Chapter 252 - Precious Bead
When he ingested the slice of golden ginseng and directly refined it with the Dark Bone Method. Not only did his Fa Li increase by a bit, but his body also underwent an astonishing change.
His bones that were originally larger and stronger than the average person now had faint silver runes appearing on them. Although they were still thin and indistinct, it was completely different from before.
Liu Ming clenched both fists and instantly felt that his bones were obviously much denser now. His strength also increased by a significant amount.
He didn’t do anything else other than refining a slice of the golden ginseng and having his Fa Li increase.
Excluding improving cultivation, the golden ginseng did not carry any other attributed effects.
Thus, the change in his bones was most likely due to the growth of his Fa Li.
This kind of thing only occurred when he finished cultivating a layer of the Dark Bone Method while he was still a Spirit Apostle and the change in his bones was never this obvious.
Could it be because he was a Spirit Master now? Or perhaps the fact that his cultivation of the fourth layer of the Dark Bone Method had reached Perfection and was ready to cultivate the fifth?
Liu Ming went into deep thought as the joy disappeared from his face.
Only after quite a while did he pull out his short sword. With a flash of cold light, he sliced another piece of the golden ginseng and put it in his mouth.
Immediately, the same thing happened again.
Churning black mist filled the entirety of the secret room once more and the sound of cracking bones could be heard.
Many hours later, when all of the black mist disappeared, Liu Ming who was sitting on the floor stood up. He suddenly sucked in a deep breath after shaking his arms and legs and lifted up one foot to stomp the ground.
With a “hong” sound, an airwave gushed from under his foot. A portion of the ground cracked and the entire secret room also trembled.
He then used his mental strength to scan his body and found that the silver markings on the surface of his bones became larger and more clear as well as more densely on the markings.
Liu Ming was extremely happy with this.
It seemed like his guess was correct. Even if he were to stop cultivating the Dark Bone Method to higher layers, his bones would still undergo changes as long as there was a growth in Fa Li. His strength would also increase along with it.
The Dark Bone Method actually had such astonishing effects once one reached the fifth layer. If one were to continue cultivating it, wouldn’t one have even more heaven defying powers?
This was never known as there had never been anyone who cultivated this method to the Liquid Level in the Barbarian Ghost Sect. Otherwise, who knows how big of a sensation it would cause.
No wonder the Six Yin Master regarded it so highly and said it was something of great origin. He even translated the first few layers himself.
Reaching there, Liu Ming felt it was unfortunate. Luckily the Dragon Tiger Hell Method that he was going to cultivate in the future was also a top method. This comforted him a little.
According to Six Yin Master’s residual presence, the rest of the Dark Bone Method can be found in that so-called Midheaven Continent. There may be still be a chance to find it in the future.
Thinking up till there, Liu Ming’s mind became focused.
In the following days, he took spirit medicines and cultivated non-stop. This allowed his Fa Li to increase and grow by thirty percent compared to when he had just newly advanced.
Liu Ming was delighted by this. What made him even more excited was that when he ingested the last bit of spirit medicine, the silver markings on his bones not only became very clear, but new faint silver markings appeared in the blank spaces. His strength also grew by almost half compared to before.
One must know that Liu Ming’s strength was already astonishing. Increasing by almost half meant that his strength was on par to that of Body Cultivators of the same level.
Like this, when Liu Ming allowed his newly increased Fa Li to stabilize for a few more days and a whole month’s time had passed.
He left the secret room at once and flew out of Nine Infants Mountain.
After the time of a meal, Liu Ming appeared at the cliff of the main peak of the Corpse Refinery Faction. Raising his sleeve, an invisible force of great power rushed towards the red door not too far away.
A “hong” sound rang out.
The stone door shook and a red light flashed on the surface.
He then silently waited midair.
A while later, the stone door opened and the strong youth from before walked out. Once he saw Liu Ming, he immediately bowed,
“This disciple greets Martial Uncle Liu. Master has already given orders for not needing to notify him before seeing him if Martial Uncle came.”
“Since it’s like so, I will be troubling Martial Nephew,” nodded Liu Ming. He did not think of it as strange.
“Martial Uncle, please!” said the strong youth respectfully before turning around and leading the way.
A short while later, Liu Ming was lead to a very exquisite side hall by the youth.
There, a black robed old man was holding a thick book while trying to research something with furrowed brows.
The moment Liu Ming entered the side hall, the old man put away his book, raised his head and indifferently said, “Junior Liu has come at the right time. The item you wanted was just completed two days ago.”
