Hearing Bei Wan’s words, Xia Yunzhao immediately turned serious. “I was just about to ask.” He lifted a hand, meaning: Let’s talk about it properly once we’re off the stage.
There were still quite a few people below. The pill cultivators who had just finished competing were talking with members of the Pill Cultivator Alliance, deciding whether to sell their pills or pay for the raw materials and keep them. The three of them gathering together did not attract much attention.
Bei Wan lowered her voice. “Tantai Ning is the son of an old friend of Pill Master Lipan. That friend died many years ago and left behind only this one son. Pill Master Lipan searched for a long time before finding him. His old friend was also a pill cultivator, and after Pill Master Lipan discovered that Tantai Ning had talent for pill refining, he accepted him as a disciple.”
Xia Yunzhao listened and nodded, thinking that the beginning was a little tragic, but otherwise fairly normal. So how did Tantai Ning later become such a freak?
Bei Wan continued, “What comes next is only rumor. Some say that old friend was actually killed by Pill Master Lipan.” She looked up at the other two and uttered four words: “Murder for treasure.”
Xia Yunzhao said nothing, while Guang Xingyu, who had finally finished his Delicious Fasting Pill, sucked in a sharp breath. “Pill Master Lipan is actually that kind of person?!”
Bei Wan looked as though she wanted to say something but stopped.
Xia Yunzhao rubbed his forehead. “It’s a rumor. Nobody said it was true.”
Guang Xingyu looked confused. “Doesn’t Pill Master Lipan practically run all of Beiliang City? Who would dare spread rumors about him on his own turf?”
Xia Yunzhao kept rubbing his forehead. “You just said nobody would dare spread rumors about him. If it were true, wouldn’t people be even less willing to talk about it?”
Guang Xingyu thought about that for a moment and scratched his chin. “That’s true! So what actually happened?”
Xia Yunzhao gestured for Bei Wan to continue.
Bei Wan said, “The complete rumor is that Pill Master Lipan killed someone for treasure, but that treasure has a restriction that can only be opened by his old friend’s biological son, Tantai Ning. That’s why Pill Master Lipan took him in.”
Xia Yunzhao thought for a moment. “What do you think?”
Bei Wan answered readily, “Personally, I don’t think Pill Master Lipan is that kind of man, but one can never truly see into another person’s heart, and even one’s own eyes can miss things. Tantai Ning has already set his sights on you, so I’m telling you this in the hope that you’ll be careful. If we get the opportunity in the future, I’d also like to discuss the Dao of pills with you.”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Definitely. You two be careful as well.”
After the other two left, Shang Shuangze finally walked over. Xia Yunzhao told him what they had just discussed while heading to the Pill Cultivator Alliance to pay for his raw materials. Selling his pills directly to the Alliance was not worthwhile when he could take them back to the inn and auction them for a higher price.
As perceptive as ever, Xiao Tian automatically walked ahead whenever the two of them drew close together.
Xia Yunzhao was muttering away when he suddenly remembered something. He took out two pills and promptly stuffed one into Shang Shuangze’s mouth. “Try this Delicious Fasting Pill.”
His fingertip brushed Shang Shuangze’s lips… Xia Yunzhao paused. Does this count as something I need to maintain proper boundaries over too?
Forget it. He would pay attention next time.
Still, Shang Shuangze always looked cool and aloof, yet his lips were warm… which meant he was very healthy.
Xia Yunzhao asked, “How is it? Does it taste good?”
Shang Shuangze nodded a beat late.
Only then did Xia Yunzhao toss the other pill into his own mouth. He held it there and let it dissolve… and a rich chocolate fragrance immediately spread through his mouth.
The taste was not exactly identical, but it was at least eighty percent similar to Mylikes. And after swallowing it, he did not get that hollow feeling ordinary Fasting Pills caused. Instead, warmth rose from his abdomen, circulated through his entire body, and left him feeling light and comfortable.
Xia Yunzhao’s interest immediately surged. “Come on. Let’s buy some Blackfall Sand and go back to refine more!”
