My Master Knows It All

62: Chapter 58 Setting up a Monument_1 62: Chapter 58 Setting up a Monument_1 Gai Su’e, upon seeing Gu Chengyu hesitant to speak as though he was awkwardly close to digging out a cave mansion with his toes, promptly walked up to him, gently patted his shoulder, and signaled for him to wait.

At that moment, Gu Chengyu felt embarrassed to leave and was also reluctant to do so.

After entering the Earth Immortal Realm, he barely made any progress and began to pin his hopes on the Alchemy Dao to achieve another breakthrough.

However, as he delved deeply into the study of Alchemy Dao, Gu Chengyu discovered that it was far more complex than he had imagined.

Even with his decent natural talent for alchemy, relying on the path of pills to achieve a cultivation breakthrough was not an easy task.

Cao Zhen cautiously used various alchemy techniques to control the Pill Furnace, and then came the tedious task of observing and adjusting the flames.

A month later, he would just have to pull the Dragon Tiger Pills out of the Pill Furnace.

With a furnace of Dragon Tiger Pills now in the refining process, Cao Zhen didn’t sit idle.

He stood up once again to search for medicinal ingredients, planning to refine two more furnaces of Deception Pills and Repair Pills to take out for Ling Xi, Bei Yan, and Zi Yu, allowing them to also complete a major breakthrough.

Whether it was for his own peace of mind when venturing out or for the upcoming repositioning within Hundred Peaks Sect after some days, the pills would be of great use.

While thinking about this, Cao Zhen stood up to find the ingredients, only to look up and see the steward and the managing elder of the Five-Element Pill Ground from the Hidden Dragon Observatory, who had not yet left, which left him baffled.

“Is there something you need?”

Faced with Cao Zhen’s question, Gu Chengyu and Gai Su’e were quite embarrassed.

Not long ago, they had just finished putting on airs as experts in front of the Peak Master of Four Treasures Peak, only to have their bearings shaken by this Peak Master’s alchemy prowess.

“I heard that the cultivation of the Four Treasures Peak Master is now showing signs of the Five Bridges anomaly?” Gu Chengyu pondered for a moment before speaking, deciding to use Cao Zhen’s lower cultivation as a breakthrough point to close the gap between them.

“Isn’t it written on my materials?” Cao Zhen, anxious to find materials for his disciples’ pill refinement, didn’t pay much attention to a question that seemed to test the obvious, responding casually.

Gu Chengyu and Gai Su’e silently exchanged glances, both seeing the puzzlement in each other’s eyes.

Normally, anyone who came here, even if they held high status in the outside world, would engage in pleasantries first.

‘This person is quite proud…’ Gu Chengyu shared his slight dissatisfaction with Gai Su’e via a secret sound transmission.

‘The man has skills…’ Gai Su’e sighed as she replied through the sound transmission, ‘Just now, he used material for one furnace of Qi-refining Pills and refined three furnaces, not to mention, each and every pill was of the best quality.’

Any last bit of dissatisfaction within Gu Chengyu’s heart vanished without a trace following Gai Su’e’s introduction.

‘Elder, are we just going to stand here?’ Gai Su’e posed a new question.

‘What else?’ Gu Chengyu responded irritably through the sound transmission, ‘I’ve been stuck at the first level of the Earth Immortal Realm for many years, and even a furnace of Yin Yang Ghost God Pills is unlikely to help me break through my realm.

Perhaps my chance for immortal fate lies with this Peak Master!

I’ll wait until he’s done, then try to flatter him!’

Gai Su’e didn’t expect Elder Gu to be so frank in his quest for a breakthrough.

Cao Zhen found the right medicinal materials and immediately opened the second Pill Furnace to begin alchemy.

The two who were secretly chatting were simultaneously puzzled and uncertain.

Why was he refining pills again?

After stabilizing the second furnace of pills, Cao Zhen opened the third Pill Furnace…

What was happening?

Gu Chengyu and Gai Su’e felt somewhat dumbfounded.

Normally, visitors to the place would refine only one furnace of pills.

Occasionally, some might refine two, but that would be one after the other.

What did it mean to start refining three furnaces at once?

Could he handle them all?

