All-class Gu Immortal

Chapter 163 Reaching the Pinnacle! The Yuan Soul Golden Liquid is Forged! (Two-in-One Chapter)

After returning to Nanli County, Zhou Qing went straight to Wanbaoge and spent several thousand taels of silver to buy a large quantity of medicinal herbs.

Afterwards, he returned to his residence in the outer city and, following Wei Sheng's advice, chose to stay indoors.

Once he has used up this batch of medicinal herbs and made further progress in his alchemy skills, he will return to Black Mountain Town.

And just like that, three months flew by.

The new year is approaching.

The city became increasingly lively, with many goods related to the Lunar New Year appearing.

However, the excitement belonged to others and had nothing to do with Zhou Qing.

Hissing sounds.
In the room in the backyard, Zhou Qing sat cross-legged in the wooden cauldron, which was filled with blue-white medicinal liquid, from which wisps of white smoke rose continuously.

"Hehe." Zhou Qing used his physical body to withstand the terrifying cold energy in the essence blood of the Ice Soul Profound Spider. The cold poison invaded his body, and he was so cold that his whole body was shivering. His hair was covered with a layer of white frost, and even his snot froze into icicles.

He felt as if his body no longer belonged to him.

In the past, he used poisonous water to temper his body and cultivate the Hundred Poisons Primordial Body. Although it was also painful, the pain caused by those poisons was not as severe as that caused by the cold poison, which caused his blood and qi to stagnate and his body's resistance to severe pain to decrease significantly.

Of course, the pain increased significantly, and the cultivation progress also accelerated noticeably.

The diluted essence blood of the Ice Soul Spider possesses such miraculous effects.

Once the physical body's strength improves and one adapts to the Ice Soul Spider's venom, using undiluted essence blood directly should actually increase the cultivation progress instead of decrease it.

"cluck"

The long cultivation process seemed endless. Zhou Qing endured this inhuman pain until the cold poison in the medicinal liquid gradually weakened and the frost on his body melted into water.

"Crack crack!"

Zhou Qing opened his eyes, stood up from the wooden cauldron, and cracking sounds came from all the bones in his body.

"Kaka."

He clenched his fists, his arm muscles bulging high, sharp as stone carvings, with a thick fascia connecting each muscle like a serpent.

An endless stream of power permeated every corner of my body.

"Splash!"

As he exerted his strength, Zhou Qing could even hear his own powerful heartbeat and the vibrant life force flowing through his body as his blood and qi circulated.

"Is this... a breakthrough?!" Zhou Qing's gaze sharpened. He felt incredibly strong now. This feeling would occur when a major breakthrough occurred in a cultivation technique, because the body had received a significant enhancement.

The next moment, a line of text appeared in Zhou Qing's field of vision.

[Skill: Body of All Poisons]

[Progress: Level 18 (2/30000)]

[Effects: Immune to all poisons; doubled Qi and blood; physical body becomes a unified whole, Qi and blood are as fine as mercury and marrow as white as frost, strength is doubled; increases the chance of breaking through to the Blood Exchange Realm by 20%]

"I've broken through! My blood and qi are as fine as mercury, and my marrow as smooth as frost!" Zhou Qing was overjoyed.

The human body has an upper limit to the amount of Qi and blood. The stronger a person's constitution, the more Qi and blood they can generally hold.

After Zhou Qing cultivated the Green Wood Scripture to the fourth level, he obtained the Wood Spirit Form. When cultivating wood-attribute techniques, his physical constitution was equivalent to the highest level, but his physical constitution was still above average and had not been upgraded to the highest level.

Therefore, he can only increase the capacity of his body, this 'container,' by cultivating body-refining techniques and strengthening his physical body.

Generally, only martial artists who have reached the peak of the Bone Refining Realm, or even those who have just entered the Blood Exchange Realm, can achieve a level where their blood and qi are as fine as mercury and their marrow as smooth as frost.

Zhou Qing broke through to the Bone Refining Realm in about half a year, which is still a long way from the complete Bone Forging Realm. However, by cultivating the Hundred Poisons Primordial Body, he has obtained the effect that can only be obtained at the peak of the Bone Refining Realm ahead of time.

