Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 640 The Thatched Cottage of Ten Thousand Gu City! Refining Medicinal Liquid!

The next morning, just as dawn broke, Chen Fan left the post station.

As Wan Gu City gradually awakens in the morning light, stalls are set up one after another on both sides of the street, and many Gu cultivators have begun to tinker with their Gu insect pills.

The smell of herbs and insects in the air was even stronger than yesterday. Occasionally, a few cultivators dressed in Zhao Kingdom attire could be seen hurrying through the streets, clearly also members of various groups who had come to participate in the Hundred Sects Conference.

Chen Fan walked along the main road for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and arrived at the entrance of a rather secluded alley in the west of the city.

At the end of the alley stood a three-story wooden building with an ebony plaque hanging above the door, bearing the three neat and upright ancient seal characters "Bai Cao Tang" (Hundred Herbs Hall), which was out of place with the rough insect-patterned signs in Wan Gu City.

Baicaotang Wan Gu City Branch.

Chen Fan stepped across the threshold. The furnishings in the hall were exactly the same as those in the Zhao Kingdom's imperial city branch.

The walls were lined with ebony medicine cabinets, each containing various medicinal herbs, and the air was filled with a delicate medicinal fragrance, a world apart from the insect-like stench outside.

Behind the counter stood a gaunt old man in a blue robe, with a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation level, who was looking down at an abacus.

Hearing footsteps, the old man raised his eyelids and glanced at them. His gaze lingered on the faintly visible gold offering token at Chen Fan's waist, and his fingers, which were moving the abacus, froze.

"Fellow Daoist..." The old man quickly put down his abacus, came out from behind the counter, and cupped his hands in greeting, "Are you Senior Chen Fan, the Golden Medal Holder?"

Chen Fan nodded slightly.

The Golden Offering Order is not only effective in the capital of Zhao, but also known to everyone in this City of Ten Thousand Gu.

"My surname is Zhou, and I am the manager of this branch." Manager Zhou stepped aside and led Chen Fan to a private room on the second floor. He personally brewed a pot of spiritual tea before cautiously speaking, "Senior Chen, what would you like to do for my humble establishment? Manager Wu from the Imperial City branch just sent word a couple of days ago that you will be visiting the grasslands soon, and asked me to make sure you are treated with the utmost hospitality. The Eighteenth Elder also specifically instructed that whatever Senior Chen requires should be provided as a VIP."

Chen Fan took out a jade slip from his sleeve and handed it over.

The jade slip lists all the medicinal materials needed for the Soul Devouring Elixir, with the two main ingredients, Illusionary Nether Grass and Soul Devouring Flower, listed first, and the year and grade of the other auxiliary ingredients also noted.

Shopkeeper Zhou took the jade slip and scanned it with his divine sense. His brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed. "Some of the things Senior Chen requested are indeed rare. While Illusionary Nether Grass isn't uncommon on the grasslands, those over 500 years old are extremely rare. Fortunately, our shop happens to have an 800-year-old Illusionary Nether Grass, which we acquired last month from an elder of the Blood Gu Clan. It's in excellent condition, and we haven't been willing to part with it. I also have a Spirit Devouring Flower here, which is similar in quality to the one at the Imperial City branch. As for the other auxiliary herbs, we have them in stock."

He paused, then lowered his voice and said, "The Illusionary Nether Grass is valued at 120,000 mid-grade spirit stones, the Spirit Devouring Flower at 80,000, and the other auxiliary herbs at 50,000, for a total of 250,000."

Chen Fan nodded and took out 250,000 mid-grade spirit stones from his storage bag to count them in front of him.

After receiving the spirit stones, Manager Zhou went to the storeroom to retrieve the medicine. He soon returned to the private room carrying a jade box and several storage bags.

Inside the jade box lay a translucent spiritual herb, its leaves slender like orchids, and a faint, ethereal light emanating from its stem—it was the Illusionary Ghost Herb.

Unlike the outward-radiating spiritual light of the Spirit Devouring Flower, the aura of the Illusionary Grass is extremely restrained; its existence is almost imperceptible unless one senses it carefully.

