Ninth In the World

The main spiritual herbs used in the making of the Azure Coagulated Elixir were the level-seven spiritual herbs called Coagulated Energy Hemp and Cypress Purple Vine. Di Jiu did possess quite a few level-seven spiritual herbs, yet he did not possess many spiritual herbs that were used as secondary ingredients. Other than the various level-seven spiritual herbs, several level-six spiritual herbs and some lower-level spiritual herbs were also required as secondary ingredients in order to refine the Azure Coagulated Elixir. The secondary ingredients he possessed were sufficient to only refine three cauldrons of Azure Coagulated Elixir.

Di Jiu cleaned up the cauldron and started extracting the spiritual herbs he had placed inside in a similar manner to the way he had refined the grade-six Snow Dawn Elixir.

Before starting the refining process, Ji Ming had told Di Jiu that Spiritual Force was the most important factor in alchemy besides the cauldron, the spiritual herbs, the Alchemy Art, the Dao fire and so on.

If one’s Spiritual Force was too weak, their future accomplishments would be limited, no matter how good their theoretical knowledge on alchemy was.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was at level ten. Hence, he could master the Alchemy Art easily. When he did, he would separate the impurities and form the Spirit Liquid…

Thanks to his powerful Spiritual Force, Di Jiu made no mistakes during the process. However, as he was collecting the elixirs, he only saw six elixirs with no medicinal properties.

Di Jiu would definitely have sought advice from Ji Ming if he had still been around. That way, the second cauldron of elixir would have been a success. Now that Ji Ming was gone though, he had no one to depend on. Besides, Ji Ming had said that he would have to figure out how to refine the grade-seven Spirit Elixirs himself. If Di Jiu had been taught how, his alchemy potential would have been limited.

Di Jiu repeatedly deduced his alchemy methods and repeated the process a few times. However, he failed to discover the reason he was unable to refine the first cauldron of grade-seven Azure Coagulated Elixir.

Although he only possessed three sets of Azure Coagulated Elixir refining materials, he still decided to refine one more cauldron of the elixir.

Di Jiu grabbed a ball of black flame from his Luminous Starry Sky and threw it in the elixir residue inside the cauldron. The spiritual herbs were thrown into the cauldron in order. Meanwhile, his powerful Spiritual Force enveloped the entire cauldron, taking note of even the slightest fluctuation.

Even the minute resolution of the spiritual herbs did not escape the careful observation of Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force. The resolution was very thorough when he threw out the dregs produced.

The spiritual herbs started to merge together under the guidance of the Alchemy Art. Di Jiu followed the insight he had gained from his previous alchemy experience and made the hand seals very cautiously.

When the hand seals landed inside the cauldron, the merged liquid separated into its components once more.

However, Di Jiu had a bad premonition. Although the steps taken seemed correct, he felt no joy about successfully refining the elixir and no elixir aura.

The medicinal liquid was disintegrated by Di Jiu’s Alchemy Art. Then, it started to take the shape of a pill while the elixir spirit was gathered.

Six elixirs without any Spiritual Aura landed on Di Jiu’s palm. He did not need to see the elixirs to know that his second cauldron had also been a failure.

He had failed two consecutive times, and he still had not discovered why.

Perhaps the cauldron used was wrong, for it had not been refined by Di Jiu himself. Actually, it was a middle-grade Spirit Weapon he had obtained from the Qi Family’s Commercial Building.

He could refine supreme-grade Spirit Weapons himself. However, Di Jiu was well-aware that, although he might possess the capability to refine a cauldron, he lacked the materials required.

His gaze landed on the Creation Cauldron in front of him. This cauldron could be used to refine grade-seven Spirit Elixir. However, Ji Ming had said that its success rate was not high.

Di Jiu decided to test out the Creation Cauldron, He was only left with one set of ingredients after all. If this attempt still failed, he would head out to purchase a good cauldron before practicing again.

Fire restrained wood. Even though he had decided to use the Creation Cauldron to refine the elixir, Di Jiu still could not comprehend why anyone would use wood to make a cauldron.

When his Spiritual Force landed on the Creation Cauldron, he immediately sensed that the restrictions on this cauldron were very simple. This was just a low-grade Spirit Weapon with level-four restrictions and only one incomplete level-five restriction. This cauldron seemed to be of worse quality than the cauldron he had been using previously.

Di Jiu shook his head. He would not even have considered using this cauldron if he had possessed a slightly better one.

In just a few minutes, he had refined all the restrictions on the Creation Cauldron. Just as he was about to clean the Creation Cauldron and start refining the elixir, the small gray stone in his Spiritual Sea started shaking vigorously, as though it was about to rush out of his Spiritual Sea and land on the cauldron.

Meanwhile, the golden ray within the small gray stone emitted some golden waves that Di Jiu knew were a form of Dao Law.

What surprised him was that these Dao Laws and the Creation Cauldron seemed to resonate.

