Martial Peak Chapter 283 – True Alchemic Way

The first five pages of the Black Book had nothing inside them except for the incense burner.
Removing the burner, Yang Kai proceeded to pour True Qi into the sixth page.
As he did, a pattern of dark lines suddenly emerged. At a glance he could see that these lines were some kind of Spirit Array, but unlike the one drawn on the fifth page, no matter how much True Qi he channelled into this array, it just continued absorbing it, seemingly without limits.
The Spirit Array’s lines constantly flickered.
A moment later, his True Qi was exhausted.
When this happened, Yang Kai immediately burst a drop of Yang Liquid within his dantian and once again filled his empty meridians, continuing to pour True Qi into the Spirit Array.
After consuming a full ten drops of valuable Yang Liquid, the sixth page finally seemed to be saturated and the Spirit Array underwent a change. The first six pages suddenly combined together to merge into one.
Probing it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai laughed with satisfaction.
It had been two or three years since he had acquired this Black Book, and although he had long since known that it was made of a giant piece of soulstone, it was not until now that it could fulfil its most fundamental role.
Soulstone was a Precious Treasure that one could forge storage artifacts from.
Such artifacts were actually things only spoken of in legend, so from the moment Yang Kai had first discovered that this wordless Black Book was forged from soulstone, he had been looking forward to the day he could use it as a storage.
This was especially true since a year ago when he had gone out for life experience. The Universe Bag that Ling Tai Xu had given him had shown him just how convenient and useful a storage artifact could be.
If one had a decent storage artifact, they could save themselves a lot of trouble.
And now, that desire had finally been reached.
What the Black Book’s sixth page had given him was the ability to open the wordless Black Books storage ability. The first six pages merging together had created an independent storage space.
Compared to the relatively small storage capacity of the Universe Bag, the Black Book’s internal space was very large, big enough to fit several houses inside. Besides an inability to load living things, there were basically no other limits or restrictions on what could be put into this space.
Moreover, in the future, the remaining pages of the Black Book would become available to him, and once those pages merged with the first six, the amount of storage space would increase.
Allowing his Divine Sense to wander around the huge space, Yang Kai felt truly amazed.
With such a large independent space at his disposal, essentially he would never again have to worry about being able to store things again.
After a moment, Yang Kai recalled his Divine Sense and carefully held the Black Book in one hand while manipulating his True Qi with the other, as he very carefully began removing the Myriad Drug Liquid from the well and loading it into the Black Book.
Every single drop of Myriad Drug Liquid was extremely precious, so Yang Kai was particularly meticulous and cautious, not wanting to spill even the slightest amount.
Fortunately, he had painstakingly cultivated Xiao Fu Sheng’s Yuan Qi manipulation techniques, so he was much more deft at controlling his True Qi than before, which allowed him to complete this task with relative ease.
At the beginning, Yang Kai was quite cautious, but as time passed, his actions gradually became faster. By the end, his free hand was basically tossing the Myriad Drug Liquid into the wordless Black Book’s storage space without him even bothering to watch.
This process lasted a full six or seven hours.
As time passed, Yang Kai’s back began to ache from kneeling over, while the actions of his hands had become mechanical.
When it was all over, he had acquired more than a thousand kilograms of Myriad Drug Liquid.
Looking into the well, part way down, at some point a layer of Myriad Drug Liquid that was richer in texture appeared. It was still a milky white colour, but instead of a flowing liquid it was closer to a semi-solidified state.
Myriad Drug Milk!
Compared to Myriad Drug Liquid it was a higher grade of treasure.
After all, this well had existed for thousands of years, and during that time Medicine King’s Valley had constantly been offering a huge amount of pills to the Myriad Drug Pond. The energy of those pills had all been gathered into the well, and the deeper one went the more ancient and refined the product would become. Naturally that meant that the treasure at the bottom of the well would have more potent effects.
