The Gate Of Good Fortune

"Clink-clang." A slight but crisp sound rang out, which made Ning Cheng happy. He had finally opened Pill Sage Min Kong's bracelet.

Ning Cheng's spiritual consciousness immediately swept in, but he felt dumbfounded when he saw the contents inside. He had initially thought that as Min Kong was a top-grade Dao Essence Pill Deity, he would have spirit crystals piled up inside as high as a mountain. It might even contain several patches of divine grass gardens, perhaps even rows of dao fruit trees filled with dao fruits.

However, Pill Sage Min Kong's bracelet contained no dao fruits at all. Let alone a dao fruit tree, it didn't have even a single strand of the lowest-grade divine grasses. Even the number of spirit crystals inside felt pitiful, not even comparable to him. Ning Cheng estimated that the total wouldn't even exceed 10 million at best. He did, however, find many medicinal pills inside. But all of them were waste or unfinished pills. As for weapons or any other material, Ning Cheng didn't see even a single one.

Apart from the spirit crystals and piles of waste pills, Ning Cheng only found a pile of jade strips scattered to one side.

No, Ning Cheng grasped the bracelet in his hand and understood what might have happened. No matter how poor Pill Sage Min Kong was, it would never be to such an extent. The only conclusion he could come up with was that this bracelet wasn't where Pill Sage Min Kong stored his treasures. Pill Sage Min Kong most likely had another storage-type artefact, like a True Spirit World. Or something similar to the Mysterious Yellow Bead, which one can keep in their Sea of Consciousness.

Pill Sage Min Kong must have hidden his treasury in the deepest part of his Sea of Consciousness. However, Ning Cheng genuinely respected Pill Sage Min Kong and decided not to desecrate Pill Sage Min Kong's remains back then.

Ning Cheng sighed; it seemed that fate didn't want him to have this opportunity. Perhaps Pill Sage Min Kong used the bracelet as a disguise; after all, carrying a ring would have been a much more convenient option than the bracelet. Apart from some female cultivators who liked to wear decorative bracelets, very few people would willingly use a bracelet-type storage artefact.

These old demons who lived for countless years truly had a more competent head compared to the others. They all made sure that other people wouldn't get their stuff so easily if one of them died. Perhaps Pill Sage Min Kong hadn't truly died yet; maybe his essence spirit had already escaped with his actual storage artefact.

Throwing all the spirit crystals in the storage bracelet into his ring, Ning Cheng took out all the jade strips.

Picking up the first jade strip, Ning Cheng found that it recorded the steps of a pill recipe and the pill refining experience. Although Ning Cheng admired Pill Sage Min Kong's thorough approach towards learning, Ning Cheng wasn't even half-interested in these kinds of things. After scanning it once, he put the jade strip aside and picked up the second one. The second jade strip wasn't any different from the first jade strip, containing step-by-step instructions and a detailed description of a pill refining experience.

The third, the fourth….

Initially, Ning Cheng would simply put aside the jade strips after confirming the same thing over and over again. But when he got to the 60th jade strip, he started to feel something was wrong. Pill Sage Min Kong's pill refining experience and understanding pointed towards refining and honing a particular pill recipe. A pill recipe for improving one's Sea of Consciousness and even strengthening it.

Although these jade strips did not mention Divine Chalcedony, Ning Cheng had a vague feeling that these pill recipes were all connected to Divine Chalcedony. But suppose these pill recipes were truly related to Divine Chalcedony. In that case, it should be for a pill similar to the Spirit Essence Pill. Ning Cheng had heard Qi Shisanxing say that the pill recipe for the Spirit Essence Pill had long since disappeared in the annals of times. Therefore, after Ning Cheng obtained some Divine Chalcedony, he planned to deduce the Spirit Essence Pill's pill recipe in the future. He had never expected that Pill Sage Min Kong would have already started the process of figuring the pill recipe.

Facing such a pill that he urgently needed, Ning Cheng immediately immersed himself in the knowledge. He even lowered his guard against the black-robed woman. But in truth, he didn't need to be so careful as the black-haired woman didn't put Ning Cheng in her eyes at all, let alone spy on him in secret.

Time quickly passed by, and Ning Cheng's closed room remained in dead silence and without any moment.

……

It had already been 21 days since Ning Cheng went into retreat, but Xin Xiu had started to grow more and more anxious. Ning Cheng had given Wu Qihong an Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill before, which improved Wu Qihong's life force a lot. But after 21 days, Wu Qihong's life force started to decline once again.

