Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Core Formation Spiritual Object

Li Ping had just led the Desolate Fire Sparrow out of the palace.

Meanwhile, under his control, Jia Er finally walked up to the side of a small table.

The small table was about a handspan long and two feet wide. Three jade boxes, each just over a foot long, were placed in its center. They looked quite ordinary, as if a gift intentionally left by the master of the hall for those who came after.

The puppet paused for a moment, then reached out and nudged open the leftmost Jade Box.

CLICK!

With a crisp click, the Jade Box opened, revealing the item inside.

Inside this first Jade Box was a palm-sized, cyan flask.

The puppet picked up the flask and shook it slightly. Through the puppet, Li Ping could feel liquid sloshing inside, but he couldn’t identify it by feel alone.

After pulling out the stopper and seeing the pale golden liquid inside, he still couldn’t recognize it.

’Perhaps it’s some kind of Spirit Liquid,’ Li Ping mused from outside the hall.

After confirming there was nothing amiss with the first item, the puppet Jia Er reached out and opened the middle Jade Box.

The contents of this Jade Box once again took Li Ping by surprise. It was a vermilion-purple Spirit Fruit, and he couldn’t imagine what method its original owner had used to preserve it.

The Spirit Fruit was still brimming with vitality, as if it had just been plucked from a branch.

Through the puppet’s eyes, Li Ping observed the vermilion-purple Spirit Fruit for a moment and quickly identified it.

Upon identifying it, his expression turned to one of surprised delight.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this Spirit Fruit was the legendary Purple Qi Fruit, one of the primary ingredients for refining the Yuan Condensing Pill.

The Yuan Condensing Pill was a famous Core Formation Spiritual Object, also known in the Cultivation Realm as the "Golden Core Pill."

When a Cultivator attempts to break through the bottleneck to the Core Formation Stage, a Yuan Condensing Pill can increase their chance of success by a full fifteen percent.

Such a high rate of success placed it among the top-tier of all Core Formation Spiritual Objects.

’Other than the Purple Qi Fruit, the ingredients for the Yuan Condensing Pill aren’t rare, and I already have the skill to refine it. Once I reach the late-stage of Foundation Establishment, I can craft the pill before attempting my breakthrough to Core Formation.’ A smile touched Li Ping’s eyes as he stood outside the hall.

Because he practiced the Wetland Water Nourishing Skill, his base chance of reaching Core Formation was already fifty percent.

While that was already quite high, who would ever complain about having an even greater chance of success?

The Yuan Condensing Pill wasn’t essential for him, but it was the icing on the cake.

With the aid of the Yuan Condensing Pill, his chances of reaching Core Formation would rise to sixty-five percent.

With such a high probability, as long as his luck wasn’t abysmal, reaching Core Formation was practically a sure thing.

Feeling satisfied, Li Ping had the puppet open the final Jade Box.

To Li Ping’s surprise, the last Jade Box contained a grayish-white Jade Token that faintly emitted a pale blue light. The token was engraved with countless intricate patterns, and he could vaguely discern what appeared to be images of various ancient Demon Beasts.

This Jade Token seemed to have a strong connection to the Demon Race.

Li Ping wracked his brain, but he couldn’t recall anything about this object.

Of the three items in the Jade Boxes, there were two that Li Ping couldn’t identify. However, the one he did recognize—the Purple Qi Fruit—was more than enough to satisfy him.

Combined with the Tier Three Spiritual Eye Jade, this was a massive haul.

The puppet emerged from the hall holding the three Jade Boxes. With a wave of his hand, Li Ping swept them all into his Storage Bag.

He nodded in satisfaction, circled the hall one last time to ensure he hadn’t missed anything, and prepared to return to his secluded spot for cultivation.

But then, he suddenly stopped, looking thoughtful.

He spread his Divine Sense and carefully scoured the core of the secret realm, pulling out one Array Banner after another. Then, he flew to the roof of the great hall, where he found the Array Plate for the Tier Three Grand Array.

