novelraw Chapter 170 : The Old Fellow and the Little Girl
Chapter 170 : The Old Fellow and the Little Girl
"The Longevity Pill, I've refined it," Mu Chihuai said proudly.
Tantai Ming punched his shoulder, "Look how smug you are. Don't forget, I reached Nascent Soul before you!"
Mu Chihuai let out a light snort, curling his lips, unwilling to be outdone, "How can pill refiners be compared to sword cultivators? You sword cultivators break through levels so quickly when fighting monsters. For us pill refiners, producing a Nascent Soul is extremely difficult... As far as I know, I might be the only pill refiner to break through to Nascent Soul at my age. Even my mother couldn't match this in her time."
Mu Chihuai admired his mother the most. She was skilled in both pill refining and poison, and had reached the pinnacle in both paths. He had inherited this talent from his mother.
Thinking about Little Junior Sister asking him to refine the Longevity Pill, the process had been quite difficult. He had spent almost day and night in the Pill Condensation Sect's library recently, and had specially obtained a token from his family's Dao ancestor to access the top three floors of the library.
Mu Chihuai had nearly turned the entire Pill Condensation Sect library upside down before finally finding a fragment of the Longevity Pill script on the top floor.
It was then that he discovered that the few fragments he had obtained earlier were actually parts of the Longevity Pill script.
The fragments combined formed a complete pill formula—the long-lost Longevity Pill formula!
After obtaining the formula, Mu Chihuai unhesitatingly "abandoned" the Pill Condensation Sect and returned to the Lingqing Sect to seclude himself for pill refining.
This seclusion lasted for a full two months.
During the refining process, he gained a rare enlightenment, directly breaking through the final bottleneck and advancing to the Nascent Soul stage.
Chu Sang leaned over, seeing the Longevity Pill rich in spiritual energy in his palm, and exclaimed in admiration, "Amazing!"
It was truly impressive.
Refining a heaven-grade pill at the Nascent Soul stage.
Although the Longevity Pill produced by Sixth Senior Brother was still somewhat immature and slightly rough, far from the legendary top-tier heaven-grade pills, it should be noted that usually only those old elders at the Divine Transformation stage in the Pill Condensation Sect had a chance to refine heaven-grade pills. As far as she knew, Sixth Senior Brother seemed to be the only person to refine a heaven-grade pill with Nascent Soul cultivation, right?!
Mu Chihuai curled his lips, his cat tail almost curling up. However, his lifelong upbringing still made him decide to be modest first, "I also received guidance from our family's Dao ancestor, which gave me the opportunity for enlightenment. It's a result of accumulated effort and a bit of fortunate coincidence."
These words were modest, but also true.
Fortuitous coincidences and exceptional performances were mysterious in the cultivation world.
If Mu Chihuai were asked to refine another Longevity Pill on the spot, he probably couldn't do it again, at least not at the Nascent Soul stage.
"Shall we go find that senior in the secret realm behind the mountain?" Now that the pill had been refined, it was naturally time to go find someone.
They had originally planned to use the Longevity Pill to tempt Dong Liyan to join the Lingqing Sect.
"We're still missing something."
The group went in grand style to the East Peak to find Mu Changqing.
After leaving Guping City last time, Chu Sang had asked Third Senior Brother to return to the sect first and gave him a very important task.
Just as they entered the East Peak, Mu Changqing knew they had arrived. The large snake used its tail to push a large box covered with black cloth out of the bamboo house.
When they opened it, they saw an exquisitely crafted, lifelike puppet!
If it weren't for the fact that this puppet couldn't breathe or move, they might have thought it was a real person.
Tantai Ming went up to curiously touch it. Not only could the joints move freely like a normal person, but even the feel of the skin was almost identical to a real person. Who knows what materials Third Senior Brother used to make it? It was truly amazing! Even if this puppet suddenly opened its eyes and jumped up, he wouldn't be surprised at all.
"Is this puppet made for that powerful being?" Mu Chihuai found the puppet increasingly familiar, recognizing it as Senior Dong Liyan. He immediately understood Little Junior Sister's intention.
"Turning a dead person into a living one would violate the laws of heaven and earth. Even the Longevity Pill can only save a dying person and nourish their soul. It's far from being able to turn a soul that died ten thousand years ago back into a living person."
Chu Sang said, "I've researched many esoteric books before. There doesn't seem to be any magic in the cultivation world that can rebuild a physical body. Only those unorthodox methods have forbidden techniques for soul possession. However, as orthodox disciples, we can't do such things. It's better to have Third Senior Brother craft a puppet that's almost identical to a real person, allowing Senior Dong Liyan's soul to reside in the puppet as a physical body."
A human's physical body is at most just a flesh and blood puppet.
