Chapter 71 – Reading A Lot Has Its Benefits
“You know who I am?”
Elder Wu only swept a glance at the flame in Yang Chen’s hand, but he hadn’t paid much attention to Yang Chen’s question, he was most interested in finding out how Yang Chen knew about him. He had never shown his face in front of this batch of disciples who had come to train at the Immortal Falling Well, even when he had killed Peng Hui, he did that secretly, without showing his face to anyone.
“A top grade blue-green zoysia is the main ingredient for the Heaven Seizing Pill, the only person here who would have a use for it would be you, Elder Wu!”
Only, Yang Chen wasn’t very nervous as he slowly explained the reasons for his judgement.
“Your knowledge and experience are out of the ordinary!”
Elder Wu faintly nodded and praised him. But he was still quite baffled, a mere qi layer youngster surprisingly knew the ingredients of the Heaven Seizing Pill, this was unimaginable.
“This untalented youngster has already committed the entire Hidden Pavilion of the Nine Earth Manor of the Pure Yang Palace to memory.”
Yang Chen’s words removed most of the doubts in Elder Wu’s heart. A youngster who had already learnt everything in a Hidden Pavilion, for him to know about the blue-green zoysia and Heaven Seizing Pill was not something unimaginable.
But even though Yang Chen’s fire controlling arts were extraordinary and he had also absorbed the most suitable flame for concocting, the Geocentric Flame, Elder Wu still wasn’t even the least bit assured. He took out a piece of blue-green zoysia and indicated Yang Chen to refine it on the spot.
Yang Chen was still calm and composed. When the zoysia was still in the air, it was immediately engulfed by the flame, as if there were threads within the flame the zoysia was slowly pulled towards himself and was placed into his hands. The dark red flame in the zoysia’s surroundings began to touch it and soon a variation appeared in the zoysia.
The originally solid zoysia slowly began to change into dough and immediately afterwards, it turned into a liquid. Under Yang Chen’s manipulation of the flame, it kept on changing shapes incessantly, in one moment it turned into the shape of an ornament, then after another moment it transformed into a green pill cauldron. The strangest thing was that the zoysia had maintained its blue-green color from the beginning without even a the slightest change.
But all of this didn’t count for anything. Yang Chen clearly remembered that Elder Wu’s request was to purify and refine it. Although refining wasn’t a problem, but the purification step was still left.
Under the burning of the Geocentric Flame, little by little, slight traces of multicolored impurities began to flow out of the green colored fluid and within a flash they were led somewhere else by the fast flowing fire. These multicolored impurities slowly became less and less, when a white colored juice began to seep out. Yang Chen knew that this was some different zoysia mixed in with the blue-green zoysia, which was still regarded as an impurity.
After a long moment, the impurities stopped seeping out of the green colored juice and Yang Chen controlled his flame, turning it into a circular flame cup, which he used to hold the green colored liquid and placed it in front of Elder Wu.
The green colored liquid within the flame seemed like a piece of transparent fluid, but the green color was a pleasure to look at. Even though it was liquid, its viscosity was still not increased even a little bit by the heat. Elder Wu lightly reached out his hand and put it into the liquid. The portion he touched immediately condensed at his fingertip and left the fire cup within Yang Chen’s hand, when he retrieved his finger.
Yang Chen put away the flame cup and calmly waited for Elder Wu’s judgement. Elder Wu held his finger directly in front of his eyes and his Spiritual Awareness directly penetrated the zoysia.
The whole lump was bluish-green in color, almost without any impurity, plump and alluring. One could see through it from one end to the other, it was completely transparent and the bluish-green color was well distributed within it. Holding it in his hand, it immediately gave off a gentle sensation. Compared to the time when it was given to Yang Chen, the nature of the zoysia had become better by at least ten times.
“You are the first person at the qi layer I know to have accomplished this bare handed!”
Elder Wu was not stingy when praising Yang Chen. The person before his eyes had the best pill concocting talent among all of the people he had met, yet he was only at the qi layer and still able to accomplish a feat which not even JieDan expert could accomplish, especially his control over fire, it was simply in the realm of perfection. If it were not for his cultivation limiting him, even Elder Wu would not be his match.
“Elder Wu should not patronize me!”
Yang Chen displayed a kind of self deprecating elegance. Looking at Elder Wu’s eyes, he sighed deeply again.
“I want to refine the Heaven Seizing Pill for which I require the help of other high level pill concocting masters, Younger Brother, are you interested?”
Elder Wu had already inspected Yang Chen’s pill concocting skills and immediately invited him.
“This is exactly what I want!”
