In a split second, the Chongyun Sect pharmacist’s complexion stiffened. In the blink of an eye, his conceited pride had gone up in smoke. However, he didn’t understand how his own careful actions led to an exploded cauldron.
The Qingyun Sect female pharmacist on the opposite side also stopped her hands. She had similarly failed in refining her pills, but she fortunately didn’t blow up her cauldron. It looked like she was slightly better than that Chongyun Sect pharmacist.
Of course, an exploded cauldron was a failure, but so too was the inability to condense pills. This round’s spar between Chongyun Sect and Qingyun Sect was considered a tie. Both side’s competitors returned to their own pavilions.
On Chongyun Sect’s side, a young pharmacist had an unsightly expression, and didn’t open his mouth to speak.
An acerbic young girl with upward-slanting, phoenix eyes said in derision: “I say, Peng An. You rushed to be the first to go out and suppress Qingyun Sect, but in the end, you blew up your cauldron. The opening match was turned into this by you, and you still have the face to come back?”
Pharmacist Peng An who exploded his cauldron had a darkened face: “Originally, I was doing fine. Under my psychic power, that Qingyun Sect trash couldn’t condense any pills, but for whatever reason, my cauldron suddenly blew up.”
That acerbic young girl’s words became even harsher: “It’s said that psychic powers aren’t easily controlled. Peng An, what kind of a genius do you think you are? Could you guarantee that you would’ve been able to stably refine your pills after attacking your opponent? You need to know that when it comes to psychic powers, this thing, so long as there’s the smallest mistake, it won’t work. You thought too highly of yourself and seized an easy task, but your skills were no good… And you still want to shift the blame onto someone else?”
Peng An’s expression was furious, but he really did make a mistake first. Naturally, he could only take deep breaths, tightly clench his fists, and wish that he could go over and beat her up.
At this time, someone on the side stood up, and said disdainfully: “Okay, what quarrel do you have? This time, I’ll go. I won’t let those Qingyun Sect people gain the smallest advantage!”
Peng An and that acerbic girl exchanged glances. They coldly harrumphed, and didn’t quarrel anymore.
Meanwhile, that person brushed off the dust on his clothes. He raised his foot, walked out, and leaped down.
On Qingyun Sect’s side, after the woman returned, she was welcomed with deep concern.
Xu Lingxiu frowned and said: “Senior Sect Sister He, you shouldn’t have been incapable of condensing the pills with your skills. What went wrong?”
On the contrary, the woman, He Feng, was very calm. She carefully thought back to the previous course of events. She also frowned and said: “Originally, everything was normal, but when I was condensing the pills, I felt that a power which wasn’t my own had struck… Although it was slight, it promptly disturbed the qi intent in my cauldron, and threw my hand seals into disarray. This was the reason why I lost.”
Gu Zuo silently nodded.
Although that psychic power attack was simple and crude, the movement wasn’t big. Being capable of discovering it, and not believing that it was a mistake of her own refining… This Senior Sect Sister He Feng was very sharp.
Xu Lingxiu asked: “Do you know what this power is?”
He Feng was silent for a moment. At last, she hesitatingly said: “It seemed like…psychic power.”
Xu Lingxiu paused: “You’re saying that someone used psychic powers to attack you? No, or should I say that someone used psychic powers to negatively affect the important parts of your pill refinement?”
He Feng nodded her head: “That’s right. I shouldn’t be mistaken.”
All of the pharmacists inside the pavilion looked over. Their expressions were even more grave and vigilant than before.
“Can Chongyun Sect’s people use psychic powers like this?”
“I’ve never heard of someone being able to harness psychic power like this.”
“There must be a reason amid all of this. Otherwise, it makes no sense that they can use it, but we can’t!”
“Maybe it’s a type of technique.”
“Next, we’ll need to be even more careful. If all of those Chongyun Sect pharmacists are able to…”
This kind of buzzing discussion droned on. None of those pharmacists were stupid, and they soon saw through to the crisis within. The matter laid out before their eyes was very clear. Since Chongyun Sect secretly played tricks in the first round, then it meant that it was imperative that they won this sparring contest.
Suddenly, someone spoke with misgivings: “Wait a minute. After Senior Sect Sister He Feng was negatively affected and failed her refinement, that Chongyun Sect person blew up his cauldron. How did that come about?”
If the other party did this on purpose, then it wasn’t consistent with their speculations! Moreover, it also appeared that the Chongyun Sect person was contradictory from beginning to end! But if it wasn’t deliberate, then how could the skills of that opposing pharmacist be so lacking?
It really left people bewildered.
Gu Zuo was startled.
For a moment, his mood was a little messy. He didn’t know this should be treated.
But right away, someone switched the topic: “Chongyun Sect dares to act this way. I’m afraid that they aren’t worried about our Qingyun Sect finding out. As such, they took the initiative to provoke the martial artists and use psychic powers to pressure the pharmacists. Besides wanting to slap down on our Qingyun Sect’s face, are there any other goals? If it’s only for the sake of suppression and having battles all over, then it’s really making a big fuss over a minor issue.”
This problem was one that they truly didn’t understand.
At once, a voice spoke up with some hesitance: “Say, do you guys think that they came to plunder our Qingyun Sect’s resources in exchange for that psychic power technique…”
When these words were uttered, everyone was alarmed.
Gu Zuo was a little frightened.
This wasn’t unreasonable!
