Chapter 435: Extending the Stay

A few minutes later, Yi Chen was standing inside the Pill Refining room he had rented for a day.

"Although I did end up renting it because of his words, I still have no clue where I should start..."

He muttered while scratching the side of his face, checking out the room with an awkward expression.

The next moment, his gaze fell on the wide table provided for placing all the herb processing apparatus, as he thought to himself.

’Well... Whatever, I’ll just arrange that table with all my newly acquired apparatus first. Maybe my mind will start working more by the end of it.’

With that thought, he started taking out the recently bought items, which contained several glass containers, test tubes, holders, mashers, droppers and the like, and arranged them on the table.

’Luckily, the table’s large enough not to look congested even after I’ve placed everything I had on it.’

Yi Chen nodded with a satisfied expression before turning his head towards the fire contraption that was made on the ground.

It was a large metallic lid that was attached to a couple of steel arms, the other ends of which were connected to a roller mechanism.

Looking at the subtle gap in the centre of the lid, Yi Chen could see an orange flame blazing underneath it.

"Let’s see how strong the flame is here."

He bent down the next instant and, placing his hand on the handle attached to the roller, started rotating it in an anti-clockwise direction.

The pin-sized gap in the middle of the lid from earlier slowly started expanding from all sides as flames began seeping out of the lid in earnest.

The wider the hole was, the greater and more intense the flame coming out of the lid became.

"Ah, so that’s how it works." Yi Chen nodded in understanding, satisfied with the intensity of the flames.

Rotating the handle clockwise, he soon closed the lid and stood up.

Taking out his cauldron the next moment, he placed it on top of a small holding structure that had been built right on top of the metallic lid.

"Fits perfectly."

Nodding in satisfaction, Yi Chen soon looked around the rented room that felt closer to him than before.

"Now that I think of it... Won’t I have to do it all over again later the next time I come here?" Yi Chen paused for a couple of seconds before muttering in frustration, "...Fuck, that would really be a pain in the ass."

As he said those words, he glanced at his table that was already set up with all the newly bought apparatus.

Compared to just buying them, he had put in more effort into neatly arranging them all on that table, so having to take everything apart by the end of the day couldn’t help but bother him.

Just as he was trying to make peace with this frustration, his eyes landed on the bed placed next to the shelf.

"Well... staying here for a few days is also not a very bad idea." As he muttered those words, he glanced at the shelf that was filled with a couple of dozen books. "... though I’d better make it worth my time for the amount of contribution points I’ll be spending because of it."

Deciding on what he needed to do, Yi Chen soon left the Pill Refining room to meet up with the Inner Sect Disciple who was in charge of all the rooms.

"Hm? Junior Brother, is there a problem in your room?" the Inner Sect Disciple asked the moment he saw Yi Chen arrive in front of him with a confused expression.

’It had only been half an hour or so since he had left... did he give up and want to ask for a refund now? How frustrating... I should have told him earlier that the Pill Hall doesn’t accept refunds.’

The man let out a frustrated sigh, thinking of the scene Yi Chen might end up creating when he informs him about this fact.

However, to his very surprise, the very first words that left Yi Chen’s mouth weren’t those of cancellation.

"There’s no problem, Senior Brother. I just wanted to extend my rental period to two weeks instead." Yi Chen answered with a smile as he met the Senior Disciple’s eyes.

"...What?"

The disciple’s eyes widened, and for a moment, he couldn’t believe his ears, before a wide smile formed on his face.

"Great! That’s a great decision, Junior Brother. Let me help you with it quickly then." The Senior Disciple quickly made the required arrangements and, after receiving the required contribution points from Yi Chen, sealed the deal.

"All done. Junior Brother can stay in his designated room for the next two weeks. During these days, if you feel that your room has got dirty, do inform me and I’ll get it cleaned by someone."

The man informed him with a wide grin.

"Thank you, Senior Brother." Yi Chen nodded and returned the smile as he left the man’s office.

However, he didn’t immediately return to his pill refining room. Instead, he made his way back towards the sect’s interiors with an expectant expression in his eyes as he soon began utilising his movement technique.

A few moments later, Yi Chen was standing outside the Sect’s Library, where he could see many of his batchmates moving to and fro or just loitering around.

Looking at the three-storied building once again after several days, a smile naturally formed on Yi Chen’s face as he soon made his way inside.

"Greetings, Elder!" Yi Chen greeted with as genuine a smile as possible the moment his eyes fell on the receptionist, who was also the library’s caretaker.

Elder Un Jing, who had been sitting in a meditative position on top of a cushion, opened his eyes the moment he heard Yi Chen’s words. "Ah, you’re back?"

"Yes, Elder. I just got out of the confinement chamber yesterday." Yi Chen answered with a grateful smile. He still remembered how Elder Un Jing had helped him earlier by preventing the Enforcement Hall disciples and Huo Xun from entering the library to apprehend him.

’He also informed me that they were waiting for me outside when I was done reading, as if he wouldn’t have minded if I’d extended my time here...’

Yi Chen thought, with a grateful feeling welling up in his heart.

"So why are you here? I believe you took enough books with you to last for a while from my library earlier, did you not?" Elder Un Jing asked with a curious smile the very next moment.

"Ah, those... I’ve already finished reading them all during my confinement period. Instead, I’m here to return those books and reissue new ones..." Yi Chen answered honestly when he heard that question.

’Hm? Have they started allowing items to be taken inside the confinement chamber these days?... No, that’s not what’s important right now.’

Elder Un Jing’s eyes widened the next second as he asked, "So you’re saying that you’ve finished going through all the two hundred and forty-two books that you had issued from here in just seven days?!"

"Y-Yes... I apparently read pretty fast."

Yi Chen said with an innocent expression, even though he knew that this fast-reading speed had only been made possible because of the size of his spiritual sea.

’This... Could it be that he was born with a much greater spiritual energy than his peers?’ Elder Un Jing couldn’t help but think with a serious expression the moment he heard those words.

Although rare, there had been more than a few cases of such individuals making their appearances in the cultivation world, and whenever that happened, they managed to leave a strong mark in the continent’s history.

The moment Elder Un Jing thought along those lines, the gaze with which he was looking at Yi Chen completely changed.

In his eyes, Yi Chen no longer seemed like merely a talented disciple but rather a rare genius.

’To think such a genius had entered our sect...’ Elder Un Jing thought with an expectant glimmer in his eyes as he couldn’t help but feel expectant about Yi Chen’s future.

However, even though he had strong expectations of Yi Chen, he didn’t force those expectations onto Yi Chen and suppressed those feelings in his heart the very next moment.

Cough, Cough

Letting out a couple of coughs, he said with a smile, "Well, looks like you’re innately gifted with a good reading ability. You said that you want to issue more books, right? Which topics are you looking for this time?"

"Well, I’m looking for books related to Pill Refining this time as well, so..." Yi Chen explained.

After that, he returned all the issued books to Elder Un Jing and went to the designated shelves to select the required books.

Since his plan was to read them all later rather than now, he didn’t spend much time there.

Barely thirty minutes had elapsed before he returned to Elder Un Jing with more than five hundred books on Pill Refining.

"572 books... alright." Elder Un Jing confirmed the number of books before lending them to Yi Chen. "Study well, young disciple."

"Yes, Elder." Yi Chen nodded with a cheerful expression, excited to go back to the pill refining room, and hurriedly left the next moment.

Looking at his shrinking figure, the subtle smile on Elder Un Jing’s wrinkled face widened as he muttered under his breath the next moment, "This lad... I’m really looking forward to his growth."