Chapter 96 – Striking A Balance Between Work And Rest

The Profound Spirit Furnace had improved by several grades, allowing Yang Chen to have some confidence in being able to refine low level pills of the third grade. Most of all, as the Profound Spirit Furnace had absorbed the Real Sun Fire and his third fire and fourth fire spirit power had reached the foundation stage, he had complete certainty in refining elixirs such as the foundation stage pills, which could be refined with a cultivation of the foundation stage or lower.

But currently Yang Chen would absolutely not refine ordinary foundation stage pills. It had to be known that currently, the Profound Yang Fruits Yang Chen had were all a thousand years old and the maturity of the other ingredients would also astonish people. If he used this kind of ingredients to refine common foundation stage pills, then wouldn’t it seem like Yang Chen’s methods were a bit low levelled?

Previously, third grade foundation stage pills were sufficient to satisfy Yang Chen’s current needs. As long as he had the ingredients, it would be able to allow the attribute which Yang Chen focused on to reach the foundation stage. But currently Yang Chen had obtained the Penglai Divine Wood, so he had an even more outrageous thought.

The Penglai Divine Wood was a wood attributed heavenly object and was moreover the best wood attributed ingredient in the mortal world. This time, Yang Chen was considering whether or not he should add the Penglai Divine Wood directly into the foundation stage pill to increase his own wood attributed Spirit Power.

Yang Chen had never done this kind of thing in his previous life, but Yang Chen knew that the cultivation world was not always the same, there were constantly new innovations in the cultivation world, all of the sects were constantly seeking new things to develop and promote. Following the old ways was not the only correct way to learn, using the weak points at which their predecessors had given up and using them for one’s advantage was the proper way to become even more outstanding.

Although the recipe for the foundation stage pill was very clear, but using ingredients with different maturities could lead to different quality of pills and moreover different refining techniques could also produce different medicinal efficacies. Yang Chen was currently considering to manufacture a foundation stage pill especially for his first wood attribute’s Spirit Power, so it would be better if he used the Spirit Power accumulated within the Penglai Divine Wood.

This was not a simple matter. Developing a new kind of recipe required a huge amount of experiments; and experiments naturally require a great amount of ingredients. Fortunately, this was not a problem for Yang Chen. Regardless of whether it was the Profound Yang Fruit or the leaves of the Penglai Divine Wood, Yang Chen had a sufficient amount of ingredients to conduct the tests.

The experience from his previous life and the large amount of reading at the Hidden Pavilion had allowed Yang Chen to gain a direction to begin, so he did not have to waste time blindly fumbling around. The refining technique was still the refining technique of the foundation stage pill, but at some point during the refining, the Penglai Divine Wood had to be added.

If other people knew that Yang Chen was using Profound Yang Fruits and Penglai Divine Wood to conduct experiments with the foundation stage pill, countless tool refining and pill concocting masters would madly curse him to rot in hell. Whether it was the Penglai Divine Wood or the thousand year Profound Yang Fruit, both were things, the news of which could give rise to fights, leading to rain of blood due to envy, but Yang Chen was using them to experiment, just like a wastrel.

Compacting the third fire Spirit Power had allowed Yang Chen to have a new idea, he completely hadn’t anticipated that he could still gain this kind of advantage using the Profound Spirit Furnace. But this also gave Yang Chen an insight: if the third fire Spirit Power could become so pure, then wouldn’t the first tree attributed Spirit Power also be able to achieve the same result with assistance of the Penglai Divine Wood?

The Profound Spirit Furnace had absorbed the Real Sun Fire, so it could fully persist for ten months, the bottle of the medicine garden had also been provided with abundant Spirit Power during these few months, so it had already recovered three fourth of its Spirit Power. When Yang Chen entered the medicine garden to take a look, he was very astonished to find that, after the integration with heavenly materials such as the Penglai Divine Wood, the Spirit Power required by the medicine garden was even higher and it moreover hadn’t even changed entirely into water attributed Spirit Power.

The trees of Penglai Divine Wood had grown more and more verdant and lush, but their number hadn’t increased much, while those leaves had become even more lush and the roots had also become more solid and robust. Moreover, after these Penglai Divine Wood branches, those herbs had also begun to grow more vigorously. All of this made Yang Chen very satisfied.

But having this thought didn’t mean that Yang Chen was going to start refining immediately. The seclusion was for ten months, Yang Chen also needed to come out of seclusion. After rebirth, Yang Chen had gained an all new familiarity towards cultivation: he did not immerse himself in bitter cultivation all day to increase his realm, that’s why he had read extensively in the Hidden Pavilion. This was the reason why Yang Chen was acting lazy and not cultivating all day.

“Strange, how did you do that?”

Under Gao Yue’s scrutiny, Yang Chen paying a formal visit to his master had a feeling of confusion. Yang Chen’s cultivation was still at the initial foundation stage, but when seeing him, but meeting him gave her the sensation of fire assaulting her face. This made Gao Yue, a fire attributed JieDan stage expert, very puzzled.

