Chapter 621
"Why wouldn't they think that I'm too flawed and had to be punished, or that they envied others' beauty and resorted to such 'poisonous' means?"
Knowing that the five people from T Medical University were far behind them and couldn't hear their conversation, Zuo Xiao Yao smiled and teased herself.
He raised his hand and swept aside the tangled branches in front of him, and Hong Tian smiled and asked back, "Are you? I didn't expect you to be skilled in alchemy as well?"
Zuo Xiao Yao smiled and nodded, "It's not that I'm particularly skilled, I just know how to refine a few kinds of Dan medicine. However, making those two girls suffer for a while isn't too difficult. This mountain doesn't have much else, but various medicinal herbs with different effects are readily available."
"This is also the case, your good fortune is great, no wonder you can achieve such a high level of cultivation at such a young age. Not only can you encounter precious things like the Kai Shen fruit, but even though your master is no longer around to protect you, he has left you with enough wealth to make a living in the Cultivation Realm. This is truly rare and valuable!"
"Listening to Brother Hong's words, is the technique of alchemy very rare in the Cultivation Realm?"
Zuo Xiaoyao felt somewhat surprised, with her experience in learning alchemy, even without using the Purple Yuan Boundary's Chi Qi Shui, as long as one's cultivation was high enough and they could focus their mind to diligently practice, it shouldn't be too difficult. After all, the raw materials needed for a first-grade elixir weren't considered precious, of course, this 'not precious' referred to not using her own money to buy them, but rather searching for them in these desolate mountains and forests.
"That's a given, and let's not mention how difficult it is to become a skilled alchemist who excels in refining elixirs. The financial resources required are enormous, the spiritual medicines needed for refining are extremely hard to find, and with the decline of the Cultivation Realm, even many basic elixir formulas have been lost. This is also why many fellow cultivators today hold onto beautiful expectations, only to spend their entire lives on the path of cultivation, yet ultimately meet a dismal end."
The laughter in his voice was tinged with desolation and helplessness, speaking of the desperation and discontent with the current state of the Cultivation Realm. Zuo Xiao Yao remained silent, after all, she didn't understand much about the situation within the Cultivation Realm at present. The alchemy methods and techniques she knew were all taught by the woman in purple clothes, who had a deep connection with the Purple Venerable Three Treasures. It was unknown how much the cultivational forces behind the Hong Xin Group knew about the 'Left Family Treasure'. All of this still required caution, even when facing Lu Hong Tian.
Thanks to Hongtian's deliberate guidance, it took less than two hours for the two groups of students from T University to 'meet victoriously'. In another group, there was a teacher with the title of instructor, who looked not much older than these students. When he surrounded Liu Yingyue like a family member and expressed his endless concern, Zuo Xiaoyao and Hongtian turned around and left without even saying goodbye.
Seeing this scene, Li Shiqiang subconsciously stopped the two and said "Please wait a minute, thank you Mr. Luo and Ms. Xiao for your help, it's very dangerous here, let's walk together!"
When Li Shiqiang spoke, the crowd on the scene was busy talking about their own experiences after parting ways. Everyone couldn't help but stop and listen. Zhang Jingfeng, who usually had a lot to say, subconsciously wanted to speak up, but he refrained from doing so when he saw Liu Yingyue raise her chin and glare at Zuo Xiaoyao out of the corner of his eye. After a flash of hesitation in his eyes, Feng Zheng also spoke up, "Yes, we were lucky to have met Mr. Luo and Ms. Xiao last night. Let's all walk together from now on. This place is almost a primitive forest, it's easy to get lost."
"It's okay!"
Hong Tian turned his head and waved his hand, saying lightly as he quickly left with Zuo Xiao Yao. However, a dissatisfied voice faintly reached their ears: "What's with the attitude? Thinking they're all high and mighty just because they were lucky earlier? Wait till they run into some real trouble, then they'll be the ones crying! What's with the swaggering? Hey, Ying Yue, what's wrong with your face?"
"What's wrong... Bai Xiang, why did your face suddenly grow such ugly red pimples?"
Everyone at T Medical University stared in shock as their school flower and Bai Xiang, a beautiful young woman, suddenly developed strange rashes on their faces. The crowd was thrown into chaos, unable to understand what had happened or where the problem lay. Even though they were all top students from the prestigious Traditional Chinese Medicine department of T Medical University, no one could figure out what the two women had come into contact with that would cause such a phenomenon, similar to an allergic reaction or being bitten by some kind of poisonous insect and breaking out in red rashes all over their bodies.
At the same time, on the side, Zuo Xiaoyao's mouth corner revealed a smile similar to that of a mischievous prankster. Similarly, with a swift and agile movement, Hong Tian teased, "It seems that provoking anyone is not as good as provoking a skilled alchemist like Xiao Yao. Otherwise, who knows, you might not only contract some unknown 'evil disease' but also lose your life, how dangerous!"
"Fortunately, they were exposed by me, otherwise they would not have been so unrepentant, and still thinking about how I knew their private plans. Maybe I wouldn't have finally spilled the medicine either. Anyway, this medicine was discovered by me unintentionally, from a golden silk monkey who accidentally got stained with this medicine, only to have a year of red rash all over its body, but later recovered without taking any medicine. Judging from the properties of these medicines, they won't bring any life-threatening danger or other adverse reactions to humans either."
"Xiao Yao, don't worry too much. Being able to make a good-tempered cultivator like you lose their temper is already quite an achievement. Not to mention that you only made them suffer some physical pain, with our cultivation methods, even if we were to make them pay an even greater price, it would still be considered normal. In the cultivation world, having a heart as soft as yours won't do, you need to be more ruthless, otherwise, you'll easily end up at a disadvantage!"
Although she knew he was telling the truth, Zuo Xiao Yao smiled wryly and replied, "Before coming into contact with the cultivation world, I grew up in real society, from a young age being taught to follow all sorts of rules. No matter how some people with special privileges acted, even now that I'm a cultivator, I've never thought of relying on my own abilities to act wildly and recklessly like those people. To suddenly change one's way of thinking, the difficulty is truly not ordinary."
Hong Tian nodded calmly, "This indeed requires a certain process, but the environment will change people. I believe that as long as you live in the Xiuzhen world for a while, you'll discover that many things aren't about whether or not you want to, but rather, as long as you live there, you'll inevitably be assimilated by the environment. At the same time, before that, you don't necessarily have to survive!"
Because she had never personally experienced the life in the Xianxia world described by Hong Tian, Zuo Xiao Yao only made better mental preparations due to his words and remembered them in her heart. She didn't think that she should start adjusting her original way of thinking from now on. After all, every circle of life has its own characteristics, but for those living within it, each person has their own understanding of the circle. Only by personally walking through it will one know whether the road is smooth or bumpy.
This is an attitude towards things, not following the crowd, always being clear-headed and maintaining one's own rationality, not easily swayed by others' words, views, and attitudes, which later brought great help to Zuo Xiao Yao in many things. This is a story for later, let's not mention it for now.
PS: Sorry, I've been busy with packing and shipping, didn't have time to update. The recommendation tickets have been rising well these past few days, thank you for your support! Originally planned to update two chapters today, but the second chapter isn't written yet, definitely won't make it today, will strive for a double update tomorrow!
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