The Attack of the Wastrel

Hearing Gu Lingzhi’s exclamation, everyone immediately gathered in the front yard.

“Beicheng Haoyue, what do you want?” Ye Fei asked, frowning. She glanced at Gu Lingzhi, thinking that based on Beicheng Haoyue’s personality, the only one who was worth her attention would likely be Gu Lingzhi.

Indeed, Beicheng Haoyue affirmed her guess, saying, “I’m looking for Gu Linghzi.”

“May I know why you’re looking for me?” Gu Lingzhi asked.

“I wanted to exchange some ideas on Alchemy with you,” Beicheng Haoyue replied, unexpectedly sincere. In her eyes, there was no trace of guile or ill-intent, and this gave Gu Lingzhi the impression that Beicheng Haoyue truly had no other intentions than discussing Alchemy.

Puckering her lips, Gu Lingzhi replied with uncertainty, “Senior Beicheng, I heard that you are already the fifth-best Black-Level Alchemist in the Royal School. I’m only a Yellow-Level Alchemist, I’m afraid you won’t learn much from me.”

“You’re wrong.” Beicheng Haoyue replied, full of certainty. “I’ve examined some of the pills that you’ve refined, and I know you’re using a unique method that I’m not familiar with. It’s fascinating!”

Then, seeming to realize that her words had made Gu Lingzhi wary, she added, “Oh, I don’t mean to steal your technique from you. I just wanted to find out more about your experiences. I noticed that your fire control and handling of medicinal ingredients is really exceptional, I just wanted to know more about your experiences.”

Beicheng Haoyue’s request in fact bordered too closely on Gu Lingzhi’s privacy. Did she really not have a clue, or was she just faking it? Still, seeing how sincere she was, Gu Lingzhi was unsure of how to respond, hesitant to reject such a sincere request.

However, it would be worth it to reveal some of her secrets to be able to exchange pointers on Alchemy with someone like Beicheng Haoyue.

“Well, it’s really an honor that I’ve managed to catch your attention. I, too, have some doubts that I think Senior Beicheng can help me with.”

“Then, shall we begin now?”

“Huh?” Gu Lingzhi thought that she had heard wrongly and did not expect Beicheng Haoyue to immediately just walk into the residence. When the latter saw the dazed look on Gu Lingzhi’s face, she asked, “Does your residence not have a Pill Refining Room?”

The Royal School gave its students the best treatment in the entire kingdom. Not only did the residence have a private training area for the students, there was also a Weapon Forging Room and a Pill Refining Room behind the hall. However, Gu Lingzhi did not use it much, partly in order to protect her secrets and partly out of convenience. Usually, she would enter the Pill Refining Room and then enter her own Inheritance Space from there. Anyway, Ye Fei and Tianfeng Jin did not care much for refining pills or forging weapons and rarely used those rooms.

Recovering from her moment of confusion, Gu Lingzhi replied, “We do, of course.” Then, waving to Ye Fei, Tianfeng Jin, and Qin Xinran, she led Beicheng Haoyue towards the Pill Refining Room, throwing the incident with Rong Yuan and the other guys to the back of her mind.

Anyway, her purpose in heading towards the Alchemy Tower was to practice her pill refining. Beicheng Haoyue’s visit was a pleasant surprise to her, as she was definitely an expert in the field of Alchemy.

Beicheng Haoyue was definitely deserving of her reputation as a genius, and she had her unique views regarding Alchemy. Inside the Pill Refining Room, the two of them began with the most fundamental Yiyuan Pill as their starting point. From selection of medicinal ingredients, preliminary preparations, to the final steps of combining the medicines and forming the pill, they went through each step of the process. They even took out some ingredients to do a live demonstration of the pill refining process. As they worked, their movements flowed like water, and their steps looked extremely well practiced. It was to the point that the whole pill refining process looked like a performance, mesmerizing the audience who had gathered outside the room to watch.

“I’m thinking, should I pick up Alchemy too?” Ye Fei mused aloud. Even if she could not reach Gu Lingzhi’s level, she thought it might still be worth something.

“You don’t have a wood Spiritual Root.” Tianfeng Jin immediately crushed Ye Fei’s hopes. Only those who possessed both wood and fire Spiritual Roots could become good alchemists.

Ye Fei sighed, “Why isn’t there a pill in this world that could let people awaken new Spiritual Roots?”

“Who says there isn’t?”

This question came from Di Huan, who recovered some time back. He rubbed his head as he said, “Supposedly, in ancient times, the Spirit Tribe could refine a pill that was able to let someone develop a new Spiritual Root. Unfortunately, the Spirit Tribe no longer exists and the pill formula for that is also lost, along with the knowledge they used to dominate the whole Tianyuan Continent.”

“But you said that it no longer exists,” Ye Fei interjected. “If it no longer exists, how can you claim that there’s still such a thing?”

Di Huan shook his head as he replied, “No matter what, at least it has existed before. Anyway, how can you be sure that the Spirit Tribe is completely extinct? Maybe there’s even some who are hidden amongst us that we aren’t aware of. And besides, even if the Spirit Tribe is truly gone, as long as the pill has been made before, that means that at some point in the future, someone may be able to make it once again.”

“Please, if it were that easy, someone would have successfully done so in the past hundred thousand years. Even the middle grade Heaven-Level Alchemists in the past have never managed to do such a thing, what more the Alchemists now who are not even on their Level?”

Legends had it that the Spirit Tribe previously ruled the Tianyuan continent and they possessed the strongest Martial Skills, most sophisticated Alchemy and Weapon Forging methods. Yet, they did not use their power to oppress the other tribes, but instead treated them with kindness, compassion, and wisdom. They were rumored to be almost perfect.

But, one day, this group of people who never created enmity with others suddenly disappeared. Along with their disappearance, their precious knowledge also disappeared as well. Even those Spirit Tribe members who had become True Gods and could easily traverse the Realm of the Gods and Tianyuan Continent also vanished without a trace.

At that time, many people had attempted to find out where they had gone, but it was as though this tribe had never existed before. There was no trace left of their presence, and no one could find even one sign of their whereabouts.

After a hundred years of fruitless searching, the remaining humans agreed that the Spirit Tribe had well and truly vanished, becoming only a thing of legend.

And so, following the disappearance of the Spirit Tribe and their knowledge of cultivation, the world of Martial Artists entered a long period of decline. Because of a lack of good cultivation methods, medicine, and weapons, those who could reach the highest levels became extremely few. Over the next hundred thousand years, the number of True Gods that rose from the entire continent was less than ten.

Furthermore, the True Gods who had existed in the distant past were also swept along with the river of time. Presently, True Gods too were only a thing of legend. Even though some said that the Third Prince was the most likely to become a True God, it was ultimately just wishful thinking. Until the day he truly became a True God, perhaps such a thing would forever remain a legend.