15 Apr 2017
Before Yang Chen entered seclusion, he was called in by Palace master Zhong Jiao. The reason for calling him this time was none other than Yang Chen’s four servants reaching foundation stage.
Among the inner disciples of Pure Yang Palace, how many were servants? It was not like servants who had the benefit of a long cultivation period and good guidance from their masters could not reach foundation stage successfully, but, these kind of servants are very rare. Moreover, servants with inferior aptitudes who could reach foundation stage within a short twenty years belonged to Yang Chen alone.
This point had already clearly illustrated Yang Chen’s exceptional guiding abilities. Guiding a disciple with a good aptitude to reach foundation stage was very easy, but guiding a servant who had an inferior aptitude to reach foundation stage was not something many could do.
Palace master Zhong Jiao only wanted to know the reason behind Yang Chen’s incisively accurate guidance, so as to confirm whether other Merit Transferring Disciples could also do what Yang Chen had done. It must be known that the more robust the foundation of a cultivator was, the higher his future accomplishments were. The entire time, Palace Master Zhong Jiao was only thinking about raising the sect’s strength.
“Reason?”
Yang Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, since Palace Master had asked a question that he was obliged to reply but could not be truthful. How could he explain that he had already lived one life and had also retained the memories of more than ten thousand years of that life. So he could only use another reason that was palatable to everyone.
“Palace Master, disciple had already read and memorized millions of jade slips in the Hidden Pavilion of my sect. In those slips were the experiences of difficulties many seniors had faced during their cultivation.”
Yang Chen’s words were also true. These past years he had really read all the jade slips in the Hidden Pavilion once, so it wasn’t completely false.
“Moreover, all the five phases of this disciple has reached foundation stage so disciple also has personally experienced all attributes. Thus when it comes to guiding disciples who have problems, disciple is personally aware of what they are going through.”
This was Yang Chen’s second reason. To begin with, it was a convincing reason. Almost all the Merit Transferring Disciples could only provide guidance about the attribute they cultivated in, as for other attributes, they usually didn’t have enough knowledge or experience.
Both reasons were quite reasonable, but if someone wanted to replicate those circumstances, it would be quite difficult. Let alone foundation stage disciples, even Palace Master Zhong Jiao and any of the other YuanYing stage elders were incapable of doing so. If they spent the effort to read a million jade slips, perhaps they’d be able to do so, but reading and memorizing that many jade slips was easier said than done. Even still, that would still leave them bereft of experience regarding other attributes.
“However, presently, setting up five Merit Transferring Disciples, one for each attribute, would do the job better.”
Yang Chen seemed to hesitate for a moment before putting forward this suggestion. However, this suggestion was clearly against the unwritten rules that every disciple should follow after their karma.
It wasn’t like there was any provision that only one disciple could be made the Merit Transferring Disciple. But every big sect had such unwritten regulations and no one had broken it. Yang Chen’s words made Palace Master Zhong Jiao’s brows pucker up immediately.
“But it doesn’t sit well with the rules set by Ancestor, does it?”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao’s thoughts also began to waver slightly. But tempting as it was, this clearly did not conform with the rules.
“The Eccentric Hall also isn’t in keeping with the rules set by Ancestor.”
Yang Chen faintly smiled and reminded him.
“If my Pure Yang Palace indeed becomes the first in the entire world to implement this rule, then maybe everyone can follow along.”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao pondered for a moment and faintly shook his head,
“Is there any other dependable method? We cannot create an opportunity for other sects to exploit.”
Perhaps all sects understood that if they had more Merit Transferring Disciples that they could provide better guidance to those outer disciples. But it was also unknown which ancestor had left behind this rule and insisted on using this ineffective and merciless rule to guide the disciples at all sects, playing such an important role in affecting their destiny.
Reforming the immortal cultivating sects was even more difficult than reforming the Heavenly Court. Even the Eccentric Hall was established only because there was no precedent. Only when Pure Yang Palace saw that the resistance from the sects weren’t too great, and the obvious benefits did they clench their teeth and go through with it. Any problems that would’ve popped up were quickly erased with Elder Wu’s support and the devil cultivation calamity. Only because of these two events was it accepted by everyone with great difficulty.
Pure Yang Palace was only a second rate sect, but after the previous few events, if they absolutely insisted on transforming the Merit Transferring Disciples system, then it certainly cannot begin from Pure Yang Palace. Therefore, the Palace Master was asking Yang Chen to think of a method.
