Chapter 315 – Cultivating The Soul
Martial Peak
Tranquil Phoenix Pavilion, second floor.
Yang Kai was sitting cross-legged on the fragrant bed with a solemn expression. His breath was steady and even.
Circulating his True Yang Secret Art smoothly, he absorbed and refined the Yang energy contained within numerous spirit herbs and pills.
These things were the spoils he had taken from Shan Qing Luo’s Treasure House, and all of them were high quality goods. The lowest quality items reached Earth Grade Top-Rank, while most of them were Heaven Grade.
Naturally, since they had come from the Treasure House of a supreme master like the Beguiling Demon Queen, there was no chance of them being mediocre.
As a light churning sound floated in the air, Yang Kai’s True Yang Secret Art rapidly operated and quickly converted the essence stored within these pills and herbs into pure True Yang Yuan Qi, gradually filling up his meridians.
In Medicine King’s Valley Hidden Cloud Peak, Xiao Fu Sheng had prepared a special Secret Art and medicinal bath for Yang Kai which had fully developed the potential of his meridians and allowed him to more smoothly cultivate.
It wasn’t until now that the medicinal bath really displayed its effects. The speed at which he could refine and condense his True Qi had obviously been greatly enhanced.
Moreover, this refinement would continue to play a role for the rest of his life, the more he cultivated, the greater the effect would be.
After merely a dozen or so cycles, before the first drop of Yang Liquid had even formed, the energy within his meridians suddenly began to swell, and a subtle ripple started spreading throughout his body before suddenly vanishing.
His entire being was filled with a clear sensation that his strength had risen, which gave him a sense of physical and spiritual comfort.
True Element Boundary Fifth Stage!
Once one entered the True Element Boundary, each minor realm’s breakthrough would become progressively more difficult.
However, these days Yang Kai had consistently taken a small cup of Myriad Drug Liquid every morning, using the Myriad Drug Liquid to temper his physique and cleanse his body.
After doing so for a long period of time, both his physique and meridians had undergone a significant improvements compared to the past, so even when he was breaking through the various stages of the True Element Boundary it was still quite a relaxed process for him.
Having spent nearly a month consolidating his True Element Boundary Fourth Stage, undergoing a breakthrough now was essentially taken for granted.
The scorching True Yang Yuan Qi burst forth from his body, like a raging flame, and instantly caused the temperature in the entire room to soar.
Calming his breath and condensing his True Qi, the flame-like Qi in the air was suddenly sucked into Yang Kai’s body, disappearing completely.
Immediately, his whole body was bathed in a warm and comfortable sensation.
At that moment, Yang Kai, with his True Yang Secret Art circulating as rapidly as it could, appeared to radiate a vibrant aura.
His meridians were filled to the brim and were no longer able to store any more pure True Qi.
With a sudden dripping sound, a new drop of Yang Liquid was condensed and was quickly stored in his dantian.
Instantly, Yang Kai’s bloated meridians once again became uncomfortably empty.
However, the medicinal herbs and pills he had ingested quickly began producing new True Qi, and they gradually filled up his empty meridians once more.
This dripping sound was extremely pleasant to the ear, and each time it occurred, it brought him a serene feeling.
After absorbing all the medicinal essence from all the spirit herbs and pills, more than a dozen drops of Yang Liquid had been added to his dantian.
Letting out a long breath and feeling the fullness of his dantian, Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling with satisfaction.
Although the number of drops of Yang Liquid he had stored right now was not many compared to before, the grade of each one could not be compared to back then, so even if the number was less, they could actually support his high level of consumption for a much longer period of time.
Without resting for even a moment, Yang Kai once again closed his eyes.
Now that he had refined enough Yang Liquid, it was time to nourish his Soul.
The Soul Seeking Seal Shan Qing Luo had implanted into the Yang Kai’s body should be some kind of Soul Skill.
As long as his Divine Sense became strong enough, naturally he would be able to crush it.
If he wanted his Divine Sense to become strong, his only options were to take some Precious Treasure or cultivate an appropriate Soul Skill.
However, the only Soul Skill Yang Kai could cultivate right now was the defence skill, Soul Palace! But in order to cultivate this defensive Soul Skill, one had to be in a very specific environment.
Currently, there was no way for Yang Kai to practice it.
So, how was he to rapidly cultivate his Soul and enhance his Divine Sense in order to break free from this seductress’s Soul Seeking Seal?
Yang Kai furrowed his brow and contemplated deeply.
After a long time, an idea came to him.
What he thought of was the two times before that his Soul had rapidly increased in strength, both of which he had entered into very dangerous places, causing his Spiritual Energy to be greatly drained before being supplemented. Each cycle brought a slight enhancement to himself.
The first time was when he was in the isolated world for life experience and had entered the white mist bank where the Soul Cleansing Dew was formed.
The second time was in the depths of the Coiling Dragon Stream when the hostility from the thick Demonic Qi rising from the canyon floor had impacted him and damaged his Soul.
After being damaged and restored, the strength of his Spiritual Energy had rapidly increased at a speed far beyond cultivating a Soul Skill or taking Precious Treasures could match.
For any ordinary person, it would be impossible to cultivate their Soul this way.
If one experienced a severe loss of Spiritual Energy they wouldn’t necessarily suffer any lasting damage, but if such a process was repeated many times, they would inevitably be given a permanent trauma. One they would never be able to recover from.
However, Yang Kai was different. In his possession was the Heaven defying Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, the world’s most precious Soul cultivating treasure. With this treasure, Yang Kai simply didn’t need to consider his Soul receiving permanent damage.
Frowning, Yang Kai contemplated for a long time before deciding to implement this strategy.
Supplementing his Spiritual Energy wasn’t a problem; after all, he had acquired a number of herbs and pill from Shan Qing Luo’s Treasure House, and on top of that, his Myriad Drug Milk could also be used.
As for depleting his Spiritual Energy, that was easy, stored within Yang Kai’s mind was the True Alchemic Way.
The last time he had studied it, he had completely consumed his Spiritual Energy multiple times yet ultimately only managed to obtain an auxiliary support type Spirit Array for pill refinement.
Just by simply viewing the True Alchemic Way with his Divine Sense he could quickly exhaust his Spiritual Energy.
Having made up his mind, Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to immerse himself in the True Alchemic Way’s various records stored within his mind.
The True Alchemic Way was incredibly extensive and profound. Contained within it were innumerable documents, texts, and thesi. If he wanted to completely master it, it would no doubt take countless hours and an enormous amount of Spiritual Energy.
Yang Kai though wasn’t interested in actually studying the True Alchemic Way, so he only haphazardly browsed through it.
A moment later, Yang Kai felt a sharp pain in his head. His whole being was suddenly afflicted with a sense of exhaustion, and his face instantly became pale.
His Spiritual Energy had been exhausted!
However, soon after, a cooling sensation began spilling out from his mind as the Soul Warming Lotus began to repair the damage done to his Soul.
A few breaths later, the pain had disappeared and his Soul had been fully repaired. However, his depleted Spiritual Energy still needed to be supplemented.
With his latest experience beneath the Myriad Drug Pond, Yang Kai knew that if he wanted to depend entirely on the Soul Warming Lotus to replenish his Spiritual Energy it would take a long time, at least four or five hours.
It was precisely because Spiritual Energy was much more difficult to restore than True Qi that cultivating one’s Soul was incredibly difficult.
Weakly removing a bottle of Soul replenishing pills, Yang Kai poured out several of them and together with a small sip of Myriad Drug Milk, he began to refine and absorb their medicinal essence.
After a short time, his Spiritual Energy was fully restored, and Yang Kai once again felt as mighty as a dragon and fierce as a tiger.
Immediately, he sunk his Divine Sense into his mind and continued studying the True Alchemic Way, combing through its mysteries.
Time quickly passed by.
Yang Kai kept repeating this cycle of damaging then restoring his Soul.
With each cycle, his Spiritual Energy would have some enhancements, although the increase was not great, such progress was still quite gratifying.
Not only that, Yang Kai also gradually became interested in exploring the mysteries of the True Alchemic Way.
The last time he had studied it, Yang Kai had only glimpsed a single support type Spirit Array. Specifically, it was designed to improve the quality of the pills an Alchemist could refine.
