Chapter 328: Jindan Sixth Level, Peach Blossom Ghost Mother

In the Blood Abyss Holy Land, at Drunken Immortal Lake.

Wang Yu stood by the lake, lightly inhaling the intoxicating aroma of the blood-brewed wine. He was a connoisseur of fine wine, accustomed to indulging his desires appropriately.

Roughly estimated, the entire Drunken Immortal Lake spanned three hundred li across, qualifying it as a large lake, yet it was completely filled with blood-brewed wine.

It surely contained some hidden treasures.

In fact, this place had always been highly regarded, with countless generations exploring it one after another, leaving behind numerous legends and secrets. However, the true origin of this wine lake had never been discovered.

Yet, due to that period of intense exploration, all the ordinary opportunities were thoroughly investigated, and over time, the place became deserted.

Just like the Demonic Caverns.

What Wang Yu valued was its quiet environment, where no one would disturb his secluded cultivation.

Furthermore, the Drunken Immortal Lake was not without its specialties; its wine itself was unique, and the occasional emergence of Third-tier Blood-brewed Wine Stones made for excellent spiritual wine-making material.

Regular consumption also benefited cultivators.

Additionally, a species of fish called Blood-Whisker Carp resided in the lake. Their flesh was tender and smooth, capable of increasing a cultivator's blood and qi capacity.

This was also food suitable for body refiners, showing just how eager Wang Yu was to enhance his physical body.

This information was detailed in the intelligence provided by the Zhuo and Zuoqiu clans.

Blood-Whisker Carp were not Blood Beasts but leaned more towards the Demonic Beast species. They possessed blood-path power yet were not corrupted by blood-qi.

They also possessed blood-type demonic cores within them. Upon reaching the Third-tier, these cores could grant intelligence comparable to humans, and they were the sole source of danger in the Drunken Immortal Lake.

He adjusted the Blood Pouch Robe he was wearing.

Wang Yu scooped up a handful of the blood wine to taste, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Slightly sweet, somewhat tart… with an astringent aftertaste,” he mused. “If it weren’t for the abundant blood and qi within, I wouldn’t bother drinking it. As a First-tier spiritual wine, its taste is poor, but its effects are good.”

Having made his assessment, Wang Yu released the Grand Yin Nourishing Fiend Coffin. Using it as a container, he collected about a hundred tons of the blood wine. This wasn't for his own consumption.

Instead, it was for the twin corpses to try and for their cultivation.

Better than nothing.

Next, he took out his Spirit Beast Bag and released the Three-tailed Snow Fox. Before entering the Blood Abyss Holy Land, he had temporarily dismantled the initially refined Yellow Spring Demonic Bones and the geomantic array.

He planned to continue refining them in the Blood Abyss, and Xue Yu was specifically brought to oversee this. He didn't have the time to constantly monitor the puppet refinement process.

Once the initial preparations were done, occasional checks would suffice.

Problems typically wouldn't arise, but if one truly did, it would be a major issue, and his constant supervision would be useless anyway.

His 'Earth Grudge Puppet Master Scripture' was still far from completion.

He was merely taking his time with the troublesome preparations and initial refining procedures, so when the techniques were ready, he could start refining directly.

This could be considered a time-saving method, and he had grown accustomed to it.

He scanned the surroundings with his divine sense.

Finding an auspicious spot with excellent geomantic alignment suitable for opening a cultivation cave, Wang Yu grabbed the fox's tail and plunged into the blood wine lake.

It wasn't safe to open a cultivation cave on the surface; he had grown accustomed to cultivating underground. The sense of security there was unparalleled.

As usual, he used his sword to carve out the cave.

This time, the Yellow Spring Demonic Sword gloriously took on this duty. With an almost obsessive compulsion, Wang Yu carved out a perfectly square temporary cultivation cave.

He placed a profound ice bed, set up array flags, and drained all the blood wine.