“How about if Nine Earth Manor can still have only one Merit Transferring Disciple, but if every peak qi layer disciple voluntary agrees to be the Merit Transferring Disciple’s assistant and guide the younger disciples for one year in exchange for reward of a second grade foundation stage pill, wouldn’t this improve this situation?”
Seeing that Palace Master Zhong Jiao was serious about increasing the reserve strength of Pure Yang Palace, Yang Chen thought for a brief moment and gave a solution that could act as a compromise.
“Peak qi layer disciples guiding junior fellow disciples?”
Once the Palace Master heard this, he immediately began to mull over it, and both his eyes began to shine with some excitement.
This was certainly not in violation of the rules, there was still only one Merit Transferring Disciple as before. But even some of the peak qi layer disciples guiding their fellow disciples of the same attribute would be of great assistance, compared to the disciples fumbling on their own. As for these peak qi layer disciples, a second grade foundation stage pill would greatly improve their chances of reaching foundation stage, satisfying both sides.
“Good! Good!”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao nodded his head. In reality, he hadn’t expected to obtain a specific solution from Yang Chen when he had called him in this time. He had only sought the reason behind Yang Chen’s superb guidance and see if it could be duplicated. But he hadn’t in the least expected that Yang Chen would be able to find a method.
However, Yang Chen heaved a sigh of regret inwardly. Secular world cultivators were so inflexible in comparison to those people of the Heavenly Court. Perhaps it was because of their wholehearted immersion into cultivation that they never thought of breaking the rules of the cultivation world. Unlike the secular cultivators, the officials of the Heavenly Court would first seek to see which rules and regulations needed changing in order to satisfy their requirements.
“Yang Chen, you have again rendered a great service.”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao’s heart was filled with joy. This disciple, Yang Chen always delivered such unexpected surprises, so how could Pure Yang Palace not rise?
“The sect traitor who had leaked the information about your master, it was Luminous Moon Hall Song Hang’s disciple.”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao calmly told this to Yang Chen,
“He had already admitted his guilt, and no other person was involved. You can deal with him as you see fit.”
As for the authority to punish him, he had handed it over to Yang Chen.
“Kill!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Yang Chen condemned him to death. Leaking his master’s weak point and putting her in danger, what else could enrage Yang Chen more? For him, such a person was an enemy who had to be killed.
This judgement also decided that person’s fate. Since Palace Master Zhong Jiao had allowed Yang Chen to handle the punishment, it counted as a small reward, and absolutely couldn’t go against his wishes. Also, it was only natural to kill a traitor, who would dare speak up against it? Even his own master Song Hang couldn’t do anything.
Initially, Palace Master Zhong Jiao had intended to ask Yang Chen about Song Hang’s bottleneck. It’d already been several years since Song Hang had tried to embarrass Yang Chen while he was the substitute hall master of Luminous Moon Hall. His hatred may have abated by then, but with this, the Palace Master was no longer in a position to ask.
Perhaps he already knew what his reply would be, so it was better to save himself the embarrassment of asking. Hearing Yang Chen’s reply, Palace Master Zhong Jiao also sighed in his heart. It seemed the matter between Yang CHen and Luminous Moon Hall could not be resolved peacefully.
People of Luminous Moon Hall had repeatedly tried to provoke Yang Chen. From Chu Heng to Liang Shaoming, then Song Hang and now his disciple, their repeated actions had also begun to make Palace Master Zhong Jiao extremely resentful.
If that one disciple hadn’t taken all the blame this time, and the Law Enforcement Hall had implicated more people of Luminous Moon Hall, the Palace Master could’ve used this chance to clean the Luminous Moon Hall thoroughly. It could only be said that this time, Luminous Moon Hall’s luck was very good.
Compared to Yang Chen, who had been continually battling to gain benefits for the sect, these Luminous Hall people had simply been biting the hand that fed them. This kind of behavior had already infuriated the palace Master. If they tried anything to provoke him again, he certainly wouldn’t let Luminous Moon Hall off easily.
Besides these brief interludes of conversation, all that remained was many months of waiting before the people of Beast Taming Sect finally collected all the ingredients and delivered them to Yang Chen. Yet those months were not put to waste, as Yang Chen frequently met with Zhu Chentao to discuss the ingredients, pill recipe and the sequence of the entire process from the beginning to end.
For the sake of Yang Chen’s face, Zhu Chentao also approved Ho Lian as the assistant for the two people during pill refining. This point made Ho Lian almost jump up and down due to excitement. Even though she had already reached foundation stage, she still hadn’t reached the level of maintaining a serene heart.
