After Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu left, Ye Qingxuan sent a list to Zhu Dafu, asking him to help collect some spiritual herbs.
The method he mentioned for rapidly improving the cultivation of the Ye brothers was using pills that had already been eliminated by the Xuantian Sect.
These were pills that, after consumption, could forcibly integrate and assimilate their medicinal power with the cultivator’s spiritual energy, thereby increasing the cultivator’s cultivation base.
Unlike pills that contain the world’s origin power, this type of pill, which relies solely on medicinal power for a quick boost in cultivation, comes with numerous side effects.
Reduced control over spiritual energy and a decline in combat effectiveness aren’t even the most critical issues.
Once a pill that rapidly increases cultivation is taken, the spiritual energy becomes impure. This impurity then affects the conversion efficiency of the spiritual root.
It’s like this: originally, if the purity levels were the same, spiritual energy would naturally merge quickly.
But now, when the purity of one’s own spiritual energy differs from the initial purity of the spiritual energy converted by the spiritual root, the fusion speed slows down, thus impacting one’s normal cultivation speed.
Secondly, breakthroughs become difficult.
After taking such pills that use medicinal power to boost cultivation, the difficulty of breaking through bottlenecks increases significantly. To break through to a major realm, one must rely on various realm-breaking pills for assistance.
Without the corresponding realm-breaking pills, the success rate for such cultivators attempting a breakthrough plummets.
Therefore, while taking these pills leads to rapid short-term gains in cultivation, the chances of successfully breaking through bottlenecks become much lower without the corresponding realm-breaking pills. It’s almost like a slow form of semi-suicide.
On the other hand, for cultivators who don’t take these pills and only rely on their spiritual root conversion or various origin powers to increase their cultivation, their spiritual energy remains extremely pure and completely under their control.
This brings an irreplaceable advantage.
That is, once enough spiritual energy accumulates to reach the peak of a realm, they have a very high probability of breaking through to the next major realm.
This point holds immense appeal for cultivators.
Nowadays, within the Xuantian Sect, this type of pill has long been prohibited. Generally, unless there’s absolutely no other choice, no one is willing to take pills that increase cultivation purely through medicinal power. Anyone who takes such pills is deemed unworthy of being a disciple of the Xuantian Sect.
The spiritual energy of someone who has taken these pills cannot be fully controlled and is impossible to hide from the eyes of high-level cultivators. Therefore, no one in the Xuantian Sect dares to use them, and there’s no circulation of such pills either.
As time passed, most alchemists within the Xuantian Sect stopped spending energy on learning how to refine them.
It’s not just hegemonic sects like the Xuantian Sect; even in slightly more powerful sects in the Di Xuan Realm, and even among talented independent cultivators, these pills have long been abandoned.
It could be said that Ye Qingxuan estimated these pills, nearly obsolete in the Di Xuan Realm, would only be chosen by a very small number of cultivators.
Furthermore, among this tiny minority, most are definitely not short on money. They have sufficient funds to purchase these pills and access to various channels for the corresponding realm-breaking pills.
Because the medicinal ingredients needed for these directly-boosting pills are precious, the refining process is difficult, and they contain a large amount of energy, their selling price is extremely high.
Not to mention the realm-breaking pills needed for major realm breakthroughs.
For major powers, cultivating a disciple with no future prospects who consumes a lot of resources is meaningless.
And for individuals, very few can consistently afford to use such expensive pills to raise their cultivation.
Only direct lineage disciples from wealthy families, who have poor talent themselves, can bear such expenses.
Therefore, over time, most cultivators without hope of reaching the Nascent Soul or Void Refining realms, constrained by their financial situation and unable to afford realm-breaking pills, gradually gave up on using these pills to enhance their cultivation.
It is for these various reasons that pills which directly boost cultivation using medicinal power have been, for the most part, slowly phased out of the immortal cultivation path in the Di Xuan Realm.
At least, that’s how it is in the five regions within the Di Xuan Realm.
Of course, nothing is absolute. There are naturally ways to resolve the side effects of these pills, but the difficulty is simply too great.
As far as Ye Qingxuan currently knows, there are two methods to resolve these after-effects.
