Chapter 378 – Gifts of Gratitude

Gongyi Tianheng faintly smiled.

Gu Zuo continued to speak: “At first glance, the explanation behind Manager Lou Wei giving us the Gate Opening Pearl sounded reasonable at the time, but it was actually a little far-fetched. Now that I think about it, Brother Shen probably made discreet inquiries and gained a clear understanding of big brother’s identity. As a result, he specially presented the Gate Opening Pearl to us.”

Meanwhile, Tianheng said: “That might’ve been the reason, but if Ah Zuo didn’t have heaven-level potential, a businessman like Shen Yuanbai definitely wouldn’t have given away the Gate Opening Pearl for nothing.”

Gu Zuo nodded his head: “In any case, Shen Yuanbai really is a broad-hearted man who knows to repay favors.”

Tianheng smiled and said: “We can make friends with him.”

Gu Zuo replied: “Right, we can be friends.”

As for Shen Yuanbai —

After he paid a formal visit to the Blood Transformation Palace Master, he came back not long after.

Gu Zuo saw this exceptional genius, or perhaps “concealed prodigy” was more apt, and discovered that this person seemed to have done something big. The feelings he gave others were completely different from just a while ago.

Gu Zuo really wanted to inquire about it, but once he considered that it was that guy’s private matter, he didn’t ask.

This time around, Shen Yuanbai didn’t tarry, and said goodbye to the pair. Afterwards, under Tianheng’s farewell, he swiftly departed from Ten Ultimates Sect.

However, just as Tianheng sent him on his way, the Blood Transformation Palace Hall unexpectedly issued a degree to summon Tianheng.

Gu Zuo made a helpless expression.

Tianheng rushed over as quickly as possible, and said to Gu Zuo: “Master probably has something important.”

Gu Zuo watched Tianheng go. In his heart, he was silently thinking: This important matter probably has something to do with that Brother Shen…

One hour later.

Tianheng returned. His expression was somewhat subtle.

Gu Zuo: “…Big brother?”

Tianheng said: “Ah Zuo, master called me. Firstly, he asked about Brother Shen’s personal character.”

Gu Zuo nodded his head: “His character is pretty good.”

Tianheng continued: “Secondly, he asked about Brother Shen’s current assets.”

Gu Zuo: “Huh? The Divine Wind Trading Company…”

Tianheng followed up: “Thirdly, he ask me to look at Brother Shen’s gifts of gratitude.”

Gu Zuo: ???

Tianheng sighed: “Among the things Brother Shen presented to master — There were two source crystals, ten stalks of spirit medicine with sixty percent spirituality, ten stone ova, one earth-level spirit weapon with eighty percent spirituality, three earth-level pills…as well as numerous precious objects. The inventory is nearly uncountable. It would be impossible for ordinary Celestial Realms to purchase one or two of such gifts. Some Noble Realm powerhouses would view these gifts as a hoard of treasure. As for Royal Realm powerhouses, if they took out these resources, they would ruin themselves…”

Gu Zuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva: “Brother Shen hasn’t caused himself to go bankrupt, right?”

Tianheng faintly shook his head: “I think that, ever since Brother Shen was rescued, he had been developing the Divine Wind Trading Company and gathering these precious resources for this exact purpose. Now that Brother Shen gained a friendly relationship with me, he also gained the chance to pay a formal visit to master. Thus, he brought everything over to make these offerings all at once.”

Gu Zuo blew out some air: “Brother Shen is truly considerate.”

Tianheng’s gaze bore a peculiar look: “Master met with Brother Shen because of me, and because master didn’t remember raising a hand to rescue Brother Shen back then, he simply accepted Brother Shen’s gifts of gratitude. After Brother Shen departed, the gifts ought to have been placed in the storehouse. When master examined them, he unexpectedly discovered that the objects inside were so precious. He had no other choice but to summon me to ask questions.”

Gu Zuo thought about the Blood Transformation Palace Master’s state of mind at this moment, and couldn’t resist chuckling: “The palace master must’ve felt very complicated.”

