Sovereign of the Three Realms

However, Jiang Chen wasn’t mesmerized by Elder Yun Nie’s appearance. An elder skilled with refining pills wouldn’t have any problem at all maintaining his looks. This young looking elder was at least two, three hundred years old. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the seniority of working for two generations of Palace Heads.

“Elder Yun Nie, disciple Jiang Chen is so bold as to come and accept the mission.”

Elder Yun Nie rarely ventured outside and never cared much for matters of the outside world. Even though Jiang Chen’s name had spread throughout the entire Regal Pill Palace in the past couple of days, he was completely in the dark.

If one had to find ten people who did as they wished in the Regal Pill Palace, this elder would surely rank in the top three. He wouldn’t care even if the whole city had been set aflame. There was only pills, refinement, and pill refinement in his life. In addition, he had a particular habit that no one could disturb him when he was refining pills. He also had a standing gag order on gossip and rumors in his residence. Therefore, his followers all very much kept the rules. No one dared wag their tongues or speculate wildly here.

Elder Yun Nie didn’t care that Jiang Chen had introduced himself. He waved his hand, “I don’t care what you’re called. Tell me, how certain are you?”

This style that cut straight to the point took Jiang Chen a bit off guard. However, he still said, “I need to understand the recipe first.”

Elder Yun Nie snorted coldly and waved his hand again, “Come! Drag him out for a beating and throw him out afterwards.”

He comes in wanting to look at the recipe straight off the bat! This fellow is even worse than the others! The ones who came before mostly came to take a tour and observe when I refined pills, wanting to learn a thing or two. This fellow is something alright, wanting to look at the recipe! His appetite is quite large! Will the Hexarune Dragon Pill still be an exclusive secret if you go and memorize the recipe?

Therefore, Elder Yun Nie subconsciously felt that Jiang Chen was here to swindle him, to try and snatch his secrets.

Jiang Chen had quite an innocent look on his face, “Please wait, Elder Yun Nie. You should at least give me a reason if you wish to beat or punish me? How do you know I’ll be unable to complete this mission?”

Elder Yun Nie snorted derisively, “You’ve been harboring some sly schemes about my recipes at such a young age. Why should you not be beaten?”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but laugh when he heard this. He’d asked about the pill recipe at the start because he didn’t have the slightest intention of stealing the elder’s knowledge. He was the reincarnation of a divine pill master, why would he covet this kind of secular recipe? It was because he didn’t have this kind of thought that he hadn’t thought Elder Yun Nie would be on his guard like this either. When he thought about it carefully, he felt that he’d been rash.

He laughed ruefully, “Elder Yun Nie, I certainly have no intentions of stealing your recipe. How about this, why don’t you hide some of the ingredients on the recipe or give me some refining dregs so I can study them? Even if you are worried about me stealing the recipe, I can’t attempt to solve this problem of yours without some clues, no?”

Jiang Chen’s words made sense as well. Since the elder had posted the mission, he had to offer a venue for candidates to understand the mission, right? Otherwise, how would they complete it?

Elder Yun Nie swept his sharp gaze over Jiang Chen and spread out an arm, saying to his followers, “You are dismissed for now.” He wasn’t an unreasonable person. After all, his high status of being a venerated elder meant that he naturally couldn’t be bothered to argue with a young disciple.

“Go, obtain some refinement dregs.” The elder gave further orders as he vanished into his residence. Soon enough, he walked out with a partially redacted pill recipe, handing it over to Jiang Chen. He spoke no further, standing off to the side with crossed arms with a cold smile. It was obvious he wanted to see just what this kid had up his sleeves.

Usually, when the young disciples came by to attempt the mission, they’d be more or less unsure of themselves. Flaws could be easily discerned in their words and gestures. But the young man in front of him was younger than any of them, with none of their doubts discernible. This slightly surprised Elder Yun Nie.

Jiang Chen naturally had the bearing of a master when it came of the dao of pills. When he received the dregs, he sniffed them a few times and turned them over a bit. He even used a finger to pick up a trace and placed it on his tongue for a taste.

The entire process continued for roughly half an hour. A confident smile slowly began appearing on Jiang Chen’s face. He didn’t even look at the recipe.

“Elder Yun Nie, allow me to guess. This pill’s main ingredients should be the Heavenly Net Ganoderma, with the supplemental ingredients Sweethua Grass, Nine Tribulation Mauve Bamboo, juice from the Ancient Moon Cicada, Buddha Water Fruit, Black Tortoise Crabapple…” Jiang Chen listed multiple ingredients in one breath, as if counting off his family’s treasures.

He’d purposefully hidden some materials because identifying them would cause him some problems. If he labelled them, his performance would be too perverse and would actually give rise to suspicion. He also knew that offering up these items was enough to elicit true attention from the other.

