The old man sneered, "Shouldn't he be grateful that I'm willing to upgrade his cauldron to a mystic treasure? Isn't it normal that he lends it to the sect as repayment? In the entire North Ocean, there’s only one cauldron mystic treasure which is in the hands of the Xuan Ling Sect. He will be getting a second one soon!"
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu laughed, "He’s just an Early Core Forging Realm child and only a Master Alchemist, a top-grade cauldron mystic instrument is more than enough for him. Do you think he could actually use a cauldron mystic treasure with his current prowess and mastery?"
The old man was taken back, and murmured, "I forgot about that…"
Then, he shook his head, and said in embarrassment, "Bah, whatever. If I have to, I’ll go to Little Tian-Ling and get her to ask him to temporarily trade his cauldron with the sect's By-Lake Cauldron. When he becomes a Grandmaster Alchemist, we can return his cauldron mystic treasure. That's fair, right?"
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked at the old man with a weird smile, "Senior Brother Tian-Jiang, say, why did Little Tian-Ling enter closed-door cultivation so suddenly?"
The old man was none other than Zhen Ling Sect's only Grandmaster Smith, Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang.
Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang reached a realization and became furious, "Here I am wondering where he is. If it wasn't because I’d already asked Xuan-Shan and the brats to tighten the mountain's security, I'd be worrying that he was kidnapped by the monster race or other sects!"
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked at Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang's face and laughed happily. Although Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang was candid and seemingly careless, he was certainly not slow, and asked, "Even if the little girl is helping her disciple, it's still a top-grade cauldron after all. You can't be this calm and indifferent as you are right now."
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu pointed at Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang, smirking as if he was the smarter one in the room, "Xuan-Sen is still here, the three months deadline is approaching soon. Without the Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet, Xuan-Sen will lose all his cultivation base and die of old age. How long can he hide for?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang patted his head and said regretfully, "Ah, my memory… No wonder you aren't anxious at all. Right now, the whole world knows I'm looking for him, giving him the chance to rip me off. How dare he scheme against me, he’s just like his teacher!"
…
In Chong Hua Palace, Lu Ping was in the disciple's cultivation room in closed-door cultivation for the past month. During this time, he had reorganized his insights and made several attempts to improvise the Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet into a genuine Core Forging Realm pellet.
In the process of doing so, he used many recovery pellets from Zhen Ling Sect as reference, and wasted numerous thousand-year spirit herbs, before finally succeeding in his endeavor.
After his success, Lu Ping thanked his teacher and said goodbye. He then learned about the news of Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang looking for him everywhere. If it wasn't because Great Ancestor Tian-Ling closed the palace off to the outside world, Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang would have come to drag him out already.
A few moments later, at the back hill behind the Pavilion of Alchemy.
As soon as Lu Ping landed from the sky, two overwhelming auras descended upon him like mountains. One of them was warm and gentle, while the other was fiery and filled with fury.
Lu Ping smiled awkwardly and continued towards Great Ancestor Tian-Lu's alchemy room.
In the alchemy room, the two Great Ancestors exchanged a look and saw the shock in each other's eyes – this brat was actually immune to the aura suppressions from two Great Ancestors acting at the same time!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Little did they know that Lu Ping wasn't immune to their aura suppressions, but rather he just didn't feel that they were actually suppressive at all. After all, he had already expected to face some repercussions from his small plot on the Great Ancestors, so he came prepared.
At the same time, Lu Ping wasn't aware that the Great Ancestors had shown their dominance through their overwhelming auras, since he hadn’t felt suppressed.
After entering the alchemy room, he saw a cauldron in the center of the room. After using his divine revelation to check it, he discovered that it regretfully wasn't one of the three top-grade cauldrons in the sect, but rather just a high-grade cauldron.
A high-grade cauldron in the center of a Grandmaster Alchemist's room clearly wasn't in the right place. However, Lu Ping smiled and bowed to greet them respectfully, "Junior disciple Lu Xuan-Ping, greets Junior Granduncle Tian-Lu and Junior Granduncle Tian-Jiang!"
