Ye Qin pondered, taking a sip of his small cup of wine, mulling over the words he had overheard from those blue-robed disciples.

This might be the most valuable, yet most perplexing, piece of intelligence he had accidentally picked up in the Drunken Moon Tower. He had no idea what the dangerous mission entailed, only that it was personally arranged by the Sect Master and the Deputy Sect Masters—it was certainly no minor affair.

Moreover, those four individuals had all been blue-robed disciples, meaning they had received some secret intelligence directly from their masters. The fair-featured young cultivator had concealed the most crucial part of the information using ventriloquism.

However, the fact that even core disciples like them were so keen on this dangerous mission suggested that participation would yield immense rewards.

What exactly those benefits were, Ye Qin could not be certain.

A top-grade spiritual artifact? A supreme spiritual elixir? Or perhaps some other arrangement—anything was possible.

Within half a month, the General Affairs Hall should release the details of the mission, allowing all qualified disciples to sign up.

Right now, the most pressing matter for him was finding a way to obtain the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Ye Qin stayed in the Drunken Moon Tower for most of the afternoon. All he heard were minor and major happenings within the sect recently, interspersed with the idle gossip among fellow disciples. Finding nothing of particular importance, he decided to leave.

Half a day later, Ye Qin was walking up a set of wide, stone-paved steps, stretching hundreds of feet long and tens of yards across. These steps led directly to a five-story pavilion atop Green Elixir Peak, crowned with colored glazed tiles and supported by the beams of thousand-year-old ancient timber—the Green Elixir Repository.

He had previously visited the repository on Green Spring Peak, but that building was too small. He hadn't found the formula for the Foundation Establishment Pill there, only recipes for low-level Qi Refining elixirs and a small selection of Foundation Establishment elixirs.

Puzzled, he had inquired with a junior disciple guarding the Green Spring Peak repository, only to learn that the formula for the Foundation Establishment Pill—one of the Green Elixir Sect’s three great elixirs—was not kept there at all. The sect’s most crucial ancestral texts, elixir manuals, and formulas were all stored in the repository on Green Elixir Mountain, which was one of the most heavily guarded locations in the entire sect.

Although Green Elixir Mountain itself possessed a large protective array formation guarding the mountain, the Green Elixir Repository had an additional, separate ward array surrounding the building itself, with independent restrictive arrays on every floor. Security here was extremely tight. There were thirty guards at the ninth level of Qi Refining stationed there, and five Foundation Establishment realm Martial Uncles or Senior Uncles were permanently stationed on each floor, day and night.

Furthermore, one Nascent Soul stage Martial Ancestor was in secluded cultivation in the basement of the Green Elixir Repository, ready to break through his seclusion instantly should any danger threaten the library. Under these layers of protection, the Green Elixir Repository had remained untouched for over a thousand years. The last incident had been a fire a millennium ago, which had tragically consumed several original manuscripts penned by the sect's founders—not copies—causing the entire Green Elixir Sect grief for a hundred years. In response, they had installed the Heavenly Water Formation array on the pavilion to prevent future conflagrations.

Ye Qin ascended the steps, spotting the plaque high above the pavilion reading "Green Elixir Repository," and approached it casually.

Flanking the main entrance stood two guards, both at the ninth level of Qi Refining, fully clad in high-grade golden spirit armor and bearing high-grade Golden Light Swords. They stared with grave expressions at every disciple entering or leaving the Green Elixir Sect. In terms of raw cultivation, Ye Qin was on the same level as them, but when it came to spiritual artifacts and mastery of techniques,

Ye Qin knew he could not compare to these Green Elixir Sect guards who had practiced their spells for decades.

"Show your identity token!"

A guard extended his hand, blocking Ye Qin’s path, his voice cold.

Ye Qin immediately produced his identity token for inspection. Every disciple received one upon entry; tokens varied based on status. As a mere outer disciple in a green robe, his was a simple wooden token carved from common spirit wood.

This type of spirit wood was unique to the Green Elixir Sect and impossible for other sects to counterfeit.

After verifying his identity, the golden-armored guard handed the token back. "Alright, proceed."

Ye Qin took the token but did not enter the main gate immediately. Instead, he pressed the token against the empty space before him. A faint wall of light instantly materialized, then automatically parted by over a zhang wide, allowing him to step into the first floor of the repository.

The first floor of the Green Elixir Repository was vast and open. Rows upon rows of bookshelves, each hundreds of feet long, were laden with hundreds of thousands of texts written on tortoise shells, beast hides, bamboo slips, paper, and jade slips. This was hardly surprising; any cultivator at or above the Foundation Establishment realm was qualified to author a text. Over ten thousand years, countless Foundation Establishment disciples had recorded their unique cultivation methods. Since they could not take these writings with them upon death, they were stored here in the repository, ensuring their legacy. The materials used by these Foundation Establishment disciples for documentation were incredibly diverse, resulting in the repository housing volumes numbering more than a small mountain. This first floor was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Naturally, the original manuscripts were sealed away in a vault; what was displayed publicly in the pavilion were all copies for junior disciples to consult.

The main hall was eerily quiet, with hardly anyone present. Large, perfectly spherical Dust-Warding Pearls hung from the ceiling, ensuring the hall remained free of dust.

