On the outside, peace and tranquility. Within, a rising inferno. This accurately describes the state of mind of the nearly-naked cultivator named Yin Na, who now could really more accurately be described as a mere martial artist due to having lost attainment in the spiritual realm.
If someone were to observe the scene, they would assume that the man covering his nether regions and parts of his torso and shoulders with nearby vegetation was some eccentric hermit that was happily looting the spoils in the aftermath of an epic battle.
How could they know that this stoic, handsome wild man was really a demonic cultivator who just hours ago was responsible for this scenery of destruction and was inwardly fuming with annoyance?
“I’ve spent about two hours so far tracking back my steps, clearing burnt and smoking fields, sifting through felled trees and dirt for the various weapons and tools I discarded while fighting my mortal battle with Brother Ji Han. Those legendary weapons and artifacts that I’ve accumulated throughout the years…those beasts and Yao Guai that I’ve painstakingly tamed or stolen…”
Yin Na cursed.
“Damn it, Brother Ji Han! If I knew that this would be the cost in expenditures, I’d have reconsidered my approach!”
Yin Na felt enormous anger that the risk-return tradeoff resulted in the loss of so many benefits!
Alas, killing Tian Ji Han was a priority that was going to be accomplished sooner or later anyway. The deaths of the other righteous cultivators along with that Yellow Fox Sect girl who was a witness to his crimes hardly were a bonus, because if Brother Ji Han’s words were true, he had already reported her account back to his headquarters at the Heavenly Sword Sect. Soon, rumors of what he had done would spread like wildfire, eventually reaching the wrathful ears of the Yellow Fox Sect.
“I’m in hardly any shape to escape the Southern domain now. The biggest loss of all from this venture was the reversal of all my years of progress regarding my cultivation base. I’ve lost my powers in the spiritual realm, having only enjoyed the might of a Golden Cultivator for not even a day. If I had managed to kill Brother Ji Han unscathed, I would already be making my escape from the Southern Domain and tying up all the loose ends I’ve left throughout the province.”
Yin Na felt like coughing blood out of anger.
“Where did he get that pill! What kind of inheritance did he obtain, what kind of alchemist could refine such a potent and frightening pill?!”
The Soul Overload pill that Tian Ji Han used to nearly kill Yin Na was the single over-looked zero in his risk-return analysis. How could he have possibly factored that pill into his assessment of possible outcomes? How dare Brother Ji Han even hide secret trump cards of his own! Whoever gave him that pill, whoever made it, Yin Na wanted to kick his ass!
“Yes, I’ll kick his ass!” Yin Na gnashed his teeth. “Then I’ll take all of his pills, or force him to make more for me, then sell them to recoup my losses!”
If Yin Na counted the amount of spirit stones and treasures that still remained in his void ring compared to before he partnered up with Deng Ping to wipe out the auxiliary branch of the Yellow Fox Sect, he’d actually still yield a net positive gain.
However, all of the spirit stones he had fired from his void ring at Tian Ji Han, which in total amounted to over 200,000 were vaporized. Many treasure swords, halberds, spears and blades which he had used in many battles and possessed sentimental value were also burnt and discarded, completely damaged beyond repair.
Yin Na tossed a charred Sentient sword that was now completely useless over his head. He flung the charred bones of several beasts, only taking back the beasts that were still alive back into his void ring.
“The corpses of these beasts could have been used for various crafting or alchemic purposes. Now that they’re fried to a crisp, they’re no good at all.
“Oh, wasted benefits!” Yin Na cried in grief. “What a tragedy!”
However, Yin Na knew better than to linger on material possessions that no longer produced benefits. When someone takes your cheese, you simply move on.
“Right now, it cannot be understated how my biggest loss is my cultivation progress. Forty years of cultivation have been undone, and although I’ve eaten rebirth pills that healed my wounds, they have no actual effect on my reverted lifespan. I’m basically a forty year-old martial artist in the beginning of the Qi Refining stage, I can’t even use the techniques and spells I frequently relied upon even as a Qi Condensation cultivator because my body and Dan Tian wouldn’t be able to handle them.”
Time is running out for Yin Na. On one flank, he was attacked with the prospect of Yellow Fox Sect members eventually finding out about his deeds and seeking revenge. On the other hand, his lifespan had reverted to that of a Qi Refining martial artist, who at most could be expected to live on an average of 100 years, as long as they didn’t smoke or abuse drugs.
Even though his body retained his youthful, acne-free appearance at 22-years of age, anybody and their grandmother could tell you that cultivation is a long and arduous process.
It took Yin Na ten years to reach the Qi Condensation stage at the age of eighteen. It took another twenty years to reach the bottleneck of Late Foundation stage, and it only took two years to reach Golden Core because he got lucky!
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“Aha!” Yin Na cried out. Indeed, how precisely did he get lucky?
The Nine Yin Treasured Jade Block greeted Yin Na’s weary eyes like the mirage of an old friend, laying innocuously on the charred forest floor.
This unassuming-in-appearance brick also happened to be the secret ingredient in any pill recipe to ensure the outcome of success as well as purity of the pill was always 99%. It enabled Yin Na to almost instantly create Golden Core pills and make a breakthrough with a perfect grade Golden Core. It was also the object that shattered Tian Ji Han’s ribs, even when his 300% concentrated Golden Core made his flesh and overall defenses as strong as that of a Nascent Soul cultivator. Not only was it made of Earth Jade, one of the hardest possible materials under the Heavens, it also contained the consciousness of the previous cultivators which used it, including Deng Tai Fan and allegedly, the Demon King Mao.
