208 Alchemist Ranks
The monk was polite. He neither activated his domain power nor showed any signs of hostility against Pang Lingming and Jia Wenhe.
Still, the two gate guards were dissatisfied that the monk used the children as an excuse to enter the city. If the monk were sincere, he could have asked to only let the children inside.
"I understand the children part, but why do you want to enter the city as well? Also, who are you?"
Zhao Bao bowed again, "This monk is the first elder from our Huangjin Monastery. Although every cultivator on this continent just refers to it as the Huangjin Sect."
"Huangjin Sect!?"
Jia Wenhe and Pang Lingming hesitated if they should allow this elder into the city. They were afraid that the monk might start attacking them if they were to chase them away.
"You haven't answered why you want to get inside," Pang Lingming stressed, not letting the monk dodge the question.
Zhao Bao gazed at his three disciples, "These children are still too young and too brash. I need to keep them in check, so they won't cause trouble."
As the monk introduced the three children, the surrounding cultivators gave them a death glare. Everyone still treated Zhao Bao as a demon worshiper even though all he did was protect innocent children.
Jia Wenhe and Pang Lingming also noticed the threatening glare from those cultivators outside the city. They began thinking.
As they saw it, there were three choices that they could take.
One, they could let in the children and chase the monk away. However, many cultivators might use it as a pretext to attack the city, accusing them of being another demon worshiper organization.
Two, they could be heartless and chase them all away. Still, the monk might be offended. Making an enemy out of a nascent soul cultivator was never?a good choice.
And lastly, they could take all of them inside the city. There were risk factors regarding the monk's ulterior motive and the possibility of him finding out about the existence of orc children. However, since the monk's sect was rumored to be demon worshipers, it might be possible that he might not do anything harmful to Cao Mao's wives and children. On the contrary, they might get along.
Pang Lingming and Jia Wenhe preferred to go for the last choice, but they were unable to come to a decision. They texted Ma Ping, Ma Shoucheng, and Jia Shan, consulting with them.
A few minutes later, Ma Ping arrived to manage the situation. He intentionally leaked his aura to establish his status.
When Ma Ping showed up, all cultivators outside the city broke a sweat. They were glad that they hadn't foolishly attacked the city. Otherwise, they would have all been killed by this hidden nascent soul expert.
Ma Ping also had the same thoughts as Pang Lingming and Jia Wenhe. He too believed that the monk would not harm the orc children.
"You may enter, but don't cause any trouble."
The monk held his hands in prayer and nodded slowly, "Amitabha. Thank you for your kindness, Fellow Daoist. May Buddha guide your way."
The steel gates opened for the monk and his disciples.
Upon entering the city, the gates closed behind them.
The monk gently smiled and gazed into the city. He took a deep breath and savored the taste of the life essence in the air.
"Xiao Yun, Xiao Xin, Xiao Fei, you've heard the man. Don't cause trouble or go anywhere on your own. As long as you are next to me, no one will harm you."
The children nodded. They also inhaled the gentle Qi into their lungs and dantian.
The monk and the three children behaved as they had promised. Even though they could see the tower, which was in the middle of being 3D-printed, aka auto-constructing, they rested in a shack and minded their own businesses.
Zhao Bao chanted an unknown mantra while the children closed their eyes and paced their breathing. A barrier manifested around the group of four as the elder monk converted the life essence into yang essence for the children.
Seeing how they were cultivating in earnest, Ma Ping and the others felt relieved.
…
On the 15th day, Ju Shoufen woke up from the long slumber. She had unlocked 40 slots of system inventory and brought many pills from Cao Mao's ITS that they had made.
When Ju Shoufen discovered the changes, she was astonished.
"Wow. This feels like we are back at the holy land."
Jia Shan, who had been guarding Ju Shoufen and Ju Chen's residence, also felt the same, "Yeah. It has the same air. At this rate, my dantian might get restored in a few years if I can just stay here and allow the Qi circulate into my systems."
