Chapter 175: Accepting a Disciple (An extra update for the alliance leader Xu Xiu for his rest)

……

Although the matter of the Medicine Garden passed quickly.

The stir it caused within the Taiyuan Sect was not small.

Not only did Xuanhe Zhenren observe the Medicine Garden carefully for a whole day, but a group of senior brothers and sisters also ran to the Medicine Garden one after another for several days to see the wonder.

And all the changes that occurred in the Medicine Garden were naturally subjected to thorough questioning.

However, Xu Chen responded to all changes with constancy, always dismissing it with the single sentence that he himself did not know.

The senior brothers and sisters were easy to fool, but his Master, Xuanhe Zhenren, could not be fooled.

Fortunately, Xuanhe Zhenren maintained great respect for the secrets of his little disciple, and after asking once at the very beginning, he never asked again.

Not asking was naturally a good thing, but for Xu Chen, it was not necessarily a good thing either.

Because respect is mutual, and honoring one's master and the Dao is the most basic moral cultivation for a person.

But it is a pity that he truly could not speak of this matter.

Xu Chen had no choice but to continue playing dumb, and so the matter was considered brushed aside.

However, what made Xu Chen feel pleasantly surprised was that ever since he forcibly infused the Medicine Garden with white Qi, all the plants seemed to have been urged to their maturity period; the grapevines began to bloom, the rice began to sprout ears, and several other shrubs or vines and taro-like plants also began to sprout flower buds.

Moreover, during the maturation process of these plants, the entire Medicine Garden seemed like a Gathering Spirit Array, beginning to continuously collect Spirit Qi from the natural world. From beginning to end, the Medicine Garden was permeated with a faint cyan spirit mist, making the spirit medicines that grew later grow wildly as if they had eaten a potent pill. The spirit medicines originally planted for refining various First-Grade and Second-Grade Spirit Pills appeared in patches, and many began to bloom and bear fruit.

Judging by the current development, this Medicine Garden had gradually taken shape, and there was no need to continue investing Spirit Stones as fertilizer; it would eventually become a true spirit field.

In fact, Xu Chen was also very puzzled; such spirit fields that do not require Spirit Stones or spirit fertilizer generally only work when opened up near a spirit vein.

Yuqing Hall had many large and small medicine fields, but only two spirit fields that cultivated spirit medicines and Spirit Materials of the Third Grade or above belonged to places with naturally abundant Spirit Qi. Other spirit medicines still needed to be constantly supplemented with Yuan mud, Hua Ling Soil, and Spirit Stones as fertilizer.

There were no spirit veins near the Taiyuan Sect, so naturally, this spirit field could not become fertile.

In the past, when the Soul Returning Wood was still growing vigorously, the successive generations of the Taiyuan Sect would constantly use Gathering Spirit Arrays or Spirit Stones to collect Spirit Qi, hoping that the Soul Returning Wood could bloom and bear fruit. But later, as the Soul Returning Wood withered more and more, the planting naturally became more and more careless, and the Spirit Qi of this Medicine Garden became worse and worse, until an Immortal Sect had to rely on picking manure to cultivate spirit medicines, which made Xu Chen, who had just gone up the mountain to cultivate the Dao, so shocked that his jaw almost dropped.

However, what he did not expect was that these strange and peculiar plants could actually collect Spirit Qi themselves.

Could it be that a spirit vein mine would slowly grow beneath the medicine field?

While Xu Chen was having some whimsical thoughts, he was also inexplicably excited.

But soon, one thing made him completely break away from this matter of the Medicine Garden.

Thirteenth Senior Sister was already prepared to begin Foundation Establishment.

Before her Foundation Establishment, she sent a Transmission Jade Slip to Xu Chen, with the time set for two days later.

Thinking of his own experience of being completely unable to open his apertures during Foundation Establishment, Xu Chen felt that he still needed to make some more preparations.

