Rise from a Low-class Family to Martial Artist

”Miss, did Xiao Yan agree?”

”He agreed, and he didn’t agree.”

Hearing his young miss’s words, Li Chongshan’s old eyes were filled with confusion.

”Xiao Yan made a demand. He wants my Li Family to provide three thousand Divine Soul Techniques, and on top of that, two top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques.”

Li Qin spoke faintly. Li Chongshan’s old eyes bulged: ”That Xiao Yan really dares to ask. Does he think Divine Soul Techniques are that cheap? Not to mention top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques. Miss, you didn’t agree, did you?”

”I agreed.”

Li Chongshan: ...

”The Thousand Mechanism Domain is not lacking Divine Soul Techniques. Three thousand Divine Soul Techniques isn’t hard. As for top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques... many top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques are called top‑tier because their power is immense, but there’s another reason: their cultivation difficulty is extremely high.”

Li Qin let out a soft sigh: ”Aside from those few top‑tier techniques of the Thousand Mechanism Sect that can be cultivated step by step, which of the other top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques doesn’t have extremely harsh requirements for the Divine Soul? There are even quite a few techniques that only their creator can cultivate.”

In the Thousand Mechanism Domain, the Thousand Mechanism Sect stands above all, while the other sects, including these great clans such as theirs, often go hundreds of years without a single clansman or disciple being able to cultivate the top‑tier Divine Soul Techniques they hold. It’s precisely because these top‑tier techniques place too high a demand on the cultivator.

Put simply, these top‑tier techniques are all custom‑made, and fundamentally lack universality.

Of course, no matter how lacking in universality, they are still top‑tier techniques, and still worth a fortune.

”Miss, this matter still...”

”It won’t be that easy for Xiao Yan to obtain those two top‑tier techniques. He has to enter the overall competition’s top ten.”

The words Li Chongshan had been preparing to use to persuade her turned into a chuckle when he heard his miss say this.

Top ten in the overall competition—this Xiao Yan really dares to dream.

Does he really think he’s the only one with Innate Fire? Looking at previous Artifact Refining Competitions, those who possess Innate Fire in the overall competition are far from few.

These two top‑tier techniques basically don’t need to be given.

”Besides that, I also agreed to another request from Xiao Yan—to let him stay in the Fire Storage Pagoda for ten days.”

”Stay in the Fire Storage Pagoda for ten days?”

Li Chongshan’s old eyes narrowed: ”Looks like Xiao Yan also wants to find his feel. Our firm has five slots to enter the Fire Storage Pagoda every year. There are still two left this year. If Miss wants to give Xiao Yan one, that’s fine.”

The Li Family firm set up shop in Hundred Refinements City not only because the city is large in scale, but also because Hundred Refinements City has the Fire Storage Pagoda. By virtue of their operations in Hundred Refinements City, the Li Family can arrange for five Alchemists to enter the Fire Storage Pagoda every year, each time for a ten‑day period.

Li Qin didn’t refute Shopkeeper Li’s speculation about Xiao Yan’s intentions. No matter what Lin Chen is really planning, the Li Family will only acknowledge one point to outsiders: that giving Xiao Yan a slot is merely to let Xiao Yan use the Cyan Li True Flame to feel the handling of refining higher‑tier Pills.

...

...

The courtyard.

Hearing that Lin Chen was going to enter the Fire Storage Pagoda, Yin Yue also suddenly understood: ”So your real target is the Cyan Li True Flame.”

”Why would you think that?”

Lin Chen was a little curious: ”So many people have beaten their brains out over the Cyan Li True Flame and none succeeded. I haven’t even reached the Innate Third Realm—what right would I have to pull it off? Why can’t it simply be that I want to use the Cyan Li True Flame to break through my alchemy attainments?”

”Ten million Innate Stones—if you rely on alchemy, you wouldn’t earn that much even if you refined for a lifetime. Other people refine Pills to earn resources for cultivation, aside from the rare few truly obsessed with this path. Do you really think you’re someone obsessed with the Dao of alchemy?”

