Chapter 70: Golden Core, First Transformation

Qingping Island—the name chosen by Qin Shu for this small piece of land beneath his feet.

He was currently concocting pills, or rather, teaching the Karma Cauldron to do so.

With the advanced version of this cauldron, any pill formula in hand, and a mere moment of Qin Shu’s attention, perfect-tier medicinal pills could be produced effortlessly.

Of course, this held true only for sixth-order and lower pills.

In Divine Water City, preparations were underway for the opening of the Pill Pharmacy. Consequently, Qin Shu had purchased numerous pill formulas ranging from fourth to sixth order.

He then began the process of gradual refinement.

Among these were the Age-Prolonging Pill and the Pill of Spirit Transformation. These two were destined for auction, their purpose being to make a grand entrance for the Qin Clan Pill Pharmacy.

Divine Water City was the domain of Divine Water Palace. With the Qin family’s command medallion in hand, opening a modest Pill Pharmacy in the inner city’s immortal district posed no problem whatsoever.

During the month-long preparation for the Pill Pharmacy, Qin Shu concocted vast quantities of medicinal pills. Each batch yielded a hundred pills, and he would typically perform at least four batches in a single session.

Thanks to Qingping Island’s abundance of spiritual energy, the power of the Karma Cauldron could be fully unleashed. Even when refining sixth-order medicinal pills, a single batch required only a day to complete.

Given the automated nature of the Karma Cauldron, Qin Shu’s role was reduced to merely supplying the ingredients. Even during the initial setup, which involved a cursory first batch to “program” the cauldron, the process was remarkably straightforward. Gone were the days of painstaking effort and meticulous attention to detail.

After refining all the pill formulas, he embarked on the monotonous process of cultivating while simultaneously concocting pills.

Before reaching the first stage of Golden Core, his goal was to polish his skills to absolute perfection.

Just as with the Core Formation breakthrough to Golden Core, he used his Divine Sense as a hammer and the Karma True Fire for smelting. His aim was to refine the Golden Core until it was flawless, incapable of any further enhancement.

In the nearby sky, Xiao Yan soared freely. Qingping Island was vast, offering abundant spiritual energy.

When not flying, Xiao Yan would lie dormant on the ground, drawing spiritual energy from hundreds of kilometers around.

Occasionally, Qin Shu would Feed it two freshly made Extreme Yang and Yin Pills.

Compared to the Yin-Yang Pill, these fourth-order pills had even more potent effects, being more extreme and intense.

These pills contained the essence of pure yin and yang forces. Consuming them together not only refined true essence but also strengthened the physical body.

Ordinary fourth-order awakened beings wouldn’t dare to consume them in such a manner; the immense power could easily rupture their qi passageways.

However, for Xiao Yan, the power of these pills was hardly a challenge. It relished the combined effect of both pills at once.

Qin Shu himself also utilized this method. By ingesting the Extreme Yang and Yin Pills, he facilitated the fusion of extreme yin and yang energies within his body. This process was akin to recalibrating and solidifying his Golden Core anew.

A month later, the Qin Clan Pill Pharmacy opened its doors. Qin Shu delivered tens of thousands of pills, ranging from first to sixth rank, to Heavenly River Estate, entrusting them to Qin Wujiu for sale in the new establishment.

The Pill Pharmacy was situated on the sixth floor of the Money God Shopping Mall. For a year, Qin Wujiu enjoyed rent-free occupancy, with the only cost being one percent of the shop’s annual turnover.

This was a better deal than the standard tax, which stood at five percent of turnover in Divine Water City.

Even though Qin Shu held a command medallion, he couldn’t escape taxation—it was the law.

Qin Yu managed the Pill Pharmacy, while Qin Shu naturally remained the owner, though he didn’t appear in person.

Among the tens of thousands of pills, there were two Age-Prolonging Pills and two Pills of Spirit Transformation, all of perfect quality.

An Age-Prolonging Pill could grant an extra hundred years for low-grade, two hundred for mid-grade, three hundred for high-grade, five hundred for supreme-grade, and a thousand years for perfect-grade pills.

After all, these were sixth-rank pills, merely extending the lifespan of a Golden Core by a modest amount.

However, considering that beings in the Primordial Spirit realm typically live for ten thousand years, an additional thousand years could be the key to pushing those on the cusp of breakthroughs over the edge.

