Congealing Pill Sigils, Secretly Seizing Creation

Liu Dongqing had found, among the Ghost Vine Lineage's inheritance, a handwritten manual recording the advanced applications of the Pill-Descending Art. That was his greatest source of confidence for tonight's venture.

Otherwise, even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice. No matter how much effort he expended, he feared he would never turn things around with Zhang Qiwei, much less secure so many cultivation resources and opportunities.

At this moment.

As a sense of emotion rose in his heart, Liu Dongqing recalled the instant he had made his move against Jiang Xiuyong on Autumn Water Plateau.

Had there been no contest back then, how could I have the leeway I possess today, whether advancing or retreating?

Sure enough, the Great Dao lies only in struggle!

He indulged in that reflection for but an instant.

Then Liu Dongqing gathered his thoughts once more.

The words recorded in that handwritten manual regarding the advanced applications of the Pill-Descending Art drifted through the thoughts in his mind like a gentle stream.

More than a dozen breaths later.

Liu Dongqing drew a deep breath.

The next moment, he clasped his hands together and struck the first hand seal toward the space above the jade vat.

At once.

Azure light shone forth, yet it did not manifest as azure flames. Instead, it remained suspended above the jade vat in the form of brilliant radiance, then, under the restraint and guidance of the hand seal, transformed into unfamiliar patterns resembling ancient sigils.

The patterns were incomplete, making it impossible to discern their full appearance.

Immediately afterward.

Liu Dongqing's hands shifted and interwove as he mobilized his mana and struck a second hand seal above the jade vat.

Then came the third, the fourth...

The azure light suspended above the jade vat grew increasingly intense. Gradually, it seemed as though a True Yang Great Sun truly hung high overhead, celestial light spilling down to illuminate all things and nourish the plants within the jade vat.

Whoosh—

When the final hand seal, carrying azure light with it, merged into the formation, that "True Yang Great Sun" had reached the fullest perfection of its manifestation.

Yet that perfect form lasted only an instant.

Immediately afterward, all the radiance spreading outward frantically contracted inward, converging upon the ancient-sigil-like patterns condensed within.

This also allowed Liu Dongqing to see the complete form of that unfamiliar ancient sigil.

It gave him an intense sense of déjà vu.

This is a type of sigil pattern whose spiritual charm greatly resembles the Fire Crow Dao Sigil. It possesses a measure of demonic nature, yet it is wholly presented in the form of a Mystic Sect sigil.

This is the Ghost Vine Lineage's manifestation of perfectly harnessing the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's power through Daoist arts!

The handwritten manual calls it—the Divine Vine Pill Sigil!

Judging from this shared trait, at least the Crimson Crow and Ghost Vine lineages of the Demon Refining Mystic Sect follow the path of using Mystic Sect Dao sigils to command the bloodline origins of demonic beasts.

Once that thought passed through his mind.

Liu Dongqing formed a sword-finger gesture and flicked it toward the Divine Vine Pill Sigil, now fully condensed and solidified.

At once.

The entire Divine Vine Pill Sigil transformed into a streak of light and plunged straight into the jade vat.

The instant the Divine Vine Pill Sigil entered the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine, a gentle radiance burst forth from the Bloodthirsty Ghost Vine's roots and flowed toward the tips of its branches.

Then, upon reaching the branch tips, it returned to the dense roots sprawling across the entire bottom of the jade vat.

Immediately afterward.

Under Liu Dongqing's watchful gaze, the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's roots seemed to erupt with an inconceivably powerful devouring force in an instant.

For the past half month or more, whenever Liu Dongqing finished cultivating the Crimson Crow Spirit Incantation, he had poured the Ash-Feathered Crow's Blood Filth and bone fragments into the jade vat.

Although Elixir Fruit condensed from time to time.

A considerable amount of Blood Filth and residue had nonetheless accumulated at the vat's bottom, like a pool of Red Spring drowning more than half the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's roots, as though it were being grown hydroponically.

And now.

The surface of the "Red Spring" was falling at a visible rate.

Then, the protrusion at the tip of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's branch rapidly evolved into a flower bud as it absorbed energy, before blossoming brilliantly within a dozen or so breaths.

Up until this point.

The entire transformation of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine was much the same as the previous process of purely condensing Elixir Fruit. Only this time, it had absorbed somewhat more bloodwater.

A short while later.

