Holy Maiden, wait a minute. Why are you asking me to cultivate again?

puff!

The snake demon's vital spot was smashed by Song Zhao's punch, sending blood and flesh flying everywhere.

"Refine!"

Holding the Heavenly Demon Pearl, Song Zhao refined the snake demon, which was a full ten feet long, into it.

"There are two stripes now."

The Heavenly Demon Pearl emitted a burst of blood-red light, and an additional line appeared on its surface.

He went into the mountains and killed four Qi-refining demons, which caused the Heavenly Demon Pearl to develop two lines.

"The formation of the third stripe will probably be even more difficult."

The patterns on the Heavenly Demon Pearl are not simply a matter of adding up numbers, but rather they increase exponentially.

For example, three Qi Refining beings could originally form one line, but the second line might require ten Qi Refining beings, and the third line would require hundreds of Qi Refining beings, or even several Foundation Establishment beings...

By the same token, to witness the full glory of the Heavenly Demon Pearl with its nine stripes, one would have to kill countless low-level beings.

"Senior, if one starts with one stripe, what kind of existence should one refine to directly upgrade to nine stripes?" Song Zhao asked out of curiosity.

The witch inside the Heavenly Demon Pearl was picking her toes when she heard this and casually said, "If you want to upgrade from one stripe to nine stripes directly..."

"It probably requires refining an existence at the Mahayana realm."

Mahayana! ...

That must be a figure who only exists in legends, right?

When Song Zhao thought about how the predecessor inside the Heavenly Demon Pearl was a Celestial King, he felt it was nothing.

"If we continue killing, the Demon Orb will not be able to break through the three stripes. We might as well sacrifice it once to obtain true combat power."

Song Zhao used his Golden Elixir Eye to scan the area, making sure no one was around, before heading to an abandoned cave.

"Cultivation power, what I need right now is cultivation power!"

After entering the cave, Song Zhao took out the Qingling Pill he had obtained by killing the servants.

The Azure Spirit Pill is entirely sky blue in color and has a smooth, rounded appearance. It is considered a high-grade pill among Qi Refining stage pills.

Generally, cultivators take it when they reach the ninth level of Qi Refining in order to break through to the peak of Qi Refining.

"Please don't let me down."

With the Heavenly Demon Pearl in his left hand and the Azure Spirit Pill in his right, Song Zhao softly chanted an incantation and began the sacrifice.

A moment later, the sacrifice of the Azure Spirit Pill vanished, and a terrifying phenomenon appeared: mountains of corpses and seas of blood, with gods and demons filling the sky...

Then, with a hum, a pill shimmering with purple light appeared before Song Zhao's eyes.

Nine streaks of light emanated from the elixir, illuminating the entire cave with a purple haze, making it incredibly bright and resembling a fairyland on earth.

"What kind of elixir is this?"

Song Zhao grabbed it, and as soon as he smelled the fragrance of the pill, his cultivation began to stir.

"Good lad, I suspect this is the Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill!"

Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill?

He had heard of the Purple Spirit Pill; it seemed to be a cultivation pill that Foundation Establishment cultivators would take. It was also said to have the effect of breaking through the light, and was an upgraded version of the Azure Spirit Pill.

What does this "Nine Revolutions" mean?

"This is a rare treasure! A Foundation Establishment pill, and someone actually refined it to the ninth level? Isn't that just asking for trouble?" The witch's voice was quite surprised.

Song Zhao, seizing the opportunity, asked, "Senior, what does 'Nine Revolutions' mean?"

"Tsk, you don't even know this? You really are a guy who lives in some remote, impoverished place in the lower realms."

The witch cleared her throat: "So the Nine Revolutions of the Elixir is actually a simulation of the Nine Revolutions of the Golden Core Realm in our Golden Core Realm."

"With each rotation, the efficacy of ordinary pills will increase, and the toxicity of pills will decrease."

"The Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill is far more effective than the ordinary Purple Spirit Pill. It has no toxicity and its medicinal power is much milder. Originally, only Foundation Establishment cultivators dared to take this pill, but Qi Refining cultivators can also take it..."

Upon hearing this, Song Zhao's eyes lit up, and he immediately stuffed the Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill into his mouth and sat cross-legged to meditate.