By this stage, overcoming the Abyssal Tribulation becomes a surmountable challenge.

As long as one’s luck wasn’t abysmal, possessing top-notch magical artifacts could make completing tasks in the Infinite Abyss considerably less daunting.

For the golden-potential Spirit Soul Awakened beings, the Age-Prolonging Pill was nothing short of a priceless treasure.

Their cultivation endpoint was the Void Transformation realm, but there were bottlenecks between Primordial Spirit and Hollow Void, as well as between Hollow Void and Void Transformation.

Breaking through these bottlenecks could grant them a lifespan of thirty to one hundred thousand years.

Failing to break through meant exhausting their lifeforce, leaving them with no choice but to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

When their time came, the power of reincarnation would erase all memories. A new life, a new individual, no connection to the past.

The longer they lived, the more they feared death. Thus, if these golden Spirit Soul Awakened beings encountered a perfect-grade Age-Prolonging Pill, they would bankrupt themselves to acquire it.

After all, an Age-Prolonging Pill wasn’t a divine immortal’s pill; only the first one would be effective. Naturally, the higher the grade, the better.

Moreover, starlit and moonlit level awakened beings who hadn’t honed their foundations during the Golden Core stage would also encounter bottlenecks once reaching the Primordial Spirit realm. They too needed perfect-grade Age-Prolonging Pills.

Therefore, when the Pill Pharmacy opened and announced an Age-Prolonging Pill for auction, the name of the Qin Clan Pill Pharmacy was firmly etched into public consciousness.

And that’s not even considering the Pill of Spirit Transformation, which could bypass over a thousand years of arduous cultivation to reach the Primordial Spirit realm. Its value was on par with the Age-Prolonging Pill.

During the auction, an Age-Prolonging Pill fetched a price beyond that of a sixth-order medicinal pill: two million and one hundred thousandspiritual soul coins.

Qin Shu had concocted a batch of these pills. He left one in the Pill Pharmacy, and gave two to Qin Wushang and Xie Feifei. This granted their elderly parents a lifespan of a thousand years, effectively rejuvenating their appearances by several decades. Now, they looked younger than even Qin Wei and Wang Yurou.

Qin Wei, Wang Yurou, and the others—Qin Yu, Qin Rou, and Qin Ying—had different plans in store from Qin Shu.

The Pill of Spirit Transformation also sold for two million spiritual soul coins at the auction.

As news of these results reached Qin Shu, he grimaced as if struck by a toothache. The prices were undoubtedly high, but compared to the cost of having items teleported back from All-Heavens City, it felt like a painful loss.

Each transfer cost a hundred pieces of white jade, equivalent to ten million spiritual soul coins. To move two hundred would be twenty million.

“The prices are just too out of balance!” he cried before heaving a sigh. He then turned to the Money God Shopping Mall and bought nine tons of gold.

The essence metal he sought could yield one gram from a ton of gold. While gold was virtually free, the refining process was not.

For nine tons of essence metal, he had spent nine hundred thousand spirit soul coins.

Qin Shu wasn’t sure if this would be enough for him to achieve his first Golden Core transformation.

His foundation was exceptionally strong; while a typical cultivator needed a hundred kilograms for their first transformation, he required nine tons.

After bidding farewell to his parents, he was teleported back to Qingping Island for seclusion and cultivation.

He had prepared his Golden Core meticulously, and now it was time for his first transformation.

Although essence metal was derived from gold, an additional process was needed to extract the geng metal qi.

Qin Shu took out the Karma Cauldron, placed the essence metal inside, and began extracting the geng metal qi.

Using the blazing Karma True Fire, he quickly reduced a kilogram of essence metal into a fist-sized ball of golden qi.

Yet it wasn’t enough; the process continued.

The golden qi started changing from warm gold to a bright white, naturally splitting into two streams.

One resembled molten gold under the blazing sun, while the other was akin to the cold light of the moon.

These were the qi energies of geng and xin metal.

At this stage, a pill concocting master would typically take over. They’d combine these two metal qi energies with specific ingredients, forge them into geng metal pills and xin metal pills, and then have them ingested.

This way, the medicinal strength would protect the meridians, making the refinement of the Golden Core safer.

However, Qin Shu never followed conventional methods. Instead, he simply opened his mouth and breathed in both streams of metal qi directly through his nose and mouth.