Chapter 100: Long, Long Time

Lin Jing nodded. The cold spiritual energy on this object was indeed powerful. If he hadn't reached the tenth level of Qi Refining and didn't have an ice-attribute constitution himself, he would definitely have been affected upon touching it.

He put the marriage contract away and placed it in his storage bag. Although this object had little use, it at least contained spiritual energy. If he threw it away, this lesson would have been for nothing.

After putting away the marriage contract, Lin Jing looked at the Pine-Needle Rat. Although it had talent, its treasure hunting art should have just been at the entry level. It only found one of the three spirit-containing ancient treasures that Mr. Cao had placed here. It probably hadn't discovered the other two.

However, after knowing that the highest quality ancient treasure was only something like a resentful marriage contract, Lin Jing didn't have much expectation for the other two ancient treasures.

"Mr. Cao, I learned that you once said that anyone who breaks through to the extreme realm in the Dragon-Phoenix Cave Heaven can obtain the right to use an academy cave dwelling for sixty years. Both the Pine-Needle Rat and I broke through to the extreme realm in the cave heaven. So, do we get the right to use a cave dwelling for one hundred and twenty years, or do we get the right to use two cave dwellings for sixty years?" Seeing Mr. Cao, Lin Jing suddenly remembered the important business.

Mr. Cao smiled upon hearing this: "You are quite slippery, never losing out in any way. Logically speaking, you and this squirrel spirit should be considered as one..."

Lin Jing looked bitter: "My sect has withered, and my family is poor..."

"There is a cave dwelling on the mountain peak next to you that is currently unoccupied. I'll give it to you to use as well," Mr. Cao waved his hand and said: "Use it reasonably."

Lin Jing immediately bowed: "Thank you, Mr. Cao."

A few days passed in a flash. He didn't know if the other two spirit-containing ancient treasures had been found by others, or if the Pine-Needle Rat’s treasure hunting art hadn't been able to lock onto those two treasures. Until the end of the course, the ancient marriage contract was Lin Jing’s only harvest.

He himself had also been working hard to practice the treasure hunting art these past few days, but unfortunately, his talent was very poor. After working hard for several days, he could only find three or five pieces of junk, which was far from the Pine-Needle Rat’s talent, making Lin Jing finally give up on learning the treasure hunting art.

However, the biggest harvest was definitely having an extra cave dwelling. Regarding this cave dwelling, Lin Jing thought about it and finally decided not to rent it out, but to transform it into a "spirit field" to expand the planting area, planting alchemy materials himself for the Pine-Needle Rat to use.

As for the current cave dwelling, it would be transformed into an alchemy dwelling, which he and Long Li would use together.

Everyone would be spread out, so there would be more spiritual energy available, and they wouldn't compete with each other.

"The Hidden Dragon Secret Technique has finally reached minor completion..." Returning to the cave dwelling, Lin Jing looked at the back of his hand and found that the golden young dragon had completely gestated. This meant he could enter and exit all levels of the Academy Library at will to learn and understand more things.

"What I need to face next is Foundation Establishment."

"However, I have plenty of time. Staying in the Qi Refining stage for three or five more years will have no impact on me at all."

"A ten-thousand-foot building rises from the ground. Next, I will use my time advantage to learn as much as possible for a more perfect Foundation Establishment." Lin Jing’s gaze was firm, erasing the impatience in his heart, trying his best to calm himself down.

Being too impatient was not compatible with the Longevity Body and was even less conducive to cultivation.

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, three years flashed by.

During these three years, besides continuing to sell bamboo spears to every city in the Ancient Domain, Lin Jing stayed behind closed doors. Apart from a few academy courses, he devoted himself to studying the art of alchemy.

His peers had all entered Foundation Establishment by now. Xu Zhi, Gao Sheng, Chen Lingxi, Wang Xiao... all had already reached Foundation Establishment. Only Lin Jing remained in the Qi Refining stage, which made many people puzzled. Why did this genius, who had also reached the tenth level of Qi Refining, delay his breakthrough?

During this period, Wang Xiao challenged him several times, but was turned away by Lin Jing. It wasn't until Wang Xiao reached Foundation Establishment that he couldn't be bothered to challenge him anymore.

As for Gao Sheng, seeing that Lin Jing hadn't been able to reach Foundation Establishment, he didn't feel comfortable inviting him to solve cases together.

In the cave dwelling, alchemy clouds swirled, and dragon fire flew. Lin Jing opened his eyes, and a fiery dragon carp floated out from the Hundred Beast Cauldron...

Immediately after, it spat out a red elixir.

"Finally succeeded."

Many people didn't know that over the three years, Lin Jing had spent most of his time studying alchemy, and the large amount of Hidden Dragon luck he had accumulated was also used to deduce alchemy techniques and cultivate Long Li.

Now, both Lin Jing and Long Li could be called third-grade alchemists, both having a certain probability of refining third-grade elixirs. However, this was not their biggest harvest in three years.