At this moment, his total amount of Qi and blood remained unchanged, but it became more condensed and pure. As a result, with the same amount of Qi and blood, he could exert much more power.

His strength increased dramatically, which was naturally due to this reason.

Generally speaking, a martial artist who has just entered the Bone Refining Realm has a pure physical strength of more than 3,000 jin. After cultivation, when they reach the peak of the Bone Refining Realm, their strength can be increased to 5,000 to 6,000 jin. With the amplification from martial arts, they may possess the strength of 10,000 jin with every move.

The reason why a Blood Exchange Realm Grand Martial Master can have an overwhelming advantage over a Bone Refining Realm Martial Master is that even the weakest Blood Exchange Realm Grand Martial Master can easily exert a force of more than 30,000 jin.

In addition, if one cultivates a martial art to the level of Blood Exchange, the boost to strength far exceeds that of the previous four stages of skin, flesh, tendons, and bones.

Therefore, it is almost impossible for someone in the Bone Refining Realm to defeat someone in the Blood Exchange Realm.

"My current pure physical strength is probably over ten thousand jin. With true essence driving my martial arts, I can crush other martial artists in the Bone Refining Realm in terms of strength. As for whether I can fight against those in the Blood Exchange Realm... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Zhou Qing clenched his fist, as if he could crush the air.

However, although he felt his power surge, he was still not confident in facing a Blood Exchange Realm expert.

Moreover, the formidable enemy he is currently facing has not yet undergone a blood exchange upon entering the initial stage of the Blood Exchange Realm, so he cannot harbor the idea of ​​fighting beyond his level based on his martial arts cultivation.

Of course, this improvement is undoubtedly huge.

The strengthening of his physical body and the increase in strength meant that his speed, explosiveness, and endurance had all been improved.

Their ability to escape and save their lives naturally increases as well.

"To deal with Mu Renjie, we need to find a way to refine a second-tier Gu worm," Zhou Qing pondered.

During battle, his role is simply to provide support and harass from a distance.

The task of dealing with Mu Renjie was naturally left to Zhi Mu Ling Shi.

Currently, the only helpers he can find and trust are the siblings Wei Hongyu and Wei Mingcheng.

The only one who could truly stand against Mu Renjie was Wei Hongyu.

However, the key lies with him.

Zhou Qing got up from the wooden cauldron.

After resting for a while, he put away the wooden cauldron and prepared to start refining pills.

He placed the alchemy furnace in the middle of the room, then lit the silver charcoal to warm it.

Once the alchemy furnace was fully heated, Zhou Qing took out a specially made jade bottle and poured out the diluted essence blood of the Ice Soul Mystic Spider.

Hissing sounds.
Large plumes of smoke rose, and a chill swept over us.

As the blue-white blood inside gradually shrank and turned into blood beads, Zhou Qing added some powdered medicinal herbs, then closed the lid and remotely injected his true essence into it to control the refining of the herbs.

A moment later, a muffled sound came from the furnace, followed by a burnt and unpleasant smell.

Zhou Qing opened the lid of the alchemy furnace, looked at the dark liquid inside, and calmly used a jade shovel to clean out the medicinal liquid.

Then, repeat the process from before.

After ten attempts, Zhou Qing stopped refining pills.

All ten attempts failed without exception.

"Very good. Your alchemy skills are becoming more and more proficient. Keep up the good work, and you should be able to refine a simplified Yuanhun Golden Liquid soon."

The Corpse Worm Gu King appeared beside Zhou Qing, and Xuan Zhu, fearing that Zhou Qing would be discouraged, encouraged him.

However, what he said wasn't entirely untrue; although Zhou Qing kept failing, each time she improved a little.

He had only been learning alchemy for less than half a year when he became a first-level alchemist. Now he was refining a second-level pill, which was a simplified version of a third-level pill. Moreover, this second-level pill was only theoretically possible to refine, and no alchemist had ever succeeded in refining it.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Qing was still able to remain humble and patiently learn from each failure, making progress each time. Considering the memories of Venerable Xuanzhu over the past two hundred years, Zhou Qing was considered top-notch in this regard.

Of course, Zhou Qing had no idea that Xuan Zhu had gone through so many emotional journeys.

