An investigation jade slip was placed on Mu Xue’s desk. Mu Xue glanced at the jade slip roughly and said, “That guy is indeed an alchemist.”
“This person appeared recently and has not registered with the Alchemists Association. If he wants to do something in Pill Capital as an alchemist, he will definitely go to the Alchemists Association to register. Miss, just keep an eye on any movement at the Alchemists Association.” Qi Zhaolin said.
Mu Xue nodded and said, “En.”
Although Qi Zhaolin was Mu Xue’s confidant, Mu Xue didn’t tell Qi Zhaolin about the wood-heart flame. She suspected that Ye Fan had a teleportation token, so she didn’t tell him.
Mu Xue narrowed her eyes, and a cold light flashed in her eyes.
Although there were not many teleportation tokens for the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm, they were definitely not too few. Several times when she wanted to act, she was a step late. Mu Xue suspected that something was wrong with the people around her, and someone was preventing her from getting the teleportation token.
There was a lot of noise about her Mu family’s ancestor in the outside world. Many forces were ready to take action, and these internal and external troubles had worn on her.
…
The business of Ye Fan’s talisman store was not bad. If they just wanted to make a living, it was enough.
Bai Yunxi held his chin thoughtfully.
Ye Fan looked at Bai Yunxi and said, “Yunxi, what are you thinking about?”
Bai Yunxi glanced at Ye Fan and said, “I’m thinking of the lady from Hundred Flames House.”
Ye Fan frowned in displeasure and said, “Yunxi, what are you thinking about that dead girl for! You seem to be thinking about that dead girl a lot lately!”
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and said, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you won’t be in danger in a hundred battles! I think, if we want to enter the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm, that woman is a formidable enemy.”
Ye Fan blinked and said, “Really?”
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “Of course.”
Mu Xue was also a single spiritual root cultivator, and her aptitude was very good. Bai Yunxi heard rumors that Mu Xue could already try to form a golden core, but she deliberately suppressed her cultivation. It was rumored the reason why she suppressed her cultivation and didn’t try to form a golden core was for the heavenly fire in the secret realm.
If this woman formed a golden core in the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm, no one would be her opponent in the secret realm.
All the forces seemed to be very afraid of this woman. It happened that the old monster of the Mu family who was in the peak* stage of Golden Core was in retreat, and the Mu family had no leader. Therefore, the forces of all parties had a tacit understanding and did not let this woman obtain a teleportation token.
“Shopkeeper, I want one hundred meditation talismans.”
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “Okay.”
The alchemist apprentice bought the meditation talismans and walked away with the meditation talismans calmly.
Ye Fan held his chin and said, “The people in this place are really rich. An alchemist apprentice can casually spend a thousand spirit stones to buy talismans.”
Bai Yunxi glanced at Ye Fan and said, “The meditation talismans are almost sold out. You can draw some more.”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Okay, I understand.”
…
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ye Fan stayed in the backyard to draw talismans, while the Taotie ghost rolled lazily on the side.
“I say, you can’t do this.” The Taotie ghost said.
Ye Fan glanced at Ao Xiaobao and asked, “Why not?”
“You were so frightened by that girl, you changed your face and are hiding here in a talisman store. It’s too useless. Fight her, fight her.” The Taotie ghost said.
Ye Fan gave the Taotie ghost a displeased look, and said, “What do you know? My wife said it’s better to do less than to do more. This is called feigning clumsiness. All big people are like this.”
The Taotie ghost rolled his eyes and said disdainfully, “You have a strict wife.”
…
Bai Yunxi looked at the list in his hand. It had been two months since Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi came to Pill Capital. After two months of buffering, their net worth increased a lot.
Bai Yunxi was planning. It was time to buy the auxiliary herbs for Ye Fan.
Bai Yunxi split up several auxiliary herbs and planned to buy them at different stores. In order to hide from the public, Bai Yunxi added some other herbs to the list and planned to buy them together.
“Yellow dawn grass is gone?” Bai Yunxi couldn’t help but frown as he asked.
“It’s unfortunate that the customer came now. Two months ago, a customer bought all the yellow dawn grass in our store. I heard that it has also been sold out in several other medicinal material stores in Pill Capital.”
Bai Yunxi smiled reluctantly and said, “Yellow dawn grass is not a particularly precious herb. How could it all be sold out?”
“I don’t know! It might be for other purposes. If customer needs it, we should replenish our stock in two days.” The owner of the store said enthusiastically.
