The Gate Of Good Fortune

now how many years it would have taken for me to understand that without your help.”

Sheng Houtian had a look of excitement on his face, just like a child who found a long lost yet still precious toy.
At his level, if he wanted to advance, heavenly treasures or external objects wouldn’t be of any use to him.
He had to rely entirely on his own comprehension of the Dao of Alchemy.
The truth was, his understanding of alchemy had already come so far that it had reached an extreme point.
As such, Ning Cheng’s epiphany had pushed him over the tipping threshold, making it possible for him to actually become a second-step pill sage.

Ning Cheng already knew that Sheng Houtian had tried to sense his epiphany while he underwent it.
However, he didn’t care about it.
Ning Cheng possessed the Mysterious Yellow Origin and cultivated the Mysterious Yellow Formless, which meant that such epiphanies were regular.
He also didn’t mind if Sheng Houtian followed him around to bask in it.

Now that Sheng Houtian had become so appreciative of him, Ning Cheng naturally wouldn’t remain pretentious and quickly spoke up.
“Then, many thanks, Brother Houtian……”

“Good, good……” Sheng Houtian rubbed his hands excitedly.
Even before Ning Cheng had started his alchemic epiphany, he felt confident that Ning Cheng’s future achievements would far surpass his.
Initially, he wanted to wait for Ning Cheng to finish his assessments.
Then, he could use the opportunity to form a friendship with Ning Cheng.

Unexpectedly, before he could even form a friendship, Ning Cheng had once again demonstrated his terrifying qualifications that far surpassed those of a demon.
If he could befriend such a person, he might gain far more in the future.

Seeing that Sheng Houtian didn’t say anything about letting him continue with the examination, Ning Cheng had to take the initiative to mention.
“Brother Houtian, I want to continue with the Dao Sculpting Pill Sage assessment.
I wonder if I can refine another Falling Scar Dao Pill…..”

Sheng Houtian waved his big hand, “According to the rules, you have two more chances to refine a furnace.
Out of a total of three chances, you only need to refine two successful batches, and you can pass without any problems.”

After saying that, Sheng Houtian felt that this didn’t show how helpful he was to Ning Cheng and whispered to Ning Cheng.
“Brother Ning, you can go ahead and refine more batches if you like.
If you fail, I will give you a few more refining chances.
However, you need to promise to not mention this to anyone, not even to those close to you.”

After saying that, Sheng Houtian waved his hand and took out enough materials for five furnaces of Falling Scar Dao Pills.
Apparently, Sheng Houtian also understood that one would have a higher chance of success when refining the same dao pill in subsequent rounds.

Ning Cheng smiled.
He knew that even if Sheng Houtian didn’t say anything, the Pill Union would still know about it.
The piles of monitoring formations around here weren’t just for show.
The only reason why Sheng Houtian said those words was because he was afraid to put a psychological burden on him.

However, Ning Cheng didn’t think that he would fail once again.
With his epiphany and Sea of Consciousness’s advancement, he would be too embarrassed to refine the third furnace if he failed the second refinement.

This time, Ning Cheng didn’t carefully separate the spirit grasses or even carefully extract the essence of the spirit grasses.
He moved as swiftly as he did before when he refined those spirit pills.

When Sheng Houtian saw Ning Cheng’s movements returning to the previous speed, no, even swifter than before, he started to have some doubts.
He doubted in his heart if that last attempt with the Falling Scar Dao Pill was the first time Ning Cheng had refined a dao pill in his life.

However, he quickly dispelled those thoughts. The Falling Scar Dao Pill can’t be the first dao pill that Ning Cheng had refined. That’s because Ning Cheng’s movements had once again regained the calmness and fluidity as when he refined those spirit pills.
He still couldn’t see Ning Cheng’s pill art, but he could experience a pleasant feeling of springiness from Ning Cheng’s technique.

Half an incense stick later, the pill dregs got thrown out, and an incense stick later, pill rhythms started to circle above the furnace.
Half an hour later, the pill rhythms began to coalesce, and one could even feel the laws of heaven and earth converging in the furnace.
Immediately afterwards, a burst of pill fragrance erupted from inside it.

Just when Ning Cheng’s pill-making skills emotionally shocked Sheng Houtian once again, Ning Cheng’s hand moved like a blurred shadow.
A moment later, tinkling sounds of pills falling into a jade bottle rang out within the hall.

Sheng Houtian felt genuinely thrilled to see that Ning Cheng’s refinement had succeeded.
He didn’t dare release his spiritual consciousness to check for fear of affecting Ning Cheng’s refinement.
But he could still feel that this batch of dao pills was of high quality.

“Brother Houtian, please help me look at it.” Ning Cheng smiled and placed the jade bottle containing the twelve Falling Scar Dao Pills in Sheng Huotian’s hands.

Sheng Houtian couldn’t wait to open the jade bottle, and a moment later, he couldn’t help but speak up in a slightly exaggerated voice.
“Indeed, twelve dao pills of exceptional quality.
I’m afraid that it would be difficult even for me to achieve such a result.”

Ning Cheng also felt satisfied with the result.
After experiencing the epiphany, he now could refine pills with even more ease and more freehand than before.

While Sheng Houtian kept looking over the pills, Ning Cheng started to refine the second batch of Falling Scar Dao Pills.
Half an hour later, Ning Cheng finished refining another batch of twelve top-quality Falling Scar Dao Pills.

Sheng Houtian promptly took out the ingredients for two more dao pills and placed them in front of Ning Cheng.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but sigh.
“It won’t be long before your Dao of Alchemy surpasses mine, and it might even happen today.”

This time, he took out the ingredients for the Violet Heart Congealing Pills.
The primary dao fruit for the Violet Heart Congealing Pill was the Heavenly Jade Dao Fruit.
It was a dao pill used by Dao Raising Holy Emperors and below but primarily by those with broken dao hearts.
It gave such people a better chance to re-condense their dao hearts.
As such, it was a rather precious Dao Raising Dao Pill despite the relative price of its ingredients.

It wasn’t unusual for a Holy Emperor’s dao heart to break.
It could happen when one’s dao heart gets unusually stirred up during a cultivation session or during dao condensation, or even against an enemy.
The only restriction was that the Violet Heart Condensation Pill could only be used by Holy Emperors at the Dao Raising level or below.
If someone of a higher level takes it, it would not have any effect.
In some cases, it could even bring harm to that cultivator’s dao heart.

[1] For those who forgot, the first step of Dao Confirming involves three sub-steps: Dao Sculpting, Dao Raising, and Dao Transformation.
Judging from the context, the same rankings apply in the Dao of Alchemy.
Thus, Sheng Huotian is a first-step pill sage.
We still don’t know Sheng Huotian’s cultivation level as of the current chapter.