Refining a Jindan required the Great Way of Immortality Art. As the spiritual qi was drawn bit by bit into the body, it would be sucked into the power of the Jindan, and then essentialized and compressed. It would be attached to the Jindan, purified of any inferior qualities through burning.
The quality of one's Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art, the quality of one's Jindan, and the density of the spiritual qi all directly affected the rate of Jindan refining.
The resources available to Shushan Immortal Sect disciples, whether Jindan Condensation Wondrous Arts or spiritual qi, far surpassed others, and so their cultivation rate at the Jindan Dao Realm was ferocious.
Wu Yu's Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art and Jindan quality were all of sublime quality. But after leaving Shushan, the spiritual qi was far more sparse.
However, just like the Qi Condensation Realm, one could also use immortal medicines and immortal essences to supplement the Jindan refinery. Between them, immortal medicines were more effective.
Spirit Concentration Pills and Golden Essence Pills both had supporting effects on cultivation, although their actual effects differed. Spirit Concentration Pills condensed spiritual sources, while Golden Essence Pills refined Jindan. As a comparison, condensing each spiritual source required a couple of dozen Spirit Concentration Pills to complete, as long as one's body could endure it.
But to refine Jindan to another level, it required many more Golden Essence Pills. Furthermore, the higher one's Jindan level, the greater the requirement! To use Golden Essence Pills alone to temper one's Jindan was not a practical course. First of all, even ordinary Shushan disciples could not endure such a drain. Plus, Golden Essence Pills were expensive treasures, and there were also many other cultivation resources that one needed to buy.
Moreover, using spiritual qi over a long time to temper one's Jindan would make one's Jindan firmer. If one's foundation was not sturdy, then even pouring in copious amounts of Golden Essence Pills would temper the Jindan in an unstable way. One's Jindan might even explode. Once the Jindan exploded, the martial cultivator would be dead without question.
That was why using Golden Essence Pills or other immortal medicines and essences to refine one's Jindan had a limit. And this limit differed from individual to individual. Ordinarily, the higher one's Jindan quality, the more developed one's processing abilities were, and the higher this limit.
Wu Yu's white Jindan, combined with the strength of the Great Way of Immortality Art, meant that his limit was a lot higher than Nangong Wei's. He was confident about this.
Normally, one could sense the limit approaching if one used too many Golden Essence Pills. And if one did not give up, and continued to seek strength through Golden Essence Pill tempering, then the Jindan would destabilize, and there would a high chance of an accident occurring.
Of course, such a problem did not exist for the majority of martial cultivators, because they would not even have so many Golden Essence Pills.
And now, in Wu Yu's hand, he had those that he had obtained from the Ninth Spirit, as well as those that Futu Hall had given out at his initiation.
Under circumstances where the spiritual qi was insufficient, he had to use Golden Essence Pills. Wu Yu did not hesitate to consume the first Golden Essence Pill.
Golden Essence Pills were even more violent than Spirit Concentration Pills. The power they contained was more than a thousand times that of Spirit Concentration Pills. The ingredients needed to refine Golden Essence Pills were basically all immortal essences with spiritual marks. As the Golden Essence Pill entered his body, he could feel the molten lava eating through his insides as it trickled through his body. Clearly, using Golden Essence Pills also required a tenacious body.
As the power of the Golden Essence Pill burnt and gripped Wu Yu's body, he endured the pain and used the Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art of the Great Way of Immortality Art to start up his white Jindan. As the white Jindan began to spin, it formed a vortex that began to consume the power of the Golden Essence Pill, converting it to an essence. Through repeated passes, the immortal fire became one with the Jindan, and it was converted into Wu Yu's own Jindan essence. The majority was discarded as waste - it was burnt clean off by the immortal fire and dissipated as green smoke.
While tempering one's Jindan, one's own immortal fire also made a big difference. Especially this white immortal fire, which was extremely powerful; once it started to burn, it was like a nightmare for the Golden Essence Pill, which was readily consumed to completion by the immortal fire. The essential portion became one with the white Jindan after repeated tempering.
"Refining my Jindan is truly not easy. A majority of the Golden Essence Pill is wasted energy, but that portion has to be wasted because it is unable to become the purest Jindan essence.
"When tempering Jindan, one cannot be hasty."
After expending one Golden Essence Pill, Wu Yu was composed. He knew that the refining the pill through the Great Way of Immortality Art would prevent any impurities from being absorbed. Such was the power of the highest quality Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art.
Of course, he was clear that even if the Great Way of Immortality Art had no limit, he had to set a limit for himself.
Now that he had just reached Jindan, he could afford to be a little more lax. Following this, he consecutively used all the Golden Essence Pills, tempering his Jindan with them. After he was done, his Jindan was close to twice as strong as it had previously been. However, he was at most 20% of the way to the second tier of Jindan. It was not so easy to refine one's Jindan purely through Golden Essence Pills.
A quick count told him that five days had passed.
At this time, the golden flames that had obscured Wu Yu's entire body finally winked out, and Nangong Wei finally saw him. She was sitting on the ground, her face cupped in her hands. "Big Brother, you're too serious. Wei Er is really bored."
