The moment Meng Tangtang and the others returned to Jingyun Sect, Lin Cheng sensed it. 💥👺 🎉👻
The last trace of worry in his heart finally faded, and he threw himself into alchemy.
Whether the outside world would fall into chaos because of Beast Taming Mountain's destruction—
That had nothing to do with him.
After all, he was just a lowly sweeper.
No matter how you looked at it, these matters were no concern of his.
After several days of tireless effort, Lin Cheng had successfully raised his alchemist level to Yellow Grade.
At this level, rapid improvement became much more difficult.
Host: Lin Cheng.
Alchemist Level: Yellow Grade, One Star.
Proficiency: 0/100000.
After reaching Yellow Grade, each alchemist rank was divided into three stars.
What Lin Cheng needed to do now was keep refining pills and raise his proficiency. Once he reached a certain level of proficiency, his alchemist rank would increase directly.
The amount of proficiency he gained also varied depending on his level and the pills he refined.
In short, refine pills that matched your rank.
Otherwise, he'd put in twice the effort for half the results, wearing himself out for nothing.
Moreover, the proficiency required for each rank increased tenfold.
The difficulty rose dramatically.
Before then, Lin Cheng had refined nearly all the medicinal herbs he'd acquired that were below Yellow Grade into pills, and more than half of them had Pill Patterns.
They were mainly of three types.
Restoring spiritual energy, healing injuries, and unleashing strength.
He had pills ranging from Subordinate First Rank to Ninth Rank.
There were roughly ten thousand in total.
More than five thousand had Pill Patterns; the rest were all nearly of Pill Pattern quality.
Any one of them would have sent countless people scrambling to get their hands on it.
But Lin Cheng had simply stuffed them into bottles and tossed them into a corner of the Library Pavilion, to be taken away next time Meng Tangtang came by.
After all, more than seventy percent of the low-grade herbs had been gathered by Meng Tangtang and several elders.
They'd helped him raise his alchemist level and rack up proficiency.
He could treat these worthless little things as payment.
Lin Cheng didn't think much of it.
He tossed them there and forgot all about them.
The most important thing now was refining Yellow Grade pills.
This concerned the improvement of his own cultivation, so he couldn't afford to be careless.
Still, refining pills alone had its benefits. He could use his full cultivation, covering everything with the power of heaven and earth as bursts of invisible flame erupted.
It was much more useful than earthfire.
Both the speed of pill refinement and the quality of the pills were far better.
That was precisely how Lin Cheng had managed to refine ten thousand pills in just two or three days. If he'd used that thing called earthfire, it would've been impossible.
"Master, I'm here!"
After finishing ten batches of Yellow Grade True Spirit Pills in one go, more than half of them with Pill Patterns, Lin Cheng nodded in satisfaction and was about to take a break.
Meng Tangtang's voice rang out from outside the Library Pavilion.
Lin Cheng had no choice but to stop for the time being.
It was strange. Lately, he didn't know what had gotten into Meng Tangtang, but the girl had been coming over every few days.
She practically treated the place like her own home.
Though she helped relieve Lin Cheng's boredom, she also left him a little helpless. With her around, he couldn't focus on refining pills.
As for Xiao Jin, after the initial novelty of being a master wore off,
he'd long since disappeared without a trace.
After all, she was his disciple. Lin Cheng couldn't just leave her out in the cold.
"What is it?"
"Master, I brought your favorite Roasted Bamboo Chicken, and some Jade Dew Wine!"
Meng Tangtang stepped inside and immediately spotted the mysterious figure shrouded in gray mist, exactly like the one she'd seen during her moment of enlightenment.
She didn't think much of it, assuming it was just one of her master's quirks.
Ever since her epiphany in Mist Forest, when she'd inadvertently glimpsed her master's care and devotion, Meng Tangtang had been training much harder. She'd also started coming to the Library Pavilion every day.
With her innate constitution and the boost from the Yin-Yang Emperor Scripture, her strength was improving by leaps and bounds.
In another two or three months, she'd probably break through to the late stage of Ninth Rank, taking another step toward the legendary Innate Realm.
Moreover, in terms of combat strength, Meng Tangtang was now no weaker than an ordinary cultivator in the late stage of Ninth Rank.
