Read Novel Full Chapter 336: New Mission
Chapter 336: New Mission
Kyrian thought for a moment.
He had already considered that. His skills in alchemy and formations were not negligible. He could refine pills and sell them. He could create formations and charge for them. He could be independent.
"I’ll see when I get there." Kyrian replied.
"I don’t want to tie myself to anyone before I understand the situation."
Dong Zhen laughed, a short laugh, almost a cough.
He stood up from the chair and walked to the window, looking at the cloudy sky outside. The dark clouds of the plain swirled slowly, as if they were alive.
"Bai Zhu and the others should return in the next few days," he said, without turning.
"You can do one last mission together. Say your goodbyes." He paused.
"There’s no telling when you’ll see each other again."
Kyrian nodded.
"I understand."
He stood up and made a slight bow.
"Then, I will return to my dormitory."
Dong Zhen waved his hand, dismissing him.
Kyrian left the office and descended the wide, dark stone stairs. The sound of his footsteps echoed through the empty corridors. The Blood Court was silent at that hour.
He passed through the Blood Core hall, where the great blood core pulsed faintly, and entered the corridor that led to the dormitories.
His room was as he had left it, simple, functional, and without excess. A dark wooden bed, a stone table, and a few empty shelves. Kyrian closed the door behind him and threw himself onto the bed.
The exhaustion from the days of travel and the battle on the mountain finally caught up with him.
He closed his eyes and slept.
...
Kyrian woke the next day with the sky still dark outside.
There was no sun on the plain of the Blood Court, only the black clouds that blocked the light and the spiritual lamps that illuminated the corridors. But his body, trained to wake early, stirred him at the same time as always.
He sat up in bed and stretched his neck.
’Days of stagnation ahead,’ he thought.
’I can’t waste them.’
Kyrian took the alchemy cauldron Dong Zhen had given him from his spatial ring. It was a good-quality cauldron, with runes engraved on its surface that helped control the temperature and the purity of the pills.
He placed the cauldron on the stone table and began to sort the spiritual herbs he had bought over the past months.
Herbs for Rank 4 pills. Nothing too advanced, but enough for practice. He chose a simple recipe, Qi Recovery Pills, and began to work.
Gray fire heated the cauldron. Kyrian added the herbs one by one, controlling the timing and temperature with precision. His eyes followed every reaction inside the cauldron, every transformation of the herbs into pure essence.
The first pill came out imperfect. A small crack on its surface, the color slightly too dark. With eighty-nine percent purity.
Kyrian analyzed the mistake, adjusted the flow of Qi, and tried again.
The second was better. The third is almost perfect.
He continued until noon, still immersed in the task. When he finally stopped, he had refined dozens of pills, almost all above ninety percent purity. He stored them all in jade bottles and placed the bottles in his ring.
Then he switched activities.
Kyrian took out some blank jade plates and began engraving formations on them. Protection formations, concealment, attack. Nothing too complex, but useful for anyone who needed quick defense.
He worked until night, his eyes burning from concentration. The jade plates glowed faintly with the symbols he engraved, each line of Qi placed with surgical precision.
When he finished, he stored the plates and lay down.
The next day, he did everything again.
And the next.
And the next.
Thus, five days passed.
Kyrian refined dozens of Rank 4 pills and some Rank 5 ones, the latter with much more difficulty. He felt that something was missing when refining Rank 5 pills, but he still achieved occasional success.
He also created more than twenty formation plates of different types, each one a small work of art in miniature.
But his cultivation remained stagnant.
Kyrian sat on the bed after the fifth day, looking at his hands. The Qi in his eyes was stable, but it did not advance.
He had reached the 1st stage of Core Formation, and the next stage seemed distant. The limit of his eyes was an annoying obstacle, preventing him from becoming stronger quickly.
He knew that there were cultivators who spent decades in a single stage.
For most, Core Formation was a realm of long journeys, where each small advancement required years of effort.
But Kyrian was not most people.
’The black masses of hostility...’ he recalled.
’The blank book inside my mind absorbed those masses and reduced my cultivation limit.’
That was how he had advanced so quickly until now. Not just talent, but that strange power that resided within the book, consuming hostility and turning it into progress.
"I need to find more black masses." He decided.
"The more hostility I absorb from them, the faster my cultivation will advance."
Just as he was thinking that, a loud knock echoed on the door.
Kyrian stood up and walked to the entrance. He opened the door.
Bai Zhu was outside.
The tall and robust young man stood with his arms crossed, a wide smile spread across his face. He wore his usual Blood Court robe, and his eyes shone with excitement.
"Heh," he said, giving Kyrian a firm slap on the shoulder.
"You came back fast."
His eyes swept over Kyrian from head to toe, and the smile widened.
"Oh. You caught up to us..."
He was looking at Kyrian’s cultivation. The 1° stage of Core Formation. The same realm that he and the others had reached a few months ago.
Kyrian nodded.
"Come," he said, turning and starting to walk down the corridor.
"Everyone is gathered in the Core hall. Master Dong Zhen has a new mission for all of us."
Kyrian closed the door and followed him.
The two walked in silence through the dark corridors of the fortress. Bai Zhu did not ask about the journey.
When they reached the Blood Core hall, the others were already there.
Everyone approached Kyrian, greeting him.
Dong Zhen raised his hand, asking for silence.
"You can talk later," he said, his voice deep.
"I have a mission for you."
Everyone quieted immediately.
Dong Zhen walked to the center of the hall and began to speak.