Dual Cultivation

Upon returning to the Four Seasons Academy, Matriarch Zhu called for Elder Deng's audience.

The first thing she asked him when he arrived was the name of their esteemed guests, but alas, Elder Deng only stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"Names? Their names?"

When Elder Deng realized that he didn't even know the names of their own guests, he nearly slammed his head against the floor in shame.

"Even you don't know their names?" Although she was upset, Matriarch Zhu did not blame him, as she also forgot such a simple thing.

"I-I will go and find out their names immediately—"

"Wait. There's no need to rush this, as they will be staying here for the next few days, and they will only be weird out by it. Instead, tell me if anything happened yesterday after you left."

"Yesterday…"

Elder Deng's eyes suddenly widened with shock.

"Right! I had planned on relaying this yesterday, but I wasn't able to since you left for the Golden Lion Academy before I could reach you!"

The Matriarch raised her eyebrows with expectation after seeing his flustered state.

"Tell me about it."

"Yesterday, right after we left the meeting room, I showed him around the Sect, and coincidentally, Elder Li was already giving a lecture when we arrived at the Lecture Hall. Elder Li was concocting an Earth-grade Pill, the Advanced Spirit Refreshment Pill, in front of the disciples."

"..."

Though her expectations have been lowered, Matriarch Zhu continued to listen silently.

"Before Elder Li had even finished concocting the pill, that young man managed to not only guess the pill Elder Li was making but also the quality it would come out, and he had managed to get both of them correct!"

"What? How is that even possible? What kind of trick did he use?"

The Matriarch did not believe that someone as young as Su Yang could achieve something that even she, an Alchemy Master with over three hundred years of experience, cannot hope to achieve.

"The thing is… he used only his sense of smell to achieve all this… There was no trick…"

"What! Impossible! He must have had something up his sleeves!"

Elder Deng shook his head and said, "That is exactly what I'd thought at first, but alas, what he did afterward could only be considered heaven-defying…"

"What are you talking about?" Matriarch frowned, feeling an ominous tone in his voice.

"He had a match with one of our disciples, Core Disciple Qing Shan, in pill concocting. Their goal was to concoct an Advanced Spirit Refreshment Pill within a time limit of 4 hours, and Qing Shan miserably lost."

"Qing Shan lost to him? And miserably, too?"

The Matriarch knew very well of Qing Shan's ability, an Alchemy Master with skills beneath only a few individuals in this world, yet she lost to this young man? Her suspicion of Su Yang being Immortal Fairy Su Yue's son was turning into reality before her very eyes.

"His Dao of Alchemy may be superior to Qing Shan, but how is that heaven-defying?"

"The… The Advanced Spirit Refreshment Pill he made… it was…" At this point, Elder Deng's voice was trembling like he can't believe what he's about to say. "It was 100% quality — a flawless-quality pill — something that exists only in the ancient records left by Immortal Han Xin."

"WHAT?!"

Matriarch Zhu directly stood from her chair and exclaimed in a sharp voice, her heart racing from shock.

"I know it's hard to believe but the proof is in Core Disciple Qing Shan's possession if you want to confirm it, and even Elder Li and hundreds of disciples were there to witness it."

"Huh? Why would she have the pill?"

"The young man gave it to her as a gift… I think…"

"A flawless-quality pill as a gift?!"

Matriarch Zhu nearly fainted upon hearing such words. What kind of individual would gift away something as legendary as a flawless-quality pill? Even if Qing Shan offered her body in return for the pill, she still wouldn't come close to being worth as much as the flawless-quality pill — not in Matriarch Zhu's eyes!

"Bring Qing Shan to — No, I will go to her myself!"

Matriarch Zhu began rushing out the door to look for Qing Shan. She did not want to find her just to prove Elder Deng's words but purely because she wanted to see the legendary flawless-quality pill.

Sometime later, disciples from all over the Four Seasons Academy gasped in shock when they noticed Matriarch Zhu walking through the Sect in a pace that was almost running, seemingly in a hurry. They have never seen her act in such a way, not even during emergencies.

Elder Deng followed behind her with a bitter expression on his face. He knew that she would be shocked to learn of the flawless-quality pill but he didn't expect her reaction to be this intense. Perhaps the flawless-quality pill is much more important than he'd initially thought.

Many minutes later, when they arrived at Qing Shan's living quarters, Matriarch Zhu knocked on the door with heavy banging.

"Disciple Qing Shan! The Matriarch is here to see you!" Since there were only a few disciples that lived within the area, Elder Deng did not hold back on his voice and shouted loudly.

A few moments later, the door opened, and Qing Shan walked out to greet them.

"Disciple Qing greets the Matriarch and Sect Elder," she spoke in a calm voice, almost like she was expecting their visit.

"Forget the formality! Quickly show me the flawless-quality pill!" Matriarch Zhu said with an excited expression, looking like a child who can't wait to see her new toys.

"Y-Yes, Matriarch…"

Qing Shan's eyes widened due to the Matriarch acting unnatural, and she reached into her storage ring to retrieve a bottle that was tightly sealed with many layers of complicated techniques.

"T-This is the..."

When Matriarch Zhu saw the pill inside the bottle that was white like milk, her entire body tingled with a delightful sensation. Despite her old age and appearance, just a glance at the flawless-quality pill had caused an Alchemy enthusiast like her to feel lustful towards it!