Chapter 157: Chapter 63: Gua Gua’s Core Formation

Watching Gua Gua turn and dive into the sea, Li Jizhou gazed towards the northwest.

After crossing the endless sea, he could return to the mainland. By flying over the barren lands of spiritual energy, he could return to the Qi Kingdom, and crossing the Purple Vine Mountain Range, he would reach the Yan Kingdom at the junction of the Eastern Desolate Central Domain and the Southern Domain.

There, three Tier Four spirit veins exist, and several major sects remain isolated, indifferent to worldly affairs. Commerce is prosperous, and resources are plentiful, making it possible to gather the remaining materials for the Crystal Condensing Pill.

He is now approaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment, not far from Core Formation.

If Gua Gua can indeed advance to a Tier Three Great Demon smoothly, along with his many trump cards, they should safely traverse the Purple Vine Mountain Range.

To solidify a Golden Core, he would need at least a Tier Three Middle Grade Nascent Soul Dojo, meaning he would inevitably have to head north.

Retracting his gaze, Li Jizhou took out a puppet.

Over the past two years, Gua Gua had brought back many Tier Two materials, and now there was an additional Tier Two high-level puppet.

However, this puppet was different from the previous ones; it was Li Jizhou’s first attempt to fuse a demon core into it.

The demon core was from a golden fish demon from six years ago, attributing to water, but its innate gift was to grow braver with each battle.

This was something Li Jizhou only discovered while using puppet secret skills to connect with the demon core.

With the demon core fused into the puppet, the puppet inherited one-tenth of its innate divine abilities, possessing a characteristic of gradual power increase during continuous combat.

Li Jizhou had already tested it; after continuous fighting for about ten days, its power could double.

Originally, the Tier Two high-grade quasi-Third Tier puppet, after ten days of sustained battle, its strength could rival that of an early-stage True Core.

However, at present, this feature was somewhat of a hindrance, as ordinary magical duels usually concluded in a flash, leaving little room for prolonged fights.

Of course, this also related to the fish demon only possessing a Tier Two Middle Level gift, offering too little amplification.

If someday he could acquire high-tier demon cores or those with exceptionally powerful innate divine abilities, the potential of puppetry would be boundless.

This puppet was fashioned by Li Jizhou into a flying puppet, resembling an eagle; its skin crafted from Sea Demon Hide and mixed with some adamantine feathers, at first glance, it appeared like a mutated great eagle.

A month later, it was time for another medical checkup for Jiang Li.

This time, she needed to bring ten high-grade Tier Two demon cores once more.

However, this time, Jiang Li didn’t bring them.

“Senior, the Elder Council on the main island restricted our Linglong Island’s permissions to purchase demon cores on Pearl Jade Island. We need a few more days to gather the required quantity,” Jiang Li said with a slightly apologetic expression.

Upon hearing this, Li Jizhou felt a slight stir in his heart but maintained a calm exterior without inquiring further, simply nodding lightly: “No matter, today’s medicine is still available.”

Regular checkups and medication had mostly awakened nearly eighty percent of her physical constitution.

After Jiang Li left, Li Jizhou chuckled lightly, shaking his head.

Though he didn’t ask, he speculated on a possible reason from the results.

Just as Jiang Li had once informed him, the Han family on the main island most desired all Seven Islands to use the unorthodox method of Foundation Establishment, peaking at the middle stage.

Anything beyond that line might attract significant attention.

The Island Lord’s Mansion on Linglong Island undoubtedly had spies from the main island present,

and over the years, Jiang Li’s health condition had surely been reported,

though they didn’t know why her condition improved suddenly, they could easily investigate her frequent purchases of Tier Two late-stage demon cores on Pearl Jade Island.

Especially with Jiang Li’s cultivation status recently improving notably, this was something the main island didn’t wish to see.

Finding an excuse to cut off this line was an inevitable move for them.

If Jiang Li ever advanced to the late stage of Foundation Establishment and then secretly went inland, leveraging the full power of Linglong Island, if she returned after achieving True Core formation, it would pose a great threat to the main island’s control.

