I Can Upgrade My Talent Infinitely

Every few decades, the Ghost Cultivators from their side had to send several members to the Celestial Ghost Mansion for "further studies." After their training, some returned, while others remained at the Celestial Ghost Mansion.

Elder Lu of the Black Ghost Cave was one of them.

"What can we do now to provoke the Celestial Demon Sect into attacking the Celestial Cloud Sect again? As long as the Celestial Demon Sect makes a move, they’re bound to seek cooperation from the Demon Spirit Sect again."

"The Celestial Demon Sect’s current subordinate Foundation Establishment Influences are far, far weaker than before. Under normal circumstances, it’s impossible for them to attack the Celestial Cloud Sect again within the next hundred years, unless the Celestial Cloud Sect actively starts trouble with them."

"The Celestial Cloud Sect attacking the Celestial Demon Sect first? HAHAHAHA, just listen to yourself! Looking through past records, the Celestial Cloud Sect has never once initiated an attack on the Celestial Demon Sect, not even during its most powerful periods. If you want them to fight, getting the current Celestial Demon Sect to make a move is the more realistic option."

Get the Celestial Cloud Sect to strike first.

Most of those present felt it was impossible.

If there had been any instances of the Celestial Cloud Sect acting proactively in their history, the elders of that time would surely have left records of it.

"In the last great war, the Demon Spirit Sect didn’t lose many of their Foundation Establishment Demons, did they?"

"You can forget about the Demon Spirit Sect. They’re just like the Celestial Cloud Sect. During the war, the Demon Spirit Sect did make a move openly, but in my opinion, their initial efforts were just to placate the Celestial Demon Sect. By the time they got serious, it was too late to be of any use."

"In the past, whenever the Celestial Demon Sect moved against the Celestial Cloud Sect, the Demon Spirit Sect merely played a supporting role. They’ve never taken the lead in such matters."

"We have almost no way to get the Demon Spirit Sect to take the lead against the Celestial Cloud Sect. If we actually tried to orchestrate something, we’d only arouse their suspicion."

"Yes. In my view, the Demon Spirit Sect is much shrewder than the Celestial Demon Sect."

In the lengthy discussion that followed,

the elders of the Black Ghost Cave all pondered how to make another great war break out.

Ideally, they wanted both sides to suffer devastating losses; that was the outcome the Black Ghost Cave would be most delighted to see.

But no matter how much they discussed it, they couldn’t come up with a good plan.

The few methods that had been proposed and tried had basically backfired.

"After all this talk, I feel we can’t rely on either the Celestial Demon Sect or the Demon Spirit Sect. If we truly want to halt the Celestial Cloud Sect’s development, we’ll need to take some action ourselves."

"Historically, the Celestial Cloud Sect has always kept to itself. Even if they become stronger in the future, I believe they’ll continue to do so. Fellow elders, I don’t think we need to do anything in particular."

"No, it’s different. The situation now is somewhat different. That Core Formation Sword Cultivator from the Celestial Cloud Sect, Miao Qinghong, went straight to the Celestial Demon Sect’s headquarters before. That’s enough to prove her aggressive nature. As an Early-stage Core Formation cultivator, she might not be able to sway the Celestial Cloud Sect’s decisions yet, but that could change later on. We need to take preventive measures."

"Judging by the current situation, it’s unlikely the Celestial Demon Sect will make a move. The Demon Spirit Sect is capable of acting, and I think they should be even more anxious about this than we are."

On the issue of whether the Black Ghost Cave should take the initiative,

every Elder had their own opinion.

Their views fell into two main camps: those who wanted to act, and those who wanted to wait for the two Demon Cultivation Core Formation Influences to make another move.

"We don’t need to take such a large step, but we can’t just keep on as we were. From now on, we will slowly increase our influence over the Celestial Cloud Sect," Elder Lu of the Black Ghost Cave spoke up after everyone had quieted down.

His method was a compromise.

The Black Ghost Cave elders who had previously voiced their opinions were mostly able to accept it.

...

「Late June.」

In Song Qiaoqiao’s cave abode on Dan Cloud Peak of the Celestial Cloud Sect.

"Fang Yun, inside here are the Spirit Medicines for refining the Golden Core Pill."

Song Qiaoqiao handed a Storage Pouch to Fang Yun.

There were very few Spirit Medicines for the Golden Core Pill—only three sets. If Fang Yun succeeded in refining each set of Spirit Medicines, he could produce three Golden Core Pills.

"The Supreme Elder and the Sect Leader’s intention is that it’s completely fine for you to use up one set of Spirit Medicines for practice," Song Qiaoqiao said, relaying the message from the sect’s upper echelon.

The Third-Tier pill, the Golden Core Pill, was very difficult to refine.

