Chapter 0180: Bottom of the Junior Commander Battalions
12 Top Quality Returning Qi Pills, Ning Cheng sighed, this was the first time that he had actually succeeded in Alchemy, moreover in the end he had even managed to refine 12 Top Quality Returning Qi Pills which was simply perfect.
This was not because his level of understanding in Alchemy was high, nor because of his high understanding and comprehension ability, neither was it because he was a genius, but rather it was because of one single thing, the “Mysterious Yellow Formless”. In this world there was no other person who had a Pill Art that was ever changing, no one other than him.
Moreover, because of this he also understood that the reason he was not able to refine even a single pill before, not to mention a Top Quality Pill, was because he had left the pre-refined medicinal solution sit for far too long during the initial stages of the refinement. As such too much of its medicinal and spiritual nature within the medicinal solution had been lost.
Ning Cheng decided not to refine any other pills, he continued to only refine the Level 1 Returning Qi Pills. During the time he was refining those Array Flags non-stop, it had enlightened him on something. It was something that was extremely simple, when one became familiar with something to a certain extent, it would ultimately lead to a qualitative change.
He continued to refine the Returning Qi Pills till his Spiritual Consciousness was almost completely used up. It was not because refining the Returning Qi Pill needed one to possess a powerful Spiritual Consciousness, and also not because his Alchemy Technique was not correct. But because he was not acquainted or even familiar with the various kinds of techniques used in Alchemy.
So during that past one day, Ning Cheng only kept refining the Returning Qi Pills.
Even as the second day passed by, Ning Cheng still only continued to refine the Returning Qi Pills.
……
On the fifteenth day, his Junior Commander Battalion’s only Junior Marquis Nan Yuefang came to find him, but even then he was still immersed in refining the Returning Qi Pills.
[Author Note – Old Five apologises for changing the title of Nan Yuefang to ‘Junior Marquis’ from ‘Senior Captain’ in order to keep it in sync with the ranking system.]
……
On the 23rd Day, Kong Pengpeng himself took some time off to come seek out Ning Cheng, but Ning Cheng was still refining Returning Qi Pills behind closed doors.
……
On the 30th day, Ning Cheng had just used less than the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn to refine a batch of Returning Qi Pills in his furnace, before he suddenly turned sluggish. He even forgot that he needed to clean up the Pill Furnace, and also forgot to check if the pills he refined were successful or not.
After taking a few deep breaths, Ning Cheng did not dare to believe it himself as he spoke out, “The Returning Qi Pills does not require a Pill Art now?”
He had been continuously refining Returning Qi Pills for thirty days. And had been constantly keeping track of the gains and losses along the way. During these few days, he had almost completely run out of the materials needed to refine the Returning Qi Pills. At this point, he had become so proficient that even if he was to close the eyes and proceed, he could easily refine a batch of Top Grade Returning Qi Pills inside the furnace.
During these 30 days, the pill refining methods that he was using to refine the Returning Qi Pills in his furnace were continuously evolving and at present were completely different from the original pill refining methods. Ning Cheng had already gotten accustomed to it, so much so that every time he went ahead to collect the pills after a certain period of time, his Pill Art would automatically evolve once again.
But today however, he clearly felt that he had not used any kind of Pill Art, whether it was to refine the medicinal herbs, separating the residues, purifying and concentrating the liquids, blending the concentrated liquids, bringing out the spiritual nature, congealing it into shape, or finally forming the Pill……
What was even more shocking, was that he had completed this process is just a single breath, without even using any kind of Pill Art. He had only felt that this way of doing it was the correct one, and as such went ahead and did it, and in the end a batch of Returning Qi Pills had formed in the furnace as if it was completely natural.
No Pill Art, but still able to refine a batch of Returning Qi Pills? This was completely different from his view that was based on the foundations of Alchemy that he had received and studied. That is to say any person’s skill in Alchemy was in a way based on the foundation of Alchemy, as such everyone knew that to refine any kind of pill, it had to be first matched to a corresponding Pill Art, only if one had a good Pill Art corresponding to the pill that they wanted to refine, only then would one be able to refine a better quality Pill. Accordingly, without a Pill Art, a pill simply cannot be created, if the pill cannot actually be created, then the result is something that can only be described as a ‘Pill Pellet’ and nothing more.
Ning Cheng took out the batch of Returning Qi Pills that he refined just now from the furnace and compared it to the batch of Returning Qi Pills that he had refined before it. With the two batches in front of him, he could feel that they were intrinsically different. This last batch of Returning Qi Pills had a Spiritual Nature apart from its Medicinal Nature to it whereas the previous batch of Returning Qi Pills were only containing their Medicinal Nature.
[TLC Note – Spiritual Nature in an object/beast can be interpreted as it being alive or having a bit of intelligence. It’s a term that actually has a lot of meanings depending on the context, but for most Xianxia/cultivation related works the above two meanings are what people consider the most.]
