Chapter 204: The Three Great Elders
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After accepting the Feifei, Mo Tiange established a master-subordinate contract with it according to Liusu’s method then put it under Yi Liu and Yi Qiu’s care.
She wasn’t going to raise it herself for the time being because she had no time and Yi Liu and Yi Qiu really loved this kind of spiritual beast; they always wanted to caress and hold it, so she might as well grant their wish.
Spiritual beasts like Feifeis, which were both cute and harmless, had mind-clearing and soul-pacifying effects and were useful for searching for spiritual objects, were the type girls liked. Nevertheless, Mo Tiange didn’t really have much of a girlish nature herself. She already had the Spirit-Concealing Pendant and countless medicinal pills, so she didn’t really consider the Feifei a must-have. However, it demonstrated Elder Qingmiao’s kind intentions after all; not accepting it would’ve been equivalent to striking Elder Qingmiao’s face.
Once she rested for a few days, she began preparations to concoct the Clear Sky Pills.
Regarding the Clear Sky Pills, Mo Tiange could concoct them easily because she had much experience in concocting them, but for the people of Bixuan Court, this was the first time they ever saw someone attempting to concoct Clear Sky Pills, so they were extremely nervous about it; Xia Qing even repeatedly asked her if the pills could really be concocted.
At first Mo Tiange still tried to appease her, but at the end, she started to ignore her.
She’d lost count of the number of times she concocted Clear Sky Pills before; even though she’d have to use a common pill furnace and Core Formation cultivators’ concocting fire this time, she was still confident she could achieve at least a 60% success rate. If everything went according to plan and there were no incidents, her success rate might even reach 70%.
If she said this to Elder Qingmiao, Elder Qingmiao would definitely be beside herself with delight. Even in Kunwu, finding a concoctions master whose success rate was 70% for Clear Sky Pills was very hard, and most people had to look for cultivation groups which specialized in pill-concocting, like Danding School.
Several days passed by in the blink of an eye. The preparations for concocting Clear Sky Pills were completed, so Xia Qing brought the medicinal plants they’d processed to Mo Tiange to be examined. Although the plants weren’t old enough and their quality was low, there was a sufficient amount. Even after Mo Tiange took the failure rate into consideration, she reckoned she could still create about thirty successful pills.
Clear Sky Pills weren’t like the Aura-Nourishing Pills or Aura-Converging Pills consumed by Aura Refining cultivators. They contained a great amount of spiritual aura, so every time a cultivator took one, they’d need about ten days to half a month to fully digest the spiritual aura inside the pill. Considering that Core Formation cultivators rarely took medicinal pills continuously, even thirty pills was a significant number—that should be enough to support the three Core Formation cultivators in their cultivation for more than half a year.
Mo Tiange informed Wei Haolan of her conclusion. As a result, the three Core Formation elders asked to see her that day.
She’d seen many Core Formation cultivators, so she wasn’t at all nervous. However, those three Core Formation cultivators were the best cultivators in Bixuan Court after all, so she thought she better be a bit more careful.
After following Wei Haolan’s lead for a long time, Mo Tiange finally reached a floating pagoda that towered high in the clouds.
Wei Haolan said, “This pagoda was founded by the sovereign who founded our group; it’s called Dao-Achieving Pagoda. This pagoda’s very special; the spiritual aura inside is extremely dense and moreover, the spiritual aura on each floor doesn’t interfere with each other. In Bixuan Court, once a cultivator forms their Gold Core, they’ll move into this pagoda to cultivate.”
Mo Tiange gazed at the floating pagoda that was covered with immortal’s aura. She then said with a sigh, “So there’s still such a wonderful sight in this world... Had I not left my school, I never would’ve realized this world’s so vast.”
Despite standing outside the pagoda, the spiritual aura inside already assaulted Mo Tiange’s senses; it was obvious how dense the spiritual aura inside the pagoda was. The sovereign who founded Bixuan Court was indeed an outstanding genius.
Wei Haolan smiled. “Fellow Daoist Ye understands this principle and comes from a famous school; presumably in several hundred years, Fellow Daoist Ye will also have a high chance of reaching the Great Dao.”
Mo Tiange simply chuckled and shook her head but didn’t say anything further.
When they reached the area below the pagoda, Mo Tiange noticed there was a Transporting Formation on the ground. Wei Haolan asked Mo Tiange to stand on the Transporting Formation with her then activated it.
