Chapter 34: Mission Sucessful!
"We can talk about the first request but I will have to say no to the second one." Jian Hu replied.
Why not ?
Didn't you put up the request for an Alchemy apprentice in the first place?
"May I ask for the reason Elder Jian Hu?" Shen asked.
"I simply don't wish to interfere more than I have to," Jian Hu replied instantly.
"As I've you before, I can assist you with some requests, but this dosen't make me obliged to follow every one of your requests blindly."
"Removing the physical alchemy stench is no big deal, I can rent you an artifact which can aid you in removing it for a day."
"Ah just to make things clear, I will charge you rent for renting you the artifact."
Shen's face darkened slightly after hearing Elder Jian Hu's words.
He didn't expect that he would have to pay even after returning the entire treasury back, however he couldn't express displease on his face too much lest it becomes the catalyst of breaking down the domineering image that Shen had created in Jian Hu mind.
'I have to act mature and refined!' This was Shen's current motto.
"I thank Elder Jian Hu from the bottom of my heart," Shen cupped his hand and continued with his calm tone,
"Now then, I hope that Elder Jian Hu rents me the artifact as soon as possible."
"Of course, you just need to pay me 30 Sect Merit Points if you want to rent it for 6 hours,"
"Exceeding the 6 hour time limit will increase this principal amount by 5 Sect Merit Points, also if the artifact is damaged, you will be obliged to repay the expenses."
"Sounds great!," Although Shen was unsatisfied with these terms, he had no choice but to accept them.
After a few more pleasantaries, both the parties finally concluded their discussion.
Shen now held a small snuff bottle carved out of jade in his right hand and his identity token in his left hand which showed a balance of Zero Sect Merit Points.
Without wanting to waste the 6 hours that he had, Shen immidiately bid Jian Hu farewell and departed from the room.
Soon, Shen disappeared from Jian Hu's adobe and only Jian Hu's figure remained in the large alchemy room.
However, at this time, another figure appeared in Jian Hu's room.
It was a the figure of a female with silk like black hair flowing down her back, she wore deep red robes with an ethereal arouma surrounding her.
It was Jian Hu's Dao companion, Jiang He.
"Dear, why did you betray the sect to support a spy, even going as far as swearing on your own dao heart, you even spent quite a fortune on cleaning a good amount of his pill impurities?" Her sharp eyes fell of Jian Hu who was sitting on the floor with a relaxed posture.
"Haha, why did I betray the sect....." Jian Hu's expression was extremely serene with only pure bliss emitting from him.
"My dear wife, before answeing, let me ask you a question. What was the promise that I made again?" Jian Hu asked.
Perpexed by the odd question, Jiang He repeated the exact words from Jian Hu's speech.
".... that as long as you don't harbour mischevious intent towards me, I shall never hinder nor expose you....Ah! so you mean? "
A sudden realisation hit Jiang He as she recalled the interaction that these two had before.
What did "mischevious intent" signify?
It didn't just include the desire to get rid or Jian Hu or harm him, even a simple cursing from Shen Wang's side could easily tackle this oath.
Just now, Shen had expressed annoyance towards Jian Hu, thus as long as Jian Hu percieved this expression as "mischevious intent", the oath would no longer hold any value and thus, Jian Hu was no longer bound by any restrictions.
"Hehehe, this is also the main reason that I refused his request of apprenticeship, he was clearly a greenhorn unworthy of becoming some big-shot's spy."
"However, I will still let go of his previous actions and keep the secret of him being a theif buried!"
"Not only to keep the sect in the dark about the tremendous spiritual materials that I extorted from him all to myself, but also as a prevention of any possibility that there might actually be someone backing him."
"After all, sometimes even the most obviously logical conclusions turn out wrong, since he could bypass the security mechanism, he obviously had some cards up his sleeve."
At this point Jian Hu's laughter became louder and more and more filled with glee.
"But why should I care? I've already become a slave of the Lotus Master who has to 'obidently' refine pills for 30 years, I don't have the 'time' to bother about such trivial matters, furthermore, I've already become a benefactor who's restricted by an oath in that greenhorn's eyes."
"In fact, I should thank that kid instead, because of him I not only got the Lotus Master's protection to practice my alchemy skills by refining pills endlessly, I also got complete ownership of all of these spiritual materials, these are more than enough for me to refine two Golden Core Pills, one for you and one for me..."
Jian Hu gently carassed Jiang He's hair as he rested his head in her lap.
Jiang He also seemed to have lost senses of any external disturbances, and soon the alchemy room started to refine yin and yang...
On the other hand, the unaware Shen Wang had already reached his adobe and started to operate the artifact that he was given.
It was called the Qi Pill Cleansening Bottle,
"According to Jian Hu, I should be done be able to activate it by opening it's cork and injecting my spiritual qi into it."
Thus, Shen immidiately opened the lid of the bottle and started to inject his qi wisps into the bottle.
The bottle started to vibrate as an invisible suction force descended on the surrounding air particles, pulling certain elements into it.
The effects weren't immidiate, but with his senses, Shen could subtly feel that the remaining medicinal stench had started to decrease.
The Qi Pill Cleansening Bottle acted as a catalyst which targeted the small physical particles left behind due to alchemy pills, it's function was to locate the remenants through reverse enginnering the location of the particles by sensing the qi disturbances left behind by alchemy.
Shen's qi wisps acted as a potential differance which caused to artifact to gain enough energy and suck the located remenants towards it.
It wasn't an aurdascious process but definately one which required patience.
Patience wasn't an issue for Shen Wang at all, this was largely due to spending billions of years in a void, thus a few hours didn't seem to be an issue for him.
[Ding!]
[Medicinal Stench is being removed....]
[Medicinal Stench is being removed....]
[Medicinal Stench is being removed....]
[Medicinal Stench is being removed....]
Over the next few hours, such prompts appeared in front of Shen, as his progress kept increasing.
Finally, after 4 hours of continuous activation, All of the medicinal stench was successfully removed.
[Congratulations! The Host has successfully cleared his mission!]
[Medicinal Stench had been completely removed]
[Granting Rewards!]
[Lowest-Tier Insight is being awakened]
BOOM!
Suddenly the Dao Transcending Conscious Tempering Art activated automatically as insights related to alchemy started to awaken in Shen's consciousness.
It was like a realistic dream, Shen felt as if he had spent hundreds of hours of his life studying and practising alchemy.
Quite a lot of the basics that he had crammed in his mind now started to make sense.
It was like a flow was established between the information that he already knew, the 10000 herbs that he had mugged down also started to have a vague pattern in their respective behavious.
Coupled with the Dao Transcending Consciousness Tempering Art's effect of a fastened mind, Shen was able to quickly digest all of this insight.
"It feels weird.... It's as if I've always known this... it's like I've done everyting myself and have a thorough understand ....."
It was obviously quite weird but mostly miracuous, but who was to blame? This was the world of miracles after all....
"Before I leisurely enter another epiphamy, I should probably go and return this artifact to Jian Hu, it would be quite an inconvience to have my Merit Points reach a negative value."
Shen immidiately rushed back to Jian Hu's adobe.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone