CHAPTER 95: CHAPTER 95 HEAVEN MENDING CAULDRON, HEAVEN-SWALLOWING CAULDRON

Whoosh!

The Earth Fire surged up from the ground. After being restrained by the array on the fireproof bricks, it transformed into an orange flame, rising into the air from the ground.

Above the flame was a Great Cauldron.

The cauldron had three legs, a round belly, and two ears.

Celestial Crystal, Vitality Wood, Creation Jade, and so on entered the Great Cauldron one after another. Accompanied by the burning Earth Fire, they transformed into streams of liquid, pure and flawless, with minimal impurities. With the guidance of True Essence, these liquids began to merge into the Great Cauldron, enhancing the cauldron’s grade.

Sizzle!

The liquids slowly fused, merging into the Great Cauldron, enhancing the cauldron’s quality.

Half a day later, the initial fusion was complete.

Next, a Talisman appeared in the void, resembling a Bird Talisman, a dragon walking with a serpent’s motion, inscribed with iron hooks and silver strokes, merging into the Great Cauldron.

A moment later, a second Talisman merged into the Great Cauldron, one after another, eighteen Talismans in total, flashing inside the Great Cauldron, resplendent in golden light, with sounds of the Dao echoing.

The Earth Fire burned continuously, refining the core, expelling impurities one by one.

After roughly half an hour, the Earth Fire gradually extinguished.

The brilliance of the Great Cauldron condensed, transforming back into a Bronze Ancient Cauldron, unremarkable in appearance, plain and tranquil.

"The Second Grade Spiritual Artifact is complete!"

Lu Xuanji flashed a hint of joy.

Retrieving the Heaven Mending Cauldron, he moved it into his Dantian, and True Essence entered the Great Cauldron.

Buzzing!

The Heaven Mending Cauldron operated incessantly, purifying the True Essence. Moments later, a wisp of True Essence was expelled; the quantity of True Essence reduced but became more refined, akin to ordinary iron transforming into fine steel.

The True Essence was purified to the Eighth Layer.

"The Heaven Mending Cauldron indeed lives up to its name, able to compensate for the innate deficiencies of a cultivator."

"For a Dual Spirit Root, a Pure Yang Pill is needed to purify the True Essence to the Eighth Layer; for Three Spirit Roots, three Pure Yang Pills are needed to purify the True Essence to the Eighth Layer. Without Pure Yang Pills, one would need to spend twenty to thirty years polishing the True Essence to purify its quality. But with the Heaven Mending Cauldron, it only takes two years to polish the True Essence to the Seventh Layer."

"The Heaven Mending Cauldron can be lent to the Grand Elder, but it would be best to do so in the name of Ancestor Jin; otherwise, it might cause trouble."

Lu Xuanji contemplated.

Many Cultivation Immortality Clans have perished, largely due to the inability to distinguish between public and private matters.

Gave too much, and thus the clan perished.

By operating the cultivation technique and using the Heaven Mending Cauldron to purify True Essence, True Essence was continuously tempered through in-and-out cycles, enhancing the quality.

As the quality of True Essence improved, Lu Xuanji also used it to temper the meridians, Dantian, flesh body, bloodline, bones, and the five viscera and six viscera, sparing no effort in the process, fully tempering each part.

After Foundation Establishment, not only did the quantity of True Essence improve, but the quality also enhanced, with the physique being steadily refined with the aid of True Essence.

One year later, the tempering of True Essence concluded, and each strand of True Essence wielded impressive destructive power.

Sizzle!

A strand of True Essence struck the ground, creating a hole in the sturdy stone slab.

Impressive power!

Within the Cave Mansion, Lu Xuanji took out Celestial Spirit Iron, Earth Mother Magnetism, Five-Colored Soil, Stone of Creation, and began refining the fourth Lifebound Treasure—the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron.

The Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron, a Yin Cauldron.

Four-legged, square-bellied, with two ears.

Materials began to melt, starting the refining process one by one.

...