If Chongyun Sect set up this event to simultaneously publicize psychic powers and suppress Qingyun Sect, then it would cripple Qingyun Sect’s morale. Afterwards, it would take out the technique, and make a business deal with Qingyun Sect. During the negotiations, it could also intensely pressure others. This would make it difficult for Qingyun Sect to bargain! Moreover, because the psychic power technique was precious, Chongyun Sect also allowed its Grand Elders to come and oversee things to prevent the technique from being easily seized by Qingyun Sect… Thinking it over this way, he seemed to understand a little bit?
Gu Zuo thought about this matter, so other people also reached this conclusion.
A young pharmacist opened his mouth with difficulty: “If it really can be traded, then that’s also advantageous to us.”
However, Xu Lingxiu sneered: “You and I both know that this psychic power technique has never been seen before. It’s incomparably precious. And when this precious thing is taken out for the exchange, what kind of enormous price will our Qingyun Sect have to pay? It’s too early to be happy about this. Since that Chongyun Sect doesn’t have any good intentions, it’ll certainly have other pitfalls in place.”
Someone else said: “Right! Maybe what the other party takes out is just the low-level stuff they obtained from several techniques, but they’ll want to exchange it for precious things! At that time, their pharmacists will still be able to suppress us. Our resources will be reduced, and the allocations will also certainly be reduced. Then, even though we’ll have the psychic power technique, we’ll still be distantly lagging behind them!”
Another person spoke: “What’s more, we don’t know if this technique has any flaws. No one has seen it before. If we practice it now, and later find something wrong, what should we do?”
Then, someone else shouted: “Chongyun Sect has wolfish ambitions! We have to keep our guards up!”
Such a conspiracy theory unfolded. Listening to this, Gu Zuo stared blankly.
Ah, but one couldn’t help saying that this kind of speculation was truly persuasive…
Of course, speculation was just speculation. Most of all, the root of this conjecture — That the other party came to plunder resources — This point still wasn’t verified. No matter how much one speculated, it was all empty talk.
Xu Lingxiu made the final decision: “The next person chosen to go will observe how the other party acts.”
Hence, another pharmacist volunteered to go. This person stood up and went out.
This time, as before, being guided down by a martial artist couldn’t compare to the Chongyun Sect pharmacist who came down by himself. However, when they were refining pills, neither of their imposing auras were lacking.
Xu Lingxiu and several others closely watched the two people in the venue. Remaining calm and collected, they observed carefully.
Gu Zuo also took it seriously. The calculations in his mind swung back and forth several times.
Just like before, when it was almost time to condense the pills, the Qingyun Sect pharmacist disciple sensed that the medicinal power in his own cauldron was unstable. Because he paid attention to this matter, he detected the same thing that He Feng did at this time — Indeed, a burst of subtle power had arrived. In a moment, it obstructed the medicinal power that his hand seals were pulling. It was also at this instant that one pill after another soon turned into dregs!
This pharmacist disciple felt some heartache.
Whose family’s medicinal ingredients were blown in with the wind? During this sparring contest, everyone’s medicinal ingredients were self-provided. In order to beat the other party, the things prepared were either precious or rare pill prescriptions — Those medicinal ingredients were also naturally very hard to find.
And the results now?
If one’s own skill was no good and the refinement failed, then that was one thing. But being plotted against by the other party was another matter entirely!
There was no other alternative. This pharmacist disciple could only tremblingly continue using hand seals. He strived to not let everything go to waste… Originally, if there weren’t any accidents, while he wouldn’t say that he could refine a full nine pills, he could’ve at least produced five to six, mid or high grade pills!
Now, he didn’t know if he could save a single pill…
Gu Zuo took this scene into his eyes once again. However, this time, he didn’t dare release his psychic power to make the other party suffer a loss.
Previously, he dared to act. Firstly, it was because the other party wasn’t guarding against this. Secondly, it was because he was too angry and was a little bit impulsive. But this time was different. If he dared to do it again, then he would definitely be discovered by the other party!
At this moment, there was a struggle in Gu Zuo’s heart.
Chongyun Sect’s plot didn’t seem small. If he, such a small fry, casually took the initiative, he was afraid that he would be immediately crushed. However, on second thought, he originally had a fortuitous encounter. It wouldn’t seem strange if he obtained a psychic power technique from the fortuitous encounter, right? Only, his methods were too special. Even though he wasn’t afraid of being labeled a freak, daring to take it out for a transaction wasn’t too good… He still didn’t know if Chongyun Sect’s people could absorb medicinal qi. In the end, he also wasn’t clear about what was going on with their psychic power technique. He didn’t dare to act rashly.
Gu Zuo sighed.
Chongyun Sect most likely wanted to plunder resources. He only needed a psychic power technique that was better than Chongyun Sect’s scam to thoroughly wreck this plot.
It was a pity…
If it was like those medicine refining hand seals, he would’ve had many types of psychic power techniques that he could choose from.
[Side Mission: Foil Chongyun Sect’s plot.]
[Mission Items: <<Eighteen Methods of Psychic Power >>]
[Completion Method: Unrestricted.]
[Completion Time: Within one month.]
[Failure Penalty: Deduction of one thousand strands of medicinal qi.]
Gu Zuo: “…”
Speak of the devil…
Was the system a treasure chest? This mission was too considerate.
Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Zuo accepted the mission in his consciousness. Immediately following that, no less than eighteen item books appeared in the storage space region where he kept his books!
— Even the way the item books were stored was so considerate!
Gu Zuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He quietly took advantage of everyone else focusing on the people refining medicine, and withdrew to the back.
Soon after, an item book appeared in his hand. He swiftly flipped through it, and then switched to another book. When he finished flipping through this one, he changed to another book…
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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