Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

by Fiery Moon

  Speaking up to that point, Xiao Chen decisively stood up to leave!

  Nangong Yan was startled. He knew that he was too hasty, and had been too rude. He hurriedly went up and backtracked as hard as he came on in the beginning, “My young friend, please don’t go, this old man has been too rude.”

  Xiao Chen stopped and replied with his back facing Nangong Yan, “I can stay, but I will only talk about business.”

  Nangong Yan gave Hu Lao a glance. Hu Lao registered the gesture immediately, and swiftly went over to usher Xiao Chen back into his seat with a smile, “If you are here to auction this, then there is no place in Mohe City more suitable than Linlang Pavilion!”

  Chapter 29: Re-Entering Seven Horn Mountain

  “Then would you, pavilion master, please set the price?” Xiao Chen looked at Nangong Yan and requested indifferently.

  Nangong Yan muttered to himself for a while before deciding, “This Fasting Pill… Hmmm, Linlang Pavilion will start the auction for this at 10,000 silver taels per pill, what do you think?”

  Xiao Chen did some calculations in his head: twenty Fasting Pills would be a starting price of 200,000 silver taels. Following the rules of the auction house, he could obtain 30% of the starting price as a kind of deposit, which was 60,000 silver taels. That should be enough for his short-term usage.

  “In that case, it’s settled. These twenty Fasting Pills will be left here for Linlang Pavilion to auction. Please draft the contract now.”

  Nangong Yan smiled gently, “No hurry. I want to discuss something with you. Out of the twenty Fasting Pill, I would like to purchase ten for myself. Of course, I will not take advantage of you. For however much this Fasting Pill sells for at the auction, I will add an additional two-fold.”

  The deal did not result in any loss for Xiao Chen, so it did not matter who he sold it to, “For these ten Fasting Pills, you have to give me 30% of the starting price first, as the rules state. As for the other ten pills reserved for you, you have to give me threefold of 30% of the starting price. That will be a total of 130,000 silver taels.”

  Nangong Yan nodded his head, “That is not a problem. According to the normal procedures, Linlang charges a 10% handling fee. I can reduce this to 5% for you. My friend, if you have any more pills you wish to sell, I hope you will continue to patronize our Linlang Pavilion.”

  This was quite an attractive offer. Without a large amount of money to spend on materials and ingredients, it would be difficult to improve as an alchemist. It was, therefore, a wise move to partner with Linlang Pavilion.

  After signing the contract and receiving the money, Xiao Chen immediately left Linlang Pavilion.

  Hu Lao took out ten Fasting Pills and placed them in another jade bottle before passing them to Nangong Yan, “Pavilion master, can we directly place this into the catalog?”

  Nangong Yan shook his head, “Not yet. Find a person to test its effects on first. In case we made a mistake.”

  Hu Lao was startled in his heart. So even the pavilion master was unable to verify the effects of this pill.

  ……

  Xiao Chen avoided attracting anyone’s attention by virtue of leaving through the back door of Linlang Pavilion. He searched for an isolated area and immediately changed his get-up. Holding the banknotes, he snickered in a silly manner. This was the first chunk of money that he had earned by himself, so he felt very excited.

  Going to the herbs shop, he purchased a hundred sets of ingredients for each of both of the pills he intended to refine. After this, he still had quite a lot of money left. Giving it some more thought, he bought some things that girls would like, such as make-up or head accessories. He purchased these to give to Bao`er and Xiao Yulan.

  After purchasing everything, he ended up carrying tens of packages of various sizes. It was incredibly inconvenient. But this merely further motivated him to refine a spatial storage treasure. However, in order to do this, he must first cultivate the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation to the second layer. Only by achieving that would he meet the basic requirements to forge equipment.

  His only option now was to spend a small sum of money to hire a horse carriage. Xiao Chen threw a banknote with a hefty amount ascribed to it at the owner of a horse carriage, who immediately scampered off and left behind his horse carriage. It feels great to be rich, Xiao Chen sighed in his heart.

