Volume 1 Chapter 25: Divine Power Pill

"I dare not, disciple," Tang Jue said, startled, and quickly added, "I only meant that if the Emperor truly intends to strike at our Tang Sect, we cannot simply wait to be slaughtered! That involves the lives of tens of thousands of our disciples!"

"Rest assured," Tang Shiyuan shook his head. "Our current Emperor will not easily strike at the Tang Sect."

"Then, Ancestor, what about the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus?" Tang Jue asked. "Should I send people to White Cloud City to search for it? If we find it, we must bring back the heirloom of our sect."

"Go now?" Tang Shiyuan sneered. "Are you hoping to hand over more evidence to the Shenque Imperial Capital?"

Hearing this, Tang Jue realized he was right. With Zhao Qianqiu just dead, if they were to recover the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus now, no one would believe that the Tang Sect had no connection to the person who mastered the Great Celestial Phenomenon Technique. For now, the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus would have to remain in the hands of that mysterious person.

***

At the Taixuan Holy Land, the Holy Lord continued his seclusion to recover from his injuries after returning that night. He did not tell anyone about the incident. He was not entirely sure of Li Hanzhou's identity and had no desire to provoke such a powerful, unknown enemy. Moreover, it appeared that the individual held no hostility toward the Taixuan Holy Land; he was likely just a reclusive expert, a type of person never heard of in the Dongyan Province.

"Holy Lord," a voice came from outside. It was the Great Elder of the Taixuan Holy Land.

"What is it?" the Holy Lord asked.

"Reporting to the Holy Lord, the Yue Shan Sect, the Zhao family, and the Tyrant Blade Gate have issued a challenge to spar with the Longevity Temple. They hope the Taixuan Holy Land will provide an arbitrator, so they wish to invite you to oversee the event," the Great Elder said from outside.

"It is merely a sparring session between disciples. Can't you just send someone else for such a trivial matter? Why must I go personally?" The Holy Lord felt it was rather inexplicable.

"Holy Lord, I believe it would be better if you were to attend. During the last disciple assessment, they saw through our intentions clearly. Furthermore, those three factions suffered quite significant losses... I believe your personal attendance would show them that the Taixuan Holy Land is sincere."

"There is also one more important point: the Prajna Axe is at the Longevity Temple. If you are present, the Longevity Temple will understand the gravity of the situation and will likely return the axe to us quietly. That axe was something you fought tooth and nail to retrieve from Divine Bull Mountain for Lu Tianxing; we cannot let the disciples of the Longevity Temple simply keep it."

The Holy Lord considered this and found it reasonable. Since that was the case, he would make the trip.

"Where is the Longevity Temple?" The Holy Lord had so many subordinate factions that he could not recall such a small place.

"It is near White Cloud City, a tiny Taoist temple with only a few people. It does not even qualify as a third-rate sect. This time, their disciples only managed to get first place because of some strange spiritual treasure. I have investigated: the temple master went missing long ago, and now the place is left with only a few disciples and their useless uncle. Since the Prajna Axe has fallen into such hands, we must retrieve it," the Great Elder explained.

"Taoist..." the Holy Lord murmured. "That makes sense." After all, the Taoist sect had been in decline for centuries, and those that remained were as rare as phoenix feathers. Even then, most had very few disciples. The Holy Lord couldn't help but think of Li Hanzhou, who also seemed to be an expert of the Taoist path, though he likely had no connection to the Longevity Temple.

***

Li Hanzhou returned from the Divine Machine Chamber of Commerce having purchased a large quantity of refining materials. He also arranged for the Chamber of Commerce to come to the Longevity Temple tomorrow to begin renovations. Since people from other sects were coming soon, it would be embarrassing if the temple remained in such a dilapidated state. He would renovate it as much as he could in a few days. He also bought some live chickens on his way back.

Once back at the Longevity Temple, Li Hanzhou immediately entered seclusion. Eagerly, he took out the Azure Dragon Hundred Flames and began attempting to refine pills according to the methods described in the *Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy*.

When Liu Dongyue learned that Li Hanzhou was actually refining pills for him, he felt uneasy. Were the pills his uncle refined actually edible? Alchemy required vast amounts of spiritual soul power; while Li Hanzhou lacked other things, his soul power was exceptionally strong. Despite failing twice at the start, by the third attempt, he had mastered the process and successfully produced three pills.

"Success!" After working for most of the day, Li Hanzhou eagerly retrieved the three pills from the furnace.

"So hot," he said, holding them like roasted chestnuts. "Right, let me check them against the guide."

"Brownish-tan color, yes, correct. Scent... a slightly sweet aroma, let me smell... yes, the scent is correct."

"There should be three blue stripes on the surface... let me see."

"Huh?"

Li Hanzhou’s face twisted in confusion. The color and scent were correct, but when he looked at the stripes, something was wrong. The manual said three blue stripes, but while his pill did have three, they were bright red.

"Why is it wrong again?" Li Hanzhou scratched his head. Whether refining spiritual treasures or pills, things always went slightly off-course. Why was that?

"Sigh!" Li Hanzhou dared not let Liu Dongyue eat these things; what if he accidentally poisoned his adorable disciple? He walked outside to the chicken coop, grabbed a chicken, and fed it one of the "Divine Strength Pills."

After waiting for a while, he noticed the chicken showed no changes at all.

"So strange. Is it ineffective?" Li Hanzhou looked at his pill curiously. It didn't seem to be poisonous, but having no poison wasn't enough; it had to actually work.

Li Hanzhou pulled out a talisman and recited a spell. "Illusion!"

The Illusion Spirit Technique! The chicken that ate the pill immediately fell under an illusion and began attacking a much fiercer chicken. In an instant, the two chickens were fighting madly! A moment later, the chicken that had eaten the pill was beaten so badly by the stronger one that it lost a large patch of feathers.

"It’s completely useless?" Li Hanzhou was speechless. If the pill had no effect, wasn't it just a regular dough ball?