16 Huo Zunjie (1)
Treasure Master.
It was the name of a profession that was unquestionably founded by Qin Lan during the most glorious era of his Kuangshan Lu Sect. Within this name alone hides eight different departments, which is believed to be the pinnacle of what humanity could do at that time.
Of course, to say that he was the one that started this profession is an outrageous claim. But Qin Lan is indeed the founder, as well the first person to combine them together to create a legacy during the peak of his era.
=> The Department of Medicine and Herbs
=> The Department of Talisman and Amulets
-
=> The Department of Protective Treasures
=> The Department of Offensive Treasures
-
=> The Department of Heaven's Blessing
=> The Department of Earth's Blessing
-
=> The Department of Peace
=> The Department of Turbulence
-
Eight departments, some compliment with one another, while some against one another. But no matter how many years have passed or how the legacy has changed, they remained as eight departments, with the word "Ren" in the center.
To bring up a few examples, the Changshen Dew is categorized as a part of teaching from the Department of Earth's Blessing. A reason behind this is because it was brewed in nature, accordingly without disturbing any of the five governing laws.
Next will be the Flesh Mending Pill, who was a part of both the Department of Herb and Medicine and the Department of Earth's Blessing, before and after processing.
As for the three Foul Essence Ants in Lu Yi's hand, they were categorized as a part of the Department of Turbulence when alive. But when dead, they were a part of the Department of Protective Treasures.
"Why protective, and not offensive, young master?" Lu Qing Yun asked.
"That's due to their origin." Qin Lan smiled as he was happy with Lu Qing Yun asking further questions.
"Always remember. Reptiles, Insects, Rodents came from the same cradle of the demon subdivision. They lack the required true essence to be made into offensive treasures." Qin Lan answered.
"But at the same time, those that categorized as a part of the Department of Offensive Treasures stays at that department, be it alive or dead. The reason behind this is due to their genus, family, order, division, and strength equivalent of a kingdom." Qin Lan's following explanation made Lu Qing Yun unable to process the information swiftly.
"We'll be able to study further than this when our teacher came back. But for now, let me show you guys... And wake that loggerhead up." Qin Lan extends his arm towards where Lu Yi stands but noticed that he's already fallen asleep.
"Lu Yi, wake up!" Lu Qing Yun nudged him awake while the stars from his drowsiness still clouded him.
"Are we done?" Lu Yi asked.
"Just started. Pay attention," Lu Qing Yun moved aside and showed him their young master, who had his hand out waiting for the corpses.
Qin Lan took the first Foul Essence Ant and started to dislocate all its joints. A small amount of spiritual energy is then injected inside to force a type of substance out from between the porous carapace, which is then collected aside.
He continued the process three times, with each yielding a little more than before. The end results left the Foul Essence Ant corpse fragile and brittle. Even the flesh turned into something hard to chew.
"You can throw them away now. The three corpses are now useless." Qin Lan said. He continued with the process while Lu Yi left the room to start smashing the corpse into bits.
"Qing Yun, what's next can be said to be the essence of protective treasures." Qin Lan signaled her to come closer, almost to the point she's standing by his side like an obedient and compliant wife.
"Remember, those with shells and carapaces can be made into essences metal. Those with leather and fur shall be turned into amulets. And those with a spine, scale, and fang shall be made into tools."
"Essence Metal can be mixed together, as long as you're capable of controlling their composition. An Essence Metal remained as a liquid before tempering and hardened when it was fed with more spiritual energy. What you see here are three pots of impure Essence Metal that's yet to be refined." Qin Lan pulled the three pot-like containers over as he shows them to Lu Qing Yun.
Compared to the Foul Essence Silver Ink, the Essence Metal carries a color closer to a copper. A light hue of green sometimes appeared on the surface, which making the liquid seems a little odd.
"Young Master, how do we go from here?" Lu Qing Yun somewhat lost confidence in herself before they even started.
"We'll remove the impurities first." Qin Lan reached for the first pot and started to stir the Essence Metal slowly as he throws out bits of unwanted impurities inside. It is usually hardened faster than the Essence Metal, which made the removal through a very gentle course of spiritual energy is possible.
The green hue vanishes from the Copper-colored Essence Metal, leaving it with a brilliantly colored liquid.
"It's perfect now. Try to apply your spiritual energy at the Essence Metal. You should be able to feel it slowly getting harder until a piece of a proper ingot is formed." Qin Lan shows her how to adjust the spiritual energy in a proper way to develop an ingot of Essence Metal.
