Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048
Page 437
Once everyone returned to their rooms to rest, Fang Mingyuan quietly asked Chai Gaoyang, “What do you think about this Long San? Is he dependable?”
“When he speaks, his spiritual fluctuations match his words. There’s no sign he’s lying. He should have been speaking from his heart, so it seems he’s very dependable,” said Chai Gaoyang.
“How regretful. If only we had encountered him a year ago. With just a year’s training, then with his abnormal Spiritual Strength, he could definitely defeat Huo Wufang,” sighed Fang Mingyuan.
“The Huo family is slowly encroaching on us. There are already several traitors in our families. But although we know that, we’re helpless. The Huo family has accumulated an immense amount of wealth, and they’ve made countless connections.
“If Huo Wufang takes the first place, then with Pill Valley’s grooming, the two of our families really might be either forced out of the Pill Tower or exterminated. I’ve already made my preparations to make a final struggle, but this Long San has caused a change of plans. Let’s keep watching. I really don’t want to use our last resort. Hopefully, Long San can bring us a new opportunity,” said Chai Gaoyang.
“That would be good. But we also can’t place all our hopes on him. We should also quicken the pace with the other matter. If Long San doesn’t work out, we’ll continue with our other plan. Hmph, they want us to scram? Then they’ll have to pay a terrible price,” said Fang Mingyuan.
“Alright, then I’ll order the entire repository to be open to Long San. He’ll have full access to any medicinal ingredients and secret tomes. This is for the best because Long San has drawn all of the Huo family’s attention. It’s even more favorable for our plan.”
The next day, Long Chen had just gotten out of bed when a maiden brought him back to the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower. Long Chen’s wish was finally achieved, and he entered the medicinal ingredient repository.
“Heavens, this is too spectacular! How did they do this?!”
When he entered, Long Chen was stunned. This storage room was over a hundred miles wide. How was this possible? The tower wasn’t even that big!
“The medicinal ingredient repository is different from the other storage rooms. There’s a formation here, one that increases the space. The principles aren’t that different from a spatial ring, but it’s much, much more complicated,” explained the maiden.
Spatial rings were only filled with static space. But this space was the same as the outside world. It was just that the outside world looked small, but the inside world was extremely vast.
“The medicinal ingredients here are organized from the first tier to the sixth tier. There are millions of kinds per tier. You don’t need to waste your time with fourth tier ingredients and below. You just need to go through the region with the fifth and sixth tier ingredients.
“Of course, you technically only need to go through the fifth tier region. Learn to identify the ingredients, their uses, their properties, and their limitations. There’s a detailed explanation in front of each ingredient. Furthermore, they are also split into common and rare ingredients. You should focus on the common ones,” said the maiden.
Long Chen was brought to the fifth tier region. He saw practically endless shelves filled with medicinal ingredients. Each medicinal ingredient had a label in front of it that was filled with detailed information.
Even with Long Chen’s calm, his heart was pounding. The Pill Tower was truly the Pill Tower. This level of ability was shocking.
The few ingredients in Long Chen’s primal chaos space paled in comparison to this place. He only had a few thousand kinds of ingredients, and that referred to all tiers. But here, they had millions of different ingredients per tier.
“Thank you. I’m going to start now. You… if you have anything to do, you should go do it.” Long Chen smiled.
“Alright. I’ll wait outside the repository. If you have any questions, just directly come ask me.” After saying that, the maiden left.
“Hahahaha! I’ve struck gold!” Long Chen was laughing crazily inside. But he didn’t display it too much. He noticed that he wasn’t the only one in the repository.
Others were perhaps taking out ingredients or in charge of replenishing them. Long Chen went directly to the rare section with ingredients that were parts of very neglected branches of alchemy and very rarely used.
These precious medicinal ingredients were extremely difficult to gather in the outside world, or the Huayun Sect would have long since managed to find them for Long Chen.
“Hehe, Enlightenment Palace Star, just wait for me.”
Chapter 668 Crazy Transplantation
“Colored Glass Grass, my treasure! I’ve finally met you.”
“Nice, nice, Brilliance Leafwood, I’m sorry I made you wait this long!”
“Nine Leaf Cricket Pearl Flower? It really is wonderful to see you!”
Every time he saw these new medicinal ingredients, babble would come out of Long Chen’s mouth. These were ingredients used for the Enlightenment Palace Pill, and it was almost impossible to buy them in the outside world.
“They keep track of the numbers of these ingredients. I have to think of a way… got it!”
Long Chen directly threw the Colored Glass Grass into the primal chaos space. The withered ingredient instantly recovered, and was filled with vitality.
Long Chen directly tore off a piece of its roots and threw it into the soil. He then continued transplanting new ingredients. As for the original Colored Glass Grass, he sucked out all its life energy and replaced it.
All he needed was a single root for each ingredient. That one root was equivalent to countless ingredients.
Continuing with this method, he crazily transplanted the precious ingredients. He prioritized the Enlightenment Palace Pill’s ingredients first.
“Eh? There’s one missing. The Heavenly Star Dragon Saliva Grass.”
