Zhang Tianchen felt ecstatic; the Creation Cauldron and his medicinal garden were precisely the things he needed most right now. Fate played strange tricks: when he had searched for treasures in the past, he had never once encountered anything suitable, yet now, entirely by chance, he had obtained his heart's greatest desire. After putting away the Creation Cauldron and digging up every single spiritual herb in the medicinal garden, Zhang Tianchen immediately departed from that place and sped onward in the direction of Mount Wuyi.
Three hundred years passed.
Zhang Tianchen returned to the Boundless Cave on Mount Wuyi.
"Cave Master, you've returned."
Catching sight of Zhang Tianchen, the Susu sisters paused their cultivation and hurried out from the palace to greet him.
Zhang Tianchen produced a second batch of flat peach trees and all the rare spiritual grasses, saying, "Plant all of these."
"Cave Master, where did you get so many spiritual herbs?" Huahua exclaimed in astonishment.
Susu quickly warned, "Huahua, do not speak out of turn!"
Zhang Tianchen answered earnestly, "Actually, it is hardly any secret. A small portion was indeed gathered by myself, but the majority came from a natural medicinal garden."
"Rest assured, Cave Master, we will take good care of these immortal medicinal herbs," Susu vowed.
Zhang Tianchen continued, "Once everything is properly prepared, we shall begin refining pills. When the time comes, I will refine several portions of pills that enhance power and bestow them upon you."
Upon hearing that he was going to refine pills to elevate their cultivation, Susu and the others were immensely grateful to Zhang Tianchen.
He added, "This is Xiantian spiritual soil. You are to crumble it and mix it into the soil of the medicinal garden to ensure that all the spiritual herbs survive. You may use this water-attribute Banana Fan to water them."
He then took out the fan he had picked up from Buzhou Mountain, along with the spiritual soil, from his pocket.
"Understood."
The three of them acknowledged the order with a nod.
Once all matters were settled, Zhang Tianchen began to practice controlling and utilizing the Creation Cauldron.
There were forty-eight restrictive seals inscribed upon this Creation Cauldron, and astonishingly, every single one of these talismans was intimately connected to the art of alchemy.
As Zhang Tianchen unraveled these restrictions, his own mastery of pill-making technology made tremendous leaps forward.
In the blink of an eye, another half-cycle of sixty years flew by. By this moment, he had mastered all the restrictions of the Creation Cauldron, and his alchemy skills had grown significantly.
"Susu, come here."
Through a telepathic technique, he transmitted the message to her as she waited outside the door.
Hearing the Cave Master's summons, Susu quickly appeared before him and asked if there was anything he required.
Zhang Tianchen executed a hand seal, and a flash of radiance poured deep into her mind, instilling an illustrated catalog and descriptive names of all kinds of rare flora.
"Please help me gather some medicinal herbs."
Upon hearing the task, she immediately rose and left the cave dwelling to search for the required ingredients. Before long, Huahua and Feifei were brought back to the cave by Susu, carrying all the necessary medicinal herbs.
After instructing the three Susu sisters to leave, Zhang Tianchen set about refining pills.
The Creation Cauldron was truly the finest alchemy cauldron in the Primordial world, allowing Zhang Tianchen's pill-refining efficiency to increase dramatically.
If he had still used his previous alchemy furnace, it would have taken Zhang Tianchen a thousand years to fully extract the essence of all the medicinal materials, but now he could accomplish it in a mere three hundred years.
Having successfully extracted the essence of all the medicinal herbs, Zhang Tianchen then proceeded to the step of combining the pills.
Another three hundred years passed, and these spiritual herb essences finally formed a single, radiant Golden Core.
Immediately afterward, Zhang Tianchen began the final procedure: smelting.
Because what he was refining was a Six-Turn Golden Core, the entire process required five rounds of smelting.
After another three hundred years, the Six-Turn Golden Core was finally refined.
Zhang Tianchen ingested the Golden Core and began refining its power.
Although the energy of this Six-Turn Golden Core was relatively gentle, it was far more formidable than a Three-Turn Golden Core. This time, Zhang Tianchen spent a full hundred years completely refining it, and his own cultivation grew by one hundred thousand years as a result.
Inside the Boundless Cave on Mount Wuyi, Zhang Tianchen was instructing the three Susu sisters in the cultivation of divine arts and spells.
Ever since his return to the Boundless Cave, ten yuanhuis had passed.
To ordinary mortals, a hundred years was enough for the seas to change into mulberry fields; yet to cultivators, even ten yuanhuis was merely a small waystation on their long path of cultivation.
Over these past years, the aid of the Golden Core had propelled Zhang Tianchen's progress at a blistering pace, and he had now reached the limit of the Mythological True Immortal realm, his strength rivaling that of an ordinary peak Taiyi Golden Immortal.
Provided he took that crucial final step, he could enter the Mythological Mysterious Immortal realm.
Likewise, the chapter on the Mysterious Immortal realm within the "Mythological Daluo Method" had already been deduced and practiced by Zhang Tianchen; upon reaching the limit of the Mythological Mysterious Immortal stage, he would possess the strength of fifty thousand yuanhuis and be capable of matching ordinary peak Quasi-Sages.
Zhang Tianchen reflected that his next priority should lie in the comprehension of laws.
Regardless of which cultivation tier one was in, one could comprehend these so-called "laws," but for those with lower cultivation, the difficulty of comprehension was immense.
Prior to this, Zhang Tianchen had never deeply explored rules and laws, primarily to avoid wasting his energy on futile endeavors.
