History's Number 1 Founder
chapter-159

After thoroughly examining the body condition of the little boy in the urn, Lin Feng fully understood the true elements behind the Mortal Spiritual Elixir.

The crucible within the boy differed greatly from that of the proper crucible cultivated in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment stage. It was only considered a “bogus crucible”.

The core precipitated from this bogus crucible was naturally not the authentic one, but rather just a bogus core.

This Mortal Spiritual Elixir was capable of helping the cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage increase his probability of forming the core and even help the cultivator of Aurous Core stage to boost the quality of the aurous core created.

The principle behind this was actually similar to the method used by Xiao Budian’s brother when he stole Xiao Budian’s supreme spiritual crucible.

After the bogus crucible within the little boy’s body had consolidated, the little boy would be handed over to cultivators that need the crucible. A secret spell would be used to strip off the bogus crucible and core from the little boy’s body.

Such cultivators could be stuck in the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Stage, unable to consolidate the crucible to enter the later stages of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

After obtaining the bogus crucible from the little boy’s body, the cultivator would be able to utilize it as a frame for the perfusion of his own mana, eventually cultivating out a genuine crucible.

Following that, the aurous core would be consolidated using the same method, as the cultivator tapped on the bogus core. This continued until the cultivator was promoted to the Aurous Core Stage.

Due to special chemical components within this bogus core, it discreetly contained both the spiritual elements of life and death. Not only did it provide spiritual energy, it further helped the cultivator to overcome the barriers of death, which was the most important aspect of it.

Some of the cultivators in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment Stage who were still unable to form the core also used the same method, except for the fact that they did not require the bogus crucible, as the bogus core sufficed.

The cultivator during the Aurous Core Stage forced the bogus core and crucible into his own body, using the crucible as a foundation and the powerful spiritual energy of the core as nourishment. This allowed him to disguise himself and obtain another opportunity to form the aurous core.

Just like how a furnace can reform materials, if it was successfully molded, the quality of the aurous core may be pushed up another grade.

Lin Feng only needed to question a little deeper before he discovered that there was an inherent flaw.

This method helped the cultivator in the Aurous Core Stage increase the quality of the aurous core, but it could only be used to promote a fourth-grade yellow core to a third-grade jade core.

If the jade core was to be further promoted, the success rate would be too close to zero. If this method was used to help cultivators of the Foundation Establishment Stage to form the core, the core successfully formed it would only be the level of a yellow core – the lowest grade of a aurous core, as it opportunistically borrowed the power of a mere bogus core.

Generally speaking, the better the core, the stronger the body immunity. After using this Mortal Spiritual Elixir once, there would no longer be any effect in the future.

Therefore, up to a certain extent, the Mortal Spiritual Elixir’s effect on the cultivator in the middle stages of the Foundation Establishment Stage was the most obvious. Observing the strength of the power of the bogus crucible before improving its quality could possibly result in a top-grade Class 3 crucible.

Even without a bogus core, the possession of a top-grade Class 3 crucible would advance one to the Aurous Core stage.

When the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster first created this secret manual, he wanted to trace back from the formation of the core – from the aurous core to the crucible to the spiritual altar. This allowed him to discover a top-grade Class 3 Spiritual Altar, and more amazingly, the method to attain the Supreme Spiritual Altar.

But after deducing this step for the crucible, the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster was unable to continue.

Through improvement and perfection of the process, the Mortal Spiritual Elixir was eventually formed in this way.

“Although there is such a flaw, this core will still be extremely sought-after,” Lin Feng sighed as he said.

The path to the aurous core was fraught with life and death situations. In such a huge world, it could be said that this was one of the obstacles to the hundreds and thousands of cultivators.

Venturing into this path was a long process, but it would be worth the wait. Even if only the yellow core was formed and no more improvements could be made, the cultivator could still obtain a thousand years of longevity and unbridled joy.

But if one was unable to venture across this path, the physical health of the cultivator would deteriorate sharply and the cultivator would become old and sallow before 200 years had even passed. Eventually, they would all be reduced into a clump of yellow soil.

On hindsight, the difference in fate was extremely stark.

While for cultivators who had already successfully entered the Aurous Core stage, whether the core formed was yellow or jade also represented a similar huge difference.

Just by sparring with others, a cultivator who had formed the jade core would easily destroy his opponent who only possessed the yellow core.

This was not to even mention the ability to enter the Aurous Core stage. For a clan, its fighting prowess would immediately improve by a bound just by having a few cultivators that had formed the yellow core to advance to the jade core. If the entire clan was able to enter the Aurous Core stage, that would represent a whole new level on its own, and the prowess of the entire clan would improve leap and bounds.

“It’s just that…” Lin Feng used his psychic sense to scan through all 50 big urns, before making a shocking discovery that close to 30 young children in the urns had their bogus crucible and core crushed already.

This situation should have occurred naturally. In other words, this was the natural destruction incurred during the process of forming the core.

It could also be due to the inability of the young children’s body to cope with the intensity of the concoction or the instability of the bogus crucible and core. Ludicrously, it might even be possible that it was a mistake made by the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster. At this point, any reason could be possible.

But as Lin Feng saw this scene, his expression became more solemn. At times, the concoction in the urns would be boiled dry. When the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster came each time to change the concoction, he would eliminate the young children who had failed.

In other words, the 30 young children that Lin Feng witnessed to have failed were all the result of the change in concoction by the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster, which led to the crushing of the bogus crucible and core.

