Meng Hao closed his eyes again as he floated there. Coldness poured into him, burrowing inside, fusing with his Qi and blood, circulating through him. He could sense his fleshly body growing stronger.

There seemed to be something strange in these waters, some Heavenly power that could use gentleness to cause the fleshly body to be remolded. There was no pain, but the coldness from the cold currents gradually caused Meng Hao's body to grow stiff. After fifteen or twenty hours, even his soul was showing signs of growing hard.

It was at that point that Meng Hao, floating there in the middle section of the pond, suddenly opened his eyes. Without hesitation he shot up, bursting out from the surface of the water to appear outside. His body quivered, and white mist floated up off of him. Cracking sounds could be heard from the ground beneath his feet as ice began to stretch out in all directions, with him at the center.

He sat down cross-legged to meditate. A few days passed before he opened his eyes. Within them could be seen a bluish glow, which came from the poisonous coldness inside him that he still hadn't dispelled.

"This place is excellent for tempering the fleshly body. However, it also contains a poisonous coldness, which takes time to dispel from within. If I don't dispel it, it would eventually cause grave danger to my life." Frowning, he sighed and then looked at his bag of holding.

"It's too bad this is an illusory world, so consuming the medicinal pills from here doesn't do any good. The only thing of value are the places here for training and cultivating the fleshly body.

"If I was able to consume the medicinal pills here, well, considering the Dao of alchemy in this age, my results would be exponentially better." After a few more moments of thought, he rose to his feet and left. He planned to return to the Fourth Peak to rest and wait for the poisonous cold to be completely expelled. Then he would return again to immerse himself in the cistern waters.

As he passed back through the mists, Meng Hao was filled with a feeling like that when you can see a great treasure right in front of you, but have no way to take it. He was a bit depressed.

Gradually, he left the hazy area. As he passed the two statues and the door of swords, he suddenly stopped in place. A brilliant glow could now be seen in his eyes.

His eyes sparkled and his mind raced as a new idea suddenly began to form.

"The medicinal pills here are illusory, and therefore useless to me…. However, there is an endless supply of medicinal plants, even types that are extinct in my time, but are common here.

"In that case… what if I concoct my own pills?" He began to pant with eagerness.

"Illusory medicinal plants can be used to create real medicinal pills. In fact… I've done that before!!" He took a deep breath, and his eyes seemed to shine as brightly as if they contained suns. His heart trembled from the shock of this new idea. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like he could do it.

If he did, Meng Hao wasn't sure if he could… actually influence the fundamental structure of this ancient, illusory world!

"Back in the Violet Fate Sect, I made something from nothing! During my Violet Furnace Lord promotion, I used an illusory item to concoct… a medicinal pill made from nothing!!1

"I wonder if I can use a similar method here to concoct… a similar pill made from nothing, that conforms to the nature of this place!?" Meng Hao's fists clenched and his body trembled. This idea seemed almost like lunacy and he wasn't sure if he could succeed. Speaking purely in terms of the Dao of alchemy, though, it was possible!

"It is difficult to create something from nothing even just once, and even with my skill in the Dao of alchemy. A lot depends on destiny and luck!"

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they shone with determination. His body flickered as he shot toward the Fourth Peak. As he sped along, those who caught sight of him felt jealously pricking at their hearts. Because of what had happened at the Demon Immortal Pagoda, Meng Hao's reputation as a Demon Immortal Sect silkpants had grown even beyond what it was before.

After returning to the Fourth Peak, he found that Xu Qing was still sitting there meditating. Compared to Meng Hao, Xu Qing possessed a level of diligence that he could never attempt to overtake.

However, every person's destiny and fortune is different. Techniques that suited Xu Qing might not necessarily suit Meng Hao. The opposite was also true.

Several days later, all of the disciples in the Fourth Peak knew that their young Lord had apparently gone crazy. He unexpectedly had begun concocting pills, which caused a huge stir on the Fourth Peak. Eventually, word spread to the other peaks, and soon everyone knew about it.

It didn't take long for all sorts of thoughtless gossip to begin to spread. Of course, no one dared to say anything openly; after all, the silkpants members of the Demon Entente were all very supportive of the matter.

When Meng Hao mentioned his desire for mass quantities of medicinal plants, the Demon Entente sprang into action. Once the huge amounts of medicinal plants began to roll in, Meng Hao's entire life consisted of four things.

Daoist magic enlightenment, medicinal pill concocting, body tempering in the Demon Immortal Cistern, and dispelling the poisonous coldness.

When it came to concocting medicinal pills, he used the Fourth Peak's pill concocting workshop, which belonged to Ke Yunhai. Once Meng Hao took it over, the entire Fourth Peak began to fill with the sound of exploding medicinal pills.

The sounds might echo out in the dark of night or in the middle of day. Whenever they were heard, everyone knew that the young Lord had once again failed to concoct a batch of medicinal pills.

