“Wait a moment!”
When Yang Chen was just about to reply, Liang Shaoming interrupted him, as everyone confusingly turned towards him, he asked:
“The heart questioning pill refined by Yang Chen, will they belong to Yang Chen or to the sect?”
“The ingredients are provided by Yang Chen, the refining is done by Yang Chen, so naturally, the pills will belong to Yang Chen.”
Zhu Chentao shot a glance towards Yang Chen and confusingly asked:
“Could it be that hall master Liang feels that they should belong to the sect?”
“Since my sect gave him so many rewards, naturally, they must belong to the sect.”
Obviously, Liang Shaoming wasn’t willing to let the heart questioning pills belong to Yang Chen. If they belonged to the sect, then using his identity, he still had some chance to obtain a pill. Maybe with this one pill, he could enter the YuanYing stage, so he couldn’t help but make these selfish schemes.
“What about the profits of Hundred Thousand Mountain, are they not enough for the sect to give rewards?”
Zhu Chentao sneered. How could he not see what Liang Shaoming’s intentions were?
“It is still unknown how many pills he can refine, so what use is there to discuss about these matters right now?”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao kept up his calm face and shot a glance at Liang Shaoming, then he continued:
“It would be difficult to gain the support of a Dacheng expert to attack Hundred Thousand Mountain with just one heart questioning pill and we require the support of at least five experts. With two pills for each person, that would be ten pills in total. Yang Chen, you concoct the pills, as for the extra pills, you can keep them for yourself.”
Although he had dominatingly ordered Yang Chen to give ten pills, Yang Chen didn’t have any problems with following this. This was a method proposed by him and looking at the big picture, it would also resolve many of Yang Chen’s troubles.
“Disciple will do as ordered!”
Yang Chen loudly agreed and was just about to leave when his gaze swept across Liang Shaoming, he suddenly turned and said:
“Disciple would still have to rely on Palace Master to assure the safety of disciple’s master.”
“Be at ease!”
Palace Master Zhong Jiao agreed:
“Apprentice brother Wang is just about to come out of seclusion, I will arrange for your master to live near apprentice brother Wang’s seclusion place. Furthermore, I will also ask Shi Kui and Xie Sha of the Eccentric Hall to guard your master, you shouldn’t worry and concentrate on pill concocting!”
Since the enemy could find Yang Chen’s location, naturally, they also knew how important his master, Gao Yue, was to him. This wasn’t any secret at Pure Yang Palace, regardless of whatever malicious things you say about Yang Chen, he would just laugh it off, but if someone dares to speak wrongly about Gao Yue, Yang Chen would hunt and kill him a thousand times.
Moreover, Gao Yue herself was one of the people involved in the matter regarding Hundred Thousand Mountains, it was quite possible that those people would similarly retaliate against her.
Therefore, Yang Chen’s concerns weren’t completely unfounded. Palace Master Zhong Jiao had also thought about this matter and made this arrangement.
Liang Shaoming’s plans to obtain a heart questioning pill had failed because of Palace Master Zhong Jiao’s words, but he didn’t dare to utter even a single word. Everything was planned by Yang Chen, the ingredients belonged to Yang Chen, the refining was also done by Yang Chen, hence, providing ten pills to the sect was more than enough. Furthermore, the sect would still obtain the profits of Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Such a big matter would require great preparation from Pure Yang Palace in all fields like manpower, resources, and allies. Although Yang Chen still hadn’t begun the refining of the heart questioning pills, some information about it needed to be spread.
This was so that when the time comes, the experts of the ally sects don’t become unavailable by going into seclusion or for other similar reasons. In short, the time when Yang Chen completes the pill concocting should be the time by which the sect’s preparations were finished.
Therefore, all of them begun to get busy. Pure Yang Palace immediately postponed many missions and began to use the sect’s contribution points to exchange for different grades of flames. The rewards were ample, arousing the interest of countless people.
As long as one was a fire attributed cultivator, he would have to use a flame. But not all fire attributed cultivators were so fortunate and could find flames like Real Sun Fire or Real Moon Fire.
Even Yang Chen’s master, Gao Yue, also only had a Purple Heart Fire, which was comparable to Yang Chen’s geocentric fire. For the majority of the people, let alone geocentric fire, they would be lucky if they could obtain a first grade or second grade flame.
The issue of Yang Chen requiring flames wasn’t raised by Yang Chen, but rather by Zhu Chentao. When Zhu Chentao saw that Yang Chen’s Profound Spirit Furnace could be upgraded by absorbing different types of flames, he immediately noted it in his mind. No wonder, Yang Chen had previously said that he would exchange the Heaven Seizing Pill recipe for a flame.
