Chapter 95
Translator: T_Fan
Lee Hyun looked down at the stone tablet he used as a homemade status screen, then activated the Yang Metal Art at his fingertip and revised the inscriptions on the lower half as well.
His realm was not the only thing that had advanced over the long years.
【Techniques (Major Attainment): Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture (Sword Condensation Section), Sumeru Visualization Scripture (All-Hearing Heavenly King manifestation), Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal, Metal Escape Art…】
【Techniques (Perfection): Sutra of Refining Intent into Vow…】
‘Can I really say I’ve reached Major Attainment in the Wisdom Sword Scripture and the Visualization Scripture too…?’
Fortunately, he was the only one writing or reading it, so there was no harm in getting it wrong.
Lee Hyun casually extended a hand. The Sinking Moon Sword slipped out of his storage pouch and rose into the air, its silver-gray blade exposed.
The spiritual power filling every part of his body flowed smoothly into the blade. He added his divine sense, then his vow power.
In the past, whenever he forced those powers into the blade, the process had felt dangerously precarious.
Now, guided by the image of the sword he had formed in his mind, his spiritual power, divine sense, and vow power circulated in unison, as though they had always been a single current.
Hummmm―
A mysterious light gathered at the sword’s tip.
Instead of firing it, Lee Hyun slowly steadied his breathing and drew the power back in.
Not a single scratch marred the blade.
“Phew… Good.”
Lee Hyun put away the Sinking Moon Sword, readjusted his lotus position, and activated the Sumeru Visualization Scripture.
The air behind him rippled, and brilliant golden light blossomed.
It took the form of the All-Hearing Heavenly King, holding a parasol in his left hand and supporting an intricately crafted pagoda with his right. Thanks to the greater depth of his visualization, every detail was vividly lifelike, from the close-set scales of the armor and the patterns on the flowing celestial robes to the majesty in the king’s fierce gaze.
As he steadied his primordial spirit while maintaining the All-Hearing Heavenly King manifestation, his mind cleared as though washed clean with cold, pure water.
Yet a small pebble Lee Hyun flicked toward the Heavenly King manifestation passed straight through without the slightest resistance.
Tap.
Lee Hyun clicked his tongue as he watched the pebble strike the stone chamber floor and roll away.
His visualization had reached Major Attainment, but the inheritance required the magical power of a Golden Core cultivator. Without it, the Dharma manifestation had no real power.
‘Still beyond my reach. But I’m almost there!’
Lee Hyun dispersed the golden Heavenly King manifestation and flopped onto his back on the stone chamber floor.
‘Maybe I’ll rest for a little while…?’
He took out a pulp novel and began reading.
…
Ten days later.
After lazing about for a bit, Lee Hyun finally got up and laid a bundle of jade slips on the stone table.
They contained the Golden Core section of 《Primordial One-Qi Art》 he had obtained during his days in the Danxiao Sect, the annotations to 《Arhat Golden Body》 he had copied from Baoguang Temple’s Scripture Pavilion, and the Golden Core Condensing Pill recipes and records on the refining of demon markings he had studied countless times in the Inner Alchemy Chamber.
He had read and reread these texts whenever he had a spare moment over the centuries. Yet now that every part of his body had reached the absolute limit of Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, each passage carried an entirely different weight.
Embracing Unity and Returning to the Elixir!
It gathered all the energy within the body into one and condensed the entire body at once.
As always, the problem was resources.
Even a simple calculation put the minimum at fifty Golden Core Condensing Pills. Some medicinal strength might also dissipate or be consumed as he raised the true essence throughout his entire body in perfect unison.
If he entered secluded cultivation with exactly fifty Golden Core Condensing Pills and ran short of medicinal strength, he might fail to form the Leakless Golden Body and end up as ‘just a young man with a big golden core.’
The shock of seeing all his efforts come to nothing might well send him into qi deviation.
He would feel much safer starting with seventy or eighty pills on hand.
‘I transmigrated, but I don’t even have the usual status screen or regression ability. All I’ve got is a body that doesn’t age… I can’t afford to fail.’
Lee Hyun stroked his chin.
