Chapter 50: Sequence 7 and Rising Fame (Big chapter, please vote for monthly tickets!)

"A shameless second-generation."

"A love-struck fool, and a version of Guo'er at that. Is his master really that fragrant? Is teacher-student romance popular in the other world too?"

Li Yu looked at the two secrets he had peeked at and couldn't help but complain in his heart.

There was nothing to say about a ruthless second-generation cultivator like Shang Yang. The only surprise was his spiritual mechanical body, which actually came from the Tiangong Sect. Could it be that this righteous sect had some collusion with the Sacred Nest?

And Wen Feifeng was the most surprising. He gave up his royal identity and reputation to save his master, and he really succeeded.

"If I take this story and submit it to the 'Wanfu Daily,' wouldn't I be able to earn a rich manuscript fee?"

"Hmm, when I'm really crying from poverty, I'll do just that. Question the evil monk Zhu Mei, understand Zhu Mei, become Zhu Mei."

Li Yu's state at this time was very much like the fishermen of his previous life.

It didn't matter if he didn't catch any fish; picking some vegetables and drinking some water was fine too.

He had always managed to catch something, some eye-opening secrets and gossip that could be used for submission to earn money. Seeing that the two were about to decide the winner, he reluctantly returned to his main body.

As soon as he returned, Li Yu noticed that the fifth Truth Bubble on his eye membrane was indeed different from the other bubbles he had popped.

Inside, a shining "question mark" rune was solidified.

"I'm so curious, is it really a recipe for the Spirit Venerable path? If it is, which sequence is it? Three, or two? It couldn't be one, could it?"

"Speaking of which, my Truth Body even suppressed existences like the Demon Star Order in authority confrontation, why couldn't I peek at the high-sequence secret medicine recipe of the Spirit Venerable path?"

Just as frequent doubts arose in Li Yu's heart.

Suddenly, the world in front of him began to distort, as if it were being pulled into a terrifying vortex.

The empty capital and the imperial palace in front of him were collapsing and disappearing.

Did the fight end?

Who won, Shang Yang or Wen Feifeng?

Before Li Yu could explore the answer, the cold notification sound of the Demon Star Order sounded again.

And this time, the content made Li Yu's face both happy and worried after hearing it.

At the same time, it also made Shang Yang, who was already in a terrible mood in the center of the palace, feel a surge of anger in his heart.

"This conquest mission is about to end!"

"The countdown to return has begun. Please prepare all surviving Order Masters."

"Evaluating this conquest mission... evaluation complete."

"Only two Order Masters survived this conquest. The Order Master with the code name 【Calamity Star】, because of completing the three side quests of collecting spirit roots, collecting Pistil Spirit Demons, and deciphering the truth, has the highest contribution to this Mystic Realm conquest and is gifted an extra 100 merit points."

"Return!"

……

"What, my contribution is the highest?"

"It seems Shang Yang didn't win against Wen Feifeng. Damn, my code name was leaked."

Li Yu was just a little panicked, then suddenly felt dazed.

When he opened his eyes again, he didn't really return to his maid's arms.

Instead, he appeared in a familiar scene: a colorful, vast, and boundless ocean of demon stars was hanging upside down, circling around. The scene was exactly the same as the night of the "Demon Star Descent."

Seeing this, Li Yu felt very disappointed. What happened to the big ball of light in the main god space?

Even if there was no big ball of light, what made Li Yu even more dissatisfied was that the long-awaited follow-up guidance only had a dry sentence:

"Before returning to the human world, the Order Master has one hour to explore the rules related to the Demon Star Order."

"And then? That's it?"

"How should merit points be used? At least give an exchange list, right?"

As soon as the words fell, a blank list immediately appeared in Li Yu's mind.

It was empty, with nothing on it.

Only at the very bottom did the number of merit points Li Yu possessed appear: 450 points.

This gave Li Yu an extremely ominous premonition, and he asked directly:

"The specific list won't cost money to check too, right?"

"Transcendent knowledge itself has value. As an Order Master who is a cultivator, you should know this. If the Order Master can specifically state the strange object to be exchanged, the inquiry fee can be waived."

"How many paths does the Demon Star Order have? How many sequences? Does it have all the secret medicine recipes and materials?"

"Inquiring about the above knowledge requires one million merit points and high-level authority. The Order Master has neither, so it cannot be displayed."

As soon as this question and answer began, Li Yu was shocked.

He subconsciously wanted to curse!

