Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 574 Fire Essence Pill

Ziyang Mountain, Wanshou Villa.

Wan Jinrong stepped into the family council hall and sat at the end of the table. Seeing that the patriarch had not yet appeared, he said softly:

"Thirteenth Uncle, do you know what has alarmed the Ancestor?"

The Wan family controls the Wanbao Pavilion. They are one of the few families in the cultivation world that possesses a Nascent Soul True Monarch, and for three consecutive generations, there has been a Nascent Soul True Monarch in charge.

Its power is comparable to that of some slightly weaker Nascent Soul sects.

In fact, the Wan family is no different from a Nascent Soul sect now. They are not conservative and have absorbed many talented cultivators into the family.

"I don't know. I heard that the ancestor returned to the clan at midnight last night and immediately summoned the clan leader, and they talked for more than an hour."

The patriarch had always secluded himself in his mountain cave for cultivation, and many people did not know when he left the family.
The cultivators qualified to attend today are at least at the Golden Core Realm level. All the high-ranking members of the Wan family, except those who were on missions and unable to return, are present.

The people whispered among themselves, speculating about the reason why the ancestor had summoned them. They guessed it must involve a major matter concerning the rise and fall of the family, otherwise the ancestor, who had been indifferent to worldly affairs for so long, would not have shown up.

A moment later, True Lord Yuanrong and the Wan Clan Chief stepped into the council hall together.

All the Golden Core cultivators rose and said in unison:

"Greetings, Ancestor. Greetings, Clan Chief."

The clan leader's cultivation level was the same as theirs, so there was no need for them to pay homage.
Yuanrong Zhenjun sat on the main bronze throne and said kindly:

"No courtesy, please sit down."

He had a thin face, a long beard, and thick, black hair tied together with a golden lotus crown.

After everyone was seated, he spoke again:

"A few days ago, the Taihua Sect invited many True Monarchs from the Southern Region to a meeting regarding the matter of Wulan Mountain. Everyone decided to work together to resolve the hidden dangers there."

After hearing his story, everyone discussed it animatedly, and some clansmen offered their opinions:
"Ancestor, Ziyang Mountain is eight thousand miles away from Wulan Mountain, yet we need to send so many disciples to participate in the battle and provide materials for the magic array. Isn't that unfair?"

He felt that other forces closer to Misty Mountain should take on more missions, since those forces would be the first to be affected by the outbreak of the True Demon Calamity.

Everything we are doing now can save these forces from further damage, and those forces deserve to contribute more.

True Monarch Yuanrong spoke calmly:

"We are part of the Cloud Sea Business Alliance. The allocation of tasks for the Business Alliance was discussed and finalized yesterday by the True Lords."

Adjustments will be made later, but for now, proceed as I have instructed.

The Cloud Sea Merchant Alliance is a massive entity, led by several Nascent Soul cultivators. Its combined power is comparable to that of the Taihua Sect and the Taixu Sect, which possess several True Monarchs.

The plan has already been decided, so there's no need to dwell on who contributed more or less, because a balance must have been struck when the plan was formulated.

"As ordered."

Yuan Rong Zhenjun nodded, "Now let Ziyang assign specific tasks, and everyone begin to prepare separately."

The plan will not officially begin for another two years, and priority should be given to stockpiling supplies that will be consumed in large quantities in the future.

"You can make the arrangements, I'm going back to my cave in the back mountain."

Every danger comes with an opportunity; it all depends on whether you can seize it.

By leveraging their information advantage to hoard resources, major powers have accumulated considerable wealth.

He stood up and slowly left amidst the sounds of "Respectfully seeing off the Ancestor."

Wan Ziyang sat in the main seat and said in a deep voice:
"I discussed a plan with the ancestor. All the Golden Core cultivators in the clan will be sent out to stockpile as many valuable resources as possible."

He took out a few pages of paper and continued:
"Now, I'll assign specific tasks. Third Brother, go to the accounting office and withdraw eight hundred high-grade spirit stones. Go to various markets and buy stone flowers and heavenly fruits as quickly as possible. The more we buy, the more we can earn."
Seventh brother, withdraw six hundred high-grade spirit stones.

The various factions have already divided up the pie of stockpiled supplies, and they are not encountering much resistance in the southern region.

"Understood," the tribesman who received the task replied, took out a blank jade slip, stuck it to his forehead, and quickly wrote down his task to prevent himself from forgetting it.

It took half an hour for Wan Ziyang to finally explain everything.

"Are you all clear about your respective tasks?"

“Understood,” everyone responded.

Wan Jinrong put down the jade slip and nodded with satisfaction. He wasn't assigned many tasks, mainly to refine a special alloy that could cause greater damage to demons and the like.

When the True Demon Calamity erupts, this will be a long-term resource drain. He is a weapon refiner and enjoys this kind of mission.

