Cultivation: Fortune by Lots

In front of the assembled crowd, Lei Jun hadn't planned on just standing there daydreaming, leaving his master hanging.

"This disciple's skills are far from refined, how would I dare embarrass myself?"

Following Yuan Mobai's lead, Lei Jun naturally stepped back, "This disciple will go prepare the alchemical tools and ingredients needed for Master's pill refining."

With Wang Guiyuan in secluded cultivation, it naturally fell to Lei Jun to handle these sorts of tasks.

To be honest, Lei Jun was actually pretty interested in witnessing the inheritance and spellcraft of a different Taoist Sacred Land.

But being made to perform in front of a group of elders like it was some kind of holiday talent show? If that could be avoided, all the better.

Besides, according to the luck from the lot, if he went up in this round of exchange and competition, even if he won and got a Seventh-Rank Opportunity, it might still sow the seeds for future trouble.

So, in the end, it was a classic fate of mixed blessings—a dead-average lot.

Meanwhile, the moderately good lot held a Sixth-Rank Opportunity, just waiting for him.

Sixth-Rank might not compare to Fifth, Fourth, or even higher opportunities, but at least there was no hidden risk attached. You could call it a pure gain.

Might as well secure what was at hand first.

There would be other chances to witness the Taoist arts of the Alchemy Cauldron Sect's Pure Yang Palace.

As he left the main hall, Lei Jun once again felt eyes fixed on his back.

He acted as if nothing were wrong and just walked away on his own.

Ever since joining, Lei Jun had heard that his own master was skilled in alchemy, but he really had never seen Yuan Mobai actually open the furnace and refine pills.

Nor had he ever spotted any relevant magic artifacts in his master's mansion or private residence.

So, as instructed, Lei Jun headed to the Great Elixir Room, explained the situation to the attendant on duty, and stepped inside.

It was hardly right to call it just a pill room—this was an entire pill palace, an independent section within the sprawling halls of the Celestial Master Mansion, occupying downright massive ground.

Alchemy at Dragon Tiger Mountain's Celestial Master Mansion placed great emphasis on the harmony of water and fire, dragon and tiger in union.

Besides the furnace flame, you also needed spiritual springs as auxiliaries.

The pill palace had no less than sixty-four standalone pill rooms, laid out in the pattern of the Eight Trigrams, all centered around eight dedicated spiritual spring wells.

*It looked almost like one of those villa complexes on Blue Star before Lei Jun crossed over*

Each independent pill room was basically a detached villa, covering several hundred meters of floor space, standing over five meters tall, radiating imposing grandeur. Inside, the pill room was further subdivided into a divine chamber, a medicine chamber, a tool chamber, and a fire chamber, all surrounding a central alchemical altar extending up three stories.

If someone at the Celestial Master Mansion wanted to refine pills, or teach disciples alchemy, they could do so in their private residence or simply come here and pick a room to use.

That Yuan Mobai didn't bother opening a furnace here, and just sent Lei Jun to collect some tools and ingredients, clearly meant the steps and rituals were being simplified.

Obviously, compared to his skill in alchemy, the Spirit Pills to be crafted today weren't going to be anything particularly outrageous—just right for younger disciples with low cultivation.

There were different types of cauldron furnaces used in Taoist alchemy, and the sixty-four independent pill rooms were thus equipped accordingly.

The cauldron Yuan Mobai wanted was called the Jiji Furnace, inspired by the Jiji hexagram—fire below, water above.

Accordingly, the Jiji Furnace had two chambers: a lower fire cauldron for containing the ingredients and flame, with a water cauldron set atop.

In the Great Elixir Room, there were sixteen Jiji Furnaces in total, with six currently in use by others for pill refining.

The remainder left Lei Jun with plenty of choice—ten left, pick any he wanted.

However…

The moderately good lot wanted him to come to the Great Elixir Room first. But just where was that Sixth-Rank Opportunity mentioned in the lot?

Yuan Mobai didn't rush him, but since the lot specifically mentioned the sequence, it meant timing was crucial—he couldn't dawdle or delay.

But he also couldn't just randomly grab a cauldron and leave in haste.

Lei Jun wasn't in a hurry to enter any particular pill room; his face was calm, but inside he settled himself down, attentively observing every blade of grass and tree around him.

…Hmm?

Lei Jun stopped short.

He actually had found something.

Only, what he found left him a little surprised.

Because Lei Jun sensed that inside his core altar, within the Liandu Hall, the Huo Sui Yang Yu was suddenly lively, and even his own spiritual consciousness felt much nimbler than usual.

*Sleeping for ages, only to have the pillow delivered to your door.*

*Did it have to be this convenient?*

But wait, that wasn't right. A few months ago, when he needed to seek out spiritual objects related to the Huo Sui Yang Yu, he'd already come to the Great Elixir Room but found nothing.

