Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 729 - 728: The Emperor Orders Tian Peng to Go to Chang’an
If these substances aren’t removed, not only will they affect the absorption of the Demon Core, but they will also increase the likelihood of demonic possession.
The impurities aren’t simply on the surface of the Demon Core, but are rather interwoven within it, distributed unevenly.
Removing the impurities without damaging the Demon Core is no easy task, not to mention for mortals, even Immortals would find it challenging to achieve.
Unless there’s absolutely no other way, refining a Demon Core, especially one of this quality, is even more troublesome than cultivating oneself.
All of this was told to him by the system, which didn’t just inform him of the difficulties in Demon Core refinement but also provided him with the chances of success, which are lower than those of digesting the Demon Core to obtain mana.
"Host, please rest assured, with your cheat, refining a Demon Core is a piece of cake," the system said.
Chen Nuo raised an eyebrow, "So what you’re saying is I don’t have to lift a finger to refine this Demon Core, I just need to exchange it with you for Merit Points?"
"You still have to refine the Demon Core yourself," the system immediately responded.
"Then what the hell are you talking about!" Chen Nuo turned off the system and reviewed the method for refining the Demon Core again carefully.
It’s difficult if you say it’s difficult, but simple if you say it’s simple, except that this process will consume a massive amount of Spiritual Power.
During the complete refinement of the Demon Core, Spiritual Power must continuously flow out, and unless the Demon Core is completely purified, retracting the Spiritual Power before it’s fully purified will also lead to failure.
The system wasn’t wrong about one thing, he indeed had a cheat, and he was not short of Spiritual Power at all, which was a significant hurdle for others, was no issue for him.
No sooner said than done, Chen Nuo placed the Demon Core on the table, focused his mind, and poured Spiritual Power into it.
The superficial impurities on the Demon Core vanished with a light sweep, and then he began to remove the impurities embedded within.
Chen Nuo utilized his perspective ability to clearly identify the locations of the impurities inside the Demon Core, and then started from the area with the least impurities.
He directed Spiritual Power towards that spot of impurity, washing it away like water from a tap, continuously pouring until the Spiritual Power seeped in through the opening of the impurity and slowly dislodged it until that area was purified.
Chen Nuo had inspected the Demon Core using his perspective ability and found a total of nine impurities; the first was the smallest, while the others were larger.
Simply using Spiritual Power to wash them away one by one indeed took quite some time. Although the first method was feasible, Chen Nuo lacked the patience for it and decided to combine it with a second method. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
The second method involved wrapping the entire Demon Core with Spiritual Power and allowing it to permeate slowly into the core. This consumed even more Spiritual Power, but for Chen Nuo, lacking Spiritual Energy wasn’t a problem.
Indeed, mixing the two methods of Spiritual Power together increased the speed significantly, and in no more than an hour, he had already finished with seven impurities.
Seeing that there weren’t many impurities left, Chen Nuo didn’t hold back and went all out, refining the Demon Core in just an instant.
The refined Demon Core shone even brighter, and Chen Nuo packed it away with satisfaction, preparing to take it straight to Tian Peng.
In the mortal world, Tian Peng received a letter from the emperor himself, instructing him to return to Chang’an.
Tian Peng was somewhat puzzled, why would he be asked to return to Chang’an out of the blue? So, he picked up his pen to refuse.
He was living comfortably and at ease here, loved by the people and respected by the soldiers, virtually a king of this northwestern region, yet the emperor insisted he take up a post in Chang’an.
"What’s the point of idly returning to Chang’an when I’ve grown accustomed to the northwest? If I went back now, who knows if I would even acclimate? Anyway, I have no plans to return." Tian Peng said, as he scribbled a refusal on the letter.
"Great General, no offense, but you can’t write like that," General Chen urged quickly.
"Why not?" Tian Peng asked while his hand continued, adding how good and comfortable the northwest was.
"I think His Majesty wants you back because he fears your influence in the northwest," General Chen said.
Tian Peng thought Chen Gong was joking, "No, what are you talking about? What influence could I have? Isn’t all my influence that of the Great Tang? The Emperor has nothing to fear from me, does he?"
"Great General, I think you know what kind of influence I’m talking about," General Chen continued, "The northwest is indeed flourishing, especially under your leadership, but it’s precisely because it’s doing so well that the Emperor is worried. Do you know what the people in the streets are saying?"
Tian Peng really hadn’t paid attention to such things, "What then?"
The northwest used to be a desolate place, ravaged by constant warfare, with very few civilians willing to live there.
But this didn’t mean there were no civilians at all; it was just sparsely populated, without leadership, and everyone fended for themselves.
Since Tian Peng arrived, he had put an end to the chaos of war and, not wanting to see the civilians suffer, he helped them build up their communities during his free time.
The few villages surrounding the military camp would not have become anything more than that, but under Tian Peng’s leadership, they gradually developed into towns, and the population increased several times over.
Over the years, civilians turned to Tian Peng for everything, and some even started to call him privately King Zhu.
This naturally reached the Emperor’s ears. Although the Emperor originally didn’t care about these things, and he believed Zhu Ganglie to be an honest man who was unconcerned with imperial power, as the talk increased, so did his worries.
Furthermore, General Zhu had not yet taken a wife. If he were to get married over there, he might grow even more attached to the northwest.
Having no weaknesses in the Imperial City, he could entertain such thoughts without worry, and the Emperor certainly couldn’t allow this situation to develop slowly.
So what he needed to do now was to summon Zhu Ganglie back from the northwest to marry him off.
After hearing General Chen’s account, Tian Peng was incredulous, scratching his head, "That’s considered good news?"
Since Tian Peng was focusing on becoming an Immortal, the thought of taking a wife and having children here had never crossed his mind. He was of mature years in the mortal world but still hadn’t contemplated marriage.
"It is good news, I guess," said General Chen.
Since being appointed General, the Emperor had also bestowed upon Chen Gong a residence in Chang’an, where his family lived.
The main reason was that the Emperor wanted to use this as a way to keep these people, still based in the northwest, connected to Chang’an, to ensure they didn’t forget their true identity due to a prolonged stay in the northwest.
"But I feel I can’t get married and have children," Tian Peng said, though what he left unsaid was that he couldn’t get married and have children in the mortal world, at least not now. With his grand task yet unfinished, Tian Peng genuinely had no interest in those matters.
"Do you truly not want that, Great General?" General Chen had always wondered why the Great General hadn’t married and had children. Common folks usually got betrothed when coming of age and would then fix a date for marriage, but this Great General seemed to have no such plans.
Although the Great General might linger in a brothel, that was different from taking a wife, and it seemed as though he was just passing through the mortal world, unconcerned and unwilling to leave anything behind.
