Chapter 79

"Let me see yours."

"Let me see yours too."

"The color is not bad."

"Yours is even deeper."

"Happy cooperation."

Hidden Dragon City, a corner.

Lin Jing and Xu Zhizhi met up a few days later.

Seeing that Lin Jing's Hidden Dragon Secret Art had already been cultivated to the second stage's blue mark, Xu Zhizhi said enviously: "I arrived months in advance and tried every possible way to make a name for myself. You've only been here for a few days? And your secret art level has already caught up!"

Lin Jing sighed and said: "In order to revitalize the sect, I have to work a bit harder."

After all, the sect being sealed had a tiny bit of his responsibility.

"I also know a little about the situation of your sect. Misfortune and fortune are interdependent; perhaps your destiny is too strong, and the sect cannot bear it," Xu Zhizhi said with melancholy.

"In any case, you don't need to worry too much! With your destiny, you will definitely be able to revitalize the sect! Just grasp the opportunities in the future well!"

"Even for heirs of major sects, children of Nascent Souls, descendants of Deity Transformations, or those with innate spiritual bodies, they will not receive special recruitment from the academy. But for those like us who have been chosen by the Cave Heaven, the academy will personally invite us. Do you know why?"

"Because cultivators who have entered the Cave Heaven are highly likely to enter it a second or third time! This is an opportunity from the Immortal World, greater than anything else!"

"It is precisely because of this that I had to kill that snowfield cultivator to cut off the snowfield's destiny. I myself... also became famous because of this matter," Xu Zhizhi said: "So, Brother Lin, as long as you grasp the opportunities in the future well, you will definitely be able to become the revival leader of the Beast-Taming Sect. I, Xu Zhizhi, have never misjudged a person!"

"I'll take your kind words, Brother Xu," Lin Jing said with emotion: "You scholars speak so pleasantly."

Xu Zhizhi smiled gently: "We are friends now, so the previous matters have vanished like smoke. If you need any help in the future, you can come to find me."

"Finally... one last reminder for Brother Lin: go out less these few days, and if you do go out, disguise yourself!"

"Your fame is now resounding, and you will definitely be targeted by people in the academy who wish to use your fame to fulfill themselves!"

"Understood," Lin Jing said: "Next, I am going to the Book Tower to study for a while. What about you, Brother Xu?"

"I am going to find the few shills I hired to settle the spirit stones with them," Xu Zhizhi said.

Hidden Dragon Academy.

Inside a pitch-black hall, there were two rows of long stone tables, and on the stone tables, more than a dozen white stones were placed neatly.

Suddenly, one stone began to radiate light, and following closely, seven or eight stones also lit up one after another, and from the light, several phantom shadows condensed.

"The five-yearly enrollment day is approaching again. Who will serve as the chief examiner this time?" one of the figures made a sound.

"Let Ziwei come. He specially recruited four students with extraordinary potential for the academy this year; it is just right to let these four assist him in the assessment," another figure spoke.

"How are these four? I heard that a few little monsters will be sent to the academy. Can these four suppress them?"

"Leaving such a good opportunity for fame to them is their own loss if they cannot grasp it."

After parting with Xu Zhizhi, Lin Jing headed to the academy.

He had already memorized all but a few pages of that alchemy book, and today he was going to imprint it all in his brain.

Whether he could understand it was one thing; he would memorize it first. Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning will reveal itself.

In the Book Tower, Lin Jing held a book in one hand to memorize, while using the other to press his forehead with the Divine Art to relieve fatigue.

When his true essence was almost gone, he took out a bottle of Spirit-Replenishing Pills and threw them into his mouth.

"The so-called self-created alchemy formulas are mostly not creations 'from scratch'."

"Most alchemists' 'original alchemy formulas', to put it bluntly, are just 'improved alchemy formulas'."

"They are built on the shoulders of predecessors, built on elixirs with the same effect, by adding materials, reducing materials, replacing materials, using different flames, and using different alchemy techniques to refine a 'similar elixir'."

