The old crone came back to her senses and stared at Ning Cheng, shaking her head, “I do have the alchemy foundation jade slip, but I will not give it to you. It’s not that I can’t part with it, it’s for your own good. Although you are dressed as an old man, I guess you must not be more than twenty years old, right? To be able to cultivate to the eighth level of Qi gathering at the age of less than twenty, even though it’s not exactly a genius, is not easy in this part of Pingzhou.
With this kind of progress, if you can leave Ping Chau in the future, and with your own efforts and some luck, you may not be able to achieve Xuan Dan. If your mind is preoccupied with studying the Dao of Dan, I am afraid that you will only be able to condense truth for the rest of your life. The Dao of Dan is not something you can learn just because you want to. Listen to me.”
Thinking of his Xuanhuang Pearl, Ning Cheng said again with some reluctance in his heart, “Senior, I am certain that I will not delay my cultivation.”
The old crone smiled blandly, “Any cultivator who wants to refine pills has this certainty. The Dao of Dans and the Dao of Weapons are ultimately minor dao, and they also serve the purpose of cultivation. If it wasn’t for the sake of advancing to a higher level, no one would want to refine pills. But all people are blinded by this small dao. Since it is all about cultivation at the end of the day, why not put all your energy into cultivation? If one day you have a panoramic view of the mountains, are there still Dan masters who dare not refine pills for you? Are there still alchemists who dare not help you refine weapons?”
When Ning Cheng heard this, his heart suddenly burst into flames. This was the first time he had heard someone say that the Dao of Dan was a minor dao, and the Dao of Artifacts was also a minor dao. Yet he felt as if the old crone was not wrong, if one day he had a view of all the mountains, which other dan masters would not dare to refine pills for him?
But without pills, how could he see the mountains at a glance? The fiery mood that had just risen had once again cooled down.
The old crone seemed to know Ning Cheng’s mind as she once again said unhurriedly, “The truly powerful pills in this world are not made by people, but are born and grown. If one day, you can find these spirit creatures that are born and grow in the earth, they will be countless times more powerful than any pills as well. If you only rely on man-made elixirs to cultivate and are unable to eliminate the elixir poison, you will always be nothing more than a second-rate person. Pills are an aid to cultivation, not an end in themselves.”
“Does senior mean that as long as one is cultivating, there is no need to refine pills?” Ning Cheng asked, puzzled.
The old crone shook her head once again and said, “No, it’s just that you are not suitable for pill refining. You are just a casual cultivator, even if your qualifications are unbelievable, so what? The prerequisites for alchemy are a large amount of spiritual herbs for you to practise on, and secondly, you need to have a dan fire and a great chance. You have neither of these. If you only want to refine pills for the sake of advancing to the true level, you are going in the wrong direction. If you want to refine pills, you can also come to me when you feel that you can no longer raise your cultivation level. However, I believe that by that time, you will no longer be in the mood to refine pills.”
Ning Cheng sighed, he knew that the old crone was not wrong. What he relied on was just the Xuanhuang Pearl, and the Xuanhuang Pearl could not produce countless spiritual herbs out of thin air. It looked like even if he wanted to make pills, he would not be able to go through this old crone.
“Come back in ten days to get the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles, I will definitely be able to refine them for you.” Seeing Ning Cheng’s head bowed in contemplation, the old crone did not care what Ning Cheng was thinking and directly gave the expulsion order.
“Yes, junior bids farewell.” After Ning Cheng walked out of this old crone’s bungalow, he had already put the matter of refining pills aside in his heart.
No matter what, even if he learned to refine pills now, he would not be able to refine the Condensing True Pill in time. He would have to think of another way to advance to Condensing Truth. There were so many True Condensation cultivators, and not every one of them was necessarily an alchemist.
……
Ning Cheng did not go to Ming Pu Square to test his spiritual roots, he had to wait until he got the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles. Moreover, after going through that old crone, Ning Cheng was no longer half sure about his cultivation concealment.
He simply stayed in the Rest Inn and practiced his cultivation concealment technique.
Ten days pa*sed in a flash, and in these ten days, Ning Cheng had not only revised the concealment technique he had received from the old crone, but had also completely learned a new concealment technique.
On the tenth day, Ning Cheng couldn’t wait to get outside the bungalow in the small hutong. Only to find that the door of the bungalow was already locked. Ning Cheng was shocked in his heart, could it be that this old crone, who looked just like her predecessor, would cheat him out of a bit of material? This was absolutely impossible, right?
“May I ask if you’re here to get something from Gongsun Daniang?” A hesitant voice rang out from the doorway opposite the bungalow, and Ning Cheng turned around to see an extremely ugly teenager with rolled lips and thin eyes.
“Yes, I am exactly looking for Damsel Gongsun, may I ask where Damsel Gongsun has gone?” Ning Cheng hastily replied. At the same time, he felt that this Gongsun Damsel’s name was really familiar, he had heard of it when he was on Earth, but he also knew that it would definitely not be the same person.
When this extremely ugly boy heard Ning Cheng’s words, he immediately grinned and then entered the house and took out a not-so-large wooden box and handed it to Ning Cheng and said, “Gongsun Damsel handed this to me when she was leaving, she said that all the things you want are in here, I hope you will do what you can.”
Ning Cheng took the jade box and thanked him, instead he was a little confused in his heart. He had only asked Damsel Gongsun to create a Seven Obsidian Ice Needle, what was there to measure up to with this thing?
