All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 106: Digesting Knowledge

The “Twelve Profound Light Swords” was a sword control technique that required mastering the “Sword Flight Technique” first. It was divided into eleven levels. When mastered, it allowed the user to split into eleven flying sword avatars, making twelve swords including the main body, hence the name. These eleven avatar swords were semi-real and semi-illusory, possessing extraordinary killing power and making it hard to distinguish between real and fake. More terrifyingly, the controller could instantly switch positions between the main body and avatars, making it impossible to defend against.

“What a fearsome technique. Unfortunately, I haven’t even learned the Sword Flight Technique yet, so I’ll set it aside for now,” Zhanyue carefully put the jade pendant away in his storage ring. Then he picked up the other jade pendant containing the Alchemy Daoist’s pill refining notes and insights.

The moment his soul sense touched the jade pendant, a vast sea of knowledge flooded into Zhanyue’s mind like a bursting dam. He staggered a few steps, clutched his head, and fell to the ground. It took a long time before he could absorb all this knowledge into his mind, though he hadn’t yet understood or mastered it.

“The amount of information in these insights is incredibly vast and complex.” At this moment, Zhanyue realized how naive he had been before, thinking he could advance to become a high-level alchemy master through self-study. This sea of knowledge made him understand the importance of inheritance. The art of pill refining had developed over countless years, built step by step on the theories and experiences of predecessors. It was almost impossible for one person to lay the foundation anew and reach the heights others had achieved. This explained the emergence of pill-making families, the tradition of valuing teacher lineage in pill refining, and why so many alchemy masters were willing to join Associations, sacrificing some freedom for guidance from experts.

“The Alchemy Daoist elder truly held nothing back,” Zhanyue sighed. His previous understanding of pill refining was comparable to a high schooler’s math level. This experience opened the door to higher mathematics, a world Zhanyue had never stepped into before. With this “advanced” knowledge and expert guidance, Zhanyue believed his pill refining skills would surely progress rapidly.

“Next time I discuss problems with that girl Baizhi, I won’t always be at a disadvantage and let her feel smug. Yes, next time I’ll make her beg me for explanations!” Zhanyue was full of fighting spirit. It had always been Baizhi guiding him, but now, after absorbing the Alchemy Daoist’s knowledge and experience, he would surely be able to guide Baizhi in turn. After all, the highest level in Baizhi’s Bai family was only a seventh-grade alchemy master, while the Alchemy Daoist was the world’s only ninth-grade alchemy master.

“Ah, no wonder Sister repeatedly warned me to be cautious about choosing whether to cultivate both pill refining and martial arts. I underestimated the path of pill refining. Without the Alchemy Daoist elder’s mind techniques, even with that girl Baizhi’s guidance, I don’t know how many wrong turns I would have taken.” Zhanyue felt fortunate; his luck had always been good. Although cultivating both paths was extremely difficult, he had now cleared the biggest obstacle. His mind was filled with a vast amount of knowledge, experience, and details from fifth-grade to eighth-grade pill refining.

While seventh-grade alchemy masters were generally at the Spirit God Realm, the combat power between Spirit Gods could vary greatly. For instance, the four heads of the four great pill-making families were extraordinary in pill refining but lagged far behind in martial arts. They generally couldn’t defeat other Spirit God Realm martial artists of the same level, as people’s time and energy were limited. Pill cultivation alone was enough to consume all their time and energy. Only true geniuses could excel in both pill refining and martial arts, like the Empress of the Thousand Charms Empire, Luo Shenyu.

Early the next morning, Zhanyue stretched lazily. He had only rested for a short while, too excited to sleep much all night. After all, he was still just a young man in his twenties. He had spent the entire night absorbing the experience left by the Alchemy Daoist.

Leaving the imperial palace, Zhanyue finally appreciated the splendor of Myriad Purple City in daylight. Tall buildings lined both sides of the streets, able to accommodate a vast population. Although not as beautiful as at night, the prosperity of daytime Myriad Purple City left Zhanyue in awe. There were even more women on the streets, all with good looks.