Indeed, Elder Yun Nie’s expression flickered rapidly before he suddenly started laughing loudly, “Not bad, kid! You’re a bit interesting.”

It was obvious that Jiang Chen’s actions had straightened out his image in the elder’s eyes, changing the latter’s bias against him. “Elder Yun Nie, can I look at the recipe now?” Jiang Chen chuckled.

The elder laughed. “Yes, go ahead! To think you were hiding your talents so deeply, eh? What did you say your name was just now?”

“Elder, his name is Jiang Chen, a genius of the sixteen kingdoms that Sage Dan Chi brought back personally a while ago. The sage one even allied with the Precious Tree Sect in order to recruit him…” A follower immediately stepped forward and summarized Jiang Chen’s background.

“The sixteen kingdom alliance?” The elder was faintly surprised, but seemed to accept things when he heard that Sage Dan Chi had personally been involved. “One who could draw the palace head’s attention is worthy of his reputation alright. Very good, very good!”

The trusted follower continued, “This disciple competed with Yan Hongtu in the dao of pills, apparently awakening all twelve flames at once, displaying a high mastery of fire. In the competition of pill inspection, he used a unique method to locate all fifteen flaws in the cauldron.”

Elder Yun Nie couldn’t help but nod. “Very interesting indeed. Palace Head Dan Chi certainly does act quickly and decisively. With his mysterious ways, he almost always makes a surprising move. It looks like recruiting this young genius will be another one of his trademarks.” It could be seen that this elder quite respected Palace Head Dan Chi. There wasn’t a hint of disrespect towards the sixteen kingdoms in his words from beginning to end.

Jiang Chen’s thoughts were wholly on the pill recipe at this time. He analyzed it briefly after handed it, and almost immediately, one of his speculations jumped out as an answer.

“The Hexarune Dragon Pill. Haha, I understand, I’ve got it. There is indeed an advanced version of this pill in the divine realm called the Ennearune Heaven Grievance Pill. This pill is the most ideal for weathering tribulations. Almost all cultivators can make use of this when they face tribulation upon important breakthroughs. This isn’t the most outstanding of its type, but certainly a fine product. The Hexarune Dragon Pill should be related, but it’s noticeably a pared down version. It’s shrunk greatly whether in terms of effects or materials.”

“With its name of Hexarune, its effects should be less than one tenth of the Ennearune Pill.” Jiang Chen had come to this conclusion after analyzing the materials.

It was much easier for Jiang Chen to understand this pill once he identified the original that it was based off of. He quickly ran through the refinement process and several important issues of the pill in his mind. When he’d organized his thoughts, he was utterly confident in what he was about to say.

“Elder Yun Nie, this pill should be medicine for weathering tribulations, correct?” Jiang Chen chuckled.

The elder was astonished and looked at Jiang Chen, visibly moved. A thick sense of surprise was in his eyes. “How do you know?”

“According to my analysis of the materials and the structure of this pill, I feel that many materials within this pill aim to clear internal demons, purify the body, resist external disasters, and protect the physical body. When so many ingredients are thus mixed together, this should be the main direction of the pill.” Jiang Chen offered his judgment.

Elder Yun Nie was flabbergasted. A ridiculous notion suddenly blossomed in his mind at this moment. He actually thought that maybe the question that had troubled him for quite some time would be resolved by this young man.

“Have you seen this pill before?” Even the elder found his question ludicrous when he asked it, because there was no possibility such a pill existed in the sixteen kingdoms.

Jiang Chen shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”

The elder continued, “The process always occurs quite smoothly when I refine this pill, but the quality of the finished product is always just a little bit unsatisfactory. The resulting pills are barely up to par, but at most of lower rank. To be honest, calling it lower rank is also a stretch. I just don’t understand why the quality of the pill never improves when I’ve followed the recipe exactly, with no mistakes occurring in the process and no ingredient substitutions?”

This question had troubled the elder for twenty, nearly thirty years. It could be said that this mission had existed before Jiang Chen’s current body had been born.

However, no one had been able to solve it. Elder Yun Nie had tried to refine it five times over the years and always failed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep trying, but that the costs for producing the Hexarune Dragon Pill were too high. Collecting each ingredient required enormous effort and money. It wasn’t an easy task for him even with his status and wealth.

Therefore, although he had the ingredients for a sixth try, he didn’t dare begin. He was too afraid of failure. Repeated failures had deeply impacted his confidence, and although he controlled his emotions well, Jiang Chen could more or less see a hint of anxiety from Elder Yun Nie’s words.

“Elder Yun Nie is so troubled by this pill that he barely pays attentions to sect affairs. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had no reaction to my name.” Jiang Chen mused. His name was quite famous during this time, and it was tied to Sage Dan Chi. Anyone of the Regal Pill Palace should know of him, but this elder hadn’t the slightest clue. It was apparent that his life had been consumed by this pill.