After a flash of blinding white light, Mo Tiange discovered that the two of them were already standing inside the pagoda. The area they were in now was very spacious but was completely empty except for several praying mats arranged on the floor.
A long-bearded, long-mustached, middle-aged male cultivator walked over upon seeing their appearance. “Greetings to Sect Head.”
Maybe this male cultivator was a disciple of a Core Formation cultivator—his treatment of Wei Haolan was evidently not as fearful as other male cultivators. He behaved respectfully, but his expression remained calm and collected.
Wei Haolan’s attitude was also rather courteous. She said, “Senior Martial Brother Shangguan, I’m taking Fellow Daoist Ye to see the three elders; are the three elders free to meet?”
The male cultivator’s stare then fell on Mo Tiange, and he gave her a quick once-over. He seemed to be quite surprised because of her young age, but he quickly withdrew his gaze and nodded at her. “So this is Fellow Daoist Ye.”
Mo Tiange herself was also quite surprised; the reason being that this male cultivator was a late stage Foundation Building cultivator and seemed to have already reached the border of the peak stage. Nonetheless, she cupped her hands and returned his greeting.
The male cultivator shifted his gaze back to Wei Haolan. “The three elders are on the third floor; they’re already waiting for you two.”
“Thank you, Senior Martial Brother Shangguan.” After Wei Haolan said her thanks, she pulled Mo Tiange towards the other side then they once again stepped onto a Transporting Formation.
The Transporting Formation was activated, and there was another flash of blinding white light. The two of them now went one floor up. On this floor, there was no one.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, aren’t you curious as to why among us Foundation Building cultivators, the one with the highest cultivation level is actually Senior Martial Brother Shangguan?”
Mo Tiange turned her head towards her, feeling bewildered. This was Bixuan Court’s matter, and she also didn’t ask—why did Wei Haolan want to talk about it?
Wei Haolan had a calm expression on her face, but a hint of envy leaked through her eyes. “It’s because Senior Martial Brother Shangguan was the first cultivator with mutated spiritual roots our group’s accepted in several hundred years!”
Wei Haolan then turned towards Mo Tiange and smiled. “Fellow Daoist Ye, aren’t you very curious? In a cultivation group for female cultivators like Bixuan Court, the one with the best aptitude is actually a male cultivator.”
Mo Tiange shook her head. “Spiritual roots are hard to control. Whether favorable spiritual roots fall on men or women isn’t something humans have the power to decide.” In Xuanqing School for example, when it came to who had the best aptitude, it was most likely her, right? Nevertheless, within the several generations at Xuanqing School, not only were the disciples with single spiritual roots all males, but there was even only one female among its current six Nascent Soul cultivators.
“You’re right.” Wei Haolan smiled bitterly. “Ay! Although we all know this wasn’t Senior Martial Brother Shangguan’s fault, this was still quite hard to accept. In fact, don’t you think the three elders feel the same way? However, there’s nothing we can do about this. Right now, Senior Martial Brother Shangguan’s the one who has the highest chances of advancing to the Core Formation realm, and he even has a chance of advancing to the Nascent Soul realm. Our Bixuan Court hasn’t had a Nascent Soul cultivator for a millennium; we couldn’t miss this opportunity just because he’s a male cultivator.”
By the end of her monologue, Wei Haolan’s face looked determined.
Mo Tiange couldn’t help but feel admiration towards her. Although Wei Haolan was envious, she still restrained herself for the sake of her group—a person like her was indeed suitable to be a Sect Head.
“Sect Head Wei’s open-mindedness really has to be admired.”
Wei Haolan shook her head. “Truth be told, my heart has always found this really hard to accept, but since I couldn’t talk about this to anyone, I always felt suffocated. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to talk like this to my fellow martial sisters, but I know Fellow Daoist Ye isn’t someone with a loose mouth... A male cultivator’s unexpectedly Bixuan Court’s most promising cultivator, and the group has done everything it can to nurture him. I have to be summoned by the three elders before I may enter this Dao-Achieving Pagoda, yet the rules here don’t apply to him... He’s a Foundation Building cultivator, but he already cultivates here.”
At this point, Mo Tiange felt a bit baffled. “Sect Head Wei, since Fellow Daoist Shangguan’s talent is outstanding and he’s also fully supported by your group, why does he still look like a middle-aged man?”
