Chapter 38: Guilt Tripping
In fact, Han Yuanshan could not be blamed for being so shocked.
One had to know that the "demon king" was not a simple title. It was also a synonym for strength.
The status of a demon king among the demons was equivalent to a Core Formation Stage cultivator among the cultivators.
Small demons, great demons, demon kings, great demon kings...
These titles corresponded to the cultivators' Qi Cultivation Stage, Foundation Establishment Stage, Core Formation Stage, and Nascent Soul Stage.
To obtain a demon king's blood essence, either the demon king offered it, or one would have to kill the demon king and take it for themselves.
It was not an easy task to kill a demon king who had a cultivation base of over a thousand years.
After all, at the same cultivation stage, the strength of a demon was generally far superior to an ordinary cultivator.
This was because when compared to cultivators of the same cultivation stage, not only were the bodies of demons much stronger, but their demonic powers were also much stronger.
Therefore, cultivators who could kill demons of the same stage were almost all geniuses.
That being said, if Han Yuanshan wanted to obtain the demon king's blood essence, he did not have to make a move himself.
As a pharmacist, Han Yuanshan's combat ability was average. But don't forget, pill refinement was not a profession that specialized in combat.
Relying on their outstanding pill refinement skills, pharmacists were usually able to make friends with many cultivators whose cultivations were far higher than theirs.
Han Yuanshan could pay a price to ask those people to help him kill a wind-type demon king and obtain its blood essence.
However, he would have to pay a huge price for that.
To pay such a huge price for a disciple who he had just taken in was ridiculous no matter how one thought about it!
When Lu Yuan saw Han Yuanshan's uncertain expression, he knew that the latter seemed to want to refuse.
If it was an ordinary item, Lu Yuan would not say anything even if Han Yuanshan rejected his request.
However, the blood essence of a wind-type demon king was the key to whether he could achieve Foundation Establishment through the way of the heavens for his wind spiritual root.
Furthermore, if Lu Yuan missed this opportunity, such a good chance to obtain the blood essence of a wind-type demon king would not come by again.
The opportunity was right in front of him and he would definitely not miss it.
At the thought of this, Lu Yuan revealed a "sorrowful" expression and said, "Master, can't you even satisfy your disciple's small request..."
"Small request? Do you have some misunderstanding about the demon kings? A drop of wind-type demon king's blood essence... You're really making an exorbitant demand."
"But master, the wind-type demon king's blood essence is very important to me. Although I have been lucky enough to achieve Foundation Establishment, due to my spiritual roots, I have almost no hope of reaching the Core Formation Stage in this lifetime."
"Therefore, I have made a decision after some serious consideration. Since I can't reach the Core Formation Stage in this lifetime, I'll be the best below the Core Formation Stage and try to condense more Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual roots to increase my survival ability at the Foundation Establishment Stage."
"If I have the blood essence of the wind-type demon king, I will be able to achieve Foundation Establishment for my wind spiritual root. At that time, my life-preservation ability will be raised to another level. Master ... Is there really no way for you to make an exception?"
When he heard Lu Yuan say that he had no hope of reaching the Core Formation Stage, Elder Han fell silent.
Naturally, Elder Han knew about Lu Yuan's spiritual root aptitude.
In the information that Elder Han had obtained, although Lu Yuan's innate spiritual root aptitude was not bad, the distribution of his spiritual root aptitude was just bad.
In fact, having an outstanding aptitude for a single spiritual root would not only be reflected in fast cultivation speed in the early stages, but also in the difficulty of breakthrough.
Before the Core Formation Stage, a cultivator's spiritual root aptitude would affect their cultivation speed, but many would still be lucky enough to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage by relying on sufficient resources.
However, after reaching the Core Formation Stage, such good luck could no longer continue.
The reason for this was that compared to the Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators who could reach the Foundation Establishment Stage just through cultivation, a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator who wanted to reach the Core Formation Stage would need to complete the special step of "core formation".
In fact, the Core Formation Stage had another name, and that was the Golden Core Stage.
Still, the cultivators preferred to call this stage the Core Formation Stage as what they needed to do at this stage was similar to the pill condensation step in pill refinement.
If each spiritual root was likened to medicinal ingredients, then the process of breaking through from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Core Formation Stage was like the step of fusing medicinal ingredients into a pill.
When a single spiritual root performed core formation, due to the single attribute being particularly outstanding, the other attributes would be greatly suppressed, reaching the point of a forced fusion.
The process was quite forceful.
However, for someone like Lu Yuan, who had a balanced distribution of spiritual root aptitude, it was obvious that he could not do so.
