Chapter 1596 – Nirvana of the Mind
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“Lin Ming, are you planning to start refining the Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill?” Xiao Moxian asked from the side. She watched as Lin Ming looked through the Celestial Tyrant Manual for the last several days, seeming to be calculating something.
“It’s good to make preparations early. Although this Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill isn’t a transcendent divine pill, the difficulty of creating it actually is no less than one. And in terms of how precious the materials are, it surpasses a transcendent divine pill. This could be called a test on my skill and wealth…”
As Lin Ming spoke to here he ruefully smiled. In terms of cultivation level it was definitely impossible for him to refine a transcendent divine pill.
Within the Divine Realm, a transcendent divine pill was the highest grade of pill possible.
A good portion of transcendent divine pills came from the hands of Empyreans.
But, Empyreans were limited in number to begin with and most Empyreans were not skilled alchemists. Although their cultivation was high, they might not be able to match up to half-step Empyreans and Great World Kings who specialized in alchemy when it came to their level of skill.
Thus, a good part of the transcendent divine pills were also refined by half-step Empyreans and peak Great World Kings.
In refining a transcendent divine pill, one needed not just sufficient skill in alchemy but also a minimum cultivation base. If one’s cultivation was lacking then they wouldn’t be able to continue through the entire alchemy process. Just achieving a certain temperature of fire would be impossible.
Lin Ming’s current strength couldn’t compare to that of a peak Great World King, so refining a transcendent divine pill was impossible for him.
However, Lin Ming had the support of the divine runic arts and the Asura Heavenly Dao. He could refine a top pill at the peak level of an ordinary World King and then use the divine runic arts to forcefully increase its grade to the standard of a transcendent divine pill.
This was also Lin Ming’s greatest goal in studying the divine runic arts: to use the Asura Heavenly Dao to change the rules and find a shortcut.
“After a dozen more years or so my alchemy skill should be able to stand on par with the alchemists I have absorbed and even rise to the level of a top ordinary World King. At that time, I should be able to refine the Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill…”
Lin Ming pondered. Currently, his strength could be considered quite good amongst ordinary World Kings. In another six or seven years, he should be able to reach the level of sex fiend Torchriver’s alchemy skill. Lin Ming had confidence in himself in this aspect, and moreover when it came to the divine runic arts, it was possible he could surpass Torchriver due to his thorough understanding of the Asura Heavenly Dao.
It was only the materials needed for the Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill that were giving Lin Ming a headache. There were all sorts of rare and precious heavenly materials and most of them couldn’t be bought, so how would he go about collecting them?
Lin Ming jotted down the materials he needed in a list.
Of them, the most precious were – dragon saliva grass, heaven devouring snake gallbladder, jade dragon’s horn, primal jade quintessence…
Many of these materials were connected to God Beasts!
Speaking of just dragon saliva grass, that was divine grass that was watered and raised with the saliva of a True Dragon!
There were said to be True Dragons and ancient pythons that would wait for a heavenly material to grow, watering it with their saliva the entire time. They would wait for 10,000 years, 100,000 years, until that heavenly material matured and then they would eat it to increase their own strength.
This sort of heavenly material was priceless and the key problem was that there was almost no market for them. This was because these heavenly materials were often eaten by their guardian beasts after they matured, so how could anyone obtain them?
As for a heaven devouring snake gallbladder, that was the gallbladder from a heaven devouring eight path python. Although this type of ancient desolate beast was far from being as strong as a God Beast, in the entire Asura Road there was only a single place to obtain them, and that was deep within the Great Desolate.
And there was no need to mention the dangers within the Great Desolate. That was a land where even Empyreans had to be cautious.
The jade dragon’s horn was the bone of a True Dragon. Its grade was far beyond the supreme dragon bone that Lin Ming had absorbed in the past, the only exception being that it didn’t need to be as large.
All of the materials left Lin Ming with a ringing migraine. If he tried to gather them himself it would be absolutely impossible to collect them all. For instance, that dragon saliva grass was something that could only be discovered through a stroke of fate.
If Lin Ming wanted to obtain these materials his only choice was to buy them.
And to buy these things, even if he had a massive amount of wealth he still might not be able to find a place to purchase them. Not just that but he wasn’t even wealthy to begin with!
This left Lin Ming in a dilemma.
The road of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was simply far too expensive. Although it seemed exaggerated that Lin Ming could jump ranks to fight like he could, this sort of monstrous strength was created with the consumption of countless heavenly materials. Every time Lin Ming took a single step forwards in the body transformation technique he had to consume resources dozens of times that of an essence gathering system martial artist, or even hundreds of times.
Time passed, the years leaving no mark.
Without noticing it, another 12 years passed. Lin Ming had stayed in this small and unknown sect for a full 25 years.
In these 25 years, Lin Ming seemed to have once again tasted the difficulties and hardships of low level martial artists as they tried to climb to the top.
In these 25 years, Lin Ming’s strength didn’t rise by too much. But, his state of mind seemed to change, slowly settling and evolving from the constant state of intrigue and slaughter that he experienced for the first 50 some years of his life.
The reason he chose the Blue Moon Sect to practice his divine runic arts and consolidate his foundation instead of Divine Rune City was because compared to Divine Rune City, this Blue Moon Sect was a relatively weak environment. Here, he could lead a simple life, unaffected by the deceits and struggles of the inner court disciples.