“Tsk tsk, worthy of being the capital of the Thousand Charms Empire. The average level of beauty is terrifying. Sister mentioned earlier that the Thousand Charms Empress was very beautiful, it’s a pity I didn’t get to see her,” Zhanyue felt some regret.

After communicating with Baizhi, Zhanyue learned that the girl would take at least half a month to return to the Bai family in Alchemy Capital. Myriad Purple City wasn’t far from Alchemy Capital, only a five-day journey. This meant Zhanyue had plenty of time to prepare. He had obtained the imperial edict, solving Baizhi’s problem. However, he was thinking that he couldn’t let it end so easily. He needed to teach that Golden Pill cultivator and the Bai family a lesson, letting them taste the bitterness of failure.

“I’ll walk to Alchemy Capital these days, and practice the Sword Flight Technique along the way,” Zhanyue made his plan.

“Fire Refining Pills are fire-attribute pills that require extremely high purity of materials. The Fire Cloud Stone needs to be refined with a gentle fire until it melts, then mixed with mountain spring water and re-solidified. Repeating this process can purify the impurities to obtain pure Fire Cloud Stone raw material, which is necessary to successfully refine Fire Refining Pills. What do you think of this method of repeated water addition and melting?” Baizhi loved discussing pill knowledge with Zhanyue, using their divine communication space as a chat tool.

Looking at the note Baizhi sent, Zhanyue, sitting on a large tree branch, thought for a moment and wrote back, “Mountain spring water contains different impurities due to varying soil qualities. These impurities will still mix into the Fire Cloud Stone. Your method is slightly better than the traditional one, but not by much. Actually, what Fire Refining Pills need isn’t Fire Cloud Stone, but the fire essence within it. The method to obtain fire essence is simple: use extreme high temperatures to burn away all impurities, leaving only the purest fire essence. Previous generations just didn’t reach those temperatures, so they didn’t know.”

“Hmm? Where did you learn this?” Baizhi was curious.

“Hehe, I figured it out myself. If you don’t believe me, give me some Fire Cloud Stone, and I’ll extract the fire essence for you to see,” Zhanyue smiled. In the vast sea of knowledge he had acquired, Fire Cloud Stone was a key point, as many high-grade pills required fire essence. Ordinary people just didn’t have high-grade flames to create extreme temperatures, so they didn’t know this secret.

“You figured it out yourself? I don’t believe you. How come I feel like you suddenly understand so much, even things I don’t know about?” Baizhi was confused.

“I’ll tell you when we meet next time. By the way, I’ve already solved your problem. You don’t need to worry anymore,” Zhanyue replied.

“Solved it? How?” Baizhi asked curiously.

“It’s a secret,” Zhanyue prepared to give the girl a surprise, but added, “I just hope Miss Bai won’t forget me when she becomes successful.”

“Successful? What exactly did you do?” Baizhi naturally knew nothing.

“Little girl, don’t worry. When we meet next time, it will be when you’re truly free. The mere Bai family can’t hold you back,” Zhanyue sent the message. Although he had paid the price of the Longevity Pill formula, the Empress had shown her gratitude. The content of that imperial edict was so outrageous even Zhanyue found it hard to believe.

Zhanyue jumped down from the tree, landing on the Heaven Punishing Demon Sword, then controlled the sword to move slowly forward. He was learning sword flight, daring only to control it within half a meter of the ground. However, sword flight wasn’t particularly difficult, and soon his speed increased.

“Heaven Punishing Demon Sword, good stuff, good stuff. From now on, you’ll pretend to be my contract object in public,” Zhanyue smiled. All the contract objects he currently possessed seemed unable to be revealed. Although the Heaven Punishing Demon Sword wasn’t a contract object, he had refined it into his life-bound treasure, which was almost the same.

“Let’s go!” Zhanyue boldly raised the flying sword’s height, leaving the ground for the first time by his own power, filled with excitement!