Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Chen Yuan came to the largest refining room and knocked gently on the stone door.

After a while, the light flowing on the stone gate dimmed and it opened quietly.

Chen Yuan stepped in. Qin Lian was sitting cross-legged beside the red tripod. He opened his eyes and looked over: "Fellow Daoist Chen, are you still going out tonight?"

The red cauldron was surrounded by earth fire and six fire dragons, the red light was dazzling, and there was a ball of purple-black spiritual liquid in the cauldron.

Two months ago, the Cangming Stone had been purified and turned into a ball of pure dark gray spiritual liquid.

Qin Lian then put two Kun fish skins and two pairs of wings into the cauldron to refine and purify them. Chen Yuan dripped in two drops of essence and blood, leaving an imprint of his spiritual consciousness.

Kun Tong and Kun Feng are father and son, with the same blood. If they are refined together, the purified spiritual material will be more refined, but like the top-grade spiritual material Cangming Stone, it will also take a year.

The Feiling Stone has also been purified. In the black cauldron in another refining room, the Earth Qi Pearl is being refined. It will be purified in another four months, and then the Chongxuan Peak can be refined again.

"Not bad." Chen Yuan nodded.

Qin Lian took out the jade pendant, raised his hand and sent it flying towards Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan raised his hand to take the jade pendant, bowed, turned and walked out of the refining room, and the stone door slowly closed behind him.

Late at night, Chen Yuan left the Wanling Mountains and came to an uninhabited deserted mountain hundreds of miles away, allowing the starlight to fill his body.

He did not stay outside for long. He rushed back to Qin Lian's cave that night and returned the jade pendant.

Chen Yuan returned to the smallest refining room, put away the alchemy furnace, closed his eyes and meditated to restore his true energy.

Two days later, his true energy was fully restored, and the fatigue caused by refining the elixir also disappeared.

Chen Yuan slowly opened his eyes, took out a jade bottle from the mustard ring, opened the stopper, and a golden Chengyang Pill flew out.

Chen Yuan swallowed the pill and immediately turned into a huge and pure spiritual energy.

Practice the exercises to guide the spiritual energy into the meridians, and circulate it slowly according to the method of "Nine Transformations of the True Spirit".

More than a year had passed, and he had refined almost all of the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs and eighth-level demon pills in his hands into pills.

There are only four thousand-year-old spiritual herbs left, namely a thousand-year-old thunder grass, an ordinary thousand-year-old spiritual herb, and two main ingredients for the Nascent Soul Middle Stage elixir.

Not a single level eight demon pill was left. When he was refining the sixth batch of demon pills, which was the tenth batch of Nascent Soul stage pills, Chen Yuan's success rate finally increased to 40%.

For the last batch of pills, he took out the most precious thousand-year-old body-tempering spiritual herb and refined a batch of body-toughening pills that could strengthen the body.

At this point, Chen Yuan had a total of fifty-eight Nascent Soul stage pills in his hands, including fifty-two cultivation pills, four toughness pills, one Yunlu pill, and one Huiling pill. He could finally practice in seclusion and improve his cultivation.

……

A month later, Chen Yuan opened his eyes. There was a gleam of light in his eyes. He looked energetic, but his face looked a little ugly.

He had completely refined the Chengyang Pill he had taken, but the increase in his cultivation was far from what he had expected.

When he was chatting with Mr. Qingliu and Qin Lian, he had heard them mention more than once that it was difficult for Nascent Soul cultivators to practice, and he had also seen related records in classics.

It would take a Nascent Soul cultivator seven or eight hundred years to cultivate to the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage just by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. It would be impossible for him to break through the bottleneck of the middle stage and he must rely on elixirs and spiritual veins.

An ordinary cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage needs to take five or six bottles of pills before he can cultivate to the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage and reach the bottleneck of the middle stage.

Thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are hard to find, and Nascent Soul elixirs are even more precious. The spiritual veins of independent cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators in medium-sized sects are also common, and it usually takes four to five hundred years to cultivate to the peak of the initial stage.

The Nascent Soul cultivators in large sects have large spiritual veins and more elixirs. They can reach the mid-term bottleneck in three to four hundred years.

The ten major sects have a profound foundation, rich spiritual energy, abundant resources for cultivation, and thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are easier to obtain. It only takes two or three hundred years for the elders of the sect to cultivate to the peak of the initial stage.

But in front of the bottleneck, all beings are equal. There are many cultivators in the early Nascent Soul stage in the ten major sects, but the number of cultivators in the middle stage has been greatly reduced, and there are even fewer great cultivators, no more than two or three at most.

This is the highest level of the immortal cultivation world in Jiuxianzhou. In the eyes of low-level cultivators, Nascent Soul cultivators are high above and majestic.

But in order to improve their cultivation and break through bottlenecks, their fights with each other are no easier than those of lower-level cultivators.

It is even more cruel because of the thinness of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the scarcity of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs.

Chen Yuan is an outlier. For other cultivators, the bottleneck is like a chasm in the sky, but for him, it is as easy as walking on flat ground. As long as his body is strong enough, there will be no obstacles at all.

But there is always a price to pay for every gain. Although Chen Yuan does not have to worry about being trapped by a bottleneck, he has refined two kinds of true blood. His true essence is pure and rich, far exceeding that of cultivators of the same level. He needs to absorb more spiritual energy to improve his cultivation.

He refined this Chengyang Pill, and his cultivation level only improved a little.

According to Chen Yuan's estimation, he would need at least twenty bottles of Nascent Soul stage elixirs to break through the bottleneck of the middle stage, which is more than three times that of the cultivators of the same level!
He still had fifty-one cultivation pills in his hand. Even if he took them all, he would still be short of fifteen bottles, which means a full one hundred and fifty Nascent Soul Pills.

These five bottles of elixirs were all the wealth he had accumulated after killing three transformed demon kings, two Nascent Soul cultivators, extorting all the savings from a medium-sized sect, and demanding compensation from a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator.

If a Nascent Soul elder of the ten major sects has the lives of one or two cultivators of the same level in his hands, he would be proud of himself even if he is just a casual cultivator.

Chen Yuan killed two Nascent Soul cultivators and three transformed demon kings. Such a record is rarely matched by even a Nascent Soul middle stage cultivator.

For a cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage, holding five bottles of elixirs would be enough to cultivate to the peak of the early stage, but for Chen Yuan, it could only make his cultivation a little deeper.

Where will the remaining fifteen bottles of pills come from?

He shook his head helplessly, stood up and walked out of the refining room.

The Dao was ruthless, the yin and yang were balanced, and his pure and powerful true energy made it more difficult for him to improve his cultivation.

Just as he does not have to worry about the bottleneck, the difficulty of refining the blood of the true spirit will discourage other Nascent Soul cultivators.

We can only take it one step at a time. There are many transformed demon kings in the Wan Yao Sea, Hanzhou and Nanzhou. One day, we will be able to collect 150 Demon Yuan Pills.

Chen Yuan suppressed his distracting thoughts and went to the largest refining room. He borrowed a jade pendant from Qin Lian, and waited until late at night, then left the Wanling Mountains and let the starlight fill his body.

After returning to Qin Lian's cave, Chen Yuan meditated and practiced to restore his true energy. He took the second Chengyang Pill and continued his hard work.

……

Time flies like an arrow, day and night. In the blink of an eye, five years have passed.

Inside the refining room in Qin Lian's cave, Chen Yuan and Qin Lian sat cross-legged on both sides of the red cauldron with solemn expressions.

Chen Yuan raised his hand and made a gesture, continuously pouring true energy into the red cauldron.

Qin Lian's face was a little pale, and he was carefully controlling the formation.

The underground fire rose, and six fire dragons circled around. The body of the cauldron flickered with red light, as if it was breathing, flickering.