Wei Haolan seemed to be startled by her question but she soon chuckled. “Fellow Daoist Ye, you came from Kunwu, so you don’t understand the situation in Linhai. If he had enough medicinal pills, Senior Martial Brother Shangguan might’ve long advanced to the Core Formation realm already. But since we’ve always been short of medicinal pills and we’ve never been able to concoct Dustless Pills, he’s been delayed for many years.”
“Oh, so that’s why...” Mo Tiange understood now. Wasn’t Bixuan Court treating her so cordially just because of her skills in pill-concocting? They were short of supplies and they also lagged in the art of pill-concocting; even if they had genius cultivators, it’d be hard for them to really achieve anything.
The two of them lingered on this floor for a while. In the end, Wei Haolan sighed, calmed down, and once again smiled at her. “Fellow Daoist Ye, let’s go up. The third floor is just above us.”
Mo Tiange nodded then followed Wei Haolan towards another Transporting Formation. With a flash of blinding white light, they finally reached the third floor.
“They’re here.” Mo Tiange heard a kind voice and directed her gaze towards the source of the voice.
She saw three female Core Formation cultivators sitting on the floor. Sitting on the left was Elder Qingmiao. As for the one on the right, she looked like she was just a little over thirty years old and seemed to have maintained her appearance very well because she was still very pretty; Mo Tiange could see some resemblance to Tang Shen, so she guessed this must be Elder Qingxi. The female cultivator sitting in the middle gave off the most powerful aura among the three of them, so she should be the cultivator with the highest cultivation level at Bixuan Court now, Elder Qingyi. She looked like she was about the same age as Elder Qingmiao, but her facial features seemed much kinder.
Wei Haolan led Mo Tiange towards the three elders then saluted them reverently. “Haolan greets the three Elders.”
Elder Qingyi, who was sitting in the middle, smiled and said, “No need to be too polite.” Her voice sounded the same as the voice from a moment ago.
“Thank you, Elder.” Wei Haolan stood up then began introducing them to Mo Tiange. “These are the three Core Formation elders of my group. Elder Qingmiao has met Fellow Daoist Ye before. This is Elder Qingyi, and this is Elder Qingxi.”
Mo Tiange guessed correctly. The one in the middle was Elder Qingyi, and the one on the right was Elder Qingxi.
“Junior greets the three Elders.” Mo Tiange greeted them with cupped hands.
The three elders looked intrigued upon seeing her neither humble nor arrogant demeanor. Elder Qingyi said with a smile, “Little Friend Ye doesn’t have to be too polite.” After she said that, she said to the two other elders, “As expected of someone who came from a prestigious cultivation group. This kind of demeanor... We wouldn’t even find a few people in our group with this kind of demeanor.”
Elder Qingmiao nodded. “Senior Martial Sister’s correct. It seems we have to send our disciples out to gain experience more often. It’s only by experiencing many things that they can mature...”
“En, now that you mentioned going out to gain experience, it’s almost been two years since that Girl Yan and the others went out. They haven’t sent us any messages...”
These words jolted Mo Tiange’s heart, though her expression remained the same.
“Oh, right! Little Friend Ye’s here!” Seeing Mo Tiange standing there silently, Elder Qingyi chuckled and said, “Pardon me, Little Friend Ye; I’m old, so I’m a bit muddle-headed.”
Mo Tiange smiled and lowered her gaze slightly. “Senior’s too humble; you’re not old at all...”
“Hehe, we’re cultivators—how could our appearances be real?” Elder Qingyi laughed softly. “Getting old is getting old; no matter how good one takes care of their appearance, that fact won’t change... However, Little Friend Ye’s really young oh! You seem to have not reached fifty years old yet, right?”
Mo Tiange answered, “Senior’s really insightful; Junior’s thirty nine years old this year.”
“Little Friend Ye’s indeed young and promising! You’re only this old, yet not only do you have outstanding concocting skills, but your cultivation level’s also already in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm...”
Mo Tiange instantly looked up, completely shocked by what Elder Qingyi said.
Still with the same kind smile, Elder Qingyi continued on slowly: “What’s even rarer is that Little Friend Ye’s Breath-Concealing Technique is so outstanding that even Core Formation cultivators cannot see through it...”