But on second thought, he had to admit that it made sense.

Transcendent knowledge, especially secrets involving power like paths, sequences, and recipes, indeed has extraordinary value.

The so-called "Dharma cannot be passed on lightly," that's probably it.

Li Yu originally wanted to ask directly about the things he really needed, but after thinking about it, he still asked randomly, mixing them in.

"How many sequences are there in the Fallen Buddhism Black Maitreya path?"

"Displaying all sequence names for this path requires 10,000 merit points."

"Where does the True God 【Fuxi】 worshipped by the Tiangong Sect actually come from?"

"The answer to this question requires the Order Master to pay 100,000 merit points."

"Damn it... how to repair a Linglong puppet whose Tiangong Mystic Core is damaged but still has some remnants and has recovered some modules?"

"The Demon Star Order does not have a medical function. If you want to display the exchange list for related strange objects and secrets, please pay at least 100 merit points."

"What does 'at least' mean?"

"The related list will start from the lowest-value strange objects and secrets. As the value increases, to unlock the subsequent list, the Order Master needs to pay more merit points. With the merit points the Order Master currently possesses, after paying all of them, the first page can be displayed."

……

Although he had only asked a few questions, Li Yu couldn't help but want to curse.

What kind of stingy thing is this?

He had experienced life and death in the Mystic Realm and had made an enemy of a cult genius in the same city, only to earn 400-plus merit points.

He originally thought that the first time would be enough to spend.

Now it seems that it is far from enough.

The only thing that made Li Yu feel comforted was that he actually saved a significant amount of merit point fees, because he extorted a lot of related rules from Shang Yang and Wen Feifeng in the Mystic Realm, which was equivalent to getting it for free.

Judging from the Demon Star Order's style of wanting money, if he explored slowly by himself, the losses would be huge.

"Heh!"

"Under the strict rules of the Demon Star Order, there is almost no room for slackers or middlemen to survive."

"Demon Star Order Masters who can break through Mystic Realms one by one and accurately exchange for what they need are either ruthless fierce people or incomparably focused and pious seekers... Are these evil gods raising poisonous insects?"

When the thought reached here, a blasphemous idea that was disrespectful to the evil gods suddenly emerged in Li Yu's mind.

He didn't speak it out, just suppressed it.

Then, after pondering for a moment, he began to ask what he really wanted to know:

"Has the ancient strange god 【Spirit Venerable】 completely fallen?"

"The answer to this question requires one million merit points."

"??"

"What is Sequence 7 of the Spirit Venerable path?"

"Please pay 10 merit points."

"Hmm?"

"Pay, display."

Without any hesitation, Li Yu chose to pay.

Wasn't the reason he disregarded the risk to intercept the Demon Star Order and enter the Mystic Realm for these things?

Now that the answer was right in front of him, and it was so cheap, of course he couldn't help it.

The next moment, weird handwriting appeared on the originally blank list:

"Spirit Venerable path Sequence 7: Alchemist."

"Secret medicine recipe:???... Exchange requires 1,000 merit points."

"Promotion ritual:???... Exchange requires 1,000 merit points."

Obviously, the Demon Star Order was very thoughtful.

While satisfying Li Yu's curiosity, it also told Li Yu that the recipe and ritual were both available, and they could be taken away for just 2,000 merit points.

Seeing this scene, Li Yu was both happy and wanted to curse again.

He had discovered that this Demon Star Order didn't let people take advantage of it at all.

"In other words!"

"Even if I perform against the sky in this first newcomer conquest mission and complete all main and side quests, barely gathering about 3,000 merit points, I can only exchange for the recipe and ritual for my next sequence, not directly give me a complete Alchemist secret medicine."

"Of course, if I really had that ability, I wouldn't need to ask the Demon Star Order for help. Just the spirit pill in the Penglai Female Immortal's remains, if I took it out and sold it, would probably be enough for me to soar all the way to Sequence 7 and still have some left over, maybe even touch Sequence 6."

"Speaking of which, it's all the fault of those two cheating beasts, Shang Yang and Wen Feifeng, who artificially raised the difficulty to a perverted level. Otherwise, with my ability, I would really have a chance to sacrifice the Female Immortal's remains and snatch the spirit pill. At that time, what recipe couldn't I exchange for?"

"These damn second-generations are really disgusting."

"Hmm, wait?" After the first few thoughts came out, Li Yu had originally given up the hope of exchanging for the secret medicine recipe this time, and was too lazy to ask how many merit points a complete Alchemist secret medicine would need.

