“It’s none of your business, just sit down somewhere,” Ling Han said nonchalantly.
“How dare you!” He Jun Chen had already been extremely irritated by Ling Han’s presence, and now he stood up instantly in a rage, ready to make a move.
“Elder Brother Disciple He, what are you doing?” Li Si Chan immediately stretched out an arm to block his advance, her beautiful face filled with displeasure. That was natural. If there really existed such a cultivation technique that could aid in the recovery of spiritual energy, then its value would be absolutely beyond measure, and would also be something that all the alchemists in this world would go crazy about.
“You, are you actually defending him?” He Jun Chen’s expression transformed drastically. He had already been suspicious of the ambiguous relationship between Ling Han and Li Si Chan in the first place; now that Li Si Chan was actually protecting Ling Han, she caused his suspicions to deepen.
“You were the unreasonable one in the first place!” Li Si Chan said, displeased.
“I am unreasonable?” He Jun Chen almost jumped up, thinking, ‘You adulterous couple are already flirting so openly in public, and actually dare to accuse me of being unreasonable?’
“Idiot, shut up!” When Ling Han saw that the bidding for the Second Star Grass had already began, he quickly waved a hand at Li Si Chan, and said, “Get me this Second Star Grass, and that cultivation technique will belong to you.”
He only had over one hundred thousand silver coins, which was definitely not enough to buy these three stalks of Second Star Grass; he naturally could only place his hopes on this rich woman, Li Si Chan.
If this wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t consider selling off that spiritual energy replenishing cultivation technique—even if it was only a low grade spiritual support technique, at least in the vicinity of Rain Country, it was still a priceless treasure.
Li Si Chan’s attention was immediately turned back to him, and she asked, “You wouldn’t be lying to me, right?”
“What do you think?” Ling Han countered.
Li Si Chan pondered that while this guy was actually younger than herself, his ability had already been recognized and acknowledged by two Black Grade high level alchemists at the same time, so it wasn’t likely he would be making baseless boasts. After all, the acknowledgement of these two alchemists was definitely worth more than a few dozen hundred thousands of silver coins.
She nodded and immediately began bidding.
As an alchemist, even if she was only in Yellow Grade mid level now, the wealth she possessed was still very shocking. She easily raised her bid to the exorbitant price of over a million silver coins, and it still seemed as if it was something very easy for her.
Ling Han nodded internally. Looks like this girl’s rate of success when concocting pills was not low, and that was why she had been able to accumulate such wealth.
…An alchemist being in a higher grade did not mean that he would definitely be able to earn money, or earn big money, because this was affected by their success rate. For example, let’s say that the medicinal ingredients cost a million silver coins, and theoretically, thirty alchemical pills could be concocted from this amount of ingredients. The total worth of these thirty pills would be nine million coins, so with a hundred percent successful concoction rate, an alchemist would be able to earn eight million coins, and that was a profit of eight times his costs.
But, if the alchemist’s success rate was only ten percent, then the three alchemical pills that were concocted would be sold for only ninety hundred thousand silver coins—not only would the alchemist not profit, he would have lost a hundred thousand coins.
The higher the grade of the alchemical pill, the lower the rate of successful concoction, so don’t think that alchemy was a profession that earned big money; whether or not it would be profitable would still depend on the alchemist. The amount of money earned would differ with different alchemists.
For example, the Three Fire Guide that Ling Han had invented in his last life was able to greatly increase the rate of success, and brought a revolution to the field of alchemy. It also earned Ling Han the revered name of Alchemy Emperor.
While Li Si Chan was only a Yellow Grade mid level alchemist, if her rate of success was extremely high, she too would be able to earn a lot of money. Of course, the higher the grade of alchemical pill, the more money could be earned with a high success rate.
For example, when Ling Han in his last life had concocted some Earth Grade alchemical pills, then no matter how much money you offered, you still would not be able to buy any. You had to trade either natural treasures, high grade cultivation techniques, or martial techniques in exchange for a few Earth Grade alchemical pills.
While he was in his pensive thought, Li Si Chan had already successfully obtained the three stalks of Second Star Grass, paying the high price of a million and two hundred thousand silver coins. After all, there weren’t many alchemists here, and even if there were, they were obviously not as wealthy as Li Si Chan.
Ling Han smiled widely. If it had been his last life, it would not be possible to purchase such a priceless item with worthless crap like gold and silver coins. Spending a mere million plus silver coins, he managed to get it; this was an extremely great profit.
Very quickly, the staff of Spiritual Treasures Pavilion had delivered the three stalks of Second Star Grass over to them.
“When you give me that cultivation technique, I’ll give you the Second Star Grass,” Li Si Chan said.
The corners of Ling Han’s lips twitched, and he said, “Do you think I would renege on a promise to a little girl like you?”
