If a bottleneck cannot be broken, no matter how many Heavenly Spirit Pills one consumes, their cultivation will not increase, making it difficult to take that final step.
Another month passed, and Meng Hao had been in seclusion here for half a year. One day, his hair was disheveled and his eyes were bloodshot. Over the past month, he had replicated ten Embryo-Impacting Pills, which could be used for the ninth level of Qi Condensation. He intended to use them to break through his bottleneck. Although they had some effect, they were not completely effective.
"This time, I must reach the ninth level of Qi Condensation!" Meng Hao gritted his teeth and looked down at his storage bag, which now only contained fifty thousand spirit stones. Without hesitation, he took out the copper mirror, but this time he chose to replicate Foundation Establishment Pills!
Light flashed, and two Foundation Establishment Pills appeared before Meng Hao. Adding the original one, he now had a total of three Foundation Establishment Pills. Even among the disciples of the great sects in the Southern Domain, these pills would be coveted. In the State of Zhao, they would cause disciples to fight and kill each other to obtain them.
But today, Meng Hao was not using them to achieve Foundation Establishment, but to break through a bottleneck. If others knew, they would surely go mad, for such an act was far too extravagant.
From ancient times until now, perhaps very few people would use such an extravagant method to break through a bottleneck in the Qi Condensation stage.
Meng Hao took a deep breath, picked up a Foundation Establishment Pill, and put it into his mouth. His mind immediately boomed, and his entire body trembled and shook. A boundless spiritual power, far beyond his imagination, instantly exploded within him.
Meng Hao had been in seclusion here for half a year and was unaware that in recent days, several tumultuous events had occurred throughout the State of Zhao. The first event was that someone had leaked the details of Meng Hao's transaction with the disciple of the Purple Cloud Sect, causing his name to spread everywhere instantly.
Almost everyone knew that Meng Hao had severely tricked a disciple of the Purple Cloud Sect.
Subsequently, the Wind Chill Sect and the Winding Water Sect almost declared war on each other. Finally, the Nascent Soul stage sect leaders of the two great sects intervened to resolve the conflict. However, immediately afterward, both sects issued a joint bounty.
They issued a bounty for Meng Hao, the remnant of the Reliance Sect. Anyone who killed him would be rewarded with spirit stones, magical artifacts, and elixirs. This was the first time in nearly a hundred years that two sects had jointly issued a bounty, instantly causing a stir throughout the Cultivation World of the State of Zhao.
Curious individuals, not knowing why, investigated and uncovered the story of the silver spear that had led to the bloody incident that day. Although suppressed, the news quickly spread, and thus Meng Hao's name once again became the topic of discussion among cultivators in the State of Zhao.
Every time cultivators met, they would talk about Meng Hao.
"I heard that this person, back in the Reliance Sect, snatched Wang Tengfei's inner disciple status. Wang Tengfei is a descendant of one of the three great families who had joined the Reliance Sect, which is why he left in anger."
"What's that? I heard from a Reliance Sect disciple back then that this Meng Hao even opened a general store in the Reliance Sect, harming many disciples. Complaints filled the heavens and earth, but they were angry and dared not speak."
"So, this person tricked the Purple Cloud Sect, and also tricked Liu Daoyun and Sun Hua. It turns out he already had such a character."
"I've discovered that this Meng Hao tricks everyone he meets, from the Reliance Sect outwards."
These words naturally created countless discussions in the Cultivation World of the State of Zhao. If it were just that, these discussions would gradually fade away. But immediately afterward, for some unknown reason, the three great sects jointly issued a bounty, and also retracted their previous bounty.
But at this moment, the person being pursued was still Meng Hao, though it was no longer about killing him, but about finding his whereabouts. Anyone who found his whereabouts or captured him would be rewarded!
However, the requirement was that this person could be maimed, could be crippled, but could not die.
This strange wanted order sparked the curiosity of many, and eventually, a well-informed individual managed to uncover a clue.
"All the Core Formation old eccentrics from the three major sects went to the Tianji Kingdom a month ago to pay their respects to Celestial Tianji and ask him to divine whether Old Ancestor Kaoshan was alive or dead! The divination revealed that Old Ancestor Kaoshan was weak and on the verge of death, and his cave abode could only be found and opened by inner disciples of the Kaoshan Sect! Celestial Tianji has already arrived in the Zhao Kingdom, intending to join the search for Old Ancestor Kaoshan's secluded cultivation cave abode!"
As soon as this news spread, before it could fully disseminate, it was vigorously suppressed by the three major sects. Anyone who spread it would be immediately killed. Even the city where the news had already circulated was enveloped by the three sects' formation, covering a thousand-mile radius and strictly prohibiting anyone from leaving.
In a cave abode amidst the desolate mountains not far from Mount Daqing, Meng Hao's entire body trembled, sweat continuously pouring out. His clothes were drenched, then evaporated by the intense heat radiating from his body, causing the cave abode to be filled with swirling mist and a thick smell of sweat.
Meng Hao's entire body was flushed red, as if a raging fire was burning within him. This fire seemed to want to dry out his flesh, to directly incinerate his body into ashes. At this moment, his body was stiff, unable to move at all.
This was actually the detrimental effect of the Foundation Establishment Pill. Once ingested, the body could not move unless the medicinal power dissipated. Otherwise, even if floods surged to the sky, even if someone stood in front of him and pierced him with a sword, it would be difficult to move. Therefore, every time a cultivator in the cultivation world took a Foundation Establishment Pill, they had to be extremely cautious in choosing a location.
Otherwise, with the difficult-to-resolve side effects of this Foundation Establishment Pill, if one encountered an enemy, they wouldn't even be able to move an inch, even if it meant death.
It could be said that Meng Hao was the first person at the eighth level of Qi Condensation to take a Foundation Establishment Pill, and it wasn't an ordinary Foundation Establishment Pill, but one personally refined by a grandmaster.
He truly had no other choice. He had been unable to break through the bottleneck from the eighth level of Qi Condensation to the ninth level. Unless he encountered some stroke of luck, he would need a powerful medicinal pill to break through.
Even the Embryo Nurturing Pill in Meng Hao's possession did not have this effect; only the Foundation Establishment Pill did. But he dared not use too many. The medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill was too strong. For Meng Hao's body, even one pill was a gamble.
In fact, Meng Hao had long guessed the reason. The difficulty of his eighth-level bottleneck was undoubtedly due to the excessive number of demon pills he had consumed over the years. Although it had been refined by the North Sea, the demonic power that had existed in his bones for years obviously could not be dispelled in a single instance, which also made Meng Hao's bottleneck much thicker than that of ordinary people.