Just as Ma Da Jun had said, this matter had nothing to do with him, so once he said what he wanted to say, he quickly departed. He still had to complete the task that Ling Han had commanded him to do.
"Grandfather, are we really going to do as he had said and obey Ling Dong Xing and his son's commands without questions?" Ling Mu Yun asked, gritting his teeth. How could he resign himself to do such a thing? Ling Han was a well-known piece of trash, and for him to actually obey the commands of a piece of trash... just the mere thought of him made him feel stupid.
"Of course not!" Ling Zhong Kuan strongly waved his hand, "I've worked so hard all these years, how could I allow a piece of trash to ruin all my hard effort? Whether that brat is a real piece of trash or had just been pretending to be one, there is no way that he can stand in the way of me taking over our Ling Clan!"
"But Grandfather, what is our next move?" Ling Mu Yun appeared very dazed.
"Wait!" Ling Zhong Kuan said in a deep voice, "The relations between Cheng Clan and us are very tense now. Even though Ling Dong Xing can counterattack with Ma Da Jun's help, the Cheng Clan is not easily trifled with. Force them into a corner and they would definitely put their all into the fight."
"At that moment, we will give Ling Dong Xing an additional stab in the back, and shove him off the position of the clan head!"
Ling Mu Yun's face lit up upon hearing this, but his eyes were filled with a poisonous rage, "Grandfather, that brat Ling Han must be handed over to me, I want to kill him with my own hands!"
"You will definitely get your wish!" Ling Zhong Kuan said with a cold smile.
***
The next morning, Zhu He Xin once again visited the Ling Clan. Now Ling Dong Xing finally understood why Ma Da Jun had been so reverent towards his son. It was because even a Black Grade alchemist such as Zhu He Xin would stand with both hands at his sides in front of his son--the epitome of an obedient student.
This solved the mystery yet caused Ling Dong Xing to be even more shocked. Because, in the last case, it was only a Yellow Grade alchemist, but now even a Black Grade alchemist was so reverent towards his son. What was going on here?
The reason behind Zhu He Xin's visit was to pass on some news to Ling Han.
There was news that a stalk of Earth Dragon Grass may have appeared on Seven Wind Mountains.
When Liu Yu Tong had gone to purchase the ingredients for concocting the Little Cloud and Water Pill a few days ago, she had also asked Zhu He Xin about the ingredients for another pill formula. This pill formula had a total of four ingredients that belonged to the 'extremely rare' category. Even Heaven's Medicine Pavilion did not have any of these ingredients in stock.
Or rather, the branch in Rain Country did not have them in stock. However, based on his current rank, Zhu He Xin had no way of checking the stock of the bigger branches, not to mention transferring something over.
This pill formula was the formula required to concoct a pill to heal Ling Dong Xing's Spirit Base. The name of the pill was "Restore Spirit Pill", an Earth Grade medium level pill!
Earth Dragon Grass was one of the four missing ingredients this pill formula required. Thus, once he received this piece of new, Zhu He Xin quickly came to personally visit the Ling Residence. Of course, while one reason was to inform Ling Han of the important news, he also wanted to come and seek guidance from Ling Han. At other times, he would not dare to come and disturb Ling Han.
Ling Han was naturally elated. But after he had carefully asked about the circumstances surrounding the Seven Wind Mountains, he could only decide to temporarily postpone the trip.
The reason was, the person who brought the news was a strong warrior of the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier. By the time he was found by a team of herb gatherers, he was already close to death. He only managed to say "cave", "giant red snake" and "Earth Dragon Grass" before he died.
Thus, this led to the conclusion that there was Earth Dragon Grass within the Seven Wind Mountains, yet there should be a giant red snake standing guard over it. It even managed to severely injure a strong warrior of the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier.
Yet Ling Han knew that where there was Earth Dragon Grass, there would usually be a Red Scaled Dragon Snake coiled nearby. The snake would absorb the weak Dragon Qi released by the Earth Dragon Grass to slowly evolve and complete the transformation from a snake to a dragon.
A mature Red Scaled Dragon Snake would possess cultivation comparable to the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier. Furthermore, because it possessed a bit of the dragon's bloodline, its power far exceeded an ordinary warrior of the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier. It could be considered to have one foot in the Gushing Spring Tier and was an invincible king of the Element Gathering Tier.
Should Ling Han enter the Seven Wind Mountains at this stage... even if he managed to find that "cave", there was no way he could be an equal opponent to the Red Scaled Dragon Snake--it would be useless even with the help of Liu Yu Tong, unless Liu Yu Tong had one foot in the Gushing Spring Tier as well.
