by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“Hmph, what’s the point of me being worried? Him dying is fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” The other maiden indifferently snorted. But although she said these words, she had already taken out an extremely strange and ancient silk net.
“Heehee, don’t say you don’t care, you’ve already taken out your martial weapon. Looks like you do still care. And you know, although his cultivation talent is trash, he’s not that bad looking. How about this, if you don’t want him, you can just give him to me.” the other maiden laughingly joked.
“How can a person be just randomly given to you? If you like him, you can wait for me to withdraw from the marriage arrangement. After that, you can do whatever you want,” responded the other woman angrily.
“Heehee.”
On the martial arena, Long Chen from the beginning until the end had remained as calm as water. When compared to yesterday’s him who had been gnashing his teeth in complete anger, it was as if he was a completely different person.
“Long Chen, with your death near, you decided to suddenly become calm? Don’t worry, due to the stakes you proposed, I won’t beat you to death today.” Li Hao was extremely arrogant and confident.
“You sure say a lot of crap. Hurry up and come at me, I still have things to do,” responded Long Chen in a slightly impatient manner.
Because the entire audience was very quiet, every single word of Long Chen’s managed to enter the crowd’s ears, and in a split second everyone watching the martial arena burst into jeering derision.
“Li Hao, what are you still waiting for? Hurry up and beat this kid to death! He’s really causing us to feel too embarrassed for him.”
Some of the people present recognized Li Hao, so they called out to him.
A cold sneer appeared on Li Hao’s face, and he was no longer hesitating; the power of his third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation completely exploded out. His foot pressed down slightly on the martial arena, and he immediately shot out towards Long Chen, punching out with his fist.
When Li Hao started attacking, the crowd below burst into cheers; the current Li Hao’s appearance appeared very dashing and handsome.
“Nice attack, it’s the Wind Jade Tree Fist.”
Some of the people recognized the move and cheered. However, the distant two maidens’ expressions were both filled with contempt and ridicule.
Long Chen similarly also sneered. This kind of idiot move—filled with mistakes—could still be used against enemies?
The fist was smashing towards him and a strong wind whistled as it approached, but Long Chen seemed to not notice it at all and didn’t move even an inch.
“Haha, this trash doesn’t even know how to dodge,” sneered some people under the stage.
However, just when that ridicule had just been shouted out, Li Hao’s fist came to a complete stop just an inch away from Long Chen’s face.
The originally ridiculing crowd suddenly came to complete silence. They noticed that one of Long Chen’s legs had struck out and violently kicked Li Hao in the area between his legs.
The originally beaming with happiness and elegant Li Hao now had an expression like a purple eggplant. Long Chen’s kick clearly caused him an extremely severe pain, making his facial features warp and preventing him from moving.
However, he might not be able to move from the pain, but Long Chen could. In just this brief pause, Long Chen grabbed Li Hao’s hair, forcefully pulling on it while also strongly kicking out with his knee.
SLAM SLAM SLAM!
Long Chen completed his actions in an extremely refreshing manner and in a short time, his strong and fast rhythmic actions gave people a very intense show.
The unpleasant sound of bones breaking came out from Li Hao’s body. His nose was already caved in, his whole face was covered in blood, and he himself had already lost consciousness.
For a moment, not even one voice could be heard from the crowd. Nobody had expected that a strong person at the third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation would be beaten by trash, who had no cultivation base, in such a quick manner.
Moreover, he had done it in the cleanest and most efficient manner. This kind of result was a firm slap in the face towards the crowd that had been ridiculing him.
Even the distant two observing maidens were completely shocked. Li Hao was nothing to them and could be easily killed with a wave of their hands…
But Long Chen was not the same as them. From the very start, not a trace of spiritual energy had been used by Long Chen and he had completely relied on an ordinary person’s abilities to defeat Li Hao.
“Long Chen wins.”
A voice came from an elderly man below the stage who was often in charge of the martial arena and its registration.
Long Chen’s stomach fluctuated rapidly a couple of times, and it was only with great willpower that he managed to stop and suppress the killing intent inside him. Right now was not the time for killing people.
He had been oppressed for such a long time, and now that he had exploded out, it was hard for him to withdraw it. But as the rest of the world saw it, Long Chen’s actions appeared to be from lack of strength like he was gasping for breath.
Long Chen walked off the stage to the elderly man and received the sword that he had used as his stakes as well as a crystal card with five thousand gold coins on it.
The rules here stated that they had to hand in the stakes to the referee before the match; in order to show that it was equitable and also lowering the chance of anyone backing out during the battle.
After receiving the martial sword, Long Chen directly returned it to Shi Feng. Placing the crystal card into his robes, he couldn’t help but become somewhat excited.
Although five thousand gold coins wasn’t very much, it could help settle a bit of the desperate situation his family was in. It had been very long since they had received a stipend from the empire, and nowadays the Long family was quickly reaching the point where they couldn’t even afford decent food to eat.
Under the attentive gazes of countless people, the two of them unhurriedly left. The two maidens watched Long Chen leave and immediately afterward, they also disappeared.
