"Bullshit! You old fool who fiddles with roots and bark, do you understand the worth of a Grandmaster of Artifact Refining? Chen'er is clearly an artifact-refining prodigy seen once in ten thousand years. That fire control, that insight into inscribing formations-he's simply a born divine craftsman! Having him learn your mud-ball-rolling tricks would be a criminal waste of heaven's gifts!"
Feng Yuzi had completely lost his temper. His usual air of an immortal sage and his refined, easygoing bearing as a grandmaster had long since been hurled beyond the ninth heaven. He rolled up his broad sleeves, revealing two arms knotted with muscle from years of forging, looking ready to turn the slightest disagreement into an all-out brawl.
Mu Qing had a fiery temper too. At those words, he sneered repeatedly, and a vast surge of green true essence erupted from his lean, withered body. Even the wooden furniture throughout the main hall began sprouting new shoots:
"Crude! Utterly crude! A muscleheaded blacksmith will always be a muscleheaded blacksmith-your skull is stuffed with muscle! That 'Silk-Spinning and Cocoon-Peeling' purification method Chen'er just used-how delicate was it? How exquisitely precise? Making him spend every day beside a furnace breathing coal smoke would ruin him! Even if it costs me this old life today, I'm taking Chen'er with me!"
As the two powerful currents of true essence, one green and one red, crashed together in the center of the main hall, violent waves of air sent the surrounding teacups tilting and tumbling. These two towering authorities, either of whom could make every faction on the Qianlong Continent tremble three times with a stamp of his foot, now resembled two rascally old men fighting over a peerless piece of jade at a marketplace, their beards bristling and their eyes glaring as neither yielded an inch.
At the edge of this storm, Qin De, the King Who Guards the East, sat upright in a grand armchair.
He held a cup of tea that had long since gone cold. The tea sloshed violently inside it, yet he seemed utterly unaware. A closer look would have revealed that this king of a different surname, whose might awed the world, had slightly shaking shoulders and lips that kept curling wildly upward. He was exerting every last ounce of strength to swallow the roaring laughter that nearly burst from his mouth.
Qin De was so delighted that it felt ten thousand times better than drinking chilled sour plum soup in the height of summer!
Fight! Keep arguing! Qin De shouted wildly inside.
What sort of standing did these two old fellows have?
One was the foremost artifact refiner on the Qianlong Continent, and the other its foremost pill refiner. Ordinarily, even imperial relatives and mighty sect leaders found securing an audience with them harder than ascending to heaven. Yet now, fighting to take his third son as their disciple, they had nearly come to blows in his royal residence's main hall.
What did that mean?
It meant that his son, Qin De's son, was truly a peerless prodigy.
Qin Chen, however, the very person at the center of it all, felt deeply helpless at that moment.
He rubbed his brow. Seeing that the two old men, whose combined ages approached two hundred, were about to start pulling each other's beards, he finally could not help sighing and took a step forward.
Humm-
A current of dark-gold true qi rippled from Qin Chen's body. Though his cultivation was only at Late Xiantian, the might of the Primordial Ancestral Dragon contained within that true qi forcibly tore an opening through the clashing auras of the two Golden Core stage experts.
"Uncle Feng, Uncle Mu, please hold off and hear me out." Qin Chen's voice was not loud, but it reached both men's ears clearly, carrying a composure far beyond his years.
Feng Yuzi and Mu Qing snorted in unison and each reined in his true essence, though their gazes continued clashing fiercely in midair.
"Chen'er, don't be afraid. With me here today, this blacksmith won't take you away!" Mu Qing said like a beast protecting its young.
"Chen'er, tell this old fool loud and clear: don't you prefer artifact refining?" Feng Yuzi refused to be outdone.
Qin Chen gave a wry smile, cupped his hands, and bowed deeply to the two masters. In a clear voice, he said, "Uncles, I cannot thank you enough for your kindness. But in my view, although artifact refining and pill refining differ in form, their great paths share one source, and their different roads lead to the same destination."
"Oh?" Both men froze, clearly not expecting a ten-year-old child to say something like "their great paths share one source."
Qin Chen spoke with calm assurance. "Artifact refining requires controlling fire to melt away impurities; pill refining likewise requires controlling fire to purify medicinal properties. Artifact refining requires soul power to inscribe formations and impart spirituality; pill refining likewise requires soul power to merge medicinal properties and form Pill Patterns. Both use the workings of heaven and earth as their furnace, their own true fire as the catalyst, and soul perception as the bridge. Since their essences are interconnected, and I consider my soul power reasonably abundant and my control over true fire fairly proficient, why can't I study both?"
Qin Chen's words rang out like morning bells and evening drums, exploding through Feng Yuzi's and Mu Qing's minds.
The two exchanged looks, astonishment emerging on their previously flushed old faces.
Indeed, they had just argued until their faces were red, both subconsciously believing that a person's energy was limited, and that studying artifact refining left no room for pill refining.
But they had overlooked the most crucial premise-could this ten-year-old little monster before them be measured by common sense?!
After watching just once, he could refine a Supreme Lower-Grade Magical Artifact. The very first time he handled medicinal herbs, he could roll a Supreme Blood Lotus Pill bearing Pill Patterns with his bare hands.
The energy, comprehension, and soul strength of a prodigy like him were simply beyond comparison with those of ordinary geniuses!
He wanted to learn both, so what were they fighting over?
Feng Yuzi was the first to recover. His old face reddened, and to conceal his embarrassment, he hurriedly clasped his hands behind his back and gave an affected cough, instantly recovering his usual unfathomable grandmaster's bearing. "Ahem... there is some sense in what you say, Chen'er. I was merely testing that old ghost Mu's limits. Since you have such grand ambitions, child, naturally I won't stand in your way."
Mu Qing also took the offered way down the slope. Stroking his somewhat disheveled white beard, he nodded. "Indeed, drive is a good thing in the young. Since you insist on studying both, I shall make an exception this once. But let me say the unpleasant part first: if you bite off more than you can chew and end up learning neither properly, I may expel you from my tutelage at any time!"
Though his words were stern, Mu Qing could not hide the smile at the corners of his eyes.
Seeing that the two masters had finally reached an agreement, Qin De at last stepped in with a chuckle to smooth things over and ordered fresh fragrant tea served.
Afterward, Feng Yuzi and Mu Qing sat together and began seriously discussing Qin Chen's teaching plan.
After some bargaining, they finally settled on Qin Chen's daily schedule: in the morning, when yang energy was strongest and conditions suited lighting the furnace and forging, he would learn artifact refining under Feng Yuzi; in the afternoon, when yin and yang shifted and wood energy rose, conditions suited nurturing medicinal properties, and he would learn pill refining under Mu Qing; as for the evenings, those were Qin Chen's unshakable personal cultivation hours, and no one was permitted to disturb him.
With everything settled and the dust laid to rest, Qin Chen bade farewell to his father and his two masters, then returned alone to his room in his Detached Courtyard.
The moment he closed the door, the space in a corner of the room began rippling like water without warning.
Immediately afterward, Xiaobai poked a furry head out of the void, silver eyes carrying remarkably human cunning and affection.
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