Yin Yue gave a cold snort. Lin Chen was silent for quite a while: ”I still think you were cuter back when you didn’t show any emotions.”

Yin Yue’s face instantly went blank: ”If you really refine the Cyan Li True Flame, then you’ll have offended all the Alchemists in Hundred Refinements City.”

”The one offending the Alchemists of Hundred Refinements City is Xiao Yan. What does that have to do with me, Lin Chen?”

...

The next day.

Shopkeeper Li sent over a wagonload of technique books, all of them Divine Soul Techniques.

Watching Lin Chen carry the Secret Technique Manuals down from the wagon, Yin Yue couldn’t help but laugh: ”They really are three thousand of the most ordinary Divine Soul Techniques. They won’t even spare a Jade Scroll.”

It’s common knowledge in the Martial Arts Realm that techniques that are even slightly precious will be recorded on Jade Scrolls. But no matter how cheap a Jade Scroll is, its cost is around ten Flame Coins. The techniques the Li Family sent over aren’t on Jade Scrolls at all, which basically means these techniques might not even be worth a single Jade Scroll.

”The more ordinary, the more they return to the essence.”

Lin Chen muttered a line, ignoring Yin Yue’s mockery. These techniques might be worthless, but if he had to collect them on his own, without a certain amount of time he truly wouldn’t be able to gather this many.

”Self‑deception.”

Leaving those words behind, Yin Yue turned and went back to her own bedroom.

Lin Chen didn’t mind. Given Yin Yue’s background, she’s only ever dealt with the most top‑tier techniques, so naturally she looks down on these ordinary, couldn’t‑be‑more‑ordinary techniques.

But the line he’d just muttered wasn’t purely to save his own face. The power of these techniques may not be great, but each one is a predecessor’s unique understanding of the mysteries of the Divine Soul, and they might very well inspire him.

...

...

Reading a hundred scrolls a day, Lin Chen did not leave the courtyard again. Every day he pored over these Divine Soul Techniques, constantly adding in his own Divine Soul insights, using the Azure Wave Technique, Divine Control Record, and Canglan’s Eyes and other Divine Soul Secret Techniques to cross-reference one another, and his understanding of the Divine Soul grew deeper and deeper.

The wonder of the Divine Soul was truly beyond words.

Only, this leisurely life was interrupted fifteen days later.

The Li Family sent over a jade token. With this jade token, one could enter the Fire Storage Pagoda for ten days.

Stowing the remaining books into the Storage Box, Lin Chen said a brief word to Yin Yue, then left the courtyard and headed toward the Fire Storage Pagoda.

The Fire Storage Pagoda sat just to the left of the Celestial Craft Pavilion; both were located in the central area of Hundred Refinements City, separated by courtyard walls three zhang high reinforced with an Array, making it impossible for outsiders to approach or see what the base of the pagoda looked like.

When Lin Chen arrived at the gate of the Fire Storage Pagoda’s courtyard and showed the Innate Powerhouse on guard the jade token given by the Li Family, he was allowed to enter the pagoda. At the same time, he received a number plate: B4!

Passing through the gate, Lin Chen finally saw the full body of the pagoda clearly, and could not help but feel a bit of amazement. The pagoda’s structure was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top; the diameter of the lowest level reached a hundred zhang, and around the pagoda’s base there were rows of Alchemy Rooms built.

All these Alchemy Rooms were attached directly to the pagoda’s body, like decorations clinging to the tower.

Thirty Alchemy Rooms in total, allowing thirty Alchemists to simultaneously borrow the Cyan Li True Flame to refine Pills.

Lin Chen now understood why that young lady of the Li Family had been so courteous. With so many Alchemy Rooms, the quota to enter the Fire Storage Pagoda was extremely precious for ordinary Martial Artists, but for the Li Family it probably wasn’t much at all.

Circling along the pagoda’s wall, Lin Chen quickly found the B4 Alchemy Room.

