amaotonovel Chapter 66 Medicine Alliance 4
Chapter 66 Medicine Alliance 4
"Excuse me, are all four of you going to participate?" the steward asked cautiously. The person who had disrespected the four of them had met with a terrible fate, so he couldn't afford to be careless.
The reason he was able to come and greet the four people so quickly was because the Medicine Alliance had instructed that people who saw the four should be given priority, and he was the one who was assigned to greet them today.
"I'll participate," Cheng Jiu said gently.
The manager thought to himself, 'These people who caused trouble at the Medicine Alliance before don't seem to have tempers as bad as the rumors say.' Although he thought this, his attitude became even more accommodating: 'So, are you going to participate in the alchemist registration assessment, or are you going to advance your rank?'
"With one piece of gold, I plan to directly advance to the sixth-grade alchemist!"
Upon hearing this, the steward looked at her in surprise. Sixth rank? She was only at the Golden Core stage! The highest Golden Core stage cultivator could only refine fifth-rank pills. They didn't have enough spiritual energy to go beyond that. Besides, she was only a few years old this year and didn't look very old.
He's over a hundred years old and only a third-grade alchemist. Is that what a genius is? Comparison is the thief of joy!
Walking through the long corridor, the palace-style building was indeed very complex. Cheng Jiu and Gong Cheng Gong Yu, who had studied formations, could tell at a glance that it was actually a maze, using mazes combined with simulated space expansion.
This makes the Medicine Alliance headquarters more than ten times larger than it actually is. To set up this using this method, it would take at least three ninth-grade array masters working together, and the resources consumed would be immeasurable.
As expected of the number one alchemy organization on the mainland, they are indeed very wealthy and powerful!
Led by the steward, the four arrived at a long corridor. Hanging along the corridor were portraits of past ninth-grade alchemists, and under each pillar stood a guard whose strength was at the Nascent Soul stage.
"For the rest of the journey, I can only wait here. Please follow this Medicine King Corridor forward; the end point is the assessment site." The steward gestured for them to proceed.
The four nodded and walked along the Medicine King Corridor. This area had also been made to mimic the length of the corridor, making it appear short but actually quite long.
At the very back was a newly promoted ninth-grade alchemist who was relatively recent in life. As they walked forward, the four of them saw Cheng Jiu's master, Venerable Qingxu. In the photo, he was wearing an ice-blue alchemist's robe with a fiery red shawl draped over his shoulders. The contrast between the red and blue was striking, exuding an indescribable air of unbridled freedom.
His name was engraved below: Guiyuan Sect Lord You Daojun. Only then did Cheng Jiu realize that his master's name was Jun You, and that Qingxu was a more suitable name for his master.
At the very bottom is a line of small characters indicating how old he was when he became a ninth-grade alchemist; it simply says 128 years old.
"How old?" Yingyue looked at the age below in disbelief: "One hundred and twenty-eight years old! A Nascent Soul Dao Lord and a ninth-grade alchemist. I had heard my master say before that Venerable Qingxu's talent was in a class of its own, but I never expected it to be this monstrous!"
"Is it really that abnormal?" Gongcheng and Gongcheng also found it unbelievable. After all, the new alchemists they had met were mostly four-digit ages, but when it came to Qingxu Venerable, a three-digit age appeared.
Especially considering that those who can become ninth-grade alchemists are geniuses among geniuses, but these geniuses are nothing compared to Venerable Qingxu!
Even the four most talented individuals felt shocked! Especially after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, every step forward became extremely difficult, and even those with golden aptitude couldn't gain much of an advantage in this regard.
Otherwise, we wouldn't see so many geniuses who broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm at the age of eighteen or twenty, only to be stuck for hundreds or thousands of years when they tried to break through to the Divine Transformation Realm. Without any opportunity, it would be very difficult to break through to the Divine Transformation Realm.
If it weren't for this, the Nascent Soul Realm wouldn't have become the threshold for various sects, including the Five Great Sects.
The talent of Venerable Qingxu can no longer be described as genius. In short, genius is merely the threshold to meeting Venerable Qingxu.
In the Medicine King Corridor, Venerable Qingxu stands out from the crowd. While most people wear red and green robes, Venerable Qingxu is dressed in ice-blue.
Along the way, almost all the alchemists had fire spirit roots, fire-wood spirit roots, or wood spirit roots, and the robes they wore corresponded to their spirit roots, except for Venerable Qingxu, who had an ice spirit root.
"If I could break through to the Nascent Soul Realm at my age, just like Venerable Qingxu, I would die without regrets. As for the quality of my pills, I have no desire for it at all." Senior Sister Yingyue's heart is now filled only with admiration for Venerable Qingxu.
"Then Venerable Qingxu must be the youngest to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm," Gong Yu guessed.
“Very likely, after all, what it shows is only the age at which Venerable Qingxu broke through to the ninth-grade alchemist.” Gong Cheng nodded.
Yingyue realized, "Oh right, that was just the age at which Venerable Qingxu broke through to the ninth-grade alchemist, not the Nascent Soul stage!" Upon realizing this, she was filled with astonishment.
She glanced at Cheng Jiu, wondering if Cheng Jiu would feel a lot of pressure having such a master.
"I will definitely surpass my master in the future! I will surpass my master! My name will definitely be here in the future!" Cheng Jiu also admired her master very much, but she never doubted herself. What she was thinking about now was that she had to work hard and strive to break her master's record!
