Chapter 784 Soul Power Crystal

Ji An returned to his cave on Crimson Flame Peak and entered the small world.

He activated the Azure Lotus Heart-Burning Flame to continue purifying and burning the corpse of the true demon.

It took a month to finally burn the corpse of the true demon, and at the same time, the skeleton of the Nascent Soul level demon beast that had been prepared for trading was also purified and burned.

This skeleton was a trophy seized from the opponent's Void Stone after Yuanhe Mountain killed the Nascent Soul Demon Cultivator. At that time, he still had the bodily fluids of the Spirit-Slaying Insect in his possession.

Under the Juyuan Tree, a dozen or so urns were neatly arranged in front of him, and Ji An rubbed his hands together with satisfaction.

One Nascent Soul Level 8, two Nascent Soul Level 6, one Nascent Soul Level 5, and fourteen Nascent Soul Level 14—with so many resources piled up, it's at least equivalent to tens of thousands of Daoist essences.

He buried the ashes of a Nascent Soul Level 3 True Demon under the Golden Leaf Sandalwood Tree, hoping to accelerate the tree's advancement to the fourth-grade mid-level as soon as possible, at which point he could produce the fourth-grade mid-level Sandalwood Soul Nourishing Incense.

As for the remaining ashes, he planned to feed them all to the Gathering Origin Tree, the most core asset of the Calabash World.

The higher the grade of the Gathering Yuan Tree, the faster other spirit trees can reach higher grades.

After resting for a while, Ji An took out a jade box containing the only Nascent Soul he had obtained.

There are three uses for a nascent soul: first, as a tonic for a nascent soul; second, to refine a second nascent soul; and third, to refine a substitute puppet.

After much thought, he decided to use the first method.

There are drawbacks to refining a second nascent soul, and the amount of mana that can be stored is limited due to material constraints. The third method is probably not very useful when facing powerful enemies.

Because he decided that after upgrading the Vermilion Bird Profound Brightness Technique to the Great Perfection, he would prioritize upgrading the level of the Vertical Golden Light.

Based on past experience, when a spell reaches the Great Perfection level, its effect increases by at least 40%.

In other words, the speed of the Golden Light will increase by about 40%, allowing it to pass through more powerful sealing formations, while the mana consumed when releasing it will decrease by 30% to 40%.

In this way, consuming the same amount of magic power, he could travel more than twice the distance using the golden light of the vertical leap.

Based on combat experience, even a cultivator at the peak of the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage would have difficulty catching up with him.

With such magic, one's safety is greatly improved, so the need for substitute dolls is not so strong. Also, the materials required to make substitute dolls are too rare and not easy to obtain.

Ji An activated the Five Elements Divine Mountain, and its light shone on the jade box. He tore off the sealing talisman on it and picked up the nascent soul inside.

The nascent soul was suppressed by the aura of the spiritual treasure and could not move. Ji An glanced at it with pity and urged the Netherworld Bone Fire.

The chilling flames enveloped the nascent soul, and Ji An's spiritual senses perceived wails and vicious curses.

A cold smile appeared on his lips as he increased the output of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, quickly freezing the Nascent Soul until it became completely stiff.

A moment later, cracks appeared on the nascent soul's body, eventually shattering into crystals the size of mung beans. The crystals were mostly moon-white, but also contained a lot of blackish-red impurities produced by the demonic cultivator devouring essence blood and demonic energy.

Ji An now has a broad enough perspective to know that any cultivation technique, if cultivated to its extreme, will refine away impurities. Demonic cultivators can cultivate pure Yin crystals, which then appear as pure moon-white.

He activated his manipulation technique, activating the Azure Lotus Heart-Burning Flame. This time, he was very careful, and the flame was extremely weak, like a candle flame with a very short wick.

The nascent soul is the manifestation of spiritual power, and it is a yin power. When using yang fire to purify impurities, one must be extremely careful.

Fortunately, his soul was strong enough to control the intensity of the flames with extreme precision; otherwise, he could have easily burned these soul power crystals to ashes.

Impurities in the crystals were burned, emitting a faint black smoke, and the air was filled with an air of decay.

Ji An used two kinds of spiritual fire from heaven and earth to temper the soul power crystal in rotation, which was the most efficient method.

Others do not have this condition and need to slowly refine it using the primordial fire, which takes a very long time.

It took Ji An three days to completely purify the soul power crystal, and then he used the Yuanming Fire to nurture it and remove the foreign aura contained in the crystal.

It took him another day to refine all the crystals and put them into a white jade bottle.

Ji An left behind a crystallized piece of soul power, which emitted a gentle and crystalline glow, like a not-so-bright but still shining star in the night sky.

"In the end, this method still requires 'eating'."

Ji An muttered to himself, pressed the soul power crystal between his eyebrows, and then activated the secret technique.

Inside the Moon Palace, the Nascent Soul made hand seals, and wisps of green smoke swirled around the hall, which he then inhaled.

A satisfied smile appeared on the nascent soul's face, and the hand seals changed even more rapidly.

About half an hour later, the soul power crystal at Ji An's fingertip was completely digested by the nascent soul, and the strength of his divine soul increased slightly.

Soul power crystals cannot be refined continuously; it is sufficient to refine one crystal every few days, otherwise it will have an adverse effect on the nascent soul.

The soul power crystals he obtained were enough for him to use for several years.

Ji An turned to the puppet and said:

"Ayun, brew a pot of Jade Dew Golden Bud Tea."