Then, he couldn’t help saying: “The palace master is a thankful person, and he always wants to give servile races as presents. Brother Shen isn’t a member of Ten Ultimates Sect… Big brother, how does the palace master want to treat Brother Shen? With the palace master’s temperament, he definitely wouldn’t consider the act of raising a hand to be worthy of this many good things.”

Tianheng also laughed and said: “Servile races naturally can’t be given as gifts. However, master probably has a deep impression of Brother Shen. In the future, perhaps master will take care of him through other means.”

Gu Zuo shook his head: “Brother Shen is too straightforward. If he had only taken out one or two of these gifts of gratitude, that would’ve already been enough to express his thanks. By giving this many all of a sudden, wouldn’t that make the palace master feel embarrassed?”

Tianheng raised an eyebrow. He appeared to have thought about something. After a short moment, he said: “Master gave me a Blood Transformation Token, and asked me to give it to Brother Shen. With this token, Brother Shen will have three opportunities to come looking for master for guidance on martial disciplines. He will also have one chance to summon master for rescue during a time of calamity.”

Gu Zuo blinked his eyes: “If it’s like this, then Brother Shen hasn’t made a loss?”

Tianheng’s gaze faintly moved. He smiled, but didn’t say anything.

This matter had reached up to this point, and was concluded.

Because Tianheng bore a mission entrusted by the Blood Transformation Palace Master, after he said goodbye to Gu Zuo, he swiftly descended the mountain. Then, Tianheng went looking for Shen Yuanbai to give him the token.

Shen Yuanbai travelled very quickly. Unexpectedly, he had already left Ten Ultimates City. Naturally, Tianheng had to chase after him…

As for Gu Zuo, he burrowed back into the medicine refining room, and started the medicine refining plan he prepared earlier.

First, he began with the golden-level Innate Mending Pill.

He refined this type of medicinal pill for the development of Tianheng’s subordinated racial groups.

Regardless of whether they were members of servile races, battle slaves, or dependent organizations, those with congenital defects were bound to be few in number. However, the number of people with insufficient innate talents or miscellaneous attributes wasn’t low. These individuals were also considered manpower. Since their aptitudes weren’t good enough, they had no way to advance a step further. As such, so long as there were Innate Mending Pills on hand, their aptitudes would be supplemented. Then, would there be any worries about not obtaining their loyalties?

For the golden-level Innate Mending Pill, it could, at most, repair the congenital deficiencies of martial artists already at the Atomic and Ascendant Realms — One needed to know that, the higher the realms of a martial artist, the harder it was to resolve their congenital problems. If it was a Celestial Realm, even if it was the golden-level Innate Mending Pill, it would only be able to make them feel somewhat comfortable. The pill had no effect in allowing them to completely recover.

The advantage of the golden-level Innate Mending Pill was that its medicinal properties were gentler than that of its profound-level and earth-level counterparts. From Houtian to Ascendant Realm martial artists, all of them could take it, unlike the profound-level and earth-level Innate Mending Pills. If a martial artist of a lower realm mistakenly took one of those higher-realm pills, if their physical body wasn’t strong enough, they would blow up. Contrary to expectations, their viscera and internal organs would explode.

Gu Zuo sat cross-legged in front of a golden-level pill furnace. To his side were medicinal ingredients that piled up into a mountain. He composed himself, and his expression was serious. His fingers moved like butterflies flitting through the flowers as he formed numerous hand seals.

At the same time, a wisp of wondrous fire burst forth from his fingertips. In an instant, it dropped underneath the pill furnace, and faintly burned.

The present Gu Zuo no longer used ordinary earthly fires when refining medicine. Rather, he consciously started to temper himself with wondrous fires. Although this occasionally caused situations where his improper control wasted the pills, so long as he could smoothly manipulate the fire, what he obtained were medicinal pills of even higher product grades than before!

One medicinal ingredient after another was thrown into the pill furnace.