This Tier Three Grand Array’s area of effect was a bit small—only about a thousand feet in radius—so its value couldn’t compare to a standard one.

But Tier Three was still Tier Three. Its value was no less than that of a Magical Treasure.

Having scavenged everything of value, Li Ping finally returned to his place of cultivation.

He took out the Spiritual Eye Jade and placed it before him. A surge of pure Spiritual Qi immediately filled the air. He couldn’t wait to sit down and begin cultivating.

With the Spiritual Eye Jade in hand, it was as if he had a Tier Three Spirit Vein all to himself. His cultivation speed became much faster than before.

After all, other Foundation Establishment Cultivators weren’t qualified to cultivate on a Tier Three Spirit Vein.

What Li Ping found unfortunate, however, was that the Spiritual Eye Jade was simply too small. While the concentration of Spiritual Qi it released was immense, its area of effect couldn’t compare to a true Tier Three Spirit Vein.

It was fine for daily practice, but breaking through the Core Formation bottleneck required absorbing a massive amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in a single instant.

The Spiritual Eye Jade alone was far from enough; only a true Tier Three Spirit Vein could provide sufficient Spiritual Qi.

Therefore, his plan remained unchanged: cultivate to the late-stage of Foundation Establishment within his cave-dwelling in the secret realm, then leave to borrow the Spiritual Land at Cyan Dragon Mountain or use the Underground Spirit Vein at Little Plum Mountain in the Jiang Kingdom.

And then attempt to reach Core Formation!

Still, the Spiritual Eye Jade would greatly increase his cultivation speed. He had originally expected to reach the peak of late-stage Foundation Establishment around the age of one hundred and sixty.

But now, it seemed he could advance that timeline to his early one hundred and thirties.

’Cultivate, cultivate!’

...

Time flows differently in cultivation; in what felt like the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

During these ten years, Li Ping ignored worldly affairs and devoted himself to his training. The Cultivation Realm of the Western Wilderness, however, was a scene of constant, surging turmoil.

Taking advantage of the opportunity created by killing Xiao Changkong and seizing the Seal of All Living Beings, the four sects of the Demon Dao successfully conquered Donghua Mountain, claiming the Western Wilderness’s number one immortal mountain.

However, before this, Xiao Changkong had already helped the two kingdoms of Yan and Liang to completely crush the six great tribes of the Tuluo People, freeing the Daoist Guardian Alliance Cultivators on those two battlefronts.

Not long after the four Demon Dao sects occupied Donghua Mountain, the cultivator armies from the other nations of the Daoist Guardian Alliance marched south and took up positions in the western part of the Qi Kingdom.

Without the Tuluo People to hold them back, the Daoist Guardian Alliance’s overall strength remained superior to that of the four Demon Dao sects, even with Xiao Changkong dead.

Cultivators from the Qi Kingdom, like Qiu Changfeng and Yan Changqiu, were determined to retake Donghua Mountain and rebuild the Academy Palace.

Cultivators from other nations, such as Huang Yunzi and Chi Xiaozi, didn’t care about the feelings of the Qi Kingdom cultivators, but they could not accept the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm falling under the Demon Dao’s control.

After all, the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm produced the vast majority of the Western Wilderness’s Foundation Establishment Pills and High-tier Spiritual Materials.

Without this secret realm, there might be no noticeable change in the short term, but a long-term lack of Foundation Establishment Pills would certainly hinder the development of their Sects.

This was tantamount to digging up their very roots.

Thus, united by a common enemy, the allied forces of the Daoist Guardian Alliance fought a ten-year war with hardly a day’s rest.

Both sides were blood-crazed, and the casualties among Low-tier Cultivators were innumerable.

Even several Core Formation Cultivators had fallen!

And it was obvious that as the opening of the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm drew nearer, the Daoist Guardian Alliance’s cultivators grew even more frantic.

