Chapter 160 - There Really Was A Treasure

Over the past couple of days, Leon's routine had only been consisting of three things; hunt ghouls, refine longevity blood and search for herbs.

At this moment, Leon was inside his Worldspace refining a batch of Soul Enhancing Pills. He finally managed to find the prerequisite spirit herb after six days of searching. Although it was only one stalk, it was better than nothing. As for the other spirit herb required to refine the Soul Mending Pill to awaken his father, there was still no luck.

While not intruding beyond the 500-yard deeper region mark, he had otherwise scoured the rest of the area within a 10-mile radius of the forest during this time. He wagered he would only have a chance of finding the 7-Petal Frigid Agapanthus in the deeper regions of the forest.

However, even after making his breakthrough to Energy Condensation Realm, it did not give him any sense of security in treading beyond the 500-yard mark. He did not fear being attacked by vengeful spirits as they were just mindless bodies of energy. But what is to be feared was sentient vengeful spirits that knew how to cultivate. Ghost cultivation was unfamiliar to him, but not unheard of.

Chasing the profundities of the soul, ghost cultivation was one such topic that would be commonly mentioned by the higher-level divine practitioners back in the Divine Realm.

Suddenly, Leon's eyes snapped opened as the pill cauldron lid was removed and nine sparkling azure pills flew out and rested on his palm. The warm texture could still be felt from the freshly refined Soul Enhancing Pills.

Leon brought the pills closer for a whiff and was only able to smell a very subtle medicinal fragrance from the pills, but this did not cause him disappointment. On the contrary, his eyes lit up with satisfaction.

"Supreme-rank pills!" Leon exclaimed with amazement. A deep sense of accomplishment welled up inside him, before he sighed with melancholy. "Haih… Even back in the Divine Realm, the amount of times I was able to concoct supreme-rank pills could only be counted with one's hand."

As he said this, he glanced over at the 2000 plus bottles of longevity blood some distance away. These longevity blood could only be considered as tier-1 spirit elixirs, but after refining so many, his alchemy had improved.

This was not an improvement in his alchemy level, but an improvement in his pill refining. In addition to the spirit tier of a pill, there is also the quality of a pill. The quality of a pill is determined by how much medicinal essence the alchemist was able to coagulate into a pill without any waste. In other words, the pill's medicinal efficacy.

A pill with at least 30% medicinal efficacy was qualified to be called a low-rank pill, 50% for mid-rank pills, 70% for high-rank pills and 80% for peak-rank pills. Only pills with more than 90% medicinal efficacy were called supreme-rank pills.

The reason why the less medicinal fragrance one can smell from a pill, the better, is because the medicinal fragrance comes from the medicinal dregs after the medicinal essence was burnt black and wasted. Thus, the weaker the medicinal fragrance, the higher the pill quality.

But why should the quality of pill matter, if the purpose of the pill is ensured? Can't people just make up the deficiency in quality with quantity by increasing the pill intake? Or simply ingest higher tier pills?

The answer was no, because pill toxins exist. Not only does taking low quality pill affect one's health, it builds up immunity with every intake. As such, any pills with less than 30% medicinal efficacy was considered a failure and didn't have a rank.

However, if there was one, it would be called the trash-rank. No one would dare ingest one unless, they were desperate as the saying goes; desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Furthermore, a supreme-rank tier-1 pill was as effective as a low-rank tier-2 pill, with the difference being the amount of pill toxin contained within them.

Only the legendary flawless-rank pill with 100% medicinal efficacy was free of pill toxin but refining a flawless-rank was as difficult as ascending the heavens, but only in Gaia and other similar lower realms. The number of divine practitioners capable of ascending the heavens in the Divine Realm was a common as cabbages.

Back in the Divine Realm, only a handful of people were capable of refining flawless-rank pills. His father, the Divine Medicine King was one of them.

"Let me test the effect of this supreme-rank."

Leon quickly ingested the Supreme-Rank Spirit Tier-1 Soul Enhancing Pill. The results were almost immediate as the medicinal efficacy rushed through his body and cleansed his mind, uplifting his spirit and enhanced his ability to sense things with greater clarity. His soul was strengthened.

