Chapter 218 Under the Sea (1/2)
Daoist Huanzhen was surprised as he did not expect that for someone like his headmaster to give praise to this new Junior Apprentice-Brother of his and to think that he was comparable to Shen Lian. His curiosity arose.
Huanzhen smiled and said, ”He must be excellent if he is complimented by you, Honored Master. I wonder where he is. We should meet.”
Yuming the Honored Celestial said, ”He only joined five years ago and now he is already at the doorstep of Huandan. I am afraid that he is going through the stages too quickly, so I am asking him to make the fire for Junior Apprentice-Brother Dengfeng.”
Huanzhen could not help but look surprised, ”He can already help to make the fire for Uncle-Master's elixir cauldron. How can he get such mana in five years?” Daoist Dengfeng had the most mana among the five Zhenrens due to Taiyue Real Shape Incantation. He was an expert in alchemy. Most elixirs in Guangqing were made by his elixir cauldron. To make use of the cauldron and light the fire required a huge amount of mana. To Daoist Dengfeng it was an easy task, but not so much for others.
If one could stay put, one could benefit from the fire of the elixir cauldron because the essence of fire could help cultivate mana for the future. It was a difficult and amazing task at the same time.
Yuming the Honored Celestial said, ”He has a huge lot of fortune. After he entered the mountain a few days, he managed to find a thousand-year-old meat excrescence. After he ate it, his mana grew as if he was traveling a thousand miles a day. However, as the effect of the elixir remains in his body, it is harmful in the long run, and hence I asked him to make the fire with Dengfeng to make the effect of the elixir into one with himself.”
Huanzhen then started to feel his questions were answered. There were all kinds of spiritual materials in the world, and since the ancient times, there were even spiritual fruits which could help the cultivators to extend their lives after consumption. There were even medicine to allow one to live forever or elixirs which could help in spiritual intelligence. With the aid of those, even the commoners could become celestialists.
Back then external alchemy was still popular and a lot of cultivators were spending their entire lives to look for the spiritual medicine to make elixirs which could help them attain Dao. However, as more and more people were looking for it, external alchemy began to decline after the raw materials became scarce.
For the Xuanmen sects, the only way to go was to achieve Huandan internally, with a clear mind. It was also crucial to maintain the life of the Daoist sect.
While Guangqing had five Zhenrens, Qing Xuan did it better in this aspect.
There were forty Zhenrens in Qing Xuan's history, the highest among the four Daoist sects. If not because of the incident that happened at Qing Xuan which affected the previous chief, Zhang Ruoxu, Ziling's student, Biyun and Yan Xu, eight or nine out of ten could have achieved Dixian.
Including Ziling, the old folk which was guarding Qing Xuan, and the missing Immortal Zhenren could account for a total of six Dixian, which was more than Guangqing.
Thinking about the new Junior Apprentice-Brother, he began to feel there was hope for the sect to grow even stronger. With one or two Dixian, they could then become one of the four Daoist sects and cumulatively after a few hundred to a thousand years, their wealth would not be worse than Qing Xuan anymore.
Huanzhen said, ”It has been a while since I last met Uncle-Master Dengfeng. I should visit him after this, and to meet the new Junior Apprentice-Brother. What's his name?”
”Qingwei,” Yuming the Honored Celestial replied.
At the same time, at one of the peaks of Mount Taicang, there was a young man who was setting up a formula at a Daoist courtyard. The mana formed into Qi which was then pumped into the fire of the cauldron. He accidentally sneezed and it almost put off the burning fire.
At the stoned steps far away, a Daoist sat crossing his leg – it was Daoist Dengfeng. When he heard what happened, he opened his eyes and said, ”If you ruin the elixirs in this cauldron, I will make you do this for another five years.”
The young man's hands did not stop with the formula, and he replied cheekily, ”Uncle-Master, you are underestimating me. I can multitask. It must be because just now someone was talking about me. Just half a day more and this cauldron of elixirs will be completed. If you claim that I don't have any contribution in this, you should at least appreciate my effort. Are you going to give me some, Uncle-Master?”
Daoist Dengfeng sneered and said, ”I'd only give this cauldron of elixirs to you if you first return me what you have stolen from me over the past five years.”
The young man laughed, ”In the beginning, I didn't know anything and it is only after I ate those elixirs that I have the energy to work for you.”
Daoist Dengfeng almost laughed because of how cheeky he was, at the same time he was thinking about how shocking Qingwei's ability was. Regardless of the elixirs, once he ate them, they were all digested easily and turned into his cultivation experience. Such talent was akin to the reincarnation of the holy deities.
Daoist Dengfeng had tried fortune telling to understand the young man's background, and he knew that he was as clean as a paper. For at least three generations, he had never stepped foot in Dao, else Daoist Dengfeng would not be so comfortable with him.
In his opinion, the elixirs did no harm to him. It could quickly turn into cultivation experience, and it would not affect his Daoist heart. It did not matter to him that the elixirs were gone as Guangqing was still a Xuanmen sect who cared about cultivating the heart and would not treat elixirs as dangerous items.
It did not matter whether the mana was formed from the breathing of Qi of vitality, or from an external source. As long as the mana was pure and without any contaminants, it was fine.