Three months later…
Chu Zhou City… Yun Wu Mountain… In the mansion at the top of the mountain.
People who lived in the mountain by now had gotten used to being constantly surrounded by mist. Over time, the sight of impenetrable mist at the mountain top had become a signature scene of Chu Zhou City. More and more people hiked three quarters up the mountain in the morning to catch the sunrise, some of them attempted to hike even further to the mountain top.
However, before they got close to the mountaintop, security checkpoints would remind them that it was private property and was illegal to trespass.
Rumor had it that the person who resided at the top of the mountain, in the cloud of mist, was the famous Master Chen. He was the creator of the miracle cure: Yun Wu Spirit Water. Those bottles of water were said to be produced inside of the mansion as well.
Meanwhile, Chen Fan sat on an armchair on the third-floor balcony.
He looked into the distance and gazed at the endless sprawl of mist. Surrounded by white clouds, he breathed rhythmically as he drew the air into his lungs.
“Huff Puff! Huff Puff!”
Every breath Chen Fan took in was as long and deep as that of a giant dragon. Slowly, his breath formed a parcel of swirling air and it was increasing in size by the second. In a blink, it formed a little funnel-shaped cyclone that channeled the Spirit Qi around him into his system. The energy inside of him slowly built up until it reached full capacity.
Chen Fan held the Qi in for a while before slowly letting the energy dissipate.
“Hew. I have finally reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment level.”
Chen Fan opened his eyes slowly.
His body was suffused with a creamy white glow that made his skin look nearly transparent. As the light grew more intense, it highlighted Chen Fan’s bones under the skin and flesh, as well as the silvery coursing blood inside his veins.
Chen Fan was ready to make the breakthrough any moment now, however, he was not going to take the final leap of faith without preparation.
“In my past life, I had breezed through the earlier levels and had broken many records in terms of speed. However, the hasty progression had eventually became my downfall. This time around, I will make sure that I perfect every stage all the way to the top level.” he thought to himself.
“The Void Mortal Refinement Art had five levels. So far, I have obtained Ice Skin, Jade Bone, Silver Blood, Golden Eyes and I only need to obtain the Dao Body to complete the art.”
Chen Fan thought.
Dao Body was also called Connate Dao Body. It was a prerequisite in terms of physical condition in order for a cultivator to reach the Connate Spirit level.
Once a cultivator possessed the Dao Body, he would no longer need to drink water. Instead, he was able to absorb the natural energy from his environment. This ability would significantly prolong the cultivator’s life. Once someone had reached this level, he would be considered a higher level of existence than human since his spirit would live indefinitely solely by feeding on the Qi in nature.
“Only a few core disciples in many sects were able to achieve Dao Body, so I have heard. ”
Chen Fan furrowed his brows and pondered.
If he were in the cultivation realm situated at the deepest place in the universe, he would be able to form a Dao Body in a blink of an eye thanks to the experiences he had accumulated over five hundred years.
However, the cultivation environment on earth was poor, to say the least. He managed to cast the Misty Mountain Array, but the concentration of the Qi in the array was so low that it could only produce Spirit Qi Mist. If he cast such an array in any cultivation realm, he would get at least Spirit Qi water if not crystals. Those were the Qi-rich environments he had to spend the last five hundred years.
“In order to transform a body into a Dao Body, he required a huge amount of Spirit Qi. At such a slow pace, it would take me at least three more years to amass that much Spirit Qi. However, in these three years, I would be able to locate Sentient Objects that survived the hardship on earth. I could use their powerful essence to speed up my leveling up.”
With that thought in mind, Chen Fan fished out one after another of herbal medicines.
“Ginseng, Lingzhi mushroom, Black Hair Herb, Solomon’s-seal, caterpillar fungus, and Feng…”
“What a shame that I don’t have Silver Spirit Fruit and neither do I have Essence Forming Herbs. I won’t be able to make the real Essence Enhancing Pill without the necessary ingredients.”
Chen Fan shook his head.
