Chapter 48 - If You Can Refine It, I’ll Swallow The Furnace
At the Qingyun Dao Sect.
The golden sun was shining brightly while hanging high in the sky.
The sunlight was warm.
The smile on Xu Luochen’s face was even warmer.
He was in a great mood.
Firstly, it was because he had finally memorized all the basic pill formulas.
Secondly, it was because they had indeed delayed the progress of Ye Ping’s cultivation.
In particular, Xu Luochen grinned even more widely when he thought of his Eldest Senior Brother.
Thinking of this, Xu Luochen had to criticize Su Changyu in his heart again.
As the Eldest Senior Brother, Su Changyu threw tantrums every now and then and would stand alone on the rear cliff moodily just because Ye Ping had poor aptitude.
‘Isn’t he embarrassed at all?’
‘Is that what an Eldest Senior Brother should be like?’
However, Xu Luochen wasn’t there to check Ye Ping’s progress in alchemy.
He mainly went there to teach Ye Ping the true art of alchemy.
After all, Ye Ping’s progress had been delayed for almost a month, and he ought to teach him some real things.
He couldn’t possibly keep fooling Ye Ping with the techniques of refining a non-poisonous pill. Xu Luochen was not being mean, he just wanted Ye Ping to retreat after realizing how difficult it was.
Their plan was to first teach Ye Ping an alchemy technique that was impossible for him to achieve success with, before teaching him the foundation. If Ye Ping was really talented in alchemy, he wouldn’t be conceited either because it was only a basic alchemy technique after all.
If Ye Ping couldn’t even succeed in learning basic alchemical techniques, that would be even better because he would continue staying in the sect to train.
Anyway, it would be the best of both worlds no matter what.
What if Ye Ping succeeded in refining pills?
Hah.
Xu Luochen was not bragging, but if Ye Ping could really refine a non-poisonous pill, Xu Luochen would eat his one and only pill furnace.
He would swallow it whole.
He would swallow the pill furnace right in front of all the Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, Junior Brothers, and Junior Sisters in front of the Qingyun Dao Sect too.
‘Non-poisonous pill?’
When Xu Luochen was boasting about it back then, he even felt a little embarrassed.
At the thought of this, Xu Luochen’s smile faded and he looked extremely gentle and kind.
Soon, Xu Luochen came to the middle of the rear cliff.
It happened that Ye Ping was seated on the ground and studying something.
“Junior Brother Ye.”
At the next moment, Xu Luochen’s voice sounded.
On the rear cliff, Ye Ping, who had been deep in thought, suddenly snapped back to his senses.
He was focusing all his attention on the non-poisonous pill in his hand. Hence, he didn’t notice Xu Luochen’s appearance.
Upon sight of Xu Luochen, Ye Ping immediately stood up and said respectfully with a bow, “Greetings, Senior Brother Luochen.”
“Don’t be so formal.”
Xu Luochen chuckled before turning to look at Ye Ping. “Junior Brother Ye, how have you been lately?”
“I’ve been alright.”
Ye Ping nodded, feeling a little embarrassed.
Although he had succeeded in refining a pill, it wasn’t a complete pill, so he was a bit embarrassed and didn’t know if he should bring it up.
“Yes, I saw you frowning and being worried a few days ago, but you seem to be well today. You should have progressed, how’s your pill refining going?”
Xu Luochen asked casually.
“Senior Brother, I’ve made some progress.”
Ye Ping simply said that because he didn’t dare to say that he had refined a pill.
‘Some progress?’
Xu Luochen was slightly stunned.
‘What does this mean?’
“What do you mean?”
Xu Luochen asked, his eyes filled with curiosity.
He didn’t quite understand the meaning of this statement.
“Senior Brother, the pill has been refined, but it’s not complete.”
Ye Ping answered seriously.
All of a sudden, Xu Luochen fell silent.
The smile on his face gradually faded as he looked at Ye Ping.