Made of flesh, blood, and bones, or made of other materials... theoretically, there shouldn't be much difference, right?
This idea was somewhat shocking. Anyway, no one else in the cultivation world had tried this yet.
Tantai Ming remained skeptical.
Mu Chihuai, on the other hand, was eager to try. His eyes curved in a smile, "Why don't we go to the back mountain and try it with that senior?"
Chu Sang and Mu Chihuai, both mischievous, were in perfect agreement. Wouldn't they know if they could use it by trying?
"Senior Dong Liyan, we've brought you something good!"
The secret realm behind the mountain was quiet. A few years ago, those little ones had forcibly abducted him to the back mountain of the Lingqing Sect. Except for coming to train a few times when their cultivation was low at the beginning, they basically hadn't come often later.
Dong Liyan had been staying alone in the secret realm, feeling somewhat lonely. Hearing the voices of those children unexpectedly, he thought he was hallucinating. He floated over to look and found that it was indeed those little rascals who had come.
Counting the time, it had been more than a year since they last met. These children seemed to have grown up a bit more. Now they were no longer the fifteen or sixteen-year-old kids from when they first met; they had basically grown into adults.
Dong Liyan felt quite emotional.
Until he heard the girl call out,
"Senior, I've brought you something good!"
Dong Liyan's mouth twitched suddenly, immediately recalling how this girl had once solemnly said she was bringing him something good, and then released a pitch-black great ghost king. It had shocked him for quite a while.
"What brings you all here today?" Dong Liyan stood with his hands behind his back, assuming the air of a lofty immortal, speaking indifferently.
"We said we're here to bring Senior something good!" The girl raised her bright, smiling face, which hadn't changed at all.
Dong Liyan turned his gaze to the large object they had brought, covered with a black cloth, seemingly containing a person.
When they uncovered it, even Dong Liyan was shocked for a good while. After a long time, he finally spoke hesitantly, "Has the cultivation world... now developed evil techniques for rebuilding physical bodies?"
"No, no, Senior, this is a puppet. We are proper, upright cultivator disciples!!" Tantai Ming hurriedly patted his chest in assurance.
Dong Liyan looked at them with some doubt. To be honest, he was a bit skeptical, after all, that little girl could subdue a ghost king. Which proper, upright orthodox disciple would go and subdue such a treacherous thing?
Of course, he was just joking. He also knew these children had pure hearts and there was no need to play tricks on his nearly dissipating remnant soul.
Dong Liyan floated closer to look and discovered the marvelous aspects of this puppet.
Even though its appearance was identical to a human, so much so that even he almost thought his physical body had been revived, upon closer inspection, it was just an empty shell with no flesh or spiritual energy inside. It was truly and thoroughly an inanimate object.
"What are you trying to do?"
Dong Liyan found it increasingly difficult to fathom the intentions of these little ones before him.
Indeed, he was an old man from ten thousand years ago. Had he developed a generation gap with these children of today's cultivation world?
"Senior Dong Liyan, we sincerely invite you to join the Lingqing Sect and become an elder of our sect!" Chu Sang said formally.
Dong Liyan was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "The Tianqi Sect has already perished, and I am just a lone person. If this old man were truly still alive, perhaps I would really be moved by the sincerity of you little ones and join your sect, but..." He sighed and shook his head, "As you can see, this old man is now nothing more than a lonely ghost, with even this last wisp of soul and spiritual power about to dissipate completely. I can't even leave this secret realm. What could I possibly teach you?"
"Senior need not worry. You only need to say whether you agree or not. Leave the rest to us!" she said solemnly.
Dong Liyan was truly made curious by their back-and-forth. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment before saying seriously, "If I truly have the fortune to return to the world of the living, this old man has nowhere else to go anyway. I'll have to trouble you then."
Chu Sang: "Then, shall we make a Heavenly Oath?"
Dong Liyan: "......"
He gritted his teeth. This little girl was quite cautious. Did she fear he would run away halfway?
Having said this much, he was truly curious about what these little ones could produce. Could they really allow him to return to the world of the living?
After making the Heavenly Oath, Mu Chihuai and Chu Sang exchanged a glance, then took out the Longevity Pill.
Even as a lonely soul, one could feel the rich and pure spiritual energy fluctuations from the pill. Dong Liyan was a knowledgeable person and recognized the grade of this pill at a glance. A heaven-grade pill! And it was the legendary, long-lost Longevity Pill!!
Dong Liyan was completely won over by these children before him. There truly were talented people in every generation. He looked at Mu Chihuai with wide eyes, "This pill, did you obtain it from your sect? Or..."
"In reply to Senior, I refined it myself. The formula was obtained by this disciple from elsewhere," Mu Chihuai said neither humbly nor arrogantly.
