novelapdf Chapter 554 He's not buying it? Are you kidding me?
Chapter 554 He's not buying it? Are you kidding me?
The private room on the third floor remained silent for a full three breaths.
Wang Teng clearly did not expect that this Foundation Establishment cultivator would not only be unafraid of him, but also dare to bring up the rules of the auction house in front of so many people to pressure him.
He suppressed his anger and sneered, "Fine, very well. Three hundred thousand. I'd like to see how long you can keep up this."
Three hundred thousand.
This price caused all the monks in the room to gasp in shock.
Although Soul Jade is precious, 300,000 mid-grade spirit stones already far exceed its actual value.
All eyes in the auction house immediately fell on Chen Fan!
However, what they saw next shocked everyone!
Wang Teng's face was also ashen!
Chen Fan stood up, straightened his cloak, and turned to walk towards the auction house entrance.
He did not raise the sign again.
He hadn't planned to buy a fragment of a Soul Dao magic weapon for 300,000 mid-grade spirit stones in the first place.
His purpose in bidding was never to obtain the Soul Jade, but to probe Wang Teng's capabilities!
Consider this person's financial resources, temperament, and the extent of their determination regarding the Soul Jade.
It now seems that Wang Teng is determined to obtain this Soul Jade, and the reasons behind this are worth pondering.
It wouldn't hurt to leave this item with him for now; Chen Fan figured he could retrieve it later.
The sound of Liu Hongmian's gavel striking echoed behind him: "Three hundred thousand for the first time, three hundred thousand for the second time, three hundred thousand for the third time! Sold! Congratulations, Young Master Wang!"
Chen Fan pushed open the auction house door, and the night wind rushed in, making his cloak flutter.
Just as he was about to step away, a smiling voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Fellow Daoist, please wait."
Chen Fan paused and looked to the side.
He saw an elderly man with white hair, dressed in a brocade robe, standing by a pillar, looking at him with a smile.
The old man had a kind face, but his eyes revealed a shrewdness, and his cultivation level was clearly at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
He cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, speaking in an extremely polite tone: "Fellow Daoist, please do not misunderstand. I am not a member of the Wang family. My surname is Qian, and I am the head manager of the Imperial City branch of Baicaotang. When you last came to our shop to sell spirit rice, I felt that you possessed extraordinary bearing. Your actions at today's auction have further confirmed my guess."
Chen Fan turned around without saying a word.
Manager Qian didn't mind, and his smile widened even more: "I have no other intentions, I'm just following orders from above, and would like to invite you to visit Baicaotang when you have some free time. The Eighteenth Elder said that he wants to speak with you personally. As for what we'll talk about, I'm not quite sure, I only know that the Eighteenth Elder values you very much."
He took out a green wooden token from his sleeve and handed it over with both hands: "This is the VIP token of Baicaotang. With this token, you can request an audience with the Eighteen Elders at any time. If you have time, you might as well come over."
Chen Fan took the token and glanced at it. The front of the token was engraved with a nine-leaf Ganoderma lucidum, and the back was engraved with the number "eighteen".
He put the token into his sleeve and nodded: "I'll go when I have time."
After saying that, he didn't linger and turned to disappear into the night of the imperial city.
Shopkeeper Qian stood there, watching the gray-robed figure disappear around the street corner. He stroked his beard, smiled, and muttered to himself:
"Interesting, very interesting. In this Great Yu Imperial City, this is the first time I've seen a Foundation Establishment cultivator who dares to challenge the Wang family."
In a private box on the third floor of the auction hall, Wang Teng's face was ashen. Beside him, a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator from the Wang family whispered words of advice:
"Young master, that man has already left. Should I send someone to investigate his background?"
Wang Teng waved his hand, a cold glint in his eyes, and tossed a heavy storage bag onto the table: "Investigate. I want to see who dares to be so reckless."
……
It was late at night when we returned to the inn.
Chen Fan pushed open the door to the side room. The courtyard was quiet. The lights were off in Han Yueshan's and Qin Dao's side rooms. Only the sound of the wind in the bamboo forest occasionally swept across the eaves.
