More than a decadeter.


    Cloud Piercing Peak.


    At the summit.


    Thunderous booms echoed through the air as the ground cracked open and rocks shattered.


    Jin Ang''s figure moved swiftly, leaving trails of afterimages in the sky as his fists and feet hammered on a turtle shell.


    The Turtle Prime Minister manifested his true form, dragging a shell four or five zhang in diameter, his movement not at all impeded. He withstood Jin Ang''s punches and kicks, and while Jin Ang was powerless in mid-air, the Turtle Prime Minister opened his mouth and spewed out several icences.


    "Ha!"


    Jin Ang exhaled deeply, his body enveloped by a faint red blood energy, withstanding the piercing icences and using the resulting force tond on the ground.


    The Turtle Prime Minister''s eyes showed smugness as his ws wielded mana, softening the bluestone into a mire.


    Jin Ang tried to leap out, but the mire shifted back into bluestone, trapping his feet within the stone.


    Seizing his advantage, the Turtle Prime Minister didn''t let up, opening his mouth and spraying a water jet over Jin Ang, drenching him thoroughly.


    "That''s enough, Little Gold has lost again."


    Zhou Yi waved his hand to stop Jin Ang from continuing to fight and exined, "What the Turtle Prime Minister spewed was a water jet, he could also spew poison water, and by now you would have turned into corpse water."


    "Thank you, my lord, thank you, Turtle Prime Minister."


    Jin Ang''s feet glowed red, shattering the bluestone, and said helplessly, "The Turtle Prime Minister''s defense is too strong, my blood energy strikes him without leaving a mark."


    "This fellow is already the weakest of the great demons."


    Zhou Yi could ughter great demons as if they were chickens but he didn''t really think the demon race was weak; were it ck Bear or Golden Eagle, they would tear Jin Ang to shreds in just a couple of rounds.


    Jin Ang''s expression turned slightly somber as he bowed deeply to Zhou Yi and said.


    "My lord, there''s something else today; I havee to bid farewell."


    Zhou Yi asked in confusion, "You''ve just solidified a meridian, naturally you can''t ovee a great demon, why not continue to solidify? Once the meridians in your body are refined, blood energy will flow freely, and fighting great demons won''t be difficult!"


    "My lord, do you remember the first time I saw you..."


    Jin Ang reminisced, "I think I was seven years old when my father died on a hunt, and in despair, I climbed to the summit in the middle of the night"


    Zhou Yi nodded, "You climbed all night with injuries all over; fortunately, that day I went to watch the sunrise."


    "I will never forget the life-saving grace of my lord."


    Jin Ang stroked his somewhat gray hair and said, "In the blink of an eye, I am already over seventy years old. Even if I solidify my meridians, I cannot stop the decline of my qi-blood. I n to travel the world and pass on the body refining method to the human race that I encounter."


    Zhou Yi did not try to retain him or stop him. Everyone has their aspirations, and with Jin Ang''s strength, as long as he doesn''t provoke the Demon King, his life should be secure.


    "Take these bottles of spiritual medicine, they can save your life."


    "Thank you, my lord."


    Jin Ang didn''t stand on ceremony, after decades of acquaintance, he already knew Zhou Yi''s disposition well.


    "This Qi-blood Divine Weapon..."


    Zhou Yi took out a dark long spear from his storage bag: "This spear was crafted over the years ording to the properties of qi-blood. Unfortunately, it isn''t yet aplete sess; more than half of the blood energy is lost during transmission. It''s fortunate that it''s still sharp, enough to pierce through a great demon, use it for self-defense."


    "Thank you, my lord, for your generosity."


    Jin Ang slung the spear, which was one zhang and two chi long, onto his back, gave Zhou Yi three bows and nine kowtows, then turned to descend the mountain and leave.


    Zhou Yi looked out at the vast sea of clouds, lost in thought for a long time.


    "Turtle Prime Minister, don''t you ever feel that living too long is also tiring?"


    "My lord, isn''t living a long life a good thing?"


    The Turtle Prime Minister had only recently broken through to be a great demon and these days was full of joy; he even found century-old Spirit Ginseng quite ptable.