During the half month since returning to the sect, Meng Tangtang had dragged the elders into sparring matches every day. Nearly everyone in the sect, including the Supreme Elder, had been challenged by her.
She'd even gone after Seventh- and Eighth-Rank cultivators.
She was utterly relentless. Over the past few days, many elders had started dodging Meng Tangtang whenever they saw her, not even daring to go up and greet her.
They were genuinely scared of her.
Losing to her would've been fine. But if they won even a single exchange, she'd latch on and drag them out of bed for sparring in the middle of the night, every night.
Although many of the elders had profound cultivation and didn't need sleep, this still wasn't a solution.
With no other choice, they all asked the Supreme Elder to settle things. Only after Old Lady Xu stepped in did Meng Tangtang finally quiet down for a while.
"Master, Elder Zhang Feng and the others are so mean! They actually went to the Supreme Elder and bad-mouthed me. Now they act like they've seen a ghost whenever they see me. That's just awful!!"
Meng Tangtang started complaining again.
This wasn't the first time. Whenever the girl angrily listed the elders' offenses, Lin Cheng couldn't help laughing wryly.
Did she really have no idea why they were avoiding her?
It was because she was too mischievous, pestering them every day.
If she weren't so young and harmless, and didn't bring expensive gifts every time she visited, she'd have been denounced by everyone in Jingyun Sect long ago.
Even the Young Sect Master couldn't go around disturbing everyone every day, could she?
But every time the elders tried to refuse her sternly, they'd see Meng Tangtang gazing up at them with a pitiful expression, clutching a Pill Pattern pill in her hands.
And so—
Under the combined assault of cuteness and temptation, the old men and women eventually couldn't hold out any longer and surrendered.
There was nothing for it. They could only give in.
Pills with Pill Patterns were just too tempting!
They had no idea where the girl got them.
Pills with Pill Patterns, rumored to be unimaginably precious and rarer than anything under the heavens, were as cheap as candy in Meng Tangtang's hands.
She had handfuls of them.
They didn't know that every time Meng Tangtang came by, Lin Cheng would casually give her a pile of the pills he'd refined.
Those low-grade pills were no use to him anyway.
He might as well give them to his disciple to play with. After all, they were staying within the same pot; they wouldn't leave the bounds of Jingyun Sect.
In the end, if Jingyun Sect grew stronger, he'd benefit too.
At least then, he wouldn't have to be bothered with every little thing. At most, he'd only need to show his face and lend a hand when something major happened.
Most of the time, he could just hide in the Library Pavilion and quietly collect his daily sign-in rewards.
Wasn't it great to have someone else take care of the trouble?
Lin Cheng thought so.
When Meng Tangtang finished chattering, Lin Cheng casually pointed at the pile of bottles and jars in the corner and said offhandedly,
"These are all pills your junior brother made in his spare time. Take them if you don't mind."
"Your junior brother's going into seclusion to cultivate, so there won't be any more next time."
These were the last of the pills. Unless something unexpected happened, Lin Cheng wouldn't waste his energy on such trivial matters in the future.
His main goal was to refine pills above Yellow Grade.
Only pills of that level could be of some use to him.
Meng Tangtang had been waiting for him to say exactly that, and her eyes suddenly lit up!
They were all miraculous pills with Pill Patterns!
Only someone of her master's stature could be so unconcerned, tossing them into the corner like trash.
It was a little sad that her junior brother wouldn't be refining pills anymore.
But this would be more than enough to pay those old men and women!
Meng Tangtang thought happily.
But when she saw the mountain of bottles and jars piled up in the corner, she froze, her mouth slowly falling open.
"That's way too much!"
Her master's incredible generosity had stunned her.
All the pills she'd received before wouldn't have amounted to even the scraps at the edge of this pile!
"Wow, I'm rich!!" Meng Tangtang's eyes sparkled.
She couldn't help clenching her little fists!
Looking at the mountain of pills before her, she swore to herself,
Hmph, you all run away whenever you see me!
You all bad-mouth me!
Want pills?
Pills with Pill Patterns!
Even if you want them, I won't give you any!
Let you bunch of rascals drool over them!
This time, Meng Tangtang decided she wouldn't go looking for those elders. She'd make them come begging her in tears!
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