Immortality Cultivation

Chapter 346: Ancient Elephant Mountain Range

Fang Hao steered that Third-Rank azure spirit boat, flying eastward for seven or eight days straight like a frightened rabbit. He didn’t dare travel in a straight line, specifically picking desolate deep mountains, old forests, and treacherous terrains to drill into. From time to time, he would change direction and make several large detours, fearing that pursuers from the Medicine King Valley or the Heavenly Derivation Sect were following closely behind.

Along the way, his nerves were taut, and he didn’t even dare to sleep soundly. Several times, he sensed powerful auras sweeping by in the distance, scaring him into quickly putting away the spirit boat and hiding in a mountain gully or a tree hollow, not even daring to breathe loudly.

It wasn’t until he had flown tens of thousands of miles away from the Myriad Laws Immortal City, completely leaving the core area of the Western Region and entering a primitive land called the "Ancient Elephant Mountain Range," that Fang Hao’s hanging heart finally eased slightly.

This Ancient Elephant Mountain Range was said to be the habitat of a massive Primordial Relic Species known as the "Mountain-Moving Ancient Elephant" during ancient times. Now long deserted, the mountain range rolled on with peaks often reaching ten thousand feet high. Miasma permeated the air, Demon Beasts ran rampant, and human traces were rare. To the current Fang Hao, this place was simply a perfect hiding spot.

He stopped the spirit boat before a precipice shrouded in mist and clouds, a place difficult even for apes to climb. This cliff was several thousand feet high and nearly vertical, covered with weathered holes and cracks. Fang Hao released his Divine Sense to investigate carefully, eventually choosing a natural cave located in the middle of the cliff, its entrance concealed by vines.

Like a gecko, he climbed up the rock wall, pushed aside the thick vines, and crawled inside.

The interior of the cave was much more spacious and dry than imagined, about half the size of a basketball court. There were several natural cracks in the ceiling for ventilation and light, but its position was extremely hidden, making it impossible to discover from the outside. There were even some dry branches and animal bones remaining in the cave, likely the former nest of some large bird of prey, though it had long been abandoned.

"This is the place!" Fang Hao was very satisfied with this "new home." He immediately got to work, setting up several layers of Concealment Formations, Defense Formations, and Warning Restrictions at the cave entrance, completely hiding and protecting the cave.

After finishing all this, he slumped onto the ground and let out a long sigh of relief. Seven or eight consecutive days of fleeing for his life with high mental tension, combined with the injuries previously sustained in the Ancient Mine of Buried Gods and within the netherworld pearl, made him feel as if his entire body was falling apart.

He sat cross-legged, swallowed several Medicinal Pills for healing and restoring spiritual power, and began to close his eyes to regulate his breathing. The Chaos Derivation Art slowly operated, and the Chaos vortex within his Dantian was like a parched pond, greedily absorbing the spiritual power provided by the Medicinal Pills, restoring vitality bit by bit.

Three days later, Fang Hao opened his eyes. The divine light in his eyes was restrained, and his complexion had become much ruddier. Although his injuries were not yet fully healed and his spiritual power was not completely restored, his state was much better.

"It’s time to take stock of my belongings and plan the path ahead," Fang Hao muttered to himself.

He first took out the Jade Slip given by Su Xuan and sank his Divine Sense into it. Inside the Jade Slip was exactly that complete nascent soul pill formula.

This Pill Formula was extremely complex. There were nine types of main herbs alone, and as many as eighty-one supplementary herbs. The refining steps were incredibly tedious, with almost harsh requirements for the control of Divine Sense, spiritual power, and flames, as well as the quality of the Pill Furnace.

"Good heavens, this nascent soul forming pill really isn’t meant to be refined by humans..." Fang Hao felt his scalp go numb. He considered his alchemy skills to be quite good, having even managed to tinker out a "Dao Pill Prototype," but seeing this Pill Formula, he still felt immense pressure.

He took a deep breath and began to carefully cross-reference the Pill Formula, taking stock of all the Spirit Medicines in his storage ring.

First were the main herbs. nascent soul condensing fruit, check—given by Su Xuan, and of excellent quality. Heavenly Spirit Flower, Earth Vein Lingzhi, Dragon Blood Vine... Fang Hao found them one by one. Fortunately, he had scavenged quite a lot in the Myriad Laws Immortal City before, and combined with the legacies of Mo Yunhe and Su Xuan, he had actually gathered seven out of the nine main herbs!

"Two more to go..." Fang Hao frowned slightly. The two missing main herbs were the "seven-colored moon orchid" and the "nine-leaf star grass," both of which were extremely rare Fourth-Rank Spirit Medicines with harsh growth environment requirements.

"The seven-colored moon orchid prefers shade and mostly grows in the Moonlight Tundra of extremely cold regions. The nine-leaf star grass needs to absorb the Power of the Stars and grows on the summits of ten-thousand-foot peaks, with no obstructions around..." Fang Hao recalled the characteristics of these two Spirit Medicines, and his expression turned somewhat grim. These two herbs would likely be very difficult to find in this Ancient Elephant Mountain Range.

Looking at the supplementary herbs, he had gathered more than half of the eighty-one varieties, but there were still over a dozen missing, most of which were obscure and uncommon medicinal Materials.

"Sigh, it seems refining a nascent soul forming pill is no easy task..." Fang Hao sighed. Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice; without the medicinal Materials, no matter how good his alchemy skills were, it was all for naught.

He put away the Pill Formula and began to take stock of his other gains.

As for Spirit Stones, this was truly a bumper harvest. Between Su Xuan and those two Nascent Soul Cultors, he had scavenged nearly two million High-Grade Spirit Stones alone! Medium Grade and Low-Grade Spirit Stones were piled up like mountains. This wealth was enough for him to spend lavishly for a long time.

