Chapter 877 - 422: Supplementary Update in Progress..._2

Chapter 877: Chapter 422: Supplementary Update in Progress..._2

Flying with Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, he arrived at Celestial City in less than half a day. But rather than saying there was a Market inside the city, it was more accurate to say a city had been built inside the Market. The moment he landed, stalls could be seen everywhere.

Among the people coming and going were all kinds—Outer Disciples of the Wuji Sect, many Loose Cultivators, and cultivators from various minor sects.

From time to time one could indeed see Foundation Establishment Cultivators, but not many. So when Tianfu revealed his Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation and stepped into a large medical hall in the Market, the old physician there immediately stopped what he was doing and came hurrying over to greet him.

"Senior, what do you require?" The old physician fawningly welcomed Tianfu inside, seemingly unconcerned about the strange looks from the patients within the hall.

It was obvious he would not behave like this in front of them.

Tianfu swept his gaze around, then asked, "Is there any way to repair a damaged Dantian?"

The old physician answered in haste, "There is... however, Senior, the price required is not small."

"Speak."

"A Second-Grade Refining Pill will do it, but a single Second-Grade Refining Pill costs at least three thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones—enough to raise a cultivator all the way to Qi Cultivation Great Perfection."

"Do you have any here?"

"Senior must be joking." The old physician gave an embarrassed smile. "Only a Second Grade Alchemist can refine Second-Grade Refining Pills. This old man is merely a physician."

"Then is there any other method?" Tianfu continued to ask, since the first method really wasn’t suitable for him.

The old physician went on, "There is another thing that can repair a damaged Dantian, but using it that way is more or less a terrible waste."

"What is it?"

"Three-hundred-year Earth Yellow Essence. Its price is somewhat cheaper than a Refining Pill, only around two thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones, but it’s something you cannot buy even with money. Earth Yellow Essence is one of the main ingredients for refining Foundation Establishment Pills; once a single piece of Earth Yellow Essence goes up for sale, it is bought up immediately."

Getting this answer, Tianfu couldn’t help feeling a bit dejected. He finally understood why that uncle had chosen to leave.

Because whether it was the Refining Pill or the Earth Yellow Essence, both were hard to acquire. Even if one barely managed to get them, the cost was far too great.

After all, with no possibility of stepping into Foundation Establishment at all, why pour resources that could raise another cultivator to Qi Cultivation Great Perfection into healing injuries?

Leaving the medical hall, Tianfu began searching the Market for shops that sold heaven-and-earth treasures, wanting to verify the old physician’s words.

When he asked about Earth Yellow Essence, the answers he received from every shop big and small were unsurprisingly exactly the same.

No stock!

As for when they might have stock, no one could give a definite time.

After asking more than a dozen shops, Tianfu realized that continuing to ask like this would be pointless.

The reality was already laid out before him.

He wandered around the Market a bit more, and bought some seeds of heaven-and-earth treasures, including Earth Yellow Essence seeds.

The seeds of Earth Yellow Essence were not expensive; a single Low-grade Spirit Stone could buy a hundred or more, no different from other ordinary heaven-and-earth treasure seeds.

This left him somewhat puzzled. Why were three-hundred-year Earth Yellow Essences so rare instead? With profit margins so huge, shouldn’t the output be greater?

After returning to his cave abode and checking the cultivation methods and process for Earth Yellow Essence, Tianfu finally understood why the yield was so low.

Because Earth Yellow Essence had extremely harsh requirements for its growth environment—its Spiritual Soil had to be as hot as Flame.

At the same time, the temperature could be neither too high nor too low, and had to be kept utterly stable. If the temperature fluctuated for more than a quarter of an hour, the plant would die.

And that wasn’t even the most outrageous part. The truly outrageous part was that after its age passed one hundred years, it had to be irrigated with Spirit Water made from Middle-grade Spirit Stones.

And that irrigation was required once every twenty years!

One Middle-grade Spirit Stone equals a hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. In other words, to cultivate it to three hundred years of age, one had to spend one thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones. There was still profit to be made, but who would be willing to wait three hundred years just to earn that little?

Thus Earth Yellow Essence was basically all naturally formed, and only relatively wealthy sects and families would choose to plant and cultivate it.

