Chapter 1983: Great improvement in art of alchemy
There was no Celestial King standing by at the valley entrance.
There were wide implications involved in this journey through the Mystery Realm, and there were a good number of descendants of even Eighth heaven Celestial King that had entered into this space, such as Yan Xianlu. Thus, not one Celestial King had come here, all seeming to be certain their own heirs would have enough ability to protect themselves.
That was the truth as well. Every single monarch tier and emperor tier had a life-saving secret technique bestowed by a Celestial King. Unfortunately, they had encountered a maniac called Ji Wuming. They did not even manage to use such techniques, and had simply died directly.
This was also a test from the Celestial Kings for their heirs. Ordinarily speaking, seeing as every single one of them had the backing of a Celestial King, even if they were no match for their opponent, it was extremely rare for anyone to deal a fatal blow.
Aside from Ji Wuming.
Thus, whether it was the Wide Prosperity Heaven or Calm Peace Heaven, both had suffered great losses, but the Wide Prosperity Heaven was more seriously hit by the disaster.
Ling Han and his group exited the valley, shook their heads, and set out on their way home.
Of course, they were heading back to Alchemy City.
This trip to Alchemy City was very time-consuming, and they were even less concerned about how much time they would take. They took multiple stops along the way, and would occasionally enter into seclusion inside the Black Tower. Undergoing comprehension underneath the Reincarnation Tree naturally had strong effects, and the time also flew by extremely fast. When they returned to Alchemy City, 10 years had already passed on the road.
Ling Han and his group all had great improvement.
Ling Han, the Empress, and Hu Niu had all cultivated the cultivation level of fifth severance to perfection, and had also gained astonishing improvement in the Regulation of Slaughter, and had at least completely absorbed the true meaning of the great dao, improving their strength with every second. As for truly grasping the Heaven Destroying Nine Swords, the greater their grasp was over the Regulation of Slaughter, the stronger the might this sword technique would show, and there was no limit.
Or rather, the limit was Celestial King Tier, and it was a height like the Eighth heaven or Ninth Heaven Celestial King Tier.
Bewitching Maiden Rou was slightly inferior, but as a top-tier emperor tier of fourth severance, once she broke through to the Dividing Soul Tier, even if there was still a certain distance between her and monarch tiers like Ling Han, this distance had been endlessly shrunk. At least, it was not a completely one-sided battle, and she could manage an exchange of a few moves, at the very least.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Phoenix Divine Maiden was still making no headway. Thankfully, the lifespan of a Genesis Tier was long enough, so there was completely no need for her to worry about death.
They left very quietly, and when they returned, it was also very quiet. The five of them quietly entered Alchemy City, and practically no one knew about it. It was like they had never even left.
Ling Han first went to pay his greetings to Grandmaster Zi Cheng, and related the rough circumstances of his trip, shocking Grandmaster Zi Cheng to the point of speechlessness.
Goodness, this disciple was really too capable of making trouble, wasn’t he?
Killing a monarch tier—that would have to be the heir of at least a Fifth heaven or Sixth heaven Celestial King. Could this matter be easily resolved?
In the past, Ling Han had just killed two heirs from the Zihe Clan and Thundercloud Palace, and he had already caused great trouble. Grandmaster Zi Cheng had expended a tremendous amount of effort, and finally managed to settle this matter. If a First Heaven Celestial King Tier force was already so difficult to deal with, then how difficult would Fifth Heaven, Sixth Heaven or even Eighth Heaven Celestial King Tier forces be?
What was fortunate was that Ling Han had a Roc Palace behind him.
They were not to be trifled with, either. They had a Ninth Heaven Celestial King as protector, the strongest of the Celestial Realm!
He had already caused the trouble, so no amount of regret could be of any help. Grandmaster Zi Cheng did not even bother to reprimand Ling Han, and only told him to concentrate on alchemy—if Ling Han could advance into the ranks of Five-Star Alchemists, then he really would be capable of becoming an equal of Celestial Kings. Even high-level Celestial Kings would have to give him some face, so killing a few heirs would naturally be considered a minor issue.
Ling Han returned, and began to focus earnestly on the study of alchemy.
He had reached a bottleneck in cultivation. He could not improve further unless he broke through to the Dividing Soul Tier, but breaking through to the Dividing Soul Tier would require him to go to a specific location.
For those like himself, the Empress, and the others, if they wanted to break through to Yang Soul, they would have to go to a place called Yang Soul Ocean.
