Chapter 155: Seven-Star Golden Toad (Extra Chapter 7 for Alliance Leader Xiao Li Ya)

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Xu Chen's time for observing the Scripture Pavilion of the Alchemy Hall had ended.

He then turned to follow Lan You to visit and study at the Artifact Refining Hall.

Compared to alchemy, artifact refining was likewise a complex and vast system.

The Artifact Refining Hall was overseen by the Third Elder, Huayang Zhenren, and since Xu Chen had saved Huayang Zhenren's life, Huayang Zhenren had given instructions to the Artifact Refining Hall in advance: all disciples must receive him earnestly, strive to fulfill every request, and place no restrictions on the Scripture Pavilion, allowing him to observe and study any artifact recipes or secret manuals, with the time also set for three days.

However, compared to his level in alchemy, artifact refining was not Xu Chen's strong suit at all, so he could only skim through the various artifact recipes and secret manuals collected by the Artifact Refining Hall over the three days, making a relatively in-depth study specifically of the two most common types of magic treasures—flying swords and array disks—while for the rest, he could only remember as much as he could.

Of course, the harvest was still unprecedented.

After all, artifact refining was a weak point of the Taiyuan Sect, and many of the various specious artifact refining techniques and insights he had learned from the Eldest Senior Brother were overturned here and completely redone.

Xu Chen did not covet advanced techniques, instead focusing his main energy on learning basic theories.

The Yuqing Hall had thousands of years of heritage, and its foundation in artifact refining was extremely profound, not at all inferior to its alchemy; thus, the basic knowledge was very rich and could be said to cover every aspect, from spirit material identification and processing, array arrangement, tool making, and preliminary processing to later strengthening, with every detail regarding artifact refining being exhaustive.

Xu Chen believed that as long as he firmly mastered this basic knowledge and then integrated it, he would inevitably achieve extraordinary accomplishments in the path of artifact refining.

Chixia Zhenjun was a master of artifact refining in the Yuqing Hall, and his set of Five Elements Illusion Cloud Flag Array was the most powerful magic treasure in the Great Song Immortal World; once set up and fully activated, even a Spirit Realm cultivator who fell into it would find it difficult to escape.

After finishing his three-day look at the Artifact Refining Hall, Xu Chen then went to the Array Hall and the Talisman Hall.

These two halls were built together and could be considered to share a common lineage; the Array Hall naturally contained all kinds of array knowledge, but this type of array was very different from the arrays used in artifact refining to make magic treasure array disks.

Artifact refining arrays focused on being small and micro, striving for precise control over the input of essence and Spirit Qi to output damage or protection, requiring them to be as simple as possible while also demanding good compatibility.

True arrays, however, generally required many magic treasures and Spirit Stones as array eyes and were large-scale arrays set up according to local conditions.

The most common auxiliary arrays included the Jushui Array, Zhaoguang Array, Clear Wind Returning Cloud Array, Bichen Array, and so on.

In reality, the greater use of arrays was for various super-large-scale arrays such as trap arrays, kill arrays, defense arrays, illusion arrays, and even teleportation arrays.

The larger the scope of the array and the greater its power, the more powerful magic treasures were needed as array eyes.

The magic treasures used as array eyes could be of one type or many types.

The most common were array disk-type arrays, using a single array disk as the carrier and array eye, such as the Fourth-Stage Eight Extremes Sea-Suppressing Disk that suppressed Spirit Fox Valley, and of course, the Third-Stage Eight Extremes Origin Returning Array that Xuanchen Zhenjun had used, though the Eight Extremes Origin Returning Array had already been destroyed under the Spirit Transformation lightning tribulation.

Xu Chen did not have much interest in large-scale arrays right now, or rather, his energy was limited, and he did not have much time or energy to study them; such things should wait until he was several hundred years old to learn slowly, because this system was too vast—so vast that even a Spirit Realm Great Cultivator who could live for a thousand years would feel overwhelmed and could only choose to study and master a portion of it.

Compared to the Array Hall, Xu Chen spent more time in the Talisman Hall.