Although Zhao Xuan's physical strength was not as good as his, after two rounds of white Qi modification and enhancement, she was definitely much stronger than the other senior brothers and sisters who had only eaten a trace of white Qi. Even with the enhanced version of the Guiyuan Pill, there was a high probability she would not succeed.

Therefore, he decided to refine two more furnaces of Foundation Establishment Pills.

At the moment, he had two Seven-Star Golden Toad sloughs on hand; the medicinal effect was estimated to be better than those of Yuqing Hall, but it had not reached the best medicinal power.

However, his method of refining pills was different from others. White Qi could not only enhance the Soul and strengthen the physical body, but Xu Chen actually discovered another effect, which was the further purification of the medicinal effect.

Every time white Qi was integrated, the already refined spirit medicine would inevitably be concentrated and refined once more, clearing away many of its impurities.

Perhaps, this was also a way to improve the quality of the Guiyuan Pill.

In addition, this method could actually also be used to try refining Heqi Pills directly.

The Guiyuan Pill and the Heqi Pill were the two most common Foundation Establishment spirit pills in the current Immortal World, and the medicinal materials also had many overlaps, only differing in a few main medicines.

The Heqi Pill was a top-tier First-Grade spirit pill that required the Seven-Star Golden Toad slough, while the Guiyuan Pill could at most be considered a mid-tier First-Grade spirit pill. To compensate for the lack of Seven-Star Golden Toad slough, three other high-grade spirit medicines with complementary medicinal properties were used. Even so, the medicinal effect was still greatly discounted, only about one-tenth of the Heqi Pill's medicinal effect.

The one Xuanchen Zhenjun helped Xu Chen refine was a Guiyuan Pill, which could be considered a weakly enhanced version, but compared to the enhanced version of the Guiyuan Pill from Yuqing Hall that had a full thirty percent medicinal effect, it was still quite a bit worse.

For a pill that breaks through a realm, a slight difference might lead to a failure in the breakthrough.

Let alone a ten percent difference in medicinal effect, which for the Foundation Establishment effect was a five-fold or ten-fold difference.

In the Immortal World, although the spirit medicines for refining the Guiyuan Pill were precious, they were not very scarce. After all, they were only First Stage spirit medicines. Every cultivator in the late Kaiyuan Realm might be able to find a few kinds after a few years. If one had an Immortal Sect or family power, it was not too difficult to gather them all.

Xu Chen and Jiu Shixiong and the third person had collected several kinds in one go when they went to Jingshi to offer birthday greetings last time.

In addition, the sect had also been continuously collecting these spirit medicines, so the Taiyuan Sect still had some reserves of other spirit medicines, except for being unable to get the Seven-Star Golden Toad slough.

Xu Chen found the medicine shelf storing the materials for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill in the Danyuan warehouse, compared the materials with the pill formula to quickly gather two furnaces' worth, and then activated the pill furnace in his exclusive alchemy room, preparing to start refining pills.

Su Zhao stood carefully to the side, watching Xu Chen reveal this large, three-foot-tall ancient bronze pill furnace, his face full of reverence and excitement.

The little martial uncle was less than four years older than him, but he was already a Foundation Establishment Stage True Person of the Zhenyuan Realm.

Although he had not been on the mountain for long, through constant exposure, he also knew that this was a record-breaking cultivation progress.

"Come, first help me take out these spirit medicines and organize them!"

With a wave of Xu Chen's hand, more than ten Spirit Boxes of various sizes appeared on the ground.

"Disciple obeys!" Su Zhao hurriedly went forward to help, very carefully and cautiously opening all these Spirit Boxes one by one, taking out the spirit medicines inside and placing them on the stone table beside Xu Chen.

These spirit medicines all emitted a faint spirit light, and their colors were different according to their medicinal properties.

Having followed Xu Chen to study in the Danyuan for more than ten days, Su Zhao was already quite familiar with the simple sorting of medicinal materials. Although Xu Chen also taught him the simplest introductory cultivation method of the Taiyuan Sect, it would still take at least half a year to truly enter the gate of Qi refining.

