Chapter 760 – Wood Spirit Jade

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“Xingxuan, Yu’er.”

In Mu Qianyu’s bridal chamber, Lin Ming had called in Qin Xingxuan and Mu Qianyu. As the two young women sat shoulder to shoulder on the bed, their figures complimenting the red silk sheets was far too beautiful to behold.

Several months had passed since Lin Ming killed Xuan Wuji. Lin Ming had momentarily suspended his cultivating, spending a good period of his time meditating on the alchemy techniques left behind by the Realm of the Gods alchemist, as well as spending time with his parents and family. After his marriage with Mu Qianyu, Lin Ming’s thoughts had become bedeviled by the relations between men and women, and he had shared in these sensual pleasures with her every night.

“This is for you.” Lin Ming took out two square crystals from his spatial ring. Every crystal block had two drops of red liquid sealed within. These red drops looked thick and viscous, as if they were crimson pearls.

“What is that?” As Mu Qianyu saw these four drops of red liquid she felt her heart jump. She could clearly feel that there was something extraordinary about these red drops of liquid.

“This is the blood of the Ancient Phoenix.” Lin Ming said.

Hearing these words, Qin Xingxuan was already surprised to the point of being spellbound. As for Mu Qianyu, her eyes were completely wide, a look of astonishment and disbelief coloring her face.

“Blood of the Ancient Phoenix? As in the Phoenix God Beast!?”

“Yes.”

When he was still at Timeworn Phoenix City, he had obtained a total of 110 drops of Ancient Phoenix blood. Of these, the first 100 were given to Lin Ming first and then directly absorbed by him.

The next 10 drops were only delivered to Lin Ming several days later. However, he didn’t use them because the effects wouldn’t be obvious for him anymore.

Thus, it was better for him to give Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan two drops each so that this could greatly improve their physiques.

As for the remaining six drops, he intended to save those for emergencies. For instance, when Qin Xingxuan had exhausted her blood essence at Blood Demon Island, if it wasn’t for Lin Ming coincidently having Vermillion Bird blood essence with him, then Qin Xingxuan would have already perished.

“Lin Ming, where did you get this blood of the Ancient Phoenix?” Mu Qianyu asked, short of breath. She had only read of this blood of the Ancient Phoenix in the ancient texts of Divine Phoenix Island. Still, she had always thought that these were legends. She never imagined that this sort of treasure actually existed in the Sky Spill Continent!

“At the king level smelting trial.”

“You participated in the king level smelting trial?” Mu Qianyu’s large eyes widened even further. When Lin Ming had told her about the smelting trial rules of the Divine Phoenix Mystic Realm, the king level smelting trial had been the highest level possible. And yet Lin Ming had actually completed it!

“Yes, this Ancient Phoenix blood is the reward of the smelting trial.”

“Then you should absorb it!” Qin Xingxuan suddenly said. Mu Qianyu also nodded. The effects of the blood would show their true potential under Lin Ming.

“I’ve already absorbed far too much; a few more drops won’t have much effect.” Lin Ming pointed at the flame mark between his eyebrows, “Don’t you feel it?”

Since Lin Ming first absorbed the blood of the Ancient Phoenix, a faint pressure had always emitted from his body, especially on those martial artists with the Vermillion Bird bloodline. However, Lin Ming normally suppressed this pressure and since his strength was already so formidable to begin with, everyone that was around him often enough became accustomed to it. Thus, Mu Qianyu hadn’t asked any questions.

As Mu Qianyu heard Lin Ming’s words, she wasn’t sure just what expression she should have. That blood of the Ancient Phoenix that was only depicted in the ancient texts of Divine Phoenix Island… Lin Ming had actually said that a few more drops wouldn’t have any effects!?

As Lin Ming saw Mu Qianyu’s thoughts written all over her face, he laughed and said, “Yu’er, in the Realm of the Gods a Phoenix might have a body that spans thousands of miles long. Who knows just how large it is. If all of its blood were taken out then it might be enough to drown a city. What I have here is only four drops, and it is also the most ordinary Phoenix blood; it’s not as if it’s blood essence or something like that. It’s not as exaggerated as you think.”