The four Demon Dao sects were the first to be unable to sustain such losses.

Ultimately, Patriarch Lu of the Demon Dao personally came forward to negotiate a truce with the Daoist Guardian Alliance, hoping to resolve the issues of Donghua Mountain and the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm.

He proposed that Donghua Mountain be converted into a public marketplace, jointly administered by the Daoist Guardian Alliance and the four Demon Dao sects.

As for the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm, it would also be shared, with each Sect receiving a certain number of entry slots.

After he made these two proposals, most of the factions within the Daoist Guardian Alliance were already leaning toward compromise.

They had failed to crush the four Demon Dao sects in one blow, resulting in the current stalemate. They couldn’t afford to sustain the casualties from a prolonged war, either.

However, considering the Academy Palace’s grievous losses and the fact that Alliance Leader Xiao had fallen while rescuing the kingdoms of Yan and Liang, High-tier Cultivators like Huang Yunzi and Chi Xiaozi were hesitant.

After all, no one wanted to be known for making peace by ceding territory.

But then Patriarch Lu mentioned that he had used a Secret Technique to reinforce the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm. The next time it opened, he claimed, Foundation Establishment Cultivators would be able to enter safely without affecting the realm’s stability.

At that, no one could sit still.

The dangers within the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm were almost a death sentence for Qi Refining Cultivators. For Foundation Establishment Cultivators, however, it would be a walk in the park. Barring a few specific locations, they could move about with ease and harvest vast quantities of precious Spiritual Materials.

The potential profits from entering the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm would be on a completely different level than before.

After confirming that Patriarch Lu’s claims about reinforcing the secret realm were true, the atmosphere within the Daoist Guardian Alliance grew strange.

The Academy Palace cultivators, led by Qiu Changfeng and Yan Changqiu, naturally refused to compromise. They vehemently argued for retaking Donghua Mountain and driving the four Demon Dao sects out of the Qi Kingdom.

But foreign cultivators like Huang Yunzi and Chi Xiaozi had no desire to continue the war. They were only thinking of the massive profits to be gained during the next opening of the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm.

Besides, turning Donghua Mountain into a public marketplace also served their interests.

Previously, the Academy Palace had sole control over Donghua Mountain and, by extension, the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm. The other sects had been forced to acknowledge the Academy Palace as the alliance leader just to gain entry qualifications.

Although the Academy Palace and Alliance Leader Xiao had been fair in their dealings, never using their control over the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm to oppress the other sects, who truly wants to be subservient to another?

The Demon Dao’s proposal for Donghua Mountain and the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm was far more beneficial to them.

Furthermore, High-tier Core Formation Cultivators like Huang Yunzi and Chi Xiaozi could have originally crossed the Vast Sea to seek greater opportunities in the Great Zhou.

But because of the Demon Dao’s invasion, they were trapped in the Western Wilderness, forced to watch helplessly as their lifespans dwindled away.

’If we can reach a peace accord with the four Demon Dao sects, couldn’t we then temporarily leave our Sects and journey to the Great Zhou?’

...

With these various thoughts swirling in their minds, the High-tier Cultivators of the Daoist Guardian Alliance held a meeting.

Huang Yunzi and Chi Xiaozi took the lead in proposing to accept Patriarch Lu’s peace offer. Qiu Changfeng, of course, was opposed.

But having lost Donghua Mountain and the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm, having lost Alliance Leader Xiao—the number one cultivator in the Western Wilderness—and having lost the Seal of All Living Beings... the Academy Palace could no longer steer the direction of the Daoist Guardian Alliance.

In the end, over the protests of the Academy Palace’s cultivators, the Daoist Guardian Alliance agreed to the truce.

What followed was a fierce debate between the Daoist Guardian Alliance and the four Demon Dao sects over the allocation of entry slots for the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm.

Amid their arguments, the quotas were gradually decided.

Before anyone realized it, the day of the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm’s opening had arrived.

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