Immortal Mortal

”There are five 100,000 Years Old Pine Pulse which I will buy later. I will give three of them to you. I will then give you another three more 1000 years Longyan Grass to exchange for your Treasured Blood Lotus, what do you think?”

Even though Mo Wuji knew that the Treasured Blood Lotus was worth quite a bit, it was still only a Tier 3 spiritual herb. Whether it was the 100000 years Pine Pulse or the 1000 years Longyan Grass, these were still Tier 4 spiritual herbs. To exchange all of these for his one Treasured Blood Lotus, he definitely gained a lot out of this deal. Mu Ying must have offered this because of her relationship and impression of him.

”Thank you senior Mu, I am more than willing to exchange,” Mo Wuji said without any hesitation.

”Great, that was straightforward,” Mu Ying nodded her head with a lot of satisfaction. She used the two Tier 4 spiritual herbs to exchange for the Pine Pulse very quickly and then gave the three Pine Pulse and 3 Longyan Grass to exchange with Mo Wuji.

After the exchange with Mo Wuji was completed, Mu Ying asked, ”Pill Master Mo, I have a lot of admiration for you after your contribution of the Mo’s drug. How did you actually become a Tier 2 pill refiner when you started off as a service disciple?”

From the start, Mo Wuji wanted to be on good terms with Mu Ying. When Mu Ying asked this, Mo Wuji naturally did not hide anything, ”Senior Mu, the main reason why I could become a Tier 2 pill refiner is because of senior apprentice sister Yan’s help. Senior apprentice sister Yan taught me a lot of things which gave me the opportunity to become a Tier 2 pill refiner.”

”So it was because of senior apprentice sister Yan’s guidance? Senior apprentice sister Yan, why didn’t you tell me that you knew Pill Master Mo?” Mu Ying was looked as though she was very close with Yan Qianyin as she turned around immediately to ask her.

”It was because junior apprentice brother Mo’s understanding of pills were already decent when I met him. All I did was to give him some small pointers,” Yan Qianyin gave a slight smile as she knew she had no credits to claim for Mo Wuji’s success in becoming a pill refiner. However, she did not say it out because she guessed that Mo Wuji did not want others to know about how talented he was in this area.

Finishing, Yan Qianyin continued to ask Mo Wuji, ”Junior apprentice brother Mo, are you going to participate in the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition too?”

Mo Wuji gave a smile with gratitude, ”Yes senior apprentice sister Yan. I only just managed to advance to become a Tier 3 pill refiner and I’m here to try my luck.”

”Ah, you are already a Tier 3 pill refiner?” Yan Qianyin exclaimed as she predicted that Mo Wuji could never advance beyond Tier 2. However, in a blink of an eye, he is a Tier 3 pill refiner already. Could it be that she misjudged him?

She suddenly thought of the Formless Blade Sect head Gu Ran and wondered if he would have regrets if he knew Mo Wuji had advanced to become a Tier 3 pill refiner.

Mo Wuji laughed out loud, ”I was just lucky. Inspiration came and I suddenly became a Tier 3 pill refiner.”

Mu Ying’s face turned stern as she said, ”Junior Mo, I do believe that there is no such thing as luck in concocting pills. I believe that Pill Master Mo must have had a very impressive understanding towards pill refinement therefore being able to advance to become a Tier 3 pill refiner. This would explain your development of the Mo’s Drug too. Pill Master Mo, I will be waiting for you at the Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda. I trust that with your talent, you will definitely be able to step into the Heaven Seeking Palace and enter the pill pagoda.”

Mo Wuji said in his heart: even if I wanted to enter the Heaven Seeking Palace, I will not go to the pill pagoda. Pill refinement was only his side career. What he wanted to be was not a Heavenly pill refiner but to pursue the greatest cultivation realm.

”Thank you senior apprentice sister Mu for your auspicious words. Actually, I have some personal matters to discuss with you in private and I wonder if you are able to spare me some time?” Mo Wuji made use of this opportunity to ask.

Mu Ying shook her hand and the things in front of her disappeared without a trace. She then smiled at Mo Wuji and said, ”I was planning to leave but if Pill Master Mo has something to talk to me about then please go ahead.”

Mo Wuji was very envious of people who could do such things and thought to himself: This woman does things very cleanly. Mo Wuji hurried to bid goodbye to Yan Qianyin and then told Zhen Shaoru to head back on his own first before leaving the pill refiners interactions’ hall together with Mu Ying.

Finding Granny Ling Long was crucial to him therefore, he would not let a lunatic like Zhen Shaoru spoil it.

...

At Mu Ying’s residence, Mo Wuji told Mu Ying about his hope of meeting Granny Ling Long.

”You hope to plead Granny Ling Long to help you save your friend?” Mu Ying frowned as she heard Mo Wuji’s wish.

”Yes, it is because no one else other than Granny Ling Long can save Yan’Er,” Mo Wuji looked hopefully at Mu Ying after cupping one fist in the other hand as a sign of respect.

Mu Ying let out a sigh and said, ”It is not that I refuse to help you. The fact is that my grandmaster and Granny Ling Long had some disagreements before and that if I were to bring you to meet her, it would most likely result in a counterproductive outcome…”

Mo Wuji’s heart went cold for about half a second as he heard this.

”Furthermore, even if I managed to help you meet Granny Ling Long, she might not even extend her helping hand. If you can find the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal, even without my help, you would definitely be able to meet Granny Ling Long,” Mu Ying explained.

Mo Wuji cupped his fist once again and said, ”If this is the case, I shall not disturb senior Mu anymore. I shall take my leave.”

