Chapter 75: Self-Torture
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
“Qingguang Sect” → “Azure Light Sect”
“Fuxian Island” → “Floating Immortal Island”
***************************************************************************************
Yue Qianchou exclaimed “Ah!” He had heard from Guan Yu that the Hundred Flowers Palace Master was the daughter of Floating Immortal Island’s former sect master. During this time, he had also learned that the current sect master was the former’s disciple, Guan Weiwu was the former’s son, and Ma Jiugu had an even higher seniority – she was the former’s aunt. No wonder Yan Zixia called Ma Jiugu “great-grandmother” – that seniority was truly ancient.
“You were doing fine in Hundred Flowers Valley, so why did you come to join Floating Immortal Island?”
Yan Zixia shook her head, “I don’t know the specifics either. It was something father and mother discussed together. My brother went to Ten Thousand Demons Palace to study magic arts, while I came to Floating Immortal Island to study pill refining.”
Yue Qianchou nodded thoughtfully. It was said that Floating Immortal Island’s former sect master was forced to step down due to his daughter’s affairs, but in reality, he had passed the position to his disciple Feng Xiangtian. Yan Zixia’s identity on Floating Immortal Island seemed to be known by very few people. If everyone knew she was from Hundred Flowers Palace, they probably wouldn’t have allowed her to join Floating Immortal Island. No wonder Yan Zixia kept such a low profile on Floating Immortal Island, remaining almost unknown to outsiders. Her brother’s situation at Ten Thousand Demons Palace was probably similar. Having one son and one daughter join the number one demonic sect and the number one righteous sect respectively – this matter was quite interesting.
The two arrived at the base of the seaside cliff. Just as Yue Qianchou rolled up his sleeves to climb up, Yan Zixia grabbed him and flew up, which severely damaged his male pride. He secretly vowed to successfully establish his foundation as soon as possible.
The temperature in the pill refining chamber within the mountain was scorching. Although Yue Qianchou still found it difficult to bear, having come many times, he could gradually endure it. It was just that his true qi was consumed severely, but with a large supply of spirit stones as backup, he could recover quickly.
Yan Zixia indeed kept her word, and Yue Qianchou achieved his wish to personally refine pills. She took out from her storage bag the large quantity of ordinary spiritual herbs that her great-grandmother had prepared for practice, letting him use them freely.
Only after personally getting involved did Yue Qianchou discover there was a huge difference from theory. Setting aside whether his technique was skilled or not, using divine sense to observe and control pill refining within the blazing pill furnace was an extremely painful ordeal.
The first time his divine sense entered the fire-scorched pill furnace, Yue Qianchou let out a loud wail, quickly withdrawing his divine sense. His entire body’s skin turned bright red as if scalded by fire. As a result, his divine sense was damaged, and he became completely listless. This startled Yan Zixia, who then remembered what her great-grandmother had said – that cultivation below the Foundation Building stage wasn’t suitable for learning pill refining.
Yue Qianchou directly pulled out a high-grade spirit stone and absorbed all the spiritual energy within it, finally recovering his damaged divine sense. Yan Zixia felt sorry for him and told him what her great-grandmother had said, advising him not to try again.
Yue Qianchou stubbornly shook his head, “Didn’t your great-grandmother say so? Although the Qi Refining stage isn’t suitable for pill refining, as long as one trains their divine sense to be strong enough, they can still refine pills. Since others can do it, I believe I can do it too.”
Amid repeated wails of agony, Yue Qianchou’s divine sense stayed in the pill furnace for increasingly longer periods. Seeing him torture himself so cruelly, Yan Zixia felt heartbroken, but she couldn’t dissuade him, so she could only stay by his side and shed tears.
Days passed one by one, and his divine sense’s time in the pill furnace was still insufficient to control the refining of a complete batch of pills. Just as he was becoming discouraged, he was delighted to discover that his divine sense could now extend to places dozens of meters away. All movements within a radius of dozens of meters were under his observation, and his control over his divine sense became increasingly skillful.
