Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit
chapter-273

As the name suggests, Replantation Pellets were used to replant a cultivator’s amputated limbs. They were as difficult to concoct as Golden Nut Pellets. Both varieties required twelve types of 1000-year spirit herbs.

Usually, this would call for the Azure Spirit Fire, but because Lu Ping didn’t want to expose it, he was forced to push the boundaries on his secret spirit purification technique and the Scarlet Ibis Fire. He purified the spirit herbs to their limits and enhanced the Scarlet Ibis Fire with another green fire that he pulled out of nowhere.

As the green fire augmented the Scarlet Ibis Fire, the fragrance in the cauldron thickened. Suddenly, two muffled pops could be heard. Lu Ping knew that two of the condensing pellets had exploded, which was regretful, but still lessened the burden on his divine revelation.

Without the green fire, more than two pellets might have exploded. At least now, he’d managed to concoct six pellets in the end!

While Yue Jiang-Rui and the others were still contemplating the origins of the green fire, Lu Ping finished the second stage and returned to the central cloud.

Since the Li Clan were no longer in danger of being demoted, Clan Head Li Mao-Lin looked quite relaxed. The clan was still tied to the Bet of Cauldron between Lu Ping and Yue Jiang-Rui, but Li Mao-Lin was hardly worried. The Shangguan Clan was nothing compared to the true power that backed the Li Clan. However, Lu Ping had no one, so the bet was still a huge matter for him. Hence, Li Mao-Lin held back from displaying his joy in front of him.

The second stage took three days to complete. The Enlightened Master then stood up and directly disqualified the dozen alchemists who had yet to finish concocting their pellets. Immediately, popping noises could be heard in the cauldrons of those affected by their disqualifications. Only a few remained calm and held on, which earned them Enlightened Master Qin’s admiring glance.

Then, after a discussion, the Master Alchemists set the passing score to a fifty percent success rate. Yet even those who passed were disqualified due to their poor-quality pellets.

Yue Jiang-Rui was still holding up to his fame; he had an eighty percent success rate for both cauldrons. Lu Ping noticed that he’d used seven types of fire in his alchemy, which could be seen from the multi-colored fire below his cauldron.

Perhaps because of his Northern League background, Senior Martial Brother Ye had the home-field advantage. He had concocted seven pellets in his second cauldron, while Senior Martial Brother Qi could only concoct six.

After the second stage, only forty-some alchemists remained. Lu Ping stood up from his meditation and asked Li Mao-Lin who had the highest success rate in the second stage.

Li Mao-Lin pointed to the young monster alchemist. “Him, followed by those from the major sects.”

Then, he paused and added, “As well as Yue Jiang-Rui!”

Lu Ping nodded gravely. If he guessed it right, the alchemical geniuses from the major sects still had more up their sleeves. Only the young monster alchemist was less calculative and had used his full force.

Li Mao-Lin wanted to say something, but seemed worried about affecting Lu Ping’s mood—he directly tucked an interspatial pouch into Lu Ping’s hands without saying anything.

Lu Ping curiously checked the interspatial pouch, then gave Li Mao-Lin a strange look.

Li Mao-Lin pondered for a moment, then cleared his throat and said, “She said she acted recklessly the other day, but the deal in Melodious Inn still counts.”

Lu Ping knew that ‘she’ was referring to Chu Ting—he nodded wordlessly.

Although Qian Yuan Immortal Land was vast, Great Ancestor Hong Ye had limited their access to just the central cloud. Fortunately, the spiritual energy there was close to that of a medium spirit vein, so the cultivators happily took this opportunity to cultivate on their own.

The Enlightened Masters had also organized several small trade fairs. From Li Mao-Lin and Li Xiu-Zhu’s uplifted expressions, Lu Ping knew they’d obtained many good items from these gatherings.

After a day’s rest, Enlightened Master Qin raised his voice and announced, “Today marks the third stage. Alchemists, there is only one type of pellet to concoct today. I wonder if anyone here is proficient with battle pellets? Because the pellet you will be concocting today is the Battle Intention Pellets!”

Concocting battle pellets was a famous but not widely practiced school of alchemy.

In the history of the cultivation world, alchemists weren’t always the highly-respected and noble cultivators they are today. In fact, they were treated quite the opposite way—they were often bullied and forced to serve or even pledge their lives to the stronger factions.

Over time, alchemists made plans to improve and change their status in the cultivation world, but due to their method of cultivation, they were not as strong as other cultivators. Thus, after generations of research and trials, a different kind of pellet was created.

The battle pellets!

The battle pellets were not to be consumed like pellets but used like equipment. Alchemists would concoct their spells and skills inside the battle pellets, which would be released when the pellets were activated. The ancient alchemists hoped that this could help them overcome their enemies.

The battle pellets used high-quality spirit herbs which enabled the stored spells to match up in strength to the actual spells. This was something that talisman treasures couldn’t achieve. However, the emergence of battle pellets didn’t improve the alchemists’ status as they hoped.

This was attributed to several reasons; they were difficult to concoct, the spirit herbs required were costly, but most importantly, it was due to the alchemists themselves. Spells were stored in the battle pellets and used when needed, but alchemists were already weak in combat strength, so just how strong would their spells be anyway?

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In the end, battle pellets were swept to the corner and left to collect dust. Instead, the improvement of the Alchemists’ status ultimately happened due to the increasing scarcity of spirit herbs and the growing number of cultivators, leading to an overall increase in demand for medicinal pellets.

But because alchemists had the historical experience of being despised and bullied by other cultivators, the alchemist community eventually became what it is today—quirky, isolated, and anachronistic.

When Enlightened Master Qin announced the third stage’s task, the remaining alchemists all looked puzzled, and even the Master Alchemists from the major sects looked surprised.

Enlightened Master Qin maintained his innocent expression, then quietly gave a quick gesture in the direction of Great Ancestor Hong Ye who was happily chatting with Yan Wu-Jiu. The Master Alchemists kept quiet and didn’t ask anything more.

Lu Ping picked up the pellet recipe from the cloud table and frowned as he read. The Battle Intention Pellet was not solely about alchemy anymore, it also involved smithy and charm-crafting. Although he’d heard of battle pellets before, this was his first time learning how they were made.

In fact, Lu Ping wasn’t the only one. Yue Jiang-Rui, Senior Martial Brother Qi, Senior Martial Brother Ye, and the other alchemists were also frowning in their cloud rooms. The previous two stages were at least normal to them, but these battle pellets were really something else.

The battle pellets required more than a dozen 1000-year spirit herbs and several high-grade and top-grade spirit materials. Yet, the Northern League had prepared two sets of materials for each of the forty-some alchemists. Lu Ping couldn’t help feeling deeply shocked by the Northern League’s wealth.

The Battle Intention Pellets could be assessed from two aspects: the quality of the pellets, and the strength of the spells stored in them. Naturally, the higher the quality, the stronger the spell that the pellet could store.

Hence, the Battle Intention Pellets seemed more like a comprehensive means to measure an alchemist’s alchemy skills and strengths.

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While the alchemists were still trying to figure out the third stage, there was suddenly a soft chuckle from the silent crowd. Although it seemed unintentional, it was rather abrupt and rude for the occasion.

Sure enough, the alchemists glanced unhappily at the alchemical genius from Sky Cleaving Sword Sect. Unperturbed by their gazes, the young genius swiped his hand across his interspatial bracelet and took out a huge copper cauldron.

It was a high-grade cauldron!

The alchemists couldn’t help feeling envious at the sight.