The news that Long Chen had beaten Li Hao seemed to gain legs as it rapidly spread. In just a short time, the entire imperial capital learned of it. The news puzzled countless people; how could trash who couldn’t practice martial arts possibly have become this difficult to deal with?
But even with so many people personally seeing it as well as the news that Li Hao had to be carried back to his estate, quite a few people were still incapable of completely accepting it.
Long Chen had wanted to split his earnings with Shi Feng, but Shi Feng was completely unwilling. In the end, he quickly made an excuse that he had things to do before hastily leaving, not even asking Long Chen how he had suddenly become so powerful.
Remembering this favor in his heart, Long Chen directly went to the Hundred Herb Market. Entering into the Hundred Herb Market, Long Chen requested a catalog of their medicinal ingredients.
On it were very clear recordings of the various medicinal ingredients’ names and prices. Long Chen saw the majority of the medicinal ingredients required to refine the FengFu Pill[1]. It was quite lucky that the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu Pill were not especially uncommon.
However, looking at the price, Long Chen’s heart practically dripped blood. The gold coins he had now were only enough to buy three portions of the medicinal ingredients.
But he couldn’t spend it all on these medicinal ingredients since he still needed to buy a medicinal furnace for refining, as well as to buy some other spare medicinal ingredients. The few gold coins he had were like a cup of water trying to put out a burning cart.
However, not buying it was also unacceptable, so Long Chen clenched his teeth and spent twelve hundred gold coins to buy a bronze furnace of the worst quality.
He also bought one set of the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu Pill as w
ell as a large amount of medicinal ingredients for the Energy Recovery Powder. By the time Long Chen left the Hundred Herb Market, the amount on his crystal card was only five hundred gold coins.
After returning home, Long Chen went right to his own room. Firmly locking the door, he ordered Bao-er to tell everyone that he was not to be disturbed.
He knew that his mother would hear the news that he had once again gone to compete in martial arts. Afraid that his mother would worry, he purposely told Bao-er to block her. In any case, nothing had happened to him, and his mother shouldn’t become too concerned.
Right now, he had to seize every second of every minute to quickly increase his strength. He was sure that the current Long family’s predicament was not as simple as it seemed, and he sensed the coming of a crisis.
The spiritual energy in Long Chen’s body started moving, and a cluster of flame appeared within his hand. This was a pill cultivator’s agglomerated Pill Flame. But when Long Chen saw this ball of flame, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; this flame was far too weak. The Pill Flame was formed from a pill cultivator’s spiritual energy, and through special operating methods it was condensed into a spiritual energy flame. However, the current Long Chen’s Pill Flame’s temperature was extremely low, even when compared to other ordinary Pill Flames.
In addition, Long Chen found that without his Dantian to support him, he couldn’t maintain the Pill Flame for more than a quarter of an hour, which was far from enough time to refine medicinal pills.
Long Chen bitterly smiled. However, luckily he had his backup plan, which was first refining the Energy Recovery Powder. Placing the medicinal ingredients into the furnace, he refined them one by one. This time, he didn’t use his Pill Flame, but instead used a normal fire from the wood.
When all the medicinal ingredients had been refined, he placed them into a jug of water to form Energy Recovery Liquid and after resting for a short period of time, Long Chen took a deep breath and prepared himself to officially begin the refining of FengFu Pill.
[1] FengFu is an acupuncture point on the back of the neck. Feng=wind, while Fu refers to the location of a place that controls something. The name means that that location is the point where the flow of breath within the body is controlled.
Chapter 4 Condensing the FengFu Star
Nine Yin Grass, refinement complete.
Earth Dragon Root, refinement complete.
Flame Seed, refinement complete.
….
Over thirty types of medicinal herbs were refined one by one, using up over two hours of Long Chen’s time and causing him to be covered in sweat.
Refining pills was not the same as simply decocting medicine. Every single medicinal herb’s essence had to be extracted while at the same time removing the impurities, forming a powder.
However, the flame in Long Chen’s hand was of far too low a quality and the refined powder still retained too many impurities to be ideal. Still, this was the only method that he had.
First of all, Long Chen’s cultivation base was nonexistent, and thus he didn’t have the necessary strength to sustain the Pill Flame, making its strength weak.
Second of all, currently, Long Chen didn’t have the opportunity or capability to subdue a different flame, so he could only settle for what he had.
But wanting to train in alchemy methods required not only a strong Pill Flame but also forceful spiritual energy, and the most important requirement was an exceedingly powerful Spiritual Strength.
The other two requirements were not that difficult. As for the Pill Flame, as long as you made all the proper preparations, you could seize a fire-attribute Magical Beast and gradually tame it into a house pet. Drawing on the Magical Beast’s flame, you could subdue it and cultivate it to become your own flame.
Over ninety-nine percent of capable alchemists used beast flames. Only a handful of people, who possessed extremely ancient inheritances of powerful strength, could control those extremely mysterious and mystical Spirit Flames found within heaven and earth.
