Dongxuan Spiritual Realm

Chapter 91 Silver Toad Refines Golden Elixir

Shen Jin returned to his old house and cleaned up a cave where he used to cultivate. The nine wooden puppets stayed inside to study the methods of cultivating from ghost immortals to earth immortals after losing their physical bodies.

Yang Qisheng came from a江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry) background and was good at making friends.

After all, the world of martial arts isn't just about fighting and killing; it's more about human relationships and social interactions. Having more friends means having more paths to take; having more enemies means having more obstacles to overcome.

Only by having strong personal abilities, being loyal, and being willing to make friends can one broaden their path in life.

He may not say he'd go to great lengths for his friends, but he genuinely cares about them.

He pondered the path Shen Jin and the others had taken, which was extremely rugged and arduous. After all, without a physical body, there was no foundation of vital energy, making it incredibly difficult to cultivate into an Earth Immortal.

The orthodox Xuanmen sect he cultivated all relied on the physical body as a foundation, following the path of refining essence into qi and refining qi into spirit. Since he couldn't be of much help, he gave the "Soul Crossing Notes" to Shen Jin.

The cultivation of the Taiyin Ghost Path also requires a physical body, but it contains a lot of research and analysis specifically on spiritual bodies. It is hoped that Shen Jin can glean some useful insights from it.

Grateful for Yang Qisheng's kindness, Shen Jin gave him a silver toad and two bottles of silver toad pills.

In the back cave, there is a deep well that points downwards, at the bottom of which is a cold, moonlit pool where many silver toads thrive.

Two of them had the highest cultivation level; Shen Jin fed them with spiritual herbs, and they had already become spiritually connected.

In the years since Shen Jin left, they have lived in the Cold Pool and raised many offspring. Although their magical power has increased year by year, their cultivation has declined.

Shen Jin called them out of the icy pool, summoned them to his side, and rebuked them:
"If nothing unexpected happens, according to the plan from back then, you should all have been able to refine your demonic energy and internal energy, and by now you should have been able to refine your golden cores, shed your demonic bones, and transform into human form!"
It's a pity I suffered a calamity, and you yourselves were so disappointing. Driven by your animalistic nature, you fathered so many offspring, accumulated enough magical power, and then presumptuously attempted to form your own cores, all while I was absent to guide you.
"You all acted confusedly, making a complete mess of things, each showing off your abilities, forcibly forming your cores, and even though you've achieved ninth-grade golden cores, you still can't escape your demonic nature, wasting over two hundred years of your hard work!"

Both silver toads were the size of large bowls, their bodies were silvery-white, radiating a smooth, moon-like glow, and their two pairs of eyes emitted a silver light more than a foot long.

It turns out they had all refined their Golden Cores, and their cultivation was even greater than Shen Jin's back then.

But now, after being reprimanded, they huddled together, heads drooping, chins touching the ground, not daring to show the slightest dissatisfaction.

"You have refined the ninth-grade golden elixir, which has increased your lifespan somewhat, but only to a very limited extent. Yet you still dare to keep producing eggs and reproducing! If you do not exercise restraint, you will all die of old age in no more than a hundred years! I am now giving one of you to Fellow Daoist Yang. He is a true disciple of the Xuanmen sect, possessing righteous immortal energy. He will surely attain the rank of Heavenly Immortal in the future, and his achievements will be limitless. It is your blessing to be able to follow him! Do you have any complaints?"

The two silver toads remained motionless, their four eyes darting around and constantly looking up at Yang Qisheng. The silver light shooting from their eyes resembled four silver rods swinging wildly from side to side.

Seeing that they had no complaints, Shen Jin said to Yang Qisheng:

"I spent over two hundred years cultivating them, one male and one female. Now I'm giving you the male one. He has a Cold Moon True Yang Inner Core inside him, which can release true yang energy. It can specifically cure all kinds of qi deviation and is the nemesis of all poisonous insects and evil gu."