After all this effort, a cave dwelling located at the bottom of Drunken Immortal Lake, more than two thousand meters below the blood-filled surface, was successfully created.

The lake varied in depth, and Wang Yu's location was roughly in the middle, allowing him to see some aquatic demonic beasts and algae moving about on the lakebed.

The Three-tailed Snow Fox yelped a few times, then resignedly went to oversee the refining of the Yellow Spring Demonic Bones. It could also cultivate a bit while doing so. This creature should be able to form its core within ten years.

This was also Wang Yu's original intention in bringing it along.

As its master, he needed to stay in the Blood Abyss for thirty years, so how could he not bring his spirit pets? He even brought the Pristine Jade Toad, just in case it might be useful.

The Jade Toad, in particular, looked like a toad but was actually a unique insect.

Refining it to gain a toxin-resistant physique felt somewhat wasteful. Its proper use was to feed it to other unique insects.

It could forcibly evolve unique insects, making it a peerless treasure medicine. Moreover, since he wasn't particularly afraid of toxins himself, he had kept it to this day, where it had grown plump.

It had shown no tendency to lay eggs, remaining like a stone, doing nothing but staring blankly.

After tidying up the miscellaneous matters around him, more than half a day had already passed.

After successively taking out the Myriad Spirit Blood Essences sealed in the ice coffin, Wang Yu began to ponder the pill recipe. This spiritual item could increase the upper limit of spiritual power, but its side effect was causing the spiritual power to be unstable.

Moreover, since the demonic cultivators harvested were of varying ranks, there were actually many low-tier Myriad Spirit Blood Essences within.

Considering this, extraction and fusion became crucial.

After taking out all the blood essences, he first illuminated them with his Soul-Annihilating Death Ray, ensuring that all blood-qi and remnant souls within were thoroughly purged.

Only then did he take out the Starfall Cold Furnace and began the extraction and fusion process using the heat of the Ice Dragon Pill Flame.

Gradually, a black, smoke-like substance rose from it, mixed with a few screams and resentment.

“As expected, there were issues.”

Wang Yu's brow twitched. After extracting pure medicinal liquid from a 'Spirit-Cleansing Herb' found in his Sea Heart Ring, he blended it with the Myriad Spirit Blood Essences.

In just a moment, the originally dull, blood-colored spheres became translucent like rubies, their blood color exceptionally pure!

Then, a yin-attribute spiritual medicine, the 'Moon Essence Fruit,' perfectly suited for blood essences and capable of solidifying one's foundation, was added. This caused the crimson spheres to condense in three dimensions, emitting an enticing, subtle fragrance. This was essentially how an alchemist created a pill recipe: constantly adjusting, adding ingredients as needed, making continuous selections based on profound pharmacological knowledge, and then slowly refining them into spiritual pills.

Typically, the creation of a pill recipe required hundreds or thousands of adjustments to consistently refine the target spiritual pill and allow for its widespread adoption.

However, Wang Yu's goal was to use alchemy to reduce the side effects of this item. He didn't aim to create a standardized pill recipe; it was enough for the final refined medicinal liquid to be usable.

With his foundation in peak Third-tier alchemy, the process proceeded quite smoothly.

Half a month later, a total of nine scattered Blood Pills were produced. Due to constant adjustments during the refining process, it took a bit longer and resulted in some waste.

But the results were good.

Holding a Blood Pill and examining it briefly, Wang Yu swallowed it directly and refined it with his spiritual power.

Ultimately, only personal experience could confirm its success.

Since its essence was still Myriad Spirit Blood Essence, merely possessing an added pill fragrance, its refining speed was much faster than even a top-grade Frigid Moon Pill. This was, by nature, a treasure for enhancing cultivation.

Wang Yu immediately felt his spiritual power begin to grow.

He had only been in the Blood Abyss Holy Land for just over a month, yet much had already transpired.

Due to the short time frame, his cultivation increase hadn't been very noticeable.

