by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“But… the Tendon Firming Pill is a third tier medicinal pill!” exclaimed Guo Ran.
“The current me is still unable to refine third tier medicinal pills. So I’ll need to first buy a couple of other ingredients to help me accomplish a certain thing, and then I’ll be able to refine the Tendon Firming Pill,” said Long Chen confidently.
His current Pill Flame wasn’t enough for him to refine a third tier medicinal pill. Without a mighty enough Pill Flame, it was impossible to completely purify the medicinal ingredients, and thus it was impossible to form the pill.
But in his spatial ring was the Flame Salamander’s Neidan. As long as he absorbed that, he would have a third rank beast flame.
Then adding on his powerful Spiritual Strength and the abundant spiritual qi in his FengFu Star, it would be no problem for him to refine third tier medicinal pills despite him not advancing into the Tendon Transformation realm.
Furthermore, Long Chen saw that the Tendon Firming Pills that were offered here were all only middle grade, not high grade.
Such a Tendon Firming Pill wasn’t especially good. It would require at least fifteen days to stabilize their realm with such a pill.
But Long Chen’s goal was high grade Tendon Firming Pills. Such a pill could allow them to completely stabilize their realm in just seven to ten days.
That would allow all of them to save many days’ time. With the fierce competition in the monastery, time was money. Each extra day they cultivated was another portion of strength they could compete with for more resources.
So not only would that greatly increase everyone’s cultivation speed, but it would also save them many points.
By saving those points, Long Chen could buy the ingredients for the Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood. Then, he could later go out to hunt Magical Beasts and make the Ten Thousand Beast Essence Blood, allowing him to quickly advance his cultivation base.
His fight with senior apprentice-brother Wu had given Long Chen an extreme sense of danger. It was lucky they had been interrupted before Wu Qi had released his last attack.
If Tu Fang hadn’t appeared, Long Chen would have had to summon his FengFu Battle Armor to take that blow.
The FengFu Battle Armor was his final trump card. But from the very start, Wu Qi had not used any Battle Skills and had merely used his Tendon Transformation cultivation base to suppress Long Chen.
Long Chen knew that in a true fight, he would not be a match for Wu Qi. Furthermore, he also sensed danger from that Elder Sun.
Although he didn’t know why Elder Sun would target him, he definitely couldn’t be careless. He couldn’t entrust his life to the monastery.
If he wanted to control his own life, he needed an accordingly high strength. So he urgently needed to get stronger.
He didn’t have the pill formula for the Tendon Firming Pills that were sold here, but in his soul’s memories was an even better formula that could also stabilize the realm. The effect would be even better.
“You can decide yourself. I trust you.” Tang Wan-er smiled. Taking out her medal, she pressed a couple of things and put it on top of Long Chen’s badge.
The number on top of Long Chen’s badge immediately leaped up. The original five hundred immediately became one hundred thousand five hundred.
“This…” Long Chen was startled. Tang Wan-er had given him all the faction’s points.
“Since I’ve chosen to trust you, I’ll trust you completely. From today onwards, you can be the executive manager of the faction,” laughed Tang Wan-er.
Holding the badge, a warm feeling flowed within him. Being trusted by others truly was a good feeling. He was actually speechless.
“Cough, boss, should I quietly leave at this time?” said Guo Ran awkwardly.
Tang Wan-er reddened and she turned away, but she also didn’t say anything.
Long Chen glared at Guo Ran, “You know too much.”
In accordance with the formula in his memories, Long Chen quickly found the ingredients he needed. It went without saying that the monastery’s treasure-house contained a very large collection, at least hundreds of times greater than the alchemist guild.
After he bought everything he needed for the Tendon Firming Pills, as well as what he needed to absorb the Flame Salamander’s Neidan, over thirty thousand of his one hundred thousand points had flown away.
Just as Long Chen was planning on returning home to refine the Flame Salamander’s Neidan, Tang Wan-er pulled him back.
Chapter 188 Absorbing the Neidan
The first level of the Xuantian pavilion was filled with medicinal ingredients and pills. But the second level was filled with various Battle Skills and cultivation techniques.
However, after arriving at the second level, they saw that it was mostly devoid of people. There were just over ten white-robed senior apprentice-brothers guarding this level.
Bookshelves covered the walls, each bookshelf separated from the others and filled with secret tomes.
Below the tomes was an introduction of the technique as well as its price.
Long Chen gasped when he saw the prices. Seventy-six thousand eight hundred…
That was an Earth class Battle Skill. But of course the Xuantian Monastery’s collected Battle Skills were all first-rate, a completely different level from the Three Style Parting Wind Long Chen had learned.
But even so, this price was far too excessive. Tang Wan-er also shook her head.
It was no wonder there was no one here. Everything was far too expensive. In their present circumstances, there was no way for them to buy anything good.
Their current points had to be used to raise the collective power of the faction. They couldn’t just waste it all on one person.
If they did, then their faction would drop in power in comparison to the others. In their future competitions, they would be oppressed and end up losing out.
Tang Wan-er herself also possessed fifty thousand points for her own usage. But even that many points were unable to buy anything she needed. It would be better for her to just save them to use later.