Ning Cheng had been refining Returning Qi Pills for a month now, as such he immediately understood this truth. Other people who used Pill Arts to refine the Returning Qi Pills, they only focused their attention on the Medicinal Nature and at the moment that it emerged they would immediately begin to shape it into a pill. Whereas he, for this batch, let the Medicinal Solution to automatically form the Returning Qi Pills, and did not use any Pill Art in the process, doing in such a way had almost instantaneously brought out the Spiritual Nature contained within it, this was what they called as the ‘Spirit’ of the pill.
[TLC Note – The ‘Spirit’ here can also be interpreted as ‘Soul’. Left it like this to keep in sync with the ‘Spiritual Nature’]
He had heard a few people say that only a handful of experts in the Profound Core Realm, when refining a common Ordinary Grade Pill, would occasionally be able to refine a Returning Qi Pill that had a ‘Divine’ nature in it. He was just an ordinary Tier 1 Ordinary Pill Master, but was already able to refine a pill with a ‘Divine’ nature. This was the difference between the Mysterious Yellow Formless and the rest of the Pill Arts. He had just started to learn refining pills, but can already refine pills of such quality.
Immediately suppressing the strong excitement in his heart, Ning Cheng once again started to refine more pills. But at this time, he not only refined the Returning Qi Pill, but also started to refine the other Level 1 Pills like the Qi Gathering Pills, and so on.
A month later, Ning Cheng finally stopped refining Level 1 Pills. He felt that he now no longer needed to refine the Level 1 Pills, since he could now refine any kind of Level 1 Pill without the need for any Pill Arts. Similarly, he can now also use any kind of Pill Art to refine any kind of Level 1 Pills.
Ning Cheng then put away the Pill Furnace, and after cleaning himself a bit, decided to go stroll through the Pu Bu Island for a bit of fresh air, and then when he came back, he would then start to refine Level 2 Pills.
Ning Cheng had just pushed himself out of his closed door seclusion, when within his Spiritual Consciousness he found Nan Yuefang and Yang Honghuo of his Junior Commander Battalion waiting outside his mansion.
“What are you people doing here?” Ning Cheng came out and had just asked the two of them when he found that Nan Yuefang’s complexion was very ugly.
Yang Honghuo was also with a long face as he spoke, “Half a month ago, the Jia Continent’s cultivator army stationed on the Pu Bu Island had a battle with the monstrous beast tides, in which our Junior Commander Battalion took the last place. Even Junior Marquis Nan was also laughed at, saying, saying……”
Ning Cheng waved his hand, he knew for sure that it was not something good. However, at present the Yi Xing Ocean’s war had already been brought under ceasefire, so where did this beast tide come from?
“Is the battle against the beast tide still going on? You want me to take a look at it.” Ning Cheng asked.
When Nan Yuefang saw that Ning Cheng did not even know about the beast tides, she suddenly became speechless as she looked at Ning Cheng incredulously. Was this really a Junior Commander, ah, he did not even know about the most basics things of the Pu Bu Island. Were the great deeds done by him that she had heard of previously, true or false?
But since Yang Honghuo knew the origin of Ning Cheng, he quickly spoke up, “There is always a monstrous beast tide explosion at a specific time every year from the Yi Xing Ocean, it is actually due to the spontaneous and natural behaviour of the monstrous beasts, and as such does not have any relationship with the cultivator army of the Yi Xing Ocean. All the cultivator forces stationed on all the major islands in the Yi Xing Ocean collectively fight against this beast tide annually. This kind of beast tide does not affect the 9 Continents, rather the cultivator soldiers of the 9 Continents stationed in the Yi Xing Ocean only benefit from this without much harm.”
Ning Cheng finally came to understand, that these beast tides should originally be of the monstrous beasts from the Yi Xing Ocean. Before he was wondering that since there was no more war, then how could these cultivator soldiers stationed in the Yi Xing Ocean collect and gather the cultivation resources, it seems that originally these resources were all collected from these beast tides annually. Every part of the body of a monstrous beast from the Yi Xing Ocean was a treasure in itself, whether it was fur or the meat or even the bones, every single thing can be sold for resources. As such these things were more than enough for the cultivator soldiers stationed in the Yi Xing Ocean to help them cultivate.
No wonder there were so many merchant ships coming in and out of the Pu Bu Island every day, these ships in addition to bringing in a large amount of resources, they also transported a lot of materials that came from the monstrous beasts.
“Our Junior Commander Battalion, because we have very few members, did not dare to rush ahead to the front to grab opportunities from the monstrous beast tide, as such the harvest we obtained was also very little.” Nan Yuefang finally spoke up feeling very uncomfortable.
The other people were all personally lead by their Junior Commanders, those four battalions along with their Junior Commanders had conducted fortress type attacks gaining huge harvest, while their Junior Commander Battalion was led only by a Junior Marquis. Facing the beast tide that was rushing towards them, they could only pick up some waste materials left behind someone else’s ass. Moreover, these things were simply those materials that the other people did not even want to pick up.
“Is it only this matter?” Ning Cheng said as he thought, since it is only some monstrous beast materials, so why would they have to cry so much over it?
