On the other side!
The Taotie, which took the earth-shattering blow head-on, was unharmed. Its ferocious and terrifying mouth roared towards the sky.
The Taotie moved all four limbs, its mountain-like body charging frantically towards Wu Tao's direction!
If it were an ordinary Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, they would have been intimidated by this mountain-crushing aura and found it difficult to react quickly.
But Wu Tao was not like that.
As if stepping out, Wu Tao took a step.
This step covered hundreds of meters, and in the blink of an eye, Wu Tao was less than ten feet away from the Taotie!
The man and the beast were direct. After confronting each other, they immediately began to fight.
As this sword and claw collided, the entire ground immediately trembled as if struck by lightning!
Although Chang Pingqian was several feet away, he still felt a terrifying power washing over him!
With Chang Pingqian's current cultivation at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, he couldn't even intervene, which showed how strong this man and beast were.
Wu Tao and this hybrid Taotie fought fiercely, darting around, chasing and being chased, back and forth.
Wherever the man and beast passed, nothing could stop them.
The residual energy waves were like an unstoppable force, and everything in sight was instantly shattered!
The beast was ferocious! The sword was sharp!
In an instant, the man and beast swept across more than half of the forest like a storm.
It was truly terrifying!
Chang Pingqian finally understood why Wu Tao had told him not to intervene.
Even from such a distance, Chang Pingqian felt his heart tremble and his back break out in a cold sweat.
If he had rashly intervened, he might not have been able to retreat safely.
After Wu Tao and the Taotie exchanged hundreds of blows, the Taotie's majestic hundred-zhang tall body was blasted into the depths of the earth by Wu Tao alone with his sword.
Scattered around were patches of black scales.
The Taotie lay on the ground, clearly severely injured and on the verge of death.
...
Wu Tao, holding his tattered ancient sword again, stepped forward, and the Taotie
seemed to be startled, retreating in extreme fear.
Chang Pingqian was stunned by this breathtaking scene!
Unimaginable...
That Taotie, nearly a hundred zhang tall and like a mountain, would actually retreat in fear before a man who was only about 1.8 meters tall.
The extremely strong visual contrast gave Chang Pingqian a sense of unreality.
Without hesitation, Wu Tao ended the Taotie with a sword and returned to Chang Pingqian's side.
Wu Tao was also not in good shape.
His face was extremely pale, and the spiritual energy consumed by using the Heaven's Will Sword Control Technique and the Star River Secret Scroll was astonishing.
Even with Wu Tao's current late Foundation Establishment stage cultivation, he could not sustain such a prolonged battle.
Fortunately, it did not take too long to deal with the Taotie.
Otherwise, the longer it dragged on, the sooner Wu Tao would be exhausted.
...
Since Wu Tao had dealt with the Taotie by himself, Chang Pingqian did not feel comfortable sharing the Taotie's corpse with Wu Tao.
After dividing the Taotie's corpse into several sections and putting them into his storage bag,
Wu Tao and Chang Pingqian joined forces to break open the cave mansion's door and entered the cave mansion of the alchemist Wen Jie.
The alchemist Wen Jie was merely a rogue cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage. He had some fame hundreds of years ago because he was skilled in alchemy.
The decoration inside the cave mansion was both luxurious and spacious.
When Wu Tao and the Taotie were fighting, Wu Tao intentionally guided the Taotie to avoid the direction of this cave mansion, so it was not damaged at all.
In the cultivation chamber, Wu Tao and Chang Pingqian discovered the sitting-deceased corpse of the alchemist Wen Jie.
On a small stone platform in front of the corpse were two jade slips and a mid-grade magical artifact alchemical furnace.
Wu Tao had only seen such magical artifact alchemical furnaces once or twice at auctions and had never even touched one.
This mid-grade magical artifact alchemical furnace, if put up for auction, could be exchanged for five or six top-grade magical artifacts.
The refining of alchemical furnaces was hundreds of times more difficult than the refining of other magical artifacts.
It required the close cooperation of artifact refiners and alchemists, strict requirements for refining materials, and a not-low failure rate.
All of this made every alchemical furnace extremely precious. The value of a low-grade alchemical furnace was equivalent to two or three top-tier magical artifacts.
One of the two jade slips was called "Wen Jie's Elixir Scripture," which was a summary of Wen Jie's lifelong experience in alchemy.
