Chapter 44: Chapter 44 Miss Shi’s Aura of Diminished Intelligence

Penglai Jade Pure View, within the Scriptural Repository, Luo Yan finally thought of his excuse and began explaining to Shi Liuli with a lengthy discourse.

The differentiation of cultivation ranks, each rank has its special significance.

Qi Refining Rank is the process from opening the Qi Sea to fully saturating it, which requires a large amount of time to draw in and refine energy.

Marrow Cleansing Rank refers to the process after the Qi Sea is filled, where True Qi is permeated into every limb and bone, cleansing the meridians and refining the marrow, a stage that can greatly enhance a cultivator’s physical qualities and extend life to around two hundred years.

Refining Mansion Rank is about transforming the Dantian around the Qi Sea into the Purple Mansion and condensing the True Qi in the Qi Sea into True Yuan, thereby laying the Daoist foundation for the subsequent critical step of “True Yuan Core Formation.”

Overall, the Qi Refining Rank takes the longest time, a short period being over thirty years and a longer period, more than sixty years.

Marrow Cleansing Rank takes the shortest time, generally less than ten years to complete.

As the most crucial step in foundation establishment, the time for Refining Mansion Rank is very flexible.

Theoretically, it only takes an average of five years to construct the Purple Mansion, and the remaining time is just for further improvement of the Purple Mansion and purification of True Yuan.

But if one skips the refinement and attempts Core Formation right after constructing the Purple Mansion, there’s nearly a hundred percent chance of failing to withstand the Core Condensation Tribulation.

Cores are divided into nine grades, with clear distinctions between good and poor quality.

For those in the Refining Mansion Rank less than a hundred years, even if they endure the Core Condensation Tribulation, the highest grade Golden Core they can form is merely lower seventh grade, which is absolutely impossible to advance to Nascent Infant later on, effectively setting a cap on their lifespan.

Therefore, everyone invests as much time as they can in the Refining Mansion Rank…

“So, what exactly are you trying to say?” Shi Liuli asked impatiently.

Luo Yan smiled slightly and said,

“Senior Sister, for this very reason, there must definitely be people who want to skip the Qi Refining Rank and quickly pass through Marrow Cleansing, thereby saving more time for the Refining Mansion to possibly raise the final grade of their Core Formation.”

“If my calculations and analysis are correct, this Pavilion should be a secret realm that allows one to jump from Qi Refining to Marrow Cleansing, or to directly enter Refining Mansion… In this way, the logic behind why our eldest senior brother slipped up makes sense.”

“Your guess does make some sense.” After pondering carefully, Shi Liuli found his reasoning convincing and looked at him in surprise, “I didn’t expect you to be quite clever, junior brother.”

“I’m not clever, I just habitually think a few steps further than others,” Luo Yan immediately replied with modesty, his squinted eyes making him appear extremely harmless.

[False persona, Synchronization Value +1.]

“Is that so?” Shi Liuli said naively, “No matter, I’ll use your conclusion to try to get more information out of our eldest senior brother!”

Having said that, she excitedly got up and ran off.

Luo Yan watched her retreating figure, the squint in his eyes conveniently masking the sharp gleam within.

This Miss Shi, you can’t say she’s stupid, as she knows how to extract information.

But if you say she’s clever, she’s indeed naïve and innocently charming.

Truly a prime fat sheep… cough, I mean, a lovely young lady.

After sending Shi Liuli away, Luo Yan returned to his workspace and continued his meticulous research in the art of cauldron crafting, completing the assignment Elder Shi Ding had set for him.

Insofar as cauldrons, they are bronze vessels with three legs and two handles, originally used for cooking meat, but later evolved into a kind of Formation magic artifact.

Mythology recounts that in ancient times the Earth Vein cracked open to the Nine Nether, allowing countless Nether Ghosts from the underworld to burst into the Mortal World. It was Shennong who collected metals from the Nine Provinces to cast the Nine Cauldrons and established the grand formation of the world, using the Nine Cauldrons to secure the Nine Provinces and once again separating the underworld from the Mortal World.

The Shennong Cauldron mentioned here is an Innate Spiritual Treasure of the same caliber as the Nuwa Stone and Fuxi Sword, used to suppress the formation’s focal point in the Nine Provinces.

For the assignment Elder Shi Ding gave Luo Yan, it was the “Quicksand Net” previously used by Lou Zhizheng, a sort of portable Cauldron Vessel used to trap enemies.

First, one must cast a small cauldron, the size of a palm will suffice.

