I forge immortality with spiritual treasures.

Chapter 42 Performing the Heavenly Pearl

Not long after the New Year, the bell rang three times in the Taoist temple.

Chen Xiang indeed mastered the Xuan Guang technique and rode the blue clouds straight into the Immortal Abode.

Ying Chan watched his friend leave from the shore of Xiaqi Lake, but his life remained unchanged as a result.

He continued to practice, attend lectures, study the Dharma, fish, and immerse himself in one Taoist classic after another.

Occasionally, after taking a short break, he would go into the mountains to collect herbs, sometimes alone, and sometimes with Li Xuanying.

Thus, although it was a daily routine, it was not boring at all, and his cultivation level steadily improved.

……

After drinking the Hundred Fruit Wine, Ying Chan calmed down and accumulated knowledge for a period of time. Two months ago, he successfully opened the first eighteenth acupoint.

Only then could he be considered to have truly entered the stage of minor success in Qi Refining.

The reason for defining 'minor success' in this way is that at this stage, mysterious and inexplicable connections will arise between the various mystical apertures.

After achieving minor success in Qi Refining, each time a new aperture is opened, all the previously opened apertures will be strengthened once more.

This is why, in the Qi Refining stage, the closer one gets to perfection, the more significant the increase in magical power becomes.

From this point onward, with each further step, the time required to accumulate and perfect one's magical power naturally becomes longer.

After calming down, Ying Chan did not rush to achieve results, and thus, in these past few dozen days, he has only just managed to open two of his orifices.

Such progress is certainly not slow, but compared to the rapid advancement when one first started, it has clearly slowed down.

Especially since Ying Chan still hopes to cultivate the Xuan Guang within this year, time seems even more scarce.

Of course, he had his own considerations for having such expectations.

One method is to administer the bait.

Taking elixirs for spiritual practice is actually the proper path of Taoist cultivation.

Especially in the alchemy workshops of Taoist academies, the elixirs sold to disciples may not be that powerful, but there is absolutely no such thing as elixir poison or negative effects.

It is said that the Ziyun Pill, which is made primarily with Scrophularia and Ganoderma lucidum, supplemented with various spiritual materials and refined with the purple energy from the east, can help cultivators accumulate a large amount of spiritual energy and primordial energy.

If one can regularly take this elixir to cultivate qi, it will definitely save a lot of hard work.

As for the two, they fell to the Heavenly Pearl.

The Dzi bead reflects the inner workings of the universe and the outer workings of all things.

It is a treasure of the grotto-heaven, a treasure of the universe, and even more so a treasure for cultivation and a treasure of creation.

For several months, Ying Chan devoted himself to studying the Dao Seed every day, trying to comprehend the wonders of this treasure, and finally made some progress.

It's time to start trying to refine the Heavenly Beads.

This night.

Ying Chan climbed to the summit where he usually gathered qi.

This is because the hour of Yin (3-5 AM) has not yet arrived.

He arrived here early, not to wait for dawn to gather Qi, but to refine the Heavenly Pearl.

Recently, Ying Chan has been studying the Heavenly Pearl and has gained some insights. He knows that if he were to have enough ability to replicate this magical treasure one day, he would have to do so in a special environment full of diverse phenomena in order to make it truly come into existence.

Of course, what he needs to do right now is simply to use the divine patterns on the Heavenly Pearl to reproduce a bit of its mystery, so the requirements are not that strict.

However, in pursuit of perfection, Ying Chan still came to this place where the winds rise and the clouds surge, and where the sun and moon revolve, hoping that this attempt would be successful.

He settled down on the summit and took out the Taotie inner elixir and medicinal gold that he had prepared in advance.

One is the vessel for the Heavenly Bead, and the other is the ink for inscribing divine patterns. The medicinal gold was pre-refined and contained in a copper container; its golden liquid shimmered with tiny sparkles.

This is a technique that Ying Chan recently learned: refining the medicinal gold with two spiritual materials, purple mica and black jade essence, which helps the magical artifact remain stable when bearing powerful divine patterns.

If this method could be used when reforging the Qiankun Bow, perhaps it wouldn't be the case that every time the bow is drawn at full power, there is a possibility of it collapsing.

Ying Chan shook his head, cleared his mind of distractions, concentrated his energy, and used his magic to wrap the medicinal gold and fly into the air.

The Tianzhu (天珠) is different from the Qiankun Bow (乾坤弓).

On its surface, it appears perfectly round and flawless, seemingly without any divine markings.

In fact, its divine patterns are equally intricate, but they are all hidden within the body of the vessel.

Therefore, the method for inscribing divine runes on it is also different. One must first condense the medicinal gold in an empty space to form the complete shape of the divine runes, and then inject it into the body of the vessel in one go for refining.

This obviously requires a very high level of skill.

Moreover, while the environment at the summit is more in line with the spirit of the dzi bead, it will undoubtedly cause some interference for the weapon refiner compared to the quiet room.

Fortunately, Ying Chan had practiced this countless times, even wasting a lot of money on medicine, and had already become very skilled at it.

Under his control, the medicinal gold transformed into ink and brush, moving like dragons and snakes, and in just a few breaths, it wove together several divine patterns in mid-air.

Upon closer inspection, one can even discern that it has a slightly rounded shape.

Ying Chan no longer hesitated, summoned the Taotie inner core into the air, and immediately poured the complete divine pattern woven from medicine and gold into the artifact body in one go.

Then, he exhaled softly, transforming into a pure white mist that enveloped the Taotie's inner core layer by layer.

Having completed this step, Ying Chan was invigorated, knowing that the refining of the Heavenly Pearl was nearly complete. The next step was the meticulous process of integrating the divine runes with the body of the pearl.

He silently activated his magic to ensure the situation stabilized, then closed his eyes and sat firmly in the mountain breeze.

Unbeknownst to us, the moon has set in the west and the sun is about to rise in the east.

The time spent on this step exceeded Ying Chan's expectations, yet he was still just one step away from completely merging the divine runes with the Taotie's inner core.

Even with his excellent composure, he couldn't help but feel doubtful.

"Could it be that my thinking is wrong, and the inner core of the Taotie is not enough to contain the divine patterns of the Heavenly Pearl?"

"But the vessel is stable and shows no signs of collapse."

"Or is it that my skills are lacking, or that my method is flawed?"

"But I have consulted with Senior Brother Lei and Senior Brother Ding several times, and the method is correct and without any errors..."

Ying Chan opened his eyes, his face deep in thought: "What exactly is the reason..."

At this moment, a golden glow spread across the sky, and purple mist burst forth.

One should gaze upon this scene with open eyes, and in a moment of enlightenment, a sense of wonder will arise.

He withdrew his thoughts and stopped using his magic to envelop the Taotie's inner core, instead simply holding it up and exposing it to the sunlight.

In an instant, the inner core of the Taotie shone with golden light!

This object was originally opaque and had no luster whatsoever, but at this moment, golden light emanated from within the divine patterns, illuminating both the inside and outside, and seemed to reflect the light of the sky, the purple aura, the wind, the clouds and mist...

All sorts of phenomena manifested within the inner elixir of the Taotie.

In a daze, Ying Chan felt as if he had returned to the Lingbao Dao Seed and first saw the Yantian Pearl.

Although the current scene is far from comparable to the magnificent spectacle of the real Tianzhu, which contains the vast universe and the evolution of all things.

But for Ying Chan, it is undoubtedly sufficient.

The 'Dzi Bead' has finally been forged!
(End of this chapter)