Chapter 39

“Gong Dongling and Xie Yu—their original script was supposed to be a story of two women fighting over one man, with the sisters turning against each other. And that man was none other than Buzhou Mountain’s fallen yao Buddhist lotus, Ji Yuran.

“In the end, they were young people. Feelings change just like that. Ji Yuran and Gong Dongling were childhood sweethearts, but after Gong Dongling disappeared in the Far North, Ji Yuran went and hooked up with Xie Yu, who looked very much like his white moonlight, treating her as Gong Dongling’s substitute. Who would have known that Gong Dongling would come back midway!”

The storyteller’s voice paused.

This was a common plot in famous melodramatic cultivation storybooks. Although cultivators all spoke lofty words of Dao and righteousness, in private, they also liked reading these random melodramatic fan stories. Though they did not know how much truth there was in the storyteller’s tale, their interest was still stirred.

“So the two of them started fighting over that lotus yao?” someone guessed. Even more people urged the storyteller in dissatisfaction, signaling for him to continue.

“After Gong Dongling returned and found that her position had been replaced, she was naturally angry at first and suppressed and targeted Xie Yu at every turn. But as they spent time together, she gradually developed some pity. She fished Xie Yu, who had suffered a whipping punishment, out of the cave. Originally, she wanted to enjoy the sight of her wretched state, but unexpectedly, she could not help herself, and right in her own residence, she took Xie Yu and…”

His voice suddenly dragged out, and for a long while, he did not say what came after.

The listeners all slapped the table. “Took her and what? Did her?”

“…bandaged her wounds.” He finally spat it out, and boos immediately filled the seats below.

“Hey, what’s the rush? They haven’t slept together yet, have they? After going back and forth as senior and junior sisters, who would have thought they would fall in love in the end? They even pledged their feelings in the Ruoxu Illusion Realm. This time, they truly slept with each other, and there is even a recorded image as proof!”

The moment this was said, even Immortal Lord Nandou finally could not hold back a laugh. Several gleams flashed in his eyes as [unauthorized copy]he stared at Xie Yu. His face, exposed after removing his veiled hat, was written all over with: How wild.

Xie Yu could not help giving a soft scoff as well. When she was still on Buzhou Mountain, what spread among the disciples had only been the matter of the two of them sleeping in the same bed that night. At the time, they had also said there was a recorded image as proof. Yet after the rumor spread for so long, not even the shadow of that recorded image had appeared. It was all just people repeating what others said. But how had it spread to this point, where even the bed had been skipped and simplified straight into them sleeping together?

Before she could speak, the cultivators below began chiming in one after another.

“Really? I don’t believe it unless you show me that recorded image too.”

“To be honest with you all, although I am pure of heart and free of desire, detached from the mortal world, I have a friend who also wants to see that recorded image.”

…

The storyteller swore solemnly, “I am not spreading rumors. That was a livestream opened by the two of them themselves. All of Buzhou Mountain knows about it.”

Gong Dongling probably had not expected that the livestream she had chosen back then to avoid rumors would end up personally creating another kind of scandal.

“Let us continue from when they slept together. After Xie Yu and Gong Dongling pledged themselves to each other, naturally, they had to seek Xu Ruozhen’s approval for them to be together. As everyone knows, Xu Ruozhen flaunts himself as noble and upright, but he is the most traditional and stubborn of all. He cannot tolerate the slightest thing beneath his sect that might harm morality and propriety.

“And so Xu Ruozhen beat the lovebirds apart, even locking Gong Dongling up and preventing the two from meeting. Who could have known that in the end, the two of them would plan an elopement to escape Xu Ruozhen’s control? Xu Ruozhen, furious from humiliation, insisted no matter what on catching the two of them and bringing them back…”

Everyone said, “That old stick-in-the-mud Zhenren! He doesn’t understand the pleasure in it!”

“Is that true?” Immortal Lord Nandou asked with great interest, clearly having seen through the ambiguity between the two of them, which was why he deliberately asked like this.

“Since Immortal Lord has already seen it, why ask?” Xie Yu’s voice was faint. She did not seem angry because of the storyteller’s tale.

If she had intended to clarify things, she would not have allowed the rumors to grow back then on Buzhou Mountain.

At the time, although she had not realized that she had already developed other thoughts toward Gong Dongling, whenever she heard these words, a sense of satisfaction would rise in her heart from being mentioned alongside Senior Sister.

Moreover, the stronger this rumor grew, the more it would suppress the saying that Gong Dongling and Ji Yuran were a talented man and beautiful woman, a natural pair.

So… what did it matter if they talked?

One day, rumors like this would drift into Senior Sister’s ears. What kind of mood would she have then? Xie Yu propped her chin on the back of her hand, tilted her head, and gazed from afar toward the place Gong Dongling had gone.

Xie Yu was very much looking forward to that scene, when the whole world knew they were a pair and only Senior Sister did not.

…

Gong Dongling naturally knew nothing of this. She carefully and cautiously walked into the main hall of the Alchemist Association branch.

When she pushed the door open and entered, she discovered that the inside suddenly opened into a vast space. It seemed to use some kind of folded-space array and was much larger than it looked from the outside, as if it could hold several thousand people at once.

What opened Gong Dongling’s eyes even more was that many alchemy furnaces were arranged neatly throughout the great hall. Cultivators were scattered in front of the furnaces, unauthorized copy seemingly already in the middle of their assessments.

No one placed their gaze on her, which made Gong Dongling, who was deliberately hiding her identity, relax somewhat.