    Zhou Yi murmured, "The familiar ones have all left, one by one; perhaps a single turn, one goodbye, is forever."


    "My lord, think about it from another angle."


    Perhaps slightly too pleased with himself, the Turtle Prime Minister let slip, "That ck Bear and Golden Eagle often bully us, we can''t beat them nor escape from them, but by clinging to life, we can wear them down to death. Later, we''ll just hop on their graves!"


    "Alright, I''ll be sure to tell ck Bear and Golden Eagle that," Zhou Yi said.


    Zhou Yi''s mncholy was fleeting, after all, he had sent off many people; it was just that his time with Jin Ang had been longer.


    From seven to seventy years old, it felt like an instant!


    "My lord, spare my life!"


    …


    The days and months cycled by.


    In the blink of an eye, another fifty years passed.


    Zhou Yi hadn''t left Mo Cloud Cave, ignoring all invitations to the Demon King''s feast, solely focused on the arduous Qi Refinement.


    Through the umtion of time, he had thoroughly understood all of the inheritances of the four arts of cultivation, not bothering to carry on with further intensive study.


    Amidst the abundant Spiritual Energy, centuries-old Spiritual Medicine, and asional sampling of two-thousand-year-old Spirit Ginseng, his cultivation speed was faster than Zhou Yi had predicted. The bottleneck at thete stage of Foundation Establishment, which he expected to grind through for three to five years, was broken in less time.


    At thete stage of Foundation Establishment, he continued to umte mana and spent thirty years reachingpletion.


    "Mana is no longer growing; the next step is to congeal the false pill."


    Zhou Yi''s mana in his Dantian was as thick as paste, showing a tendency to solidify into a physical form, yet Core Formation was too dangerous, even for a false pill, caution was necessary.


    "Lacking both tradition and experience, and without Spiritual Medicine for protection, I must not rush into Core Formation!"


    "I''ll consult the oracle for a top omen, then n ordingly!"


    …


    Ten yearster.


    Consulting the oracle thrice daily, ny-nine percent were middle omens, with the rare top omen.


    During this period, there were two incidences of bottom omens; Zhou Yi fled back to Cloud Continent on a light escape, celebrated for half a year before daring to return.


    "I''ll just wait it out!"


    Zhou Yi was not the least bit impatient, shaking the divination canister as usual, as the spiritual lotus fell to the ground.


    The light shone brilliantly, slowly condensing into two characters.


    "Again, Five Poisons?"


    Zhou Yi pondered for a moment, then used the Blood Covenant to summon a horde of demons.


    ...


    White Bone Peak.


    As the name suggested, the peak was covered with skeletons.


    Layers uponyers of human and animal bones, ck and mottled, must have been poisoned to death before.


    Between the crevices of the skeletons, various spiders crawled about, some as big as fists, others asrge as washbasins, with fluffy bodies and strange patterns.


    In the middle of the mountain, there was a deep cave from which green smoke billowed even during the bright daylight; it was called White Bone Cave.


    The cave was filled with white silk, stackedyers thick, several feet high, walking on it felt like treading on cotton.


    Wrapped in the white silk were cocoons of varying sizes, therge ones over a zhang, the small ones three to four feet. The cocoons were pointed at one end and opened at the other, revealing shriveled, emaciated skulls of both humans and beasts.


    The master of the cave was a spider spirit, who, after bing a great demon, called himself the Poison Gentleman.


    That day.


    The Poison Gentleman finished his cultivation, somewhat craving flesh, and moved across the white silk with his eight spider legs, approaching a new cocoon.


    Encased within the cocoon was a ck Bear demon beast, which had turned red from hunger after days without food or drink. Upon seeing the half-human, half-spider Poison Gentleman, it desperately struggled and tore with madness.


    However, the white silk the cocoon was made of was too tough; despite the bear demon''s great efforts, it could not break free.


    "Hehe! The more it struggles, the more the Qi-Blood circtes, and the tastier it bes!"


    The Poison Gentleman spat out a sharp spike from his mouth, easily piercing through the bear demon''s skull. In a short moment, the bear demon was dried up into a mummified corpse.


