HSSB814: Golden pill pointing the way
After leaving the dark green bamboo cane in the Internal Crystal Furnace for refinement and completing the corresponding arrangements, Yan Zhaoge no longer had to keep an eye on it.
Now, the process would gradually be completed over time. Upon final completion, the furnace would automatically open on its own.
After travelling for quite some time, Yan Zhaoge’s group finally arrived at the Jade Sun Mountain Range’s Solitary Heart Peak.
Gazing far away into the distance, there was a dense, fiery red forest on the southern slope which seemed as though a mighty fire was blazing as the winds buffeted its branches and leaves.
“Heavenly Flame Trees, and what a dense forest of them this really is,” Yan Zhaoge nodded slightly.
With the jade necklace’s map guiding the way, he no longer needed to search the area himself after arriving at Solitary Heart Peak as he would be able to head straight for the cave located down below.
A massive gorge existed between two mountain peaks above which a large amount of Heavenly Flame Trees grew, their leaves blotting out the sun and obscuring the heavens.
Yan Zhaoge entered the gorge, heading downwards.
Gazing upwards, while the gorge had already been narrow initially, as the light was blocked by the leaves of the trees, darkness instantly fell over the gorge as just mere slivers of sunlight penetrated through the gaps between the leaves.
In the depths of the gorge, they had arrived at a location which virtually never saw the light of day all year round.
The Heavenly Flame Trees were red during all four seasons, their leaves virtually never ever falling.
With no sunlight visible, the environment within the gorge was exceptionally cold, gloomy and wet.
Yan Zhaoge realised after observing for a while, “No wonder there are no organisations or powerful experts who have come to reside here.”
The numerous Heavenly Flame Trees that were congregated together would devour the flourishing life force and spiritual qi as well as the thriving flame essence qi that was extremely hot and blazing.
In the valley down below, it was instead gloomy with dense cold qi permeating the area.
At first glance, Yan Zhaoge had still thought that a rare land of the twin extremities of fire and ice might possibly form beneath this environment, making for a rare precious fountain of spiritual qi.
Still, after careful observation, he discovered that the yang qi and yin qi here had formed a strange equilibrium. Not only did they not aid in each other’s growth, they instead diminished each other.
Therefore, Solitary Heart Peak’s environment was extremely mediocre. There were few who would think anything of it.
The Northern Ocean Clone stayed in the Myriad Dragon Palace to cultivate, assaulting the bottleneck towards the fifth level of the Martial Saint realm.
Yan Zhaoge exited the palace, sitting on Pan-Pan’s back and letting his steed descend to the depths of the gorge.
After searching for a bit, he found the cave that was depicted in the image from the jade necklace.
Going inside, Yan Zhaoge’s party found that this cave was extremely dark and deep, connected to many places down below.
In the cave, it was hard to get one’s bearings.
Still, Yan Zhaoge had long since thought about this as he carefully retrieved a small brocade box.
Opening the box, golden light instantly flickered within the darkness of the cave. Borrowing the golden light, one could even see faint purple qi rising up from within the brocade box.
Yan Zhaoge gazed at the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill in the box, “If I deduce rightly…”
As he thought this, the pill within the brocade box actually shook slightly before slowly and haltingly rising into the air.
Yan Zhaoge did not prevent this Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill from flying out of the brocade box. Instead, his spirits rose as he followed after the pill that had begun flying on its own.
The grade of the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill was too high such that the spiritual qi within this pill as well as its spirituality were actually far from as simple as how they looked like now.
It was just that due to the gradual passing of time over the years, in order to preserve its spirituality, the golden pill had sealed the leakage of its own spiritual qi.
In other words, this pill was like a lifeform which was currently in a deep slumber.
It was like an animal hibernating, its vitality and spirituality concealed deep within as it suffered not the assault of the merciless elements.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge had thought of a plan on the way here.
If this really was the path to the hidden treasure that Sun Zhongda spoke of, if that hidden treasure really was a supreme treasure like the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace, if this Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill was really concocted of the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace, if the spirituality of this pill was still mostly preserved, why, the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill might be able to guide the way for him here.
There were many preconditions and suppositions here. If one of them were to be unsound, the plan would immediately fall short.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge had been very relaxed, not bearing too much hope regarding this. He could just slowly think of another plan at most if he really did fail.
Still, it looked like his luck had been quite good. From how the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill was acting up now, his earlier plan had actually succeeded?
“The behaviour of this Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill is equivalent to affirming Sun Zhongda’s guess,” Yan Zhaoge’s eyes shone.
Sun Zhongda had guessed that the hidden treasure he was looking for was very likely the legendary supreme treasure of the dao of alchemy from the Pill Hall of the Heavenly Court’s Divine Palace, the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace.
This had still just been a guess at the end of the day. There was no actual proof that they would be able to find something as it could only exist as mere speculation.
From Yan Zhaoge’s experiment with the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill, it had been proven that this guess was very likely a correct one.
Firstly, a path towards the hidden treasure was indeed concealed within this cave.
Next, within had to exist a pill cauldron or medicinal furnace which could concoct this Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill.
And, there was an eighty percent chance that it was precisely the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace.
For such a miraculous effect to be had with such deep markings imprinted on the pill, the pill able to still react like this following so many long years and across a perhaps extremely distant space, it was not something that an ordinary pill-concocting treasure would be able to achieve.
Finally, even if it was not the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace, its quality should also not be any lower than that.
This treasure did exist for sure, its worth rivalling a city’s.
Facing this sort of prospective fortune, Yan Zhaoge naturally had to try his luck.
If the Pill Hall still existed and they managed to locate it as a result, that would be really be priceless.
Of course, they might run into danger on this quest as well, with many competing with them over it.
Yan Zhaoge followed after the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill, watching it zooming in mid-air.
As they continued advancing, it was soon evident that the speed of the pill was gradually increasing.
After travelling through the densely connected cave for a while, the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill finally stopped. It circled a pile of stalactites, hovering in mid-air as it shook slightly.
Yan Zhaoge halted, silently reaching out with his senses.
Even with his sensory abilities, it was only after a long time that he discovered some anomalies.
Without further ado, Yan Zhaoge retrieved the Cloud Commanding Spear and pierced right through a stalactite.
That stalactite did not break. Instead, a tiny black dot appeared where the spear tip touched.
The black dot gradually expanded as it transformed into a dark spatial crevice.
Yan Zhaoge nodded slightly. A tiny crevice had once been ripped out amidst space here, a dimensional passageway hence being formed.
Afterwards, the crevice had healed. Still, it was like a scar over a wound as traces of it could still be sought out.
Yan Zhaoge’s earlier spear had ripped the wound apart again.
After storing the Encompassing Abundance Golden Pill and the Cloud Commanding Spear, Yan Zhaoge leapt into the Myriad Dragon Palace which transformed into a streak of light, speeding rapidly into that spatial crevice.
Traversing multiple layers of space, Yan Zhaoge now finally ended up within a foreign dimension.
Just feeling the spiritual qi flow of this foreign dimension somewhat, Yan Zhaoge knew that this place was extremely huge.
Unlike the previous foreign dimensions he had been to, the space here was exceptionally stable such that even a battle between numerous Martial Saints here might not cause the dimension’s collapse.
As opposed to calling it a foreign dimension, this could really be called a world in its own right.
Being able to form such a space, there was definitely an extraordinary entity here. Either it was a human or it was a treasure.