Alchemy was a complex task, highly susceptible to slip-ups and mistakes, one wrong move and the entire furnace of pills could be ruined, which is why usually one person tended to one furnace…

Before Gu Chengyu could snap out of his daze, Cao Zhen had already started refining the fourth furnace of pills…

Though the Hundred Peaks Sect was not without individuals capable of refining two furnaces of pills at the same time, no one had ever refined four furnaces simultaneously since the sect’s establishment.

Cao Zhen, working on four Pill Furnaces at once, began to focus his attention on the fifth Pill Furnace for a moment, then started frantically taking out large quantities of medicinal ingredients from various medicine chests.

Already in shock, Gu Chengyu and Gai Su’e couldn’t help but ask upon seeing Cao Zhen gather ingredients as if openly plundering them, “Peak Master Cao, what are you doing?”

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“Yu Haitang lost?”

Inside the Hidden Dragon Observatory, a sign reading ‘De Ming Hall’ hung, and three young people were respectively sitting on embroidered meditation cushions bearing the characters for [Heaven][Earth][Man].

The one talking was the young man sitting on the central [Heaven] cushion.

“To have practiced at the Hidden Dragon Observatory for more than a month only to lose to a newcomer, it’s really disgraceful for our Hidden Dragon Observatory.”

The young man sitting on the meditation mat marked with the “Earth” character slowly voiced his opinion with his eyes closed.

The youth perched on the “Human” character mat revealed a light smile and propped his knees with his hands as he stood up from the meditation mat, gently tapping the palm of his other hand with the folding fan, saying, “With both of you seniors going back and forth like this, I, Situ Fengzhan, am going to wear out my legs.”

The young man on the “Heaven” character mat, who was meditating, curled the corners of his lips into a subtle smile and spoke, “This time, it will just have to trouble junior brother to go.

If there’s a next time, this brother will take care of it.”

“Next time?” Situ Fengzhan showed an amused and helpless expression, “Senior brother, I hope you’re not pulling my leg.

This is the Hidden Dragon Observatory.

Among those cultivating here, trash like Yu Haitang are few and far between.

Oh!

My apologies, it was wrong of me to speak so of junior brother Zi Chen’s beloved.”

The young man on the “Earth” mat sighed, “Junior brother, please don’t jest at my expense, this matter concerns all the disciples who have come to cultivate at the Hidden Dragon Observatory.

Please go and return quickly, brother Fengzhan.”

“That might be best.” Situ Fengzhan exhaled and opened his folding fan in mid-air; it slowly expanded to the size of a table.

He then leaped aboard, crossing his legs to sit, “Strictly speaking, it wouldn’t take the Hidden Dragon Trio to handle this; just any substitute person could go find that Cao Zhen, there’s no need for us to interfere.”

“Situ left too swiftly…” Zi Chen on the “Earth” mat shook his head, chuckling lightly, “He didn’t even inquire where Cao Zhen is and what he’s doing.”

“Doing what?” Cao Zhen continued to answer while adding herbs into the pill furnace, “Of course, I’m practicing alchemy.

You’re worried that I can’t handle so many furnaces at once, aren’t you?

Don’t worry, I can operate five furnaces simultaneously without spoiling the ingredients.”

Gu Chengyu and Gai Su’e started to deeply doubt themselves, wondering if their own abilities were too poor.

Could it be they truly lacked the talent for alchemy?

Had the Hundred Peaks Sect made a mistake choosing them to be instructors here?

After Cao Zhen was done with the fifth batch of pills, he realized that he had been practicing alchemy too intensively.

If he were to only make four batches of pills, he might have had some spare time to quickly look around and maybe find something suitable for himself elsewhere.

Now, what’s left is to watch over these five pill furnaces, occasionally sending a few alchemy techniques to control them, the rest is just the monotony of waiting.

“Peak Master Cao…” Gu Chengyu approached Cao Zhen, who had paused for a moment, and tried to foster a connection, “I once mentioned to your master, Li Changfeng, that we have some history.

And now you’ve revived this batch of Dead Pills for me; it seems my connection to Four Treasures Peak is quite strong.”

Cao Zhen became slightly flustered, knowing that when he inherited this body, the memories were somewhat incomplete.

Suddenly hearing someone mention their old acquaintance with his master, and having no recollection of it in his memories, gave him pause.

But the way the other person was looking at him, Cao Zhen knew he couldn’t just stand there staring blankly; he had to bite the bullet and say, “I had a late enlightenment, and while master was alive, he was busy with my awakening, so he didn’t have the chance to talk about his history with senior.”