Xu Chen held two Jade Slips in his hands, which were for the Guiyuan Pill and the Heqi Pill respectively. His powerful Divine Sense probed into both Jade Slips at the same time, carefully watching and comparing the similarities and differences, striving to use the two rare Golden Toad sloughs to refine two furnaces of Foundation Establishment Pills with sufficient medicinal effect at once.

"You have been on the mountain for more than a month, right!"

Xu Chen was using one mind for three tasks and could still talk to Su Zhao.

"Yes, Little Martial Uncle!" Su Zhao nodded hurriedly while organizing the medicinal materials.

"The mountain is not as lively and fun as the foot of the mountain, it is quite austere. In a few days, I will take you to Nanyang City to see your master!" Xu Chen said with a smile.

Su Zhao was immediately full of joy and said: "Thank you, Little Martial Uncle. This disciple also wants to go down the mountain to see Master, but I cannot fly with a sword yet, and I have been worried about Master's health."

"Hmm, your filial piety is commendable. After you enter the gate of Qi refining, Martial Uncle will give you a Flying Sword, and then you can go down the mountain to visit your master whenever you want." Xu Chen nodded.

Su Zhao was even more overjoyed. He hesitated for a moment and then said carefully: "Little Martial Uncle, I... can I take you as my master?"

Xu Chen was stunned and stopped looking at the Jade Slips. He looked up at Su Zhao and said: "You want to take me as your master?"

"Yes, this disciple especially admires Little Martial Uncle. You have high-level Magic Spells, can slay demons and eliminate devils, and can also refine pills. This disciple... this disciple also wants to learn alchemy." Su Zhao said with a blushing face.

Xu Chen thought for a moment and said, "It is fine for you to take me as your Master, but I still need to ask the Sect Leader for permission regarding this matter. Besides, as you have seen, I am quite busy every day and may not have much time to teach you. How far you can cultivate in the future will all depend on your own hard work."

Su Zhao was immediately excited, plopped down on his knees, kowtowed, and said, "This Disciple understands and will certainly strictly follow Master's teachings and cultivate diligently!"

Xu Chen waved his hand and smiled, "Get up, we will talk more after I finish refining these two batches of Foundation Establishment Pill!"

"Many thanks, Master!" Su Zhao kowtowed three more respectful thuds before scrambling to his feet.

Xu Chen could not help but feel a mix of amusement and frustration inside.

He was only sixteen years old himself; he had not expected that in the blink of an eye, he would become a master and take on a disciple.

He had never imagined such a thing would happen.

However, taking on disciples in cultivation is somewhat different from the mortal world; for most, the master-disciple relationship is just a title, and one must mainly rely on one's own efforts.

His own unreliable Master had never taught him any profound theories or Magic Spell from beginning to end; almost everything relied on his own exploration and cultivation. Fortunately, the Taiyuan Sect's cultivation methods were decent, and plus, a group of senior brothers and sisters would answer any questions he had, which allowed him to avoid many detours during his cultivation journey.

Su Zhao's aptitude was about the same as his own back then, but having spent a few years with an old Daoist priest catching ghosts and subduing demons in the mortal world, Su Zhao's experience was far greater than his. Furthermore, although the old Daoist priest did not understand cultivation, he had dabbled in some general Daoist cultivation theories and simple Magic Spell, which Su Zhao had learned quite a bit of, so Su Zhao's starting point was much higher than his own had been.

Additionally, Su Zhao was indeed quite good at identifying and organizing medicinal herbs, and with a sharp mind and a simple, honest nature, if Su Zhao could truly learn alchemy, it would be a great help to him in the future.

For the time that followed, Xu Chen did not speak again, but instead spent two quarter-hours carefully reading and comparing the two pill formulas. Feeling that everything was familiar, he then activated the Pill Furnace Array, placed two Spirit Stone inside, and ignited the furnace fire.

(End of this chapter)