Situ Jiaojiao took the mortar and pestle handed over by Ye Fan and used the pestle to crush the copper sand.
Situ Jiaojiao often used copper sand, but all the copper sand she came into contact with in the past had already been processed. As a spiritual-level talisman master, her time was very valuable. There were a lot of talisman master apprentices in the Talisman Masters Association, so naturally it was not her responsibility to do this kind of material processing work.
“Why is this thing so hard?!” Situ Jiaojiao said in displeasure.
“That’s why you have to grind it slowly! It must be ground into powder. Senior’s requirements are very high. If the materials don’t meet the standard, he will beat you. Material processing is not as simple as you think. Not every talisman master can process talisman materials.” Ye Fan sighed, obviously disdainful of the princess’s poor handling methods.
Situ Jiaojiao bit her lip and glared at Ye Fan unwillingly.
Situ Jiaojiao ground for a while, but there was still no change in the copper sand, and a lot of coarse grains had settled at the bottom.
Ye Fan glanced at Situ Jiaojiao and said, “Your speed is too slow. If you keep going at this speed, you will be scolded by Senior.”
Situ Jiaojiao said a little unhappily, “This thing is very difficult to handle! Did you choose a difficult one for me to do? You deliberately made it difficult for me!”
Ye Fan shook his head and said, “No way! That one is easy. You get out of the way. I’ll do it.”
Situ Jiaojiao put down the pestle, and Ye Fan took the pestle and crushed the copper sand into powder within a short amount of time.
Situ Jiaojiao sensed a steady flow of spiritual power falling evenly on the copper sand, crushing all the copper sand.
“Look, it’s not that I’m making things difficult for you. It’s that you’re not good enough!” Ye Fan said.
Situ Jiaojiao said with displeasure, “I’m just inexperienced. It’s usually not my responsibility to do such menial tasks.”
Ye Fan snorted softly and said, “That’s right! This kind of menial task is not suitable for you. You should study the talisman diagram.”
…
Situ Jiaojiao came for a while, and Wang Chenxiao also came.
“Your Highness, you are here again! Making it easy for me to find you.” Wang Chenxiao walked in and smiled.
Situ Jiaojiao glanced at Wang Chenxiao impatiently and said coldly, “Why are you staring at me all day long and not studying the talisman diagram?”
Situ Jiaojiao had high vision and looked down on Wang Chenxiao’s half-hearted talisman ability. After arriving here, Wang Chenxiao often flirted with Situ Jiaojiao, which made Situ Jiaojiao very impatient.
Situ Jiaojiao was very popular. Her arrogant and brutal temperament did not stop cultivators from being enthusiastic about her. Many talented cultivators were used to seeing people who were submissive and gentle, and they liked someone who was so brutal and arrogant. The more unreasonable Situ Jiaojiao was, the more it aroused some cultivators’ desire to conquer.
Wang Chenxiao was very unhappy living in this place. However, Wang Chenxiao was also secretly glad that Situ Jiaojiao’s other suitors were not here. As time went by, Situ Jiaojiao had to accept him sooner or later. As for Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi, Wang Chenxiao didn’t take them seriously.
What Wang Chenxiao didn’t expect was that under such circumstances, Situ Jiaojiao was still not willing to accept him. She would rather hang out with two loose cultivators than be with him. Wang Chenxiao suffered a big blow.
Bai Yunxi looked at Wang Chenxiao and frowned.
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.
Compared with Princess Jiaojiao, Bai Yunxi was more wary of this person.
Uglcmfrr Aljbpljb kjr nfgs afwqfgjwfcaji jcv fnfgsatlcu kjr kglaafc bc tfg ojmf. Lbkfnfg, Qjcu Jtfczljb kjr vloofgfca. Qjcu Jtfczljb tjv yffc fcmbegjulcu tlw jcv Tf Mjc ab frmjqf klat tlw jcv qgbwlrfv j iba bo yfcfolar. Djl Teczl xcfk nfgs kfii atja atlr ues ibbxfv vbkc bc tlw jcv Tf Mjc vffq vbkc. Ktf gfjrbc tf kjr agslcu ab klc atfw bnfg kjr pera ab erf tlw jcv Tf Mjc jr mjccbc obvvfg.
