Taoist Antecedent of the Yellow Court

Chapter 27: Eight Years

“Miaoyin City is safe for the time being. But conflict is bound to arise in the days to come. Perhaps I should accustom myself to battles between cultivators.”

Lu Qingfeng listened quietly as he thought about this to himself.

In the path of cultivation, if he were to think that he could ascend all the way to deity-hood relying solely on Pill Refining, Tool Refining, and so on, he was undoubtedly deceiving himself.

In cultivation, there had to be contests.

And since there would be contests, fights were inevitable.

The various Abhijnas, Magical Artifacts, and Treasures were what would protect them.

The outcome of a fight would either be victory or defeat, life or death.

In the game, one could resurrect or reincarnate if one died. In reality, if one lost one’s life to an enemy because one was unskilled in combat, that would spell a final death.

“But before I start fighting, I must first master Pill Refining to ensure a smooth cultivation.”

“Good tools are a prerequisite to the successful execution of a job.”

“Tool Refining must also come before I go into actual combat. As for Puppet Crafting…”

Lu Qingfeng pondered all of this. When he thought about the ten puppets he had seen earlier, it still felt astonishing to him.

All of a sudden, a system reminder popped up before his eyes:

[Congratulations, you have joined the guild, Singularity. Your current authority level is: Elder.]

“Elder?”

Lu Qingfeng raised his head and looked at Mu Yuanyi, only to see him coincidently looking toward him as well. He instantly understood that Mu Yuanyi must have used his authority as the guild leader to officially accept him into Singularity and appoint him as an Elder.

On the Attribute Panel, an extra guild column appeared.

Guild: Singularity

Guild Level: 6

Guild Ranking: 112 (Luminous Spirit Realm)

Guild Member(s): 324

Guild Leader: Mu Yuanyi

Vice Guild Leaders: Zhang Zong, Yu Bufan

Elders: Wang Tao, Lu Hongwen, Yue Ran…

Hall Masters: Ma Chang, Zhou Huan…

Deacons: Song Yun, Xiang Tianqiong…

Elites: …

Members: …

The guild information was extremely detailed, which may have had something to do with Lu Qingfeng’s high authority level. Singularity had a total of one Guild Leader, two Vice Guild Leaders, and five Elders, which included Lu Qingfeng. The rest of the people at the bottom were small potatoes below the Foundation Building Stage, with the highest being Hall Masters.

What surprised Lu Qingfeng was that guilds even had levels and rankings. Driven by curiosity, he couldn’t help clicking in to have a view.

After a brief moment, Lu Qingfeng revealed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

“A guild’s level is related to the number of guild members, the cultivation stages of guild members, number of guild missions completed, and the guild’s reputation within the domain. Only by raising a guild’s level to 10 and having a member in the Cosmic Stage could a guild be converted into a sect.”

“As for a guild’s ranking, only guilds within the same realm are considered. The Luminous Spirit Realm is still in its infancy phase. There are less than 3,000 players and 200 guilds. Singularity is at rank 112, which is not too high, but not too low either.”

When Lu Qingfeng read all this, only then did he feel that “Primitive” was more of a game.

…

With Mu Yuanyi and the others’ returns, Singularity Mountain was bustling with noise.

As far as Lu Qingfeng was concerned, the changes weren’t that important. He was still cultivating every day.

The construction of his own Pill Refining Chamber had been started.

Two weeks later, the Pill Refining Chamber had been completed.

At a single bound, Lu Qingfeng became the third Pill Refining Apprentice who independently owned a Pill Refining Chamber in Singularity. Lu Qingfeng named his Pill Refining Chamber the Emery Pill Refining Chamber to commemorate his decades of painstaking practice in Pill Refining in the town of Emery.

The Emery Pill Refining Chamber was on a par with Wang Tao’s Lilac Pill Refining Chamber and Yue Ran’s Fairy Pill Refining Chamber.

It covered an area of 15 acres and had a total of nine Pill Refining Furnaces. One of them was a Tier 4 Runic Equipment, two were Tier 3 Runic Equipment, three were Tier 2 Runic Equipment, and three were Tier 1 Runic Equipment.

The nine Pill Refining Furnaces cost almost five low-grade Spirit Stones. When converted into Spirit Stone Fragments, they would be 500 pieces, and when converted into Yellow Dragon Pills, it would be a staggering 50,000 pills.

