Chapter 375: Stunning the Sky Quadrant

“Are you sure that you’d like to request a level five mission?” The examiner asked again.

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded his head lightly.

“Haven’t all of you been waiting here to see my boss challenge the level five mission?” Tang Hong cried out on the side.

“Room number 12. Young man, you’re the first to challenge a level five mission. I wish you good luck!” The examiner gave the mission token to Jiang Chen.

Tang Hong waved his big hands, shouting, “Good luck boss! Take down the level five mission, and you’ll be the genius ranked first amongst the sky quadrant then!”

The words ‘first ranked genius’ were quite ear piercing to the candidates waiting around to see a good show.

It wasn’t as if just anyone had the right to be the first ranked genius.

Even of the preeminent geniuses now, neither of them dared self style themselves as number one. This was because no one wanted to become a public enemy at this time.

This title was actually a burden. Whoever dared to call themselves as such thus would become the target of everyone’s attacks.

Of those who could make it into the sky quadrant, who was willing to let someone else take home the title of first genius?

Even those who had no hope of making it to the top felt out of sorts when they heard Tang Hong’s words? Was a secular cultivator worthy of the title of first genius? Aren’t you worried that the wind will hurt your fat tongue after all that boasting!

However, Tang Hong wasn’t thinking that much at all. He didn’t have the intention of raking Jiang Chen over the coals at all. He’d been defeated by Jiang Chen several times in the areas that he was most confident in—strength of heart and pills.

That he’d lost so thoroughly meant that Tang Hong truly and wholeheartedly accepted Jiang Chen as his boss.

Tang Hong was a straightforward guy. He would say whatever was on his mind. He never cared about concealing his thoughts. He didn’t care at all that what he was saying was irritating to others.

He only knew that he truly wished that Jiang Chen would succeed in challenging a level five mission.

He thoroughly submitted with good grace to a boss who’d beaten him like this. Completely, and utterly!

The difficulty of a level five mission was indeed great.

It involved the refining of pills, and the requirements it made on the final product were quite high.

Of course, to someone who’d refined the Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill, this was bit difficult to Jiang Chen, but not too much.

The kind of quality he was being asked to produce was far below the aforementioned pill.

The time allotted was 24 hours, and the required level of quality was to produce an upper rank pill.

The pills were divided into lower, mid, upper, supreme, and even earth and heaven rank.

Of course, it was impossible for the last two to appear in the sixteen kingdoms. There were no pill masters of the requisite ability level, nor were there pill cauldrons and ingredients of sufficient quality.

To refine an earth or heaven rank pill meant that every detail had to be perfect. If even one was insufficient, then it’d be impossible to refine a pill of those ranks.

Jiang Chen observed the pill cauldron when he’d laid out all the ingredients in the right order. Its quality was acceptable for refining a pill of the requisite quality.

As the cauldron heated up, Jiang Chen started to go through each step in a calm, unhurried fashion.

Continued fortuitous circumstances had made it so that Jiang Chen had a fine control over fire. This was the experience that the Lotus of Fire and Ice had brought him. It had absorbed the entire vein of heavenly fire power in the initial selection, so the fire that he could control now was exceedingly strong.

The potential of one’s fire talents was quite important to a pill master.

The strongest pill masters were adepts at controlling fire and had to be geniuses of fire. If one didn’t possess enormous fire attribute potential, then they could forget about becoming a decent pill master.

Of course, the best potential for someone refining pills was still someone who had great holistic potential, such as Long Juxue’s innate constitution.

To innately possess talents in all five attributes meant that no matter what this person did or learnt, they’d be able to do so faster than anyone else.

The dao of pills was thus as well. At the end of the day, it was still regarding one’s grasp over the five elements. One’s grasp of fire was just an impetus in the end.

Pills were a finished product.

Spirit ingredients were formed naturally and yet to be manipulated. There were those born completely in nature and those raised by humans. Their uses were more single minded.

Pills made use of various spirit ingredients and melded them together to give rise to a bigger effect. This was the profound mystery of the dao of pills.

Therefore, when it came down to the bottom of things, the dao of pills was of the same origin of martial dao.

To understand one was to understand a hundred.

Of course, to someone who was naturally proud as Long Juxue and thoroughly immersed in martial dao, she disdained being a pill master.

Although pill masters were respected, they were only thus and not revered in the end if they didn’t have strong martial dao to back themselves up.

Long Juxue liked the feeling of being one on high and being respected and feared by thousands.

She loved the feeling of the masses at her feet and grasping all in her hands.

Of course, this wasn’t limited to just Long Juxue. Most bent on martial dao pursued the peak of martial dao, just for the experience of having superiority over all.

This wasn’t something that an ordinary pill master could attain.