    After enjoying the delicacy, the Poison Gentleman was about to turn back when he suddenly caught sight of a little creature over two feet tall.


    Fat and white, with short limbs and a few green leaves growing on its head.


    "This is..."


    The Poison Gentleman''s ugly hum face kept changing, as he said in disbelief, "The legendary millennial Spirit Ginseng doll!"


    The Spirit Ginseng doll nced at the Poison Gentleman and dove into the ground, disappearing without a trace using the Earth Escape Technique.


    Ah!


    Sharpe, terrifying screams echoed from within the cave as the Poison Gentleman''s face was filled with regret. He had been too shocked by the spiritual object just now to even attempt to bind it.


    "There will definitely be another chance!"


    The Poison Gentleman used his innate Spell to control all the spiders on the mountain. Soon, a ground-dwelling spider provided feedback on the direction the Spirit Ginseng doll had taken.


    "Hehehe!"


    The Poison Gentleman followed the guidance of the ground spider, his eight legs running swiftly as he pursued the Spirit Ginseng doll.


    ...


    A hundred miles away.


    Nameless Valley.


    Boom boom boom!


    The sound of crashing and smashing was continuous as a giant spider, two to three zhang in size, sprinted forward and burrowed into the valley.


    "Fellow Daoist, stop running, let this king eat you up!"


    The Poison Gentleman, with a look of ecstasy, was only about a dozen zhang from the millennial Spirit Ginseng. His Divine Sense locked on tightly,pletely unaware of the valley''s abnormality.


    There were no bird calls, no insect sounds, just utter silence.


    Lurking to the left and right of the valley were two thousand demon soldiers, six great demons, and Zhou Yi hovering in the air.


    "To kill an enemy, you don''t necessarily have to go knocking on their door."


    Zhou Yi fluttered his wings, watching the Poison Gentleman fall into the trap, "Luring them out to kill is a hundred times safer."


    While speaking, he activated the Array te, and eight golden pirs rose from within the valley.


    The Poison Gentleman suddenly woke from his ecstasy, his eight eyes looking around as he said in a cold voice, "Which fellow Daoist is here?"


    Moo!


    The Yellow Ox charged out first, with the ck Tiger and other great demons following closely. Two thousand demon soldiers howled strangely, wielding their weapons and charging down the valley,


    "???"


    The Poison Gentleman, full of confusion, faced an overwhelming onught. He had not fully recovered from the shock before he was trampled into mincemeat.


    Capture the Soul!


    Zhou Yi used a spell to capture the demon''s soul, and after forcibly searching it, he learned the secret of the Poison Gentleman''s ascension.


    "Beneath White Bone Peak lies a Seven-Colored Lotus!"


    The lotus bloomed in seven colors, and after withering, it produced seven-colored lotus seeds. When cultivators used them during the Solidifying Pill phase, it increased their sess rate by ten percent.


    There were a handful of spiritual medicines like this that aided Core Formation, over a dozen of which were recorded in the Dan Cauldron Sect, such as the millennium mushroom-horse, Dragon Blood grass, and so on.


    "Is this the benefit of a very auspicious fortune?"


    Zhou Yi learned from the memory of the Poison Gentleman that it had consumed the lotus seed three hundred years ago, and the next flowering and fruiting would not happen for another two hundred years.


    "The wait isn''t too long, I can afford to wait!"


    ...


    Half a monthter.


    The Yellow Ox and other demons had finally cleaned up White Bone Peak, though without the control of the Poison Gentleman over three hundred demon soldiers still died from poison.


    The White Bone Cave was even more toxic, and they couldn''t level the mountain lest they harm the Seven-Colored Lotus. The six demons took turns employing their spells, cleansing with wind and washing with water, and it took over a month to clear the poison fog.


    On Zhou Yi''s orders, Hu Xi, unwillingly, entered the bottom of the cave to search, and quickly found the Seven-Colored Lotus.


    "Even when the lotus seeds are mature, there''s only a forty percent chance of Core Formation. We''ll need to slowly collect more Core Formation spiritual objects!"