A month and a half later.

The Martial Arts Palace of the Great Xia Country.

The cultivation room was littered with Spirit Stone powder, as fifty thousand Medium Grade Spirit Stones were swiftly consumed.

The Spiritual Energy in the air was almost drained dry...

At the same time, Lin Chen finally opened his eyes.

"The Magic Power Barrier, successfully crossed!"

"Half-Step Nascent Soul, achieved!"

Under Divine Soul Internal Observation, the golden infant in Lin Chen’s Dantian appeared vividly lifelike.

The golden Nascent Soul had its eyes closed, seemingly in a deep slumber.

But between its brows, there was a slight resemblance to Lin Chen.

"The first step of Nascent Soul Formation, the prototype is finally complete..."

"The True Essence inside me has also become three times stronger!"

"Now, in terms of sheer True Essence Magical Power, I’m probably already on par with an ordinary early Nascent Soul cultivator... but still far from the mid-stage."

Excitement sparkled in Lin Chen’s eyes.

"Then the next step is the Divine Soul Barrier..."

The Three Nascent Soul Gates.

Cross the Magic Power Barrier to condense the Nascent Soul prototype, possessing the True Essence Magical Power equivalent to a Nascent Soul.

Cross the Divine Soul Barrier to give the Nascent Soul divine charm, at which point the Nascent Soul prototype within the Dantian is not much different from the Nascent Soul Stage.

Cross the Flesh Body Barrier to summon Thunder Tribulation, comprehend the Will of Heaven and Earth, enabling the Nascent Soul to communicate with nature.

Only after crossing all three gates can one truly step into the Nascent Soul Stage.

The Nascent Soul Stage, unlike Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core, is not divided into nine levels but rather three stages: early, middle, and late.

However, there are still differences within the early Nascent Soul stage.

A newly-entered Nascent Soul Stage cultivator and one who has stayed in the early stage for a hundred years have vastly different Magical Power cultivation.

Currently, Lin Chen’s True Essence is equivalent to the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, approaching the mid-stage.

After undergoing the baptism of Thunder Tribulation, there might be hope to directly achieve the Magical Power equivalent to the mid-stage Nascent Soul!

This is the benefit of the Nine Revolutions Golden Core and solid foundations...

In the same realm, one can possess the strength to battle across levels!

It must be noted that the gap between early and mid-stage Nascent Soul might not be much larger than that between the "Nine Revolutions Golden Core" and early Nascent Soul.

It often takes three early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators to contend with one mid-stage Nascent Soul.

Similarly, there’s a huge chasm between mid-stage and late-stage Nascent Soul.

As for late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators at the peak, with no progress possible in Magical Power cultivation, they are considered to be at Nascent Soul Perfection.

They are then ready to summon Thunder Tribulation at any time, to cross into Divinity Transformation...

Lin Chen slowly stood up, murmuring:

"Although I lack the Divine Soul or the ability to communicate with the power of heaven and earth of the Nascent Soul Stage..."

"But with this Magical Power alone, I am unafraid of ordinary early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators."

"However..."

Lin Chen slightly frowned, "There’s still a significant gap compared to the Blood-Eyed Old Demon."

As far as he knew, True Man Changchun was at the peak of the mid-stage Nascent Soul, with one foot in the late stage.

And the Blood-Eyed Old Demon might be stronger than True Man Changchun, potentially stepping into the late stage at any moment.

In terms of True Essence Magical Power or Divine Techniques, Lin Chen was still no match for the Blood-Eyed Old Demon.

"Alas, I still need to settle further..."

"If I could step into the mid-stage Nascent Soul, I would be unafraid of the Blood-Eyed Old Demon!"

"Or if my Martial Arts Realm could progress further..."

Lin Chen silently thought.

Unlike ordinary cultivators, he pursued the path of Immortal Martial Dual Cultivation.

Currently, his Martial Arts cultivation was only a step away from the late Martial Monarch stage.

If he could take two more steps and reach the Martial King Realm, he would have the confidence to fight the Blood-Eyed Old Demon!

"But, it’s still far off..."

"Have yet to cross the Divine Soul Barrier, thinking about all this might be premature."

"Having just crossed the Magic Power Barrier, my Essence, Qi, and Spirit are greatly exhausted... best to recuperate for a period, then prepare for the next gate."

Lin Chen shook his head.

Breaking from Golden Core to Nascent Soul is a long process.

Some cultivators even stay at the Half-Step Nascent Soul for several years or even a decade.

For Lin Chen, naturally, it wouldn’t take that long.

But Lin Chen also planned to solidify his foundation first, and after adjusting to the best state, then cross the Divine Soul Barrier...

"By the way, the materials for the Thunder Avoidance Divine Pill should be almost gathered."

Lin Chen stroked his chin and made a call to Wang Lishan.

...

A moment later, Lin Chen arrived at the mountain range behind the military region.

Since the Great Xia Country introduced cultivation, eighteen years have passed.

