Chapter 8: The Fire Elder Arrives

  Holding the Tu Mu stone, Ishikawa turned it over and over in his mind, not even wanting to go eat dinner. He was now eager to understand why the Tu Mu would attract those damaged spiritual instruments.

  That old beggar hasn't appeared for a long time, and Ishikawa doesn't know what he's doing either.

  All the way up to the branch of the moon, Ishikawa still couldn't figure it out. The truth about Ishikawa drilled in and took a look at what was going on inside.

  "Right, let's go in!" Ishikawa suddenly thought that the old beggar was hiding inside this earth mother stone. If the old beggar could enter, why couldn't Ishikawa?

  Ishikawa is no longer the rustic young man he used to be, he is now a cultivator in the second layer of Qi Refining stage, a true cultivator, although he hasn't cultivated any techniques, controlling his own spiritual energy and primordial spirit is still not a problem.

  "Condense!" Ishikawa condensed his Yuan Shen into a strand and placed the Tu Mu stone on his forehead.

  The earth mother statue was like a huge magnet, irresistible to Shi Kawa, and it drew his divine consciousness in.

  When Ishikawa regained consciousness, he found himself in a yellowish-brown illusion. Not far from Ishikawa, an old man with white hair sat in mid-air.

  Ishikawa recognized him at a glance, this was the old beggar, but his clothes were very clean and neat, and his appearance was also very cold and stern, making Ishikawa feel that he was a cultivator with extremely high attainments.

  The old beggar didn't move a muscle, apparently having no reaction to Ishikawa's arrival.

  Ishikawa ignored the old beggar and started looking around.

  "Xuan Tie, Jing Jin!" Ishikawa saw a sphere the size of a finger floating in mid-air. These were relatively common materials for refining equipment, and as someone who frequently entered and exited the refining workshop, Ishikawa was naturally able to recognize them.

  Apart from these few spherical objects, there is also a half sword, which is the sect's spiritual artifact obtained by Ishikawa from Zhang surname woman. However, now it has melted more than half, and some of the sword shape can still be seen.

  Is this Earth Mother Stone capable of melting spiritual equipment and then converting these spiritual equipment into the materials needed to refine it?

  Ishikawa's bold inference was thus.

  After all, apart from this shapeless spiritual artifact silver sword, Ishikawa has not found any other spiritual artifacts, so he does not dare to make a conclusion easily.

  It would be better if it were an old beggar, Ishikawa thought, but unfortunately the old beggar was as still as a wooden post.

  After circling around the illusion a few times, Ishikawa didn't find anything special again.

  "How can I get out of here?" Ishikawa wondered.

  Just thinking about it, Ishikawa appeared outside of Tsuchi no Oka.

  He picked up the Tu Mu stone with his hand and put it on his forehead again. In an instant, he entered the illusion of the Tu Mu stone once more.

  This time, Ishikawa didn't return empty-handed. He grasped a small Xuan Tie ball in one hand and then thought for a moment before coming out of the Tu Mu Shi Huan Jing again.

  Ishikawa looked at his hands and indeed there were two more thumb-sized Xuan Tie balls.

  Although it was just a little, Ishikawa could feel the weight of this mysterious iron ball.

  "We're rich! Haha!" Ishikawa burst out laughing. Working in the smeltery wasn't a waste of time, after all. Ishikawa naturally knew the value of Xuan Iron and other smelting materials. A thumb-sized piece of Xuan Iron like this could let an ordinary family live a life of wealth for several decades.

  As for how many elixirs and spirit stones can be exchanged, Ishikawa is not clear, but without a doubt, as long as there are enough abandoned spiritual instruments, Ishikawa will be able to obtain a large amount of refining materials, and elixirs and spirit stones will naturally follow.

  After getting that secret order, Ishikawa has clearly realized his situation and must increase his strength as soon as possible.

  The more strength you have, the more ability you have to protect yourself.

  However, for now, Ishikawa suppressed his excitement. As to whether the Tsuchinoishi really had this effect, he would have to find some more damaged spiritual tools to experiment with. Moreover, these damaged spiritual tools were not just stones on the mountain, and it was hard to find as many as he wanted at once, so for now, Ishikawa had no way to search.

