Zhanxian

It was not out of his expectations that Zhu Chen Tao would ask for collaborative testing and as he did Yang Chen like a snake that has been hit by a rod crawled up and asked for guidance. Yang Chen and Zhu Chen Tao were highly suitable for each other, like bread and butter.

This act alone made all of Yang Chen’s servants, who were watching this forget the number of times they had their jaws dropped on the ground.

“Elder, I have always trained by myself, there’s nothing special about it. I just want the flames to appear and they do.”

Yang Chen was not at all modest when facing Zhu Chen Tao and bluntly raised his problem

“But sometimes it doesn’t achieve the shape I want and only appears similar to it. I don’t know why, maybe you can look into it, Elder!”

While speaking, two balls of flame once again appeared on Yang Chen’s hands and soon after began their performance which can dazzle other people.

Quietly, the two round flames seemingly mixed entirely with each other, forming a thin flame rod linking Yang Chen’s both hands. The thin rod was long and circular, however it had ordinary thickness. The red colored flame within the rod began to roll but wasn’t able to escape the rod’s reach.

Immediately following, the flame started to turn into a square shaped box with the flames smoothly flowing on its surface. If someone did not pay attention, maybe they would be under the impression that this was a real object and not some illusory flames.

Following this, the flame kept on changing shapes to more and more complicated figures. A part of the flame formed a double-edged sword, another portion of the flame turned into the Ghost Aspect Knife, even a sheet of flame turned into a table, a book, a piece of jade slip and then successfully changed into an ignited candle.

Shen Da and the other servants watching were already speechlessly standing, rooted to the ground, most of all Ho Lin and Gu Qin. Looking at the ignited candle, the lower part of the candle was motionless as if it was a concrete object, but on the candle’s wick a faint flame was flickering and because of the red color, it seemed even more vivid and lifelike.

The changes weren’t over yet! Within a flash, the flame again changed; this time into a tree, apart from the wrong color, the tree trunk and tree leaves were similar to a red jade carving, bearing a remarkable resemblance to reality. Even the creases on the tree trunk can be seen clearly. If one pays close attention, one is even able to find that on every tree leaf, it’s entire venation can be seen clearly.

Zhu Chen Tao was worth of being called a JieDan stage expert. With his formidable spiritual awareness, not a single leaf nor even a tiny portion of the flame on Yang Chen’s hand was missed. When he discovered that all the leaves were like this, he could not help but jump in astonishment. This kind of method to control the fire, it’s simply using the flame to create a world of its own.

The flame on Yang Chen’s hand was still changing, while maintaining the tree for some time, it loudly dissipated and later on changed into a room. This room was exactly the same as Yang Chen’s pill concocting room. So much so that even when Zhu Chen Tao used his spiritual awareness to sweep over the flame he just found that it corresponded one to one with each brick and each roof tile, the only difference being that they were much smaller. That’s all.

The next change stunned Zhu Chen Tao even more. The room suddenly shrunk, following which a lot of things were formed in the surroundings. It was as if Yang Chen’s small courtyard had shrunken by many folds and appeared within Yang Chen’s hands.

By the time when everyone could clearly see all this, the courtyard became even smaller, following which everyone could look at Nine Earth Manor’s corner, with ten more tiny courtyards. Because of everyone’s good vision and spiritual awareness, they were still able to see everything very clearly.

After stabilizing for a while, the Manor shrunk once again, following which a miniature version of the Nine Earth Manor appeared in front of everyone. The real Nine Earth Manor covered an entire area with a circumference of 10 miles, however presently everything was clearly illustrated within Yang Chen’s hands. If everyone present were to use their spiritual awareness to sweep over the figure, they would discover that Nine Earth Manor’s every piece of brick, every roof tile, even trees and pieces of stones all can be found within the square cun boundary in Yang Chen’s hands (cun=3.5cm).

Watching all of this, the JieDan stage master Zhu Chen Tao, as well as Yang Chen’s four servants Shen Da, Ho Lin, Gu Qin and Ting Yuan, were all thoroughly stupefied. What is this? Was this even flame? Using fire to construct an illusory Nine Earth Manor, furthermore with such detail, made people wonder if even more unbelievable circumstances could exist?

It didn’t need to be said that Shen Da and the other servants turned foolish, as soon as the fire started changing into more and more complex shapes., Apart from opening their mouths and eyes widely and maintaining the stupefied and dumbstruck expression, they weren’t doing anything else.

Even if Zhu Chen Tao could brag about having a cultivation of the JieDan stage, and having several hundred years of experience in the aspect of controlling fire during concocting pills, even he did not dare to pat his chest to boast being able to achieve the same level as Yang Chen.

