CH 28

Chapter 28: Start of the Competition

The incident this time caused Su Tingyun to feel a pressure she had never felt before.

Without strength, her fate was to be trampled on by others. Even if she acted low-key and withdrew her head like a tortoise, there would still be people that find her displeasing who would try to send her to her grave.

This was because she was now Wei Yun, the wife of Spiritual Master Lingwu. The original Wei Yun was even someone that raped Spiritual Master Lingwu. If she said she wasn’t Wei Yun, what would be the outcome? If she wasn’t Wei Yun, then she was a stranger that took over Wei Yun’s shell. Not even the slightest bit of owed favor would be left so killing her would be even easier.

Su Tingyun didn’t dare to gamble. She didn’t dare to take this risk in this world that treated human life as grass. If it was said that at the beginning, Su Tingyun felt this experience was quite a novelty and found it amusing in a satirical way as she faced life here with a ‘just grin and bear it’ attitude, after this dangerous experience, she had finally woken up to reality.

Here, she was at the very bottom of the food chain.

However, her aptitude was limited. There was no way she could become someone strong, so what to do?

Su Tingyun looked at the medicinal bottles on the ground, then picked them up to squeeze them in her hand. Although these were things that came from that vulgar man and she felt utterly disgusted, she didn’t release the bottles. Spirit Opening Pills were still helpful to her cultivation. However, right now, her most important task was to take good care of these medicinal grass and grab hold of Liu Feizhou’s thigh properly. If after Liu Feizhou won he decides to still keep her by his side, then her life would be much safer.

Su Tingyun had to prove her worth and the only worth she currently had was her ability to grow medicinal grass.

Su Tingyun gave herself a little time to calm down, then, ignoring her headache, she gritted her teeth and started watering and fertilizing the Rootless Water. She didn’t take a break for the rest of the night. Su Tingyun only rested for a while after dawn. Then, she looked after the medicinal field as she read through the archive of mid rank spirit plants that Liu Feizhou had given her. After she read through it, Su Tingyun’s heart felt even heavier.

The medicinal plants noted in the mid rank spirit plants archive were all above fifth rank. Fifth rank medicinal grass easily required over a hundred years to grow. These types of medicinal grass pretty much couldn’t be grown one field at a time. Usually, the Alchemists would grow them themselves. Of course, it was more common for Alchemists to purchase it from a market. Cultivation levels of Foundation Establishment Stage or even Golden Core Stage were required for growing medicinal plants of the fifth rank and above. However, unless the person himself was an Alchemist, who, with that level of cultivation, would waste it on tending to flowers and grass?

This was also the reason why there were only low leveled Spirit Herbalists in the spirit fields outside.

Which is also to say, if her strength didn’t increase, there was no way she could grow high ranked medicinal grass. The most important point was that it took a long time for high ranked medicinal grass to mature. As the growing cycle easily surpassed one hundred years, before the medicinal grasses manage to mature, she’ll probably belch and fart her last breath.

However, if she can only grow low-rank medicinal grass, what value would she have!? Her cultivation limit was at the Spirit Condensation Stage. At most, at most, she can only grow third rank medicinal grass. On the other hand, if Liu Feizhou really became Master Dan’s star disciple, his skill at refining medicinal pills will be advancing by leaps and bounds. He won’t have any need for low-level medicinal grass. Even if he had a need for it, there would be plenty of people that would get it to him.

Su Tingyun felt as if she had hit a dead end. For a while, she felt quite depressed…

She couldn’t think of any ideas. The only difference her current days were from the past was that she was very keyed up every single day. Even if her cultivation didn’t advance much at all, she never gave up. Day after day, she cultivated and grew medicinal grass so time flew in a blink.

Now, the curtain had formally lifted on Liu Feizhou’s competition with his fellow disciples.

To Dan Fengyang, only the person that was his star disciple would truly count as being his disciple and someone of his family. As for others, at most, they were supporting helpers that were acting as apprentices.