Yang Chen agreed with a smile stretched across his entire face. To be invited by a Da Cheng stage expert to work together, leaving aside the benefits he could gain later, just to be able to learn about the Heaven Seizing Pill’s refining process was already a chance which one could only get by luck. If he didn’t grab this opportunity, wouldn’t he be a fool?
In addition to that, Yang Chen wanted to establish himself as a high level pill concocting master. If he used this matter with Elder Wu, that would establish it as an unshakable fact which nobody would dare to doubt. Even a Da Cheng stage expert was asking Yang Chen for help, wouldn’t that clearly illustrate his point?
The refining of the Heaven Seizing Pill was similar to the yang qi pill, it only required to mix the ingredients and fuse them together to be refined. That was what the name ‘Heaven Seizing’ referred to. If genuinely refined, the difference was not much compared to a first rate magic weapon. It definitely did not require many high level ingredients, but the refining process was divided into many stages, every stage was a thousand or ten thousand times more complex than refining the foundation stage pill.
This could said to be the highest grade pill within the mortal world, even with the experience of Yang Chen’s previous life as a Principal Golden Immortal, he had never taken part in the process. He hadn’t even seen the refining of a Heaven Seizing Pill. It could be said that, as long as he was able to successfully refine the Heaven Seizing Pill, he could be compared to a fourth grade pill concocting master.
When Yang Chen and Elder Wu walked out of Yang Chen’s room, it immediately gave rise to an uproar. Yang Chen hadn’t left his room for a long time already, when people required pills to be concocted, they would have to come to him and ask him for a favor. This kind of situation, where he would depart after completing a person’s request hadn’t happened before. Because nobody had seen Elder Wu’s face before, they were all looking at him in alert. It seemed as if, as long as Yang Chen suggested it, they would immediately clash with him.
Elder Wu hardly paid any attention to it, he raised his hand and immediately Yang Chen was encased in a bright light and within a flash these two people flew out of Li Lou Village without leaving any tracks. But the group of people left behind at the Li Lou Village didn’t know what happened. Looking at the bright light fading away, they looked at each other in dismay, not knowing what to do.
“What happened just a moment ago? How could the great master by seized by someone?”
“What’s the matter?”
Following the guesses, finally an expert who was on duty here said in a matchlessly jealous tone:
“The person just a moment ago was Elder Wu of the council of five elders, he has taken great master Yang away.”
When the group of concerned people heard his words, nobody had any doubts, everyone began to make guesses, one after another. Why had Elder Wu taken Yang Chen away?
It seemed that Elder Wu did not want to create problems for Yang Chen, so it could be assumed that he would not harm Yang Chen. Moreover, if he really wanted to punish Yang Chen for something, he only had to make a slight effort, equivalent to raising his finger, so why would he go through the trouble and appear himself?
Since Yang Chen was not in trouble, then there could only be two possibilities: One was that he wanted to cultivate Yang Chen and the other was that he wanted something from Yang Chen. No matter what he wanted to do, it would not be a bad thing for Yang Chen.
Everyone immediately realized why that expert had used this kind of envious tone when he explained it to them. They also began to be jealous within their hearts. If Elder Wu regarded them as important, was there any benefit that they wouldn’t get?
No matter what was said, those people who had the desire to to fawn over Yang Chen and get close to him were the happiest this moment. After this meeting with Elder Wu, Yang Chen’s market price would instantly touch the heavens. They thought that they had already made good karma by forming a bond with Yang Chen, so they were all delighted. The closer they were to Yang Chen, the more benefits they would obtain.
But at this moment, Yang Chen wasn’t concerned about this, he was totally excited to take part in the refining of a Heaven Seizing Pill. Even if he was a Golden Principal Immortal before rebirth, he would still be extremely interested in this heaven defying pill. Not to mention that he would form a good relationship with Elder Wu, who could be considered as a strong expert even in the spiritual world.
By comparison, the speed at which Elder Wu was flying with him on a magic treasure was not something that would amazed him. Yang Chen had also sensed that they were no longer within the Immortal Falling Well, instead they were already flying above the ground, out of the Immortal Falling Well spell formation. Otherwise, at this kind of speed, it would surely give rise to many attacks of underground spirit beasts if it was within the Immortal Falling Well.
When looking at the scenery on the ground, Yang Chen’s body slightly shook and he looked at Elder Wu with suspicion and asked him:
“Elder Wu we are already out of the Immortal Falling Well, could it be?”
“I have already begun to refine the Heaven Seizing Pill for the past few years!”
Elder Wu was naturally aware of what Yang Chen meant to say when he last spoke. He was extremely appreciative of Yang Chen’s quick wittedness.
