Natural Lead-Mercury-Nurtured Elixir Fruit

According to the Inheritance Manual, once the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine had spread its vines and branches, even budding flowers, it was considered fully cultivated.

All that remained was the process of drawing in "nourishment," sucking blood and devouring bones, then flowering and bearing fruit.

Yet Liu Dongqing remained seated in his clothes, waiting until the latter half of the night.

For one thing, this was his first time attempting the Pill-Descending Art. Given the excessively cautious temperament Liu Dongqing had developed, unless he witnessed the entire process—even its final result—he simply could not set his mind wholly at ease.

For another.

Although the agony flooding his limbs and bones, along with the uncontrollable rage in his essence, qi, and spirit, had ebbed away after a brief surge when the Demon Blood Baleful Qi erupted—

In truth, the Demon Blood Baleful Qi at its source still lingered throughout Liu Dongqing's body and soul, continuously emitting a faint yet impossible-to-ignore restlessness.

That restlessness left Liu Dongqing far more keyed up than usual. Even deep into the night, sleep would not come to him.

And now.

Under his watchful gaze, dense azure light had already begun to bloom within the jade vat.

It was not that the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine itself had undergone another change.

Rather, during the wait, Liu Dongqing had taken out another cloth sack sent by Manager Hou. From the hundred Spirit Beads Senior Sister Zhang of Rising Mist Dao Academy had given as a deposit, he removed several and placed them among the Blood Filth and bone fragments in the jade vat.

These Azure Light Spirit Beads could indeed be directly refined to increase the cultivation and magical power of the Little Azure Light Incantation.

But to Liu Dongqing, that was the worst possible way to handle them.

Leaving aside the fact that these Spirit Beads had been condensed by other Azure Light Incantation cultivators, if Liu Dongqing refined them directly, how was that any different from eating food someone else had already chewed?

Even putting aside that small psychological hurdle—

Just considering the origin of the Azure Light Spirit Beads themselves—

Senior Sister Zhang of Rising Mist Dao Academy might hold a more illustrious position, but she was currently only at the critical juncture of competing for a seat.

Had she not yet failed to secure that seat?

With her present foundation, even if she had several Dao Slave attendants under her command, their cultivation talents could not have been particularly outstanding.

Someone who had yet to successfully claim a seat was still far from capable of forcibly suppressing other geniuses and monsters into becoming Dao Slaves.

Just how thoroughly the magical power within Azure Light Spirit Beads condensed by such Dao Slaves had been purified was a question mark in itself.

If Liu Dongqing recklessly refined them directly, turning the impurities in another's magical power into his own impurities, he would ruin the excessively solid Bing Fire foundation that had been watered by heavenly moisture-infused magical power for over three years.

Manager Hou and Senior Sister Zhang might not need to consider Liu Dongqing's interests, but Liu Dongqing had to consider them himself.

Now, it seemed that using these hundred Azure Light Spirit Beads as nourishment for the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine to bear Elixir Fruit was the most suitable choice.

Liu Dongqing had even made up his mind that if he gained similar spoils in the future—or even ordinary, perhaps somewhat inferior medicinal pills—he could run them through the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine first and consume the naturally pure Elixir Fruit instead.

Even if there were some "losses" in the process, with the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine taking a "cut" of the nutrients for its own growth, it would still be worth it.

And with the support of such more abundant energy—

At the quietest hour of the latter half of the night, a faint sound—so faint it was difficult to describe what it even sounded like—suddenly drew Liu Dongqing's attention.

He abruptly turned toward the sound.

He saw the raised flower bud atop the black, withered vine suddenly burst open.

Then, as a tiny flower of ghastly white bloomed, like an epiphyllum that appeared for but a moment, its petals withered and lost their color within several breaths, falling dryly into the jade vat.

Meanwhile, at the heart of those petals, something rapidly swelled over those same few breaths.

By the time the final withered petal fell, an "Elixir Fruit" about the size of a lychee had successfully condensed upon the branch.

At that moment, Liu Dongqing smelled little of the fragrance of fruit or vegetables. Instead, an intense and wondrous medicinal aroma instantly stirred his instinctive craving to eat.

He hurriedly reached out, plucked the Elixir Fruit as though following instinct, and brought it to his lips.

The next moment.