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “Okay.”
When Bai Yunxi walked out of the store, he felt a cultivator’s soul power sweep over him. However, the man swept around for a bit and then withdrew his soul power.
…
Ye Fan, who was drawing talismans in the backyard, saw Bai Yunxi coming back, raised his head and asked, “Did you buy it?”
Bai Yunxi said with a gloomy expression, “Most of the medicinal materials are available, but yellow dawn grass is out of stock everywhere. I think that Miss Mu Xue is behind this.”
Ye Fan nodded and said sullenly, “This stinky girl is full of bad water. It’s hard to deal with!”
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and said, “Will it be troublesome without yellow dawn grass?”
Ye Fan shook his head and said, “No, I know 18 different formulations of auxiliary herbs for absorbing the wood-heart flame. 11 of them need to use yellow dawn grass, and 7 of them don’t. Let’s just change the formula.”
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “That’s good. Then you can give me another formula.”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Okay.”
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and asked, “Where are you going to absorb the wood-heart flame? I heard that there will be a lot of noise in the process of fusing a fire seed. Shall we go to the outskirts?”
Ye Fan shook his head and said, “I thought of a place.”
“Where?” Bai Yunxi asked.
“Fire room.”
“There is a fire vein in the east of Pill Capital, and there are many fire rooms built on it. Many alchemists and weapon refiners who do not have fire seeds will use the flames in the fire room to concoct alchemy and refine tools*. The flame breath of the wood-heart flame should be covered up by the flame in the fire room. Even if the breath leaks out, it doesn’t matter.” Ye Fan said.
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “Oh, it sounds like a good place.”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Indeed. It seems a little expensive.”
Bai Yunxi smiled helplessly and said, “This money cannot be saved.”
…
Fire rooms were divided into three levels: A, B, and C. The A-level fire room was 100,000 spirit stones per month, the B-level fire room was 10,000 spirit stones per month, and the C-level fire room was 1,000 spirit stones per month.
Ye Fan spent ten thousand spirit stones to rent a B-level fire room.
Ye Fan looked at Bai Yunxi and said, “Spirit stones are spent so quickly.”
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “That’s right! You need money for everything you do.”
Bai Yunxi took a deep breath and secretly thought: If there was a chance, they still needed to make more money. Spirit stones were not enough to spend.
The fire room rented for 10,000 spirit stones a month was very spacious. The fire room had two rooms. One room had a fire outlet, which could be used to draw out the earth fire. The other room was a lounge. On the table in the lounge, there were a few plates of fresh spiritual fruit.
The safety of the fire room was also guaranteed. Whoever attacked a fire room would be regarded as provoking the landlord who rented out the fire rooms.
Ye Fan took out his alchemy furnace, and combined the earth core flame flower and several auxiliary herbs into medicinal liquid. After the medicinal liquid was refined, Ye Fan carefully collected the medicinal liquid for later use.
Ye Fan took out the crystal box containing the wood-heart flame.
The wood-heart flame turned pale green, and the flame was shaped like a tree.
With a single move, Ye Fan separated a small group of flames and introduced them into his dantian. As soon as the flames entered his dantian, it bared its teeth and claws and tried to break free. Ye Fan’s soul power turned into a tiger, roared, and the flames became quiet.
The flames melted into his body, and Ye Fan felt like a stove was installed in his dantian, and his whole body was a little uncomfortable. Ye Fan reached for the medicinal liquid on one side and took some.
The medicinal liquid was hot, but it felt icy cold after taking it. After taking a little medicinal liquid, Ye Fan felt a lot better. After the medicinal liquid and the flame fused, the restless flame became docile.
After branding his soul mark on this flame, Ye Fan drew another ray of wood-heart flame and continued to fuse it.
It took Ye Fan nearly ten days to fuse the wood-heart flame. With the wood-heart flame, Ye Fan’s strength increased a lot. However, it was still a step away from the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
Ye Fan thought that he had already paid one month’s rent. Even if he went out early, the owner of the fire room would not refund him, so Ye Fan simply stayed in the fire room for a month.
When Bai Yunxi and Ye Fan went out, a piece of news caused a stir.
The wood-heart flame was a shortcut to get the flame of life.
As soon as the news came out, the price of the wood-heart flame on the market was smashed to sky-high prices, but there was no stock at all.
After the news spread, the people looking for Ye Fan were not only Mu Xue from Hundred Flames House, but also more powerful cultivators. However, Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi did a good job of laying low in order to hide from Mu Xue. Although many people were looking for them, the two had not yet been found.