Chen Fan used his divine sense to examine it and confirmed that the medicine was potent and in good condition. He then put it into his storage bag along with the other medicinal herbs.

Back in his room at the inn, Chen Fan, as usual, set up two isolation barriers and reinforced the four corners with an invisible trapping array using the Fixed Word Technique. Then, with a thought, he took the newly purchased medicinal herbs into the Golden Bowl Space.

The world within the bowl is at dawn.

Three hundred acres of spiritual fields surged with layers of green waves in the morning light, and the air was filled with the unique sweet aroma of spiritual rice as it sprouted.

Eunuch Wei was squatting on the edge of the field checking the growth of a radish when Chen Fan appeared out of nowhere. He merely raised his eyelids and said sarcastically, "Oh, Eunuch Chen is here to buy goods again? What good stuff did you bring this time?"

Chen Fan ignored his gossip and walked straight towards the Beast Taming Garden.

In the Beast Taming Garden, the Golden Cicada was perched on a mid-grade spirit stone in the center of the insect cage, absorbing spiritual energy.

After a few days, the golden patterns on its carapace had spread to the entire surface of its shell, and the light in its dark red compound eyes had become even more lively.

Sensing Chen Fan's presence, it immediately flapped its wings and flew up, circling twice around Chen Fan's fingertip, emitting a clear buzzing sound.

The ant colony has grown a few more times.

More than 200,000 flying ants densely covered most of the Beast Taming Garden, their pale golden carapaces gleaming with a metallic luster in the morning light.

The queen ant hides deep within the cage, her body encased in a translucent silver cocoon, yet her egg-laying rate remains astonishing.

Chen Fan set up the Qiankun Furnace in the Beast Taming Garden and took out the newly purchased medicinal herbs one by one.

Soul-Devouring Elixir is the final step in cultivating the Soul-Devouring Gu.

According to the records in the notes of Master Chong, this liquid requires two main ingredients, Illusionary Nether Grass and Spirit-Devouring Flower, as the base, supplemented by dozens of spiritual herbs, and then the life core of a Nascent Soul level demon beast as the guide, and is refined with infant fire for seven days to be completed.

Although Chen Fan did not have a Nascent Soul level demon beast inner core on hand, the early Nascent Soul stage demon dragon inner core he had seized in the Boundless Sea could serve as a substitute. Although the attributes of this core were not very compatible with the water-type Golden Cicada, with the Golden Bowl in hand, he could completely purify the water-type impurities in the inner core first, leaving only the purest demonic power.

He made a hand seal, and the infant fire in the Qiankun Furnace transformed into nine thin threads of fire under the guidance of his divine sense. At the same time, these threads enveloped the nine main medicinal ingredients, slowly forcing out their medicinal power with a gentle flame.

This technique of "Nine Flames Dividing Medicine" is more complicated than the previous "Seven Flames Dividing Medicine". The temperature of each flame must be controlled within millimeters. If it is too high, the medicine will burn; if it is too low, the medicine will lose its potency.

Fortunately, Chen Fan had the power of the Fixed Word Technique, which allowed the nine fire threads to operate freely without interfering with each other.

The process of the medicinal effects combining lasted for a full five hours.

As the last stream of medicinal power perfectly merged with the other eight, a clear and melodious hum emanated from the Qiankun Furnace, the lid flew off, and a fist-sized ball of dark golden liquid flew out of the furnace.

This potion was thicker than the Soul-Devouring Liquid, with five faint blood-red lines flowing on its surface, emitting a strange, sweet and pungent smell.

Chen Fan poured the Soul Devouring True Liquid into a jade bottle, then took out the inner core of the early-stage Nascent Soul Demon Dragon and used a golden bowl to purify all the water-attribute impurities within it.

The original dark green inner core gradually faded in color under the purification of the golden bowl, eventually leaving only a fist-sized ball of pure golden demonic power, so pure that it was almost tangible.

He mixed the Soul Devouring Elixir with pure gold demonic power in a three-to-one ratio, and then carefully dripped the mixture into the insect cage.