“I found this jade slip amongst an old archive deep in a location I shall not speak of. Due to my stubbornness, it has quietly sat within my storage pouch for many decades. But I think I have finally found a suitable use for it. Inside this contains a rudimentary earthly pill refining technique. Seeing that you have somehow acquired a pill cauldron, I am a bit eager to see what it is capable of and is why I have decided to gift it to you.”
Was this old man crazy? Why would he gift such a precious jade slip to him? Xing Yi was completely stumped. It wasn’t just Xing Yi, so was his disciple as he was also similarly shocked.
“Master! Why are you- he’s just a trifling mortal-”
“Quiet. I have heard enough of those rumours. He is not a mortal. He is an earthly cultivator.” Yang snapped, “Do you understand?”
“Yes, master,” He Yazhu put his head down in shame and admitted with a bit of reluctance. He proceeded to watch on while fidgeting, making circles in the dirt with his bare feet.
“But there is no such thing as free lunch. There is a catch,” Yang revealed.
Xing Yi’s eyes, which had been previously focused on the jade slip, now quickly snapped back to Martial Uncle Yang.
“-If I ever require assistance in the future, you will be the first person I come to. You may have to act as a courier for me, getting involved in the mortal affairs of some of my noble relatives in Rising Dragon City, or I may even send you on an entire quest into the Western Forest-”
Xing Yi gulped when he heard Martial Uncle Yang mention the Western Forest. For him, going there was complete suicide.
“This is a one-time request and a complete gamble on your part. There are high risks involved. However, I know very well that if you want to achieve any kind of success in pill refining, you don’t want to be using those crude, idiotic mortal techniques. I will give you some time to think about it.”
However, Martial Uncle Yang and his disciple didn’t have to wait long for Xing Yi to come to a decision.
“I accept your generous gift, Martial Uncle Yang,” Xing Yi said. The boy had no idea what the man had seen in him or what he could be scheming, or if he was in the first place. Now that he thought about it, trying to make immortal pills like a mother would make her children soup was for the lack of a better word, stupid. He had been very naive, underestimating the practice of alchemy like that. He was now sure that he would’ve quickly given up on pill refining after his first few tries.
But the rewards of becoming a successful pill refiner, no matter his lack of spiritual roots, would be tremendous. Almost enough to bridge that gap and give him a real chance at immortality. And with this earthly pill refining technique? Things would be completely different.
Pill refining techniques were well-guarded secrets. The only way one could get their hands on one is if they were the disciple of a pill refiner, or they killed them and took it themselves. Yet again, some pill refiners cast spells that upon their untimely death, would cause such records to explode or crumble to dust. They were truly fickle things to acquire! Even if he saved up for his entire life, he would never even be able to get even a single page.
Xing Yi originally planned to do something different, using an artificial blackfire to create a certain type of qi gathering pill that was easy to craft. The rate of success for them was high but it would usually have low quality and about ten times more inferior than a normal qi gathering pill would be. It was a good business plan he had come up with but it wasn’t true pill refining. It was a shoddy mimic.
But given an actual opportunity at real pill refining? Xing Yi would not decline. The gains to be made would be far greater. It was also an opportunity to gain Martial Uncle Yang’s favour. He wasn’t just anybody either. He was the sect’s one and only pill refiner. He was the backbone of the Bloody Path Sect. Every single person relied on him to produce pills for their cultivation. Without him, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they had lost their most important sect member. His existence almost rivalled that of the sect’s nascent soul ancestor.
If he could gain his favour or maybe even become his disciple, his position in the sect would give him more freedom to move around in the sect and plenty of benefits. However, Xing Yi didn’t dare to even think of the latter as a possibility. That was simply impossible.
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“Whether my kindness is the precursor to something significant is yet to be seen. In time, I will know if my gift was a good decision. Take good care of this jade slip,” Martial Uncle Yang pondered as the jade slip flew through the air and landed into the hands of Xing Yi.
The jade was surprisingly warm to the touch as he held it.
“You may have not used one before so I will give a quick explanation,” Yang said.
Xing Yi perked up hearing this.
“This jade slip can only be accessed by circulating inner qi through it and upon doing so, your mind realm will be flooded with a sea of information. You will have to sort through it all before you can organise it in order. Considering that you are only at the first layer, it will take multiple days before you will be finished. But once you are, each time you open the jade slip in your mind temple, it will all already be in the correct order for you,” Martial Uncle Yang explained.
“Thank you for your wisdom Martial Uncle Yang,” Xing Yi thanked as he bowed.
Yang nodded before waving over He Yazhu.
“Escort Xing Yi out for me. I have other matters to attend to now,” Yang said before putting his hands behind his back and silently walking back to the long house.
He Yazhu summoned a cloud of fire and gave Xing Yi an annoyed look.
“Jump on,” He Yazhu said, his arms crossed.
Xing Yi hesitated, not wanting to get burnt by the flames. He looked to He Yazhu and was about to say something when the boy answered the question before he could say it.
“No, It won’t burn you. Trust me. Now get on,” He Yazhu insisted.
Xing Yi nodded and stepped on, his whole body stiff like a wooden board. Both surprising and not, he didn’t actually get burnt and the flame was only lukewarm.
He Yazhu sat down into a lotus position, Xing Yi followed the common courtesy and did so as well. The pair were whisked away through the air and over the surrounding mountains. As they approached the grey fog, it parted for them, revealing a clear path to the outside. Flying through, they cordially made it outside and back in front of the wooden arch.
He Yazhu slowly lowered down the fire cloud to the ground and Xing Yi jumped off. And before he left, the other bare footed boy had something to say.
“I don’t know what my master is thinking, giving you that jade slip. But I don’t like it. Don’t think he is going to accept you as his disciple because he gave you some random thing he had lying around in his storage pouch!” He Yazhu exclaimed.
Xing Yi was taken aback and was left speechless for a moment.
He replied, “I won’t. Ok?”
“Good!” He Yazhu shouted before flying away at his maximum speed, disappearing into the grey fog.
Xing Yi mentally sighed at this and the whole experience that occurred. He wasn’t really trying to become one of Martial Uncle Yang’s disciples. And for some reason, He Yazhu thought he was trying to. Well, he would be lying if he said that he would never. But in any case, he had the Brown Calamus and he could now test it to see if it was legitimate or not.
…
It was a day later and Xing Yi had built a small fire pit. Heaving the mysterious black cauldron up onto it, he filled it with water and stoked the fire. Soon, the water was boiling and it was steaming.
With the brown calamus in hand, he simply dropped it in. There was nothing else he needed to do except wait. If a metallic smell came, it wasn’t a pill cauldron. If there wasn’t, it was a pill cauldron.
It was many several minutes later that much to Xing Yi’s displeasure, a metallic smell permeated through the air. With this, Xing Yi let out a long, defeated sigh and didn’t even bother to extinguish the flame. He dragged himself inside and sat in silent meditation, not sure what to do.
It was later into the afternoon that Xing Yi went to take the cauldron off the fire pit. However, when he happened to look inside the cauldron; what he saw caused his jaw to drop in shock.
The Brown Calamus was lying at the bottom of the cauldron, seemingly untouched.
AN: The story starts to pick up a bit of pace now.