Chapter 226: The Mysterious Elixir Chamber
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Tong Ling Priestess chanted repeatedly, "Must find a way to prevent this from happening, must find a way to prevent this from happening ... must find a way to prevent this from happening!"
She suddenly lifted her head. "Master, if there's no other way, we'll make more preparations before bargaining with the brat when he arrives. If he gives up the bet voluntarily, we won't treat him shabbily, and we'll give him some compensation."
As she said this, her eyes flickered menacingly. "If he doesn't, we'll simply detain him on Xingyun Peak!"
The Azure Clouds Grandmaster let out a long sigh, "This won't work either."
The Tong Ling Priestess lost her cool. "Master!"
The Azure Clouds Grandmaster shook his head and replied, "I'm not saying that your method is wrong, but your method is not feasible at all."
The Tong Ling Priestess asked perplexedly, "Why?"
After the Azure Clouds Grandmaster briefly recounted the events of the battle on the barren plains outside Shazhou City, the Tong Ling Priestess was flabbergasted. She then forced a wry smile that looked more painful than a crying face. "Just what kind of people are there in the Celestial Sect of Wonders?"
"If that's the case, not only is Yanran's bet a gone case, the Sword of Radiance Sect would be the laughing stock of the entire world!"
If Murong Yanran was any other normal disciple, this wouldn't be too serious, and this issue can be settled discreetly.
But in the last three years, Murong Yanran followed the Tong Ling Priestess everywhere in her travels, and was known across the entire Nine Heavenly Sword Alliance and the Great Qin Empire as the disciple with the strongest potential and the most famous reputation among all her peers in the Sword of Radiance Sect, and as the sect's most promising talent to nurture.
If such a disciple loses to someone else and becomes his slave, the Sword of Radiance Sect would be utterly ashamed.
Furthermore, Murong Yanran despised Xiao Yan previously as unwanted trash, and riotously rejected his marriage proposal, and now, that unwanted piece of garbage now has evolved into an outstanding prodigy and would soon pulverize her. If this was made known to the outside world, it wouldn't just be a slap to Murong Yanran's face, but a clean, hard smack to the entire Sword of Radiance Sect's face.
If Xiao Yan just relied on his own abilities without any backing, the Azure Clouds Grandmaster definitely wouldn't reject the Tong Long Priestess' suggestion. This idea had even surfaced in that old duff's mind multiple times before.
But just thinking about Lin Feng's various counterattacks sent chills down his spine.
But if he allows Xiao Yan to charge in and have Murong Yanran lose her bet and become Xiao Yan's slave, the Azure Clouds Grandmaster wouldn't be able to accept it even more.
He chanted to himself, "Think of a way, must think of a way."
After a good long while, his eyes suddenly glistened with hope.
"Perhaps this idea can work." The Azure Clouds Grandmaster stopped pondering, and his wrinkled face finally relaxed. He was no longer frowning and was beaming like a chrysanthemum
The Tong Ling Priestess looked at the old man, puzzled. "Master, what idea have you come up with?"
The Azure Clouds Grandmaster glanced at her and thought to himself, "I still need the Tong Ling Priestess to explain it clearly to Murong Yanran as her master." He then briefly explained his plan.
After the Tong Ling Priestess heard his plan, she was stunned, and replied hesitantly, "Master, I'm afraid this may ..."
The Azure Clouds Grandmaster said calmly, "There's nothing to be afraid of. You just need to follow my orders."
After the Tong Ling Priestess took her leave, he sighed, "Let's hope this succeeds."
"Xiao Yan, sigh, why did you just have to take Lin Feng as your master?"
...
Lin Feng , who was making so many people very anxious, was staring at his own System blankly.
After Yue Hongyan and Yang Qing entered the sect, Lin Feng obtained two more chances at the Lottery, which he naturally wanted to claim.
But he couldn't enter the Lottery System, which just displayed a line of words. "System upgrading in progress, please access it after upgrading is completed!"
Lin Feng scratched his head and examined the System again. It was indeed undergoing upgrading and access was denied.
The previous time there was a System upgrade was when he had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
"There wasn't a System upgrade when I formed the Aurous Core either." Lin Feng thought about it carefully, "Looks like the System upgrades are not purely tied to my own mastery level, but also my enlightenment of the 'Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues'."
The first System upgrade was after he discovered the 'Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams', the first chapter of the 'Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues', the same time he successfully reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
And the second System upgrade was when he created the 'Four Appearances Heaven Cleaving Script', the second chapter of the 'Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues', which coincided with his successful Soul Formation.
Lin Feng then realized, "The advancement in my mastery levels, and the advancement in my self-created mantras, are both conditions that must be met."
Previously when he had just created the 'Four Directions Heaven Cleaving Script' and there was no System upgrade, it was because he had not successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul stage.
Lin Feng sighed: whatever, I can only wait until the upgrading is completed before I can use my Lottery tickets. Hopefully, the upgrading churns out some precious prizes.
Temporarily unable to use the Lottery, Lin Feng loitered around the mountain alone.
As he wandered around, Lin Feng reached the entrance of the Elixir Chamber. He lifted his head and gazed at the plaque carved with the words 'Celestial Golden Pavilion', and thought to himself, "As the Heavenly Temple of the main hall, its most salient feature is actually its formidable defence."
