Chapter 503: Resplendent Mercury Breath
During his travel, Cao Yun had greatly advanced his blood cultivation. Obviously, possessing the Drop of Wrath, the literal blood of a demon who had transcended the very confines of his universe, was helping a lot. Although it had already supported his Qi cultivation, most of the effects had been on his body. When it came to his blood, the effects were way superior to those.
Currently, he was still a 3rd-grade Golden Blood Child. As such, he was on the verge of forming his Golden Blood by fusing his marrow and his blood. In other words, his blood and his essence, his Jing, would fuse. Having this Golden Blood was essential as it would make sure that his real cultivation was not discovered. Right now, his blood could still betray him despite the Drop of Wrath. However, he was not hasty. In fact, he could have formed his Golden Blood already. But he had been patient because there was no coming back. Once the two substance were merged, separating them was as difficult as separating water from wine.
As much as he wanted to grow powerful fast, Cao Yun had a clear goal in mind. His goal wasn't even the Spirit Warrior realm or the Accomplished Demon realm. Even now, he was aiming far higher than that. After seeing parts of the lives of Axiu Qian and Cleansed Asura, he wanted to cross the veil, sail through the void and explore new universes. Of course, his immediate goal was to become strong enough to save his little sister. But in his mind, there was no doubt that he would succeed. He simply couldn't entertain that idea. Otherwise, he knew that doubt would submerge him.
Too long during his youth had he been indecisive. Even now, he was afraid of committing the same crime. For, in his eyes, it would be a crime. He had no time to doubt himself all in perpetuity. He had no time at all! From now on, each moment of his life should be aimed at this single objective, becoming stronger in every aspect. In order to accomplish that, his mere cultivation wouldn't be enough. After all, it would take decades, if not centuries, for him to become as strong as a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Although becoming a Spirit Warrior was very close for him, crossing the nine grades of that realm would take around a hundred years even for a good cultivator. Because of the current era, it was sometimes so difficult that only three humans had reached that stage who were still alive to this day.
With all that in mind, Cao Yun had made the decision to focus on his blood cultivation. There were several reasons for that. First of all, it would help him improve his overall strength and even speed up his Qi cultivation. But it would also prove very useful in that environment where he would be forced to hide his Qi cultivation to pass off as a demon. And he intended to stay in the Desolate Sepulcher for some time. Since this continent was rather isolated, it would be perfect for him to consolidate his strength. In fact, at that very moment, he had already a plan in mind. But he wasn't absolutely sure how he would achieve it yet. There were still pieces to the puzzle that were missing.
Anyway, his first order of business was to form his Golden Blood. As he was waiting for Xixue, one of the Moshu knocked on his door. Immediately, Cao Yun knew who he was. More than that, he knew what he wanted as he could feel it in his hands. Without moving, Cao Yun opened the doors, still working on improving his spiritual senses. Obviously, the burly man was quite impressed. Compared to Cao Yun, he had an incredible physique. Sadly, there were still marks of some of the abuse inflicted upon him. Despite the pills and ointments made by the young alchemist, some wounds were taking their sweet time to heal. In fact, he could have healed them faster, but he couldn't expose his real level of alchemy.
This pained Cao Yun a little. By now, those Moshu were not stranger anymore. Although demons had persecuted the human kind for millenniums, those demons had nothing to do with it. Cao Yun would not condemn an entire species based on the behavior of some. Otherwise, he would be forced to condemn every single human being. After all, the Emperor himself was responsible for his family's massacre and the corruption of his sister's mind.
There was a limit Cao Yun was not willing to cross. Even if some, like Xixue, might think of him as a hypocrite, he had taken his decision. He had steeled his resolve. No matter the consequences, there were things he could comprise and others he could not. But he would need to see the slaves bought by Xixue to show her this resolve.
At the moment, he accepted the ingredients and told the burly man that he would enter seclusion. No one, not even Xixue, might disturb him. Indeed, he was going to enter a profound cultivation state. He couldn't afford to be disturbed. With the ingredients he had now, he could finally refine the pills he needed to form the perfect Golden Blood.
Immediately after the burly man's departure, Cao Yun stood up and went into his laboratory first, not his cultivation room. After closing the door, he immediately checked all the array formations. It took him several hours. All around the room, there were array formations both to help him refine and to prevent any disturbance from the outside world. Even a middle Accomplished Demon would need some hours to break them down, maybe even a couple of days. And an early Accomplished Demon would probably spend an entire week or more on those array formations. In other words, no one in this town would ever be able to take them down in a reasonable amount of time.
Hopefully, Cao Yun wouldn't require so much time. And this was the purpose behind the other array formations. They were set to help him refine. Indeed, Cao Yun had already taken out his 'Aureate Grove Crucible' and his 'Aureate Grove Blaze'. Those 2-star Heaven artifacts would maybe even be too weak for the pill he had in mind. Thus, he needed all the support he could get. In fact, the pill he had in mind was a 4-star Heaven pill. Cao Yun himself wasn't sure whether he would be able to refine it, but he sure was going to try.
As it happened to be, the Tyrant Sun Scarab had given him some of the rare ingredients he needed. Apart from its corpse and its demonic cores, he had only required common ingredients, common for him that was. Now that all of them were gathered, he could start the refinement process. The pill Cao Yun had in mind was the 4-star Heaven pill known as the Resplendent Mercury Breath pill. He had obtained that knowledge through the mind of Gu Song. Once again, he thought about Dian Mo who had been a huge help back then. Without him, performing a Soul Memory Search was impossible.
