Infiltrating the Danxia Sect

To settle the matter once and for all, you planned to obtain a formula for the Inner Divinity Pill.

Based on the memories from your last simulation,

you knew that on the coast of the Eastern Sea stood a sect skilled in alchemy, called the Danxia Sect.

Their sect was capable of refining Inner Divinity Pills.

You intended to sneak in and procure an Inner Divinity Pill formula.

You headed east all the way.

On the eighth day, you were about to leave Danzhou.

You discovered that Duan Qian had issued more than a dozen wanted notices.

He was hunting down more than a dozen people from the Golden Saber Martial Hall.

The foremost fugitives were Wang Kun and Wang Yuanyi, father and son.

You examined the wanted notices from afar.

You found that neither your name nor portrait was on them.

You knew Duan Qian had yet to suspect you.

Duan Qian merely believed that the Wang father and son had fled with the martial hall's members.

You breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, you felt a sense of urgency.

Sooner or later, Duan Qian would trace the matter back to you.

You left the city overnight and departed Danzhou's jurisdiction.

You were cautious, so you did not continue toward the Danxia Sect.

You found a desolate mountain to lie low in.

You lived in the mountains for more than half a year.

You did not waste a single moment.

Over those months, you completed the first condensation of your true qi.

The condensed true qi of the Marrow Cleansing Realm gave you a few more measures of confidence.

More than half a year later, the furor over the wanted notices gradually passed.

You continued eastward.

In the second year, you arrived at the Danxia Sect.

You bought a small courtyard in a village near the Danxia Sect.

Whenever you were not cultivating, you wandered around the vicinity of the Danxia Sect.

In your line of work, you had to scout the place before making a move.

A month later, you had more or less figured out the Danxia Sect's situation.

Although the Danxia Sect was not one of the Five Great Sects, its scale was hardly small.

The sect master possessed Grandmaster Realm cultivation.

The Danxia Sect's overall strength was not weak.

For more than a month, you could not find an opportunity to infiltrate it.

Several times while scouting, you had nearly been discovered.

Fortunately, you had a plentiful supply of Inner Divinity Pills.

You could cultivate as usual.

In the second month, an opportunity finally came.

The Danxia Sect began its annual disciple recruitment.

Anyone sixteen or younger could participate in the entrance examination.

Those who passed could become disciples of the Danxia Sect.

"What a fine opportunity!" You were excited.

You had just turned sixteen that year.

You planned to use this examination to worm your way into the enemy's heart.

As long as you entered the Danxia Sect, you would surely find a chance to steal the pill formula.

You created an alternate identity called Zhao Tiezhu.

Using the Aura Concealment Art, you revealed only Mid Skin Tempering Realm cultivation.

You pretended that you had never refined any pills before, or else you would arouse suspicion.

Your Aura Concealment Art had already reached perfection.

Only an Apex Grandmaster could see through your true realm.

Even the Danxia Sect's sect master, its strongest cultivator, could not see through your cultivation.

You had no concern whatsoever about exposing your cultivation within the Danxia Sect.

Entering the Danxia Sect only required passing an alchemy examination.

You competed alongside more than fifty youths.

The examiner had you refine an ordinary healing pill that you had never seen before.

Drawing on your experience refining Qi and Blood Pills, you finished first.

Moreover, your success rate was the highest, reaching seventy percent.

Achieving such a completion rate on your first attempt at an unfamiliar pill meant it was no exaggeration to call you an alchemy prodigy.

When the examiner came over to inspect your finished pills, his eyes shone brightly.

He looked happier to see you than he would have been to see his own father.

The examiner directly halted everyone else's examination.

On the spot, he declared that all the other youths had failed.

The other youths left with their heads hanging low.

As they departed, each cast you a couple of resentful glances.

It turned out that the Danxia Sect recruited three disciples every year.

But because your performance that year was too dazzling, everyone else's talent and skill were utterly unworthy of mention.

You effortlessly claimed first place by an unbridgeable margin.

Do not fear that goods go unrecognized; fear only comparison between goods.

This led the examiner to slash two recruitment slots outright, leaving only you to be recruited that year.

With heartfelt sincerity, you told those who had been eliminated, "Young fellows, do not envy the heights I have reached. One day, you too will be able to jump up and touch my knees."

You successfully entered the Danxia Sect.

You were assigned as the disciple of the Seventh Elder, Xie Huide.

Xie Huide was seventy-five years old, yet looked middle-aged, and possessed Essence Refining Peak cultivation.

Xie Huide was naturally easygoing and disliked handling affairs.

Other than teaching you alchemy, he never came looking for you.

You were delighted by this arrangement, since it allowed you to go out scouting whenever you wished.

If you enjoyed this book and wished to avoid losing it next time, please remember to add it to your bookshelf.

You could also cultivate freely in your own residence.

You did not need to worry about exposing your cultivation.

