Chapter 983: Le Xichen’s Ace Card
Ning Cheng felt too lazy to talk back and took out all his qualification tokens. “Alchemist Le, if you want to compare, let’s compare something real, not diplomas. I have a lot of them, from primary school to post-doctoral……”
After saying that, with a wave of his hand, all six qualification tokens appeared in front of everyone.
Le Xichen couldn’t understand Ning Cheng’s words. But sandwiched among the six qualification tokens, the light golden Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token was something he clearly recognised. After all, he also had such a qualification token.
The initial shock turned into a pin drop silence, not only for the crowd but also for Le Xichen. People could begrudgingly accept the other tokens, but the pale golden Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token looked particularly choking. After all, apart from a very few people, no one knew that Ning Cheng was a Dao Transformation Pill Sage.
Now that Ning Cheng took out that qualification token, it made it clear that he was undoubtedly a Dao Transformation Pill Sage. No matter the relationship between Ning Cheng and Sheng Houtian, Sheng Houtian could never give Ning Cheng a Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token. Unless Ning Cheng indeed had the necessary ability.
At this moment, no one dared to underestimate Ning Cheng anymore. Even Ning Cheng’s alchemic theory, which they thought as bulls.h.i.t, suddenly became a real possibility.
The few alchemists who previously cursed at Ning Cheng immediately lowered their heads, desperately wanting to turn invisible. If Ning Cheng was just a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity, it wouldn’t have mattered if they cursed at him on his face. But now, Ning Cheng was a genuine Dao Transformation Pill Sage; they couldn’t afford the consequences.
Even Le Jiesheng frowned. He never expected Ning Cheng to be a Dao Transformation Pill Sage. No wonder Pill Union’s Sheng Houtian was so polite towards Ning Cheng. It would be strange if the Pill Union wasn’t this courteous towards such a young Dao Transformation Pill Sage. If Ning Cheng was a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, it also almost guaranteed that Ning Cheng had opened the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.
Jing Han’s face turned even more gloomy. If Ning Cheng was an ordinary Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor, even if he was a pill deity, it wouldn’t have mattered if he vanished.
But now that Ning Cheng turned out to be a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, he or his Great Spirit Pill Sect wouldn’t dare to say that they could take out someone like him.
Just how many Dao Transformation Pill Sages were there in the Grand Essence Realm in total? But more importantly, every Dao Transformation Pill Sage was equivalent to a major force. His Great Spirit Pill Sect dared to boast of its ambition to enter the top ten only because it had him, a Dao Transformation Pill Sage.
“Ning Cheng is a rogue cultivator, yet he’s actually a Dao Transformation Pill Sage?” She Tianhe stared at Ning Cheng in shock. Even her usually expressionless face lit up in surprise.
What the 9-Revolutions Sacred Sect lacked were powerful alchemists. They could disregard Ning Cheng being a rogue cultivator, but he also was a powerful Dao Transformation Pill Sage. It would be strange if she didn’t feel shocked.
Sitting beside Shi Tianhe was a woman with a few wrinkles on her face. After Ning Cheng took out the Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token, she turned her head somewhat suspiciously to look at Shi Tianhe. “Tianhe, why is it that a rogue cultivator who is a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, not known to my 9-Revolutions Sacred Dao Pond until now?”
Shi Tianhe quickly gave a respectful bow and said, “Senior Aunt Daofu, this person has always liked to conceal his skills. Not to mention us, even Le Xichen, who is fighting with him, shouldn’t have known that he is a Dao Transformation Pill Sage.”
The woman addressed as Senior Aunt Daofu nodded; Shi Tianhe was right. If Le Xichen knew that Ning Cheng was a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, he definitely wouldn’t have used Pill Union’s qualification tokens to compete.
“Tianhe, invite this person to my 9-Revolutions Sacred Dao Pond, even if it has to cost something…..”
Even though her Senior Aunt Daofu didn’t continue, Shi Tianhe already understood what she meant and gave a respectful reply. “Yes, Senior Aunt. I understand.”