"Then let's work hard together!" Yingyue hugged Cheng Jiu. They were still young, and they might be able to break their seniors' records.
After looking for a while, they realized it wouldn't be good if someone was waiting for them inside the main hall, so they continued walking forward. After walking for quite some time, they finally saw the portrait of the Medicine Master.
At the very bottom is the petite, thousand-year-old Zhao Li of the Guiyuan Sect.
Having been shocked by the Venerable Qingxu, the group found Yao Lao to be quite ordinary. In fact, as they walked further, they could see several powerful figures who had broken through to the ninth rank of alchemy at a young age, but none of them were less than five hundred years old.
After that, they didn't see any familiar faces on the way. They walked and wandered around, and it took them quite a while to finally arrive at the main hall.
The guards at the entrance weren't surprised at all. After all, if an alchemist were to walk down this corridor in such a hurry, they wouldn't be worthy of being called an alchemist.
The people above are all predecessors they need to learn from. However, if a person doesn't care about these predecessors at all, he won't go far.
Upon opening the main door, one is greeted by an altar with incense and candles lit on it.
Three portraits hung in the center. The one in the very center was the founder of Medicine King Valley. To the left was the divine beast Vermilion Bird, and to the right was someone Yingyue and Cheng Jiu knew very well, namely Medicine Ancestor Chen Siyuan.
The portrait shows him as a young boy, which seems out of place yet strangely fitting into the solemn and majestic hall.
Yingyue took the first step, picked up the incense on the table, lit it, and respectfully performed nine grand gestures before inserting the incense into the incense burner.
Seeing this, Cheng Jiu and the other two quickly followed suit and waited until the worship was finished.
"Come here!" The clear voice rang in the ears of the four people. Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw an elder with white hair sitting behind a large table. He was wearing a red alchemist's robe and a fiery red shawl hanging down his chest. Although both were red, they were distinctly layered.
The subtle patterns on the robe were faintly visible, like a vermilion bird spreading its wings, seemingly ready to burst through the hem and take flight at any moment.
Completely different from Elder Xiao Ming, he possessed a kind and gentle demeanor. Upon seeing the four of them, he smiled and said to Cheng Jiu, "Are you Qingxu's disciple? Are you here to participate in the alchemist assessment?"
"Hmm." Cheng Jiu nodded, and he and Yingyue bowed to him, "Greetings, Elder Huoyan."
"Back then, your master appeared out of nowhere and spent no more than thirty years creating the Ice Spirit Root alchemy method, becoming the youngest ninth-grade alchemy master in history."
Back then, I also participated in your master's assessment for becoming a ninth-grade alchemist. It seems over a thousand years have passed since then. I never imagined his disciple would actually come to Medicine Dust City to participate in the alchemist assessment.
Elder Huoyan handed her a jade slip: "It's true that things have changed. Let me see if a great teacher produces a great student."
Cheng Jiu felt no pressure after hearing his words, opened the jade slip, and easily began to do so.
Cheng Jiu was working on a problem when Elder Huo Yan waved his sleeve and arranged three chairs: "Zhao Li's disciple and Qing Yang's disciple, please sit down!"
Elder Huoyan might be a little older than Elder Yao. When Yingyue spent time with him, she found that he was not as kind as he seemed on the surface, but rather had some wicked intentions.
For example, while chatting, she inadvertently brought up several embarrassing stories about her master, such as when the old master took in his first disciple.
After all, he was the first disciple. The old master wanted to teach him meticulously, but he didn't know the right method. As a result, he became more and more impatient while teaching, which caused his eldest disciple to explode and almost destroyed him.
Having learned his lesson, the alchemist went around asking for advice on teaching apprentices. He was one of them: "Does your master still cause his apprentices to explode when he teaches them now?"
What could Yingyue say? "My master has extensive experience in alchemy, and I have never encountered anything like this before."
"Ah, Zhao Li has grown up!" Elder Huo Yan exclaimed.
Yingyue wanted to cover her ears. She didn't want to hear about her master's embarrassing past, not at all. And what was with that tone? Elder Huoyan should only be a few hundred years older than her master.
But seeing her like that, Elder Huoyan, with his wicked intentions, was even less willing to let her go easily. Yingyue, sitting to the side, felt a little uneasy. Such an upright and honest cricket master was, sorry, still too much for her.
Gongcheng and Gongyu quietly ate their melons, not wanting to engage with Elder Huoyan's words, as they didn't know what he would say to them later.
It's important to understand that a powerful being like Lord Qingyang is capable of sensing when someone speaks ill of him, especially if they are his disciples.
Finally, Cheng Jiu saved the three of them: "Elder, I've finished answering!" After all, these were just some very basic knowledge from the cultivation world, so Cheng Jiu answered very quickly.
"You said you want to pass the sixth-grade alchemist assessment, so go ahead and refine sixth-grade pills. There are medicinal herbs next door; you can go get them. Remember, you have three chances. If you fail all three, you fail the assessment."
"Understood!" Cheng Jiu nodded and went next door to get the medicinal herbs.
Taking the opportunity, Yingyue moved to a seat next to Gongcheng. Gongyu's seat was close to Elder Huoyan, and she let out a long sigh of relief.
Elder Huoyan wasn't disappointed that he couldn't amuse his old friend's disciple. He knew that the Medicine Alliance had a lot of things to do: "If you want anything to eat or drink, just tell the guards outside. I have some official business to attend to, so I won't entertain you for now."
The three quickly told Elder Huoyan to go about his business and that they didn't need him to bother with their hospitality.