Now feeling his spiritual power limit rapidly increasing, he was deeply satisfied. All the effort he had put into seizing, fighting, and strategizing had not been in vain!

—It was truly worth it.

Three days later, the first internal Blood Pill was successfully refined. His spiritual power increased by about a hundred strands, with no sense of instability—pure satisfaction.

It was no different from the spiritual power he had cultivated himself.

Since that was the case, he no longer needed to hold back.

Wang Yu swallowed three more in one go.

Nine days later, his aura surged abruptly. Denser spiritual power fluctuations continuously spread outwards, and a gentle breeze emanated around him, slowly settling down after a long while.

“4026 strands of spiritual power, newly entered Core Formation Sixth-tier!”

A breakthrough in cultivation always brought immense satisfaction.

To cultivate to the peak of Core Formation Sixth-tier, he would need to raise his spiritual power limit to six thousand strands. At that point, he would face the challenge of the second Core Strengthening.

If Wang Yu wanted to increase his Golden Core to nine fen in diameter in one go, this would be an excellent opportunity.

However, although he had a pill recipe for Core Formation cultivators to break through bottlenecks, he hadn't found the matching spiritual herbs. He could try searching for them among other fellow cultivators next.

Of course, there was no rush. After his cultivation breakthrough, he swallowed the remaining five Blood Pills. It took him half a month to refine them, and his cultivation increased by another five hundred strands of spiritual power.

After solidifying his realm, Wang Yu was very pleased.

However, the thought of Core Formation late-stage using “strands” as its unit of measurement gave him a headache.

His current spiritual power accumulation, when converted, was actually only a little over four hundred fifty strands, whereas peak Core Formation required nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine strands.

The disparity was clear at a glance.

Outside, he would have to diligently cultivate slowly, at most relying on external aids like arrays, talismans, or pills.

But in the Blood Abyss, Myriad Spirit Blood Essences were the best resource.

They could save cultivators countless years of arduous cultivation.

Naturally, there was more than one place where demonic cultivators could be found. To his knowledge, the Blood Demon Sea in the core region of the Blood Abyss contained a significant number of powerful demonic cultivators, as well as Blood Beast species.

He couldn't explore there until he had fulfilled the contract conditions.

“Troublesome…”

After his cultivation breakthrough, his next step was body refining cultivation, primarily focusing on the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Technique. He took out a large quantity of body refining resources from his Sea Heart Ring.

He consumed the Dragon Blood Secret Medicine, ate Blood Dates, and bit off a piece of Blood Dragon Essence…

The three precious medicines immediately nourished Wang Yu, turning his entire body crimson.

Countless streams of heat evaporated from his body's surface, his muscles knotting and expanding in lumps. Wang Yu quickly circulated his cultivation technique, supplementing it with Demonic Dragon Fist exercises.

The divine marrow in his dragon spine continuously extracted the medicinal power, and the divine marrow visibly improved bit by bit. This was the power of 'pay-to-win'.

It was so invigorating, he could barely breathe!

After slightly digesting a portion, Wang Yu diverted some of his focus to draw down the Grand Yin Moon Fiend, tempering himself both internally and externally. This accelerated his body refining cultivation even further.

Maintaining this state, Wang Yu cultivated diligently for three months.

He didn't rest for a single moment.

As a result, his body refining cultivation was still steadily progressing through the mid-Third-tier, a ways off from breaking through to the late-tier. However, his divine sense subtly showed signs of a breakthrough.

This demonstrated the difficulty of advancing in body refining.

The resources and painstaking effort he invested in this path were no less than, and perhaps even more than, what he put into his divine sense cultivation.

Then, at the end of the ninth month of Wang Yu's eighth year as an Elder, just as he felt his divine sense was on the verge of a breakthrough and was preparing to exert more effort, Wang Yu unexpectedly discovered someone had arrived at Drunken Immortal Lake.

And it was someone Wang Yu had long known by reputation.

“Mother Ghost Peach? What is she doing here…?”

(End of Chapter)