Chapter 29: Assassination (1/2)

Chapter 29: Assassination

“You finally remembered to come see me?”

Night Demon hurried to the Agarwood Pavilion upon receiving word of Su Chen’s arrival. She stared at Su Chen with wide eyes for quite some time before recognizing him.

She no longer wore the black veil on her face and didn’t try to sneak up on him anymore.

Her face was delicate, attractive, and slightly pale. She had large eyes, a sharp chin, a slightly tilted nose, and an oval face. However, in this time period, her facial structure was not actually admired much. Her face was one that was considered quite old-fashioned, but it was very much according to Su Chen’s tastes.

Ironically, when Night Demon took down her veil, Su Chen had disguised himself.

Su Chen sat in his own chair, calmly enjoying Night Demon’s beautiful appearance when angered. “Why do you have to say it like that? If you put it that way, it makes it sound like I owe you a lot of money.”

“Do you think you don’t owe us a lot of money? Don’t forget about all the materials that we supplied you with this past year,” Night Demon harrumphed, hands on her hips.

“I shouldn’t be in debt for that; those materials were my reward,” Su Chen replied.

“But you agreed before to rapidly increase your skill as an alchemist. But from the medicine you sent us previously, your rate of improvement isn’t actually that fast,” Night Demon bluntly replied.

“Whatever. You’re better off trying to deceive someone else. In the past year, I have already concocted medicine that can cure light injuries and a Tenacity Medicine. Is that really slow?”

After a period of effort, Su Chen was finally able to control the Tenacity Medicine. Passing this test indicated that he was now an official alchemist; he just hadn’t taken the official assessment yet.

This speed was genuinely pretty fast.

Night Demon harrumphed. “It’s much slower than your previous speed of improvement.”

That was also true. Su Chen had begun to practice concocting the Tenacity Medicine almost half a year ago, and he had only recently broken through that barrier. Su Chen had improved the fastest early on and his speed recently had decreased.

If it had been someone else, it may have been normal for it to have taken half a year to concoct the Tenacity Medicine. However, the Immortal Temple had confirmed that Su Chen truly did possess a natural talent towards alchemy, so they considered half a year to be slow by those standards.

This implied that, in the past half year, his attention had been focused elsewhere, resulting in a decreased speed of improvement.

Their guess was in fact correct. Because Su Chen had been focused on studying Kaihuang’s Heaven most of the time, he was forced to halve the amount of time he spent studying alchemy.

The Immortal Temple had very keenly perceived this point, so they sent Night Demon to encourage him to speed up.

Medicines and their ingredients were split into multiple tiers: common, uncommon, rare, legendary, and divine. Alchemists were ranked corresponding to the ingredients they could use: Novice, Qualified, Master, Distinguished, and Legendary. Alchemists in the same tier also had different levels of skill.

The Spirit-Sobering Medicine was a rare-tier medicine, so under normal circumstances, only a Master Alchemist could concoct it. If an alchemist specifically focused on concocting that medicine alone, a highly skilled Qualified Alchemist might be able to concoct it.

The Corpse Spirit Flower was a legendary ingredient. Using a legendary ingredient to concoct a rare medicine was somewhat wasteful. Thus, it was understandable why Master Feng had been so against the idea.

Su Chen used a year to become an official alchemist. His speed was not slow, but he was still at least one tier and a half away from becoming a highly skilled Qualified Alchemist.

This tier and a half couldn’t be bridged within two years. It would require a lot of studying to improve himself. It was impossible to do without sufficient time, which explains the Immortal Temple’s urgency.

Su Chen sipped his tea and then calmly said, “I ran into an issue lately, which has interfered with my studies for a bit. That’s the main reason I’m here. After we take care of this issue, I should have more time to study alchemy.”

Night Demon harrumphed. “I knew this would happen, but Su Chen, don’t try this nonsense again. These are separate matters. No matter how anxious we are, we won’t do something for you for free.”

“Hm? When did you become smart?” Su Chen pretended to be shocked.

“Of course!” Night Demon proudly jutted out her chin. However, her next sentence exposed herself. “Sir Sang knew that if you came to find me, it wouldn’t be with anything good. More than likely, you would have some issue that you needed our help resolving. Thankfully, he informed me of this beforehand.”

Su Chen was speechless.

Perhaps because she knew she had said too much, Night Demon stuck out her tongue cutely. Then, she asked, “Hey, so what do you need our help with? If it’s not a big issue, I can help you.”

Su Chen felt much more relaxed when Night Demon sounded genuinely interested. He laughed, “It’s not a big deal. There’s just a few unassuming brats bothering me.”

“How powerful are they?”

“They’re the same as me, in the lower layers of Qi Drawing.”

“You can’t deal with them on your own?”

“There are lots of them. A few days ago, they even ganged up on my friend six-on-one. Thankfully, my friend was able to escape, killing two and gravely injuring one in the process. I’m guessing that because of this setback, they will send even more powerful individuals to help out. I don’t want to fall victim to this scheme of theirs. If possible, I would prefer to strengthen their experience of failure so that I can teach them a few more lessons.”

“I can find two Qi Drawing cultivators at high layers to help you out.”

“That’s not enough.” Su Chen shook his head. “I need at least three high-layer Qi Drawing cultivators and two Blood Boiling cultivators.”

Night Demon was stunned. “Aren’t you overestimating them a bit?”

“They are members of Bloodline Nobility Clans and they are the elites of the Hidden Dragon Institute. Regular Qi Drawing cultivators are no match for them, unless the Immortal Temple believes that their elites are stronger than those of the Hidden Dragon Institute. Otherwise, it’d be best to suppress them by rank.”

Night Demon couldn’t say anything.

The Hidden Dragon Institute had gathered the entire country’s best cultivators. Of all the Qi Drawing Realm cultivators, the strongest definitely attended the Hidden Dragon Institute. Even the first-year students couldn’t be underestimated.