230: Chapter 230 Something seems a little off.

During this period, several times after the Spirit Medicine entered the furnace, Su Cheng would inject Creation Spiritual Power and the majority of his Divine Sense, then attempt to split off a wisp of Divine Sense to actively probe the furnace wall.

In the intervals when the creation furnace was operating, Dao Rhyme would overflow from the intersections of the Array Inscriptions. Su Cheng's Divine Sense would attach itself, following the flow of the Dao Rhyme as closely as possible at the same frequency, wanting to see if he could make his own Divine Sense a part of the path along which the Dao Rhyme spread.

The first two times, he gained nothing; the Dao Rhyme just slid past the surface of his Divine Sense and dissipated.

The third time, he spread the contact surface of his Divine Sense to be thinner and softer, no longer trying to catch the Dao Rhyme, but instead letting the edge of his Divine Sense overlap with the edge of the Dao Rhyme.

For an instant, there was a trace of something that didn't belong to him in his Sea of Consciousness, and in a flash, it merged with his own Divine Soul.

Su Cheng opened his eyes; the clear spirit pill in the Pill Furnace had already formed, five of supreme grade, with treasure light flowing over them.

But his attention was not on the Medicinal Pill.

The amount absorbed in that single instant was equal to the total sum of what he had passively absorbed over the past three or four days.

From then on, for every batch of Medicinal Pill, he would repeat this action during the intervals when the Pill Furnace was operating.

The efficiency fluctuated; sometimes he could absorb two or three wisps in a batch, and sometimes he couldn't catch even one.

But the overall trend was improving; his Divine Sense was adapting to the frequency of the Creation Dao Rhyme, and the tacit understanding of their cooperation was increasing.

As for what use these absorbed Dao Rhyme could be put to, he couldn't say for sure at the moment.

After leaving the Pill Furnace, he was still unable to independently display the Creation Concept.

But there was indeed something more in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, a faint, vague "background color" that was hard to describe, but whenever he injected spiritual power during Alchemy, the reaction of the medicinal liquid would be just a little smoother than before.

That was enough; things that require building up grain by grain cannot be rushed.

He set aside the cultivation of the Wangchuan Formula for after he finished the furnace each day; among the three Divine Soul Spell, this one was the most urgent at the moment.

After his father returned, he had to complete the memory replacement cleanly and efficiently, without any room for error.

The Bottleneck after entering the door was not in the casting of the Spell itself, but in the precision of weaving the replacement memory and the natural degree of its connection.

Su Cheng did not look for anyone to practice on, but simply simulated the entire process over and over again in his mind: positioning, stripping, filling, and sealing.

He deduced the same set of actions hundreds of times, polishing every detail to the point where he could do it with his eyes closed.

Time slipped away just like that, in the alternation between Alchemy and cultivation.

On the fourteenth day, Fang Zhenhai bought all six types of spirit minerals according to the list and delivered them to the door of the secret chamber. Su Cheng opened the door to take the items, then went back inside to continue refining the last two batches of Medicinal Pill.

On the day his seclusion ended, Su Cheng counted all the output; every type of Medicinal Pill refined was more than ten pills.

He picked out the portion for Zhou Changgeng and packed it into a Storage Pouch: five supreme grade clear spirit pill, biling pill, and ning shen pill, plus one portion each of the six types of Advanced second-tier spirit minerals.

He prepared a separate gift for Sun Boyong: ten supreme grade po zhang pill. Although a Golden Core Cultivator would not need this, Sun Boyong's other Disciple should be able to use it; it was a way of returning a favor.

The remaining Medicinal Pill were divided into two parts: one part left for Fang Zhenhai to strengthen the commercial firm's strength and stock the Zhenpin Pavilion, and one part sealed in his own Storage Pouch for backup.

When the door to the secret chamber opened, Fang Zhenhai happened to be waiting in the corridor.

"I smelled the medicinal fragrance and guessed that you were about to come out of seclusion."

Su Cheng nodded and stretched his body.

"Has Zhao Shan set off?"

"He left ten days ago, everything is according to your arrangements."