Between these two people there was no need for any secrecy, since Elder Wu was refining the Heaven Seizing Pill, he naturally wanted to ascend to the spiritual world. Yang Chen was shocked at this, Elder Wu had a pact with the leaders of every sect. He would not leave the Immortal Falling Well if his ascension was not imminent, his leaving already explained everything clearly.
Although Yang Chen was not all that amazed by the flying speed of Elder Wu’s magic treasure, this flying type magic treasure could make normal people gasp in admiration. Within a few hours they had already travelled a distance which would take Yang Chen at least two months.
While flying at rapid speed, Yang Chen no longer felt like measuring the distance, so he slowly began to think about himself flying this magic treasure. This magic treasure was a shuttle shaped boat and Yang Chen was sitting on the hull together with Elder Wu, but unfortunately the hull was not very big. With two people sitting there, almost no space was left. At most they could fit a small desk with some tea, but that was the limit.
“This is the Heavenly Fleeing Shuttle refined by this old man. To gain more speed I had to sacrifice some space.”
As if he could see Yang Chen’s lament about the space, Elder Wu explained it, but self satisfaction was clearly visible on his face. This Heavenly Fleeing Shuttle was Elder Wu’s emergency treasure, one which he was immensely proud of. Moreover this magic treasure was quite well known within the cultivation world, almost all cultivators would have expressions of jealousy and astonishment on their faces once they heard its name, so he thought that Yang Chen would not be an exception.
Elder Wu was astonished that his guess was so far from reality, Yang Chen sized up the magic treasure once and afterward he slightly nodded and responded:
“How pitiful!”
In his previous life, Yang Chen had seen all kinds of flying magic treasures. This Heavenly Fleeing Shuttle was only lower grade trash in Yang Chen’s eyes. His assessment was already giving face to Elder Wu’s abilities.
Elder Wu was astonished at Yang Chen’s reply. If Yang Chen had really never heard the great name of the Heavenly Fleeing Shuttle, then it was unfortunate for Yang Chen. How could a mere qi layer youngster like Yang Chen comprehend something like a high grade magic treasure?
Elder Wu was not an ordinary cultivator, so he would surely not use the mentality of an ordinary person to judge this assessment. Although Yang Chen’s cultivation was low, he knew about the Heaven Seizing Pill, moreover his control over fire was at a simply divine level. Even though he knew many fire attributed cultivators, among those he could not find anyone who would dare put aside their cultivation and compete against Yang Chen’s fire control. Since he had such a great skill in pill concocting, then surely his assessment for the Heavenly Fleeing Shuttle would not just be random drivel.
“How can you say that?”
Elder Wu asked with the tone of seeking a guidance, without even the slightest trace of mockery for Yang Chen’s young age and low cultivation.
Elder Wu’s attitude raised Yang Chen’s admiration for him, he had seen a lot of people who insult ones who were weaker, because of their own high strength, but seeing Elder Wu’s bearing just now had really caught him off guard. In his previous life, Yang Chen never had the opportunity to make contact with Elder Wu, so he did not know what kind of person he was. A Da Cheng stage expert who might immediately ascend to the spiritual world had not only shown courtesy towards a qi layer expert, asked for his opinion without caring for his face.
“When you refine this magic treasure again, use the Immortal Passage refining technique to fuse this magic treasure with the Immortal Passage.”
Yang Chen did not have any sentimental attachment to the idea, so he calmly explained what he knew:
“Although it will require a little bit of skill, in the end it will be much more comfortable. It also doesn’t need to be carried as eye-grabbingly as a qiankun pouch. This is not the highest grade of magic treasures.”
This method was commonly used in the spiritual world, but nobody wanted to do this in the mortal world, Elder Wu would soon know about this after ascending, but in the mortal world, very few people would want to spend the ingredients and magic power, just to improve a flying magic treasure. A lot of people would think of this as a waste.
Like a person woken up from a dream, Elder Wu suddenly felt enlightened, in the past if he ran into any kind of difficulty on this magic weapon, he would immediately escape, so he could not help but praise him loudly:
“That’s right! Such a simple thing, why didn’t I think of this earlier?”
After he finished his praise, his gaze immediately moved to Yang Chen’s face, with a smile he asked in suspicion:
“Are you really a qi layer cultivator?”
“This youngster has only read a few books.”
Yang Chen smilingly replied. In any case, he had already told him that he had learned everything in the Hidden Pavilion, so this idea was also not something unimaginable.
Elder Wu nodded, but didn’t say anything, but in his mind, he had already formed a plan. During the refining of the dual heavenly pill, he would spend as much time as possible with Yang Chen and he had to learn about all of the knowledge Yang Chen had learned by reading. Currently his cultivation did not have any bottleneck, what he required was some time and a sudden insight. Previously he had only looked into things pertaining to cultivation, but apparently that wasn’t enough.