Wan Ziyang's expression turned serious, and his voice lowered:

"There is another plan, and the ancestor has decided to send clansmen to participate."

Several True Lords decided to support an organization that uses demonic energy and demons as cultivation materials, and planned to select a group of clansmen with stable Dao hearts and low aptitude to participate.

We have 500 openings. Everyone should select suitable candidates from their respective factions. This isn't urgent; it can be completed within six months.

His words were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples all around.

"With demonic energy as a cultivation resource, these clansmen will probably never be able to return to their clan again, right?"

"How is doing this any different from abandoning one's own people?"

Demonic cultivators are universally hated in the cultivation world; such a decision is tantamount to pushing their people into a fire pit.

Wan Ziyang raised his hand and pressed it down, saying:
"I have similar questions to everyone else, but the ancestor's explanation is that demonic cultivators will coexist with orthodox Taoist cultivators in the future, at least in the southern region."

If any member of the clan has the aptitude for demonic cultivation, they might be able to be born into a Nascent Soul True Monarch after undergoing the tempering of the True Demon Tribulation.

If we plan ahead now, our family will have one more branch.

If demonic cultivators occupy demonic caves to cultivate, the conflict with ordinary cultivators is not significant.

He repeated the ancestor's explanation, "This plan was devised by the True Lords, and all we have to do is execute it."

The aptitude of demonic cultivators differs from ours; for those chosen members of our race, this might not be a bad shortcut.

Two years later.

The full moon, like a jade plate, cast its serene light upon Black Stone Mountain.

There was no one in the cave room, only the gourd-shaped stone floating in the air, emitting a crystal-clear light.

At this moment, Ji An was sitting under the Gathering Yuan Tree, activating the Azure Lotus Burning Heart Flame.

A crimson pill the size of a longan condensed in the Fire Crane Elixir Furnace, surrounded by flying dragons formed from blue, red, and white smoke. With each circle, a small portion of the elixir's outer layer wore away and fell to the bottom of the furnace as ash.

A burst of crimson air emanated from the dragon's mouth on the furnace lid, filling the air with the fragrance of cinnamon.

Ji An extinguished the fire in the alchemy furnace, immediately used his object manipulation technique to open the furnace lid, and grabbed the pills out.

After the pill cooled down, he scraped off a small amount of powder, dipped some in his finger, and put it in his mouth.

Feeling the rich spiritual energy spreading through his stomach and intestines, and sensing the amount of poison contained in the elixir, a smile bloomed on his lips, as if he were seeing the first flower of spring in full bloom.

"I've succeeded, Daoist Master! Hahaha!"

Sensing its master's joyful mood, the earth unicorn peeked its little head out from among the leaves of the Juyuan tree.

After laughing heartily, Ji An was filled with mixed emotions.

After constantly changing the formula and spending nearly two thousand high-grade spiritual herbs on trial and error, they finally managed to refine a pill of ordinary quality.

With such a huge investment, plus the time cost of countless days and nights, ordinary forces simply do not have the confidence to create the pill formula.

Ji An put the pill in his mouth and swallowed it, circulating the Five Elements Cycle.

The spiritual energy in the small world rapidly converged towards him, forming a vortex of spiritual energy several meters high and hundreds of meters in diameter above his head.

The scale of normal cultivation is far less than that of breaking through to the Golden Core stage, because the sublimation of life essence when breaking through to a higher realm brings a strong sense of communion between heaven and man, but normal cultivation does not produce this feeling.

Along with the vortex of spiritual energy, various elements of the five elements also converged, reflecting the vortex in a colorful array of hues.

The five elements within his body shone brightly in turn, the Dao seed gleamed, and the spiritual energy in the elixir was rapidly drawn out, surging like a mighty river in his immortal veins.

The entire body is like a powerful and precise machine, where spiritual energy is rapidly refined into liquid, and finally transformed into radiant magical crystals, which flow into the middle and lower dantian respectively.

An hour later, the pill was completely refined, and Ji An estimated that its medicinal effect was about 40% of that of the Spirit Rhinoceros Essence Refining Pill.

However, the cost of the pill is less than one-tenth of that of the Spirit Rhinoceros Refining Pill. Assuming that the cost of the third-grade pine nuts is not taken into account, the cost will be reduced by half again.

Most importantly, the other ingredients for the pill are relatively common third-tier spiritual herbs, and there are no special requirements for the spiritual field.

With such a vast territory in the Central Continent, he could easily acquire large quantities of it; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this pill formula is worth tens of thousands of high-grade spirit stones.

Creating a prescription is like researching a special medicine; without results, everything is meaningless, but if it is successfully developed, it will be a continuous source of wealth.

Ji An stood up and let out a long roar, his heart filled with heroic passion.

Half a year ago, his elixirs were all used up, and his rapid progress in cultivation came to an abrupt halt. Now that the elixir formula has been created, all the problems have been solved.