There was not just one Yang Soul Ocean in the Eastern Celestial Realm, but rather a considerable number. For example, the Yang Soul Ocean closest to the Calm Peace Heaven was shared by seven Heavens. Every time it opened, peak stage Severing Mundane Tiers would come there to attempt breaking through to Yang Soul.
There were extremely proud prodigies among them, as well as some who had failed many times, and there were also aged elders who had been struck by the Immortal’s Tribulation to the point of being at their last breath.
Undoubtedly, with the peak stage Severing Mundane Tiers of seven Heavens gathered together, every time the Yang Soul Ocean opened, it was naturally incredibly lively. However, the number of Severing Mundane Ancestors was still relatively few, so this number would not much exceed those that had been in the Severing Mundane Valley.
The problem was the Yang Soul Ocean would only open once every 100,000,000 years, but Ling Han was quite lucky as he only had to wait 300 years. Otherwise, he definitely would leave the Calm Peace Heaven to search for a Yang Soul Ocean that would be opening soon. If not, and if he’d have to wait tens of millions of years, he would not have that kind of patience.
It would be a complete waste of time.
But now, he could still afford a wait of 300 years.
Ling Han continuously comprehended underneath the Reincarnation Tree, and concocted alchemical pills in the Black Tower, while his skill in alchemy improved by leaps and bounds.
97 years had already passed in real time, while 90,000 years had passed inside the Black Tower. The time of comprehension underneath the Reincarnation Tree was even more chillingly long, and Ling Han had finally taken that most crucial step, and become a Three-Star Alchemist.
This was an incredibly astonishing achievement, something that would definitely make every alchemist green with envy!
Ling Han was very modest, and did not even exit the Black Tower. Instead, he continued his study of Spirit Refinement.
The skill of Spirit Refinement determined the heights he could reach in alchemy.
Ordinarily, every Four-Star Alchemist would reach the Fifth Refinement at least, and it could be claimed that this was the lowest requirement for becoming a Four-Star Alchemist. Thus, Ling Han now had to first improve his skill in Spirit Refinement. If he advanced to the Fifth Refinement, he naturally would be able to push open the doors to becoming a Four-Star Alchemist, and could be considered a grandmaster himself.
Thus, Ling Han continued to concoct alchemical pills to improve his skill in Spirit Refinement, regardless of the time of day or night.
This kind of pill concoction would require him to expend an extraordinary amount of Celestial medicine.
And how rare was Celestial medicine? Yet this wasn’t a problem.
This was all thanks to Ling Han being the future chairperson of Alchemy City, as well as having a black-hearted businessman— no, a master who was a pro at earning money, and the astronomical wealth the latter had accumulated through who knew how many hundreds of millions of years. Whatever kind of ingredient Ling Han needed, Grandmaster Zi Cheng would be able to deliver it to the former at the first instant, and guarantee that Ling Han would not be incapable of concocting alchemical pills.
Another 130 years later, Ling Han had gained a tremendous improvement in terms of Spirit Refinement, successfully advancing to Fourth Refinement. He was really just a step away from becoming a grandmaster.
But taking this step was extremely difficult.
Just how many Three-Star Alchemists were there in Alchemy City?
There were not many, but around 1,000 were there, and about 70% of this number was at Third Refinement, and there was also 30% that had achieved Fourth Refinement. So at the very least, there were over 300 people whose skill was equal to Ling Han’s, but how many of them had broken through to become Four-Star Alchemists?
Farther, there were only Grandmaster Zi Cheng’s three disciples, and nearer, there was only Lu Jin, and it was just these three that had succeeded.
This showed how difficult it was, right?
Though Ling Han was a super genius at alchemy, if he wanted to break through to become a Four-Star Alchemist, even if he had the Black Tower and Reincarnation Tree, the time he needed would be astonishingly long.
He studied hard in the Black Tower, not bothering about what was going on in the outside world. Another 50-odd years had passed outside, and there was only a short three years left until the Yang Soul Ocean opened.
Ling Han was just about to set out when he suddenly received a message from Grandmaster Zi Cheng, asking him to pay him a visit.
“I plan to concoct the Three Lives Pill[1], and you can observe from the sidelines,” Grandmaster Zi Cheng said.
Three Lives Pill, a Four-Star alchemical pill, one of the three types of Four-Star alchemical pills that was the hardest to concoct?
Why was he suddenly deciding to concoct this?
[1] The author made a typo and skipped Three in this chapter here and next, but it appears in the next chapter, so there you have it.