Self-created alchemy formulas, after Lin Jing's understanding over the past few days, were difficult if one said they were difficult, and not difficult if one said they were not.

If an alchemist wanted to create an alchemy formula for an "Ascension Pill" that would allow chickens and dogs to ascend to heaven in broad daylight upon taking it, that would undoubtedly be a pipe dream.

Such a pill had never existed in the Heaven Origin Continent, and its effect was bizarre; it was simply not something that a lower-world alchemist could create—it was completely an immortal pill.

But if an alchemist only wanted to create a "Healing Pill", that would be much simpler.

There were tens of thousands of spirit plants with healing effects in this cultivation world, so there were many different versions of healing pills circulating on the market.

Some obscure medical clinics in small cities dared to put up signs for "exclusive secret formulas" and "original alchemy formulas".

Because the research and refining of low-level elixirs indeed had no difficulty. Some first-rank alchemy formulas even used only one or two materials; the alchemist only needed to extract their nutritional substances and condense them into pills.

What Lin Jing wanted was a Longevity Foundation Establishment Pill using the Blood Refining Method, which was not too difficult, nor too easy.

It was not difficult because the Foundation Establishment Pill was only a second-rank elixir, and most sects had exclusive Foundation Establishment Pills suitable for their own cultivation arts, just like the Beast-Taming Sect's Demon Dao Foundation Establishment Pill. This pill had already been studied to death by cultivators.

It was not easy because Lin Jing had only tried refining first-rank elixirs so far and had not yet tried refining second-rank elixirs. Wanting to refine second-rank elixirs at the Qi Condensation stage was still very difficult, and generally only alchemy geniuses could do it.

It is said that Zi Ling'er of the Cauldron Sect succeeded, and what she refined was the most difficult special Foundation Establishment Pill among second-rank elixirs, which was exactly what Lin Jing needed, so she successfully made a name for herself in the Hidden Dragon Academy.

However, Zi Ling'er was an alchemy cultivator herself and had attained enlightenment in the Bodhi Cave Heaven, so it was not strange that she had this ability, but Lin Jing himself was currently just an alchemy novice.

"If I want to research an exclusive Foundation Establishment Pill, it naturally cannot be from scratch..."

"Instead, it is by using existing alchemy formulas, adding my own things, constantly trying, and constantly practicing until I succeed or keep failing."

Lin Jing had already selected an alchemy formula from the alchemy book.

Second-rank elixir, Beast Blood Pill!

It was a type of body-tempering elixir.

The alchemy book in the Book Tower did not record any Blood Refining Method, but the materials for refining this Beast Blood Pill possessed many types of beast blood.

Since it was related to blood, it was Lin Jing's object of research.

Besides this, the other alchemy formula he intended to research was the most mainstream and common ordinary Foundation Establishment Pill formula on the continent. The exclusive Foundation Establishment Pills of various sects were basically improved from this formula.

"Now that I have Long Li's top-tier beast fire, and prepare a top-grade alchemy cauldron, the preparatory work is almost complete."

Practice slowly, research slowly; what Lin Jing lacked the least was time.

The comprehension bonus of the Hidden Dragon Secret Art was not Lin Jing's greatest asset for researching alchemy formulas; time was!

Now he could live for more than a thousand years, and the Pine Needle Rat could also live for five or six hundred years. This was just at the Qi Condensation stage.

Even Long Li was relatively long-lived. Wild carp without cultivation could live to be over a hundred years old, let alone a ninth-layer Qi Condensation carp spirit that had awakened a powerful dragon vein!

Everyone was a long-lived species! It was a competition of who would outlive whom.

Lin Jing walked out of the Book Tower and suddenly showed an expression of surprise.

He saw a middle-aged man looking like a teacher smiling and waiting for him.

"I haven't seen you for a few days, and you've caused quite a stir," Mr. Cao said with a smile: "It seems you have already become familiar with the rules of the Hidden Dragon Academy. You are worthy of being a destiny-bearer chosen by the Cave Heaven. Due to your outstanding performance, the academy has decided to give you an opportunity to make a name for yourself!"