Chapter 4: Breakthrough

Having officially become a 1st grade alchemist, Xiao Hong was very happy. But her cause for happiness was slightly different: she would finally not be poor!

From today, please call me Xiao Fu!

She would cry tears of joy if she was not in front of Elders: she didn't want to embarrass herself.

The elders also watched her with a smile on their faces, misunderstanding the reason for her joy.

Elder Lu thought in his heart: 'This is a good seedling. Rarely have I seen such pure joy at becoming a 1st-grade alchemist.'

Then he frowned, remembering what Elder Fang told him. 'Mo Tong…'

Unlike the disciples, elders like him understood the situation very well: this fellow was a total scumbag that ought to be crippled. Under his polite and gentlemanly demeanour, he was a total beast. Many young girls were ruined by him and a few even took their own lives out of shame. But they could not do anything. After all, he had the backing of an Inner Elder.

'Perhaps I should contact Teacher… He will definitely be interested in such a talented alchemist.'

Making up his mind, he took out a token from his storage bag and activated it, sending a message.

'This should be enough to suppress Inner Elder Mo; the rest can be dealt with by us. Hmm. Perhaps I should ask Elder Meng for help? That old bat would have a field day cursing the Three Aspects' Elder Lu smirked.

He looked forward to Elder Meng screaming his lungs out, while spraying his opponents with spittle. As long as you were not on the opposite side of Elder Meng, you would get to watch a great show.

'Though it's unlikely to come to that.' he thought regretfully.

[The 'Three Aspects' referred to Heaven, Earth and Man or a combination of them.]

***

Mo Tong leaned against a wall with his eyes closed in an empty room, waiting for his newest target. Xiao Hong.

When he first heard of the 'No.1 beauty of the outer sect', he'd scoffed. He had lost count of the number of girls he had played around with, many of them were devastating beauties who were much more beautiful than the Outer Sect's girls. Thus when he heard about her, he was just a little curious but stopped paying attention soon after.

What turned that impression around was the image captured by a lackey of his - whose name he didn't even remember before this. One look and he realised that there wasn't the slightest exaggeration in the rumours.

And now, a few hours ago, he saw her in real life. Those so-called beauties seemed to completely lose their light in front of her, like the stars before the moon, like the moon in the sun's light: there was simply no need for comparison. Even those Lunar Jade Sect's beauties he knew of thanks to his 2nd Uncle felt lacklustre.

As he remembered her polite yet cold attitude, it lit a fire underneath him like no other. He wanted her in his bed, helpless and without clothes as he took her innocence for his own-

"Senior Brother Mo! Senior Brother Mo!"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down before he screwed the little shit's head off, he asked, "What is it, Junior Brother?" He didn't remember his name.

"She's here." Mo Tong's anger dissipated and he decided not to torture this junior brother.

Turning towards the hall, he smiled as he saw that goddess-like face, But soon, the smile on his face froze as looked downwards at her ample chest.

There was a black badge with a single golden pill imprinted on it.

Then the next moment his face became ugly, as he saw a tall old man next to her. An old man he knew all too well. It was Elder Meng. It became even uglier when he saw Elder Fang next to him.

Elder Meng spotted him and walked over.

"Boy Mo, I heard you have some business with my Alchemist Hall's genius disciple? If so, get it done fast. We don't have time and I have some business to discuss with Alchemist Xiao."

Basically, it meant: She is under our protection. You shouldn't mess with her. Do your job and get lost.

He could only grit his teeth and smile, "Elder Meng, this relates to the death of -"

"Did I stutter?" Elder Meng cut him off.

"But-"

"Boy Mo, this is the Alchemy Hall, not your playground," he said bluntly.

Mo Tong clenched his teeth and said, "Very well. I have to ask Junior Sister some questions, so I need to bring her to-"

"You will question her here."

"But-"

"Here."