The three-day pill refining agreement couldn’t be fulfilled. Yue Qianchou returned to the golden pearl once and solemnly apologized to Guan Yu and Chen Feng. Only after repeated assurances did he finally gain their forgiveness. After that, he spent long periods in the pill refining chamber. Yan Zixia also requested leave from her great-grandmother to stay by his side.
His divine sense was injured time and again, and high-grade spirit stones were pulled out one by one for healing. When Yan Zixia first shifted her attention from him to the high-grade spirit stones in his hands, she couldn’t help but be shocked.
If she remembered correctly, Yue Qianchou had used nearly a thousand spirit stones for healing in this past month. My heavens! Nearly a thousand high-grade spirit stones – how was this possible? How could a Qi Refining stage disciple possibly have so many spirit stones? Even though she was the biological daughter of the Hundred Flowers Palace Master, it would be very difficult for her to casually produce so many spirit stones. That was equivalent to ten million low-grade spirit stones! Having grown up in Hundred Flowers Valley, she knew the market prices of many items and naturally understood what this number could buy in the cultivation world.
Later, seeing him still able to pull out high-grade spirit stones one by one, Yan Zixia became accustomed to it, only curious about where he had obtained so many spirit stones. However, this was perhaps a bit too extravagant. Although the spiritual energy in high-grade spirit stones could quickly repair damaged divine sense, one high-grade spirit stone was enough to buy nearly fifty pills for repairing divine sense.
When Yue Qianchou joyfully discovered that his divine sense could extend to a radius of nearly a hundred meters, unknowingly, the two had already spent a full three months in the cave. During this time, only Yan Zixia occasionally went out to fetch food and water, while Yue Qianchou never left even once.
When she saw him sweating profusely, Yan Zixia would fetch cool water and dampen a handkerchief to carefully wipe him down. When she saw him too tired to move, she would feed food into his mouth. And Yue Qianchou, having determined that Yan Zixia liked him, enjoyed her care with peace of mind, as if taking care of him was only natural.
From initially wailing loudly when his divine sense was injured, to letting out a muffled grunt, to merely furrowing his brows slightly, Yue Qianchou’s divine sense could now stay in the pill furnace for a full day. Although Yan Zixia had never experienced the pain of divine sense injury, she had heard others describe it as much more painful than physical injury. She couldn’t understand why he would do this to himself, and when she couldn’t bear to watch, she tried to persuade him to stop more than once.
Who knew Yue Qianchou would smile slightly and say, “How can you see a rainbow without experiencing wind and rain? How can you accomplish anything without suffering a bit? Not everything can succeed casually. As a man, sometimes you not only have to be ruthless to others – if you want to succeed, you should be even more ruthless to yourself.”
Although he spoke lightly, Yan Zixia’s heart trembled, and she looked at him with complex eyes. After that, she never tried to dissuade him again, only doing what she thought she should do – taking care of him attentively.
If someone who knew her identity saw this, they would probably be dumbfounded. The dignified young miss of Hundred Flowers Palace was actually doing such servant’s work. Yue Qianchou didn’t think this way though. ‘I only know that marriage might involve considerations of status and matching social ranks, but what does dating have to do with status?’
The ordinary spiritual herbs used in three months could be calculated in piles. Fortunately, Floating Immortal Island had plenty of such herbs, and no one would care. Unfortunately, his pill refining success rate was still very low – he could barely succeed with one batch out of twenty, and each batch produced at most ten pills, all ordinary medicines for treating external injuries in the cultivation world.
With his success rate, even if he went out to refine pills for people for free, he would probably scare them away. The cost of refining one batch of pills was a bit too high. However, Yue Qianchou felt it was about right. He estimated that with a hundred portions of spiritual herbs, he could at least succeed with three or four batches! Besides, with sufficient spiritual herbs as backup, the time to refine Foundation Building Pills had arrived. He decided to rest for a day first, adjusting his mental state to optimal condition before beginning pill refining.
