The conversation had abruptly shifted from the astonishing topic of a Guardian Deity that existed within the Land of Manu to the difficulties and struggles of cultivation. Whether this was deliberate or not by Sage Khonshu was hard to discern.
Grey Rose looked at Cao Cuifen. Sensing her gaze, Cao Cuifen tried to shed her dismal mood, achieving it by only allowing that figure that rested snuggly within her heart, carrying an unprecedentedly unmatched bearing and prowess, especially when it came to love-making, to illuminate her spirits. Her days of strenuous struggling at the edge of despair were no more, and her recent happiness and joy were liberating to her soul. That said, after doing so, she gave Cao Cuifen a permitting look.
The Mystic Overlord's eyes brightened with glee as she took a small step forward,
"Sage Khonshu, you said you failed at achieving the birth of geniuses earlier, even after you've given your full support, and that you're lacking in Mystic-Earth grade products. What's the state of Dao of Alchemy within the galaxy?"
This question elicited a ray of surprise in both Cao Cuifen and Sage Khonshu's eyes. It wasn't difficult to gain a surface understanding of the level of Alchemic Dao within the No-Name Galaxy, but there was a degree of depth that could only be truly understood by long-lived, highly involved natives.
Luo Ning probably didn't have a clear idea of the exact level of the Dao of Alchemy within the No-Name Galaxy despite her interaction with a few members over this short period. Many things decided the level of Alchemic Dao, and those were active alchemists, upper-limits of alchemical lineages, types of alchemical lineages, and rate of concoction or standards to determine whether they were an Earthly Saint Alchemist or a Mortal Saint Alchemist.
For example, just considering the last point, the Neo-Dawn Empire's Hepta-Dawn Alchemic Corps had a minimum requirement of success rate for each of the four types of products of a specific level before being declared as any level of Alchemist. Additionally, they were required to successfully concoct using the Thirty-Three Earthly Concoction Method with at least ten products being at low, high, or peak-tier at the result before any officiating of their titles.
This was significantly different in the Neo-Dawn Starfield as a whole, relying mostly on a slightly elevated standard of the recently concluded Aeternal Sky Era.
Before, the general rule of the standard was that as long as one could concoct a low-quality product with a success rate of twenty percent, so two out of ten tries, and only a single type of product, usually a specific product that could even be the most basic Essence Pill, they could be considered at that respective level. An alchemist that can concoct two out of ten high-tier, ninth-grade Essence Pills at low-quality was regarded as a Prime Mortal Sovereign Alchemist.
This certainly contributed heavily to the massive gap between Mortal Sovereign Alchemists and Emperor Alchemists numbers in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, and how there were three million Official Emperor Alchemists yet only a little over 500 Prime and Grand Emperor Alchemists.
This falsely elevated the number of alchemists to an absurd degree. Meanwhile, the Neo-Dawn Empire didn't even consider certain products such as the Essence Pills as qualified to be considered within a record of successes!
While the rule had changed slightly thanks to Xue Yifei's attempt to layer a degree of standard over the Dao of Alchemy, not only eliminating certain products from consideration but elevating the number from 20% to 30% success rate, it made a major difference. This might not seem like much, but the result was a drop of over two million Emperor Alchemists within a single breath. As for Mortal Sovereign Alchemists, they all needed the Alchemic Stars to be considered as one from the very beginning, so the best entry rubric was the possession of one, while the societal title qualifications of Prime and Grand were elevated as well.
The White Abyssal Galaxy's Alchemic Dao was significantly lackluster. When the four Abyssal Overlords learned of Wei Wuyin's status as a Worldly Saint Alchemist, they were like starving, ravenous snakes that harbored great resentment toward Mystic Lord Violet Sea. While they had three Alchemical Lineages that existed tailored to their Abyssal Race, there was no one with sufficient skills to take the mantle of a successor for the upper-levels, and barely even had the qualifications to concoct Mystic-Earth products.
It was so bad that when the Abyssal Overlords openly announced they were selling off the three alchemical lineages to Wei Wuyin, pretty much no one argued against it or felt their decision was incorrect! They rather have the actual products than intangible concoction methods.
