Nine Heavens Burning Heart? Xiao Yao Burning Heart Valley? What’s this nonsense!? How is it the Xiao Yao Sect again!?
And the Xiao Yao Sect is somehow linked with the Qingtang Sect?
Weren’t they like water and fire, unable to coexist?
Could it be that the Qingtang Sect was bullied so badly by Lingxu that they colluded with the Demon Path to betray the Mystic Sect?
Or is this just a disguise, as Lingxu said, that Qingtang is pretending to be Xiao Yao, using it as a secret base for killing and looting?
Or perhaps he’s overthinking it, and this furnace was simply picked up by the roadside?
Which is quite reasonable, after all, back then, the Xiao Yao Sect was quite wealthy with plenty of good stuff. This furnace looks like it’s of decent quality, they just used it. They probably didn’t expect someone to be bored enough to pry open the pill furnace to peek inside, revealing the words in the furnace that weren’t scraped off?
There’s too little information, Tie Dan can’t calculate it all at once. However, having been in contact with the Mystic Sect for so long, he no longer believes in coincidences.
Everything is calculated, everything is arranged, everything is set up, there must be a conspiracy, that’s the right way to think.
After all, no matter how elaborate the disguise, the truth can’t be faked, a black horse can’t turn into a white horse. There must be other details around...
At the moment, Tie Dan carefully examined the Alchemy Workshop, tapping here and there, wishing he could lift the bricks off the ground to take a look. Persistence paid off, and he indeed found a different echo behind a wall tile, concealing a hidden chamber.
Ah, Earth Escape!
Hmm, can’t escape through...
Alright, the surroundings are wrapped in copper, filled with lead, sand, and piles, layered with boards of different Spiritual Qi attributes, specifically to guard against you tunneling thieves sneaking in.
Yes, although the Escape Skill is powerful, it has this drawback. The Five Elements Escape Technique needs to travel through stable mediums, and something as simple as "pointing the ground as copper" can DUANG! Bounce you right back.
As for other special escape techniques, they each have their own drawbacks. For example, the sword escape, although as fast as light or lightning, requires a sword to split through the path you want to take. The Blood Shadow Divine Movement, though incredibly formidable and unstoppable, leaves a heavy scent, a large trace, and consumes too much Essence Blood.
But speaking of which, in comparison, the Xiao Yao Sect’s Nine Heavens Cloud Riding Escape is extremely powerful. When cultivated to top-notch, it can truly separate into nine parts, with Nine Qi unified, enabling nine escape forms simultaneously, slipping through any blockade or seal. No wonder back then the Nine Heavens Demon Venerable could roam the world, entering palaces and stealing people’s wives as if it was a no man’s land. Perhaps only the Kun was stronger than him...
Of course, right now, Tie Dan hasn’t cultivated the Cloud Riding Escape to its peak either, after all, practicing it is too costly for a woman, cough cough, anyway, let’s open the lock head-on!
Lock-picking is also a specialty of the Mystic Sect, and can even be considered part of the practical application of Array technique, after all, traveling the Jianghu, it’s hard to avoid digging up a tomb or opening a treasure box.
This isn’t stealing, it’s picking up; not taking without asking, but my opportunity. As long as you don’t use violence, blasting or smashing and destroying someone’s tomb doesn’t count as making enemies. Relying solely on wisdom and skill to break through the seals and barriers left by predecessors, the treasured Daoist Collection within is naturally the fate that seniors left for you, that’s what cultivation folks call mutual understanding.
Usually, Tie Dan would split it open with a sword, but now that business isn’t finished yet, with a Mountain Lord Daoist Monarch secretly watching, ready to catch his mistake and kick him out of Wangwu, preventing his return. Besides, waiting time can be spent more wisely...
At present, Tie Dan also carefully studied the mechanism array of this secret chamber door, which certainly wouldn’t be boisterously engraved out, usually prepared with a special blending of ink, writing specific talismans, and only by activating in sequence with the corresponding talisman can the seal be unlocked without alerting the owner.
So Tie Dan rubbed his hands, took a deep breath, restrained all his True Qi, only emitted thin mist from his fingertips, infiltrating into the wall crevice, transforming the types of True Qi, layering over the bricks behind, and through the changes in Qi Sensation, the remaining Qi Amount, sensing the approximate position of the array on this wall, the layout of each talisman seal’s foot and attribute. Then guessing what talisman the other party used.
