Chapter 1190: Bedrock
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
The moment Guiyuan Zhen posed his question, all focus shifted to him.
Among the alchemists present, there were many who knew of Guiyuan Zhen. He was rather famous in the Myriad Divine Territory and had used his skills in the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid to earn quite a sizable fortune.
He had managed to refine three pills using the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid. The first two were made with pill recipes that already existed. With one recipe, he replaced a particular herb with Jadeflame Immortal Orchid, causing its effects to double. The third pill was an original invention of Guiyuan Zhen. He had named it the Jade Orchid Zhenyuan Pill, and it was his secret specialty.
“This Guiyuan Zhen. I thought he would truly ask for advice, but he’s just trying to slap the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect in the face,” an alchemist who was familiar with Guiyuan Zhen said with a laugh. They all knew Guiyuan Zhen’s background.
“Haha! What Brother Guiyuan said is to my liking. These people from the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect are way too flashy, especially those juniors. It’s like their noses are so high up in the air that one could see straight to their brains. Just a few moments ago, they completely disrespected us and treated us like hillbillies.”
“That’s right, our Myriad Divine Territory’s alchemical skills and Desolate Heaven technique have been developed over many years. It has already become systemic and is probably not that inferior to the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect’s.”
As people spoke, they looked at Skyfire Sacred Hands, waiting for him to answer the conundrum.
Skyfire Sacred Hands drank a cup of spirit tea and continued having the bowl in his hand. The moment the question was raised, he had guessed the situation from the reactions of the other alchemists. Guiyuan Zhen clearly knew the answer and was trying to make things difficult for him, embarrassing him in the process.
Although Skyfire Sacred Hands was opposed to his disciples being overtly arrogant, the truth was that he only wanted them to refrain from verbal disrespect. When it came to arrogance, how could he, a disciple of the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect, not be arrogant?
In the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect’s history, it had produced two alchemical sages. Back then, the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect was celebrated throughout the entire Yang God Empyrean Heaven. As for the heritage of the two alchemical sages, they were handed down fully intact! He himself had inherited his knowledge from one of the alchemical sages—Thousand Hand Alchemical Sage.
Seeing this alchemist from the Myriad Divine Territory trying to test him, Skyfire Sacred Hands smiled nonchalantly. He did not even feel like answering. How could the Thousand Hand Alchemical Sage’s heritage be something mere pedestrian alchemists would comprehend? He would not use it to compete with others, as that would be an insult to the Thousand Hand Alchemical Sage.
Therefore, Guiyuan Zhen’s sudden question had displeased Skyfire Sacred Hands.
He gently placed the bowl down, turned to the six-fingered youth, and said, “Hao’er, you answer him.”
The moment this was said, all the alchemists of the Myriad Divine Territory frowned.
Guiyuan Zhen had asked Skyfire Sacred Hands a direct question, but Skyfire Sacred Hands ignored him and delegated the response to his disciple?
Skyfire Sacred Hands had cultivated for three thousand years while Guiyuan Zhen had cultivated for more than a hundred thousand years. However, in the field of alchemy, the able were the teachers. Guiyuan Zhen did not dare to think himself as a senior to Skyfire Sacred Hands. By politely asking a question, he had gone through the necessary niceties.
It wasn’t an important question, but by delegating the answer to a junior, Skyfire Sacred Hands revealed how little he thought of the alchemists of this city.
“Yes, Martial Uncle.” The six-fingered youth stood up and said. He cupped his fist and said, “Senior, I’m curious if your master ever told you that to ask a question, you must first ask if it is correct or not before asking for the reason?”
“Oh!?” Guiyuan Zhen’s expression sunk. “What do you mean?”
“Senior, you said that Jadeflame Immortal Orchid cannot be infused into a pill. However, my opinion is that this statement itself is invalid. The medicinal essence of Jadeflame Immortal Orchids is indeed a little volatile and will easily reduce to ash in a cauldron, but as long as this problem is resolved, the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid can be easily infused into a pill. Senior, why do you say that it’s impossible to infuse its essence into a pill?”
The six-fingered youth spoke with ease and fluency. Although he sounded polite, there was an overbearing tone to his words. Guiyuan Zhen was enraged. He had spent a hundred years researching the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid but a junior had dismissed him with a single sentence. Was the hundred years he spent a joke?
“Heroes indeed come from the young since time immemorial. I have finally witnessed it today! Alright, you say that the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid can be easily infused into a pill, then broaden my horizons and show me how to infuse it!”
Guiyuan Zhen’s voice carried some agitation. This was his specialty, the thing he was best at. How could he not be angered after being belittled by a junior?
The alchemists present nodded in agreement. The six-fingered youth had indeed been arrogant in his words. They had personally confirmed that Jadeflame Immortal Orchid could not be infused into pills. Even in large sects, the methods of handling Jadeflame Immortal Orchid were definitely not as simple as the six-fingered youth made it out to be.
“Junior Sister, since they would like to see Jadeflame Immortal Orchid being infused into pills, why don’t you do the demonstration?”
As people were waiting for the six-fingered youth to demonstrate his skills, he sat down abruptly. He had passed the mission to the red-dressed girl beside him.
Upon seeing this happen, the alchemists present were incensed. From her looks, she had cultivated for less than two centuries. Yet, she too knew how to infuse Jadeflame Immortal Orchid into a pill?
The elderly shoved the load to the old, while the old shoved it to the young. They truly did not think much of them!