Grey Rose's question was simple yet it aimed at the heart of the issue despite the obscenely resource-rich world that was the No-Name Galaxy. Well, formerly resource-rich.
"This..." Sage Khonshu was briefly tongue-tied. Eventually, he sighed.
"Our galaxy has close relations to the Utmost Purity Galaxy and we often do business with many of the organizations, yet due to our close proximity, and their closely-guarded secrets, many of our talented young alchemists would find themselves traveling there and staying for an extended period. This wasn't just resting to ours, but the other neighboring galaxies of the Utmost Purity Galaxy. Sage River Oasis had recently taken a batch of talents over there and money to retrieve some products on behalf of us Sages.
"This development isn't subtle at all. After all, the Dao of Alchemy is one of the most difficult paths to traverse, and deciding to cultivate an Alchemic Soul often meant losing one's ability to fight properly at their cultivation level, but having a solid lineage and those who could instruct one in the Dao of Alchemy are treasured opportunities.
"Despite that, the prices for products are excessively high, and this is largely due to supply and demand. Even if we have endless resources, the volatile and often incompatible energies, and essences within make it very dangerous to refine, so just taking the normal path is made difficult by refinement times and finding suitable items appropriate for our cultivation base, methods, etc.
"Our standards for alchemy aren't too far off from the standard criteria as a society, and this is one of the few things that are consistent across the thirty-four regions; 30% success rate with at least two products of a single product type or 50% success rate with at least a single product of a type that isn't paste, minimum of low-quality for each tier.
"We have eleven Mystic-World Alchemic Lineages and a single Mystic-Heaven Alchemic Lineage we acquired from the Utmost Purity Galaxy after a major trade roughly thirty-thousand years ago. The trade caused us to suffer a tremendous setback, yet we were mostly scammed as a result."
"So many?"
Grey Rose was shaken by the number of Mystic-World Alchemic Lineages and especially a single Mystic-Heaven Alchemical Lineage. The White Abyssal Galaxy had three only, and they took their entire long-standing history to acquire.
"Scammed?"
Cao Cuifen focused more on that part. The lineage of a Heavenly Saint Alchemist was astonishingly high, and her natural thought was to acquire it for Wei Wuyin, yet when the topic of it being a scam was brought forth, this immediately stroked her curiosity. How did the Sages of the No-Name Galaxy get scammed?
She was wrong. Sage Khonshu could instinctively tell that Cao Cuifen and Grey Rose lacked critical information regarding how the Dao of Alchemy propagated their lineages. He explained,
"Out of those eleven Mystic-World alchemical lineages, only two belong to our No-Name Galaxy. And one of them belongs to Sage River Oasis, who was a Junior Worldly Saint Alchemist. The other nine were acquired slowly from others, either their original lineages or lineages that they deciphered after tens of thousands of years of research. Most of these alchemical lineages belonged to long-deceased Worldly Saint Alchemists, and only a single one belonged to a Senior Worldly Saint Alchemist.
"Additionally, and unfortunately, alchemical lineages were not always a set of unique products but often contained Concoction Methods and Alchemical Methods that included spells, arts, and the details of their cultivated knowledge. For example, two of our Mystic-World Alchemical Lineages have almost the exact set of product lists from the first-grade to the Mystic-World grade.
"It makes sense why you're unaware of this," he gave a wry smile,
"Some of the more established Alchemists that have designed their unique legacies like your husband, the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint, and received the recognition of the Alchemic Dao for their original products, don't typically consider these types of repeating legacies as proper lineages and look down on them with disdain. Perhaps in a way, it was appropriate to do so."
After hearing more about the characteristics of alchemical lineages, Cao Cuifen and Grey Rose seemed enlightened. There were many enlightened, and the former pursed her lips. That was genuinely a little low to take someone else's creation and simply add your mixture of concoction methods to make them and deem it as a legacy.
That would be no different than her using her unique concoction style and taking all of the King of Everlore's creations such as the Everlore Ascension Pill, Ever-Rebirth Pill, and the Everlore Mortal Ascension Pill, and calling it her lineage. How shameless can one be?