……
After Cen Ruxuan from the Profound Aquatic Palace saw Ning Cheng take out the Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token, she took a deep breath. Ning Cheng indeed was a Dao Transformation Pill Sage.
“Aunt Xuan, I finally understand why you went to great lengths to make us meet.” The woman with the veiled face sitting next to Cen Ruxuan suddenly spoke up.
Cen Ruxuan shook her head. Whether you understood or not, it’s useless to talk about it now. This person clearly wasn’t even half-interested in her beauty schemes. Besides, he even has a stunning beauty right beside him.
“Maybe I can talk to him after the Alchemy Discourse.” The woman with the veiled face took the initiative to speak up when she saw that Cen Ruxuan didn’t say anything.
Cen Ruxuan sighed, “Yue Shu, you don’t need to force yourself. It’s useless to talk to him about it again.”
Although she spoke consolingly, she understood that Ning Cheng didn’t care about Yue Shu’s beauty, so she politely told Yue Shu not to beat herself up.
However, the woman called Yue Shu showed a faint smile. “I know people like him very well. Especially those like him with wavering stances, love of appearances, and vanity. But, even I have to admit, he does have some skills.”
She thought she read Ning Cheng very well; Ning Cheng saw the wind and changed his face quickly. He also liked to be in the limelight. Such people were just too easy for her to deal with. She felt 90% sure that Ning Cheng would be submissive, work for her Profound Aquatic Palace, and still not touch be able to touch even a single finger of hers.
……
There were also two men sitting next to Void Star Sect’s Percy. One was as thin as a skeleton and gave an impression of a feeble old man. The other had a dark face and a pair of lopsided but very slender eyes hanging below his forehead that gave him an uncoordinated look.
After seeing Ning Cheng take out the Dao Transformation Pill Sage’s qualification token, the dark-faced man with uncoordinated eyes spoke up in a deep voice. “Percy, you do have a pair of good eyes. This person actually is a Dao Transformation Pill Sage.”
Percy quickly spoke up. “Sect Master, Ning Cheng is a very bright and open person. He agreed to help us refine that pill because he and I have a similar temperament. I only hope for one thing; even if he fails the refinement, I hope that the sect doesn’t hold him accountable. Otherwise, I will be too ashamed to keep on living.”
The dark-faced man showed a faint smile, “Don’t worry about it; I won’t hurt him if he failed to refine the pills.”
‘Hurt’ wasn’t the same as ‘holding him accountable’. In other words, it was perfectly okay for them to kill the alchemist. The Void Star Sect had lost a Dao Essence Holy Emperor for the sake of gathering the primary ingredients for the Renewing Heaven Ripple Bone Pill. If Ning Cheng dared to fail in refining the pills, he would have to pay with his life.
Even if you, Percy, vouched for him and put your life at risk to save him, it wouldn’t matter.
Unfortunately, Percy had no idea about the hidden implications of those words. In his opinion, the Sect Master was a man of his word. After all, the Sect Master had never lied or deceived anyone, at least not in Percy’s memory.
Ning Cheng didn’t know this either. But with Ning Cheng’s temperament, if someone dared to threaten him with his life to refine pills, he would have spat at their faces. So what if you were the Sect Master of the Void Star Sect? If I don’t want to refine, I won’t refine no matter what. The universe is vast; I don’t believe you can find me.
Even if he got caught and forced to refine the pills, he would still think of every way to tamper with any pills he had to refine.
……
“You’re also a Dao Transformation Pill Sage?” Sometimes people were like this, only wanting to look at superficial t.i.tles, not caring whether they faced immortals or ordinary people. It was just an ingrained disposition. Lei Xichen no longer held any half-hearted intention of looking down on Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng casually put away the qualification tokens. “The Alchemy Discourse will become meaningless if you want to go with these. Since I came here to challenge you, I thought you might come up with some practical questions. After all, you could pick three topics of your choosing, and as long as I lose one, you win. You’ve already used up two chances, but you still have one more. Do you want to continue?”
Le Xichen took a deep breath, put his qualification tokens away and spoke to Ning Cheng cautiously. “This last round, we will compete in refining pills, and I will go first. If anything is missing, I hope Pill Sage Ning can help me correct it.”