Finding this treasure was akin to the feeling one would get after losing something valuable for a long while, only to find that it was still there right where one left it.
“Maybe Deng Ping wasn’t exaggerating that this brick really is the purest manifestation of luck,” said Yin Na.
For a brief moment, he considered saying the password to unlock the consciousness of Deng Tai Fan to ask him for advice.
He decided against it.
“With this brick and the knowledge it offers me, cultivation will be a cinch.” Yin Na smiled. “But for now, I shall rely on my own instincts and wisdom accumulated from when I was a Golden Core Cultivator. Besides, I really don't feel like listening to that geezer’s loud voice right now.
“Brother Ji Han, you’ve always chided me for not taking cultivation seriously when we were kids at the Hidden Fist sect. Brother Yin Na has learned his lesson! Thank you for allowing me a chance to start fresh and rebuild my cultivation stronger from the beginning onwards.”
Yin Na chose to view matters optimistically. The glass was half-full. After all, he had escaped with his life. Is this not the greatest gain of all?
“The fact that I started with an average, mediocre foundation with my Qi Condensation breakthrough always secretly gnawed at me, but now that the battle with Brother Ji Han forced me to take those rebirth pills, I can finally restart fresh and fill in gaps in my skills and knowledge.”
For the forty-two years Yin Na had lived, he had little time to devote to hobbies and skills outside of combat. Even though Yin Na was only young in appearance but not in actual life-span, he felt the prospect of beginning his cultivation again from the start encouraging and motivating. After all, he still had his 40+ years of life experience intact.
Now that his body was shed of its training and martial styles, as a beginning Qi Refining cultivator, his body and soul was essentially a blank canvas. In addition, one’s ability to learn auxiliary skills is incredibly fast at the beginning of Qi Refining.
“When I first started out in the Hidden Fist sect, I neglected so many potential benefits in the journey to reach Qi Condensation stage,” Yin Na recalled. “While brother Ji Han assumed I was slacking, I was secretly busy dividing my time to cultivating material resources such as spirit stones and investments for my revenge to destroy that sect. I didn’t take that precious time to do body martial art training, such as tempering my flesh or the unlocking of rare, extra meridians within the body.”
The possibilities were endless, Yin Na even felt joyous at the prospect.
“But perfecting my training as a Qi Refining cultivator can come later. Right now is the perfect time for me to start my ‘rebirth’ honing a vital skill that I didn’t really bother with: alchemy!”
The treasure Pill furnaces that Yin Na had looted from the Yellow Fox Sect were tossed at Tian Ji Han earlier, and while their construction were study enough to withstand the fall, they were not enough to withstand the blast from Tian Ji Han’s Soul Overload and detonation of his 300% pure Golden Core.
Coincidentally, and perhaps ironically too, the only pill furnace that Yin Na shot from his void ring and was still intact after the battle was an unremarkable, drab-colored and clumsy-looking beginner Pill Furnace. It was somehow buried a foot beneath dirt and ash.
“I used up all my medicinal pills in the battle earlier, I don’t have any healing items or elixirs to use in an emergency like during combat. It’s a good thing that with the recipes I’ve learned from Deng Tai Fan and the magical property of the brick as an ingredient, I won’t have to worry about the outcome of the pill.”
However, with the quality of this beginner pill furnace, its durability was weak, not to mention after having been thrown from his void ring so violently from the sky, it looked like its pottery would shatter upon a few batches of the pill cooking process.
“Its construction quality is flimsy, but I need a supply of pills immediately, right now.”
Having the ability to heal and recuperate from wounds in combat is vital and holds more priority.
The fact that no other beasts or cultivator decided to investigate or stumble upon him looting this battlefield was simply pure luck (maybe the 9 yin treasured Jade Block?). If Yin Na were to be ambushed right now, with his power only being that of the martial Qin Refining stage and without healing items in combat, he could easily be killed.
Yin Na stoked hot coals, easily accessible from the ashes of the forest beneath the beginner Pill furnace. He took out carefully measured ingredients from his spirit ring and laid them neatly on giant leaf pads on the nearby dirt.
His hands, which have lost the battle-scars and calluses as well as poison and combative conditioning from his years in the spiritual realm were clean and fresh as an infant’s.
He was still clumsy, perhaps even more so as he tried to grind certain ingredients into paste, or place them whole into the Pill furnace.
But because he was in the Qi Refining stage, he learned skills faster. Very quickly, his fingers, spinal posture and overall motions fell into a rhythm that would make any alchemist instructor beam in satisfaction. But if he saw what Yin Na did 30-seconds before the pill furnace cooked out each pill, he would cough blood in anger!
While constructing these Qi Refining level beginner pills, the indication that each attempt would fail was in the color of smoke, odor as well as instability of the Pill furnace’s shaking as it was trying to process the ingredients.
However, roughly about 30 seconds before the outcome would result in disaster, Yin Na would casually toss in the 9-Yin Treasured Jade Block within the Pill furnace’s fires. Instantly, the fires would calm down, and beautiful and aromatic medicinal herbs would emerge from the top spout of the Pill furnace!
“It’s not cheating if I’m learning,” Yin Na said.