Over these eighteen years of development, the coverage range of the back mountain expanded further.

On Blue Star, demon beasts exist not only within the Martial Realm.

Strictly speaking, there is a possibility of demon beast attacks outside the city circles.

For example, a hundred miles north of Kyoto, there are large areas of low-tier demon beasts.

Most are first and second-tier demon beasts, with occasional third-tier demon beast activity.

Powerful martial artists choose to stay away from urban areas, going outside the city to hunt demon beasts and acquire precious materials.

For Lin Chen, it naturally would not be an adventurous undertaking.

Since the continuous promotion of cultivation, the back mountains north of the military region have also gradually been developed.

Over ten years, the military region has advanced over three hundred miles north.

Cleared countless demon beasts, resulting in dozens of barren mountains.

The land stretching hundreds of miles has already become the "Cultivation Realm."

Two years ago, the country used the area of an entire barren mountain to experiment with capturing "thunder."

To store materials for refining Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

Lin Chen sat in Li Nian’s car, leaving the military region and heading towards one of the mountains.

...

A moment later, Lin Chen saw the equipment developed by the Great Xia Country for capturing thunder.

At the tallest peak of the mountain, there were dozens of black iron rods planted.

Near each lightning rod, there were a few strangely shaped cages.

These are lightning rods and Faraday cages.

The equipment used by the Great Xia Country to capture thunder.

At this moment, thunder happened to flash across the sky.

Captured by the lightning rods, it was then conducted through a series of devices and finally captured by the Faraday cage.

Throughout the Great Xia Country, all sixteen Golden Core cultivators were on this mountain peak.

They utilized True Essence and Divine Soul, attempting to extract the "special spirit" within the thunder.

In Lin Chen’s perception, there was a faint purple glimmer within the thunder.

This is something science cannot explain, only cultivators’ Divine Soul could sense such an existence.

And this special Thunder Spirit, once enveloped by a cultivator’s True Essence, was placed into a special device.

Each part of the spirit is an important material for refining Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

Currently, this special thunder-capturing device can capture hundreds of spirits every rainy day.

Over two years, it has captured tens of thousands of Thunder Spirits, enough to refine a large number of Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

Lin Chen looked around and nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad, with these Thunder Spirits, the refinement of Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills becomes much easier."

"Technology, sometimes it has a certain complementary role with cultivation."

Lin Chen thought silently.

If there was only technology, even with lightning rods and Faraday cages, one could not sense the existence of Thunder Spirits, let alone capture them.

But if there were only cultivators and no technology.

For cultivators, capturing thunder would also be difficult and dangerous.

Even a Golden Core cultivator has the risk of perishing if not careful.

But this combination ensures not only safety but also high efficiency.

After inspecting the Thunder Spirit capture, Lin Chen proceeded to the Alchemy Department.

At this time, dozens of specialized alchemists were in the Alchemy Room refining Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

While refining, they were also recording data.

Upon seeing Lin Chen’s arrival, these alchemists stopped and saluted:

"Hello, Commander."

Lin Chen was still a little unaccustomed, "Ahem, carry on with your work. I’m just here to take a look."

A few years ago, after becoming the Deputy Minister of the Cultivation Department, he also received an honorary military rank from the military region...

Lin Chen took out a few pieces of data and reports, reading them carefully.

Currently, the Great Xia Country can already mass-produce Upper Grade Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

Some of the alchemists even have extraordinary talent to attempt refining Top Grade Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills.

Lin Chen took a few of the best-quality Thunder Avoidance Divine Pills from the Pill Library, which were of much higher quality than what he bought in Wenda City.

If calculated with Spirit Stones, the price of one pill would probably not be less than eight hundred thousand Spirit Stones...

Yet such pills, once produced, would be supplied to Lin Chen first.

Now, the Great Xia’s Alchemy Department has hundreds of Alchemy Rooms, and nearly ten thousand alchemists.

From low-tier Bone Marrow Cleansing Pills, Qi Blood Pills, Qi Nourishing Pills.

To second-tier Cyan Essence Pills, Little Dragon Tiger Pills, Foundation Establishment Pills...

To third-tier Golden Yuan Pills and others.

The entire Alchemy Department operates like a massive machine.

Continuously supplying Lin Chen with high-quality pills.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Lin Chen wanted, refining a thousand Foundation Establishment Pills in a single day was not difficult.

The production of Foundation Establishment Pills in the Great Xia Country is sufficient to promote tens of thousands of Qi Refining cultivators to Foundation Establishment.

And the cultivation in the Great Xia Country has only started merely eighteen years ago.

It is foreseeable that the Great Xia’s cultivation will continue to develop in the coming decades...

As long as Lin Chen can continuously bring back valuable resources.

In some sense, Lin Chen might currently be the "wealthiest person in Qing State."

If he could cash in these pills and Magical Treasures, his wealth would be even more astonishing than a True Monarch of Divinity Transformation!