Beiliang City truly deserved its reputation as a city of pill cultivators. There was no shortage of shops selling spirit herbs and medicines, and the largest medicinal shop in the city was run by the Pill Cultivator Alliance itself. Its prices were slightly higher than elsewhere, but at least there were no counterfeits.
Xia Yunzhao dragged Shang Shuangze straight there and, sure enough, found Blackfall Sand.
Unprocessed Blackfall Sand looked exactly like a handful of dirt and even smelled faintly earthy. It was difficult to imagine that once properly processed, the stuff would somehow taste like chocolate.
The cultivation world really was wonderfully strange.
That afternoon, Xia Yunzhao refined several more furnaces of Delicious Fasting Pills. As usual, he kept the high-grade pills for himself and also set aside some for Guang Xingyu. He gave the rest, together with the pills he had refined during the competition, to Boss Lin to sell.
“Aiyo! Pill Cultivator Xia, don’t rush off! Please stay, please stay!” At the auction venue, Boss Lin smiled warmly. “I’ve reserved a table of good food upstairs for you and this sword-cultivator senior. There’s a private room waiting. Take your time and enjoy yourselves.” As he spoke, he pointed upward with a thick, stubby finger.
Xia Yunzhao looked up and smiled. “You’ve really gone to some expense.”
Boss Lin’s smile deepened until the flesh of his face nearly swallowed his eyes. “It’s no expense at all! You’re Yuexian Inn’s God of Wealth. I wish you’d stay several more days!”
Beiliang City had plenty of pill cultivators, but most belonged to the Pill Cultivator Alliance, while nearly all the rest had already been recruited by the major families. It was extraordinarily difficult for Yuexian Inn to attract even one pill cultivator, never mind one this skilled.
Xia Yunzhao did not stand on ceremony and pulled Shang Shuangze upstairs.
Boss Lin quickly called for an attendant to look after them.
The private room he had reserved was the finest one upstairs, and the banquet itself was anything but cheap. Xia Yunzhao took one look and exclaimed, “Level-Two spirit fish? Green-Antler Deer? You’re going this far?”
The attendant who came inside knew exactly what to say. “It is the blessing of these fish and deer to have the privilege of entering your esteemed stomach!”
Xia Yunzhao laughed and pulled Shang Shuangze down to sit so they could eat together.
Once they started eating, how could Xianchan possibly sit still? It immediately tried to wriggle out of Shang Shuangze’s lapel, its tiny head straining with all its might.
If Xianchan was coming out, Xiao Qing could hardly endure staying behind and immediately began squeezing its way out of Xia Yunzhao’s robes too.
And once both of them started moving, Mingyun naturally refused to be the only one left out. It could not eat a thing, but it still had to join the excitement.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze exchanged helpless looks. Xiao Xia finally said, “Fine, fine. Everybody gets a seat at the table.”
Thus, the table instantly gained one cat, one furnace, and one sword.
The auction downstairs had already begun. Xia Yunzhao ate while watching from above, then suddenly made a puzzled sound. “Why are today’s customers different from yesterday’s?”
Yesterday’s crowd had consisted either of pill cultivators or unaffiliated cultivators, and their clothing made them easy to distinguish. Today, however, nearly half of those present were dressed differently from ordinary cultivators.
The attendant immediately smiled. “You may not know this, sir, but after yesterday, your reputation spread throughout Beiliang City! Then you took first place again today. The disciples of several cultivation families couldn’t sit still anymore, so they’ve all come to buy your pills!”
So they were people from cultivation families. Xia Yunzhao thought about it, then looked more closely and indeed spotted the characters “Cheng” and “Feng” embroidered on the hems of several robes. Those two families seemed to have a good relationship, since several of their disciples were sitting together.
He did not see anyone from the Du family.
Xia Yunzhao had spent a long time refining pills that day and was rather tired after dinner, so he returned to his room, meditated for a while, and went to sleep. He slept soundly all the way until the next morning.
