He Yazhu was quite proud of himself. He carried himself with a confident strut, his head high and his shoulders back. Often, he would find himself giggling at how all the common disciples without a teacher would reel back when they saw tendrils of his fire spit out.

When he was born, he was determined to have an Origin-grade fire compatibility. Not just that, he was born with only two spiritual roots!

He was said to be the hope of his clan. All his relatives would dote on him, and the patriarch made special attention to him to ensure his growth.

When he turned twelve years old, it came time to join a sect.

Of the Eight Great Sects, his first choice was the Nine Nirvana Sect. Their fire cultivation technique was renowned all across the Long Tang Cultivation region. They were also the most ancient and well-established sect amongst them all. They had a legacy of over two-thousand years and two-nascent soul seniors.

And they were the only sect to have two nascent-soul Great Protectors!

But when Yang Tie, a peak Core Formation senior heard of his Origin-grade fire compatibility, he offered him to become his disciple as long as he had a Grade Four pill refining talent.

He Yazhu agreed and it was to both of their surprise that they discovered he had a Grade Six talent!

It had only taken him eighty-two attempts to successfully refine his first pill!

To clarify, there were ten grades of talent. It was determined by how many attempts until one could refine the basic, Grade One Qi Gathering Pill that contained all the fundamentals of pill refining.

It tested a combination of their focus, presence, instincts, wisdom, and perception.

In order from Grade One talent to Grade Ten it went:

1000, 750, 500, 250, 100, 75, 50, 25, 10, 5.

As for if a cultivator could successfully refine a pill on their first attempt?

That was just myth.

Some people just weren’t naturally talented with pill refining. Furthermore, one’s ability to manipulate fire became significant once one wanted to refine pills of Grade Two and higher. Without a high Fire Compatibility, the most they could do was refine Grade One pills.

When Elder Yan first found He Yazhu, he would’ve thought it be heaven-defying if he had even a Grade Four pill refining talent. Instead, he had a Grade Six talent that was even higher than his own!

He Yazhu had high hopes for his disciple and treated him as if he was his own son!

Everyday, he imparted all that he knew about cultivation and had a smile on his face whenever he saw him. His master piled endless praise upon him and it seemed that with his talent, there would be no point in having other disciples because it would be a waste of time to not be teaching him!

One day, once he broke through to early Foundation Establishment, he would be able to inherit his master’s legacy technique and all his secrets that he didn’t tell even his own peers!

Having two spiritual roots, he didn’t worry about his chances of breaking through and spent his days diligently cultivating, waiting for the day he would inevitably inherit his secrets and legacy technique.

This legacy technique had been passed down by his master’s master, and he would do the same for his own disciple. Every night, he dreamed of this mystical legacy technique and craved the day he would learn it.

He never doubted if he would inherit this legacy technique. Because he was his only disciple.

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But one day, he was in the middle of closed-door cultivation when his master sent him a transmission talisman, telling him that he had to come to him now as a matter of urgency.

He spoke with an excited voice that was very unusual.

Confused and slightly worried at the same time with a strange sense of foreboding, he stopped cultivating and flew over on a red cloud of fire. Their residences were not far away from each other, and he arrived at his master’s Hall in just a couple of minutes.

When he saw smoke coming out of the underground chamber’s chimney, he raised an eyebrow. Why would his master call him while he was in the middle of pill refining, or he was seemingly about to start doing so?

He walked inside and down the stairwell that led underground.

The underground chamber that his master refined pills in was one-hundred feet deep and had a chimney on its roof that allowed the smoke to escape to the surface. It wasn’t a thick stench that clogged your lungs as the wood he used was a special type that he imported directly from another elder that owned a Spirit Tree Farm.

It had a sweet fragrance that kept one wanting to smell it more and more. It was especially addictive.

As he came down the steps of the stairwell and into the chamber, its stone walls completely laid bare, he was shocked at what he was seeing.

Sitting in front of a red cauldron with the picture of a golden dragon on it, Xing Yi had his palms laid upon it, his eyes closed in meditation.

Was Xing Yi… pill refining?

He almost couldn’t believe it at first as he halted in his steps but as he felt the distant qi fluctuations from the cauldron with his spiritual sense, he confirmed this to be true.

“Master, what is happening?” He Yazhu asked, gulping.

His master was in a squat position, hovering in mid-air as he closely observed with an incredulous expression on his face. He was like an excited little kid looking at a cool toy he had seen at the shop. He grinned from ear to ear as he watched, his eyes shining brightly.

Why was his master acting like this?

He came to the side of the cauldron and watched on with a weird expression, not knowing what to think.

But from the faint qi fluctuations that he had become very familiar over the past several years, he knew exactly what Xing Yi was managing to do.

He was refining a pill!

And by the time he had this stubborn realisation, Xing Yi had already finished.

Laying at the bottom of the cauldron was a shiny white, spotless longan-sized pill. It was a perfect sphere. As of yet, there was no black cauldron marking on it as Xing Yi hadn’t taken the time to imprint it. Nor would he because Elder Yang immediately jumped forwards and grabbed it, eyeballing it with a shocked expression.

“First Rate. Hah! A fourteen year old boy refined a First Grade Qi Gathering pill, I must be dreaming! This is an impossible talent I have stumbled upon!”

Elder Yang jumped around the room like a monkey. Then, he made a proposition that made Xing Yi speechless.

“Xing Yi, you want to become my disciple?”

Xing Yi did not know how to respond as he considered it.

He Yazhu stepped in.

“Master, what are you thinking?!” He Yazhu was similarly shocked and raised a finger at Xing Yi.

His position was being threatened!

“Quiet, stand to the side until I finish speaking with Young Xing Yi here.” Elder Yang’s voice suddenly turned cold, stabbing daggers into him with a fierce stare.

The hair on his arms raising and a chill running down his spine, he respectfully bowed as he reasoned, “Master, surely you jest. Just because he is able to refine a First Rate, Grade One pill doesn’t mean he is fit to be your disciple. He is just an earthly cultivator after all! And what about our face! What would the others think when they realise you have accepted someone who can’t even fly.”

“I will not say it again.” Elder Yang had a solemn expression.

At this, He Yazhu could only back down. If his master was truly serious, he could not interfere. He could only hope that this fool would not be accepted for some obscure reason that his master hadn’t taken into account yet!

“Young Xing Yi, this old man is a respected elder at the peak of Core Formation. I am the wealthiest man in the entire sect and everyone is at my beck and call. Even the Great Protector of the sect has to show me some respect!”

“I can offer you insights into cultivation even through the barrier that exists between our naturally opposite styles of cultivation that would rapidly advance your cultivation beyond speeds you could never even imagine. I could mould you into a star. You would be making so many spirit stones that you wouldn’t even know what to do with it all.”

“And I can offer you protection from Wu Jia. Even if you lose, I will make sure you escape with your life and cultivation intact, even if you lose a little face for me and yourself. In a few decades from now, Wu Jia will be begging you to making him pills and no matter where you go, everyone will be trying to curry favour with you.”

“Although you may be talented, without proper guidance, even you with a Grade Ten pill refining talent, would face a few bottlenecks. What else could you want? If that doesn’t satisfy you then I don’t know what will. Tell me!”

Xing Yi considered Elder Yang’s offer in deep thought, his finger laid upon the bottom of his chin. After several long moments of silence, he answered, “Elder Yang, this one will become a disciple on one condition.”

“And what is that?”

“You must wait until after my duel with Wu Jia. You can’t help me prepare for the duel, nor must you interfere in its outcome. If I die, I die. And If I survive, I will become your disciple,” Xing Yi said boldly, a determined look in his eyes.