  ………

  Time flies so fast, and another month has passed without realizing it. Ishikawa has been at Seireimon for half a year now, but in such a long time, he has never seen Harukawa, nor even heard any news about him.

  There was originally little interaction between inner and outer disciples. Ishikawa didn't dare to ask Yunzhang either, for fear of bringing trouble to Qingchuan.

  However, Qingchuan was taken in as a disciple by that female elder, so she shouldn't be treated unfairly.

  Within a month, Ishikawa also relied on the refined spiritual energy pill obtained from Zhang's female apprentice to become a third-layer Qi-refining cultivator. This was considered a mid-to-lower level cultivator among the Water Spirit Sect's disciples.

  Taking so many elixirs in a short period of time would naturally weaken their effects, but Ishikawa's cultivation speed was also against the heavens.

  After the elixir was used up, Ishikawa's cultivation speed began to decline again. As the saying goes, "to know the taste of food", trying to take elixirs to improve his cultivation speed, Ishikawa couldn't spend a day without thinking about where to find some elixirs to take. Unfortunately, as an outer sect disciple, he rarely even saw dregs.

  When working in the Alchemy Workshop, Ishikawa occasionally stole one or two small damaged spiritual instruments. He would secretly put them in his pocket when no one was paying attention. Although these failed spiritual instruments were useless and could not be purified, they had to be stored in the warehouse according to the rules of the Water Spirit Gate. Taking one or two pieces wouldn't make a difference in quantity, but if he was accidentally seen, Ishikawa would be in big trouble.

  These damaged spiritual instruments quickly transformed into Xuan Iron and Jing Gold within the Earth Mother Stone. After witnessing this, Ishikawa had some other thoughts in his heart: shouldn't he find a better errand to do?

  On this day, Shi Chuan was carrying water when suddenly Hong Paozi, the outer gate attendant, came looking for him.

  "Is Ishikawa? Come out quickly."

  "I don't know what you want me to do, Brother Shi," said Ishikawa with respect. As for Hong Baozi, Ishikawa didn't have much contact with him, and this man was just a bit greedy, without any other shortcomings.

  Hong Baozi narrowed his eyes and stared at Ishikawa, carefully sizing him up. This Ishikawa was just an ordinary person, so why did Yun Lao treat him differently from others? Not to mention other things, the fact that he was allowed not to work on the first day of every month was already strange enough.

  Outside the temple, there has never been a person like Ishikawa who received special care from an elder of the foundation period.

  "Could it be that Shi Chuan has some special status?" Hong Piaozi thought to himself, his mind clear on one thing - Shi Chuan was definitely not a direct descendant of Yun Changlao, otherwise he wouldn't have been suffering in the outer sect. But if there's no relation, then what kind of connection could it be? Could it be that Shi Chuan is a neighbor or old friend of Yun Changlao's family?

  Hong Paozi was quite satisfied with his own guess, and only then did he remember the purpose of this trip. He said in a gentle tone: "Shikawa, Yun Changlao wants you to go to his cave mansion for a visit."

  "Yes! Thank you, Master Hong." Ishikawa cupped his hands and headed towards Yun's cave residence, also feeling puzzled in his heart.

  Logically speaking, there are still ten days before Master Yun's appointment at the Stone Brook. Why has it been moved up this time? And to make matters worse, we have to go to Master Yun's cave mansion.

  However, Yun Lao had an order, and Shi Chuan couldn't help but go.

  Arrived at Yun Lao's cave, Shi Chuan paid his respects and discovered that beside Yun Lao there was another middle-aged cultivator wearing a fiery red Daoist robe. On the center of his forehead, surprisingly, there was a bright red fire character. The fire spirit energy emanating from his body was not concealed, and at a glance, he was not a Water Spirit Sect cultivator.

  "This is Huo Ling Men's Huo He Chang Lao, you can call him Master Huo." Yun Chang Lao said calmly.

