Chapter 17: The Inferior Version of the Primordial Elixir

“How many did you just refine?”
As he watched the pills stream endlessly from the cauldron like stars scattered across the sky, Fatty Xu couldn’t help but ask.

“Over a thousand, I suppose,” Chen Yang replied offhandedly. With a flick of his sleeve, he summoned a talisman, which, upon catching the wind, transformed into a yellow-skinned gourd that neatly collected every last one of these low-grade, improved ‘Primordial Pills.’

“Over a thousand?” Fatty Xu’s mouth hung open in disbelief.

The art of alchemy existed in the cultivation world, but it was nothing like the alchemy of Mount Shu. In this realm, a single session yielded at most a handful of pills—one or two at the least, a dozen at most. But in Mount Shu, even a small batch would produce a hundred or so, and large ones could yield thousands.

There were many reasons for this vast disparity. One could talk about it for an entire day and night and still not finish. The greatest difference, however, lay in their philosophies.

Here, alchemy was a simple craft, aimed solely at producing a single pill to enhance one’s magical power. Mount Shu, however, regarded alchemy as a form of spiritual cultivation in itself. The distinction was vast.

Seeing Fatty Xu’s gaping expression, Chen Yang’s mind stirred.

“This is my first time refining this low-grade, modified Primordial Pill. I wonder if its effects match my expectations. Perfect chance to let this fellow test it for me.”

With a flick of his finger, a yellow-tipped pill shot into Fatty Xu’s mouth.

The moment the pill entered, it dissolved into a stream of elixir, coursing down his throat and spreading instantly to his organs and limbs, suffusing every bone and vein.

Fatty Xu flushed red, as if drunk, swaying unsteadily before plopping straight down onto the ground.

“Why aren’t you circulating your energy?” Chen Yang reminded him.

Startled to his senses, Fatty Xu hastily sat cross-legged and began to practice his cultivation technique.

The orthodox Primordial Pill of the Five Terraces Sect was crafted to simulate the state of primordial chaos before heaven and earth separated. By consuming it, one could intuit the Dao of Primordial Unity, increase spiritual power, purify magical force, and harmonize the body’s myriad residual energies.

It was the sect’s most treasured pill, renowned throughout all of Mount Shu. After the Patriarch of Primordial Unity met with disaster, Lady Xu the Enchantress used this very pill to secretly befriend many masters from unorthodox and demonic sects.

The true Primordial Pill required immense spiritual attainment and deep insight into the paths of Dao and Devil alike. Within the entire Five Terraces Sect, only the Patriarch, Lady Xu the Enchantress, and Chen Yang himself could produce it.

The modified, low-grade version Chen Yang had just concocted, naturally, lacked the original’s power to deepen the Dao or awaken the Primordial Unity. Instead, it focused solely on refining magical force and harmonizing the body’s residual energies.

Genuine Primordial Pills called for rare and precious herbs as main ingredients, and their refinement demanded the right time and place. The process could take three to five years at least, sometimes more than a decade.

Cultivators in this world only honed magical force, not spiritual attainment. Even if they were given supreme immortal pills, most of the medicine’s essence would be wasted on them; thus, this low-grade version was the most suitable.

Fatty Xu’s aptitude was ordinary; his progress in foundation building owed mostly to consuming pills. Yet the quality of pills here lagged far behind Mount Shu. As a result, a pill’s medicinal properties could only be partially absorbed—sixty or seventy percent at best; the remainder accumulated as residual toxins, settling in the organs and meridians.

That was why, in this world, cultivators developed resistance to pills and had to rotate their prescriptions constantly.

The Primordial Pill’s energy coursed through his body, dissolving and absorbing the years of accumulated toxins within Fatty Xu, causing the pill’s essence to grow more potent as it went.

As the energy completed its circuit, all residual toxins were swept away, finally returning to the dantian to temper the true essence.

With a deep exhale, Fatty Xu expelled a mouthful of turbid qi. He was both astonished and delighted, feeling a lightness in his body he had never known before.

Chen Yang nodded in satisfaction, stowing the pill cauldron with a wave. “The effects are satisfactory—just as I hoped. Come, let’s go.”

Without giving Fatty Xu a chance to bow and speak, he summoned the Supreme Celestial Demon Banner. Twin streams of yin and yang energy unfurled from the banner, wrapping the two of them and whisking them northward at great speed.

The kingdoms of Baohua Continent were not founded at random; each had been established according to the ancient teleportation arrays left behind by the ancients. Every capital city was built atop one of these arrays.

This world of cultivation had its flaws, and some paths had strayed, yet its continued prosperity over countless generations was not without reason. The teleportation arrays, for instance, were a marvel unknown even in Mount Shu.

A thousand miles passed in the blink of an eye. Such speed rivaled the finest escape techniques of Mount Shu.

The teleportation array, aside from requiring elaborate preparation, surpassed any movement technique Chen Yang knew, save perhaps for the Heart-Light Escape of Buddhism or the Golden Light Escape of Daoism.

“This array manipulates space itself—how ingenious. Perhaps I should study it further and see if I might devise a spatial escape art of my own,” Chen Yang mused as they exited the array, still savoring the sensation.

The Baohua Grand Assembly was to be held in Celestial Capital Tianyuan.

It lay over a hundred thousand miles from the Great Li Dynasty, requiring seven or eight teleportations to reach.

These arrays were the crowning achievement of the world’s formation masters, but the method of their construction was now lost. All that remained were the ancient arrays; today’s array masters could only repair, not recreate them. Thus, they were incredibly valuable and tightly guarded, each open only three times daily, with a maximum of a hundred travelers per session.

The fare was steep—five hundred spirit stones per person per use.

By the time they arrived in the Chen Kingdom from Great Li, dusk had fallen and the array would not open again that day.

It was Fatty Xu’s first time leaving Great Li, yet his resourcefulness as a seasoned businessman soon surfaced. In no time, he had discovered the perfect place for traveling cultivators, a royal guesthouse of the Chen Kingdom.

It was a scene of dazzling lights and lively music, with pavilions and courtyards filled with singing and dancing girls.

To his astonishment, this was a pleasure quarter established by the Chen royal family specifically for cultivators.

“Master, this… this… your humble servant…” Fatty Xu stammered, never expecting his well-chosen destination to be such an establishment. He was so shaken that even his lips trembled.

Though the demonic aura had faded from Chen Yang, in Fatty Xu’s eyes, his sect master had always been the terrifying Lord of Demons—a figure who had never changed.

“How amusing. This is my first time in such a place. Come, let’s have a look inside,” Chen Yang said.

A brothel for cultivators—now that was a rare novelty. In Mount Shu, at least, there had never been such a place.

Brothels there catered only to common mortals. No matter how beautiful their faces, without having undergone the cleansing of marrow and bones, without having entered a state of fasting and purity, they were little more than filth.

Cultivators here, though they focused only on magical power and not spiritual attainment, and their arts differed from those of Mount Shu, still drew upon the pure spiritual energies of heaven and earth. Compared to mortals, they were far cleaner in essence.