having the fat man prepare food.
The fat man looked miserable. "I just called you guys to eat, and you were all so reserved. Now you know you're hungry? I, Fatty, have to go and arrange everything. What kind of nonsense is this!"
Although he looked reluctant, he still ran out with a smile.
At that moment, the An Hei- skinned man who had been silently fiddling with the copper coins suddenly changed his expression. He had not practiced any martial arts techniques, but he had practiced a divination art.
One of the tools used in this divination technique is copper coins. At this moment, looking at the copper coins laid out on the table, An Hei Frown frowned. Blood Wolf noticed this and quickly came over, looking at him with a questioning expression.
"This is bad, something bad is going to happen today!" An Hei was silent for a moment, obviously interpreting the divination, before he said in a deep voice.
Everyone had heard his words and was still in a daze when the fat man rushed in shouting, "Something terrible has happened! A huge group of people have arrived!"
Sure enough, besides the fat man's voice, the faint sound of footsteps could be heard outside, along with the clanging of weapons. Soon it became quite noisy, indicating that a large number of people had arrived.
After some investigation, everyone finally understood what had happened. It turned out that the martial artists whose spiritual energy had been taken by Li Wei had not swallowed their anger. Many of them had gathered experts from nearby prefectures and counties to seek revenge. After making some inquiries, they found the Fortune Comes Inn and were now at its gate.
"Damn it, there are two or three hundred of them. Even if I, Fatty, possess unparalleled martial arts skills, I'm afraid it will be difficult to withstand them!" Fatty said seriously, but at this moment, there was no one else to joke with him.
"Most of us have had our spiritual energy drained, making us just like ordinary people. Only Green Conch and I still retain a trace of spiritual energy. Although we may not be able to defeat these people, we should be able to hold them off for a while. In short, we can't let them disturb Li Wei's seclusion..." Zheng Yutong stood up and said. Green Conch, who was standing next to her, also stepped forward, ready to rush out.
"I'll go too! At least my throwing knife technique doesn't rely too much on internal energy!" Xue Yan hurriedly said.
They all knew that they absolutely couldn't let those people rush in at this moment, otherwise, if they disturbed Li Wei's secluded cultivation, things would get very complicated. They knew that being disturbed while cultivating the Deity Transformation Chapter could potentially lead to death.
As for whether they could hold off two or three hundred people with their strength, that was no longer a question to consider, because they had already heard the loud crashing of people outside smashing wooden planks.
"Damn it, I'm going too! We absolutely can't let these bastards disturb the boss's seclusion!" The fat man rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a stool, and followed aggressively. The others exchanged glances, but also stood up, even though they weren't much stronger than ordinary people at the moment. Even An Hei picked up a brick from the ground and walked out calmly.