It seemed like a milky-white radiance was circulating across his face, and an invisible power was waxing and waning in the space between his eyebrows.

As he refined the medicine, he operated his inner cultivation method. This allowed him to simultaneously advance his internal qi realm and spiritual path realm. Though the energies of both sides were also being simultaneously used up at this moment, this allowed him to form an equilibrium. Moreover, the lower the realm, the higher the rate of improvement that exceeded the rate of consumption. Thus, as he improved, he neglected neither realm. However, once his realms became more profound, he would only be able to form an equilibrium at most. Under a balanced state, it was through the continuous circulation of internal qi and psychic power that he tempered himself. It was the quality, not the quantity, of both aspects that would be improved.

Of course, with regards to pharmacists, one could swallow supplemental pills that replenished their internal qi prior to refining medicine. Although this could cause the internal qi to destabilize, after going through periods of medicine refinement, the quality would automatically become genuine and stable in the process.

It was just that this method couldn’t be used on medicinal pills that were unfamiliar or beyond one’s rank. Otherwise, it would waste great amounts of one’s internal qi and psychic power. It was to the point that, due to the need for a high degree of concentration on the mind, it would cause their internal qi to empty and their qi oceans to run dry… The pills would also be wasted, and their psychic powers would be injured.

Currently, Gu Zuo was refining the Innate Mending Pill. He was already very familiar with it.

In the storage space, countless strands of medicinal qi sprung out and rapidly entered Gu Zuo’s qi ocean. Soon after, the qi ocean was continuously filled, and the rays of light on the lotus throne became ephemeral. The wondrous fires overflowed with strands of heat, which constantly permeated the qi ocean. This caused the profound qi inside the qi ocean to roil like waves of fire. The sight was elegant and magnificent. Nothing more beautiful could be imagined.

At the same time, a blast of energy surged up from below, and dashed straight into Gu Zuo’s Tianfu Acupoint. It sank into that plump psychic core, and innumerable strands of psychic power were absorbed and released by the psychic core. Amid the undulations, the strands threaded together seamlessly.

Gu Zuo’s fingers moved incessantly, and formed many abstruse hand seals.

Every hand seal seemed to possess an uncanny connection to the next hand seal. One followed into another, and some hand seals even harmonized. And it was precisely due to these harmonizations that the medicinal liquid inside the pill furnace dissolved and fused together with the fastest speeds, forming the medicinal pills.

All of a sudden, Gu Zuo pulled his hands back!

At once, a beam of purple light streaked across the interior of the pill furnace. Immediately following which, the furnace shook, the lid opened wide, and several lights swiftly escaped. At this moment, another hand seal burst forth. It seemed as if a dozen or so overlapping hand prints formed over the pill furnace. These hand prints made scooping motions towards all directions — Swish!

Three light-blue medicinal pills promptly appeared in a jade tray on the side.

Gu Zuo’s psychic power swept over.

One prismatic pill and two flawless pills.

— This was considered his normal standard. Ah, there wasn’t any extraordinary performance.

He rechecked his internal qi and psychic power. As before, he maintained a balanced state, and his control over the wondrous fire was going smoothly and easily. The situation was still considered pretty good.

Gu Zuo knew that this was just his way of warming up. He just had to shake off a bit of rust and limber up.

Hence, he rummaged around his sleeve, took out two jade bottles, and placed them on the other side of the jade tray. Soon after, he pointed his finger. Under the effects of his psychic power, the three pills rapidly shot out to the left and right. Then, they separately fell into the two long-necked bottles.

After this, Gu Zuo started the refinement of the second furnace of medicinal pills.

His actions were just like before. The ingredients went into the furnace, the wondrous fire blazed, the hand seals erupted, and the furnace bore a purple river… This time around, there were two prismatic pills and one flawless pill.

There was a little bit of progress.

Closely following this was the third furnace, fourth furnace…

Most of the time, each batch had one flawless pill and two prismatic pills. Occasionally, there would be two flawless pills and one prismatic pill. However, it was comparatively rare for all three to be prismatic pills.

