Chapter 966: The Thirteenth Gate

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“Something’s not right, right? He should have been teleported out after failing? How come he wasn’t teleported out? Huh…..”

Without the need for this Holy Emperor to continue, all the people in the guest hall saw twelve green lights shoot out from Ning Cheng’s pill furnace. These twelve green lights surprisingly didn’t shoot out towards any of the twelve gates. Instead, they moved towards the void above the twelve gates.

Once these twelve green lights shot into the void, a new gate suddenly appeared above the twelve existing gates within the void itself. Moreover, it was double the size of all the twelve gates put together.

“Someone actually opened the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s thirteenth gate?” With a face full of excitement, Sheng Houtian abruptly stood up.

Le Jiesheng, who always had a smile on his face, also stood up, but with a shocked expression. He even muttered, “The rumours about the Illusionary Fruit Orchard having thirteen gates is actually true.”

Not only Sheng Houtian and Le Jiesheng, but almost everyone in the hall no longer wanted to indulge themselves in the dao fruit wine. They all stood up with a mixture of surprise and shock as they stared at the thirteenth gate on the crystal screen.

Excitement and disbelief filled the entire hall.

After a long period of shocked silence, Holy Emperor Extreme Void finally let out a long sigh. “Legend has it that the Illusionary Fruit Orchard has a thirteenth gate, containing countless spirit herbs now extinct in the Grand Essence Realm. It’s just that no one has ever managed to open it. Never did I think that someone would open it today.”

“It’s definitely Pill Sage Jing Han; only he can refine the most difficult Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill in such a short period.” Immediately, someone said with eagerness.

Many had to agree with this statement. At least in public, only Pill Sage Jing Han had this ability.

Le Jiesheng clenched his fists and suddenly felt some regrets. What Jing Han had given him was indeed precious. But even if it was valuable, it couldn’t be as worthwhile as the spirit herbs behind the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, right? What’s more, Jing Han was a Dao Transformation Pill Sage. It meant that he definitely wouldn’t stop at the first level. Didn’t it also mean that he would uncover more valuable spirit herbs the higher he climbed?

It was only after a while that he comforted himself. Luckily, whatever spirit grasses and dao fruits Jing Han harvested, he would at least get 20% of it. Although not much, it at least gave him something.

However, a dark red-faced man from the Immortal Corpse Sect had a cold smile hanging at the corner of his mouth. Grand Spirit Pill Sect’s Pill Sage Jing Han? Oh, don’t even dream about it. Fortunately, no one took notice of his Immortal Corpse Sect’s Dao Transformation Pill Sage, Dou Jiangshi, participating in the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.

Although Dou Jiangshi only had a Dao Sculpting Pill Sage’s qualification token, his alchemy prowess had definitely reached that of a Dao Transformation Pill Sage. It’s just that he didn’t go to the Pill Union to take the assessment because of a lack of time.

The Immortal Corpse Sect wanted to grow to the same level as the ten major forces in the Grand Essence Realm. And they all pinned their hopes for it on Dou Jiangshi, who was suited to all of Immortal Corpse Sect’s cultivation techniques, including the Immortal Corpse Sect’s alchemy arts.

This time, his Immortal Corpse Sect had brought Dou Jiangshi to the Illusionary Fruit Orchard to collect large amounts of resources. All to help him in alchemy and refine more spirit pills and even dao pills for the Immortal Corpse Sect. Unexpectedly, Dou Jiangshe was so accomplished in alchemy that he even managed to open the rumoured thirteenth door of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.

“Fellow Daoist Chun, you seem to hold a different view. Could it be that the alchemist who opened the thirteenth gate is from your Immortal Corpse Sect?” A middle-aged man sitting close to the dark red-faced man let out a chuckle and deliberately asked.

He was Holy Emperor Gai He[1] of the Violet Mist Immortal Valley, which had been at odds with the Immortal Corpse Sect due to a spirit crystal mine.

The dark red-faced man from Immortal Corpse Sect replied with a light tone. “Who can say for sure about such matters? Maybe it’s my Immortal Corpse Sect; maybe it’s not? But in any case, it definitely wouldn’t be your Violet Mist Immortal Valley’s turn.”