The Great Ancestors were playing a game of chess with a cup of spiritual tea beside them. From the fragrance alone, Lu Ping could immediately tell that their teas were just as good as the top-grade spiritual tea he had brewed with Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly.
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked up from the chessboard, glanced at Lu Ping, and said, "Here to deliver the Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet?"
Lu Ping smiled in reply, "Yes, granduncle. Although junior is slow and stubborn, and has wasted many spirit herbs, I've succeeded in making two pellets at the level of Core Forging Realm pellets. The pellet recipe for the Core Forging Realm Spirit Water Vein Nourishment Pellet is also nearing completion."
"Not bad."
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu praised him slightly and then looked at Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang. Just as he was about to say something, Lu Ping suddenly spoke, "Other than to deliver the pellets, junior is also here for something else."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked at Lu Ping in surprise, and asked, "What's the matter?"
Lu Ping smiled awkwardly, pointed at the cauldron in the room, and said, "This junior is now a Master Alchemist, according to the sect's customs, I'm now eligible to be appointed a high-grade cauldron."
Great Ancestor Tian-Lu's expression finally changed to shock!
When Lu Ping had left Chong Hua Palace, Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling pointed out the custom to Lu Ping. Initially, he thought that his teacher was just reminding him about the custom, but when he saw the cauldron in the room, he finally understood her meaning!
Although it was the sect's custom that Lu Ping was appointed with a high-grade cauldron, the fact that he didn't come to claim the cauldron clearly meant that he wasn't aware about it. Hence, Great Ancestor Tian-Lu and Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang were planning to take advantage of his ignorance and exchange a high-grade cauldron for his River Inclusion Cauldron for the time being.
Whilst they were taking advantage of him, they didn't do it to snatch Lu Ping's top-grade cauldron. It had been both of their lifelong wishes to upgrade a cauldron mystic treasure and concoct pellets with it, so they naturally wouldn't let such a golden opportunity slip from their hands.
In the case that the River Inclusion Cauldron wasn't good enough to be upgraded, they would just return it back to Lu Ping. In the case that it was indeed good enough, they would also return it to Lu Ping, but only after they had upgraded it to a mystic treasure.
In any case, Lu Ping wouldn't lose out.
However, now that Great Ancestor Liu Tian-Ling was also indirectly involved in this matter by backing up Lu Ping, he wasn’t going to just nod his head and go along with the Great Ancestors’ plan without getting as many benefits as he could.
Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang slammed the table while stomping his walking stick on the floor, and said angrily, "How dare you conspire against your own granduncles, is the Zhen Ling Sect nothing to you?"
Lu Ping quickly bowed, and said respectfully, "This junior's wisdom is nowhere near the granduncles, I naturally don't dare to."
Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang softened a little after seeing Lu Ping's respect. He humped coldly and didn't say anything else.
On the other hand, Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked regretfully at the game of chess which he was about to win but had now been destroyed and quietly looked back at Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang in frustration.
After that, Great Ancestor Tian-Lu looked at Lu Ping, and said helplessly, "Why do you think the Mountain Crane Cauldron is here? I was just about to appoint it to you, but who knew that you would be in such a hurry to take it away. Did you think that I would take advantage of a junior?"
Lu Ping quickly nodded and gratefully thanked the Great Ancestors, but inwardly he was actually thinking, Teacher was right, if I didn't say it first, these old geezers were definitely going to take advantage of me!
The corner of Great Ancestor Tian-Jiang mouth twitched; after going through all the vicissitudes of life, they could both naturally tell what Lu Ping was thinking in his heart right now.
In all honesty, Lu Ping also didn't care to hide his petty calculations from the Great Ancestors as he knew they could easily see through him anyway. Hence, his main goal was to quickly and swiftly get the most out of the Great Ancestors, and then leave as soon as possible.
This was because Lu Ping had no confidence at all that he would be able to contest the two Great Ancestors' wisdom. At this point, they were still treating him as a junior and so they hadn’t even gotten serious yet.
Weekly Chapters (1/5)
