Chapter 1372: The Secret of the Stone Elixir
“In fact, it’s highly likely that the Inscription Immortal himself was responsible!”
“After all, each True Immortal Seal Character corresponds to a law of the Immortal Realm. To so casually superimpose and fuse countless runes within it...”
With a grave expression, Li Fan levitated the immortal domain chess piece into his hand.
All the sacred aura it previously exuded had vanished when the unfolding process stopped. The piece now felt like a common object, lying quietly in his palm.
He tried to activate it again, but the piece showed no reaction to any external stimulus.
“As expected, it still requires the Longevity Azure Force of the Medicine King Sect to work.”
“Moreover, the piece itself consumes some kind of energy to unfold. Since the process just failed, it will need some time to recharge.”
Li Fan mused to himself, idly turning the smooth, cold piece over in his hand.
On the contrary, it was as if an accelerator had been pressed; the roiling black qi continued its irreversible spread, surging outward.
It seemed poised to swallow the entire Star Sea in a single, relentless surge.
Li Fan’s brow tightened. After a moment of contemplation, he activated the [Taijia Divine Art].
Due to his frequent use of the art aboard the Mysterious Immortal Boat, the consciousness of the Star Sea had lost interest in responding to his attempts at communication.
Yet, from the limited connection he could establish...
The fundamental will of the Star Sea was completely oblivious to the tide of black qi running rampant at its core!
This utter obliviousness sent a chill down Li Fan's spine.
It was like a body being devoured by countless black insects while its owner remained utterly oblivious to the gnawing.
Such a bizarre situation could only mean one thing: the fundamental nature of the black qi far surpassed that of the Star Sea's own will!
And the so-called black qi that Li Fan was witnessing was not its true essence, but merely an outward manifestation.
“A precursor to the Dao Annihilation Calamity...”
“I'm running out of time.”
A flicker of apprehension crossed Li Fan's eyes. He gathered the members of the Medicine King Sect, still shielded by the wooden sword’s illusion at the edge of the black sea, and returned with them to the Xuanhuang Realm.
“Senior, just now...” Liu Ruchen, the sect master of the Medicine King Sect, began, then trailed off uncertainly.
Completely enveloped by the illusion cast by the wooden sword's phantom, the members of the Medicine King Sect had no idea that they had just taken a brief journey to the very heart of the Star Sea.
From their perspective, a mishap had simply occurred during the fusion process, and the immortal chess piece had torn through the sky and vanished into the void.
Li Fan’s expression was perfectly composed. “There’s no need to worry. I managed to intercept and retrieve the chess piece.”
Hearing this, Liu Ruchen couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Li Fan sighed softly. “We were too complacent. The immortal domain chess piece left by Sun Piao Miao isn't so easily brought back into the world. The backlash from that failure nearly killed us all on the spot. Fortunately, I was able to block the worst of it.”
Although Liu Ruchen and the others couldn't see the roiling sea of black qi, they had all felt the overwhelming sense of impending doom, as if a great tower were about to collapse.
They all nodded in agreement. “Thank you for saving us, Senior.”
Li Fan waved it off. “It was nothing. The important thing now is figuring out how to successfully unfold the piece. Sun Piao Miao must have left some clues behind.”
“It’s just a shame that his descendants didn’t pay them any mind, and now that crucial information is lost.”
The members of the Medicine King Sect all looked ashamed.
For some time now, ever since learning of their ancestor’s grand, world-shaking plan, they had been diligently digging through any and all information related to Sun Piao Miao that they might have previously overlooked.
They were trying to find any other valuable clues.
But too much time had passed. Aside from that travelogue, the ancestor of the Medicine King Sect existed only in oral teachings, and they had found nothing of value.
“Senior,” Liu Ruchen said suddenly, “I think if there is any hidden information we've missed, it must be within the Medicine King Sect's old grounds!”
“We left in such a hurry back then. To avoid detection by the Ten Great Immortal Sects, I only brought the most valuable items with me. Everything else was left behind...”
Liu Ruchen’s suggestion earned the immediate agreement of the other sect members.
“The old grounds of the Medicine King Sect...” Li Fan mused for a moment before taking the Dao Integration cultivators and teleporting them to their destination in the blink of an eye.
The land was desolate, littered with scattered stones and overgrown with weeds. It was impossible to tell that this had once been the site of the renowned Medicine King Sect.
Li Fan, however, had previously obtained the sect’s precise location from Jiao Xiuyuan.
“This was the main hall... the alchemy workshop, the Forging Mountain...”
After examining the ruins, the Medicine King Sect members finally identified traces of their past among the few remaining structures, their voices thick with nostalgia and sorrow.
“Although there isn't a single statue of the Ancestor in the entire sect, I seem to recall my master once mentioning a place within the sect related to him...” Liu Ruchen said, frowning in thought.
He scanned his surroundings, trying to summon a memory from his youth.
Having once searched Liu Ruchen’s soul, Li Fan knew instantly what he was referring to. “You mean the place where Sun Piao Miao used to practice alchemy?”
“Ah, yes, that’s it!” Liu Ruchen exclaimed, nodding eagerly.