  "I've seen Fire Elder." Ishikawa bowed respectfully. But in his heart, he sneered: "This Fire Elder might be the same person who communicated with Yun Elder, after Tian surname man died, that secret order wasn't brought over, unexpectedly this Fire Elder actually came personally."

  Hu Zhānglǎo also took out a copper mirror and carefully examined Ishikawa for a moment before nodding.

  "Fourth Master needn't be so polite, first try out the 'Water Dragon Classic' your master taught you and let me take a look."

  "Roger that." Ishikawa Terumoto began to activate the Water Dragon Formation. As before, due to the presence of the Earth Mother Stone, this Water Dragon Formation was less than half effective.

  Looking at the anxious faces of Yun Lao and Huo Lao, Ishikawa pretended to be pitiful and said: "Master, Master Uncle, I have been working hard to cultivate whenever I have time, but no matter what method I use, it just doesn't work. Is it that I won't be able to cultivate in this lifetime? Master, you must help me!"

  Yun Lao nodded towards Huo Lao.

  "Huo Lao said, 'Since you can't cultivate water-based techniques, I suspect it's because of the stagnation in your meridians, which makes your spiritual energy different. You might as well cultivate our Huo Ling Men's technique.'"

  "Really?" Ishikawa asked with feigned surprise.

  He has now thoroughly understood the meaning of these two people. Huo Lao Lao just used a copper mirror to confirm that Ishikawa had five earth spirit roots, and now proposed to teach Ishikawa the fire spirit door's gong method. This is undoubtedly the same as Yun Lao Lao's idea.

  The two men's goal was to have Ishikawa master a non-earth-based martial art in order to achieve their unmentionable secret.

  Ishikawa couldn't shirk off, pretending to be clueless. He hastily thanked him and said: "Thank you, Fire Elder, but this matter still needs my master's consent, otherwise..."

  "It doesn't matter!" Yun Lao waved his hand and closed his eyes to meditate.

  "Alright, then you learn with me." Huo Lao said, reciting incantations as his hands moved ceaselessly.

  Ishikawa's imitation of the gourd painting is not to be said, after dozens of times of practicing "Water Dragon Decision", Ishikawa's imitation speed has reached a level of perfection.

  At least it looks the same.

  The Fire Old Man saw Ishikawa understand at once and happily said: "This child can be taught!"

  He didn't think that while he was calculating Ishikawa, Ishikawa was just pretending. He made a few gestures and didn't even bother to use his spiritual energy, so there was no effect on Ishikawa's body at all.

  After tossing about for more than two hours, Fire Elder wiped the virtual sweat from his body. In these two hours, Fire Elder used up all his methods, but the result was only one: Shi Chuan was completely unable to cultivate any of the Fire Spirit Gate's techniques.

  Hu Zhānglǎo helplessly spread his hands towards Yun Zhānglǎo, indicating that he also had no way to deal with the situation.

  "Alright, Ishikawa, you can go back now. Let's cancel our monthly meetings on the mountain from now on. If anything comes up, I'll have Hong Baozi come find you. After you get back, focus on practicing the techniques you've learned and if you make any breakthroughs, come see me right away."

  "Master, you can't ignore me from now on. I will study hard and won't give up in ten or twenty years. I must become a god like you..." Ishikawa said with a sad face, as if he would never be able to enter the Cultivation Realm again. But in his heart, he was overjoyed because he wouldn't have to come see Yun Lao every month anymore.

  Although he had been hiding his cultivation with the help of the Earth Mother Stone, Shi Chuan was still worried that Yun Zhong Lao would see through his cultivation. If he were to be discovered, the consequences would be unpredictable.

  "Alright... you go back, I'll instruct Hong Baozi to give you some convenience." Yun Laozhang waved his hand and chased the dejected Ishikawa out.

  ………

  After Ishikawa left, Huo Lao sighed and said: "What Cloud Master said is true, this child indeed has the Five-element Earth Spirit Root. What puzzles me is how can there be such a person? He can't even cultivate techniques, what a waste of talent! Not even comparable to an ordinary mortal."

  "It's better if it's useless, then we won't have to worry." Yun Laoxiao smiled and said.

  The two of them burst out laughing immediately.