Chapter 416: Strength
"This trouble with the assassination of the third prince has been bothering all of us." Xiao Ning admitted with a sigh. "We still do not know who the murderer was, and we’re unable to get revenge. Not only can we not get vengeance for our prince, but even the royal family suspects that we had something to do with the murder."
"Although the death of the third prince was shocking, I am even more shocked by the fact that all the Crusaders have disappeared as well." Luo Qiang said instead with a frown on his face. "Every major power in the city used to have Crusaders amongst their ranks; even the royal family had many Crusaders strolling around their grounds. Unfortunately, after we returned home from the Grave of the Unknown, all of them seem to have gone missing."
"Humm." Hui Yue said trying to sound surprised. "That is odd. Maybe all of them had something important to do and needed to leave the families they protected?" He asked smilingly.
"I doubt it." Zhu Jun answered. "They would usually leave messages behind when they needed to work for their master, however, this time they did not leave anything behind. I really don't know what happened to them."
"Well, how else could they have vanished?" Hui Yue asked seriously. Although he knew what happened to the Crusaders, it was not something he would tell them. The fight against An He was something only he and Cai Jie would be a part of. He did not wish for his friends to be dragged into this dangerous task of his.
"We do not know. I've heard that the Crusaders in the Yueliang Province were also disappearing quickly. Nothing was left behind there as well. Apparently, they started vanishing just after the war ended which is why it took some time for the news to arrive here, and when it did, our Crusaders started vanishing too." This time it was Ye Ling who spoke up, and his words caused Hui Yue to frown.
He knew who had dealt with the Crusaders in Muchuan City, but he knew nothing about the Yueliang Province. It was clear that it was not Cai Jie, but who else would take their time to try and cripple the Crusaders and An He's undead soldiers?
"Well, let’s not dwell on such depressing news." Xiao Ning finally said as he noticed that Hui Yue was deep in thought. "Although they vanished we cannot do anything about what happened, all we can do is wait for them to return. Since we are not the only place without Crusaders we are not such a dangerous situation."
Hearing Xiao Ning's words the other three nodded their heads in agreement. Since Yueliang had lost Crusaders, then they were still both equal. None of them would go to war against the other because they both had limited strength. Still, both countries looked at Shenyuan with jealousy. The beasts had managed to take over half the entire continent, and they were now the strongest of the three powers in the continent. Their strength made it impossible for others to fight against them as they simply had too many Saints.
Although both countries were jealous, and this jealousy was also present amongst Hui Yue’s friends, they said nothing as they knew that the success of the war against the Siban Empire was due to their friend seated by their side. In a way this made them feel even more reverence towards him. All four of them were uncertain if they would be able to lead all of those beasts to victory if they were in Hue Yue’s position.
"Have you guys heard about the flying swords that the Black Market Auction House have been selling recently?" Ye Ling suddenly asked, changing the subject. The moment the words escaped his lips the eyes of the other three shone with excitement. Hui Yue just raised his eyes and with a flick of his hand four swords appear on the table.
"Take these as presents from me to you." Hui Yue laughed as he sent a sword to each person, their eyes filled with disbelief and shock.
"It is almost impossible to purchase a flying sword at the Black Market Auction House! How could you possibly attain so many swords and even gift them to us as though they were nothing?" Luo Qiang asked shocked. By his side Xiao Ning, Zhu Jun, and Ye Ling all looked stunned.
"Since I gifted you these swords, obviously I want for you to have them." Hui Yue said seriously. "I am the person who made them, and these swords are of a much higher quality than the swords that you can buy at the Black Market Auction House. They were forged by me from a few high-grade materials." He explained. Although they were made from precious materials, they were not the highest grade he had; it was just a few high-grade ones, not top-graded metals. These swords were quite good, but not nearly as good as Hui Yue’s own.
"You created them?!" Xiao Ning said shocked. He finally thought that he understood Hui Yue, yet now he knew that was completely wrong; he really could not see an end to Hui Yue’s strength.
"I did indeed create them." Hui Yue said with a nod. "They are crafted from special material, so their strength is outstanding. You can use them for fighting as well as flying."
"How can we possibly accept something so valuable? You already gave us plenty of things in the Grave of the Unknown, and now you once more want to gift us something so valuable. How can we take it?" Ye Ling was at a loss for what to do. He understood that they should accept the gift to give Hui Yue face; however, even though they ought to accept it, it was truly something immensely precious.
"If you don’t want them, what should I do with these treasures I crafted specifically for you guys? If you do not accept them, then forget about the friendship between us. If you feel that you cannot accept it without payment, just consider it as owing me a favor. I will not rest easy if you do not accept these swords!" Hui Yue was serious, and the four Saints could feel this. Thus they all shook their heads but still accepted the swords.
"Good." Hui Yue said with a smile on his face and a nod of his head. A few more hours were spent chatting with one another before the Saints finally started to show signs of leaving.