"Truly worthy of a supreme-rank Soul Enhancing Pill. I'm capable of extending my divine sense to a 5-meter radius without quickly exhausting myself." Leon licked his lips in comfort and eyed the rest of the pills in his hand like a ravenous wolf. "My Five-Element Body should be able to ingest a few more pills without worries of overdosing."

With that said, Leon ingested another three pills and absorbed it medicinal efficacy. His soul strength grew, and his divine sense reached greater distance. After all the medicinal efficacy was absorbed, his divine sense was able to reach a 10-meter radius.

It wasn't much, but it was good progress. His only regret was not having a soul cultivation technique to maximize the effect the pill brought him.

"Hmm… it has almost been a week since I left the Capital. Although, I haven't found the 7-Petal Frigid Agapanthus, it's time I head back. My trip had been quite fruitful." Leon thought. A man should stay true to his word. He promised he would only be gone for a week; thus, he would not return later than a week.

Exiting the Worldspace, he appeared in shrubbery spot on the outskirts of Blackwillow Town. He had been constantly tailed by people from the two merchant associations, but they were never able to keep up with him. It was far too easy for him to lose them with his swift movements.

At the same time, the moment he stepped out, he was startled by the sudden raucous laughter of an elderly man echoing from some distance away.

Turning his sight towards the source, he almost keeled over.

"W-What the hell? That is some serious dedication!" Leon exclaimed.

The small hill that once existed, was no longer there. Instead, there was a large crater-like hole in its place. It was as if the hill had become inverted. The Illusory Butterfly Sect people had been digging for treasure all this time!

Their beautiful white robes had been stained by the dirt and had become tattered brown, making them look like beggars. It was hard to comprehend what drives these people to be so committed to the task.

The raucous laughter had come from Old Poison. With red eyes and disheveled hair but jubilant mood, Old Poison held up a precious round plate with strange engravings carefully like it was his most prized possession for a thorough inspection.

After reaching Energy Condensation Realm, Leon was able to use spirit arts. Thus, He enhanced his vision by activating [Spirit Eyes], allowing him to see the finer details of the engraving on the small round plate from a few miles away.

"A formation plate? Holy shit, they really did find a treasure. Is this what they call rewarding the diligent? However…" Leon's eyes became round as saucers, but soon shook his head and smiled. "It's just a broken formation plate. How tragic."

These people from the Illusory Butterfly Sect were bound to be devastated once they find out. Their expressions at that time would be something to behold. Unfortunately, he wasn't too interested in sticking around to find out. Leon silently headed back to the Capital.

"Unexpectedly, formation plates exist within such a primitive world." Leon rubbed his chin in thought. Formation plates were used to activate formations, and its uses was dependent on the runes inscribed on the formation plate. From what he could see, it was a spirit gathering formation, but unless there were a formation master to fix it, it would just be a useless plate.

According to his knowledge, the world did not know about formations and arrays, or at least, not within the scope of the Capital.

"It seems to belong to a bygone era… Perhaps, cultivation was mainstreamed in a distant past, but it regressed due to some unprecedented disaster." Leon speculated. "The world-changing Cataclysm may not have been the first of its kind in the long history of Gaia. Perhaps, a Cataclysm occurred before, during that era and ended it."

Whatever the case was, it wasn't something the current him should be concerned with for now.

…

Meanwhile, at an inn in Blackwillow Town, Old Claw with a dark and deathly complexion, was seated in a meditative position. It was the room of his disciple stationed in the town. He did not escape, but quietly found an opportunity to slipped back into Blackwillow Town to find out where his other disciples were.

Unfortunately, he did not find anyone, and when he went to look for mutated ghouls to harvest blood vitality to replenish himself, he did not find any. Because of those two reasons, he was almost angered to death.

He could only temporarily settle for the weak blood of humans. Now, he was biding his time in wait for the arrival of reinforcements and routine inspection team.

…

After leaving the vicinity of Blackwillow Town and Rainwallow City, Leon quickly picked up speed and returned shortly to the Capital. Upon arrival, he was rooted in shock at the staggering transformation, the Capital had undergone in this short time frame he was away.

"Is this still the Capital of Crawford Kingdom? Why do I feel like I've been left behind by the times?"