Chapter 36: In front of the Yao Family
Chen Xiang returned just before dawn. During the day, he madly refined dans. While during night, he went to the outskirts of the city to cultivate. Twenty days of this cycle continued. Now, not only had his cultivation enhanced by a lot, he also became very skillful in refining Middle-Grade Mortal Level Dans and below, with almost no chance of failure. The time required for the entire alchemy process was also shortened by a large amount, it was to the point that even the old alchemist Chen Luzhong felt completely embarrassed of his own inferiority.
Seventy to eighty percent of the money acquired from selling the Thousand Year Old Blood Spirit Grass had already been spent. Chen Xiang and Chen Luzhong had refined many commonly used Low-Grade Mortal Level Dans, but it was still far from enough.
Of course, the Metal Spirit Tree planted by Chen Xiang, was also about to bear fruits! In these past twenty days, he had been constantly producing Dragon Saliva and accelerating its growth. This was the first time he had stimulated the growth of a single type of spirit herb for such a long time, but it would definitely be worth it.
The Metal Spirit Tree was his confidential secret, which was why he had planted it in his own private courtyard. Even Chen Luzhong wasn’t allowed to casually enter Chen Xiang’s small courtyard.
“As long as we hire enough alchemists, I can be carefree and gain some breathing room!” Chen Xiang was stroking a small golden fruit, which was birthed out from the tree this very morning after he nourished it with the Dragon Saliva.
Chen Xiang hadn’t ever thought of just refining and selling dans all day. He aspired to do much grander things, such as finding precious spirit herbs, killing demon beasts, acquiring and practicing suitable martial techniques, or even just to explore this vast world.
At this moment, the King City’s Martial Arts Tournament was only a month away and Chen Xiang went to sign up for it. However, what made him depressed was the fact that the King City’s Martial Arts Tournament was unexpectedly hosted by the Yao Family, and due to this, the registration venue was inside the Yao Family area.
Chen Xiang had been lodging in King City for quite some time now, and had already heard people discussing about the missing Yao Tianhua and the Yao Family Elder. But fortunately for Chen Xiang, there were a few wicked organisations of formidable martial artists organisations that frequently wrought havoc outside King City. They looted and killed many of King City’s children from aristocrat families, so Chen Xiang was never suspected of the deed.
That being said, the whole Yao Family was furious as their Yao Family genius and an elder had gone missing. They denounced those evil forces with the help of the Imperial Family, along with many other families with whom they had good relations with. In just a few days, many of the evil forces had been punished or completely destroyed, yet despite all this, the Yao Family wasn’t able to find any clue to the whereabouts of Yao Tianhua.
In reality, Yao Tianhua and the Yao Family Elder had long been killed by Chen Xiang, their bodies incinerated until only ashes remained. The Yao Family finding out what happened was the least of Chen Xiang’s worries.
Currently, Chen Xiang had just arrived at the Yao Family residence, which to no surprise, was very large. In his heart, Chen Xiang was slightly in awe from just seeing the entrance, let alone inside!
The competition, as well as registrations, was being held in the huge field in front of the Yao Family entrance. Although registrations had started early, a vast majority of people were still coming every day to register. The whole field was very lively, many long queues stretched out like a dragon.
Chen Xiang had lined up quite a while ago, and now, he finally stood in front of the registration table. The young, twenty or so, man responsible for registrations yawned and picked up his pen and paper. He lazily asked, “Name?”
"Chen Xiang!"
The young man was originally listless, but after hearing these two words, he became wide awake while carefully sizing up Chen Xiang. Everyone around them also looked over! Chen Xiang’s name was well-known to everyone here. Not only was he capable of refining the Baptizing Marrow Dan, but his strength was known to be comparable to someone in the 7th Level of the Mortal Marital Realm! He had wounded the Yao Family Elder, beat up the governor’s son, and gained the favour of the manor lord of Danxiang Herbal Manor, who was considered the most beautiful woman in the city! These were only some of his more notable deeds.