Gu Chengyu, upon hearing Cao Zhen’s response, felt his own face grow hot with embarrassment, but luckily his wealth of experience in the jianghu came to his rescue.

He then said, “Back in the day when your master was at the Taoist Institution, I had gone there to give a lecture, and your master also attended.

At that time, I instantly recognized that your master had great prospects!

Indeed, he later became a peak master!

And has now taught an outstanding one like Peak Master Cao…”

“Senior has a keen eye indeed.”

While verbally praising, Cao Zhen inwardly marveled at how thick-skinned the elder in charge of the land was!

So merely having met his nominal master once at the Taoist Institution meant they had deep connections?

“I see that the Peak Master’s cultivation base isn’t very high,” Gu Chengyu said, stroking his beard and trying to maintain the air of a senior expert, his words tinged with a willingness to offer guidance to his junior, “I have already attained the Earth Immortal Realm in my cultivation, and have gained some insights on the path…”

Cao Zhen felt a bit happier internally.

He had thought his excessive engagement in alchemy had made him unable to leave the Four Treasures Peak and wander around the core areas of the Hundred Peaks Sect, like the Hidden Dragon Observatory.

Unexpectedly, someone was willing to engage in a lengthy conversation with him.

Seeing Cao Zhen silent, Gu Chengyu thought he had hit a sore spot and immediately said, “Having some connections with your master, I naturally want to offer you some guidance.

However, this Yin Yang Ghost God Pill…”

Cao Zhen finally understood why the other party kept beating around the bush without getting to the point; it turned out to be a service charge?

Unfortunately, the pills clashed with the constitution of a few of his disciples and were useless to them.

Cao Zhen turned and struck a few alchemy techniques toward the pill furnaces and continued, “All of my Four Treasures Peak disciples possess an Ancient Waste Immortal Body, which is difficult to remedy through cultivation techniques.

If the elder has suitable divine skills, everyone at Four Treasures Peak would be immensely grateful.”

Gu Chengyu’s face immediately showed a smile.

For a cultivator at the Earth Immortal Realm, who didn’t have several proud divine skills at their disposal?

Being able to exchange a divine skill for Yin Yang Ghost God Pills and to foster a closer relationship with the Peak Master of Four Treasures Peak was worth it!

“I once traveled abroad and fortuitously came across an incomplete divine skill in the Immortal Grave Secret Inheritance.

It is called ‘Erecting Steles’…”

Inheriting all the knowledge from Zhang Daoling, Cao Zhen had not encountered any cultivation methods or divine skills unknown to him since coming to this world.

Hearing the unfamiliar name made him even more curious.

Noticing that Cao Zhen kept his composure until showing a change in expression for the first time, Gu Chengyu hurriedly said, “After studying and practicing, I found that despite being incomplete, ‘Erecting Steles’ is as vast as the ocean.

I fear that even devoting my entire life, I would not be able to fully master it.

As for the power of the divine skill, it is indeed my ace in the hole.”

Cao Zhen was initially curious about this unknown divine skill ‘Erecting Steles’.

Hearing Gu Chengyu’s words, his interest piqued even more; a divine skill that could make a cultivator at the Earth Immortal Realm speak such words must have something interesting to it.

Without saying much more, Gu Chengyu took out a jade talisman from his sword sheath and handed it over.

Cao Zhen knew it was a jade talisman used to store divine skills.

He activated it and began to examine it only to see that ‘Erecting Steles’ was indeed incomplete.

Even the introduction was not fully intact; he could only discern that this divine skill could cultivate the Dragon-Elephant Stele, River-Mountain Stele, Three-Era Stele, Human Path Stele, and Heavenly Dao Stele.

There were only two fragments of ‘Erecting Steles’ in its current state.

The first seemed to be more than eighty percent of the original work, whereas the second likely contained only a few original sentences at the beginning, with the rest being Gu Chengyu’s own interpretation and studies.

Within a few moments, Cao Zhen felt himself becoming engrossed, and he immediately understood Gu Chengyu’s statement that it was indeed vast as the ocean.

Cao Zhen was aware that if he didn’t have Zhang Daoling’s experience in immortal cultivation, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend ‘Erecting Steles’ at all, let alone quickly gain insights upon reaching the second fragment, or detect the flaws in Gu Chengyu’s extrapolations.