He had originally been lacking over twenty ingredients. Now he was only missing this one ingredient.
The Heavenly Star Dragon Saliva Grass was one of the three most important ingredients for the pill. It was impossible to replace it with any other ingredient.
“Ah, whatever. I can only slowly think of a way. First, let me transplant all these new plants.”
Long Chen began a large scale plunder. There were some plants that he only needed to take a small portion of them to transplant. That small amount wouldn’t affect the medicinal effect. But some were like the Colored Glass Grass. If he took a portion of it, its medicinal effect would be crippled. So he had to bring them into the primal chaos space and then replace them.
He had also learned from the Pill Tower. He marked off a region in the primal chaos space just for the sixth tier ingredients.
He also made another section for the fifth tier ingredients. Now it wouldn’t be so troublesome to find them in the future.
In the blink of an eye, ten days passed. Long Chen had worked hard during this time, and now every ingredient here was also within his primal chaos space.
“Mister Long San, what are you…?” The maiden hastily stood up when she saw him walk out.
“I’ve finished studying,” said Long Chen. Of course he was done. He had taken what he should take, and he had taken what he shouldn’t have taken. Now that there was nothing left to take, it was time to leave.
“But the family head said you should stay in seclusion until the elimination round,” said the maiden. She wasn’t able to oppose the family head’s orders.
“I’ve already memorized all the fifth and sixth tier medicinal ingredients’ effects, uses, and characters. Staying here would be a waste of time. I need to go practice refining,” said Long Chen.
“How is that possible?! There were over a million of just the common ingredients. It’s impossible!”
Long Chen’s expression sank. “My matters aren’t something you need to question, nor do I need to explain myself to you. If you’re afraid of the responsibility,
I’ll go take a trip with you to see the family head.”
Long Chen was too lazy to be entangled with her. As he had expected, he had only just returned to his room when Fang Mingyuan and Fang Chang came.
Long Chen smiled and directly answered their quizzing. As a result, the two of them were dumbfounded. He knew all the effects and properties of the medicinal ingredients they asked him about as well as the back of his hand. He could even explain the properties of very rare ingredients in great detail.
“Haha, I just have a good memory. I can remember anything I see,” said Long Chen.
Fang Chang and Fang Mingyuan came to a sudden comprehension. A person’s memory was related to their Spiritual Strength. Considering Long Chen’s vast Spiritual Strength, they could understand how he had such an eidetic memory.
“Long San, now that you’re familiar with the medicinal ingredients, and you’re also familiar with the pill formulas, the only thing you’re lacking is experience. You should go to the pill refinement pavilion tomorrow. There will be people to help you refine there. As long as you say a pill’s name, they’ll immediately arrange all the medicinal ingredients for you. It’ll save you precious time,” said Fang Chang.
“Alright. I’ll go right now. I also want to practice my alchemy, as that’s the fastest way to improve.” Long Chen appeared incomparably excited, but inside, he had a desire to cry.
With his Pill Sovereign memories, what alchemy experience did he need? But it wouldn’t make sense for Long San to not go. Not only did he have to go, but he had to act happy about it. Long Chen was helpless.
As a result, Long Chen was sent to the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower’s pill refinement pavilion. Thinking of Fang Chang and Fang Mingyuan’s grave faces, Long Chen wanted to cry.
Not only did he have to refine pills, but he had to refine all kinds of them, showing them he was completely obsessed with alchemy.
He spent all day refining. Furthermore, he couldn’t even refine them too well and had to throw in a few mistakes. He almost puked from the effort.
But in the end, Fang Chang and Fang Mingyuan heard reports of Long Chen’s tireless practice. They greatly admired his perseverance.
Let alone them, even Long Chen was admiring himself. Not everyone could be such a professional at acting.
Luckily, after ten days, Fang Chang finally brought Long Chen out of the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower.
After all, he couldn’t let Long Chen simply continue to go all-out like this. In one go, he had refined over a hundred furnaces of pills. That was extremely taxing on the soul. He needed to rest before the elimination round.
Long Chen finally escaped from his torment. After returning, he slept for a whole day and night before entering seclusion.
Seeing how hardworking Long Chen was, Fang Chang thought to himself that he was definitely a pill fanatic. However, what Long Chen was doing in seclusion wasn’t refining pills, but urging on the primal chaos bead to get the medicinal ingredients to grow faster.
Under Long Chen’s careful care, medicinal fields dozens of miles wide became filled with fifth and sixth tier medicinal ingredients. Just these medicinal fields alone were priceless treasures.
Now that Long Chen had advanced to the Xiantian realm, the primal chaos space had grown to a terrifying width of three thousand miles. Other than the black soil and some medicinal fields, Long Chen had filled this entire space with immense trees. The primal chaos space was essentially a verdant forest.
These trees were his life-saving measures. When he was injured, he could draw out their life energy to heal himself. However, with the increase in his cultivation base, his physical body also became much more powerful. When he was injured, it would take an incredible amount of life energy to heal. These trees were unable to keep up with his needs.
The quality of these trees was too low. But for now, he wasn’t able to find any better trees, so he could only keep using them. Long Chen estimated that although the primal chaos space had grown larger, he would only be able to recover from heavy injuries a total of three times before running out of energy.
Before he had advanced, he could recover around ten times from the brink of death. But now it was only three. It wasn’t that the trees’ life energy was weak, but simply that Long Chen’s body was too monstrous.
“If I refined the green dragon essence blood, would I even be able to use these trees?” Long Chen complained bitterly.
He needed his body to be able to endure a thousand catties of force to refine the green dragon essence blood. With one catty being three hundred thousand pounds, he estimated his endurance was around five hundred catties. There was still a long way to go until one thousand catties. If it was according to ordinary means, perhaps he would have to reach the Sea Expansion realm before refining it.
But he cultivated the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. If he could condense the fourth star, his body would grow even stronger. At that time, he should be able to refine it.
Furthermore, the dragon expert had said that after refining it, he could cultivate the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art, allowing his physical body to grow to an unimaginable point.
“A point that I can’t imagine? Could it be something on the same level as Enchanted items? Or even Treasure items? Eh? Where is Blooddrinker?”
Long Chen suddenly thought of Blooddrinker. After the battle, he hadn’t used it again. He had thought that it was still on a large platform in the primal chaos space where he kept it, but now he found that that space was empty.
Sweeping out his divine sense, he suddenly saw that Blooddrinker was stabbed into the Phoenix Blood Black Gold. Long Chen was shocked. How had Blooddrinker moved on its own?
Hastily investigating, he was surprised to sense that a strange energy was currently being absorbed by Blooddrinker.
“Blooddrinker can absorb the energy within the Phoenix Blood Black Gold? Then was it originally made of this material? It wants to absorb its energy to heal?”
Long Chen was greatly shaken. He remembered what Mo Yi had said before he had left. He had said that Blooddrinker was also a Treasure item, and an exceedingly terrifying one. However, it was gravely injured and its spirit was still in slumber.
Seeing Blooddrinker slowly absorb energy from the Phoenix Blood Black Gold, Long Chen was filled with delight. He urged Blooddrinker on, wanting it to absorb faster so it could recover.
This was an incredibly great thing for Long Chen. If Blooddrinker recovered, then with such a terrifying Treasure item, couldn’t he slaughter Sea Expansion experts?
Just as he was filled with delight, he heard knocking from the outside world. He hastily withdrew his mind from the primal chaos space.
The knocker was Fang Chang. Time had passed quickly. Today was the day of the elimination round.
“Long San, how do you feel? Are you confident?”
“Hehe, don’t worry. This time I’ll properly suppress Huo Wufang.” Long Chen moved out with Fang Chang in high spirits. His mood today was truly excellent. That signified that other people’s moods would probably not be so good.
Chapter 669 Repeated Failures
In front of the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower, there was already a sea of people around the arena. There were even more people than last time. The elimination round this time had drawn out many alchemy seniors.
The Pill Emperor Competition was split into four parts: the opening round, the preliminaries, the elimination round, and the finals. It was extremely simple. But the elimination stage had the cruelest washout rate.
In the past, more than seventy percent of the competitors would wash out in the elimination round.
Last month in the preliminaries, only a tenth of the competitors were washed out. Currently, there were still over eight hundred people in the arena. Their expressions were grave.
“The elimination round’s test is refining the Nine Revolution Life Pill.” The tower administrator’s emotionless voice rang out in everyone’s ears.
“What?!
”
Virtually every competitor’s expression changed.
That Nine Revolution Life Pill was considered a peak difficulty pill amongst fifth tier pills. Someone on the verge of death could consume one to guarantee that they could survive for another six hours. Their life energy would not fade, nor would their soul dissipate. It bought them precious time to be healed.
In truth, a pill only needed a fifty percent failure rate to be classified as a high difficulty pill. But the Nine Revolution Life Pill had a failure rate of seventy percent. It was one of the most difficult fifth tier pills to refine. The worst part was that the seventy percent failure rate referred to refining in a private, peaceful room.
In this chaotic environment, the odds of failure would be above ninety percent. But they only had three portions of medicinal ingredients. Moreover, if they failed the first time, the odds of failing again would be even higher, almost approaching one hundred percent.
So every competing alchemist’s expression was exceedingly ugly. This kind of competition would probably depend on who was luckier.
“Each person has three sets of medicinal ingredients. The time limit is twenty-four hours, and the pill must reach the five-ring level in order to pass,” announced the tower administrator.
Hearing this, the competitors turned ashen. Even Huo Changsheng, Fang Mingyuan, and Chai Gaoyang were shocked.
How was the competition this year so abnormal? The pill formulas were harder than before, and the requirements for passing were even higher. What if no one managed to pass the elimination round? Wouldn’t this generation’s Pill Emperor Competition become a joke?
“That’s impossible! No one can refine something that difficult!” One of the competitors roared furiously. This task was essentially impossible.
“Take him out of here.”
The tower administrator waved his hand, and four white-robed men rushed onto that person’s stage. Ignoring his status as a grand Pill Emperor, they dragged him out of the arena like he was a dead dog.