by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Chu Feng was extremely moved to hear that. Having lived his whole life in the imperial palace, trust was the only thing he had never had.
“Chu Yao hasn’t left the palace in a while. Is she under house arrest?” asked Long Chen.
Chu Feng nodded. “Yes. Ever since she returned last time, she’s been confined within the palace. The Empress Dowager refuses to let her take a single step out.”
Long Chen’s face was ashen. It seemed the Empress Dowager didn’t give a crap about grandmaster Yun Qi. That old bitch better wait for him.
“Can you go see her?” asked Long Chen.
“I can. The Empress Dowager only forbade her to leave, but she can still see others. As her brother, they don’t dare block me,” answered Chu Feng.
“Then, that’s good. There’s still a month until October. There’s enough time. The Huayun Pavilion’s yearly auction will be three days from now. I’ll do my best to get the Starfusing Grass to resolve the problem in her body. Tell her to wait for me. Don’t let her do anything stupid.”
Chu Feng was overjoyed. He thanked and apologized to Long Chen a thousand times, something Long Chen was completely unused to.
“Chu Feng, let me see your Dantian.”
Long Chen was a bit suspicious and reached out his hand towards Chu Feng’s shoulder. He slowly sent his spiritual qi into his Dantian.
As expected, something strange was present!
Although Chu Feng’s Dantian hadn’t been locked down like Chu Yao’s, there was a strange entity on the Spiritual Root of his Dantian.
It was something so small that it wasn’t even visible by the naked eye. If Long Chen hadn’t been suspicious, then he might have missed it.
“Try to hold on.”
Long Chen increased the spiritual qi he sent into Chu Feng’s body. Chu Feng felt his stomach hurt for a moment and a small spurt of blood came from it. A small feathered needle appeared in Long Chen’s hand.
“The Underworld Feather Pin. How vicious.”
This Underworld Feather Pin was actually used to treat a kind of Yang poison. Inside was a Yin poison that could relieve the Yang poison. Both poisons would neutralize each other to cure someone.
But when it was placed into a healthy person’s Dantian, the Dantian’s Spirit Root would be corroded by its Yin poison, making it impossible to cultivate.
Once more examining Chu Feng’s Dantian, Long Chen couldn’t help but sigh. After being corroded for so long by the Yin poison, Chu Feng’s Spirit Root had already declined. Otherwise, his talent would not be that much inferior to Chu Yao’s.
“I’ve removed this poisonous needle from your body now. That means, you’ll be able to cultivate from now on, but you must keep it secret. Here are a few aura concealing pills. Take one every seven days and no one will notice anything.” Long Chen handed Chu Feng a jade bottle.
When Long Chen had free time, he would refine some other random medicinal pills. Such pills had a great assistance to the current him.
But Long Chen couldn’t bear to tell Chu Feng that his Spirit Root had been severely corroded. The Blood Condensation realm would probably be his peak.
At the same time as he felt this regret, he also became even more disgusted with the imperial household who were just tigers in human clothing.
“I can cultivate now?” Chu Feng couldn’t believe this. He had always thought that he was innately crippled. He was wildly overjoyed.
Long Chen could understand this kind of mood. He had also been someone given the name of a cripple who had managed to gain an opportunity.
“Yup. But remember to hide it from everyone,” warned Long Chen. Although he knew that he and Chu Yao were already extremely careful, he still wanted to make sure there were no blunders.
After sending off Chu Feng, Long Chen sank into his own thoughts. Chu Yao and Chu Feng’s situation had reminded him of his own predicament.
However, he was in an even more tragic situation. His Spirit Root, Spirit Bone, and Spirit Blood had all been stolen away. Although the method wasn’t the same, hadn’t he also been plotted against as well?
His own father was a peak expert of the Phoenix Cry Empire. Because of his father, he had ended up crippled.
Last time, when he had chatted with Chu Yao she had told him a name – Marquis Ying.
The three great experts of the Phoenix Cry Empire were Marquis Ying, Marquis Wu, and Long Chen’s father the Border Suppression Marquis. They were called Phoenix Cry’s three great pillars.[1]
The Border Suppression Marquis guarded against the barbarian tribes of the wild border. Marquis Wu guarded the southern border. Only Marquis Ying always stayed within the capital.
According to Chu Yao, all the princes and princesses were taught martial arts by Marquis Ying. Now, Long Chen felt that this Marquis Ying might actually be a very big problem.
That was because Chu Yao’s situation was something that an outsider like him had noticed the very first time they had exchanged blows. As a peak expert of the Phoenix Cry Empire, how could Marquis Ying have failed to notice?
Since he must have known and hadn’t said anything, it was likely that he had participated in it. In fact, perhaps he had been the one to do it.
If it had been him who had placed those foreign spiritual energy seeds inside Chu Yao, then was it possible that Marquis Ying had also been the one to steal his cultivation ability? Why would he do that? Was it just to ruin them? Or was there a bigger reason?
All these questions spun in Long Chen’s head, giving him a splitting headache. But there was no way for him to figure it out.
“Whatever. No matter how cunning a fox is, they’ll have to reveal their tail at some point. What I need is to become a true hunter so that when they do reveal themselves, it won’t be me who is the prey.”
After coming to this conclusion, Long Chen no longer focused on those questions. Returning to his room without even daring to go over to where his mother was, he directly entered seclusion.
But as soon as he began to circulate his cyclones, he jumped up, almost knocking into the ceiling.
“This is too ridiculous.”
Long Chen looked into his Dantian. His ten cyclones had already stopped growing now, but each cyclone had already reached a terrifying circumference of a whole meter. It was truly shocking.
They were on a completely different size compared to the previous cyclones. Under their slow circulation, heaven and earth’s spiritual qi flooded into his FengFu Star. This speed was at least a hundred times greater than before.
He was both shocked and pleased. But after just cultivating for a breath’s time, he realized that there was a problem.
Those ten cyclones were like ten huge drains that sucked up spiritual qi. The surrounding spiritual qi was unable to satisfy the demands of the ten cyclones’ absorption, causing the spiritual qi in the air to become thinner.
He was only absorbing a tenth of what he should be able to.
“No, I have to find somewhere else to cultivate.”
On that very night, Long Chen covered up his aura and stealthily left the city. Using the Windchasing Steps, he was just like a wisp of smoke that went directly towards Sunset Mountain.
Sunset Mountain was completely quiet at night. The scenery was as it was before, but Long Chen couldn’t help but feel somewhat moved upon seeing it again.
The first time he had come here was with Meng Qi. Thinking of her absolutely perfect beauty and that gentle gaze of hers, his heart became aroused.
The second time he had come was while trapped in Chu Yao’s net. Her vengeful state had turned into one of gentle charm.
Now, Meng Qi was in some unknown faraway place. He had no idea how she was doing. Perhaps, she had already forgotten about him...
There was also that crap-brother Xi who had almost killed him. Thinking about that idiot caused him to become enraged. It was as if that arrogant figure had appeared before him again.
Meng Qi was far away, Chu Yao was unde
r house arrest, and he was all alone. That was simply the cruel reality. Without power, life couldn’t be called living; it was just barely managing to survive.
If you wanted to live with dignity, then you had to have a matching strength. That was the reality. Looking at the scenery around him, Long Chen took a deep breath.
Sitting down lotus-style on a huge stone, he gently circulated his cyclones. In the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the spiritual qi in this area also became too thin to keep up.
But the spiritual qi here was at least twice as dense as at his home, so he hadn’t wasted his time by coming here.
Two days later when the first ray of light came from the east, Long Chen’s body emitted an explosive sound. He slowly opened his eyes, a strange expression appearing on his face.
He had actually once more condensed a cyclone. Eleven cyclones!
This Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, just how many cyclones could it condense?
Seeing the cyclones in his body growing once more, Long Chen couldn’t help but feel worried. This was absolutely insane. If all he did was to continue condensing cyclones, he really might go insane.
As he returned home, Long Chen thought about it and decided to make a trip to the alchemist guild to get several medicinal ingredients first.
Arriving home, he arranged the medicinal ingredients in front of him. A kind of anticipation filled him. It was the time for him to test his new Pill Flame.
[1] Marquis Ying - Hero Marquis. Marquis Wu – Martial Marquis. However, Ying and Wu are their surnames as well.
Chapter 53 Flesh Bone Restoration Pill
BANG! His pill furnace shook violently before slowly calming back down. A bright ray of light shot out when the furnace lid was opened.
Inside the pill furnace was a pearl-like medicinal pill. High grade medicinal pill! He had finally refined a high grade medicinal pill!
Low grade pills were judged by the pill fragrance, middle grade pills by their pill lines, and high grade pills by their halo of light. That light was a sign of the medicinal energy being firmly locked within the pill. Other than grandmaster Yun Qi, there was definitely not a single person within Phoenix Cry who could refine a high grade medicinal pill.
“The light is still a bit faint, most likely meaning that my control over the Pill Flame still isn’t perfect. But the lack of flaws is already enough to make it high grade.”
Long Chen was filled with pride as he looked at this high grade medicinal pill. The pill was called the Flesh Bone Restoration Pill.
The formula had come from his Pill Sovereign memories. Although it was just a second tier medicinal pill, the pill formula had already disappeared from this world. What Long Chen had in his possession was one of a kind.
He carefully collected that high grade Flesh Bone Restoration Pill as well as the remaining lower grade ones. He had spent a whole night refining, exhausting himself slightly in the process.
There were still two hours until daybreak. Long Chen closed his eyes and slowly recovered his exhausted spiritual energy.
After refining the beast flame, his Pill Flame had become over ten times stronger. But to control it was greatly exhausting to his soul.
This was also due to him not being very familiar with the beast flame. Thus, the toll was even greater and he needed to rest.
As soon as the first ray of light sprinkled itself over the capital, he slowly opened his eyes.
After eating breakfast, Long Chen brought the medicinal pills he had refined straight to the Huayun Pavilion. Today was the starting date of their yearly auction.
But the auction would only begin at noon. This kind of large auction continued for three days, so there was no one rushing to get there. Long Chen was the first guest to arrive.
The Huayun Pavilion was located in the northern part of the city. But even from other parts of the city, you could see a majestic building hundreds of meters tall.
As soon as he entered the Huayun Pavilion’s lounge, four pretty maidens came to greet him.
“Welcome mister. May I ask… oh!”
Those maidens were all used to receiving guests, but when they saw it was Long Chen, they all let out a startled cry.
Long Chen was surprised at that. He checked his clothes, but he had just changed clothes right before coming here so there shouldn’t have been a problem.
“Hey, what’s with all the noise this early in the morning? Did you forget all your training… ah, young master Long Chen?”
“It’s been a while, Fu Gui,” laughed Long Chen.
That was the person who had sent Long Chen the invitation to the auction. The reason Long Chen still remembered his name after all this time was because of how peculiar it was.
That was a kind of name that rich families would give their pets. But in any case, this Fu Gui had managed to succeed in making others remember his name as soon as they met. That was enough to say that he was a remarkable salesperson.[1]
Fu Gui was delighted that Long Chen had come. The most important thing for him was that he had already filled his quota of three people.
One had been given to a roaming knight whose power wasn’t bad. The other had been given to a rich merchant. But as the time drew closer to the auction, he found out that those two didn’t have much interest in auctioning anything. In other words, it was likely all his work had gone to nothing.
But there was also nothing he could do. After all, all the high-class clients had already been pulled over by the higher-ups.