But soon he remembered that the harvest of this Mystic Realm was not just those 450 merit points.

There was also a mysterious but sealed high-sequence secret medicine recipe!

And two-thirds of the Pistil Nectar remaining.

As soon as he thought about it, the list changed again:

"Pistil Nectar: A special strange object with extraordinary spirituality, has multiple effects. If handed over to the Demon Star Order, it can be exchanged for 100 merit points."

"If not handed over, what about exchanging for a new complete Pistil Nectar?"

"Requires paying 1,000 merit points!"

"……"

Li Yu was already unable to curse. This conversation made him completely understand what the Demon Star Order was.

He temporarily gave up on directly exchanging for the secret medicine recipe and promotion ritual in his heart. It was too fast anyway; he had only been promoted to Alchemist Apprentice for a few days, and even if he got the recipe, it was impossible to rush to Sequence 7 Alchemist.

But he didn't give up on exchanging for benefits, instead changing his mind:

"Display all pill recipes that can be used by Sequence 8 【Alchemist Apprentice】 of the Spirit Venerable path, pay the minimum merit points first."

"Deducting 20 merit points, starting to display."

=9+Shu_ba

"Longevity Pill, Beauty Pill, Jin Gang Pill, God-Eye Pill, Dragon-Tiger Pill, Joy Pill..."

On the first page, more than a dozen pill recipes appeared in Li Yu's eyes.

And what surprised him incomparably was that the exchange prices marked behind almost half of the pill recipes were all within his affordable range.

For example, the pill recipe called "Jin Gang Pill," which had the effect of making the body like a diamond after taking it, making it very difficult to destroy, could be exchanged for just 100 merit points.

Besides the spiritual effect of the Jin Gang Pill, Li Yu was very tempted.

Several more pill recipes appeared later, making him drool.

At the same time, he also discovered some anomalies.

"Jin Gang Pill, Woman-Transformation Pill, Wood-Man Pill, Sword-Evil Pill, Hundred-Filth Pill... hmm?"

"Demon Star, what is the source of these pill recipes? If the answer is under 50 points, deduct it immediately."

"Deducting 10 merit points, most pill recipes come from all cultivators of the Spirit Venerable path throughout history, and a few are common pill recipes for other paths."

"Good, good, good!"

After hearing the answer, Li Yu's eyes lit up, and he instantly understood something, a smile appearing on his face.

He was incomparably certain: these pill recipes came from predecessors, and besides the effects shown, there was a more important one that hadn't been revealed.

"The Alchemist Apprentice sequence is not good at fighting; this is probably already a stereotype."

"But in reality, it's not the case."

"The 【Compassionate Heart Pill】 I refined is enough to prove that Alchemist Apprentices can also fight, just in a special way, usually intentionally or unintentionally pretending to be cultivators of other sequences to fight..."

"For example, when I eat the Compassionate Heart Pill, my fighting style is very much like that old food-person Yiya."

"The predecessors who refined the Jin Gang Pill should be able to pretend to be ascetic monks of Buddhism."

"If the Sword-Evil Pill is eaten, can it pretend to be the Sword Hero sequence of the Dangmo Sect?"

"The Hundred-Filth Pill must be pretending to be an Unclean One."

"As for the Woman-Transformation Pill, hehe."

After Li Yu figured this out, he immediately became interested.

He already had basic pill recipes for life-saving and escaping like the Explosion Pill and God-Foot Pill.

The Compassionate Heart Pill was not easy to replicate, and he was just lacking fighting means.

This was good; the pillow came just when he was sleepy.

As long as these pills were refined, not only could he immediately restore powerful combat power, but he could also play multiple roles by himself, which couldn't be more convenient.

"Demon Star, exchange for the Jin Gang Pill, Sword-Evil Pill, Hundred-Filth Pill, and Sorrow-Cry Pill recipes."

"Deducted!"

Along with the cold notification sound, four incomparably detailed pill recipes were transmitted.

He was also an Alchemist Apprentice, and after reading the recipes, he smiled again.

His previous guess was completely correct.

The predecessors who created these "pill recipes" did so to pretend to be cultivators of these sequences, and even left some room for other Alchemist Apprentices to modify them, increasing or decreasing certain spiritual materials, so that the pills refined by different Alchemist Apprentices would have slight differences in appearance or other effects.

Li Yu suddenly had an urge to hand over the 【Compassionate Heart Pill】 recipe.