If he and Ye Fan were just ordinary loose cultivators, they should have teamed up with Wang Chenxiao.
Bai Yunxi looked at Princess Jiaojiao, then at Wang Chenxiao, and thought secretly: Wang Chenxiao seemed to regard Ye Fan as his love rival, but thinking about it, Princess Jiaojiao did seem to have a better attitude toward Ye Fan than toward Wang Chenxiao.
People were like this. Princess Jiaojiao had been surrounded by people who obeyed her words since she was a child. Now that Ye Fan acted completely different from those people, it was inevitable that she would find it novel.
Ye Fan casually took out a pill and took it.
Wang Chenxiao glanced at Ye Fan and said, “Fellow Daoist Fan, are you taking the True Essence Pill?”
Ye Fan glanced at Wang Chenxiao and said, “Yes!”
True Essence Pill was a kind of pill suitable for Foundation Establishment cultivators. It was very expensive. However, it was nothing to Ye Fan. When he was in the secret realm, Ye Fan collected a lot of spoils from other cultivators and used the spiritual herbs to refine a bunch of medicinal pills.
Ye Fan’s spiritual roots were not very good. If he wanted to advance, he needed to rely on eating a lot of pills. Since he was trying to advance as quickly as possible, he had to take pills and cultivate at the same time.
There was an abnormal fire* in Ye Fan’s body, so the pill poison* remaining in his body could be burned with heavenly fire without any worries.
Ye Fan picked up the medicinal pill as if he was eating candy.
Wang Chenxiao frowned. The True Essence Pill was suitable for Foundation Establishment cultivators. There was no resistance and the pill could be used repeatedly. The effect was very good and the price remained high. This thing couldn’t necessarily be bought with money. The major sects that could refine this medicinal pill only reserved this medicinal pill for their disciples. Wang Chenxiao subconsciously thought that this medicinal pill was given to Ye Fan by Princess Jiaojiao.
“Fellow Daoist Fan is blessed! You can receive medicinal pills from the princess,” Wang Chenxiao said enviously.
Ye Fan glanced at Wang Chenxiao and said, “This medicinal pill is my own. The princess is so stingy that she wouldn’t give me medicinal pills.”
Princess Jiaojiao looked at Ye Fan with dissatisfaction and said, “Bastard, who are you calling stingy?”
Ye Fan curled his lips and said, “Are you going to give me spirit stones?”
“Why should I give you spirit stones? You haven’t given me anything!” Princess Jiaojiao said with displeasure.
“You ate my roasted meat.”
Princess Jiaojiao said, “You want to cheat my spirit stones with just a little roasted meat. You’re dreaming…”
Although Situ Jiaojiao was arrogant and raised as a arrogant person, she was not completely stupid. Being confined in this place, she didn’t know when she would be able to replenish her supply of spirit stones and medicinal pills. If she could use less, she tried to use less. Of course Situ Jiaojiao wouldn’t give cultivation resources away to others casually.
Ye Fan: “…”
…
Pill Capital.
Lin Mo walked in Pill Capital and said calmly, “There have been fewer people coming to find Ye Fan recently.”
Luo Dieyi nodded and said, “It has been almost two months. Many people think that Ye Fan has left Pill Capital. However, there are also many people who think that Ye Fan is still hiding in Pill Capital, waiting for the wind to die down and then leave.”
Lin Mo put his hands behind his back and said, “There has been no news from Ye Fan for so long. I think he must have found a place to hide.”
Luo Dieyi nodded and said, “That’s right.” The major sects wanted to divide up the good things on Ye Fan, but it seemed that it wouldn’t be so easy.
Lin Mo and Luo Dieyi walked outside Pill Capital and saw many bounty images hanging on the city walls of Pill Capital.
Ye Fan’s bounty had surpassed Sheng Zhihao’s, who was originally first place, and become first place on the bounty list.
Most of Sheng Zhihao’s bounty was posted by Tianyi Sect, but Ye Fan was a fat sheep in the eyes of all sects. Every force wanted to get a piece. There were nearly a hundred large and small forces offering bounties for Ye Fan’s whereabouts. Ye Fan had become public enemy number one. Any force that didn’t offer a bounty seemed suspicious.
