Xi Shen upon hearing Bai Xiaofung’s words started to question whether his thoughts of him hiding another ingredient that contained the Chaos Qi was correct. Hearing his last sentence, his interest was piqued as he asked, “What do you mean that pill was normal for you? Have you concocted similar pills like that before?

With a solemn expression on his childlike face, Bai Xiaofung nodded his head. Afterwards, a slightly embarrassed smile appeared on his face as he said, “I’m sure if the second prince asks about the walking calamity of the Bai Clan you’ll hear about all the stories revolving around my pill concoction endeavors. I don’t know why but every time I tried refining a pill, something strange happens. Massive lightning storms in broad daylight, a sudden change in temperature, and even one time when I was trying to concoct a simple Qi Gathering pill, all of the Qi within my Clan suddenly became chaotic to the point that several people in my clan suffered from a sudden Qi Deviation. Oh but no one died though!”

Bai Xiaofung quickly said that last part due to the fact Yang Su was giving him a horrified look.

After listening to all these strange phenomena, Xi Shen couldn’t help but think that these events sounded like what would happen if Chaos Qi were introduced into the current environment.

Most likely the Chaos Qi was clashing with the various Qi in the environments. That would explain those strange events, especially that area-wide Qi disruption.

After thinking for a moment, Xi Shen stared at Bai Xiaofung and said, “I want you to concoct a pill and let me see.”

Yang Su who was looking at Bai Xiaofung cautiously couldn’t help but turned to look at Xi Shen with a frightened expression when he heard that.

However, to Yang Su’s relief, Bai Xiaofung responded with, “Second prince if you want to see those events happening I’m afraid they have stopped since I entered the Celestial Academy. I’ve been concocting for several months but nothing as ridiculous as those events had happened, just a simple exploding furnace.”

Xi Shen frowned when he heard that.

“So you're saying that it only happens when you’re in your Bai Clan?”

Bai Xiaofung nodded his head, and with a weary smile on his face said, “It seems so.”

‘No that can’t be right. Is it something about the location of the Bai Clan? Or is it something buried under there? Maybe the environment itself? None of that seems plausible though, other Alchemists must have concocted in the Bai Clan before him so incidents such as this would have been common. Then does it have something to do with this youth specifically? I don’t sense anything special about his physique, and no concoction method should allow someone to produce Chaos Qi, the origin of all Qi.’

As Xi Shen was thinking of all the possible options that could have caused this youth to concoct a pill with Chaos Qi in it, his eyes suddenly lit up before he turned to Bai Xiaofung and asked, “What did you do differently during your concoction after you came to the Celestial Academy?”

Bai Xiaofung shook his head and said, “None of my concocting methods have changed, even though the pill refining furnace father took from me was of a higher grade, I concocted the same way I always have within the Clan with a lower grade pill furnace.”

When Xi Shen heard that his eyes flickered with a mysterious light for a brief moment before it completely disappeared.

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“And where is this pill furnace your father took from you?”

“Huh?”

Bai Xiaofung was taken aback by Xi Shen’s question about his pill furnace, but he still answered, “Father said it was too damaged to use as there were already cracks on it when I had bought it in a small auction. So he took it and bought me a newer one but much cheaper and of a lower grade."

Bai Xiaofung had on a bemoaning expression as he said that. He then continued.

"I don’t know what he did with it but… ah, wait!”

Bai Xiaofung’s eyes suddenly widen, and he started to understand why Xi Shen had suddenly taken interest in his pill furnace.

Xi Shen who saw this couldn’t help but facepalm on the inside. With all the evidence suggesting that the pill furnace could have been the reason for those anomalies, he couldn’t believe Bai Xiaofung hadn’t pieced it together already.

He was really dense.

Bai Xiaofung was heard saying with a surprised expression, “Does the second prince think it was my pill furnace that caused those weird disasters to happen?”

Xi Shen took a sip from his tea and chose to remain silent.

Bai Xiaofung continued and said, “But that doesn’t make any sense. I bought the pill furnace in a small auction and the previous owner who placed it there had not mentioned such phenomena happening. And the price I bought it for was incredibly somewhat cheaper than normal because despite it being a high-grade pill furnace it had cracks on it which lowered its quality.”