As the final guest left, Hui Yue closed his eyes for a moment; he was in a good mood after catching up with his friend who he had traveled together with down a path of blood, death, and riches. Back then they all had been close to death, but they came out of it stronger. Thinking about these memories, Hui Yue felt excitement. Now he was once more focused solely on one thing: increasing his skills when it came to alchemy. He had to prevail over all the other alchemists at the annual alchemist’s contest and win the first place. He would offer the reward to Zhong Fai and then get Sha Yun back.
Hui Yue had previously noticed that the Frozen General had a very obsessive interest in him. If he had a choice, he would prefer that the expert forgot everything about him. Unfortunately, he knew that would not happen.
The guilt of not being able to help Sha Yun and letting her suffer once more gnawed at him. His eyes were blazing, full of confidence, as he rushed to his room and summoned his cauldron and a small mountain of various herbs.
"Time to test these formulas." Hui Yue mumbled to himself as he closed his eyes and started to look through the many formulas he had in his mind. Some were from the Universe Box while others were from the Ma family.
"Let’s start with the simplest pills." He mused to himself and found a simple pill formula which any second-ranked alchemist would be able to easily accomplish.
Sitting down, he found the right medicinal herbs and refined them effortlessly. When he added a pearl to the cauldron, a perfect green pill appeared in front of him. Upon closer inspection, he found that not even the slightest bit of the medicinal aura had left the pill, none of the energy was wasted; it was perfectly concocted.
‘This seemed too easy...’ He thought with a sigh. Closing his eyes once more, he found a third-ranked alchemist pill formula and once more buried himself in trying to perfect the pill. However, it was almost as simple as the first one. The cauldron, although under the control of Hui Yue, seemed to fluctuate the heat within so that it fitted the right temperature to the right plant time and time again. This seemed to be why refining was so easy for him.
"Third-ranked pills don’t require more than average attention." Hui Yue concluded after finishing the third-ranked alchemist pill. Time and time again he thought the same thing. He refined pills up to the seventh-rank, and at this rank, it was possible for him to perfect it after just one failed attempt. Eighth-ranked alchemist pills, however, was quite a bit harder. It was as though he had entered a completely new realm and just starting he could tell the difficulty of refining the pill had increased many times over. The Silvermoon's Pill which he had created before was without a doubt an eighth-ranked pill.
In total, there were ten ranks for alchemists. The highest being the tenth rank corresponding to a master alchemist. Anyone above rank ten was a gGrandmaster aAlchemist. The amount of grandmaster alchemists in the entire Taiyang Kingdom could be counted on two hands, and inviting them to make pills for one was incredibly difficult.
These Grandmasters were all either Emperors or Saints as the concocting of medicinal pills and pastes of such a high level required enormous supplies of internal energies to refine; these alchemists were constantly training their energies. Hui Yue had found that concocting pills and pastes was equal to a good fight. His body would hunger for energy making a pill and thus absorbed as much energy as it could from the surrounding world.
"So my limit is the seventh rank," Hui Yue mumbled to himself as he paused. "I will gain the most from making seventh and sixth-ranked pills. While I gain less energy from creating sixth-ranked pills, I have a much higher chance of success. If I go for the best training, I will end up wasting a lot of materials, but my strength will soar."
He was in quite a big dilemma. Although he had many herbs, the pills at the seventh level required an unimaginable amount of herbs for each pill and they were all increasingly rare.
'I suggest you focus your efforts on concocting seventh-ranked pills.' Lan Feng said from within the lower dantian. 'You can go and trade some of your pills for more materials; although you will waste quite a few materials this way, what you need is not to become a master alchemist, or even a grandmaster alchemist; you need to gain strength. So much strength that you can fight An He.' Lan Feng reminded his friend.
'After one becomes a grandmaster alchemist you will have a terrifying status because you will be able to summon many high ranked experts to help you. At first, this was why I wanted you to become a grandmaster alchemist, but looking at your current friends, you are already able to create a small army of Saints who owe you favors. Although Saints can do nothing against An He and his guardians, they are likely to break through at some point. By then they can help defeat his guardians. This is a long-term investment, but I believe that it will be worth it. Spend your time increasing your personal strength. You and I need strength to be able to defeat An He who is a Crowned Sovereign.' Lan Feng said determinedly.
'Strength it is then.' Hui Yue nodded. 'It is good to be an alchemist but even better if I can become a God soon. But before that happens I need to become a Saint. Let us see how many pills I can refine with the plants and materials I have." His eyes were determined, and he did not waste any more time. Looking over the many formulas in his mind, he started concocting a pill called Evergreen's Blossom. This was a pill which allowed for one to become fully merged with the wood element. This was the most prestigious pill formula that the Ma family had, and it was a pill few were capable of actually concocting.