When he woke, he was still a little dazed. He seemed to have had an especially wonderful dream, though he could not remember any of it. Could that be an effect of the Delicious Fasting Pill? Blackfall Sand apparently had properties that soothed the spirit and induced dreams.
When he looked up, Shang Shuangze was sitting beside the table, slowly drinking tea from a porcelain cup. Seeing Xia Yunzhao awake, he pointed toward the table, where a pile of spirit pearls had been placed.
Even Boss Lin had already come by? And Xia Yunzhao had slept through it?! He was starting to admire the quality of his own sleep.
He walked over, poured himself a cup, took one sip, and immediately put it down. “Why are you drinking cold tea?”
As it happened, Shang Shuangze turned his head away just then and did not see him speak. Xia Yunzhao glanced in the same direction, but there was nothing special there.
So Xia Yunzhao called an attendant and had them bring up a fresh pot of hot tea.
He counted the spirit pearls and found not a single mistake. After breakfast, the two headed for the competition grounds again.
This time, they had already told Xiao Tian that he only needed to wait at the competition grounds rather than running back and forth.
Sure enough, Xiao Tian had arrived early and once again secured them a convenient spot, even placing soft cushions on the chairs.
Smiling, Xia Yunzhao gave him a low-grade Qi-Replenishing Pill. “You’ve been very attentive these past few days. Thank you.”
Xiao Tian’s eyes lit up, and he looked as though he wanted to stuff the Qi-Replenishing Pill straight into his mouth. He could not bear to waste it, however, and carefully accepted it instead. “No, no! I’m the one who should thank you, my lord! I’ve been your guide these past few days, and it’s given me so much face!”
Xia Yunzhao thought highly of the boy. From bits and pieces of conversation over the past several days, he had learned about Xiao Tian’s family circumstances. Both his parents had died a few years earlier, leaving only him and a grandfather whose legs were impaired.
Using the meager property his parents left him and the small savings he accumulated himself, Xiao Tian had actually succeeded in drawing qi into his body. At the very least, he should have no trouble becoming an unaffiliated cultivator later on. Even if he never reached Foundation Establishment, he could still live around a hundred and fifty years, fifty more than an ordinary person.
The gong sounded again from the platform, and Xia Yunzhao went up. The contestants were still not all present. Of the eighteen who should have been there, only sixteen had arrived, with the ninth-place and thirteenth-place contestants both absent.
Pill Master Lipan was frowning so hard that his brows could practically crush a fly. The three people missing yesterday still had not been found, and now another two had disappeared. Five pill cultivators had vanished from Beiliang City in two consecutive days?
Even the spectators below felt something was wrong. People had already wondered yesterday why three contestants were missing, and afterward various rumors had spread. Some claimed the three fought over their rankings and injured one another so badly they could not attend, while others claimed they had been friends who left the city together to gather spirit herbs and subsequently vanished.
Nobody had expected two more people to disappear today.
Both Xia Yunzhao and Bei Wan, who stood among the crowd, glanced toward Tantai Ning. This time, however, Tantai Ning was unusually well-behaved. He did not direct that frighteningly venomous gaze toward either of them and merely stared at the ground in silence, so gloomy that he seemed to merge into his own shadow.
…Xia Yunzhao looked away and sat in his assigned place. He was still ranked first for this round.
Tantai Ning was fourth, having successfully refined five pill recipes during the previous competition.
Pill Master Lipan frowned as he said, “Before today’s competition begins, I will first announce the prizes.”
Before his voice had even faded, discussion erupted both above and below the stage. Right. The competition had been exciting for the past two days, but nobody had yet learned what the prizes actually were.
Pill Master Lipan continued, “The first-place contestant may enter the First-Glimpse Scroll of the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm and cultivate there for twelve hours. The second-place contestant may…”
Pill Master Lipan was still speaking, but nobody was listening anymore. Everyone had been completely captivated by the words “Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm.”
The Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm was the supreme treasure of the Pill Cultivator Alliance as well as the Alliance Master’s life-bound magical treasure. The original Medicinal Realm possessed almost heaven-defying abilities. Time flowed differently inside and outside at a ratio of roughly one to one thousand. One year outside meant a thousand years had already passed within. As a result, innumerable high-quality spirit medicines grew inside, seemingly inexhaustible. It also contained the alchemical auras left behind by countless mighty pill cultivators and innumerable incomplete pill recipes, making it extraordinarily suitable for pill cultivators to train within.
The First-Glimpse Scroll that Pill Master Lipan mentioned was merely a replica of the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm. Depending on grade, the replicas were divided into the First-Glimpse Scroll, Divided-Radiance Scroll, and Rosy-Reflection Scroll. The lowest-ranked First-Glimpse Scroll was a Level-Three magical artifact with a time ratio of approximately one to ten. It contained no pill recipes, only a limited amount of alchemical aura and spirit medicines. Although those medicines were not infinite, they were abundant and sustained by the magical artifact’s own spiritual power.
Even so, for Level-One and Level-Two pill cultivators, the First-Glimpse Scroll was one of the finest possible places to cultivate! Never mind that the alchemical auras left by Pill Venerables could inspire comprehension, the supply of spirit medicines alone was irresistible. Every pill cultivator knew the greatest heartbreak of the profession: the furnace explodes, the spirit herbs vanish, and the pills still fail to form.
If spirit medicines were supplied freely, then even by brute force alone, one could probably hammer out eight or ten new pill recipes!
Unfortunately, not everyone would get that opportunity.
Pill Master Lipan seemed to have expected this reaction. Expression unchanged, he finished announcing the remaining prizes, though probably only the highest-ranking contestants were still listening carefully. “…The second-place contestant may enter the Pill Cultivator Alliance’s Pill Pavilion and freely choose three pills. Third place receives twenty thousand spirit pearls.”
Neither prize was bad.
The Pill Pavilion stored all the pills belonging to the Pill Cultivator Alliance’s Beiliang branch. With a Level-Three pill master like Pill Master Lipan present, the highest-level pills inside naturally reached Level Three. Level-Two pills were already valuable. A Clearheart Pill, for instance, normally cost around a thousand spirit pearls.
That was nothing compared with more valuable pills such as the Meridian-Renewing Heaven-Restoring Pill, which had a price but almost no supply. Its market price was around five thousand spirit pearls, but without offering at least ten thousand, buying one was practically impossible. Of course it was expensive. A pill capable of repairing damaged meridians was almost equivalent to giving a cultivator a second life. How could anyone sell that cheaply?
So allowing someone to enter the Pill Pavilion and freely choose three pills was extraordinarily generous.
As for the twenty thousand spirit pearls for third place, that too was a substantial amount of cultivation resources and, barring exceptional circumstances, would last quite a while. After all, not everybody dragged an entire household around the way Xiao Xia did.
After announcing the prizes, Pill Master Lipan began explaining the final competition.
Nobody expected that compared with the prizes, the competition itself would be even more extravagant!
Pill Master Lipan took out another Phantom Stone. Light unfolded across its surface, and this time what appeared was actually a fragment of a pill recipe!
Tantai Ning, who had kept his head lowered, abruptly looked up and stared at Pill Master Lipan with something approaching hatred.
Pill Master Lipan frowned slightly. By the time he turned toward him, Tantai Ning had already lowered his head again.
After a pause, Pill Master Lipan said, “This is a fragment of an ancient Level-One recipe for the Yuyao Pill. Your task for this round is to reconstruct the complete Yuyao Pill recipe. Whoever successfully forms the pill first wins. If nobody succeeds, the contestant who reconstructs the greatest portion of the recipe wins. The time limit is twelve hours.”
When he finished, the spectators below nearly dropped their jaws.
An ancient pill recipe that had never been revealed before. Nobody even knew what kind of pill it produced, yet how great must its value be?! Even if it were merely a Level-One recipe, even if its effects were practically useless, the fact that it was unique would be enough to make a fortune.
Yet Pill Master Lipan had actually brought out such a recipe as the question for one little competition? The Pill Cultivator Grand Competition happened every three years. Compared with an ancient pill recipe, it was hardly worth mentioning.
