Chapter 32

“To be fortunate enough to receive the Immortal Lord’s guidance—this junior will embarrass herself. But I did not bring my old alchemy furnace with me. I wonder if Immortal Lord has a suitable alchemy furnace I could borrow?”

Gong Dongling suppressed the excitement in her heart as she asked Immortal Lord Nandou, her cheeks flushing faintly from the emotion.

“Isn’t there one ready-made right in front of you?” The Immortal Lord hid a trace of amusement as his gaze drifted to the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace, indicating that she should use that thing to refine pills.

This—

Gong Dongling was badly startled and froze in place. This was Immortal Lord Nandou’s private alchemy furnace. Judging by how much its artifact spirit had disliked her earlier, she was afraid she would not be able to tame it at all, let alone use it for alchemy.

But Immortal Lord Nandou, clearly enjoying the show, invited her to go try it.

What Gong Dongling did not know was that the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace had always only ever been tamed by alchemists of extraordinary talent. Because of this, it had never become any family’s private possession. It was not the alchemist choosing it, but it choosing an alchemist with an extremely picky eye.

After it fell into Immortal Lord Nandou’s hands, it had not accepted anyone else for several hundred years. No one knew who the next “successor” would be.

The moment Gong Dongling entered the room, Immortal Lord Nandou had discovered that the artifact spirit of the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace had awakened. It had reacted fully to Gong Dongling’s intrusion. Although that reaction was disdain, not everyone had the ability to make it wake up. Perhaps something unexpected really would happen.

Seeing that Immortal Lord Nandou still insisted, Gong Dongling had no choice. Taking a deep breath, she faced the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace as awkwardly as if she were approaching her own little broken furnace.

Looking at the golden runes leaping across the surface of the furnace, she reverently pressed both palms against it. The instant she closed her eyes and opened her sea of consciousness, the artifact spirit of the Sun-Moon Furnace immediately took shape within it.

Unlike the red-thread-like artifact spirit of Xuanling unauthorized copythat Gong Dongling had encountered before, this one had a physical form.

The mist scattered, and a small round figure appeared faintly.

Unlike the dignified, solemn old man she had imagined, its true appearance was merely that of a milky-white glutinous rice dumpling child. Two little tufts of hair stuck straight up on its head, and it rubbed its eyes as if it had not fully woken. Its chubby little face drooped. It was only a child, without any obvious gender traits yet.

Although it was short and small, so small that it had to lift its head to look at Gong Dongling, its aura did not seem weak at all. Just like outside, it still used a picky gaze to examine Gong Dongling from head to toe.

Gong Dongling was instantly struck by this adorable little thing pretending to be an adult. On one hand, she restrained the urge in her heart to pet and kiss the little dumpling. On the other hand, that scrutinizing gaze made her especially nervous. She crouched down, gazed at the little dumpling, and tried to communicate with it. “Senior, can you hear me?”

The little dumpling seemed somewhat pleased by her careful and respectful manner. It withdrew its unpleasant gaze a little and said in a childish voice, “Call me Old Ancestor! I was a stone that adorned heaven and earth when Pangu split open the world. My seniority is far higher than yours!”

“Then, Old Ancestor, can you lend me your furnace…”

The moment Gong Dongling said this, she felt something was wrong. Thinking about it, wasn’t that its actual body? Was she supposed to say, “Can I borrow your furnace belly?”

But before she could finish, the little dumpling jumped right up to the tip of her nose and said fiercely, “Impossible! Your alchemy skills aren’t even as good as one of the Immortal Lord’s fingers. If I accepted you, I’d definitely be laughed at by the other little furnaces.”

Gong Dongling also knew that she was not worthy of a divine artifact’s status. She accepted this result calmly and was not too depressed. “Sorry to disturb you, Old Ancestor. I’ll leave now.”

But before leaving, she looked at its white, tender face like a strawberry daifuku and its two little tufts of hair. Thinking that she would probably never come into contact with this divine artifact again, a wicked thought rose in her heart. With lightning speed, she stretched out her hand and pinched the little dumpling’s cheek.

The Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace never expected that Gong Dongling, who had been timid and respectful from beginning to end, would suddenly strike hard at this moment and do something so bold.

But after that moment of stunned daze, before it could unauthorized copyeven get angry, it discovered that its soul body was rapidly dispersing and merging into Gong Dongling’s palm?!

Gong Dongling had not expected such a sudden change either. Her unintentional act had actually forcefully established a connection with the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace while the soul body was completely unguarded.

She recalled how, when she had tamed Xuanling in the early days, she had also grabbed its artifact spirit’s red thread inside her sea of consciousness and fought against it firmly, gripping it tightly in her hand before finally making it merge into her.

But this time, why was it so easy? Was it because the artifact spirit of a divine artifact had its own consciousness and therefore did not have the instinctive resistance and struggle, causing her to stumble into success by accident? There was no way to know the answer.

After the soul body completely vanished into her sea of consciousness, Gong Dongling was also thrown out of it. Her eyes flew open as she looked at the huge furnace before her, so shocked she could not say even half a word.

As the current master of the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace, Immortal Lord Nandou naturally knew the result, and he too froze.

He had thought Gong Dongling might have some fate with the Sun-Moon Furnace. Perhaps her extraordinary talent would make the artifact spirit submit. But he had never expected everything to happen so quickly. Gong Dongling had made the soul body accept her so easily?

“Young friend, your talent is truly high. Back then, I spent quite a bit of effort to make it accept me and was almost toyed to death by it.”

Immortal Lord Nandou had personally experienced it before. If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed that such a junior could receive such great tolerance from the soul body. In other words, Gong Dongling’s alchemy talent was very likely unprecedented and utterly unique!

Gong Dongling hurriedly waved her hands, completely unaware that her image in the Immortal Lord’s heart had already grown so lofty. She stammered in explanation, “No, I saw a child in my sea of consciousness, and I just touched his cheek. Then he merged into my body. I don’t know what happened either…”

“Being able to catch it represents that you tamed it, does it not? Young friend need not be modest!” Immortal Lord Nandou copied Gong Dongling’s gesture and waved his hand politely as well. The juniors of this generation, it seemed, were becoming more and more impossible to underestimate.

Gong Dongling felt terribly guilty from the praise and secretly began doubting herself. Could she really be that strong? Had her strange perverted-auntie habit of pinching the little dumpling’s cheek really worked that quickly?

“Since it has accepted you, you may refine pills inside it. Let me witness young friend’s talent as well.” Immortal Lord Nandou looked perfectly at ease as he had Gong ​read the original at bailiantales.com​Dongling step forward, determined to properly see just how strong her talent was.

Gong Dongling had no idea that Immortal Lord Nandou’s opinion of her had already completely changed. She began worrying over the alchemy instead.

The pill she chose to demonstrate was precisely the Foundation Establishment Pill she had refined before. Because she had failed a few times before finally succeeding, she had fully summarized her failed experiences. This time, she should not overturn so easily.

She found all the materials inside her storage ring and placed them into the belly of the alchemy furnace according to what had been written in the book before. When she went online to knock on that little dumpling, she saw it glaring at her with an expression full of resentment and humiliation, as if it wanted to tear Gong Dongling into pieces.

Although Gong Dongling knew that once the artifact spirit accepted her, it had to obey any command she gave, she still humbly slid straight to her knees.

“I didn’t do it on purpose just now. Old Ancestor, refine this pill with me once. If you still think I’m rotten wood, I’ll consciously cut off our connection and won’t embarrass you.”

Although the Sun-Moon Furnace disliked Gong Dongling, the words she said were still pleasant to hear. Holding onto its airs, it gave a cold snort and said, “That had better be the case.” Then, according to her will, it finally activated its main body.

Gong Dongling hurriedly gathered a ball of spiritual fire in her hand and placed it into the furnace base, calming herself as she refined the pill step by step.

Immortal Lord Nandou took all this in from the side and muttered to himself, “Hm? Strange.”

He had not sensed any fluctuation of spiritual power from Gong Dongling at all. How could she condense spiritual fire and use this power to control the flame and continue refining pills? Moreover, had she not been corroded by cold energy and clearly unable to use spiritual power?

The Immortal Lord quietly watched Gong Dongling’s hand movements. Without a word, he released his divine sense to investigate what the source behind Gong Dongling’s power was.

But when his divine sense extended into Gong Dongling’s body and was about to approach that power, he sensed a powerful obstruction. Before he could see what it was, he was forcefully rebounded, and even his entire sea of consciousness shook from the collision.

A great power like him already stood at the peak of the cultivation world, only one step away from ascending to heaven. High above all, how long had it been since he had felt such a jolt and warning? This impact that struck [Read on BaiLianTales]directly into the depths of his sea of consciousness seemed to come from another dimension.

Immortal Lord Nandou looked at Gong Dongling with great shock in his eyes. He only felt that she was absolutely not as simple as he had thought. Instead, she was an unfathomable great power pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger…

Of course, only Gong Dongling and the system knew what this power was. It was merely support provided by the system.

The reason the Immortal Lord had been blocked and rebounded was because he had touched the creator of this world—the original novel. If he were allowed to keep investigating, there was a possibility that a character would awaken and the world would collapse, so the system had been forcibly stopped.

Gong Dongling knew nothing of this and was still wholeheartedly refining pills.

She only felt that the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace truly was different from her own little broken furnace. Especially when refining pills, all the golden runes vanished and slipped into the body of the alchemy furnace, seemingly clearing impurities from the spirit herbs and materials. In this way, the pill could become purer, and its effects would be more obvious.

