Chapter 19: Seizing the Mysterious Extreme Elixir
This Taoist priest, surnamed Zhang and named Jian, was originally a hermit who lived in seclusion. He was born near the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, his mother being a peasant woman who had been raped by a wild man from the mountains and gave birth to him. At birth, he looked very unusual, and his maternal grandfather considered him an evil omen and abandoned him in the mountains. A ferocious beast picked him up and raised him until it died when he grew up, then he lived on mountain animals and drank from clear springs like a wild man of the mountains.
Later, he inadvertently encountered a cave left by a monk who died hundreds of years ago in a deep mountain. There was only one bottle of elixir and two volumes of Taoist scriptures with the method of practicing Gong. At that time, he couldn't read or write, but he looked at the lines drawn on the Taoist scriptures and learned from them. It was his good fortune that he had a spiritual root, whether it was inherited from his father's side or mother's side. The Taoist method suited him well, so he lived in seclusion in the old cave for 30 years, finally achieving success in refining his Qi.
He grew up with ferocious beasts and developed a wicked temperament. The Taoist methods he practiced were also mainly evil, and he cultivated his mind and nature, refined his energy and transformed his spirit. After leaving the mountain, his temperament became even more sinister. The first thing he did was to find the clan that had abandoned him when he was young. At that time, he was already nearly fifty years old. His mother and grandfather had long since passed away, but he still showed no mercy, killing all thirty-seven members of the clan from top to bottom. Afterwards, he took the deceased loose cultivator as his father and called himself Zhang Jian, becoming an unremarkable loose cultivator in the cultivation world.
In this cultivation world, the four seas and nine provinces are vast, even those Nascent Soul stage cultivators with thousands of years of lifespan may not be able to cover every inch of land. Zhang Jian also knew that the world was full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and his own cultivation was only a small ant among the famous sects' disciples, vulnerable to being slaughtered at will. Therefore, in these decades, he mostly appeared in and out of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, except for participating in the South Sea Lotus Holy Mountain's Lou Tai **** three times, his footprints rarely stepped out of the mountains.
However, in recent years, his mentality has become somewhat urgent, because after he turned 80, he completed the cultivation of Qi and his body's yuan qi was formed, but due to lack of opportunity, he had not yet been able to lay his foundation.
Generally speaking, it is extremely difficult for a cultivator to build their foundation. Because in order for a cultivator to progress from refining their Qi to building their foundation, they must first clear the twelve mysterious gates within their body. Therefore, there are only three possible paths to take. The first is to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill, which contains spiritual energy that can help clear the gates of the twelve mysterious gates without harming oneself. However, the Foundation Establishment Pill is said to have been passed down from ancient times by the immortal realm and contains many precious materials, making it extremely difficult to find in this cultivation world. The methods for refining the pill are also very complicated, and only those large and famous sects have the capability to do so. Zhang Jian has always been a lone wanderer without any backing from a sect, so it is clear that this path is not feasible for him.
The second method is to have a cultivator with at least a Golden Core later stage cultivation base use their own yuanqi to support and help them break through the Xuan Guan. This method is even more difficult than the previous one. Because during the process of supporting, the cultivator needs to completely release their own yuanqi and connect it with the person who wants to build their foundation's meridians, forming a small world. If they are not careful, there will be a risk of walking into madness. In this world, Yuan Ying cultivators are extremely rare, and Golden Core later stage cultivators are also the backbone of every sect, so the number is not many. Even if you are an inner disciple, it's not certain that you will have such luck. Zhang Jian didn't even have one, let alone finding someone who can help him break through his meridians.
Therefore, he had no choice but to use the third method, find a heavenly material and earthly treasure that contained spiritual energy no less than the Zhudi Dan, refine it, and then use its primordial energy to help him break through the Xuan Guan.
Over the years, he has almost traversed every corner of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, and had even risked his life to hunt down a few demonic beasts that surpassed his own cultivation level. However, the amount of spiritual energy contained within the demon cores he obtained was still far from enough compared to the foundation-establishing pills. As time passed, his lifespan was drawing near, causing him to become increasingly anxious. He then thought of using human power as a solution, and had been making appearances in various places over the years, revealing some divine signs, letting the mountain villagers search for treasures on his behalf. When Lu Peng went to the Jingpo tribe, he happened to be the honored guest of the Jingpo tribal chief.
He didn't pay much attention to this small tribe that lived in seclusion in the mountains, but he inadvertently saw the Qian Tian Yin Yang Grass carried by Lu Peng and his party, and his heart was greatly delighted.
The Qian Tian Yin Yang grass, also known as the Guardian of Treasure, contains a spiritual energy that is only suitable for demonic beasts to consume. Wherever the Qian Tian Yin Yang grass grows, there must be a treasure born from heaven and earth. He had read about this in the notes left behind by a wandering cultivator, and most ordinary wandering cultivators did not recognize the shape of this grass. Therefore, he did not reveal his identity and followed Lu Peng to come here. Originally, he wanted to quietly investigate the location where the grass grew, but unexpectedly encountered such a change on the first night after entering Taoyuan Village.
That night, he only learned the general direction from Ren Fanxin's mouth, and then killed him. When he wanted to interrogate others, Taoyuan Village had changed. He was injured by the mysterious aura on Mo Zichen's body and treated his wounds casually. After a few days, when he returned to Taoyuan Village, he found that it had been deserted for some time. The entire village was slaughtered, leaving no survivors. This made him deeply regretful. If only he had known earlier, he would have captured a few people first, even if it meant getting injured again.
Helpless, he followed the direction he had learned from Ren Fanxin's mouth using the soul-searching method that day, and searched one by one. After several days, he finally found this place. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived in this valley, he saw such a strange sight. Later, he also met Xuan Yue Zi Wang Chan under the ground!
He has been cultivating for dozens of years and is not an ignorant person. When he saw the purple king toad, he suddenly thought that this place might be the cave left by Gu Xiu back then!
An ancient immortal cave mansion, he naturally knew what it meant in the cultivation world.
For a moment, he suddenly hesitated. The current situation was that someone had obviously gone ahead of him, and this purple toad was the one who had been injured by that person. So, should he take away the Xuanji Dan from this purple toad first or go down to search for the treasure?
It was a huge boulder that had been weighing on his mind. Now, it had been so easily lifted off, and the Xuanji Dan was within reach, not to mention the ancient cultivation cave below that he had never imagined. Such great happiness weighed heavily on him, making him almost dare not believe it.
He hesitated for a moment before making a decision. First, he took away the Xuanji Dan from the purple toad's body and then went underground to search for treasure.
But Zhang Jian did not think that this decision he made in a short moment would make him regret for several lifetimes.