"The Disciples' Abode can draw in the surrounding spiritual energy to keep the people inside warm. These buildings created from sect-construction deeds seem to each have some unique features, so what's so special about the Elixir Chamber?"
As he pondered, Lin Feng entered the Celestial Golden Pavilion Elixir Chamber and saw Xiao Yan circling the Ethereal Heart Cauldron with a face full of soot.
A fire burned within the cauldron, producing a strong herbal aroma.
When Xiao Yan noticed Lin Feng, he let out a bright smile, revealing his sparkling white teeth, which looked even better juxtaposed against his dirty black cheeks.
Lin Feng chuckled, "Why didn't you clean yourself up?"
With Xiao Yan's current mastery level, he could be completely free of dust at all times if he wanted to, and never come close to looking like an African.
"I couldn't bother, Master." Xiao Yan's eyes were glued to the cauldron as he answered, "Master's Elixir Chamber is really amazing. I experimented a little with the Eight Trigrams Formation on the ground by adding the effects of the Wind and Fire Fan, and the success rate of crafting elixirs increased by at least 3%."
Lin Feng was slightly surprised to hear this. A treasure like the Ethereal Heart Cauldron only increased the success rate by 3%.
Now with the Celestial Golden Pavilion's power, the success rate may shoot up by 60%.
This is a terrifying figure.
Strictly speaking, the success rate of crafting elixirs mentioned here, actually refers to the rate of efficient utilization of the medicinal ingredients.
When normal cultivators craft elixirs, the heat intensity, ratios of ingredients, duration, and various other factors result in poor efficiency of herb usage. On average, most cultivators only achieve around 30% of successful herb utilization, and the remaining amount is wasted as dregs.
This would already be considered as a crafting success. By definition, a crafting failure means to ruin the entire cauldron of ingredients and to waste all the time and effort put in to craft the elixir.
Cultivators with outstanding crafting skills achieve an efficiency rate of around 40 to 50%.
Xiao Yan could already achieve this percentage, and he had no formal training, relying purely on trial and error.
With that in mind, Lin Feng felt a tinge of regret. "It's a pity I didn't capture the Baicao Grandmaster alive previously, then I could have obtained his elixir crafting skills and have had something to teach Xiao Yan. Now I cannot fully harness his potential, what a waste."
The Baicao Grandmaster's thousands of years of training all revolve around spiritual herbs and elixirs. When he crafts elixirs, the rate of efficient herb usage is minimally above 70%, and higher quality cauldrons may even achieve a yield of over 90%.
If he uses the Ethereal Heart Cauldron, he would surely achieve a yield of 100%, with not a single ounce of ingredients wasted.
And now, if Xiao Yan combines his crafting talent with the boosts from the Ethereal Heart Cauldron and the Celestial Golden Pavilion, he can achieve a yield of 100% too.
There may be some hiccups, but it would be nearly perfect.
Xiao Yan was very excited too. Even though he had evidently been cooped in the Elixir Chamber for a very long time, with his bloodshot eyes, tired demeanour, and his mana almost exhausted, he was still particularly fired up.
With a sweep of his mana, he discovered that several large gourds hanging from the walls already contained elixirs. They were Thunderous Echo Elixirs and Barrier-breaking Elixirs.
After Lin Feng obtained the crafting recipes for these two elixirs, he immediately gave them to Xiao Yan.
Seeing how excited Xiao Yan was, Lin Feng thought to himself, "Looks like I need to find more recipes. Hmm, it would be best to obtain an elixir from the System that's never been created before, like the Trāyastriṃśa Elixir of Creation."
Since he already established his Celestial Sect of Wonders, only crafting elixirs from the monk temple wouldn't be quite right.
"Xiao Yan, you'll have to inquire and investigate more yourself and develop our own new product as soon as possible. Engaging in more technological development and innovation would be essential to our core competitiveness."
Lin Feng looked up at the ceiling, and he was stunned.
Besides the gold Eight Trigrams pattern on the floor, the Celestial Golden Pavilion had another silver Eight Trigrams pattern on the ceiling.
After staring at the silver pattern for a good long while, he gradually worked through a few ideas and formed a guess in his mind.
He took out a porcelain vial containing seven elixir pills. These were the ones that Yang Tonghui gave him during the Spiritual Conference of Hanhai, the speciality elixir of the Heavenly Sword Sect, the Celestial Elixir.
Xiao Yan just completed the final step of the crafting process and produced another batch of quality elixirs. He extracted over ten pills of the Barrier-breaking Elixir and placed them in a gourd hanging on the wall.
He looked at Lin Feng curiously, "Master?"
Lin Feng smiled, "Xiao Yan, the secret of this Elixir Chamber lies not only in the increased success rates of crafting elixirs."
As he said this, he threw a Celestial Elixir pill into the air and used telekinesis to control the silver Eight Trigrams on the ceiling. In that instant, rays of silver light shot down and caught the elixir pill.
Once the silver light came in contact with the Celestial Elixir, it began to flash continuously, and a long passage of words appeared among the light.
Xiao Yao took a closer look, and his eyes immediately widened. He shrieked, "Master, this is the recipe for the Celestial Elixir!"
Lin Feng nodded smilingly, and thought to himself, "I guessed correctly. This Elixir Chamber is full of mysteries, and is far from simple."
With that in mind, a thought jolted Lin Feng. "If the Elixir Chamber is like this, then what about the Tripitaka Block?"