  After placing all of his goods on the horse carriage, Xiao Chen felt much more at ease. The horses drawing carriages in this world were far more docile than the ones on Earth. Xiao Chen gave driving it a try and gradually figured out the trick behind it.

  As he drove the carriage out of the city gates, the number of people on the road started to decrease until he no longer saw anyone, save for the occasional passing traveler. Xiao Chen, who had earned such a large sum of money for the first time in his life, was in a very good mood. He started to sing a nonsensical song, that he made up on the spot, in a tone-deaf manner.

  “The weather today is very sunny, and the scenery is great, great scenery. The butterflies are busy, as are the bees… the clattering of the horse hoofs…~”

  “I am rich, rich. There is a Nokia in my left hand and a Motorola in my right…”

  Most of the things he sang were nonsensical, as he could not remember the lyrics to any song at all. Ever since first coming to this world, this was the first time he had felt so relaxed. As there was no one on the road, no one would hear his tone-deaf singing, so he sang happily and without restraint.

  “Ha ha…”

  Suddenly, from the roof of the horse carriage, a bell-like laughter emerged. It was similar to the tinkling of a wind chime as it moved in the wind.

  “Who is it?!”

  Xiao Chen hurriedly stopped singing and shouted sternly. He was too careless—how long had this individual been following him? He couldn’t actually sense them.

  Drawing the Lunar Shadow he had placed on his back, he put down the horse reins and leaped up gently, somersaulting as he hacked towards the direction of the sound.

  Feng Feixue, who was on the roof, gently laughed as she avoided Xiao Chen’s saber with incredibly soft movements. She somersaulted twice in the air before gracefully landing on the ground.

  “Who knew that Young Master Xiao was so talented? Aside from being able to refine medicine, he is also able to sing as well.”

  When Xiao Chen, still on the roof, saw the smooth and fair Feng Feixue dressed in men’s clothing, he felt incredibly embarrassed. It was similar to that feeling he once experienced when he inadvertently sang aloud in an internet cafe while wearing headphones.

  Sheathing back Lunar Shadow, Xiao Chen smiled, “I did not expect it to be Miss Feng. I did not expect such a fairy-like person to be following me, doing these kinds of sneaky things. Feng Feixue, you have disappointed me.” After saying this, he even acted as though it was a serious manner, and shook his head.

  Feng Feixue smiled mildly, “I did not follow you sneakily. I have been on the roof of your horse carriage even before you left the city gates. To think that not only are you ungrateful to the person who sold you your medicinal cauldron, you even pulled out your saber to try and injure me. Young Master Xiao, I’m so disappointed in you too!” After she said that, she imitated Xiao Chen and shook her head.

  This time, when he met with Feng Feixue, Xiao Chen did not feel that uneasy feeling he had when he was in the Regretful Iron the last time. Furthermore, he could not feel any evil intentions coming from Feng Feixue, so he was quite relaxed.

  Seeing the way Feng Feixue shook her head, Xiao Chen could not help but laugh. He jumped down from the top of the horse carriage and took out a hairpin from among his stash, tossing it at Feng Feixue before he rode onwards without pausing.

  “Miss Feng, regardless of your intentions in following me, I am going home now. Consider this hairpin as a thank-you gift for selling me the medicinal cauldron.”

  Feng Feixue grabbed the hairpin out of the
air and looked at the horse carriage galloping off into the distance. She shook her head, “Idiot! Since when have you seen me use a hairpin?”

  Indeed, the Feng Feixue who frequently dressed up as a male did not have much use for a hairpin normally used by a girl. Perhaps this was done intentionally by Xiao Chen, or perhaps it was unintentional. However, he was already quite far into the distance, so it was too late to question him about it. Feng Feixue shook her head, and eventually turned around to return.

  By the time Xiao Chen made it back to the Xiao Residence, it was already noon. His trip this time had taken the entire morning. When he drove the horse carriage to his tiny courtyard, Xiao Chen saw Bao`er tidying up the mess he had created in the front yard.

