Chapter 1850: Refining Space Scrolls
Using the "Heavenly Demon Blood Axe Diagram," Zhang Ruochen obtained three hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines from Xie Canghai.
This was only part of it. From Tianchen, Daxi Wang, Jueyan Hu, and other Saint Realm powerhouses, Zhang Ruochen also extracted eight more hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines.
Hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines are extremely precious even for Great Saints.
Only the Kunlun Realm, which is in the process of reviving, could produce so many.
Of course, it was precisely for this reason that top experts from the various realms of the Heavenly Court and the ten clans of Hell had been attracted here, creating the current chaotic situation of dragons contending.
With Zhang Ruochen alone holding eleven hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines, even Great Saints would be envious.
The hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicine in his hand was called "Baiyuan Jue." It was light and cold, seemingly weightless, and would float in the air if he let go.
Baiyuan Jue was emerald green, full of rich vitality.
As if aware that Zhang Ruochen intended to consume it, a timid voice sounded from within Baiyuan Jue: "Saint King, please spare little Jue's life. I will surely repay you in the future."
Not every hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicine had cultivated techniques and sacred arts like Zhenmiao Xiaodaoren.
In reality, the hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines born from the Kunlun Realm were rapidly catalyzed to that age as the great world revived, not truly having grown for a hundred thousand years. Few of them had even developed intelligence.
Truly hundred-thousand-year-old ancient sacred medicines did exist, but they were quite rare.
For example, the Yujin Moxiang that Zhang Ruochen encountered in Luo River, which could launch spiritual power attacks, was one such.
"Don't worry, I won't directly consume you," Zhang Ruochen said with a smile.
Directly swallowing a hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicine would be a wasteful act.
The true long-term approach was to plant the hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicine and, when needed, pick its leaves, fruits, petals, or roots, or even collect the dew on its leaves as a medicinal guide.
Each hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicine could serve as the foundation of a sect or an empire.
Zhang Ruochen planted Baiyuan Jue in the divine soil medicine garden of the Qiankun Realm, then plucked a leaf, put it in his mouth, and began to refine and absorb it.
After the battle at the Eastern Domain Sacred City, Zhang Ruochen had not only obtained eleven ancient sacred medicines but also a large number of tens-of-thousands-of-years-old sacred medicines, various grades of sacred pills, and merit treasures that could enhance his cultivation realm.
With the Truth Esoterica, Zhang Ruochen's speed in comprehending sacred dao rules was already very fast.
With the aid of various sacred pills and medicines, his cultivation speed naturally increased even more.
In the fifth year of seclusion, the total number of sacred dao rules in Zhang Ruochen's Qi Sea exceeded two million, reaching the peak of the Seven-Step Saint King realm, and he began to go all out to break through to the Eight-Step realm.
It took a full two years, and Zhang Ruochen's cultivation successfully broke through.
"Whoosh."
In the Tongtian River, over two million sacred dao rules flowed like water, and their speed suddenly increased significantly.
The sacred qi in his Qi Sea began to compress repeatedly, leading to a transformation.
Within a single day, the sacred qi in Zhang Ruochen's body seemed to have been tempered a thousand times, greatly improving its quality and grade, far surpassing before.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen absorbed a large amount of sacred qi into his body, consuming millions of sacred stones.
"Boom."
The sacred qi in Zhang Ruochen's body reached an uncontrollable level, spilling out of his body and turning into a white sacred cloud, floating above the Eastern Domain Sacred King Mansion.
Jiang Yunchong stood in the Xinhuo Tower, gazing at the distant sacred cloud, and sighed: "As expected of the Heir of Time and Space. Seven days, only seven days, and he broke through the realm. How powerful will Zhang Ruochen be at the Eight-Step Saint King realm?"
"With Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation level, although he is still far from dominating the Kunlun Realm, there are not many Saint Realm cultivators in the Kunlun Realm who can threaten his life," Yinyue said.
Next came another year of cultivation.
Zhang Ruochen completely consolidated his cultivation realm. The number of sacred dao rules in his Qi Sea reached over 2.8 million, more than double before.
Of course, his current realm was only the early stage of the Eight-Step Saint King.
To reach the Nine-Step Saint King realm, even just a small rule world, the number of sacred dao rules in his body would need to reach at least six or seven million before he could attempt the breakthrough.
In eight years of cultivation, not only had his realm broken through, but Zhang Ruochen's attainments in the Sword Dao, Way of Truth, Way of Space, and Way of Time had also improved to varying degrees.
In particular, his comprehension of Sword Nine was only one final level away from great completion.
That level was called "Soul Returns to Boundlessness."
As for the fourth level of the Time Sword Art, the Zhoutian Reincarnation Sword Technique, it had reached perfection. Once unleashed, it could elevate Zhang Ruochen's combat power by a major level.
The progress in the Way of Space was even greater, greatly boosting Zhang Ruochen's confidence. He decided to immediately refine space scrolls for emergencies.
Space scrolls come in many types: Space Teleportation Scrolls, Space Storm Scrolls, Chaotic Space Scrolls, Multi-Layered Space Scrolls, Space Shattering Scrolls... and so on.
Among them, there were differences in difficulty. Relatively speaking, Space Shattering Scrolls were easier to refine.
Multi-Layered Space Scrolls were the most difficult to refine.
Therefore, Zhang Ruochen decided to first refine Space Shattering Scrolls to practice.
Refining a space scroll was divided into two steps.
Step one: Refine the scroll base.
Step two: Inscribe the space runes.
Refining the space scroll base required some special materials, such as Chaos Silk, Taiyi Ancestor Stone Powder, and Origin Wood.