Despite his eagerness to know what his Seven Obsidian Ice Needle looked like, Ning Cheng still held back this excitement and took the wooden box with him and rushed back to his residence at the first opportunity.
After returning to his residence, Ning Cheng first set up a shielding formation before carefully opening the wooden box.
Inside the wooden box was another tiny crystal box, and next to this crystal box was a ball of stuff. Ning Cheng did not care about the mess next to it, and directly took the crystal box in his hand and opened it.
A tiny needle, almost invisible to the naked eye, was lying in the crystal box, and it appeared to be disappearing at any moment.
“A good needle.” Ning Cheng exclaimed in awe, he immediately understood that this was definitely a Seven Obsidian Ice Needle magic treasure that exceeded his expectations.
Ning Cheng clamped this fine needle in his hand, and a feeling of wanting to refine it came over him. Without hesitation, Ning Cheng immediately closed his eyes and began to refine the fine needle in his hand.
A day later, Ning Cheng opened his eyes again in surprise, and the fine needle in his hand had disappeared. The thin needle had already been attached to the inside of his sleeve and was completely connected to his heart.
At this moment, Ning Cheng absolutely did not believe that the old woman was not a refiner, the grade of this fine needle was even higher than his flying sword, it was simply an extremely high grade magic weapon.
A person who could refine a very high grade magic weapon could not be a refiner?
Ning Cheng was so happy that he had forgotten that there was still a ball of stuff in the wooden box, and he even kept practising the Seven Obsidian Ice Needle Spell with the fine needle in his hand.
It was only when he was very hungry that he realised that another day had pa*sed like this. Ning Cheng was even more surprised in his heart, with this fine needle. Once he cast the Thirty-Six Swords of Xuan Bing and echoed the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles against an enemy, even if it was a Condensed True cultivator, it would probably be difficult for him to dodge it in case of a sneak attack.
By today, he finally had some ability to defend himself. Ning Cheng became more and more grateful to that old crone, even if it was Ge Fei, Ning Cheng felt that he was more than just those ten Qi gathering stones. Even if he gave two spirit stones, that was less.
When Ning Cheng put away the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles and was about to go out to eat something, he then remembered that there was still an item inside the wooden box. He hastily picked up the ma*s and shook it, only to find that it was an extremely thin inner armour.
Ning Cheng recognised it the first time, it was a defensive armour refined from the skin of a one-horned augur. At the same time, he also understood what was going on, it should be that the old woman felt that there was a lot of auger skin and had simply helped him to refine an inner armour.
After Ning Cheng took off his outer clothing and refined the inner armour and put it on, he felt incredibly relieved. In his heart, he was even more grateful to the old crone.
Ning Cheng did not throw away the empty wooden box, in his opinion, it was the same as owing the old crone a favour. Originally, she could have given him the inner armour without giving it to him, but she did. At the same time, Ning Cheng also felt that the old crone’s earlier comment that he should not learn to refine pills now was not unreasonable.
……
Ming Pu Square was located on the outskirts of Ming Xin Academy and belonged to a place shared by Ming Xin Academy and Ming Yi True Country. Not only was there a huge square here, it was also the most enlightened place for Spiritual Root testing in the entire Ming Yi True Country. If it were normal, it would cost a lot of gold coins to come to Ming Pu Square to test one’s spiritual roots, but in these few months, not a single gold coin was needed. All people can test for free, because these months are the time when Ming Xin Academy is recruiting students.
The number of people in Ming Pu Square had been increasing over the past few days, and today it was even more crowded. Almost all the cultivators, and many people from Southern Plains City, had already come here. It was because today was the day that the Ming Xin Academy was recruiting disciples, and as long as the spiritual roots met the conditions and then pa*sed the test, then they could enter the Ming Xin Academy.
Ning Cheng followed the many people into the Spiritual Root Test Hall in Ming Pu Square, today he had removed his face covering cultivator hat. However, under his deliberate dressing, he even looked a little older, and even his beard had a somewhat vicissitudinous look to it.
Because today was the day of the Ming Xin Academy’s student selection, there weren’t many people in the Spiritual Root Test Hall. Most of the people had already tested their spiritual roots.
Ning Cheng had already seen the Spiritual Root Testing Magic Tool, so he walked directly to that testing magic tool and said to the person in charge of the test, “I want to test my Spiritual Root.”
“Put your hand on the groove and transport some true qi.” The person in charge of testing spiritual roots said breathlessly.
Ning Cheng didn’t say much and directly put his hand into the test groove, while transporting some true qi into it. Four thin yellow lines rose up on the crystal pillar, the four lines rose slowly but did not stop. Ning Cheng had already taken his hand away when the four thin lines had risen to three or four feet.
The person testing the Spiritual Root did not even care about Ning Cheng’s small movements, and directly lazily threw out a wooden token and said, “Four lines of Miscellaneous Branch Spiritual Root, eligible to enter.”
“Many thanks, may I ask what each of my four lineage spirit roots are?” Ning Cheng’s heart thumped a little as he hurriedly grabbed the jade token and thanked it and asked. Only he knew in his own heart that he was clearly a three lineage Miscellaneous Branch Spiritual Root, but after these half a year, he had turned into a four lineage Miscellaneous Branch Spiritual Root.
The person testing his spiritual roots swept Ning Cheng with a disdainful glance, “If you are qualified to be selected, there is no need for you to ask these questions. I am only here to test whether you are qualified to enter or not, you just barely managed to enter the academy gates.”
The implication was, “Your Spiritual Root is so rubbish, how dare you ask what Spiritual Root it is?