However, when she thought about it, it made sense. Many Alchemists fall under the trap of inadvertently concocting already existing products. The King of Everlore had done this for many, if not every, product that didn't have his 'Ever' prefix within the Everlore Starfield. He had pretty much reinvented these products but was unable to claim them as his own by the Alchemic Dao due to them already existing.
That would be vexing and make creating your own lineage extremely difficult. The fact that Wei Wuyin has an entire Neo-Dawn Alchemical Lineage of his own that extends from mortal to mystic...only now was she genuinely understanding the vast difference between him and other Alchemists.
That said, it was understandable that these Alchemists would want to pass on their legacies as lineages even if they never created a single original product.
"How were you scammed?"
Cao Cuifen hadn't forgotten. When asked this, Sage Khonshu laughed in anger, causing the air around them to tremble slightly, and his eyes bloomed with a rancorous light. There was hatred within his heart without a doubt.
"How? How?! Haha! Let me tell you,"
he collected his thoughts and calmed his stirred aura after seeing Grey Rose standing protectively against Cao Cuifen, and one of Cao Cuifen's thin bracelets, which he had originally assumed was just normal decoration, began releasing a heart-palpitating glow of sharp light. A wisp of fear emerged in his heart. What type of protection would a Worldly Alchemic Saint give their wives? A single Mystic Overlord?
He said apologetically,
"I'm sorry."
Cao Cuifen smiled,
"No worries."
However, Grey Rose's vigilance rose several levels as her eyes focused on every one of Sage Khonshu's movements. Her protectiveness was fully displayed, and he could only bitterly smile as a result. In the end, he sighed and began to retell that embarrassing story.
"The Mystic-Heaven Alchemical Lineage we had bought at an obscene price was an inferior lineage,"
Sage Khonshu said dejectedly.
"Inferior lineage?"
Cao Cuifen was taken aback. What did that mean? When Sage Khonshu explained in extensive detail, Cao Cuifen realized that she had already encountered something similar!
Essentially, the Mystic-World Alchemical Lineage contained products that were inferior to commonly known products with higher difficulty to concoct and fewer benefits, often with certain products having similar or worse effects than lesser graded products, and falsely declared as a superior lineage. A perfect example of this was the Ninth-Grade Ever-Domain Pill and the Eighth-Grade God Sharded Domain Pill. Not only was the Ever-Domain Pill significantly worse in terms of effects, the materials used for its concoction were of a higher quality, rarity, and price, and the concoction difficulties were higher, yet the effects were almost equal or lesser than the lower-graded product.
The only reason why it was considered a proper lineage was that, while the effects were limited, concocting that product in the eyes of the Alchemic Dao was sufficient to elevate one's status. Concocting a thousand God Sharded Domain Pill properly would not make you a Mortal Sovereign Alchemist, but concocting a single Ever-Domain Pill would. But how useful was this to a common cultivator? Or better yet, how useful was this for an Alchemist? Why would anyone buy your ninth-grade grade product when they could purchase a significantly cheaper and more common high-tier eighth-grade product?
The backlash that the Everlore Association and Evergod received due to Wei Wuyin's actions back then was extremely destructive to their reputation. In the eyes of the uneducated citizen, the Everlore Association was simply trying to scam them for their money and restrict them from acquiring great cultivation foundations. They were against them!
"The so-called Mystic-Heaven Alchemical Product that we received was only as effective as a commonly known and widely dispersed high-tier Mystic-World Alchemical Product. We hadn't known that originally, and it was mostly our fault because we wanted to nurture our own Heavenly Saint Alchemist. But even if we wanted to nurture our own Heavenly Saint Alchemist, how many tens of thousands of years and resources would we expend to elevate them to the point of concocting a product that couldn't assist us as a simple Mystic-Heaven grade Essence Pill could? How long would it take for them to learn to concoct another product of that grade?!"
Just as Sage Khonshu reached this point, his barely contained rage that was on the verge of erupting, a sonorous chime echoed throughout the Land of Manu.
The Land of Manu was opening! And the Galactic Discussion was about to begin!

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