“Alchemist Ye is worth so much!” Lin Mo said.
Luo Dieyi nodded and said, “Yes!”
“Sheng Zhihao’s reward has increased again.” Originally, only Tianyi Sect offered a bounty for Sheng Zhihao’s whereabouts. However, because Sheng Zhihao kidnapped Princess Jiaojiao of the Situ royal family, the Situ royal family also issued a bounty. However, the bounty issued by the Situ royal family seemed to be a bit small.
“Princess Jiaojiao is missing. I don’t think the Situ royal family is anxious!” Luo Dieyi said.
Lin Mo said calmly, “There is nothing to be anxious about.”
Although the president of the Talisman Masters Association had superb talisman skills, most talisman masters knew that there was a person in the world whose level of talisman skills far surpassed that of the president. That person was precisely Sheng Zhihao, the remnant of the Divine Talisman Sect.
Before the demise of the Divine Talisman Sect, it was famous for its talisman arts. Sheng Zhihao used heaven-level talismans to stop the Nascent Soul cultivator that chased him and successfully escaped, which was also discussed in private for a long time.
When Sheng Zhihao captured Princess Jiaojiao, he said that he needed an assistant. It would be great if Princess Jiaojiao learned how to make heaven-level talismans from Sheng Zhihao. Even if something unexpected happened, the Situ royal family was not short of talented cultivators and wouldn’t miss this delicate princess.
The ancestor of the Situ royal family was naturally willing to take this risk.
However, Sheng Zhihao had a feud with the Tianyi Sect. Although the Situ royal family was happy that the princess had been captured, it still had to act like a victim and conduct a symbolic search for Situ Jiaojiao’s whereabouts.
…
After Princess Jiaojiao came the first time, she became a frequent visitor to the materials room. Ye Fan originally wanted to practice dual cultivation with Bai Yunxi, but with a light bulb breaking in at any time, Bai Yunxi was certainly not happy to practice dual cultivation with Ye Fan.
In desperation, Ye Fan simply completed all the tasks and hid in the cave residence next to the materials room instead of going to the materials room.
In order to prevent Situ Jiaojiao from trespassing, Ye Fan hung a flag at the door of the cave residence that idlers were not allowed to enter.
Princess Jiaojiao was very angry at Ye Fan’s attitude of rejecting people.
“These two damn bastards,” Situ Jiaojiao said with displeasure.
“Princess, why bother with those two loose cultivators? They are just two ignorant guys.”
Princess Jiaojiao kicked away the stone blocking the road at her feet. “Those two bastards, seeing that this princess is down and out, they think this princess is easy to bully. When this princess leaves this hellish place, I’ll show them.”
“Your Highness, you value those two loose cultivators too much.” Wang Chenxiao couldn’t help but say.
Situ Jiaojiao frowned and said, “What do you know? That Fan Ye has talent in the talisman arts, and a very terrifying talent at that.”
Wang Chenxiao said in confusion, “No way, most of the talismans learned by loose cultivators are made according to copying existing talismans. They are just imitating without understanding the principles at all.”
Wang Chenxiao was a little shocked in his heart. Princess Jiaojiao had extremely high vision and didn’t even take the elders in the association seriously. This was the first time Wang Chenxiao had heard Situ Jiaojiao describe a person as terrifying.
Situ Jiaojiao nodded and said, “Indeed, most loose cultivators are like this. Fan Ye has a bunch of the daily drafts from Senior. Those things are also very profound, but they are easier to understand than a talisman drawing with only half left. I borrowed some from him to look at.”
Situ Jiaojiao originally wanted to take away all the drafts from Senior. In Situ Jiaojiao’s view, even if they were left in Ye Fan’s hands, Ye Fan couldn’t understand these things anyway. As a result, Ye Fan scolded her, so she took a step back and just borrowed them for a look.
“At that time, I accidentally mixed up the drafts when I took them. Among those drafts, there were several drafts by Fan Ye,” Situ Jiaojiao said.