The person who had come to deliver the ingredients was Fan Shan. After putting all the items one by one in front of them, Fan Shan finally took out a jade bottle with a serious expression. Even while delivering it to Yang Chen, he was still reluctant to part with it.
“Younger brother, this is the powder shaved from senior black tiger’s inner dan, in accordance with your request.”
Fan Shan continued with almost a begging tone,
“While scraping this powder, senior black tiger was in unbearable pain, and even his cultivation has dropped the equivalent of several decades. Younger brother, you must succeed at all costs!”
“Be relieved elder brother, I am well aware of the situation!”
Naturally, Yang Chen knew how painful it was to forcefully shave a demon beast’s dan, but there was no other option. He had to add the elixir made of the inner dan’s powder to make the pill the most compatible with senior black tiger and heal him perfectly.
Under Fan Shan’s expectant gaze, Yang Chen, Zhu Chentao and Ho Ling entered the first five year period of seclusion. During this period, the two of them wanted to refine an elixir which could stabilize the internal condition of senior black tiger so that it doesn’t worsen more. The rest of the time would be spent refining the rest of the ingredients properly. During the next period of ten years, they intended to refine the elixir which could treat the condition of the injury.
As for the period, the time for this refining was longer compared the time it took to refine Heaven Seizing Pill. That wasn’t entirely strange since, back when refining the Heaven Seizing Pill, there were three YuanYing stage pill concocting masters working with the assistance of Elder Wu himself and Fan Shan. Currently, however, there was only the initial foundation stage cultivator Yang Chen and peak JieDan stage cultivator Zhu Chentao, so the time taken would naturally be different.
On Yang Chen’s request, the old tree demon had sealed Yang Chen’s small courtyard. As long as Pure Yang Palace doesn’t face a situation comparable to sect extermination or Gao Yue isn’t in any mortal danger, Yang Chen would not be bothered by anyone. According to Yang Chen’s memory, no major events happened during this period and each sect just steadily increased their strength.
“Uncle Master, I will first purify the ingredients once and then uncle master can take a look.”
Yang Chen once again confirmed the refining process with Zhu Chentao and Ho Lin and began to purify them with his Geocentric Flame.
The difficulty of concocting the elixir that could stabilize the injury wasn’t very high, but it still required Yang Chen to use his unique technique at some crucial points. During the early stages, Zhu Chentao would be responsible for conducting the refining according to Yang Chen’s directions. At the latter stages, Zhu Chentao’s proficiency for controlling flame was insufficient and Yang Chen would take over. As for Ho Lin, she was responsible for delivering the ingredients. Her main role was to learn from the concocting process.
Zhu Chentao was extremely focused. This was his first time participating in refining an elixir to be used by a Da Cheng stage expert, let alone acting as the main pill concocting master. Yang Chen would only lend assistance during the most crucial of times. In other words, it can be said that ninety nine percent of this elixir would be refined by Zhu Chentao.
If the refining of this elixir was unsuccessful, both Zhu Chentao, the principal pill concocting master, and Ho Lin would be lambasted as the ones responsible for ruining Yang Chen’s reputation as a famous pill concocting master which he had carefully built from that time of refining the Heaven Seizing Pill. So both of them were extremely cautious with this opportunity, acting as if they were facing the biggest hurdle of their lives.
Under the dual force of the Geocentric Flame and the present grade Profound Spirit Furnace along with Yang Chen’s extremely proficient control over fire, it only took a couple of days to completely purify all the ingredients, bringing their medicinal quality to the peak. It was only waiting for Zhu Chentao to open his furnace and begin refining.
One year’s time was already enough for Zhu Chentao to become proficient in using He Lianyun’s pill concocting furnace. As the furnace was started, Ho Lin started to bring the ingredients one by one according to the plan. Zhu Chentao took a deep breath and looked at Yang Chen with seriousness. After seeing Yang Chen nod, he began to add the ingredients one by one to the furnace.
Being cautious, Zhu Chentao even started using the trick Yang Chen had used when he was still a qi layer disciple and caught the furnace by its handles with both hands for the first stage of refining.
Looking at Zhu Chentao slowly stabilize his flame control and begin refining, Yang Chen took out his Profound Spirit Furnace and began to absorb the refined flames.
As during the time while refining Heaven Seizing Pill, Zhu Chentao and Ho Lin were carefully refining while Yang Chen was busy with his cultivation. This time, Yang Chen’s plan was to absorb the Profound Wood Flame, Green Phosphorous Flame, Cold Ice Flame, and fuse all of them together. The brunt of the work would be undertaken by the Profound Wood Flame.