Xiao Hong looked at Elder Meng with admiration as he behaved like a total chad. If Elder Meng were a woman, she felt she might have fallen in love right there.

In the end, Mo Tong could only step back, ask a few questions and go away.

***

"Thank you, Elder Meng. Thank you, Elder Fang. I will-"

She was directly cut off by Elder Meng, who was still overflowing with chad energy: "If you want to thank me, then study Alchemy properly and become a Grade 2 Alchemist as fast as possible."

He handed over a space bag while Elder Fang also nodded, "Indeed. Study well. Elder Lu and I have great expectations for you.

"Also should you become a Grade 2 Alchemist within two years, you will receive a surprise."

She didn't forget to throw out incentives.

Xiao Hong nodded heavily, "I will try my best to live up to the Elders' expectations."

"Haha! Don't worry about it too much. Take your time and learn. Alchemy without passion is dry. Forcing yourself is not conducive to growth."

Bidding the two Elders farewell, she flew back to her home.

***

On a certain peak, which was closer to the centre of the outer sect, stood a large villa like an immortal abode, much grander and majestic than Xiao Hong's.

This was a villa granted to those on the Outer Sect Roll's top 10. This villa corresponded to the current 6th position on the Roll, which was currently occupied by Mo Tong.

Boom!

The entire villa shook heavily and cracked as if about to fall apart, but soon a large number of runic patterns lit up and the cracks were fixed.

Inside.

"Damn it, that bitch!" Mo Tong was fuming, with a horrendous reddish-black aura surging around him, slamming into the walls, ceiling, floor and the decorations with such force that they cracked.

Just now he'd contacted his Uncle's aide to use connections to suppress the Outer Sect Alchemy Hall's protection of Xiao Hong, but he received a negative answer from her, who said that it was inconvenient and not possible for now, because their faction was being suppressed by their rivals, and doing something like that would earn the ire of Master Su.

Which was just bullshit according to him; their faction had a massive advantage with his 2nd Uncle and Eldest cousin, one at the Transformation realm and the other at the peak of Fusion. They may be one of the weaker factions in the inner sect overall, but their rivals were even weaker. As for Master Su? He also had rivals.

No. He knew that bitch looked down on him for not being in the Inner Sect. She maintained a disdainful attitude towards him but shook her ass like a slut in front of his Second Uncle and Eldest Cousin.

After taking deep breaths and calming his raging aura, he looked down at the splatter of blood and flesh around him and called a lackey to clean it up.

The lackey in question, shivered as he looked at the remains of what used to be a cute Junior Sister and then hurriedly cleaned up the room.

***

Back home, Xiao Hong took out the space bag and started reading jade slips one after another. The number of jade slips and their content had both increased manifold and caused her to take a few breaks before continuing again as it overloaded her Soul Sea. It took her almost a day and a half to imprint all the contents into her memory.

As soon as she finished, she received a familiar notification from the system:

"Yes"

The wondrous feeling of insights appearing out of nowhere once again filled her mind.

Then she decided to relax.

As she languidly lay on the sofa she wondered, "I wonder when Senior Sister Guiying will come over? I really wish to 'discuss the Dao' with her… With as few clothes involved as possible…"

Licking her lips, she closed her eyes and fell asleep while cooking up fantasies in her mind.

***

After she woke up she decided to refine some pills and exchange them for spirit stones.

Half a day later.

Entering the Alchemy Hall once again, she directly walked over to the Deacon surnamed Lu to exchange the pills. She was in a hurry; after experiencing that rocket-like cultivation speed, her turtle-like normal cultivation felt disgusting. If she didn't see from the system status showing that the slots were indeed in use, she would have doubted she was cultivating at all.

"Disciple Xiao Hong greets Deacon Lu."

Deacon Lu, having sensed her arrival because of the usual hullabaloo that came with the arrival of this girl, looked up from his desk.

"Ah, Alchemist Xiao, what brings you here? Exchanging pills?" he smiled amiably.