Chen Xiang was also a genius level figure comparable to Yao Tianhua. As long as one walked around the city before, they would have surely heard of his name. However, the Yao Family thought of him as nothing but a thorn in their eyes, every single Yao Family member pretty much hated him. For them, Chen Xiang injuring the Yao Family Elder and Yao Tianhua was the only reason they had gone missing. If not for the Yao Family Elder’s injuries, there was no way they could possibly have been in any kind of danger.
“Go over there and take the strength test. Only after passing the test will you be able to participate in the Martial Arts Tournament.” That young man pointed to another row.
Before coming here, Chen Xiang had heard that they tested your strength before successful registration. Those who were not able to pass the test would be unable to participate.
After the young man placed a seal on a paper, Chen Xiang took the paper and headed towards the other row.
Chen Xiang was actually this close to them, just thinking about this, many people were extremely excited. An alchemist, as well as the grandson of the famous Chen Family Patriarch. He had a limitless future, which made many people take initiative to chat with him.
To pass some time, Chen Xiang was also happy to chat with the other family juniors. While many of the family juniors tried to get on his good side to get the Chen Family’s support for their families, some feared offending the Yao Family and were afraid to form an alliance with the Chen Family. However, these family juniors came to learn from Chen Xiang that Chen Family also had a dan shop, so they would be less wary of the threat posed by the Yao Family.
Unknowingly, time passed by quickly and it was now Chen Xiang’s turn. The method to test one’s strength was simple, you just had to strike a strange boulder. Originally, this boulder was black, but if one’s power was strong enough, they would be able to change it's color.
Chen Xiang was standing in front of the boulder, which was taller than him! The person in charge of the testing site announced, “As long as you are able to turn this boulder’s colour to yellow, you will pass this test.”
According to the force exerted, the boulder would change it’s colour from black to red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, or purple, with purple being the highest amount of force it could measure.
Since standing in line, Chen Xiang had seen many people change the boulder’s colour to red, sometimes even orange, but no one was still able to change it’s color to yellow.
“I heard that during the Crown Prince’s test, the stone turned blue. Ah, truly unfathomable strength!”
“Oh, I also heard that one of the Yao Family’s juniors was very formidable and also turned the stone blue.”
“Ha, just that? The Great General Leng’s daughter was able to change it to purple!”
“...”
Chen Xiang suddenly heard many people discussing about the strength of some notable figures. At this time, everyone seemed to be watching him with rapt attention, awaiting his results. Everyone wanted to take a look at Chen Xiang and see if his strength was truly as mighty as they heard, or if it was just a baseless rumor. Many of those present had never seen Chen Xiang’s strength.
Chen Xiang rubbed his fists as he stared at the boulder. The Chen Family also had this sort of boulder, albeit a little smaller than this, it was still equally good for determining power. It was very painful to hit it, in fact, Chen Xiang had tried this test a long time ago at home. However, at that time he was barely able to turn the stone’s hue into a faint red, denoting his former power to be weak.
However, things had changed and now Chen Xiang had reached the 6th Level of the Mortal Martial Realm! He was very eager to test out his strength.
After some preparation, Chen Xiang slightly inhaled. He operated the Vermillion Bird and Azure Dragon True Qi within his dantian and integrated them together. As the two True Qis fused together and surged into his arms, his sleeves suddenly turned into ash revealing blue veins on his stout arm.
At this time, everyone around the testing site had turned quiet. The people closer to Chen Xiang were even able to sense his frightening amount of True Qi. After this sudden show of explosive might, the crowd was in awe. At this moment, nobody doubted that Chen Xiang had injured the Yao Family Elder. The entire crowd was panic stricken just from the mighty pressure released by Chen Xiang’s True Qi!
In one go, the dual attributed True Qi surged into Chen Xiang’s arm. Tightening his fist, he punched out! Violent and fast as lighting, his fist ruthlessly slammed onto the boulder.
‘BANG!’
That boulder suddenly shattered into many pieces and scattered on the ground, soot flew everywhere following outburst of True Qi.