“Alright, alright. Tch, isn’t it just a Jadeflame Immortal Orchid!?” The red-dressed girl said contemptibly. With a tap of her toes, her graceful figure landed in the middle of the square like an agile red sparrow without stirring so much as a speck of dust.
“Who has a Jadeflame Immortal Orchid? Let me use it. I can’t be expected to carry such herbs around with me.”
“Fine! Very fine indeed!” Upon hearing the contempt in the red-dressed girl’s words, Guiyuan Zhen was further infuriated. The herb that he had spent so much time researching was thought so little of by her.
“I have one here!”
Guiyuan Zhen threw a red herb at the red-dressed girl.
She caught it casually and took out a cauldron.
“Yue’er, do it soundly without fuss. Just infuse it into the pill and don’t be too ostentatious.” At that moment, Skyfire Sacred Hands’s voice transmission rang in her years.
“Yes, Martial Uncle.’ The red-dressed girl curved the ends of her mouth. However, the moment she began, Skyfire Sacred Hands knew that she had not heeded his words.
The red-dressed girl had deliberately opened the mouth of the cauldron, allowing everyone to see the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid’s refinement process. It was an action not typically done by alchemists.
Skyfire Sacred Hands shook his head but did not say anything. Since these people had doubted the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect’s heritage, they needed to be enlightened. If they weren’t, they would continue to be frogs in the well, thinking that their alchemical skills were peerless.
“She actually opened the mouth!”
“This will result in the array within the cauldron to be a little incomplete. It will make the refinement of the medicinal essence even harder. What arrogance.”
The alchemists present gave their commentary, which the red-dressed girl ignored. She said, “Since it’s the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid, let me refine a Jade Spirit Pill!”
As the red-dressed girl spoke, an icy-blue flame emerged in her palm. When the flame burned, it did not have any heat to it. Instead, it effused a coldness.
The red-dressed girl casually flicked her finger, sending the flame into the cauldron. Following that, she threw the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid in.
Her fingers began to move as she produced seals at a rapid pace. These seals surrounded the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid, imprinting themselves deep within it.
As such, the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid was slowly enveloped by the icy-blue flame.
Through the mouth of the cauldron, people were able to see the refinement process of the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid clearly. Strangely, when the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid was enveloped by the flame, it did not seem to heat up. Instead, a thin layer of frost formed on its surface.
The frost layer grew thicker until it completely covered the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid. From what the crowd could see, it was like a piece of ice burning within a cauldron.
After about fifteen minutes, a marvelous scene occurred. The Jadeflame Immortal Orchid that was sealed in ice began melting slowly within.
After another five minutes, the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid melted into a pale red liquid. It was crystalline and shimmered. Being sealed in ice, it looked extremely beautiful.
It seemed that the red-dressed girl’s process of herbal essence extraction was a great success. It was even more complete than the extraction process Guiyuan Zhen had figured out!
“How… How is this possible? Is it that simple? Just let it burn in the fire directly. Why is this fire so icy-cold…?” Guiyuan Zhen muttered.
Jadeflame Immortal Orchid possessed an extremely volatile fire-elemental attribute. It exploded upon contact with fire but the red-dressed girl had used a flame that effused an icy-cold aura to seal the volatile herbal essence in ice. She actually had such a flame?
“I know! I know! That’s Extreme Frost-ice Flame! There are records in books of it; it’s a spiritual flame born in the core regions of an ice mountain for hundreds of millions of years. It is formless and traceless, making it extremely difficult to find. You actually have such a flame!?” Guiyuan Zhen suddenly said as though he had lost his soul.
The red-dressed girl had produced the Extreme Frost-ice Flame the moment she was asked to demonstrate her skills? He had only seen records of such a flame in books, and this was the first time seeing it in person!
“At least you are knowledgeable. Yes, it’s the Extreme Frost-ice Flame! This Extreme Frost-ice Flame is indeed hard to come by. It wasn’t easy, even for my Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect, to obtain. However, the ancestors of my Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect have alchemical sages. One found an ice mountain as big as a star in an extremely cold land that had been sealed in ice for a billion years. He bored right to the ice mountain’s core and spent decades seeking a lantern of Extreme Frost-ice Flame!”
“Extreme Frost-ice Flame is not a lone flame. Although obtaining one is rare, it has a special attribute of being able to nurture more. With a mother flame, child flames can be nurtured. Extreme Frost-ice Flame’s mother flame has been nurtured in my Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect for tens of millions of years. It is controlled by the Grand Elder. Although the flame I have is a child flame produced from the mother flame, it’s still enough to refine a Jadeflame Immortal Orchid. Therefore, when you mentioned that Jadeflame Immortal Orchid cannot be infused into pills, it left me puzzled. Why can’t it be infused? Isn’t it very simple?”
The red-dressed girl countered with a question. Her smile made Guiyuan Zhen’s face flush red.
He pointed at the red-dressed girl but could not say a word. What else could he say?
He had gone through countless experiments before chancing upon a method to infuse Jadeflame Immortal Orchids into pills. Yet, his life’s work had become a joke in the eyes of others.
That was the underlying bedrock a super refinement sect established itself upon. To them, such things did not need researching. It was easily resolved with the knowledge stemming from the bedrock.
Extreme Frost-ice Flame… As long as one was a core disciple, one would obtain an Extreme Frost-ice Flame. So how hard could it be to infuse the Jadeflame Immortal Orchid into a pill? Just sealing the volatile fire-elemental attribute in ice would do!