*Did something happen here recently, spawning some new spiritual object?*

Lei Jun suppressed his speculation and searched carefully once more.

He finally locked onto an empty, standalone pill room.

Entering it, Lei Jun started a frantic search.

Because the Huo Sui Yang Yu was already less lively than before.

It wasn't that he'd gone the wrong direction—maybe it was just, as the lot suggested, a matter of timing.

Altar, cauldron, fire kiln, incense burner, ancient mirror, pure steel sword, lime pool, pressing stones, mortar, air vents… Lei Jun scanned every object in the pill room.

Ultimately, his gaze landed on an unremarkable looking medicine mortar.

The Huo Sui Yang Yu's final stirrings were centered right there.

The mortar looked like it had never been used, but it seemed to possess a unique spiritual nature, resonating with the Huo Sui Yang Yu.

As time passed, though, the spiritual nature didn't disappear—but it gradually grew more restrained, sinking deep within.

In the end, even the Huo Sui Yang Yu couldn't sense it anymore.

"No wonder I had to come to the Great Elixir Room first. If I'd gone to gather herbs at the Medicinal Garden before coming, I probably wouldn't have noticed this mortar at all."

Lei Jun nodded privately. With no time to examine it closely, he stowed the mortar away for later study.

He took a Jiji Furnace and a few auxiliary pill-refining tools, then left the Great Elixir Room, heading for the Medicinal Garden.

The cauldron was heavy, but with Lei Jun's current cultivation and physique, it might as well have been feather-light, and he moved fast as lightning.

Unexpectedly, before he was even inside the Medicinal Garden, he heard quite a commotion within.

"What's going on?"

At the garden entrance, Lei Jun saw several fellow disciples carrying injured people out.

A young Taoist from the Celestial Master Mansion and a Confucian-robed youth, both looking rather battered, were being carried out horizontally.

Lei Jun recognized that Taoist—

It was clearly Zhang Yuan, who had just taken part in the Transmission Ceremony and switched from Tao Boy garb into an apricot Daoist robe.

The Confucian youth looked familiar too.

He was likely a descendant of the Fang Clan from Jingxiang, who had come with his elders for the ceremony.

Hailing from the Fang Clan and the fourth personal disciple of the Celestial Master, Fang Jian now stood at the Medicinal Garden's entrance, face serious as he watched his fellow disciple and clan junior both being hauled away.

With him were the third disciple of the Celestial Master, Zhang Jingzhen, and the siblings Li Xuan and Li Ying, who were under Elder Ziyang.

And Luo Haoran, who was familiar with Lei Jun.

"Our top priority right now is healing the wounded,"

Zhang Jingzhen still looked as serene and elegant as ever,

"Fang, go keep an eye on Zhang and Mr. Fang.

Junior Li, Junior Luo, and Junior Sister Li, come back with me to report to the elders."

Fang Jian nodded, "Sister, your instructions are perfect."

With that, he hurried away.

Zhang Jingzhen turned to Lei Jun, sighing softly, "Lei, you came to gather herbs for Master? Things got a little complicated here, but don't let it disrupt Master's affairs."

Before he was hurt, Zhang Yuan had already gathered all the necessary herbs, so Zhang Jingzhen gestured for Lei Jun to take the Jiji Furnace and medicinal ingredients back as planned.

Lei Jun said, "I'll do as you see fit, Senior Sister."

He noticed that Luo Haoran's expression was still pretty composed, but both Li Xuan and Li Ying looked rather awkward.

Lei Jun didn't say much more and left with the cauldron and ingredients.

Later, some rumors filtered out that left Lei Jun at a loss for words,

"Lei, after you went to the Great Elixir Room, Zhang Yuan, the new disciple, probably wanted to leave a good impression on Elder Yuan. So he enthusiastically volunteered to gather herbs at the Medicinal Garden, hoping to return at the same time as you.

Who would have thought he just happened to bump into Junior Sister Li and Mr. Fang Mingyuan strolling through the garden together.

Well… maybe Mr. Fang was startled, thought he'd run into an enemy, reacted instinctively, and ended up injuring Zhang."

Shangguan Hong filled him in, "Thankfully, Luo Haoran was nearby, heard the commotion and rushed over in time to intervene. But in the chaos, he used a bit too much force and managed to injure Mr. Fang as well."

Lei Jun had to admit, although the moderately unlucky lot had warned him, this development had still caught him off-guard,

"Hold on, Mr. Fang and Junior Sister Li—those two—were strolling together?"

Shangguan Hong nodded.

"Are they… together?" Lei Jun blurted out, "One of these days, are they just going to stand up and say, 'Yeah, we've got a kid together'?"

"Ahem, ahem, ahem!" Shangguan Hong wound up choking on his own spit.