Twenty-four hours passed in a flash. Qi Suian carefully transplanted the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s core onto the special ability host embryo.

A large number of tentacles emerged from the embryo and began to connect with the nerves and blood vessels on the core. Then, a modified Abyssal Virus was injected to begin assimilation.

Next, he just needed to wait for the assimilation to complete and for the Blood Sacrifice special ability to gestate. Then, Qi Suian could directly fuse it back into his body.

This host embryo was made from Qi Suian’s own flesh and blood. It was essentially a part of him, not to mention it contained his modified Abyssal Virus as the assimilation medium.

As for the time required, it would take three days at the fastest, five at the slowest.

The process itself was one of assimilation, reshaping, and reconstruction.

"You’re worthless now. I’ll give you a quick death." Qi Suian glanced at the Celestial Traveler Venerable, which was gravely injured from having its core removed and transplanted.

The creature was not yet dead. If given enough nutrients, it could grow a new core and recover.

However, there would definitely be permanent damage. Its dual-attribute upper limit would probably drop to 7 points, making it the weakest Cold Energy Monster among the Twelve Venerables.

As for using it as a breeding stock to continuously generate cores? Qi Suian had no such thought.

Never mind the time and cost involved; what would he do with so many cores?

Besides, the quality of the cores would decrease with each subsequent harvest.

So, the best solution was to toss it into the Melting Furnace as fuel.

If all went as expected, the evolutionary energy from burning the Celestial Traveler Venerable would be just shy of enough for the Tai Sui God to evolve once.

This was mainly because Qi Suian had put it through the wringer, on top of its various missing parts. A Celestial Traveler Venerable at its peak would have certainly been enough for an evolution.

That was out of the question now. He would just have to slowly make up for the deficit later.

After being thrown into the Melting Furnace, the Celestial Traveler Venerable was finally released from its suffering.

"AI, how much more fuel does the Tai Sui God need to evolve again?" Qi Suian asked.

[Estimated requirement...]

The AI instantly presented the data to Qi Suian.

After a quick look, Qi Suian said, "Begin the hunt."

Before the Blood Sacrifice special ability was born, Qi Suian found himself in a brief transitional period.

The Qi Cultivation Method required the Blood Sacrifice special ability as its foundation, so he planned to use this time to study and shift his focus to the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic.

This was mainly because it was the only research project he currently had on his plate.

His other projects had been halted, either due to his insufficient strength or a temporary lack of capability.

And whether it was studying or researching the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic, most of the work involved virtual calculations and simulations.

He wouldn’t be needing the Tai Sui God for the time being, so it was the perfect opportunity to hand it over to the AI. It would control the Tai Sui God to hunt for fuel and acquire enough evolutionary energy.

In the Cold Winter World, whether it was humans or Cold Energy Monsters, their average quality as fuel was far more efficient than those from the Abyssal and Polar Day worlds.

This was especially true for Beast King and Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters. If they had also survived from the previous Cold Energy era, they were the absolute cream of the crop.

If Qi Suian could stuff the remaining eleven Venerables into the Melting Furnace, it would, at the very least, provide the Tai Sui God with three more evolutions.

He recalled that the last time he’d gained so many evolutions was by tricking and acquiring the Sun Puppets.

The power of a Venerable was on a completely different level compared to a Sun Puppet.

A single Sun Puppet could stand there, and a Venerable wouldn’t even be able to get close.

Yet, eleven Venerables were comparable to six Sun Puppets. One could just imagine how high their quality was.

But finding the remaining Venerables would be no easy task.

Unless he relied on a protagonist’s plot armor.

Otherwise, with no clues at all, finding them would be impossible.

Especially since every last one of them was hidden away so deeply.

[Executing hunting protocol...]

The AI responded to Qi Suian’s command instantly.

They were still on Celestial Pillar Mountain. Although the Beast King-level Cold Energy Monsters had been cleared out, there were still plenty of ordinary ones around.

After all, to construct a complete ecological chain, quantity was an indispensable component.

Now, all of this would benefit Qi Suian.

As long as he cleaned out all the Cold Energy Monsters on Celestial Pillar Mountain, that, combined with the Celestial Traveler Venerable, would secure the Tai Sui God’s twenty-fourth evolution.

If nothing unexpected happened, it would likely be done within the next few days.

In terms of burning efficiency, Venerables were much faster to process than Sun Puppets.

Since they weren’t Beast King-level, the Tai Sui God’s armor value, supported by Qi Suian’s Dragon and Tiger Primordial Force, meant they were basically killed instantly.

Then they were tossed into the Melting Furnace. The whole process was smooth as flowing water—a complete one-stop service.

During this time, Qi Suian only needed to circulate his Dragon and Tiger Primordial Force; he didn’t need to pay attention to the battle.

And as for circulating force, upon reaching the Gang Jin stage, one could already achieve a full-body circulation.

Therefore, Qi Suian didn’t need to worry too much.

In any case, wherever the force flowed, the AI would control the Tai Sui God to attack with that part of its body.

[Strange bone fragment detected...]

The AI’s sudden alert pulled Qi Suian back from his thoughts and studies.

"What strange fragment?"

Just as Qi Suian finished asking, the AI projected an image captured by its reconnaissance network.

