Chapter 154: Chapter 136: Many Thanks for Master Xiao’s Guidance, I Am Endlessly Grateful

The next morning, Xiao Chen waited outside Elder Chen’s small courtyard.

He ended up waiting for about four hours, and it wasn’t until noon that he saw Elder Chen return, looking a bit weary.

"Ah, Xiao Chen. What brings you here today? Have you run into some trouble with your cultivation?"

Generally speaking, a master’s purpose is to pass on the teachings, impart skills, and clear up any confusion.

For most disciples, even though the Li Huo Sect had the Scripture Pavilion to fulfill the role of passing on teachings, the latter two duties were impossible without a master’s guidance.

This was an extremely important point. The skill level of a master and how earnestly they taught could have a huge impact.

However, Xiao Chen was precisely the exception.

By their nature, Yellow Level cultivation techniques were simple and easy to understand, designed to be easy to pick up. Even cultivators with insufficient aptitude or comprehension could practice them with relative ease.

What’s more, the cultivation technique he practiced was the Spirit-Nurturing Technique.

The greatest feature of this technique was that it replaced the cultivator’s own training process by nurturing a Spirit Seed.

As a result, Xiao Chen was almost entirely self-taught and had never encountered any confusion or difficulties that required him to seek his master’s guidance.

Speaking of which, this was a source of frustration for Elder Chen.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to offer more guidance and nurture Xiao Chen as he grew.

But this disciple of his, aside from his poor Spiritual Root, had a terrifyingly high comprehension.

Just give him a secret manual, and he could practice on his own, requiring no guidance whatsoever. Plus, his cultivation speed was frighteningly fast.

So, upon seeing Xiao Chen waiting for him, Elder Chen actually felt a little expectant.

But he was about to be disappointed again.

Because Xiao Chen hadn’t come for guidance this time either. "Master, I’ve been studying alchemy recently. Do you happen to have any Tier Two pill formulas?"

"Tier Two pill formulas?"

Elder Chen asked in surprise, "Of course I do. But what do you need them for?"

Then, before Xiao Chen could speak, he seemed to have a sudden realization. "Wait... don’t tell me you’ve already taught yourself enough to start on Tier Two pill formulas?"

Elder Chen’s eyes widened as he stared at Xiao Chen, his face a mask of disbelief.

’To be honest, that seemed a little impossible.’

’While a Yellow Level cultivation technique might be mastered through self-study, becoming an Alchemist is absolutely impossible without extensive practice and guidance.’

’Aside from basic elixirs with the simplest refinement processes, like Qi Nourishing Pills and Fasting Pills, which could be mastered through sheer diligence and hard practice to hone one’s fundamentals, any slightly more complex elixir involved more spirit grasses, causing the complexity of the medicinal property changes to rise sharply.’

’Trying to figure it all out on one’s own would be as difficult as finding a needle in the ocean.’

’The vast majority of novice alchemists required an experienced master to lead the way.’ 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

’But then again, this is Xiao Chen we’re talking about!’

The expression in Elder Chen’s eyes shifted several times before, without even waiting for Xiao Chen’s explanation, he accepted this outcome on his own.

He then nodded slightly and sighed. "Well, if it’s you, then I suppose it’s not that strange."

With that, he pushed open the courtyard gate and called out, "Come with me. I have some alchemy notes you can take a look at first."

The two of them went inside.

Elder Chen took a thick notebook from his desk drawer. "If there’s anything you don’t understand... uh, if there is... you can come and ask me anytime."

"Oh, right. I’ve been at the Alchemy Hall recently, helping to improve some pill formulas."

"You can come find me directly at the Alchemy Hall, or just come into the courtyard and wait. No need to stand at the gate and wait."

Xiao Chen felt the conversation was a little strange.

’I haven’t said a thing, yet Elder Chen just held an entire Q&A with himself. He seems to have imagined something weird.’

’But now that I have the all-important alchemy notes in hand, these details are irrelevant.’

He accepted the notebook and cupped his hands in thanks. "Alright, Master, I understand. I’ll take my leave now. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I’ll come back to ask for your guidance."

Of course, that was just a polite formality.

With the blessing of the [Heart of the Alchemist], as long as Xiao Chen had the pill formula, there wasn’t a single Tier One or Tier Two elixir he couldn’t refine.

He spent an entire day poring over Elder Chen’s notes, reading every word and every sentence.

Xiao Chen let out a long, satisfied sigh.

’Elder Chen is very generous. The notebook he gave me not only contained a large number of pill formulas, but also many small alchemy tips and his own personal insights. It even included deductions on incomplete pill formulas and conjectures about ancient pill formulas. It’s clear that this is all the real deal; he hasn’t held anything back at all.’

On the most recent page, there was a record of an incomplete pill formula.

Elder Chen had proposed two different conjectures about it, but due to a lack of materials and time, he hadn’t yet had the chance to personally verify them.

However, Xiao Chen only needed a single glance to instantly confirm by intuition that the second conjecture was the correct one.

He casually found a small slip of paper, wrote a note suggesting that if Elder Chen wanted to test the theories, it would be better to verify the second one first, and then tucked the slip into the notebook.

"Whew, mission accomplished!"

"Next up, I’ll go to the Alchemy Hall and see if I can find any opportunities to make some money."

It was as he always said: alternating activities led to higher overall efficiency.

If conditions permitted, Xiao Chen planned to divide his waking hours in half—one half for cultivation, and the other for alchemy.

This way, he could treat alchemy as a break from cultivation while also earning some Spirit Stones to pay off his debt.

"Sigh... a moment of thrill while spending, followed by endless tears of debt."

Zhang Ruihao had driven up the price, even borrowing money to do so, which led to Xiao Chen now owing the Liu Family 48,000 Spirit Stones and the Chen Family 50,000 Spirit Stones.

Subtracting the over 8,000 Spirit Stones he had on hand, he was still left with a massive debt of nearly 90,000 Spirit Stones.