"Ha ha, what a lively scene! Everyone, what is all this commotion about? Jiang Chen is but a young man who has only recently entered the world — surely you don't mean to frighten him like this."
Palace Master Dan Chi had clearly rushed over upon hearing the news, stepping forward to protect Jiang Chen.
How could he fail to see through these old foxes' schemes? They were simply trying to swindle Jiang Chen out of his Longevity Pills.
When Lord Tianming spotted Palace Master Dan Chi, he chuckled. "Little Brother Dan Chi, you've come at just the right time to settle this fairly. I was clearly the first to invite Nephew Jiang, yet Patriarch Xiang insists on cutting in and snatching him away. An old man truly can't get any justice! Big Brother Xiang, you're the elder here — why not yield to your little brother just this once, eh?"
Lord Tianming was famously silver-tongued, and these words were nothing short of begging the Sacred Elephant Patriarch to step aside.
Both were Sect Masters of Fourth-Rank Sects, yet Lord Tianming had already adopted a very humble posture. After all, he had invited Jiang Chen first — if it came to a dispute, he truly had the better claim.
The Sacred Elephant Clan's patriarch was named Xiang Wentian, and he was not typically the overbearing type.
But this time, he seemed dead set on being unreasonable. He waved his hand and smiled coolly. "Tianming, if it were any other matter, I might let you have your way. I won't beat around the bush with you. By my calculations, I have less than sixty years of life remaining. You're scheming for the Longevity Pill, and so am I. Tell me — other things can be yielded, but how can one yield on one's lifespan?"
Powerhouses of the Saint Realm lived for at least fifteen hundred years, with some reaching two or even three thousand.
And yet this Sacred Elephant Patriarch was claiming less than sixty years of life remaining. One couldn't help but wonder just how old he truly was.
When Lord Tianming heard the Sacred Elephant Patriarch say this, he too smiled bitterly. "Brother Xiang, decades ago I was injured during training and it damaged my lifespan. I don't have many years left either."
These two titans were openly airing their grievances before the crowd, much to everyone's astonishment.
When it came to the Longevity Pill, besides these two titans, the other sect leaders were equally tempted.
True, their lifespans were nowhere near crisis levels yet, but with such a pill, it was better to be prepared. Owning one could only be a good thing.
Watching the atmosphere grow ever more heated, Wang Jianyu of the Holy Sword Palace felt increasingly vexed.
Why did Dan Qian Palace always manage to steal the spotlight? Why was everyone always fawning over them?
Did Dan Qian Palace think they could corner the market on the Longevity Pill? Wang Jianyu wasn't about to accept that.
His thoughts turning, he smiled. "Brother Xiang, Lord Tianming, please don't be hasty. In truth, this Longevity Pill can be refined by even a junior disciple, which surely means it can be mass-produced. Once the pill becomes available in quantity, the two of you can buy as many as you like. Unless Dan Qian Palace intends to hoard them and refuse to sell."
This was obviously meant to sow discord.
And worse, it deliberately put Dan Qian Palace on the hot seat.
Sacred Elephant Patriarch Xiang Wentian fixed Palace Master Dan Chi with a grave look. "Little Brother Dan Chi, what's the real situation with this Longevity Pill? Your Dan Qian Palace can't do something so dishonorable, can you?"
Palace Master Dan Chi smiled faintly and gave Wang Jianyu a long look. "Everyone, I'm truly sorry, but if the Longevity Pill could be mass-produced, my Dan Qian Palace wouldn't have waited until today to announce it. I can't tell if Sect Master Wang is missing a few screws in his head or is deliberately stirring the pot. If the Longevity Pill could be mass-produced, Dan Qian Palace would have risen to greatness long ago on the strength of this pill — why would we wait for an occasion like this to bring it out?"
Everyone reflected on this and found Palace Master Dan Chi's words perfectly logical.
If Dan Qian Palace could truly mass-produce the Longevity Pill, they would have started making a fortune ages ago. Why would they have waited until today with nothing to show for it?
Such a pill could be sold in any quantity produced.
After all, Saint-realm powerhouses possessed staggering wealth, and a life-extending pill like this could absolutely fetch an astronomical price. Take the Sacred Elephant Patriarch for example — even if asked to give up half his fortune for a single pill extending life by five hundred years, he wouldn't so much as furrow his brow.
"As for alchemy, our sect's Elder Yun Nie is far more qualified to speak on the matter."
Everyone turned to Elder Yun Nie, who had long been prepared. He spoke. "The Longevity Pill's ingredients, while precious, are not the most important factor. What matters most is that its refinement process is extraordinarily complex, with an abysmally low success rate. Moreover, the refinement process enormously taxes one's divine sense. After a single attempt, one needs at least ten days to half a month to recover. This pill absolutely cannot be mass-produced. Even a Pill King could refine at most one batch every ten days, and each batch would yield no more than three pills."
"And among our Dan Qian Palace's alchemists, besides Jiang Chen, probably only I can attempt to refine it. The maximum we can manage is firing the furnace once every month or two. Jiang Chen is still young and cannot expend his divine sense on pill refinement long-term, nor would the sect allow him to do so. After all, martial cultivation is the foundation of a genius."
Elder Yun Nie's words were airtight, leaving no room for anyone to find fault.
But as everyone glanced at Jiang Chen, they were privately unconvinced. In their eyes, Jiang Chen's meager martial cultivation hardly made him a martial genius — he would be better off dedicating himself fully to the noble art of pill refinement.
Naturally, such thoughts could not be spoken aloud.
Once said, they would deeply offend Jiang Chen, and obtaining even a single Longevity Pill in the future would become impossibly difficult.
Wang Jianyu sneered. "Even if the furnace is fired once every three months, producing three pills each time, over the long run that's still a considerable number."
Elder Yun Nie scoffed. "Sect Master Wang, you're a sect master after all — why do you keep saying such amateurish things? Refining the Longevity Pill taxes the divine sense and carries the risk of damaging it. Whether one is a martial artist or an alchemist, maintaining a state of divine sense depletion for extended periods will, even if recovery is possible afterward, eventually cause fundamental harm with enough repetition. Would you have our Dan Qian Palace's alchemists risk their lives for the sake of pills? To put it bluntly, even firing the furnace once every three months, over a hundred years that would constitute enormous damage. At best, the sea of consciousness would be impaired; at worst, it would collapse entirely."
This was no idle fear-mongering on Elder Yun Nie's part.
The formula for the Longevity Pill was indeed extraordinary. Without an alchemist possessing extremely powerful control and a vastly developed divine sense, the refinement was an enormous drain.
The reason Jiang Chen feared nothing was that he had cultivated the Heart of Rock and the Seven Apertures Spiritual Resonance — his divine sense had been tempered to near perfection, not inferior to a Pill King's.