Hearing Lin Ming speak, Mu Qianyu didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “This might not be much to you but it’s a great lucky chance for me. My talent is at the peak of the Saint level and these two drops of Ancient Phoenix blood will be enough for me to enter the Emperor level.

“Don’t speak of this Ancient Phoenix blood. In Divine Phoenix Island, even Vermillion Bird blood essence is enough to make others go crazy. They couldn’t even imagine the blood of the Ancient Phoenix! With these two drops of Ancient Phoenix blood, that is enough for an ordinary talent to become a Saint level talent.”

In terms of talent, it was easier to raise the more mundane one was. For an ordinary talent to become a Saint level talent, all they would need was a single great lucky chance. For instance, two drops of Ancient Phoenix blood.

As for a Saint level talent rising to an Emperor level talent, that would require the accumulation of several lucky chances. In addition, a martial artist would also need to have extraordinary natural talent to begin with.

And above an Emperor level talent, if one wanted to rise to the ranks of Huo Wenlong and Huo Yu, that was even more difficult. At that time, something that might be a great lucky chance to a Saint level talent might only be standard treasure for someone like Huo Wenlong.

For instance, this Ancient Phoenix blood. To a talent like Huo Wenlong, this basically wasn’t a great lucky chance because Huo Wenlong already had an extremely rich Ancient Phoenix bloodline to begin with. Thus, this was something that was basic for him and that he should naturally have. Conversely, it would be a disadvantage if he didn’t.

So even if Lin Ming absorbed another 100 drops of Ancient Phoenix blood, this would only allow him to become a bit stronger. It wouldn’t increase his talent to another level.

Lin Ming’s comprehension of Fire Laws should have been something a genius of his talent level could accomplish. Otherwise, they were lacking to begin with.

“Yu’er, Xingxuan, I’ve already made an appointment with Li Yifeng to go to the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. I leave one month from now. During this journey, I might be gone for several years.”

Of the four Divine Kingdoms, the strongest was the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. They were also famed for their alchemy techniques. Since Lin Ming wished to study alchemy, it was naturally the best choice for him to go to the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom.

Alchemy was an extremely complex skill. In order to refine pills within a furnace it required more than just a variety of spiritual herbs and treasures. There were special materials needed to direct the mixture and also to form the medicinal base.

If he wanted to create high level pills, there was one material he absolutely couldn’t do without. That was – wood spirit jade.

Wood spirit jade and Demon God Bones were similar items.

Demon God Bones were formed when the leftover energy field of powerhouses or Saint Beasts was sealed underground, slowly condensing over a period of tens of thousands of years.

As for wood spirit jade, those originated from spiritual woods and herbs that remained unpicked by others and eventually died a natural death. Then, their rich energy and fruits would be buried in the ground for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years before finally condensing into a wood spirit jade.

The former was an animal and the latter was a plant.

Both were formed through similar principles, but there was actually a big difference between the two.

Since Lin Ming wished to study alchemy he needed a massive amount of wood spirit jade. However, this sort of material was extremely difficult to find in the South Horizon Region. Although there was a great amount of wood spirit jade in the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom, it was collected by others as a rare resource. With Lin Ming’s current finances, buying a small amount to use was no problem. But, if he wished to use a great amount, especially high quality wood spirit jade multiple times, then this was something that even Lin Ming’s wealth couldn’t support. Not to mention that he didn’t have the wealth to support continued use, but the main problem was that wood spirit jade was a material that couldn’t necessarily be bought.

Lin Ming had taken inventory of all his belongings. Up until now, the strongest powerhouse he killed was the fourth stage Life Destruction Xuan Wuji. As for the rest of his wealth, the next two with the most resources had been the two helpers of Xuan Wuji that had helped him lay down the great array formation in the deep sea as well as the South Sea Demon Region’s Elders. All of these people added together had a wealth equal to that of Xuan Wuji.

