Chapter 998: Late Nascent Soul Stage

The Mortal Realm

After testing the changes in his physical body in an uninhabited sea area, Qin Sang returned to his cave abode to continue cultivating.

Seasons passed.

It had been eight years since Qin Sang arrived at the Heavenly Dao Sect market.

By his reckoning, less than a year remained until his appointed meeting with Yuan Zhu.

Aside from occasionally going out to discuss the Dao with fellow cultivators, Qin Sang had mostly been diligently cultivating in his cave abode. With the foundation he had previously laid, Qin Sang only needed to focus all his efforts on inscribing killer talismans and refining his true essence, and his cultivation would steadily improve.

Currently, the first killer talisman Senior Qingzhu had created was nearing completion.

Qin Sang had been in seclusion for several months.

He introspected, confirming that there was nothing amiss with his body.

The killer talisman on the spiritual sword was also very stable.

Qin Sang took a deep breath, his consciousness sinking into his Purple Mansion, and inscribed the final stroke onto the Ebony Sword!

A month later.

Qin Sang emerged from seclusion, walked quickly out of the city, then activated his escape light, flying all the way to another uninhabited sea area.

His aura was revealed, astonishingly, he had reached the late Core Formation stage!

Before he first entered the Seven Kills Hall, Qin Sang was already at the mid-Core Formation stage, and he had only just broken through again now.

"It feels good to have no bottlenecks," Qin Sang smiled.

Qin Sang smiled, and summoned the Ebony Sword.

He had focused solely on improving his cultivation, and had not allowed the Ebony Sword to continue refining the Soul Nurturing Wood; it remained a high-grade magic treasure.

Once everything was settled, he could find a safe cave abode and continue to enhance the Ebony Sword. With the remaining Soul Nurturing Wood, it wouldn't be difficult to elevate the Ebony Sword to a peak-grade magic treasure.

However, as far as Qin Sang knew, advancing the Ebony Sword to a spirit treasure solely with spiritual materials was impossible.

He had befriended several fellow cultivators skilled in artifact refining. During their discussions of the Dao, he had learned some hidden secrets.

The key to a spirit treasure lay in the character 'Spirit'!

Not an artifact spirit, but spiritual essence.

Treasures that gave birth to artifact spirits were also supreme treasures in ancient times.

Before an artifact spirit could be born, causing a magic treasure to develop a trace of spiritual essence was an indispensable step.

However, no one knew how to make a magic treasure develop spiritual essence, including those artifact refiners themselves.

An artifact refiner surnamed Guo seemed to recall something and said, "It is said that a cultivator's vital magic treasure, which is nurtured through mutual life-and-death cultivation, finds it easier to develop spiritual essence than ordinary magic treasures. This is one of the advantages of vital magic treasures..."

Everyone discussed animatedly, but couldn't grasp the key point.

Someone self-deprecatingly said, "Given our cultivation levels, we cannot even guarantee success in refining low-grade magic treasures, so we shouldn't aim too high. Spirit treasures are extremely far from us; we haven't heard of any spirit treasures appearing anywhere. In the current cultivation world, there might not even be a single spirit treasure..."

Another person spoke up in opposition, turning to a white-haired elder nearby, and asked expectantly, "Daoist Wu comes from the Heavenly Dao Sect; he must know many unrecorded secrets. Could you reveal a bit?"

The white-haired elder was indeed a cultivator from the Heavenly Dao Sect.

The fact that everyone could gather here was thanks to the white-haired elder.

Unexpectedly, the elder gave a wry smile and said, "This humble Daoist has been assigned to the market; how many secrets could I possibly know? My understanding of spirit treasures is no more than yours. However, I do agree with your conjecture, simply because our cultivation levels are too low to access that realm..."

The cultivator surnamed Guo chuckled, and interrupted, "I merely said that it's easier for vital magic treasures to develop spiritual essence than ordinary magic treasures, but I didn't say that developing spiritual essence itself is easy... Fellow Daoists, consider the difference between peak-grade magic tools and magic treasures. Presumably, between peak-grade magic treasures and spirit treasures, there is also a vast difference in spiritual materials and power."