What made all of this even more unbelievable was that all this was accomplished by a first qi layer outer disciple. When compared to the people present on the scene, including the servants, he had the lowest cultivation. Everything he achieved was certainly against all expectations and a miracle that could make anyone unable to believe their eyes.

Yes, that’s right, apart from a miracle, those five people present on the scene could not use any other words to describe the current situation. If the current scenario had been caused by a Yuan Ying stage expert, perhaps it would not be all that surprising, but the fact was that it had appeared in the hands of a first qi layer outer disciple.

The sight of the Nine Earth Manor stayed for a while before dissipating with a loud sound. All of the scenery once again changed into two round, tiny, faltering flames, flickering beautifully on Yang Chen’s hands, reinstating their true features.

Yang Chen didn’t need to explain much, everyone present understood how he had accomplished this. First using the fire to imitate simple shapes like the rod, square and so on, afterward forming a little more complicated shapes, following which he increased the complexity of the shapes until it could evolve and the entire Nine Earth Manor could be produced. Yang Chen had revealed all the shapes one by one, precisely following the trajectory of his exercises, there was no need to ask.

This kind of perfectionist work, how could it be doubted? At least in the eyes of Shen Da, Ho Lin, Ting Yuan and Gu Qin, this was a perfect demonstration, they could absolutely not see anything wrong with it.

But a JieDan stage expert is a JieDan stage expert, Zhu Chen Tao nevertheless wrinkled his brows as he started pondering as if he had thought of something. It was just that he could not find a solution in this short time. Just recovering to serenity from his shock was already pretty good.

“Elder, you have also looked, my flame can achieve all this.”

Yang Chen’s words aptly echoed, capturing everyone’s attention over to Zhu Chen Tao. Maybe Yang Chen wanted to ask some stuff which could make things difficult for him, but nothing came to his mind.

“My flame can also imitate complex structures, however, there is a little something which I am unable to accomplish.”

Yang Chen, at last, asked his question:

“I can only imitate motionless objects but can’t do anything about moving parts. Elder, do you have some method solve this?”

Once Yang Chen asked his question, Zhu Chen Tao’s face suddenly became blank, as if he was totally stunned. His eyes immediately brightened, following which he said heavily:

“Yang Chen, compared to your control over fire, my hundreds of years of cultivation is equal to dog shit!”

These words spoken by a JieDan stage expert immediately made Shen Da, Ho Lin, Ting Yuan and Gu Qin turn lifeless. If a JieDan stage expert, moreover a fire attributed JieDan expert, says that his hundreds of years of cultivation of fire arts are equal to dogshit, what does this make them? Even inferior to dog shit?

However hearing these words, Yang Chen’s face revealed traces of a forced smile. He had aroused Zhu Chen Tao’s interest in him just so that he can have a hidden protective layer within the Pure Yang Palace and at the same time have the other elders also pay more attention to him, but not in order to make Zhu Chen Tao evaluate himself this way. In case other people heard this, it would give rise to many unknown troubles.

The cultivation world is not completely formed from good natured people. Who knows how many people, envious and jealous of other’s success, like Chu Heng, there are in the Pure Yang Palace? Who, to curry favor and make friends with disciples related to the Greatest Sky Sect, did everything he could. How can his temperament be proper?

Furthermore, not even within the sect does everyone live a tranquil and tempered life in harmony with everyone. At the moment, the cultivation resources are not at all enough to satisfy the extravagance of all cultivators. This means that everyone has to struggle over the resources within the sect. And in some sects, when a disciple brimming with talent appears and lets his guard down, he wouldn’t even know why and when he suddenly died.

In the case that Zhu Chen Tao’s assessment of Yang Chen was to spread, even if Yang Chen just stayed in his courtyard and never left, he would still not be able to ensure that he will not suffer any damage. After all with just the strength of a first qi layer disciple, he can at most handle an ordinary disciple of the fourth qi layer, like Shen Da or Sun Hai Jing, but if an expert appears, he would absolutely have to bear the consequences.

Even if he had defeated that assassin last time, that was just because he had underestimated Yang Cheng and didn’t expect him to have this kind of killing intent. If the other party had used his full strength from the start, Yang Chen would have already died without leaving anything behind.

Nobody said anything. The whole scene had turned silent for a good while. Just then, Zhu Chen Tao seemingly managed to recover from his lament. Seeing Yang Chen’s complexion, he immediately became aware that his recent words could cause those kinds of troubles for Yang Chen. Thinking about it, he immediately said heavily:

“You four people, you haven’t heard anything recently and neither have you seen anything. You all wait outside for both of us, Ok?”

As soon as they heard these words, all four servants understood what needed to be done, if after being servants for several years, they still didn’t have the ability to make discerning judgments like this, then all of their experience was in vain. All four servants loudly swore on their heart’s devil, and not daring to stay at the side of these two people anymore, one by one asked to be excused.

