Caught off guard, Lu Yun was almost sent flying. He hastily took a few steps back and focused his eyes on where the strength had come from.
A barefoot elder dressed in white clothing with a white beard and hair came sprinting from another direction.
“You, you, you!! Where did a thief like you come from??” He wore a white linen outfit and his hair and beard were in disarray. His clothes were slightly disheveled, his hands and feet covered in dirt. He’d likely been working in another part of the garden earlier.
The elder huffed and puffed at Lu Yun, then walked on air to the pond to closely scrutinize the Principal Seventh Rank Lotuses. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were fine.
“Where are you from, kid, and how dare you come to the Eighth Treasure World to steal herbs?!” He turned and roared at Lu Yun.
“The Star Sovereign King herself set down the rules for this place, so I naturally have the right to pick herbs if I am here. What talk is this of stealing?” Lu Yun frowned.
“Do you know what the Eighth Treasure World is?!” the elder sneered when he heard the answer.
“Isn’t it just a world of herbs?” Lu Yun blinked.
“That is true enough, but many of the flora that grow here are the last specimens of their kind in the Boundless Planes. A bunch of us old fogies went to great pains to collect them from various corners of the realm so they could be planted here.” The old man took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “None of the spirit herbs here have seed stock, so it’s highly likely that the lotus you were about to pick is the last seven that exist in the known expanses!
“One plucked is one less!
“If I see things correctly, you want to use the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus to raise your soul force and become a grandmaster, don’t you? You’re so young, yet you focus your mind on shortcuts instead of cultivating. If you become a grandmaster with this mindset, you won’t have the mentality of one and that is all you will amount to in the future!” he furiously lectured Lu Yun.
There was nothing for Lu Yun to do but to be swept along with the old man’s emotions and nod in agreement. He wasn’t inclined to disagree, either.
The old man was a powerful Nihil World Sovereign on par with Xing Shenzuo, but his soul force was incredible and more than a dozen times stronger. He was even stronger than Xing Chen!
Plainly, he was a founding elder of the Star Sect and a truly mighty supplemental grandmaster. His current tones reminded Lu Yun of his late master on Earth. It was the same note of exasperation at a rebellious young Lu Yun who wasn’t living up to his potential.
“This junior will commit the senior’s teachings to heart.” Lu Yun raised a cupped fist salute to the old man.
That stopped him in his tracks and he looked Lu Yun up and down. Here was a young man of modest age, but already at ninth level soul force. Though he wore the uniform of an inner disciple, the old man didn’t see anything wrong with that.
Exceptions were the rule in the Boundless Planes, and plenty of them existed in the Star Sect. Some inner disciples were marvelously talented with remarkable potential. They had the right to access the eighth level of Mount Buzhou’s treasury and hadn’t taken a Nihil World Sovereign for their master not because they weren’t wanted, but because no one was qualified to teach them. It was only a matter of time before characters like those became Nihil World Sovereigns themselves.
The white-bearded old man hadn’t had a master in his youth either. Though many Nihil World Sovereigns had given him pointers, they’d all been his fellow daoists in the end.
“But senior, this junior wishes to pluck a Principal Seventh Rank Lotus not for personal consumption, but to attempt a pill refinement. This junior has created a pill recipe that uses the lotus as its principal ingredient,” Lu Yun added on after a pause.
“Huh?” The old man thought he’d misheard. He dug in his ear with an index finger and asked, “What did you say?”
“This junior wants to refine a pill with the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus,” Lu Yun responded solemnly.
“Do you know who I am?” The old man’s face fell.
Lu Yun frowned slightly. Tigers and dragons abounded in the Star Sect, there were plenty of fearsome Nihil World Sovereigns. Some disciples in the younger generation were already at that level—a sign that this was a very different part of the realm as compared to the remote backwaters of the Eastern Planes.
However, he was here to focus on cultivation, study the Dragonquake Scripture, and peruse the many heritages of the original Hongmeng. He didn’t plan on becoming close with the sect members, so he hadn’t gotten to know the powerhouses of the faction. Naturally, he didn’t know who this old man with a white beard was.
“This junior does not know,” he answered truthfully.
“No wonder you dare voice such brazen talk in front of me,” snorted the old man. “I am the Alchemist Sovereign.”
“Feng Feifan greets Senior Alchemist Sovereign.” Lu Yun bowed.
Alchemist Sovereign: ……
“I am the first of pill dao in the Star Sect, the beholder of pill dao!” the sovereign huffed when he saw Lu Yun’s expression remain the same.
“Junior Feng Feifan greets the beholder of pill dao.” Lu Yun bowed again.
Since the Star Sect focused on supplemental dao, there were numerous disciplines and subdivisions within the sect. But no matter where one went, pill, treasure, formation, and talisman dao always reigned supreme. Thus, they had their own beholders.
They functioned similarly to the deans of various schools in the Dao Academy in the world of immortals. The Alchemist Sovereign was second only to Ah Zhi in the sect; he outranked Xing Chen.
“What do you have to say for yourself since you know I’m the beholder of pill dao?” the Alchemist Sovereign demanded coolly.
“This junior humbly requests that Senior Alchemist Sovereign bestows a Principal Seventh Rank Lotus so that I may refine a pill.” Lu Yun lifted his head and looked the old man in the eye.
The Principal Seventh Rank Lotus frowned.
“Did your teacher not tell you that it is impossible to refine a pill with the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus?” His tone was growing unfriendly. While he didn’t know what this Feng Feifan was thinking, he’d tried refining pills from the lotus before and always failed.
The Star Sect had once possessed thirteen Principal Seventh Rank Lotuses. After seven billion years of attempts, only seven were left. He’d also tried to reform its medicinal properties and just use those characteristics in refinement, but he’d still failed.
“But this junior has derived a pill recipe for the lotus, which is why I have come for it.” Though Lu Yun remained respectful, a hint of pride colored his tone. He was proud of Qing Yu, that her formula dao could theorize even treasures of the fourth realm!
“Since you have derived a pill recipe, why not use the principles of medicinal properties reformation to create the lotus’ characteristics and use that in refinement?” An amused note entered the Alchemist Sovereign’s question.
“Senior,” Lu Yun responded seriously. “The Principal Seventh Rank Lotus is a spirit root. This junior can simulate its medicinal properties and even reform it, but I cannot coalesce its spirituality. An herb without spirituality is no spirit root, and will never be the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus.
“This junior’s pill recipe needs the medicinal properties, theory, and spirituality of the lotus as its foundation. All are necessary for success.”
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