He closed the door, sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, and took out the jade slip that he had bought for tens of thousands of spirit stones from his sleeve.
When one's divine sense probes into it, dense text floods into the sea of consciousness like a tidal wave.
The author of this fifth-grade alchemist manual was named Danyangzi, a fifth-grade alchemist who was active more than two thousand years ago.
The manual details his lifelong experience in alchemy, from the most basic identification of medicinal properties to the techniques for refining high-level pills. It contains hundreds of thousands of words, every word of which is based on his experience.
Chen Fan's alchemy skills have remained at around the third rank, entirely thanks to the guidance he received from Old Man Long in the Sealed Land, plus his own efforts in refining a few batches of low-level pills.
Currently, third-grade pills are sufficient for Core Formation cultivators, but insufficient for Nascent Soul cultivators.
He flipped through Danyangzi's insights page by page, and before he knew it, he was completely absorbed in them.
"In the art of alchemy, the most important thing is the control of the fire. The control of the fire is not only about the strength of the fire, but also about the variation of the fire. A strong fire attacks fiercely, while a small fire simmers slowly; alternating between strong and gentle fires is essential, and the process must be done in a measured way. The success or failure of a batch of pills depends nine-tenths on the control of the fire..."
"The properties of medicines interact in a mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining way, much like the Five Elements. Medicines of the same nature combine to create synergistic effects; medicines of different natures repel each other and their effects clash. However, clashing effects do not necessarily mean they are unusable. Just as metal restrains wood, and wood restrains earth, if the properties of medicines can be harmonized according to the principle of mutual restraint, it is possible to refine elixirs that are difficult to achieve with ordinary methods..."
"The biggest difference between fourth-tier and third-tier pills lies in the degree of refinement of spiritual energy. Third-tier pills only require extracting and fusing the spiritual energy from the medicinal materials, while fourth-tier pills require continuously compressing the spiritual energy during the fusing process to condense it into a pill core. If the pill core does not condense, the pill cannot be made..."
These insights, presented in a simple and easy-to-understand way, resolved many questions that had puzzled Chen Fan for years.
He became more and more engrossed in watching, sometimes frowning in deep thought, sometimes nodding in sudden realization, his hands unconsciously mimicking the techniques of alchemy.
The reason why the fourth-order Rejuvenation Pill is difficult to refine is that the medicinal properties of the Profound Yin Grass and the Crimson Sun Flower are inherently incompatible. If the two medicinal powers are directly fused, they will inevitably cancel each other out.
The correct approach is to use a neutral herb called "Dewdrop Grass" as a guide, first encapsulating the two medicinal properties separately, and then slowly blending them together to form the elixir.
It turns out that the core of a fifth-order Nascent Soul Pill needs to be implanted with divine sense the instant the pill begins to condense, and the opportunity is fleeting.
Danyangzi specially designed a set of divine sense guidance techniques for this purpose, which can be automatically triggered at the moment the core of the pill condenses, greatly improving the success rate of the Nascent Soul Pill.
It turns out that the success of refining high-level pills depends not only on the alchemy furnace and medicinal materials, but also on the alchemist's perception of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
At the end of the manual, Danyangzi recorded a secret technique called "Spirit Eye Technique," which can temporarily enhance the eyes' perception of spiritual energy and be used to observe changes in the medicinal power in the alchemy furnace.
Chen Fan flipped through the manual three times, until the eastern sky began to lighten with the first light of dawn, before finally putting the jade slip away.
He exhaled a long breath, his eyes sparkling with a rare excitement.
This manual is worth far more than ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
If he can thoroughly understand and apply the insights recorded therein, his alchemy skills will at least reach the fourth rank, and he may even be able to break through to the fifth rank.
At that time, many pills that could not be refined before can be refined by ourselves, and we will no longer be subject to others.
However, reading many articles is just theoretical; to truly improve one's alchemy skills, one must personally refine several batches.