In fact, Situ Jiaojiao did this on purpose. Situ Jiaojiao happened to see Ye Fan drawing talisman diagrams there in a serious manner, and felt that Ye Fan was just pretending, so she pretended to be confused and brought back some of Ye Fan’s talisman drafts.
After Situ Jiaojiao took these back and looked at them, she discovered that the talisman diagrams drawn by Fan Ye seemed to have some substance.
“A few days ago, the old monster came to my cave residence to inquire about my progress. He happened to see a few diagrams drawn by Fan Ye, so he took them away and said that I did a good job.”
Situ Jiaojiao bit her lip, feeling a little guilty.
Sheng Zhihao was very excited when he saw the diagrams and asked her if she had drawn them. As if possessed, Situ Jiaojiao said that she had. Sheng Zhihao was very satisfied and told her to keep up her work and his attitude toward her was much better. Situ Jiaojiao was happy. Besides that, there was always a feeling of trepidation.
After Wang Chenxiao heard Situ Jiaojiao’s words, his face was calm, but his heart was filled with emotions.
Before Situ Jiaojiao came to the Talisman Masters Association, Wang Chenxiao was considered the number one among the younger generation of talisman masters in the association. After Situ Jiaojiao came, Wang Chenxiao’s light was overshadowed by Situ Jiaojiao.
Wang Chenxiao always comforted himself that being compared to someone with a natural talisman physique was no big deal. It was a matter of talent.
Wang Chenxiao didn’t expect that the bodyguard Situ Jiaojiao temporarily recruited would actually have talent in the field of talismans. Moreover, even Situ Jiaojiao admired his talent for talismans. Wang Chenxiao finally understood the reason why Situ Jiaojiao kept looking for Ye Fan all the time recently.
Wang Chenxiao knew that Sheng Zhihao often asked Situ Jiaojiao about her progress. However, after asking him once, he stopped asking. Wang Chenxiao felt that Sheng Zhihao might have seen through his level and knew that he was only a mysterious-level talisman master and completely unworthy of his false reputation, so he was simply too lazy to talk to him.
“This Fan Ye and Xi Yun are indeed not like ordinary loose cultivators,” Wang Chenxiao said.
Wang Chenxiao secretly thought: Situ Jiaojiao had a Nascent Soul ancestor above her. Ordinary loose cultivators would have long tried to ingratiate themselves with her. If there was a chance to leave, with a relationship with Situ Jiaojiao, they could naturally rise to prominence. However, these two people didn’t take Situ Jiaojiao seriously at all. Of course, it was also possible that they were playing hard to get.
***
T/N: wtf… this stupid princess acted so arrogant before and kept saying she was a genius, yet she has no shame at all in stealing and claiming someone else’s work as her own. I was afraid this would happen.
*In previous chapters, the author aways used 天火 (tianhuo), heavenly fire, but here (and in future chapters) she often uses 异火 (yihuo), abnormal/different/strange fire. I believe she changed the term because there are other fires introduced later on that are also very special and rare, but are not heavenly fires. Heavenly fire is a type of abnormal fire (it is ranked in the list of abnormal fires; I believe what was written in Chapter 197 that the flame of life is ranked fifth on the list of heavenly fires is a typo – it should be ranked fifth on the list of abnormal fires). And in Chapter 198 where the author says the three categories of fires are heavenly, earth and beast fires, it should be abnormal (including heavenly fires), earth and beast. Honestly, I thought about changing abnormal fire to heavenly fire so it would be less confusing, but that seems counter to the author’s intentions so I will just translate whatever is in the raws. Just try to remember for future chapters that heavenly fire and abnormal fire are basically the same thing and used interchangeably.
*丹毒 (dan du) – literally pill poison. In cultivation novels, you cannot take pills endlessly without side effects. The most important of these is pill poison, which is basically the build up of residual pill medicine that the body cannot digest/absorb. Once it accumulates in the body too much, it is considered a poison (like the cold poison from Ice Sword Island that came from staying in a cold area too long; there are many types of poison in cultivation novels). Heavenly fire can dissolve these impurities/residual substances, just like heavenly lightning.
I hate the princess, and the wang guy is annoying, cant wait to be rid of them honestly