Chapter 556: Furiously Fighting Over the Longevity Pill
“Haha, now isn’t this quite a gathering? Everyone, what kind of show is this? Jiang Chen is a young man who’s just set foot in this broad world of ours. Don’t go scaring him now.” Palace Head Dan Chi’s voice had barely broken the silence before his figure appeared. He’d obviously made his way as quick as he could after hearing the news. Protecting Jiang Chen was his first and only priority here. How would he not know what kind of thoughts were running through the heads of these old fellows? They were just here to swindle the Longevity Pill from Jiang Chen.
Honored Master Tian Ming chuckled merrily at the sight of Dan Chi. “Ole brother Dan Chi, you have to come uphold justice! It was I who invited sage nephew Jiang Chen first, but Family Head Xiang wants to take him away by force! I can’t win against this strong-arming tactic even when I’m in the right! Ole brother Xiang, you’re the older brother. What harm is there in giving way before your younger brother once or twice, hmm?”
Honored Master Tian Ming was renowned for his ability to coax others into acceding to his wishes. These words were clearly a small persuasion for the family head into giving way. They were both sect heads of fourth rank sects, and Tian Ming was already keeping a low enough posture as it was. In the end, he was indeed in the right since he had invited Jiang Chen first. The family head of Sacred Elephant was named Xiang Wentian. He actually wasn’t the domineering sort ordinarily, but he seemed to have steeled his heart to be unreasonable this time. He waved his hand and smiled faintly. “Tian Ming, I would’ve let you have your way if it was anything else. I won’t play around with words in front of you. By my calculations, I have less than sixty years left to spend on this Myriad Domain of ours. But you want the Longevity Pill as much as I. I could step back from any other matter, but how could I do the same when it comes to my life?”
Sage realm cultivators could live at least fifteen hundred years, and could stretch that up to two or three thousand years. That the family head had just stated his remaining lifespan as less than sixty years birthed a natural curiosity to know exactly long he’d lived.
Honored Master Tian Ming also smiled wryly when he heard the family head’s words. “Ole brother Xiang, to be truthful, I was injured when cultivating a few decades ago and damaged my lifespan. I don’t have many years of life left either.”
Everyone was surprised that these two heavyweights were suddenly sharing their woes with each other. When it came to the Longevity Pill, all the other heavyweights were also quite tempted, but their lifespans hadn’t reached a dangerous low yet. However, this kind of pill was the best as an emergency reserve. It would never hurt to have a pill or two stashed away.
As the atmosphere at the scene grew more and more heated, w.a.n.g Jianyu of the Sacred Sword Palace became increasingly irritated. Why the h.e.l.l does your Regal Pill Palace always hog the limelight, and have others always chase after you?! You want to take an advantageous position with an uncommon product? As if I’d just let you! His thoughts suddenly spun furiously for a moment, and a smile creased his face. “Elder brother Xiang, Tian Ming, both of you should keep your calm. If even a young disciple can refine this pill, I’m sure it can be ma.s.s produced. When that is set in motion, the two of you can buy as much as you’d like. That is... unless the Regal Pill Palace wants to h.o.a.rd its stockpile and can’t bear to take it out.”
This was a blatant attempt to drive a wedge between the two sect heads and an overt attempt to rake the Regal Pill Palace over hot coals. Yet, it wasn’t entirely ineffective, as Family Head Xiang looked at Palace Head Dan Chi with a solemn gaze. “Younger brother Dan Chi, what’s the situation with this Longevity Pill? Your Regal Pill Palace won’t be doing something so untoward, hmm?”
Palace Head Dan Chi smiled faintly and looked deeply at w.a.n.g Jianyu. “Everyone, I do apologize. If we could produce this pill in bulk, we wouldn’t have waited until today to release word of it. I don’t know if Sect Head w.a.n.g has just lost his common sense or is purposefully stirring up trouble with his words. If we could produce this pill in bulk, my Regal Pill Palace would’ve soared to the top a long time ago. Why would we wait until this kind of gathering to release it?”