Spirit Flames were flames that possessed their own soul and according to Long Chen’s memories, he had previously controlled an extremely formidable Spirit Flame.
But no matter how formidable he was in the past, right now he could only use this trash flame for his pill refining. After all, the things in his memories were not things he could take out.
After resting enough, Long Chen took a deep breath. He placed a candle into his hand and a yellow flame appeared.
“Not bad, after going through the refinements, the flame’s strength has increased by a slight amount. Whatever, it’s better than nothing I guess.”
After consecutively refining seven different medicines’ essence, he threw them into the furnace. His Spiritual Strength erupted out and the flame in Long Chen’s hand suddenly fluctuated. Compared to before, it was now several times stronger.
“Using Spiritual Strength to support the flame. If other alchemists saw this, wouldn’t they be shocked to death?” Long Chen bitterly smiled.
Spiritual Strength was the foundation of any pill refinement. At the time of refining, a large amount of Spiritual Strength was needed in order to control the temperature. If even a slight deviation occurred, it would waste all of your previous efforts and you would end up refining a pile of pill ashes. Moreover, if the medicinal pill had a very large medicinal strength, then you might even cause a furnace explosion.
Most alchemists wouldn’t start using their Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement. They would only use it towards the latter stages, when the pill was about to take form in order to very carefully control the flame’s strength.
After all, that was the critical time in the formation of the pill. At that time, the flame’s temperature had to constantly change, sometimes high and sometimes low, and doing so required a large consumption of Spiritual Strength.
If at that time, the alchemist’s Spiritual Strength was already exhausted, then the furnace of pills could basically be considered as scrapped. However, Long Chen actually started using his Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement.
In addition, he used this precious Spiritual Strength just in order to increase the flame’s power, treating it like firewood. Any alchemist would definitely rage and curse at him for doing so. Even if someone was a reckless and frivolous spender, no one would actually spend it like this.
But Long Chen wasn’t worried. According to his memories, his Spiritual Strength was already not lacking compared to ordinary alchemists.
Pill cultivator ranks were Pill Apprentice, Pill Adept, Pill Master, Pill King, Pill Emperor, Pill Ancestor, Pill Venerate, Pill Saint, and Pill Sovereign.
The FengFu Pill was a first tier medicinal pill and generally, pill cultivators who had reached the Pill Apprentice rank could refine a first tier medicinal pill.
Long Chen’s current memories also included those of a Pill Sovereign, so he was completely clear on his current capabilities. When Long Chen had awoken, his Spiritual Strength had changed to become abnormally strong compared to his previous trash self; therefore, Long Chen was qualified to use his Spiritual Strength in such a manner.
The pill furnace in front of Long Chen faintly trembled, emitting a slight buzzing noise.
“Hehe, by increasing the power of the flame, the speed has increased by quite a bit.”
He hastily threw in three more medicinal ingredients into the furnace; however, Long Chen’s forehead was already perspiring at this moment.
Hurriedly taking out a straw, he placed one end into the medicine jar which was filled with Energy Recovery Liquid and quickly drank a mouthful.
When the Energy Recovery Liquid entered his stomach, the pores all over his body opened and began to crazily absorb the spiritual energy between and heaven and earth. His originally about-to-be exhausted spiritual energy rapidly recovered.
This was what Long Chen had prepared earlier. Without it, there was no way for h
im to refine the FengFu Pill. With his current level, it would be a joke if he could actually refine a pill on his own without some kind of assistance.
With the straw in his mouth, every now and then he would draw in another mouthful of Energy Recovery Liquid to replenish his body’s spiritual energy.
With Long Chen’s spiritual energy being replenished, his Spiritual Strength could show off how extremely powerful it was, and it was only two days later that Long Chen started to feel a bit exhausted. That was a sign that his Spiritual Strength had been largely used up.
However, at this time, the medicinal ingredients had already been absorbed into the pill furnace, so all that was left was finishing up. The medicinal aroma was also starting to fill the air.
Although Long Chen’s impression of a first tier medicinal pill was that it was so easy to refine it could be done with his eyes closed, the current him was no longer the same Pill Sovereign in his memories. His destiny had already been completely changed and saying that he wasn’t nervous would be a lie.
Buzz.
Suddenly, the pill furnace’s interior started to vibrate, emitting a series of buzzing noises. The energy within the pill furnace also started to become berserk.
Long Chen didn’t become even the slightest bit panicked; on the contrary, he even started to smile. This was the indication of the pill’s formation and also the most critical time of the refinement.
His Spiritual Strength was completely activated with not even a trace of it held in reserve. The flame in his hand suddenly exploded out, and an incorporeal strength tightly sealed the entire pill furnace. This technique was called ‘Heaven Seal Earth Lock’ and was something that he had come up with from his memories. It was something used in order to prevent pill explosions and also, furnace explosions.
Moreover, this technique was very practical and could in the shortest period seal the medicinal energy within the pill furnace, not letting much leak out.
Normal alchemists would all do this at the last step because when the medicinal pill would go berserk, it was possible to stabilize it by taking a more gentle action.