Lin Feng observed for a moment, before discovering that the concoction was used up at an alarming rate.

In just a short span of time, 3/5 of the young children had already been eliminated.

Every time the concoction was changed, there would be a batch of children who were eliminated, causing such a high elimination rate. Just for the 20 young children who were about to succeed, how many children had failed and been eliminated already?

For the children that had been eliminated, what were their fates?

Lin Feng breathed in deeply and calmed himself down. He felt something and was sure that these urns were closely linked to the mind of the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster. Be it saving people or retrieving the Swelling Earth, the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster would definitely be alerted.

The regulations on the powers here were different from that of the ice city outside. The process of forming the Mortal Spiritual Elixir strengthened the linkage between the cultivators of the Hundred Herbs Sect. Lin Feng dared not use the Fences of the Heavens for fear of unnecessary risks.

“Huh?” Lin Feng squirmed a little, before hiding himself.

The stone house quietened down. The concoction in the urns started to foam, and it was followed by the sound of an explosion.

Lin Feng hid himself in a corner. He did not look in the direction of the entrance, but was looking at a corner of the stone house, staring at the wall there.

A moment later, a protrusion slowly appeared on the greyish-green wall.

The protrusion was only the size of a grain of sand. If a normal person were to focus his gaze on it, he might not even be able to spot the difference.

But Lin Feng’s vision was fixated on the small grain that had suddenly appeared on the wall.

Gradually, something light golden squeezed out from the greyish-green stone wall, which made it extremely obvious to see.

There was a light golden gravel. The gravel emanated a light golden radiance, which intensified over time.

At last, the place was cast in a sheet of gold. In the golden radiance, the surface area of the gravel gradually increased to cover a ten feet radius. Concurrently, the gravel became transparent, revealing the shadows of two people within it.

The golden radiance gradually faded as the huge gravel disappeared. Two people descended onto the ground, carrying a serious expression while facing the big urn. One of them was a young lady in a fiery red dress. Her hair and eyes were red and her eyebrows were thinly shaved. She could be positively identified as Yue Hongyan, the cultivator from the Covenant of Liefeng present that day at the Great Swamps of the Ancient Region.

This young lady in the red dress looked to be in a gloomy mood and she seemed to carry an aura of resentment and fury that she was trying to suppress. She was like a fiery volcano that could blow at any time.

Standing beside her was a young man clad in a white dress. That man was lean and handsome. It was indeed Kang Nanhua.

Kang Nanhua exuded a rosy complexion and his breath was very calm. He had already fully recovered and was no longer the sickly guy at the Great Swamps of the Ancient Regions.

However, there was a dark and gloomy aura between his brows, which left Lin Feng perplexed. Lin Feng recalled that Kang Nanhua was always a steady person even if his expression was pale, perspired profusely and was unable to even stand straight. But the present Kang Nanhua had a powerful and complete spiritual presence, which was much greater than the days in the Great Swamps of the Ancient Region. The only thing was that he was not as lively as before. He appeared to have become an old man void of emotion and desire in his life.

While meeting with an old acquaintance was a joyous occasion, Lin Feng did not reveal himself to the two people who had appeared.

Peering at these two people, Lin Feng frowned slightly while saying: “Did something bad occur at the Covenant of Liefeng such that both of them were wearing the same gloomy expression?”

“And then…why are they here?”

Yue Hongyan walked towards the big urns in the stone house that were lined straightly and proceeded to open the lid. After clearly seeing what was inside the urns, Yue Hongyan was enraged until she trembled uncontrollably: “The Hundred Herbs Sect is really too much for committing something as atrocious as this!”

Kang Nanhua shifted his attention and scanned the stone house, “We were obstructed by the ice wall outside the other time and were not daring enough to enter. This time around, there was a big hole in the ice wall, which was evidently caused by someone. The Hundred Herbs Grandmaster did not react to this. This method of breaking open the ice wall was a genius move.”

“He could still be here,” Yue Hongyan opened the lid of every big urn, before exclaiming excitedly halfway through: “ Xiao Huanzi is fine! Mr Kang, Xiao Huanzi is fine!”

The gloomy aura between Kang Nanhua’s brows slightly dissipated upon hearing that.

To find the missing Xiao Huanzi, they found their way to Changchun Peak and captured a cultivator of the Aurous Core Stage at Changchun Peak for insider information.

Eventually, this cultivator who was captured happened to be one of the beneficiaries of the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster’s the first batch of the Mortal Spiritual Elixir. He was also one of the few people that knew about it in Changchun Peak.

Under Kang Nanhua’s interrogation, this cultivator revealed information about the Hundred Herbs’ Grandmaster secret elixir chamber. Kang Nanhua used an exotic treasure that could manipulate time and space to come to the cave in the mountains.

All the other warnings were heeded by Kang Nanhua, except for the fact that if violent destruction was inflicted on the ice city the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster would be sure to be alarmed and the efforts of the two of them would be in vain.

Today, they continued to explore. When they suddenly discovered that there was a hole cut opened on the ice wall. They immediately hurried in.

As opposed to Yue Hongyan’s excitement, Kang Nanhua was much calmer, “It was good that everything was fine, but I am just worried that rescuing him out would still be. These urns are linked to the mind of the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster. Just a slight movement would be felt by the Hundred Herbs Grandmaster.”

Yue Hongyan tightly shut her lips and her fingers gripped tightly on the opening of the urn.