A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

After his previous alchemy experience, Zhou Ping discovered that his success rate had improved significantly this time.

If his success rate in alchemy was only close to 20% before, this time he found that his success rate had reached more than 30%, and sometimes even approached 40%.

This discovery thrilled Zhou Ping. After thinking about it, he could only attribute it to the fact that practice makes perfect. After all, he had been refining the same kind of pill in large quantities. With more practice, his proficiency and success rate would naturally be much higher than before.

After all, how could an alchemist have as many raw materials as Zhou Ping to squander?

The amount of spiritual herbs Zhou Ping consumed in one month of alchemy was almost equivalent to what an ordinary alchemist would consume in ten or even several decades.

With such a huge amount of spiritual herbs available for him to experiment with and squander, it was quite surprising that his skill in refining this kind of pill did not improve.

During this period, Zhou Ping also discovered that his cultivation speed had improved significantly in the past six months, and the efficiency was much higher than when he first took the Golden Marrow Pill.

He thought for a long time about the cause of this result but couldn't come up with a reason that convinced him. After comparing it with his previous state, he found that in addition to the improvement in his body refinement level, he had also consumed a huge amount of spiritual eye and spiritual spring water.

"Could it really be a benefit brought about by the Spirit Eye Spring? Or perhaps the combined cultivation of the body has subtly altered my physical attributes, making the refinement of spiritual energy more efficient?"

Zhou Ping put the newly formed Golden Marrow Pill into a jade bottle and, in his spare time, couldn't help but think about it.

Whatever the reason, the increase in his cultivation speed was a real benefit for him.

Zhou Ping planned to maintain this cultivation rhythm, interspersing his practice of Qingyuan Gong with body refinement.

The Blood Emperor Pill truly lives up to its reputation as a treasure for body refining. After Zhou Ping advanced to the mid-stage of the first level of body refining, the benefits it provided to his body refining not only did not weaken with the improvement of his realm, but even seemed to have a slightly stronger effect. It seemed that its improvement on the mid-stage of body refining was far greater than that on the early stage of body refining.

After being puzzled for a while, Zhou Ping concluded that it was probably because he was only at the initial stage of body refinement and could not fully absorb its domineering medicinal power, resulting in a waste of some of the medicinal power. Therefore, the effects of the Blood Emperor Pill were naturally relatively lower.

In fact, according to the normal pace, Zhou Ping should be focusing all his energy on cultivating the Qingyuan Technique at this moment, striving to break through to the seventh level of the Qi Refining stage as soon as possible.

However, after discovering that the Blood Emperor Pill could still bring him huge benefits in body refinement, Zhou Ping decisively chose to cultivate both his physical body and his spiritual body simultaneously.

The reason is simple: after half a year of cultivation, Zhou Ping could clearly feel that his body refinement cultivation had made rapid progress. With a continuous supply of Blood Emperor Pills, his body refinement cultivation seemed to have no bottlenecks and was steadily and rapidly improving.

Zhou Ping even asserted that before the Five Elements Realm Trial began, regardless of whether Qing Yuan's abilities could be raised to the seventh level of the Qi Refining stage, his body refining cultivation would definitely be one step ahead, allowing him to break through to the late stage of the first-order body refining stage, or even the perfect stage.

This is the fundamental reason why Zhou Ping insists on cultivating both body and mind. If he can make his physical body reach the late stage of body refinement ahead of time, the powerful assistance it brings seems to be more direct than cultivating the Azure Origin Technique.

After all, there are rumors in the cultivation world that, at the same level, body cultivators are often slightly stronger than magic cultivators, possessing a more powerful suppressive force.

Of course, this is only a comparison with ordinary cultivators. If it were someone with other extraordinary talents, it would be difficult to predict who would win or lose. They would have to rely on their own methods and resources.

With a clear cultivation plan, Zhou Ping finally broke through to the sixth level of the Qi Refining stage two months later. His body refining cultivation also steadily improved, getting closer and closer to the later stage, showing signs of breaking through to the next level first.

During this period, Zhou Ping took advantage of his spare time to accept two sect missions, both of which were simple tasks involving doing odd jobs within the sect or assisting other Foundation Establishment stage senior uncles and elders.