Spirit Talisman production was relatively simple and direct, and they belonged to the most common magic treasures for home and travel; most of them were one-time consumable items, and if one had time to make some Spirit Talismans to carry on their person, they could often produce immediate effects when encountering emergencies.

Because there was the precedent of the Alchemy Hall, the opening times for the subsequent major halls for Xu Chen were almost all fixed at three days, which was likely also agreed upon by a group of Danyuan Realm Elders.

Xu Chen did not mind; anyway, if you only let me look for three days, I will at most refine Spirit Pills for you for three days, and depending on the size of the harvest, the quantity of pills refined would naturally differ—some would be seven or eight bottles, others only five or six.

And after observing the major core Scripture Pavilions of the inner sect, he looked at the Scripture Pavilions of the outer sect's Spirit Beast Hall, Spirit Medicine Hall, Spirit Tea Workshop, and Spirit Wine Workshop much more carelessly, generally skimming through them for a day and calling it a day, so naturally, he refined fewer pills, just one or two bottles to show his intent.

Xu Chen was so perfunctory and careless.

The group of Danyuan Realm Elders could naturally only grit their teeth and accept it.

After all, Xu Chen had been offended repeatedly just after arriving, so being able to do this much could be said to be already going above and beyond.

As for the spirit medicines that Xu Chen had embezzled against his conscience, everyone turned a blind eye and pretended not to see.

This was the price that had to be paid to obtain the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill.

If they were even going to nitpick over this little bit of wealth, Xu Chen would probably have just turned around and left.

Moreover, Xu Chen was not being excessive; he only asked for common first and second-stage medicinal herbs, almost all of which were spirit medicines cultivated by the major Medicine Gardens of the Yuqing Hall, and even if a small amount were wild, they could all be found within Taiyi Mountain.

Thus, both sides maintained a harmonious state until Xu Chen had looked through almost all the Scripture Pavilions of the inner and outer sects of the Yuqing Hall that he could see, and this matter finally came to an end.

Xu Chen calculated the time; in the blink of an eye, he had already been at the Yuqing Hall for twenty days.

He also felt that he had seen everything he should see, and the Yuqing Hall would not let him see the rest he wanted to see, so he prepared to head home.

Of course, he had not forgotten the primary purpose of his visit, which was to bring back a pair of Seven-Star Golden Toads.

Twenty miles southeast of Cuihua Peak, there was a base specifically for raising Seven-Star Golden Toads for the Yuqing Hall.

Although the Seven-Star Golden Toad only belonged to the First Stage of Spirit Beasts, its medicinal value was immense, so the Yuqing Hall specifically opened a Golden Toad Palace for raising them, which belonged to a sub-hall under the Alchemy Hall and was equipped with a professional team of over twenty people.

The manager was an elderly cultivator at the True Essence Late Stage who was not only proficient in alchemy but also understood the cultivation, reproduction, and medicinal processing of various spirit beasts and spirit insects, which could be called professional-level cultivation.

However, even so, after Xu Chen visited and had the manager of the Golden Toad Palace explain the daily care, feeding, and breeding matters in detail, he discovered that Yuyang Zhenjun had not exaggerated at all—these Seven-Star Golden Toads were truly difficult to raise; not only did they have to eat various spirit insects, but they also had to be fed with specially prepared medicines rich in Spirit Qi, and their bodies had to be checked for disease regularly. If they encountered mating and egg-laying, it was even more careful and cautious, sometimes requiring no rest for several consecutive days.

Moreover, the Seven-Star Golden Toads were extremely demanding about their living environment, requiring it to be neither dry nor wet, clean and hygienic, quiet and ventilated, and most importantly, they could not be startled, requiring extreme quiet at all times.

Once a Golden Toad was startled, it might die suddenly.

"Little Friend Xu, since this is an arrangement by the inner sect Elders and the Supreme Elder, this poor Daoist dares not disobey, but these Golden Toads are delicate, and it is truly very difficult to raise them well. This poor Daoist has served as the manager of this Golden Toad Palace for decades and has personally cultivated and bred thousands of Golden Toads, but the only ones that truly still have medicinal efficacy are these five pairs before you; the rest have all regressed into ordinary toads and can only be discarded..."

