This was actually an incredibly rare Dragon Flame Purple Marrow Pill! Yang Kai couldn't help but be visibly moved.
The Dragon Flame Purple Marrow Pill was a low-grade Void King realm spirit pill. The materials required to refine it were extraordinarily complex, numbering fifty to sixty different ingredients. Its effect for martial artists was also straightforward and simple.
Strength enhancement!
Once a martial artist advanced to the Void King realm, Cultivation became exceedingly difficult. The spiritual energy produced by ordinary earth veins, and even high-grade Saint Crystals, could no longer satisfy the needs of a Void King realm powerhouse's Cultivation. Thus, in the ancient ages, the Dragon Flame Purple Marrow Pill had been another essential recourse for Void King realm experts looking to bolster their strength.
Absorbing the medicinal efficacy contained within the pill also aided a martial artist's growth, though this method had its advantages and disadvantages compared to ordinary seated Cultivation.
The advantage was that as long as one had enough pills, the speed of power increase could be far beyond what seated meditation and bitter Cultivation could ever hope to match.
The disadvantage was that strength gained through this method might be somewhat unstable. Moreover, if one consumed too many spirit pills, it would place a considerable burden on the body.
For this reason, no martial artist relied entirely on spirit pills for their growth. Even those who used pills for Cultivation did so only occasionally, with strict moderation and never over a prolonged period.
As for Yang Kai, throughout his entire journey he had essentially never consumed spirit pills for Cultivation. His foundation was rock-solid, and his Saint Yuan was pure and formidable.
Upon comprehending the purpose of this Void King realm spirit pill, Yang Kai's heart surged with excitement!
This was a spirit pill capable of increasing the strength of a Void King realm expert. Having been refined by the owner of that valley, it had generated a Pill Cloud, and after tens of thousands of years of accumulation and condensation, the medicinal potency hidden within was so staggering that even he could not begin to estimate it.
He could only vaguely guess that if he were currently capable of taking this pill and safely refining it, his strength would very likely leap directly into the Void King realm!
Skipping years of bitter Cultivation in a single step.
That was a terrifying rate of growth.
But this was mere conjecture, and Yang Kai possessed enough self-awareness to know that a spirit pill of this caliber was far beyond what he could lay claim to at this point.
Reluctantly storing the Dragon Flame Purple Marrow Pill away once more, Yang Kai quelled the restless urge bubbling inside him, calmed his mind, and instead withdrew two other items from his spatial ring.
One was red as blood, about the size of a heart. The other was entirely black and round.
Two extraordinary stones.
The first was the Blood Essence Stone he had obtained by chance in the Imperial Court. The other was the Stone Puppet's stone embryo, which Yang Kai had been keeping for many years.
Yang Kai had a total of two Stone Puppet embryos, both brought over from the Profound Continent. When he had first arrived on the Dark Star, one of the embryos had fused with the Blood Essence Stone and given birth to a Stone Puppet, which Yang Yan had named Xiao Xiao.
The other embryo, while also having reached maturity, had never been able to break free from its shell because it lacked a Blood Essence Stone to serve as its heart.
It was only after this trip to the Imperial Court that Yang Kai had finally obtained what he needed.
Yang Yan had been deeply envious of Yang Kai's Stone Puppet, so he had always wanted to hatch this second one and give it to her.
He didn't know whether Yang Yan would still want it now, given her current circumstances. Yang Kai let out a bitter smile at the thought. Regardless of whether she wanted it or not, fusing the Blood Essence Stone with the stone embryo was the right move.
With that in mind, Yang Kai placed the two extraordinary stones together.
Strangely enough, the embryo — which had lain perfectly dormant within the Black Book's space — the instant it touched the Blood Essence Stone, countless black threads suddenly erupted from within it, wrapping around the vivid crimson stone.
In the blink of an eye, the two had tightly bonded, appearing almost as if they had merged into one. However, a complete fusion would likely still require a considerable amount of time.
This sight left Yang Kai marveling. He thought for a moment, then sent out a spiritual pulse, silently calling out a few times.
Moments later, Stone Puppet Xiao Xiao materialized before him like a whirlwind, fixing him with a pair of clear, innocent eyes.
"Take care of this, will you?" Yang Kai asked, pointing at the intertwined black-and-red fusion of extraordinary stones before them.
Though the Stone Puppet's intelligence was not high, it could still grasp the gist of Yang Kai's commands. It looked in the direction he indicated, and upon seeing the object before it, its eyes went wide, bursting with joy and excitement.
It could sense that within that black-and-red fusion of extraordinary stones, a companion of its own was being nurtured.
It nodded frantically, its face a picture of eager longing.
"Good. Take it away, and be sure to report the situation to me at any time," Yang Kai instructed calmly. The Stone Puppet immediately scooped up the fused stones, its figure flickering, and vanished from sight.
It wouldn't be long before the second Stone Puppet could be born, Yang Kai thought to himself with quiet anticipation.
Next, it was time to sort through the spatial ring of the bewitchingly beautiful Sect Master of the Demonic Blood Sect.
Both she and Jin Shi had perished together in the Imperial Court's ice corridor. Jin Shi's spatial ring had been cast into the void by Yang Kai's Space Blade, irretrievable forever. Only the Demonic Blood Sect Master's ring remained.
As the head of a sect, her fortune was naturally vast.
Yang Kai reached out and swept his hand across her spatial ring, pouring out everything inside.