This was because every time he absorbed a portion of spiritual energy, the spiritual energy would be distributed to each spiritual root evenly, making his spiritual roots develop in a balanced manner, with no difference in strength.
Although the golden core formed from such fusion would be more powerful, the difficulty of fusion was also multiplied.
If the difficulty of core formation with a single spiritual root was one, the difficulty of doing so with two spiritual roots would be two, then four for three spiritual roots, and so on... Ultimately, the difficulty of core formation with six spiritual roots would be 32!
In other words, if Lu Yuan, who had cultivated the acquired wind spiritual root, wanted to break through to the Core Formation Stage, the difficulty would be 32 times that of a cultivator with a single spiritual root!
Out of a hundred Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, there might not even be one who could successfully reach the Core Formation Stage, let alone when the difficulty had been increased by thirty-two times.
Han Yuanshan, who understood all this, looked at Lu Yuan with eyes full of sympathy.
He felt that this disciple must have known that he had no hope of reaching the Core Formation Stage with his five spiritual roots.
As such, Lu Yuan simply gave up and chose a road of no return, to cultivate more acquired spiritual roots to enhance his strength in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Lu Yuan was not the first person to do so.
In history, many cultivators who lacked talent would eventually choose this path.
However, they would not condense an unlimited number of acquired spiritual roots either.
This was because an acquired spiritual root would not increase one's spiritual root aptitude out of thin air. Instead, it would distribute the spiritual root aptitude that one originally had.
In addition, those who chose this path of no return were usually people with insufficient spiritual root aptitude, to begin with.
If one cultivated too many acquired spiritual roots, one might not even have the ability to cultivate their acquired spiritual roots to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Looking at Lu Yuan's "pleading" eyes, Han Yuanshan suddenly didn't have the heart to reject him.
Although his new disciple had outstanding talent in pill refinement, his cultivation talent was really poor.
Pharmacists didn't care much about cultivation, but some powerful pills couldn't be refined without enough cultivation.
As a result, his disciple's future achievements would at most be to refine some Core Formation Stage pills that didn't require much cultivation.
In terms of cultivation, the Foundation Establishment stage was about the limit for Lu Yuan.
Cultivating six spiritual roots at the same time meant that Lu Yuan had no hope of reaching the Core Formation Stage.
Thinking about it this way, Lu Yuan's request was indeed not too excessive.
One more Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual root would allow him to have one more point of life preservation ability at the Foundation Establishment Stage, as well as allow him to live a little longer.
Was what Lu Yuan wanted the blood essence of the wind-type demon king? He just wanted to give his future a little more hope...
Could it be that he, as the master, wanted to take away his disciple's last hope?
At the thought of this, Han Yuanshan finally relented.
"Very well, then I promise you. As long as you can refine the spirit concentration pill within a year, I will give you a drop of blood essence of a wind-type demon king."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan said excitedly, "Thank you, master!"
"Alright, alright. You'll stay here for the next year. Help me look after the herbs and learn how to make the spirit concentration pill. The herbs for the spirit concentration pill are in the fields. You can find them yourself."
"If there's anything you don't understand, ask your Senior Brother Bai. He entered the sect earlier than you and also knows more than you. When your Senior Brother Bai returns, you should ask him more questions. If there's a problem that even he can't solve, you can come to me again. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."
"Goodbye, master."
Han Yuanshan looked at Lu Yuan with a complicated expression. Then, he sighed and walked out of the herb field.
A drop of blood essence of a wind-type demon king, huh... Since when had the gift for new disciples become so valuable that it was a drop of blood essence of a wind-type demon king?
In the end, Han Yuanshan left with heartache.
After Han Yuanshan left, Lu Yuan could only look in the direction that his master left in and apologize in his heart.
He felt sorry for his master. Although he didn't want to guilt trip his master, he really needed the blood essence of the wind-type demon king.
His master shouldn't worry, though. Lu Yuan vowed that this was definitely the last time he would guilt trip his master.
He would not trick his master like this in the future!
After apologizing in his heart, Lu Yuan, who had zero moral values, suddenly thought of something.
His master had just said that the herbs for the spirit concentration pill were all here.
It was obvious that his master had given tacit consent for him to use the herbs here for pill refining.
But his master didn't say that he could only use the herbs to make the spirit concentration pill, right?
Hmm... His master said none of such words, which meant he could use all the herbs here!
At the thought of this, Lu Yuan's eyes lit up.
With so many precious herbs, wasn't it much richer than demoness Meng Ruyan?
He was very sorry to his master, but besides the blood essence of the wind-type demon king, he also needed these herbs!
Lu Yuan seemed to have forgotten that just a second ago, he had just said in his heart that he would not cheat his master again.
As expected, as long as a person had no morals, they would not be bound by them!
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