This step is the hardest because everyone has seen what a talisman looks like, whether it’s the talisman head, talisman body, or talisman foot, any mistake is not allowed. Although each sect has its own writing rules, for example, the talisman head relates to the Grandmaster they worship, the talisman body holds specific content, the talisman foot may have certain sect secret traditions, customary styles, etc.
But over the years, the Three Great Sects have created too many talismans, and some people’s writing styles are not standardized, truly resembling ghost scribbling. Merely knowing the attributes...
"Click."
Uh, it opened, nine wall bricks shut away, revealing a low door...
Tie Dan was also speechless, he didn’t expect it to be this simple.
Of course, he wasn’t blindly trying everything, but seeing those words "Nine Heavens Sky Visitor, Burning Heart Refines Mortal Dust," naturally, he started with the Nine Heavens Xiao Yao Sect’s talisman. As it happens, a single try unlocked it...
Hmm, but actually, it also makes sense, as the Xiao Yao Sect has long since been destroyed, if not for Tie Dan obtaining someone’s secret Daoist book from Ci Yun, he would have tried until the end of time and not figured it out.
It’s all destiny~~
At once, Tie Dan entered the secret chamber, flicking his fingers to ignite a Dao fire, illuminating the inside to see.
The secret chamber was ten feet square, with five sides of solid rock walls, only the entrance was a face of Mutton Fat Jade. Inside the chamber, four rows of bookshelves were crammed together, barely allowing one to pass sideways. Piled high and deep on the shelves were scriptures and texts, the vast majority being medical classics and elixir prescriptions, and each with copious notes and annotations, the penmanship clearly indicating many elixirs were hand-copied recordings of the same person; it was evident that the hidden secrets of this chamber were the lifetime learning of that Alchemy Master.
Tie Dan casually flipped through a few books on Alchemy Scriptures, although his understanding of the Alchemy Dao was still shallow, he could see that the person had genuine talent and knowledge. Every elixir prescription had detailed notes and experimental records on medicinal ingredients, dosage, and side effects. According to the experimenter’s root bone, meridians, and Qi Refining attributes, different conditions of men, women, young, and old, were long organized and experimented with, the methods were quite scientific indeed.
However, one rare merit was that this person’s research subjects were not limited to cultivators but included ordinary people.
After all, one of the biggest problems with the Taiji Cultivation World is dismissing ordinary people, treating them either as invisible or as cattle and horse materials. Therefore, there really are plenty of medical skills on the shelves designed to treat the common difficult and rare diseases of ordinary people. Presumably, this Alchemy Master, before attaining the Dao, camouflaged as a doctor or originally inherited from an aristocratic family of medicine.
However, the common belief that the Xiao Yao Sect people are a bunch of Lust Demons and evil spirits isn’t exactly wronging them.
Even a clear-cut scholarly type of Xiao Yao Successor had at least a whole shelf full of elixir prescriptions that were essentially aphrodisiacs, including all sorts of yin-tonics, yang-strengthening, mind-bewitching, soul-captivating, brainwashing, sensitivity-enhancing, and body-modifying types, an astonishingly comprehensive and overwhelming collection, truly rawrr!
Especially noting the various improved formulas with long appendixes of follow-up records and transcriptions, estimating the number of victims subjected to these drug experiments must have been in the thousands. Certainly, he was an utterly scum whose quick death wouldn’t settle enough accounts, despicable and deserving of demise.
Moreover, interestingly, while Tie Dan was browsing the bookshelf, he suddenly discovered a volume of "Seven Fragrances Carefree Immortal Powder." In the attached annotations, there were clear practical applications noted on how to secretly make people fall into traps using Ziwei Weeping Immortal, paired with Night Lotus Dream, placed in two separate locations.
It seems that the one who schemed against Yao Honglei back then, that Hehahaha young master, was indeed a successor of the Xiaoyao Burning Heart Valley. Perhaps he inherited this from the Alchemy Master. It appears that there’s quite a bit of fate among them...
"Clang clang."
At this moment, the sound of the main door opening and closing came from outside. Tie Dan knew someone had entered the Alchemy Room, so he immediately sprang to the door, closed the secret room door, hid behind the bricks, held his breath, and gripped the Formless Sword tightly, ready to take advantage of the master’s inattentiveness to decapitate, disembowel, and kill when he came in.