The base should be square and the mouth circular, symbolizing “heaven is round, earth is square,” resembling a Penglai Jug and the shape of a human.

Then it would be divided into three layers, representing the upper, middle, and lower Dantians.

Last, inscribe the Formation within it, with Kan below and Dui above, carefully draw the lines, and steadily infuse it with Spiritual Power.

Thus, the Cauldron Vessel was completed.

Phew! Luo Yan took a long breath out, starting to scrutinize the Cauldron Vessel in his hands.

This object was named Quicksand Net. Once activated and thrown on the ground, the Cauldron Vessel would sink into the soil and immediately form a Formation area nine feet wide around it.

Any enemy that fell into this area would continuously sink and be trapped, as if the ground had turned into a quagmire, rendering them unable to move further.

Of course, as an extremely low-ranked Formation, the Quicksand Net’s weakness was Water System Daoist Magic.

The ‘Xiang’ says: Without water in the marsh, one is trapped.

If the Quicksand Net encountered Water System Daoist Magic, the formation “water beneath the marsh” would be reversed, rendering its ability to trap people useless.

After revisiting the crafting process, Luo Yan confirmed that there was really nothing about the artifact that could be improved.

After all, with a talent like “grasping a thousand things upon hearing one,” every scripture scroll was comprehensible at a glance and committed to memory easily. Crafting such a low-level Cauldron Vessel to perfection on the first try was naturally not at all difficult.

Well, in this case, he could make a few Cauldron Vessels to give to Qiu Changtian and Ling Yunpo, so they could carry them around.

Taking them out at critical moments for self-defense would be like having an extra card up one’s sleeve.

Just as Luo Yan began to silently calculate the combat systems of Qiu Changtian and Ling Yunpo, wondering what kind of Cauldron Vessel Formation would best complement them, he could hear Shi Liuli’s excited voice from afar:

“Junior Brother! Junior Brother! Big Senior Brother has admitted it! There really is such a Pavilion, just as we guessed!”

“Oh,” Luo Yan said very calmly.

Of course, under the illusion of a false persona using the technique of Mirror Flower Water Moon, his calmness felt naive and simple-minded, similar to the character Guo Jing.

“Task two! Task two!” Shi Liuli burst into the workshop, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him, “Quick, help me check what kind of secret realms are in the Pavilion, and how we can get through the trials!”

Luo Yan:

So I’m neither Doraemon nor an encyclopedia. Miss, do you think too highly of me if you come to me with every question?

“Do you think the Pavilion could be built in flames?” Shi Liuli casually sat on his desk and speculated, “So should we prepare some fire-resistant magic artifacts?”

“Hmm, that’s very likely,” Luo Yan thought to himself. According to Xu Changqing’s words, the Pavilion made use of the spiritual power from submarine volcanoes, so there might well be some fire-based trials.

“When will the Pavilion open?” Shi Liuli asked again, “Next month? The end of this year? Next year?”

Luo Yan pondered for a long time, then under Shi Liuli’s expectant gaze, he slowly said:

“I think you should ask Big Senior Brother about that.”

“Idiot!” Shi Liuli slapped his head, “If Big Senior Brother would honestly answer, why would I come to you for help!”

“So in Sister’s eyes, I’m just Big Senior Brother’s spare tire?” Luo Yan immediately feigned sadness.

[False Persona, Synchronization Value +1.]

“Ah, that’s not what I meant!” Shi Liuli immediately felt a bit embarrassed and hastily explained, “No, Junior Brother.”

“Because Senior Brother and Senior Sister know the answer, and were instructed by Father not to respond, that’s why I’m seeking your help. You’ll help your Senior Sister, won’t you?”

She leaned her pretty face forward, batting her big eyes at Luo Yan, and with her hands pressed together in front of her chest, she shook them back and forth furiously, making a “please” expression.

Luo Yan suddenly felt his face grow hot and quickly shifted his gaze away awkwardly.

It wasn’t that he had never seen a beautiful woman before, whether it was the cool and aloof Xu Yinglian or the gentle and soft-hearted An Zhisu, neither of them would lose to Shi Liuli in terms of looks or temperament.

But the exuberant and innocent nature of this young girl was really hard for him to handle—it was like a sweet naiveté from his high school days, reminiscent of heart-throbbing moments with a cute female classmate.

Wait a minute!

Luo Yan suddenly snapped out of his sentimental reverie.

She actually managed to affect me; could it be that Miss Shi… might actually have a natural charm to befuddle?