One is to take a ninth-grade Nirvana Pill, which can reshape one’s foundation and allow the cultivator to be reborn through nirvana.
The other is to achieve ascension. During ascension, one undergoes the combined baptism of the world’s power from both realms, which is also the best opportunity for a cultivator to reshape their foundation.
However, neither of these methods is easily achievable in the Di Xuan Realm.
Not to mention ascension, even the ninth-grade Nirvana Pill requires a main ingredient, the Phoenix Grass, which has long been extinct in the Di Xuan Realm. So, refining a ninth-grade Nirvana Pill is virtually impossible now.
Ye Qingxuan suggested that Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu take these pills to improve their cultivation for two reasons.
First, because their talent is indeed too low, and they have no hope of reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
Second, because Ye Qingxuan is not short of money now. He can fully supply the Ye brothers with a series of pills to aid their cultivation.
Of course, Ye Qingxuan also has his own ulterior motives.
As his attendants, once Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu’s cultivation levels are raised, it will be much more convenient to have them leave the Xuantian Sect later to handle some matters for him.
After Ye Qingxuan obtained the spiritual herbs, he began refining pills for the two brothers.
They are currently at the Foundation Establishment stage, so Ye Qingxuan refined second-grade Small Spirit Pills for them.
Refining the second-grade Small Spirit Pill requires three types of second-grade spiritual herbs: second-grade Spirit Gathering Grass, second-grade Earth Spirit Flower, and second-grade Wood Ganoderma.
In addition, over a dozen types of first-grade spiritual herbs are needed as auxiliary ingredients.
The refining process for the second-grade Small Spirit Pill is not only intricate but also extremely costly.
A single set of ingredients for the second-grade Small Spirit Pill cost Ye Qingxuan 750 low-grade spirit stones, an expense almost comparable to a second-grade Spirit Purifying Pill.
In terms of medicinal potency, one Small Spirit Pill can roughly provide the equivalent of three months of cultivation progress for the brothers, based on their normal cultivation speed.
However, these pills that boost cultivation purely through medicinal power have a strong after-effect. After taking one pill, one must spend ten days refining and consolidating the cultivation before taking the next Small Spirit Pill.
Even so, cultivating with Small Spirit Pill can increase their cultivation speed to about nine times the original rate.
As for issues like pill toxins and resistance, Ye Qingxuan naturally has corresponding pills to solve them. When they encounter bottlenecks, Ye Qingxuan also has the appropriate pills to help them break through. Given Ye Qingxuan’s current alchemy skills, at the very least, ensuring their breakthrough to the Golden Core stage is not difficult.
As for the Nascent Soul stage, we’ll discuss that later!
Once his own cultivation breaks through and his alchemy skills improve, the Nascent Soul stage shouldn’t be a major problem either.
The Void Refining stage, however, is far, far too difficult. Ye Qingxuan has no such plans for now, nor does he currently possess the capability.
Even so, in cultivating these two attendants of his, Ye Qingxuan can be considered to have put in genuine effort.
Ten days later.
Ye Qingxuan handed the refined second-grade Small Spirit Pills to Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu and told them to go into seclusion for cultivation.
During this period, Ye Qingxuan used his disciple token to contact Ye Qingxiao, informing him that he was out of seclusion and asking him to come over when he had time.
After taking care of all this, Ye Qingxuan returned to his previous cultivation routine.
Occasionally, Ye Qingxuan would also rack his brains, thinking of ways to find a suitable opportunity to promote his Nuclear Explosion Pill series and harvest cultivation resources.
Apart from that, the issue of production was also something he urgently needed to solve.
Once the Nuclear Explosion Pill series became popular, relying on himself alone, he couldn’t possibly supply such a vast market.
The Nuclear Explosion Pill was developed by Ye Qingxuan using the methods of alchemy, artifacts, talismans, and formations. An ordinary alchemist might not necessarily be able to refine it.
Furthermore, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t just give away the pill formula for nothing.
As time passed, Ye Qingxuan cultivated, drank tea, and pondered solutions to the problem every day.
Gradually, a preliminary plan for solving the production issue began to take shape in his mind.
As for promoting the Nuclear Explosion Pill series, an opportunity was still needed. And that opportunity, he felt, lay with Ye Qingxiao.