“When I refined my first elixir, I was successful on my first try and even achieved a high grade, so I grew quite conceited. But my master scolded me, saying that when the great Ancestor Piao Miao succeeded in his alchemy, celestial phenomena would manifest, and the pill’s fragrance would drift for thousands of miles. Just a single whiff was said to have a fraction of the effect of consuming the pill itself. It was even rumored that some of his elixirs became sentient, developing their own consciousness. The gap between myself and the Ancestor was immeasurable. Hearing that, all my pride vanished in an instant...”
“The Ancestor refined thousands upon thousands of elixirs, but he never kept a single one. He gave them all away to those in need throughout the world, embodying the true spirit of a healer who brings relief to all living beings.”
“But the place where the Ancestor spent most of his time refining elixirs... out of respect, we descendants never occupied or used it, even after he disappeared. This became an unspoken rule, so much so that after a long time, the disciples forgot the origin of the rule and only knew it as a forbidden area of the sect...”
Liu Ruchen explained as he searched for his target.
“Ah, I found it. It's here.” Liu Ruchen’s energy surged, unearthing the building’s ruins from deep underground.
Even after more than ten thousand years, Li Fan could still vaguely discern the structure’s former appearance.
It was, surprisingly, a massive square stone.
“The Ancestor, it is said, required no cauldron for his alchemy. He used his spiritual power as the flame and the heavens and earth as his furnace. He simply liked to sit on this large stone while he worked.”
“Over time, the stone absorbed a medicinal fragrance that never faded. Later, our sect built a structure around the stone to protect it.”
“But generations of masters have inspected it, and they all confirmed it is nothing more than an ordinary rock.”
Liu Ruchen sniffed the air, a pleased look on his face. “Smell that? Even after ten thousand years, you can still catch that faint, pure fragrance.”
Li Fan’s divine sense swept over the square stone, and he examined it meticulously.
He, too, detected the faint, lingering scent.
But the stone wasn't some marvel concealed by a profound technique, like Sun Piao Miao’s other relics.
It was, by all accounts, an ordinary rock.
Of course, there was a simple way to be certain.
A gleam of sword light flared at his fingertip and struck the massive square stone.
In an instant, the stone disintegrated into a cloud of fine dust.
Liu Ruchen, who had been speaking animatedly, stopped mid-sentence.
But faced with Li Fan’s impassive expression, he dared not say a word.
He watched as the dust from the great stone swirled in the air before settling on the ground.
Ever cautious, Li Fan inspected it again. It was, indeed, nothing but ordinary dust and grit.
The faint fragrance also emanated from the fragments themselves.
[Truth] registered no unusual fluctuations.
“You guessed wrong. There’s nothing special about this stone. Think of something else,” Li Fan said flatly.
Liu Ruchen nodded dejectedly.
The other elders also showed a flicker of embarrassment in their eyes and resumed searching the ruins for other possible clues.
All except one.
This man’s attention, far from being diverted by Li Fan’s conclusion, remained fixed on the cloud of stone dust, his eyes glowing with ever-increasing curiosity.
“Senior...” he began.
Li Fan regarded him with interest as information about the man surfaced in his mind.
Ruan Tianxiao, one of the Medicine King Sect’s Dao Integration elders.
Unlike the other elders who used spirit plants in their alchemy, Ruan Tianxiao was accustomed to using the parts of animals, demonic beasts, and even human tissues.
While his results were undeniably potent, his methods were considered too bloody and gruesome, and his “flesh elixirs” were not widely accepted.
“Speak freely,” Li Fan encouraged.
“After the Ancestor’s square stone was shattered, it became like an elixir.”
“In its stone form, it was still in the process of being refined. Only by shattering the stone was the elixir truly completed in that fleeting moment...” Ruan Tianxiao said, choosing his words carefully.
“Elder Ruan, how can you speak such nonsense in front of Senior?”
“Indeed! If what you say is true, why did the fragrance weaken after the stone was shattered?”
“And where is this elixir?” the other Dao Integration cultivators of the Medicine King Sect chimed in, having observed for a moment and found nothing.
Ruan Tianxiao didn’t argue. Instead, he smiled faintly. “To verify whether these fragments are truly an elixir...”
“One only needs to ingest them!”
“Senior, I am willing to test the medicine with my own body!”
The other members of the Medicine King Sect fell silent at once.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, studying Ruan Tianxiao. He raised his right hand, and an invisible whirlwind swept through the air, gathering all the stone dust and coalescing it into a single sphere.
He tossed it in his hand, then sensed it one last time. “Still just a stone.”
“Are you certain this is an elixir?”
Ruan Tianxiao’s gaze was locked on the stone elixir in Li Fan’s hand as he nodded. “I have tested elixirs with my own body for many years. Over time, my body has developed an inexplicable sense for beneficial medicines.”
“In my eyes, the fragrance of this stone elixir surpasses any I have ever encountered in my life by a thousandfold!”
Ruan Tianxiao declared with absolute certainty.
Li Fan, however, grew thoughtful.
He was suddenly reminded of Mo Rubin, who had tried countless methods before the Fishing Pool, yet could never uncover its mysteries.
Without the perspective of a fisherman, one could not perceive the Fishing Pool.
Similarly, without the perspective of an alchemist, perhaps one could not discover the secret of this stone elixir.
“Interesting.”
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