"My Spirit Field could erase all of Earth Yellow Essence’s harsh requirements, but by the time it reaches three hundred years of age, probably all the elders of the Celestial Family will have been worn to death by waiting." With a sigh, a thought suddenly flashed through Tianfu’s mind.

Was there any way to accelerate the growth of heaven-and-earth treasures?

In the Cultivation Realm, heaven-and-earth treasures always demanded hundreds of years, several hundred years. Surely some genius must have invented methods of forcing them to mature.

Maybe tomorrow he could go check the Outer Disciples’ Library Pavilion.

The next afternoon, Tianfu arrived at the Library Pavilion and tried asking the Guardian Elder there, but the only answer he got was an indifferent sentence.

"The corner of the second floor is full of books on cultivating heaven-and-earth treasures. Go look for yourself."

Tianfu didn’t care about his tone and walked straight in, but after he took only two steps, he heard the old man behind him mutter under his breath.

"Such a good Earth Spirit Root, and he just wastes time fiddling with this nonsense... Once he reaches my age and can only wait for death, he’ll know regret."

Tianfu gave a helpless smile, but couldn’t be bothered to explain anything, and continued walking forward.

Soon, Tianfu reached a corner on the second floor of the Library Pavilion, his gaze sweeping across every book on the shelves.

After rummaging for a while, he found quite a few books that recorded methods of hastening the maturation of heaven-and-earth treasures.

As he had expected, there were many kinds of methods for forcing growth, but upon closer reading Tianfu felt none of them suited him.

Some used Spiritual Liquid made from the blood of demonic creatures; others used Spirit Water concocted from Middle-grade or even Top-grade Spirit Stones; and some relied on setting up Spirit Gathering Arrays to enhance the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi around the Spirit Field.

The results of these maturation methods varied. At best they could make one year of growth count as two, but the price paid was by no means small.

As he continued searching, Tianfu suddenly fished out from a crack in the corner a book that had lain dust-covered for many years. Opening it, the very first line he saw was a warning: do not use unless absolutely desperate!

This immediately piqued Tianfu’s curiosity, and he continued to read on.

After finishing, Tianfu finally understood why that line of warning existed.

The method recorded in the book was actually—collecting Cultivator Essence Blood and using the Essence Blood to concoct Spirit Water for irrigating heaven-and-earth treasures, with a minimum requirement of ten drops of Essence Blood.

As for Essence Blood, Tianfu did have some concept of it.

Any cultivator could condense it, but each drop of condensed Essence Blood would consume one year of the condenser’s lifespan.

Regardless of whether they were in Qi Cultivation or Foundation Establishment.

And ten drops of Essence Blood meant ten years of lifespan!

Even Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators only had a few hundred years of life.

"This is outright a forbidden book! If someone with wicked intentions got their hands on it, it would definitely unleash a storm of blood and slaughter. But the method itself suits me quite well—I don’t have to prey on other cultivators, I can just condense it myself."

Anyway, his lifespan was infinite.

Essence Blood could be condensed at will.

Closing the book, Tianfu quickly went to the Guardian Elder, used his Identity Token to register it, then left the Library Pavilion with the book and headed straight for his cave abode.

He planned to immediately go back and test the effect of this method, because according to the book, Essence Blood from cultivators of different Realms had different effects.

What effect would his Essence Blood have?

However, when he arrived at his cave abode, Tianfu discovered Tian Yue unexpectedly waiting outside.

Seeing him, Tian Yue immediately showed an expression of delight and couldn’t wait to say, "Brother Tianfu, Uncle just received word from the inner sect. Aunt returned safely last night."

Hearing this, and seeing the excited Tian Yue before him, Tianfu couldn’t help revealing a satisfied smile as well.

"That’s good."

Tian Yue went on, "Brother Tianfu, I also heard that this mission of Aunt’s was extremely dangerous."

"Dangerous how?" Tianfu replied while walking into the cave abode.

Tian Yue’s smile suddenly faded, and his tone changed, "The messenger said Aunt encountered a patch of strange black fog on this trip. That black fog was terrifying enough to swallow an entire city of over a million people. All the more than one million cultivators in the city perished within that fog—none survived!"

"Hm?" Tianfu’s interest was immediately piqued a bit.