Even the herbs he owned right now had taken the Wei family more than six months to purchase them from all over China. He had offered the Essence Enhancing Pill’s recipe to Elderly Man Wei for free and therefore, the Wei family would be able to help him gather most of the herbs, except for a few that were so rare that Chen Fan doubted that he would be able to find them on earth much less in China.
“Silver Spirit Fruit, Essence Forming Herbs and Vitality Sap shared the same common trait: they were infused with life essence. Therefore, they were the key ingredients in the recipe of Essence Enhancing Pill. ”
Chen Fan rubbed his chin and pondered. “Only if I could find a thousand year old ginseng, perhaps I would be able to bypass these three herbs altogether.”
“But it won’t be easy to find a thousand-year-old Ginseng.”
Chen Fan smiled wryly.
“The Zheng family had spared no expense in searching for the ingredients, yet they were only able to purchase a lesser version of the Spirit Medicine.”
Chen Fan witness the five hundred years old lesser Spirit Medicine got auctioned off to the Zheng family at the underground auction house of the Jiu Ding City. That was the closest thing Chen Fan had seen so far to a Spirit Medicine and eventually he used it to create the Essence Gathering Pills.
Chen Fan wagered that in order to find a real Spirit Medicine that was over a thousand years old, he would have to travel far and wide to visit ancient herbalist families across China. Worse, he might have to brave the mighty Chang Bai Mountain and to look for the precious ginseng from the ginseng hunters.
“Fine. I don’t think I have a second option anyways. It’s time for me to go out and try my luck.”
Chen Fan rose from his seat.
Then, he heard a long and musical droning in the distant clouds.
He watched as a strand of mist formed a long snake as it withered in the sky, weaving in and out of the impenetrable clouds. As it threw back its head and let out a droning again, Chen Fan saw the two nascent horns that poked out from its forehead. Meanwhile, its body was covered by a layer of soft scales that had previously been absent.
This was the Array Spirit of the Misty Mountain Arry: the White Drake.
“Shush! Don’t scare the people below us.”
Chen Fan smiled light heartily. He produced an Essence Gathering Pill from his sleeve.
White Drake was elated by the sigh of the pill. He caught the pill as Chen Fan threw it at him. After swallowing the pill down his throat, the White Drake wiggled its body as if he were dancing in excitement and joy. After a while, the Spirit Qi from the pill made its way to the scales and handed them significantly.
Although the White Drake was just an Array Spirit, it too, could cultivate the Qi. Once he had achieved high enough attainment, he would transform back into its physical form and turning into a real dragon.
“I have two pigs to feed at home, I doubt the Essence Gathering Pills will last too long.”
Chen Fan shook his head and grinned.
In addition to the White Drake, the other ‘pig’ he referred to was standing right behind him motionlessly like an iron pagoda. It was Tong Shan.
Tong Shan had increased size again since a few weeks ago when he showed up at the hot spring. He was about two meters and fifty centimeters tall and his skin had turned the color of bronze. If one tapped Tong Shan’s skin with a finger, it would make clanking sounds as metal would. Tong Shan’s skin was so tough that even machine gun bullets wouldn’t be able to penetrate it.
By then, he no longer looked like a human but a robot.
“The Ghost Witch Sect’s Cadaver-refining art is too crude and amateur. It couldn’t compare with the real Cadaver-refining art of the real cultivators.”
Chen Fan looked at Tong Shan and nodded with satisfaction.
“If I gave him a fresh paint job, he could definitely pass for the iron man.”
Tong Shan’s conscious had long since been erased by the Ghost Witch Sect. However, ever since Chen Fan saved him, he had given him a man-made soul. Using a special art, Chen Fan infused Tong Shan’s body with the Golden Aether Qi that appeared in the west every day to create an indestructible body.
“Master, are you heading out?”
Tong Shan asked. His voice was mechanical and flat, making him sound more like a robot.
“Yes, you can guard the fort for me. Don’t fight with White Drake please, I don’t want to see a mess when I get home.”
Chen Fan said.
“Yes, master.”
Tong Shan replied without any emotion.
Even as Chen Fan turned around toward the exit, he furrowed his brows and let out a half smile.
“Looks like I am stuck here for now. We have a visitor.”