After repeated failures, all he could see were repeated +1s.

Your alchemy skills have improved; progress +1.

Your alchemy skills have improved; progress +1.

Your alchemy skills have improved; progress +1.

[Occupation: Alchemist]

[Skill: Alchemy] [Progress: Proficient (555/800)]

[Effect: Enters the inner sanctum; increases the success rate of refining first-tier pills by 20%; increases the success rate of refining second-tier pills by 50%.]

The most incredible aspect of the professions granted by the jade tablet is that progress is fixed, meaning one certificate is valid forever.

As long as Zhou Qing makes even the slightest progress in his skills, he will not regress the next time, even if he doesn't make any further progress.

A series of failures may drive others to despair or even give up.

In particular, Zhou Qing divided the medicinal materials for refining one batch of Yuanhun Golden Liquid into three batches, increasing the number of times he practiced and requiring more time and effort in the refining process.

Even the most persevering person will give up after countless failures and losing hope.

For many people, this is called cutting losses in time.

But in Zhou Qing's eyes, every failure is a step towards success.

"Next, I'll hurry up and refine the pills, and try to raise my alchemy proficiency to the next stage before returning." Ignoring Xuan Zhu's comforting words and encouragement, Zhou Qing skillfully cleaned the alchemy furnace and then put in the Ice Soul Xuan Zhu's essence blood and medicinal herbs one by one.

He stopped when he felt mentally exhausted.

After dinner, Zhou Qing rested for a while, but he still hadn't recovered from his mental fatigue.

Mental fatigue is harder to recover from than physical fatigue, which is a major reason that limited his progress in alchemy.

However, even though he could no longer practice alchemy, Zhou Qing still had things to do at night.

After returning to his room, he released the Wood Spirit Corpse and began to absorb the Green Wood True Essence within it.

Cultivating the Hundred Poisons Primordial Body involves strengthening bones and enhancing blood and qi, while also promoting the cultivation of the White Cloud Spirit Serpent Palm. This is a form of body refinement.

Refining pills consumes mental energy, but it also helps to train the power of the soul. Although I haven't even entered the first stage of the Soul Refining Scripture, my progress is constantly improving. This is a cultivation of the spirit.

No matter how diligent and hardworking Zhou Qing was, he could not simultaneously focus on cultivating his internal strength.

Fortunately, the wine worms helped Zhimu Lingshi purify his true essence, and the Xuanzhu controlled the Corpse Worm Gu King to assist Zhimu Lingshi in his cultivation.

Although the Xuan Spider only possesses one-third of the Xuan Spider Venerable's memories, and the Xuan Spider Venerable was not a martial artist, he was still a third-tier expert, and his advantages in realm and experience were indelible.

Therefore, although the spirit corpse of the Wood Spirit was not in the Wood Fiend Land of Black Mountain Town, its cultivation progress of the Green Wood Scripture did not fall behind at all.

In particular, Wei Sheng also passed on the divine meaning of the Green Wood Scripture to Zhou Qing, allowing him to frequently comprehend the true meaning of the Green Wood Scripture, which further improved the cultivation speed of the Green Wood Scripture.

Now, Zhou Qing simply absorbs a portion of the Green Wood True Essence from the Wood Spirit's corpse once a month, as is customary, which greatly accelerates the progress of his Green Wood Scripture.

Zhou Qing and the spirit corpse of Zhi Mu came to the bed, sat cross-legged, and faced each other with their palms facing each other.

At this moment, the wine worm returned to Zhou Qing's dantian and quickly began to inhale and exhale.

At the same time, the Azure Wood True Essence condensed within the corpse of Zhi Muling rapidly transferred into Zhou Qing's body.

Your Green Wood Sutra has been upgraded! Progress +200

Your Green Wood Sutra has been upgraded! Progress +200

Lines of text kept appearing in Zhou Qing's field of vision.

【Craft: Green Wood Sutra】

[Progress: Level 4 (6850/30000)]

[Effects: Strengthens tendons and bones, enhances the spirit, prolongs life, and extends the flow of Qi and blood]

"At this rate, the Green Wood Scripture will be able to reach the fourth level of perfection within two years." Zhou Qing stopped absorbing the true essence of the Wood Spirit Corpse, not wanting to damage its foundation.

