Ninth In the World

Di Jiu could refine eight-patterned grade-seven immortal pills with a middle-grade cauldron. Now that he had a high-grade one, he was certain that he could refine the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir, no matter how difficult it was.

Since there were only enough herbs to refine one cauldron of elixir, Di Jiu refined several cauldrons of other grade-seven immortal pills after refining the cauldron, just in case.

Apart from the first cauldron of elixir, which included eight-patterned grade-seven immortal pills, all the other batches of immortal pills that Di Jiu refined were nine-patterned.

This showed that he wasn’t lacking in alchemy proficiency or alchemical fire. He just needed a good cauldron.

After cleaning the cauldron, he carefully took out the herbs needed to refine the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir. The elixir formula had introduced the process clearly. First, he had to put the Hundred Vein Flower into the cauldron and extract its medicinal liquid before adding the other supplementary herbs and extracting their medicinal liquids and fusing them into the elixir liquid. The last step was adding the Spiritual Fruit of Dao and fusing the elixir liquid.

Di Jiu sensed that something was wrong as soon as he put the Hundred Vein Flower in. Based on his understanding of fundamental laws, the Hundred Vein Flower was used to form the meridians and Dao runes of an elixir, so it should be added last.

Di Jiu’s Alchemy Dao had been born from the Ninth Dao Law after he had understood all the fundamental laws. Di Jiu believed that good elixirs came with spirituality. It was even possible for elixirs of the highest grade to evolve into Elixir Spirits. Since they came with spirituality, one had to treat them like living things.

They worked hand in hand with cultivators’ Dao bodies to help them progress to higher levels.

Based on his understanding of the Alchemy Dao, the first ingredient should be the Spiritual Fruit of Dao instead of the Hundred Vein Flower, followed by the other complementary spirit herbs. The Hundred Vein Flower ought to be the last ingredient to be added.

This elixir formula contradicted what he knew about the Alchemy Dao. ‘Should I refine it according to the elixir formula or according to my own understanding?’ Di Jiu thought to himself.

He made a decision within a brief moment. His Alchemy Dao had been born from the Ninth Dao Law and could not be replaced by a normal elixir formula.

Thus, without hesitation, Di Jiu sealed the Hundred Vein Flower and threw the Spiritual Fruit of Dao into the cauldron instead.

It melted quickly, and Di Jiu removed any impurities before adding all sorts of complementary spirit herbs into the cauldron…

At that moment, Di Jiu finally realized how difficult it was to refine the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir. Unlike other elixirs, he needed to use the Spiritual Fruit of Dao’s medicinal liquid as the base of the elixir liquid before complementing it with the medicinal liquids of the other herbs.

That wasn’t even all. After fusing the medicinal liquids according to their characteristics, he needed to fuse it with the Hundred Vein Flower’s medicinal liquid.

He couldn’t simply fuse them together. He had to treat this like a Dao body and create new elixir meridians in the medicinal liquid in order to refine the true high-quality Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir.

A single mistake would spoil the entire cauldron of elixir.

Di Jiu was certain that if his Alchemy Dao didn’t place the greatest emphasis on all sorts of Foundation Orders and his Spiritual Force hadn’t surpassed level seven, he would have definitely failed.

Although he wouldn’t fail to refine the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir, he would fail to refine it beyond the seven patterns.

Finally, Di Jiu undid the restrictions on the Hundred Vein Flower and removed any impurities. Its medicinal liquid, which was just like actual meridians, spread around the medicinal liquid in the cauldron according to a specific order.

Four hours passed before Di Jiu finally heaved a sigh of relief. He executed numerous hand seals by the cauldron before taking out six creamy-white elixir pills.

He had finally succeeded. This was the longest time he had ever spent refining a cauldron of elixirs.

Di Jiu was extremely satisfied when he saw the elixir pills in his hand. Each of the six pills had nine light-gold engravings. They weren’t Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixirs, but Nine-Patterned Foundation Elixirs.

Furthermore, there seemed to be some barely visible pill inscriptions underneath these engravings. They formed rounds and rounds of Qi Circulation just like the meridians in human bodies.

Di Jiu sighed inwardly as he realized that these were real Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixirs. The Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir didn’t have to be seven-patterned, but it had to surpass seven-patterned elixirs. It seemed like he had been right. If he had followed the elixir formula, even if he had succeeded, this cauldron of Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir would only have been seven-patterned at best.

“How did it go?” the dead-faced fellow asked immediately when Di Jiu walked out of the elixir store. His gaze was filled with anxiety and anticipation.

His aura was also surging at the same time. Di Jiu knew very well that if he told the fellow that he had failed, there would be a life-and-death battle instantly.

Di Jiu took out a jade bottle while saying, “I’ve refined the elixir, but you have to pass me the items first.”

“Really?” The dead-faced fellow’s voice trembled. He even began to suspect that he was dreaming.

No one knew how important this elixir was to him.

Di Jiu replied flatly, “Yeah, I have indeed refined it. Give me my compensation.”

The dead-faced fellow regained his composure. He threw an array disc down and imprisoned the surrounding area before asking, “You managed to refine it in just four hours?”

In fact, there was already another array disc here. The dead-faced fellow put down another one, as he was still worried.

