Chapter 2742 — A Task for You

In the Xuandan Sect, Kang Jingming had just been made the Eighth Elder, and he had refined the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill. This ought to have been a joyous occasion, but then something major happened! Xuanzhen Ancestor had actually failed to refine the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill!

"Impossible? How could this be? With my skill in pill refinement, I actually failed?" Xuanzhen Ancestor frowned tightly, staring at the medicinal residue that had turned into a pile of black ash inside the cauldron. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand it—even Kang Jingming, who had **come out of** him, could refine the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, so why couldn't he?

However, after a second attempt, Xuanzhen Ancestor gave up. It was still a failure, which showed that the failure could not have been caused by some slip of his—rather, he simply could not refine it! Could it be that the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill Kang Jingming refined once again had no effect on him?

Xuanzhen Ancestor had no choice but to give Kang Jingming large quantities of rare treasures of heaven and earth that restored physical strength and true qi, enabling him to refine another Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill!

As Xuanzhen Ancestor had expected, Kang Jingming succeeded. Although the quality was still not all that good, it was indeed a success! And this time, Xuanzhen Ancestor had watched the entire refining process from beginning to end—it was no different in any way from his own refining. Yet Kang Jingming succeeded, while Xuanzhen Ancestor failed!

"Something is off. There must be a problem with this pill formula!" Although Xuanzhen Ancestor had not discovered where the problem in the formula lay, after turning it over and over in his mind, he could only ultimately attribute the problem to the formula itself.

Otherwise, why could Kang Jingming refine the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill while he could not? Yet he could also be certain that what Kang Jingming had refined was indeed the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, because after taking it, its effects were exactly the same as the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill recorded in the ancient texts—Xuanzhen Ancestor could feel it.

This time, the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill Kang Jinglong had refined was not taken by Xuanzhen Ancestor again, but was carefully sent away. Still, Xuanzhen Ancestor was not quite ready to give up, so he summoned Kang Jingming.

"Zhaoming, tell me carefully—where exactly did this pill formula come from?" Xuanzhen Ancestor did not know the formula's origins; he had not given it much thought before, but now that the refinement had failed, he intended to inquire in detail about its provenance.

"This pill formula is..." Kang Jingming did not dare conceal anything. He told Xuanzhen Ancestor about kidnapping Guan Xin back then and extorting the formula from Wei Zhao, though the means had been somewhat unsavory. But none of it was a secret; even if Kang Jingming had said nothing, Xuanzhen Ancestor could have obtained the answer from the Xuandan Sect all the same.

"What? Wei Zhao gave you this pill formula?" Xuanzhen Ancestor's eyes went wide with disbelief! The conflict between Xuanchen Ancestor and Wei Zhao a few days earlier had not escaped Xuanzhen Ancestor's notice. He had had reservations about what Little One and Little Eleven had done, but fortunately neither Chief Bai nor his **Wei Zhao** had suffered anything serious, and even Han Jingyi had returned to the classroom hopping and skipping about, which had finally let Xuanzhen Ancestor breathe a sigh of relief.

"Yes. Could it be that this formula is fake?" From Xuanzhen Ancestor's tone and from what had happened before, Kang Jingming had more or less guessed some of what was going on.

"Fake is not quite the word, but there should be a problem!" Xuanzhen Ancestor said. "Wei Zhao is a... is Chief Bai's disciple, so it is very likely that Chief Bai gave him this formula, or rather that Chief Bai altered it before giving it to him. Although this formula can produce the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, once one has taken a pill refined from it, one can no longer refine any other Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pills. Do you understand what I mean?"

Xuanzhen Ancestor did not know that Wei Zhao had only met Chief Bai in university, so he assumed the two had known each other long ago, and thus naturally attributed the source of the formula to Chief Bai.

"I understand. So you failed to refine it, and only I can succeed?" Though astonishment showed on Kang Jingming's face, his heart was filled with boundless delight. What did it mean for goods to be rare and hoarded? If only he could refine the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, his standing in the Xuandan Sect would rise with the tide, and when anyone needed this pill, they would have to beg him to refine it. In that way, he would become a person of great importance.

"You could put it that way." Xuanzhen Ancestor nodded. "So I am giving you a task. Since you know Wei Zhao, when you have time, go back and pay him a visit. Explain the flaw in this formula to him, and do your best to trade back the genuine formula. You may offer other fine things in exchange. If you truly cannot trade for it, then contact me again..."

Xuanzhen Ancestor's way of doing things was completely different from Xuanchen Ancestor's. Xuanchen Ancestor's first thought was to seize things by force, but Xuanzhen Ancestor thought of equal exchange—and if he could not trade for it, he was prepared to swallow his pride and personally telephone Chief Bai to beg for the formula!

Of course, that was something he would do only if all else truly failed. He did not have Xuanchen Ancestor's thick skin, so it was a last resort.

As for why he needed the formula for the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, it was because this formula was too important—not only did it work on inheritors of the void attribute, it was also of great use to ordinary **practitioners**!

This thing was far superior to the Foundation-Establishing Pill. The Foundation-Establishing Pill was in fact a branch of the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill, also used to temper the constitution, but it was not as formidable as the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill. Therefore, any **practitioner** who took the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill could improve their constitution and accelerate their **cultivation**—this was a genuinely good thing!

An ordinary person who took it could prolong life; a **practitioner** who took it could strengthen the constitution. If this thing were refined, it would be in hopelessly short supply in any **practitioner** market. Xuanzhen Ancestor wanted to refine it for sale, and truly, it was because in recent years, though the Five Luminaries Sect appeared powerful, its **cultivation** resources had already been stretched to their limit.

Still, it was hardly surprising. Any sect that had passed down a thousand years, consuming without replenishing, would sooner or later see its resources exhausted. Xuanzhen Ancestor feared the Five Luminaries Sect might not hold out until the day the Cloud-Tier Island opened, so he had no choice but to begin making preparations.

Although he could help certain sects refine the third-grade pills they needed in exchange for conditions, such arrangements were one-off—there would not always be people seeking him out to refine pills. Moreover, some pills simply could not be refined for others for the time being. The Ice Palace's Ice Heart Jade Bone Pill, for instance—if he refined it now, it would disrupt Xuanchen Ancestor's entire plan. So he could only refine selectively, which naturally did not sell as well as a general-purpose pill like the Marrow-Washing Bone-Cleansing Pill!