Cheng Kuan was the foremost alchemist of the Great Zhou Kingdom, unmatched in pill crafting.
At the same time, he served as the Pill Formula Elder of the top sect in Great Zhou, the Five Spirits Sect.
He had come a long way from Five Spirits Sect and had been in the capital for several days now.
During this period, disciples from the sect had been disappearing one after another, mostly marginal members.
At first, the sect did not pay much attention, until an inner disciple named Wu De, a student under Cheng Kuan, went missing.
This Wu De was exceptionally talented in pill refining and was a promising alchemist.
It was precisely because of this that Cheng Kuan had chosen him as a disciple.
But Wu De’s flaws were obvious—he was arrogant, overbearing, and disrespectful, with a questionable heart.
Cheng Kuan tolerated Wu De repeatedly because he was truly a rare talent.
Originally, Cheng Kuan did not want to entrust Wu De with the task of receiving the elder, knowing well that his disciple’s bad temper would easily offend others.
However, Wu De insisted on taking the task, claiming he needed the reward materials to concoct a remedy for his True Fire Injury and repeatedly promised not to cause trouble.
Only then did Cheng Kuan reluctantly agree.
As a top alchemist, to ensure the highest quality of pills and constantly improve his craft, Cheng Kuan often used True Fire in refining.
But if the alchemist mishandled the True Fire and injured themselves, it could leave a lifelong affliction.
Cheng Kuan’s repeated indulgence of troublemakers like Wu De was partly because Wu De claimed to have a way to heal his True Fire Injury.
After arriving in the capital, Cheng Kuan had also investigated the Jin Yi Tower.
It was still recruiting by day, but by night, it had been attacked.
The number of Testers who had mocked or provoked Wu De was no less than double digits.
Cheng Kuan knew his disciple was almost certainly done for.
But the spiritual stones and resources the sect had invested in Wu De would have to be compensated by whoever was responsible, or else Cheng Kuan would have to cover it himself.
Being an alchemist was already an expensive profession—there was no way he would pay for the debts of that ungrateful disciple!
The Ministry of Justice responded that the suspect was still at large—a young master from an external Cultivation Family.
It was said that this Cultivation Family, with help from the Ye family—one of the Five Great Families—had all their members brought back to the capital.
Interrogations and torture were not Cheng Kuan’s forte, so he left it to the imperial hounds.
As long as he got the compensation he deserved, that was enough.
As for Wu De—dead or alive, it didn’t matter.
Cheng Kuan had disliked him for a long time; he was always bullying the weak and deserved whatever came to him.
It was a pity, though—an opportunity to cure one’s own injury had just vanished.
There was also the possibility that Wu De was deceiving him, with no real cure in hand.
Many nobles and wealthy merchants in the capital, having heard that the Pill Formula Elder of Five Spirits Sect had arrived, eagerly sought out Cheng Kuan for treatment, offering generous rewards.
Among them was Ye Tianlu, the head of the Ye family.
“Elder Cheng, how is it? What kind of hidden ailment does my daughter Chen have?”
Since Ye Xichen had transformed into a girl, Ye Tianlu’s form of address had changed from “Achen” to “Chen’er.”
Cheng Kuan stroked his long beard, closed his eyes, and assumed a thoughtful expression.
Ye Tianlu saw hope in his demeanor.
Cheng Kuan shook his head slightly, sighed, and said:
“Regrettably, in my lifetime, I have treated countless difficult ailments, but this is the first time I’ve seen symptoms like your daughter’s.”
“Elder Cheng, really no solution at all?”
Ye Tianlu asked in disappointment.
“It’s less of an illness and more like a cultivation technique I have heard of before.”
“A cultivation technique? What technique?”
Ye Tianlu asked anxiously.
“I once saw in an ancient text a technique called the Wuji Tiankui Heart Sutra.
This technique is profoundly Yin and frigid in nature, greatly enhancing the practitioner’s strength and allowing rapid progress.
“But its conditions are extremely strict—only those with a mutated form of the Water Spirit Root, the Ice Spirit Root, can cultivate it. The technique has a side effect: if the practitioner is male, they will gradually transform into a female during cultivation. Upon mastering it, they become a cold, stunning beauty.”
“There really is such a defiant technique in the world?”
Ye Tianlu marveled.
“However, Young Master Ye’s constitution is Fire-Wood Dual Spirit Roots, which is entirely unsuitable for cultivating the Wuji Tiankui Heart Sutra.”
“Chen’er’s transformation happened suddenly, not gradually—it was as if in the blink of an eye,”
Ye Tianlu explained.
“Judging by the pulse, Young Master Ye is perfectly normal—no illness, no pain, indistinguishable from an ordinary girl.”
“But I faintly sense an unknown energy within her body.”
“What energy?”
This time Ye Xichen grew anxious.
Could it be that Cheng Kuan had discovered the presence of the old man?
On the day Zhang Yuge caused a commotion at the Ye mansion, Ye Xichen had also been helped by a mysterious elder.
Since then, she had been cultivating using the elder’s teachings.
“I can’t say exactly what that energy is, but your daughter’s cultivation has already reached Qi Refining Fifth Layer.”
“Has the Ye family considered having her train at Five Spirits Sect?”
“Qi Refining Fifth Layer? You mean Chen’er?”
Ye Tianlu asked in surprise.
This was bad.
In just one month, she had advanced from Qi Refining Third Layer to Fifth Layer.
Her father would definitely notice something.
“Father, there’s something I haven’t told you. Ever since I became a girl, my cultivation seems to have ceased stagnation. The bottleneck I faced at nine years old has been broken through.”
She confessed proactively, hoping they would attribute her cultivation breakthrough to her gender change rather than suspecting the old man had been draining her cultivation for nine years.
Cheng Kuan nodded and continued,
“How old is Young Master Ye this year?”
“Sixteen,”
Ye Xichen answered truthfully.
“Sixteen years old, Qi Refining Fifth Layer—that’s about the upper-middle level among Five Spirits Sect disciples. At Five Spirits Sect, reaching Qi Refining Fifth Layer allows one to become an inner disciple, provided it happens before the age of eighteen. Before visiting, I had heard some rumors about Young Master Ye. Your daughter has experienced hardships that others her age have not, and her temperament and willpower must be stronger and more mature than most. I believe she will reach even greater heights in the future. If the Ye family does not object, I would like to recruit her as my disciple. I can assure you that I will treat her well.”
“Well…”
Ye Tianlu hesitated.
Though he was delighted by Chen’er’s rapid progress—jumping two cultivation levels in a month—he still worried about his daughter.
“After bringing Young Master Ye back to Five Spirits Sect, I will continue to search for a permanent cure for her ailment. It will also be more convenient for her to stay by my side. If she performs well in the sect, securing a Guaranteed Admission Slot to the Divine Phoenix Sect won’t be a problem at all, given my reputation and standing.”
Hearing the mention of a Guaranteed Admission Slot to Divine Phoenix Sect, Ye Tianlu was tempted.