The contents of "Wen Jie's Elixir Scripture" covered knowledge from beginner to proficient in the process of alchemy.
Ever since he was in the Qi Refining stage, Wu Tao had repeatedly thought about learning alchemy himself, so that he would not always be dependent on others for pills.
However, in the current era of immortal cultivation, the system of alchemists was very secretive, and outsiders could not get involved at all.
Alchemy itself was a vast and rigorous system.
Furthermore, alchemists needed to waste a huge amount of cultivation resources in the early stages to improve their alchemy skills.
For Wu Tao, who was already in a state of deficit, this was an unbearable burden.
The other jade slip was called "Comprehensive Guide to Cultivating Spirit Herbs," which recorded the growth environment, cultivation methods, medicinal properties, pharmacological principles, and harvesting methods of many spiritual herbs and spirit grasses, covering everything.
It opened Wu Tao and Chang Pingqian's eyes.
Since Chang Pingqian had found the treasure map and brought Wu Tao here,
the mid-grade magical artifact alchemical furnace and the two jade slips all belonged to Chang Pingqian, while Wu Tao merely copied the contents of the two jade slips.
...
Among the Hundred Arts of Cultivation, most cultivators, in addition to cultivation, practiced one or more specialized arts related to immortal cultivation to some extent.
For example, Chang Pingqian chose artifact refining, Xu Yan chose alchemy, and Xu Sheng chose talisman crafting.
As for Wu Tao, he had always felt that practicing a specialized art would distract him and be detrimental to his pursuit of immortal cultivation, so he had always focused solely on his own arduous cultivation.
However, now that he had the opportunity to learn the most sought-after skill in the Hundred Arts of Cultivation, alchemy, it would be a shame not to learn it.
...
No sooner said than done.
Wu Tao first opened up ten mu of spirit fields near the cave mansion. These ten mu of spirit fields were planted with the most easily surviving spirit herbs and spirit medicines.
At regular intervals, Wu Tao would cast a spell, turning the weakly spiritual spring water into a fine mist.
A moderate amount of spiritual spring mist enveloped these ten mu of spirit fields.
Nourished by the diluted spiritual spring water, these ten mu of spirit fields immediately took on a vibrant appearance.
Wu Tao nodded with satisfaction, and for the next few months, Wu Tao specifically dedicated some time to tending to these spirit fields.
To Wu Tao's relief, his cultivation did not slow down much due to the distraction, and his progress remained rapid.
Perhaps it was the relaxed life during this period that made Wu Tao's state of mind calm and peaceful, and with the help of elixirs, Wu Tao's cultivation steadily improved.
...
When it was time to harvest the spirit fields, Wu Tao's mood became even better.
Under Wu Tao's careful care, the ten mu of spirit fields produced a considerable amount of spirit herbs and spiritual medicines.
Although these were only spirit herbs and spiritual medicines that had been cultivated for one year and were not worth much spirit stones, they were suitable for Wu Tao, a novice alchemist, to practice with.
...
After years of hard work, Wu Tao now had tens of thousands of spirit stones in his storage bag.
In the eyes of other cultivators of the same level, he was already a wealthy man.
But when Wu Tao thought of his consumption of daily elixirs in the past two years alone, which amounted to over ten thousand spirit stones,
not to mention other expenses, he felt a headache.
...
Just as Wu Tao was worrying about how to quickly acquire some spirit stones, the formation outside the cave mansion was triggered, and someone had arrived.
Wu Tao rushed to the cave mansion's door.
As Wu Tao had expected, the visitor was Xu Sheng.
Over the past few years, the relationship between Wu Tao and Xu Sheng had become increasingly close, reaching a stage beyond friendship but not yet lovers.
While drinking the spirit tea that Wu Tao had bought at a high price, Xu Sheng praised, "You fellow, you really know how to enjoy yourself, even willing to buy spirit tea."
Wu Tao smiled in response and said, "It's just some ordinary spirit tea. I have plenty more here, I'll pack some up for you later to take back and drink."
Xu Sheng smiled slightly, adjusted her hair, and replied with a smile, "Then thank you very much."
Wu Tao asked, "How have you been recently?"
Xu Sheng put down his teacup and said, "You are already at the late Foundation Establishment stage. Have you thought about taking a master?"
(The new book is being updated, please collect, please vote, please forward, give more, thank you friends, your support is my motivation!)