Dao - Chapter 76

Chapter 76 The Alchemy Assessment, Talents Displayed for the First Time (2)

Hissing.

Hearing that, there were sounds of people gasping as Xuan Qing and Jing Yuan, the two Gold Core cultivators were also shocked.

“Alright, then you can try it out.” The Alchemy Taoist was very surprised to hear that she had 30% confidence in refining the Dragon and Tiger Pill, “But I didn’t prepare the materials for the Dragon and Tiger Pill, so you just wait for a while and there will be someone delivering them.”

“Yes, Chief Master.” Ji Yuewu nodded and walked away. Shiao Chen felt a breeze of fragrance and the fair lady had already passed him before he looked up. Yet he could still hear her, “Shiao Chen, disciple brother, you don’t have to hide all the time. Instead, you should just show your power a little bit today and let those losers who overestimate themselves understand who is the best among them all.”

The fragrant breeze was gone as the fair lady walked away. Shiao Chen was quite curious about her as he thought for a while and then walked forward.

However, at that moment, someone spoke loudly behind him.

“Chief Master, our junior brother Shiao Chen doesn’t have a spiritual root, and it was already quite hard for him to reach the second level of the Qi Refining stage within one year. I’m afraid he didn’t spend enough time on cultivation and probably can’t even make pills of the lowest grade, the Heart-soothing Powder. Shall we just disqualify him in case he makes a scene here?”

It was Duan Huaming who spoke.

Hearing that, Shiao Chen’s face changed a bit as his eyes flashed all of a sudden, yet he restrained all of his expressions quickly.

“Why do you have to hide your power, my brother Shiao Chen? What if you just make a high-grade pill to impress them. With the power of the sect, you could look for methods to establish the foundation?” Yu Ji’s voice echoed in Shiao Chen’s heart.

Shiao Chen was stunned and then sneered a little bit as he figured out what that meant. Since someone wanted to know how a loser looks like, he didn’t mind teaching him a lesson.

Hearing that, cultivators in the hall started to chat with each other. After they knew the identity of Shiao Chen, they looked at him in a weird way and there were even some haters who started to hiss him as they were jealous of the attention Shiao Chen is getting.

The Alchemy Taoist frowned a little bit as he was hesitating as well. The reason why he accepted Shiao Chen was all because of his determination, and he knew exactly how ungifted he was. It was definitely a hard year for him to reach the second level of the Qi Refining stage, so he was afraid that he didn’t have the time to practice alchemy. If he made a mistake during the test, he would definitely get mocked by people.

“Shiao Chen, I won’t punish you if you give up this test. What do you think?”

Shiao Chen looked up with a plain face and calm eyes. He bowed to the Alchemy Taoist respectfully first and then said slowly, “I will not give up.”

“I was just too humble to be mentioned until you, my Master accepted me as your disciple. I have nothing to repay you and I feel very guilty about that. Today it is the Core Formation Ceremony of the Master, so I would like to make a Life-prolonging Pill for you to show my endless gratitude.”

After he said that, the entire hall was silent.

Life-prolonging Pill was a superior third-grade spirit pill which was made with Spiritual Root Grass, Immortal Flower, Millennium Vine, and other spiritual herbs. It only worked when one took it for the first time, and it could add 10 years’ life.

Although it could only extend one’s life for 10 years, it was enough to make those cultivators crave for it. After all, the ultimate goal of cultivation was to reach a longer life than ordinary people.

“Hahahahah, he just said he wants to make a Life-Prolonging Pill. How dare a cultivator in the second level of the Qi Refining stage brag like that?”

“He doesn’t even know what he is talking about. Just go back where you from, bastard.”

“What a nut! If you can make a Life-Prolonging Pill, then I can make the legendary Immortal-transformation Pill.”

“Get off! Stop humiliating yourself here.”

After a brief silence, the entire hall had fallen into mocking and sneering. Those disciples of the Luoyun Valley were all very impressive that those cultivators were quite jealous of them, now they had finally got the chance to let out their frustration.

Even Xuan Qing and Ming Sha were shaking their heads after a short shock as they perceived the kid was absurd.

It was a superior third-grade pill. Except for the Alchemy Taoist, probably there was no one in the Beihua State who could make this kind of pill. This kid was absolutely ridiculous.

The Qingyun Taoist was a bit upset as today was the ceremony of the Luoyun Valley, so it would be really shameful if there were any jokes about this.

“Shiao Chen, don’t you ever mention making a Life-prolonging Pill again. If you insist on participating in the test, just take one portion of these materials and go.” The Alchemy Taoist frowned but as he saw Shiao Chen’s calm eyes, he went silent at once.

“Chieft Master, I can guarantee that Junior Brother Shiao Chen is not that kind of person who talks wildly. Since he said so, he must have confidence in it. Why don’t we let him try it?” Ji Yuewu bowed with respect and said while throwing a glimpse at Shiao Chen with her beautiful eyes.