Mu Ying could not bear but still told Mo Wuji, ”You have quite a close relationship with the Young House Master of the Nine Moons Pill House. When the time comes, you could ask him for a placing to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition. In the Five Elements Desolate Domain, you could even find a Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal if you’re fortunate. The placings that were awarded to me all belonged to the Heaven Seeking Palace therefore, I am unable to promise you a placing.”

It was very obvious that Mu Ying did not expect Mo Wuji to be able to do well enough in the competition to be awarded placings too.

”Alright, I got it,” Mo Wuji gave a bitter smile and then bid his goodbye.

Ask Nine Moons Pill House young master for a placing to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain? I wonder how Mu Ying would react if she knew that the two brothers Zhen Shaoke and Zhen Shaoru were both waiting for his placings to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain?

Despite not meeting Granny Ling Long before, he had a rough idea of the type of person she was through the numerous descriptions of her. Mo Wuji’s guess was that she was an extremely eccentric old lady who seldom socialise and needed a direct benefit to her for her to help.

It seemed like even if he was awarded the placing in the competition, he would not have the chance to meet Granny Ling Long. The only way was to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain and retrieved the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal that she wanted.

Mo Wuji clenched his fist tightly as he knew he had to win placings in this competition to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain. The competition was only about half a month away therefore, he shut himself in to cultivate the moment Mo Wuji returned to his residence at Nine Moons Pill House.

He constantly concised his spiritual will power and used both the spiritual stones and Energy Gathering Pill concurrently to upgrade his cultivation level. To him, cultivation did not require the use of any pills. In order to be able to concoct a Tier 4 Earth pill as soon as possible, he had no choice but to increase both his cultivation level as well as the power of his spiritual will.

Knowing that Mo Wuji was cultivating, Zhen Shaoke did not bother him at all. Even Zhen Shaoke was restrained by Zhen Shaoru to not disturb Mo Wuji.

...

Half a month passed by very quickly and in only half a month, Mo Wuji’s spiritual will power improved by a lot. Mo Wuji believed that he could advance past Channel Opening Stage Level 7 in no time. Just as he was about to advance into Channel Opening Stage Level 8, Zhen Shaoke knocked on his door. Mo Wuji looked at the many pieces of spirit stones on the floor with disappointment as he lamented how close he was. He needed only a few more days and he could have successfully advance into Channel Opening Stage Level 8.

Zhen Shaoke knocked on the door because the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition was about to begin and had no other choice but to find Mo Wuji.

Indeed, as Mo Wuji opened his door, he saw an apologetic Zhen Shaoke saying, ”Wuji, the pill competition is about to begin. I had to interrupt your closed door training.”

”No worries, I shall clean up first,” Mo Wuji shook his hand as he answered.

...

Half an hour later, a fresh Mo Wuji and Zhen Shaoke arrived at the heart of the square.

The square was filled with a lot of people early in the morning. There was a humongous round altar in the centre of the square and in front of it, there was close to a thousand empty seats and in front of every seat, there was a pill furnace.

The most eye-catching words on the humongous round altar were ”Heaven Seeking Palace”. Around the Heaven Seeking Palace were the the individual big sects. Mo Wuji saw Heavenly Temple, Jade Net Sect and Distant Fire Sect but not the Formless Blade Sect and the Nine Moons Pill House.

It seemed as if only the quasi-sky level sects would make it on the round altar.

Even though there were many people on the square, it was not messy or noisy. Most people were just standing there quietly or engaging in small discussions.

A long bearded man wearing a caramel coloured robe walked down from the empty sky and landed on the centre of the square’s round altar.

”This person is so incredible,” Mo Wuji was so impressed as this was the first time he witnessed someone walking down from an empty sky.

Zhen Shaoke was standing beside Mo Wuji as he introduced, ”This is the Heaven Seeking Palace’s True God expert, the second dean, senior Feng Zhenqiu.”

Feng Zhenqu stood on the round altar and cupped his fist to all four directions, ”Fellow friends and pill refiners, the Five Elements Pill Competition had became the five big empires first competition together and this is not just because this is a pill refiners competition of the highest level. It is also because this affects who gets to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain. The five empires have been called by others as the Lost Continent not without any valid reasoning. This is because even though we have quite a lot of cultivators and geniuses, we have very little cultivators who can advance into the Heaven Realm’s Three Great Heavens…”

Up to here, Feng Zhenqiu paused on purpose. When Feng Zhenqiu first arrived, it was already very quiet but it was close to pindrop silent now.

After the pause, Feng Zhenqiu continued, ”The five big empires cover such vast land and countless of geniuses so why is it so hard to produce a heaven realm cultivator? Is it because our geniuses are all pseudo-geniuses? I can tell you now that the answer is a definite no. This is because the Lost Continent lacked a Heaven-Earth regulation and the lack of this regulation not only prevent the Tier 7 spiritual herbs from growing, it also blocks us from realising the profound mystery of the Heaven Realm’s Three Great Heavens”

There were finally some discussions on the square but it was not loud. This was apparently not their first time hearing this.

”Now that the Five Element Desolate Domain is finally being opened, there are a great number of Tier 7 and above spiritual herbs as well as numerous Flower of the True God. To prevent everyone from killing each other and then going in to destroy all sorts of precious spiritual herbs, we decided to hold this pill competition once every few years to decide who gets to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain. This would be our third Five Elements Pill Competition. I hereby announce the start of the pill competition and I hope that every pill refiner will be able to produce great results…”

Feng Zhenqiu retreated the moment he said his piece.