A piece of a beautiful ingot about the size of a pill bottle appeared in between Qin Lan's fingers as what he was teaching completed. By the time he's done, there's only about four-fifth of Essence Metal Liquid is left.
This means the three corpses themselves are merely enough to be made into five ingots at the most.
Qin Lan left Lu Qing Yun to train on her own as he proceeds with skinning and preparing the White Marten Demon's corpses and Black Haired Rodent Demon's corpses. Two White Martens meant a total of four pieces of the amulet while seven Black Haired Rodent demons equal to twenty-one pieces.
The White Demon's end product can be made into either an Escaping or Running amulet. As for the Black Haired Rodent Demon, the choice is slightly different.
They can be made into only one kind of amulet, called Drowsing Amulet. Unlike the Running or Escaping amulet, the Drowsing type is quite a popular amulet amongst the cultivators. It was considered an essential part of the preparation for a long journey.
Lu Yi returned when Qin Lan was done with his part. Meanwhile, Lu Qing Yun is still struggling to create the third Essence Metal ingot from the pot of liquid Qin Lan extracted earlier.
"Young Master, I noticed a weird guy that has been running around our back alley for the last two days. He looks like searching for somebody, but at the same time, dare not to approach our Qin Family Manor."
"Should I go and investigate?" Lu Yi asked.
"Then go and check what he's trying to do around our place. He might be somebody sent by the other families to keep an eye on us. We should pay some attention to insignificant matters like this because of the appearance of Flesh Mending Pills in our Qin Family Pharmacy." Qin Lan approved Lu Yi's suggestion and allowed him to go check it out.
Furthermore, it can be a good experience for him to evaluate his own ability.
With Lu Yi is gone once again, Qin Lan prepared the tools to refine the Demonic Blood Oranges into Flesh Foundation Pills. A two-thirds portion from the tree itself equals twenty pairs of fruits or forty Demonic Blood Oranges.
That means the total of fruits here are sufficient for Qin Lan to refine 200 Flesh Foundation Pills without trouble. And since the required secondary herbs are available for him to pick and use, Qin Lan applied four different recipes to fully refine all of them into edible pills.
"Young master, Qing Yun is... Done..." Lu Qing Yun hastily grabs the four Essence Metal Ingots she made to show her young master. But she was instead greeted with the sight of Qin Lan focusing on refining the pills.
(How deep is the young master's spiritual energy capacity to control four pill cauldrons at once?)
Lu Qing Yun continues to study Qin Lan's performance until the commotion outside of their house surprised her.
"What was that?" the sound of someone getting slammed onto the wall surprised Lu Qing Yun as she quickly made her way outside of the Qin Family Manor.
It was not a challenge at all for her to thread and climb across the wall using the "Thousand Miles Travel in a Step" movement art.
But the moment she noticed that a second-level Flesh Refining Cultivator is pressing Lu Yi's face on the wall, Lu Qing Yun panicked.
"Let him go!" she immediately lunge forward with the [Heart Digging Stroke] martial art and attacked the attacker. But with a difference of a full level between them, the attacker easily repelled her attack without letting Lu Yi off from his other hand.
"Aargh..." Lu Qing Yun voice out her pain from a palm attack on her waist. The attacker's martial prowess proof to be a little above both of them as he controlled both of them at ease.
"You must be someone sent here to harm our young master! I'll fight to the death against you! Heaven Firmament Art!" Lu Yi released the spiritual energy within his body out to enhance his physical strength after hearing Lu Qing Yun's cry.
The Heaven Firmament Art turned Lu Yi's body into comparable to an iron plate as he delivered a few punches out at the attacker's chest.
"Dok - Dok - Dok - Dok!" four fist attack lands perfectly on the left and right chest, but the attacker appeared to be unfazed nor hurt.
"How - How can this be?" Lu Yi cannot believe what he just felt when punching this person. This person's body was even more durable than his own, just like a block of iron.
"How? Did you even ask who he is before you guys started to fight against each other?" Qin Lan made his appearance when the situation slowly gets out of control.
"All of you should stop fighting," he said.
"Huo Zunjie, your house should be nearby. Let's get back there, and we'll talk." Qin Lan said.
"What? Young master know this guy?" both Lu Yi and Lu Qing Yun were surprised. Huo Zunjie as well, because he has no recollection of knowing the person before him. But from the Spiritual Undulations that Qin Lan gave out, he knows that...
Even ten of him would not be enough to intimidate this man.
