Chapter Eighty-One: The Elixir Opens Three Portals, Vital Energy Billows and Swirls

In this age where the laws of heaven and earth have faded, cultivating a Dao Foundation cultivator is no less difficult than ascending to the heavens. Yet, for Lin You, though the task is arduous, it is not impossible—merely time-consuming. This was not something that demanded urgency; he cast only a brief glance before withdrawing his attention.

Now, Zhao Fan resided within the Pill Cauldron Sect as a servant disciple, but his life was not in danger. When the grand gathering of fellow cultivators arrived seven days hence, and the Pill Cauldron Sect traveled to Jinzhou, Lin You could lend him further aid.

With this thought, Lin You cleared his mind and took out the twenty Nourishing Origin Spirit Pills he had previously refined. Only after obtaining an ancient pill cultivation secret technique from Daoist Golden Toad did he realize how crude his earlier pill-making truly was. Even the recipe handed down by Old Daoist Pine Crane contained no shortage of errors. What he had thought to be the swirling pill aura was merely medicinal vapors leaking from inferior pills—it was not a true feature of spirit pills.

Such a level, if placed within the ancient Pill Sect, would warrant no more than an outer disciple’s rank. But ancient times were ancient times; spirit herbs were as common as grass, and the Pill Sect had endless ingredients to practice with, allowing pill cultivation to reach its zenith. An outer disciple of that era, if brought to the present, would be a genuine master of the pill arts, far superior to those who cobbled together medicinal pellets by wild methods.

As for Lin You, who had only refined a few batches and could already produce inferior-grade pills, even in the ancient Pill Sect, he would be considered extraordinarily gifted and worthy of special cultivation.

Yet now, the secret technique Lin You obtained was truly a core transmission of the ancient Pill Sect, the sort of legacy one could not glimpse without countless feats, unless one became the sect leader or an elder of the lineage. Despite its secretive reputation, its contents were vast as the clouds, a veritable treasure of pill cultivation. Though it contained no specific recipes, it detailed the crafting processes for all types of pills—covering the interplay of lead and mercury, the nurturing of flame, and the harmonizing of ingredients, as well as the methods for breaking through pill walls and nurturing pill nature after formation.

Were it not for the current extinction of inspiration and depletion of spirit herbs, jeopardizing the Pill Sect’s heritage, even a Nascent Soul Lord would not have received such a technique from Daoist Golden Toad.

Having mastered the secret, Lin You now regarded his twenty Nourishing Origin Spirit Pills with a sense of their inadequacy.

These pills could only be called "dead pills," not "living pills." Their medicinal properties had not been fully awakened and sealed; after three or five months, their aura would inevitably dissipate, and even their spiritual essence would escape. Furthermore, upon consumption, pill toxins would accumulate, and as one’s cultivation advanced, this would affect the quality of Dao Foundation formation.

Fortunately, these pills had been recently refined and could still be remedied. Lin You opened the jade bottle, used his mana to extract the twenty pills, enveloping them tightly to prevent any leakage of pill aura.

With the pill furnace shattered and no possibility of re-refining, he switched to the method of piercing the pills—breaking their barriers to "revitalize" them, enabling them to absorb and expel spiritual energy, drawing in their medicinal aura.

He lined the pills up, using his mana to communicate with them. Spirit pills are like people: without apertures, they are dead; with apertures, they are alive. The finest pills are called "Nine-Aperture Spirit Pills," able to breathe in and out the world’s spiritual essence, preserving their medicinal properties—even after thousands of years, they remain undiminished.

Lin You did not strive for nine apertures, which was unrealistic with his current skill. Three apertures would suffice for him. After a moment of communion, he acted without hesitation: his true energy transformed into twenty invisible fine needles, striking in unison at the points of the pills.

This required exceptional purity of a cultivator’s mana; if not for Lin You’s power, wholly refined from pure spiritual essence, he could not have achieved this "condensing energy as needles" technique.

As the sounds of needles piercing apertures rang out, minute holes appeared on the twenty pills. A denser medicinal aura drifted forth, forming a pill cloud that enveloped them. With more apertures breached, the pill cloud grew thick, as though all aura had leaked away.

Yet Lin You knew this was a sign of success. He withdrew his mana, letting the pills hang suspended in midair to prevent contamination by his energy, which could affect their quality.

Sure enough, the pills remained suspended, not dissipating into medicinal aura, but seeming to come alive. Wisps of spiritualized aura, like agile dragons, moved in and out of the pills’ apertures, as if the pills themselves were breathing. Through this process, pill toxins gradually volatilized, leaving only the purest medicinal essence.

In a short while, the twenty pills had been completely renewed. They radiated an aura of perfect completeness, and the chaotic pill patterns had vanished. These twenty pills, now with three apertures opened, were already the pinnacle among low-grade pills. Even in the ancient Pill Sect, they would be considered exceptional, unattainable by all but the true disciples.

Lin You extended his left hand, and the twenty flawless spirit pills lined up and fell into his palm. Their aura was now entirely restrained, with not a trace leaking forth.

After regulating his breath, he selected one pill and swallowed it. Once ingested, the pill transformed into a vast surge of energy. His mana and true energy were attracted by the pill, turning into a dragon that pursued and absorbed its essence.

True energy has nine grades, each harder to cultivate than the last. Though in theory, one need only refine one hundred and eight streams of spiritual essence for full mastery, reality differs. True energy is refined from the essence of spiritual energy.

The difference between ordinary disciples and true heirs of the immortal Dao lies here: ordinary disciples have weaker foundations, and a single stream of spiritual essence may yield two or three streams of mana, achieving completeness without the full hundred and eight. But the true heirs have boundless foundations, requiring more essence, yet their power far exceeds the rest.

For Lin You, though not yet in the immortal Dao, his meridians were already full, and with the Nourishing Origin Pill, his foundation was unmatched. Early in cultivation, he used thirty-six streams of spiritual essence to refine his true energy, attaining third-grade immortal Dao power.

If he wished to travel further along the immortal path, he could not rely solely on the hundred and eight streams for completeness; he needed to accumulate even greater foundations through spirit pills. At that point, his mana and true energy would be as vast as mountains and seas, forming the true cornerstone of the Dao!