A black gown was suspended in the red tripod, and a dark grey light flashed faintly on its surface. There was only the sound of fire bursting in the stone chamber. After three days and three nights, the black gown suddenly glowed brightly.

Qin Lian said, "Fellow Daoist Chen, the magic weapon is ready. Please give it a name and leave your spiritual imprint quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yuan's mind moved and he left his spiritual mark on the black gown. Two small words appeared on the cuffs - "Dunkong".

"Go!" The magic words in Qin Lian's hands changed, and the magic robe of escape flew out of the cauldron and went straight to Chen Yuan.

The rising earth fire fell into the fire well, and the six fire dragons let out a long roar and returned to the cauldron.

The red tripod slowly fell to the ground, the thirty-six formation flags swayed gently, and the spiritual light dimmed.

The Void Escape Robe stopped in front of Chen Yuan, and the space around him began to twist slightly.

Qin Lian let out a long sigh, his pale face full of fear: "Qin still underestimated the difficulty of refining this treasure. These five spiritual materials are all very spiritual, and there is a trace of the power of the Zhoutian stars, which is even more stubborn."

"Although I only cultivated a high-level magic weapon this time, it is almost comparable to a top-level magic weapon."

“Thanks to your strong true essence and extraordinary spiritual awareness, you have persisted for seven days and seven nights and survived the last hurdle of gathering the spirit. Otherwise, all your efforts would have failed and these rare spiritual materials would have been wasted.”

"Fellow Daoist Qin is refining a treasure for me, so of course I have to do my part." Chen Yuan stroked the Void Escape Robe in front of him, which felt smooth and delicate.

The Dunkong robe trembled slightly, as if responding to his caress.

He also felt an extremely vague thought, which exuded a strong sense of admiration.

The higher the level of the magic weapon, the stronger its spirituality.

It is said that above the top-level magic weapons, there are higher-level spiritual weapons that can even give birth to weapon spirits.

The Void Escape Robe is only a high-level magic weapon, but it can give rise to vague thoughts. Just as Qin Lian said, it is not far from being a top-level magic weapon.

Since the beginning of purifying the spiritual materials, Chen Yuan has been continuously injecting essence, blood and true energy, leaving behind the imprint of his spiritual consciousness.

Although this treasure is not his natal magic weapon, it is not far from it. He can use it as easily as his own arm and communicate with it through his mind without any need for nurturing.

Qin Lian looked at the trembling Void Escape Robe with admiration on his face: "This treasure is full of spirituality. It only needs to be nurtured for a hundred years, and then a top-grade spiritual material is added. It can be refined again, and then it can be successfully promoted to a top-level magic weapon."

Chen Yuan smiled, stood up, took off his white shirt, put on the Dunkong robe, and a murderous aura arose spontaneously.

However, he liked white more. With a thought, the Dunkong robe turned pure white, with restrained aura, and looked no different from ordinary robes.

He looked down at the white robe on his body, feeling extremely satisfied, and bowed to Qin Lian with his fists clasped together: "Thank you for taking the trouble to refine this Void Escape Robe for me, and for refining the Chongxuan Peak."

"These are the seven top-grade spirit stones, one thousand high-grade spirit stones, and a thousand-year-old cold jade that we agreed on beforehand. Please accept them, fellow Taoist."

As he spoke, he took out a storage bag that he had prepared long ago, pushed it forward, and slowly flew towards Qin Lian.

Qin Lian also stood up, a smile appeared on his pale face. He reached out to take the storage bag, and after a probe with his spiritual sense, the smile on his face became even more intense.

The Void Escape Robe uses many rare spiritual materials and is extremely difficult to refine.

In the past seven days, he had almost exhausted all his true energy, and his soul was extremely tired.

But he successfully refined a high-level magic weapon that was almost comparable to the top-level magic weapons. His weapon refining skills made great progress, and he also obtained seven top-grade spirit stones. Qin Lian was in a very good mood, and his fatigue was unknowingly relieved a lot.