“Don’t act so old and mature, you’re one year younger than me!” Li Si Chan pointed out. She was actually really scared that Ling Han would act shamelessly, and take advantage of his younger age to trick her out of her money. After all, this was the money that she had earned through her own hard effort.
“Fine then, let’s return to the Academy immediately,” Ling Han could barely wait to concoct the Second Star Pill. The sooner he took the pill, the sooner his spiritual energy would be increased, and he would be able to cultivate for a slightly longer period of time every day.
Accumulating this extra bit of time over a long period of time would eventually lead to a very significant increase of his cultivation.
“All right!” Li Si Chan nodded. She wanted to get her hands on a cultivation technique like this as soon as possible, too.
Ling Han carried Hu Niu, and the group of three departed.
Qi Yong Ye and the others snickered in unison, revealing knowing expressions. Only He Jun Chen’s expression darkened like water; he had already developed a powerful killing intent for Ling Han.
After all, Li Si Chan was not only one of the Twin Stunning Pearls of the imperial city, she herself was a very impressive alchemist, possessing a future with unlimited possibilities. If he was able to marry such a woman, then whether it was for himself, or for the clan behind him, this would be a colossal gain.
This was his woman, and he would mercilessly kill all who threatened his position as her man!
Ling Han and Li Si Chan soon returned to the Academy. When they arrived at the place Ling Han was staying at, he told Hu Niu to play by herself while he began to impart a spiritual energy replenishing cultivation technique to Li Si Chan. The name of this technique was “Major Origin Spirit Replenishing Technique.”
This was not Ling Han’s own invention. Instead, it was an extremely common spiritual support technique in the field of alchemy from his last life. It was very effective for the recovery of spiritual energy for any alchemist below Gushing Spring Tier, but after the alchemist has passed into Gushing Spring Tier, its effects would begin to decrease.
Thus, Ling Han did not have much misgivings or reluctance, and directly taught it to Li Si Chan. Otherwise, the latter would have to perform three kowtows and nine bows, completing the formalities of becoming his disciple, before he would
be willing to teach her the real art of alchemy.
But for Li Si Chan, this cultivation technique was indescribably valuable and priceless. Her whole body was shivering, because she was really too overwhelmed with excitement.
“I, can I teach this Major Origin Spirit Replenishing Technique to my Master?” she asked very nervously.
“All right, then I’ll sell it for a rough ten million!” Ling Han nodded without hesitation.
“When you sold it to me, the price was only a million and two hundred thousand!” Though Li Si Chan knew that Wu Song Lin could easily afford this sum of money, but as his disciple, she would naturally want to defend her Master’s interests.
“That’s because you’re a beauty, so I gave you a friendly price. Your Master…. sigh, not pleasing to the eye at all, so of course I’d be selling it to him at the original price,” Ling Han laughed.
Li Si Chan rolled her eyes at him, but because Ling Han was complimenting her beauty in a roundabout way, she was still very happy.
Chapter 103
Translator: _Dark_Angel_ Editor: Kurisu
Li Si Chan very happily departed, and Ling Han lay on his bed for some rest.
It wasn’t that he did not want to immediately begin concocting the Second Star Pill, just that he had never imagined that he would actually manage to obtain such a valuable spiritual medicine on his very first day in the Imperial City—how could he have the other supplementary ingredients on hand? As a result, the only option for him now was to wait until the next day to go to the Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion to buy the complete set of ingredients necessary before he could go onto the next step.
Conveniently, he still had to fix up his own courtyard slightly. After all, he would have to stay here for at least a few years, so it was necessary to set up some restrictions in the surrounding area. This would be one of the hidden cards up his sleeve.
Meanwhile, Hu Niu had lain down beside his legs like a giant cat, and very quickly, the sound of her breathing lengthened and became quieter. But if there was any little bit of disturbance, she would immediately be alerted to wakefulness, bare her sharp teeth, and growl.
Ling Han believed that with Liu Yu Tong’s influence in the Academy, she would be able to find him very soon. Thus, Ling Han needed not think about anything else, and went to sleep very peacefully.
The night passed in silence, and early the next morning, after Ling Han had prepared breakfast and filled the stomachs of both himself and Hu Niu, he headed to officially greet his teacher. This was the basic respect that a student should have towards his teacher.
He pushed the door open and entered to see that Mo Gao was practicing his sword techniques. However, it was very odd. His right hand held a sword while his left hand was firmly held in a gesture. There wasn’t any sort of movement from him at all.
Was he practicing his sword techniques, or practicing some kind of Qi supporting technique?
“Hu!” Hu Niu meanwhile revealed a very defensive expression. Her hands were firmly pressed upon the ground, her whole body slightly raised, her small mouth was open, and there was a ferocious light flickering in her eyes. She was ready to make a move at any moment.
Ling Han was surprised. The little girl would only show such behavior when she sensed a threat, but the problem was, was this movement of Mo Gao very threatening?
‘Wait!’