‘A furnace batch of Golden Core Condensing Pills takes an entire, intact Tier 3 demon core. It isn’t like ordinary cultivation pills, where a single furnace batch yields three or four pills. And if I account for demon cores getting damaged during a hunt, or an alchemy failure ruining the ingredients…’
Lee Hyun went blank.
“…Doesn’t that mean I’ll have to kill more of them than a typical great sect has Golden Core Elders?”
Whether in the Nine Kingdoms of Yunzhou or the Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance, a sect might have as few as twenty Golden Core cultivators. Even a special case like Baoguang Temple, which could produce Golden Core Condensing Pills with relative ease, had only a little over a hundred at most.
However dim-witted the beasts might be, each Tier 3 demon beast was a match for a Golden Core cultivator. He would have to kill the equivalent of all the Golden Core cultivators in two or three great sects, all by himself.
Of course, sect Elders and wild demon beasts were different. He would not be fighting cultivators who could contact one another and rush to each other’s aid. He could hunt the beasts scattered across the land one at a time.
Unfortunately, the fact that they were ‘scattered’ presented another problem.
The Tier 3 demon beasts Lee Hyun had killed so far, such as the Scale-Armored Sea Ape and the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle, had all happened to come to him first.
Now the situation was reversed. He would have to scour the world himself in search of prey.
‘This won’t be over in a year or two. I’ll have to allow a few decades… Wait, a few decades? Maybe that isn’t so long…’
Medicinal strength did fade over time, but a few decades would not seriously diminish the quality of properly sealed demon cores or refined Golden Core Condensing Pills.
First, however, there was something he needed to confirm.
Could he make a Golden Core Condensing Pill entirely on his own, from start to finish?
He had assisted with the Refining stage countless times at Baoguang Temple and spent a long time watching the Elders perform alchemy. He had plenty of pill recipes and records, too.
But he had never completed the entire process alone.
‘Let’s make one first.’
Lee Hyun took out a blank jade slip and began listing the materials he needed.
***
Half a month later, at Qianlu Market in the Hua Kingdom.
The enormous cultivator market still sweltered in the heat, the air thick with the smell of molten metal.
Lee Hyun passed along a road busy with ore-laden carts and headed farther up the mountain.
Long ago, Murong Ke had told him that the workshops higher up rented out access to Tier 3 earth fire.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator needed Tier 3 earth fire to melt a Tier 3 demon core reliably.
Once he actually went looking, however, he discovered that it was not simply a matter of paying spirit stones and using a burner whenever he pleased.
The first workshop he visited had no burner available for the next two years. The second did not rent its facilities to outside cultivators.
At the third, he was able to inspect an unused facility, but this time Lee Hyun was the one who shook his head and left.
Six auxiliary burners surrounded a central main furnace, all sharing a single earth-fire vein. Whenever an artifact refiner in the neighboring room worked the bellows hard to melt materials for a magic treasure, the heat from the burner on this side fluctuated ever so slightly.
Such a minor change in heat would hardly matter during the preliminary refining of spirit materials. When refining a Golden Core Condensing Pill, however, even a momentary fluctuation could reduce expensive ingredients to ash.
…
It was the tenth day of trudging up and down Qianlu Mountain’s slopes.
At last, Lee Hyun found a stone chamber that met his requirements in a workshop called Huoyun Pavilion, situated against a relatively secluded cliff on the mountain’s northern slope.
A wave of dry heat rushed out as the stone door opened.
Unlike the other workshops, which were lined with hammers, anvils, and other equipment for refining magic treasures, the chamber was surprisingly empty. It measured roughly five or six zhang (about 16–20 m) on each side. Formation restrictions for handling heat and toxic fumes were engraved on the walls, and a single burner with a thick red copper rim sat alone in the center of the floor.
Steward Zhang, the mid Foundation Establishment cultivator showing him around, stroked his beard as he explained.
“This was originally a refining room for melting Tier 3 spirit materials separately and removing their impurities before the main work of crafting a magic treasure. These days, so many workshops rent out their facilities that things have been quiet here…”
Lee Hyun swept his divine sense over the arrangement of formation inscriptions on the floor.
Along each branch of the earth-fire vein beneath the burner, he found interlocking formations designed to shut off the fire qi and maintain constant pressure.