Only Xia Yunzhao frowned slightly.
Twelve hours and a damaged ancient pill recipe. No matter how talented someone was, reconstructing the entire thing was practically impossible. That meant Pill Master Lipan had never expected any of them to successfully produce the pill.
Xia Yunzhao appeared to be studying the recipe projected by the Phantom Stone, but in reality he was observing Pill Master Lipan’s expression.
Pill Master Lipan was very likely trying to reconstruct this recipe himself but had failed, or had become stuck at a particular point, which was probably why this competition had been arranged.
Pill Master Lipan indeed showed no impatience, though the deep crease between his brows still had not disappeared. He did not seem particularly skilled at dealing with urgent problems, and Xia Yunzhao had no idea why the Pill Cultivator Alliance had assigned him to manage an entire branch.
…Surely they had not simply decided that being good at pill refining was enough?
The copper hammer fell, officially beginning the competition.
Although this was the final round, it was also the round that most clearly separated the weak students from the top students. Even the last-place contestants in the previous two rounds had at least known what they were supposed to do. In this round… the two rows at the back simultaneously scratched their heads. What the hell is this?!
Normally, when a pill recipe was damaged, half of it would be missing. Perhaps only the ingredients remained while the techniques were gone, or half the ingredients and half the techniques had survived.
This one was different. The paper itself remained intact, top and bottom included, but the writing was illegible. For each spirit medicine, only one or two characters could be distinguished, while every technique likewise had only fragments of readable text.
…That was deadly. There were far too many spirit medicines whose names differed by only a few characters! Plenty differed by only one: Resilient Vine and Hard Vine, Spirit Licorice and Spirit-Sound Grass, Clearheart Flower and Poison-Cleansing Flower…
Putting in the wrong one by accident could change the medicinal properties completely.
Worse still, sometimes one could not even determine whether a particular set of characters referred to a technique or a spirit medicine.
For instance, “Three-Finger Pinch” looked like the name of a hand technique but was actually a spirit medicine named after its shape, which resembled three fingers pinched together. Conversely, “Fragrant-Cloud Sandalwood” sounded like a spirit medicine but was actually a refining technique that dispersed medicinal liquid into an extremely fine mist. Confusing the two would make the whole situation even more entertaining.
The more talented pill cultivators in the front rows settled down after their initial surprise and began seriously working through the recipe. An unpublished ancient formula certainly had tremendous value, but how much one could reconstruct mattered more. If they could not deduce even a single character, they would simply have wasted this opportunity.
Xia Yunzhao likewise calmed his thoughts and carefully studied the pill recipe. Naturally, holding the actual recipe in his hands would have worked better, but Pill Master Lipan would never allow the contestants to pass around an ancient formula, so they had no choice but to view it through the Phantom Stone.
As Xia Yunzhao stared at it, he gradually developed a strange sense of familiarity… He could not read the text, so it was not the content that felt familiar. Rather, after seeing so many pill recipes, he had developed a sort of instinct for their differences…
Thinking about it, he suddenly slapped his forehead. The recording style!
Of everyone present, Xiao Xia probably possessed the most varied collection of pill recipes. Other people’s recipes were generally given to them by a master or inherited from some particular lineage. Only Xia Yunzhao had recipes originating from completely different people.
And different pill cultivators recorded recipes differently. The most conventional approach placed the required spirit medicines on the upper half of the sheet and the refining techniques below. That was also the most common method in the present day.
But the recipes Xia Yunzhao possessed came in all kinds of forms. Some started with a pile of rambling nonsense and buried the actual recipe inside it. Some wrote the techniques first and the required ingredients afterward. Others listed one spirit medicine, then immediately explained how to process it and when to place it into the furnace, with the name of each medicine appearing almost like the answer written before the working…
The moment he thought of that, Xia Yunzhao remembered that the recording style of this pill recipe greatly resembled one he already possessed! Even if they were not the same recipe, there was a good chance they had been written by the same person or belonged to the same school. There had to be some connection.