He said: "This treasure generally meets Qin's idea, but the spatial power contained in the seventh-level Kun fish skin and the pair of seventh-level Kun fish wings is too pure, even slightly stronger than the Cangming Stone."

"With the blessing of this treasure, the distance at which you can teleport will be twice as long as before, and the consumption of your true energy will not increase. When you use that strange black light magic, its power will also increase significantly."

"The trace of Zhou Tian star power contained in the star iron is also extremely mysterious, which exceeded Qin's expectations."

"After being refined, the Void Escape Robe becomes extremely tough, with defensive capabilities comparable to the most advanced magic weapons. It is impervious to water and fire, wind and lightning, and even flying swords cannot destroy it."

"Also, fellow Daoist, you don't have to worry about space cracks anymore. This treasure contains a strong force of space, and space cracks can hardly hurt it at all."

Chen Yuan nodded slightly: "Thank you for your reminder, I will remember it."

Qin Lian was relieved and said, "Daoyou has been infusing the magic weapon with true essence for seven days and seven nights. The consumption of true essence must be quite a lot. Why don't you rest in the mansion? Qin's true essence is exhausted and his soul is tired, so I will leave now."

He bowed, turned and walked out of the refining room.

Chen Yuan also returned to the smallest refining room, where he meditated and practiced, absorbing spiritual energy and restoring his true essence.

Over the past seven days, he had been infusing his true energy into his Void Escape Robe, which consumed a lot of energy, and only 30% of his true energy was left in his body.

This was the final step in refining the magic weapon. Starting two years ago, the five spiritual materials began to slowly fuse together, until seven days ago, when the fusion was complete and the spirit was gathered.

Going further, several kinds of spiritual materials were purified one after another.

The skin and wings of the Kun fish took one year, and the golden zelkova took half a year.

It took a full year and a half to make that piece of star iron, which was not even a top-grade spiritual material.

Star iron is naturally not as good as the Cangming Stone, but that trace of the celestial stars is extremely stubborn.

Qin Lian stimulated the full power of the Earth Fire Array and utilized 90% of the power of the fire veins, but it still took him a year and a half to finally refine and purify it.

Fortunately, before purifying the star iron, Qin Lian had already refined the Chongxuan Peak again, otherwise he would have been too busy to focus and would have been unable to take care of both, and would have certainly failed.

The re-refined Chongxuan Peak is heavier than before, and the consumption of true energy when controlling it is greatly reduced.

Chen Yuan was very satisfied with Qin Lian's weapon refining skills. Except for the time when he started to purify spiritual materials, which required him to inject his true essence and blood and leave a mark of his spiritual consciousness, he could practice in seclusion at other times.

Over the past five years, Chen Yuan has swallowed and refined fifty-one cultivation pills and four body-strengthening pills. His cultivation has improved a lot and his body has also become stronger, but he is still a step away from becoming a ninth-level demon king.

This gap may seem small, but it would take at least a hundred years to cross it just by infusing the body with starlight.

After Chen Yuan refined all the pills, he did not waste any time and refined the two eight-hundred-year-old Ice Spring Lotus and several seventh-level demon pills in his hand into pills.

Every month, Chen Yuan would leave the Wanling Mountains to draw starlight into his body and temper his flesh.

It was not until seven days ago that Chen Yuan stopped practicing and helped Qin Lian to gather the spirit for the Void Escape Robe.

Three days later, Chen Yuan's true energy was fully restored. After waiting for another day, Qin Lian walked out of the training room, looking energetic and having recovered from his fatigue.

The two of them came to the main hall and sat down as host and guest.

Qin Lian smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Chen, what are your plans next?"

Chen Yuan clasped his fists and bowed: "The two magic weapons have been successfully refined. Chen has been bothering Brother Qin for several years. It is time to leave." (End of this chapter)