Yang Qisheng smiled and waved his hand: "Let's forget it. Seeing how loving they are and how many children they've had over the past century, if I take them away and separate them from their family, it would make me look like a bad person."

He had just stood by the cold pool and looked down. The rocks and cliffs below were covered with countless shimmering silver toads. These creatures were almost extinct outside, and many people didn't even know they existed, yet they were rampant in Shen Jin's area.

Shen Jin laughed upon hearing this, "If they hadn't had so many children, according to my plan back then, they wouldn't have only refined a ninth-grade Golden Core! I separated them to let him live a few more years; otherwise, I would have just given you a couple of random offspring. This fellow was someone I carefully selected back then..."

He is extremely intelligent, gentle, and obedient. It's his good fortune to have him with you! If you pity him, please visit me often when you have free time, so that he and his wife can reunite occasionally. Just don't let them have any more children, otherwise, they will be close to death!

For any living being, giving birth is extremely energy-consuming. Some creatures can only reproduce once in their lifetime, and after laying eggs, their lives quickly wither away.

The pair of silver toads had given birth to too many offspring, resulting in low-quality golden pills. Over the years, the pill's energy had been continuously depleted. Although they had been replenished through cultivation, and the quantity of pills had been increasing, the quality was declining year by year.

If Shen Jin doesn't come back and separate them, they really won't live more than a few years before they die of old age!

Yang Qisheng then decided to accept it and asked, "What's its name?"

"The male is named Yuepo, and the female is named Yurui."

In Daoist alchemy, the sun and moon are considered as the sun and the moon, with the golden crow in the sun representing true yin within yang and the jade rabbit in the moon representing true yang within yin.

Shen Jin's original cultivation path for the two silver toads was based on the principle of Yin within Yang.

However, these two indulged themselves, causing their vital energy to continuously leak away, gradually resulting in a imbalance of yin and yang.

The reason he chose to give the male elixir to Yang Qisheng was because the male elixir still contained most of the true yang energy.

The female, being of pure Yin nature, has borne children continuously over the past hundred years, resulting in even greater depletion of her energy. She no longer possesses the ability to help people resist the effects of demonic possession and will only be able to spend her remaining days in the pool.

Shen Jin took a jade box about a square foot in size, which had three times the space inside. He filled it with water that gushed from the spring at the bottom of the cold pool and placed the Silver Toad Moon Soul inside.

Because of the talisman array, even if the box is turned upside down, not a single drop of water will spill out, and the silver toad will remain firmly inside.

Those two bottles of Silver Toad Pills could greatly replenish vital energy, not only detoxify all poisons but also increase one's power, help one concentrate and return to one's original state. They were rare and excellent, even better than the pills Yang Qisheng received when he joined the Taiyi Palace. As for the two bottles from the Golden Light Cauldron, they were incomparable. In fact, Yang Qisheng cultivated the orthodox Xuanmen sect, had a firm will, and had eliminated the nine worms early on, so there was no risk of him going astray. Therefore, he didn't really need the Silver Toad Pills or the pills.

But he enjoys the feeling of helping others and then receiving something in return.

Friends help each other, which benefits both of them and makes him feel happy.

After staying at Jidou Mountain for a few days, Yang Qisheng took his leave.

This time, he intends to return Chu Hanfeng's clansmen to his ancestral home and hand them over to Chu's descendants.

Back then, Chu Hanfeng and his wife suffered a crushing defeat under the sword of Master Guicang, and were severely injured and unable to be healed. They also suffered the backlash of the Corpse Dao magic. Knowing that their lifespan was about to end, they built the General's Tomb and planned to be resurrected five hundred years later, then lead 100,000 corpse soldiers to conquer the battlefield and unify the world.

He took the entire Chu family with him to the grave, but left one branch alone.

Firstly, they were to be allowed to guard the ancestral home and sweep the family tombs; secondly, if their own resurrection failed, there would still be a bloodline remaining in the world.

