Author's Note:
Hey everyone, happy New Year!
Well, the holidays are over and the visitors have left, so we're back to the regular posts.
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Shen He was not having a good day.
First, his master simply couldn't read between the lines and made him participate in a competition in which he would 100% perform terribly.
Second, his master still stayed behind and left him to enter alone into enemy territory. Besides feeling betrayed, the bigger problem was: what if he became a hostage?! He really didn't know what his master was thinking when he sent him instead of letting him remain by his side.
Third… well, he really wanted to cry looking at his cauldron that was emitting terrifying fluctuations.
Before this moment, the first challenge of the competition had gone relatively well.
The alchemy his master had taught him was of extremely high quality for the standards of the desert continent, and with his master guiding him, even without completely mastering the Refiner-Tier heritage he had received, it was enough for him to squeeze into the top thousand of the first round.
He even surpassed some Founder-Tier alchemists who participated, considering that when limited to Refiner-Tier herbs and pills, his fundamentals and capabilities ended up being superior to theirs, even if they had gone further in the realm of alchemy.
It was as if Shen He had completely mastered addition and subtraction, so much so that even if given huge numbers to calculate, he would quickly reach a result in an instant. But when given a logarithmic function, he was lost and had no idea where to go.
As for the Founder-Tier alchemists who lost to him, they might not be as good as he was at addition and subtraction, but they knew how to solve a logarithmic function.
Thus, they were more capable than he was, but he had mastered the foundation better, and when the time came for him to learn logarithms, Shen He would find it much easier than they would.
And this was why the alchemists of the Infinite Dao Sect were so strong and learned so quickly. Their heritage gave them an extremely solid foundation and a clear understanding of the principles of alchemy, achieving ten times the results with ten times less effort.
Thus, two years studying alchemy in the Infinite Dao Sect was no different from those central continent geniuses studying for twenty.
Either way, Shen He managed to squeeze into the few slots left by the disciples of that sect for the other competitors, since they made up most of the thousand contestants who advanced to the second phase.
And as expected, the second phase was to create a Founder-Tier pill with the available resources—something far beyond Shen He's current pay grade.
Even so, faced with those herbs that were normally beyond his reach, he unconsciously licked his lips with desire.
Either way, he was already there, so he could at least use the opportunity to train using other people's resources.
And so, an hour and a half after he began competing, his eyes were red and his face flushed, as if he were exerting great force. Sweat poured down his forehead in thick drops, and panic shone in his eyes.
Shen He wanted to cry, for the cauldron in his hands was extremely agitated, and even while he was suppressing the fluctuations with all his strength, he was quickly losing ground to that fierce energy.
Then…
BOOOMMMM!!
The loud explosion echoed through the entire arena. The competitors couldn't hear anything from outside, but the audience could hear the sounds from inside.
Millions of eyes searched eagerly and with smiles for the source of the sound, and when they found it… they only saw a Shen He covered completely in black on the front of his body, his hair standing on end.
The only white parts on the front of his body were his eyes, wide open in shock.
"Hahaha! I never get tired of seeing that." One person in the audience laughed cheerfully with his friend while pointing at the scorched Shen He.
Those friends who laughed were not the only ones, and amusement and laughter were present throughout the entire audience. Shen He was not the first, nor even the tenth, to show this appearance since the beginning of the competition, but it never got old.
Soon the lid that had been thrown into the sky fell back down, landing beside the scorched boy with a heavy thud. Only then did he snap out of it.
"Uhh…" Shen He, coming out of his shock, unconsciously looked upward, where he saw the audience pointing and laughing at him, and couldn't help but feel extremely embarrassed.
He quickly stood up, his legs still wobbly from the fright, and hurriedly walked out of there with his head down so no one would record his scorched face and recognize him later.
Despite his state, the high-quality competition cauldron had essentially contained most of the explosion.
Only the lingering remnants of the explosion had hit Shen He directly, resulting in his current appearance.
Once he was out of sight of the public, he quickly circulated spiritual energy through his body, eliminating the traces of the explosion and returning to a presentable appearance. Unfortunately, the embarrassed flush on his face couldn't be removed by spiritual energy.
