Long Thanh, the large and modern alchemy complex, stands in complete contrast to the Dragon Palace opposite.
Ten days had passed since the New Talent Competition ended, but the image of the radiant lotus flower was still deeply imprinted in the memories of those who witnessed it. The 22-year-old youth of the Lin family, someone who didn’t even have a degree in magic, actually possessed a legendary technique.
Many people now think back and are still surprised. Originally, the score would decide victory or defeat, but unexpectedly, the Alchemist Guild’s president, Saint Master Zhen Meng, broke the rules and directly stood up to declare Lin Zhuangyang as the new champion.
At that time, a Grandmaster surnamed Peng stood up to object, saying that the flower was not a spiritual treasure, and did not comply with the rules of the competition. Saint Master Chen Meng immediately replied: “This flower is a rare treasure, but its essence is a spiritual treasure. If one had higher quality materials and more freedom of time, it would even be a celestial treasure, a holy treasure!”
A master named Ho objected: “But this flower is only beautiful, what about the criteria of durability and usefulness?”
Lin Zhuangyang just smiled, holding the flower in his hand and raising it high above his head, the flower bloomed, revealing a young, bright yellow lotus pod, the lotus pod flashed and condensed into small seeds, these lotus seeds included a fiery red-yellow type and a icy blue-white type. Then the flower spun at an extremely fast speed, the lotus seeds blooming as big as a fingertip separated from the lotus pod and shot out in all directions as fast as lightning.
Ice and Fire Lotus Heart Bullets, although only a spirit treasure level, each bullet is powerful enough to destroy the spiritual power of low-level Spirit Commanders. Each time it can shoot out 6 ice hearts and 6 fire hearts, proving its formidableness in battle.
So Lam Trang Duong won the championship in a completely convincing manner, received a prize of 5 billion VND along with the position of special intern in the alchemy association, and was personally instructed by Saint Tran Mong.
During his time studying and working in the alchemy association, Lam Trang Duong showed a polite and humble personality, without any of the arrogance often seen in young geniuses. He was also very diligent, intelligent and eager to learn, so he was very loved by the higher-ups of the alchemy association.
Speaking of the technology to create the flower of ice and fire reincarnation, the alchemists here drooled but no one tried to take it away, partly because the copyright of the technology was the most respected thing in alchemy, and secondly because everyone knew that this technology was held by Duong, if one day something happened to him and the technology fell into the hands of someone else, that person would immediately be in deep trouble.
Not to mention ordinary people, even a holy master like Tran Mong would envy him, but with his knowledge, he despised stealing even more. Having interacted with Duong more, Tran Mong had a very good feeling, many times wanting to accept him as a true disciple, but thinking back, he felt that he was not worthy, because he believed that the knowledge Duong had was passed down from some mysterious master, and this master might be even better than him. This secret was equivalent to a secret about technology copyright, so he did not find it convenient to ask Duong.
But what surprised Tran Mong was that except for the ice and fire reincarnation technology, Duong was very comfortable selling other technologies to the alchemy association. Although they were just a few trivial technologies and exchanged fairly, they were still great contributions to Long Thanh’s alchemy. These technologies had not appeared in Saigon, the Imperial City, or Hanoi. This, combined with his clear background, helped prove that Trang Duong was not a spy sent by these places, allowing Tran Mong to completely feel secure in teaching and guiding Duong.
One day, Saint Tran Mong came to the laboratory reserved for Duong, knocked on the door and waited a long time before he came out to greet him.
“What are you doing so intently?” Tran Mong asked intimately.
Duong scratched his messy hair: “I’m researching a technology, but I’m stuck…”
“What technology? Can I see it? Maybe it can help?”
Duong pretended to hesitate: “Actually… you must have guessed that the things I know I learned from an anonymous master…”
Tran Mong heard Duong say that, he had already guessed it but was still very surprised.
Duong continued: “Actually, my master is a holy master, his real name is Dao Lai…”
Tran Mong was even more surprised: “It’s Dao Lai Saint Master, I didn’t expect it to be you!”
Dao Lai is a genius saint master of Long Thanh, possessing many valuable technologies but has been missing for more than ten years. Many people think he is dead but many others think he is in seclusion.
In fact, Dao Lai had lived in seclusion on a deserted island, but also died alone several years ago. Duong relied on Google to find out and then created a perfect reason for the knowledge he knew. This helped him dispel all doubts, turning into trust and respect even more, because Dao Lai was a senior and had helped Tran Mong a lot.
Duong looked sad: “Yes… but master… passed away two years ago… he said he liked to rest quietly in the mountains and forests, so I left for two years to find a place to bury him…”
Yes, Dao Lai in Tran Mong’s memory was a genius who loved peace. Long ago, Tran Mong heard Dao Lai confide that when he died, he only wanted to rest in peace in the mountains and forests.
Filled with grief, Tran Mong shed tears, recalling old memories. After crying for a while, he wiped the tears from his aged face and asked Duong: “Before he passed away, did your master have any wishes he wanted to fulfill?”
Duong sadly replied: “Before I fell ill, my master was researching a technology and he wanted me to perfect it myself to help him…”
“What technology? Just tell me, I will do my best to help you perfect it!”
Duong replied: “It’s high-speed soul extraction technology, I’m almost done with it, but I don’t have any experimental methods yet so there are still many things I can’t think of…”
Now Tran Mong completely believes that Duong is Dao Lai’s disciple, because this top secret technology of the alchemy association was researched by Dao Lai, and is being used to extract Long Chuc Diem’s soul but the efficiency is very low.