Listening to their discussion, Qin Sang fell into thought.

The Eighteen Demonic Banners were special; a single banner's quality was only equivalent to a low-grade magic treasure. Moreover, the banners' power came from demonic flames, making the possibility of them developing spiritual essence negligible. He could only place his hopes on the Ebony Sword.

The Ebony Sword, having refined the Soul Nurturing Wood, had nothing to worry about regarding its sword body material.

He just didn't know how to make it develop spiritual essence and advance to a spirit treasure.

Nevertheless, two peak-grade magic treasures would be enough to make him invincible after reaching the Nascent Soul stage. There was still plenty of time ahead, so there was no need to rush.

As he recalled these things, Qin Sang's fingers unconsciously brushed against the spiritual sword, feeling its warm and smooth texture.

"Sword Wheel!"

Qin Sang uttered a low cry, and the Sword Wheel reappeared.

Previously, his energy had been focused on cultivation; he hadn't properly comprehended the Way of the Sword. Once he fully grasped what he had learned from the sword path, the Sword Wheel would surely present a different sight.

After testing the power of the Sword Wheel, Qin Sang put away the Ebony Sword, summoned a spiritual talisman, and simultaneously activated his Heavenly Demon Transformation divine ability.

Most importantly, it was the escape technique.

At the late Core Formation stage, he could unleash the full power of the Nine Dragons Celestial Chariot Talisman.

His "Heavenly Demon Refining Form" had also already advanced.

Sword light enveloped his body, inextricably entwined with the shadow of a flood dragon.

Qin Sang lowered his head and glanced at himself, then his phoenix wings flapped violently, and his figure abruptly vanished.

The next moment, accompanied by the sound of thunder, a bolt of lightning appeared out of thin air.

*Booming...*

The thunder roared.

Qin Sang, on a whim, kept flying without stopping.

After a good while, he finally stopped his escape light when his exhilaration subsided.

By then, he was already very far from the previous sea area.

Qin Sang slowly exhaled, his brows furrowed as he recalled the feeling from earlier.

In terms of escape speed alone, it far surpassed when he was pursued by Old Demon Mou ten years ago.

Among Core Formation cultivators, it should be difficult to find anyone whose escape technique could rival his. Many were skilled in one escape technique, but someone like him, mastering three top-tier escape techniques, was absolutely a rare existence.

When encountering cultivators of the same stage, he could toy with them at will.

However, compared to Nascent Soul cultivators, Qin Sang found it difficult to draw a definitive conclusion, as there was, after all, a gap of an entire major cultivation realm.

After testing all his treasures and divine abilities one by one, Qin Sang returned to his cave abode to stabilize his cultivation.

Soon after, he would have to go to the Storm Zone to meet Yuan Zhu as arranged.

Before that, Qin Sang decided to visit the Heavenly Dao Sect.

Over the years, he had not only interacted with Core Formation disciples of the Heavenly Dao Sect, but had also inquired about many of the Heavenly Dao Sect's Nascent Soul grandmasters.

Some of these Nascent Soul grandmasters were involved in external affairs, while others were very mysterious, secluding themselves for arduous cultivation.

Among those he had inquired about, none matched the description of the sword cultivator surnamed Ning.

Several months later, Qin Sang emerged from seclusion and activated the restrictions of Bai's cave abode.

This time, Bai would not accompany him.

The cave abode's door opened, and Qin Sang walked in, finding that Bai still had lingering corpse aura, but his expression was much livelier than that of a Flying Yaksha.

Qin Sang would occasionally go out, but Bai had been in seclusion, making various attempts.

Finally, the primordial vitality within his body gradually stabilized.

Qin Sang glanced at him and said, "Fellow Daoist, your condition is good; you shouldn't have to worry about corpse aura intrusion for now, right?"

Bai nodded, but without much joy, "This is still not enough. With only Core Formation stage strength, it's difficult to achieve anything significant in the cultivation world. Unfortunately, I still don't dare to rashly attempt to become a Corpse King."