Steward Zhang channeled spiritual power into a jade token, and the closed burner opened by about half a cun (about 1.7 cm).
Red light spilled out, and the temperature in the stone chamber rapidly rose. Lee Hyun carefully studied the movement of the flames.
“This should do.”
“What sort of material do you intend to work with?”
“I’ll be using it for alchemy.”
“Alchemy?”
The steward glanced around the empty stone chamber, puzzled.
“As you can see, this is an artifact-refining workshop. We have no pill furnaces here.”
“I’ll procure the pill furnace myself. I only need to rent the burner and the room.”
The rental fee was five mid-grade spirit stones per day.
He also had to put down a deposit of one hundred mid-grade spirit stones against any damage to the burner. In addition, his reservation could be pushed back if Huoyun Pavilion received an urgent refining commission of its own.
Since he only needed to rent the room while performing alchemy, the price was hardly burdensome. He was grateful enough just to have sole use of Tier 3 earth fire of this quality.
…
Next came the pill furnace.
The Tier 2 pill furnace that had served Lee Hyun so well when refining Essence-Cultivating Dao Pills could not withstand the heat of Tier 3 earth fire.
He visited shops that sold pill furnaces, explaining his requirements.
The elderly proprietor of the fifth shop, Guyun Hall, listened to everything he needed before silently heading down into the underground storeroom.
A while later, he returned with a dark indigo three-legged furnace that stood as high as an adult man’s waist.
Various patterns were engraved on its surface, and an octagonal bronze base was attached beneath its three short legs.
“This is called the Demon-Suppressing Three-Legged Furnace. Although it is a low-grade magic treasure, it was designed for use by Foundation Establishment cultivators.”
The proprietor tapped the broad metal plate beneath the pill furnace.
“Fit spirit stones into these slots and place it over an earth-fire burner. The restrictions that draw in and contain the fire qi run on spirit stones and earth fire, so controlling it requires little spiritual power. Of course, it cannot make up for a lack of skill….”
Lee Hyun examined the pill furnace for a long while.
“How much?”
“Twelve thousand mid-grade spirit stones. Pay in high-grade spirit stones, and I’ll lower the price to one hundred and fifteen.”
…
The next day.
The Demon-Suppressing Three-Legged Furnace stood in the center of the stone chamber Lee Hyun had rented from Huoyun Pavilion.
He channeled Tier 3 earth fire into it and refined several kinds of Tier 2 pills as a test.
Controlling the chamber’s formation and the pill furnace’s restrictions simultaneously required delicate adjustments, but his wealth of experience allowed him to handle both with practiced ease.
As he sent Clear Yang Purifying Fire streaming in every direction with the Flame-Threading Art, Lee Hyun looked less like a Foundation Establishment cultivator than a seasoned Tier 3 alchemist.
After a full day of testing, he was certain he could refine Golden Core Condensing Pills in this environment.
“Now, shall I go find the ingredients?”
***
Lee Hyun bought a generous supply of top-quality jade caskets for carrying demon cores and bundles of Tier 2 high-grade Spirit-Sealing Talismans before descending Qianlu Mountain.
From there, he traveled more than a hundred thousand li (about 39,200 km) south, visiting cultivator markets large and small throughout southern Xu Kingdom and southwestern Xuan Kingdom, then along Kun Kingdom’s western coast.
The coastal cultivator markets had far more merchant groups dealing in demon-beast byproducts and far more veteran hunter cultivators than those inland.
Changing his identity and appearance along the way, Lee Hyun bought illustrated guides to marine demon beasts. He also gathered rumors from the gatherers who traveled among the reefs and uninhabited islands of the outer sea, asking which waters had seen high-tier demon beasts in recent decades.
He even paid a premium for five sea charts marking places where Tier 3 demon beasts had been sighted.
…
Lee Hyun continued roaming the coast.
The walls of one sea cave bore enormous claw marks, while bones from fish as large as houses lay scattered across the floor. Yet they crumbled at the lightest nudge of his foot.
Occasionally, he found more recent traces among the rugged reefs.