This Profound Spirit Furnace was obtained by Zhu Chentao by accident, which he later gifted to Yang Chen. Zhu Chentao had He Lianyun’s furnace, so he wasn’t envious of Yang Chen’s Profound Spirit Furnace.
On the contrary, he even mentioned this to Palace Master once. This time, the Palace Master also seized the opportunity to obtain some benefits for Yang Chen to start this magnificent occasion.
Usually, the sect’s contribution points were very rarely awarded, causing each and every one of the thousands of disciples to drool over them.
Those who had obtained a flame but hadn’t used it, all immediately exchanged it for contribution points. Those contribution points could be exchanged for spirit stones or perhaps other products of the sect, whose value far exceeded that of a simple flame. Even those who had used the flame exchanged it for contribution points. Later, when the opportunity arises, they could obtain a similar flame based on market value, which only required some time to be spent.
Moreover, the sooner the flames were exchanged, the higher the contribution points awarded. Everyone had similar ideas and within a short ten days, the sect had already collected 50 first grade flames and more than 20 second grade flames.
When Yang Chen and Zhu Chentao entered Yang Chen’s refining room again, Zhu Chentao immediately produced the flames obtained. These almost 80 flames made Yang Chen extremely happy.
A woodcutter must sharpen his axe before chopping logs. Yang Chen wasn’t polite and immediately began to use the Profound Spirit Furnace to absorb the flames. The Profound Spirit Furnace, which had already reached a very high grade and had absorbed high grade flames like real sun fire and real moon fire without any pressure, began to absorb these low grade flames at lightning speed.
3 first grade flames or 2 second grade flames in a day. Within one short month, Yang Chen’s Profound Spirit Furnace had already absorbed all the flames completely.
Speaking of this, the Profound Spirit Furnace had already absorbed many types of high grade flames but hadn’t absorbed many low grade flames. This batch of flames was full of low grade flames and although the individual flames in the batch didn’t raise the grade of the Profound Spirit Furnace as effectively as real sun fire or real moon fire, several tens of flames were enough to increase it by one grade.
Yang Chen also refined one tenth of the Profound Green Metal Crystal this time, enriching the Profound Spirit Furnace even more. Within a month, the Profound Spirit Furnace had once again been reborn, not only had its grade increased, with the addition of Profound Greed Metal Crystal, its structure had become even more robust and its capability to endure the pressure of flames had increased substantially.
Because the Profound Spirit Furnace could now control a large number of flames, his control over different flames during the pill concocting process became even more perfect, this was another great advantage. Holding the Profound Spirit Furnace, Yang Chen didn’t want to part with it.
After using the Universal Treasure Raising Secrets once, Yang Chen finally began to cooperate with Zhu Chentao and entered seclusion to refine pills.
This time again, Zhu Chentao’s disciple and Yang Chen’s former servant, Ho Lin, was waiting upon them. But, the only difference compared to last time was that from start to finish, Zhu Chentao and Ho Lin were only spectators, from purifying the ingredients to refining the elixir, everything was done by Yang Chen alone.
Frankly speaking, when Yang Chen was concocting pills, he allowed Zhu Chentao and Ho Lin to learn as much as possible. Although Zhu Chentao was already a YuanYing stage experts, on the road of pill concocting, he himself didn’t dare to say that he had surpassed Yang Chen. Zhu Chentao was sincerely observing everything, afraid to miss anything.
As for Ho Lin, who was originally Yang Chen’s servant, regardless of her cultivation, she had good control of fire when concocting pills, but it was still inferior to Yang Chen. Since Yang Chen had guided her for so long, she naturally knew good from bad and always waited upon her master and Yang Chen attentively, not daring to be distracted for a moment.
The heart questioning pill required more than ten types of ten thousand years matured herbs, all of which were present in that valley. When Yang Chen took out those freshly plucked herbs, Zhu Chentao became ecstatic.
Although being a pill concocting master meant that he had many chances to personally see ten thousand years matured legendary herbs, who takes out a pile of them? While Yang Chen was preparing, Zhu Chentao spared no effort to teach Ho Lin about the grade of this batch of herbs, while simultaneously holding these precious herbs in his own hands.
Yang Chen first used the geocentric fire to refine all the herbs. The amount of spirit power in the ten thousand years matured herbs was enough to astonish anyone. Not to mention other things, under the influence of this pile of medicinal power, even the colour of Profound Spirit Furnace was changed, from dilute cyan colour to slightly greenish. This was indeed quite mystical.
After some time, Ho Lin was unable to endure the thick overflowing spirit power and had to move far away, only then did the feeling blood and spirit power rolling around in her body ease out.
When beginning the refining, Yang Chen’s fire controlling technique once again astonished Zhu Chentao. He kept on attentively observing the flame within Profound Spirit Furnace without any movement.
