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After drinking the bitter medicine for several days in a row, Dugu Qianye felt like she could hardly tell up from down. Each time after taking the medicine, she thought to herself that she definitely needed to get her hands on so-called elixirs in the future, as she never wanted to experience this daily medicine routine again.
Mo Feng told Dugu Qianye that for external injuries like hers, a primary-level Recovery Pill would do, and her wounds would heal in no more than two days. Elixirs were very effective, but also very expensive, because becoming an alchemist was difficult, and getting alchemists to make elixirs was even harder.
To become an alchemist, one must first be a Phantom Master, as alchemy required the input of Phantom Power. Next, one needed strong spiritual power, as the higher the grade of the elixir, the stronger the spiritual power required to control the alchemy process. Finally, it came down to talent, without which, even a hundred years of study wouldn't make one an alchemist.
Elixirs were divided into 12 grades, grades 1-3 being primary level, those who could make primary-level elixirs were called Primary Alchemists. Grades 4-6 were intermediate, 7-9 were advanced, and 10-12 were grandmaster level. On the Xuanyue Continent, the vast majority of alchemists were at the primary and intermediate levels, with only a small portion being advanced alchemists, and even fewer were grandmasters, with a country possibly having only a few.
Because alchemists were rare, their status was high, which meant that most alchemists were quite arrogant and seldom made elixirs for others. Coupled with the cost of ingredients and such, elixirs could be called luxury pills, unaffordable to ordinary folk.
"Alchemy, huh? I could learn it if I get the chance in the future. If I'm out of money, I could even sell some elixirs to make some cash," thought Dugu Qianye.
It seemed someone had completely forgotten that her host body was a waste who couldn't cultivate Phantom Power.
After being fed medicine by Mo Feng for so many days, her injuries had mostly healed. She moved her hands and feet, which she thought she would lose the use of, and felt like she was coming back to life.
Getting out of bed, she picked up the mirror from the cabinet. Dugu Qianye saw herself for the first time. A melon-seed-shaped face, big eyes, a small nose, beautiful lips, she was quite good-looking. However, her complexion was waxen-pale, losing its finesse. Looking at her withered body, she sighed, she was nothing but a malnourished sprout. But that was fine, considering that beauty could be a synonym for trouble when powerless.
Returning to her bed, Dugu Qianye sat as she used to in her previous life and began inspecting her current body. Blocked meridians, frail channels; this body really was in a terrible state. Continuing her examination, she arrived at her dantian, "Eh? What's this?" What should have been an empty dantian was housing something floating... Ugh, an egg?
She twisted her spiritual power into a thread and prodded the egg-like object. It was shaped like an egg but as translucent as jade. When prodded by her spiritual power, it slowly began to rotate.
She thought back carefully. The original owner of the body definitely didn't have such a thing in her dantian, so it must have been brought over with her own soul. But she didn't have anything like that in her body before either?!
"Could it be that thing?"
Suddenly, she remembered that when she supposed to be a soul, groggily drifting through the Endless Void, she saw something glowing flying towards her, and subconsciously grabbed it, then lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was in Little Qianye's body.
Dugu Qianye prodded the, uh, egg.
"Is this the glowing object? An egg? Has my body turned into a hen? Does it have to be this fantastical?!"
"I'm not an egg, you're an egg! Your whole family are eggs!" Just as a certain lady was entangled in the conundrum of eggs and hens, a childish voice rang in her mind.
"Huh? Can the egg talk?" Dugu Qianye was astonished.
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"Damn it, I've told you, I'm not an egg!" Dandan flew into a rage.
"Then what are you? Why do you look so much like an egg?"
"I am the Chaos Heavenly Bead! When the earth was still shrouded in chaos, I absorbed the essence of heaven and earth and gained spiritual intelligence. Chaos took this form, and since I've absorbed its essence, naturally, I look like this," Dandan grumbled through gritted teeth, clearly having been mocked for its appearance many times before.
"How did you end up inside my body?"
"Billions of years ago, the Creator God created ten divine artifacts: the Xuanyuan Sword, the Donghuang Bell, the Pangu Axe, the Refining Demon Pot, the Haotian Tower, the Fuxiqin, the Shennong Cauldron, the Kongtong Seal, the Kunlun Mirror, and the Nuwa Stone. Since they were too heaven-defying, their gathering could destabilize the heavens and earth, and they also caused endless strife and bloodshed among mortals. Not willing to destroy her own divine artifacts and the world she had painstakingly created, the Creator God split me into two parts and used all her divine power to seal the ten divine artifacts within two bodies. Then she cast us into the Endless Void and transcended. She threw us into two parallel realms within the void so we couldn't meet. I drifted in the void for billions of years until I finally found a person, so I used your soul to make an escape. Now that your soul is connected to me, you can't throw me back in there," Dandan said with a sleazy laugh, pleased with itself for coming up with such a method to escape the void.
"Billions of years, huh! You must have been very lonely!" Dugu Qianye said, feeling sympathy for Dandan, whose youthful voice kept repeating "I, Old man." Billions of years of loneliness are not something everyone can endure. "Don't worry, I won't leave you alone again."
Dandan's laughter abruptly stopped, and it snorted disdainfully, but the egg spun even faster.
"But how come you're only starting to move now? You seemed totally inactive before I came into this world."
"Taking you out of the Endless Void sapped my strength, so I fell into a deep sleep after your soul returned to your body," Dandan explained.
"Was it you who brought me to this world?"
"Of course. Who else besides me has the ability to leave the Endless Void? Who else could fuse you so perfectly into this body?" Dandan bragged, and even without looking, you'd know it was wearing a smug grin. Roaring as if to say, 'The sky is vast and the earth is wide, but I'm the most formidable.'"
Dugu Qianye didn't know whether to laugh or cry and poked Dandan, saying helplessly, "Couldn't you have chosen a better body? This one doesn't have a Phantom Power Source and can't cultivate!"
After saying that, Dugu Qianye saw Dandan roll its eyes. Uh, don't ask how Dandan could roll its eyes without a face or eyes; Dugu Qianye just felt like it did.
"With me around, who needs any Phantom Power Source? Do you think I'm here just to twiddle my thumbs?" Dandan scoffed, clearly looking down on someone's intelligence.
"You mean that with you, I'll be able to cultivate?"
"Of course! I am the Chaos Heavenly Bead, and I can absorb phantom power much faster than those pitiful sources. Hmph, can a grain of rice compare to me?! Besides, I have spiritual intelligence! Back in the day, so many people fought tooth and nail over me. Only you fail to appreciate my worth," Dandan boasted again.
Dugu Qianye touched his nose, alright then, scorned again, and secretly muttered in his mind: You're just an egg that can help people cultivate! What's there to brag about?