He would definitely go to the Seven Wind Mountains, but he had to make full preparation for the trip.
Moreover, the inner core of the Red Scaled Dragon Snake could be refined into a Transcending Origin Pill. Taking this pill would allow a martial artist in the Element Gathering Tier to directly advance one layer--with the limit being the peak of the third layer of Element Gathering Tier. Additionally, because the Red Scaled Dragon Snake possessed a bit of the dragon's bloodline, its blood and flesh were extremely nutritious and would allow Ling Han to grasp the Dead Tree Tier, the first tier of the Indestructible Heaven Scroll, at a faster rate.
He decided to continue working hard at cultivation and only set off towards Seven Wind Mountains once he had broken through to the Element Gathering Tier. He'd also be able to make use of the inner core of the Dragon Snake to quickly raise his cultivation level to the third layer of Element Gathering Tier then, after which he would easily break through to the fourth layer.
Additionally, he also had to raise his own power through actual battle experience and strengthen his foundation. While in his last life he had stood at the summit of martial arts, to be honest, he was not considered the one with the strongest battle power.
There was a simple reason for that. His cultivation progress was faster than an average cultivator's because he had possessed a Heaven Grade high level Spirit Base, but if he battled with a warrior of the same cultivation level, he would still have to take into account his opponent's battle tactics and the level of control he had over his use of martial arts skills.
In his last life, Ling Han was definitely extremely intelligent, for how else could he become the first Alchemy Emperor ever--a record that no one has ever managed to achieve and likely no one else will ever achieve? However, there were definitely limits to one's time and energy. He had spent most of his time on alchemy research and concocting alchemical pills. Whatever time he had left he spent on raising his cultivation level, so how much time did he have left to refine his martial arts skills?
But this was no problem, for his cultivation progress was much too fast. With the additional support of alchemical pills, how could his opponents be able to compare with him? He only had to use the difference in cultivation levels to crush his opponents. He needed not use any kind of tactics.
But once he reached the summit of martial arts, this weakness was revealed.
In Ling Han's last life, there were in total seven strong warriors of the Heaven Tier. Based purely on actual battle power, he was definitely at the bottom. The reason was the fact that he had depended on the use of alchemical pills to increase his cultivation level and didn't really have much of an actual battle experience.
It could be said that his cultivation level of Heaven Tier had actually been quite hollow!
Of course, if he had spent more than one hundred years to continue training in martial arts skills, he would definitely be able to compensate for this inadequacy. After all, he was still too young. A three
hundred-year-old of the Heaven Tier was still a very rare existence in history--such people could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
In this life, Ling Han no longer wanted to become this kind of paper tiger warrior, so he definitely needed to leave a deep footprint behind his every step--each step had to be taken firmly.
Ling Han had no excess thoughts. Aside from cultivating the Five Elements Heaven Grade Skill everyday, he also began to refine his martial arts skills. In his last life, he had given up on using Yellow Grade and Black Grade martial arts skills at a very early stage. He had mostly just stuck to using Heaven Grade martial arts skills, and only sometimes would he deign to use Earth Grade martial arts skills.
But now, he could only use Yellow Grade martial arts skills. As a result, he needed to work very hard on cultivating and make himself become an indomitable ruler of all those with the same cultivation level, and not just obtain his victories by taking advantage of the difference in cultivation level between him and his opponents.
However, he had in his hands a large variety of high-level martial art skills, but very few low-level ones.
That was natural. In his previous life, he had been a strong warrior of Heaven Tier. Even if he had discovered any Black Grade or Yellow Grade martial arts skills in a historical site, how would it be possible that he would train in any of them? He may flip through some of them, but there were definitely few of them.
Thankfully, he had also been a martial artist that had slowly worked his way up from the bottom in his last life, so he still possessed a few low-level martial arts skills.
Shocking Electricity Sword Arts, Flying Fire Palm Arts, Dashing Panther Fist, and Exiting Cloud Step were all Yellow Grade high level martial arts skills.
However, what caused Ling Han to feel a little embarrassed was the fact that he had not cultivated these four martial arts skills to the highest level in his last life, for he was always busy with concocting pills.
So, he just had to start all over again. He was still young anyways.
Ling Han began with Shocking Electricity Sword Arts. The reason was simple. His current cultivation level was still too low, so he needed the support of a weapon to increase his strength, and the favorite weapon of most martial artists were either a sword or a saber.