“Okay! I will do my best to help you perfect this technology!” Tran Mong nodded firmly, partly because he was also looking forward to this technology, partly because he wanted to fulfill Dao Lai’s last wish and help Duong perfect it.
The next day, Saint Master Tran Mong convened a special meeting of the alchemy association. The first purpose was to announce that Duong was the successor of Saint Master Dao Lai. Next, he informed that Dao Lai had passed away. As for the burial place, Duong said that his master asked him to keep it a secret, so Tran Mong did not know.
It was hard to believe at first, but when everyone thought about it again, the technology that Duong sold to the association all had a hint of Dao Lai’s style, and it was said that only Dao Lai could teach such a genius student without a degree.
While everyone was still in an uproar, Tran Mong brought another big surprise, Duong was following Dao Lai’s will, looking for a way to perfect the soul extraction technology. And the main purpose of this meeting was to grant Duong permission to participate in the research, to be allowed to enter the research area located under the secret room of Long Cung.
Although Lam Trang Duong’s identity had been thoroughly investigated, the meeting still debated for half a day before reaching an agreement, and Duong was granted permission to enter the research area.
The next day, Duong was given a pass, allowing him to freely enter and exit the restricted area, but he would be monitored. On the first day, Saint Tran Mong led Duong to the basement of the alchemy building, to a heavily guarded room, which was where the tunnel leading to the restricted area of the Dragon Palace was.
Tran Mong took Duong into the research area, to a room where the soul of a priest was being extracted. Even though it was just a priest, the extraction process was quite slow, taking from 3 days to a week to complete, and the extracted spiritual energy was also largely dissipated.
During this time, Duong had relied on Google to find ways to improve this extraction technology. Duong pretended to consider and research for a long time, then made a drawing showing the places that needed to be changed. That afternoon, Tran Mong considered and implemented it, and sure enough, the speed for Linh Si and Linh Uy improved significantly.
This result made the entire alchemist association extremely happy. The research that had been stalled for so long was now progressing well thanks to Duong.
But for Linh Ta and above, there was still no progress, so this time, without needing Duong to ask to go, Saint Tran Mong personally came to invite Duong to continue researching.
This time, entering a Linh Ta’s research room, Duong considered and thought longer, taking nearly 3 days to complete the revised drawing.
Like last time, the alchemists were overjoyed as the speed of extracting the souls of the Spirit Assistants and Spirit Generals also improved significantly.
Duong was brought to the Linh Vuong extraction room again, this time for 7 days, the result was as successful as the previous 2 times, but it was still ineffective for Linh De. With each level, the soul develops in a new direction so the extraction method of course also needed to change.
The Alchemist Association held another meeting, this time with the presence of Long Thien Dao and Long Han.
Entering the meeting room, Long Thien Dao wondered: “Is there something important that you called me here today?”
Saint Master Tran Mong greeted and replied: “Clan leader, we invited you here because the process of extracting the princess’s spiritual power has the potential to be accelerated.”
“Is that so?” Long Thien Dao sank, while Long Han brightened.
Tran Mong continued: “You all must know that Lam Trang Duong is the successor of Dao Lai Saint Master, this has been accurately verified by the Alchemy Association.”
Thien Dao and Long Han nodded.
Tran Mong excitedly continued: “Trang Duong was taught soul extraction technology by Dao Lai Saint Master, and now he has successfully improved the extraction speed of souls at the Linh Vuong level and below!”
“Really?”
“The information is absolutely correct! The problem is that it is still not feasible for the Spirit Emperor level, and Yang needs to conduct an actual investigation to be able to find the problem. So the Alchemist Association voted and approved granting Yang permission to observe the Spirit Emperor level laboratory…”
Long Thien Dao nodded and replied: “Then let him go to that guy’s room to do some research!”
Tran Mong quickly replied: “The problem is that he is about to complete the extraction process. If something goes wrong, it will easily cause a disaster and it will take at least 15 years to start over…”
Thien Dao raised his eyebrows: “You mean you want to experiment on Diem?”
Tran Mong explained: “It doesn’t affect the princess at all, it’s just research, editing, and improving the system…”
Long Thien Dao sighed: “Okay, then do it, be careful!”
The decision was very decisive, not that Long Thien Dao wanted it that way, but he knew for sure that the elders’ council wanted it that way, he alone could not change the situation.
…
In Duong’s room in Lam family, if the grandmasters, grandmasters, and holy masters of Long Thanh saw this scene, they would probably vomit blood and die. The Ice and Fire Samsara lotus that they worshiped as their ancestors was unexpectedly given by Duong to Bao Ngoc as a toy, and was held and waved by the little girl like dancing with fire.
“Bao Ngoc! Don’t destroy it anymore, the house is on fire!” Duong was sitting there meticulously drawing a portrait. He had studied sculpture before so he was quite good at drawing.
Bao Ngoc pouted, closed the flower into its original platinum lotus bud, and flew to sit on Duong’s shoulder.
“Who is papa drawing?”
Duong replied jokingly: “Draw my mother!”
“Mother Nguyet, mother My, or mother Mong, mother Le?” My replied with a very innocent and pretty face.
“Eek!”
Duong was stunned, this girl became smarter every time she had a new piece of the Heaven Defying Sword, it seemed she was truly the sword spirit of the Heavenly Sword…