He couldn’t even look? Long Chen speechlessly turned away, focusing on his wine.
“Why aren’t you looking at me, huh?! Have I ruined your beautiful dream of romance?! Are you cursing me inside?! What, I can’t cry? Whether I’m crying or smiling, you’re definitely laughing at me inside, aren’t you?!” raged Beitang Rushuang.
Now Long Chen began to sweat. So he couldn’t not look either. As expected, he couldn’t reason with women. It was something that had nothing to do with cultivation base.
“I don’t remember laughing at anyone in my life. I’m not qualified to do that,” said Long Chen. He then turned back to his wine.
It seemed that Long Chen’s response was satisfactory, as Beitang Rushuang also sat back down. Now that Nangong Zuiyue had left, it was just the two of them in the tent. The atmosphere was a bit strange.
“Am I very unreasonable?” sighed Beitang Rushuang.
“Not being reasonable is very normal for a woman, especially a woman as beautiful as you. When your temper flares, most people will yield to you, even me,” said Long Chen. “As long as your temper doesn’t touch my bottom line, I’ll endure it. But if it was someone else acting like this, for example Zhao Wuji, I’d slap him so hard that he wouldn’t know which way was north.”
The way Long Chen helplessly shrugged about that actually ended up interrupting Beitang Rushuang’s sobbing with a short chuckle. She wiped away her tears and drank some more wine. Looking into the distance, it seemed that she was lost in her memories.
It was only after an incense stick’s worth of time that she once more spoke.
“Sovereign Zi Yang was the last of the five Sovereigns. He was mysterious and powerful, as well as very attractive. It’s unknown just how many women admired him. Before he became a Sovereign, he had a certain relations.h.i.+p with my Beitang family. It just so happened that we also had a peerless female genius at that time who also had a high chance of becoming a Sovereign. Her name was Beitang Qingyun. Sovereign Zi Yang had a romantic history with fairy Qingyun, but a certain s.l.u.t appeared within the Nangong family that deliberately ruined their relations.h.i.+p. In the end, the two went on separate paths. Sovereign Zi Yang vanished shortly after becoming a Sovereign, while fairy Qingyun lost her youth hoping for him to return. In the end, she buried himself within the Ancient Battlefield where the two of them had once fought alongside each other. Even until the day she died, she didn’t get to see Sovereign Zi Yang again. Tell me, don’t you think the Nangong family deserves to die?”
Beitang Rushuang’s fury once more welled up. That enmity had occurred countless years ago, but it had not been wiped away.
Long Chen looked at Beitang Rushuang and nodded. “They truly deserve to die. Ruining a pair of lovers is one of the most hateful things in this world. Perhaps in the eyes of your family, the Nangong family ruined the chance for the Beitang family to soar to power. But from your eyes, I see that you don’t care about that. What you care about is justice for fairy Qingyun.”
Beitang Rushuang looked at Long Chen in a new light. He had actually touched on the soft part in her heart.
She had bitterly cultivated, overcoming trials and adversity, walking the path between life and death. It was not for her family, but because of the injustice that had occurred to fairy Qingyun. She didn’t care about fame and profit. But Nangong Zuiyue refused to let her prove that she was stronger than her, and that the Beitang family could suppress the Nangong family.
She had long since gotten used to being misunderstood, and she couldn’t be bothered to explain herself. However, Long Chen had actually understood her motives after just a short time.
“Thank you,” said Beitang Rushuang quietly. Sometimes, a single word could be particularly touching. For someone to understand her when the whole world had misjudged her felt good.
“Don’t worry about it. If you really want to thank me, you can erase the debt I owe you. It would be best if you also repaid Nangong Zuiyue’s portion for me,” chortled Long Chen.
“Don’t even think about it.” The good feelings that she had just started to have toward Long Chen vanished like smoke.
After talking a bit more with Long Chen, Beitang Rushuang didn’t even notice it, but her mood had improved quite a bit.
“Long Chen, let me suggest a possible path for you. As long as you can go through with it, this little bit of Peak Dao Transformation Dragon Saliva would be nothing,” said Beitang Rushuang, suddenly getting closer to Long Chen. A crafty light appeared in her eyes.