Fragments of formation flags and charred magic tools were lodged haphazardly among collapsed rocks. On the beach, the enormous remains of a demon beast lay half-buried in the sand.
Naturally, its chest and skull, where the demon core might have been, had already been cleanly cut open and emptied.
‘I’ve got competition… Back when I didn’t need Tier 3 demon beasts, they came right to me. Now that I’m actually looking, they’re nowhere to be found. Should I try the Cangmang Forest along the coast?’
But he had heard that powerful forces of the demon race lurked within the Cangmang Forest, so he needed to be cautious. He might also end up clashing with Baoguang Temple’s monks over a Tier 3 demon beast hunt.
For now, he focused on the coasts of Yunzhou and Nanming controlled by the human race, roaming the surrounding seas and islands.
On stormy days, he would dig a small temporary tunnel beneath the cliffs of an uninhabited island and spend several days resting inside, brewing tea. Once the sea calmed, he would resume searching beyond the shipping routes.
After several months of wandering, Lee Hyun grew fed up and visited a cultivator market in Kun Kingdom.
He returned to a shop where he had bought a map marking the locations of Tier 3 demon beasts. The proprietor had charged extra, claiming it reflected recent sightings, but Lee Hyun’s investigations had revealed that the information was decades old.
When Lee Hyun confronted him, the demonic cultivator who owned the shop snorted.
“Idiot. Use that head of yours. If someone had confirmed that a Tier 3 demon beast was nesting somewhere, do you think I’d sell that information to a Foundation Establishment cultivator like you? It would have gone to Golden Core Seniors or a great sect for a handsome price long ago!”
“Oh, really?”
A short while later, the demonic cultivator spoke with newfound respect, both eyes swollen and blackened.
“We have received a recent sighting report. However, we have not confirmed whether it really was a Tier 3 demon beast, or whether it is still there.”
“Oh, really?”
…
Several days later.
Following his new information, Lee Hyun was crossing the tidal flats of an island away from the shipping routes.
Half of an enormous blue-green carapace was wedged between wave-battered rocks.
Its thickness and residual demon power alone told him that it had belonged to a Tier 2 aquatic demon beast with formidable defenses. Yet the center of the iron-hard shell had been crushed inward as though something had bitten it, and the broken edge bore deep, unmistakable tooth marks as large as a human torso.
Lee Hyun crouched down, turned the carapace over, and examined its underside.
Torn pieces of viscera and red flesh still clung to it, not yet washed away by the seawater. They gave off the fishy stench of flesh that had only begun to rot.
‘A Tier 3 demon beast’s kill!’
…
That night, in a shadowed crevice halfway up the rocky island.
Using the Earth Escape Art to conceal his presence as though he were part of the rock, Lee Hyun quietly watched the blue-black water before him.
Before long, the calm surface began to swell.
The first things to rise above the water, without so much as a bubble, were two yellow eyes the size of cartwheels.
An elongated snout lined with interlocking, sawlike teeth followed, then a thirty-zhang body covered in thick, pitch-black scales.
It was a savage predator of the sea, a Tier 3 Iron-Armored Crocodile!
Grrrrrr―
The enormous crocodile planted its forefeet on the coastal rocks and hauled itself ashore. A single sweep of its tail, thicker than a house, ground the solid rock to sand.
A smile appeared on Lee Hyun’s lips as he watched from the shadows.
Faint blue-black demonic light glimmered between its scales, and several bone spines rose along its back.
It matched the records kept in the library of Baoguang Temple’s Inner Alchemy Chamber. More importantly, he was already familiar with the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s demon core, having handled one himself while assisting with the Refining stage.
Pale moonlight filtered through the clouds and illuminated the dark strait.
Dark-red blood dripping from beneath its jaws, the Iron-Armored Crocodile climbed over a rocky ledge and headed toward a broad, flat slab as though following a familiar routine.
Moving sluggishly, it lowered its thick belly onto the middle of the rock.
Just as its enormous jaw settled on its forefeet and its eyelids drooped halfway shut,
a streak of shadow swept toward it.
Warned by the keen instincts of a wild demon beast, the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s yellow eyes snapped open. But Lee Hyun’s left hand had already formed a brilliant golden Dharma seal and thrust it into the air.
