Chapter 164: Chapter 138: Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment Level 6 - Profound Celestial Immortal Palace

Later, while plowing the fields, he had stumbled upon a Demon Technique that could be cultivated without regard for one’s aptitude or the need for Spirit Stones.

At first, it had no requirements, and in just two years, it helped him break through to the third level of Qi Refining.

But afterward, the Demon Technique began to demand the Essence Blood of cultivators and recorded a poisonous formula for harming others.

As fate would have it, he discovered that he had already unintentionally gathered all the Spirit Grass required for it.

The only decision left was whether or not to poison other cultivators.

However, Lin Ping’an suddenly felt that something was wrong. ’How could I possibly be cultivating something as dangerous as a Demon Technique?’

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt, and then he snapped awake, realizing he had just been caught in an Illusion.

A mechanical voice sounded.

"Anping. Rating: Excellent. Time elapsed: four Quarters of an Hour. Overall rating: Excellent. Assessment passed."

"Congratulations, you have won second place in this assessment. You may freely choose two rewards."

As the voice faded, twelve Jade Boxes appeared, each containing different rewards like Spirit Stones, Elixirs, Cultivation Techniques... and so on.

However, three of the Jade Boxes were already empty, clearly having been chosen from already.

’Don’t tell me it was that Chen Xiao again, was it?’

Lin Ping’an looked up and, sure enough, saw that the first-place winner was indeed Chen Xiao.

Chen Xiao—Rating: Special Excellence. Time elapsed: a Quarter Hour. Overall rating: Special Excellence.

HISS—!

Lin Ping’an sucked in a sharp breath. ’Only a Quarter Hour?’

He couldn’t possibly imagine how someone could break free from such a powerful Illusion so quickly.

’Who on earth was that?’

「Five Quarters of an Hour ago, before Lin Ping’an had pushed open the doors to the Heart Inquiry Hall.」

Xiao Chen had stepped into another Heart Inquiry Hall a step ahead of him.

In fact, he hadn’t seen any Illusion at all.

Instead, he directly heard the mechanical voice announce, "Congratulations, you have won first place in this assessment. You may freely choose three rewards."

’Huh? What does that mean?’

Xiao Chen was also completely baffled. ’I got first place just like that?’

Earlier, when he was attacked by the puppet, he had blocked with his sword and immediately discovered that the puppet’s body wasn’t very strong.

So, relying on his brute strength, which was comparable to a Body Cultivator’s, he made short work of the puppet, dicing it into more than a dozen pieces.

After that, he had randomly picked a path, only to run to the end and find it was a dead end. Realizing he’d gone the wrong way, he had turned back and taken the other path.

Finally, he pushed open the door, entered the Heart Inquiry Hall, and passed the trial without doing a single thing.

’I can get first place like this? Has this assessment fallen into disrepair and broken down over the years?’

’I don’t feel like it was difficult at all.’

’And with this level of quality, it dares to call itself an Immortal Palace?’

However, he then saw twelve Jade Boxes appear, each containing different luxurious rewards.

Among them were even a Top Grade Magical Artifact and two bottles of Pure Wood Essence Qi.

’Hiss... I take back my previous comment. This is a true Immortal Palace!’

.

Pure Wood Essence Qi is only effective for cultivators with a Wood Spirit Root.

But among all Tier Two Wood Element Spiritual Objects, it is a Supreme Treasure, second to none.

Its greatest characteristic is that, if used in Alchemy, it can substitute for any Wood Element Spiritual Object in any Pill Formula.

This is because Pure Wood Essence Qi not only possesses all the characteristics of other Tier Two Wood Element Spiritual Objects, but it surpasses them in every aspect by a wide margin.

Something this precious might have been obtained by someone in the past, but it has never flowed into the open market.

It hasn’t appeared in any of the Marketplaces or auction houses in all of Li State for over a hundred years.

Previously, Xiao Chen had only ever seen records of Pure Wood Essence Qi in Pill Books.

He never imagined he would encounter two bottles of it here at once.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xiao Chen took the two most valuable bottles of Pure Wood Essence Qi, only then starting to pick through the other items.

’Ten thousand Spirit Stones? Boring.’

Although he was still tens of thousands of Spirit Stones in debt, taking the Spirit Stones directly felt like a huge loss.

’Danggui Life-extending Pill? A pity.’

This was actually a Life-extending Secret Medicine, also an extremely precious Tier Two Spirit Pill, with a value no less than that of an ordinary Top Grade Magical Artifact.

But Xiao Chen had no use for it at the moment, and besides, there was a Top Grade Magical Artifact right here.

The remaining items were either Cultivation Techniques or Magic, and all of them were Earth Level.

There was even an extremely special skill inheritance—Jade Carver.

’They even have something like this? I’ve never heard of such an obscure Dao Skill before.’

Xiao Chen was slightly surprised, but unfortunately, he wasn’t very interested in simultaneously practicing one of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation at the moment.

’Forget it, I’ll just pick this Lotus Jade Ruyi. I have the Fake Pill, so I’m not short on Magical Power anyway.’

The reason he didn’t choose the Top Grade Magical Artifact right away...

...was because, in a sense, he wasn’t really short on Top Grade Magical Artifacts anymore.

This might sound like bragging, but it wasn’t.

Not counting the broken Jade Bowl, he already had a full six Top Grade Magical Artifacts in his possession.

Excluding the special Fringed Tassel Brocade Handkerchief.

Assuming one Magical Artifact requires twenty streams of Magical Power, using the other five simultaneously would consume one hundred streams of Magical Power.

However, under normal circumstances, a cultivator’s total Magical Power is quite limited. Even a ninth-level Foundation Establishment cultivator only has eighty-four streams of Magical Power.

Therefore, the number of Magical Artifacts one carried should naturally not be too high; otherwise, having artifacts with no Magical Power to drive them would be useless.

Furthermore, there are also differences in strength between Magical Artifacts.

Using one’s limited Magical Power on the most powerful artifacts is the only way to maximize their effectiveness.

Only because Xiao Chen possessed the Fake Pill did he have one hundred and twenty-three streams of Magical Power despite being only at the fifth level of Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, it was foreseeable that his Magical Power capacity would continue to grow in the future.

He really didn’t need to be too concerned about the problem of insufficient Magical Power.