“Why have you entered closed door training?”

“Thank you, master, for your kind intentions! Disciple has only refined his pill concocting furnace, that’s all.”

Yang Chen’s words, were half true, absorbing the Real Sun Fire and melting the Profound Cyan Crystal Gold was indeed done during the refining of the Profound Spirit Furnace, but although his words were vague, this was also the reality.

Gao Yue was still suspicious, through most of the time of the seclusion, the connecting of the energy of earth and heaven had happened, which made her unable to understand the matter completely. But Yang Chen had not told, so she also did not ask in much detail.

Everyone knew that Yang Chen was unusual, Gao Yue as the master was even more clear about this. Towards this disciple of hers, Gao Yue still hadn’t thought properly about how she should go about instructing him, but during these few months, her thoughts had become clearer by much, letting nature take its course was comparatively better. Everyone had their own way of cultivating, so insisting on something was not good.

“Yang Chen, your situation is very unusual.”

Gao Yue did not hide her lack of confidence in front of Yang Chen.

“In fact, I don’t have a proper idea about how to guide you. I am only your master in name, if you have any questions, you can put it forward to any expert, but I will not demand you to cultivate in a particular way. Perhaps you should have paid respects to a higher level master and not me.”

Gao Yue was very calm, but Yang Chen was getting more and more pleased. This was the correct way of assuming responsibility and not assuming the face of master and giving him directions flagrantly.

Yang Chen was also not very polite and immediately asked about some cultivation problems. Actually, these questions were the problems Gao Yue had not understood and thought about in her previous life, thinking about Yang Chen’s questions, together with his offered ‘possibilities’, allowed Gao Yue to have a sudden enlightenment and immediately, without minding Yang Chen, she entered seclusion to comprehend them.

The current actions of Yang Chen were very contradictory, on one hand he wanted to remind Gao Yue that she should cultivate a water attributed cultivation method, and on the other hand he was assisting her to increase her fire attributed cultivation. But this was something that he could do nothing about, Yang Chen couldn’t just say to her indifferently, that she was not suitable for fire attributed cultivation and had to cultivate the water attribute, could he?

Establishing trust and establishing a deep connection were not something which could be done overnight. Currently Yang Chen had no other choice than to do this first and he was naturally extremely delighted at this, reviving his master’s concern once again, was exactly what he had been looking for.

He required a chance to settle his master’s disputes, so what Yang Chen had to do currently was to secretly influence her and cultivate a deep trust between him and his master, so that at any time his master would have full confidence in him.

After bidding farewell to his master, Yang Chen wanted to leave immediately for the Hidden Pavilion, but before he could leave the Second Fierce Yang Courtyard, he was stopped by Gongsun Ling.

“Younger disciple Yang, you had promised that you would refine my pills when I would go to the Immortal Falling Well.”

Gongsun Ling and Yang Chen did not have any sort of false greeting, she directly extended her hand to invite Yang Chen to discuss. In any case, Yang Chen had already done a great favour for her in the form of the Second Fierce Yang courtyard, but Gongsun Ling also didn’t mind a little more.

“I have planned to leave for the Immortal Falling Well soon, what about the pills you have prepared for me?”

“Are you certain about going to the Immortal Falling Well?”

Yang Chen wrinkled his brows, he had gone to Immortal Falling Well, so he knew that that was a region where people do all sorts of corrupt things, but on the other hand that place had the Geocentric Flame and he had to engage in a huge slaughter to fuse with the will of the XianTai Stage completely, but Gongsun Ling completely did not have to take the risk, at least in his previous life, Gongsun Ling hadn’t gone there.

In Yang Chen’s eyes, the Immortal Falling Well was an ordinary region, but in the eyes of the ordinary people, it was a genuinely dangerous region, even Immortals could fall there, that was the intention behind the name ‘Immortal Falling’.

Ordinary cultivators entering the Immortal Falling Well, could at most wander around in the surroundings of the Li Lou Village, waiting for an opportunity to kill some spirit beasts and obtain some spirit essences, only some peak foundation stage cultivators with violent strength would dare to enter the depths. The people who had chased Yang Chen were precisely this kind of people.

But currently Gongsun Ling clearly was just at the initial foundation stage, and she desired to go to the Immortal Falling Well to train, this was completely different from his previous life. Although Yang Chen was rather glad about Gongsun Ling’s transformation, perhaps now she would not perish within the Heavenly Tribulation, but this would also increase the dangers on her cultivation path.

“I want to go! Perhaps if I single mindedly concentrate on cultivation, then maybe I can increase my cultivation realm effortlessly.”

Gongsun Lin nodded very sincerely.

“But then I will forever be unable to gain the sort of experience and trials as Younger Disciple Yang. Even if I am able to ascend to the spiritual world due to some luck, then I will still just be a cultivation maniac, who pays no attention to outside affairs, a zombie, nothing more. I do not want to be that sort of person.”

