Chapter 47: A New Function of the Celestial Emperor’s Seal!-From Servant to Saint: The Path to Enlightenment(The mountains rise high beneath a small, distant moon.)

Returning unimpeded to his own cave dwelling, Shen Yan entered the meditation chamber and took out two damaged array disks, carefully arranging them in place.

Both disks were low-grade magical tools, their main functions being to conceal one's presence and gather spiritual energy. The cave he had rented in Little Misty Mountain’s marketplace already offered these effects, so by acquiring these two disks, he could accelerate his studies in the basics of array formation.

He produced a pile of spirit stones, crushing them one by one. Instantly, the concentration of spiritual energy within the array rose to a new level.

“Learning the basics of array formation—although I could use the spiritual mechanism within the Heavenly Emperor Seal to master it in a single step, that power is ultimately not infinite. The best way is still to cultivate slowly on my own.”

Among the myriad arts of cultivation, arrays, alchemy, tool forging, and talisman crafting were the four most essential. After much deliberation, Shen Yan decided to devote himself to the study of arrays, alchemy, and tool forging.

His reasoning was that these three skills complemented one another, and mastery in one could enlighten the others. With the Heavenly Emperor Seal in his possession, should he encounter a bottleneck in his cultivation, he could use the spiritual mechanism to break through directly. But since its power was not limitless, and his own energy was finite—he still needed to cultivate techniques and secret arts—he had to proceed wisely.

Having studied the basics of array formation thoroughly, Shen Yan spent some time experimenting before taking out the introductory text on alchemy and began to research the Yellow Sprout Pills he had purchased.

“All these Yellow Sprout Pills are defective. I wonder if the Jade Immortal Sect’s introductory alchemy manual can raise them to a lower-grade quality.”

Seated cross-legged on the meditation cushion, Shen Yan took a deep breath and brought out his Jade Cauldron.

Next, from his storage pouch, he retrieved the defective Yellow Sprout Pills and placed them into the Jade Cauldron.

In the next instant, the Jade Cauldron floating before Shen Yan emitted a sudden suction force, causing the spiritual energy within the array to surge in waves.

Shen Yan continued channeling his own spiritual power into the cauldron. As time passed, he suddenly opened his eyes.

The Yellow Sprout Pills had been elevated to a lower-grade quality.

But he was not yet satisfied. His purpose in buying these pills was to break through his cultivation realm, and for this, the pills needed to be at least of medium grade.

He continued crushing spirit stones, repeating the process. After expending over three hundred spirit stones, he managed to enhance the Yellow Sprout Pills by another level.

“That should be enough.”

Somewhat fatigued, Shen Yan placed the Yellow Sprout Pills into a jade vial, stowed away the Jade Cauldron, and took out twenty lower-grade spirit stones from his pouch. Crushing them, he restored the spiritual power within his body.

After a while, Shen Yan felt revitalized. Sensing that the spiritual energy within the array had reached its peak, he did not hesitate to swallow a Yellow Sprout Pill.

In the blink of an eye, a surge of warmth rose from his dantian, spreading through his limbs and bones, merging with the spiritual energy constantly absorbed from outside. This transformed into Shen Yan’s own spiritual power, returning once more to his dantian.

“Still not enough!”

Now his dantian was filled with spiritual power, but it was still insufficient to shatter the bottleneck.

Yet he could clearly sense that with just one more push, he could break through his current realm.

Without hesitation, he swallowed the remaining Yellow Sprout Pills in one gulp. Harnessing their medicinal potency, he made a decisive assault on the barrier within his dantian.

“Break for me!”

External spiritual energy combined with the pills’ medicinal force. The barrier within his dantian that had once limited the growth of his spiritual power shattered inch by inch, dissolving at last into a stream of obscure spiritual power that merged into Shen Yan’s body.

“I’ve broken through! Now I am a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining stage.”

Opening his eyes, Shen Yan could not help but reveal a trace of joy.

In just three days, he had advanced from late-stage Qi Refining to its very peak—a speed that was nothing short of astonishing.

“It’s just a pity that the Yellow Sprout Pills have now created a pill barrier. In the future, if I wish to further increase my spiritual power through pills, I’ll have to use the much more expensive Gathering Qi Pills.”

Every cultivator, after consuming a certain number of a specific pill, would develop a pill barrier. Once this occurred, taking more of the same pill would yield greatly diminished returns, sometimes no effect at all.

Previously, in order to accumulate spiritual power, Shen Yan had already ingested a considerable number of his own refined Yellow Sprout Pills. Now that he had reached late-stage Qi Refining, taking more would provide almost negligible improvement.

“Once I stabilize my realm, the next steps are to refine my life-bound magical tool and life-bound spell.”

In the world of cultivation, every practitioner possessed their own unique life-bound magical tool and a repertoire of spells. For instance, Zhou Shun, whom he killed at the Yang residence, had a silver flying sword as his life-bound tool.

That Zhou Shun, being only at late-stage Qi Refining, could wield a middle-grade magical tool—this alone showed how precious such items were.

Among cultivators, those in the early Qi Refining stage could only activate lower-grade magical tools, while those in the mid-stage could handle middle-grade and even upper-grade ones. Qi Refining cultivators led frugal lives, needing spirit stones for daily cultivation; any resources they obtained were exchanged for stones to further their power.

But with the Heavenly Emperor Seal, Shen Yan could lavishly use its spiritual mechanism. Not only in Little Misty Mountain’s marketplace, but throughout the entire cultivation world, such privilege was exceedingly rare.

As the bearer of the Heavenly Emperor Seal, Shen Yan’s life-bound magical tool would naturally be extraordinary.

He decided to further refine his upper-grade Flowing Cloud Sword, elevating it to the supreme grade.

As a water-element magical tool, the Flowing Cloud Sword was already extremely sharp, its power nearly rivaling that of supreme-grade tools. With Shen Yan’s water-element spiritual power augmenting it, it could even freeze an opponent’s spiritual power upon impact, slowing down adversaries with higher cultivation than his own.

Additionally, his forty-nine Mystic Heavy Water beads and nine Primal Mystic Ice beads were vital trump cards.

Finally, he possessed earth-element spells like Earth Escape Technique and Geomagnetic Force.

With his current strength, Shen Yan could contend with early Foundation Establishment cultivators and, at the very least, retreat unscathed.

…

Time flowed on. Shen Yan spent half a year in the region of Little Misty Mountain’s marketplace.

During these six months, he occasionally returned to the Jade Immortal Sect. The struggle among the three core disciples had reached a fever pitch but had yet to become a life-and-death contest. Shen Yan was in no hurry, quietly cultivating in Little Misty Mountain’s marketplace and patiently awaiting developments on Silent Cloud Island.

He now sat cross-legged before a Jade Cauldron that seemed both real and illusory, continually channeling spiritual energy into it.

After a long while, he opened his eyes, somewhat weary but with excitement on his face:

“The Heavenly Emperor Seal is truly extraordinary. As long as I provide enough spiritual energy, it can repair anything—whether damaged magical tools, incomplete pills, or broken talismans.”

Through half a year of experimentation, Shen Yan had discovered two more functions of the Heavenly Emperor Seal.

The first he called Restoration.

By infusing the spiritual mechanism into items needing repair—tools, pills, talismans—the Heavenly Emperor Seal could restore them.

The second he termed Refinement.

Similar to Restoration, as long as there was enough spiritual energy, the Heavenly Emperor Seal could elevate the quality of an item.

However, compared to Restoration, Refinement required far more spiritual energy.