Ayun knew that the spiritual tea her master was about to drink was made from fourth-order lightning-struck wood, so she immediately went to prepare it.

A moment later, Ji An drank a pot of spiritual tea and comfortably circulated his cultivation technique, practicing the Five Elements Revolving Scripture.

A vortex of spiritual energy formed in an extremely short time, and he was like a giant beast, swallowing the massive mass of spiritual energy.

Qingqiu is the first Yinshan Mountain.

Inside the cave, a maid lit incense to calm the mind, and the white smoke swirled around, creating a scene resembling a fairyland.

Hu Yujie sat respectfully below Elder Hu Lingshan and recounted the events of the past few days.

Hu Lingshan listened with a smile. After this junior was captured, she had left Qingqiu's protective formation to try to take him back, but she was thwarted by a late-stage Nascent Soul True Demon and could only return in resentment.

Later, she had given up hope that the younger generation could survive, but she was pleasantly surprised that they hadn't returned yet.

After listening to the other person's story, Hu Lingshan frowned and asked:

"A Nascent Soul Level 2 cultivator killed a Nascent Soul Level 8 True Demon? Are you sure you didn't see that wrong?"

Such information was too unbelievable; she wouldn't have believed a word of it if it hadn't come from her most beloved junior.

This is truly a challenge to normal understanding. For cultivators who have reached the Nascent Soul level, cultivation level is one of the biggest factors affecting the outcome of a battle, alongside the grade of the spiritual treasure and the strength of the divine soul.

“Great-grandmother, I witnessed it with my own eyes, how could it be fake? At that time, I truly felt how powerful the magical energy fluctuations that emanated during the battle were.”

By the way, the True Demon used a secret technique that came at a cost a few days before the battle, and was in a weakened state when the battle began.

Hu Lingshan sighed inwardly and said:

"If that's the case, the outcome is too shocking. Logically speaking, there should be no way such a cultivator could exist."

According to the younger generation's description, the human cultivator was qualified to fight her, and she was a nine-tailed celestial fox who was over two thousand years old.

To acknowledge the power of human cultivators is tantamount to admitting that all these years of one's life have been wasted!

"Sigh," Hu Yujie sighed softly, and said with a wry smile:

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it was true."

Ji An's strength far exceeds the norm, making him easily subject to questioning.

She took out the white jade jar and handed it to him, saying:

"Before parting, the other party gave me some fourth-grade spiritual tea. Judging from the appearance and aura of the spiritual materials, it turned out to be spiritual tea produced from lightning-struck wood."

Although the spirit tea is a low-grade fourth-order tea, it is made from lightning-struck wood and has a special body-refining effect, making it a rare delicacy for the transformed great demons of the demon beast race.

Hu Lingshan took the jade jar, examined it for a moment, smelled it carefully, and then instructed:

"Brew a pot of tea with this type of tea."

"Yes, ma'am," the petite maid hurriedly agreed, picked a small bunch of tea leaves and went out to boil the spiritual spring water. A moment later, she brought out the spiritual tea.

Hu Lingshan accepted the teacup that was handed to her. The tea soup was golden in color, occasionally flashing with silver lightning.

She inhaled its fragrance, took a small sip, and let the aroma burst between her lips and teeth, exclaiming in surprise:

"It's unbelievable that this is spiritual tea produced from the lightning-struck Azure Jade Tree. I never thought that this kind of spiritual wood could withstand the baptism of lightning."

She was surprised too many times today; too many things refreshed her understanding.

Lightning is a product of the interaction of Yin and Yang, and the Azure Jade Tree of the Moon possesses Yin attributes. Logically, it should be destroyed by the power of Yin and Yang regardless of the type of lightning it is struck by.

But then something she thought couldn't possibly exist appeared before her, making her wonder if the world had undergone changes she was unaware of.

Hu Yujie laughed and said, "Hehe, this pot of spiritual tea is dedicated to you, Great-Grandmother."

"Hehe, what kind of elder would shamelessly ask a junior for something? I do like this spiritual tea, but it has no effect on me anymore. It's just for satisfying my appetite."

The effects of the spiritual tea will be different for you; it nourishes both your spirit and tempers your body. It's a rare and precious thing, so keep it for yourself.

She paused, a glint of shrewdness flashing in her eyes, and continued:

"The other party saved your life and gave you precious spiritual tea. What is their purpose?"

Logically, they should be expressing their gratitude for being saved, so the other party didn't need to give them a gift.

She was pondering how the two sides should interact now that a Nascent Soul power had emerged in the Western Continent.

Every three thousand years, Qingqiu would lead the demon beast clans that had bred too many offspring to launch wars against other countries. Now that the Western Continent had a Nascent Soul force, the way to conduct the war needed to be discussed with the other side.

In addition, she needed to find an opportunity to test the other party to see if he was really as powerful as the younger generation had said.

If the enemy is strong, then speak kindly and negotiate; if they are not so strong, then there's no need to be so amicable.

Hu Yujie recalled what Ji An had said when she left the Golden Spirit Sect, and said:

"The other party said they wanted to coexist peacefully with us."

Hu Lingshan sighed softly and said:

"It's easier said than done. Sometimes, you can't just get along harmoniously because you want to. You have to make some trade-offs."

Human cultivators can achieve self-sufficiency through farming, but the demon beast race cannot do this.

When the number of demon beasts in the Qingqiu territory grows uncontrollably, the best way is to wage war against external forces to consume a large number of low-level demon beasts, so that the surviving demon beasts can have enough space to live.

(End of this chapter)