Fang Hong watched Chu Yuechai's retreating figure and silently shook his head.
The Fate Mirror had already warned him that joining forces with her to complete the duties would be a sign of minor misfortune.
It simply wasn't worth it for a few Yin-Yang Talisman Coins.
He soon put the matter out of his mind. After returning to his cave abode, he immediately shut himself inside the secret chamber in the jade tower's underground palace and began preparing [Sloth], one of the "Seven Great Medicines."
This great medicine required sixteen spiritual ingredients in all, including various spirit medicines, rare flowers, exotic fruits, beast blood, jade ore, natural spiritual substances, and so on.
Strictly speaking, the jade ore was also a kind of natural spiritual substance.
Following the preparation method, Fang Hong first extracted the spiritual components from all the ingredients, turning them into liquids and mineral powders that met the requirements.
Afterward, he personally crafted a "reaction vessel."
It was a sealed iron canister of Black Gold about three feet in diameter, with a vertical shaft at the top fitted with a turning wheel, and helical blades inside.
Strictly following the prescribed proportions and sequence, he added the sixteen different ingredients to the reaction vessel one after another, then rapidly spun the wheel to let them fully combine and mix.
"This really is making everything by hand. Who knows whether it'll work?"
As Fang Hong turned the wheel, he pondered how to design a spiritual inscription on the reaction vessel that would use magical power to drive the blades inside to rotate on their own.
But the body's original owner had enjoyed silken clothes and sumptuous meals since childhood and knew absolutely nothing about artifact crafting.
It was already no easy feat for Fang Hong to have crafted a hand-cranked reaction vessel.
Before long, he stopped turning the wheel and poured a small basinful of clear liquid from the reaction vessel. It radiated a gentle, auspicious glow and hazy, luminous mist.
He transferred the liquid into jade bottles he had prepared beforehand, filling thirteen bottles with three taels and three mace apiece.
The standard dose of this [Sloth] potion was three taels and three mace.
He looked inward and discovered that the candlelight in the Fate Mirror within his Sea of Consciousness was blazing brightly, so he simply picked up a bottle of potion, tipped back his head, and drained it.
As the potion went down his throat, Fang Hong's first sensation was actually a fiery, searing heat that numbed his lips. Drinking it was somewhat like drinking the ninety-six-percent "Water of Life" from his previous life: it tasted as bland as water, but it packed a real punch.
"Whew..."
He couldn't help taking deep breaths. His stomach felt as though it had taken a heavy punch, his whole body burned and tingled, and his mind grew somewhat hazy.
"Fuck, did I get something wrong?"
The thought had only just flashed through his mind when a tremendous fluctuation suddenly burst from his body.
The spiritual energy vortex at the center of the jade tower's underground palace instantly collapsed. Only after several breaths did it slowly coalesce again.
It wasn't just his cave abode. Almost all the spiritual nexuses across the entire North Island of the Yin-Yang Sect had collapsed and re-formed in that instant.
Fortunately, the fluctuation vanished as quickly as it had arrived, leaving no trace. The many Yin-Yang Sect disciples on the island noticed nothing obvious.
Fang Hong felt his body gradually recover and grow comfortable, but he felt languid all over, unable to muster the slightest energy.
He was too lazy even to examine his body or turn over a thought in his mind. All he wanted was to find somewhere to lie quietly without moving, thinking of nothing, emptying his mind, spacing out or sleeping.
Two hours later.
Fang Hong slowly sat up. Feeling the magical power flowing actively through his spiritual meridians, he lowered his head and glanced at the jade bottle in his hand.
"It worked!"
Previously, he had possessed seventh-grade spiritual meridians. The spiritual meridians in his body had been clogged and congested, making his cultivation very inefficient: of all the natural spiritual energy he absorbed from outside, he could refine only thirty percent.
Now, he clearly felt that his spiritual meridians had become considerably broader, more substantial, and less obstructed.
He circulated his magical power throughout his body, carefully sensing the differences. Then streams of light gathered in his palm, forming an exquisite card in the blink of an eye.
It was none other than his Fate Card.
[Name: Fang Hong] [Identity: Cultivator of the South Sea, Canghuan Heaven; employee of the River Chart Transmigration Company (on probation)] [Aptitude: Sixth-grade spiritual meridians] [Fate configuration: Heavenly Virtue Nobleman, Golden Carriage, Yang Blade, Xianchi] [Permission to travel to and from the Myriad Worlds Ancient Boat: Not activated (activated upon completing probation and being hired as a permanent employee)]
"They've advanced to sixth-grade spiritual meridians..."
He couldn't help secretly rejoicing. After a moment's thought, he picked up another jade bottle, tipped back his head, and drank the potion!
The third floor of the jade tower.
Outside the window, the morning sun was just rising over the vast blue sea, and the morning breeze was cool.
Fang Hong sat cross-legged on the jade couch, the faint sound of surging water rising from within him.
Last night, he had taken a bottle of [Sloth] potion every two hours, drinking five bottles in succession.
His spiritual meridians had risen all the way from seventh grade to third grade!
Only after drinking the fifth bottle and finding that his body showed no reaction whatsoever had he stopped.
At this point, the first-tier Sloth potion was no longer of any use to him.
If he wanted to continue improving the aptitude of his spiritual meridians, he would need to take a second-tier potion.
Even so, he was deeply satisfied.
Now, when he cultivated the "Black Water True Explanation," he could clearly feel that his cultivation speed had more than tripled.
The proportion of natural spiritual energy he could refine had also broken straight through to seventy percent.
At last, he had some claim to being a cultivation genius.
He was no longer far behind someone with second-grade spiritual meridian aptitude like Su Wan.
But no one tested their spiritual meridians day after day, especially within a demonic sect that emphasized the weak becoming prey to the strong. Those above cared more about results than the process.
Apart from himself, who could sense these changes most clearly, perhaps only Su Yao would notice anything. No one else would be able to tell at all.
Demonic cultivation methods already emphasized plunder and rapid advancement. Few people would associate an increase in cultivation speed with a change in spiritual meridians.
Fang Hong sealed and put away all eight remaining bottles of potion, hiding them deep inside his storage pouch.
He had now accumulated sixty-two drops of Netherworld Heavy Water magical power within his body. As he cultivated, the magical power in his sea of qi transformed into a stream that seemed both real and illusory, burbling through the spiritual meridians throughout his body and continuously refining natural spiritual energy.
He took out the spirit pills sent by the Fang Household and swallowed one. He immediately felt the spiritual activity within him surge as a rich wave of natural spiritual energy spread out.
Amid the rising and falling sound of water, a new drop of Netherworld Heavy Water slowly took shape in his sea of qi.
That day.
A streak of emerald light flew over from afar and gently struck the glowing wards outside the small white jade tower.
Fang Hong was seated inside the tower, cultivating. Sensing the fluctuation of spiritual activity outside, he slowly ceased his cultivation and opened his eyes.
He rose and walked to the window. Looking up, he saw a note imbued with spiritual energy circling within the light of the tower's wards.
With a beckoning motion, he drew the note into his hand.
There were several lines of writing on the note, left by Chai Hongzhou. In essence, he had largely figured out the situation regarding the experts among the outer disciples and planned to hold a gathering to discuss it. He also asked Fang Hong to decide the time and place for this gathering.
"Junior Brother Chai really does have a knack for gathering information."
After a moment's thought, he chose the garden outside the White Jade Tower as the location, with the gathering to take place that evening.
He also added that future gatherings would rotate among the five cave abodes.
Afterward, he sent it out.
The note transformed into a streak of dark spiritual light, streaking away through the air and vanishing in an instant.
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