Magic Treasures, Talismans, Cultivation Technique Jade Slips... the various cultivation resources were a feast for the eyes. Fang Hao even found an Earth Rank High Grade sword art called the "Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword Art," which was quite powerful and could perfectly compensate for his shortcoming of having limited offensive methods.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the pile of "scrap metal" in the corner—the remains of the golden puppet.

Fang Hao walked over, squatted down, and cautiously stroked the cold metal fragments. The large hole in the chest was shocking, the core formation was completely destroyed, and many parts were twisted and deformed. This golden puppet, which had accompanied him through life and death and had just been strengthened to the Late Nascent Soul Stage, was now completely scrapped.

"Old partner, I’ve wronged you..." Fang Hao felt a pang of pain in his heart. This golden puppet was one of his greatest trump cards, and now it was gone just like that.

But he didn’t give up. He took out that wrinkled "fragment of the heavenly craft puppet manual" and carefully searched for content regarding the repair of Puppets.

"Perhaps... it can still be saved?" A glimmer of hope flashed in Fang Hao’s eyes. The fragment mentioned that if the core material of the Puppet was good enough, even if the core formation was destroyed, as long as the core fragments were preserved and suitable Materials were found, one might be able to attempt a repair through a secret technique called "Spirit-Melding Regeneration," or even... let the Puppet "be reborn from the ashes" and become even stronger.

However, this secret technique was extremely dangerous with a very low success rate. Moreover, it required a rare material called a "star core" as a new energy core, along with a large amount of high-rank Demon Beast essence blood and inner cores to recast the Puppet’s body.

"star core..." Fang Hao rummaged through Su Xuan’s storage ring and actually found one! It was a fist-sized piece of strange metal, entirely silvery-white with bits of starlight flickering on its surface. It was heavy in his hand and emitted a pure and majestic Power of the Stars.

"Excellent!" Fang Hao was overjoyed. With this star core, and since he also had some essence blood and inner cores from Fourth-Rank Demon Beasts, perhaps... he really could give it a try!

However, his current state was too poor, and repairing the golden puppet would cause too much of a commotion. If it attracted powerful Demon Beasts or Cultivators, it would be troublesome.

"The priority now is to heal my injuries and improve my cultivation. Then, while searching for the missing Spirit Medicines, I’ll also look for an opportunity to repair the golden puppet." Fang Hao quickly cleared his thoughts.

His current cultivation was at the Great Perfection of Golden Core Stage. Logically, with the nascent soul condensing fruit, he could completely attempt to forcibly form a Nascent Soul. But without the assistance of a nascent soul forming pill, the success rate was too low. Once he failed, at best his cultivation would regress, and at worst his Dao would vanish as he died.

"I can’t rush; I must gather the herbs and refine the nascent soul forming pill!" Fang Hao suppressed the urge to immediately form a Nascent Soul. He had enemies everywhere now, so every step had to be taken steadily.

In the following days, Fang Hao lived a "savage" life within this cliffside cave.

During the day, he cultivated the Chaos Derivation Art, nurtured the chaos pill cauldron, and comprehended the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword Art. Occasionally, he would venture out to cautiously explore the outskirts of the Ancient Elephant Mountain Range, gathering some common Spirit Medicines while familiarizing himself with the environment.

At night, he would use the Power of the Stars to attempt to nurture and repair the remains of the golden puppet using that "star core" and Demon Beast essence blood. This process was extremely slow, like embroidering with a needle, requiring immense patience and precise control.

As the days passed, Fang Hao’s injuries gradually healed, his cultivation became more stable, and his understanding of the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword Art deepened day by day. Under the nourishment of the Power of the Stars and essence blood, the originally dull fragments of the golden puppet’s remains gradually regained a faint trace of spirituality, and new metal tissue even began to slowly grow at the breaks.

This gave him hope.

One day, Fang Hao was cultivating in the cave when suddenly, the Warning Restriction he had set up vibrated slightly.

"Someone?" Fang Hao snapped his eyes open, and his Divine Sense cautiously extended out of the cave.

In the valley below, two groups of Cultivators were in a standoff. One side consisted of three young Cultivators wearing uniform cyan Daoist robes, two men and one woman, with cultivations around the Middle Golden Core Stage. The other side was a burly Bald Big Man with a face full of scars, whose cultivation had actually reached the Late Golden Core Stage. Behind him followed two Fourth-Rank Demonic Beasts with fierce auras—Iron-Backed Azure Wolves.

"Hehe, little brats of the Yunlan Sect, hand over the ’Earth Core Fire Lotus’ you just picked, and I might spare your lives!" the Bald Big Man said with a sinister grin, the Ghost-Head Blade in his hand glinting with a cold light.

"In your dreams!" the leading man among the three young Cultivators shouted, his face pale but still holding his ground. "We discovered this Earth Core Fire Lotus first; why should we give it to you?"

"Why? Because my fists are bigger!" the Bald Big Man roared. His figure lunged forward, leading the two Iron-Backed Azure Wolves as they pounced toward the three.

The two sides instantly clashed. The three Yunlan Sect Disciples clearly coordinated well, forming a sword formation to barely hold their ground. However, the gap in cultivation was obvious, and they soon fell into a disadvantage, their situation becoming precarious.

Fang Hao hid in the shadows, watching coldly. He didn’t want to meddle in others’ business. In the cultivation world, killing and looting were common occurrences. He could barely protect himself, so he had no interest in saving others.

However, just as the Bald Big Man was about to strike the female Cultivator with his blade, Fang Hao’s gaze inadvertently swept across an inconspicuous jade box hanging from the woman’s waist.

Through a crack in the jade box, a faint... seven-colored glow could be seen.

Fang Hao’s heart skipped a beat.

Was that... a seven-colored moon orchid?!