Xin Xiu understood the consequences if Ning Cheng couldn't help gather and condense Wu Qihong's dissipating Essence Spirit and repair his Sea of Consciousness. If it went on for too long, her Junior Apprentice Brother would eventually die even if she kept feeding him many more pills. It's just that after Ning Cheng moved in, he didn't come out at all, nor could Xin Xiu hear a single sound from his room. But no matter how anxious she felt, she did not dare to touch the restrictions outside Ning Cheng's door to alarm Ning Cheng.

On the other side of the door, Ning Cheng grew more and more surprised with each passing moment. The Divine Chalcedony recipe that Pill Sage Min Kong came up with wasn't perfect. He found several key points within the formula that had no ideal solution. However, Ning Cheng finally started to hone in on a solution in Pill Sage Min Kong's conclusion.

Divine Chalcedony was naturally the principal ingredient. But it also required additional primary divine grasses like the Cloud Vine, Meteor Phantasm Fruit, Devil Cloth Grass and Ten Thousand Flame Petals. Apart from these main ingredients, it also required 163 other auxiliary divine grasses. Although each divine grass's quantity can vary, refining this medicinal pill had strict requirements on the pill flame used and spiritual consciousness.

Except for the more precious Divine Chalcedony, only the high-grade divine grass, Ten-thousand Flame Petal, could pose some problems. The rest were just ordinary divine grasses, which one could purchase from any merchant houses.

Ning Cheng had a lot of Divine Chalcedony and obtained more than 200 stalks of Ten Thousand Flame Petals from Pill Sage Min Kong's divine grass garden.

However, the Ten Thousand Flame Petal was the most crucial part of the pill recipe's deduction. The Ten Thousand Flame Petal was a divine grass with a flame and light attribute. Spiritual consciousness, on the other hand, generally had an invisible and formless quality. Rather, it shared a close resemblance with intent and thought. But the most crucial point was that Ten Thousand Flame Petal had no effect on the Sea of Consciousness and spiritual consciousness.

Divine Chalcedony, on the other hand, contained a powerful yin attribute within it. At the same time, it was the primary ingredient in the pill that affected spiritual consciousness. Suppose one didn't use the Ten Thousand Flame Petal to balance it. At that point, not only would it not have any effect, it might even burn or freeze one's Sea of Consciousness, depending on which side the balance tilted.

But there was still a slight difference between the recorded deductions and the actual conclusions. Even if Ning Cheng had the Mysterious Yellow Bead and cultivated using the Mysterious Yellow Formless Cultivation Method, he couldn't use the deductions directly.

As Ning Cheng continued to take out furnace-full of waste pills, he didn't feel distressed at all. Rather, after every failed batch of pills, the subsequent batches came closer and closer to perfection. In any case, Ning Cheng had a lot of divine grasses on him, apart from more than a hundred pieces of Divine Chalcedony. If he could fix this spiritual consciousness pill recipe that could increase one's spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousness, its value would reach incalculable heights.

After wasting the eleventh batch of medicinal pills, Ning Cheng finally succeeded. The twelfth batch of pills hadn't yet formed, but the faint fragrance coming from the furnace had already given his Sea of Consciousness a massive jolt. Even the trace of foreign spiritual consciousness integrated into Ning Cheng's Sea of Consciousness had started to show signs of separation.

Ning Cheng felt overjoyed. He didn't expect that this medicinal pill, which he wasn't even fully confident in, would produce such an effect. The surprise and shock were so intense that Ning Cheng almost lost control of the still-forming twelfth batch of pills. Fortunately, his powerful spiritual consciousness helped him persevere and finally finished refining eight pills out of the batch.

Ning Cheng formed twelve non-usable pills in each batch, but the twelfth batch produced only eight pills. Although none of them were top-quality pills, Ning Cheng still felt quite satisfied. Once he got rid of the foreign spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness, his Sea of Consciousness would once again turn pure. At that time, the effect it would have on refining this pill would also improve several-fold.

Eight white, almost transparent pills lay on Ning Cheng's palm. As a hint of fragrance emerged from it, Ning Cheng involuntarily took in a deep breath.

He carefully put away the pills except for one and threw it into his mouth. The pill didn't turn into a liquid like other pills on entering his mouth. Instead, it turned into a formless gas that penetrated his Sea of Consciousness.

Ning Cheng wasn't actively cultivating at this moment. However, he could feel that his spiritual consciousness kept improving while his Sea of Consciousness also showed signs of expansion.

Ning Cheng had still hadn't recovered from the initial surprise due to the power of the medicinal pill when the foreign strand of spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness trembled. Suddenly, it separated from his original spiritual consciousness.

