Elder Yang was silent as he frowned. He perused over the cultivation of the two disciples before him in deep thought.
‘This Ge Yifeng’s cultivation is unstable, and his blood vitality is seemingly recovering from a near-death experience. As for his soul, there are no markings, nor does it differ from what I remember it.’
‘His sould is quite timid and soft. It is nigh impossible for such a weak and cowardly demon to exist. It seems I came out here for nothing. I’ll make sure to give Deacon Wang a big scare so this doesn’t happen again.’
However, as he scanned Xing Yi, he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
‘This is unusual. Xing Yi is at the 9th layer of earthly cultivation. Where did this talent come from? Maybe he encountered a fortuitous opportunity?’
‘I remember giving him an earthly pill refining cultivation technique but that was merely me organising and getting rid of trash that I didn’t need. If he could’ve learned to refine pills with just that and advance his cultivation, I would laugh all the way to the heavens. And it seems I have a favour I need repaying…’
Elder Yang asked, “Xing Yi what happened?”
He didn’t trust Ge Yifeng enough to tell the truth.
“Elder Yang, Ge Yifeng destroyed my house. I beat him up for this transgression. But I didn’t expect his face to be so fragile, to the point where he was on the brink of death. I was forced to feed him some pills I painstakingly bought from the Paragon Emporium in order to save his life.”
“Although he is an enemy, we are after all, still martial brothers of The Bloody Path Sect. If it doesn’t trouble Elder Yang, this humble disciple would like to request elder to enact punishment and have him reimburse for what I have lost today.
Xing Yi replied with a half-life, half-truth approach, touching lightly on the subject of where he acquired the life-saving pills.
“Is that so?” Elder Yang stroked his beard, further goading the cultivation of Ge Yifeng and Xing Yi to assure himself of his previous evaluation.
Suddenly, Elder Yang’s voice turned cold.
“Ge Yifeng, you will reimburse Young Xing Yi one-hundred spirit stones! After which, you will be sentenced to a month in the Cave of Silence! Is this reasonable to Martial Nephew?”
“Yes!” Ge Yifeng shouted in joy.
He didn’t care about the punishment he had received. One-hundred spirit stones to make a breakthrough? That was a bargain! Even if with that amount of spirit stones in wealth, he might not have broken through! He just hadn’t experienced the world enough and after this life and death experience, he was finally able to break through this bottleneck.
“I trust that you can find your way there yourself?” Elder Yang’s aura pressed down on Ge Yifeng, causing the previously joyful person to quiet down and shiver in fear.
“Yes, Elder Yang!” Ge Yifeng shouted before flying away, grimacing underneath beneath Elder Yang’s aura.
Once the other person was gone, Elder Yang asked with curiosity, “How did you break through to the 9th layer of Meridian Cleansing so fast?”
Xing Yi had only been at the 1st layer of Meridian Cleansing over a year ago. Although Elder Yang was one of the more jaded cultivators and wouldn’t give many people face, he couldn’t help but break his façade momentarily.
Just what was his secret?
Xing Yi laughed awkwardly, “Elder Yang…”
His laugh trailed off as he genuinely did not know what to say. A silence formed in this moment and Elder Yang grew suspicious.
“Speak up. Or do you have some kind of secret you are hiding?” He squinted his eyes, glazing over the Herb Holding Cabinet and the strange Black Cauldron that had somehow evaded his spiritual sense.
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A treasure that evaded his spiritual sense. Very, very strange.
“Elder Yang, to tell the truth. This disciple has found pill refining to be quite natural. It only took this disciple three attempts to successfully refine his first pill. Due to this, this one has been able to make a small fortune and thus swiftly advance his cultivation.”
“Nonsense!” Elder Yang’s voice rang loud as it echoed throughout the nearby valley and past the mountains. His eyes were wide open, and he stared at Xing Yi with a solemn expression.
Three attempts to successfully refine his first pill!?!?