Without showing anything, he swept his gaze around. The platform was silent, and many pill cultivators had taken out their own recipes to study, hoping something might inspire them.
So Xia Yunzhao naturally took out one of his own pill recipes: the Nightglow Pill.
The moment he looked at it, he realized it immediately. The handwriting is from the same person! The few legible characters on the ancient recipe looked almost identical!
They probably were not the same recipe, however, because the amount of writing was very different.
…Although perhaps not that different.
Xia Yunzhao’s expression gradually turned strange. The length and arrangement of the first three lines, as well as the few characters he could read, all suggested that their contents might actually be identical.
This pill master evidently liked placing the refining techniques first. There were five lines of techniques in all, and if the first three matched, Xia Yunzhao only needed to reconstruct the final two.
Looking farther down… even many of the raw ingredients seemed to overlap.
These two pill recipes absolutely had some kind of relationship!
Xia Yunzhao began studying the Nightglow Pill recipe in detail, mentally simulating its entire refining process. If possible, he would rather refine a furnace himself to test it, but unfortunately the competition prohibited contestants from making unrelated pills.
He simulated the process dozens of times and spent nearly two hours on it before finally understanding every stage completely.
When he returned to the Yuyao Pill recipe, his perspective had changed. This pill cultivator’s methods were extremely precise, and if the first three lines of techniques matched, there were only three possible directions in which the final two could vary.
As for the raw ingredients, very few spirit medicines could be handled using those particular techniques, and even fewer of them were used in Level-One pills.
This deduction took Xia Yunzhao even longer. More than four hours passed before he finally opened his eyes and beckoned someone over.
The competition platform had become deathly quiet, and the Pill Cultivator Alliance members waiting nearby were nearly falling asleep. When they saw him beckon, they did not react at first, only jolting awake before hurrying over.
Xia Yunzhao named several spirit medicines, and the man immediately went to fetch them. Since the Alliance had already brought out an ancient pill recipe, such minor expenses were hardly worth worrying about. Their medicinal storehouse was wide open today, and contestants could request whatever they wanted.
The spirit medicines quickly arrived, and Xia Yunzhao began processing them with complete confidence.
Perhaps he looked a little too confident, because the entire venue turned to watch him. And by entire venue, that included not only the spectators but the contestants. Quite a few pill cultivators who were hopeless at reconstructing recipes were sitting there completely stuck, so the moment they noticed movement, they hurriedly looked up to see what Xia Yunzhao was about to do again… or rather, what miracle he was about to create.
Then, with a bang, Xia Yunzhao’s furnace exploded.
That was perfectly normal. This was an incomplete recipe. Succeeding on the very first attempt would have been supernatural… but before everyone could finish thinking that, there came another bang. His furnace exploded again.
Then came three consecutive bang, bang, bangs… In only fifteen minutes, Xia Yunzhao blew up five furnaces.
The members of the Pill Cultivator Alliance nearly wept from the pain. It might be his furnace exploding, but it was their money burning!
The attendant who had been fetching ingredients finally could not help advising him, “Senior Xia, perhaps you should deduce the pill recipe a little more before you continue refining?”
Xia Yunzhao did not have time to answer. He picked up a Night-Bright Flower and sank into thought.
The three spirit medicines shared by the Yuyao Pill and Nightglow Pill were Night-Bright Flower, Moon-Essence Moss, and Spiritglow Lantern Grass. For the fourth and fifth ingredients, Xia Yunzhao suspected Heart-Linking Lotus Seeds and Spirit-Communing Grass.
His earlier assumption had been that Spirit-Communing Grass was used to neutralize the medicinal properties of the preceding four ingredients and therefore had to be added early. But what if that was wrong? What if Spirit-Communing Grass was meant to be paired with Heart-Linking Lotus Seeds instead? Their medicinal properties would complement each other and amplify one another.
Xia Yunzhao murmured, “Yuyao Pill? No. It should be the Heart-Linking Yuyao Pill… This is a Level-Two ancient pill recipe.”