Master Yunxiao

Yunxiao went to the corner and looked through the pile of raw ores, vaguely sensing an aura. Soon, he picked up a slightly dark stone and observed it carefully.

"This doesn't seem to be the raw ore of a Primordial Stone. I picked it up because I felt an energy in it," Meng Bai said with surprise.

With a little force from his fingers, Yunxiao quickly peeled off the rough skin of the ore, revealing a purple stone with a lot of impurities. His eyes flashed with joy as he said hastily, "Where did you pick up this stone? Is there more in the mine?"

"I found it in the Five peaks vein outside the city. The main vein is under official control, so we were digging in some smaller veins nearby. There should still be more of such stones."

After pondering for a moment, Yunxiao said, "This kind of stone is very useful. It is called the Purple Sun Stone, which is a kind of fifth-grade material and can be used to construct gravity arrays. If I am not wrong, the gravity hall in Jialan Academy is constructed with a large number of Purple Sun Stones."

"It can be used to construct gravity arrays? That means it is very valuable?" Meng Bai asked shockingly.

Yunxiao nodded and said, "Yes. It is very rare for the academy of a state to have a gravity chamber. Although Purple Sun Stone is only a fifth-grade material, it is rarely sold on the market due to its unique nature. In general, only the top powers on the continent are capable of constructing gravity chambers. Moreover, the price of the Purple Sun Stones depends on its weight. This one has too many impurities, but because it is so large, the Purple Sun Stone extracted from it can produce a gravity field of almost three meters in diameter."

Meng Bai's eyes lit up instantly. But when he saw Yunxiao put the stone directly into his own ring, he immediately said with a sad face, "Master, how could you take the thing that belongs to your disciple?"

Yunxiao said shamelessly, "It is a waste to put this thing with you. I'll keep it for you now and give it back to you when you need it later."

Despite Meng Bai's complaint, he took the stone and left. But before leaving, he did not forget to remind, "Remember to practice those three styles hard day and night, and try to stimulate the poison inside your body. When the time comes, I'll come and help you suck out the poison." He did not forget the benefit of absorbing the poison, which could greatly augment his Primordial Qi.

After leaving Meng Wu's home, Yunxiao muttered to himself, "I can't believe I've taken a disciple with the Heaven Earth Venomous Body. With his super-strong body constitution, this boy's future achievements will certainly be one of the best among my other disciples."

After thinking for a moment, he walked toward the Alchemist Association. "It's time to refine a mystic weapon for myself. Since I've accidentally found a Purple Sun Stone, the refining method I originally planned to use will have to be slightly modified."

Every Alchemist Association had an array that could enhance the refining process, which could help alchemists complete refining to the greatest extent. However, when the alchemist's level reached a certain level, the effect of this array was negligible. Even so, as Yunxiao was currently only a first-tier alchemist, the enhancement brought to him by the array was still very considerable.

As soon as he stepped into the Alchemist Association, he was immediately recognized by the sharp-eyed Lu Yao. She hurried up to him and said, "Master Li, Master Zhang and President Xu are looking for you everywhere." Her tone had become extremely respectful and her attitude was humble, making her expression look somewhat stiff.

'Why are they looking for me? Could it be that there's an unusual change to the Princess's condition?' Yunxiao cocked his head and thought for a moment, but found it unlikely. "I'm here to borrow your enhancement array."

Lu Yao made a gesture of invitation. "You'd better meet Master Zhang and President Xu first. Please follow me!" Although she did not know about Yunxiao's treatment of the princess, she could see from the expressions of the senior alchemists in the association that the president and others held him in high regard.

Yunxiao did not like this at all, but when he thought that he still needed their help, he reluctantly followed her.

When she saw the impatience on his face, Lu Yao could not help but smile bitterly in her heart. When others heard the two Masters summoning them, they would all jump to their feet with excitement. But, this boy was so impatient! She did not know what he was thinking.

Yunxiao followed Lu Yao to the third floor and entered a spacious room. Inside, not only did he see Xu Han, but Zhang Qingfan was there as well.

At the sight of him, both men's eyes flashed with joy. As if not daring to be arrogant, they quickly stood up and nodded to him, which was a way to greet someone of an equal level. Lu Yao was so shocked that she almost bit her tongue. She did not dare to stay much longer and left quickly after greeting them. Yunxiao took the gesture calmly as he walked straight to the front of the two men, then sat down with his legs crossed. "What do you want from me?"

The two men exchanged a glance and saw a wry smile in each other's eyes. Zhang Qingfan took out an invitation card and handed it to Yunxiao. "This is an invitation to the feast throw by His Majesty for his subjects. The feast has two purposes—one is to celebrate Luo Yunshang's promotion to an alchemist, and the other is to celebrate the Princess's cure. Besides you, you can bring five people with you."

Yunxiao took over the gilded invitation card and pondered for a moment before putting it away. "Is that all?"

Zhang Qingfan saw that he was a little impatient, so he put on a wry smile and went straight to the point, "We want to know…are you Lord Yang Di's disciple?"

"No."

"No?" Zhang Qingfan's eyes were full of doubts. "What about your Floating Life Seal and the technique of stimulating acupoints with gold needles..."