Although the merit points gained are extremely low, the advantage lies in its ease and simplicity. It allows one to complete the sect's task targets for Qi Refining disciples without much effort, making it the best choice for Zhou Ping at this stage.

After all, he doesn't lack cultivation resources now. He only needs to focus all his energy on cultivation. There's no need for him to go through all that trouble like other disciples, running around and risking his life for a little bit of cultivation resources.

With the rotation of many fellow disciples' tasks, the annoying senior brother who was previously on duty at the Dragon Tongue Peak Fire Cave has now been transferred elsewhere, and a new junior brother has taken over the duty here.

Zhou Ping felt relieved at this, after all, his cultivation speed over the past year had been quite astonishing. If the same person had seen it all, it would inevitably arouse their surprise and suspicion, which was something Zhou Ping was trying his best to avoid.

After all, it involves the ripening power of the mysterious agarwood. If word gets out and some important figures start paying attention to his cultivation speed and his trip to the Earth Fire Cave in recent years, he will have no way of explaining it.

Originally, I thought that since the success rate of the pill was close to 50%, I could prepare as many raw materials as possible before going to Dragon Tongue Peak to refine the Golden Marrow Pill. This way, I could reduce the number of times I traveled between the two places, and naturally reduce the attention others would pay to me.

Unexpectedly, that person was assigned to another place by the sect, which relieved Zhou Ping of some of his worries.

Regardless, now that he has prepared enough spiritual herbs, he will try to refine as many Golden Marrow Pills as possible. Whether or not anyone is paying attention to him, Zhou Ping plans to reduce the time he spends in the public eye and focus on his cultivation in his residence.

……

Time flies when you're cultivating, and three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The colossal Qinglian Xuanzong sect seemed unaffected by time; within the sect, between its various peaks, everything continued to operate stably and orderly as before.

As the date drew closer, more and more people within the sect, especially among the Qi Refining disciples, focused their attention on one thing: the Five Elements Realm Trial, which was scheduled to begin in four months.

During the three years that Zhou Ping was busy with his secluded cultivation, many things happened within the Qinglian Xuanzong sect that were worthy of his attention.

The first thing is Qin Changqing's rising fame. Two years ago, the news that he had already advanced to the ninth level of the Qi Refining stage spread like wildfire. As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused a great uproar among the Qi Refining disciples of the Qinglian Xuanzong.

With his already high reputation and strength, this breakthrough in realm has undoubtedly made him even more sought-after.

Some radical fellow disciples even ranked his current strength as the top among the younger generation of Qi Refining cultivators, believing that after making up for his shortcomings in cultivation level, his true strength has surpassed that of the three veteran prodigies, including Yu Tianji, and that he can contend for the title of the number one prodigy in the Qi Refining stage of the Azure Lotus Profound Sect.

Of course, there are radicals and conservatives. Many people still believe that although Qin Changqing has entered the ninth level of Qi Refining, his true combat strength should be similar to that of the other prodigies, at most a 50/50 situation.

After all, everyone is at the Qi Refining stage, and their upper limit is fixed. As outstanding individuals, how much higher can anyone be than anyone else? In the end, it's nothing more than a contest of trump cards and powerful methods. No matter how extraordinary these people are, they could never possibly advance to the Foundation Establishment stage, right?

Zhou Ping merely smiled at the disciples' arguments. Even the parties involved disregarded them, wondering what the point of their debate was.

Another matter worth noting is the rumors surrounding the Five Elements Realm. Although these rumors have spread among the lower-level disciples, the veracity of these rumors still needs to be confirmed by the sect elders before they can be announced to the entire sect.

The message revealed that this Five Elements Realm Trial will be very different from the past, and there may even be other forces involved.

It is said that the place where the Five Elements Realm is located, namely the ancestral land of the Xuan Yuan Five Elements Temple in Yinzhou, has recently shown a series of auspicious signs. Five-colored clouds often fill the sky above the ancestral land, which has attracted the attention of almost all forces in the Great Liang.

There were even hints of other countries' cultivation forces mixed in, all exerting pressure on the five major sects.

In the past, the Five Elements Realm Trial was simply a matter between the five sects, and no other forces in the Great Liang cultivation world dared to interfere, let alone express any dissatisfaction.