Could this Creation Cauldron actually be an impressive item?

Any item that could resonate so vigorously with the small gray stone was definitely not simple. Even the Book of the World could not incite such a strong reaction. The reason he had obtained the Book of the World was mainly because it had been attracted to the small gray stone and the golden lightning within it.

Di Jiu suddenly thought of the Small World he had obtained. Back then, there had been various Spiritual Force imprints and restrictions on the Small World that he had failed to discover. Could this Creation Cauldron also contain some hidden restrictions?

When he hastily took control of the violently-shaking small gray stone, his Spiritual Force permeated the Creation Cauldron completely. One day later, he pulled back his Spiritual Force disappointedly. He had failed to discover any hidden restrictions.

The Book of the World! He should seek help from the Book of the World!

When Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force landed on the Book of the World, he was surprised to discover that the first page seemed to differ slightly compared to the last time his Spiritual Force had entered the book. As his Spiritual Force landed on the second page, he quickly understood that the first page had not changed. Instead, a new page had suddenly appeared in the book.

On this page was a massive ancient tree. When he saw it, Di Jiu had a feeling that his Spiritual Force could not even touch the borders of this tree.

Beside the ancient tree was a description: “The Creation Wood has green leaves, yellow fruits and a purple trunk with no branches. The top of the trunk has been curved nicely, while its bottom has nine tree hollows. Its fruits are numerous in number and its leaves verdant.”

Di Jiu breathed in sharply. The Creation Wood really existed. The rumor was true. Someone had actually used the Creation Wood to refine the cauldron before him.

Di Jiu felt goosebumps. He had not expected that he would obtain a cauldron made out of Creation Wood. He immediately continued reading the description. “Numerous Saints were involved when the universe disintegrated and the Creation Wood was split into hundreds of millions of pieces…”

When his Spiritual Force left the page after a long time, Di Jiu was in a state of disbelief. Back in ancient times, there had been a huge battle amongst the Saints that had caused the universe to be completely fragmented. The Creation Wood had also been splintered into innumerable pieces. The Creation Cauldron he had obtained must have been made from one of these pieces. Di Jiu was curious to know whether this piece was the biggest one.

If he had not possessed both the small gray stone and the Book of the World, he would not have known that this cauldron was made of Creation Wood.

It seemed like the extermination of the Cauldron Elixir Mountain had not been unjustified. The sect had kept a heaven-defying object like the Creation Cauldron from everyone else after all. The most important thing to note was that not even the sect itself had known the origin of the cauldron. The group of idiots who had exterminated the Cauldron Elixir Mountain had actually stolen a fake Creation Cauldron and left the real one behind.

After organizing his thoughts and cleaning up the Creation Cauldron, Di Jiu took out the last set of Azure Coagulated Elixir ingredients.

He had originally been worried that his Dao fire would burn the Creation Cauldron. However, this no longer concerned him. If a cauldron made of Creation Wood could be burned so easily, this wood would not be the wood used in epoch-making. The only thing he failed to understand was why Ji Ming had said that the cauldron’s elixir-refining success rate was so low that a high-level elixir could not be refined by using it.

When Di Jiu took out his Dao fire, the spiritual herb ingredients used for the Azure Coagulated Elixir swiftly dissolved. His Spiritual Force sensed a vast Law Aura shortly after coming into contact with the dissolved Spirit Liquid.

That was right, Di Jiu should cultivate the Dao Law! Di Jiu wanted to slap himself. Ji Ming had already told him that he had to walk his own Alchemy Law path if he intended to get more successful. Since this was his own alchemy path, he should have his own Alchemy Laws.

Earlier, he had been using the method used to refine a grade-six Spirit Elixir to refine a grade-seven Spirit Elixir, which of course had made success impossible.

This time, Di Jiu merged his Galaxy Dao Law with the elixir. As expected, he soon smelled the fragrance of the elixirs and the Dao runes started to coagulate. Then, he felt clearly a Law Aura within the Creation Cauldron permeate the Azure Coagulated Elixirs. The elixirs swiftly started to take shape.

In less than five minutes, Di Jiu lifted his land and took out 12 fragrant Azure Coagulated Elixirs. Each elixir was a special-class elixir with distinct engravings.

Di Jiu looked at the elixirs in his hand in pleasant surprise. He finally understood what was going on.

One had to possess a Spiritual Force at or above level ten before they could use the Creation Cauldron to practice alchemy. If their Spiritual Force was lower than level ten, they would not be able to use the Creation Cauldron. This was also why the cauldron had remained undiscovered so far. No one’s Spiritual Force had been able to reach level ten.

Having a level-ten Spiritual Force while using the Creation Cauldron to refine elixirs improved the quality of the elixirs, which would now contain a Law Aura. This aura would be better than the aura of any other elixir.

However, this was not what pleased Di Jiu the most. What made him the happiest was the fact that the number of grade-seven elixirs refined by the Creation Cauldron had doubled.