Of course, these materials were not mandatory; other materials could be used as substitutes.
For example, "Origin Wood" could be replaced with wood from the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree without significantly affecting quality.
The hardest to find was Chaos Silk.
"Chaos Silk" refers to the silk spun by Chaos Silkworms.
Chaos Silkworms only grow in chaos, and only when a great world is born or destroyed can a chaotic region form, providing a living environment for Chaos Silkworms.
Otherwise, only the Haishi Star Cove could be a place to find Chaos Silkworms.
Zhang Ruochen took out various space storage vessels and searched through them one by one. To his surprise, he actually found some Chaos Silk.
The Chaos Silk was stored in a ring, weighing as much as two jin. It was finer than hair, sparkling, and seemed both solid and gaseous.
Zhang Ruochen remembered that this ring was taken from a space cultivator during the attack on the Xumi Dojo.
With Chaos Silk, Taiyi Ancestor Stone Powder, and Sky-Connecting Divine Wood, the other materials were not rare, and Zhang Ruochen quickly gathered them all.
So, he invited Lu Huaiyu to join him in refining the space scrolls.
Lu Huaiyu had studied the "Tiangong Qilu" and, even if not the number one in the Kunlun Realm in artifact refining, was definitely at the top tier.
With Lu Huaiyu's assistance, it took only ten days for Zhang Ruochen to refine the first space scroll base.
As the refining process became more familiar, over the next month, Zhang Ruochen refined dozens of space scroll bases, exhausting all the Chaos Silk.
Next came inscribing the space runes onto the blank scroll bases.
With Zhang Ruochen's current space attainments, inscribing the simplest Space Shattering Runes was quite smooth. The first attempt was a success.
In one go, Zhang Ruochen inscribed ten Space Shattering Scrolls, succeeding with eight and destroying two. The success rate was considered very high.
"Space Teleportation Scrolls are more useful. They are a life-saving trump card, so I must refine a few."
A "Space Teleportation Scroll" involves inscribing a Space Teleportation Array onto a scroll base, which is several times more difficult than setting up a Space Teleportation Array.
For Zhang Ruochen, this was a considerable challenge.
"As long as I have Space Teleportation Scrolls, even if I encounter an ordinary Great Saint, I can escape. Then, there will be no place in the entire Kunlun Realm I cannot go, and no enemy I cannot afford to provoke. I must succeed."
Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath, opened a blank scroll base, focused his mind, and began inscribing with a steady hand, striving for zero errors.
But after inscribing a little over half, he still failed to control it precisely.
"Boom."
The Space Teleportation Runes shattered the scroll base, appearing as streaks of light patterns in midair before dissipating into nothing, leaving only fragments on the ground.
Zhang Ruochen was not discouraged. He immediately took out a second blank scroll base and continued inscribing.
"Boom."
This time, after inscribing only a fifth, the scroll base caught fire and turned to ashes.
After a brief silence, Zhang Ruochen stopped inscribing and instead took out the "Space-Time Secret Scripture" to carefully study the chapter on setting up Space Teleportation Arrays.
Then, he pulled out the chapter on refining space scrolls and continued reading.
Two days later, Zhang Ruochen picked up the inscription brush again and began inscribing Space Teleportation Runes onto a space scroll base.
As the runes gradually took shape, Zhang Ruochen's calm heart grew slightly tense. He focused his spiritual power to the extreme, his fingers still steady, persisting until the final stroke fell. Only then did he let out a long breath.
Looking at the Space Teleportation Scroll before him, Zhang Ruochen finally smiled.
Only then did he realize that his forehead was covered in sweat beads.
"It must be that my spiritual power is slightly lacking, and my concentration is not enough. If my spiritual power were a bit higher, the success rate for refining Space Teleportation Scrolls should increase significantly."
With the experience of the first success, the subsequent inscription process became much easier.
In one go, Zhang Ruochen used up twenty scroll bases and successfully refined six Space Teleportation Scrolls.
Zhang Ruochen turned the remaining sixteen blank scroll bases into Chaotic Space Scrolls, succeeding with seven.
After finishing, Zhang Ruochen was quite excited and planned to find someone to test the power of the three types of scrolls.
Not far away, the Swallowing Elephant Rabbit, as large as a wild ox, ran over and shouted, "Master Chen, give me some more hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines to eat. The ones you gave me last month are already gone."
Eight years had passed, and this gluttonous Swallowing Elephant Rabbit had improved the fastest, already breaking through to the Nine-Step Saint King realm.
Mainly because it ate everything and could digest anything. It crunched sacred stones like candy and had even swallowed several divine bones.
Moreover, it had brought a large number of sacred medicines from Wangshan, acting as if they were its own, without any restraint with Zhang Ruochen.
Eating like this, it was practically trying to eat Zhang Ruochen out of house and home.
Zhang Ruochen looked it up and down, nodded slightly, and smiled, "Of course, I have hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines, but you need to help me with a small favor first."
"Really?"
The Swallowing Elephant Rabbit's two eyes became extremely bright. It didn't expect Master Chen to be so generous, giving away hundred-thousand-year ancient sacred medicines just like that. As for the "small favor" Zhang Ruochen mentioned, it completely ignored it.
(Recommended: Chuan Tian Mao's "I Am Not a Deserter":
The youngest War King was framed and returned to the countryside. To clear his name, he crushed his opponents all the way.
He was surrounded by beautiful women, but also faced hidden dangers...
"I am kind by nature, but they force me to be crazy."
In a fit of rage, enemies cry, women submit...)
(Chapter End)