  Jumping off the horse carriage and looking at Bao`er’s frail body, Xiao Chen felt a sense of pity. He called Bao`er over with his hands, “Put what you are doing aside for now, and help me move these things.”

  Bao`er immediately stopped what she was doing and ran over to him. Although Xiao Chen had told her to help him, he still had to carry the larger packages himself. As they were moving the items, Bao`er looked strangely at a large pile of accessories in the horse carriage. She picked up these things and carried them to Xiao Chen’s room, feeling very puzzled.

  Seeing the things in Bao`er’s hands, Xiao Chen smiled, “I brought these for you. Pick out a few for yourself, but just be sure to leave me some as I still have to give a few to some friends.”

  Bao`er felt a warmth spread in her heart. She had not expected that these things were bought for her. She was just a maid, so why did the Young Master buy things for her? Could it be…

  Thinking those shameless thoughts, Bao`er blushed again. She lowered her head and simply picked out a few clothes and head accessories, quickly running away shortly after. Xiao Chen was puzzled at this. Were the things he bought inadequate? Would girls not enjoy them? After all, this was the first time he had ever purchased anything for girls.

  In the following days, Xiao Chen began anxiously refining the Essence Nurturing Pill and Qi Returning Pill. He would refine pills until he exhausted all of his Essence and became too mentally exhausted, before finally resting. On the first day of refining, he had a ridiculously poor success rate: out of ten refinements, he would only succeed in three. After he became more familiar with the process, his success rate gradually increased.

  However, regardless of how hard he tried, this success rate never came close to his refinement rate for the Fasting Pill. Xiao Chen knew this had something to do with his abilities as an alchemist. When his abilities were insufficient, it was normal for him to have a high failure rate for pills with higher difficulty. He could not rush it and could only slowly accumulate experience to raise his ability as an alchemist.

  After a week, Xiao Chen had completely used up all of the medicinal ingredients he had purchased. He managed to refine fifty Essence Nurturing Pills and seventy Qi Returning Pills in this time frame. Evidently, he experienced higher returns with the Qi Returning Pill. In this week of non-stop refining, he grew more adept at controlling the Purple Thunder True Fire. As a bonus, his cultivation of the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation reached the peak of the first layer.

  What gave Xiao Chen the most joy was that the green sphere in his sea of consciousness could now penetrate into the medicinal cauldron and allow him to clearly see the state of the flames, as well as the medicinal liquid in the cauldron. It was a pity that he could not control this phenomenon. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it did not. If it could be controlled, then his success rate pertaining to pill refining would increase dramatically.

  At this moment, there were only about four more months to the Promise of Ten Years. The urgency in Xiao Chen’s heart increased as the days went by. It was about time for him to enter Seven Horn Mountain for more bitter training.

  Early in the morning, Xiao Chen packed the bottles of Qi Returning Pills and Essence Nurturing Pills, equipped Lunar Shadow on his back, and made some other simple preparations before he prepared to leave. He also brought along the Fasting Pills he had refined for the sake of this cultivating session.

  “Young Master, I have brought the washing water, can I come in?”

  Bao`er’s voice came in from outside the door once again. Xiao Chen revealed a smile on his face. He had not stepped out of his room for the past week. Everything he ate and drank was specially prepared and brought to him by Bao`er, creating an ideal environment for alchemy. This made him feel quite grateful to her.

  After he opened the doors, Xiao Chen received the wash basin. After washing his face he told Bao`er, who was tidying his bed up, “I am going to start my secluded, bitter training from tomorrow on. Remember to stay here and look after my courtyard.”

  Bitter training... That meant he was leaving for a long time. Bao`er felt a sense of loss as she wordlessly answered Xiao Chen, continuing to tidy up the bed.

  Xiao Chen stepped out the doors. Before he left, he looked at Bao`er’s figure and smiled warmly. The morning sunlight shone down on the youth’s face. The light felt really warm, filling him with a fighting spirit.

  The next time he came back, not only would his Purple Thunder Divine Incantation be in the second layer, but his own cultivation realm would be Medial Grade Martial Disciple. Xiao Chen made a solemn oath in his heart.