Ning Cheng couldn't help but feel overjoyed that his initial speculation had indeed been correct. The next moment, he grabbed the foreign spiritual consciousness and threw it towards the Celestial River Flame. The foreign strand of spiritual consciousness made a slight 'click' before it disappeared without a trace.

After finally getting rid of the foreign strand of spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness, Ning Cheng took in a deep breath. When he cast the Dark Nether Scripture's Spirit Devourer, Ning Cheng had devoured a trace of the opponent's spiritual consciousness. Because of it, Ning Cheng's Sea of Consciousness never calmed down; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it now felt even calmer than before.

According to the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scripture, after he swallowed the opponent's spiritual consciousness, he had to refine the opponent's spiritual consciousness quickly. However, he didn't do this. As such, his Sea of Consciousness always felt a little uncomfortable. But now, his newly-deduced pill had directly stripped away the strands of foreign spiritual consciousness and returned his Sea of Consciousness to its previous state.

Ning Cheng then looked at the remaining pills in the jade bottle and felt quite proud of himself. If the person who created the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scripture had such a pill, just how scary of a height would he have reached?

Nevertheless, Ning Cheng still had no plans to devour other people's spiritual consciousness to cultivate the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scripture. He believed that he could enhance his spiritual consciousness with this pill without consuming others' spiritual consciousness.

Besides, with the aid of such a pill, if he couldn't beat his opponent, he could still use the scripture's devouring ability. In other words, it could become one of his trump cards.

Ning Cheng verified that the pill that he and Pill Sage 'jointly' deduced wasn't the Spirit Essence Pill, but a new type of spirit pill. Perhaps this pill was at most just a Soul Sculpting Spirit Pill[1]. But this kind of spirit pill would even have a considerable effect on Dao Fusion Holy Emperors.

It was time to give this pill a name. Ning Cheng picked up the jade bottle and looked at it for a long time before muttering to himself, "Let's call it Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill[2]."

Ning Cheng and Pill Sage Min Kong worked hard to deduce and refine this pill, making this name feel appropriate. Maybe Pill Sage Min Kong came to the mystic realm with the sole purpose of finding Divine Chalcedony to refine something similar to the Spirit Essence Pill.

Putting the jade bottle aside, Ning Cheng once again refined a batch of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills. This time, he quickly refined a furnace of twelve top-quality pills.

Putting away the pills and the pill furnace, Ning Cheng stood up and cleaned everything up. He had stayed behind closed doors for over 20 days and should go out.

Ning Cheng had just walked out of the room when he saw Xin Xiu sitting right outside. Seeing her, he could help but speak with an apologetic tone, "Xin Xiu, have you been sitting here for the entire time?"

Xin Xiu saw Ning Cheng coming out and stood up in surprise, "Elder Brother Ji, are you planning to go out?"

Ning Cheng understood that Xin Xiu indirectly asked if he found a way. He simply took out a bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills and handed it to Xin Xiu. "This bottle of pills can save your Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong. There are seven pills inside. If I'm not mistaken, as long as you give him three of those pills, Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong will wake up. You can keep the other four for your use and used them to cultivate your spiritual consciousness."

Xin Xiu felt surprised as she grabbed the jade bottle. Without even asking the name of the pill, she bowed to Ning Cheng and quickly said, "Many thanks, Elder Brother Ji." After that, she turned and hurriedly left.

Wu Qihong's aura had started to grow unstable and might fall at any time, which had already made her distraught.

Ning Cheng didn't know about their past, nor did he want to learn about it. But he believed that this bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills could repair Wu Qihong's spiritual consciousness. Besides, Ning Cheng also had to get ready for the great meet. With the Grand Essence Great Meet about to start in three days, he wanted to go out and look around the place.

[1] Yes, the raws do mention it as a 'Soul Sculpting' Spirit Pill. I think it should be 'Dao Sculpting' but I will keep it as the raws. If I find more context in the later chapters, I will return and change it to something more appropriate.

[2] The five characters that make up the name literally translate to 'Kong Cheng (Empty Fort) Knowledge Changing Pill', but I decided to name it to reflect the effects instead of going with the literal name as it would only confuse everyone the later chapters. 'Kong Cheng', in certain respects, can be taken as a name or be very loosely translated to 'Empyrean' based on the combined meaning of the two words. The words 'Knowledge Changing' can also mean 'Consciousness Transmutation' based on how we translate the characters 'knowledge' and 'changing' in the novel. Essentially, the original translation of pill name means 'pill created by the knowledge transfer between Kong and Cheng', but it would too long of a name/phrase to use repeatedly. Hence the 'Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill'.