To him, any conflicts between the Blue Moon Sect disciples were like fighting between small ants.
In these 25 years of tranquil living, Lin Ming experienced a nirvana of his mind.
It was time to leave.
This Blue Moon Sect could be called the place Lin Ming had stayed at for the longest time in his life. Here, he didn’t need to think about anything. He could calmly cultivate, living a mortal life with Xiao Moxian.
It could be expected that he would not experience such peaceful and comfortable days in the future. Whether it was the final trial or the great calamity of the Divine Realm, Lin Ming had to face them all. He could be said to be wandering into a violent storm of blood and terror!
And at this time, the granddaughter of the Blue Moon Sect’s Sovereign, a young girl named Qian Qiao, came to Lin Ming to study alchemy.
Qian Qiao was 22 years old. In the world of martial artists, she was extremely young.
She was born three years after Lin Ming came to the Blue Moon Sect. Afterwards when Lin Ming became famous, Qian Qiao was still young. At that time she had taken Lin Ming as her idol and now she had grown into a slim and delicate young girl.
Qian Qiao’s talent was very good and her soul force far surpassed other martial artists of her age. Because of this, she was particularly fascinated by alchemy. Every so often she would come to Lin Ming for advice, and unlike the other inner court disciples she was always quiet for fear of disturbing Lin Ming. After all, Lin Ming was usually cold and indifferent to whoever he faced, as if he didn’t have any patience at all.
Qian Qiao had never bothered Lin Ming. Sometimes she would simply watch Lin Ming quietly in the room, taking notes as he practiced his alchemy.
At times, Lin Ming would even give her some pointers. Every time, Lin Ming could see a hint of admiration from this young girl’s eyes, and even youthful adoration.
The current Lin Ming had many more experiences than he had in the past. He naturally knew what this look meant.
However, Qian Qiao never expressed anything but the utmost respect for Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian.
Towards this little girl called Qian Qiao, Xiao Moxian would often tease Lin Ming about her. It seemed that she was quite fond of her.
Unwittingly and unknowingly, Xiao Moxian’s own state of mind experienced a great change. From the past naughty and mischievous young girl she had been, she had matured a great deal and become much calmer.
As Lin Ming watched Qian Qiao quietly recording his alchemy attainments in the outer hall, for some reason he recalled many past memories. For a time many feelings washed over him. It seemed he had developed a strange feeling towards this place where he had lived for the last 25 years.
Or, it was better to say that Lin Ming wasn’t nostalgic to stay in the Blue Moon Sect, but reluctant to part with the 25 years of ease and comfort he had lived. This was a type of living that he had never experienced.
Thinking back to the past, it was probably only during his childhood that he lived such a peaceful life.
But in any event, Lin Ming was destined to not stay here for much longer.
On this day, Lin Ming called over Qian Qiao and earnestly taught her the divine runic arts. After 10-12 hours of teaching, they finally ended when the sun set.
Before leaving, Lin Ming recorded many of his alchemy attainments and passed it to Qian Qiao, along with a bracelet.
Qian Qiao looked at Lin Ming in a daze for some time, her cheeks flushed red. She was surprised that Lin Ming had been so patient with her today.
After several breaths of time, she turned around and left with a satisfied expression. As she walked away, her long black hair gently rippled in the wind, dancing in beat with the leaves…
Lin Ming lightly sighed. That night, he and Xiao Moxian left this place that they had lived in for 25 years…
Their figures quietly vanished in the endless night. No one noticed they vanished, and not even the mountain array formations that protected the Blue Moon Sect were able to detect them.
When Qian Qiao returned to her room, she searched through the bracelet that Lin Ming had given her and was shocked.
This bracelet seemed like an ordinary accessory but the truth was that it was a storage spirit artifact similar to a spatial ring. Left in this bracelet was over a thousand medium grade pills as well as a massive amount of divine runic symbols that hadn’t yet been used.
These medium grade pills were sufficient for Divine Sea realm or Divine Transformation realm martial artists to use! They were even valuable for Divine Lord realm martial artists!
These pills were the ones that Lin Ming had never taken out to sell before. This was because according to common sense, with the level of alchemy he could reach with his cultivation he should never have been able to produce such high quality medium grade pills.
After Qian Qiao was stunned she returned to Lin Ming’s residence to look for him. But, Lin Ming had already vanished, without leaving a single trace of himself behind.
As she looked through the empty alchemy room and divine runic arts room, she felt hollow for a moment, her heart sinking. Then, she passed all the pills to her grandfather, the Sect Master of the Blue Moon Sect.
After receiving these thousand plus medium grade pills, the Blue Moon Sect Master was left dumbfounded, shocked speechless.
“Will they come back?” Qian Qiao suddenly asked, as if she seemed to realize something.
The Blue Moon Sect Master lightly sighed. He ruefully smiled and said, “They are not people of our world… chances are, they will not return…”
…….
One month later, Divine Rune City –
A spirit ship came to a slow stop as a young man and woman flew off the deck.
After 25 years, Lin Ming had returned to Divine Rune City.
But, there was no comparing the him of today to the him of 25 years ago.
The refinement of the Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill would all begin here.