30 Alchemy

"I have heard that she already reached the Golden Core Formation Realm, give this core of Striped Cat to her when you return. Stay here for now while I take care of your matters into the academy."

Zhou Mengyao looks at his grandfather as he tosses him a golden crystal ball that contains a large amount of qi that Zhou Mengyao cannot even fathom with.

He put it in his storage ring as he did not want to continue staring at its blinding golden color.

"So you finally managed to cultivate? Tell me how you did it."

Zhou Mengyao who heard that sit in one of the chairs as he faces his grandfather.

"I managed to found a technique that can help me cultivate, it was very good that I am lucky and I managed to chance upon this technique."

He did not lie, he truly chanced upon it. He just did not want to mention Yan Suyin because she might not like it. Luckily his grandfather did not ask where it came from.

"Can I see the scripture?"

"I am afraid you will not understand it either."

Zhou Mengyao took out the scroll that contains the Absolute Pride of the Azure Dragon, its content has changed to something unintelligible. He is sure that it wasn't like that when he first read it.

He tried to ask Yan Suyin about it but she did not completely answer his question, her only response is 'it's only natural' without even bothering to give an explanation.

"Hmm, how do you even cultivate this technique if you can't understand it? Even I am having trouble with this, since you are my grandson then I am trusting you that you are not tricking me but if it is others then I might have called them a scammer."

His grandfather shook his head as even he with hundred years of experience did not understand its content. To him, it looks like unintelligible figures that a child has written but seeing that his grandson had indeed gained qi from this technique then there is nothing for him to question.

As long as his grandson can now finally grow stronger then everything is fine.

"Alright, take it. You will stay here for a while, go to the library if you still wanted to find a good technique. I have already heard that you have a good attacking and defense technique so focus on that, practice this movement martial skills in your free time instead."

"You don't need to focus heavily on this skill since it is hard to even have a breakthrough in this skill. As for the formula in the pill refining techniques, just go to Elder Hai. Show him this token and he will give you all that you needed."

After returning the martial scroll of the Absolute Pride of the Azure Dragon, his grandfather gave him the martial scroll that contains the movement martial skill and a silver token that contains a drop of his grandfather's sword intent.

Zhou Mengyao put all of those in his storage ring as another technique that will cover one of his weaknesses is presented to him.

"That is all, I want to see your progress in a week."

Zhou Mengyao nodded to his grandfather as he is ordered to leave the main hall.

He walks away nonchalantly as his grandfather looks at his back, after leaving the main hall, the door suddenly closed and Zhou Mengyao heaved a sigh of relief.

He expected that he will be berated but he did not expect that his grandfather will even reward him. The token is perhaps the best thing that he has obtained, with that token he can go anywhere with an authority just lower than his grandfather.

His aunts and uncles will be jealous after they have heard of this, after all with that token his identity will be someone that is just a little bit above even the family's elders that is the main force of the family.

With the token, he can go and roam any facilities the family can offer him. Although there are still some places that are forbidden, an example is a place that only the patriarch can enter.

"Young Master, how is it?"

"It went pretty well. I will go see Elder Hai to practice my pill refining skills so you are free to go now. Do whatever you want."

Zhou Yanyu greeted him as she saw him leaving the main hall, after hearing his words, she bowed to him respectfully as she leaves. She still has unfinished business to do.

'It is still early in the day, I will probably spend my whole time there. As for the movement martial skill, I will gather people first to level it up.'

Zhou Mengyao knew that the only way to level up most of the techniques is fighting so he has to find sparring partners that can help him level up the technique.

With the people from the Zhou Family being huge in numbers, finding sparring partners will definitely be easy. The only problem is time, most of them have a business that they have to attend to so he has to make an appointment with some of the guards from the family in order for him to practice his techniques.

...

"Good morning Young Master, what business do you have with the alchemists that are staying in the herb garden?"

Zhou Mengyao goes to the alchemist ground of the villa, he entered a big normal looking building, the normal looking building is full of the various scents of herbs and different blood essence of beasts. As he arrived there, one of the servants quickly greeted him.

"I need a place to practice alchemy, so give me a pill formula and the ingredients necessary."

"I am afraid I can't do just that, you are not allowed to touch any herbs or create pills unless you are acknowledged by one of the alchemists of the family. This is an ancient rule, everyone has to follow this so forgive me if I am being rude."

"Then call Elder Hai, show him this token. I am sure that he will quickly give me what I wanted."

Zhou Mengyao gave the servant the token that his grandfather gave him, the servant is confused about what it is but since he knew Zhou Mengyao, he followed his order with a heavy heart.

Zhou Mengyao waited for him in the hallway as he can see many members of the family entering and leaving the place. Most of them are either buying pills, herbs, or selling materials.

"Young Master! I have already prepared the room that you needed. All the items that you will need are already arranged. You can take a look at the number of pill formulas here, you can tell me what you wanted and I will personally deliver the formula and the materials needed."

"Elder Hai cannot greet you himself because he is in the middle of concocting a pill so he will quickly greet you after he finished refining the pill."

The servant quickly got back as he handed him the records of the pill formulas and the token. This time, he is much more careful and respectful, his tone is very vigilant so that he will not make any mistakes.

The servant can still remember the surprise reaction of the said Elder after he saw the token so he naturally knew that it is not a normal item, he has to use his head if he wanted to live a little bit longer, if he tries to disrespect and treat him nonchalantly after getting some clues then he might lose his life.

"Alright lead me there."

Soon the servant led him to a pretty neat and big room, in the middle, there is plenty of furnaces of different sizes. He sat in one of the chairs inside as he reads the pill formulas.

The records just contained the name of the formulas and their effect, there are plenty of choices so he narrowed them down.

First and foremost is the easiest pills, his qi is still very limited so he has to opt for the most basic ones which do not really sell and is something that he can use.

"Give me the formula for the Energy Recovery Pill."

The servant looked confused at him for a second before he nodded, the Energy Recovery Pill is only useful in recovering energy, to cultivators who cultivate qi, they only need to meditate and they will quickly recover, not only will they recover qi but they will also recover energy so this pill is pretty much not that popular.

It wasn't even being used by anyone and this pill has been left to rot for ages, it is already a miracle that it can even survive the passing of time.

Although it is useless to others, to Zhou Mengyao this is the best pill that he can possibly ever had. He can't meditate to recover qi as his body naturally recovers qi and he can only regenerate his lost energy by resting or sleeping which is not very good as it took a large amount of time for him to recover energy.

When others are already full of energy and qi due to a night's meditation, Zhou Mengyao will have to sleep early and wake up late just to feel rejuvenated. His techniques have a very huge effect on his body and Zhou Mengyao finally realized the side effects of making your body stronger as opposed to normal cultivators.

As his body grows stronger he realized that he needed more time to recover than usual, that is because of how he is basically abusing his body just to level up his techniques.