“Junior Brother Ye.”
Xu Luochen said.
“I’m here.”
Xu Luochen said solemnly, “Your aptitude might be mediocre, but the Sect Leader and Eldest Senior Brother said that you have a good personality and you’re simple and kind-hearted. Even if you couldn’t refine a pill, you can’t lie, understand?”
Xu Luochen was very serious.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe that Ye Ping would have any talent in alchemy, but rather, the pill refining technique that he taught Ye Ping was utter nonsense that he fabricated.
‘Creation Pill Refinement Technique? Non-poisonous pills? If I told anyone else about this, the 100,000 Masters of alchemy will definitely slap me hard.’
‘Did Ye Ping say that he managed to refine a pill?’
‘That’s not the way to brag.’
‘How are you better at boasting than Eldest Senior Brother?’
“I’m not lying.”
Ye Ping answered seriously.
‘You’re not lying?’
‘Really?’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Xu Luochen genuinely didn’t believe it, but he couldn’t directly lecture Ye Ping so he simply said, “Show me the pill you refined then.”
Xu Luochen was doubtful and apprehensive.
“Please guide me, Senior Brother.”
Ye Ping didn’t waste his breath any longer and simply opened his palm.
In that instant, a crystalline diamond-like pill appeared on his palm.
The pill wasn’t large and it was the size of a soybean. Dazzling brightly under the sun, it looked more like a gemstone than a pill.
“Is this a pill?”
Xu Luochen was a little stunned.
‘You call this thing a pill?’
“Yes.”
Ye Ping nodded.
All of a sudden, Xu Luochen fell silent.
He didn’t know what to say, but Xu Luochen soon smelled the faint scent of the pill that made him freeze a little.
“Let me take a look.”
Xu Luochen still didn’t believe it. He couldn’t help but want to see the pill.
“Please guide me, Senior Brother.”
Ye Ping didn’t say much and directly handed the pill to Xu Luochen.
The latter took the pill and stopped paying attention to Ye Ping. Instead, he observed it carefully.
Although Xu Luochen had failed the alchemy exam seven times, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t identify pills.
Xu Luochen was astounded after just holding it in his hand and feeling it for a while.
“It’s a Spirit Gathering Pill.”
Xu Luochen immediately detected what kind of pill it was.
He was surprised.
The Spirit Gathering Pill could be said to be the most common type of pill in the world of immortal cultivation because it was a pill needed by all, be it Qi Refinement cultivators, Foundation Establishment cultivators, or Golden Core Perfected Ones.
As the name implied, the Spirit Gathering Pill would gather all the spiritual energy in one pill and swallowing on Spirit Gathering Pill would be equivalent to swallowing two Qi Refinement Pills of the same grade.
The side effects were the same, but its effectiveness was twice as much as that of Qi Refinement Pills. One just had to spend more time on refining it.
There was no need to meditate and refine it after swallowing it like one would after consuming Qi Refinement Pills. Generally, Spirit Gathering Pills were pills that only large sects could enjoy. Sects like the Qingyun Dao Sect would be lucky enough to have Qi Refinement Pills, what more Spirit Gathering Pills.
How could there be Spirit Gathering Pills?
More importantly, the Spirit Gathering Pill seemed to be different from the other Spirit Gathering Pills that he had seen before.
Xu Luochen contemplated for a while.
The Spirit Gathering Pills that he had seen before were white in color and resembled rice grains, and would emit a faint medicinal fragrance.
However, the Spirit Gathering Pill in front of him was not only the size of a soybean, it was crystal clear too like a gemstone.
Most importantly, the spiritual energy contained in the Spirit Gathering Pill was very dense and Xu Luochen could sense it.
Supreme-grade Spirit Gathering Pill?
Xu Luochen thought of a possibility immediately.
‘Only supreme-grade Spirit Gathering Pills would be like this, right?’
‘But why does Little Junior Brother have such a supreme-grade Spirit Gathering Pill?’