Hearing these sentences, Yang Chen confirmed that Gongsun Ling already thought clearly about what she should do to change herself. Regarding Gongsun Ling’s decision, Yang Chen could not say anything, although he wanted to say something. But he could do something, like refining the pills Gongsun Ling would require at the Immortal Falling Well.

“Give me two months!”

Yang Chen did not speak much and only asked Gongsun Ling to wait for two months. He wanted to refine all of the pills Gongsun Ling would require for the ten years at the Immortal Falling Well within these two months.

“Senior Apprentice Sister, I will be troubling you to go out on a trip to the market in the city to purchase the ingredients to refine the yang qi pill and yuan cultivation pill.”

“All of them?”

Gongsun Ling was gobsmacked, this huge amount of ingredients, how many Spirit Stones would it cost? She certainly didn’t have enough Spirit Stones for this.

But soon, after dismissing all of her worries, Yang Chen handed her a qiankun pouch.

“Here are ten thousand catties of low grade spirit stones, which will be enough to purchase these items.”

Seeing that Gongsun Ling was hesitating, thinking about whether she should or should not take these Spirit Stones, Yang Chen said with a smile:

“Senior Apprentice Sister, I have promised to refine pills for your use, surely you would not want to make a person break his words?”

Gongsun Ling hesitated for a few moments, finally taking the qiankun pouch from Yang Chen. In any case, she already owed him many favours, if someday she got an opportunity to pay him off, she would not forget about this. Giving Yang Chen a meaningful glance, filled with complex emotions, she was no longer unreasonable and immediately turned around and stepped on her flying sword to buy these ingredients.

Hastily returning to his room, Yang Chen called Shen Da, Gu Qin, Ting Yuan and Ho Lin quickly and instructed them, while handing a list of items:

“Shen Da, Gu Qin you two must visit all of the markets in the extent of the Meiqing mountain and purchase all of these items.”

After giving them the list of items, he also handed them four qiankun pouches. These four were servants, so they still didn’t have qiankun pouches. Yang Chen had killed many people, so right now he had taken out a few of them and erased the imprint of the sect on top of them and gave them to these four people.

“Ho Ling, Ting Yuan, you both also start preparing for concocting pills together with me.”

These four people were servants, so Yang Chen ordered them without any restraint. These four people were equally swift in taking the things which Yang Chen had given them, not showing the hesitation which Gongsun Ling had shown.

Ho Lin was going to witness Yang Chen’s pill concocting skills again, but it was the first time for Ting Yuan. Both of the females were very excited, most of all Ho Lin. She had emphasized on pill concocting and moreover also heard of the news that Yang Chen had refined the Heaven Seizing Pill, so to be able to look at Yang Chen’s pill concocting was a lucky opportunity for her.

“Ho Lin, pay good attention to my fire controlling technique.”

Towards his servant, Yang Chen was not even a little bit stingy.

“Currently you must practice your control over fire. When you can control it properly, then after this time’s refining is complete, I will teach you how to refine the xun qi pill, so that in the future, the amount of xun qi pills required by Pure Yang Palace could all be refined by you.”

These words were a big surprise for Ho Lin. These years she had been cautious and attentively served Yang Chen, and when he was not present, she had painstakingly practiced her control over fire. Finally she had been able to get her reward.

Ting Yuan enviously looked at Ho Lin and Yang Chen also saw the emotions in her gaze, so he faintly smiled.

“Ting Yuan you do not need to be jealous, you are fond of researching spirit formations, in the Hidden Pavilion there are a few jade slips pertaining to refining tools, some other time I will make a copy for you. You can still refine tools, even if you don’t cultivate the fire attribute.”

Hearing Yang Chen’s words, Ting Yuan could not help but feel surprised.

Shen Da and Gu Qin didn’t say anything, probably because they were male and not good at expressing themselves like females, but fervor was equivalently visible in their eyes.

These four servants had already followed Yang Chen for more than eleven years. In the beginning they had not accepted him, but after a while they had become quite docile. Moreover they had attentively served him, without giving him any chance to complain. Yang Chen had observed them for a long time, and also finally understood their temperaments. His own servants naturally had to grow.

They just happened to have different interests, Ho Lin Pill liked concocting, Ting Yuan liked tool refining, Gu Qin researched spell formations and Shen Da was devoted to cultivation. Each one had their own characteristics, but Yang Chen did not mind having different kinds of assistants at his side.

“You all have followed me for more than ten years, currently your cultivation has also increased. I will make a promise to you all.”

In order to provoke their ambitions, Yang Chen decided to grant them a huge boon:

“If you all are able to reach the peak of the qi layer, I will refine third grade foundation stage pills for each one of you.”

Bang!

The four servants were as if they had turned to stone in their places, watching Yang Chen attentively and not able to budge in the slightest.