Translator: Cinder Translations
While flying on his sword, Song Wen had already conducted a body search and interrogation of the mustached man.
In the mustached man's storage pouch, Song Wen found three Yellow Essence Mushrooms.
These three Yellow Essence Mushrooms were given to the mustached man by the Su family's Fifth Elder to lure Song Wen, who was suspected to be a second-tier alchemist, into the Su family's service.
When Su family's Fifth Elder was ntioned, Song Wen recalled the information he had purchased from the Black Market about the Su family.
According to the intelligence, the Fifth Elder's na was Su Xiuyong, a late-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivator who had lived for nearly two hundred years.
Although Su Xiuyong was not a skilled fighter, he was ticulous and carefully managed all the Su family's important external business dealings.
Song Wen then interrogated the mustached man about the Fifth Elder.
The mustached man's answers were generally consistent with the intelligence Song Wen had obtained.
When asked about the Su family's capture of cultivators who practiced the "Longevity Technique," the mustached man knew almost nothing.
After finding nothing more useful from the interrogation, Song Wen perford a soul search on the mustached man, but even this didn't yield any more valuable information.
...
At this point, the mustached man was no longer useful to Song Wen. On the contrary, keeping him alive could expose Song Wen's location.
Three Sacred Gus were hidden around the crack in the rocks where the mustached man was being held.
Song Wen had originally planned to use the Sacred Gus to ambush Su Xiuyong and the others, but that was no longer possible.
One of the Sacred Gus crawled into the mustached man's nostril and bit through his heart ridian.
Song Wen bypassed the two airships above and headed toward Qingping Mountain.
Monts later, the Su family arrived late, with their patriarch, Su Anqing, among them.
Su Anqing was a peak Foundation Establishnt cultivator, whose spiritual sense had the widest range. He was the first to discover the mustached man's body in the rock crevice.
"Search thoroughly! Don't overlook any clue," Su Anqing ordered coldly.
The Su family's consecutive losses of Foundation Establishnt experts had made him, as patriarch, furious.
The Su family mbers carefully searched the area, combing through several dozen miles of land, but found nothing. Frustrated, they left empty-handed.
...
Back in his hidden residence, Song Wen changed into a new set of clothes and, feigning a sleepy look, stepped outside again.
He entered the gate of Qingping Mountain and went to the alchemy room.
At this ti, it was still early.
Su Huayue was already on duty in the alchemy room.
After collecting the ingredients for the Spirit Condensing Pill from her, Song Wen headed straight to the alchemy chamber.
When Song Wen returned to Qingping Mountain on his sword, he had already felt intense fluctuations in his sea of consciousness. This was a sign of his spiritual sense advancing.
The last ti his spiritual sense advanced was after he devoured Wu Ren's soul. Since then, Song Wen had devoured many more cultivators' souls, including several from Foundation Establishnt cultivators.
This allowed his spiritual sense to grow stronger, and he was finally on the verge of advancing again.
Releasing two Sacred Gus to stand guard, and setting up the "Spirit Concealnt Formation" inside the alchemy room, Song Wen sat down cross-legged, focused his mind, and began cultivating the "Forbidden Divine Art."
TL: Forbidden Divine Art, first ntioned in Chapter 37.
The souls of Su Wei and Su Gu that he had just devoured broke down into soul fragnts, nourishing the expansion of his sea of consciousness.
As he cultivated, ti slowly passed.
Three days later, Song Wen opened his eyes, and a sharp light flashed in them, briefly unsettling. This was due to his spiritual sense having grown so much in strength that he wasn't yet fully accustod to it.
Song Wen's spiritual sense had advanced to the point where it was now comparable to a peak Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
His spiritual detection range expanded to four miles. With the help of the Sacred Gus, he could now sense up to sixteen miles, equivalent to a late-stage Core Formation cultivator.
Through the two Sacred Gus that were standing guard outside, Song Wen learned that an hour earlier, Su Huayue had co to knock on the stone door of the alchemy room, having noticed that Song Wen hadn't left the room for three days.
Seeing that there was no response from Song Wen inside, she hadn't forced her way in and had simply left.
When alchemists encounter unexpected situations during refining, it's common for them to exhaust their spiritual and ntal energy, even getting injured. It's not unusual for alchemists to stay in the alchemy chamber for several days to recuperate.
Knowing that Su Huayue had co by, Song Wen felt a bit nervous. Fortunately, she hadn't
forced her way in. Otherwise, his spiritual sense advancent might have failed, and his secret identity might have been exposed.
It wasn't that Song Wen was careless-his spiritual sense advancents in the past had always been completed within a day. It had never taken this long before.
Song Wen took out ten Spirit Condensing Pills and placed them in the alchemy furnace, then
left them alone.
He continued to sit in ditation, adjusting to his newly strengthened spiritual sense.
Two hours later, Song Wen finished his ditation.
By then, he had fully adapted to his enhanced spiritual sense, able to control it freely.
Song Wen retrieved the pills from the alchemy furnace.
Though he hadn't used Earth Fire, the heat radiating from the furnace had slightly infused the pills with fire energy, making them no different from freshly refined pills.
After dismantling the Qi Concealing and Spirit Isolating Array, Song Wen opened the stone
door and walked out of the alchemy chamber, heading to the main hall of the alchemy room.
He handed the jade bottle containing the Spirit Condensing Pills to Su Huayue.
"Officer Su, here are ten Spirit Condensing Pills."
Su Huayue took the jade bottle, checked the contents, and nodded after confirming everything
was in order.
"Why did this batch of pills take three whole days to refine?" she asked.
Song Wen put on a tired expression, as if barely holding himself together from ntal
exhaustion.
"There was a slight mishap during the final batch. I suffered a minor injury to my sea of consciousness and had to ditate and heal inside the alchemy room, which took so ti."
Su Huayue nodded, this was about what she had expected.
"Rest tomorrow, Alchemist Yuan. Take the day to fully recover your sea of consciousness."
"The sea of consciousness is vital to us cultivators. You mustn't take it lightly. If it doesn't heal properly, it could leave lingering problems and hinder your future cultivation."
Song Wen's lips twitched. Su Huayue's concern seed a bit excessive.
A damaged sea of consciousness isn't sothing that can be fully healed in just one day!
She was likely more concerned about Song Wen's sea of consciousness being too weak to perform alchemy the next day, which is why she gave him a day off.
As for whether Song Wen's sea of consciousness would have any lingering issues, she couldn't
care less. The fate of an outsider like him was of no interest to her.
If it weren't for the fact that the Grand Elder had been pushing for more pills recently, she
wouldn't even have asked about Song Wen's condition.
Song Wen forced a grateful expression and clasped his hands in thanks.
"Thank you, Officer Su, for your concern. Yuan Cheng will rember this."
After bidding farewell to Su Huayue, Song Wen returned to his residence.
After two hours of peaceful ditation, dusk arrived.
Ending his ditation, Song Wen headed to the dining hall as usual. Occasionally, useful
information could be gathered there.
However, today he didn't obtain any valuable information.
(End of the Chapter)
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