His teeth had merely bitten through a layer of the Elixir Fruit's skin.

Then its flesh melted like divine nectar and jade liquor, transforming directly into a clear stream that slid down Liu Dongqing's throat.

"Phew—"

Rarely, Liu Dongqing let out a sigh whose meaning was hard to tell.

In an instant, the Elixir Fruit's clear stream dissolved throughout the circulation of his body and soul. Part of its abundant medicinal power filled his limbs and bones, and almost immediately, the extremities of his flesh that had ached everywhere were enveloped in a coolness brimming with vitality.

That cool sensation then passed from his limbs and bones into his mind one after another, causing the latent uncontrollable rage and ceaseless restlessness within Liu Dongqing's spirit and will to melt away like ice and snow.

At last.

A wisp of nearly black, murky crimson smoke was expelled from Liu Dongqing's mouth along with that sigh.

This was the Demon Blood Baleful Qi that the Elixir Fruit had purged from his body.

And that was not all.

The Elixir Fruit was itself a wondrous medicine that aided cultivation. Purging Demon Blood Baleful Qi was merely a secondary effect.

More of its surging medicinal power descended upon Liu Dongqing's dantian in an instant, like invisible sweet rain, watering the layers of Sky Light, watering the Perfect Elixir Flame, even watering the Fire Crow Spirit Form.

Boom—

As the Origin Lamp Flame blazed even stronger, the fourth azure arc of light, which had flickered in and out several times, finally reappeared amid Liu Dongqing's improved cultivation.

Indeed, perhaps because it had been repeatedly tempered through those several cycles of appearing and vanishing, that single arc of light already carried a faint sense of solidity.

Comfortable!

The abundant medicinal power of just this one Elixir Fruit has nearly purged sixty to seventy percent of the Demon Blood Baleful Qi.

Of course, that is related to my having only just begun cultivating the Crimson Crow Spirit Incantation.

If I cultivate more diligently in the future, these Elixir Fruits will only be able to ease it.

But that is enough—enough for me to find a method to resolve the Sha Qi and dissolve the Blood Baleful Intent before the Blood Baleful Qi truly takes root and becomes a calamity.

After all, one's horizons must be broad, and one's thinking must be open.

The Demon Refining Mystic Sect may not have a Baleful Qi Dissolution Formula, but I myself am a disciple of the Innate Sacred Sect. As the foremost sacred land and great sect of the Southern Border, a demonic sect renowned throughout the Five Regions, how could it lack cultivation formulas related to Sha Qi?

As he happily imagined the road ahead in cultivation, with the restlessness gone, belated drowsiness once more wound around Liu Dongqing's mind.

With his heart finally at peace, Liu Dongqing drifted leisurely to sleep in a relaxed and tranquil mood.

At the same time.

Before Glazed Mountain Temple in the Western Regions.

The blood-soaked demon light filling the sky illuminated the gates of Glazed Mountain Temple as brightly as day, yet it was grim and eerie, like a purgatory.

The tightly shut vermilion gates opened another crack.

The young monk had only just squeezed his head through the gap when, before he could speak, the demon ape sitting cross-legged in place, palms pressed together as he chanted Buddhist scriptures, opened his equally scarlet eyes first.

"Is the abbot still unwilling to see me?"

At those words, the young monk continued to nod timidly.

Thus, without turning back, the demon ape merely raised a hand and beckoned toward the air.

In an instant, two demon apes in their true forms descended amid billowing black smoke. Each held a ghost-headed saber in one hand and clutched several iron chains in the other.

As they tugged on the chains, frail Buddhist cultivators, each so weak they could barely stand, stumbled out of the black smoke and fell to the ground, bound together by those chains.

Then the Monkey Mind demon monk at their head, clad in a kasaya, arrogantly raised his chin. Looking past the young monk, he seemed to gaze toward the mountain gate of Glazed Mountain Temple.

"I know that, Master, you are unwilling to be entangled in karma with this humble monk, with... with my Demon Race."

"But many things beneath heaven cannot be avoided simply because you wish to avoid them."

"Many choices, in truth, are not choices one gets to make."

"Today, this humble monk shall let Master make a choice as well—"

"This is the abbot of Cloud Meditation Mountain Temple, along with the elders of its various halls."

"If you refuse to see this humble monk, they will die at once."