Especially a few years ago, when Han Zhuo had publicly revealed the main island’s unscrupulous tactics; despite all Seven Islands seemingly siding with the main island, condemning Han Zhuo for sowing discord, privately, they must have harbored thoughts.

In fact, the moment the main island employed Han Zhuo as a covert agent to plunder merchant ships traveling between Seven Islands and the mainland, it embarked on a no-return path.

All current maneuvers were merely compounding errors.

Li Jizhou wasn’t interested in thinking deeply about this, knowing the root was in power division. Such a joint alliance in the sea domain, without unification, maintaining a feudal island lord system, was destined for division and reunification until the emergence of a unifying overlord of the Eight Islands for true stability.

Nevertheless, this situation benefited Li Jizhou, increasing his chances of obtaining the Profound Crystal Fruit.

“Should I fan the flames? Accelerate their unification?”

Ultimately, Li Jizhou decided to let nature take its course.

Another month passed, and Jiang Li returned quietly.

This time, she brought a sufficient number of late-stage Tier Two demon cores.

However, she was injured and temporarily unable to consume the Waterfall Pill.

High-grade Tier Two demon beasts were equivalent to the late stage of Foundation Establishment for the human race, and at sea, sea demons had the advantage, further enhanced by bloodline innate abilities. It was indeed challenging to hunt these ten sea demons relying solely on the strength of Linglong Island.

According to her, there was something odd about the incident as well.

Originally, she led Linglong Island’s hundred-strong guard to hunt demons, with no chance for direct confrontation,

but the demons suddenly unleashed a beast tide, hundreds of Tier Two sea demons assaulted the guard formation, resulting in severe casualties.

Li Jizhou sensed her restraint in emotions while recounting this event,

It seems that he has already seen through the tricks of the main island.

So he let him return to recuperate and not rush things for now.

In this way, more than three months passed, and the time agreed with Yan Wenjue was about to come.

Gua Gua was also summoned back by Li Jizhou.

Unfortunately, after nearly half a year of effort, as expected, Gua Gua did not find new core formation spiritual objects.

After all, it is not the child of destiny!

However, the Celestial Pure Water alone as a core formation spiritual object can already make many demon beasts envious and jealous.

Throughout the Eastern Desolate Southern Domain, it’s estimated that not many cultivators south of the spirit-barren land have seen such a thing.

Moreover, even in the entire sea domain, how many can possess aids like the Blood Evil Pill to condense demon pills?

In the deep sea domain, those who can independently condense demon pills, are they not at least of the earth grade bloodline?

Gua Gua having the aid of two great demon pill condensation objects at once has actually surpassed ninety-nine percent of demon beasts.

Thinking in this way, it seems Gua Gua has already gotten a great fortune.

If it weren’t for Li Jizhou, it might not have broken through tier two until its death, let alone condense a demon pill.

“It seems you don’t need to be too nervous, with a ten percent chance from middle-grade bloodline, adding twenty percent from the Blood Evil Pill, even if you can only use thirty percent of the Celestial Pure Water’s effect, you would still have a sixty percent chance. The hope of forming a fake core is high!

Even if it fails, I have infinite vitality, and can also preserve your life.” Li Jizhou patted Gua Gua’s head and comforted it.

He then removed the golden scale armor from its body.

“Gua~” Gua Gua confidently nodded.

“Let’s go!” Putting away Gua Gua, Li Jizhou headed towards Pearl Jade Island.

A month ago, Li Jizhou informed Yan Wenjue via a communication talisman that to avoid his aura being detected by people from the main island during the demon pill condensation, he found a reliable friend to bring his demon beast, and agreed on a secret code.

When Li Jizhou arrived on Pearl Jade Island, he had already transformed into a mediocre-looking middle-aged man, who was an inland cultivator that had died in the spiritual energy storm two months ago.

It was then that Li Jizhou discovered that the limit for qi and blood storage in the fourth layer was three people, so he cleared Jiang Li’s aura and stored this person’s qi, blood, and fragmented memories of the sea of consciousness.

