After thinking for a while, Yang Kai carefully tucked the jade slip away.
His temperament was quite easygoing — he knew that obsessing over the Soul Withering Seal right now was completely pointless, so he simply chose not to dwell on it.
He turned his gaze back to the small pot of medicinal broth.
According to the information left in the jade slip, this small pot of broth was the Myriad Treasures Medicinal Broth that Gongsun Mu had spent the latter half of his life painstakingly concocting. What ingredients it was made from and what miraculous effects it possessed — Yang Kai had no idea whatsoever.
But since this broth was meant to compensate for the Soul Withering Seal, then consuming it would surely be beneficial.
Moreover, Gongsun Mu's cave dwelling had existed for several thousand years, and the time since his death was certainly no shorter. In other words, this pot of broth had been simmering here for at least one or two thousand years!
It was only thanks to the formation continuously drawing upon the power of the earthfire to keep the brewing going that the broth hadn't already gone to waste.
Yuanding Mountain had always been desolate and barren, never catching the attention of cultivators. This was most likely Gongsun Mu's doing — for a powerful Emperor Realm expert, employing a few techniques to seal off the leakage of spiritual energy from the mountain and create a bit of camouflage to make people mistake it for nothing more than an abandoned peak was hardly difficult at all.
It was only the appearance of the extraordinary phenomenon — radiant light blooming and exotic fragrance wafting outward — that had attracted the cultivators who witnessed it to come here.
And that phenomenon had clearly been caused by this pot of medicinal broth.
When heaven-defying spirit materials reached maturity, they would trigger heavenly phenomena. When extremely high-grade Artifacts or spirit pills were successfully refined, they too could trigger heavenly phenomena!
The phenomenon at Yuanding Mountain had clearly been caused by this pot of broth reaching completion.
Since it was already finished and would be greatly beneficial to himself, Yang Kai naturally had no intention of letting it go.
He sat cross-legged before the small pot, sent out a few bursts of force to sever the earthfire power being drawn by the formation, then reached out and lifted the pot, bringing the entire Myriad Treasures Medicinal Broth before him.
Examining it up close, Yang Kai discovered that the broth was incredibly thick, yet perfectly translucent. It contained not the slightest impurity — he could see straight to the bottom at a glance. From beneath the surface of the broth, multicolored bubbles continuously rose, quite wondrous to behold.
A rich fragrance assailed his nostrils, instantly clearing his mind and refreshing his spirit.
He had absolutely no idea what words could be used to describe the aroma that reached the tip of his nose. This exotic scent was incomparable to even the purest, most pristine body fragrance of a virgin — it was a fragrance Yang Kai had never encountered before, one that lingered endlessly in the memory.
Having come this far in his Cultivation, reaching the third level of the Void King Realm, Yang Kai had long since gone without indulging any culinary desires. With his strength and powerful physique, he no longer needed to eat anything at all. Yet once this fragrance entered his nostrils, he was struck by a rare and powerful urge to eat, as though he hadn't had a meal in days — he practically wanted to swallow the entire pot whole.
Gritting his teeth, Yang Kai raised the pot to his lips, opened his mouth wide, and began gulping it down.
Strangely enough, this pot of Myriad Treasures Medicinal Broth appeared to be searingly hot, yet once it entered his mouth, it wasn't scalding in the slightest. On the contrary, the temperature was perfectly pleasant, and every sip brimmed with exquisite flavor — more delicious than anything Yang Kai had ever tasted.
The broth, barely enough for a single serving, was drained to the last drop in one continuous drink, not a trace remaining.
A moment later, Yang Kai let out a loud, satisfied burp, and the breath that escaped his lips was suffused with multicolored radiance.
Before he could even take the time to savor the aftertaste of the Myriad Treasures Medicinal Broth, his lower abdomen suddenly became scalding hot. Waves of heat, almost tangible in nature, surged outward from his core, rapidly coursing through his limbs and meridians, bringing with them a tingling, itchy sensation that was half-painful, half-numbing.
Yang Kai's expression shifted. He quickly shoved the small pot into his spatial ring, closed his eyes in concentration, steadied his breathing, and silently circulated his own profound cultivation technique.
A mere ten breaths after Yang Kai had taken the pot of Myriad Treasures Medicinal Broth from its spot, the entirety of Yuanding Mountain suddenly began to hum and tremble. A deafening series of rumbling booms shook the earth. The ground quaked, boulders tumbled, and the peaks tilted — the entire mountain fractured into countless chunks and began rapidly sinking downward.
Inside the mountain, in the countless identical stone chambers, every surviving cultivator's face drained of color.
Just as they were growing paranoid, unable to determine what had happened, every teleportation formation within every stone chamber was simultaneously activated. In the blink of an eye, all the surviving cultivators vanished from where they stood.
The next moment, at a distance of over ten li from the outskirts of Yuanding Mountain, figures began to materialize in eerie, inexplicable fashion. Every person wore an expression of stunned bewilderment.
"Brother Lian — you were teleported out too?" Hall Master Zong Qing of the Blaze Hall swept his gaze about and immediately caught sight of the furrow-browed Lian Yuming. He quickly called out.
Hearing the voice, Lian Yuming turned to look at Zong Qing and, after a moment of surprise at seeing the other man here as well, nodded: "Indeed. It seems you were all teleported out as well?"
"That's right!" Zong Qing's face was grave as he stared into the distance at the violently shaking Yuanding Mountain, suspicion coloring his voice. "What on earth happened in there? Why were we all teleported out?"
Lian Yuming thought for a moment, then asked: "Brother Zong — after you went in, did you encounter a series of stone chambers?"
"Indeed. They were all some sort of bizarre trials that seemed related to alchemy. Ah, right — Brother Lian, you're well-versed in the alchemical arts. Those trials should have been easy for you, yes?"