It was only halfway through the second round when his cauldron exploded. So he could still try again.
But he didn't have the thick skin to continue refining there, only for his cauldron to explode a second time—something he was certain would happen.
Thus, Shen He was disqualified in the second round, not entering the hundred finalists who would compete in the third round.
Quickly climbing the stairs, he returned to the VIP box, where he believed his master must have watched his whole ordeal, with an approving look, though he probably wouldn't admit it and would scold him instead so that he remained humble.
Unfortunately, when he opened the door, he saw his master looking at him with amusement.
"Xiao He, your appearance was very funny earlier," he teased.
Shen He froze, and then a wave of grievance and injustice filled his gaze as he faced his un-fatherly master.
Question marks filled Liu Taixuan's mind when he was met with that resentful look from his disciple, as if he had bullied him to the point of tears. He'd only meant to make a small joke to ease the boy's disappointment over losing the competition—he definitely hadn't expected that reaction.
Perhaps if he knew that Shen He was more hurt by having been embarrassed in front of millions of people than by losing a match he already knew he wouldn't win, Old Liu wouldn't have so many doubts.
Scratching his red beard in confusion, Liu Taixuan shifted his gaze to Bai Hui at the side, who had now been standing there for an hour and a half, staring at the necklace without blinking.
Shen He, after calming down, with a helpless sigh, finally went to sit down, but froze when he saw the fox-faced man staring greedily at the necklace that was on top of his seat.
"Uhh… master, who is that?" he asked awkwardly, looking at his master.
"Him?" The old man raised a brow with disdain as he glanced at the silent Bao Hui. "Just a guy who doesn't know his own weight," he scoffed.
But it was at that moment that Bao Hui suddenly replied, lifting his eyes with a smile.
"I currently weigh 173.2 pounds."
Liu Taixuan's mouth twitched.
"Who the hell wants to know your weight?!!"
The old man shouted, almost breaking the arm of the chair because of that man. He took a breath to calm himself from the answer that left him speechless and quickly changed the subject mockingly to cover up his slight embarrassment.
"And so, have you finally given up on your nonsense?" Liu Taixuan snorted.
But to his surprise, Elder Bao shook his head.
"No, I've finally discovered the answer," he said firmly, with no trace of a smile, showing a seriousness never seen before.
"Huh?" Old Liu muttered, surprised, and looked cautiously at the man, feeling that he wasn't joking. "What did you discover?" he asked, furrowing his brows slightly.
"I discovered that… the best method to steal this necklace from you without causing a fight, considering you are the young miss's great-grandfather, is for you to pay it as overdue marriage dowry for our young master. Of course, the Treasure Pavilion will be responsible for keeping it safe until the young master reaches adulthood at 80 trillion years old."
Bao Hui nodded with righteousness. Then he remembered something at the last second:
"Ah! And don't forget to add to the dowry the location of all treasures you had in life. That way, I don't need to spend money on a hundred sticks of incense," he quickly added, as if afraid to miss the opportunity.
This time, it was everyone's mouths in the room that twitched. Even Aotian in his main body couldn't handle some of the things he said through his avatars.
"Ugh… elder Bao, no one's adulthood begins at such an age," he had to speak helplessly, acting along with himself.
"Young master, you are still too young to say such a thing." Bao Hui shook his head pitifully, as if his young master was still too green.
But, without a doubt, in that room, Old Liu's face was the darkest at that moment.
"You really stared at the necklace for an hour and a half without blinking just to say that?" he asked, gritting his teeth harder and harder. "And since when does the bride's family give the dowry? It's clearly the groom's family, you bastard!" In the end, he couldn't take it any longer and let out a furious roar, slamming his hand onto the arm of the sofa, his eyes wide, as if wishing to kill with his gaze.
He felt that this entire sect was made of individuals who knew exactly how to irritate him.
"OH! Never heard of that. I'm sure it's the bride's family who gives the dowry. And no, I didn't spend an hour and a half thinking about how to steal it without destroying family bonds…" Bao Hui shook his head, placed his hands behind his back, puffed out his chest, and declared righteously, catching the old man's attention. "...the first five minutes I really analyzed the necklace." Unfortunately, he finished the sentence.