Anyway, that pill would help him to both improve the quality of his postnatal Jing, maybe even his prenatal Jing to some measure, and prepare his marrow for the fusion with his blood. When it came to his blood, he had almost no worry thanks to the Drop of Wrath.
The problem of course was the grade of that pill. It would take everything he had as an alchemist and some more to refine the most basic Resplendent Mercury Breath pill. But to be fair, even the most basic pill would already be a tremendous help for him. Of course, he would prefer to get the best possible pill. According to the ingredients he had, he would probably be able to try six refinement processes. Some of those would be failure for sure. But he refused to imagine he would fail them all. Then, he would need to select the best pill among them all. In fact, if he had some to spare, he would keep them for later. Even at that point, he had some ideas about what to do with them.
First of all, Cao Yun decided to prepare the ingredients. This would be the easiest part of the refinement process. And indeed, it didn't take him too long. In front of him were all the necessary ingredients. Their quality was varying of course, but they were all above the quality he needed. Some were even of very high quality so he would keep them for his last batch, when he would have had more experience. In the first batch, he would use the poorest ingredients.
That didn't mean he was ready to waste them anyway. Before even igniting the flame, Cao Yun sat cross-legged and entered his sea of consciousness. Once again, the first thing he did was to try and wake up Dian Mo. Once again, it failed. The young man could feel that Dian Mo had triumphed over Mo Wang's spirit, but the wounds were serious. Even now, he was in a state of deep sleep to fully recover. However, his condition was better. Indeed, Cao Yun could feel a small part of his own mind helping Dian Mo. By that point, Dian Mo was accepting more help than before. The vine of the world tree was also sharing a bit of vitality with Dian Mo. In Cao Yun's sea of consciousness, it took the form of vines growing all around the Demon Palace representing Dian Mo.
Then, Cao Yun began his 'Spiritual Sea Refinement'. In his mind, he imagined the entire process over and over again. With his current mind, it took him a few hours to perform hundreds of refinements. Then, he took a few more hours to clear his mind and push his mind cultivation to the limit. Since he felt safe thanks to the array formations around his laboratory, he had no problem focusing everything in his mind. He even retracted the 'Ashen Feather Seal'. At the moment, the demons could have told that he was human as his meridians were not concealed.
From his Upper Dantian, the Flying Poison permeated toward the Aureate Grove. This was the only way for Cao Yun to have spiritual senses since his own soul couldn't leave his body. The Flying Poison coalesced around the Aureate Grove. Because he needed his full attention on the cauldron and the flame, the alchemist would use his own hands to deal with the ingredients and the flame powders. When he was happy about his sensations, Cao Yun began the refinement. In his Drop of Wrath, the Rune of Fire seemed to vibrate when he ignited his furnace. As he was controlling and feeling the flames, the Rune of Fire was also instinctively guiding him.
Cao Yun didn't hear any advice from the Rune of Fire. But he could clearly feel that it was influencing him in some way. He never tried to stop it of course. At some point, he almost lost his focus because he tried to feel that Rune of Fire. After all, it was a part of the Dao of Fire. But it didn't accomplish anything. To the contrary, it almost caused him to lose control of his refinement. Instead of blaming himself, he let all those emotions go through him. They felt as though they were consumed by the very flames he was controlling.
After an entire day, the first batch was ready. Thankfully, nothing disastrous happened. Refining a 4-star Heaven pill could clearly make his cauldron explode. Although it would endure such a shock, Cao Yun would also be blasted away. This wasn't something he really wanted to experience. So he had tried not to think about it too much.
When he opened the lid, he could see three small pills. All of his focus dispersed and he let out a deep sigh. Indeed, two of them were completely useless, they had failed utterly. And the last one only had 61% of medicinal essence. In other words, it had barely made the cut to be called a successful product. Of course, as he was trying to refine a 4-star Heaven pill, this was already a very impressive result. But it was far from being enough. Although he would ultimately use such a pill if he had no other choice, Cao Yun was hoping for around 80%. He even dared to hope for a pill between 85% and 90%. But he had no hope of refining a Perfect pill with his current abilities.
Despite the relative failure of his first batch, Cao Yun was still full of confidence. After all, he had five batches left to improve on this performance. And before refining another batch, Cao Yun spent a lot of time cleaning both his cauldron and his furnace. He even burned a few ingredients in the Aureate Grove Crucible in order to completely purify it for the next batch. On the other hand, he also imagined the refinement he had just done. He replayed it hundreds of times in his mind.
At some point, his sea of consciousness was full of his cauldron and his furnace. His simulations were so realist, he was able to feel the Rune of Fire being stirred a little. Unless he was working with a real flame though, the Rune of Fire would not act in the same manner. So it gave him a good idea. While he was imagining the process, he worked with a real flame in his furnace, without his cauldron. By focusing on the flame alone, he was able to perceive the Rune of Fire better.
Finally he was ready again. One by one, Cao Yun refined each batch he could, spending all the rare ingredients he had obtained from the Tyrant Sun Scarab. For other demons, it would have been a waste of course. But Cao Yun didn't care at all. If that pill could allow him to form a perfect Golden Blood, there was no waste to begin with.
By the end, he had refined sixteen successful pills. By definition, it was a pill with 60% of medicinal essence or more. Unfortunately, most of the pills were between 60% and 70%. Only a couple of them had reached beyond 80%. And in the end, the best pill he had had 83% of medicinal essence. Obviously, this was an excellent result for most alchemist. This pill was very difficult to refine to begin with. Even an average 4-star Heaven alchemist might not have been able to outperform Cao Yun with this last pill.
Now that he was done, Cao Yun still took his time to tidy up the laboratory. In particular, he took great care of his cauldron and furnace. Not only were they precious tools, they were gifts from his master.