"Yes, Deacon," she replied and pulled out 100 bottles of first-grade pills.

Deacon Lu's jaw dropped. He suddenly went into doubt. Hasn't it been only a day since she finished her assessment? How did she cook up so many pills in such a short period?

While doing so, his muscle memory built during his decades of experience on the job took over and he sent his Divine Sense into the bottles checking their efficacy, quantity etc. to evaluate their worth.

'All of them are high quality?! Heavens! Since when was Alchemy so easy? It's like that fellow all over again…' his eye twitched as he thought of the Little Pill-refining Maniac.

Even so, his muscle memory made him do his job:

"100 bottles of high-quality Grade 1 pills. 10 bottles of high-quality Grade. 1 pill bottle is 15 low-grade spirit stones and 1.5 contribution points. That adds up to 150 low-grade spirit stones and 15 contribution points."

Incidentally, high-quality pills are more valuable than good-quality pills. The higher the quality, the higher the price. The difference increases as the pill grade increases, for example, the high-quality pills of the 3rd grade are twice as pricey as good-quality pills of the 3rd grade. And this difference consistently increases with the pills' grade.

Xiao Hong nodded, took out her Outer Disciple Token and handed it over to Deacon Lu who took it over to add to the contribution point tally, while his other hand chucked over a space bag containing 150 spirit stones.

After Xiao Hong took back her Token, she raced back home, too excited to finally speed up her cultivation. She was well and truly fed up with that snail-like pace of cultivation.

While she left, the usual chatter with Xiao Hong as the main topic continued.

"Eh? Did I hear that right? 100 bottles of high-quality pills? Didn't she just finish her assessment yesterday? Since when was pill-refining so easy?"

"Obviously, Junior Sister is a talent. As expected of her, she's as talented as she's beautiful!"

"Indeed. Besides, these prodigies rarely make sense."

"..."

"..."

***

Xiao Hong was sitting in her cultivation room, cross-legged and holding 2 spirit stones in each hand.

*crack*

Once again she heard the hateful sound of shattering spirit stones. Each time they shattered it felt like a blow to her heart! Watching the spirit stone's ashes join the small heap of spirit stone dust, she felt helpless.

Despite becoming a veritable Pill-refining factory, she was still short of spirit stones. She had exchanged for 250 bottles of Grade 1 pills every week! Yet here she was, with just barely enough to break into Divine Sea!

In the past 8 months after becoming a Grade 1 Alchemist, she had fallen into a routine of Refine -> Exchange -> Cultivate -> Repeat.

"Sigh… Normal cultivators require at most 200 spirit stones to reach the peak of Sky Spirit. But, here I am having spent 6000 to barely reach the peak! Ugh!"

She really wanted to cry!

She got that using the three OP methods she forged an unparalleled foundation. But this is too much! These three were truly resource blackholes!

Taking a deep breath, she slowly let it go in a bid to calm her agitated emotions, "Fuuu~"

After pondering for a while, she whispered to herself, "Might as well be done with it."

"STATUS"

[Ding!

Essence: 9th Layer of Sky Spirit

Physique: 3-star Ancient Godling (Peak Divine Sea Equivalent)

Soul: 3rd stage Red Soul (Peak Divine Sea Equivalent)

Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method

Ancient God's Physique Scripture

Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method

Soaring Crane Sword (Lowest-Grade) - Small Accomplishment

Flash Step (Lowest-Grade) - Small Accomplishment

High (Peak Divine Sea Equivalent.)

Slot 1: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method

Slot 2: Ancient God's Physique Scripture

Slot 3: Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method

Slot 4: Empty

Details: Speed is 2.125x per Method

Dismissing the status screen she took out her storage bag and poured out her spirit stones.

Looking at the almost 4,000 spirit stones that were about to disappear, she almost burst into tears again! Her heart ached! It really, really ached!

