'The voice might be coming from Elder Mateo, ' Ricky pondered.
Before he came here, Grace had told him something about the Snow Sect's Treasure Tower. For the
longest time, Elder Mateo, the eighth elder in the sect, had been dutifully guarding it since.
*
"Elder, I have won the Outer Competition. I'm here to get my award," Ricky said respectfully.
"Oh? Are you the one who doesn't have a spiritual meridian? Come in," the Elder replied after a while.
"But you have to come alone," he added, implying that Heather couldn't come with him inside the
tower.
"Are you going to be okay here outside?" Ricky turned around to ask her. Heather smiled softly and told
him she was going to be fine. With that, Ricky stepped inside the tower.
He looked around the whole place. There were only a few things that could be found around the ground
floor—some tables, chairs, cushions and a big crude wood bed.
'This floor must be the place where Elder Mateo used to cultivate himself, ' Ricky thought to himself
Ricky walked and observed the place for a while, until he saw an old man with white hair who was
sitting on a chair, drinking a cup of tea. Ricky guessed that he must be Elder Mateo.
"Elder," Ricky greeted respectfully.
After hearing Ricky's voice, Elder Mateo put his cup of tea down on the table and shifted his gaze to
Ricky. He carefully studied him, looking at him up and down. Elder Mateo broke into a small smile and
after a while of pondering, he said "Extraordinary. I see that you have a great foundation at the Skin
Refinement"
"Thank you, Elder," Ricky bowed. He felt honored to be acknowledged by the eighth elder in the sect.
"About the Nine-degree Body Refining Formula, can you show it to me?" Elder Mateo asked while he
sipped his tea. Ricky was stunned with the odd request.
He was taken aback with the old man's request. Stunned, he calmed himself down and replied, "Yes,
Elder."
Ricky summoned his spiritual energy to activate the Nine-degree Body Refining Formula—his whole
body turned orange immediately.
"Remarkable. Remarkable, indeed. Finally, someone can successfully cultivate this formula again. It's
been a thousand years since the last time." Elder Mateo observed calmly but there was a glint in his
eyes that sparked excitement. He stood up and walked up to Ricky.
"Here, drink this," Elder Mateo handed Ricky a cup of tea.
"Elder, please help yourself. I'm not thirsty." Ricky appreciated that Elder Mateo would offer him a cup
of tea, but he rejected politely anyway.
"Just drink it," Elder Mateo said nonchalantly. He didn't expect Ricky would turn him down.
"Yes, Elder." Ricky accepted. He didn't want to be on the bad side of Elder Mateo, so he thought it was
best to drink the tea instead.
He took the cup from Elder Mateo and drank all of its contents in one gulp.
Right after he gulped the tea, he realized at once that there was something different with it. It wasn't
ordinary tea. He could sense something bubbling up in his stomach—an immense heat that radiated
from within. He felt like the "tea" that he had drunk was going to burn his stomach up anytime.
Eventually, the scorching heat started spreading into other parts of his body
"Elder, this..." Ricky asked apprehensively as he clutched his stomach to calm the heat inside.
"If you don't want to burn, you'd better sit and start cultivating yourself," Elder Mateo suggested with a
smile.
Ricky understood what Elder Mateo meant at once. It seemed that this cup of tea was a gift from him.
Without hesitation, he sat in lotus position to activate the Devouring Skill to cultivate the energy inside
his body.
After a short while, Ricky felt the heat subside and translate into pure powerful energy. He could feel it
flooding his whole body, strengthening him in effect.
Half an hour later, he reached the ninth grade of Skin Refinement.
'That's amazing!' Ricky exclaimed to himself. He got up and thanked Elder Mateo for the tea.
"It is called Lava Tea. The tea tree only grows on lava. It's one of the Treasures from Heaven and
Earth. Even a small sip is able to enforce the grade of any warrior at Skin Refinement," Elder Mateo
explained.
"If you hadn't successfully cultivated the Nine-degree Body Refining Formula, I would never give you
such a treasure," he added.
"Elder, thank you so much!" Ricky replied excitedly. He felt honored that Elder Mateo had given him
such a great gift.