Even Gu Zuo couldn’t refine prismatic pills that easily.

But among pharmacists, with this kind of achievement, one could already smile proudly against any circumstances.

This manner of refining continued. Gu Zuo didn’t know how long he stayed in the medicine refining room. It was only after he refined all of the medicinal ingredients for the Innate Mending Pills that he slowly retracted his hands.

At this moment, due to his nonstop refining, the energies within his qi ocean and Tianfu Acupoint had become dense and penetrating. This made Gu Zuo somewhat happy and pleased.

Once Gu Zuo received all of the Innate Mending Pills, he solemnly took out a stone ovum.

He was done warming up, and he had shaken off any rust. As such, he could refine some medicinal pills that were suitable for his big brother to use right now.

The present Tianheng was already a mid Immortal Realm, and his strength could sweep away nearly all other Immortal Realms. Gu Zuo believed that, with the support of his big brother’s six qi oceans, even if the other was a top-notch prodigy, it was impossible for that person to be his big brother’s opponent!

Also, because there were six times as many qi oceans as that of the average martial artist, while many people took human-level medicinal pills, even if those were grade twelve flawless pills, they were practically useless to Tianheng.

As a result, Gu Zuo worked up the courage, and intended to refine golden-level pills for his big brother.

Currently, what he wanted to refine were True Yang Pills — Back then, when he refined Minor True Yang Pills, he used spirit medicines. Now that he obtained a wondrous medicine that contained the power of the sun, he decided to test how useful this type of wondrous medicine was for his big brother!

As a pharmacist, there was never any lack of motivation to research…

Taking out a knife, Gu Zuo cut open the stone ovum. Right after that, he tossed the stone ovum to the front, and he himself swiftly stepped backwards. In addition, his psychic power rapidly spread out, and formed a huge net that enveloped everything!

The facts proved that Gu Zuo’s way of handling things was absolutely correct.

Because the instant the stone ovum was cut open, a ray of extremely resplendent light tore through the air and escaped. In the blink of an eye, the entire medicine refining room was illuminated. It was almost glaringly bright!

And within this brightness, that ray of light wanted to leave the medicine refining room. If Gu Zuo’s psychic power hadn’t already covered every inch of the room, the ray of light would’ve definitely escaped. At that point, capturing it would’ve been impossible. The instant the ray of light touched the net, the psychic power transformed into a cage to trap it.

Gu Zuo wasn’t careless in the least. He mobilized at least seventy percent of his psychic power to form this imprisoning cage. While both of his eyes were tightly shut, he didn’t dare to neglect anything.

No less than an hour passed. The brightness was gradually weakening, and the struggling movements of the ray of light inside that cage were also slowly calming down.

Gu Zuo opened his eyes, and his psychic power moved.

That cage was pulled closer, which allowed him to clearly see the appearance of the object inside.

This was a bird-shaped plant. It looked exactly like a real bird, and the details of every feather were present. Its form was a fiery-red color, and there were three claws beneath its body.

Gu Zuo exclaimed: “A three-legged Golden Crow.”

However, he was aware that this wasn’t a bird. After holding it in his hand, he could detect that only liquid was flowing around inside. There were no tactile sensations that indicated a bird’s flesh and bones.

The name of this type of wondrous medicine was Golden Crow Grass.

Among wondrous medicines, Golden Crow Grass was considered relatively special. The heat inside of it was extraordinarily powerful, and its range of uses was extensive. Generally speaking, when martial artists who possessed the same powers as this type of wondrous medicine were breaking through certain barriers or cultivating the corresponding martial disciplines, they would think of all kinds of methods to search for it, and refine it into medicine.

And now, Gu Zuo wanted to use it for refining True Yang Pills. They would be given to his big brother for nurturing that reddish-gold qi ocean.

Gu Zuo was hardly stingy — He would only use the very best for his big brother.