Following the instructions of the ghosts of the Chu family, Yang Qisheng arrived in Chuzhou first.

Upon inquiring, he discovered that there was no one with the surname Chu in the area.

It turns out that more than 500 years have passed, and the Chu family no longer lives here. Even their ancestral burial ground is gone. A luxurious mansion has been built on the site of the former ancestral burial ground.

The ghosts of the Chu family were furious and were about to rush into the courtyard to strangle the family that had occupied their ancestral graves, regardless of age or gender, leaving no one alive!

Yang Qisheng stopped them: "I'm only responsible for bringing you back and finding the descendants of the Chu family. I can't let you cause trouble and commit murder in broad daylight."

He took out his money and kept asking the local elders for directions, from Chuzhou to the neighboring Mianzhou, then from Mianzhou to Dengzhou, then from Dengzhou to Lingzhou Prefecture, and finally to Tianyang Prefecture.

It took him more than two months and more than 3,000 miles to finally find the descendant of the Chu family—Chu Wenqian, the prefect of Tianyang Prefecture.

Upon arriving at the Chu family compound, Yang Qisheng truthfully explained his purpose to the gatekeeper, who then went inside to report.

He returned quickly: "My husband is busy with official duties and doesn't have time for these things. Here, take this string of money and go eat."

It turned out that Prefect Chu simply did not believe that someone would bring their ancestor from five hundred years ago to find him.

In the past two years, strange and unusual stories have been appearing in various places. It has become commonplace for one family to be haunted by a fox or another.

Many cultivators came to the door. Some saw that the prefect's young master had extraordinary bones and wanted to take him as a disciple. Others said that the prefect's family would soon suffer a disaster, and still others said that there would soon be a famine in Tianyang.

Among these people, some are genuine and some are fake, but there are more fakes than genuine ones.

At first, Prefect Chu asked them to perform some magic tricks and show some "miracles" in order to judge whether they were real or fake.

Later, he was tricked by someone who knew magic, and almost killed his elderly mother.

From then on, he never saw such charlatans again.

When the doorman went in to report, Prefect Chu was holding an official document and looking worried. After hearing the doorman's report, he told the doorman to send the man away.

In a flash, he stopped the doorman and asked what the visitor looked like.

The doorman said, "I think that man is about eighteen or nineteen years old. He looks like a young nobleman from a wealthy family. He has an extraordinary bearing. The jade pendant hanging from his waist is priceless, and his purse is also exquisite. He doesn't seem like a swindler."

"In that case, go to the accountant's office and get a string of coins for him. Don't offend him easily; gently persuade him to leave."

Yang Qisheng looked at the string of coins handed to him by the doorman, sighed slightly, and told the doorman: "I was indeed entrusted by five hundred evil spirits, all of whom are ancestors of the Chu family. If you don't let me in, I will let them out and let them go directly to your master. There will be chaos then, so don't be afraid."

The gatekeeper assumed he was a sorcerer who could raise ghosts and was trying to extort money using such methods. He had encountered such cases before, which had caused the mansion to be haunted and cursed, resulting in the deaths of eight people, including the twins born to Prefect Chu's concubine.

He dared not forcibly drive them away. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “There is a Fairy Maiden Temple in the south of our city. Our young lady is cultivating there. You are all cultivators. We don’t understand what you are saying, and neither does my master. But our young lady certainly does. Please walk a few more steps to the Fairy Maiden Temple and tell our young lady what you have to say so that she can make a decision.”

Yang Qisheng thought for a moment and nodded, "Alright."

He left the Chu family mansion and headed south out of the county town. After only three or five miles, he saw a small temple.

Temples are usually places used to worship ancestral tablets, such as the Imperial Ancestral Temple;
In ancient times, it also referred to the front hall of the royal palace, such as the temple or the ancestral temple.

This Fairy Maiden Temple is not large in area, but it has a lot of incense offerings, and many believers come and go.

(End of this chapter)