She took off her veiled hat and placed it into her storage ring, then lifted her head. Her face had long since been changed by Immortal Lord Nandou’s disguise technique. It was no longer as striking as before, now ordinary and plain, which made it easier to hide her presence.

In the distance stood a high pavilion. Inside seemed to sit several staff members wearing the Alchemist Association’s uniform white robes with gold trim. They were using the array before them to observe and monitor the every move of each alchemist undergoing assessment.

The instant she stepped into the hall, the number 16 appeared on the board above her head. A streak of golden light flashed down from the board like a shooting star and landed straight in her hand.

Gong Dongling opened her palm and saw a number token marked 16 in her hand. It seemed she needed to find furnace number 16 among all these alchemy furnaces and take part in the assessment.

Because this number was very far toward the front among so many furnaces, she started from the main entrance and, after only a few steps, already saw her own alchemy furnace.

From the outside, it naturally looked far less impressive than the high-grade alchemy furnace at Immortal Lord Nandou’s place, but at least it was much better than that little decorative broken furnace of hers from the beginning, which had not even formed an artifact spirit.

Just as Gong Dongling began observing the equipment before her, an operating platform slowly rose.

On it were two prescriptions and a pile of complete materials, roughly enough to make two attempts. One prescription was the representative pill of middle-grade alchemists, the Foundation Establishment Pill. The other had been randomly selected from the alchemy prescription assessment syllabus.

Alchemist assessments were like this. As long as one refined qualified finished pills from both prescriptions within the required time, one could obtain the corresponding level of alchemist certification.

The other randomly selected prescription was the Heavenly Read on BaiLianTalesFragrance Pill. As the name implied, after eating it, one’s body would emit a strange fragrance. It was a type of Beauty-Preserving Pill.

Although it was not difficult, Gong Dongling had only tried making it once before. Because the pill’s effect was somewhat useless, compared with beauty-preserving pills, she preferred refining pills that were useful for cultivation.

The timer had already started. Gong Dongling wasted no more time and began directly.

Once she focused her attention on alchemy, it became difficult for her to pay attention to outside movements. She did not notice in the slightest that Mu Chenlin, whom they had shaken off outside earlier, had now entered the hall alone. He also did not discover Gong Dongling’s tracks and only walked straight up to the high platform.

The black market Mu Chenlin controlled was also one of the forces behind the Alchemist Association. After all, the Demon Realm’s demand for pills was enormous. He had no choice but to put effort into squeezing into the association, all so he could have more sources of goods.

At this moment, since there was still some time before the auction, he came to the association’s assessment site to see whether there were any suitable good seedlings.

The Demon Realm’s standard for “good seedlings” was not quite the same as the cultivation world’s. That was because they could not absorb pills with excessive spiritual power. After all, they did not rely on spiritual power to cultivate.

Yet alchemists had to use their own spiritual power to refine pills, which created a contradiction.

So Mu Chenlin had to do his best to find alchemists who were born with weak spiritual power. Although this could not eliminate the issue at the root, at least the impact would not be as great.

Speaking of this, Mu Chenlin’s heart began to ache again.

The reason he had so badly wanted to monopolize the supply of pills from that female cultivator who had come alone to sell pills in the black market was precisely because, through perception alone, Mu Chenlin had discovered that her pills were especially suitable for the Demon Clan to consume.

After the female cultivator left, he had the pills sent [read the original at bailiantales.com]for in-depth testing and discovered that there was not even a trace of spiritual power inside!

This was the first time Mu Chenlin had discovered such a strange thing. He was very curious how that alchemist refined pills without using spiritual power. This even related to whether the Demon Clan could develop its own alchemy.

But by the time they excitedly rubbed their fists and prepared to capture the person for study, they discovered that she had already vanished without a trace.

Mu Chenlin regretted it greatly. If he had detained her back then, would he now still need to investigate while recruiting new people on the side?

After this matter, he had an epiphany. Without Qiu Yan, such a massive black market only had him alone working!

He had notified the Alchemist Association in advance that he would come today. The moment he arrived, several stewards competed to flatter him.

“Mr. Mu, thanks to the auction recently, our branch has gained quite a few new alchemists. Would you like me to bring you their assessment alchemy data records so you can examine them in detail?”

“No need. I’ll just casually inspect today’s assessment participants.”

Mu Chenlin had only come over for a look in passing. The main event was still the auction tonight. Besides, the records never recorded the amount of spiritual power retained in the pills. That was not the data he wanted to see at all.

As he spoke, Mu Chenlin looked toward the array before him. This was actually an enormous Recording Stone projection, which allowed them to see the specific conditions and data of the alchemists’ assessments. They could manually switch perspectives and view the alchemy situation of different numbers.

As he scrolled, his movement suddenly paused, stopping on one number. A trace of pleasant surprise appeared in his eyes.

Seeing this, the stewards hurriedly introduced, “This number 20 is here to advance to high-grade alchemist. They have not passed yet, but judging by the situation, they should be close. This is quite rare. They likely came because of the auction as well.”

A high-grade alchemist was indeed rare. For such a person, Mu Chenlin could even lower his standards regarding spiritual power. And so, he nodded slightly, then stood and strode toward number 20’s position, wanting to see the quality of that person’s pills.

Number 20 was in the first row. He needed to walk forward from number 1 all the way. From time to time, Mu Chenlin also looked around at the prospective alchemists undergoing assessment nearby.

He was getting closer and closer to number 16.

Author’s Note:
Senior Sister, one day, suddenly discovers: How did I get married?