Pushing the door open and stepping in, Lin Chen’s gaze swept across the entire room. The Alchemy Room was very simple: in the center stood a Pill Furnace, with a medicine rack next to it, and nothing else.

Lin Chen’s gaze fell beneath the Pill Furnace. The ground under the furnace was not flat, but a space that sank downward. When Lin Chen moved closer and looked down, he saw magma roiling and flowing below, flames spouting up from time to time.

But once these flames sprayed to a certain height, they dissipated. There was an invisible barrier stopping them from surging up.

Lin Chen’s gaze turned to the side of the Pill Furnace, where there was a groove exactly the size of the B5 number plate in his hand.

”So, I need to place this number plate in there, and then the Cyan Li True Flame can be unsealed and will surge up through the opening below.”

After figuring out the layout of the Alchemy Room, Lin Chen took out some medicinal ingredients from the Storage Box. Although he harbored the intention of refining the Cyan Li True Flame, he did not plan to start immediately. Once he activated the Cyan Li True Flame and caused any commotion, the people in charge of the Fire Storage Pagoda would definitely notice and grow suspicious of him.

When he received the number plate just now, he had glanced at the roster, and it had many names written on it. This meant that at this moment there were quite a few people doing Alchemy inside the Fire Storage Pagoda, and if he delayed one or two days, more newcomers would arrive.

Just in case, if he were disturbed at a critical moment while refining, it would all be for nothing.

...

...

Two days later.

After reading another two hundred scrolls of Divine Soul Techniques in the Alchemy Room and casually refining a few batches of Pills, Lin Chen looked toward the space beneath the Pill Furnace. Over these two days he had refined five furnaces of Pills, but he had not used the Cyan Li Fire. Instead, he used the Li Fire within his body to refine the Pills.

He currently had three types of Innate Fire in his body: Innate Li Fire, Golden Crow Radiance Flame, and Illusory Sea Heart Flame. But for Alchemy, Li Fire was more useful than the other two flames.

Placing the Pills on the stone platform to the side, Lin Chen did not waste any more time this round. He set the number plate in the groove. The plate inlaid itself into the groove, light flickered, and a Star Array appeared beneath the Pill Furnace.

As the Star Array shone, the temperature in the Alchemy Room clearly rose. In the opening under the Pill Furnace, the magma began to churn. After a few breaths, a strand of cyan flame shot up.

Cyan Li True Flame!

Different from the terrifying high temperature and overbearing nature of Li Fire and Golden Crow Radiance Flame, and different from the uncanny strangeness of Illusory Sea Heart Flame, the appearance of this Cyan Li True Flame, though it raised the temperature, did not make it unbearable.

Moreover, once the Cyan Li True Flame surged up, it only burned around the Pill Furnace, with no intention of spreading to the surroundings at all.

”Compared to the other three Innate Fires I have, this Cyan Li True Flame is like a good student contrasted with bad students.”

Thinking of how violent the three Innate Fires in his body had been when they first appeared, then looking at this quietly burning Cyan Li True Flame, Lin Chen couldn’t help feeling a bit emotional.

Was this the Cyan Li True Flame’s nature, or was it because the Array of the Fire Storage Pagoda was restricting it?

”Either way, this makes it easier for me to refine.”

The stability of the Cyan Li True Flame was a good thing for him; he could first absorb a strand to run a test.

Lin Chen circulated the Immortal Technique and slowly stretched out his hand. The instant his fingertip touched the Cyan Li True Flame, he sensed a kind of joyous excitement from the flame.

It was like a child who had left home suddenly meeting a long-lost relative.

Just as Lin Chen was feeling puzzled, the three Innate Fires in his body actively surged into his palm, and the three flame wisps began to make contact with the Cyan Li True Flame.

Boom!

The four Innate Fires instantly fused, then abruptly shrank downward toward the opening.

This scene made Lin Chen’s expression turn strange.

The Innate Fires in his body had actually rushed into the Cyan Li True Flame’s lair.

More precisely, they were taken in by the Cyan Li True Flame and led down together.