Chapter 255: Chapter 254: Gold-devouring Insect Steps into Golden Core (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
Purple mist enveloped the medicine garden, like a dream or an illusion, exuding an intoxicating aroma.
Purple droplets sprinkled onto the leaves of the herbs, twinkling with alluring brilliance.
After absorbing the purple droplets, the herbs in the garden grew exceptionally lush, with leaves swaying and flowers appearing particularly enchanting.
Upon closer observation, the youngest of these herbs had been growing for a thousand years, with some as old as ten thousand years.
Those purple droplets were known as the Emperor’s Liquid.
The Emperor’s Liquid, the supreme sacred object of the Demon Race, could convert the power of the sun, moon, and stars into a special spiritual liquid through a supreme array.
For the Human Race, its benefits were minimal, but for the Demon Race, the benefits were significant, aiding in the growth of young demons, awakening their intelligence, and enhancing their life essence.
It could also promote the growth of spirit medicine, reducing the years needed. With enough Emperor’s Liquid, spirit medicine taking ten thousand years could mature in just a thousand or even a hundred years.
Chirp chirp!
The Gold-devouring Insect chirped, joyfully absorbing the surrounding purple mist.
Relishing this delicacy, it flew up and down, like a merry little bee.
"Interesting, you’re willing to spend so much to nurture it to the peak of the Purple Mansion, yet it seems of little use, just acting cute," Jin Xi laughed, with a flick of his finger sending a fierce force at the Gold-devouring Insect, causing the golden insect to fall by a purple lake.
To call it a purple lake wasn’t quite right, at most it was the size of a basin.
Falling into the purple lake, the golden insect chirped joyfully, absorbing the nutrients inside.
As it absorbed the nutrients, its life essence grew stronger, causing the purple water surface to continuously lower until it formed a golden cocoon submerged at the lake’s bottom.
The golden insect, at the peak of the Purple Mansion and on the verge of evolution, had struggled to take the final step.
But after absorbing the Emperor’s Liquid, it approached the brink of evolution, with its life essence slowly transforming and its life quality enhancing.
Walking through the medicine garden, he saw Nirvana Flowers, Longevity Grass, Celestial Spirit Grass, Pure Yang Grass, Golden Body Grass, Spirit Transformation Grass, and others, with these spirit grasses all over five thousand years old, a few over ten thousand years.
Gathering Longevity Grass, Celestial Spirit Grass, Creation Fruit, and 132 other kinds of herbs, he entered a nearby cave mansion to embark on an elixir refining journey, beginning with the refining of Life-extending Pills.
After ten days, the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron was opened, resulting in only six elixirs, as a lack of control led to some herbs being wasted, lowering the pill formation rate.
Five Life-extending Pills were given to Jin Xi, and one was kept in a pill bottle.
Under Jin Xi’s arrangements, a cultivator carried the elixir to the Lu Family to present to the Lu Family Grand Elder.
A Fourth Grade Life-extending Pill could extend the life of a Purple Mansion Cultivator by a hundred years.
This was the first time of consumption, and the effect was best the first time.
The second time it could only extend life by fifty years, and the third time only by ten years. From the fourth time, it would have no effect at all.
The Grand Elder had less than sixty years of life left, but after consuming the first Life-extending Pill, his life would extend by an estimated 150 years, enough to strive for the Golden Core Realm.
Next, he began refining other elixirs: Fourth Grade Nirvana Pill, Fourth Grade Pure Yang Pill, Fourth Grade Purple Mansion Pill, and finally the Golden Core Pill.
The Golden Core Pill had a tremendous auxiliary effect for cultivators striving for the Golden Core, increasing the probability by three layers.
There were three batches of Golden Core Pill ingredients; the first attempt failed completely, wasting the ingredients; the second was only partially successful, resulting in just one pill; the third attempt produced three pills successfully.
The Golden Core Pill was somewhat difficult to refine.
Next came the Creation Pill.
The Creation Pill required the Fourth Grade Creation Fruit as the main ingredient, harnessing the power of creation.
If a Five Spirit Root Cultivator took it, they could become a Three Spirit Root Cultivator.
If taken at the peak of the Purple Mansion, it could expand the Dantian’s capacity, increasing the magical power capacity of a cultivator’s Dantian, and raising the cultivator’s potential.
According to his estimation, Ye Wanyi’s Dantian could hold fifteen cycles of zodiac armor power at most, which was her limit.
Like a water tank that could only store a hundred jin of water, adding more would only cause it to overflow.
The Creation Pill could increase the tank’s capacity, allowing it to hold more water.
With previous alchemy experience, during the refining of the Creation Pill, the pill formation rate increased, producing nine pills in total, of which Lu Xuanji took three.
Even he blushed for the first time, as one Creation Pill was priced at three million Spirit Stones, making three a total of nine million.
Though there was a labor fee for alchemy, it was mostly Jin Xi’s generosity for his benefit.
After reaching the Fourth Grade and beyond, most lacked not alchemists, but top-grade spirit medicine.
This continued cycle of alchemy and cultivation stretched over three years.
These refined elixirs were stored by Jin Xi in the Medicine Nourishing Gourd to preserve their potency for two hundred years.
And two hundred years later, when the new herbs matured, they could continue refining new elixirs.
In the third year, with a violent commotion,
in the purple lake, the golden cocoon began to shatter, releasing a fist-sized bee glowing with a terrifying aura.
The aura had already broken the Purple Mansion bottleneck and stepped into the Golden Core Realm.
The Gold-devouring Insect broke the shackles of its species and the limitations of life, becoming a Golden Core Demon Beast.
Activating the array, he moved the Gold-devouring Insect outside the grand array to begin the Golden Core Tribulation.
Amidst the celestial tribulation, bolts of lightning crashed down, and then... it was over.
"Too weak!"
Lu Xuanji remarked speechlessly, noting the exceptionally weak tribulation of the Gold-devouring Insect.
The power of the first heavenly tribulation was akin to the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment.
It continued to increase, with the ninth heavenly tribulation’s power only equivalent to the Second Layer of the Purple Mansion.
The heavenly tribulation was pathetically weak.
After the tribulation, the Gold-devouring Insect also became a Golden Core Demon Beast.
It had taken only forty years to become a Golden Core Demon Beast, a remarkably fast pace.
Yet its combat power was so lackluster that in the early stages of the Golden Core, its combat ability was equivalent to only the Third Layer of the Purple Mansion, arguably the weakest Golden Core Demon Beast in history.
Its presence lowered the standard for Golden Core Demon Beasts.
But this wasn’t its fault; it was due to the insect’s low baseline and combat ability.
Insect Masters, who rely on leading insects in battle, often triumph through numbers rather than quality.
"It’s too weak; spending so many resources to cultivate it into a Golden Core Demon Beast barely aids you," Jin Xi advised gently.
"Indeed, its combat power is lacking," Lu Xuanji nodded.
Looking at this golden insect, he thought of the Celestial Dream Ice Silkworm from Douluo, the only million-year soul beast, whose combat power at three scenes was at the hundred-thousand-year level, making it notoriously the weakest soul beast in combat power.
However, it had its advantages.
Being so weak, the Celestial Dream Ice Silkworm experienced a weak tribulation, allowing it to easily pass through and grow to a million years.
In contrast, powerful bloodlines often fell to the heavenly tribulation.
Sometimes, being weak can be advantageous. Weakness earns the mercy of the Heavenly Dao, while strength often invites its annihilation.
PS: It’s really troublesome to type on a phone.