Even though Jiang Chen had been renowned throughout the realms in his past life for his grasp of the dao of pills, that didn’t mean he’d possessed the prestige of being able to awe all those throughout the realms.

This was because he hadn’t possessed absolute power.

Jiang Chen looked silently at the cauldron and focused his concentration. Once he entered the state of refining pills, Jiang Chen’s heart was as calm as still water. He quickly found the mentality that he had possessed in his past life.

Time passed with the tick of every second and minute.

…..

Those who had completed their daily mission all converged on the lobby. It was obvious that someone had spread the word that someone had requested a level five mission.

Apart from those geniuses who were cognizant of their status, almost a majority of the hundred candidates in the sky quadrant had arrived. There were forty to fifty people in the lobby.

All of them were whispering to each other and discussing about the secular genius.

Tang Hong had taken advantage of this time to solidly complete a mission. He exited quickly and was now quite agitated.

This was the first time that a level five mission had appeared.

Although Tang Hong was very confident in the new boss that he’d accepted, his heart was still on tenterhooks before Jiang Chen came out.

If he succeeded, that would set off an explosion that would shock even the most preeminent geniuses.

Therefore, Tang Hong had high anticipations for such a scene to appear.

“Boss, you’ve got to hold out. I, old Tang, finally have someone that I admire. I hope you return triumphantly and smack all the faces of those so-called top geniuses!”

Tang Hong was both anxious and full of anticipation. Because he would occasionally come off worse for the wear from those preeminent geniuses, so he ardently wished that someone even more perverse would appear and thoroughly trample those so-called top geniuses.

It wasn’t that he was jealous of them, but that he couldn’t abide by their style.

Those who were waiting to watch the show were all among the lower tier in the sky quadrant. Tang Hong took a look and realized that none of the top 20 were here.

“Heh heh, these fellows have their eyes on top of their heads, but they’re definitely all dying of curiosity and still won’t come personally. However, it doesn’t matter that they’re not here. They’ll be the first to receive the news when boss finishes. Hahaha, I wonder if they’ll become uneasy then?”

More people arrived the longer that time went on.

Even Iron Dazhi of the Precious Tree Sect couldn’t resist temptation and ran over for a look as well.

Iron Dazhi’s expression changed when he saw Tang Hong. When Tang Hong glared at him though, Iron Dazhi knew enough to not come up and greet the former. Resentment filled his heart instead.

“This idiot Tang Hong. He could’ve latched onto the leg of a direct descendent of the Iron family but decided to call a secular kid as his boss instead. This kid’s brain really isn’t normal.”

Another person walked in after Iron Dazhi walked in. He was tall and wore plain hemp clothes. his eyes were like the stars as a deep look filled them. His bearing seemed a bit desolate, giving one the feeling of an ascetic monk.

This person was Chu Xinghan, Master Shuiyue’s second disciple.

He’d heard of what was going on here after he’d completed his mission. He’d been a bit surprised, and had come over for a look.

Honestly speaking, although Jiang Chen and Master Shuiyue were dead set against each other in the earth quadrant, Chu Xinghan had always been one to follow his intuition and not be controlled by emotions.

Logically speaking, he was of Master Shuiyue’s faction and as such, he should be hating Jiang Chen. But he really didn’t hate this person in the depths of his heart.

When he’d seen Jiang Chen at the Second Crossing, he’d felt warmly disposed towards this young man. This was why he hadn’t killed Jiang Chen even in the face of great pressure, and had decided to bring him back to the sect.

In contrast, he just didn’t feel much towards Long Juxue, this so-called genius with an innate constitution. He even had a rather bad impression of her.

When he thought of the causes, Chu Xinghan also knew that his honored master was likely suppressing Jiang Chen because she suspected he was Jiang Chen.

The source of all these grudges was Long Juxue.

Since the honored master was erupting in open hostilities with Jiang Chen because of Long Juxue, Chu Xinghan’s first thought was that he wouldn’t become involved at all. He didn’t want to become embroiled in pointless conflict for Long Juxue’s sake again.

He’d become involved that time when he saved her life, but she hadn’t been grateful at all. The calm Chu Xinghan then learnt that this woman was not worth wasting his efforts on at all.

With the previous examples of third junior brother Hai Tian and fourth junior brother He Yan, Chu Xinghan knew this more clearly than anything else.

In the depths of his heart, Chu Xinghan actually admired Jiang Chen quite a bit and even felt respect for this secular genius. To be able to make it to this step wasn’t a product of sheer luck only.

Chu Xinghan even had the faintest premonition that even Long Juxue wouldn’t be able to win with confidence over this fellow.

When his thoughts traveled here, Chu Xinghan’s gaze couldn’t help but look to the front.