“That means Senior has succeeded in refining it!” Liu Ming was delighted when he heard this.
“It’s not only a success. It will most likely give junior an unexpected surprise. Follow me,” said the black robed old man with a strange expression before getting up and walking out of the hall.
Liu Ming’s expression shifted a little after he heard this but followed closely behind without saying anything.
A while later, he was lead to a red stone house that was several hundred feet underground by Senior Huang.
When the black robed old man pulled open the stone door, a burst of scorching hot air hit him in the face.
Liu Ming shuddered and blue light flashed on the surface of his body, blocking the hot air.
At this moment, he saw the inside of the stone house clearly.
There was a large pit about ten feet deep in the middle of the stone house and within it were surging red flames.
On top of the large pit was a huge, black cauldron several dozen feet tall. The material of the cauldron was unknown, but it did not change color even with the crimson flames licking it.
The rest of the stone house was filled with four or five oddly shaped desks with unknown tools placed messily on them.
The only one that Liu Ming recognized was a huge, ten foot long hammer emitting a white light.
“The Heavy Water Bead is inside. I left it burning in this Earth Fire Cauldron so that it does not lose its spiritual properties since it has not yet been refined by an owner. I will now open the cauldron and let junior see it!” said Senior Huang before instantly forming a hand sign and pointing at the huge cauldron.
After a “pu” sound, a hand sign shot out and flashed before disappearing into the huge cauldron.
There was immediately a rumble within the huge cauldron and the lid that appeared to be incomparably heavy gradually opened up.
Whoosh!
Right when the lid moved, a ball of black light shot out from the gap and with a spin, it remained floating in the air unmoving.
In an instant, a cool sensation swept over the entire stone house. The air that was originally scorching hot was swept away and a moist feeling emerged.
Liu Ming focused his eyes and saw the item in the black light clearly.
It was a black bead the size of a thumb, its surface smooth and translucent, with strands of black mist appearing from and coiling around it. An indescribable cooling sensation was emitted by it.
“So this is the Heavy Water Bead. It, sure enough, looks like it’s full of spiritual property,” murmured Liu Ming.
Senior Huang who was next to him heard this and sighed, “For some reason, I excelled in refining this treasure this time. The quality of the forged item has practically reached my maximum limit in terms of totem refinery. If it were not for the fact that the properties of the bead were unsuitable for me, I would have wanted to forcefully keep it. But now Junior is lucky to have such a bargain.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Senior Huang beckoned at the bead in the distance with one hand and grabbed it out of the air. He stroked it in his hand unwillingly and stomped his foot to give it to Liu Ming.
“Senior must have forged a middle tier totem since you are saying that!” asked Liu Ming, grabbing the bead and feeling joyous.
The Heavy Water Bead was a treasure and to him, its power was already incomparable to totems of the same tier. Now that it was forged into a mid tier totem, its power was probably comparable to that of high tier totems.
“Not only is it a middle tier totem, it also has eighteen restrictions which means that it is only one step away from being a true high tier totem.”
Senior Huang’s lamentful expression grew as he listened to Liu Ming and was almost grinding his teeth as he spoke.
If he knew earlier that he would forge a Heavy Water Bead of such high quality, he wouldn’t have just asked for a remuneration of only that amount. It was a huge loss for him this time around.
After all, the totem he used himself was only a middle tier totem of thirteen restrictions.
“Senior has gone through great trouble this time. Here, this is the promised remuneration. Please double check it!”
Liu Ming was naturally full of smiles as he heard this. He inspected the bead in his hand slightly and once he confirmed that it was a totem of eighteen restrictions, took out a small bottle and a pouch of spirit stones and tossed it at the black robed old man.
A short while later, Liu Ming flew out of the main peak of the Corpse Refinery Faction. He occasionally felt the black bead that was on his sleeve and was full of excitement.
He did not fly back to his dwelling and instead changed directions, flying out of the Barbarian Ghost Sect Mountain Gate, towards a further location.
After flying for more than a hundred miles in one breath, Liu Ming landed in an extremely secluded rock valley.
At this time, he took out the black bead from his sleeve and pinched it a little with his fingers. It easily went from round to flat.
The Heavy Water Bead was in fact unbelievably soft.
But compared to the extraordinarily heavy weight of when it was still the First Yuan Heavy Water, it was now very light, as if it did not weigh anything at all.
Liu Ming did not think of this as strange and instead, with a blue flash of light on the surface of his body, began to pour pure Fa Li into the bead.
The bead began to emit a dark light a moment later. At the same time, there were more and more strands of mist appearing on its surface.