Humm―
An enormous golden palm imprint manifested overhead.
It was the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal at Major Attainment!
As he poured tremendous amounts of spiritual power into it without restraint, the golden palm imprint grew so distinct that it seemed almost solid.
The ten-zhang palm, brimming with terrifying power, struck down like lightning at the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s back and neck!
BOOOOM―
With a deafening crash, the slab beneath the Iron-Armored Crocodile, dozens of zhang across, caved in.
GRAAAARGH!
The Iron-Armored Crocodile roared in agony and thrashed its massive body. Every scale on its body rose at once as blue-black demonic light surged forth, pushing fiercely upward against the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal pinning its back.
At the same time, its steel-like tail tore through the air toward Lee Hyun.
WHOOOOSH!
But Lee Hyun had already flattened himself against the ground with the Reclining Escape Art. Skittering across the rock, he slipped around to the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s flank, beyond the reach of its tail.
The Iron-Armored Crocodile shuddered at the revolting way the little human bastard scuttled about like a sea roach. It whipped its head around and opened its jaws as wide as they would go.
Demon power swirled deep in its throat, then a high-pressure jet of water exploded toward Lee Hyun’s face.
ROOOAR!
The black torrent narrowly grazed his shoulder, scraping violently against his body-protecting spirit light before punching through the jagged cliff behind him.
Lee Hyun slipped into the rock where he stood and burst out elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Iron-Armored Crocodile finally managed to throw off the palm imprint pinning its back. It pushed off the shattered ground with all four bleeding feet and desperately turned toward an underwater cave beneath the seaside cliff.
The bedrock beneath its forefeet shattered. Just as its enormous body was about to slide toward the water, terror filled its yellow eyes.
A yellow flying sword had appeared directly in front of it, shining brilliantly and radiating lethal sword intent!
Great Unity Wisdom Sword, Third Form: Heavenly Dipper Vertical Slash!
The Iron-Armored Crocodile hastily opened its jaws, but just before its demon power could erupt, the power enveloping the flying sword shot forward like lightning.
Sword intent raced ahead of the blade, piercing the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s primordial spirit and freezing its consciousness for an instant.
Shhk!
Sword light split through its snout and drove straight into the brain within its skull.
THUD!
The Iron-Armored Crocodile’s enormous body went rigid.
The powerful claws scraping against the ground lost their strength and slipped. Its tail gave one final convulsion, shattering a rocky ledge before falling limp.
“Phew… That was a clean kill.”
Lee Hyun recalled the yellow flying sword and examined it. There was no damage. Unlike the Sinking Moon Sword, it was merely a supreme-grade magic tool, not an exceptional supreme-grade magic tool, yet it had withstood the technique. Seeing it hold up brought home just what it meant to have reached Major Attainment in the Sword Condensation Section of the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture.
…
Only the quiet sound of the night waves drifted over the shattered slab.
Lee Hyun planted a few simple formation flags around the area for concealment and warning, then crouched beside the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s corpse.
Sharp sword qi carefully cut along the seams of its tough belly hide.
He used the Qi Sphere Barrier to keep the spilling blood and fishy stench at bay, then opened up the body. A sphere brimming with dense demon power floated up from beneath the heart.
It was a Tier 3 demon core the size of an adult’s fist.
Lee Hyun took it in hand and sent his divine sense inside.
Because he had cut through the brain in a single strike, the intricate, weblike structure of the demon power condensed within the core remained perfectly intact, without even a hairline crack.
He placed the demon core in a jade casket he had prepared beforehand and affixed a Tier 2 Spirit-Sealing Talisman.
Then, using the Condensed-Essence Grasping Hand and Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi, he carefully harvested the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s thick scaled hide, teeth, and the sturdy bones that had survived a direct hit from the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal without breaking. He packed everything into his storage pouch.
He had spent no fewer than one hundred and fifteen high-grade spirit stones on the Demon-Suppressing Three-Legged Furnace. Selling the byproducts would at least help cover the chamber rental and the supplementary medicinal ingredients for the Golden Core Condensing Pill.
As the eastern horizon began to brighten, Lee Hyun erased the lingering traces of his aura, retrieved his formation flags, and rose into the air before disappearing.
