It wasn't easy for Wu Xing to manipulate the boy. If it had been someone else, someone stronger he was not confident in inciting them this way.
Fortunately, the boy was naïve, and even more than that he was thirsty. He thirsted for power and status and to be acknowledged and he was sure that should the chance have presented itself the boy might even sell his soul to the devil.
It was also his luck that the boy chanced upon him when he woke up since Wu Xing lacked the capability to use concealment on that level anymore.
Now sensing his surroundings Wu Xing found himself inside a small hut. The floor was made of mud with hay scattered all over it, a clay pot lay in one corner, and in another a small clay stove. An opening in the wall confirmed it to be the window as he felt a calm breeze blow over.
Inside the spatial realm of the Cauldron Wu Xing sat cross-legged and contemplated on his path.
As he was, Wu Xing was confident that he could have achieved the [Soul Altar Realm] within a thousand years even without the aid of the resources. But the strength didn't come without its price.
Once Wu Xing was a being who spent decades and centuries lazing around; such were the benefits granted by his long lifespan.
Now, however, Wu Xing drew on the real Spirit of this Cauldron to keep himself alive. Should he have chosen to cultivate away, he would have eventually damaged the Spirit beyond repair.
But for a treasure of such caliber, cultivating a new spirit was a matter of resources. As to why he didn't do it; there were two main reasons.
First and foremost, he didn't want to damage the already weakened spirit of this Cauldron. He had known it for hundreds of thousands of years and knew how much Hu Long cherished it.
Second, even if Wu Xing used the spirit for his selfish purposes and damaged it, as he was currently in the lower realm he would find it impossible to repair the Cauldron, which in turn would lead it to malfunction and become harder to control.
When Wu Xing mentioned to the boy that he had a method to help him, it was a risky move on his part. One that gave rewards equal to risks taken.
Originally he had wanted the boy to help him find some treasures that he could use to help cultivate his soul and in return provide him with some Martial techniques to exploit his potential and advance forcefully.
This move would have had the boy stagnate in a realm for his entire life, but in Wu Xing's eyes, it was better than not advancing at all.
As he saw it, the boy lacked talent no matter how one put it. Sure hard work and determination were important but so were luck, resources, and talent. And unfortunately for the boy, he possessed neither talent nor resources.
However, when the boy mentioned leaving him in the cave and coming back only after he became an Alchemist, even though Wu Xing knew that it was a trap, he still jumped in willingly.
The boy knew how to exploit the situation and extort benefits, thus Wu Xing decided to take a gamble.
[Cosmic Refining Cauldron]
It was an enigmatic treasure known throughout the universe as the one and most powerful Cauldron personally created by the [Divine Ancestor].
It housed multitude of features but the primary one was of Refinement.
At her peak, Hu Long had refined an entire galaxy full of stars to create a pill or so she said. He wasn't exactly sure since she had a habit of not telling him everything and letting him figure it out on his own.
Even though Wu Xing had no intention of refining a bunch of stars,–not that he was capable of–that did not mean that the feature became useless. He could still use it, only at a much, much lower level; like refining the monster's blood, for example.
Among the three paths that Cultivators usually followed, Body Refining was considered to be the most resource-consuming. It had such a stringent requirement that one cannot advance without a specific herb, pill, or treasure. That's where Cosmic Refining Cauldron came in.
A monster beast's blood was rich in Qi from heaven and earth, but due to being so intermingled, it was hard to separate the two. But why would you separate the two when you could create something stronger from the mixture?
Monster Essence was a rare type of energy that only monsters themselves could cultivate. Only in True Beast Realm would this essence start crystallizing. But due to having once belonged to a monster, it was tainted by foul Qi full of hatred and resentment.
Normally absorbing such energy would be the easiest way to Qi deviation and by extension suicide. But with the help of [Cosmic Refining Cauldron], he was fully capable of mitigating the side effects.
That's right, what Wu Xing intended was to turn Xuan Wen into a [Body Cultivator].
As the evening sun sat beneath the horizon and the orange-tinted sky started turning dark, Xuan Wen lit an oil lamp and hung it by the wall.
Settling the Cauldron on a bundle of hay, Xuan Wen eagerly began his questions. "Forgive this junior for having forgotten to formally introduce himself, my name is Xuan Wen."
The Cauldron released a subtle glow and Xuan Wen took that as affirmative to continue.
"Senior you mentioned that you had a way to help me advance in Cultivation, can I ask how?"
–"I know the truth sounds bitter, however, unfortunately, your talent is not enough to push you past the [Energy Cloud Formation] stage."
Xuan Wen winced at the words. Even if true, the unfairness of the heavens didn't make him feel better.
–"But I have a way, and for that, I require the fresh monster blood, preferably of the Houtain realm, of course, normal beasts can also work, just that the effects will diminish. You are currently in the Muscle refinement realm, right?"
"Yes."
–"Then after refining muscles you need to refine your meridians, and how long do you think it will take you on your own."
Xuan Wen feeling embarrassed, with his head down quietly scratched his cheeks and thought hard. It had taken him three years to go from Skin refinement to peak of Muscle refinement and by his estimate it would take another four months before he stepped into Meridian refinement and possibly two or more years to break through to viscera refinement. That was an awful lot of time even when considering the amount of work he would put in. Even Xuan Wen had to admit that he lacked sufficient talent to match his siblings. But it was different now.
–"Sigh, you don't have to say anything, I understand."
The surroundings went quiet, the whistle from the breeze blew a straw at the windowsill causing it to fall to the ground and Wu Xing spoke again.
–"I have a method that I can use to help you cultivate faster, but for that, I need the monster blood, preferably of the same stage as [Energy Cloud Formation] realm Cultivator. Of course, if it's not possible, a Nascent spirit beast would also do."
Xuan Wen hesitated, his mind whirring through several possibilities. It simply wasn't possible for a foundation realm boy to hunt a Monster, but the Nascent spirit beast was different. Even a mortal with enough preparation and hands had a high probability of hunting one, much less him who could defeat a group of mortals without breaking a sweat.
The problem came from the fact that there were no wild beasts within the territory of the Xuan clan and those that were contract bound and he had no access to their blood.
Although he could buy the blood simply from the market of Alchemy Hall, the price was simply exuberant even if far less compared to the whole corpse.
Frowning, Xuan Wen apprehensively asked the spirit the amount he would need.
–"Since you are still in the Muscle refinement realm and at the peak, it would require around 50 ge[1] of monster blood. And from there on, you would need 100 ge of monster blood every week and from my experience, it would take you around two years to break through to the [Energy Cloud Formation] realm."
"Just two years?!"
–"Yes of course, as long as you can provide me that much blood, you need not worry about advancing in the future. So what do you say."
To say that Xuan was excited would be an underestimation. Before he wasn't even confident enough to step into the Energy Cloud Formation realm and now he had the means to progress to that realm in a matter of two years.
Xuan Wen felt giddy just thinking about it but then the reality came crashing down like a wave of cold water.
°°°
[1] 1 ge = 1/10 Sheng = 1/10 Liter
50 ge = 500 mili liter = .05 or 1/2 Liter
If this Metric System looks unappealing, I can change it to S.I units (though I won't even consider the US based one, Foot and pound just don't sit right with me)