"Haha! Nah, it will be a lot faster than that," Ju Shoufen had learned many of Cao Mao's secrets. She was confident that this former sword saint would recover in less than half a year.
"Hahahaha! That would be nice. What makes you so confident?"
"Your disciple is making a lot of progress after he has mastered the fire element Qi. His alchemy skill is improving a lot, and his skill has nearly reached the level of a 5th rank alchemist now. If he keeps this up, he might surpass me and he'll be able to make a divine pill for you!"
"What!? Divine pill!? Wait a second, when exactly did Cao Mao become a rank 5 alchemist!?"
The alchemy level on the Aves Continent and the Holy Land was categorized in ranks. Unlike the cultivation tiers, it was based on the abilities, achievements, and records.
Rank 1 Alchemist was the title of a rookie, who could barely make an average quality low-grade pill.
Rank 2 was for alchemists who could successfully make average low-grade pills of higher quality with at least 51% success rate.
Rank 3 referred to the alchemists who could start making perfect quality low-grade pills. Their pill-making success rate for average quality low-grade pills would have to beat least 90%. Additionally, they had to be able to create medium pills with at least a 51% success rate.
Rank 4 – Able to make perfect quality medium-grade pills, at least 90% success rate for average quality medium-grade pills or higher, 51% success rate for high-grade pills.
Rank 5 – perfect quality high-grade pills, 90% success rate for average high-grade pills, 51% for earth-grade pills.
Rank 6 – perfect quality earth-grade pills, 90% success rate for average earth-grade pills, 51% for sky-grade pills.
Rank 7 – perfect quality sky-grade pills, 90% for average sky-grade pills, 51% for heaven-grade pills.
There were more ranks, but they followed the same template.
Ju Shoufen was a proud rank 7 alchemist whereas Jia Wenhe was rank 6. Ju Shoufen also evaluated that Cao Mao should be somewhere between rank 4 or rank 5 at the moment.
However, Cao Mao's target goal was to achieve the standard of a rank 9 alchemist, so he could take a gamble by making a divine-grade pill with at least 51% success rating. For now, he had a long way to go.
Of course, Cao Mao never lacked resources to make advanced pills or recipes for high tier items. His system shop constantly updated whenever he successfully made a new pill with perfect quality.
Ju Shoufen also got the opportunity to improve her skills by getting her hands on the copies of system recipes and practiced together with him. They had spent almost two weeks in the real world, aka 700 days in the ITS, doing nothing but concocting pills.
And now, Cao Mao had sent Ju Shoufen out to sell their creations in the auction event. This way they could earn essence cores to supply their energy. As for him, he stayed in the space, continuing his training non-stop.
"Is this related to his secret dream world?" Jia Shan caught on.
"Yeah, I got stuck with him in the dream world for over 2 years in there. Well, it was worth it."
Ju Shoufen showed Jia Shan what they had concocted. Three heaven-grade pills were inside a bottle in her hand, "Cao Mao and I made this. Although I did most of the work, his life essence and fire element Qi turned out to be quite useful."
"Wait, what!? He can use the fire element now!?"
"He can use Xu Langying's Dual-Flame technique. Obviously, it's easy for him to adapt to fire and water elements. If he can use Metal Qi and Sword Aura like you, his future will be limitless!"
"… Are you planning to create a monster?"
Jia Shan was concerned about what Ju Shoufen was doing with his pupil. Even though he was glad that Cao Mao would get stronger, he was worried about his disciple's character.
Having strength would boost one's confidence, but untamed confidence would later transform into arrogance.
"Be careful about his character. It's fine to spoil him every now and then, but be sure to educate him properly. We don't want to create a heinous psychopath."
"I think it's too late for that. He's already a psychopath, but fortunately he's on the silly side. Also, what's wrong with nurturing my hus-umm, never mind," Ju Shoufen almost blurted out that they had ANOTHER KIND of relationship during their time in the dream world.