Looking at this layer of Myriad Drug Milk, Yang Kai took a deep breath, grit his teeth, and continued collecting.
Another three or four hours later, the Myriad Drug Milk had been fully harvested, and although it was not as much as the thousand kilograms of Myriad Drug Liquid, there was still at least two or three hundred kilograms.
The Myriad Drug Milk’s effects were twice as strong as its liquid form.
In other words, with such an auxiliary treasure in hand, Xiao Fu Sheng would immediately be able to refine Spirit Grade pills because a single drop of this cream would allow one to improve the level of any pill by a full grade.
Once all the Myriad Drug Milk was collected however, there was still a layer of something at the bottom of the well.
This layer was completely solidified and was clearly the most valuable treasure in the well.
Myriad Drug Cream! Its efficacy was again twice that of its milk form.
Enduring his built up fatigue, Yang Kai once again carefully began collecting this treasure.
After a long time, Yang Kai wiped the sweat off his forehead, and sat cross-legged on the ground while breathing rhythmically in order to restore his strength.
(Leo: *eye roll* the farm life just beat the MC)
The amount of Myriad Drug Cream he acquired was not much, at least compared the massive quantity of Myriad Drug Liquid and Myriad Drug Milk, only a few dozen kilograms. But these few dozen kilograms of cream were the crystallization of the most potent energies from thousands of year’s worth of sacrificed pills.
Now, the well had been completely emptied, and the thousands of years of accumulation all belonged to Yang Kai.
Frowning as he meditated, Yang Kai couldn’t help but ponder over this several thousand years old cycle.
Gaining enlightenment about the Alchemic Way from the Pill Saint’s portrait was the bait for this cycle, and if an Alchemist wanted to do so they needed to offer a large amount of pills to the Myriad Drug Pond.
Once these pills were placed into the pond, their energy and essence would eventually be gathered here.
Then, only after thousands of years would this large quantity of Myriad Drug Liquid be formed.
Was it the wordless Black Book’s creator that set all of this up? Yang Kai didn’t know.
What he did know was that this entire setup was very clever, using those Alchemists’ pilgrimages here to gain insight to acquire the required materials to fuel this cycle.
As long as the Pill Saint’s Portrait remained, as long as the Myriad Drug Pond was there, and as long as Medicine King’s Valley endured, thousands of years later, it was more than likely that this well would once again be filled with Myriad Drug Liquid.
But in the river of time, all things were impermanent; Medicine King’s Valley maintaining its position for thousands of years was already a miracle, as for if it could continue to do so for many more thousands of years, who could say for sure?
As he was in mediation, the isolated space he was in suddenly had some unusual movements.
His expression slightly changed. Yang Kai hurriedly opened his eyes, surprised to find the space round him filled with a variety of flashing text and diagrams.
These words were old, obscure, and completely unintelligible.
The diagrams were also strange, but at a glance Yang Kai could see that many of them were in fact Spirit Arrays.
These words and patterns filled the chamber with flashing lights, appearing somewhat like tiny glowing fish quickly swimming through a clear lake.
Yang Kai wrinkled his brow in confusion and looked around carefully wondering what exactly was going on.
But before he had a chance to figure anything out, the numerous words and diagrams suddenly flashed brilliantly and madly rushed towards Yang Kai.
In a flash, all of these words and diagrams began silently flooding into his mind. His entire head was seemingly wrapped up in a glowing halo. As these lights continued drilling into him, Yang Kai feel like his brain was constantly on the verge of exploding. The blue veins on his forehead were clearly visible, like a mass of squirming earthworms, grotesque and disturbing to anyone who could see them.
This anomaly lasted for quite a while, until finally the last light shot into Yang Kai’s head, and then the whole chamber suddenly became dark again.
Yang Kai felt a throbbing pain resound inside his mind as he tried to catch his breath and recover his composure.