Meng Hao was a bit ashen-faced; this was not the outcome he had hoped for. His Dao of alchemy came from a time tens of thousands of years in the future. The current Dao of alchemy was different, and he needed time to adjust before he could unleash his full potential.

Worst of all, Meng Hao found that so far, he could only concoct illusory pills, and was unable to truly create something from nothing. Perhaps it was because of the illusory nature of the world he was in.

It almost seemed as if there was some force interfering with him, making it so that the medicinal pills here were eternally categorized in a different way. Unfortunately, Meng Hao's concoctions were outside of that scope, and were thus not permitted to appear.

However, he didn't allow himself to become dejected, nor did he give up. He continued to experiment, trying to find that same feeling he had experienced back in the Violet Fate Sect. Time went by, and soon an entire month had passed.

By the end of that month, there wasn't a single person in the Seven Peaks of the Demon Immortal Sect that didn't know Meng Hao was concocting pills. The rumblings coming from the Fourth Peak became just another one of the sounds of the First Heaven of the Demon Immortal Sect.

Considering how many countless times he had failed, and the unthinkable amount of medicinal plants he had wasted, it was good that the Demon Immortal Sect had such vast resources. Such wastage would cause even most mid-sized Sects to groan in complaint.

That was especially so considering that… he was using medicinal plants which were considered precious even in this age. Every failure of his caused other disciples to secretly feel stabs of pain in their hearts.

Although he hadn't succeeded yet, Meng Hao had actually gained quite a bit. His Dao of alchemy was gradually assimilating into ancient times. Slowly, a new path appeared in the Dao of alchemy that consisted solely of Meng Hao. Furthermore, he had attempted so many concoctions that his proficiency with the process actually vastly improved.

Also during that month, he gained complete enlightenment of the first level of the Mountain Consuming Incantation. It was firmly branded in his mind, and could be taken away when he left the Second Plane.

As for the poisonous coldness within him, it was now more than half expelled from his body. If it weren't for his continued immersions within the cistern, it would have long since completely vanished.

Actually, his control over the poisonous coldness had reached the point that as long as he didn't have contact with the cistern water, it would naturally dissipate.

During the month, Meng Hao's fleshly body experienced incredible changes. Even he was shocked by the outcome. The bizarreness of the Demon Immortal Cistern was thoroughly shocking. Right now, even when in the First Anima, his fleshly body had the power of the Fifth Anima.

According to his estimation, if he could reach a level of fleshly body strength equal to the Seventh Anima while in the First Anima, then when he actually entered the Seventh Anima… his fleshly body would truly be that of Spirit Severing.

If he encountered Patriarch Huyan in such a state, Meng Hao was confident that the battle would not be as difficult as before, and he would be able to destroy the man in soul and body.

"Unfortunately, to reach the level of the Sixth anima with my fleshly body would involve sinking down to the very bottom of the cistern… after which I would need a month to recover from the poisonous coldness.

"Furthermore, if my calculations are correct, I would need to go through that process at least ten times. Essentially, that's almost a year of time." Meng Hao continued to think about the matter as he walked through the various districts of the Demon Immortal Sect.

As he was walking, he suddenly stopped in place. In that instant, ghost images sprang up from everything around him, the sky, the land and the world. It lasted only for the space of a few breaths, and then everything went back to normal.

"That's the third time this month," Meng Hao thought with a frown. He could sense that the Second Plane was reaching the point of dissipation. When it vanished, all of the people from South Heaven would leave, and their journey into the Demon Immortal Sect would reach its conclusion.

"If it comes quickly, it will be within days. At the slowest, it might last two more months." Meng Hao felt a bit of regret. There simply wasn't enough time for him to reach the incredible strength of the Sixth Anima.

His body flickered, and he reappeared on the outskirts of the Demon Immortal Sect. It was a relatively remote location, deserted and quiet, a place where few people ever came.

He looked down at the ground, then glanced around the area again. Finally, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a Wooden Time Sword. This particular sword was branded with multiple seals that he had used in recent days to reinforce it.

He looked at the sword, and then the ground. A gleam of decisiveness filled his eyes.

"If I don't give it a shot, then I'll always regret it. Although I'm eighty to ninety percent sure it won't work, there's always that slight possibility…." With that, he waved his right hand, causing the Wooden Time Sword to stab down into the ground. In the blink of an eye, it was buried deep down.

"Of all the magical items I possess, only the Wooden Time Swords need to be immersed within the power of Time. Even the slight chance of success would mean….

"When I return to reality, I might be able to have a sword with tens of thousands of years of Time! With the power of such a sword, a single slash could cut away tens of thousands of years! Even slaying Immortals wouldn't be difficult!

"A treasure like that is worth a bit of a gamble!"

He created a pill from nothing starting in around chapter 286