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and fifteen years elapsed.

In the Cave Mansion, a square cauldron stood towering, approximately one meter in height, majestic and imposing.

Whoosh!

Lu Xuanji breathed a sigh of relief; the Great Cauldron had been successfully refined.

The refining difficulty of the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron exceeded expectations, even though it was merely Second Grade, requiring multiple pauses and adjustments in refining direction, and several materials were scrapped, but it was finally successfully refined.

Huff huff huff!

The Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron was operating, Spiritual Qi around it surged inward like tidal waves, entering the cauldron’s interior.

Gradually, pure Spiritual Liquid emerged at the bottom of the cauldron.

This Spiritual Liquid, converted from Spiritual Qi by the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron, was pure and flawless, and could be directly absorbed and refined, akin to the effect of Spirit Stones.

The daily condensed Spiritual Liquid was equivalent to ten Spirit Stones.

Spiritual Liquid evaporates easily; attempts to preserve it in Magical Artifacts showed it would dissipate by the following day.

Only inside the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron can it be preserved long-term.

Daily, the condensed Spiritual Liquid equates to ten Spirit Stones, making for 3,600 Spirit Stones annually.

Over ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, the accumulated resources are exceptionally abundant, tantamount to a prosperous Spiritual Ore that can be endlessly mined.

The Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron truly lives up to its name, devouring the creation of heaven and earth for personal use.

With this thought, Lu Xuanji laughed gleefully, filled with happiness.

With Three Spirit Roots, there’s not much advantage after reaching Foundation Establishment.

Achieving Purple Mansion with Three Spirit Roots is not inferior to Foundation Establishment with Five Spirit Roots.

The hope is almost negligible.

When one exhausts their life span, reaching only the Sixth Layer of Foundation Establishment may be their limit.

Embarking on the path of the Demon Dao seems to be the only hope.

However, the combination of the Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron and the Heaven Mending Cauldron greatly increases the hope of achieving the Purple Mansion.

The Heaven-Swallowing Cauldron converts Spiritual Qi into pure Spiritual Liquid, which can be absorbed like Spirit Stones, speeding up cultivation;

The Heaven Mending Cauldron purifies True Essence, perfectly compensating for the unstable foundation and virtual True Essence resulting from the consumption of Elixirs and refining Spirit Stones.

The combination of both increases the hope of achieving Purple Mansion from less than one percent to ten percent.

"I am already eighty years old."

Calculating his age, Lu Xuanji suddenly sighed.

Time flows like a relentless stream, not pausing even for a moment.

He awakened his Spirit Root at six, stepping onto the path of cultivating immortality; spent three years learning the basic knowledge of the Cultivation Realm, reaching the first layer of Qi Cultivation at nine, progressing nearly one layer every four years, and achieved Foundation Establishment at forty-nine.

Now, he is eighty years old.

On Earth, sixty is the heavenly stem rate, seventy is old age, eighty is advanced age.

On Earth, he would be considered very elderly.

Yet in the Cultivation Realm, he is merely a young man.

The age of a cultivator is not divided by years but by the proportion of lifespan.

The first twenty percent of lifespan is considered youth, twenty to forty percent is young adulthood, forty to sixty percent is middle age, and over sixty percent gradually enters old age.

A Foundation Establishment lifespan is 240 years; at eighty, he only reached a third of his life’s night watch, still considered a young man.

This is why many elderly cultivators, after a breakthrough, quickly revert from an old state to their middle-aged appearance, as if rejuvenated.

After a breakthrough, lifespan greatly increases, reverting the life proportion back to middle age, or even youth.

The lifespan at the Foundation Establishment Stage is too short.

This is why Lu Xuanji primarily learned to be a Spirit Plant Master, casually skipping over Alchemy.

Because there isn’t enough time.

To achieve minor success in Alchemy would require at least thirty years.

But how many sets of thirty years does a Foundation Establishment cultivator have?

Time for cultivation is already inadequate, where is the time to learn alchemy?