Nan Yuefang finally could not endure it as she spoke out aloud, “Mr. Junior Commander, for you this might be a small thing, but for us of the Junior Marquis Battalion, it is not at all a small matter. Do you know what is the main purpose for cultivators like us to join the cultivator army? Everyone here wants to cultivate, but if we have no resources to cultivate, then what are we still doing here?”
Saying that, Nan Yuefang was still not satisfied and swept a glance at Yang Honghuo. This Yang Honghuo gave an exaggerated account of things that this Junior Commander had done, and finally the results itself showed what kind of person he was.
Ning Cheng was aware that he had misspoke, he knew that the main purpose for a cultivator to join the cultivator army was indeed in order to cultivate. If they cannot even get the resources to cultivate, then who would be willing to join the cultivator army?
He was a little embarrassed as he spoke, “I don’t know if this year’s beast tide is over or not, but as for next year, we will definitely work harder.”
Yang Honghuo knew that Ning Cheng did not really understand the life of a cultivator in the cultivator army stationed in the Pu Bu Island, and quickly spoke up, “Junior Commander, even if the beast tide is over, the cultivator army often goes out into the ocean. Although we can go out into the ocean to hunt for the monstrous beasts, but if we end up meeting a large group of monstrous beasts, then the numbers in our Junior Marquis Battalion are truly very low.”
“This is easy.” Ning Cheng went to the courtyard of his mansion, as he lifted his hand and gave a slight flick, immediately bringing out the Black-Silver Warship and said, “This can be kept in the military barracks, next time you go out, just use the Spirit Stone Cannon on this warship to bombard……”
Yang Honghuo was speechless, “Junior Commander, if we had so many Spirit Stones, then why would we even need to use it bomb the monstrous beasts?”
Ning Cheng smiled, and just as he wanted to speak, he saw Nan Yuefang exclaim in shock as she pointed at the Black-Silver Warship and spoke, “This is a Top Tier Black-Silver Warship…. Yang Honghuo, what you said before, is it really true?”
Yang Honghuo spoke with a bitter face, “Junior Marquis Nan, of course what I said is true, moreover the Black-Silver Warship in possession of Junior Commander is also a fact, what would I even gain from trying to cheat you?”
“Ha Ha…. with this, we would not have to be afraid of the monstrous beasts, and also will not have to fear those son-of-a-bitches and show the….” Nan Yuefang suddenly felt that what she spoke was not right for an officer of her rank. She subconsciously looked at Ning Cheng and asked, “Junior Commander, do you really want to give this Black-Silver Warship to me?”
Ning Cheng was soon going to enter the Law’s Way, as such this Black-Silver Warship would be more useful if it was placed in the army rather than taking it with him everywhere, moreover he also had plans to get his hands on a higher level flight type magical weapon. Moreover, even if he could not obtain any other flight type magic weapons, he still had the Twin Heavenly Cloud Wings.
“That’s right, this Black-Silver Warship now belongs to your Junior Marquis Battalion for the time being. Oh yes, do you have a Storage Ring to hold such a big thing?” Ning Cheng suddenly thought that although Nan Yuefang was a cultivator in the Profound Congealing Realm, he also knew that a lot of the Profound Congealing Cultivators would not have a Storage Ring.
The reason he knew this was because he had once asked Man Rang for a Storage Ring, this ring was one of the rings that came from one of the Profound Core Cultivators from the Yi Xing Ocean and was loaded with all kinds of cultivation resources that he had looted from the Hua Continent. Ning Cheng, apart from the Spiritual Grasses, and an airship type Spiritual Artefact inside it, only took some things that were suitable for Yang Honghuo. But as for the rest of the things inside, he simply did not want to take all of them due to embarrassment.
[TL Note – Just a small memory refreshment – Artefact/Magic Weapon Grades – Ordinary<Spiritual<True…]
“Many thanks Junior Commander, I do have a Storage Ring.” Nan Yuefang raised her hands to show off, at the moment she looked totally different from when she arrived here first. Since she had been fighting against the cultivators from the Yi Xing Ocean for many years till this point, because of which she could always get some good stuff for herself.
Yang Honghuo was a little sceptical as he asked, “Junior Marquis Nan, this Black-Silver Warship is a bottomless pit for Spirit Stones, how would we be able to even use it?”
Nan Yuefang rolled her eyes at Yang Honghuo and spoke, “Second Lieutenant Yang, are you still devoted to the study of warships. Do you think that it’s always a must to use a thousand Spirit Stones every time we use this Black-Silver Warship? If we meet a few monstrous beasts, then we will only shell out a hundred Spirit Stones to bombard them. When we come across an enormous monstrous beast horde, then we can easily scatter them with the cannon using 1000 Spirit Stones, thus not only the scope of attack would be big, it would also prevent the monstrous beasts from vaporise instantly as we could easily control its intensity. Just think about it, if in a single attack we can kill thousands of monstrous beasts, then how can we be unable to get back the Spirit Stones we spent?”
As she kept talking, it was as if a light had lit up behind Nan Yuefang’s eyes, as if she could already see the enormous piles of monstrous beast materials in front of her.