Xu Luochen frowned.
“Junior Brother Ye, who gave you this pill?”
Xu Luochen thought about it for a long time, but he couldn’t understand it. Hence, he couldn’t help but ask Ye Ping who had given him that pill.
“Senior Brother, was this really refined by you?”
Ye Ping had some doubts too as he couldn’t understand why Xu Luochen just refused to believe that the pill had been refined by him.
‘Oh!’
In the next moment, Ye Ping understood.
The pill that he had refined was not complete and the pill that Xu Luochen refined was definitely going to be complete. Hence, the half-finished product was naturally a little foreign to Xu Luochen.
At the thought of this, Ye Ping immediately said, “Senior Brother Luochen, I haven’t started cultivating yet, so the spiritual energy in my body is insufficient. Besides, I have poor aptitude and I can’t refine a complete pill successfully, so there might be errors.”
Ye Ping explained.
However, they sounded slightly harsh to Xu Luochen.
‘You call this poor aptitude?’
The exam requirements to become a third-rank alchemist was to be able to refine a complete Qi Refinement Pill alone with a single furnace. A complete pill would be a pill that was still a Qi Refinement Pill even if it was worse than an inferior-grade pill. One would be considered to have passed the exam even if only one pill was refined.
Refining the Spirit Gathering Pills was the exam requirement for a second-rank alchemist.
The Spirit Gathering Pill in his hand now was at least superior-grade, even if it wasn’t supreme-grade.
In other words, even a second-rank alchemist would have a hard time refining a superior-grade Spirit Gathering Pill.
‘How long have you been learning?’
‘A month?’
‘Yet, you can already refine a superior-grade Spirit Gathering Pill.’
‘You call this poor aptitude?’
‘What about me?’
‘Won’t I be a failure then?’
‘Okay.’
‘Little Junior Brother.’
‘You decided to pretend to be impressive first.’
‘I may be mild-mannered, but I can’t tolerate everything. Even Eldest Senior Brother doesn’t have the audacity to pretend to be impressive in front of me.’
Xu Luochen was full of criticism for him.
At this moment, he took a deep breath and looked at Ye Ping.
He said calmly, “In that case, demonstrate the refinement process once so that I can give you some guidance.”
Xu Luochen’s expression was calm.
He wanted to see how Ye Ping could continue keeping up with the lie.
“Okay, but the pill refinement process will take hours. Senior Brother, you’re not busy, are you?”
Ye Ping reminded kindly.
The spiritual energy in his body was not sufficient, so it would take several hours for him to refine pills.
However, in Xu Luochen’s eyes, that became an excuse for him to avoid it.
“It’s alright, I have plenty of time.”
Xu Luochen couldn’t help but smile gently again as he looked at Ye Ping.
He was going to expose Ye Ping’s lie today.
At the same time, he had already prepared what he would say when he lectured Ye Ping later.
He would warn Ye Ping that liars would have to swallow a thousand needles.
He would tell Ye Ping that he ought to be a decent and upright person who doesn’t lie.
He would tell him that lying was immoral.
However, at the next moment, Ye Ping sat cross-legged.
Immediately afterwards, spiritual energy surged and Xu Luochen snapped back to his senses.
*sizzles*
A large amount of spiritual energy appeared in Ye Ping’s hand, emitting a sizzling sound.
Xu Luochen was a little curious.
However, a beam of light soon appeared in Ye Ping’s palm.
Xu Luochen was a little curious.
Eight hours passed.
Xu Luochen’s eyes were a little teary and his legs were numb.
He was focusing all his attention on Ye Ping.
Sizzle!
At this moment, an extremely bright and dazzling white light flashed.
Xu Luochen’s vision turned white and by the time he regained his vision, Ye Ping was already sweating profusely, as if he had done a laborious task.
However, when he saw a gemstone-like Spirit Gathering Pill in Ye Ping’s palm, he… couldn’t laugh anymore.