This was the craziest joke he had ever heard! If Elder Yang was eccentric, he would’ve broken out into laughter just now!
This boy, he was making a joke of him. He is saying it only took him three attempts to successfully refine his first pill. He didn’t even have a teacher!
This was an insult to Elder Yang!
Elder Yang was no heaven-defying talent, but he was a Grade Five Pill Refining Talent!
It had taken him over one-hundred attempts to refine his first own pill! And this brat who was born in a small village in the middle of nowhere claimed that he was a heaven-defying genius.
“Young Xing Yi. Cut off your tongue right now and I will make sure you only receive a light beating.”
Dark shadows had formed over Elder Yang’s eyes. At the same time, the wrinkles on his face had seemingly darkened. He truly had a terrifying experience. Elder Yang was a kind man, but when one insulted the one thing he had dedicated his life to, he wouldn’t hesitate to teach those people a lesson.
For the longest time, Xing Yi had been thinking of just showing off his pill refining abilities to Elder Yang and claiming he is a heaven-defying talent so that he could possibly escape the possibility of death in his duel with Wu Jia, but he felt like this was something only a weakling would do.
His heart of martial arts had coalesced into reality over his past year of training and his determination to regain his dignity was a burning passion. If he wanted to win, he had to do so under the consequence of death.
But after he encountered Elder Yang, he was forced to tell him the truth as he didn’t know any other way to put it.
“Elder Yang, I truly did refine the a pill on my third ever attempt!”
“Xing Yi! Do you dare test this old man’s patience? Do I have to come over and do it myself?”
Elder Yang’s hands were suddenly lit aflame in a red fire. Their burning heat could be felt by Xing Yi from over a hundred feet away.
Xing Yi grit his teeth. He couldn’t stop now! He got to his knees and entered the deepest kowtow he could offer, digging his head into the ground.
“Elder Yang! This one swears on his very life that he was able to successfully refine a pill on his third attempt!”
Elder Yang blinked his eyes.
“Is that true?”
“Yes!”
Silence…
Elder Yang erupted into a crazed laughter, his face looking into the skies incredulously. His laughter caused Xing Yi to grimace, his face turning pale.
“You are the most arrogant and unbelievable person I have ever encountered!”
He stated this before continuing his bout of laughter. Eventually, he calmed down and he gave Xing Yi a death stare.
“Show me the pills you have refined. If you don’t have any, I will sever your meridians right here and now.”
Xing Yi’s hands trembled as he took out three bottles from the knapsack at his waist.
“Stop joking. You bought those from the Paragon Emporium. Aiz, it seems that this old man is going to have to truly lay waste to your cultivation.”
Upon the surface of each pill was a black cauldron. This was a marking that Xing Yi learned how to half a year ago once his skills progressed far enough. He decided to make his marking of a Black Cauldron, because without it he wouldn’t have been able to make any pills in the first place. It truly was a heavenly treasure.
Elder Yang had a dark complexion as he flew down. He pointed at the pills Xing Yi had in hand.
“The one who made those pills was a master by the name of Wu Xing Jin. His marking is of a Black Cauldron and his grade-one Qi Gathering and Lotus Explosion Pills are quite noteworthy. Even this elder could take some time to learn from his…”
Suddenly, Elder Yang trailed off , his index finger quivering as he pointed at them.
“Boy, what is your name? Perhaps I heard incorrectly.”
“Wu Xing Yi.”
Elder Yang turned into a bolt of lightning as he appeared next to Xing Yi, snatching a pill out of his hand and latching a hand on his wrist.
“Yi!” Xing Yi exclaimed, shocked by the sudden speed of Elder Yang.
Elder Yang injected his spiritual qi into Xing Yi’s body and inspected the pill for its qi signature.
Quickly, his breath stalled and his jaw dropped. The pill he was holding in hand fell to the ground.
“Impossible!!” Elder Yang gasped for air as he gave a shout that shook the very ground he stood on.