Two more days passed. Sure enough, the number of people in the city continued to increase. From time to time, extremely powerful qi emissions were put on display, and other people couldn’t help but become a little more cautious.
Among these qi emissions, there were many Celestial and Noble Realms. On the contrary, no Royal Realms were sensed for the time being — If there were Royal Realms present, they would be the same realm as the various palace masters of the Ten Ultimates Palace Halls. It wasn’t known whether they would get involved in the future.
He Zizhang was calm and unperturbed. His posture and movements were still leisurely and comfortable. It seemed that he didn’t regard those people with the same realm as his own with too much importance.
From this, Gu Zuo could tell that while Senior Sect Brother He appeared modest, there was some of the Blood Transformation Palace Hall’s malevolence right beneath the surface. Within his heart, there was also a type of reserved arrogance.
Currently, Gongyi Tianheng was playing go with He Zizhang, and Gu Zuo was watching on the side. While the group waited for the Pill King Conference to begin, everyone became much more familiar with one another. Not only did they gain a better understanding of each other, the camaraderie between these senior and junior brothers also deepened.
Whether it was Gu Zuo or Tianheng, they both had a good impression of He Zizhang.
Just when everyone was in the middle of fostering these feelings, a servant of the villa suddenly entered the room to inform them that some people had come to pay a visit — This was surprising. The news that they were here hadn’t been spread all over the place, so how did anyone find them?
Gu Zuo’s mind stirred, and he had an idea.
Speaking of those who were aware of them…
Shortly thereafter, Gu Zuo opened the visitation notice. With a single glance, he saw that the name written down was “Seventh Prince of Great Zhou”.
Prince Zhou didn’t really have any friendship with them, so specially dropping by wasn’t worth it. As such, the one who genuinely came to pay a visit ought to have been Senior Sect Brother Xu.
Gu Zuo gave the visitation notice to his family’s big brother and Senior Sect Brother He to take a look. After coming to an agreement, Gu Zuo took the initiative to go out and welcome them.
No matter what, he had to give Senior Sect Brother Xu some face.
Sure enough, after going out, he saw two people quietly standing at the villa’s gate entrance.
Prince Zhou and Xu Lingxiu were standing side by side. The atmosphere could be considered harmonious.
Although Gu Zuo only took a glance, he also carefully observed Xu Lingxiu’s complexion. When Gu Zuo found that there was no despondency in Xu Lingxiu’s appearance, he laid down his worries a little bit.
He smiled and said: “Senior Sect Brother Xu, long time no see.”
Xu Lingxiu raised an eyebrow: “How has it been a long time?”
Gu Zuo laughed dryly.
Wasn’t he just being polite? Ah, this Senior Sect Brother Xu really wasn’t fond of following etiquette.
After that, Gu Zuo called out to greet Prince Zhou, and invited the two inside. At the same time, he said: “Big brother is in the middle of playing go with Senior Sect Brother He. As a result, I came out to welcome you guys. Senior Sect Brother He is the eldest senior brother of our Blood Transformation Palace Hall. His strength is outstanding. The reason why he came with us is that he wasn’t too reassured about our safety.”
Xu Lingxiu nodded his head: “It looks like you’re doing alright.”
Gu Zuo smiled: “Ten Ultimates Sect is a good place.”
Off to the side, Prince Zhou said nothing. However, Gu Zuo was able to discover that this Prince Zhou was quite indulgent of Senior Sect Brother Xu. In addition, he himself also possessed a kind of arrogance. Even though the one he was about to meet was a palace hall’s eldest senior brother of a silver-ranked organization, he didn’t expose any peculiar looks.
Based on this, it seemed that Prince Zhou was very confident. His willpower was also quite firm.
Gu Zuo felt that maybe it wasn’t a bad thing for Senior Sect Brother Xu to follow this Prince Zhou.
After quickly going inside, Tianheng greeted the two with a smile on his face. Meanwhile, He Zizhang didn’t respond. In the end, he was a powerhouse with even greater strength, so it was reasonable that he didn’t take the initiative to call out in greetings.
