Chapter 827: A Pleasant Surprise
Bai Yunfei looked to Xiao Fang expectantly. He was excited to hear for the answer.
Just where was he right now? The inner world of one of the Ten Great Regalia, the Core Stone. A Regalia! One of the magical armaments of His Majesty and founder of the Tianhun Empire, Wu Tianhun. He was a peerless individual and powerfully strong. So what kind of things would a person like him leave behind in a storage device like the Core Stone?
In his mind, Xiao Fang using the Extreme King Pills as 'bait' to find a master was far too extravagant a thing to do unless there were things in its possession that made even the Extreme King Pills a paltry object.
"Treasure? What treasure? There's no such thing like that in the Core World..."
But much to Bai Yunfei's chagrin, Xiao Fang replied to him with a completely unexpected answer.
"No way?!" Bai Yunfei exclaimed.
"You have to be joking, Xiao Fang, you're a Regalia! In this great world, how could there not be a great treasure or two?"
"There aren't any," came Xiao Fang's reply. "This might be my world, but it's not a place where things are stored. Why would I need to?"
"But..." The muscles on Bai Yunfei's face twitched. "But...didn't you have an entire furnace of the rare Extreme King Pills? Did you have nothing else but the Extreme King Pills then?"
"That's right. I only had the Extreme King Pills. That was what my last owner managed to find. He was planning to give it to his disciples but then came across an enemy on his way back. For safekeeping while he fought, he had the furnace placed in my world and said to give it to the next destined master. As for soul armaments or other treasures such as medicines, my last master used it all up in his final battle. There's none left."
It was as if the entire world was crashing down onto Bai Yunfei. He felt like puking blood just hearing what Xiao Fang had to say. There had been nothing else in the Core World but the Extreme King Pills. And even worse, Xiao Fang had already used the Extreme King Pills as an 'award'...
"Ugh...forget it. Chances to get treasure aren't very likely to come by. Lucky to live, unlucky to die, I should just be happy that I even got the Core Stone. I can't be too greedy. Avarice is a sin..."
He sighed as a way to comfort himself.
"You seem disappointed?" Xiao Fang asked. "You shouldn't be though. I might not have treasures as you say, there are still things I can give..."
"Eh?!" Bai Yunfei snapped straight up to look at Xiao Fang with excitement. "What do you mean?!"
"As I was saying, my previous master gave me those Extreme King Pills so I could pass it on to the next 'fated' one, or in short, my next master. Because of the unexpected outcome of my 'test', the entire furnace was destroyed. All thirty-six of those pills were reduced into fragrance and half of that was absorbed. I did manage to recover some of the fragrance, a decent sum that should still be more than enough for a single person..."
"Are you saying...that a portion of the Extreme King Pill fragrance was taken back into you?!"
"That is exactly what I'm saying.
"Though I had my hands full with dealing with the collapse of the pocket, I did have enough time to take back a portion of the Extreme King Pill fragrance."
"Really?! Then where is it right now?"
"Ah, it's right here."
Bai Yunfei watched as space nearby started to distort like ripples of water across the sky. Then, a red mist started to pour out from the distortion to disseminate through the place.
"This...this is the Extreme King Pill fragrance?!"
Bai Yunfei was beside himself. Unable to stop himself, he reached out with his right hand towards the mist and tried to grab at it despite it being only just mist.
"It might've changed shapes from solid to gas, but the effects are still the exact same. That said, it won't be able to last for long, so I had it sealed elsewhere to preserve it. You might not be able to touch or feel it, but the fragrance will only last another few days before it'll disperse..."
"What?! It'll dissipate?!" Bai Yunfei cried out, "Then I should hurry up and absorb it all before it disappears!"
Truth be told, Bai Yunfei had still been brooding over the fact that he hadn't been able to get the Extreme King Pills like the others did. If not for the fact that he managed to get the Core Stone, Bai Yunfei would've still been brooding over it.
But now with Xiao Fang revealing that he had some of the Extreme King Pill fragrance, Bai Yunfei was overjoyed. And a little panicked when he heard that the fragrance would dissipate soon. He wanted to absorb it as fast as possible to avoid that problem.
"Don't worry, didn't I say that you'd have a few days to absorb it?" Xiao Fang replied. "I guarantee that you'll regret it if you absorb the fragrance now in the hurry you're in."
"What? What do you mean by that?"
"Aren't you a Peak Late-stage Soul Exalt right now? Absorbing the fragrance now might help you become a Soul King and still have some to spare, but it's a waste if you do so that way. It's not the most efficient way of absorbing it, and plus, you'll gain resistance to the Extreme King Pills, so the remaining portion won't be much help for you to become a Mid-stage Soul King. In any case, you've a few days to absorb it all, which you don't have with the fragrance expiring soon..."
"So what you're saying is that...you've a secret method of some kind to best make use of the Extreme King Pill fragrance?"
"You're fast on the uptake." Xiao Fang complimented him. "That's exactly the case. There was something else my last master left me along with the Extreme King Pills. It's a specialized method meant for taking in large amounts of energy at once. It's called Realm Accretion."
"Realm Accretion? That's a weird name...what does it do exactly?"
"Realm Accretion simply means to accumulate soulforce and stockpile realms. The way it works is as thus: when a soul cultivator is on the verge of breakthrough to a new realm, they can instead stockpile that energy just like one might allow wine to ferment. Once it reaches the peak of accretion, then this energy can be used all at once for an explosive power up."
"Stockpiling realms..." Bai Yunfei muttered. "There's a way to do do something like that?!"
"It's a secret technique that originated from the Alchemy School. A heaven-tier arte that was specifically meant for those alchemists to use with their medicines. Tianhun wasn't able to find it, but my previous master was able to do so when he found the furnace filled with the Extreme King Pills."
"So what you're saying is that this Realm Accretion goes well with absorbing the Extreme King Pill fragrance? In that case, what kind of result can I expect?"
"According to what my last master said to expect, a person could take ten Extreme King Pills, use the Realm Accretion, and then watch as they go from a Late-stage Soul Exalt to a Late-stage Soul King."
"What?! Late-stage Soul King?!" Though prepared for a ridiculous result, Bai Yunfei wasn't so prepared for a realm that high.
"You have to be joking?! A Late-stage Soul Exalt becoming a Late-stage Soul King after using the Realm Accretion? That's...that's skipping far too many steps isn't it?!"
"You're making a fuss over nothing..." Xiao Fang replied. "Even if the Late-stage Soul Exalt didn't use the Realm Accretion, they would've broke through to become an Early-stage Soul King and then Mid-stage Soul King, but the Extreme King Pills won't help them from there on out. With the Extreme King Pills, this limit can be raised so they can become a Late-stage Soul King, it just needs more Extreme King Pills.
"Besides...shouldn't you be happy about this? Though this existed for several thousand years now, not a single person has been able to get a hold of this and such a bounty at the same time. This entire furnace of Extreme King Pills was said to be the handiwork of the last alchemists of the Alchemy School before it was eradicated during Tianhun's unification of the continent. But in the end, they weren't able to use it for their future savior and collapsed. The furnace went missing after that until a thousand years after where my last master found it."
"I see..."
Bai Yunfei couldn't help but sigh after hearing all of that. He calmed himself down after thinking a little more about the situation. "Then...will the amount of fragrance in front of me be enough to help me become a Late-stage Soul King?"