Gai He’s expressions turned sullen, and he couldn’t retort even if he wanted. His Violet Mist Immortal Valley simply didn’t have any accomplished alchemists, which was why he had to come here to buy dao fruits.

……

A Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill, no matter how complex, didn’t pose any problems for Ning Cheng. If he hadn’t helped Jian Sanshan, he could have finished refining it in a quarter of an incense stick.

But even after helping Jian Sanshan, Ning Cheng didn’t need to spend too much time refining the Primordial Cleansing Pill. He had just stood up and was about to collect the pills when he saw the twelve pills shoot up straight from the pill furnace.

Immediately afterwards, Ning Cheng’s gaze changed as he saw a new door suddenly appear in the void above the twelve existing doors. A pale green passage then suddenly materialised in front of him, leading all the way to this new gate.

A thirteenth gate? Ning Cheng looked around in confusion. The rest of the alchemists were still concentrating on refining their pills, so none of them noticed it. Even Jian Sanshan, who sat beside him, focussed all his attention on his batch of pills.

Ning Cheng quickly understood that it must have resulted from an isolation restriction. Even if he opened the gate, it wouldn’t affect the rest of the alchemists. Perhaps the other alchemists couldn’t even see him at all.

Ning Cheng sucked in a deep breath. No matter what was going on, this gate had opened after refining a batch of top-quality Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills. If the same rules still apply, he should be the only one who could enter this gate.

Thinking of this, Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and immediately stepped onto this green passage and entered this thirteenth gate. After Ning Cheng went through this gate, the gate again disappeared into the void as if it never existed. No one else realised that Ning Cheng had already left.

One incense stick after Ning Cheng entered the thirteenth gate, a zombie-faced man suddenly stood up. Twelve black lights shot out of his furnace and landed on the first gate on the left side of the wall directly in front of him.

The gate abruptly opened, and a passage emerged from the foot of the entrance to his feet. The zombie-faced man swept a glance at the surrounding alchemists with disdain before walking down the path with his head held high. A moment later, he entered the gate and disappeared. The gate also disappeared the moment he walked through it.

The moment this zombie-faced man disappeared, Jing Han raised his hand and stood up as well. As twelve pills from his furnace shot out towards a gate, he swept a glance at the many alchemists still refining their pills. A moment later, he took a step forward and prepared to step onto the passage that appeared in front of him.

However, when his feet touched the passage, his expressions suddenly changed. He noticed that only eleven doors remained of the original twelve. It meant that someone had entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard Before him.

Jing Han’s expressions turned hideous. There were only two Dao Transformation Pill Sages here. But Lei Shamu was still refining his batch of pills. In other words, someone who wasn’t a Dao Transformation Pill Sage had entered the first level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard Before him.

This was simply a slap to his face. He was the youngest and the most promising Pill Sage in the Grand Essence Realm, yet someone had actually short-changed him. Not only would he obtain inferior spirit herbs to the fellow who entered before him, but even his reputation would also fall a lot because of this incident.

Thinking of this, Jing Han no longer dared to stay here much longer. He absolutely couldn’t let this person enter the second level before him. With a flash of his body, he disappeared directly inside the gate.

……

After Ning Cheng entered the herb garden, he immediately stopped in shock.

Before entering this place, the most valuable spirit grass garden he had seen was the one left behind by Pill Sage Min Kong in the Grand Essence Mystic Realm.

But only when he came here did he realise that Pill Sage Min Kong’s garden couldn’t even compare to a tiny corner of this herb garden. The spirit herbs in this garden weren’t just rare, they were all borderline extinct species. Many of them were herbs that he had read about but simply couldn’t obtain. Either because only a few of them existed or they had already gone extinct. Yet, those sage spirit grasses were in this garden in abundance.

Nirvana Flame Fruit, Thunder Immortal Fruit, Soul Seizing Fantasy Ginseng, Measureless Jewel Flower…….

These were things that could only be imagined but not what could be seen. Ning Cheng felt ecstatic on seeing those herbs. He even started to feel even more confident about entering the third level to find the Exquisite Star Golden Hidden Leaf[2].

