Chapter 82: The Nature Hall’s Marvelous Art of Extracting Pill Essence

Xu Yu was anxious, but Qin Haoxuan was not. He had spent every night for the past week searching the area around the giant ape’s skeleton, pushing himself until his Spiritual Sense was on the verge of collapse. Though he had found nothing, he could feel his Spiritual Sense growing significantly stronger. He had a plan: by day, he would learn the Six Arts of Cultivation from Pu Hanzhong, and by night, he would hunt for treasure in the Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley while tempering his mind. Even if he never found a manual for Spiritual Sense attacks, he believed that once his mind was powerful enough, he could strike his enemies with a mere thought. At that point, he could cripple the soul of even a cultivator a dozen leaves stronger than himself, instantly robbing them of their ability to fight.

In the blink of an eye, ten days of the Trial of the Immortal Path had passed. For Qin Haoxuan, they had been immensely fruitful. He had grasped the basics of making medicinal powders and had used the pressure of the valley and the great skeleton’s aura to temper his Spiritual Sense every night. Meanwhile, Little Gold had been diligently commanding the Mighty Apes, and the results were plain to see.

Although Qin Haoxuan’s ten mu of corn had been planted last, the seedlings were already four or five inches tall, a vibrant and healthy sea of green. It was the most impressive plot of land among all the new disciples. This was, of course, partly due to the excellent spirit land he had chosen, but the tireless work of Little Gold and the apes was a major factor.

One morning, Qin Haoxuan stretched and sat up in bed. Little Gold was already gone. He sighed in amusement; the little monkey was even more diligent about cultivating than he was. He had noticed that in the past few days, its fur had become glossier and its body more robust. At the very least, a single Mighty Ape could no longer push it around. Seeing the monkey was not in the room, a playful smile spread across his face. “Has it gone recruiting again? This little fellow gets more interesting by the day.”

He and Pu Hanzhong had originally caught twelve apes. But on the third day after Little Gold began cultivating, he had opened his door to find fifteen of them waiting outside. He figured the little monkey had decided its workforce was insufficient and had taken a solo trip to Hundred Beasts Mountain to conscript more.

With a smile, he opened his door. Little Gold was indeed outside, standing before a neat row of Mighty Apes, each of which towered over it by nearly three feet. Qin Haoxuan counted them carefully. There were twenty in total. What shocked him even more was that the five newest apes had no control talismans on their foreheads, no needles in their temples, and didn’t seem to have been fed any Beast Taming Pills. They showed no signs of being magically controlled at all. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the new apes had patches of missing fur and were covered in bruises. Their faces were swollen. They had clearly been in a fierce brawl.

Qin Haoxuan was stunned. Not long ago, Little Gold was the one being bullied. Now, it had single-handedly beaten five full-grown Mighty Apes into submission. To go from being unable to win against one to dominating five… and without a single scratch on its own body… its cultivation speed was terrifying. It was like watching a seven-year-old child beat a burly adult into submission after just seven days of training.

At that moment, Little Gold was busy squeaking and chattering at the new recruits, teaching them how to till the land and water the crops. It even personally demonstrated how to walk through the field without stepping on the young corn seedlings. Seeing its earnest expression, Qin Haoxuan couldn’t help but laugh.

At the same time, a faint worry crept into his mind. After cultivating that secret manual, would Little Gold begin to develop a demonic aura? In the world of human cultivators, any other species that gained intelligence and cultivated the Dao was considered a demon. Cultivating demonic arts often produced a distinct demonic aura. If Little Gold, practicing its powerful monkey art, developed one, he would be in deep trouble. The Taichu Sect, as a righteous sect, had a zero-tolerance policy for demons. If Little Gold were discovered, not only would it be killed instantly, but he would also be severely punished. But he couldn’t bring himself to stop the monkey’s progress. In fact, a part of him was eager to see what it would become. He just gave it an encouraging smile and went back inside to practice.

After half an hour, he stopped his cultivation. The prime time for the Celestial River Dao Art had passed. It was time to find his senior brother and continue his lessons. In the past few days of practicing both arts simultaneously, his Immortal Sprout’s root had grown much stronger, though there was still no sign of a leaf.

Just as he was about to leave, a rooted disciple came to his door, a fawning look on his face. “Senior Brother Qin,” he said, “could I possibly borrow your monkeys to water my field every other day? I’m so tired from carrying water myself, it’s taking up all my cultivation time. And what’s worse, my corn seedlings are looking sickly from dehydration!”

Qin Haoxuan just smiled and held up two fingers.

The disciple understood immediately. “Two-tenths of the harvest? No problem! As long as you let your monkeys water my field every other day, you’ll get your share!”

After the happy disciple left, Qin Haoxuan’s face was wreathed in a satisfied smile. Thanks to Little Gold, he had become a landlord of sorts. Besides the three Purple Seeds, who had their own large retinues, every other disciple with land had now struck a deal with him. He was earning a twenty-percent share of nearly all the fields in the valley. He patted Little Gold’s furry head. With this little monkey around, he had the potential to become a very rich man.

Just then, Pu Hanzhong arrived, interrupting his pleasant daydream. “Ahem… today, we’re going to learn something new, outside of the Six Arts of Cultivation.”

“Something new?” Qin Haoxuan’s eyes lit up. From his senior brother’s mysterious smile, it sounded valuable. “What is it?”

Pu Hanzhong didn’t answer. He just took out a porcelain vial and tipped a few ruined, spiritless pills into his palm.

“Ruined pills?” Qin Haoxuan had some of his own from the Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley, but these were different, clearly the result of a failed refinement.

“Correct,” Pu said, handing them to him. “Do you think these have any value?”

Qin Haoxuan examined them. They were black and dull, like common stones, completely lacking the lustrous sheen of a proper pill.

“To the disciples of the four great halls, a ruined pill is worthless,” Pu explained. “But our Nature Hall is suppressed by them and receives very few resources from the sect. So, we invented a method to purify these ruined pills, to extract whatever medicinal properties remain. We can then add the missing ingredients and re-refine them, or just make them into a medicinal powder.” He continued, “A ruined pill usually only has one or two of its components destroyed, not the entire thing. The simplest pills are made from six or seven herbs, and more complex ones require over a dozen. Finding a ruined pill is like finding several ingredients at once. It’s much simpler to just add the few that are missing.”

His words were a revelation to Qin Haoxuan, who nodded in understanding.

“And don’t look down on this,” Pu added. “Analyzing ruined pills is a profound field of study. After the great war thousands of years ago, many ancient pill formulas were lost. A lot of the high-grade pills we have today were reverse-engineered by analyzing the properties of ancient remnant pills like these. It’s just that for the other four halls, with their vast resources, it’s easier to simply grow more ingredients than to spend time on salvage. Now,” he said, his expression turning serious, “there is a special technique for this. It’s called the Art of Essence Extraction, and it is unique to our Nature Hall. But it’s not easy to learn. It requires the use of Spiritual Sense.”

“Spiritual Sense?” Qin Haoxuan’s heart skipped a beat. For others, it was a weakness. For him, it was his greatest strength.

“That’s right,” Pu said. “Although normally only the ancestors at the Dao Fruit Realm can cultivate Spiritual Sense, our Art of Essence Extraction has a clever way of utilizing it prematurely. At the basic level, you can only extract from the most basic ruined pills. But as your skill in the art grows, you can purify higher-grade pills. It also has a side effect: it strengthens your Spiritual Sense, though the process is extremely slow. The other halls think it’s a waste of time. After all, the growth is so slow that it will never be strong enough for mental pressure or direct attacks… ahem…”

(End of Chapter)