Everyone felt that Dan Chi’s words made sense after they’d thought over it some. If the Regal Pill Palace really could produce the Longevity Pill in bulk, they would’ve long since taken it out and made a killing. Why would they remain silent to this day? This kind of pill would never want for demand. No matter how much was produced, it could all be sold.
After all, the wealth of sage cultivators was astonis.h.i.+ng. This kind of pill that could extend their lifespan would absolutely be sold for a monumental price. To take Family Head Xiang as an example, even if he were to take out half of his wealth in exchange for one pill that extended his life by five hundred years, he would do so without the slightest crease of his brow.
“When it comes to pill refining, my sect’s Elder Yun Nie has more authority to speak than I do.”
Everyone’s gazes turned towards Elder Yun Nie, who had been prepared for this in advance. “Although the materials for this Longevity Pill are precious, that is still not the most important limiting factor for refining this pill. In fact, the most vital limiting factor is that its refining process is exceedingly complicated, and its rate of success almost depressingly low. Moreover, the process is highly demanding of one’s consciousness. Each attempt at refining must be accompanied with at minimum ten days to half a month of rest and recovery. This kind of pill would never be able to be ma.s.s produced. Even if a pill king were to undertake the task, he would at most manage one attempt every ten days, with no more than three pills appearing in his cauldron at the end.
“As for the pill masters of my Regal Pill Palace, I’m afraid that only I am currently capable of refining this pill apart from Jiang Chen. As it stands right now, this pill can only be refined once every month or two at its utmost maximum. In addition, Jiang Chen is young, and cannot spend a long period of time exhausting his consciousness for pill refining. The sect won’t let him do so either. After all, martial dao cultivation is the true focus of a genius.”
Elder Yun Nie’s words were impenetrable. No one could find any fault with them. However, all of them couldn’t help but look sideways at Jiang Chen and feel inwardly greatly contemptuous. In their eyes, Jiang Chen’s little bit of cultivation didn’t make him any sort of martial dao genius. He might as well focus wholeheartedly on the grand task of refining pills. However, they naturally couldn’t voice such words in this situation. If they did, they would greatly offend Jiang Chen and then could kiss goodbye to any hope of gaining a Longevity Pill in the future.
w.a.n.g Jianyu snorted coldly. “Even if you fire up the cauldrons only once every three months and refine three pills each time, that’s still quite a number in the long run.”
Elder Yun Nie couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. “Sect Head w.a.n.g is a sect head after all! How can you voice such naive words? Refining the Longevity Pill is a task that drains the consciousness and runs the risk of harming the mind. Whether it’s cultivators or pill masters, even if an exhausted consciousness can recuperate, it will still harm their foundations in the long run. Do you mean for my sect’s pill masters to risk their lives to refine pills? To put it bluntly, even if we fire up our cauldrons once every three years for this refining, that’s still an enormous drain on the mind after a few decades or a hundred years, let alone once every three months. In the best case scenario, we would end up harming the mind. At worst, we would risk complete mental collapse.”
This wasn’t Elder Yun Nie being an alarmist. The Longevity Pill recipe was indeed uncommon, and if it wasn’t refined by a pill master with extreme skill and a robust mental state of mind, it would indeed be a great drain on the consciousness. Jiang Chen hadn’t been afraid because he’d trained in “Boulder’s Heart” and “Psychic’s Head”. His consciousness had been perfectly tempered, and was in fact on par with that of a pill king. The most important thing was, he was just trying things out and wouldn’t possibly be continuing to refine this pill for the long haul.
To Jiang Chen’s level of consciousness, the drain on his mind if he had to refine the pill twice a year was almost negligible. Besides, the drain on the mind could also be repaired through pills. But of course, he naturally wouldn’t speak any of this. He knew Elder Yun Nie wanted to increase the value of this pill and starve out the market.