But this time is different. Such an extraordinary omen clearly indicates that a supreme treasure has appeared in the Five Elements Realm. Almost all forces have coveted it. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, even the five great sects, the pillars of the Liang Kingdom's cultivation world, have to be careful.

Moreover, since there are also cultivation forces from other countries involved, it is even more important to be careful. If we are not careful, it may cause internal strife in the cultivation world of Liang, and then it will be our mortal enemies who will reap the benefits.

Moreover, there are even rumors circulating that the ancient demon races dwelling deep within the Hidden Thunder Mountains have recently been stirring up trouble, seemingly showing considerable interest in the rare treasures within the Five Elements Realm.

Even the Yin-Yang Forest has become unusually lively recently. Demon figures can be seen flashing by at the edge of the forest from time to time, sometimes even during the day. This is quite different from the deathly quiet and desolate place it used to be.

Anyone with discerning eyes can see that the cultivation world of the Great Liang Dynasty will inevitably witness some earth-shattering events because of this Five Elements Realm Trial.

Just then, in a residence in the outer area of ​​the Qinglian Xuanzong's low-level disciples' quarters, a violent surge of spiritual energy suddenly erupted. A spiritual pressure at the late stage of Qi Refining suddenly pierced through the sect's array outside the house and faintly spread outwards. In just an instant, it disappeared completely.

Fortunately, this area was extremely remote, and it seemed that no other cultivators had settled here to cultivate in seclusion. Therefore, the commotion coming from this small house went unnoticed by others.

Zhou Ping slowly opened his eyes, a smile he could hardly hide on his lips, and looked down at his body.

"I never expected to advance to the late stage of Qi Refining so quickly... The cultivation bottleneck that I imagined I would encounter when breaking through from the mid-stage to the late stage doesn't seem to have appeared in my case. This is quite a pleasant surprise."

He hadn't expected that his breakthrough would be as simple as when he broke through from the fifth to the sixth level of the Qi Refining stage. With the support of ample and powerful medicinal power, he encountered almost no obstacles and advanced to the late stage of the Qi Refining stage. This result still made Zhou Ping somewhat incredulous, exclaiming that it was unbelievable.

Then, Zhou Ping took out the mid-grade magic weapon, the emerald green sword, from his storage bag. With a thought, a green light transformed into a serpent and flashed towards his other raised arm.

"Ding!"

A sharp crack suddenly rang out in the quiet room. A tear several inches long was seen in the blue sleeve of Zhou Ping's raised arm, revealing a withered but powerful arm inside.

On his bare arm, there was a tiny, blood-red wound, slowly oozing crimson blood. Judging from its location, it was the spot where he had just struck with his emerald-green sword.

Zhou Ping casually took out a bottle of healing medicine from his storage bag, sprinkled some white hemostatic powder on the wound, and then ignored it. However, a smile of even greater surprise appeared on his face than before.

"As expected, it did not disappoint me. With my current physical strength, even a mid-grade magic weapon can hardly cause me any fatal damage unless it attacks a special part of my body like my eyes."

Zhou Ping clenched his fists in satisfaction, feeling the surging power within his body. He couldn't help but feel intoxicated. It was a power completely different from magic power, rooted in every inch of his flesh and bones, seemingly ready to erupt at any moment from any part of his body, instantly shattering any obstacle in front of him.

"If I were to fight Liu Chong now, I would probably only need one punch to blow him to death. There would be no need to rely on various magical artifacts to fight him for a long time before finding a good opportunity to kill him."

After recalling his previous battle with Liu Chong, Zhou Ping estimated his current physical combat strength and couldn't help but compare it.

Unexpectedly, under the tempering of the Blood Emperor Pill, Zhou Ping actually advanced from the mid-stage of the first-level Body Refinement to the perfect late-stage Body Refinement in just over four years. This cultivation speed is so fast that probably no one would believe it.

Zhou Ping took out a clean blue robe from his storage bag and put it on. After slightly tidying up his somewhat disheveled appearance due to his long period of seclusion, he lay down on the bed again. With his mind at ease, he soon fell into a deep sleep.

After such a long period of seclusion, Zhou Ping successfully broke through the barrier and felt much better. He planned to relax for three days and two nights before considering other troublesome matters.