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.

Xu Zhizhi saw that Lin Jing's Hidden Dragon Secret Technique had already been cultivated to the second-stage blue mark and said with envy: "I arrived months early, trying every possible way to make a name for myself. You've only been here a few days? And your secret technique level has already caught up!"

Lin Jing sighed: "To revitalize the sect, I have to work a bit harder."

After all, the sect being sealed was partly his responsibility.

"I know a little about your sect's situation. Fortune and misfortune are intertwined; perhaps your luck is too strong, and the sect cannot bear it," Xu Zhizhi said wistfully.

"In any case, you don't need to worry too much! With your luck, you will definitely be able to revitalize the sect! Just grasp the opportunities that come later!"

"Even the heirs of major sects, the children of Nascent Soul cultivators, the descendants of Soul Transformation cultivators, and those with innate spirit bodies will not receive special admission to the academy. But for those of 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 fortune. 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, you will definitely be able to become the restorer of the Beast Taming Sect. I, Xu Zhizhi, have never misjudged anyone!"

"I'll take Brother Xu's kind words," Lin Jing said with emotion. "You scholars certainly speak well."

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

"You are now famous, and you will definitely be targeted by people in the academy who want to use your fame to complete themselves!"

"Understood," Lin Jing said. "Next, I'm going to the book tower to study for a while. How about you, Brother Xu?"

"I'm going to find the few shills I hired to pay them their spirit stones," Xu Zhizhi said.

Hidden Dragon Academy.

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

Suddenly, one stone began to radiate light, and following that, 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 Zi Wei do it. He specially recruited four students with extraordinary potential for the academy this year; it just so happens he can let these four assist him in the assessment," another figure spoke.

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

"Such a good opportunity to make a name for themselves is left to them. If they can't grasp it, it's their own loss."

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

There were only a few pages left of that alchemy book for him to memorize completely; today he would imprint it all into his brain.

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

In the book tower, Lin Jing held the book in one hand to memorize, while the other hand used the Spirit-Cultivating Technique to press against his forehead to relieve fatigue.

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

"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 similar effects, by adding materials, reducing materials, replacing materials, using different flames, and using different alchemy techniques to refine a 'similar elixir'."

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

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

This pill had never existed in the Heavenly Origin Continent, and its effects were bizarre; it was simply not something that a lower-realm 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 are tens of thousands of spirit plants with healing effects in this cultivation world, so there are many different versions of healing pills circulating on the market.

Some obscure medical clinics in small cities dare to put up signs for "Unique Secret Recipes" and "Original Alchemy Formulas".

Because the research and refining of low-level elixirs really have no difficulty. Some first-tier alchemy formulas even use only one or two materials; the alchemist only needs to extract their nutritional substances and condense them into pills.

What Lin Jing wanted was a Longevity Foundation Establishment Pill using blood-refining methods. The difficulty was neither high nor low.

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

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

It is said that Zi Ling'er of the Alchemy Cauldron Sect succeeded, and what she refined was the most difficult special Foundation Establishment Pill among second-tier elixirs, which was exactly what Lin Jing needed, so she successfully made a name for herself at 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 through existing alchemy formulas, then adding my own things, constantly trying, constantly practicing, until I succeed or keep failing."

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

Second-tier elixir, Beast Blood Pill!

It was a type of body-tempering elixir.

The alchemy books in the book tower did not record any blood-refining methods, but the materials for refining this Beast Blood Pill included various types of beast blood.

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

Besides this, the other alchemy formula he planned 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 all 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 Technique was not Lin Jing's greatest asset for researching alchemy formulas; time was!

Now he could live for over a thousand years, and the Pine-Leaf Rat could live for five or six hundred years. This was still just at the Qi Refining stage.

Even Long Li was relatively long-lived. Wild carp that hadn't cultivated could live to be over a hundred years old, let alone a ninth-layer Qi Refining carp spirit that had awakened a powerful dragon vein!

Everyone was a long-lived species! It was a competition of who could outlast whom.

Lin Jing walked out of the book tower and suddenly showed an expression of surprise.

He saw a middle-aged man who looked like a teacher waiting for him with a smile.

"Haven't seen you in a few days, and you've caused quite a stir," Mr. Cao said with a smile. "It seems you have become familiar with the rules of the Hidden Dragon Academy. You are worthy of being a person of fortune 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!"