“Yeah! It’s not my fault! It’s the fault of Elder Brother Sect Leader’s Dharmic decree!” Having reached this point in his train of thought, Bai Xiaochun felt a bit better. After organizing all of the gifts, he went down to the market to buy a large quantity of medicinal plant ingredients for tier-2 spirit medicines. Then, he returned to the Medicine Concocting Pavilion to continue his cultivation and concocting work.
The truth was that originally, Zheng Yuandong didn’t want to get involved in the matter with Bai Xiaochun and the cultivator clans. However, the events had unfolded in shocking fashion. The previous nine Prestige disciples had all been conferred their titles posthumously, after being killed in battle. Furthermore, all of them had been members of various other cultivator clans. Although none of them had ever had any direct descendants, they all had relatives among their various clans. Because of that, no problems had ever arisen, and their clans had smoothly transitioned into being Prestige clans.
Of course, the sect highly valued and also protected such clans.
But now, Bai Xiaochun was a living Prestige disciple, a terrifying status to say the least. At first, it hadn’t been obvious, and time had simply passed by. Zheng Yuandong and many others never thought much about what it meant to have a living Prestige scion in their midst, and how enticing such a person would be to the cultivator clans.
But then, the cultivator clans began to show up in great numbers. At first, Zheng Yuandong had merely observed the goings-on. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t really matter which clan Bai Xiaochun picked. How could he have ever imagined that with all the competition, the clans would have gone to the lengths of offering their clan daughters as handmaidens, just to acquire someone with Bai Xiaochun’s bloodline?
Zhao Yuandong could only imagine what would happen if Bai Xiaochun’s gave in to the temptation. If that happened… it wouldn’t be long before he could sire hundreds of descendants. According to the clan rules, all first generation descendants of a Prestige disciple were automatically allowed to enter the Inner Sect, and would receive special treatment and training. Furthermore…. after those descendants began to propagate, there would be hundreds of branches of the Prestige clan. Within a few hundred years, the entire Spirit Stream Sect would be filled with the Bai Clan…. The final results would be grave indeed.
In addition to all that… as long as Bai Xiaochun remained alive, all he had to do was continue to sire offspring, and the matter would never end. He would become a living nightmare for the sect.
Because of such considerations, Zheng Yuandong held an emergency meeting with the sect elders, including the prime elders. Their joint decision was that Bai Xiaochun could not accept a Daoist partner for a hundred years. Although it was a bit overbearing, Zheng Yuandong felt that there was no other option. He didn’t want to bet everything on Bai Xiaochun’s ability to resist temptation. He could only hope that after a hundred years, Bai Xiaochun would grow up and be a bit more mature.
Time passed. Soon, a year had gone by.
During that time, it was almost as if Bai Xiaochun had gone missing from the south bank. Few people ever saw him. He spent all of his time concocting medicine and practicing cultivation. He rarely left the Medicine Concocting Pavilion, where he worked hard at producing tier-2 spirit medicine.
His cultivation base had also slowly made progress. Soon, he was in the middle of the seventh level of Qi Condensation. Furthermore, he resolved one problem after another when it came to concocting tier-2 spirit medicine.
The truth was that most other journeyman apothecaries at his level would have long since concocted tier-2 medicines. But Bai Xiaochun was stubborn, and refused to start concocting another batch without first resolving each and every problem he found in the previous batch.
Eventually, after an entire year, he was finally convinced that he had resolved all of the issues regarding the concoction of tier-2 spirit medicine. With all the problems gone, he began yet another batch.
“Violet Qi Spirit Ascension Pills!” he exclaimed, eyes bloodshot. They were a tier-2 medicinal pill suitable for the eighth level of Qi Condensation and under. Following the recipe precisely, he selected numerous types of plants and vegetation, organized them carefully, and then began to feed them into the pill furnace.
After carefully adjusting the Earthflame, he kept a close eye on the pill furnace, occasionally adjusting the spiritual energy he fed inside. After six hours passed, the pill furnace suddenly began to shake. A strong medicinal aroma wafted out, and Bai Xiaochun’s eyes began to shine brightly. Leaning toward the pill furnace, he slapped it on the side, whereupon three red medicinal pills flew out.
“It worked!” he exclaimed excitedly. Grabbing the three pills, he looked them over. But then, his eyes went wide. “Eee? Hold on a second. Something’s not right. According to the description, Violet Qi Spirit Ascension Pills are supposed to be violet. How come these ones are red?”
After scratching his head for a moment, he lifted the pills up to his nose and inhaled deeply. The medicinal aroma was strong, and contained plenty of spiritual energy. However, the smell was somewhat odd, and considering that they were the incorrect color, he didn’t dare to consume them.
Sitting there thoughtfully, he thought back to all of the various steps he had taken during the concocting process. Two hours later, his eyes snapped open, and he laughed bitterly.
“I put in a bit too much Superagate Flower pollen. That tainted the rest of the medicinal plant ingredients, producing this strange side-effect.” With that, he placed the three red medicinal pills off to the side, and once again began to concoct.
This time, when the pill furnace began to shake, and the medicinal aroma spread out, a single violet medicinal pill flew out. After examining it closely, an expression of deep satisfaction appeared on Bai Xiaochun’s face.
He quickly began another batch. In the following days, he continued to produce more batches, until he had a few dozen Violet Qi Spirit Ascension Pills. That having been accomplished, he sat down off to the side, exhausted. After some rest, he produced the red pills and looked at them with some hesitation. As far as he was concerned, each and every one of the pills he had just concocted was very valuable, and furthermore, when it came to ingredients, he was already starting to run short.
“According to the concocting instructions, as long as the pill is formed, it counts as a success. These red Violet Qi Spirit Ascension Pills have a bit too much Superagate Flower pollen, which caused their color to change. However, all that means is that they will have lost some effectiveness.” After a moment of hesitation, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a green bamboo needle.
It was an item he had acquired from the sect for use in medicine concocting, which could be used to make a general assessment of whether any given medicinal pill was toxic or not. After carefully inserting the needle into one of the red medicinal pills, he waited for a moment, then pulled it back out. The bamboo needle looked exactly the same as before, as opposed to being black.
“Not toxic!” he said with a sigh of relief. However, out of caution, he still chose not to consume any of the red pills. Instead, he held them in hand as he left the Medicine Concocting Pavilion. Outside in the dawn air, he began to walk down one of the small paths that wound through the sect.
Up above, he could see a flock of five-colored phoenixes gliding elegantly through the air, occasionally making piercing cries that echoed out. Ignoring the phoenixes, he headed toward one of the local Spirit Tail Chicken farms, where he acquired a spirit tail chicken. After returning to his courtyard, he put the chicken down and then tossed one of the red medicinal pills out in front of it.