Cultivation, Inc.I Use Capitalism to Fix a Dying Sect

Chapter 141: Successfully Creating Heavenly Soul Liquid

“Drop down to the first floor!” Sun Yi commanded, leading the charge.

The group hurried down the spiral stairs. As they reached the bottom floor, Elder Jin Jue gasped. Dominating the center of the room was a titanic black vortex.

It was an exact replication of the environmental hazard found in the Soul Refining Valley. The vortex spun at terminal velocity. The purified, stabilized energy from the second floor dropped directly into its churning event horizon. Suspended in a halo around the vortex were nine massive Rank 3 Talismans, locking onto a massive Formation carved into the floor tiles. The synchronized hardware combined to generate this artificial soul-refining core.

Sun Yi monitored the vortex’s output data nervously. It mirrored the natural phenomenon, but the RPMs were significantly higher, and the internal energy density was terrifyingly violent.

The raw energy spun within the black vortex, enduring a crushing gravitational pull as it was dragged toward the base. Sun Yi and the Elders watched with bated breath, their eyes locked on the event horizon, terrified of missing a single frame of data.

Suddenly, Sun Yi detected a change. Wisps of a heavy, silver substance began to precipitate out of the energy stream. The silver droplets sank through the vortex and pooled into a black collection vat positioned directly beneath the system.

“Hea… Heavenly Soul Liquid! System parameters are green. We did it!” Sun Yi stared at the accumulating silver liquid, a surge of wild dopamine flooding his brain. Though diagnostic tests were still pending, the visual confirmation was enough. He was almost certain they had successfully synthesized Heavenly Soul Liquid.

The vortex continued to compress the soul energy, depositing more and more silver substance into the vat. Half an hour later, the fuel source was completely depleted.

Sun Yi rapidly executed a sequence of shutdown codes, injecting his Qi into the floor. The Demon Refining Tower shuddered, its internal machinery winding down. The black vortex collapsed, blinking out of existence.

The group immediately rushed the center of the room, crowding around the collection vat.

Inside rested a small pool of heavy silver substance. Its molecular signature was an exact match for the Heavenly Soul Liquid Sun Yi had encountered in the Soul Refining Valley. The Elders stared at the silver liquid with wide, reverent eyes. No one dared to touch it.

“Is this truly the Heavenly Soul Liquid?” Elder Jin Jue whispered. “It is just as the ancient texts describe: silver and brilliant as the Milky Way, flowing like mercury yet shimmering with a divine, heavenly light.”

“Talk is cheap. Let’s run a bio-test to confirm the output,” Sun Yi stated, preparing to ingest a sample.

“Headmaster, wait!” an Elder interrupted. “We cannot confirm its purity. This substance was extracted from demonic souls. If there is residual toxicity… let this old man be the test subject.”

“Denied. I trust my code,” Sun Yi waved him off.

Utilizing his Qi, Sun Yi extracted a single droplet and swallowed it in one gulp. The moment it hit his stomach, his soul generated a powerful vacuum force, sucking the Heavenly Soul Liquid directly into his Sea of Consciousness. Instantly, his eight parallel-processing souls swarmed the droplet, devouring the new data.

Sun Yi checked his internal metrics. His soul strength had ticked upward. Since he had previously absorbed natural Heavenly Soul Liquid, the matching energy signature confirmed it with 100% certainty. The synthetic product was flawless.

“Excellent. The prototype is fully operational. We have successfully manufactured Heavenly Soul Liquid!” Sun Yi clenched his fist. His theoretical framework had finally become reality.

This liquid was the key to unlocking the sect’s future scalability. Based on his initial projections, this R&D breakthrough should have taken one to two years of grind. But by optimizing the workflow and leveraging the entire sect’s brainpower, they had beaten the timeline by an astronomical margin.

“Changqing, step up. You’re the first beta tester,” Sun Yi said, pulling Er Gouzi to the front.

“Me?” Er Gouzi pointed at his own nose in disbelief.

“Who else?” Sun Yi chuckled. “You are now the Deputy Headmaster of this corporation. Your physical hardware is up to spec. The only bottleneck you have left is your soul processor. Upgrade it now, trigger your Breakthrough, and maximize your value to the Sect.”

Sun Yi patted the young man’s shoulder. Er Gouzi was his number one subordinate—his most diligent and conscientious employee. When the ROI was distributed, the top performers always ate first.

“Refine it drop by drop. We will monitor your vitals,” Sun Yi instructed.

“I leave my life in the hands of the Headmaster and Elders,” Er Gouzi bowed deeply.

“Cease your dawdling and absorb it. Do not keep the crowd outside waiting,” Elder Jin Jue urged with a smile.

Er Gouzi immediately sat in the lotus position. He extracted a single droplet and swallowed it. The Heavenly Soul Liquid phased directly into his Sea of Consciousness. His currently thin, mist-like soul immediately churned, pouncing on the liquid to actively parse and assimilate the energy.

Because his base processor speed was so low, it took him a full half an hour to digest just one drop.

When Er Gouzi finally opened his eyes, two beams of sharp light pierced the gloom. Absolute joy plastered his face.

“Status report?” the Elders asked eagerly.

“The Heavenly Soul Liquid truly lives up to its reputation as a supreme treasure!” Er Gouzi exclaimed. “With just one drop, my soul foundation has expanded immensely!”

“Then why are you idling?” Sun Yi grinned. “Keep downloading. Push your soul to the limit. Once your bandwidth hits the threshold, I’ll install the Split Spirit Technique into your memory.”

“Understood, Headmaster! Resuming download!” Er Gouzi eagerly swallowed another drop and entered a trance.

“Alas, our own Cultivation bases are too high. Our pathways are fixed,” Elder Jin Jue sighed, his face a mask of regret. “Even if we upgrade our souls, we cannot practice the Split Spirit Technique.”

“Indeed,” Elder Han Yun nodded enviously. “These juniors were born into a golden age. To encounter our Headmaster… it is a supreme blessing they must have cultivated over eight lifetimes of good karma.”

“Hehe, fret not,” Elder Ye Luo chuckled. “We cannot practice the Split Spirit Technique, but the Heavenly Soul Liquid will still reinforce our foundations. It will vastly increase our success rate when we attempt to Breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage.”

Elder Ye Luo was correct. They had all opened their internal Five Gates, boosting their base stats. With the new body-refining manuals and this Heavenly Soul Liquid, Sun Yi’s hypothesis of ‘Trinity Cultivation’—the perfect balance of Qi, Body, and Soul—was fully realized. As long as they diligently followed this optimized progression path, stepping into the Nascent Soul realm was a mathematical certainty.

While Sun Yi and the five Golden Core Elders monitored Er Gouzi’s upgrade process, the over three hundred crafters waited anxiously outside the tower.

“The Headmaster and the Elders have been inside for a long time. Has a disaster occurred?”

“Did the array fail?”

“Alas, usurping the Heavens to create a supreme treasure was a fool’s errand. It was too difficult.”

“Hold your tongues! It is too early to declare failure. Perhaps the Headmaster is simply refining the product!”

“Indeed. Until the Headmaster speaks, the Heavens have made no ruling.”

The crowd waited outside the Demon Refining Tower for a full 24 hours. Finally, the massive bronze doors groaned open, and Sun Yi led his team outside.

“Headmaster! What is the verdict?” Elder Yan rushed forward, his face pale with anxiety. The entire valley held its breath.

“I am pleased to report,” Sun Yi announced, cutting through the tension. “We did it. We have successfully manufactured Heavenly Soul Liquid!”