"Good." Su Cheng waved his hand, "You go get busy; I am going to Qingfeng Alley."

...

Jiangping Prefecture, Luoxia City.

The fifteen Jade Slip that Su Chengyuan had distributed were more effective than he had anticipated.

On the afternoon of the third day, as he sat on the second floor of the shop practicing and meditating, he kept his ears pricked and heard Loose Cultivator discussing on the street below.

"You say there is something under Ten Thousand Snakes Valley? Is it true or false?"

"I picked up a Jade Slip in the ruined temple in the west of the city. It said that forty zhang deep under Ten Thousand Snakes Valley, there is a Formation sealing it, covering an area of at least two li."

"Which major power set up the Formation? Could a Loose Cultivator pull off something like this? And who spread this news?"

"You ask me, who do I ask? Forget about it; either way, they are not good people. To be able to set up such a large Formation in Ten Thousand Snakes Valley, the backing must not be simple."

Su Chengyuan did not go downstairs, nor did he come into contact with anyone.

The sentence he said to Li Shi, "Once the news ferments, it won't take more than three to five days to spread throughout a radius of five hundred li around Luoxia City," seemed to be conservative; it didn't even take three days.

By the fifth day, it was already hard to find a Cultivator in the tea houses and restaurants of Luoxia City who did not know about the matter of the Ten Thousand Snakes Valley Formation.

The versions spread became more and more outrageous; some said there was an ancient Immortal Cave hidden beneath, some said it was the Legacy secret treasure of a Golden Core True Person, and there was even a drunken Loose Cultivator who slapped the table and swore that there was a heaven and earth Spirit Medicine about to become spiritual hidden inside.

Su Chengyuan sat by the window on the second floor of the Juxian Residence, drinking a cup of spirit tea for half an hour, listening to a bellyful of stories.

This basin of water had just started to become muddy, but it was not muddy enough yet, so Su Chengyuan naturally would not make a move.

Two more days passed, and the first batch of Loose Cultivator who couldn't sit still set off.

Nearly forty Qi Refining Cultivator divided into seven or eight teams entered Ten Thousand Snakes Valley one after another, and there were six or seven Early Foundation Establishment Stage following behind.

Most of these people were Loose Cultivator making a living near Luoxia City; upon hearing there were good things, they rushed in with hot heads.

Su Chengyuan waited in the shop for one day.

The second day, he waited another day.

On the third day, when Li Shi returned from outside, his face did not look very good.

"Those people, not a single one came back."

Su Chengyuan frowned after hearing this; things seemed a bit off.

"In three days, nearly fifty people went in, plus a few Early Foundation Establishment Stage who went in sporadically later, the total is at least over sixty. As of today, not one has walked out of Ten Thousand Snakes Valley."

Sixty Cultivator went in, zero came out.

Under normal circumstances, although there are many Fire Snake in Ten Thousand Snakes Valley, if a group of Qi Refining Cultivator rushed in together, even if they couldn't win, they wouldn't be completely wiped out, let alone with a few Early Foundation Establishment Stage holding the line.

There is only one explanation: the dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivator hidden in the valley made a move.

And it was not to drive them away, but to silence them.

Su Chengyuan had thought about this before, but felt it was unlikely.

Generally speaking, if a Cultivator is setting up a Formation in the wild for a secret matter and someone stumbles upon it, the first choice is to retreat and relocate, to keep the matter small.

Silencing them is clean, but the commotion is large, and it is easy to attract bigger trouble.

But that group of people chose the most radical plan.

This explains three things.

First, the thing underground is extremely important to them, important enough that they would rather kill to protect it.

Second, they have the confidence; to be able to silently devour more than sixty Cultivator means the combat power of this team is far higher than he previously estimated.

Third, there are stronger people behind these people.

Connecting it to the "mission" he heard at the time, it seems a major Sect has indeed laid out a plan.

"Push the news again." Su Chengyuan stood up.

Although reason told him he should run away, he had spent months on this journey and had reached the destination; to leave just like that without even knowing what was underground, he was unwilling.

Li Shi looked at him: "What content to push?"