A round Elixir Fruit, its colors interwoven in deeper, dimmer shades than before, condensed upon the branch.

Liu Dongqing had only just reached out, and before he could even fully close his fingers around the Elixir Fruit, it had already fallen from the stem like a melon ripe enough to drop, landing directly in his palm.

The stark difference from before began precisely at this moment.

Liu Dongqing did not pick up the Elixir Fruit and swallow it as he had previously.

Instead, beneath his quiet gaze.

In scarcely a dozen breaths, the once round and plump Elixir Fruit, its skin appearing full of juice, began to shrivel instantly. Its wrinkles became more numerous and deeper by the moment.

When the change stopped.

The shriveled skin, dried to the utmost extreme, cracked apart on its own like a brittle shell. All its flesh had long since been eroded away, revealing a seed wrapped inside.

Yet upon closer inspection, that seed appeared far more tiny and frail than the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's seeds of old.

With a flip of his hand, Liu Dongqing took out a jade bowl from beside him and transferred some "Red Spring" from the vat into it.

At the same time.

Liu Dongqing pricked his fingertip again and, as before, smeared the seed with his own Blood and qi.

Immediately afterward.

He tossed the seed into the jade bowl.

Before his eyes, dense roots first spread through the jade bowl as they absorbed the "Red Spring," and then twisted vine branches, like those of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine, seemed about to stretch forth.

Yet at precisely this step, the vine appeared as though it had encountered a difficult birth. It produced only a woody burl atop its dense roots.

And at that very moment.

Liu Dongqing flicked his sword fingers once more.

The instant azure light flashed, it sliced a crack into the woody burl. Then Liu Dongqing took a Jade Cloud Fruit seed from the cloth pouch on the table and tossed it directly into the burl's fissure.

The next moment.

The seed actually took root and sprouted within the woody burl. As a Jade Cloud Fruit plant grew, the fissure in the burl swiftly sealed completely around the body of the Jade Cloud Fruit plant.

The two fused together in an exceedingly strange nested fashion.

This is the Ghost Vine Lineage's Branch-Splitting Myriad Transformations Origin-Seizing Art. It can be called the Demon Refining Mystic Sect's version of grafting, but it is more overbearing and more unreasonable than the grafting methods I know.

This art divides an offshoot from the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine, preserving only its roots and allowing no vine to grow. The woody burl is a natural storehouse where nutrients gather, capable of fostering other spiritual herb plants.

Once they are planted together, that medicinal plant will gain a weakened version of the medicinal vine's ability to drink blood and devour bones, as well as an equally weakened, yet already utterly astonishing, rate of growth.

Not only that, the Jade Cloud Fruit eventually condensed, while not an Elixir Fruit, can possess a few traces of an Elixir Fruit's charm. Its medicinal power will be purer and more potent.

And once Senior Sister Zhang begins refining pills, she will discover that pills refined from Jade Cloud Fruits like these will contain far less pill toxin than other pills! The pills themselves will also be easier to refine!

Senior Sister, can Jade Cloud Fruits like these still be bought anywhere else?

It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to return from luxury to frugality.

What this junior brother uses is the most grand and upright of open schemes!

As he considered this, Liu Dongqing's gaze remained fixed upon the woody burl where the two plants had fused.

Then, a moment later, he shifted his gaze back to the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine within the jade vat.

Of course, although the Jade Cloud Fruit fostered upon the offshoot has all these benefits, there is one point: the Jade Cloud Fruits it condenses will not contain that most precious natural force, unlike the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's Elixir Fruits.

Moreover, compared to the power used to condense Jade Cloud Fruits, the offshoot's roots actually absorb even more energy from blood and bone.

This pure energy, along with the precious natural force and the vitality accumulated through the growth of plants themselves, will, after the Jade Cloud Fruit plant has gone through its full cycle of flourishing and withering and is finally discarded in its entirety, condense into a wooden pearl within the woody burl.

This object is the most suitable precious resource for the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's growth and its condensation of Elixir Fruit!

Back then, there were predecessors of the Ghost Vine Lineage who cultivated plants for others, lined their own pockets, sheared wool from the sheep, and in turn strengthened their own Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's main body.

Cough—

That cannot quite be called lining one's own pockets.

Liu is an upright man doing upright business. Senior Sister, this should count as a win-win... no, a many-win arrangement!

You win once; Liu wins many times.