When Xi Shen heard that, his eyes again couldn’t help but flicker, this time it was more intense than before.

‘It’s obvious the Bai Clan Leader had discovered the strange characteristics of that pill furnace and took it for himself, but something about it appearing in the auction in the first place is very suspicious.’

Xi Shen then openly asked Bai Xiaofung, “Do you know who the previous owner of the item was?”

Bai Xiaofung shook his head and then said, “They chose to keep their identity a secret, and no reputable auction house would reveal the identity of their clients.”

Xi Shen sunk into his thoughts upon hearing that.

'Either this person is just a lowly cultivator who wanted to sell this slightly damaged high-grade pill furnace for some quick spirit stones, or it was a high-level cultivator who did it on purpose even after noticing the strange characteristics of the pill furnace. If it’s the latter, then it seems I have stumbled upon something quite interesting. Chaos energy isn’t something just anyone can mess around with. My guess is that the previous owner sensed the strange nature of the furnace but couldn’t uncover its secrets, or there was a requirement to do so. If that's the case then they must have placed it in that small auction that wouldn’t draw any attention and tried to scout out someone who knew anything about it, or to find someone with the right requirements to unlock its mysteries.’

Xi Shen then looked at Bai Xiaofung before he thought in his heart, ‘I guess they had found the person who they were looking for, but I bet they didn’t think the second son of the Bai Clan Patriarch would be that person.’

Xi Shen then thought about how the Bai Clan Leader had taken the pill furnace from his son.

‘The previous owner was one of the Seven Major Clans. The Bai Clan Leader is likely using this fact to extort something from them since his son had uncovered the secrets of the pill furnace.’

Xi Shen had immediately come to this conclusion by simply adding up all the scattered pieces of information.

And he came to another conclusion as well. For the Bai Clan Leader to choose to hand over the pill furnace for a price instead of keeping it for himself means that the other party is one of the stronger Clans who the Bai Clan was unwilling to come into conflict with, but was still brave enough to extort them.

‘Is it the Ming Clan? No. If it were them the Bai Clan Leader wouldn’t dare to try and extort them. Then that only leaves the Sun Clan, the Lin Clan, the Sua Clan, and the Fei Clan. Hmm, let’s scrap the Fei Clan, even though they're considered more powerful than the Bai and Zhong Clans it isn’t by much. So they couldn’t pressure the Bai Clan to hand over the pill furnace. Let’s scrap the Sua Clan for the same thing. Now that only leaves the Sun Clan and the Lin Clan.’

After reaching here, Xi Shen poled all the knowledge he had on the two Clans and went through each piece of information quickly. It only took him a split second to come to a definite conclusion because of one simple piece of information.

The Lin Clan was well known for producing talented Alchemists, and they even have a history of their founder being one, as well as a powerful expert that was said to have a foot in the Realm beyond the Soul Transformation Realm, similar to the other Clans founders except for the Ming Clan that had their Founder enter that Mysterious Realm fully. Or at least that was what the history books, Xi Shen didn't trust them entirely as he found many inconsistencies in them.

For Xi Shen, figuring everything out had only taken him a minute or two. Meanwhile, Bai Xiaofung was patiently sitting across from him as he was in thought.

Coming out of his thoughts, Xi Shen turned his head slightly to Yang Su next to him before saying, “Yang Su do you still have the Sea Expansion pill? Give it to him, and don’t worry you have no need for such pills in the future.”

Yang Su nodded his head at Xi Shen’s orders, and after flipping over his palm the deep blue-colored Sea Expansion pill appeared in Yang Su’s hand in a white bottle, before he hand it over to an extremely excited Bai Xiaofung.

After receiving the pill, Bai Xiaofung down the entire tea not minding its hot temperature before he stood up and said, “Thank you, second prince!! If you ever need a pill concocted in the future you can call upon the future number-one alchemist on the Maple Continent!”

Xi Shen was taken aback a little by Bai Xiaofung’s declaration, but he only chuckled before he said, “Okay, I’ll hold you to your words. If I ever do need a difficult pill concocted I'll find you.”

“Yang Su see our guest out.”

Yang Su nodded at Xi Shen before he began leading Bai Xiaofung to the main entrance.