CHAPTER 898: CHAPTER 897: NEARING THE FINISH LINE

Hou Niao learned something new again, regarding the countless secrets of the Cultivation World, glimpsing only a thread, yet the more he looked, the more confused he became.

"You mean to say that these spirit plant creatures are rebelling within the Medicine King Furnace? How is this possible? How could an artifact used by dignified Immortals leave so many hidden dangers? Could it create trouble during critical moments? Can’t it even refine mere spirit plants cleanly?"

Fairy Fei Bai glanced at him disdainfully; a boorish person from a small place truly lacks knowledge and foundation, yet she had no choice but to deal with such individuals.

"You don’t practice Alchemy, so you don’t understand the intricacies within. The Universe Cultivation World has undergone transformations for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Supreme elixirs have long become an indispensable part of the Cultivation World’s foundation. If ranked, it would be at the top of all paths. Sadly, some Daoists are still clinging tightly to outdated thoughts, believing not practicing Alchemy, refusing elixirs, and not using them aligns with nature. Such cultivation theories are long outdated!

Elixirs are the king’s way, opportunity lies in chance. Abandoning the king’s way to chase chance is a betrayal of cultivation principles and will eventually be discarded by the tide of cultivation."

Hou Niao listened quietly, knowing the woman was venting dissatisfaction under the guise of reason, naturally also expressing disdain towards Sword Dao. It’s understandable to take losses and lose face, but hopefully, this venting wouldn’t last too long; otherwise, she’d have to watch out.

"In Alchemy, refining all medicinal properties is a concept for mortals; in the Cultivation World, it is quite the opposite! The pursuit is for the medicine to remain partially refined, the soul not fully captured, waiting for the coming year!

In the Foundation Establishment Golden Core Realm, cultivators find it difficult to achieve this. But once reaching the Nascent Soul, no Pill Master truly extracts all the medicinal properties completely dry, instead leaving a thread to demonstrate Heaven never closes all roads."

Hou Niao scoffed, "How hypocritical, placing others in the Pill Furnace, speaking such pretentious words, claiming peace of mind?"

Fairy Fei Bai ignored him; talking Alchemy with this person was like playing the lute to a cow, yet the question must be answered, which was quite painful,

"Great cultivators in Alchemy, leave a trace of spiritual essence for three reasons.

The first is for control, to establish bonds; otherwise, it’s baseless elixir, unable to claim loftiness.

The second is for preservation, as some spirit plants, Immortal Herbs, are extremely rare. Refining them entirely poses the risk of extinction, so one must leave a thread for future regrowth.

The third is for Heavenly empathy; spirit plants are also living beings. Using the Elixir Furnace extensively means harming countless lives, returning energy is naturally inevitable. If not removed, even the best Elixir Furnace cannot be greatly utilized. The higher the level, the more this is true, so a divine artifact like the Medicine King Furnace must leave a trace of spirit plant spiritual essence in Alchemy. Over time, these become spirit plant creatures, not unique to the Medicine King Furnace, but all Elixir Furnaces are like this. Poor control can render them unusable after prolonged use."

Hou Niao shook his head speechlessly, "What does it have to do with the Elixir Furnace? Shouldn’t this blame rest on its owner? Just say directly, have these things rebelled? If so, why can’t the Medicine King Furnace handle it, yet instead requires us, these minor Golden Core cultivators, to clean up? To an Innate Spiritual Treasure, are these small creatures a problem?"

Fairy Fei Bai snorted, "I’m neither the Medicine King Furnace nor an Immortal. How could I know the secrets within? I’m only telling you, it’s normal for spirit plant creatures to appear within the Medicine King Furnace. After tens of thousands of years of accumulation, anything could happen. As for why and whether it relates to the Jinxiu Continent, that’s precisely the purpose of our entry; you’ve asked everything, then what’s the point of coming in?"

Hou Niao smiled, this woman had explained very clearly, having one point quite right—their purpose of entering is to uncover all of this. They might ultimately not grasp everything, but only need to understand matters related to Jinxiu.

Because in the last fight, everyone understood each other’s strengths roughly, realizing one person could generally handle five spirit plant creatures with no problem, under extreme circumstances even ten could be managed, meaning they could pull between twenty to forty creatures at a time. Under these circumstances, their speed wasn’t much behind when compared to the previous six people.

Not only Hou Niao was somewhat anxious, others didn’t want to shuffle slowly to the back either, having entered later than the first batch of cultivators for some time; having pursued for years without catching up, the speed of those ahead was imaginable.

This also reflects a manifestation of powerful self-confidence.

At such speeds, occasionally encountering other cultivators occurred, most were lone travelers like Hou Niao initially, then the group gradually expanded like a snowball, silently rushing forward.

To Hou Niao, this approach slightly affected his cultivation accumulation, but he couldn’t balance both speed and cultivation; ultimately, he chose speed.

With a larger group, disputes became inevitable; there were always conflicts, disagreements, gatherings, separations, reunions, but none of this concerned him; fundamentally, the combination of the four of them remained consistent, because understanding each other’s strengths allowed them to advance together, year after year.

The internal space of the Innate Spiritual Treasure is beyond their imagination; it seemed possible to fly endlessly without reaching the end in a lifetime. If not for the ten-year limit looming ahead, he wouldn’t have the motivation to continue flying.

The only heartening thing is that from the feeling, the destination got closer and closer.

In the ninth year, his cultivation reached the Golden Core Late Stage as he wished, but his mind was no longer on this.

The destination was reached.

It was a massive vertical eye black hole, slowly rotating, swallowing everything around it; the surrounding area was completely devoid of spirit plant creatures, seemingly aware of the danger, not approaching the nearby region.

Only a few scattered human cultivators lingered there, hesitating to approach.

When they entered this area, a Divine Intent descended, allowing everyone to understand their current situation.

Evidently, the Divine Intent was sent by the Medicine King Furnace, roughly implying:

The rupture of the Jinxiu Continent’s barrier is a trend, but under the Heavenly Dao, it should be a natural process; regretfully, human Daoist forces interfered due to self-interest, altering certain aspects.

The Hell Star is part of Jinxiu’s barrier rupture, but it’s not all; those Upper Realm Daoists used their abilities to open a slight gap during the last celestial opportunity, inserting twelve people. In the great cultivators’ eyes, this change would slightly impact the process but is of no great concern; yet the problem arose midway, these people were returned to the Hell Star, and in such repetitive processes, a trace of mutation emerged.

A sinister entity mixed into the Hell Star, unknown, invaded the Medicine King Furnace, gradually causing spirit plant creatures to lose control, affecting future attempts to reopen the passage to Jinxiu.

Over the years, the Medicine King Furnace has been contending with this sinister entity for control over passage transmission, but with little success, hence allowing humans to enter during the last ten years of the limit, hoping to rely on their strength to correct the mistake.

The Medicine King Furnace has now entered into slumber, meanwhile utilizing this method to restrict that sinister entity’s power, preventing it from surpassing limitations within the Medicine King Furnace.

The sinister entity resides within the vertical eye, but as to what actions to take next and potential risks, the Medicine King Furnace is powerless.

It means human cultivators can only rely on themselves to fight for survival.