One would only see him using both hands to clasp that Golden Crow Grass. The pads of his fingers pushed against the bird belly of that wondrous medicine, lightly squeezing towards a fire jade bowl — In a split second, a drop of reddish-gold liquid oozed out from the bird beak, and fell into the fire jade bowl.

A wave of incomparably hot energy burst forth. There was only a single drop of medicinal liquid, and it was already like a small sun. It unleashed the unparalleled and glorious light of a brilliant eye!

At the same time, after this drop of medicinal liquid was spat out, the luster of the Golden Crow Grass faintly darkened.

Gu Zuo took out a small box, layered the interior with fire jade, and placed the Golden Crow Grass inside. After that, he put everything into the storage space.

Fire jade could maintain the Golden Crow Grass. Although fire jade couldn’t foster the Golden Crow Grass as strongly as the minerals and crystals that similarly possessed the power of the sun, it could still preserve the medicinal properties of the Golden Crow Grass, and prevent any deterioration.

Immediately following this, Gu Zuo brought out a bucket of extremely pure Spirit Spring Water. He lifted the fire jade bowl, and emptied it into the Spirit Spring Water — Tss, tss!

After a plume of snow-white steam rose up, the bucket of Spirit Spring Water had turned reddish-gold. The color and luster were gorgeous, and the quality of the water seemed like amber. Although it appeared to flow and churn like a liquid, it also caught the light like it had solidified into the facets of a gemstone.

Gu Zuo saw this, and inwardly nodded his head.

Soon after, he ignited the Earthen Core Flame, and tossed in the numerous medicinal ingredients needed for the True Yang Pill. Finally, he extracted three drops from the bucket of reddish-gold Spirit Spring Water, and delivered them into the pill furnace.

Within the furnace, a violent reaction occurred!

One strand of milky-white medicinal qi after another poured out of the pill furnace, and swiftly flew into the space between Gu Zuo’s brows — They weren’t being absorbed by Gu Zuo. Instead, they were directly entering the storage space, becoming Gu Zuo’s accumulated medicinal qi.

At the same time, the pill furnace wobbled back and forth as if something was constantly colliding with the walls inside. However, the medicinal fragrance was dense, and filled the entire medicine refining room. It seemed like a reddish-gold sunrise. It was incredibly beautiful!

Suddenly, the furnace let out a loud rumble.

Gu Zuo hurriedly formed countless hand seals to enshroud the pill furnace.

The furnace’s lid abruptly flew up, and quite a few streaks of red light shot out!

Innumerable hand prints enveloped the furnace, seizing the lights left and right. At last, when Gu Zuo’s forehead was damp with rivulets of sweat, nine medicinal pills appeared within the fire jade bowl on the side.

All of them were reddish-gold. Each one looked like the morning sun shining against a rose-tinted sky.

Gu Zuo lowered his head to take a look.

The product grades of these medicinal pills were…

Two grade twelve flawless pills, three grade eleven pills, and four grade ten pills.

To be honest, the results were average.

However, Gu Zuo was very happy because his attempt was a success. He could sense that even the grade ten pills contained a power of the sun that was superior to that of normal True Yang Pills. Sure enough, the effects of the Golden Crow Grass were out of the ordinary!

It was just that, although the medicinal effects of grade ten and grade eleven pills were decent, they also contained trace amounts of impurities. He wasn’t willing to give any medicinal pills that had impurities for his big brother to consume, even if the levels were low enough to be negligible.

Therefore, Gu Zuo divided the batch into three bottles, and put away these medicinal pills. After that, he carefully pondered the process of pill refining just now, and summed up the experiences that prevented all of the pills from becoming flawless… Then, he started the refining of the next furnace.

One furnace, two furnaces, three furnaces…

The proportion of flawless pills that appeared rose higher and higher. Gu Zuo’s spirit was stimulated, and he kept refining till twilight colored the sky and darkness covered the land. He didn’t distinguish between day and night.

…That was, up until Tianheng’s voice echoed out.

T/N: A slight, retroactive change from “earth fire” to “earthly fire”.

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