"Haha, good, good." He said "good" several times before finally stopping, a kind smile appearing on his face. He nodded and said, "Then from today onwards, this old man will officially become a member of your Lingqing Sect. I hope you young friends will take care of me."
"Welcome, Senior Dong Liyan... no, Elder!"
Such good news naturally had to be told to the Sect Leader. They first acted and then reported to Immortal Chanyu. Anyway, the old Master usually didn't bother with sect affairs. When she wasn't at the sect for the past few years, sect matters were always left to Second Senior Sister and the others to handle. After Chu Sang came to the Lingqing Sect, it was actually the youngest disciple who was most diligent. The sect's first spirit vein was even bought with her own money.
"Oh, you've recruited a new elder?"
Immortal Chanyu took a bite of a spirit fruit. Anyway, all the sect's affairs had been handed over to the obedient disciples to manage. She was left free and easy, without any objections. At most, they just needed to report to her afterwards.
However... why did the name Dong Liyan sound somewhat familiar?
A middle-aged man with a steady demeanor walked in. Immortal Chanyu's spirit fruit fell to the ground with a "plop". She widened her eyes, stretched out a hand, and stammered, "I thought this name sounded so familiar. You old thing, you're actually not dead? Am I seeing things?"
"That shouldn't be possible, right? Ten thousand years have passed, your lifespan should have been exhausted, right? And I remember your sect was destroyed at that time? You even sacrificed yourself for your beliefs. How..." She muttered to herself.
Dong Liyan was slightly stunned, seemingly not recognizing this person, until Immortal Chanyu stammered out that "old thing". He suddenly realized, "Ah, it's that little girl Chunhua, the one who used to follow your master around like a tail?"
Being reminded of the embarrassing nickname she considered a lifelong humiliation, Immortal Chanyu's face changed instantly, "Mind your tone. I'm now the Sect Leader of the Lingqing Sect. Who knows which little girl you're talking about?"
Dong Liyan: "I didn't expect you to be alive either. I'm quite surprised."
The fact that Senior Dong Liyan and the Sect Leader were actually acquaintances was indeed surprising to the others as well.
Tantai Ming was dumbfounded. Remembering something, he stammered, "Senior Dong Liyan is from ten thousand years ago, and he knows Master. Doesn't that mean Master is also a cultivator from ten thousand years ago? So Master is really that old—"
Chu Sang timely covered his unfiltered mouth, preventing Seventh Senior Brother from suffering a beating from Immortal Chanyu.
"We won't disturb Master and Senior's reunion then. We'll take our leave first!"
The group immediately showed their tact and slipped away.
The next day, Immortal Chanyu officially announced to the entire sect that Dong Liyan had become the Grand Elder of the Lingqing Sect.
As the former Sect Leader of the Tianqi Sect, Dong Liyan's knowledge of cultivation far surpassed that of today's declining cultivation world. He would temporarily lead the heart method cultivation classes for the sect's new disciples.
After another short period, the sect welcomed another lightning tribulation.
Chu Sang looked at the lightning tribulation with a formidable momentum, feeling somewhat apprehensive, "This... shouldn't be Second Senior Sister's lightning tribulation either, right?"
"This is Big Senior Sister's Divine Transformation lightning tribulation," Wen Renyue shrugged and smiled, "After Big Senior Brother came out of seclusion and reached Divine Transformation, it directly aroused Big Senior Sister's fighting spirit. When you returned last time, Big Senior Sister locked herself in the forbidden area and has been in seclusion until now."
Big Senior Sister's lightning tribulation was no weaker than Big Senior Brother's. The Lingqing Sect had been shaking heaven and earth during this period. It was Immortal Chanyu who personally came forward to reinforce the sect's formation once again, sparing the other junior disciples from harm.
Big Senior Sister's Divine Transformation lightning tribulation lasted for a full half month before finally coming to an end.
The first thing Big Senior Sister did after coming out of seclusion was not to report the good news, but to directly go find Big Senior Brother for a duel, to determine the winner.
Big Senior Brother seemed to have anticipated this and had left the sect half a month in advance.
Chu Sang clicked her tongue in amazement, "Big Senior Sister can't remember other people's faces, but she can remember Big Senior Brother's face uniquely."
Tantai Ming: "No, Big Senior Sister can also remember your face, Little Junior Sister."
The only two people in the sect whose faces Big Senior Sister could remember were probably only Big Senior Brother and Little Junior Sister. Others didn't have this treatment.
Just as they were talking.
Another lightning tribulation appeared.
Good heavens.
A thought simultaneously arose in everyone's minds.
Their Lingqing Sect was about to be struck into a crater.