Soon, Tie Dan heard a series of footsteps and bursts of laughter approaching. It was clear that more than one person had come down to the Alchemy Workshop. Though it wasn’t suitable to probe with Divine Sense to avoid detection, from the sounds, it seemed to be a man and a woman.
The man’s voice was clear and robust, full of vigor, sounding very clear as he loudly boasted about his insights into Alchemy Dao, claiming to have five hundred years of alchemy experience, skilled in this art, and wanted to compete with a fellow Daoist.
Then the woman chuckled charmingly, her voice clear like jade pearls falling on a plate, saying she had long admired the Daoist’s fame, had been spiritually connected for a long time, and now that she had this rare opportunity, she must use all her life’s skills to learn from the Daoist Brother.
Tie Dan frowned, momentarily unsure which one was the Alchemy Master. After all, studying Alchemy Dao for five hundred years is not short; perhaps both of them were masters. He decided to kill both of them to solve the problem.
However, there was no rush. He could wait to take action while the other was refining elixirs. After all, during alchemy, not only must one use Qi to control the temperature, but also divide one’s attention for divine calculations, carefully considering the dosage and timing, especially at the critical moment of the Nine-Turned Pill formation, when utmost concentration is necessary. It is easiest to strike at this moment.
At that moment, Tie Dan held his breath, hid his presence, and calculated the timing of his move.
But after waiting for a while and listening to the sounds outside, Tie Dan felt something was off.
He hadn’t heard the sounds of opening the furnace or lighting a fire, nor any discussion about medicine dosing or elixir prescriptions. All he heard were bursts of soft panting and laughter from the man and woman outside, then strangely, "mmm, ah ah, hum hum ha yi"...
Mad, are you practicing inner core or outer core?
Alright, I almost forgot that although they are nominally Alchemy Masters, they are essentially Carefree Demons, who obviously want to fish while refining. Tie Dan just ran into them today.
Forget it, forget it. Killing during inner core refining might be even faster. No need to wait until the Nine-Turned Pill is formed. Just wait until the two outside fly together at Nine Peaks, their Divine Souls trembling, unable to control themselves, suddenly strike, one sword can deal with two...
"Roar——!"
Before Tie Dan could accurately determine their positions outside by sound, suddenly, the man let out an angry roar! Suddenly, the Alchemy Room was filled with a violent Qi Power fluctuation! True Breath poured out like a spring! Overflowing!
"...Eh, eh? Fellow Daoist, you are... finished refining?"
Not to mention that even the woman was surprised, and even Tie Dan was speechless.
No, isn’t your cultivation too fast?! Forget about fighting day and night, it’s so fast that he didn’t even have time to react! Wait, wait, wait... Could it be a trick? Or just a small test of skill, maybe there will be a second round, or something? Maybe wait a little longer?
"Cough, cough, thank you, Immortal, for pointing the way, your Alchemy Dao is indeed superior, I am ashamed of myself, can’t control myself, admire, admire."
"Ah... uh... this... hmm... as long as fellow Daoist is happy..."
Then the two of them left.
"Clang!" followed by the sound of the door closing...
Mad, they just left like that, isn’t that too outrageous!!
Tie Dan was speechless, even had the impulse for a moment to rush out and kill both of them, but in the end, he held back.
Maybe it’s a trap...
It all makes sense now!
So the man was indeed the Alchemy Master of Xiaoyao Burning Heart Valley, who suddenly discovered someone hiding in his secret room with a conspiracy to assassinate, waiting for the right moment to strike. Worried that a fight might expose his Demon Path identity, he decisively ended his cultivation, avoiding giving the assassin a chance.
Indeed, it’s all conspiracies, all calculations...
Suddenly, "clang," another door sound echoed outside.
Then a bunch of people came down hurriedly, and from the sound of their breathing and footsteps, it seemed like laborers from the Alchemy Workshop, bringing many things with them.
Then the female voice buzzed from overhead, hiding anger and frustration, her tone sharp.
"A bunch of lazy fools! The Alchemy Workshop is filthy beyond recognition! How can we refine Hundred Herbs Frost like this!
Hurry and clean it up! Anyone who dares to be lazy, wait for my whip!"
Tsk, miscalculated...

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