Chapter 63 Darkness
"This golden elixir contains a hint of immortal charm, while also maintaining the ancient mysteries. Just take it and you will immediately break through the realm, reshape your soul and body, and comprehend the great way!"
Qi Mingzhe looked around at the expressions of everyone and said with a wry smile, "This is why I didn't explain it clearly in front of you. It's too tempting. Even when Master asked me to bring back as many Golden Cores as possible, I wanted to keep them all for myself more than once. But no matter what I did, I couldn't find a way to make the Golden Core completely transform."
"Then we just leave the golden elixir alone?" Shang Siding was so anxious that he scratched his head. Even Ding Yu looked at the fog with envy, muttering, "Why are there only useless books in the library?"
"Let's do this." Qiao Yangrun made a quick decision. He looked around sarcastically, only Luo Xuanyi and Lu Kewei nodded silently. "It's just one golden elixir. I'm afraid no one would survive even if they got it. Don't tell me you don't have some hidden tricks up your sleeve."
The Qiming group perked up. It was expected that no one got what they wanted; it was better than losing it to someone else. They immediately began preparing a way for Qiao Yangrun to leave. Although Shang Siding and Ding Yu were often distracted during the process, they never stopped working.
"Alright, the next step is to immediately vaporize these people when the golden elixir passes by. Don't stop for even a moment. Everyone except Junior Brother Shang and Junior Brother Lu will guard the formation plate."
"I'll stand east of the wood, Senior Brother Qi will be west of the gold, Senior Brother Ding will hold the north of the water, and Junior Sister Yi will be east of the fire. The offerings are piled in the earth. Junior Brother Shang, do you have enough exotic beasts? Send them to guard the six hundred steps of the eight directions. If any trace of the golden elixir appears within six hundred steps, we will immediately activate the formation. A vortex will appear within six hundred steps. Senior Brother Qi, use your magic weapon to fix the position, and we can leave."
"Junior Brother Lu, when you get to the top of the fog, make sure you confirm the exact location of the vortex and call it out loudly. A magical weapon like Senior Brother Qi's won't be able to hold it in place without someone specifically seeing it or calling it out."
Luo Xuanyi paused, distracted. Her mind was completely off the formation, yet she couldn't show it on the surface.
Luo Xuanyi had already figured out how to obtain the Golden Elixir, and had also solved the mystery of this place.
This wasn't because she was smarter than Qiao Yangrun and the others, but rather because of the difference in knowledge. They weren't alchemists, and they didn't have access to ancient texts. This meant Luo Xuanyi was the only one with this opportunity.
She concealed most of the information, and this group of suspicious people must have guessed it, but the fact that there was only one golden elixir and Luo Xuanyi's weak cultivation level misled them.
The red light and the golden light are two sides of the same coin. The red light absorbs the mist to gain spiritual energy and transform into the golden elixir, while the golden light transforms everything available into mist. Logically, the accumulated number of stray trespassers over ten thousand years should be sufficient, but this place deliberately suppresses the golden elixir's absorption of mist. This isn't malicious suppression, but rather a gesture of kindness.
Ding Lin's painting hinted that they weren't in some incomprehensible alternate dimension, but rather within the ancient alchemist's furnace. This was the final step in the elixir-making process: the furnace condensation. If they followed the correct technique, they would obtain the golden elixir and depart directly to the true ruins. If they left incorrectly, they would be cast into the strangulation array of the furnace, just like those memories.
Furthermore, the function of Ding Lin is also crucial information. However, few, like Taoist Hua Shen, possess such a precious collection of ancient texts, a knowledge of ancient script, and the ability to teach them in full to their disciples. Ding Lin doesn't enhance its elixir-forming properties; instead, it relies on absorbing elixir poison. This is why ancient elixirs lacked elixir poison.
The reason for the pill's inability to form was the fog. The poison contained in the fog was only for these later-generation cultivators. Anything that existed in the ancient avenue of heaven and earth but not in the present world was poisonous, and vice versa. What needed to be eliminated wasn't the poison in the fog, but the dozen or so other non-toxic substances outside of it.
Luo Xuanyi did not have any magic weapon to remove these auras, but her body itself could absorb these non-toxic spiritual energies.
Qiao Yangrun's method was a wrong shortcut, but Luo Xuanyi would never say it out loud. Luo Xuanyi was worried that the movement of obtaining the golden elixir might be discovered by them, so she only needed to stay where she was while they left through this shortcut.
She braced herself and waited for the opportunity. But then she thought of something and took out the storage bag containing the pills. "Brother Qi, to prevent us from getting separated again later, how about I distribute the pills to everyone first?"
Luo Xuanyi took out all the healing and other elixirs and divided them into five portions, deliberately letting them see that there were no herbs in the storage bag. Fearing that this was the last bit of elixir, each person carefully placed the elixir in their storage bag after receiving it.
Luo Xuanyi was afraid they would insist on scooping her up because they were short of elixirs. They didn't know that Luo Xuanyi could refine elixirs without herbs as long as she had spiritual energy. Now that she had no further use, even if she fell behind, she wouldn't be picked up with special care. This was a kind of insurance.
Shang Siding released the spirit beasts into the mist, each tied with a small piece of burning incense. To catch the vortex's trajectory, Lu Kewei ruthlessly swallowed half a bottle of Mingtai wine and entered the mist.
They waited quietly for the untraceable golden elixir to enter their range. When six incense sticks had burned through, almost all of them were gone, the golden elixir finally slid through the mist, dragging its flames, and entered the range of the spirit beast's warning.
“Now!”
The sight of nearly two hundred corpses simultaneously evaporating into mist was too spectacular. When the dark grey mist was dyed almost black, Luo Xuanyi felt the flow of spiritual energy around her.
The golden elixir tried to absorb enough spiritual energy, but the cauldron immediately rejected it, sending it away and destroying it. Thus, a vortex appeared.
"Twelve Steps North!"
The chirpers pulled out a bamboo birdcage and opened the door. Immediately, the cage untied vines and woven them into a bird, which uttered a sharp cry. The sharp sound instantly pierced the mist, materializing into the shape of a mythical beast, wings flapping, ready to take flight, imprinted on the vortex.
"Hurry, we have to get out of here! The fog will soon disappear, and then the vortex will collapse no matter what!"
Qi Mingzhe took the lead and immediately flew towards the whirlpool. Shang Siding put away his spirit beast and followed closely on a red-feathered crane. Qiao Yangrun and Ding Yu lagged behind slightly. No one noticed that Luo Xuanyi just took out the bamboo slips and pretended to do it.
The vortex continuously absorbed the mist, and within a few breaths, the mist had returned to its original state. The vortex began to collapse. The divine beast howled and rushed into the vortex before it completely closed.
Lu Kewei glanced before the vortex completely closed and saw Luo Xuanyi still rushing towards it, but it was impossible for her to catch up. He looked away from Luo Xuanyi, and the vortex completely closed.
Luo Xuanyi finally breathed a sigh of relief after waiting for the mist to subside. The next thing she had to do was to obtain the golden elixir.
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