BXBX NOVEL Chapter 195 - 194: The New Leader of Alchemy peak
Chapter 195 - 194: The New Leader of Alchemy peak
“Jiang Li, the Sect Master was just saying it casually, he didn’t mean anything by it,” Bai Hongtu consoled, noticing Jiang Li’s silence.
Jiang Li shook his head, “I know that the Human Emperor meant well, I just felt there was more to his words.”
[Task issued: You and several Gold Core Period cultivators form a team, heading south to search for a secret treasure. Your teammate was unfortunately poisoned, leading to his body disintegrating. A Gold Core Period cultivator who consumes this poison will have their body collapse and decompose within three days. Seeing this, the other team members felt helpless while the poisoned one felt desperate, believing there was no hope of survival. As the team leader, you need to take responsibility for saving your teammate. Fortunately, although the southern region has many poisonous species, it also has a plethora of herbs.] [Please find the Heart-Soothing Grass.]
[This task can be abandoned.]
[Task reward: A chance to receive Baptism, one “Qi-Watching Technique” and fifty pieces of star silver stones.]
[Note: This task can’t be completed using the shop.]
Once again, the system released a task. As for these tasks that could be abandoned, Jiang Li usually chose to give up because the system assumed he only reached the Golden Core Stage and gave out rather uninspiring rewards.
In the past, it had issued tasks such as apprenticing under an alchemist to learn alchemy, astonishing those who thought he couldn’t perform Alchemy. The task reward was an upgradeable Alchemy Furnace.
For example, it had also issued a task to attend a poetry conference in Wei Country where Wei people mocked him, thinking that being from Great Zhou, he could only focus on cultivation theory and was clueless about poetry. The system had offered no reward for this task.
However, according to the system’s description, there was a beautiful and talented woman at the conference who was proficient in poetry and had many suitors. Her only standard for liking a man was that he must outdo her in poetry.
Additionally, the system advised him not to give up on this task.
Jiang Li had discovered the pattern – tasks deemed ‘not recommended to abandon’ by the system typically meant he’d gain a love interest.
Such as when he’d previously assisted the White Marsh Emperor and won her favor.
Or if he won the poetry competition and became the Poem Champion, he’d definitely win the favor of the talented woman.
Incidentally, that day was Mid-Autumn Festival.
Jiang Li was amused; if he engaged in the task and didn’t recite Su Dongpo’s
“Tune of Water Melody”, he’d behead himself and hang his head in the water.
Given such an uninspiring task with unappealing rewards, Jiang Li would skip it rather than engage in it.
What would be the point? Forget it.
However, this time was different – the task reward piqued his interest.
Qi -Watching Technique.
This was a technique lost in the Nine States. He first learned about it from the Human Emperor.
Everyone’s identity was different, their future was different, the aura above their head was different. Ordinary people had a thin layer of white mixed with gray. Desperate men who walked on the edge of a knife blade had a rich and dangerous aura of black with gold. The emperors of the nine great empires had a spiraling aura of five colors with dragons and tigers.
Jiang Li wasn’t interested in the aura above the emperor’s head. He wanted to see whether the world’s aura was just like the book described – a wave-like forward motion and a spiral ascent.
At first, Jiang Li wanted to buy medicine in the shop and complete the task instantly, but the system’s note made him give up on the idea.
But that’s fine, it’s not like the system is the only one with medicine. They’re Dao Sect, surely they have some.”
“I’m off to Alchemy Peak,” Jiang Li told them before turning to leave.
“Is Sect Master Su here?” Upon arriving at Dan Refining Peak, Jiang Li didn’t find Su Wei, he only saw the Red Crow Furnace and the child disciple cleaning it.
“Hey hey, you cannot call Su Sect Master anymore,” said the Red Crow Furnace
in a boastful tone, upon seeing Jiang Li arrive, “He admits that my alchemy skills surpass his, so he voluntarily stepped down and became the Deputy Sect Master. Now, I’m the true master of the Alchemy Peak.”
“Cleaning should be focused, don’t just always clean the same spot. Be thorough, don’t just clean this area, also clean the side. Yes, yes, yes, just there, comfortable…” The Red Crow Furnace directed the child disciple to clean it properly.
The child disciple looked despairing, what did he mean by ‘focused’ and ‘thorough’? Where exactly did he want her to clean?
Although the Red Crow Furnace didn’t have a face, Jiang Li could hear its enjoyment from its voice.
“So, it’s Sect Master Red now. My sincerest apologies,” Jiang Li greeted with a cupped fist, “If I may, what does Sect Master Red usually do?”
“As the Sect Master, the highest-ranking tool of the Dao Sect’s alchemy, of course, I have to concoct pills. Any disciple of the Dao Sect who is in need comes to find me to concoct pills,” it replied.
“No wonder the Sect Master has such a difficult job, out of twelve hours, eleven require pills concoction. This is a rare break time,” it continued.
“Then what does Deputy Sect Master Su do?” Jiang Li queried.
The Red Crow Furnace scoffed, “Him? He obviously has nothing to do. He can only conduct research on alchemy, striving to surpass me soon. Watching him act so free and easy everyday is ridiculous, he doesn’t look like a Sect Master at all.
The child disciple spoke while cleaning, “Precisely, as the master of Alchemy Peak, alchemy is of utmost importance. After you became the Sect Master, the disciples from Alchemy Peak showered you with praises, saying that you’re a diligent worker, and a praiseworthy sect master.”
Reacting to the child disciple’s words, Red Crow Furnace let’s out a hearty laugh, reigniting its fading furnace fire.
Jiang Li understood, Su Wei had been pushing the grueling and tedious work to the Red Crow Furnace and rewarded it with the title of sect master, so he himself could hide away and research alchemy in peace.
He wondered when Sect Master Red, the Red Crow Furnace, would realize this.
Seeing the furnace’s intelligence, he figured that might be a long time.
“Visitor Jiang Li, why have you come?” Now that it had obtained the desired position of sect master, the Red Crow Furnace’s whole demeanor had changed. It no longer shied away or seemed afraid of Jiang Li like before.
“I came to find a herb called the Heart-Soothing Grass. Are there any in the stock of Alchemy Peak’s herb storehouse?” responded Jiang Li.
“Heart-Soothing Grass?” The Red Crow Furnace pondered a while before deciding to ask the child disciple, “Do we have the Heart-Soothing Grass?”
The child disciple rolled her eyes, “You must have forgotten that you were starving a few days ago. I told you that you’d no longer feel hungry if you slept, so you slept. Unexpectedly, you ended up sleepwalking after only half an hour and ate blindly in the herb storehouse. I couldn’t stop you.”
“When you woke up, you asked me whether the herb storehouse had relocated to Alchemy Peak because the herbs loved you profoundly, therefore they came by themselves.”
“I said it’s not because the herbs loved you profoundly but because you loved the herbs profoundly, so much so you consumed them, even in your sleep.”
“Oh, I remember now.” The Red Crow Furnace had been so focused on alchemy recently that it had forgotten this incident.
The child disciple pulled out a roll of paper from her pocket. The paper was densely inscribed with the names of thousands of herbs.
“This lists all the herbs you ate up. The vacancies in our herb storehouse need to be resupplied soon. I remember seeing the name ‘Heart-Soothing Grass’ on the list,” the child disciple meticulously searched through the list until she found the name ‘Heart-Soothing Grass’.
“Indeed, it has been eaten up by you.”
Turning to Jiang Li, Red Crow Furnace admitted, “It’s been eaten up by me..”