Spiritual pills that manifested pill clouds were extraordinarily difficult to refine. Many Alchemists might never produce a single one in their entire lives. Since Yang Kai had first set foot on the path of Alchemy, he had refined countless pills, yet those bearing pill clouds could be counted on one hand.
There were no pill-cloud pills here, but the quantity of pills bearing pill patterns was considerable, and the variety was vast—some aided Cultivation, others healed injuries, and a few Yang Kai couldn't identify at all. He swept all of them into his Space Ring without hesitation.
At one point, when Yang Kai picked up a jade vial to examine it, he couldn't help but furrow his brows. What the vial contained was, of all things, Heaven Breaking Pills.
The Blood Demon Divine Lord had been an Eighth-Order Heaven Breaking Realm cultivator at the very least—why would he have placed a vial of Heaven Breaking Pills here with such deliberate care? Moreover, the quantity was far from trivial. There were well over a hundred pills inside.
What surprised Yang Kai slightly was that the medicinal potency of these Heaven Breaking Pills had not dissipated at all.
He tossed the vial casually into his Space Ring and was about to continue his search when his body stiffened.
No—that couldn't really be Heaven Breaking Pills. After countless years, their potency should have long since faded to nothing. It was impossible for them to still be so well preserved. And besides… that vial of pills seemed to have some subtle differences from the Heaven Breaking Pills he had seen before.
Yang Kai hurriedly retrieved the jade vial, uncorked it, and tipped a single pill into his palm.
Looking closely, it was unmistakably a Heaven Breaking Pill—the size, the luster, all virtually identical. But Yang Kai could clearly sense that the energy contained within this pill was countless times more vast than an ordinary Heaven Breaking Pill. There was even a faint trace of the Might of a World emanating from it.
He sent his Divine Sense surging inward to probe the pill.
With a thunderous boom, Yang Kai's vision blurred and his mind reeled, as though he had plunged into an entire miniature world. The pressure of that world's Might assailed his very soul, causing it to tremble violently. But that was not all—a clear, vivid aura of the Dao seeped out from the pill, and in that instant, Yang Kai experienced a sensation of sudden, total enlightenment.
He drew in a sharp breath, steadied his mind, and focused his gaze on the pill in his hand. Only then did he notice that the surface of the Heaven Breaking Pill was covered with impossibly fine lines—interlocking, interconnected, spreading across the entire surface—seeming to contain within them the myriad Great Daos, drawing one inexorably toward the desire to explore their depths.
This was no pill pattern, no pill cloud, and it was absolutely not an ordinary Heaven Breaking Pill.
A sudden possibility flashed through Yang Kai's mind, and his hands trembled with excitement.
Back when they had departed from the Star Boundary on their way to the Universe beyond, Zhang Ruoxi had told him the true purpose of Heaven Breaking Pills. They were pills that Heaven Breaking Realm cultivators consumed regularly to bolster their strength and elevate their rank—hard currency throughout the Thirty Thousand Worlds.
But there was a limit to the advancement one could achieve through Heaven Breaking Pills. In general, they could only elevate a cultivator's rank by one or two grades at most. After that, no amount of additional consumption made any difference.
This was because every spiritual pill carried a certain degree of toxicity. When Heaven Breaking Realm cultivators consumed them in vast quantities over long periods, the accumulated toxins grew too deep, eventually rendering the pills entirely useless.
As a rule, once a martial artist reached this point, their strength had hit its ceiling.
However, if fortune favored them and they could find a Heaven Breaking Pill born naturally from Heaven and Earth, they could take another step beyond their limits!
Heaven and Earth held their own mysteries. In the depths of desperation, there was often a sliver of hope. Across this vast, boundless cosmos existed a wondrous heavenly treasure known as the Universe Furnace. In ordinary times, the Universe Furnace lay concealed within the void, invisible to all. It drew upon the essence of Heaven, Earth, the sun, and the moon, generating Heaven Breaking Pills within its depths. These Heaven Breaking Pills were not only incomparably potent in their medicinal effects but carried absolutely no side effects for the consumer. In truth, as long as one had enough of these pills, a martial artist's cultivation and rank could continue to climb without limit, with no hidden dangers whatsoever.
But Heaven Breaking Pills born naturally from Heaven and Earth were exceedingly rare and even harder to find. Every time the Universe Furnace manifested, it would trigger a bloodbath—even the greatest Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands would devote everything they had to seizing them.
So this kind of treasure was simply beyond the reach of ordinary martial artists, and very few people even knew what a naturally formed Heaven Breaking Pill truly looked like.
As for the Heaven Breaking Pills currently in circulation throughout the Thirty Thousand Worlds, those were imitations—crafted in ancient times by Alchemists who had attempted to replicate the naturally formed variety. In terms of both potency and effect, they were worlds apart from the genuine article.
Yang Kai swallowed hard. He was almost certain that the jade vial in his hand contained the legendary Heaven Breaking Pills born from the Universe Furnace!
Come to think of it, the Blood Demon Divine Lord had been an Eighth-Order Heaven Breaking Realm cultivator in life. It was not at all impossible for him to have obtained such a treasure.
A single vial of over a hundred pills—while the quantity wasn't large, their value was truly immeasurable. Consider: a martial artist who had achieved Sixth-Order Heaven Breaking, who had spent immeasurable years and effort to advance to the Eighth Order—this Eighth Order would be the pinnacle of his life, the absolute limit of his Martial Dao.
At that stage, no matter how many Heaven Breaking Pills he consumed, no matter how many resources he refined, there was simply no way to elevate his rank any further.
Yet a single vial of naturally formed Heaven Breaking Pills might allow him to see light in the darkness! At that point, no matter what conditions were demanded of him, he would agree to them without hesitation.
This thing was simply a priceless treasure!
Yang Kai's heart surged with emotion. This expedition to the Blood Demon Cave Heaven—regardless of anything else—this single find alone made the entire journey worthwhile. He calmed his feelings, and though he was almost certain of what he held, he still needed to bring it back for the Landlady to appraise.
Her eye for these matters surpassed his own. She would be able to determine the authenticity without question.
He stored the vial of pills away in his Small Universe and continued searching. The results left him thrilled—he found no fewer than five full vials of naturally formed Heaven Breaking Pills here, totaling over five hundred pills!
Yang Kai didn't know how many such pills an Eighth-Order Heaven Breaking cultivator would need to advance to the Ninth Order, but these five hundred naturally formed Heaven Breaking Pills would be enough to cause an Eighth-Order cultivator's strength to skyrocket!