Confirming that he was merely a trivial figure coming to buy supplies in the sea domain for the first time.

His identity was originally a late stage Foundation Establishment elder from the Celestial Spirit Sect. When Qi Kingdom’s cultivators attacked Celestial Spirit Sect, he decisively betrayed them, ultimately saving his life and continuing to stay within the sect.

Arriving at the Beast Taming Pavilion, after exchanging secret codes with Yan Wenjue, they soon arrived at the Nascent Soul Dojo at the sea eye of Pearl Jade Island.

This venue opens once every six months to allow the Spirit Gathering Array to store the unstable spiritual qi erupting from the sea eye and nurture it into stability.

However, in recent years, this place has mostly been used for tier one to tier two promotion, with actual demon pill condensation being rare.

After all, celestial-grade and earth-grade bloodline beasts are not easy to acquire, and top-grade demon beasts with an innate twenty percent success rate, even with the addition of a Blood Evil Pill, can barely reach fifty percent. The success rate is low, and the cost of a Blood Evil Pill is considerable.

Unless one can obtain a core formation spiritual object to boost the success rate above fifty percent, it is merely a gamble with life.

Moreover, with the main island monitoring Pearl Jade Island, they themselves also control the number of tier three demon beasts they cultivate, unwilling to stand out for the time being.

In fact, Pearl Jade Island has secretly operated for years and now has four fake core tier three great demons.

Upon reaching the sea eye, a figure approached.

“Xiaoyan, is this the inland cultivator you reported last month?” Master Shangshan blatantly scanned Li Jizhou with Divine Sense, asking with a somewhat displeased expression.

“Reporting to Master Shangshan, Fellow Daoist Huang is an elder of Chu Kingdom’s Celestial Spirit Sect, who happened to have a water attribute demon beast and came to us,” Yan Wenjue said with a smile.

Master Shangshan scanned again with his Divine Sense and, finding nothing amiss, looked at Li Jizhou: “What kind of demon beast does the little friend have? Earth-grade bloodline?”

Li Jizhou smiled slightly: “You must be joking, senior. How could a junior like me attract the favor of an earth-grade bloodline demon beast? It’s just a common top-grade one.”

“Heh~ Common top-grade, then I wish you good luck,” Master Shangshan chuckled softly, no longer paying attention to Li Jizhou.

Yan Wenjue’s eyes flashed with a trace of disdain, smiled playfully, and then pretended to explain to Li Jizhou with some embarrassment: “Forgive me, Fellow Daoist Huang, Master Shangshan brought his beloved spirit beast here to condense a demon pill yesterday, but the earth-grade bloodline failed, causing a realm drop and foundation damage, probably abolishment, so his mood isn’t great.”

“Hmph!” Master Shangshan snorted coldly upon hearing this, apparently having salt rubbed into his wound by Yan Wenjue.

Yet, for Yan Wenjue’s actions at this moment, he found no fault and could only sulk.

Li Jizhou nodded imperceptibly, but in his heart, he disliked Yan Wenjue’s behavior of drawing fire towards himself.

This easily incurs unwarranted hostility from the opponent.

Fortunately, he had many cards up his sleeve and wasn’t afraid of a fake core, otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to proceed with Gua Gua’s core condensation today.

He said no more, directly entering the Pill Condensation Array, taking out a chessboard array in front of the two, and activating restrictions.

In an instant, neither Master Shangshan nor Yan Wenjue could see what was happening inside.

At this moment, Li Jizhou took out a Tier Two Advanced Restriction Talisman and attached it, completely isolating external probes.

“Hmm? What’s he doing?” Master Shangshan saw this and expressed dissatisfaction.

“Master Shangshan, this Fellow Daoist Huang had informed us in advance that he needed privacy to personally guard his spirit pet during the pill condensation,” Yan Wenjue explained.

“Hmph, afraid of me getting jealous? I’ll be watching to see what expression he has when he comes out!” Master Shangshan snorted coldly, clearly displeased with Li Jizhou’s actions.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep