Chapter Eighteen Second Gate

  Still surrounded by that hazy fog on all sides, unable to see too far ahead, only the mountain peaks in the fog appear and disappear, nearby a quiet expanse, no wind, no sound.

  Su Ming gazed at the mountain in the fog, this was his second time coming here, and for the second time he re-examined that strange peak from this position. Especially when thinking about the countless ancient and bizarre texts and patterns carved on top of the mountain, Su Ming couldn't help but feel a sense of reverence.

  He took a deep breath, lowered his head to look at the pendant on his chest, and found that the black fragments on it had disappeared. He pinched himself again, and Su Ming confirmed once more that he was not in an illusion, but truly present in this place.

  He put his hand into his bosom again, and saw that the small bottles containing Qingchen San were still there. His eyes flashed, and he quickly walked towards the fog in front of him. Before long, he arrived at the foot of the mountain peak, and as soon as he stepped into the passage.

  He didn't stop until he reached the stone gate inside the passage, looking at the familiar lines on the center of the stone gate, those fifteen small holes. Su Ming hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and stepped forward, taking out a medicine bottle from his bosom, pouring out one pill, pinching it with two fingers, and putting it into the first hole of the fifteen small holes.

  It was almost the moment his fingers touched the small hole in the stone gate, Su Ming immediately felt a weak suction force suddenly rising from the small hole, and forcibly sucked the medicine stones into his fingers.

  Su Ming's expression was solemn and cautious, he didn't know if his judgment was correct, nor did he know what would happen after the fifteen small holes were all filled, but on this trip, he had thought for a long time, with a hint of expectation.

  Without making any sudden movements, after the first small hole sucked away the medicine, Su Ming concentrated his mind and looked over, but after half a breath, the small hole remained as usual, without the slightest change.

  Su Ming rubbed his head, deep in thought, and then took out another pill and put it into the second small hole. He continued to do so, and when he had put all fifteen pills in, his heart felt even more tense.

  "Fifteen medicinal stones, if nothing changes, then they'll all be wasted..." Su Ming was anxiously staring at the fifteen small holes, but just as he did, a soft and gentle glow suddenly burst out from each of the fifteen small holes.

  Su Ming's spirit shook, and he hastily retreated several steps back. However, on the stone gate above, along with the fifteen small holes' radiance swirling around, it grew brighter and brighter. The entire circle of lines on the stone gate seemed to come alive, slowly rotating. After a moment, they connected into a single piece, resembling a whirlpool that rapidly spun around.

  As it rotated, the light in the fifteen small holes seemed to be slowly sucked into the vortex, causing the stone gate to be enveloped in a flowing light. A loud rumbling sound suddenly erupted and reverberated through the passageway, almost deafening, causing Su Ming's body to involuntarily surface with ten blood lines, his entire body's energy boiling over as he subconsciously resisted.

  The rumbling sound continued for a moment, and then fifteen strands of blue smoke emerged from the fifteen small holes, as if the medicine inside was directly transformed into threads. After the appearance of the fifteen strands of blue smoke, the huge stone gate began to tremble, and a straight seam suddenly appeared in the middle position.

  That seam connected the top and bottom, then this stone gate, in front of Su Ming, slowly moved to both sides, thus opening!

  Su Ming's heart was racing as he watched the scene, his mind shaken. It wasn't until the stone gate fully opened that he took a deep breath. Behind the stone gate, there was no longer a passageway, but rather a small stone chamber.

  The walls of the stone chamber were not smooth, but had some carved patterns. On the wall in front, there was a large closed door.

  On the vaulted ceiling of this stone chamber, there are some small stones that emit a faint glow, blending into the walls, and a hint of fragrance wafts out, making one feel invigorated with just one sniff.

  Su Ming's eyes flashed, and he walked cautiously, his gaze sweeping over the walls of the stone chamber. He saw that the carvings on the walls were similar to those in the passageway earlier - figures with wild hair and bare bodies, amidst a primitive atmosphere, refining medicine stones.

  When Su Ming first entered this place, he saw such scenes and was confused. But now, with the success of his tempering and the additional knowledge in his memory, when he looked at these scenes again, he could understand a lot more.

  Those figures in the painting, refining different medicinal stones. Su Ming watched and watched, and couldn't help but become immersed in it, verifying each one with his own experience, as if infatuated, forgetting the passage of time.

  After he finished looking at one, he would often quickly walk a few steps to find the next scene. He didn't know how long it had been when he finally finished looking at all the patterns with a lingering gaze. His eyes fell on the tightly closed door inside the stone room.

  This is a stone gate that is slightly different from the first one before, it is all black, and it faintly emits a fragrance, as if the quality of this gate's stone is quite unusual.

  And there is also a sense of thickness, with patterns on top, but the pattern is a huge Kongding, and there are wisps of smoke rising from it, which is quite realistic. Su Ming looked at it and felt that it was not a pattern, but a real Kongding that was dissipating.

  "If I had such a wild trip, it would be great..." Su Ming looked at it with envy for several more glances.

  Above and to the sides of the barren cauldron, he saw several different herbs. His spirits lifted immediately, and he looked at them carefully. He had come here for the purpose of seeing if there were any other configurations of medicinal stones.

  On the left side of the ancient Ding map, seven kinds of herbs were listed. Seven of them had five kinds that were exactly the medicine for refining Qingchen San. As for the two extra ones, Su Ming hadn't seen them before. He concentrated and looked at them for a while, remembering their appearance firmly.

  Under this prescription, eight small holes are arranged on the stone gate.

  As for the right side of the Hu Ding Tu pattern, there are eight kinds of herbs, which are the same as the prescription on the left side. Among these eight kinds of herbs, five of them are still the materials needed to refine Qing Chen San.

  Those three extra ones, Su Ming looked at them and his eyes lit up instantly. Two of them were things he recognized, they just weren't very common.

  Under this prescription, there are still small holes, only a little more than on the left side, with twelve.

  As for the third prescription on the top of the ancient tripod diagram, when Su Ming looked at it, his expression slowly became extremely solemn. This prescription was not a plant, but three patterns that made people's hearts tremble with fear.

  The first is a python's tail scale, the second is the ninth leg of a nine-legged spider, and the third is a palm-sized black dwarf with his right hand's third finger.

  What's even stranger is that there are no small holes in this third prescription, as if the medicine is too difficult to refine, so it doesn't force refinement.

  Su Ming hesitated for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and walked towards the stone gate. He raised his right hand without hesitation and pressed it onto the gate. Instantly, the ancient patterns on the gate emitted a dazzling, eerie glow that enveloped Su Ming's body.

  After a moment of discomfort, Su Ming's mind once again gained a wisp of memory, and also obtained the refining methods and names of these three medicinal stones.

  "Southern dispersal!" Su Ming's gaze swept across the left side of the ancient cauldron pattern, then shifted to the right.

  "Shanling San... as for this last one... Nazhen San!" Su Ming gazed at the eerie medicinal formula above the stone gate's furnace diagram, muttering to himself.

  Su Ming was deep in thought, the faint glow surrounding his body gradually dimmed, and the light on the stone gate's ancient cauldron also weakened. When the light completely dissipated, Su Ming's vision suddenly blurred, but he didn't tense up, as he had experienced this before. A strange whistling sound seemed to exist around his ears, and when it stopped, his vision slowly cleared up, still in his room within the tribe.

  Su Ming took a deep breath, immediately walked to the side of the door, moved the chair away and pushed open the door. Outside was still the dark night, the stars in the sky twinkling, all around was quiet, with only the occasional breeze blowing by, carrying a coolness.

  But in the far distance on the horizon, a white line had faintly appeared, apparently indicating that dawn was about to break.

  "The time inside and outside should be about the same..." Su Ming closed the door, sat down again with his legs crossed, propped up his chin, and fell into deep thought.

  "These three medicinal stones have different refining methods, the two herbs in Nan Li San's prescription I've never seen before, can be set aside for now, as for... Na Shen San..." Su Ming's pupils slightly constricted.

  "This powder is not made from ordinary plants and trees, and the materials needed are too strange. However, in the memories I obtained, the strange phenomena that appeared after taking this powder were truly astonishing!" Su Ming recalled the figures he saw in his memories before refining the Nascent Soul Powder, which seemed to be faintly visible, stirring up a scene of heaven and earth changing colors, with winds and clouds reversing, making his heart thump suddenly.

  "If this medicine can be refined, it will surely be astonishing! Unfortunately... not even a small hole was given on the stone gate, apparently the refining of this powder is quite difficult... so it has nothing to do with opening this door." Su Ming pondered for a moment and roughly guessed the general idea.

  "For now, the only thing that can be refined is the Mountain Spirit Powder. Among the three extra herbs, I recognize two of them... Although I don't have them in hand, there must be a lot in the tribe's medicine storage room."

  As Su Ming was thinking, the sky outside gradually brightened up and a new day slowly arrived.

  Although he didn't rest for a whole night, Su Ming didn't feel the slightest bit of sleepiness. This feeling became extremely obvious after he reached the second layer of the Congealing Blood Realm, as if he had possessed a large amount of energy. Unless it was several consecutive days of staying up all night, otherwise, there wouldn't be any hint of fatigue.

  On that day, at dawn, the tribesmen of the village began their busy new day. Su Ming washed up and headed towards a not-too-distant hut made of grass and wood, surrounded by fences, with tribesmen guarding it at all times.

  Cough, I didn't write a single word of the main text today... but the outline has been sorted out quite a bit, and I got excited while sorting it out...