This time, Yang Chen was using techniques to control fire as earth and control fire as water. Since the heart questioning pill paid particular attention calming the heart of a person like a river, just flowing on its path, without receiving the onslaught of outer devils, so naturally, among the five phases, the most peaceful ones of earth and water were the most suitable. However, although it was a dual refining of earth and water, the origin was still fire.
At the lowest strata of Profound Spirit Furnace was a flame sealed like a piece of earth, formed together by geocentric fire and cold ice fire. After experiencing the refining of geocentric fire, the medicinal liquid spread on top of this foundation and began to flow around slowly like recently melted magma.
Using the profound wood fire, he transformed it into a miniature bodhi tree. After penetrating the medicinal liquid, it took roots in the foundation beneath the medicinal liquid, that was formed with the combination of geocentric fire and cold ice fire. The portion of medicinal liquid approaching this tree slowly began to boil and the heat was then spread to all portions little by little.
The best condition for meditation and cultivation was under a bodhi tree. Under this tree, anyone could safely enter a meditative state while calming their heart. The bodhi tree formed of profound wood fire also used the idea of mediation and fused with the heart questioning pill, perfectly harmonizing with its medicinal properties.
Naturally, for the bodhi tree formed of profound wood fire to achieve these kinds of results, the most crucial point was the tiny flame strands of the profound wood fire engraved minute spirit storing spell formations in the medicinal liquid of the elixir while boiling it. This made it so that every infinitesimal drop of this medicinal liquid contained a minute spirit storing spell formation, which was the main reason for this effect.
Also, at any point in time, the profound wood fire could only boil a small portion of the medicinal liquid that was surrounding the tree and wouldn’t pass the heat to the entire medicinal liquid. To achieve with this, Yang Chen’s precise control over fire was required. Bit by bit, the medicinal liquid that was flowing over the foundation made of two flames, was moved around once to undergo the baptism of profound wood fire.
Just this process required the majority of the two years. The heart questioning pill allowed a person to not bow down to their devils, precisely because of bodhi meditation. Moreover, the coldness of cold ice fire would allow that person to always remain sober, this was the cause of always pointing towards their heart. Naturally, the cold ice flame has its uses and also allowed the minute flame strands to form spell formations.
However, just relying on the spell formations wasn’t sufficient to perform the heart questioning pill’s function. The genuine reason for its effectiveness was still the medicinal power of those ten thousand years matured herbs that assist and complement each other. Otherwise, even these Dacheng experts could just set up the spell formations, then wouldn’t it be easy for them to refine the heart questioning pills?
In the end, the most basic requirement was an enormous and continuous supply of spirit power which doesn’t go berserk. The fusion of these factors makes the heart questioning pill deserve its reputation.
Because Yang Chen had absorbed the cold ice fire and profound wood fire last time, he had great confidence in refining this heart questioning pill. Even Zhu Chentao, who had been watching from start to finish, realized that it was not so easy. Leaving aside the fact that searching for materials was difficult, just this high grade fire controlling technique was something which he can’t reproduce.
During the whole process, Zhu Chentao only kept on gasping with excitement. Yang Chen’s current level of flame control left him completely speechless and unable to find words to describe his praise.
Now, Zhu Chentao and Ho Lin were convinced that as long as they cultivate the dao of flame control as Yang Chen had thought them, the road ahead of them could lead them far into the future. Thus, Zhu Chentao wouldn’t ever have the feeling of an impassable gap, as he had at the peak of JieDan stage.
One year’s time was needed to lay down sufficient spell formations within the medicinal liquid, while the remaining time was required by Yang Chen to complete the final refining of the heart questioning pill.
The most surprising thing was, at the final juncture, Yang Chen didn’t use any high grade flame, rather, one of the first grade flames that he had collected this time. Although the low key and underrated flame didn’t cause any great waves in the final step, it was able to maintain a high temperature from beginning to end.
Initially, Yang Chen used to believe that he would have to use the green phosphorous fire at this step. But now, since he had many low grade flames, some of them were even more suitable and increased the success of elixir.
Finally, after ten months, Yang Chen began the final step of pill collecting. Zhu Chentao was barely able to make bits and pieces of the dazzling pill concocting technique while Ho Lin’s vision was completely sunk into a fog, unable to make out anything of the technique used by Yang Chen.
However, at this crucial time, no one dared to disturb Yang Chen. Both of them cautiously observed Yang Chen, waiting until Yang Chen had completed the final step and extinguished the flame.
Suddenly, a beam of dense dazzling light appeared from the Profound Spirit Furnace. The beam broke through the roof and directly soared outside. The underground spirit vein of Second Fierce Yang Courtyard seemed to be suddenly attracted by something and began to crazily concentrate at the side of this Profound Spirit Furnace.