Yunxiao interrupted him directly, "If there's nothing else, I'll leave now." He was not in a mood to talk to them about this, and he could not make it clear at all. So, he stood up and was about to leave.

Zhang Qingfan was taken aback. No one had ever dared to be so disrespectful to him. He looked at Xu Han and immediately saw the helplessness in his eyes, so he said with a bitter smile, "Young Master Yun, why are you so impatient? The purpose of inviting you here is to thank you for saving the Princess's live. Old Xu and I have prepared this little gift for you."

There were two jade boxes on the table—one large and one small. Zhang Qingfan pushed them in front of Yunxiao and looked at him smilingly.

Yunxiao opened the small jade box while frowning, and saw a small and exquisite badge lying quietly inside. It was made of some kind of unknown material, neither gold nor jade when he held it in his hand. He was surprised as he said, "The badge of a second-tier alchemist?"

Xu Han smiled and said, "Young Master Yun, the fact that you can stimulate acupoints with gold needles proves your strength is far above the second tier. However, this place is only a fifth-grade branch of the Alchemist Association, and I only have the right to issue second-tier badges. So, you have to suffer the injustice temporarily. If you want to get a higher-grade badge, you must be verified at the fourth-grade branch."

Yunxiao thought for a moment and then put the badge into his ring. "This thing is very good indeed! Ignoring other benefits, just the monthly salary is a lot of money. Thank you!"

Xu Han showed a knowing smile as he pointed toward the larger box. "Young Master Yun, take a look at this."

Yunxiao smiled faintly and said while lifting the lid, "I don't need to look at it to know that it's a mystic weapon." As he had expected, inside the box lay a long silver sword in a red scarf, giving off bits of cold light. The ripples on the blade made it look like a pool of spring water that was full of spirituality. One could tell it was not an ordinary weapon by merely glancing at it.

"This sword is named 'Spring Water', a third-tier mystic weapon. It is the proudest work in my life. What do you think of it, Young Master Yun?" Zhang Qingfan said triumphantly, but there was a look of unwillingness flashing in his eyes. As both of them wanted very much to learn the technique of stimulating acupoints with gold needles, he had to give up his proud work reluctantly.

The technique of stimulating acupoints with gold needles was far more valuable than this mystic weapon. At first, the two of them were worried that it was the secret technique of Yang Di and could not be taught to others. However, after hearing that Yunxiao was not Yang Di's disciple, they naturally did not have any worries, and hence, took out this treasure.

Yunxiao took up the sword and studied it for a while, then praised, "Not bad! Although there are still many flaws, it is a remarkable achievement for you to refine a mystic weapon of this quality with your strength of a third-tier alchemist."

Zhang Qingfan and Xu Han's faces grew dark. What Yunxiao said really pissed them off. It was such a rare treasured sword, and yet he said it still had many flaws?

Yunxiao glanced at them and said with a faint smile, "Are you not convinced?

"The main material of this sword should be Dark Water Illusive Iron, a fourth-grade material. According to your thinking, you must have the opinion that the higher the grade of materials, the better the refined mystic weapon will be. However, with your third-tier strength, you cannot understand the true structure of the fourth-grade material, so you can only change its form with force. Although the mystic weapon thus refined is of third-grade, it is not as stable as those refined with third-grade materials. And, although it is more powerful, it has higher requirements for the warrior, and is easier to break and damage."

His words immediately stunned both of them, causing them to become lost in thought. They had never thought about this problem; they just wanted to improve the quality and grade of the mystic weapon.

Yunxiao chuckled as an aura of a grandmaster gradually spread out of him. It was as if he had returned to his previous life when he was lecturing the alchemists from all over the continent at the headquarters of the Alchemist Association.

"First of all, you have already made a big mistake in the selection of the main material. Secondly, the supplementary materials are also wrong. You have used all the fourth-grade materials. Since you cannot control their true structure, how can you fuse them in harmony? You just relied on soul power and true fire to repeatedly force them together. Although you succeeded in the end, the finished product is not a complete sword, but a patchwork of stitches."

Zhang Qingfan stared blankly at his Spring Water. The mystic weapon, which he used to be very satisfied and proud of, had suddenly become a failure in his eyes, like something that was simply pieced together with building blocks. The more he looked at it, the more problematic it became.

Xu Han's eyes were also blank, and he had fallen into deep thought. Both of them did not dare to say a word and listened carefully to Yunxiao's explanation.

"Finally, I would like to touch on the refining method and the choice of the true fire. True fire is not necessarily the stronger the better. Master Zhang, you should be using the inner fire of a demon beast, right? A demon monster of fire attribute…With it, you have directly damaged the water-element power of the Dark Water Illusive Iron. In addition, your refining method is simple and rough, and there is no good integration of every step. What do you expect from the finished product which you've refined like this, besides its grade?"

By the time Yunxiao had finished, both men were completely stupefied, and their eyes were staring blankly at the sword. Just now, the more they looked at it the more problematic it became. But now, the more they looked at it, the crappier it became. How could something like this be called a sword? It was clearly a piece of scrap metal!