The biggest harvest was that through luck deduction, as well as borrowing and improving various elixir formulas, they had added the spiritual plants synthesized by the Pine-Needle Rat into the elixir formulas, creating one brand-new elixir after another.

What Lin Jing held in his hand right now was the "Ascending Dragon Elixir," refined with dragon-attribute beast fire, purple dragon bone flowers, and dragon blood as core materials.

It was a third-grade elixir.

"According to the deduction results of pharmacology, this elixir should allow any demon beast to possess a very high purity of dragon blood and become a dragon-blood demon beast! If it is already a dragon-blood demon beast, it can significantly improve its bloodline quality. However, the specific effects and whether there is any toxicity still need to be tested on a white mouse!"

He looked at the exhausted Long Li. He couldn't let it test the elixir.

The medicinal properties of a third-grade elixir were powerful. If something went wrong, it would really be a disaster. The current effects... were only speculative.

"I didn't expect that even after I stopped using white mice to synthesize spiritual plants, the elixirs refined from them would still require white mice to test the medicine."

Lin Jing walked out of the cave dwelling. To refine this Ascending Dragon Elixir, he had been cooped up in the cave dwelling for three months without seeing the sun. Now that he had finally succeeded, he couldn't wait to verify the results.

"Found it." Lin Jing walked around and laughed, catching a small green worm that was gnawing on leaves. Because it was often bathed in spiritual energy, this small green worm also had the cultivation of the first level of Qi Refining.

"It's you. This old man... will grant you a fortune," he said in an old-fashioned tone.

"If you don't die, I will appoint you as the medicine-testing boy under my seat."

Lin Jing grabbed the small green worm with one hand and, under its terrified gaze, stuffed the Ascending Dragon Elixir into its mouth. Worried that it wouldn't be able to digest it, Lin Jing also stuffed a golden elixir into it.

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The latter was refined from golden spirit rice, eliminating the drawback of losing one’s mind after eating golden spirit rice and significantly improving digestive ability.

He named it the Taotie Elixir.

"Ji———" After eating the Taotie Elixir and the Ascending Dragon Elixir, the small green worm’s eyes went black, and it almost fainted. However, soon, a miraculous scene appeared on its body.

"Roar!!!"

A tiny small green worm actually began to emit a strong dragon might, with dragon shadows swirling around its body. Its cultivation rose again and again: second level of Qi Refining, third level of Qi Refining, fourth level of Qi Refining... until it stagnated at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

At the same time, it was permeated with a strong white light. Under the white light, its body size continued to increase, and green scales grew on its body. Although it was still only the size of a forearm and still looked like a worm, its aura was already extraordinary, and its pressure far exceeded that of demon beasts of the same level!

"Hu!!" It had already opened its intelligence. Its gaze was panicked yet ferocious. It instantly opened its mouth toward Lin Jing, spat out a green dragon breath, and then turned and ran.

Boom.

The dragon breath hit Lin Jing directly. Lin Jing didn't dodge, walking out of the smoke in tattered clothes, his gaze fanatical.

"The intensity of this dragon breath is already stronger than a spirit bean bomb." Lin Jing laughed: "And this was mutated from a small green worm that hadn't undergone much cultivation. If it were fed to an already powerful demon beast, the effects might be even stronger, and its strength would definitely not be weaker than the projections in the Dragon-Phoenix Cave Heaven."

"However... it should be useless for Long Li. Its bloodline strength has already been raised too high by the Hidden Dragon Secret Technique."

These didn't matter. What excited Lin Jing the most was that the Ascending Dragon Elixir was the precursor elixir for the "Exclusive Longevity Foundation Establishment Elixir" he had envisioned. With various alchemy techniques overlapping, the fact that his techniques could refine the Ascending Dragon Elixir meant he could soon refine the exclusive Foundation Establishment Elixir as well.

However, before that... Lin Jing looked at the back of his hand. The golden young dragon of luck was already incomparably dim.

"Three years have passed. I guess I've already been forgotten."

"The Ascending Dragon Elixir—even the Beast Taming Sect doesn't have such dragon-transforming elixirs. I wonder how the market is!"

"Let’s experiment in the academy first."

"Let the many students see the strength of the dragon-blood carp raised by the Hidden Dragon Secret Technique, and then promote the Ascending Dragon Elixir."

"Also, the previous Liu Yu established a student organization called the 'Pupil Alliance' in the academy. Can I also establish a student organization with dragon-taming as the core? People with backgrounds like Brother Gao like dragon-horse pet beasts, and there's no reason others wouldn't like handsome dragon beasts as mounts. Liu Yu is right; joining an organization means everyone has support, and practicing the Hidden Dragon Secret Technique together will have better results. Having many dragon tamers rely on the power behind them to promote for me is the same principle as borrowing the power of the Lotus Pavilion." Lin Jing’s eyes burned as he formulated a plan.