She had already used the system’s clock to record the maturation time of the Foundation Establishment Pill, so she was not worried at all about the timing being wrong. At this moment, although the pill was already shining with golden light, according to the precise time, it was clearly still a little while before it could be taken out.

Just then, she suddenly heard Immortal Lord Nandou say, “Why have you not taken out the Foundation Establishment Pill? It should already be mature.”

Gong Dongling hesitated for a moment, but still chose to believe her own experimental results. After all, her timer was very standard and could be accurate down to the second.

Immortal Lord Nandou watched her remain calm and composed, avoiding the pit he had deliberately laid. He became even more convinced that this child had to be the alternate account of some great alchemy power. Without being tempered through thousands of trials, how could she grasp the pill’s maturation time so precisely and know it so thoroughly by heart?

After all, recently in the cultivation world, whenever great powers maxed out their main accounts and could no longer break through, it had become popular to start alternate accounts.

Only when the time was steadily reached did Gong Dongling take out that Foundation Establishment Pill. Its golden glow was even brighter than the one she had refined last time in her little broken furnace. One look and it was clear this was a buff added by the divine artifact, the Heavenly Pattern Sun-Moon Furnace.

When she held the pill and turned to look at Immortal Lord Nandou, she found that his expression was very hard to describe. The way he looked at her was both hateful and loving, especially complicated!

Gong Dongling, who had only refined a basic pill, was filled with black question marks. Had the Immortal Lord misunderstood her again?

“Young friend’s talent and composure! How could this be merely initial or middle grade? You seem more like one of my peers.” Immortal Lord Nandou’s eyes shifted unpredictably as he stared closely at Gong Dongling, not missing any reaction on her face.

Whose alternate account was she? Master Xiuqi? Immortal Official Wenqian? Or Daoist Yuanliang?

The corner of Gong Dongling’s mouth twitched. She only felt that the misunderstanding seemed to be growing bigger and bigger.

I really am not some bigshot, damn it!

…

On Buzhou Mountain, outside the north gate, thick fog covered a silent bamboo forest. From time to time, the wind blew, making the bamboo leaves rustle.

Xie Yu was dressed in night clothes, a rakshasa mask covering her face. Silently, she lay on a bamboo leaf and looked down at the scene at the north gate, waiting for the right opportunity.

Not only had she not disguised her appearance, she was even using such a cheap and eye-catching disguise, as if afraid others would not recognize her. Of course, this was also Immortal Lord Nandou’s requirement.

In recent days, the lesson the Immortal Lord had taught her was how to take her qinggong to the next level and combine it with her own spiritual power so that she could also ambush others while performing it.

This move was very effective whether chasing others or avoiding being chased.

After several days of practice, Immortal Lord Nandou’s assessment for Xie Yu was to sneak into Buzhou Mountain alone, ambush and knock out all disciples stationed at the gate, continue provoking them, stolen contentand only run away when she could not beat whoever came. She also had to shake off everyone tracking her and return safely to Wuwang Island.

If Xie Yu completed the task, Immortal Lord Nandou would take her to an auction and bid on a sword truly suited to her.

Xie Yu had chosen the north gate as her mission target not only because this gate was the smallest, with the fewest guards and the easiest to break through, but also because there was a large bamboo forest here, which was very suitable for using the Shadowless Steps Immortal Lord Nandou had taught her.

Night deepened. Dark clouds covered the moon, and the light grew even weaker. Under the dense cover of bamboo leaves, the bamboo forest was especially dim.

The disciple in charge of guarding the north gate seemed not to be there. The disciples were acting without restraint, lazy and scattered, leaning against the wall and yawning wildly as they grew drowsy.

“When is Ji Yuran coming back? Let me see if there’s enough time for me to take a nap.” One disciple rubbed his eyes and asked his companion.

“Who knows? He has so many privileges. Whenever he wants to leave and be a hands-off manager, he does it. Meanwhile, the rest of us still have to work hard guarding the north gate. If he can’t take responsibility, then why did he volunteer to participate in the guarding back then?” his companion complained, clearly full of anger toward Ji Yuran.

“It would be a miracle if Xie Yu and Gong Dongling came back. I don’t know what meaning there is in Xu Ruozhen arranging all this.”

This disciple clearly had not expected that Immortal Lord Nandou and Xie Yu were deliberately going to provoke Xu Ruozhen this arrogantly. They were not even hiding Xie Yu’s identity, rushing straight up the mountain to pull hatred.

And on a bamboo leaf less than ten meters above them, Xie Yu narrowed her eyes. She had not expected that choosing the north gate would also count as enemies meeting on a narrow road. Not only could she get Ji Yuran punished, she might even run into him. In that case, she could settle new debts and old debts together.

Author’s Note:
Immortal Lord: So strong. She must be some bigshot’s alternate account!

Senior Sister: Trembling while hugging her main account, not daring to speak.