Normally, Xie Huide explained the fundamental system of alchemy to you.

Your proficiency in refining Qi and Blood Paste had been a wild, unorthodox path forged entirely through money and time.

After hearing Xie Huide's explanations, you gained a systematic understanding of alchemy.

You learned that pills were also divided into grades.

From Grade One to Grade Nine, with Grade Nine being the highest.

Once an alchemist's proficiency with the highest-grade pills they could refine reached mastery, they were considered an alchemist of that corresponding grade.

Take yourself, for instance.

Qi and Blood Paste was actually a Grade-Two pill.

Your proficiency in refining Qi and Blood Paste had already reached perfection.

You were, in truth, a Grade-Two Alchemist.

As for Xie Huide, he was a Grade-Seven Alchemist, more than impressive enough.

Xie Huide gave you the formulas for three Grade-One pills.

Among Grade-One pills, these three were in the particularly difficult category.

He told you that once you raised your proficiency in all three Grade-One pills to mastery, he would teach you to refine Qi and Blood Paste.

Once your proficiency in Qi and Blood Paste also reached mastery, he would teach you to refine the Grade-Four Inner Divinity Pill.

That also meant you would be able to obtain the Inner Divinity Pill formula then.

Since your skill in refining Qi and Blood Paste had already reached perfection,

you only needed to raise your proficiency in the three Grade-One pills to mastery.

Then the Inner Divinity Pill formula would be as easy to take as something already in your hand.

You estimated that it would take less than a year to bring all three Grade-One pills to mastery.

But you could not reveal that your Qi and Blood Paste proficiency had instantly reached mastery.

Otherwise, your identity would definitely be suspected.

You could only play the pig and eat the feed, revealing your abilities bit by bit.

You estimated that, given your persona as an alchemy prodigy, reaching mastery in four years would be more reasonable.

But you felt that four years was too long.

You decided to study alchemy diligently while searching for a chance to steal the pill formula.

You learned that the Danxia Sect's pill formulas and cultivation arts were all stored in the Scripture Pavilion.

You spent half a month figuring out the Scripture Pavilion guards' shift-change schedule.

That day, taking advantage of the changing of the guard, you quietly infiltrated the Scripture Pavilion.

But the moment you entered, a returning guard caught you red-handed.

This guard possessed early Essence Refinement Realm cultivation, and you could deal with him.

You were just about to kill him and flee the Danxia Sect.

But the guard recognized you and asked, "Are you Zhao Tiezhu, the Seventh Elder's disciple?"

You answered, "Yes."

"I thought I'd seen you before." The guard muttered, then left directly.

The guard simply ignored you.

You were somewhat dumbfounded.

Only later did you learn that disciples of every elder could enter and leave the Scripture Pavilion at will.

You had merely feared people would see through your intentions,

so you had not dared ask anything at all about the Scripture Pavilion.

This time, you had been overly cautious.

You hurriedly began searching through the Scripture Pavilion.

Yet you could not find the Inner Divinity Pill formula at all.

It turned out that pill formulas above Grade Four were never stored here.

Instead, they were kept by the sect master and elders.

You had made the trip for nothing.

You had no other choice.

You could only honestly raise your proficiency in those three Grade-One pills first.

Although your plan to steal the pill formula had fallen through,

you discovered that staying in the Danxia Sect actually brought you nothing but benefits.

Every day, you only needed to study alchemy,

then complete the alchemy tasks Xie Huide assigned you.

To you, those alchemy tasks were as easy as breathing.

They did not delay your cultivation in the slightest.

Although the Danxia Sect's overall combat strength was far inferior to that of the Five Great Sects,

its standing in the martial world was second only to the Five Great Sects and the Three Great Demonic Cults.

It was highly respected throughout the martial world.

The reason was simple: if you did not respect me,

I would not sell you pills.

You wanted to flip the table and fly into a rage?

Then I would call a few Apex Grandmaster brothers who needed my pills to come to your door and chop you down.

Whether you accepted it or not, you had no choice.

Thus, no sect wished to become enemies with the Danxia Sect.

Danxia Sect disciples basically never needed to go outside and fight or kill.

Unlike the hooligans from other sects, who had to carry machetes around and hack people everywhere.

It was dangerous; people could die.

You disliked fighting and killing most of all, and had no idea what it felt like to slaughter someone's entire family.

So staying in the Danxia Sect was actually safer than wandering around outside.

Moreover, the Danxia Sect was especially wealthy.

The consumable materials disciples used while practicing alchemy could be reimbursed by the sect for half the cost.

Each disciple even had their own separate courtyard residence.

You also had a large courtyard of your own.

Life was quite comfortable.

Other sects absolutely did not offer such generous conditions.

In some poorly run minor sects, they went hungry nine meals out of every three days, and for no reason at all got a beating with a little steel rod.

Their little lives were going quite miserably.