Chapter 57 - The Scum Is Fickle

This is one of the rules of the Intersect Competition, thus many promising disciples were offered of prominent sects and some sects will be successful in their poaching. The weaker sects blame Xie Lan who proposed that a disciple's oath should be taken only when they decided to become an elder of their sect. Meanwhile, the stronger sects are happy to bully the weaker sects. However, they can't argue with Xie Lan's reason that one has their own Dao to take. If they cared for their disciple, they would let their disciple fly. If their disciple would change sects, they only to be partially blame for choosing a fickle disciple, and reflect if they are not teaching their disciple enough.

Even if Lei Ling, Lei Qing and You Rou already promised them they wouldn't change their sect, but Xie Lan and Fan Wen aren't close-minded people. They already said they wouldn't trap their disciples on Xinfaxian, and that their disciples haven't seen enough of the world yet so they could easily promise them back then.

"Hmm… so Xiao Mo can now consume 60% of Xiao Yin's strength." Xie Lan muttered as he watched the four disciples afar. Cheng Sheng and Lei Qing chose to fight again on another place while Fei Yin and Feng Mo fought. "Lei Qing's strength isn't bad either to consume 40% of Xiao Sheng's strength." he said. Then, he took out a voice-transmitting talisman. "Wenwen." He called, the talisman glowed when his voice can be heard. The voice-transmitting talisman was created by Cheng Sheng, and he called it a 'cellphone' before. When they showed him blank expression, he dropped it. He named the talisman simply 'Voice-Transmitting Talisman', as its function.

Fan Wen's voice can be heard from the talisman when it glowed. "Don't call me that!" he hissed.

Xie Lan smiled. He may not see Fan Wen's face but he can imagine him blushing. "Wen. Why don't we have our kids – ehem, the disciples swap?" he asked.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Fan Wen confused voice came from the talisman.

Xie Lan looked at the four disciples who changed sparring partner. Cheng Sheng's opponent is Feng Mo again while Fei Yin's opponent is Lei Qing. Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin never sparred. "Let's do it tomorrow." he told Fan Wen and burned the Voice Transmitting Talisman.

Fan Wen, who's across the mountain, was confused. He also burned the Voice Transmitting Talisman and observed Li Tian, You Rou and Lei Ling from different places by splitting his soul into three to watch over them.

"East becomes West, North becomes South. The land below becomes the land above!" Li Tian said as he raised his hand. The wooden puppet turned from right to left, and flipped all over, now its feet raised up in the air. Then, the soil beneath the head of the wooden puppet rose, only to fall on it and bury it on the ground. "Whew!" Li Tian wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the wooden puppet buried on the soil. "I have to cast the spell faster." He muttered, his delicate face red from exhaustion. The longer the spell is casted, the more the energy consumed to maintain the effect of the spell before it can be casted. However, the opponent would never wait for someone to harm them. Thus, in the battle between the spell casters, the faster is the winner.

On the other side, Lei Ling bit his lip and his eyes teared up when he saw another talisman failed. Even before the Intersect Competition was announced, Cheng Sheng had been giving him some pointers. Thus, he understood and later learned the 'characters' Cheng Sheng taught him. He's surprisingly a fast learner in these things. Cheng Sheng said it is his natural talent. Thus, Cheng Sheng is also willing to teach him more about Talisman Making. Lei Ling almost kneeled before Cheng Sheng and shamelessly call him 'master'. However, they can only have one master – and that is Fan Wen.

Of course, Fan Wen has his own share of knowledge in talisman making. However, it is too general. And that, Cheng Sheng's is too specialize to the point no one can imitate his own talismans. When Fan Wen discovered this, he even urged Cheng Sheng. The reason is that Fan Wen is afraid Cheng Sheng would lose heart in cultivating after knowing his aptitude is low. Fan Wen wants Cheng Sheng to enjoy cultivation in another way – Talisman Making. It turned out Fan Wen's decision has been right since he produced a genius.

"Calm down. Calm down. Haste makes waste – " Lei Ling muttered as patted his chest, recalling the words Cheng Sheng always told him when he teaches him. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then slowly opened his eyes. "'The key isn't the originality, not its practicality – ' " he muttered. " ' – but its heart'." He said and took out another empty talisman paper. "'A talisman's originality will never be recognized, its practicality will never be realized, if it is empty.'" He said as his brush slowly but strongly wrote on the paper. When he looked at the words in the center of the talisman, he was shocked. "'Emptiness'." He muttered and saw the brush, along with the words on the talisman, disappeared. "What happened?" he asked as he took the clean talisman paper and turned it. However, the words he wrote disappeared. "'empty'." He muttered, then saw the talisman itself disappeared on his hand. "Could it be… the talisman's function is to take away one's possession?!" he exclaimed in shock.

Goodness! He had made his own talisman!