Now that he was out of Golden Essence Pills, it was hard for him to fulfill his goal to become stronger within these three months. If he cultivated here, it would be a waste of time. Wu Yu stood up, saying, "There must be many sects and bountiful places within the divine continent. Countless treasures never discovered, and the remnants of innumerable martial cultivators since the beginning of time left untouched. Let's go walk around to see if there's anything interesting."
"So we're treasure hunting!" Nangong Wei's eyes lit up.
"That's right."
Of course, treasure hunting was a test of luck. Wu Yu knew that the chances were low, but at least it was a better shot than remaining here.
If he really could not, then he would just have to steal Sumeru Pouches from those martial cultivators he met and took a disliking to....
He let Nangong Wei mount her own sword. Side by side, they flew low through the air. They passed mountains, rivers, and lakes, skimming past them on their swords. Wu Yu was looking for any signs below, while Nangong Wei was enjoying herself, and even making Wu Yu play catch with her.
After a few days roaming around the area, they had not even met a single martial cultivator.
Wu Yu began to increase the perimeter, moving out southwards. He very quickly discovered that it was a harsher terrain.
In the thick fog, Wu Yu could sense the presence of Immortal Dao, as well as the presence of battle through the air. Clearly, martial cultivators were there.
"This is a good place."
After they headed over, Nangong Wei had gone silent.
Wu Yu dredged up The Lore of the Divine Continent from memory, saying, "The area ahead roughly occupies 5% of the divine continent's surface area. It's called the Southeast Thoroughfare. It's a busy place with more than 2,000 sects in total, large and small. They fight and contest for spiritual qi and other resources. There are always sects fighting, the weaker ones being destroyed, and the stronger ones living on. The martial cultivators here live harsh lives, although all will show respect to Shushan disciples. After all, this place is not far from Shushan, and can be considered the foot of Shushan."
They took more care after entering the Southeast Thoroughfare. Wu Yu knew that there were too many experts here and therefore stayed very low-profile. If they were caught up in a monumental struggle, the status of Shushan disciples might not be useful at all.
Reaching this place, they saw many martial cultivators. Sword cultivation was rare here, so a majority of the martial cultivators flew with other objects, or rode spiritual beasts. Their speed was not as fast as sword cultivators.
The speed of the sword was a huge advantage for sword cultivators.
Wu Yu had met a few martial cultivators along the way. Seeing that he was a sword cultivator, they gave him a wide berth, afraid of approaching. After all, the name of Shushan still held strong here.
Wu Yu continued to proceed further. Occasionally, he would see spiritual qi springing forth from the ground. The endless mountains gave way to bountiful lands, but these territories were basically all held by sects, large and small.
For the smaller sects, those of the Jindan tier dared to take up the mantle of sect leader.
For the majority, they had cultivators at the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea Realm sitting strong.
There were also many disciples of the Huang sword rank within the Southeast Thoroughfare.
After wandering for a few days, Wu Yu was still empty-handed. Most disciples were unwilling to approach a sword cultivator, and Wu Yu did not even have the opportunity to steal Golden Essence Pills.
His gaze fell on a bunch of martial cultivators fighting. He began to approach them. Where there were people, there was opportunity.
After spending a few days in a zone where the sects were not that strong, he began to develop a rough sense of the situation. It was an anxious sort of place, but one day, the atmosphere was especially tense. Wu Yu sensed it and went to investigate.
On top of a tall mountain, he spotted many martial cultivators moving westwards on some sort of spiritual beast.
Their faces were tense, and Wu Yu quickly followed them.
They were not at the Jindan Dao Realm, so Wu Yu easily caught up with them. But they were so focused on the road that they had not yet realized they had been discovered.
Wu Yu was eavesdropping on them.
"Yesterday, there was a huge fuss at the Zhulong Mountain Range. Some mountains split open, and it's said that an ancient battlefield was revealed. It must be that a long time ago, two martial cultivation sects fought, and they finished each other off. It's said that the field is littered with corpses. There must be many treasures left behind amongst the corpses."
"But the people of Cloudy Palace have already laid claim to it. They sealed off the Zhulong Mountain Range and want to take the battlefield for themselves. Of course, they're being hounded by other sects, preventing them from pillaging as of yet!"
"Now that the news has spread, many major sects are sending people to stake a claim. There are even some Violet Kingdom cultivators moving towards the Zhulong Mountain Range. Cloudy Palace definitely cannot hold out for long. We had best get there quickly, to see if we can find a share of the prize!"
"Hurry, hurry!"
Wu Yu pondered the name Zhulong Mountain Range. It should not be a big mountain range, since it was not detailed within The Lore of the Divine Continent.
However, martial cultivators normally traveled as the crow flew, and did not need to take detours. Therefore, he could basically confirm that the Zhulong Mountain Range was straight ahead from this group.
"Ancient battlefield?"
This caused Wu Yu to recall the remnants of the ancient martial cultivator in the Bipo Mountain Range.
The history of the divine continent was just too long. Martial cultivators were more numerous than grains of sand in a riverbank. After so many years, many battlefields had been buried and left undiscovered.
Occasionally, shifts in the earth exposed them.
This was a process that would occur once in a while, even at the Southeast Thoroughfare.