"I see!"

The pill entered his mouth and quickly transformed into streams of medicinal power, circulating throughout Song Zhao's limbs and bones, eventually settling in his dantian and sea of ​​consciousness.

The medicinal power of the Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill is extremely refined and pure. Compared with the ordinary spiritual energy of the outside world, the refining ratio is probably one to one thousand, two thousand, or even higher!

In just over ten breaths, the bottleneck of the seventh level of Qi Refining began to loosen, and then, smoothly, he broke through to the eighth level of Qi Refining.

This was an experience Song Zhao had never had before, an indescribable feeling of breakthrough.

It's like when you're sleeping, your spiritual level automatically breaks through.

Inside the cave, bursts of purple light erupted from Song Zhao's body, circulating throughout his body before returning to it.

This meditation lasted for three days.

After Song Zhao emerged from his meditation, all the medicinal power in his body had been completely refined.

"Damn it, only broke through to the first level? And they even had the nerve to call it a Nine-Turn Pill?"

Song Zhao let out a heavy sigh, somewhat dissatisfied.

The witch sneered in her ear, "The pills are good pills, it's just that you yourself are not good enough."

"The kind of constitution with a useless spiritual root is one in ten thousand."

"You've taken the Nine-Turn Purple Spirit Pill, which is like feeding a pig that's eating bran with delicacies from land and sea."

Song Zhao:......

Although the witch's words were unpleasant, they were the truth.

He possesses a useless spiritual root, which has the same low probability of appearing as a heavenly spiritual root, making it extremely difficult to upgrade.

However, breaking through one level of cultivation in three days is something that ordinary cultivators can only dream of.

Aside from exceptionally talented individuals like Su Fangyue, it typically takes a cultivator at least one or two years, and sometimes four or five years, to break through from the seventh to the eighth level of Qi Refining.

Song Zhao, seething with resentment, retorted, "So what? As long as my Dao heart is firm, I will definitely show the world what a Golden Core cultivator with a useless spiritual root can be!"

"Old man, you've got guts. Don't let me down."

The witch smiled and said, "The Heavenly Demon Pearl and the Primordial Yin-Yang Dao Body are both extraordinary items. Make good use of them!"

"Um."

Song Zhao gave a soft "hmm" before raising the jade slip in his hand.

The jade slip was filled with messages from Lin Shuangwan, such as "Where are you? Are you safe? Have you encountered any danger?"

There was no question about the wolf demon quest.

"Fairy Lin truly cares about me."

After replying that everything was alright, Song Zhao continued searching for and hunting Qi-refining demons.

Two days later, Song Zhao killed several more Qi Refining demons, and a new line reappeared on the Heavenly Demon Pearl.

On this day, just as he was preparing to use his Golden Core Eye to observe his next prey, two people from the Crescent Moon Dynasty's Demon Slaying Division suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

This brought back bad memories for him.

Sixty years ago, when he was a handsome young man, he had a secret crush on a girl from a wealthy family in town and they planned to get engaged.

But he was of lowly status, just a country bumpkin, and was not good enough for the girls in town.

Later, it was discovered that the girl possessed extraordinary talent, and she was quickly discovered by the governor of the prefecture, who forcibly married her.

It is said that she married the son of the governor, who was a demon-slaying general in the Demon-Slaying Division.

"The grudge of having my wife stolen! When I achieve the Golden Core stage, I will definitely seek justice!"

Song Zhao made a silent vow and walked towards the people from the Demon Slayer Division.

He wasn't going there to cause trouble for the Demon Slayer Bureau, but rather to kill demons to power the Heavenly Demon Pearl.

Seven or eight miles away, two captains from the Demon Slayer Division were approaching a dark cave.

"There's a silverback bear inside; its gallbladder costs thirty spirit stones each."

"After you kill it, give me the bear gallbladder, and the rest is yours."

The two men conspired to kill the silverback bear.

The members of the Demon Slayer Division sometimes earn extra money when they go on missions.

Just as they were crouching outside, waiting for their chance to strike, a sound of footsteps approached from afar.

"Where did this idiot come from? If we disturb the silverback bear, all our efforts will be wasted!"