The others naturally had nothing to say after Elder Yun Nie’s detailed explanation. One couldn’t simply demand the Regal Pill Palace pill masters to risk their lives, could they? It was up to them whether or not they wanted to refine this pill.
w.a.n.g Jianyu kept a stiff upper lip even after being put in his place by Elder Yun Nie. “This pill is yours, and it’s all down to you flapping your lips on how it’s to be managed!”
Dan Chi smiled. “So you do know that this pill belongs to us? Then it’s up to us to decide how we want to refine it.”
Xiang Wentian frowned with impatience as he listened to them bicker. “Younger brother w.a.n.g, stop being a bother here.” He then looked at Dan Chi. “Younger brother Dan Chi, tell me, will there be a Longevity Pill allotted to me?”
Palace Head Dan Chi responded seriously, “Apart from Jiang Chen refining the Longevity Pill once so far, even Elder Yun Nie has yet to attempt it. As for the one that Jiang Chen has refined, that’s his private property. I’m not at liberty to make decisions for him.”
So the topic had come back to Jiang Chen again. Xiang Wentian had to have it, and so his glittering eyes moved to Jiang Chen. “Sage nephew Jiang Chen, name whatever price you will for your Longevity Pill. We can all compete on basis of price if it comes down to it!”
The Great Cathedral possessed a grand repository of wealth and wasn’t afraid to show it. The conversation had now s.h.i.+fted to a war of wealth. When Xiang Wentian’s words rang out, some of the other sects also started thinking rapidly. Someone immediately took the opportunity to call out, “I say, why don’t we have an open auction with the pill going to the highest bidder!”
These words spurred the others into motion. “Right, fair compet.i.tion with it going to the highest bidder is the principled thing!”
“This is rather good. This way, everyone has a chance, and no one will have complaints if they lose.”
Honored Master Tian Ming smiled ruefully. It wasn’t that his Dark North Sect didn’t have money to spare; they were also wealthy and willing to flaunt it. Their advantage in resources was very apparent sitting in the northern end of the Myriad Domain. It was just that if this turned into a compet.i.tion with the Great Cathedral in terms of wealth, only a huge loss awaited. He’d wanted to grab Jiang Chen and conduct a private transaction, and all things considered, he’d gotten there first. But after the Sacred Elephant family head’s shenanigans, it was now an open compet.i.tion. Tian Ming was undoubtedly the most dejected one present, and not to mention that he had the closest relations.h.i.+p with the Regal Pill Palace. So whether in a public arena or private area, he should’ve held priority. However, he knew that this had nothing to do with the Regal Pill Palace, and that it could only be chalked up to Xiang Wentian of the Great Cathedral being too domineering.
Xiang Wentian was at ninth level sage realm, and his personal strength was the unquestioned peak of the Myriad Domain. He was also the head of the Great Cathedral, a sect that boasted the strongest martial strength in the Myriad Domain. If he didn’t want to be reasonable, there was nothing anyone else could do. Yet, Honored Master Tian Ming was unresigned. He had to have the Longevity Pill, and even if it came down to bidding, he had to win at least one of them. Who knew when another would next appear!
The other sect heavyweights were as equally tempted as Honored Master Tian Ming and Xiang Wentian. Since the compet.i.tion was now open to all, who said they needed to leave it to those two? Whoever had enough charisma and willingness to bid could compete.
In this way, everyone’s thoughts began to churn. Only w.a.n.g Jianyu remained stubborn in his recalcitrance. He still felt all of it to be a show that the Regal Pill Palace was purposefully putting on to convince the crowd that the pill was a rare and difficult thing to obtain. But after being chastised by Xiang Wentian, he didn’t dare offer his contrary words. That Great Cathedral family head might do something outrageous when venting his ire. w.a.n.g Jianyu couldn’t afford to lose his face here. So although the Sacred Sword Palace was known for being c.o.c.ky, it still reined itself in when faced with the Great Cathedral.
And this, was how an auction began with a thunderous uproar.