The matter of Master Dan taking a star disciple was also extremely important to Wuliang Mountain. Thus, this competition was not held at Heaven Jade Pavilion but in the public square of Wuliang Mountain’s main hall. The elders of each Wuliang Mountain hall came to view the competition. Below the public square was a mass of black created by all the cultivators that came to watch them compete.

This was the first time Su Tingyun saw Master Dan Fengyang. He wore a wide robe with large sleeves, a lofty hat, and had a long beard*. He looked like a very scholarly middle-aged man. Currently, he was standing at an elevated area that made him seem like a celestial who rode the wind over. Su Tingyun didn’t recognize the people next to Dan Fengyan, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to look at them either. She directed her attention towards watching Liu Feizhou nervously and praying that Liu Feizhou would win.

The long beard more specifically points to the long beard growing from above the two sides of your upper lip and below your nose. Like this guy lol.

Of Dan Fengyang’s four disciples, only Gu Hao possess a genuine pill fire. Thus, at this time, only Gu Hao did not have a pill furnace placed in front of him. He wore a crescent moon-white brocade garment and stood with an arrogant air in the center of the stage. Holding a small purple cauldron in his right hand, he gave off an overbearing presence. It was just that his face was way too appalling to look at so no one dared look directly at him.

The person that was line up at the very front, which was to Gu Hao’s left, was Dan Fengyang’s oldest disciple, Xu Yishan. His appearance was completely average and he was also wearing a gray garment so he seemed plain and ordinary.

To Gu Hao’s right was Ning Yan. Today, she wore a red outfit and seemed rather like a hero among women.

At the very end was the youngest disciple, Liu Feizhou.

Liu Feizhou wore an ink-black robe and had pulled his back hair into a bun. Unlike the others, he didn’t use a jade hat* to bind his hair but used a red ribbon to tie it up. This bit of red contrasted with that ink-black outfit and made his appearance seem even more distinguished and outstanding. It caused quite a lot of female cultivators to shoot amorous looks at him.

’jade hat’ refers to the hat practitioners of dao wear. There’s said to be different kinds, but when I searched it up, it generally looked like this

First, Master Dan led his disciples in offering sacrifices to the heaven and earth and to the Farmer God. Then, the start of the competition was announced.

There was also a Farmer God in this world, but the Farmer God in this world was a respected scholar of medicinal pills. It is said that he was an amazing person that existed a hundred thousand years ago. The topic the Alchemists were competing in was naturally refinement of medicinal pills. Whoever spent the least time and refined the highest ranking pill would naturally win.

Xu Yishan, Ning Yan, and Liu Feizhou still needed pill furnaces. Next to each of them was a servant responsible for keeping the fire going. At this time, they were continuously adding firewood to the pill furnace. The fire gradually grew to a raging blaze and in the light, the three’s faces seemed red. Gu Hao, on the other hand, seemed much more relaxed. He just lifted his hand and the fourth rank purple pill cauldron started floating above his palm. In the next instant, a flame sprung up from his palm. Although this flame looked much smaller than the raging fire in the pill furnace, even someone at Su Tingyun’s level could tell that the intensity of that clump of fire in his hand was not lower than the intensity of the fire inside the pill furnaces.

The power that little flame contained seemed to actually be even greater. Su Tingyun was quite far away so she examined it with her spiritual consciousness. As she did so, she felt her spiritual consciousness get slightly scorched. This feeling was something the raging fire in the pill furnace did not give off. With this great a disparity, can Liu Feizhou really win?

Su Tingyun’s faith in Liu Feizhou wavered. It wasn’t just her, all the cultivators that had bet on Liu Feizhou due to his good looks or high natural aptitude felt deep regret. The different created by the pill fire was enough to make it so that they stood on different levels as Alchemists. In the future, the difference in their levels would only increase.

Dan Fengyang looked at his four disciples with a slight smile on his face. He was in a pretty good mood and even turned to say to the Wuliang Sect’s Leader, Jiang Feiyun, “That one is refining a fourth rank Revival Pill.”