Involuntarily breathing a sigh of relief, Yang Kai knew that the Soul Warming Lotus had once again saved him, similar to his experience in the Nether Mountain isolate world’s white mist region, automatically repairing his Soul when it became damaged.
Faintly, Yang Kai felt that some new knowledge had been added to his mind, but this time was much different from the times he had gained something from the wordless Black Book, the two experiences couldn’t even be compared.
Every page of the wordless Black Book contained very specific information and was easily understood and conveyed; additionally, the amount of information was very small, so even if one hadn’t cultivated their Soul yet, it was still easy to understand.
But this time the amount of information he received was enormous, to the point that Yang Kai couldn’t even comprehend just how great it was.
Calming himself, Yang Kai carefully tried to examine some of this new knowledge.
And after a while, some inexplicable information jumped out.
The True Alchemic Way!
After slowly reviewing for a while, Yang Kai was surprised to find that this information was all somehow related to Alchemy. No Secret Arts, no Martial Skills, but all about how to practice Alchemy and refining good pills.
This True Alchemic Method wasn’t just a guide on how to perform Alchemy, however; it also contained many formulas for different pills, as well as the experiences of countless Alchemy Grandmasters. Many of their unique methods and insights into Alchemy were also documented. It was definitely a Heaven class treasure.
Although Yang Kai was only concerned about reaching the peak of Martial Arts and did not want to be distracted by pursuing Alchemy, his Little Senior Sister would definitely need this knowledge. If she could acquire all the information in this True Alchemic Method, it would absolutely be a huge boon to her abilities, and coupled with her special physique and skills, it would greatly assist her in refining higher grade and better quality pills.
Considering all this, Yang Kai grinned, and did not rush to leave but instead began carefully studying this information.
But less than ten breaths of time later, Yang Kai suddenly felt a burst of fatigue wash over his whole being and the just-settled throbbing pain once again assaulted his mind.
Gasping for breath, it wasn’t until the Soul Warming Lotus activated and slowly began repairing the damage to his Soul that the pain finally began to subside, but the feeling of exhaustion still continued to linger.
Yang Kai couldn’t help trembling slightly. His Spiritual Energy had actually been completely consumed within the span of a few breaths.
The Soul’s strength was also limited, similar to the Yuan Qi inside a cultivator’s body. Once their Yuan Qi was exhausted, a cultivator could no longer fight, while likewise, once one’s Spiritual Energy was exhausted, one’s Divine Sense could no longer be used.
This was why, even though Immortal Ascension Boundary masters could cultivate their Souls, under normal circumstances, they would not freely use their Divine Sense.
Yuan Qi was easy to restore, Spiritual Energy, on the other hand, was another story. Precious Treasures and pills related to restoring Spiritual Energy were generally many times rarer, and thus much more expensive.
Yang Kai’s cultivation was currently at the True Element Boundary Third Stage, yet he had already begun cultivating his Soul, and already had Spiritual Energy comparable to an ordinary Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth or Fifth stage master, but clearly that was nowhere near enough to explore the mysteries of this True Alchemic Method that had been imprinted into his mind.
Frowning, Yang Kai meditated for another four or five hours before he felt his Spiritual Energy finally recover.
It was only with the Soul Warming Lotus’ constant assistance that recovering in such a short period of time was possible. For a general Immortal Ascension cultivator, if their Spiritual Energy were to be completely exhausted, it would be at least ten days to as long as half a month to do this.
[I have to find some good Spiritual Energy recovering pills after this,] Yang Kai silently thought to himself.
Not satisfied with simply giving up, Yang Kai once again submerged his consciousness into his mind. This time he lasted a few additional breaths before his Spiritual Energy was cleanly consumed again.
This time, however, Yang Kai didn’t simply wait to recover naturally but instead consumed some of the Myriad Drug Liquid, and sure enough, his Spiritual Energy really did begin to quickly recover.
In less than half an hour, he had once again been completely restored and was full of energy.