Chapter 103: The False Elixir Realm
After being teased or thoroughly beaten by the senior masters, Gu Xiaopang, with his tough and resilient body, swallowed a bruising pill and quickly returned to his usual self.
After a brief gathering with his fellow disciples participating in the competition, he returned to his own room.
Bai Ling’er’s room had been deliberately arranged by the elders right next to Gu Xiaopang’s.
“Number Five, your Xiaopang is something else, haha.”
“Indeed, his potential is ruthless. Once he truly matures, I believe our Misty Sect will make another breakthrough.”
“Hmph.”
“What’s wrong, Elder Mu Huo? Are you unhappy that our sect has such a disciple?”
“Playboy brat! I’m tempted to toss him into the alchemy furnace right now.”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
“Well, it’s true—first there was Mu Wan’er, then suddenly a son-in-law, and now Bai Ling’er, a water spirit fairy. No wonder Elder Mu Huo feels a bit unbalanced.”
...
At that moment, Gu Xiaopang was circulating his true energy, dispelling the lingering alcohol scent from his body before closing his eyes and sitting cross-legged once again.
“Master, how are you?”
“Not bad, haha. The power of over two hundred soul pills has been absorbed. I’ve barely recovered to half my former strength.”
“That’s good, that’s good! What?! Only half?”
“You little brat, why the shock? It’s already quite an achievement for me to restore even half of my prime.”
“You really think those low-grade broken pills you concocted helped much?”
“Uh, low-grade? Broken pills? You old geezer are shameless, knowing full well how many precious spirit herbs were consumed making them.”
“So many pitiful fourth and fifth-grade spirit herbs... you’re truly unfortunate.”
“Stop! Enough, brat!”
“Then what grade do you need to fully restore your prime state?”
“Well, that’s simple. If you offer me a hundred or eighty top-grade ninth-rank pills, that should do it.”
“What? A hundred or eighty, all ninth-rank top-grade? And that’s just about enough?”
“Don’t use that tone, brat! The more I recover, the more benefits you reap.”
“If I regain even eighty percent of my prime, you’ll be able to walk across this Wind God Continent with ease.”
“How many people have begged for that and failed? And you actually dare complain?!”
“Heh, no way, Master.”
“But Master, do you think ninth-rank spirit herbs still exist on the Wind God Continent? The highest I’ve heard of are eighth-rank, tightly controlled by the top sects. So far, I’ve only seen seventh-rank once.”
“That’s because you’re ignorant.”
“Back in the day, there were countless seventh and eighth-rank medicinal herbs and spirit plants here. Ninth-rank wasn’t so rare, even...”
“Stop! Enough with ‘back in the day’! Don’t forget this is now ten thousand years later.”
“Ahem, even so, ninth-rank spirit plants still exist. Though rare, well... forget it, they’re far beyond your reach now.”
“We’ll talk about this later. When your cultivation surpasses all on the continent, what grade don’t you think you can get?”
“Hmm, Master’s right. I’ll just wait until I’m unrivaled here.”
“You brat!”
“By the way, Master, my internal spiritual power is clearly about to overflow. Is it time to break through further?”
“Yes, almost there.”
“Let me help you.”
Before Gu Xiaopang could ask how, Elder Qin forcibly poured a pressure no less than the early Nascent Soul stage into his body.
If it were an ordinary late Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, they would have exploded immediately.
But Gu Xiaopang, having mastered body refining, gritted his teeth and endured, his veins bulging as he resisted. Elder Qin carefully controlled and slowly increased the pressure, soon reaching mid-Nascent Soul strength.
Inside Gu Xiaopang, the fully liquefied spiritual energy boiled as if engulfed in blazing fire.
Gradually, the spiritual liquid began to dwindle slightly, and a tiny sand-grain-sized crystal formed in his dantian’s qi sea.
As Elder Qin slowly raised the pressure to late Nascent Soul stage, the crystal grew to the size of a mung bean.
The pressure continued to increase at a torturously slow pace. Gu Xiaopang felt every second drag on endlessly.
His jaw muscles twitched noticeably, cold sweat dripped, his whole body trembled violently, bones creaked, and his heart wavered between willpower and physical limits.
“Hold on! Almost done!”
Elder Qin encouraged him while meticulously guiding the pressure’s slow rise.
When the pressure finally broke through the Nascent Soul boundary, reaching early Divine Transformation stage, Gu Xiaopang’s spiritual liquid had been reduced by seventy percent, and the crystal had grown to roughly the size of a mystical beast’s core, albeit irregular in shape.
“Boy! Hold on for five more breaths!”
At last, just as Gu Xiaopang was on the verge of losing consciousness, his eyes glazing over, white of the eyes showing, Elder Qin withdrew the pressure and simultaneously controlled several pills to instantly dissolve within Gu Xiaopang.
The remaining less-than-twenty-percent spiritual liquid gradually stabilized;
The nearly destroyed meridians slowly repaired themselves;
His bones, already refined to a faint golden hue, shone even brighter;
...
“Crack.”
“Crack.”
Supported firmly by Elder Qin, Gu Xiaopang, half-fainting, could no longer suppress his cultivation and surged violently to the pinnacle of Foundation Establishment stage—the False Core realm.
Half an incense stick later, as Gu Xiaopang slowly awakened, he felt excruciating pain throughout his body, yet inside him surged a powerful energy capable of tearing through the realm of a Perfect Golden Core.
“You brat, awake? How do you feel?”
“Old geezer! You nearly killed me, you old scoundrel! How do you think I feel!”
“You’re not bad, holding out against late early Divine Transformation pressure. Back when I helped Little Feng...”
“Little Feng? Who’s that?”
“Forget the past. Do you feel you’ve become tens of times stronger?”
“Yeah, I think now I’d dare to fight even a low-level fifth-rank mystical beast with all my might.”
“But Master, next time you do this, can you warn me in advance? So I can prepare mentally.”
Having just escaped death’s door, Gu Xiaopang was full of gratitude and grievance as he bitterly scolded Elder Qin.
All this had been carefully controlled by Elder Qin without disturbing anyone.
...
“So I’m already at the False Core realm?”
“Spiritual liquid crystallization? And so large? I really am a talent, haha.”
“No way. After all that suffering, I need to find someone I don’t like to try my strength on.”
...