Revival Pills are pills that healed injuries. Cultivators demanded this sort of pill the most and Alchemists usually refined a lot of it. Thus, Xu Yishan’s choice in refining this pill showed his intention to seek victory through stability.

Jiang Feiyun also nodded. “All four of Master Dan’s disciples are very excellent. This is something worthy of celebration.”

The medicinal pill Ning Yan was refining was the hardest pill of the third rank pills, the Full Spirit Restore Pill. This sort of pill was very effective on low ranked cultivators that had exhausted their spiritual energies. It can instantly restore the spiritual energy inside one’s body so the price was quite considerable as well. However, due to the fact that it was a third rank medicinal pill, she had pretty much already forfeited her chance at victory. Since Ning Yan was beautiful, though she was clearly refining a pill, her movements were very charming. As she revolved around the pill furnace, she looked like a fire red butterfly that was dancing lightly and gracefully, thus attracting many gazes. This was also her plan. There were plenty of cultivators in Wuliang Mountain who had good potential. If she could get a Golden Core Stage cultivator to take a fancy to her and become a cultivation couple with her, there would be no better outcome possible.

As Gu Hao looked at Ning Yan who was dancing like a butterfly next to him, his brows furrowed. Then, he used those narrow and yellowish eyes to glance towards Liu Feizhou who was at the very end. After giving a cold humph, the pill fire in his hand suddenly enlarged. That flame rushed to the sky like a red dragon and instantly engulfed his little pill cauldron. Then, Gu Hao started adding medicinal grass.

“Dahurian Angelica Root, Pond Lacquer, Raging Flames Grass, Spirit Moistening Blossom…” Gu Hao was going to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill!

A Foundation Establishment Pill was a pill that could let a cultivator of the Spirit Condensation Stage break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Pills that could allow people to break through their limits were always the hardest to refine of the pills in the same rank. Naturally, it was the best quality medicinal pill of the fourth rank pills. They were just alchemy apprentices so most of the time, they only pondered on their own how to refine pills. Dan Fengyang didn’t guide them at all. Yet he had actually figured out how to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill on his own.

Dan Fengyang gave a slight nod. This Gu Hao was a rather good seedling. The most important point was that his luck was also not bad. Although aptitude is very important in the path of cultivating for the truth, luck was something that could not be lacking either. Following that, he looked towards the last disciple he had accepted two years ago and his eyes slightly flashed.

“Interesting. He’s also refining a Foundation Establishment Pill.”

The first class fourth rank medicinal pill, Foundation Establishment Pill. One was refining it using pill fire, one could only burn wood. The disparity between the two was easy to see. The only way to make up for the gap caused by the flames was with an incomparably strong state of mind. He must use his primordial spirit and control the flames perfectly. Only then did he have a standing chance against Gu Hao.

Gu Hao had also noticed that Liu Feizhou was going to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill and he gave a cold laugh. “Don’t think that just because you succeeded once in refining a fourth rank medicinal pill, that you can challenge the Foundation Establishment Pill.” After he finished speaking, he didn’t dare to be distracted anymore. Concentrating all his attention on controlling the fire, he started condensing the pill. His success rate was only fifty percent for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill. This refinement success rate was already extremely high. However, he still couldn’t guarantee that he would succeed today.

Another hour passed. A ‘bang’ suddenly rang out and then a red shadow flew upwards fast as a bolt of thunder.

Su Tingyun’s heart almost leaped out of her chest.

Ning Yan’s attempt at refining the pill had failed and her pill furnace had exploded. She had run away, but that poor cultivator that was keeping the fire going got injured though he had used spiritual energy to protect himself. After Ning Yan landed, she had on a completely sad expression. Tears whirled in the rims of her eyes without falling and there was still black ash on her clothes. This delicate and troubled look attracted a lot of people’s compassion. Probably with the sole exception of Su Tingyun, no one noticed that servant who had been injured by the explosion.

He crawled on his own to the side and curled up in the corner without any sense of existence.

This was the life of a low-level cultivator. She sympathized with him as one sharing the same fate.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Yours Truly