“Well…” Hearing that, the Qingyun Taoist was reluctant for a while. He didn’t care about Shiao Chen, but Ji Yuewu was a real talent in the cultivation of the Luoyun Valley for hundreds of years. With her speed of progress, she could probably reach the Gold Core within 100 years. Although Ji Yuewu had not established the foundation, her opinion was important enough to attract his attention.

“Masters, I think we could just let disciple brother Shiao Chen try it, or he would be really disappointed. But the Spiritual Root Grass, Immortal Flower, and the Millennium Vine are really rare and valuable, so I suggest we only give him one portion of those materials. And if he failed to make it and ruined those precious spiritual herbs, we could just kick him out of the sect and never accept him again. What do you think, masters?” Duan Huaming sneered as he returned from the astonishment before. Now he was speaking out of real malicious purpose because he wanted to kick Shiao Chen into the ordinary world thoroughly.

The Qingyun Taoist and the Alchemy Taoist looked at each other and then the Alchemy Taoist nodded slightly after a long while, saying, “Alright. Shiao Chen, you already know the prerequisites, are you still willing to participate? If not, I won’t punish you.”

“Thanks for your kindness, Chief Master. But please give me the spiritual herbs. If I failed to make it, I would go down the mountain without complaining.” Shiao Chen bowed slightly to the Alchemy Taoist with respect. Shiao Chen was indeed very grateful for the Alchemy Taoist as there would not be the Shiao Chen today if his master had not accepted him back then.

“Go ahead.” The Alchemy Taoist thought for a while as he looked a bit disappointed, yet he didn’t persuade him and just waved to let him go.

Shiao Chen bowed again and when he turned around and passed Duan Huaming, the latter was mocking, “Shiao Chen, my disciple brother, you truly have great power that you can even make a superior third-grade Life-prolonging Pill. I feel really ashamed of myself as your senior brother.”

Shiao Chen turned back and looked at him, saying slightly, “You are indeed a loser because you can only make a superior second-grade pill after more than 7 years of cultivation with the chief master.”

After that, Shiao Chen stood still in front of his stove without even looking at Duan’s gloomy face.

“Since you have chosen your materials, let us begin.” The Alchemy Taoist stared at Shiao Chen for a bit and ignored their squabbling. He then set up many restriction spells on those stoves that were in front of Shiao Chen and the others. This kind of restriction spells didn’t stop people from entering and exiting, but only served to prevent the voice and divine sense from entering. After all, alchemy was really a serious thing that could fail because of any interruptions.

Since all those materials needed should be obtained from the storehouse of the sect, while Shiao Chen and Ji Yuewu were still waiting outside the restriction spell, Duan Huaming, Li Yuedu, and the others had already started their refining. Rolling heats were coming all the way from the restriction spell and what was going along was the fragrance of those spirit herbs.

After a short while, a direct disciple handed the materials needed for the Dragon and Tiger Pill with his face fully red. Then he walked away as if his legs were floating in the air.

“Shiao Chen, my junior brother. Since the herbs are here, I’ll start making my pill now.” Ji Yuewu stared at Shiao Chen and took the herbs as she walked into the restriction spell. Then she started to insert her spiritual power inside the stove.

Ji Yuewu had started to make the Dragon and Tiger Pill.

Shiao Chen looked over the hall and ignored all of those mocking eyes. Through the golden seal, his divine sense went through the restriction spells set by the Alchemy Taoist easily and swept those stoves from inside. This was one of the effects of that golden seal he had learned from his recent experiments. As long as their cultivations were in the same meta realm, this kind of restriction spell was meaningless to him.

He saw someone inserted some spiritual power with his hand, and immediately heat waves were rolling inside the stove. The person arranged those required materials in order and calculated the heats secretly, and then put those spiritual herbs in it one by one.

No matter how mean hey was, Duan Huaming was really good at cultivation as every step he made was coherent and even with the style of alchemy masters.

While Li Yuedu, Heishi and Liu Junru were all performing with standards as they looked all very serious, conducting their refining procedures in order.

Despite Heishi who made some mistakes making his Foundation Establishment Pill, the other four were gradually refining the power out of the herbs in their stoves as they were tangled together. They could all successfully make their pills if no accidents happened.

“Senior Brother Shiao Chen, here are the spiritual herbs needed for the Life-prolonging Pill, please have a look.” Right at the moment, a direct disciple of the Luoyun Valley came with a jade tray and put it in front of Shiao Chen.

Shiao Chen swept it through with his divine sense and nodded after he made sure the materials were alright.

That disciple looked at Shiao Chen in a weird way and turned around to leave.

Spiritual Root Grass, Immortal Flower, Millennium Vine, and the Fragrant Powder…there were 21 spiritual herbs in total. Shiao Chen took them in his hand and looked around, then he walked into the restriction spell.

The stoves offered by the Alchemy Taoist were of good quality and probably as good as a medium-grade spirit tool. There were many spirit-gathering arrays carved on them and they could attract the spiritual power automatically during the refining that they could increase the heat and accelerate the speed of refining. Shiao Chen stood in front of the stove and thought for a while, then he took out a jade bottle from his bag and opened it. There was a bright green pill as big as a stone and giving off a secret fragrance laying on his palm.