“Do you want it? If you don’t, I’ll be leaving,” Di Jiu answered impatiently. He was thinking that it would take him an hour at most to refine another cauldron of Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir.

“Yes, I want it.” The dead-faced fellow threw Di Jiu a storage bag after making sure that the second array disc was also activated. Then, his aura locked onto Di Jiu. If Di Jiu dared to try anything funny, he would stop him from leaving even if it cost him his life. He only threw out the second array disc in front of Di Jiu to show him that he shouldn’t try to run away.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force scanned the storage bag and discovered that it did contain 100 level-eight spirit herbs and a jade slip. Although the jade slip was sealed, the seal was useless against Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force. He broke the seal instantly and discovered that it actually contained the location of the Glazed Heaven Immortal Fruit.

Di Jiu thought that even if any Glazed Heaven Immortal Fruit could be found, they would be located in the Dark Ruins Canyon. However, to his surprise, the jade slip stated that they were located in the Lunar Immortal Sea.

The map on the jade slip was extremely detailed, so it had clearly not been drawn recently. All things considered, the dead-faced fellow was a good trading partner.

After making sure that he was appropriately compensated, Di Jiu threw the jade bottle towards that fellow nonchalantly and said, “Check the elixir pills. If there is nothing wrong, put away your lousy array discs now. I have to leave.”

Merely two level-seven confinement arrays weren’t enough to stop him. He had only asked that fellow to put them away because he didn’t want to expose his Array Dao proficiency.

The dead-faced fellows quickly grabbed the jade bottle and checked its contents with his Spiritual Force.

There were three creamy-white elixir pills, and each of them was…

“Ah…” the dead-faced fellow couldn’t help exclaiming out loud when he saw that all the elixir pills were nine-patterned. Soon, he was overwhelmed with excitement. This was the first time he was seeing Nine-Patterned Foundation Elixirs.

The Yin Family was saved. From this day onwards, the Yin Family of the Four Major Immortal Continents would no longer have to hide in fear.

“Friend, the deal is completed now that you have received what you needed. Can you put away your array discs?” Di Jiu’s tone turned cold.

“Yes, yes.” The dead-faced fellow put away the array discs instantly and added excitedly, “Thank you so much, fellow Daoist. Thank you so much, thank you so…”

“It was just a deal.” Di Jiu walked away immediately. He wasn’t going to return the cauldron. This fellow had eaten one of his grade-seven elixirs just now and hadn’t even said anything about it, so he was going to pretend that he had forgotten about the cauldron too.

However, the dead-faced fellow definitely didn’t seem like he was going to ask Di Jiu for the cauldron back. Instead, his tone became increasingly polite and sincere as he said, “I actually have enough herbs for refining two cauldrons of Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir. Could you help me refine another cauldron?”

Di Jiu didn’t care that the dead-faced fellow had lied to him. He turned around and replied, “I can even refine 100 cauldrons of them if you want to, but you have to give me my compensation first.”

The dead-faced fellow looked embarrassed as he replied, “I’ve given you all my level-eight spirit herbs. Why don’t we exchange communication pearls and…”

Di Jiu didn’t want to waste his time with this fellow. He turned around and left hastily without even responding.

By the time the dead-faced fellow came to his senses, Di Jiu had already disappeared from his Spiritual Force.

He clenched his fists tightly, determined to figure out who Di Jiu was. He was the only Alchemy King who could refine Nine-Patterned Foundation Elixirs. He knew very well how important he was to the Yin Family.

For now, he had to return to the Yin Family as soon as possible.

…

The strongest person in the Illusionary Rainbow Immortal Continent was Ye Xi from the Brilliant Lake Palace. However, the most mysterious family in this continent was the Yin Family.

According to the rumors, the Yin Family had been the most powerful family in the Illusionary Rainbow Immortal Continent before Ye Xi had risen to power. However, god knew what had happened to them before they had stopped appearing. Eventually, the Yin Family had been forgotten by people.

In a palace protected by a defense array, deep below the Phantasmal Star Ocean, an old man with a face full of wrinkles was lying lifelessly on a bed. He was the head of the Yin Family, Yin Wushang.

A young boy and a young girl were kneeling down before the old man, and two young women were sitting beside him.

There was silence in the palace, and the atmosphere was depressing.

The old man coughed and slowly said, “There isn’t a place in the Illusionary Rainbow Immortal Continent for the Yin Family anymore. Zixun, I want you and Xueyan to take Jian-er and Zixiu out of the Illusionary Rainbow Immortal Continent as soon as I pass away. I believe that they will find out about this place soon enough.”

The young woman on the left clenched her fists and replied unhappily, “These people are taking things too far. They are still pressuring us, even though we are hiding in this place.”

The old man responded emotionlessly, “They haven’t pressured us. Besides, does that even matter? The Yin Family has been condemned to this fate for cultivating the Heaven-Rocking Divine Cultivation Technique.”

The young woman on the right suddenly said, “Hubby, Yin Huo went looking for an Elixir King that can refine the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir. He may succeed.”

He sighed and replied, “There are no Elixir Kings in the Four Major Immortal Continents who are capable of refining the Seven-Patterned Foundation Elixir anymore. Moreover, I suspect that there is something wrong with that elixir formula.”