A few days ago, Mu Xue went out to look for the teleportation token, but was accidentally plotted against. The news regarding the wood-heart flame also leaked out unexpectedly.
Ye Fan blinked and said, “This woman is too careless.”
Bai Yunxi took a deep breath and said, “She seems to have been betrayed by the people around her…”
“Hmph, this woman may be too mean, so she was betrayed.” Ye Fan said with schadenfreude.
Bai Yunxi: “…”
“Mu Xue is missing,” Bai Yunxi said.
Golden Core cultivators generally lived to be five hundred years old. Some died young at four hundred years old, and those who knew how to maintain good health could live to more than six hundred years old. The old monster of the Mu family went into seclusion when he was 450 years old. He had heard that he had been in seclusion for 30 years, so he should be 480 years old now.
If was very possible he had already passed away in seclusion. Hundred Flames House’s family had a big business. If that old monster had passed away, even though Mu Xue was a spiritual-level alchemist, she couldn’t keep Hundred Flames House’s huge family business.
…
Two months later, Bai Yunxi also entered the middle stage of Foundation Establishment after cultivating step by step.
A few days after Bai Yunxi entered the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, another piece of news came out.
Mu Xue was seriously injured and returned to the clan. Several cultivators chased her to the outskirts of the Mu family’s land, alarming the old monster who was in retreat in the Mu family.
The old monster from the Mu family left seclusion and slaughtered the cultivators who were chasing Mu Xue. The whole valley was stained with blood, and all the forces who had secretly dealt with Hundred Flames House were in danger.
After that, the old monster from the Mu family took Mu Xue to find a medium-sized force that had obtained a teleportation token, and spent a sum of spirit stones to exchange the teleportation token with that force.
An old man stood on top of the mountain behind the Mu family’s house.
The old man’s aura was astonishing, and he looked vigorous, not like a dying person at all.
“Ancestor, Mu Xue is incompetent, and the tired old ancestor has to go out and plan for me, delaying the big event of the ancestor.” Mu Xue said with some sadness.
Mu Hong’s retreat back then was for the purpose of advancing to Nascent Soul. Forming a nascent soul was no simple matter. Now that the retreat had been interrupted, Mu Hong’s hope of advancing to Nascent Soul was completely ruined.
If Mu Hong could successfully advance to Nascent Soul, then he would be able to add another 1,500 years of life in an instant. If there was no accident, Hundred Flames House would be safe for another thousand years, but unfortunately…
Except for Mu Hong, the Mu family had no other Golden Core cultivators. Once Mu Hong passed away, Hundred Flames House’s huge family fortune would only be a danger to the Mu family.
Mu Hong waved his hand and said, “It’s none of your business. It’s fate. In the final analysis, I do not have the fate of Nascent Soul. I have been in retreat for more than 30 years, and my cultivation base has not made any progress at all. This shows that I am not blessed. The Mu family will depend on you in the future. With your qualifications, Mu Xue, you should be able to advance to Nascent Soul in the future.”
Mu Xue bit her lip and said, “I’m still a long way off.”
Although she was a single spiritual root cultivator, most of the single spiritual root cultivators in this world died before they could advance to Nascent Soul. There were too many accidents during the cultivation journey.
***
T/N: I do feel bad for Mu Xue (even though she’s clearly plotted against our main characters) – it’s tough to face enemies both inside and outside and have no one you can trust.
*This was late stage Golden Core in the raws, but I’ve changed it to peak stage to be consistent with the rest of the story.
*So I’ve been waiting for this chapter to complain about the author’s lack of explanation for how Ye Fan refined pills before this… especially on earth when he only had regular fire lol. So obviously not every alchemist has a fire seed as you either encounter one by chance or you buy one and not everyone can afford it (some cultivators with special physiques can also sometimes nurture and give birth to their own flame). Refining in a fire room makes sense if you don’t have your own flame, but what about when you’re traveling or don’t have access to a fire vein? In most cultivation novels, you can’t use regular fire to refine pills and there are usually two options: 1. A fire gathering formation is inscribed on the alchemy furnace that creates spiritual fire; or 2. The alchemist uses fire stones mined from a fire vein. The author did mention pill fire before and it’s mentioned again in future chapters, so I guess that’s what Ye Fan uses for alchemy when he doesn’t have anything else, but she never explains where that comes from or how they obtained it…