Lan You, Yun Xi, Ling Shuang, and a group of beautiful female disciples were still inseparable, accompanying Xu Chen to learn and observe breeding techniques at the Golden Toad Palace, while the white-haired old Daoist followed alongside, constantly reminding and explaining.

Xu Chen's face twitched as he listened, thinking to himself that this was not raising toads, this was raising ancestors; he had never even treated his Master this well.

For a moment, he had the thought of just giving up; he felt that even if he caught a pair to take back, they probably wouldn't live for ten days or half a month.

Just creating an environment that satisfied the Seven-Star Golden Toads was not easy, let alone having to eat various spirit insects every day and having various spirit medicines prepared.

He couldn't even take care of his own daily life, and sometimes he even had the underage fox, Xiaobai, take care of him, helping him go out to catch some rabbits or wild birds to satisfy his cravings.

And at the thought of Xiaobai, Xu Chen immediately missed it very much.

This little guy had been abandoned at home by him; he didn't know how much resentment it must have.

Besides, if he brought this thing back, whether Xiaobai would eat it was also a big problem.

Because he had seen with his own eyes that Xiaobai had eaten many toads.

It seemed that Xiaobai had an unusual fondness for toads.

However, regardless of anything else, he had come specifically for the Seven-Star Golden Toad this time, and the rest of the visits to the Scripture Pavilions were entirely extra gains.

Besides, the Taiyuan Sect didn't just have him; he could let Thirteenth Senior Sister help look after them when the time came.

Hmm, that would do.

Xu Chen had a "manage the killing but not the burial" mentality, so he still let the old Daoist help pick a male and a female, two relatively robust Seven-Star Golden Toads, and then used a Spirit Beast Bag that Lan You had helped him get from the Third Elder of the Artifact Refining Hall to pack them up.

"By the way, Senior, you just said that a large number of ordinary, regressed Seven-Star Golden Toads are discarded every year; I wonder where they are discarded?" Xu Chen suddenly remembered to ask as he left the Golden Toad Palace.

The old Daoist asked in confusion, "They are all discarded in the canyon a few miles to the south; I do not know why Little Friend Xu asks about this?"

Xu Chen smiled and said, "I feel that this Golden Toad is not very easy to raise, so I was thinking that even if I take a few ordinary ones back to raise, I can accumulate more experience in breeding."

The old Daoist stroked his beard and nodded, saying, "That is also a method, but Little Friend, remember, you must never keep the degenerated ordinary toads together with this pair of Golden Toads; otherwise, I fear they will fight, bite, or even kill each other, and if they mate with each other, they will degenerate even faster."

Xu Chen hurriedly nodded and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Senior, I will definitely be careful!"

"Mm, if you want to go catch them, Little Friend, go yourself. There are countless toads discarded there over the years, and they have long since degenerated into wild toads with no medicinal value whatsoever, so this poor Daoist will not accompany you!"

"Thank you, Senior. Let this Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill be a small token of this junior's appreciation!"

Xu Chen bowed to thank him again, then after tossing a Spirit Pill to the old Daoist, he carried the Spirit Beast Bag and excitedly followed Lan You and a group of gorgeously dressed, beautiful fairies straight toward the canyon.

The group traveled by flying sword, and while all the Yuqing Hall Disciples who saw them along the way stared with wide eyes, their hearts were all filled with bitterness and gloom.

Xu Chen ate, lived, went out, and returned with a group of beautiful inner-sect senior sisters every day, flying back and forth across the sky, having already become a sight to behold in Yuqing Hall.

However, while this sight was beautiful to look at, it made everyone's heart bleed.

But news soon spread that this piece of dog shit, Xu Chen, was finally going to leave.

He was currently going to the canyon to catch wild toads, and once he finished catching them, he would leave Yuqing Hall.

Consequently, everyone's mood suddenly became excited.

(End of this chapter)