Those senior apprentice-brothers guarding this place only indifferently glanced over at them without saying anything. Obviously, the kind of shock they had displayed was already a common occurrence for them.
“Looks like we came for nothing,” sighed Tang Wan-er.
“Let’s just take a look,” smiled Long Chen. He started to rove around the bookshelves, finding many secret techniques that had mostly all reached the early Earth class.
There were also several mid grade Earth class Battle Skills, but Long Chen didn’t even bother looking at them. That was because those tomes had prices in the hundreds of thousands.
Long Chen wasn’t even paying attention to what level the Battle Skill or technique was. He was only looking at their prices. If it was only in the ten thousands, he would read the introduction.
All the lower priced ones were just a couple of secret techniques or arts. They weren’t true Battle Skills, and their class was also not high despite their prices still not being that low.
Suddenly, Long Chen’s eyes brightened as he stopped before one shelf: Spiritual Space Opening Art.
I finally found it! Long Chen celebrated. He had really found what he had been looking for.
Opening a spiritual space was a fundamental skill of Beast Tamers. Using their Spiritual Strength, they would open a special space to store their housepets so that they could carry them around at all times.
There were no such secret techniques circulating within the secular world. Long Chen had searched for a long time within Phoenix Cry without finding any.
And back when Lu Fang-er had sent Little Snow to him, she had been limited by her sect’s rules and couldn’t give him a true inheritance. And so Long Chen had been unable to learn this technique up until this day.
With Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, he had long since met the requirements to be able to open a spiritual space. Once he did, h
e would be able to keep Little Snow by his side without anyone being able to argue.
The price was sixty-three thousand points. Long Chen really wanted to hatefully spit on the ground at that price.
This was an entry level technique that was only for Beast Tamers, but it was already so expensive. He had seen shameless people before, but he had never seen such a shameless price.
Tang Wan-er looked at it and curiously asked Long Chen, “You want to learn this?”
Long Chen nodded, “Yup.”
Tang Wan-er smiled, “Then go ahead. We still have enough points. I still haven’t touched my own.”
“Thank you. Just let me take care of the Heaven Earth Faction,” thanked Long Chen gratefully.
Long Chen was using their faction’s points to buy personal items. But opening a spiritual space was extremely important to him. Once he did, he would have a powerful helper by his side.
At that time, he would have another status: Beast Tamer. When he fought with others, he could call out Little Snow to fight with him.
Even if people were jealous about it, it was useless. That was because, without a spiritual connection to a Magical Beast, it was impossible to absorb them into your spiritual space.
And that was why the other disciples’ Magical Beasts could only count as mounts, while Long Chen and Little Snow had a deeper spiritual bond between them. It was just that Long Chen hadn’t placed a slave imprint into Little Snow. But with their spiritual connection, it was no different from a contract.
Now that everyone had advanced to Tendon Transformation, Long Chen had immediately become one of the lower leveled members. But if he had Little Snow with him, although he might not leap to the top, he definitely wouldn’t be oppressed by anyone.
“I’m really not used to you being so polite. In any case, you’re the executive manager in charge of the Heaven Earth Faction. If our Heaven Earth Faction’s power ends up dropping, hehe, well I’ll be coming to you for blame,” laughed Tang Wan-er.
“Don’t worry boss, I will do my utmost!” Long Chen put on a great act of saluting.
Tang Wan-er merely hit him a bit in rebuke. “Move on from your wackiness.”
At this point, someone walked over to them. He gave Long Chen a reminder, “This thing isn’t very useful. Are you sure you want to buy it?”
If you know it’s not useful, then why is it so expensive?! But Long Chen knew that these senior apprentice-brothers didn’t have anything to do with the prices.
Long Chen nodded. “I’ll have to trouble senior apprentice-brother.”
That person took Long Chen’s badge. Seeing his points sharply drop, Long Chen’s heart dripped blood.
Taking back the badge, that person opened the shelf and took out a jade tablet from beneath the tome. Handing it to Long Chen, he said, “This is a spirit jade tablet. Inside is the information of the tome. The content will only remain in the jade for three days.
“If you still haven’t learned it after three days, you can come to get a new one here one more time. But if you fail to learn it twice, then you won’t get any further help.”
Long Chen nodded. If you actually couldn’t learn it after two tries then you really were useless. He suspected the second opportunity was most likely there only for those who lost or damaged the tablets.
After saying thanks, the three of them didn’t waste any more time there. Seeing things they wanted but not being able to buy them was a kind of torment.
Although Tang Wan-er hadn’t touched her personal points, as the leader, she had to at least keep some savings in reserve.
The faction’s points had basically all been used up by Long Chen. Tang Wan-er didn’t even dare look at anything else for fear that she wouldn’t be able to control herself.
Once the three of them walked out of the Xuantian pavilion, Tang Wan-er told Long Chen, “We’ll go get some new talent to make up the numbers.
“Currently our faction has seventy-nine members, so we can get twenty-one more. We must get top elites.
“During the trial, there were a great deal of people who hadn’t joined any faction yet managed to pass.