“There’s such an option?” Long Chen was suspicious.
“Of course. As long as you pursue Nangong Zuiyue and succeed, not only would you have gained a peerless beauty, but you would have the support of the Nangong family. In the future, who would you need to fear?”
“You really are sinister!”
“How is it sinister? This is of huge help to you,” said Beitang Rushuang innocently.
“You want a beautiful flower like Nangong Zuiyue to stick herself in a pile of dung like me? How vicious.” Long Chen was speechless.
Beitang Rushuang laughed. It was her first time feeling that Long Chen actually had a cute side. It seemed he had some self-awareness.
“How can you have so little confidence? You’re someone who has spoken to a Sovereign before. As long as you maintain a certain air of mystery, perhaps the Nangong family really will be interested in you,” said Beitang Rushuang.
“Give it up. Ever since I walked out of the Eastern Wasteland, I haven’t relied on powerful backers. We should also return. If a single man and woman are to be together in one tent for too long, who knows what might happen?” Long Chen stood up.
“I’m not afraid of that, so what are you afraid of?” Beitang Rushuang frowned.
“I’m very afraid. I already have women waiting for me at home. If they are to hear any rumors, it will cause a calamity,” said Long Chen as he put away the grill and tent. “Miss Beitang, I have some things to do, so I’ll leave now. It would be best if you left a bit later, or it would cause a misunderstanding if we left together.”
“Hey, I still have more questions…” Long Chen was already flying away as Beitang Rushuang called out. She stamped her feet in fury. “That Long Chen really is a scoundrel! No one has ever dared to refuse me!”
Beitang Rushuang clenched her teeth furiously over the fact that Long Chen had escaped. However, after a bout of rage, she also smiled. This Long Chen was truly a marvel. He definitely wasn’t a normal person, and he was very interesting.
…
Long Chen returned to the ancient city and had someone arrange a private room for him. The Dongfang family had truly gone all-out for this gathering. Everything had been arranged to prevent any clashes.
A private room was immediately provided to Long Chen. There was a large underground s.p.a.ce with all kinds of rooms. Some were used for cultivation, some were for comprehension, and some were for practicing techniques.
There were even rooms for alchemy. They were covered in ancient divine runes, with each rune representing a different kind of energy of the Heavenly Daos.
Refining in the alchemy rooms with supportive formations would increase the odds of a successful refinement. Building such a formation was very costly.
As for Long Chen, he had always been confident in his alchemy arts, so any formations in his alchemy rooms were very simple. Although Xia Chen had joined the Dragonblood Legion, Long Chen hadn’t really refined pills afterward, and his money had always been tight, so he had never built himself a proper alchemy room.
Now seeing these ancient alchemy rooms, he was moved. He knew he needed a true alchemy room.
Although Huo Long was also capable of refining pills on its own, its Spiritual Strength was weaker, and furthermore, alchemy was not a simple case of repeating what you saw.
Alchemy was something that needed profound learning. Sometimes a single thought, a single blink of the eye, and a single emotion could affect the end result of a refinement. So a person could spend a lifetime refining countless pills without two that were identical.
For Huo Long to refine pills on its own, although the quality was certainly high, those pills would lack a certain spirituality. Humans were the only ones capable of bestowing such a thing to a pill, and that was also why humans were called the most spiritual of all beings.
Once the attendant who arranged the room for him left, Long Chen sat down in his alchemy room and placed his new pill furnace in front of him. He also took out the Nine Lotus Soul Condensing Pill. He placed it within the furnace and slowly formed hand seals. His Spiritual Strength flowed out into the furnace.
A holy aura enveloped Long Chen, and an image appeared on his forehead. There were millions of threads within that image that formed into a flame.
When that image appeared, the pill furnace shook ever so slightly. The starry images on it lit up and began to resonate with that image.
This was an ancient and holy contractual ceremony between alchemist and furnace. Although this ancient furnace had acknowledged Long Chen, for him to fully control it required this ancient contract. This way, they would be one.
Suddenly, the Nine Lotus Soul Condensing Pill within the furnace shook. Nine lotus flowers appeared, and a ray of light shot out of it, striking Long Chen in the head.