Now that he had reached the peak of the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, he could gradually begin attempting to understand the laws.
Over these ten years, the three Susu sisters had also made substantial progress in their cultivation.
All three of them had entered the Golden Immortal realm: Susu had reached the late Golden Immortal stage, Huahua was at the intermediate stage, and Feifei was at the entry-level Golden Immortal tier.
Whenever Zhang Tianchen had a moment of leisure, he would teach them some simple divine skills.
"Huahua, Feifei, pay attention now."
Amidst a flurry of talisman-driven magic, the sword in Susu's hand suddenly left her grasp, transforming into a dazzling ray of light that rapidly lunged toward her two sisters.
Huahua and Feifei, who both commanded the same spell technique, each brandished their own weapons to meet the attack.
Instantly, crisp clashing sounds rang out in the air.
Although Susu's cultivation was considerably higher than theirs, winning a victory in a one-versus-two situation was no simple matter.
Standing aside as an observer, Zhang Tianchen gently nodded in approval.
They had all mastered the [Sword Technique] skill from the "Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations," enabling them to use the power of their minds to control flying swords and strike down enemies from afar.
This technique was also the one the Susu sisters had learned most proficiently.
Susu formed a hand seal once more, and her treasured sword instantly split into two, engaging Huahua's and Feifei's longswords separately.
Even though Susu had to divide her focus to manipulate two swords, Huahua and Feifei were still no match, and before long, they were defeated.
"Eldest Sister, I'll let you have this win, but we'll definitely turn the tables next time," Huahua said with a trace of reluctance.
"Eldest Sister has already learned [Incarnation Technique], so we don't have to feel wronged by losing," Feifei sighed.
"Once we master [Incarnation Technique] as well, we'll come back and spar with you again," Huahua still refused to concede.
"I'll always be waiting for you," Susu said softly.
"Stop bickering for a moment," Zhang Tianchen said as he walked over. "Susu, you have more than enough composure, but you appear somewhat too conservative in your attacks, which might cause you to miss favorable opportunities. As for you, Huahua, you are a bit too rash; that makes it very easy to plunge yourself into dangerous situations."
"Cave Master, what do you think of me?" Feifei couldn't help asking.
"You..." Before Zhang Tianchen could finish his sentence, he suddenly paused.
"What is it, Cave Master?" Susu asked with perplexity.
"I sense an ominous aura, as though some major event is about to happen." Zhang Tianchen's brow knitted tightly together; such a sensation made him exceptionally alert.
...
In the Hall of Miraculous Mist within the Heavenly Court, Dijun was busy handling state affairs when Eastern Emperor Taiyi burst in hastily.
"Second Brother, what has happened to you?" Dijun halted what he was doing and looked toward the grave expression on Eastern Emperor Taiyi's face.
"Elder Brother, I've found a new way to counter the Wu Clan!" Eastern Emperor Taiyi said excitedly.
"What method could that possibly be?" Although Dijun asked the question, his face showed no excessive curiosity, clearly displaying a lack of complete trust in Eastern Emperor Taiyi's words.
With a slight wave of Eastern Emperor Taiyi's hand, a treasured sword materialized out of thin air in his palm and was handed over to Dijun.
However, after examining the treasured sword closely for a while, Dijun failed to discover anything special about it. "This is merely an ordinary inferior spiritual treasure; it's hardly sufficient to contend with the Wu Clan," he asked with puzzlement.
"Bring in the Wu Clan prisoner."
At Eastern Emperor Taiyi's gesture, several demon soldiers escorted a Wu Clan captive before the two of them.
Eastern Emperor Taiyi took the sword back from Dijun and handed it to a subordinate. "Use this blade to pierce this Wu Clan warrior."
Without the slightest hesitation, the demon soldier received the command and stepped forward to stab the Wu Clan captive in the heart with the sword. The captive quickly perished from the wound.
Witnessing this sudden turn of events, a sharp glint flashed in Dijun's eyes.
Normally, because the Wu Clan specialized in physical strength rather than the cultivation of spiritual power, ordinary attacks could not inflict significant damage upon them. Theoretically, it required at least three demon soldiers of comparable cultivation to subdue a single Wu Clan member. Yet, the one who had just struck was merely a demon soldier possessing the cultivation of the True Immortal Realm, and the victim was a Wu Clan warrior who had reached the Mysterious Immortal grade; yet, caught off guard, the latter had still died easily at the hands of the former.
This entire phenomenon had to be connected to this sword!
"What secret lies within this?" Dijun inquired.
"According to our investigation, this sword was forged by a demon using the spiritual essence of humans. We then accidentally discovered that this energy can suppress the physical structural traits of the Wu Clan to an extreme degree," Eastern Emperor Taiyi explained.
"This is truly Heaven aiding our Demon Race!"
Upon hearing this news, Dijun felt immensely exhilarated.
"Elder Brother, although the soul essence of the human race can indeed suppress the physical bodies of the Wu Clan, breaking through the defense lines of barbarians like Dijiang would require a massive quantity of human soul essences," Eastern Emperor Taiyi stated to Dijun.
Dijun understood Eastern Emperor Taiyi's concern. After all, the human race had been created by Nuwa, and any large-scale attack against them could not possibly escape Nuwa's notice.
"I will go immediately to consult Sage Nuwa's thoughts. Although her stance and ours do not always align, as a member of the Demon Race, if this matter yields immense benefits to our side, she should not halt our actions even if she does not entirely agree."
For Dijun at the present moment, this was the greatest opportunity to potentially defeat the Wu Clan. Thus, he immediately made his decision.