The mountain where Li Yan and the others were being assessed was a magical treasure once used by the Huchen Ancestor—or rather, a spare magical treasure of his. Although he spoke of it lightly, this mid-grade magical treasure was, in fact, close to high-grade in quality. It was a rare item even for a Nascent Soul cultivator. One must know that an ordinary Golden Core cultivator might only possess a single low-grade magical treasure, and would typically use it all the way until Nascent Soul Formation.
The Huchen Ancestor's mind was linked to his magical treasure. If he wanted to control it, it would only take a flicker of his Divine Sense. But at this moment, the Huchen Ancestor had a growing sense of unease. He could feel the spiritual energy within the magical treasure continuously depleting. He was a Poison Cultivator. The small world of the Five Elements within the treasure was something he had spent immense effort on, searching the great world for rare poisons and toxic insects to sacrificially refine into it. This had allowed the small world inside the treasure to gradually and naturally develop its own unique poisonous miasma. The denser this poisonous miasma became within the treasure's small world, the greater the treasure's power.
A magical treasure typically goes through three steps: refining, sacrificial refining, and nurturing. Apart from the first step of refining, which required finding an Artifact Refining Grandmaster, the latter two steps were a repeating cycle.
For example, with a fire-element Spirit Treasure, after finding an Artifact Refining Grandmaster, the refining materials would be combined through formations and refining manuals to forge the treasure. At this stage, the treasure was merely an empty shell, but the pathways for its spiritual energy circulation were already formed. These pathways served two purposes: one, to drive the use of the treasure, and two, to dictate the direction of spiritual energy changes within the treasure's small world.
If this fire-element Spirit Treasure was successfully refined, the second step to greatly increase its power would be to continuously find Fire Spirit Veins and sacrificially refine them into the treasure's interior. These Fire Spirit Veins would become the treasure's internal source of power, the foundation of its small world, providing it with a ceaseless supply of fire spiritual energy. This was the sacrificial refining of a magical treasure.
Finally, to increase the bond between the treasure and its master, the owner would need to place it in their Dantian's Purple Mansion for years of nurturing, allowing their own spiritual energy to constantly merge with the treasure until, with a mere thought, the treasure could unleash its maximum power.
For a fire-element magical treasure, in order to continuously increase its power, a cultivator would need to constantly search for better quality Fire Spirit Veins, then sacrificially refine them, and then nurture it again, in an endless cycle. As the amount of refined fire spiritual energy increased and filled the entire small world, the treasure's power would grow stronger and stronger, eventually becoming capable of destroying heaven and earth.
In fact, there was one more step for a magical treasure, but it only appeared on some treasures and never on others. That was, after being nurtured, a magical treasure had a certain chance of advancing in rank along with its master's cultivation. In other words, a low-grade magical treasure could possibly become a mid-grade one after centuries or millennia of sacrificial refining and nurturing by its master. Such magical treasures were also called "Evolving Treasures." However, they were so exceedingly rare that they were seldom mentioned.
The Huchen Ancestor's magical treasure was much the same. However, this one could not be upgraded. No matter how many rare poisons he refined into it, due to the limitations of its fundamental refining framework, it could at most be a mid-grade magical treasure. Therefore, it never became the Huchen Ancestor's Natal Magical Treasure, but merely a spare one. Even so, it was still a magical treasure of excellent quality.
Feeling the continuous decrease of the poison spiritual energy within the treasure, the Huchen Ancestor didn't pay it much mind at first. After all, any use of a magical treasure would result in consumption. But as time went on, he felt more and more that something was wrong. In just a short period, the various types of poison spiritual energy accumulated over hundreds of years had decreased by nearly ten percent. He couldn't help but feel alarmed and suspicious, and his Divine Sense immediately enveloped the entire world within the magical treasure.
After some more time had passed, he suspiciously locked his Divine Sense onto Li Yan. This was because every time Li Yan seemed to be blocked by a patch of vegetation, regardless of whether he used cultivation manuals to counteract the plant's poison or simply swallowed a pill and walked away swaggering, the poison spiritual energy in that area would be almost completely drained.
As for the demonic beasts that fought with Li Yan, after each one was killed or driven away, at least half of the poison and toxic blood on its body would dissipate, leaving behind only a listless beast that would flee in disarray.
However, the Huchen Ancestor couldn't confirm what method Li Yan was using to consume these toxins. This was because whenever the plants or demonic beasts attacked Li Yan, they would naturally begin to be consumed. Li Yan was merely defending passively.
'That detoxification magical treasure on him is strange. It seems to have some kind of absorptive power.' Although the Huchen Ancestor's face didn't immediately turn ugly, he felt an urge to capture Li Yan right then and there to examine that magical treasure. However, he had cultivated for a long time and was an old undying monster. His mind was naturally profound. No matter what, he would not reveal the slightest hint of this in front of the crowd.
Li Yan was overjoyed. Along the way, he had devoured a massive amount of poison spiritual energy and the toxic blood and fluids of demonic beasts. He had a feeling that if he could just sit down cross-legged and enter seclusion right now, he might be able to break through to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment in just two or three days. But this was just a fleeting thought. For now, he could only suppress the devoured poison spiritual energy and toxic blood.
He had been extremely careful along the way. Whenever he sensed a particularly strong or rare poison, he would always pretend to be attacked and stop. He didn't even bother to deliberately conceal the changes in his skin color caused by the devouring. He would either sit cross-legged on the spot, forming hand seals as if resisting the attack, or directly swallow some pills. The pills he took, however, were just ordinary ones.
When he fought demonic beasts, he would only take a small portion of their toxic blood and fluids. All of this was to avoid arousing the Huchen Ancestor's suspicion. The plants and demonic beasts here were all listed on the Exotic Poison Index. Although their rankings were extremely low, they were still very difficult to find.
But even with such caution, his luck had run out. Firstly, the Huchen Ancestor had grown suspicious of him and had begun to deliberately control the path up the mountain within the magical treasure. This made Li Yan's subsequent journey surprisingly smooth.
Secondly, Huchen Wanmu, who had been in the peach blossom forest, finally exhausted his spiritual energy after half an incense stick's time, having charged a total of eighty-five zhang. During this time, he had swallowed pills several times, but they no longer had any effect on restoring his spiritual energy. Instead, his meridians had become extremely fragile from over-exerting his spiritual energy. Finally, looking at the remaining fifteen zhang, a sharp pain shot through Huchen Wanmu's body. He could no longer muster even a shred of spiritual energy and fell directly into the sea of Stinking Earthworm Leaves. The moment he fell, a large hand appeared out of thin air, grabbed him, and pulled him away.
Li Yan was looking around at the mountaintop. The latter half of the journey had been too quiet, so quiet that it made him worry. Had his actions in the peach blossom forest not attracted the Huchen Ancestor's attention? Was he planning to make his move now? If so, he would be in danger. He would have no choice but to reveal his Malevolent Spirit Sect token, even if it meant exposing his identity to everyone here.
Just as his hand reached his storage pouch at his waist, ready to pull out the sect token at any moment, his vision suddenly blurred. Li Yan's heart skipped a beat, and the token was already in his hand. However, he didn't feel the pressure of any attack. Then, he saw his surroundings clearly. In an instant, he was back in the plaza. Li Yan couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, quietly putting the token clasped in his palm away.
At that moment, the Huchen Ancestor's voice boomed across the entire plaza. "In this round, Huchen Wuding is victorious." After a slight pause, the Huchen Ancestor spoke again. "Huchen Wuding will be the 247th generation Successor of our Huchen family."
As soon as the Huchen Ancestor's voice fell, a chorus of agreement rose from the plaza. The disciples in the plaza, no matter which branch they belonged to or whether they were willing in their hearts, could only bow their heads in acknowledgment at this moment.
The final result came too quickly. Others had no idea of the pain in the Huchen Ancestor's heart. For some unknown reason, the poison spiritual energy in his magical treasure's world had decreased by more than ten percent this time. Although he was suspicious of Li Yan, even with his thousand years of experience with poisons, he had never seen anyone with a body like the Fragmented Poison Body that could so recklessly swallow all kinds of potent poisons whole without any harm to themselves. His speculation about Li Yan possessing a detoxification magical treasure had also been shaken. He couldn't imagine what kind of detoxification treasure in this world could be so universally effective. The most crucial point was that he had only released less than twenty percent of his magical treasure's power this time, so Li Yan and Huchen Wanmu getting poisoned and detoxifying was still within a reasonable range.
In the end, the Huchen Ancestor had no choice but to hastily end the competition. When he returned, he would have to re-refine this magical treasure to find out what had happened. Of course, there was another matter: to get this person's secret from Li Yan. He felt that Li Yan was strangely fierce.
Standing in the plaza, Li Yan looked towards Huchen Wuding on the viewing platform. At this moment, although Huchen Wuding was the center of everyone's attention, there was no joy on his face. Instead, it was filled with complexity—reminiscence, confusion, and of course, worry in his eyes.
"Alright, that is all for today. In three days, the Successor's ceremony will be held. You may all disperse," the Huchen Ancestor said with a blank expression, his gaze sweeping over the crowd with their various expressions.
The people in the plaza roared in affirmation.
Finally, his gaze fell on Huchen Wuding. "Wuding, you and your two Protectors will stay for now." After speaking, the Huchen Ancestor looked at the Xie, Chi, and Ye Family Ancestors. "The three of you, if you have no other matters, you may stay for now. Would you be able to attend the grand ceremony in three days?"
After exchanging glances, the Xie Family Ancestor smiled and said, "I still have matters to attend to in my family, so I must return today." With that, he cupped his hands towards the Huchen Ancestor. Why would he stay here any longer? Besides, the main purpose of this visit was to gauge the Huchen Ancestor's strength. It was highly likely that the Huchen Ancestor had already broken through to the mid-stage of Nascent Soul. He had to hurry back to discuss the next plan against the Huchen family, either to give up or to seek outside help.
The Chi Family Ancestor also shook his head. "I have an appointment with an old friend, so I cannot stay here either."
The Ye Family Ancestor, after a moment's thought, nodded in agreement. This was the time to build a good relationship with the Huchen Ancestor; how could he leave? Moreover, this time he had thoroughly offended the Xie family, so he needed to solidify his relationship with the Huchen family.
Looking at the crowd that had begun to disperse, the Huchen Ancestor nodded. "Since you two fellow daoists have other matters, I will not insist on you staying."
The Xie Family Ancestor cupped his hands and walked away with Xie Xiaoxiao. He still had some things to say to her, so they had to walk together for a while. As for Huchen Wanli in the plaza, he had already left with the disciples of the main branch, his eyes filled with resentment.
As the Xie Family Ancestor passed through the plaza, at its edge, Li Yan was standing with Huchen Wuding, Huchen Huiqing, Huchen Qiukong, Huchen Gu, and Zhuo Lingfeng. Huchen Qiukong and the others were congratulating Huchen Wuding with joyous expressions, their gazes frequently turning to Li Yan who stood to the side.
When the six of them saw the Xie Family Ancestor approaching with a sullen-faced Xie Xiaoxiao, they hurriedly bowed to him. He was a Nascent Soul cultivator, after all. But the Xie Family Ancestor seemed not to mind his grandson's failure at all. He nodded to the six with a smile before continuing on his way.
However, just as he passed by Li Yan, he seemed to glance at him again, intentionally or not. Being swept by the gaze of a Nascent Soul cultivator made Li Yan's hair stand on end. At that moment, the Xie Family Ancestor's voice echoed in his mind. 'I never thought a cultivator from the Ten-Pace Courtyard would come here to train. It seems this kid, Huchen Wuding, has had a stroke of great luck.' Then, the Xie Family Ancestor's party walked further and further away.
Li Yan rubbed his chin, seemingly lost in thought. Just then, the Chi Family Ancestor also walked over with Chi Dongli, accompanied by Huchen Wandong who was also leaving. When Chi Dongli saw them, a gentle smile appeared on her beautiful, jade-like face. "Huiqing, Qiukong, you three, come back with me now. The Ancestor has something to discuss with those three. And, thank you, fellow daoists, for helping Wuding. If you have time tomorrow, Wuding, you and your two fellow daoists should come visit me at Second Mother's place. You have suffered all these years, my child. Now everything is looking up. I thank you both on behalf of Xiangyun." The first half of her sentence was directed at Huchen Huiqing and the others, while the latter half was directed at Huchen Wuding's group of three.
"Yes, Second Mother!" Huchen Wuding had now grown up and understood Chi Dongli's difficulties back then. Moreover, if it weren't for Chi Dongli's private maneuvering, life for him and his mother would have been even harder.
Huchen Wandong, standing to the side, looked at Huchen Wuding and finally sighed. "Wuding, you... alas!" He only said Huchen Wuding's name, then his lips moved, but he didn't say the rest. After a sigh, he left alone, his figure looking desolate and lonely.
The moment Huchen Wandong turned around, his voice echoed in Huchen Wuding's mind. 'Wuding, I've wronged you and Xiangyun. I also learned from your Second Mother that your mother has passed away. Back then, the Huchen family was in crisis, and I truly failed you and your mother. But rest assured, the Ancestor is now aware of the intentions of the first and fourth branches. It's time for a decision...' Huchen Wandong's shadow stretched long in the setting sun...