  Chapter 30: Bloodmoon Demonic Bear

  It was as bustling as ever at the pass located at the foot of Seven Horn Mountain. Xiao Chen followed the crowd and slowly made his way up the mountain, but he did not have to pay the entry fee to enter the mountain, unlike the crowd around him. The guards at the pass recognized him and solemnly kept their silence. The situation was different now, and Xiao Chen was no longer recognized as the trash of old, so naturally no one would dare to mock him anymore.

  After traveling for half a day and making it through the pass, the sight of the vast mountain range of Seven Horn Mountain opened up to his view, scenic and breathtaking. The cultivators who came to Seven Horn Mountain typically came for the sake of picking medicinal herbs or hunting Spirit Beasts. Everyone had their own agenda, thus the crowd quickly dispersed as they went to do their own thing.

  Continuing to travel forward, there was no longer anyone traveling on the same path as Xiao Chen. Recalling the route he had taken in the past, Xiao Chen quickly found the place most saturated with Spiritual Energy.

  Compared to the previous time was here, Xiao Chen’s senses were much stronger now. Before he drew near to the area, he could already feel that it had been occupied by a Spirit Beast.

  Xiao Chen felt slightly disappointed in his heart, as he originally thought he might meet Cousin Yulan. That way could avoid a battle.

  “Bang! Bang!”

  A two meter tall Spirit Beast, resembling a black bear, trotted out heavily and slowly appeared in front of Xiao Chen’s eyes. Its red eyes glared at him, and in the very next moment it rushed at him while roaring furiously.

  Bloodmoon Demonic Bear: it had the strength of a rank 2 Spirit Beast, which was equivalent to a human Superior Grade Martial Disciple. This was the new tyrant of the area!

  It was obvious from its actions that it recognized Xiao Chen as someone not to be trifled with and only wanted to scare him away. If it could drive him away, it could avoid engaging in a risky battle.

  It was a pity that Xiao Chen needed this area. It seemed that things would not go the way the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear wanted.

  “Chi!”

  Drawing Lunar Shadow, the energy in the Spirit Weapon rapidly connected with the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit inside Xiao Chen. He moved as fast as lightning and pushed himself off the ground, rushing towards the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear. The Purple Thunder Divine Incantation quickly circulated, as arcs of electricity jumped around on the saber and the mist in the forest acted like a conductor for electricity, buzzing continuously.

  In the vicinity around Xiao Chen, electrical flashes were being emitted incessantly in a
wide radius. The flashes nearly made him look like a tesla coil, which in turn also made him look incomparably mighty and powerful.

  The Bloodmoon Demonic Bear, which had been capable of occupying this area for some time now, naturally did not shy away from a fight. It roared explosively as its blood-red pupils gave off a murderous gleam. It stomped ferociously on the ground, leaping rapidly towards Xiao Chen. Its huge body was actually able to move at such a speed!

  “Bang! Cha!”

  As they both flew towards each other, they clashed violently in midair. The savage collision created a fierce shockwave. After the surrounding trees in the forest were hit by the shockwaves they were shaken furiously, causing their leaves to fall and scatter everywhere, like snow in winter.

  The front limbs of the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear firmly grasped onto Xiao Chen’s Lunar Shadow. Relying on the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit in his body, Xiao Chen was able to break even with the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear.

  It was a pity to him that the Lunar Shadow Saber would be able to display more of the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit’s strength if only it were of a higher grade. The power of that strike would definitely be capable of beheading this Spirit Beast easily.

  However, against the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear, which could only use brute force, Xiao Chen still had the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation. In the time to it took for a spark to fly off a flint, the electrical energy on Lunar Shadow traveled via the front limbs of the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear and invaded its body. The Bloodmoon Demonic Bear convulsed and fell down with a loud crash shortly after.

  Xiao Chen quickly slashed three times in the air. With the power of the Azure Dragon, instead of falling to the ground, he rose even higher. He then somersaulted in midair and landed gently on a thick tree branch.