"Dammit, I'll go take the Grade 2 Alchemy exam as soon as I breakthrough!" Xiao Hong was determined!

Xiao Hong closed her eyes and fell into a meditative state.

Inside her Dantian, massive quantities of red-gold-coloured mist churned and writhed. They were so dense that they looked more like smog than mist.

As Xiao Hong circulated the Celestial God Method at full force, the mist started to gather towards the centre of her Dantian forming a massive whirlpool, compressing over and over, until finally…

It formed a drop of red-gold liquid!

*Woom!*

The moment it formed, a strange ripple originated from it and swept throughout her whole being causing an indescribable sense of comfort, that felt like a combination of taking off a straitjacket, muscles relaxing and professional massage only much more intense and all at the same time!

Right after, the remaining mist surged as the drop of red-gold liquid generated an immense suction force that dragged in every last drop of Qi in her body towards it! The speed at which it devoured the mist was so incredible that in a few breaths, all of the Qi in her body disappeared.

Xiao Hong realised that if she waited for too long, the drop of liquid would devour her life force instead! Instantly, her Divine Sense moved and grabbed multiple spirit stones in each hand.

Yet again, in just a few breaths the spirit stones collapsed. And she grabbed more spirit stones. This cycle repeated over and over as the small mountain of spirit stones started to rapidly shrink.

Normally, she would be able to cultivate for 2 hours with a single spirit stone, but the tyrannical suction force devoured and completely refined the massive amounts of raw spiritual energy, turning it into her power.

Finally, after an unknown period of time, the suction force ebbed away, leaving less than a dozen spirit stones out of the thousands.

In her Dantian, the mist-like red-gold Zhenqi had disappeared and in its place was a small red-gold pool of liquid Zhenqi.

The pool of liquid Zhenqi which had just calmed down, churned again! This time though, it divided into many thin tendrils, some of which drilled themselves into the walls of her Dantian, nourishing, strengthening and expanding it. The remaining ones extended further and pushed themselves into her meridians nourishing, strengthening and expanding them just like her Dantian.

This process continued for a while and Xiao Hong spent the rest of her spirit stones replenishing the spent Zhenqi before finally completing.

Xiao Hong slowly opened her eyes revealing two beautiful eyes that glowed in the dark like twin red stars.

Feeling the massive upgrade of her strength, Xiao Hong felt euphoric! She was one step closer to having enough strength to stand tall among giants! One step closer to surpassing them! One step closer to grasping her fate in her hands and moulding it as she pleased!

Her physique was also strengthened so much that she was sure she could fight late-stage Divine Sea experts with her body alone.

Her Divine Sense also had strengthened immensely. If before she could extend her Divine Sense to 10 metres, now it was 126 metres! It was more than 10 times! Which was more than twice that of cultivators of her level. Even the most monstrous of geniuses had a maximum of 81 metres at the same stage. At the same time, the clarity was much greater; it went from ultra-HD to ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-HD. She was also sure that she could crush a Sky Spirit with just her Divine Sense alone!

"STATUS"

[Ding!]

Essence: Initial Divine Sea

Physique: 3-star Ancient Godling (1st Disaster Equivalent)

Soul: 3rd stage Red Soul (1st Disaster Equivalent)

Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method

Ancient God's Physique Scripture

Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method

Soaring Crane Sword (Lowest-Grade) - Small Accomplishment

Flash Step (Lowest-Grade) - Small Accomplishment

Battle Prowess: High (2nd Disaster Equivalent)

Slot 1: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method

Slot 2: Ancient God's Physique Scripture

Slot 3: Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method

Slot 4: Empty

Slot 5: Empty

Details: Speed is 2.125x per Method

"As expected! Every Major realm opens up a new slot!"

Her mouth split into a huge grin that would probably cause multiple sectmates to fall: both in love and on the ground. Even female ones!

Still grinning, she decided to reward herself with a bath. A very long one!