Chapter 38 - 38: External Heart

Chapter 38 - 38: External Heart

After departing from the emporium, Wei Wuyin immediately made way to the Orange Circle Service and purchased a month-long subscription for the white crane. It was a little pricey, but he felt intent on making heavy achievements during this month, and knowing the crane was enjoying a luxurious stable left him feeling at ease.

While he wasn’t sure if he could reach the Sublime Qi Phase in a month, he could at least attempt to refine the Absolute Zero Ice Essence. Even if he failed, the bet would only give him a small loss. The magma essence was definitely worth a few hundred essence stones and had its uses, but he didn’t value it too much.

If he could form a Divine Heart of Elemental Qi, he could bolster his allies’ cultivation bases and give them a high chance of birthing any elemental qi. This was one of the undisputedly prominent abilities known to those who transformed their Heart of Qi into a Heart of Elemental Qi, let alone a Divine Heart of Elemental Qi devised from high-level advanced elements.

If he wanted, he could sell his services to others and earn quite a fortune. In the long run, he could earn tens of thousands of essence stones, so this loss wasn’t huge.

Wei Wuyin searched the map and realized there were locations suitable for secluded cultivation. As a city of cultivators, how could such an establishment not be made?

These locations offered protective and preventive formations, closed off rooms, and dense Heaven and Earth Essence. There were those suitable for cultivation of one’s realm and those suited for cultivation of spiritual spells and qi arts.

After finding one listed that had a decent overview description, he made his way over.

The establishment was called Road to God. It was a very apt name as it focuses on selling rooms that were effective in the cultivating of one’s realm, so it inspired desire and ambition. The reason why people cultivate was to reach supposed godhood and gain immortality, no?

The location wasn’t very wide like the emporium, but it did have many floors. He could tell it had a total of nine floors and as he looked up, he could see a gathering of essence that even condensed into a state of mist. Of course, flying up there was an illegal action, so it was likely there just for the attractive qualities.

When he first saw the dense mist, he wanted to see how thick and pure the Essence of Heaven and Earth in the upper floors were. As a cultivator, those areas had an incomparably irresistible allure.

When he entered, he was met with a rather fat man who had a jovial smile and bright eyes. He had that harmless aura that made one lower their guard and treat him kindly.

"Greetings!" The man asked, "How may I help you today?"

Wei Wuyin asked for various information about the rooms. There were eight floors and each floor had eight rooms. Therefore, the space was limited. However, generally, those who cultivated here were attempting to reach a breakthrough, so they didn’t stay long.

The environment was decent and the materials that constructed the walls of the room were called Darkmist Steel. It had an inherent ability to restrict spiritual sense probing and could contain energy rather well. The durability was extraordinary and even those at the Fifth Phase would find it difficult to breach in a short period of time. It offered privacy and safety.

A month’s rent for the second floor was only three essence stones. As one rose up, the prices also did as well. At the top floor, thirty essence stones was the price.

Wei Wuyin didn’t need dense essence energy, but it couldn’t hurt, so he purchased the fifth floor for ten essence stones. The jovial man laughed and gave him all the necessary materials, including the key to the room, and formation flag to the spiritual formations within.

After taking this, he made his way up. The density of essence was truly higher than below. Even though he hadn’t entered his room yet, he could already see faint signs of essence mist lingering about.

When he entered the room, the mist was visible and his Hearts of Qi became hungry beasts. They drew the essence within and refined their cores even though he hadn’t taken any action. It was as if they could cultivate without him. This caused him to freeze for a moment, but he dismissed the ludicrous thought.

Settling in, he calmed himself down and removed the child-sized box storing the Absolute Zero Ice Essence. The temperature dropped dozens degrees instantly. A chill entered the air and frost energy flowed out of the box.

"According to the records, one of the most dominant characteristics of Absolute Zero Ice Essence is its flash freeze ability. It makes harvesting it incredibly delicate and incomparably dangerous. A single touch of its pure frost energy can freeze one’s blood and lifeforce, deteriorating it instantly, leading to death.