Crack, crackle!

Zhou Qing stood up, and his whole body made popping noises like popping beans.

At the same time, he felt as if a force was about to burst forth from his body, eventually converging in his arms.

"Hi~"

Zhou Qing felt a spasm in the muscles of his arm, and a faint blue light flickered beneath his skin.

[Your Entangling Silk Technique has mutated, activating the icy chill within the Ice Soul Mystic Spider bloodline.]

At this moment, a line of text appeared in Zhou Qing's field of vision.

"Ice Soul Chill?! Could it be..."

Zhou Qing's eyes widened.

Could it be that while cultivating the Hundred Poisons Primordial Body, his body absorbed some of the icy cold energy contained in the essence blood of the Ice Soul Mystic Spider?
Thinking of this, Zhou Qing immediately returned to the courtyard and began practicing the White Cloud Spirit Snake Palm while simultaneously circulating the Entangling Silk Force.

Under the hazy moonlight, Zhou Qing's body was gradually enveloped in a layer of blue and white fluorescence.

clap clap clap!
As he unleashed the White Cloud Serpent Palm, crisp explosions echoed through the air as his palm whistled past. He entered a special state, his mind becoming incredibly clear, and he gradually became immersed in the palm technique.

When the sky in the distance began to lighten and the first rays of dawn shone into the courtyard, Zhou Qing finally came to his senses.

He actually practiced palm techniques in the courtyard all night long.

The jujube tree in the courtyard had long been frozen into an ice sculpture, and the walls around the courtyard were covered with a layer of white frost.

Moreover, the bluestone slabs underfoot were covered with fine cracks and pits, as if they had been cleaved by a knife and axe.

Zhou Qing looked at his palms. Originally, after breaking through the bone barrier, his palms would turn purple when he used palm techniques.

His palms were still purple, but beneath the skin, there seemed to be a faint bluish-white fluorescence.

[Your White Cloud Serpent Palm technique has been upgraded! The Entangling Silk Force has been integrated!]

At this moment, a line of text appeared in Zhou Qing's vision. On the jade tablet, the coiling silk force and the white cloud spirit snake palm were integrated.

【Technique: White Cloud Serpent Palm】

[Progress: Pinnacle (1/800)]

[Effects: Strengthens tendons and bones, alters appearance and form, creates silk-reeling ice energy, and grants the appearance of a spirit snake]

"Entangling Silk Ice Force! Spirit Serpent Form!" Zhou Qing hadn't expected that the Ice Soul Cold Qi would be integrated into the Entangling Silk Force, and he had also awakened the Spirit Serpent Form during a night of palm technique practice.

Now, his physical attributes have reached the highest level in all aspects.

"Since my body absorbed the icy chill contained in the essence blood of the Ice Soul Mystic Spider, causing the Entangling Silk Technique to mutate, if I continue to cultivate it, will..."

Zhou Qing suddenly had a bold idea.

If one could use the essence and blood of the Ice Soul Spider to continue changing one's appearance and form, it would be far more than just awakening a superior-grade innate bone.

Perhaps, he can use this to awaken a superior innate talent, or even a spiritual body!

"I need to intensify my practice of alchemy!"

Zhou Qing felt that not only could the Wood Spirit Corpse and the Gu worms consume the Yuanhun Golden Elixir, but he seemed to be able to as well.

Two more months passed.

Zhou Qing spent 20,000 taels of the 25,000 taels of silver he received from Shangguan Hong, and his alchemy finally entered the next stage.

And he also successfully refined the Yuanhun Golden Liquid for the first time.

[Occupation: Alchemist]

[Skill: Alchemy]

[Progress: Mastery (22/800)]

[Effect: With mastery of the techniques, the success rate of refining first-tier pills increases by 30%; the success rate of refining second-tier pills increases by 10%.]

"Finally, I can return to Black Mountain Town!" Zhou Qing looked at the pale golden liquid in the alchemy furnace and felt relieved.

Now, all I need to do is return to the Wood Fiend Land of Black Wind Mountain to begin strengthening my Wood Spirit Corpse and refining the second-tier Ice Fiend Gu.

(End of this chapter)