In other words, Lin Ming was currently quite wealthy amongst high level Life Destruction powerhouses. However, he was far from being able to compare with a Divine Sea powerhouse.

Of course, this was assuming that Lin Ming didn’t sell the heaven-step Demon God Bone or the blood of the Ancient Phoenix. These two treasures were naturally not something that Lin Ming would casually use.

If Lin Ming wanted to go to the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom to find wood spirit jade, it would be impossible for him to purchase it with his wealth. And he couldn’t purchase it to begin with since there was no place to do so.

So, Lin Ming could only rely on the rich knowledge inherited from that Realm of the Gods alchemist to seek wood spirit jade and excavate it on his own.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every alchemist could also be called a skilled geologist and explorer. In order to look for wood spirit jade, and especially high quality wood spirit jade, one would often have to search hundreds or even thousands of feet underground. A martial artist’s perception had problems penetrating underground to begin with, much less the fact that the regions where wood spirit jade existed often had special geological features that interfered with perception.

With these factors combined, an alchemist could only rely on their experience and knowledge to search for wood spirit jade.

For the remaining month, Lin Ming closed up to thoroughly research alchemy techniques. Although the memories of that Realm of the Gods alchemist had been completely etched into his mind, integrating and mastering this information was still a very long and arduous process.

During his research of alchemy techniques, when his mind was fatigued, Lin Ming would take out a Demon God Bone and continue training. After some time, Lin Ming had already gone from the early Revolving Core realm to stabilizing himself firmly in the center.

However, he still had a very long road until he reached the Life Destruction realm.

From Revolving Core to Life Destruction could be considered a large boundary. To a human martial artist, this was the process of their body being transformed and reborn into something new.

Before Life Destruction, that was a mortal body.

After Life Destruction, that was a spirit body.

This sort of transformative process was completely different from the body transformation process of washing the marrow and tempering the body.

Once body transformation was brought to the point of 100% Tempering Marrow with the Eight Inner Hidden Gates opened and the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace afterwards, then a martial artist would have a body comparable to a Saint artifact, indestructible and invincible. They could raise their hand to sink the stars and shatter the moon and their roar could kill weaker martial artists.

A spirit body was different. Even though it was a spirit body, the defensive power was still frail and without the protection of true essence it would easily be pierced through by weapons.

The role of the spirit body was to converge the origin energy of the heavens and earth. A Revolving Core realm martial artist could only store true essence in their dantian and meridians. It was also impossible for them to directly absorb heaven and earth origin energy with their bodies. Rather, they had to rely on their many acupoints.

But after Life Destruction, that mortal body would reform from scratch, expelling all impurities and activating every cell so that they could actively absorb heaven and earth origin energy.

Thus, a martial artist with a spirit body completely didn’t need acupoints and could use their bodies to absorb heaven and earth origin energy. This meant that a Life Destruction martial artist would have a total true essence quantity several times that of a Revolving Core martial artist. Even their resilience and endurance would greatly increase.

This was also the reason why a Life Destruction martial artist’s strength leapt upwards.

If Lin Ming could reach Life Destruction, then not only would he have a spirit body, but he would also be tempered with the Eight Inner Hidden Gates and have a bodily durability equal to that of a treasure. To have both of these benefits was the advantage of dual cultivating in body and essence.

Without noticing, until up until the day that Lin Ming and Li Yifeng’s agreed appointment was, Lin Ming still didn’t have an understanding of the four Divine Kingdoms. In fact, he didn’t even know all of the four Divine Kingdoms’ names. To have a guide was wonderful. Not to mention anything else, but there was a trip of millions upon millions of miles to go from Divine Phoenix Island to the four Divine Kingdoms, and there were hundreds of large and small transmission arrays that had to be passed through. Without Li Yifeng’s help, passing through these transmission arrays wouldn’t be easy.