Le Xichen raised his hand and brought out a dark red pill furnace as he spoke. Then with a wave of the same hand, a spirit herb suddenly materialised in front of him suspended above it. Since Le Xichen chose to refine a pill, he naturally had to let other people’s spiritual consciousness view precisely which spirit herbs he wanted to use. It also gave people the chance to guess which pill he would refine. After all, refining pills was another form of refutation.
“Dragon Soul Fruit? Will he refine a pill with this Dao Transformation Dao Fruit?” The alchemists below the stage immediately recognised the conspicuous dao fruit Le Xichen had taken out.
“This dao fruit contains a hint of the true dragon soul intent. But it’s unclear and breaks at the slightest touch, making it even more difficult to refine it into a pill. Pill Sage Le truly is bold to use such a dao fruit to refine a pill in public.”
As soon as Le Xichen took out the Dragon Soul Fruit, not only did people recognise it, some even stated its characteristics.
Jing Han also frowned slightly. Le Xichen didn’t use his full strength during the previous alchemic refutation round. After all, even he couldn’t use the Dragon Soul Fruit to refine a pill. Wait, using the Dragon Soul Fruit to create a pill? Le Xichen couldn’t possibly be trying to refine the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill, is he? Does he really have that ability?
Broken Sky Spirit Flower? Jing Han’s face turned gloomy when he saw the spirit flower. At this moment, he felt sure that Le Xichen wanted to refine the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill. Since Le Xichen dared to refine the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill, it meant that he had enough confidence to see it through.
Jing Han had always thought of himself as the strongest Dao Transformation Pill Sage. But then Dou Jiangshi crushed him without any effort, which made him feel a bubbling rage within his heart. Now it seemed that even Le Xichen’s alchemic attainments had surpa.s.sed him. It would genuinely be a strange event if he felt happy after receiving so many blows to his pride.
“Broken Sky Spirit Flower? Pill Sage Le wants to refine the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill…….” The alchemists in the public square immediately identified what pill Le Xichen wanted to refine. It was none other than the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill.
Listing out the ten most challenging-to-refine Dao Transformation Dao Pills, the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill would definitely be listed among them. This pill required two types of law-infused spirit herbs. A Dao Transformation Dao Fruit, the Dragon Soul Fruit, and a law-infused spirit gra.s.s, Broken Sky Spirit Flower.
Purple Heaven Pills were the most popular and well-known Dao Transformation Dao Pills. But the Purple Heaven Pill was barely even a tenth as challenging as refining the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill.
After all, the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pills was the only dao pill that helped Dao Transformation and below Holy Emperors to further enhance their meridians. This pill can remove the dao intent impurities clogging the meridians, fortify the meridian’s carrying capacity, and even strengthen their dao foundation.
As long as a pill could strengthen a Holy Emperor’s dao foundation, they all would have sky-high prices. But even more importantly, besides the listed effects and uses, it also gave Holy Emperors a better shot at reaching the Dao Essence Realm.
When Ning Cheng looked at the spirit herbs that Le Xichen took out, he also understood that Le Xichen wanted to refine the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill. It caused Ning Cheng to frown. It wasn’t that he couldn’t match up to Le Xichen, but that he didn’t have any spirit herbs of equal or better value than the ones Le Xichen took out. Looks like the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill was Le Xichen’s trump card. He hadn’t used it before because he had no opponents that could force him to use it.
Ning Cheng had a few other Dao Transformation Dao Fruits and could refine quite a few dao pills. Unfortunately, they couldn’t compare to the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pills.
Thinking of other Dao Transformation Dao Pills at the same level or more difficult to refine, Ning Cheng suddenly recalled his conversation with Percy. Percy had asked him to refine a Renewing Heaven Ripple Bone Pill batch, a pill even more challenging to refine than the Supreme Essence Arterial Pulse Pill. After all, the Renewing Heaven Ripple Bone Pill could easily rank among the top three most difficult to refine dao pills.
But the problem was, he hadn’t received the ingredients for the Renewing Heaven Ripple Bone Pill yet. What should he do?