"Remember: You must put more effort into cultivating the Nine-degree Body Refining Formula, or one
day, you'll be sorry for drinking it," Elder Mateo warned.
"Elder, are you serious?" Ricky felt a little worried about the Elder's warning.
"You'd better take it seriously. You don't want to disappoint me and experience the dire consequences
of it!" Elder Mateo added. "Don't waste any more time. You should go upstairs to get your reward. But
you can only choose the Treasures from Heaven and Earth from the second floor," Elder Mateo urged.
"Yes, Elder," Ricky replied, as he bowed respectfully before the Elder. He turned around and began to
walk toward the stairs.
After a few steps, he returned to ask Elder Mateo, "Elder, did you hear this old saying before—Help
people through the end and save people with might and main? I mean, can you give me some hints
about what should I choose?"
"Hmmm Just tell me. What kind of treasure do you want?" Elder Mateo asked as he pondered
thoughtfully.
"I want two kinds. One with the element of water, and the other with the element of fire or ice," Ricky
replied honestly.
"Water... You can find something called Pure Blue Shamrock. It can strengthen the warriors with the
water nature spiritual meridian," Elder Mateo said after thinking hard about it for a while.
"The treasures of the fire element are on the third floor. You can't go there yet. But, there is an Ice
Ganoderma Lucidum on the second floor at its west end. It's rare because it's seven hundred years
old," Elder Mateo continued after a while.
"I think the Ice Ganoderma Lucidum is going to help you immensely to cultivate the Nine-degree Body
Refining Formula," he added.
"Pure Blue Shamrock, Ice Ganoderma Lucidum. Got it. Thank you," Ricky said excitedly as he made
mental note of the things to pick for his award. He was glad that he had asked Elder Mateo and was
able to listen some of his wise suggestions. Then he ran up to the second floor in a hurry.
Approximately after half an hour of looking for the items, Ricky found both the treasures on the second
floor that Elder Mateo told him
The Pure Blue Shamrock had three leaves. Ricky could feel its powerful energy of water element even
just by holding it and somehow it made him feel warm.
The energy in the seven-hundred-year-old Ice Ganoderma Lucidum was more powerful than Magic
Ice's.
If he was able to get a treasure of fire element in the Treasure Tower, Ricky had the confidence that he
would have a breakthrough and manage to reach the Third Degree of Nine-degree Body Refining
Formula.
After saying goodbye to Elder Mateo, Ricky left the Treasure Tower with such delight.
"Heather, here. It's Pure Blue Shamrock," said Ricky, handing it to Heather excitedly.
"Ricky, thank you so much!" she replied gladly, taking it from Ricky's hand. She sensed the powerful
energy of the water element as soon as she touched it.
"Oh? Are you two dating?" they both heard someone shout teasingly.
Two young men were walking toward them slowly. One of them was Rufus, the former number 1
among the outer disciples. It was evident that Rufus came here to get his award from the Treasure
Tower.
Ricky squinted his eyes to observe from a distance who came with Rufus. Even though he wasn't very
sure at which level the man had cultivated, he could tell that he was an inner disciple at Blood
Purification.
"Rufus, look. It's the man without a spiritual meridian. The one who beat you in the Outer Competition!"
said the young man. He shot a glance at Ricky in disdain as he spat out the words.
"If you weren't out yesterday, you would know how I lost accidentally." Rufus defended himself.
"Huh! I know your capability well. Even though I didn't watch your battle yesterday, I'm pretty sure that
he had used some sneaky methods to beat you. Let me teach him a lesson now!" Jerome said angrily
as he made balls of fist.
Before he could finish speaking, he ran towards Ricky.
Jerome began to gather his energy. Ricky felt that Jerome was at the first grade of Blood Purification as
he was getting closer and closer.
"Jerome, Stop!" Rufus said hesitantly. "My skills are just not as good as his. It's my problem," he added.
The anger behind Rufus' eyes was evident. There was a faint mischievous smile on his face. Although
he told Jerome to stop, he hoped that he would take Ricky down.
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