“Most of those are only outer disciples with only a couple of rare inner disciples. But even twenty-one outer disciples will be able to boost our strength.”
Long Chen said, “You and Guo Ran go get more people. I have to hurry up and prepare to refine medicinal pills. We can’t stall the matter of increasing everyone’s strength.
“Also, when you go get new members, it isn’t strength that is important. Perseverance and determination are the most important things. Also, they definitely must be loyal.
“And also, if you end up finding someone as weird as Guo Ran, don’t let him join. Just having one such person in our faction is enough.”
Guo Ran was speechless while Tang Wan-er laughed. She brought Guo Ran over to the Xuantian plaza. That was where the majority of the people who had yet to join a faction were.
Long Chen directly returned to the immortal cave. Seeing Qing Yu was present, he told her to go the plaza as well to help recruit people.
After all, those recruits would be their eternal companions, so it was extremely important to pick properly. Having more people helping out with the recruitment would be best.
Once Qing Yu left, Long Chen took out his pill furnace as well as a large pile of medicinal ingredients. Extending his hand, a light red flame soared into existence.
“It’s been a while since I’ve refined pills. I better not screw up… I only got one set of ingredients.”
Once he finished warming the furnace, he increased his flame strength, beginning to slowly place the medicinal ingredients in the pill furnace.
What gladdened Long Chen was that his alchemy arts seemed to have sunk deep within his bones. He was not the slightest bit out of practice. And because his cultivation base had risen, his Spiritual Strength had also increased, allowing him to have even greater control than before.
Two hours later, he lifted the lid and saw a longan-sized medicinal pill.
That medicinal pill didn’t have any luster. It looked like a rusted old ball of copper. But Long Chen smiled.
“This Fire Gathering Pill’s quality is not bad.”
Putting away the Fire Gathering Pill, he once more began refining medicinal ingredients. But this time, he wasn’t refining pills, but a kind of medicinal liquid.
That medicinal liquid was red as blood and was strangely viscous. Only once that liquid changed color three times did Long Chen stop his flame.
Once the medicinal liquid in his pill furnace cooled off, Long Chen took out the Flame Salamander’s Neidan and gently began to drip drops of that liquid onto the Neidan.
The egg-shaped Neidan began to crazily absorb the medicinal liquid. Its original white color began to darken into a blood-red.
As the Neidan’s color changed, a terrifying heat began to circulate within it.
By the time all the medicinal liquid had been absorbed, the Neidan had become extremely bright. The fluctuations coming from within it were incredibly intense, like a volcano on the verge of erupting.
“Ok, the fire attribute energy has been completely activated. I hope I can manage to absorb the runic power within it as well.”
Long Chen hesitated a moment and then decided to leave the immortal cave. Closing the door, he hurried to the back of the mountain.
Finding a secluded place, he took out the Neidan and swallowed the Fire Gathering Pill he had just refined.
As soon as that medicinal pill entered his stomach, it immediately dissolved. A light heat flowed through his meridians.
Long Chen looked within him and saw his meridians had been plated with a layer of gold. It was a protective membrane for the insides of his meridians.
That was why Long Chen had never absorbed the Flame Salamander’s Neidan up to this point.
Even someone as powerful as him didn’t dare absorb it without this medicinal pill’s assistance. A Flame Sala
mander’s Neidan, whose energy had barely been used at all, contained a flame that could heavily injure his meridians.
It was a third rank Magical Beast’s beast flame, and it was also number ninety-seven on the beast flame rankings. Long Chen didn’t dare be careless.
Furthermore, what Long Chen wanted wasn’t just the beast flame. He wanted something even stronger than a regular beast flame.
Taking a deep breath, he adjusted himself into his peak state. Placing his hands atop the Flame Salamander’s Neidan, he began to circulate his spiritual qi, absorbing the violent energy within the Neidan.
Chapter 189 Flame Salamander’s Blue Flame
A current of practically burning lava rapidly flowed from his hands into his meridians.
BOOM!
When that current entered his meridians, it was like salt water had met fresh water, causing violent surges that filled him with pain.
He continued to control the speed at which the energy was flowing into him. If he let that terrifying energy directly flood into his body, his meridians would immediately burst.
His FengFu Star was quickly circulating, and his enormous spiritual qi was pouring out. It controlled the speed at which the Neidan’s energy flowed into his body. He needed to let his meridians gradually become accustomed to that violent heat.
The Neidan was the spot where all the Flame Salamander’s energy had been stored over its lifetime. If the Neidan were to explode, that terrifying energy would be able to immediately exterminate several third rank Magical Beasts.
And despite his slow absorption speed, Long Chen still found the pain difficult to endure. That terrifying heat was constantly roasting his meridians.
There was also a violent qi that was constantly circulating around. That qi possessed an instinctive destructive will that wanted to burn everything.
It was good that Long Chen had made enough preparations. With the Fire Gathering Pill, he had a layer of protection over his meridians that prevented the energy from harming them.
He also celebrated that he had just advanced to the seventh Heavenstage, allowing his meridians to grow even stronger. Otherwise, even with the Fire Gathering Pill’s protection, he might have already failed.