Ning Cheng was about to open the storage bag in his hand when he suddenly felt something wrong. His spiritual consciousness could communicate with his storage ring, as well as the True Spirit World.

As soon as Ning Cheng raised his hand, a long spear artefact suddenly emerged from the storage ring in his hand. He looked at the spear in confusion, wondering in his heart. Didn’t people say that once one entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s first level, one couldn’t use any other type of spacial storage? How come he could still use his storage devices?

Ning Cheng quickly cast away the doubt. In any case, using personal storage devices was a better option anyway. That way, he wouldn’t need to put the spirit herbs in the storage bag and instead directly transplant them into the True Spirit World.

Scouring the spiritual grass garden, Ning Cheng worked as a professional gardener. Even if there were more spirit grasses here, he swept everything away without leaving a single trace.

Ning Cheng secretly celebrated that he could use the True Spirit World here in his heart. Otherwise, his storage bag wouldn’t be able to hold so many spirit grasses.

Ning Cheng finished collecting all the spirit grasses and stood facing another gate an hour later. Unlike Sheng Huotian’s description, there was only a single door here instead of nine.

Ning Cheng guessed that this should be because he had not come in through those twelve doors. It also meant that this one wasn’t one of the original nine doors either.

This time, Ning Cheng didn’t think much and refined the Nine Orifices Heart Pill. The primary spirit grass for the Nine Orifices Heart Pill was the Nine Orifices Spirit Glaze. It was a spirit pill classified as the best Dao Raising Spirit Pill. It was also one of the most complex Dao Raising Spirit Pill when it came to refinement. The Nine Orifices Heart Pill wasn’t a dao pill. Yet, it allowed a Dao Raising cultivator to sense the path to the Dao Transformation Realm, giving them a slightly higher chance to reach the Dao Transformation Realm. Moreover, it can cleanse the essence spirit and purify the meridians as an auxiliary effect.

This pill had a high price attached to it as well. Apart from the difficulty in refining it, the Nine Orifices Spirit Glaze, an expensive item with a sky-high price, also played a huge part. The primary reason is the almost extinct nature of the Nine Orifices Spirit Glaze in the Grand Essence Realm. But in the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s first level, Ning Cheng had obtained at least a dozen stalks of Nine Orifices Spirit Glaze. He wouldn’t mind parting with a few anyway. In any case, the more complex and more valuable the pill he refined, the better it would be for him. Especially as it meant reaching areas with more valuable spirit herbs after opening the door.

Ning Cheng’s refining time was even shorter because he didn’t need to help Jian Sanshan this time. Again, in less than a third of an incense stick, twelve top-quality Nine Orifices Heart Pills shot out from Ning Cheng’s pill furnace and landed directly in the recesses on the gate. The gate immediately opened, and the rich scent of spirit herbs wafted out from behind it.

……

Jian Sanshan finally snapped out his pill art, and twelve top-quality Dry Measure Pills shot straight out of the pill furnace. Jian Sanshan stood up in surprise. As long as the Dry Measure Pills could shoot out of the pill furnace by itself, it meant that he could enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.

Sure enough, he saw three doors still unopened on the right wall. A moment later, a passage directly extended from one of the doors as if guiding him towards it.

Jian Sanshan strongly suppressed his inner ecstasy and walked into the Illusionary Fruit Orchard one step at a time. At this moment, his admiration for Ning Cheng could hardly be described in words. He was sure that Ning Cheng had already entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard before him. Just how robust was his understanding of alchemy that he could not only refine a batch of top-quality Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills. But even instruct him at the same time, in mid-refinement?

Refining twelve top-quality spirit pills in a single furnace, he, Jian Sanshan, had done it occasionally. But it was only due to luck. But he believed that he would be refining top-quality spirit pills regularly from today onwards. If nothing else, it was because of the pill art that Ning Cheng had taught him.

[1] Gai He could be both a name and a title of this person. Need a bit more context for clarification.

[2] I know it’s an odd-sounding name and a mouthful even, but the team simply couldn’t come up with a more appropriate translation, we decided to trans-literate the individual characters into English.

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