As for the other spirit herbs and medicines Yang Kai had collected from the Scorching Sand Expanse, he kept them for himself. Things like Emerald Luo Grass, Purple Jade Fruit, Golden Sun Fruit, and so on — he could use these ingredients to refine pills, so naturally he wouldn't hand them over to Yang Yan.
But items like the Red Candle Fruit, the Red Candle Stand, the Nine-Bend Crystal Jade Tree, the Golden Sun Fruit Tree, and the Ten-Thousand-Year Incense — he had his own plans for each of these as well, and likewise held onto them.
Yang Yan, having received her share of the materials, departed in high spirits. With her extraordinary talent and such a haul of treasures, she could naturally let her imagination run wild once more. Before leaving, she handed Yang Kai a palm-sized token.
Seal script flowed across its surface, lending it an air of profound mystery.
With this token, Yang Kai could freely enter and exit his stone chamber. It also controlled the restrictions within — once activated, the entire Dragon Cave Mountain would be sealed to everyone except Yang Kai himself. Not even Yang Yan could get in, unless she forcibly broke through the formation.
Yang Kai was quite satisfied with this arrangement. Yang Yan had clearly considered his privacy, which was why she'd created this sanctuary where no intruder could trespass.
He had no intention of moving into those newly constructed pavilions outside. This stone chamber suited him perfectly. He wasn't sure if it was because he had once carved out a cave dwelling in the cliff face of Kunlong Gorge at Lingxiao Pavilion long ago, but Yang Kai had always felt a particular fondness for stone chambers like this. Living inside one gave him a sense of security, and the quiet seclusion was ideal for meditation and Cultivation.
Yang Yan had put genuine effort into configuring this stone chamber as well. It was the most heavily restricted and most tightly defended spot on all of Dragon Cave Mountain, with the densest concentration of spiritual energy. When Yang Kai had probed it with his divine sense upon returning, he hadn't been able to detect what lay inside at all.
After Yang Yan left, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the ground, lost in thought for quite some time. He had gradually come to realize that not only Yang Yan, but also Wu Yi, Yu Feng, Chang Qi, Hao An, and even those several dozen Heke Family Disciples had all come to regard this place as somewhere they could rely on — even as a home. That was why each of them worked so assiduously on the mountain's construction.
This was exactly what Yang Kai liked to see.
After pondering for a while, he retrieved his pill furnace, the Emerald Luo Grass, and a number of other medicinal ingredients, then refined several batches of Void Condensing Pills. Perhaps the trip to the Scorching Sand Expanse had tempered him in some way, because this round of pill refinement went noticeably smoother than the last. More than half of the resulting pills had even manifested pill patterns.
The Void Condensing Pills were naturally intended for Chang Qi and Hao An. Both had been stuck at the bottleneck of the third-order Saint King Realm for many years and likely needed only a single Void Condensing Pill to break through to the Return Void Realm.
However, once the pills were refined, Yang Kai did not rush to deliver them. Instead, he began setting up the interior of his stone chamber.
In one of the smaller rooms, he expended a vast quantity of Holy Crystals and even drew upon the Myriad Medicine Spirit Liquid to create an area of extraordinarily dense spiritual energy. The spiritual energy within the stone chamber had already been far from ordinary, and combined with those Holy Crystals and the Myriad Medicine Spirit Liquid, its concentration immediately rose to an entirely new level.
Within this chamber, Yang Kai carved out a small medicinal garden. Carefully, he withdrew the Red Candle Stand and planted it intact beside a pool formed by diluting the Myriad Medicine Spirit Liquid in water. With such a rich supply of spiritual energy and spirit water, the Red Candle Stand should not wither — especially considering that its own life force was already incredibly tenacious and vigorous.
Next, Yang Kai took out the small slice of Red Candle Fruit flesh. Though he knew that once the fruit had been cut, it could never be restored to its original state, he still placed the slice atop the Red Candle Stand, hoping that the stalk which had given rise to the Red Candle Fruit might preserve its medicinal potency — or even enhance it.
Yang Kai had no use for the Red Candle Fruit at present, nor could he refine it into pills. But in the future, he might well need it.
Once this was done, he used the token in his hand to activate all the restrictions in this chamber. A curtain of light flickered, and ripples seemed to spread outward. Everything inside the chamber suddenly vanished in a most uncanny fashion — not only was the pool of diluted Myriad Medicine Spirit Liquid and the Red Candle Stand with its fruit invisible to the naked eye, but even divine sense probing the room found not the slightest trace.
Aside from the slightly abnormal density of spiritual energy, there was nothing suspicious about the place.
Yang Kai nodded in satisfaction. After completely sealing this chamber, he moved on to the adjacent one.
In the second chamber, he retrieved the Ten-Thousand-Year Incense and the incense burner from the sixth level of the Scorching Sand Expanse and placed them inside. In an instant, a faint yet distinct fragrance wafted through the entire room. The moment it touched his nostrils, Yang Kai felt his mind and spirit grow calm, as though all his worries and unpleasant thoughts had simply vanished. Even his consciousness sea settled into perfect stillness, like a tranquil, unmoving well.
The effect of the Ten-Thousand-Year Incense lived up to its reputation. Meditating and cultivating long-term beneath its fragrance would be of tremendous benefit to anyone.
Using the token, he similarly sealed this second chamber completely.
At present, the fragrance given off by the Ten-Thousand-Year Incense would only drift within the stone chamber itself. However, he could ask Yang Yan to think of a way to spread the scent outside as well. That way, the warriors living on Dragon Cave Mountain could all benefit from it during their Cultivation.
Mental note taken, Yang Kai made his way to the third chamber.