Once the elixir is refined, his cultivation will once again enter a period of rapid growth.

His laughter subsided, but then a cacophony of sounds arose as the Earth Qilin, Azure Dragon, Azure Deer, Rock Armor Bear, and Golden Feathered Eagle all came to join the fun.

If the Golden Retriever hadn't been so quiet, it probably would have been able to hear the Spirit-Seeking Mouse's voice too.

'We need to give the elixir a catchy name, but at the same time, we can't reveal its ingredients.'

Ji An thought to himself, and after a moment of contemplation, he decided to name it Fire Essence Pill. Judging from the name, one could only guess that it was a pill made from fire-elemental spiritual plants.

Excited after successfully refining the new type of elixir, he found it difficult to sleep and decided to take a stroll to inspect the territory.

He examined the jade cocoons collected by the puppets; many of these things, which witnessed the growth of the Soul-Devouring Insects, had already reached the third tier.

He sorted the jade pupae, categorizing them neatly. The puppets were too weak to distinguish the quality of the jade pupae, so he had to classify them manually.

With a Tier 3 Jade Cocoon, you can obtain Tier 3 Cleansing Spirit Sand, which can be used to create cinnabar of even higher quality.

However, Ji An discovered that no matter how good the cinnabar and talisman paper were, they could not be used to draw top-grade purification and calming talismans.

He couldn't understand why this was the case. Since neither of these two types of talismans could use the blood essence of demonic beasts as ink, he couldn't determine whether it was because of the ink.

However, he had a vague feeling that it had nothing to do with Fu Mo. He could see from the Fudō Myōō practice that visualization and contemplation are very important parts of Buddhist practice.

Contemplation and visualization should be able to cause some strange changes in the magical power within a cultivator's body.

For example, his own magical power is slightly different from that of other cultivators because of the different types of cultivation.

This difference is a mysterious and profound one beyond individual differences; it manifests as his spells being more powerful than those of other cultivators.
Given the same amount of mana input and the same spell level, his spell effect will be significantly more powerful.

He hadn't actually compared them, but he firmly believed in this.

The grades of the two precious plants, the Nightshade Tree and the Soul Nourishing Wood, have not been improved and are currently still at the third-grade low level. The good news is that the Nightshade Tree has already borne fruit, which is currently the size of a walnut.

When the fruit is fully ripe, the peel turns dark purple, hence the name "Night Purple Fruit".

He now has a new task: to obtain a recipe for a pill that uses the Night Purple Fruit as the main ingredient.

The spiritual fruit is still far from ripe, and as long as the certification association has pill formulas available for exchange, he has enough time to obtain them.

The Azure Mist Pine and the Star Tree have now reached the third-tier low-grade level, many years earlier than he expected. It seems that this is all thanks to the third-tier Gathering Yuan Tree, which indirectly proves the correctness of his decision to first upgrade the grade of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Tree.

The Earth Spirit Fruit Tree was also at the lower-grade level of the third rank, perhaps reaching the limit for this type of spiritual plant; however, three Xuan Ye Sword Bamboo plants reached the middle-grade level of the third rank.

Ji An is now facing a problem: the small world is too small to plant more plants.

Logically speaking, Xuan Ye Jian Zhu, a consumable spiritual material, should be planted in large quantities, but there are only eight plants now, which is not enough.

The planting area will not increase if the quality of the spiritual veins in the small world is not improved.

This was what troubled him. He wanted to use the Daoist essence he would gain to nurture his small world, but after thinking it over, he decided to abandon the idea.

The spiritual vein in the small world is of the middle grade of the third rank. It would take an unknown amount of Dao essence to upgrade it. He would only consider doing so when the grade of the Gathering Yuan Tree surpasses that of the spiritual vein.

Ji An then examined the medicinal herbs for the Golden Elixir planted in the yellow spiritual field. The five main herbs perfectly matched the five elements, as did the auxiliary herbs, with three auxiliary herbs for each of the five elements.

These medicinal herbs are growing well and are now about ten years old.

These medicinal herbs are all of the third tier, yet their medicinal age is accumulated so rapidly, requiring only a little over two hundred years to harvest. It must be said that the conditions here are exceptionally favorable.

Since the five elements began to circulate in the small world, the growth rate of spiritual herbs and other spiritual plants has accelerated slightly.

Both the Gathering Yuan Tree and the spiritual veins of the small world will be upgraded in the future, which means that the spiritual herbs will mature in much less time.

Ji An was in a good mood and slowly walked into the black soil.

The Tianyuan Pear has been classified as a third-grade low-quality pear for a long time, and it remains at that grade. It is unlikely to be upgraded in the future.

It must be said that the world is not fair. Some species are born to reach a higher level, but some creatures, even when they reach their full potential, can only achieve a passable result.

(End of this chapter)