Supreme Emperor of Mist

Chapter 85: Searching For An Illuminated Path

Over a hundred kinds of thoughts were going through Qin Lan's mind after Hu Jia left the room to withdraw all the available Jewel Lotus Fruit from the storage room.

This expedition to the Precelestial Essence Mine allowed Qin Lan to understands what he's lacking right now. To someone with two lifetimes of experiences, a wake-up call like this was a crucial reminder to him.

Of course, the main reason behind what he's lacking is not because he's lazy. It was due to his inability to made up his priority. It was like forcing a farmer to suddenly handle an orchard because he's capable of growing excellent quality herbs.

"Even Qing Yun, who started later than Lu Yi and me, is a sixth-level cultivator right now... And here I am, merely making a step further from the fifth-level..." Qin Lan sighed. The low cultivation level of his is indeed a hindrance to the goal he's trying to reach.

As a mentor of mankind's first Supreme Emperor, slaughtering the Crimson Battle Wolf was supposed to be an easy task. This was the first reminder to Qin Lan during their trip.

The second reminder soon came when he's forced to disclose the existence of his Spiritual Container Physique before everyone when confronting the Crimson King.

And for the third wake-up call, it actually came during their fight against the Thunder Roaring Palace's Yang Yuan... The fact Qiankuan Golden Sword failed to prevent Yang Yuan from killing the other cultivators mercilessly still disturbs Qin Lan's mind until today.

"Husband, I'm back with the Jewel Lotus Fruit..." Hu Jia returns brought Qin Lan back from his deep thought. Smiling, Qin Lan accepted the Qiankun Pouch from Hu Jia's hand as he hinted her to take a rest first.

"Then... I'll warm the bed first..." Hu Jia shyly excuses herself after she caught his hint. It pains her for not able to do something for her husband. Closing her eyes and rest, she quickly fell into a deep slumber as she knew that Qin Lan will be doing something very soon.

That night, Qin Lan quietly left the spiritual cave with the two thousand Jewel Lotus Fruits. Because there's a hint of hesitation in his mind when it comes to refining the Crimson Battle Wolf's part into a Treasure, Qin Lan decided to put his thought aside.

Wandering aimlessly with the Thousand Miles Travel in a Step technique, Qin Lan left the Cloud Plucking Sect's boundaries shortly. When he finally stops moving, Qin Lan is standing right outside of a quiet village with less than 200 villagers.

The broken shack in front of him ended up as his accommodation after Qin Lan made sure nobody stays there anymore.

...

...

...

As he was out of motivation on what he was supposed to do, Qin Lan decided to make himself comfortable in a small village not far from the Cloud Plucking Sect. 

"Master Alchemist, please refine me some pills according to the ingredients I have here." a second-level cultivator politely placed the ingredient on top of the table.

"Hmm..." Qin Lan checked the ingredients brought by the second-level cultivator seated before him.

"From the ingredient here, I can refine a set of Fasting Pill and Blood Clotting Pills for you. Do you want to continue?" Qin Lan asked.

"Yes, master alchemist!" the cultivator excitedly agreed to Qin Lan's suggestion.

"Let's start." Qin Lan started the refining process by igniting the firewood below a low-quality medicinal cauldron. Because there was no Spiritual Energy is used in this refining process, the procedure went slower than usual.

A pill refining process that takes less than ten minutes to complete now took an hour to finish.

Shutting his eyes and went into deep thought, Qin Lan waited for the pill to get ready. In the meantime, a few discussions have started amongst the villagers that came to witness Qin Lan's ability.

"Do you think he can refine the pill successfully?" one of the villagers asked. After all, this was Qin Lan's first customer.

"We can only hope he can. It took Old Wu close to a week to harvest those herbs from the outer forest, so if it's failed, he'll have to work all over again." another villager answered.

"The refining is done! Guess how many pills he produced from a set of ingredients!" a villager excitedly announced it loudly the moment the flames died.

Qin Lan smiled. Since the villagers are so excited, he decided to push the cauldron over to let them check it out themselves.

The second-level cultivator slowly opened the cauldron.

A smile soon appeared on his face when he was greeted with a pill of seven Blood Clotting Pills and five Fasting Pills. Even the villagers could not believe what they saw as no one has told them before that two different kinds of pills can be refined together in a single pot.

"Thank you, master alchemist. What is the cost for refining them?" the cultivator thanked Qin Lan to the point he's almost kneeling before Qin Lan.

"Hmm..." Qin Lan rubbed his chin for a while as he considered the price for his service. After giving it a thought for a minute, Qin Lan took the ginseng plant from the leftover as his payment.

"This will be enough. If there anything else you need me for, feel free to come and visit me." Qin Lan smiled and signaled them to go away.

The crowd quickly dispersed not long after that. There was no longer any business coming in on that evening. But the next day morning, the number of waiting cultivators has increased to two people.

"Hello, is the Master Alchemist is here, please?" one of the two cultivators asked. In his hand is a pouch of medicinal ingredients.

"Look's like the business is slowly coming," Qin Lan smiled. Opening the door and inviting the two cultivators to come in, Qin Lan get himself ready to see what ingredient they brought over today.

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Note: Our story is slowly entering the end of book 2. Thank you for all the support so far.

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