Once Prince Zhou walked through the doorway, Prince Zhou still showed a certain amount of respect to Tianheng and He Zizhang. Although his various actions appeared somewhat strange, when all was said and done, the ultimate knowledge practiced by the Blood Transformation Palace Hall was even stranger. As a result, there was nothing unsightly about the way Prince Zhou was acting.
Following this, the game of go was still continued. Gu Zuo and Xu Lingxiu conversed on the side: “Senior Sect Brother Xu, why did you come this late?”
He had to have some assurance since he came here, so asking about it certainly wouldn’t hurt his pride.
Xu Lingxiu said: “Naturally, it’s because someone delayed us.”
Gu Zuo made a helpless expression.
This tone of voice… The person who delayed Senior Sect Brother Xu was obviously Prince Zhou. How was he supposed to respond?
Fortunately, Xu Lingxiu didn’t intend to let Gu Zuo respond. Rather, he quickly continued to talk: “Once I got Junior Sect Brother Gu’s news, I came here because Zhou Qi learned about another matter after sending someone to make some discreet inquiries.”
Gu Zuo was curious: “Oh? What happened?”
Xu Lingxiu was forthcoming: “This pill king intends to accept apprentices.”
Gu Zuo was startled: “Accept apprentices?”
Xu Lingxiu nodded: “Now, I can barely refine some golden-level medicinal pills. If I can apprentice myself to a master for guidance, I should be able to move one step further.”
Gu Zuo immediately understood.
Right. He possessed a system inheritance, so he didn’t need a master. However, this didn’t mean other pharmacists didn’t need masters either.
Senior Sect Brother Xu came to the Central Continent alone, and Prince Zhou was situated in a bronze-ranked organization. Within bronze-ranked organizations, the highest realms were Royal Realm martial artists. As such, devoting to profound-level pharmacists was good enough. And profound-level pharmacists couldn’t satisfy Xu Lingxiu’s requirements…
If this pill king was going to accept apprentices, then it was only natural that Xu Lingxiu wanted to give it a try. Prince Zhou followed along, but didn’t necessarily lack the intention of inviting this pill king to come back and watch over Great Zhou.
But all of this was only a matter of trying. It wasn’t guaranteed to succeed.
Gu Zuo said: “Then, I wish senior sect brother the best of luck with his endeavors.”
Xu Lingxiu curled his lips: “If only it was that simple.”
Gu Zuo smiled.
There were certainly many people who wanted to apprentice themselves. Amid all of this, it was said that there would also be challenges and other things, which made this event relatively complicated.
But…
In the end, he would help Senior Sect Brother Xu.
When Xu Lingxiu and Prince Zhou came over, they originally wanted to stay at a tavern or inn. However, when all was said and done, Xu Lingxiu was the senior brother of Tianheng and Gu Zuo. How could they let the two of them leave like this? As a result, Gu Zuo didn’t let these two guests go, and intended for everyone to go together to the Pill King Conference the next day.
During the night, Xu Lingxiu and Gu Zuo got together to discuss some medicine refining techniques. Gu Zuo was more knowledgable than Xu Lingxiu, and intentionally divulged some things. Although Xu Lingxiu was proud, he wasn’t incapable of recognizing another’s good intentions. Naturally, he remembered all of Gu Zuo’s pointers. At the same time, he passed along some of his own experiences — He wasn’t the sort of person who took unfair advantage of others.
The next day, the Pill King Conference officially started.
Tianheng and He Zizhang accompanied Gu Zuo, while Prince Zhou accompanied Xu Lingxiu. The group of five left for Rising Mountain Pavilion, which was also that pill king’s place of residence.
In front of Rising Mountain Pavilion, there were a dozen or so maids welcoming everyone. They appeared pure, graceful, and charming. Their bodies smelled slightly of medicinal fragrances, and faint strands of fire qi curled around their slender fingers. At the very least, one could tell that they practiced medicine refinement, and weren’t as simple as ordinary maids.