"Isn’t this just the skeleton of a large animal? What’s so different about it?" Qi Suian couldn’t tell what kind of animal the bones belonged to.

Before the advent of cold energy, Qi Suian would have certainly been interested.

But now, large Cold Energy Monsters—animals that had evolved and mutated due to the cold energy—were a dime a dozen.

Even if it was just a fragment from some Cold Energy Monster, it wasn’t anything strange.

[Comparison with previous data on Celestial Pillar Mountain indicates this bone fragment only appeared after the demolition operation during the plan to capture the Celestial Traveler Venerable.]

[Furthermore, based on reconnaissance network analysis of its bone age and hardness, its age and strength far exceed that of the Celestial Traveler Venerable.]

As soon as these two sentences appeared, Qi Suian’s interest was instantly piqued.

"Did it surge up from the bottom of Longling Lake? And this is only one of the fragments?" Qi Suian asked.

[Correct. The full details can only be known after collecting and assembling all bone fragments.]

[Initiate collection?]

"Go ahead and collect them. You can do it while clearing out the Cold Energy Monsters." Qi Suian had plenty of time anyway.

He suspected his protagonist plot armor might have triggered some fortuitous opportunity for him again.

[Integrating into execution procedure...]

For the AI, such a small matter was no problem at all.

With the help of the reconnaissance network, as long as it performed a complete, sweeping scan of the Celestial Pillar Mountain area, it was guaranteed that every last bone fragment would be collected.

-----------------

’I can’t believe this is a manuscript from the Taiyin Celestial Monarch.’ A glint flashed in Tang Qing’s eyes.

While intercepting a fortuitous opportunity, he had obtained this manuscript by a stroke of luck.

At first, he hadn’t thought much of this particular opportunity. After all, according to the rumors from his memory, it wasn’t supposed to contain anything valuable.

It was only because the Taiyin Refining Technique was so resource-intensive that he had rushed over to claim it in advance.

Even if it wasn’t ideal, it was still far more efficient than gathering resources on his own.

And then, it gave him such a huge surprise.

Looking closely, the manuscript’s contents detailed the Taiyin Celestial Monarch’s thought process and insights when creating the Taiyin Refining Technique.

Tang Qing treasured it as if it were a priceless artifact. With the help of this manuscript, he would have a much easier time with his future breakthroughs.

When he cultivated according to the Taiyin Refining Technique, it was like simply plugging numbers into a formula. Due to differences in personal comprehension, the efficiency of using the formula was limited.

But this manuscript gave him the logic behind the solution, allowing him to combine it with the formula and move as freely as a fish in water.

"Hahaha, this manuscript came at the perfect time."

"Not only will it speed up my breakthrough, but it will also save me a considerable amount of resources."

After reading it, the joy on Tang Qing’s face was irrepressible.

’From the looks of it, the Taiyin Celestial Monarch didn’t create the Taiyin Refining Technique through a single moment of enlightenment, but through gradual trial and error.’

’If I can obtain the other manuscripts, perhaps the time it takes to cultivate the Taiyin Refining Technique to the fifth layer will be even shorter.’

’Furthermore, it also records content that the Taiyin Celestial Monarch created back then by observing the Red Dragon Corpse.’

’And if I can obtain the Red Dragon Pearl, swallow it, and absorb it, it will allow the Taiyin Refining Technique to spontaneously evolve to an unprecedented sixth layer.’

Unfortunately, the full origin of the Red Dragon Corpse wasn’t recorded inside; it was probably in the other manuscripts.

The manuscript only recorded that this Red Dragon had once occupied Celestial Pillar Mountain. It later died on the peak, fell into the mountain, and formed a lake a thousand meters deep.

This lake was named Longling Lake.

What the Taiyin Celestial Monarch saw back then was not a living Red Dragon, but a Red Dragon Corpse that had not decomposed after death.

Tang Qing didn’t know what happened after that.

After all, this manuscript recorded the contents from the period when the Taiyin Refining Technique was already nearing completion.

’According to the Taiyin Celestial Monarch’s calculations, the Red Dragon Corpse and the Red Dragon Pearl should still be at the bottom of Longling Lake on Celestial Pillar Mountain.’

’But I haven’t reached the fifth layer yet. Even if I got the Red Dragon Pearl, I wouldn’t be able to break through.’

’I have to go to Celestial Pillar Mountain, but not now.’ Tang Qing felt vexed. ’Why is my progress so slow?’

The reason he wouldn’t go now was that once the Red Dragon Pearl was removed, without the protection of the Red Dragon Corpse and the nurturing environment of Celestial Pillar Mountain, it would soon be destroyed.

If he went to get it prematurely, he would only be severing his own path to the sixth layer of the Taiyin Refining Technique.

’However, this manuscript does record some of the Taiyin Celestial Monarch’s other legacies. I can go get those.’ Tang Qing was actually in a very good mood.

Just when he thought he was about to run out of opportunities to seize, a manuscript had come along and provided him with more.

For him, how could this not be good news?

It more or less made up for the regret of being unable to retrieve the Red Dragon Pearl due to his lack of strength.

As for someone beating him to it? He wasn’t worried about that at all. At this stage, no one was capable of ascending Celestial Pillar Mountain.

Besides, how could an ordinary person possibly know about such a secret matter?

The Red Dragon Pearl wasn’t going anywhere from the bottom of Longling Lake.