So, now Fu Gui had placed all his hopes on Long Chen. But ever since Long Chen had received his invitation, he had never contacted him again.
Fu Gui had already been filled with despair now that the auction was starting today. He had thought that he wouldn’t have any hope of getting any profits this year.
But seeing Long Chen’s arrival now, he quickly became excited.
“Young master Long Chen, I actually thought you forgot about this matter,” laughed Fu Gui excitedly.
“Haha, my bad. I’ve just been too busy recently. By the way, I brought some stuff over. Call over your appraiser and let’s talk about the auction. After all, we’re cutting it a bit close,” laughed Long Chen.
“Good, come with me young master Long Chen.” Fu Gui was overjoyed to hear that Long Chen had brought things to be auctioned. He quickly brought him inside.
The remaining four maidens had all been looking at Long Chen foolishly, all the way up to the point that he disappeared from their view.
“Heavens, I actually saw a person of legends.”
“That’s the number one junior generation of the empire! He was close enough to touch… I could die of happiness.”
Long Chen was led by Fu Gui into a very luxurious private room under their stealthy gazes.
As soon as they entered that private room, a woman in elegant robes walked in and curtsied to Long Chen. She then warmed and steeped some tea with her tender jade hands. She was actually a master in the art of tea.
“Young master Long Chen, try some tea for now. I’ll quickly go find an appraiser. What exactly do you need to appraise?” Fu Gui asked carefully. Each appraiser had their own specialties.
“Medicinal pills.” Long Chen smiled slightly.
Although Fu Gui had long since expected that, to actually hear it still caused his eyes to brighten. “Please wait a moment. I’ll go find an appraiser immediately.”
“Lord, please have some tea.”
That tea master handed him a teacup. Before the tea had even been poured, the smell of tea had already drifted over.
“Good tea.”
Long Chen took a sip. As soon as it entered his mouth, its gentle warmth spread throughout him and the taste even stirred his spirit.
“It’s a good tea, and the one serving it is even better.” Long Chen looked at the tea master and laughed.
The woman reddened slightly. She began to act in an extremely lovable manner, but as soon as she did, that initial interest Lon
g Chen had had in her immediately disappeared.
That woman’s tea skills were extremely exquisite. Her timing and control of the temperature and pouring caused Long Chen to feel a bit of admiration for her. After all, all craftsmen were deserving of respect.
But when she switched to that act of hers in order to make men fall for her, Long Chen’s admiration turned to disgust. He no longer even drank the tea and simply closed his eyes.
That tea master immediately became embarrassed. She hadn’t thought that her techniques she had honed thousands of times would fail.
She actually didn’t recognize Long Chen as the empire’s number one celebrity. She had already passed the age where she chased after dreams.
Luckily, that awkward atmosphere didn’t last for long before Fu Gui returned along with a senior in his sixties.
The tea master hastily retreated as soon as the two of them arrived. When the senior came in, he immediately brushed his hand over his chest, an etiquette reserved for alchemists.
“Greetings young master Long Chen. I am Qian Fu[2], a Pill Apprentice. Please give me some pointers.”
Long Chen was speechless. A businessman was very suited to such a name. He also replied with an alchemist’s etiquette and said, “Senior is too modest. When it comes to refining pills, senior is much more experienced.”
After the two of them exchanged their formal etiquettes, Long Chen got straight to the point. “This time, I want to auction off several medicinal pills. Take a look.”
Long Chen handed over a jade bottle to Qian Fu, and he carefully received it. He put on gloves and also took out a jade plate on which he poured out a pill.
“This is…”
As soon as he saw the pill, he could tell it was a middle grade second tier medicinal pill. But he was then immediately dumbstruck as he actually didn’t recognize it.
Although Qian Fu’s talent was limited and he was only a Pill Apprentice, he had seen countless medicinal pills during his lifetime. Otherwise, there was no way he would have become the Huayun Pavilion’s first-rate appraiser.