Meanwhile, You Rou pouted as she looked at the cauldron with a dark face – literally. She coughed when she inhaled some smoke and she wiped off the black marks on her face after the cauldron almost exploded. Fortunately, the cauldrons bought by their sect from the merchants passing by the Xinfaxian valley are all high-quality thus the cauldron didn't break. But, that doesn't mean she could waste their resources!

She sat on the ground, uncaring if her clothes were dirtied. She's the only daughter of the You family, and they were planning to marry her off to Feng Mo – the only son of the Feng family. However, her three elder brothers who were businessmen disagreed since they cannot bear to marry her off. Their parents exploded, asking them when will they marry her, if she's already old?! Thus, she ran away from home and became a disciple of the Xinfaxian Sect. That way, her elder brothers would be happy and her parents wouldn't worry about her since she will take care of herself.

Her life has always been easy. It's just now that she encountered a wall. "What should I do…" she muttered. "It's already hard to concoct a pill, but to refine?" she sighed and rose from the ground. She knew, even though she's second on the Pill Concocting Rank of their sect, but she's far behind Cheng Sheng. It'll only be a matter of time for her fellow disciples behind her to catch up to her.

She walked towards the cauldron and emptied it. "I don't want to disappoint them!" she said, her voice determined as she took out a new batch of ingredients. "'Magic pills have many uses. Medicine, rejuvenating, or even poisoning.'" She remembered Cheng Sheng told her.

"Shimei, why do you pursue Pill Concocting?" Cheng Sheng once asked her. "Even though it looked easy as cooking food, and since people recognize pills on how it was refined, but concocting it is actually not easy." He said. "Even if you had the ingredients, and you only needed to follow the steps, but even when cooking the food there're times it'll be burnt or undercooked." He told her. "I'm not scaring you, shimei." He said, his face serious. "It's just that, even if I'm here to guide you, but concocting pills still relies on you." He told her. "Hmm… how about this, shimei – " he looked at her. " – think this way. When concocting pills, you first need to have the right ingredients. Then, you combine them according to the steps stated on the recipe." He said and picked up an herb. "Don't you think you're this way?" he turned to her. "Pill Concocting is like you choosing which Dao to take. You need to find the right ingredients. You need to weigh the pros and cons." He said. "Then, you combine the ingredients according to the steps. You have to be tough and be firm on your decisions. Lastly – " he chewed the herb on his hand. " – you need to shape them right. You should be patient." He told her. "As for refining the pill, your heart should be clear. The calmer you are, the more the pill will be refined. You understand?" he patted her head.

"Yes, shixiong!" she answered.

"Don't hastily answer. Now, tell me – " he said. " – why do you want to pursue Pill Concocting?" he asked.

You Rou sobbed as she closed her eyes and made a hand sign to shape the pill. "I want for my family to live longer… I want them to grow old with me." She finally answered and clenched her hands. Her qi came out of her body and she wrapped the pill with her qi.

Fan Wen watched her finally reached the refining method. A smile formed on his lips when he saw You Rou's face turned pale. She was pushing herself, but, the more you exert the power of your soul, the result of is that your power will be doubled.

He turned away when he saw You Rou collapsed and a dark pill fell on the tray with a loud clang.

The next day.

"They're lively." Xie Lan said as they watched the seven left and then split into two groups, going to the opposite directions. Even after they were battered yesterday – in their own way, but they still got up the next day and then trained. Today is the second day of their training.

"What do you mean yesterday?" Fan Wen asked, referring to Xie Lan saying 'swapping' their disciples.

"In order for a limping man to walk beside his wife, he would use crutches." Xie Lan said.

"Then, use it to beat his wife when he found out she cheated on him?" Fan Wen asked.

Xie Lan almost knelt down to Fan Wen. "Wen, you…" he sighed. "I meant, one has to cover up their shortcoming in order to beat their opponent." He explained.

"Oh." Fan Wen said. "I thought you're telling a joke." He said. He didn't notice Xie Lan's face darkened. "So, what does it relate to our disciples?" he asked.

Xie Lan forced himself not to pinch his wife's cheeks. He told Fan Wen of his observations of Fei Yin, Cheng Sheng, Feng Mo and Lei Qing, the four's training. "This is the extent of their strength. Even if they'd unleash their hidden potential, their chance of beating their opponent would increase only a little higher." He said.

Fan Wen nodded. "Yes. I also observed from Xiao Tian, Xiao Ling and Xiao Rou." He said and told Xie Lan of his observation from Li Tian, Lei Ling and You Rou yesterday. "They are highly motivated, but their strength isn't enough." He concluded. Then, he turned to Xie Lan. "So, you're suggesting-" he said.

Xie Lan smiled. "Let the alchemy disciples train in martial arts, and the martial arts disciples train in alchemy." He said. "That way, they can see what they're lacking in and learn from it." He explained.

Fan Wen's eyes widened. He suddenly felt enlightened. "Lan, that's such a brilliant idea!" he exclaimed. "As expected from the youngest sect leader!" he smiled.

Xie Lan finally can't help it but kiss Fan Wen.