Chapter 438: Enlightenment Pavilion

"...They are still black." Yi Chen thought, looking at the third batch of pills, which was also going to be his last for today.

Taking a deep breath, he soon started cleaning up all the apparatus, and by the time he was done, tiredness was evident on his face.

’I still have to finish my swordsmanship practice followed by cultivation...’ he thought with a difficult expression while sitting on the bed.

A part of him wanted to skip it for today, but the other part kept nudging him to get on with it, telling him that if he were to skip it this time, then it would become even more difficult to stick to the routine from there on out.

Therefore, pushing himself off his bed, he took out his sword and started practising the three basic moves taught to him by Grand Elder Jian.

He did so for over an hour before immersing himself in his cultivation for the next three hours. As a result, by the time he was finished with his cultivation and had taken a shower in the public bath outside, it was already half past two in the morning.

"Well, that was exhausting..." He muttered as he stretched his body and started making his way back to his room.

I’ll only need to go out to eat for the next few days, so I’ll be able to make my routine more efficient during this period...’ he thought to himself, not wanting to stay awake until late every night.

A few moments later, he reached his room, and the moment his head rested on the pillow, all the tiredness that had been accumulating in him hit him at once, knocking him unconscious.

The next day, he followed almost the same routine: refining three batches of pills, practising his swordsmanship, cultivating, and lastly going through the books he had borrowed from the library.

With that all said and done, another day soon passed by, which was closely followed by another and the next...

By the tenth day since he had made the pill refining room his home, Yi Chen had refined three hundred of those pills, which unfortunately had all ended up in failure with little to no progress in their efficacy rate.

The only thing Yi Chen had to show for all the effort he had put in the last ten days was those 300 black pills resting inside his storage ring and the three hundred experience points he had gained as a result of it.

"Is it because I’m processing them wrongly? Or is there a problem with my final mixing?’ he muttered to himself. These were among the many questions that had started welling up in his mind over the last ten days.

With no way to get an answer to them, he had been piling them all up in one corner of his mind all this time. However, today was the day they were all going to be answered.

Finishing up with his morning pill-making attempt, Yi Chen stretched a little before going to the bathroom to freshen up.

Too involved in refining pills, he had started skipping breakfast during this period. Usually, after he had freshened up, he would straightway start the day’s second pill refining session.

However, that wasn’t the case today, for there was an important event he needed to attend.

It was also this very event that was going to provide him with all the answers that had been boggling his mind all this while.

"God, I’ve been waiting for this class for so many days now! It’s finally time!" Yi Chen exclaimed excitedly while clenching his fists.

He was currently standing right outside the Pill Hall, where several posters had been pasted on the walls over the previous three days to remind everyone that the biweekly classes were approaching.

"I don’t know whether Elder Hong, who was responsible for taking our orientation classes, was a Tier 3 Pill Refiner or not, but if that’s not the case, then this is going to be my very first time attending such a lesson!" Yi Chen muttered with a grin and continued, "Moreover, unlike before, I’ve read through hundreds of books on Pill Refining, and I’m more familiar with various types of herbs, their processing steps and pill refining methods!

Something I had no idea about at all before! ... Though there’s still the fact that I’ve failed to make a single Sleeping Crane Pill with an efficacy rate above 10%, despite attempting it three hundred times."

Yi Chen’s excited mood instantly dulled the moment he thought about the result of his last ten days. However, he soon shook his head and cleared those disappointing thoughts away.

’It doesn’t matter! Isn’t learning the very reason why I’m even here in the first place? It’s only normal for me to not be able to make pills properly for the first time,’ he said to himself, trying to raise his spirits.

"Alright, let’s go then."

Nodding to himself, he made his way behind the Pill Hall the next moment, where there was a large building named the Enlightenment Pavilion.

It was almost two stories tall, but there was no second floor inside the building. Instead, it was an enormous lecture hall with tiered seating that extended almost all the way to the ceiling at one end.

"This... it’s large enough to allow almost a thousand disciples to be seated in here!" he thought out loud in dismay.

"Hehe, looks like this is your first class," a disciple wearing the same white robes as Yi Chen remarked with a snicker as he approached and noticed Yi Chen’s reaction.

"You..."

Yi Chen looked at the guy strangely, for he wasn’t a fellow batchmate. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn’t have treated him in that manner, which meant that the other party was naturally a Senior Outer Sect Disciple.

After killing Liu Shen, Yi Chen’s reputation amongst the Senior Outer Sect Disciples had naturally plummeted despite never meeting all of them face to face.

It didn’t matter whether they personally knew Liu Shen; the mere news that a newly joined Outer Sect Disciple had killed a senior in a death duel was enough to make most of them have a very negative opinion of him.

This guy... is he trying to pick a fight?’ Yi Chen thought as he heard the man’s annoying snicker. He was about to retaliate verbally, but just then, the man held out his hand.

"Hello Junior, I’m Fan Duan. Sorry for chuckling at you earlier, but your reaction just now reminded me of how I reacted when I first entered this place. I couldn’t help finding it both nostalgic and comical."

’This... Is he not aware of me?’

Completely taken aback by the man’s words, Yi Chen was momentarily at a loss for words. He soon shook the Senior Disciple’s hand with an awkward smile.

"So, it’s Senior Brother Fan Duan... I’m Yi Chen. A newly joined Outer Sect Disciple."

As Yi Chen said that, he closely monitored Fan Duan’s facial expression.

’Even if you haven’t seen me face to face, you must have clearly heard my name from other senior outer sect disciples. When that happens, you’ll surely go away and let me mind my business.’ Yi Chen thought to himself with his eyes directed straight at him.

However, none of what Yi Chen had thought of came to fruition.

"Ah, so you’re Junior Brother Chen! Nice to meet you. It’s good to see enthusiastic Juniors such as you who decided to come to the lecture venue an hour early just like me!

Come! Sit with me in the first seat, for it’s the best seat to absorb all of the Pill Master’s teachings! If our luck is good, he’ll even call us on the stage as assistants when he’ll be refining pills!"

Fan Duan exclaimed with excitement evident in his eyes and grabbed Yi Chen’s wrist with one hand, pointing straight towards the front-row seat in the middle that he had reserved for himself.

Although taken aback by such an unexpected reaction, Yi Chen became curious when he heard a certain term and questioned Fan Duan the very next instant, "Personal Assistants? How many of them does the Pill Master usually call?"

"Hmmm." Hearing Yi Chen’s question, Fan Duan hummed a little in thought and said, "Around three or four, but mostly it depends on which Tier 3 Pill Refiner is taking our lecture. If it’s Elder Sheng, who’s known to be very strict and punctual, then he only calls for one assistant, but most of the other Elders usually call at least three, if not four, of us to help out so that we can gain some more insights."

"So that’s how it is..." Yi Chen nodded his head in understanding, but that explanation just now gave rise to another question in Yi Chen’s mind the very next moment, as he couldn’t help but ask, "Then Senior Brother, how many Tier 3 Pill Refiners does our sect have?"

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