— From this alone, it could be seen that this pill king’s character was not too difficult to get along with. Otherwise, how could’ve these maids been able to train these skills?
Gu Zuo looked into the distance. There were many young people among the pharmacists entering the gates. In addition, the spiritual path realms of these young people weren’t weak. On average, they were at least close to the Core Psyche Realm. There were also several with even higher realms who had a bit of fighting spirit in their expressions. It looked like they were the people who weren’t convinced. Of course, there were also those who looked reverent and expectant. Accompanying these people were powerhouses who were at the Celestial Realm or above. From their temperament and attire, one could tell that their identities weren’t lacking. Information was fast and abundant — Like his Senior Sect Brother Xu, they probably found out at an earlier time that this pill king wanted to accept apprentices?
On the other hand, there were many pharmacists of advanced age and plentiful experience, too. But in comparison, there were more young pharmacists present. This was very different from the Pill King Conferences of the past.
Back then, those who urgently needed a pill king’s guidance for their own breakthroughs were mostly pharmacists who struggled for years without making further progress. And these pharmacists were often elderly. On the contrary, the younger ones either couldn’t touch upon the subjects or were geniuses nurtured by their sects. In any case, they weren’t necessarily as anxious for Pill King Conferences.
Once everyone entered Rising Mountain Pavilion, they were faced with long tables and low seats. Up in front, there was an extremely large pill furnace. And sitting cross-legged behind that pill furnace was a man with the features of someone in his twenties. His face was unblemished and free of any facial hair. His appearance was somewhat delicate and pretty, but his true age naturally wasn’t only twenty-something years. Instead, he was already in his fifties. However, as far as pharmacists were concerned, a fifty-year-old, earth-level pharmacist was very impressive.
Watching the crowd walking in one after another, the pill king didn’t say anything. Rather, there was a gentle smile on his face. His entire person looked affable and friendly, which was a far cry from the arrogance of many pill kings.
Once Gu Zuo and the others walked inside, they were arranged with seats that were a little closer to the front.
He was keenly aware that the pharmacists surrounding himself were more or less all at the profound level. Their appearances seemed like they had gone through the “vicissitudes of life” — Unexpectedly, the seating was so accurate?
Shortly thereafter, Gu Zuo took another look around, and discovered that all of the pharmacists were arranged based on their own pharmacist ranks. This was quite astonishing.
But how was this seen through?
After taking their seats, Tianheng lightly patted Gu Zuo’s arm, and pointed somewhere.
Gu Zuo looked over, and noticed that a rather large sheet of leveled stone was laid across the floor of the entrance. When someone walked over it, the stone emitted an almost imperceptible trace of white light. After that person walked passed, an escorting maid led this guest to a certain location… As it turned out, this was the stone’s use.
After pondering for a moment, Gu Zuo thought of something.
This stone was probably a piece of Medicine Heart Stone, which was considered very precious. Its greatest ability was to distinguish the medicinal effects of any medicament. Whether it was an ingredient or pill, medicinal properties of different strengths would bring about different reactions from it…
Pharmacists refined medicine all year round, so their bodies definitely carried some medicinal fragrances. And the Medicine Heart Stone would immediately differentiate whichever product rank of medicinal pills these fragrances originated from.
Gu Zuo frequently refined profound-level pills, so he was naturally arranged with the other profound-level pharmacists.
As for Xu Lingxiu, he arrived with Gu Zuo. No matter what kind of relationship he had with Gu Zuo, he could likewise be seated anywhere in the front rows of this pavilion.
After understanding this, Gu Zuo’s thoughts turned.
There were too many pharmacists in this place. Moreover, their qualities weren’t low. Even though he had seen lots of pharmacists in the past, none of them could compare to the ones here and now…
Sure enough, he still needed to go out and see the world more often.
Xu Lingxiu also sensed the oppressive feelings brought about by the various spiritual path realms in this pavilion. His complexion was somewhat solemn, but there was a type of fervency in the depths of his eyes.
He was also looking forward to experiencing an even more powerful pharmacist!
T/N: Thanks for the correction, Charysa.
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