Even with Fang Yun’s level of Alchemy, they felt that he would likely only be able to refine two Golden Core Pills.

The first batch of the Golden Core Pill would be very difficult to refine successfully.

They knew without even thinking about it that when Fang Yun refined his first batch, he would use the lowest-quality set of Spirit Medicines, which would further decrease the chance of him succeeding on the first try.

"Qiaoqiao, do you think I can produce three Golden Core Pills?" Fang Yun asked with a smile, looking at Song Qiaoqiao’s delicate face.

"Of course you can refine three."

Song Qiaoqiao replied without hesitation.

If anyone in the sect best understood Fang Yun’s skill in pill refining, it was undoubtedly her, as she had been exchanging alchemy experience with him for a long time.

Fang Yun’s contribution was indispensable to her own alchemy skills reaching their current level.

From the matter of refining the Golden Core Pill, the two’s conversation gradually drifted to the topic of cultivation.

Right now, Song Qiaoqiao was very close to the true Peak of Foundation Establishment, a level she expected to reach before the end of the year.

At that time, it wouldn’t be long before she entered seclusion for Core Formation.

If Song Qiaoqiao could successfully achieve Core Formation in her seclusion, the number of Core Formation experts in the sect would increase to seven.

After Fang Yun left Dan Cloud Peak and returned to his own cave abode,

he quickly sequestered himself in his Alchemy Room to begin a relatively long period of seclusion.

Now that he had the Spirit Medicines for the Golden Core Pill, he didn’t want to delay any further.

The Golden Core Pill was the fifth type of Third-Tier pill he had ever refined, and also the most difficult one to date.

"If I had obtained the Spirit Medicines for the Golden Core Pill when I was at the Late-stage of Foundation Establishment, I would have broken through to the Peak of Foundation Establishment before starting to refine it."

In the Alchemy Room, Fang Yun looked at the Spirit Medicines for the Golden Core Pill and couldn’t help but say this aloud.

Compared to his Late-stage Foundation Establishment self, his Spiritual Power was now stronger at the Peak of Foundation Establishment, and his Divine Sense was more powerful as well.

The key was the strength of his Divine Sense, which would help him better refine the Golden Core Pill.

Just like with refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, there were also three main Spirit Medicines for refining the Golden Core Pill.

All three main Spirit Medicines were of the Third-Tier Middle Grade.

They were: Chen Jingzhi, Profound Spirit Vine, and Nine Orifice Heart-penetrating Lotus.

Of the three main Spirit Medicines, even the Profound Spirit Vine, which had the shortest growth period, required 220 years to mature and become usable.

These Spirit Medicines had to be planted in Spirit Fields of Third-Tier Middle Grade or higher, and they were also incredibly troublesome to care for.

With a reasonable allocation of care, the Celestial Cloud Sect could only refine two or three batches of the Golden Core Pill every hundred years.

For instance, in the current Third-Tier Middle Grade Spirit Fields, there were specimens of the three Spirit Medicines that had been growing for over a hundred years. After a Spirit Medicine was harvested from a plot, the Spirit Field needed to be treated for a period of time to allow the next plant to grow better.

With three sets of Spirit Medicines for the Golden Core Pill, Fang Yun’s goal was not just to refine three pills, but also for the last one to preferably be of Middle Grade.

Therefore, he would use the best set of Spirit Medicines for the third batch.

The worst set of Spirit Medicines would be used for the second batch.

If the Spirit Medicines for the very first batch were too poor in quality, it would be very difficult to successfully refine a Golden Core Pill at all.

After spending the better part of a day in the Alchemy Room, meticulously reviewing the Golden Core Pill’s Pill Formula over and over and taking note of more key points, Fang Yun finally began refining the first batch.

The Third-Tier pill, the Five Qi Chao Ling Pill, had fifty-two major steps in its refining process.

The Golden Core Pill, however, had a full seventy-two major steps.

Chen Jingzhi was involved in the first eighteen major steps. From the nineteenth to the thirty-sixth major steps, the primary Spirit Medicine was the Profound Spirit Vine. The Nine Orifice Heart-penetrating Lotus was used from the thirty-seventh to the fifty-fourth steps. In the final eighteen major steps, all three main Spirit Medicines were involved.

Therefore, the difficulty and the critical part of refining the Golden Core Pill lay in the final eighteen major steps.

When the refining process for the first batch of the Golden Core Pill began,

Fang Yun handled the first fifty-four major steps relatively well.

But upon entering the fifty-fifth major step, the pressure mounted.

This was the most pressure he had felt since his Alchemy Talent had upgraded to eight stars.

Processing the last eighteen major steps took even a little longer than the first fifty-four steps combined.

More than seven days had now passed since he entered the Alchemy Room.

Only then did Fang Yun complete the final stage of refining the Golden Core Pill.