Only when Yang Chen and Zhu Chen Tao were the two people remaining, Zhu Chen Tao excitedly said:

“So fire can actually be used as a toy like this, what do you think about it?”

Naturally Yang Chen did not inform him, that this fire of his was learned from a Heavenly Court’s great character, ten thousand years in the future, and also that this had been the passed on experience of people specialized in playing with fire, including the fire attributed heavenly lord and the twenty-eight constellations, so he merely smilingly said:

“I was also not aware which way to cultivate, Manager Shangguan had said to train my control over fire, so I immediately used this kind of method to train my skills with fire. Still I didn’t know whether this was correct or not. Hearing Elder’s praise, it seems this training was not a mistake.

“Training was a mistake?”

Zhu Chen Tao glared at Yang Chen, then laughingly said:

“Originally, I believed that I would always remain at the JieDan stage, but as a result of this sort of display, I once again have hope to reach the realm of Yuan Ying. I am not your elder, you are my elder.”

In his cheerful mood, Zhu Chen Tao spoke words not very well suiting him, no matter if he was a JieDan stage expert, he still couldn’t help his attention from swaying under this astonishing find, entirely unfitting for the demeanour of a JieDan stage expert, and Yang Chen’s words were already beginning to put aside their status as elder and junior.

Seeing Yang Chen’s forced smile, Zhu Chen Tao patted Yang Chen’s shoulder to soothe him:

“Be relieved. only the palace master and I are aware about you right now, all others don’t know the exact details. In the future, your xun qi pill will be my Pure Yang Palace’s secret weapon, you will refine them and the palace will receive them. Be at ease, if you demand crystal stones, you will get crystal stones, if you ask for contribution points, you will receive contribution points.”

“Furthermore, about that problem of yours, how to make the fire able to imitate animate objects, a short while ago I did not know how to answer you.” Even though Zhu Chen Tao was feeling complacent he hadn’t forgotten the problem raised by Yang Chen:

“Based on my experience, there are two possibilities: one is that your magic power cultivation is not sufficient, the other is that your spiritual awareness is lacking. First you keep on practicing this way, when I return again, I will think about it and then answer you.”

“Many thanks, elder!”

Yang Chen nodded within his heart. In fact, Zhu Chen Tao’s words showed precisely where his present problem was located. Zhu Chen Tao had proved his hundred years of experience of playing with fire, if just based on the experience he is able to discern these problems. Although this was not the crucial point of the problem but once Zhu Chen Tao goes back and researches about it, he will surely understand the mystery. There are many things which are just like paper tigers: once pierced through, there will be no more secrets.

However, Zhu Chen Tao words about keeping everything a secret made him feel quite relieved. As long as he does not want to gain a reputation as a cultivation talent but rather as a pill concocting expert, his treatment will certainly be very different. People are not fond of offending a pill concocting master, even demons feel the same way. For the person who can probably save their lives or who can help in increasing their cultivation, the majority of the people in the cultivation world would like to curry favor with him. Who knows when would they have to seek his help?

“What are you thanking me for, I should thank a talented person like you!”

Zhu Chen Tao waved his hands strongly in disagreement, without showing even a bit of the airs of being a JieDan stage expert. While speaking, he creased his brows

“Only, how to thank you? En, how about this old man receives you as an apprentice, my own direct disciple, how about this?”

These words startled Yang Chen. He hadn’t expected Zhu Chen Tao to provide him this kind of great gift. There were many benefits to becoming Zhe Chen Tao’s own direct disciple If such a thing were offered to any other person of Nine Earth Manor, to all of them this would be a happy occasion as if they had reached heaven in a single bound. But there is one problem: after his rebirth Yang Chen had only wished to pay his respects to his own beautiful master.

“Elder, this is not in compliance with the rules, you should not break Pure Yang Palace’s rules just for my sake.”

Yang Chen hastily thought of some excuses. However soon after he noticed that this can only stall for the time being. When he reaches foundation stage he will be faced with this question once again, so he honestly and sincerely said:

“Furthermore, this disciple also wants to learn a few things, other than concocting pills at the Pure Yang Palace.”

These words, are precisely a tactful rejection. Zhu Chen Tao had hundreds of years of experience, how could he not understand this. But forcing someone is not good. A JieDan stage expert still often needs to obtain permission. Laughingly he said

“Since this being the case, then I will owe you one, seek me if you need anything! Furthermore.....!”

While speaking, Zhu Chen Tao fished out a pill furnace from his qiankun pouch and placed it in front of Yang Chen.

“Your pill furnace is extremely inferior, this one, is a present for you!”

——————-

1. Beating the snake with a rod and it crawls up- exploiting the situation to one’s own advantage

2. Reaching heavens in a single bound- achieving instant success.