"What I'm trying to say is, everything is under my control. For now, I'll go to Xuan City and register these pills for the auction. Can you keep on watching over the brat?"
"I don't have anything else to do other than playing chess by myself or teach that girl a few sword techniques. You go and have fun," Jia Shan shrugged. He did not really care about Cao Mao or Ju Shoufen's little secret or what they did. After all, he also had a young monster to raise.
Kang Yan's talent in swordsmanship was superior to Cao Mao. She had already mastered [One-With-The-Sword] and [Sword Aura]. As long as Kang Yan's cultivation base could reach the foundation establishment realm, she would automatically attain the [Sword Intent], which would give birth to a Dao of Sword and Sword Domain in the future. Then, she shouldn't have a problem ascending to the nascent soul realm even without a Dao God's support.
"Alright. Take care of yourself. I'll be off."
Ju Shoufen leaped to the sky with the pills in her hands. She flew toward Xuan City.
Many cultivators outside paid attention to Ju Shoufen as she was the first person to come out of the city. A few daredevils called out to her, asking her how she had entered the city or what relationship she had with the city owner.
Ju Shoufen ignored the commotion. No matter how many cultivators were trying to stop her, she simply shoved them away.
Several 6th-stage cultivators wanted to follow Ju Shoufen. However, they were afraid that they might lose their best camping spot to their competitors. Thus, they allowed Ju Shoufen to leave and continued meditating, digesting the Qi in the air.
Without the interference, Ju Shoufen reached Xuan City in one piece.
...
Xuan City, Tang Merchant Guild
Today was the last day for item submission. In front of the Tang Merchant Guild, many merchants, clansmen, soldiers and even commoners crowded in front of the guild building, begging to submit their items to the event organizers. Yet, 99% of them were chased away as the items were subpar.
Only two individuals managed to register their items successfully.
The first individual was none other than Ju Shoufen, who had come here with a wooden mask and black hooded clothes. She got to meet Tang Deming again in the same VVIP room. However, the latter didn't play any trick on them as he recognized her.
"Senior, may I know what items you're selling?"
Ju Shoufen placed the only bottle of three heaven-grade pills on the table. She changed her vocal cord to sound like an old woman, "Heaven-grade pills!"
"H-Heaven-grade pills!?"
Tang Deming rubbed his hands. He almost groveled and prostrated before Ju Shoufen, "S-S-Senior. Allow me to invite my alchemists over to inspect your pills, okay? Or c-can you tell me what these pills can do?"
"They probably won't be able to identify them. Well, these ones are Wood Element Pallets! And these…"
Ju Shoufen took out more pill bottles from her system inventory. A red bottle and a yellowish bottle were presented before Tang Deming.
"The red one contains Fire Element Pallets. The yellow one has Lightning Element Pallets!"
"!!!!"
…
Meanwhile, the second person was a dark horse. Ma Moxi, who had successfully made exquisite spirit brandy, whiskey, wine, and many other forms of liquor, had secretly visited the Xuan City to sell his items. He also put one of the simplified Yin Yang Divine Vein pills to sell, including his newest creation, Gold Element Pellets.
Ma Moxi managed to get his items to the auction by making use of his connection with his friend, Tang Fan. The latter had tasted the liquor and personally guaranteed the quality. The liquor would be auctioned on the 1st day of the event as the opener.
On the other hand, the simplified Yin Yang Divine Vein Pill got registered to be auctioned on the 7th day. Tang Fan estimated that they could be sold for at least 100 essence cores!
As for the Gold Element Pellets, they were on the same tier as immortal-grade items due to their advanced element's nature. Tang Fan couldn't fathom its value, so he registered it as one of the main items for the last day of the auction.
Despite being robbed of his Heavenly Fate Blessing, Ma Moxi still retained his cheat skill. Also, as he was on the same side as Cao Mao, the fate power still protected him as if Cao Mao had never interfered with his fate.
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