Ling Han’s eyes gradually widened. His divine sense seemed to have detected something inconceivable. And that was the aura exuded from Mo Gao—it was extremely mysterious. It had a slightly familiar feeling to it, yet he couldn’t really grasp what it was exactly.
Sword… that’s right, it had something to do with his sword.
“You’re here,” Mo Gao said, “then accompany me in my sword practice.”
“What sword technique is this?” Ling Han asked.
“It’s not any sword technique, but a sword of invincibility!” Mo Gao declared incredibly.
Meanwhile, Ling Han’s heart skipped a beat. He had sensed a very mysterious feeling from the aura that Mo Gao had been giving out just now, and now getting the somewhat even more mysterious way the latter was speaking in, Ling Han felt as if he had grasped something, though it still wasn’t too clear.
“Does a sword of invincibility exist in this world?” He asked.
“A sword in the hands of an invincible swordsman would be a sword of invincibility!” Mo Gao said, “I am the sword itself, the heart of the sword is brightly lit. Able to pierce through every attack, and shatter every attack!”
“Hong,” Ling Han felt as if his whole mind had trembled, giving rise to a towering tsunami wave.
Sword Heart!
No wonder he had felt a feeling of mystery yet this profound feeling was so familiar to him; so Mo Gao was actually cultivating Sword Heart.
He was not the slightest bit suspicious of Mo Gao putting on airs, because the overall level of martial arts in Rain Country was really too low. Simply being able to form Sword Qi, you’d be named as a ruler. There was no one who had managed to form Sword Ray at all, so how could Sword Heart be possible?
The heart is the sword that is brightly lit; that was the highest level of comprehension of sword arts. With Sword Heart, all the attacks of this world would be easily understood and broken down. One only needs to wave his sword once, and all attacks would naturally be broken apart.
Who would ever have thought that a swordsman at the mere level of the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier would be able to somewhat touch the level of Sword Heart?
No wonder that Mo Gao, an obvious genius in his youth—otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to enroll into Hu Yang Academy in the first place—had all of a sudden “gone mad”. In truth, he hadn’t gone mad at all, it was just that he had already began to cultivate Sword Heart at that time.
However, it was immeasurably difficult to grasp Sword Heart. As a result, his cultivation had stagnated for these ten plus years, because he had concentrated all his efforts on comprehending Sword Heart.
A somber respect came to life in Ling Han. This was Sword Heart. Even in his last life, there were not many elite swordsmen that had managed to successfully form it. But as long as one succeeded in forming Sword Heart, not only would he be invincible among all those in the same cultivation level, he’d also be able to disregard the colossal gulf of differing cultivation levels to kill a powerful enemy at a higher tier. It was incomparably feared.
He clasped his hands together, and said, “Please share your wisdom, Teacher.”
Mo Gao was a bit surprised. Aside from himself, everyone else in the Academy thought that he was off his rocker. Even he himself, in these ten plus years, would occasionally doubt if he had made a wrong turn in life, and whether he really would be able to create a sword of invincibility.
And this young man, without any bit of hesitation, was actually willing to join him in sword practice. What deep trust this unfamiliar young man had towards him!
When he thought this, Mo Gao actually felt a little touched!
He, a solo swordsman with the sword as his only companion, completely isolated himself from everyone else. In the blink of an eye, ten plus years had already passed. He had spent it on sword practice, sword practice, and even more sword practice. And now, a young man actually held such admiration and trust for him, causing him to suddenly become excited.
This was a good student, he definitely had to teach this student well!
Mo Gao was thinking thus in his heart, and began to talk non-stop, “The art of the sword is like a person of noble character, magnanimous and devoid of even a single bit of vile character…” this was the understanding that he had come to through these ten plus years of extreme focus and hard practice. He didn’t even care if Ling Han could understand or not, and simply recited all of whatever he knew and had grasped.
Yet Ling Han was becoming more and more astonished. Although his cultivation level had dropped, his comprehension was still the one of that powerful war
rior of Heaven Tier that he had been, so naturally, he could understand all of what Mo Gao was saying.
And it was exactly because he could understand everything that he was astonished beyond measure.
…Mo Gao’s understanding of the sword had already completely surpassed his cultivation level. Even if he had yet to reach the level of ‘the heart of the sword is brightly lit’, he was just a mere step away from grasping Sword Heart.
In a place with such a low overall level of martial arts, and with himself who was at the mere level of ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier, his fingers actually managed to touch the door that led to Sword Heart; how could Ling Han not be astonished?
When Mo Gao was finished speaking, Ling Han simply stood there without moving at all, silently digesting all that he had heard.
For any swordsman, this lecture was invaluable!
This was not a sword technique, nor was it a martial arts technique at the high level of Heaven or Earth Grade. It was only a lecture of an individual’s understanding of the art of the sword. Yet it was an explanation that was very close to the core of the art, directly touching the base.
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