For example, if one refined a furnace of Heaven Grade Top-Rank materials, with the assistance of that Spirit Array it would be possible improve the quality of the pill by a single rank to a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank pill.
Of course, this was only a possibility. The effects of this Spirit Array were by no means a guarantee, and as one refined more and more pills, the effect would continuously degrade.
As his understanding the True Alchemic Way deepened, Yang Kai discovered that there was actually a variety of Spirit Arrays recorded within it.
At the very least, he had now glimpsed several different types which were related to improving the quality of the pills, increasing the chances of Pill Veins forming, improving the success rate of refining pills, and numerous other auxiliary effects.
And these were still just the preliminary methods of the True Alchemic Way.
It was truly hard to imagine what profound insights and mysteries the later chapters contained.
In addition to these Spirit Arrays, there was also some special alchemic knowledge such as how to select the best materials to use when refining pills.
These pieces of the information had been recorded by Yang Kai into his memory, so that if there was a chance in the future he could pass them on to Xia Ning Chang and Xiao Fu Sheng.
After two days of continuously repeating this Soul cultivation, the herbs and pills Yang Kai had ransacked from Shan Qing Luo Treasure House had been completely consumed. Without these things to supplement his Spiritual Energy, Yang Kai could no longer continue this reckless form of practice.
Any other Immortal Ascension Boundary master would at most carry one or two bottles of these types of pills in case they suffered from a grievous injury to their Soul, but none of them would so wantonly consume them simply to cultivate.
Without these pills and herbs, Yang Kai’s Myriad Drug Milk alone couldn’t supplement his Spiritual Energy loss fast enough.
Although the Myriad Drug Milk also had a restorative effect, its role was simply too broad, not specifically for nourishing the Soul. Taking it one or two times in quick succession still produced significant results, but as it was consumed more and more it’s efficacy decreased. In the end, the Myriad Drug Milk’s role was more so as a catalyst which allowed one to rapidly refine the efficacies of various pills while enhancing their contained medicinal essence’s potency.
Without Soul nourishing pills, even if he continued such cultivation, his progress would have to slow dramatically.
“Ahem,” As various thoughts churned inside Yang Kai’s head, he wrinkled his brow and quickly beckoned to the people waiting nearby.
These past three days while he had been cultivating, he was constantly aware of the auras of three other people staying within Tranquil Phoenix Pavilion. It was no doubt the mature beauty Yun Li and the two young girls Ruo Yu and Ruo Qing.
Yang Kai’s room was in the innermost wing of the pavilion, while nearby there was a separate room where the three maids lived, always at the ready, just waiting for Yang Kai to summon them.
As soon as he called out to them, Yang Kai immediately heard the light sound of footsteps approaching and within a few breaths, Yun Li, Ruo Yu, and Ruo Qing came into his room.
“What orders does Young Lord have?” Yun Li respectfully asked as she directed a warm smile at Yang Kai.
“Where is Bi Luo?”
“Ms. Bi Luo right now should be cultivating in her residence.” Yun Li replied professionally.
“Go call her for me.”
“Yes, Young Lord!” Yun Li elegantly nodded, gently turning her gaze towards Ruo Yu and Ruo Qing, “Go summon Ms. Bi Luo here.”
The two girls nodded once before swiftly walking away.
Next, for some unknown reason, the mature beauty remained behind. Directing her elegant pair of enchanting eyes towards Yang Kai, she softly asked, “Young Lord looks tired, have you not rested well these past few days?”
“It’s nothing,” Yang Kai lightly shook his head, “I’ve just been cultivating.”
The beautiful woman elegantly smiled, lightly stepping forward, and her well rounded hips gently swayed as she unhesitantly walked over to Yang Kai and knelt down behind him.
Stretching out her two soft white-jade like hands, she gently began to massage Yang Kai.
“Young Lord’s pursuit of strength is very admirable, but you must also take good care of your body, if Mistress were to see you looking so worn out, I’m afraid she would think we servants had been negligent in our duties to care for you, we may even be given some punishment as a result.” As she spoke, her small delicate hands continued to rhythmically rub his tense tired muscles. They seemed to know exactly where and how much pressure to apply in order to produce the most soothing effect.