Chapter 6697 Rejection
“The Moon Flame...?”
Qu Liushang was shocked.
Long Chen was actually giving his Moon Flame to this young maiden?
The Moon Flame was one of the top ten Heavenly Flames. To an alchemist, it was as precious as life itself. Yet, Long Chen handed it over without hesitation.
“Lord Long Chen...!” Mu Qing shouted, badly shocked.
“Since I’m giving it to you, take it,” Long Chen said calmly. “However, the Moon Flame cannot exist on its own. I’ll need to help you.”
Before she could refuse, Long Chen pressed a finger to her forehead and entered her inner space.
A massive tree branch wreathed in flames appeared within her spiritual world. This was a branch of the Moon Tree, the dwelling place of the Moon Flame.
Not just anyone’s inner space could support a Moon Tree. Thus, Long Chen had given her a large branch. Even if Mu Qing ultimately failed to nourish the flame properly, the branch alone would be enough to raise the little rabbit for several centuries.
If she was lucky, she would obtain the Moon Tree’s approval, and it would root in her inner space. Then, she would one day possess a complete Moon Tree.
That would depend entirely on her destiny.
With the Moon Tree branch present, the Moon Flame finally had a home. Mu Qing’s inner space became its resting ground.
“Lord Long Chen... this is too much!” Mu Qing cried.
Long Chen had given her a Divine Sovereign magical item pill furnace, and he just added the Moon Flame—something that countless alchemists coveted.
Not even the pill hall master possessed a flame of this level.
“Work hard,” Long Chen said with a smile. “The rise of our nine star line will depend on you as well.”
After comforting her and waiting for her emotions to settle, Long Chen personally oversaw her refining a furnace of pills.
As expected of a genius, Mu Qing’s first attempt already produced a golden pill. Although it was only one low-grade golden pill and the rest were failures, it was an excellent start.
Qu Liushang was thrilled by this.
This was a seedling worth cultivating with everything he had. If he couldn’t keep Long Chen, then having Mu Qing in the Starry River Palace would still be a tremendous gain. If necessary, Qu Liushang would even have his master appoint her as the pill hall master.
Long Chen offered several pointers that gave Mu Qing sudden enlightenment. He then had her continue refining. In any case, he had rented this room for some time, so she should just use it.
Long Chen and Qu Liushang soon left Mu Qing so she could practice in peace.
The pill hall plaza was now deserted. No one wanted to see Long Chen again.
Long Chen returned to the Pill Sovereign’s statue and stood before it in silence for a long while. At last, he sighed.
All of a sudden, he felt incredibly useless.
“Little brother, where do you plan on going now?” asked Qu Liushang.
He felt rather regretful now.
There were disciples from his Qu family within the pill hall. Had he known earlier, he would have selected a few clever ones to present to Long Chen. If even one caught his eye, it could have changed their fate.
Qu Liushang wanted to know Long Chen’s plans so he could prepare.
From reports after his seclusion, Qu Liushang knew that many talented juniors had emerged within his family. If given a chance, perhaps they could test their luck as well.
“I’ll return to the desolate mountain,” Long Chen replied, cupping his fists. “I’ll enter seclusion and won’t emerge until the devil slaying battle begins. Many thanks for your care, Vice Palace Master.”
Despite everything, Long Chen still liked Qu Liushang. However, his way of doing things simply did not align with Long Chen’s taste.
Qu Liushang was a bit disappointed to hear that, but he also felt relieved. If Long Chen went into seclusion, at least things would remain calm. No one dared provoke him on the desolate mountain.
Qu Liushang personally escorted Long Chen to the desolate mountain’s barrier and finally sighed with relief when Long Chen vanished inside.
Today, Long Chen had given him a bad fright. He could not believe that Long Chen had truly gouged out the pill hall master’s eyes.
More astonishing still, his own master bore no grudge over this matter and had even stopped Li Wanci from punishing Long Chen.
Then there was Long Chen’s alchemy techniques, which had utterly overturned Qu Liushang’s understanding of alchemy. And the way Long Chen gazed at the Pill Sovereign...
“Long Chen must be a major figure in the nine heavens! And these fools didn’t even bother investigating anything about him?!” Qu Liushang muttered irritably.
All who truly knew Long Chen’s past were confined within the desolate mountain, leaving Qu Liushang with no way to learn more.
Someone like Long Chen would be a central figure even in the Primal Chaos World, let alone the nine heavens. Now that he had arrived, he would definitely cause a ruckus.
Staring at the barrier around the desolate mountain, Qu Liushang silently made his resolve.
I must find a way to keep him here!
...
Long Chen sat with everyone beneath the Seven Treasure Colored Glass Tree.
Their souls were still battling within the Seven Treasure Space.
Nine star heirs were natural battle fanatics, and the savage combat inside the Seven Treasure Space perfectly stimulated that nature. Even in weakened states, they still fought without rest.
Thanks to this, their combat experience was rapidly accumulating. Their battle instincts sharpened, and they grew stronger at a crazy rate without being aware of it.
Fighting under exhaustion further squeezed out their latent potential.
Long Chen took a peek and saw Qu Yingying fighting alongside everyone on the fourth level. A mass of powerful enemies covered the sky.
However, Xue Ying was not here. Long Chen guessed she had already advanced to the next level. That was only natural.
To be able to enter the fifth level on her own showed that she had gotten stronger as well.
“Huo Linger, I’m counting on you now,” Long Chen said.
Long Chen summoned Huo Linger and the Demon Moon Cauldron. Earlier, while guiding Mu Qing, he had also been instructing Huo Linger and Yao Linger.
Yao Linger had inherited Heaven Earth power. Although the materials of the Demon Moon Cauldron could not compare to the true Heaven Earth Cauldron, when it came purely to pill refinement, it was even stronger than the Earth Cauldron of the past.
Back then, the Earth Cauldron had possessed only Earth power. On the other hand, the Demon Moon Cauldron had activated its Heaven Earth runes.
As expected, a single furnace produced nothing but top-grade golden pills. The Demon Moon Cauldron was terrifyingly powerful.
“Yao Linger, you don’t need to worry about my astral energy. Go ahead and take as much as you need. Our goal is peerless golden pills. If my astral energy is exhausted, I can quickly replenish it in the starry river,” said Long Chen.
Without an astral formation here, Long Chen’s astral energy could not recover as quickly, which had tied Yao Linger’s hands.
Now that Long Chen had said this, she chose to use a large amount of his astral energy in this refinement. As a result, the second furnace of pills produced three peerless-grade golden pills.
All of them were wrapped in pill veils that concealed their aura. Otherwise, the world’s laws would crush them, as they wouldn’t allow peerless pills to exist simultaneously.
Seeing that their cooperation was flawless, Long Chen felt reassured. His astral energy reserves were vast—enough to sustain this for some time.
Using flame as the furnace, Long Chen started refining another pill.
A giant golden pill quickly took shape.
“Sovereign Lord Pill!”
An extremely simple and flashless name. It was a pill meant to raise the cultivation base of Sovereign Lords.
For some reason, no new star’s pill formula awakened within him this time.
Long Chen had obtained the formula for the Sovereign Lord Pill from the Starry River Pill Hall. He was preparing to test it.
After all, his cultivation base had stopped at the initial Sovereign Lord realm for far too long. If he didn’t advance, he would soon fall behind.
Long Chen swallowed the giant pill filled with astral energy. But just as it entered his stomach, his stomach heaved.
The pill was expelled straight back out.
“What...?”
Long Chen stared at it, completely bewildered by this reaction.