Only a massive guild like Singularity had the resources to construct something like this. Ordinary guilds would be reluctant or maybe even powerless to build a Pill Refining Chamber of such an enormous size.

Lu Qingfeng couldn’t use such a massive Pill Refining Chamber all by himself. So he recruited apprentices from the Singularity Guild to use the Pill Refining Chamber with him.

First, they would become his assistants, thus saving him time in handling medicinal herbs.

Second, he would raise up a few Pill Refining Apprentices, who could be regarded as a payback to Singularity, while also gaining him a slight profit in the meantime.

Mu Yuanyi could have had that in mind when he decided to build Lu Qingfeng such a massive Pill Refining Chamber. Lu Qingfeng wasn’t against the idea. After all, it was something that would benefit both sides. He had no reason to turn it down.

Time flew by.

In this lifetime, Lu Qingfeng’s progression was undoubtedly faster.

Back in Emery Town, excluding the 16 years he’d wasted due to his accidental death, Lu Qingfeng had expended nearly ten years to barely make a name for himself and master the two enhanced low-level pills: the Fasting Pill and the Yellow Dragon Pill.

This time, Lu Qingfeng had mastered the refining of ten kinds of pills from the very start.

With Singularity being responsible for his herb supply and sales, Lu Qingfeng only had to concentrate on Pill Refining.

He would wake up every morning to cultivate.

Then he would refine pills in the afternoon.

And finally he could discuss Pill Refining with Wang Tao and Yue Ran at night.

Time went by ever so quickly.

In the blink of an eye, eight years had passed since Lu Qingfeng joined Singularity.

…

In the Onyx Tool Refining Chamber, Lu Qingfeng stood in front of the smelting furnace with his palms pressed against the furnace wall.

“Degree 3 wind, degree 4 fire!”

“Degree 6 wind, degree 9 fire!”

“Degree 2 wind, degree 8 fire!”

…

Lu Qingfeng closed his eyes tightly as he mumbled number after number. Beside him, around the smelting furnace, there were nine apprentices each with a bellow in front of them.

According to Lu Qingfeng’s instructions, these nine people kept pushing and pulling the bellows to control the wind and temperature in the smelting furnace.

These apprentices were all cultivators in the Fetal Phase. They couldn’t help but be covered with perspiration.

About half an hour later…

“Now!”

Lu Qingfeng abruptly opened his eyes and ordered all the nine apprentices to stop. He reached out and pushed the handle next to him. What he heard next were crackling sounds from inside the smelting furnace, which made it seem as if it was about to explode. The pipe on the side opened. Gusts of mist at high temperatures spurted out like sharp blades and dissipated outside the mixing chamber.

Then the vibration was finished, and all the mist had gushed out.

Lu Qingfeng waved his hand. The top of the smelting furnace opened, and a burst of black smoke was emitted. After the black smoke dissipated, he looked into the smelting furnace and saw a Pill Refining Furnace about three feet square lying at the bottom.

The Pill Refining Furnace looked like it was fully plated in copper. It had a quaint, antique look.

Lu Qingfeng’s face became a little pale. This was because he was concentrating so hard. Making a hand seal, his Inner Chi surged, and the Pill Refining Furnace raised up to his hand. Closing his eyes and probing into it with his inner Chi, Lu Qingfeng revealed a smile on his pale face after a moment, “It’s done!”

“Congratulations, Elder Lu.”

Seeing this, the nine apprentices beside the smelting furnace, likewise revealed gleeful smiles on their faces.

Hearing the voices of the nine apprentices, Lu Qingfeng took out three bottles of pills from the storage bag at his waist and tossed them around, “Thank you, everyone, divide them among yourselves.”

“Thank you, Elder Lu!”

The nine people took a look at what he’d given them. It turned out to be three bottles, containing 36 Yellow Dragon Pills. They were ecstatic.

Absolutely nobody in Singularity was unaware of the incredible efficacy of the low-level pills refined by Elder Lu. Except for a portion reserved for Singularity’s internal supply, when the rest of the pills were placed on the market, they would be sold out in an instant. People literally couldn’t buy them even if they had money.

The apprentices could divide up the 36 Yellow Dragon Pills, and each of them could have four of them. Considering all the pills they had obtained from Lu Qingfeng over the past few days, they could be comparable to their annual income.