…
Lee Hyun headed north toward the Xu and Hua Kingdoms, selling the byproducts at several cultivator markets along the way. Apart from a few high-grade intact bones he kept for bone puppet research, he sold most of the hide, teeth, and other materials for three hundred and fifty mid-grade spirit stones.
He then consulted the Golden Core Condensing Pill recipe that used an Iron-Armored Crocodile’s core, which he had copied at Baoguang Temple, and bought all the necessary supplementary medicinal ingredients.
…
One month after hunting the Tier 3 Iron-Armored Crocodile, inside a stone chamber at Huoyun Pavilion.
Lee Hyun had completed the Refining stage for the demon core. Keeping the essence of demon power under control as it spun furiously at the center of the pill furnace, he deftly manipulated the Clear Yang Purifying Fire and earth fire for several shichen (about two hours each).
Finally, he picked up the jade bottle beside him.
Shhhh―
A stream of special medicinal liquid poured into the pill furnace. Guided by the Flame-Threading Art, it gently enveloped the whirling essence at the center like a soft cotton quilt.
Ssssss―
As the medicinal liquid seeped into the essence, the violently surging demon power began to subside.
Lee Hyun closed the pill furnace’s lid and, a moment later, formed the intricate Pill-Condensing Seal with his hands.
Humm―
The instant the pill furnace trembled, he swiftly lifted the lid. Dazzling radiance burst through the gap, lighting up the entire stone chamber!
The light vanished as though being drawn back inside, and a Golden Core Condensing Pill floated up, pale blue light shimmering over its golden pill markings.
“It worked! Hahaha!”
Confidence surged through Lee Hyun. He had mastered the entire process himself, from hunting a Tier 3 demon beast to refining a Golden Core Condensing Pill!
Taking part in a few stages was nothing like doing it all himself, from hunting down the beast that supplied the raw material to refining the finished pill.
He immediately activated the Aura-Reading Art and extended his divine sense, carrying out a thorough pill inspection on his first creation.
The structure of the condensed demon power had been preserved, but every trace of the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s distinctive properties and toxicity had been purified away.
Because of the Iron-Armored Crocodile’s realm, the pill’s medicinal strength was only on par with a mid-grade Golden Core Condensing Pill. Yet it contained almost no extraneous qi, perhaps because he had taken such care at every stage, knowing he would be consuming it himself.
He could confidently call it a fine pill.
‘For a first attempt, this is a tremendous success!’
Lee Hyun felt that almost no uncertainties remained on his path to the Leakless Golden Body. All he had to do now was repeat the process, from hunting to alchemy.
***
About ten years later.
On the deck of a medium-sized flying boat crossing a remote reef archipelago in the outer sea west of Kun Kingdom.
Five cultivators from Haigu Island, a branch of the Yin Bird Sect of the Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance, gazed down at the sea with sour expressions.
The Yin Bird Sect had been relatively late to expand north and had once had no branches in Kun Kingdom. Recently, however, it had extended its reach to several islands in the outer sea southwest of Kun Kingdom.
As a branch of the Yin Bird Sect, Haigu Island had taken part in that expansion.
Four of the five cultivators aboard the flying boat were seasoned hunters whose cultivation ranged from late Foundation Establishment to Great Perfection. The one-eyed old man at their head was an Elder at early Golden Core.
“Dammit, we’ve been scouring the outer sea for four months now! How have we not caught so much as a glimpse of a Tier 3 demon beast!”
The Elder vented his frustration.
He had reached Golden Core through a stroke of extraordinary luck, but he still carried little weight on Haigu Island.
He had somehow secured an Elder position and an inheritance, but he had not been provided with the materials to craft his own magic treasure.
In the end, he had brought his Juniors out to hunt for them himself.
The elites of the Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance had a firm grip on the resources of the southern seas. Despite the danger, he had been forced to come all the way here, close to the Nine Kingdoms of Yunzhou.
Yet for some reason, every place known to harbor Tier 3 demon beasts held nothing but traces of their presence.
Unlike Lee Hyun, ordinary cultivators could not afford to waste four months. The Elder and the Juniors accompanying him were growing anxious.
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