But after thinking about it, he held back.

He was still at the bottom of Wanfu City, so it was better not to cause extra trouble.

At this point, his merit points were almost cleared to zero.

But Li Yu didn't intend to waste that hour. Taking advantage of the remaining time, he pestered the Demon Star Order with mechanical back-and-forth conversations.

He knew well that sometimes even without a direct answer, some secrets would still be leaked.

After some tossing, he really managed to peek at some side-knowledge.

Plus what he gained in the Mystic Realm, the progress of the sixth Truth Bubble was already more than half.

"Time is up!"

"In three breaths, the Order Master will return to the human world!"

"The next conquest mission is starting to match... please be prepared to be summoned at any time."

Following the cold notification, the Demon Star Order didn't give Li Yu a chance to curse, kicking him out directly.

……

When Li Yu returned to reality, he moved the time forward a bit more.

In the Demon Star space, a similar scene was happening in the Reincarnation Heavenly Net:

First, at Shang Yang's place, when he appeared in the upside-down Demon Star Sea with a gloomy face, before he had time to use merit points for any exchange, a series of notifications suddenly came to his mind.

"The Order Master with the code name 'Holy Star' has used high-level authority to send you a Star Invitation. Do you want to join the 【Wanfu Star Group】?"

"Yes!"

"You have joined the group. Because the Order Master is a newcomer, you have the privilege of not deducting merit points for the first speech, but the word count is limited to 100 words."

"Every speech after that will deduct 100 merit points from the Order Master."

Following these sounds, a blank area soon appeared in Shang Yang's mind. On both sides, one after another, weird stars emerged densely, and each star had a code name floating above it.

Before Shang Yang could speak, a star called Holy Star flickered, and then words appeared in the blank area.

Following closely, several more stars flickered and spoke.

Holy Star: "Good apprentice, how is it? Did the newcomer mission go smoothly? Did you kill all the righteous sect cultivators and snatch any high-sequence strange objects?"

Black Lotus Star: "Finally it's your turn, you old thing from the Sacred Nest, to show off. Isn't it just that your apprentice had good luck and snatched a newly cast Demon Star Order? Maybe he was unlucky and met someone else who wanted to steal a taste, and couldn't even beat them."

Rotten Star: "Don't say that, the probability is high. I heard that the six major sects spent a lot of money this time, sending out over a hundred reincarnator qualifications at once, among which there are many who deliberately want to steal a taste. If the old thing's apprentice happens to bump into someone else, he might not win."

Desire Star: "Brothers, stop arguing. Let the child tell us himself what he gained. If there are good things, everyone can bid for them."

Looking at these conversations, Shang Yang's already bad face became even uglier.

It was fortunate that he had a robot face, or he wouldn't be able to show so many vivid expressions.

If other newcomer Demon Star Order Masters faced this weird scene, they would definitely be confused.

But Shang Yang knew that this was a big secret of the Demon Star Order:

High-sequence powerhouses who have broken through many Mystic Realms have the authority to open 【Star Groups】, which can pull other Demon Star Order Masters into the same sea of consciousness stars for dialogue and communication, and can completely ignore the distance of time and space. Of course, every speech will deduct at least 100 merit points.

Each of these stars speaking at this time was a high-sequence powerhouse in Wanfu City.

Originally, he was not qualified to come in.

But his master "Holy Star," as an administrator, believed that he would become a rising star, so he specially applied for a new group member qualification for him.

Making his debut now, he naturally had to show off his gains.

Although he could already foresee what the consequences would be if he told the truth, he had no other choice, so he had to reveal everything that happened in the Mystic Realm one by one.

100 words were not enough, and another 100 merit points were deducted.

When he finished speaking!

The sea of consciousness stars in front of him stagnated first, and then the weird stars that had been silent flickered one after another, vividly showing deafening laughter with fonts.

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha... Holy Star, you old thing, you have today too."

"Good apprentice, really a good apprentice."

"Losing to the little thing from the Haotian Sect is fine; you can tell at a glance that they were better prepared and more willing to risk it. But you actually lost to a pure newcomer Order Master in the same camp? Hahaha, you're killing me."

"Calamity Star... tsk tsk, this code name is not bad, it lives up to its name."

"This little guy is also likely from our Wanfu City. Find him, I want to take him as an apprentice."

PS: Too lazy to split the chapter, two-in-one, please vote for the monthly ticket.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 51 =====