Old friend visits

"I can't believe this!" Wei Ren stood inside Gu Ping's Concoction Chamber holding his head. He looked like he had been having trouble for days. His eyes had sunken deep. His hair was dishevelled.

"Fifteen days and no success." He fell on his knees with frustration. He had spent 15 days inside the Concoction Chamber. He made twenty two White Root Pill Potions with 80 percent potency but no pills. This irritated him to the extreme. Every time he was about to succeed, a disturbance would arise and prevent him from concocting a pill. It was like someone was intentionally causing him to fail.

Pills have a better effect on cultivation than pill potions. Naturally he attempted to make pills rather than potions. But he kept failing. One thing he didn't realise was that his success rate of making Pill Potions was still absurdly high because he only focused on the failures.

Other alchemists would have been shocked to see such a high success rate even if it was only for pill potions.

"He looked inside the Pill Cauldron. There was a shiny Pill Potion gathered inside it. He scooped the potion into a small vial.

"Twenty two potions are enough for the old dwarf." He said with a discontented heart.

These potions had 80 percent potency. So if he dilutes them there would be roughly fifty potions with sixty percent potency which was what the old dwarf asked for. He couldn't help but feel that he had wasted all those ingredients.

Fifteen days of constant work improved his qi control a lot. Even his cultivation improved. He felt confident that he would be able to establish the nineteenth meridian without the help of Pill Potions.

Soon he would reach the third stage of Earth Law.

He sat down cross legged and started cultivating. His heart always settled when he cultivated. Earth Law showed its wonders and a new meridian started to form. He found it surprisingly easy to establish this nineteenth meridian. His qi control improved so much with just two weeks of concocting.

He felt that he should stop using the Devour Spell. Better control over his qi made his cultivation smoother. Devour Spell only made things worse even though his cultivation speed increased a lot.

After ten minutes, the meridian was fully established. All his tiredness was washed away. He felt like he could punch holes through trees and shatter walls with his kicks.

Over time Wei Ren was getting lost in this feeling of breakthroughs. No wonder countless others have spent years cultivating just for the sake of this feeling.

"Let's finish the second stage at once." He picked one of the twenty two Pill Potions and emptied a vial in his mouth.

A thick white qi entered his body. These Potions were several times better than White Grass Pills. This can be seen from the fact that he was able to buy those pills with just gold coins. But to buy White Root Pills he would have to spend Qi stones.

"I need more." He dropped one more Pill Inside his mouth. Another boost of qi entered his body.

Three more Pill Potions later, his body was saturated with elemental qi. There was more than enough qi to reach the third stage of Earth Law.

"Time to make the last meridian of the second stage."

Qi travelled inside his body and the outline of the twentieth meridian slowly appeared inside his chest. This was the last meridian of the second stage so it used up a lot of qi to make. It was supposed to be linked with all his other meridians. A well structured web of meridians would be formed after this stage. Normally, people are born with these intricate structures. But he was born without them. This remains a mystery to him.

When he established the last meridian, a white glow covered his body. He shined like a supreme deity. Big changes happened to his body. His speed of qi absorption increased. Even the amount of qi he could store inside his body became double the previous amount. He wondered if he would experience such a change every time he made a breakthrough in the Earth Law.

"Thank you, Emperor Starmist." He placed his hand on his heart as a wave of thankfulness entered his heart. This was the first time he thanked the unknown entity that had changed his life so suddenly. Even though there were still some questions about Emperor Starmist inside his mind, he knew that he must remain patient and wait till he completely masters the Earth Law. Emperor Starmist's last message inside his head clearly stated that he would give Wei Ren the rest of the spells of the Starmist Law when he masters the Earth Law.

Hopefully he will also explain some other things when the time comes.

After making sure that his meridians were working fine he started with the alchemy. There were a lot of ingredients left for him to make dozens of Pill Potions. He intended to make as many potions as he could. He would give Gu Ping his share and then sell the rest to buy Pills to increase his cultivation speed even more.

If he can't make his own pills then he would buy them. Moreover, he was certain that White Root Pill Potion would not help him very long. Soon his body would build a tolerance against the drug and then he would have to search for a new way to increase his cultivation.

Fifteen days later.

Wei Ren left Gu Ping's shop. The latter was ecstatic when he received the fifty potions on time. He obviously didn't ask Wei Ren about the remaining ingredients. He did try to make Wei Ren stay and make another batch of Pill Potions. But Wei Ren was exhausted beyond help. Too much work would probably damage his mind. After the incident of losing control over his meridians when he awakened Emperor Starmist's will, he knew that he must not let his mind suffer like that again.

He went straight to his immortal cave. Rest was something he really needed. Even cultivation would not help at this point. In twenty minutes, he reached his cave. He opened the entrance and walked to the bed.

Just as he was about to fall on his stone bed, he pulled a dagger out of his void ring and threw it into the dark.

Clang!

A sound of metal hitting metal rang throughout the cave.

"It is nice to see that your senses have become sharper, young master." A familiar voice entered Wei Ren's ears.

"It's good to meet you too. Bei Piao." Wei Ren smiled and sat down on his bed.

Bei Piao, his old attendent walked out of the dark and bowed before him.

He was still ashamed of his actions from the ambush incident. General Wei Tian unleashed his anger on him when he learnt that Bei Piao left his young master in danger because of his cowardice. He also made sure that Bei Piao trained even harder than before to make his mind stronger.

Finally he was allowed to see his younger master today.

"I hope that Grandpa wasn't too harsh on you." Wei Ren chuckled and gestured to him to stop bowing.

"It was necessary. He made me train for all this time without any breaks. I am deeply sorry for not doing my duty during the most important time." Bei Piao's voice cracked as he finished speaking.

"You also saved my life during the most important time. Let bygones be bygones. You are my brother. Don't worry over such small matters." Wei Ren shook his head with a laugh.

"..." Bei Piao was speechless. He wiped his tears and looked at Wei Ren with admiration. He was able to look past his mistake so easily.

"So, what is the reason for this visit. Did grandpa send you asking for my opinion?" Wei Ren said with a smile.

"Yes. Please take a look at this." He handed Wei Ren a black sealed scroll. The scroll had Wei Tian's personal seal on it.

Wei Ren gazed at the familiar black seal. With anticipation in heart, he opened the scroll.

A tremor ran through his body when he laid his eyes on the contents.