Seeing the sheer volume of books, Ye Qin instantly grew excited. The lower-level texts here were accessible to any Qi Refining disciple in the sect for free copying, merely requiring a small fee in spirit stones.

He quickly scanned the labels on the bookshelves, but within moments, his head began to spin. There were simply too many.

For the most basic Fireball spell alone, over several hundred Foundation Establishment Martial Uncles had conducted "in-depth and meticulous" studies, leaving behind volumes stacked high enough to reach a man's height.

These covered everything: the uses of the Fireball, research into controlling it, variations and flexible applications, and even an analysis of spells that countered or were countered by it. One particularly eccentric Martial Uncle had even researched unconventional uses, crafting a spiritual artifact cooking pot to prepare meals and analyzing how much better the taste was compared to cooking with mortal fire.

Every Martial Uncle held a unique insight, and some of their conclusions were diametrically opposed, leaving Ye Qin utterly bewildered. To truly grasp why these Martial Uncles arrived at opposing conclusions would require at least half a day of personal experimentation.

A bucket of cold water had jolted Ye Qin awake.

Even a single Fireball spell left him dizzy. Faced with endless rows of books, even if he sat here for hundreds or thousands of years, he likely wouldn't finish reading them all. Having too many secret manuals was not always a good thing.

Reading aimlessly would be fruitless; finding the Foundation Establishment Pill formula was the priority.

Ye Qin rapidly swept his gaze over the shelf labels, skipping directly past sections on techniques and cultivation methods, searching instead for alchemy texts. After rounding one bookshelf, he suddenly came face-to-face with a middle-aged cultivator in white robes—pale-faced, clean-shaven, and rather austere.

Ye Qin startled. This white-robed cultivator was a Foundation Establishment disciple of the sect, so he dared not be remiss and immediately bowed, "This junior greets Martial Uncle!"

The middle-aged man stood with his hands clasped behind his back, browsing the shelves. He glanced at Ye Qin and nodded dismissively. Then, he suddenly froze, turning his head with a sharp gaze fixed upon Ye Qin, his expression displaying profound surprise. After a moment of silence, he asked, "You cultivate the Sitting in Oblivion Scripture?"

Ye Qin felt uncomfortable under the intensity of the Martial Uncle’s stare. However, his current cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining allowed him to maintain composure under the oppressive aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"Indeed, Martial Uncle."

"No wonder. Your aura is so faint; I almost failed to sense you entirely," the white-robed cultivator remarked. "Very few practice that method now. You are at the ninth level of Qi Refining; you should be at the critical juncture of life and death. Why haven't you entered closed-door cultivation for this breakthrough and instead are running around outside?"

Ye Qin felt a bead of sweat trickle down. He hadn't expected this Martial Uncle to be so familiar with this rarely practiced technique.

Not wanting to reveal his true purpose—seeking the elixir formula—he offered an excuse: "This junior lacks several practical spiritual artifacts and wished to see if there are any books or formulas here for artifact refinement. Also, I thought I might look for other useful items."

The white-robed cultivator paused in thought, then abruptly gestured. A jade slip detached from a distant shelf and floated into his hand. "This is the Five Elements Artifact Refinement Art. It covers all manner of refinement techniques and contains many processes for forging mid-grade spiritual artifacts, suitable for you. Copying a jade slip costs five low-grade spirit stones. Moreover, all elixir and artifact formulas are not on this floor, but on the second floor, in the specialized area where formulas are kept." He pointed toward a corner of the hall. "Take the teleportation array there up to the second floor to search! Once you find the artifact refinement formulas, take them to the steward disciple at the main entrance to copy, after paying the spirit stones."

Ye Qin held the jade slip, feeling a mixture of amusement and exasperation. He hadn't found the Foundation Establishment Pill, yet a refinement manual had been thrust into his hands.

He couldn't very well refuse.

Still, it was true that he possessed very few usable spiritual artifacts. The Bat King Wings and Bat King Thorns were excellent, but they were top-grade trump cards he wouldn't easily use in daily skirmishes. As for the common artifacts he did use, he had struggled to find ones that truly suited him.

If he ever obtained superior refinement materials in the future, having others forge them for him would be inconvenient, potentially inviting the kind of scrutiny and trouble faced by the Treasure Feng Refinement Workshop. It was better to learn to refine things himself.

Ye Qin’s mind settled; perhaps this wouldn't be a waste of spirit stones after all.

"Thank you for the guidance, Martial Uncle. This junior shall take his leave!"

He took the jade slip and walked to the corner where a miniature teleportation array was situated. Activating any teleportation array required spirit stones. This ultra-short-distance transfer from the first to the second floor consumed only a fraction of a low-grade spirit stone. As for why the Green Elixir Repository was designed this way, that was beyond the understanding of someone like him, who knew nothing of architecture or mechanical design.

Ye Qin placed the spirit stone into the receptacle on the array and activated it. With a flash of light, he arrived on the second floor.

Ye Qin focused his eyes on his surroundings.

In front of the teleportation array sat a table, behind which an old man with streaked white hair was intensely focused, manipulating hand seals as he refined a small ball of golden essence suspended in mid-air. Not sparing Ye Qin a second glance upon his appearance at the array, the old man mumbled rapidly, "Boy, find what you need yourself; don't bother me. And keep your distance, or if you get hurt, don't blame this old man for not warning you." (To be continued, for future developments, please log on to wwwidiancomm, for more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) First published