"Y-You!!" Liu Taixuan's red eyes widened, feeling like he was going insane.
Rihai, seeing her great-grandfather with a flushed face, nearly dying of rage and about to strike elder Bao's arrogant and sly face, didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So, to ease the atmosphere, she had to intervene.
"Elder Bao… could you tell us what the necklace does?" she gently asked, her eyes curious, trying to bring the topic back on track.
Unlike her great-grandfather, who believed the man was spouting nonsense, Rihai truly believed he had such an ability to analyze the necklace. The Infinite Dao Sect had already shown her many times that the impossible was possible.
The attention of everyone, drawn by her words, slowly turned again to Bao Hui, who hesitated, but finally sighed and spoke.
"Haah… since it's the young miss asking, I won't make this guy take a soul oath to pay the price I demanded before. But he still has to pay, it was a fair bet between men. Whoever lies is a cowardly little rat!"
He declared first, casting a suspicious glance at old Liu, who clenched his fists, truly wanting to hit old Bao.
Bao Hui then finally revealed:
"Well, this is an Immortal-Tier artifact."
A trace of solemnity appeared in his eyes as he looked at the information in his mind.
[Necklace of Life: Immortal-Tier Artifact.
Description: A storage necklace created in the immortal realm to carry a sapling of the planetary tree. It is designed to transport, plant, nourish, shelter, and protect the sapling in the void of the mortal plane until it matures, ensuring it does not die.
Status: Most functions inactive due to lack of immortal energy.
Note: This necklace contains a raw stone holding fragments of the law of life from a Human Immortal of the immortal plane. Currently protecting from dissipation the soul of a deceased Tribulation Transcendent cultivator.]
Aotian, although joking around and acting silly while controlling Bao Hui, was actually very serious upon seeing the terrifying information about the necklace.
He had lied when he said he spent only five minutes analyzing the necklace. In truth, he really did spend an hour and a half, and only when Shen He arrived did he manage to obtain the most basic information about the artifact.
If he wanted to know more, it would probably take days or even months, since Bao Hui's realm was too low.
To get an idea, when he used elder Bao to analyze artifacts of the same realm as him—currently Formation-Tier—he took at most a few seconds to obtain basic information. If it was Void-Tier, it took less than two minutes. As for Transcendent-Tier and Mahayana-Tier, he had never had anything of that level, so he had no idea.
And if he wanted more detailed information than the basics, the time increased several times over.
"Immortal-Tier? That's the realm after Mahayana-Tier?" Rihai asked, confused, and old Liu huffed, not believing it, yet still paying attention.
"Yes. That is the ranking of artifacts, herbs, and other treasures that are on the same level as a human immortal," Bao Hui nodded, explaining.
Although Aotian wasn't completely sure and was responding based on analyses of the displayed information, he felt there shouldn't be a mistake. He knew some realms after having read so many Xianxia novels in his past life and had some notion.
And if it were more than one realm after Mahayana, an hour and a half wouldn't have been enough for Bao Hui's analysis. Aotian felt that even this was already fast for a realm after Mahayana.
"Human Immortal… how terrifying is such a realm?" Rihai murmured, her gaze distant and her heart racing just from hearing the name.
That name wasn't just a title, but represented an indescribably horrifying level for mortal cultivators like them.
"So, what does the necklace do?" old Liu, still doubtful, asked, raising an eyebrow at Bao Hui.
"Well… this is an Immortal-Tier artifact, created to carry a branch of the planetary tree, and it was thrown from the immortal realm into the mortal plane. When it falls, it automatically removes the sapling from its interior and protects it until it reaches a size where it can survive on its own in the void, essentially sustaining its protection until all the immortal energy in its core is depleted."
"Currently, all immortal energy inside it has been spent. But this green stone on the necklace is still very useful. It is a stone that contains fragments of the law of life, and it is the reason your soul hasn't dissipated. Perhaps, if you can study and understand these fragments, you may walk the Dao of Life, and who knows… revive and reach a stronger realm," Bao Hui said, shrugging. "After all, since you found it, maybe you have fate with it."
His words were simple, but they sounded like thunder in Liu Taixuan's mind, making his pupils dilate.
"What did you say?!"