"There’s also mention of a material change in physical composition. It could turn flesh into ice, which can shatter instantly. That had to do with the inherent moisture within, right?" As he recalled the various forms of information about the essence, he couldn’t help but feel some concern.

He actually had a few ideas as to how to approach the refinement, but he wasn’t sure if they would work. Firstly, he thought of using magma or fire qi as a counter to reduce the frost energy’s lethality, but if he did that, the frost energy would be diluted at best, contaminated at worst. Even if he refined it, he’ll be lucky to birth normal Ice Qi, let alone Absolute Zero Ice Qi.

Another idea was to let his Hearts of Qi do the job and pray, but considering how the frost energy had to come in contact with his meridians and flesh, that wasn’t very smart. Rushing in blindly and hoping for the heavens to keep you safe was ridiculously stupid.

A wave of pure frost energy froze the walls and floors instantly. A dense mist of frost emerged in the air as white wisps fluttered about. Wei Wuyin was shocked at how quickly the ice essence shifted the environment. It turned the room into a winter wonderland of sorts.

With his protective ward, the pure frost energy couldn’t penetrate or harm him. That being said, if he absorbed it through his meridians, there would be no protective layer.

Glancing at his Heart of Qi, he found that, like his qi ward, it was similarly unharmed. A level of excitement rarer than anything he’d experienced before was birthed in his heart.

"Go!" He instructed. The Heart of Qi entered the box with a swishing sound. Wei Wuyin couldn’t tell what was happening, but he could see the pure frost energy diminishing rapidly.

His expression changed instantly.

This was too fast, no?

Before a minute had passed, the frost energy that had shifted the environment was all drawn into the box and disappeared entirely.

His left eye and eyebrow twitched.

Then, after a while, he felt his soul scream with content. This scream originated from his spirit, the spirit of his Heart of Qi.

Woosh!

The Heart of Qi swiftly exited the box. Without him having time to analyze it, it shot into his mouth with haste. His head tilted back in recoil and he had a weird expression.

Before he knew it, his Heart of Qi was in his dantian. He realized a bridge of qi had been immediately formed upon its arrival connecting the two Hearts of Qi. This bridge carried faint traces of icy-blue energy like a tube. It went from one cyclone to the other.

They...

His mouth was agape.

That icy-blue energy was Absolute Zero Frost Energy! It was as pure as his yin and yang energies! This...

He calmed himself down and started to feel the changes in his Hearts of Qi. This was the first time he didn’t need to comprehend an energy source and its composition, absorb the energy, and replicate its features so it would become self-creating.

This was why talent and comprehension was required for elemental birthing. The self-creating energy wasn’t automatic. One had to understand the composition, differences, and traits of a certain specific type of element so it can auto-convert. Otherwise, one would just give birth to lightning qi instead of violet lightning qi, or fail giving birth to it altogether.

Essence into energy, energy into qi.

After several hours, his Hearts of Qi had finished their exchange. His silver eyes now exuded an icy aura, and sparkled with pure frost energy. Within his mind, all sorts of insights into Absolute Zero Ice Energy emerged.

"I’ve actually birthed Absolute Zero Ice Qi with such relative ease..." At this point, he didn’t know if the circumstances and his innate talent attributed to it all, or if it was because his karmic luck was absurdly high. It was utterly laughable how easy it was.

Moreover, Blazing Inferno Magma Qi was far more difficult to birth, no? It took a full ten days! However, when his Heart of Qi absorbed the energy directly, it took less than a minute!

He inspected his body and felt an astonishing feeling of comfort. His body was still being tempered by the refined Absolute Zero frost energy, and there was no harm. In fact, he couldn’t physically feel anything but warmth now. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he had the feeling that regardless of which spectrum of temperature he faced, he would constantly feel this level of warmth.

Like a permanent homeostasis.

Was this what immune to heat and cold meant?

As he pondered on his state, he recalled something. A grin formed on his lips suffusing a victorious excitement.

"I won! Haha!"