"This can't be right... A dignified Golden Core cultivator is this poor?"
Li Ye couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face.
The spacious storage space within the jade pendant was nearly empty. All the items inside were crammed into just one small corner.
Though there were quite a few spirit stones, the total was just over ten thousand. Then there were some third- and second-tier spiritual materials not much to speak of. In fact, after all these years of cultivation, Li Ye's fortune easily surpassed this.
But such worldly possessions were never his true goal.
"Senior Bihu, I'm not after these things of yours anyway. You've probably already passed most of your belongings to your disciples…"
"But something like your cultivation notes shouldn't that have been something you kept on your person as a memento, even if it was meant for your disciples?"
With a sweep of his divine sense through the jade pendant, he ignored the rest and went straight for jade slips, beast hides, or any golden or jade books.
After pulling out the Blackwater Mysterious Technique cultivated by the Bihu Sanren, along with various water-element secret arts and even some compiled collections of fiction and storytelling books, a gleam suddenly flashed in Li Ye's eyes.
Swish
A roll of the jade book appeared in his hand. As he activated it with his spiritual power, bits of radiant light began to shine, transforming into a myriad of characters and diagrams.
In just moments, an expansive scroll unfolded before Li Ye.
"Notes of Bihu… a record of this old man's lifelong experiences and insights, in hopes of being passed on through future generations may it serve as a trace of my existence in the Thousand Island Water City…"
"Whew…"
Li Ye stared at the scroll without blinking, his expression growing more and more excited.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! To think I searched high and low with no results, only to stumble across it so effortlessly! Senior Bihu, this gift of yours is truly priceless!"
The jade book recorded the Bihu Sanren's life journey in its entirety.
Even in this brief skim, Li Ye discovered that aside from a few personal matters, it contained a comprehensive record of Sanren's cultivation insights from the Qi Refining stage onward, along with his travels and encounters.
Centuries of life five hundred years of wisdom were all here!
And the part that mattered most to Li Ye, the Golden Core stage, was the most detailed of all.
It described in depth the process of forming the Golden Core, the insights, reflections, and even detailed contingency methods a truly exhaustive guide.
Even though he was just skimming through it for now, he was already gaining profound insights into the path of the golden core.
"The path of the Golden Core is all about solidifying one's spiritual power refining the pure, removing the impure, and condensing it into true essence. The key to this process lies in how thoroughly one's spiritual power has been refined and solidified."
"Take the Five Element Golden Core Pill, for example it directly purifies spiritual power, enhances its solidification, and supplies pure true essence to drive the transformation, thereby greatly improving the chance of a successful breakthrough…"
"The same principle applies to the Profound Fire Essence and Frost Condensate they utilize the interplay of yin-yang, fire, and water to achieve a similar effect… But both come with some inherent loss, both to themselves and to the cultivator's spiritual power, which is why their effectiveness isn't quite as high as the Golden Core Pill."
"If you only have one of them, then unless your element matches perfectly, the improvement in spiritual power refinement would be very limited and temporary hence, the actual benefit would be quite small."
Piece by piece, Li Ye absorbed this information and cross-referenced it with his own experiences, drawing many conclusions.
Some of his earlier assumptions were being completely validated.
"So that means…"
"If I use the spiritual essence of the Voidrealm to slowly refine my spiritual power over time, reaching the most solidified state possible before reaching Foundation Completion, then the chance of forming a core would indeed rise significantly!"
"And the principles behind the Profound Fire Essence and Frost Condensate also confirm that if I can find a cultivation technique that channels both water and fire yin and yang in harmony, it might aid in golden core when the time comes…"
"The Dragon-Tiger Body Refinement technique, then, is worth mastering to push its concept to the point where water and fire coexist in balance!"
Li Ye murmured to himself nonstop.
"And if I can gather both the Profound Fire Essence and the Frost Condensate, and apply them in tandem with this technique, they might amplify each other's effects and reduce both the loss of resources and spiritual power…"
"I might even raise my odds of forming a core to match that of someone using the Five Element Golden Core Pill!"
He now had a clear goal. But getting his hands on the Profound Fire Essence and Frost Condensate such rare spiritual items would be no easy task.
There might be some stored within that mysterious ruin that looked like a secret vault or perhaps in the lava chamber… That at least was a lead worth pursuing.
But as for the Frost Condensate…
That one was usually found only in extremely cold environments, where the conditions for its formation were met.
Though the southern cultivation realm wasn't as vast as the Northern Wastes, it still had regions with such terrain so there had to be some source out there.
But that didn't mean it could be found in the Four Kingdoms.
How Frost Condensate ever ended up here in the past was something even Li Ye didn't know.
Maybe it had to do with certain rare weather conditions, or perhaps it had drifted in from the far side of the Myriad Beast Mountain Range.
Whatever the case, he currently had no reliable channel to obtain it.
"It's not time for Golden Core just yet… I'll just gather more intel and wait for the opportunity."
Calming his thoughts, Li Ye put the jade book the Notes of Bihu away for now.
The content spanned the Bihu Sanren's entire life and was truly vast. Even just the parts on Golden Core weren't something he could fully digest in one sitting.
There was no need to rush. He could study it in depth slowly over time.
If he could eventually internalize all of this, it would benefit not just his cultivation, but also give him valuable insights into the powers of the Four Kingdoms and the thriving cultivation world beyond the Myriad Beast Mountains.
That knowledge would help him make sharper decisions when the time came.
Feeling deeply satisfied, Li Ye resumed inspecting the remaining items within the jade pendant.
The Notes of Bihu alone had already fulfilled his greatest hopes but anything extra would still be a welcome bonus!
"Hmm… this is… third-tier Black Flood Dragon essence blood?"
One item at a time, he checked carefully. As he opened a particularly well-sealed jade vial, he instantly felt a faint pressure and a unique scent that stirred his physique phantom roars of dragons and tigers echoed in the depths of his spirit.
Swallowing hard, Li Ye felt his body instinctively yearning for the blood it seemed to offer something he currently lacked.
"If I could refine this essence into my Myriad Beast Body to complete my physique foundation, I'd gain a body of tremendous strength… But that would also completely disrupt the balance of the dragon-tiger harmony I've worked so hard to develop…"
"A third-tier Black Flood Dragon and a second-tier tiger demon their blood isn't compatible!"
Suppressing the urge with a firm will, he put the vial back in its place with a sigh of regret.
"What a pity… Compared to the golden core, temporary bodily strength just isn't worth sacrificing everything for…"
"Unless I can find third-tier tiger demon essence, this dragon blood will have to be shelved for now maybe I'll find another use for it down the road."
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