Lu Yun also breathed out in relief. After a trip to Soul Dominion, he really didn’t want to fight Xing Lan. She trained with the Serene Annex, just like her master Xing Chen. As the foremost senior sister of the younger generation, she was number nine hundred and ninety-eight on the Hero Ranking.
It was a very high placement considering she was just a Void World King. If she could ascend to Nihil World Sovereign, she would certainly be one of the titans of the fourth realm. Therefore, she rarely left the sect as there were plenty of old farts in the Boundless Planes who loved prematurely killing geniuses.
“I followed you from your residence,” Xing Lan put away her soul weapon with a frosty look. “The honorable Alchemist Sovereign wants you.”
“The Alchemist Sovereign wants me?” Lu Yun brightened. “Probably because of the pill recipe. Perfect, I was just about to go find him.”
“Pill recipe?” Xing Lan’s expression shifted. As Xing Chen’s disciple, she naturally knew that the Alchemist Sovereign had obtained a precious pill recipe ten years ago, one that could refine the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus.
Did it have something to do with Feng Feifan?
“Come with me.” Instead of satisfying her curiosity, Xing Lan turned around and headed in another direction. The Alchemist Sovereign wasn’t at Mount Buzhou.
This time, however, she traveled more carefully. She concealed her presence and form as they flew, not wanting to provide more fodder for gossip if anyone saw her with Lu Yun.
There were many notable mountains and rivers in the World Star. The Alchemist Sovereign lived on the Divine Alchemist Mountain, one that nurtured a vast herb garden. It differed from the world of spirit herbs on the eighth floor of Mount Buzhou as only plants without spirituality grew here.
The Alchemist Sovereign was eagerly waiting for Lu Yun's arrival.
“You’re finally here, fellow daoist Feifan!” He rushed up in greeting when he saw Lu Yun and Xing Lan arrive. “Heh heh heh, if it wasn’t for another batch of Principal Seventh Rank Pills simmering in my pill cauldron, I would’ve gone to you myself!”
“Fellow, fellow daoist?” Xing Lan gaped as she looked dumbly at Lu Yun.
Anyone with the Alchemist Sovereign’s standing in the Star Sect was an extraordinary personage. He was second to only the Star Sovereign King, and even Xing Chen had to respectfully hail him “senior” when the two met. But this prodigious heavyweight called Feng Feifan his fellow daoist?
Fellow daoist?
Fellow daoist??
That honorific couldn’t be easily bestowed upon someone. Not only was it a title used between peers, but it also had a deeper meaning that the two walked the same path.
Xing Lan’s thoughts were thrown into disarray.
“Senior, is something the matter?” Lu Yun asked curiously when he saw the other’s expression. “Has something gone wrong with the pill recipe?”
“Ahem!” the Alchemist Sovereign responded awkwardly. “It’s absolutely fine, I’ve been able to synthesize the properties of the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus from it and refined Principal Seventh Rank Pills with it. The latest batch is coming together in my pill cauldron.”
He’d indulged himself with his new toy after Lu Yun gave him the recipe. Over the past ten years, the sovereign had refined several tens of thousands of cauldrons of pills. Though none of them contained spirituality and couldn’t help the recipient’s mentality advance to grandmaster, they could do so when it came to soul force. Thus, their medicinal effects weren’t too far removed from the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus.
That made these pills the equivalent of a connate spirit root. They would fetch a princely sum in the outside world if none of the Star Sect disciples needed one. After all, there were plenty in the fourth realm who’d been like Lu Yun—a grandmaster’s mentality but ninth level soul force.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you… where did you get this recipe?” The sovereign turned solemn. “If you really did derive it yourself, I must report to the Star Sovereign King so you are protected as well.”
He looked at Xing Lan as he talked, an obvious sign that she was also under the sovereign king’s protection. As a genius on the Hero Ranking, she would be targeted every time she set foot outside sect grounds.
It was enough for the Star Sect to have a Xing Chen, they would not be permitted to also have a Xing Lan.
“So the pill recipe does indeed have something to do with him…” Xing Lan’s expression flickered rapidly, finally understanding why the sovereign had called the young man his fellow daoist.
“Has the word gotten out?” Lu Yun smiled as he looked at the sovereign.
The elder shifted awkwardly. “I er, showed off to an old friend a few days ago and accidentally let it slip.”
“That’s alright,” Lu Yun smiled.
“You didn’t derive the pill recipe?” blinked the sovereign.
“No, I did.” Lu Yun waved the rest of the elder’s words off. “You didn’t need to come to me, I would’ve come to the senior—not for the recipe, but for how I came about it. Would you invite the other seniors in the sect here?”
After some thought, Lu Yun decided not to include Ah Zhi. Sleep was probably more important in her eyes.
“Very well,” nodded the elder; he smiled ruefully at Xing Lan. “Lass, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you again. I’ve also practiced the Star Sovereign King’s Dream Sutra and can’t be bothered to go myself.”
“This junior will be on her way.” Xing Lan smiled with resignation, took another look at Lu Yun, then bounded off into the distance.
“How did you derive the pill recipe? New recipes are usually riddled with flaws and erroneous logic, the pills they produce are never perfect and in fact, come with a certain degree of poison.
“But I see no such holes in your recipe.” The Alchemist Sovereign glanced at the seven snoring pill dolls in his abode.
“Formula dao,” Lu Yun responded candidly. “This junior and my dao partner created a great dao in our world called formula dao. It can analyze all things and derive even concepts for the Boundless Realm.”
The senior’s eyes widened and continued to grow bigger as Lu Yun described his thoughts and the wonders of formula dao. In the end, the Alchemist Sovereign breathed rapidly for air.
“Do you, do you mean that? Can such a formula dao really exist?” he asked dumbly.
“Yes and yes.” Lu Yun nodded. “I intend to systemize the patterns of formula dao and share it with the realm.”
“Do you know the significance of this dao?! Once it spreads, the entire fourth realm will be up in arms about it. Everything will change!” The elder frowned. “And you might not benefit from the changes either.”
“Only when people walk a path is it dao. If it is clutched in the hands of the few, that makes it a secret art,” Lu Yun responded with an open mind. “But, we can limit it to the Star Sect at first and then slowly teach it to everyone else.”
“It seems like you want to upend the sect and turn the Star Sovereign King into a figurehead,” the elder looked strangely at Lu Yun.
“He doesn’t need to go to that effort if he wants the Star Sect,” Ah Zhi’s languid, slightly sleepy voice sounded in the air. “I wanted to give the sect to him when he first arrived ten years ago. Not only did the kid not want it, but he used a taboo to scare me off the notion.”
Her willowy form gradually materialized in the air, a purple silk dress molded to her body and fully illustrating her perfect curves.
“Yawn!” She yawned hugely and huffed, “But you lied to me, kid! You’ve already cleansed the resentment on that thing!”
“I didn’t know myself until not too long ago,” Lu Yun explained apologetically. “That’s why I’ve decided to make the Star Sect the foundations of formula dao and teach it here first.”
The Alchemist Sovereign was so stunned he didn’t know what to say. All Ah Zhi cared about was yawning; she didn’t bother with any explanations and allowed the elder to wildly hazard guesses as he would.
This was a perfect illustration of why so many rumors flew about in the sect.
“Greetings to the Star Sovereign King!” Xing Lan returned with the Treasure, Talisman, and Formation Sovereigns. When they saw that Ah ahi was present, they quickly inclined their bodies in a bow.
Though their status was beyond compare in the sect, they still had to show due respect to a sequence expert. As proud as they were of their ability, arrogance had no place in front of their sovereign king.
