## AST: Chapter 16 – Revered Professions – I Wanna be an Alchemist

If he wanted to seek redress for Qing Yi, at the very least, he would definitely need to clash with one of those established clans!

Qing Shui went with Qing Bei to visit Qing Hu, other than the external injuries, there wasn’t anything to be concerned about, his injuries should heal in a day or two! Qing Hai’s manor was similar to the manor of Qing Yi, they are both located inside of the Qing Clan’s massive courtyard. The environment was pretty good in this place with picturesque scenery.

The rooms are bright and spacious, though the design was simple and somewhat crude. After all, the Qing Clan frowned upon the excessive spending on things that are unneeded for cultivation. The tables and chair were made of peachwood; the chairs were all taishi armchairs and the tables were all 8-immortal tables, Qing Hu was unwilling leave the basement, let alone coming out to the living room or even going out of his manor, he did not want anyone to see his swollen face!

“Qing Shui, come taste the tea I brewed for you!” Qing Hai’s wife, Song Yan warmly invited.

“Auntie, there is no need to trouble yourself!” Qing Shui said as he glanced at his auntie Song Yan. Qing Shui felt that, Song Yan was the most beautiful in the Qing Clan after Qing Yi. Long flowing hair tied up in a bun, with a lovely oval egg-shaped face, fair skinned with polished features and a slender waist with gigantic twin peaks and a well rounded bottom. Song Yan actually looked younger than her age! Now that Qing Shui was already 30+ after adding both his age in this world and his previous world, he did not feel the raging hormones of most teens and had no burning desires to bed woman. However, mature and charming ladies like Song Yan could still set his heart aflutter.

“Was he the MILF hunter from the legends?

“Qing Hu this child can be quite troublesome, he must not fall so deeply in the river of love and end up unable to extricate himself from it, Lan Yan`er is already betrothed to the son of the Heavenly River City’s City Lord! Although her status will only be a concubine, if they knew that Qing Hu still had not given up, this matter would be sure to bring trouble to the Qing Clan! It is really vexing.”

Qing Shui heard Qing Hai sighed depressedly, he too felt that this matter was somewhat worrisome. With Qing Hu’s personality, once he had decided on a target, his focus and objective would never change.

“4th Aunt, Heavenly River City, is it far from here?” Regarding the places on the continent of Kyu Shu, Qing Shui knew very little of the world outside the mountainous region where the Qing Village was located.

The Hundred Miles City was a small city located nearby the Qing Village. Because the Hundred Miles City was actually the smallest city located in the Cang Lang Country, the name of the city was a misconception, it refers to the distance between the Qing Village and the Hundred Miles City. Qing Shui had once heard Qing Yi said that the Hundred Miles City actually had a circumference of about a 1000 Li.

There was another assumption in the Qing Village. People said that the Hundred Miles City only had a circumference of a 100 miles, 100 years ago. It was only after the development of these 100 years that it had the scale of what it had now. That was why, initially, the city was named the Hundred Miles City.

“In this world, there are 9 continents. Each continent have 81 countries, and each country have 81 cities. Cang Lang Country belongs to the Northwest continent named the Green Cloud continent.The Hundred Miles City was the smallest city, situated at the western region of the Green Cloud Continent. There was absolutely no comparison between the Hundred Miles City and the Heavenly River City. The Heavenly River City had a circumference of over 10.000 Li, indicators of their prosperity could be found everywhere. rumour has it that there were even Xian Tian lifeforms there.” stated Song Yan.

“Xian Tian? Isn’t that the realm that grandpa could not break through to? Grandpa said that the cultivators at the Xian Tian Realm possessed power beyond our comprehension!”

“Right, that was the realm that your grandpa had mentioned, there are no weaklings among those that had broken through to the Xian Tian Realm, each of them are true powerhouses of our continent! In this continent, other than cultivators, there are also beast tamers. Beast tamers usually depend on the demonic beasts they tamed to do battle. It could be said that an expert beast tamer was even more terrifying than cultivators.”

“Hahaha, anyway, the topic had gotten out of point!” Qing Hai laughed somewhat awkwardly. He was laughing at himself for being too naggy.

“No, no, I want to know more about the beast tamers, how do they subdue the demonic beasts? What are demonic beasts?” Curiosity was burning in Qing Shui’s heart. After all the rumours of beast tamers which he heard from the grapevine was probably not as accurate as the information from his 4th uncle, Qing Hai.

“Normally, only after a beast lived and cultivated for more than 500 years, would we call them demonic beasts. All demonic beasts have formed a demonic core inside their body and had strength on the level of Xian Tian lifeforms.” Qing Hai said, with traces of remembrance flashing in his eyes, it was as though he had seen one up close or participated in a fight with one before.

“Basically, a beast tamer that does not have a contracted demonic beast, cannot be considered a real beast tamer at all. After all, beast tamers could only use a specialised sealing technique to form a contract only after a wild beast has evolved into a demonic beast.

After the evolution, all demonic beast will gain intelligence, and especially for those demonic beasts that had cultivated over 1000 years; they can be even smarter and more cunning than humans! Therefore, the requirements for one to become a beast tamer are just too harsh, not only must one be strong enough to contend against the demonic beasts, they must also be proficient in those cryptic incantations, restrictions and sealing techniques!” Qing Hai explained, as he sat on the Taishi Armchair and slowly sipped his tea.

The cultivation realms before Xian Tian are known as Martial Student, Martial Warrior, Martial General and Martial Commander. The realms from Martial Student to martial Commander is also known as the Hou Tian Stage. The doorway to the Xian Tian Realm could be considered a natural moat, blocking almost all but a selected few who are allowed to step through it. Just like Qing Luo, who had been stuck at the realm of Martial Commander, 10th Grade for many years, yet still unable to break through the last bottle neck..

In general, the Qing Clan’s 3rd generation disciples had all cultivated to the Martial Warrior Realm, the 2nd generation disciples, at the very least had cultivated to the Martial General Realm. Only Qing Luo was at the 10th Grade of the Martial Commander Realm. He was only 1 step away from breaching the doorway to the Xian Tian realm! But this single step… the inability to take the last step, had proved to be the bane of many cultivators, and was the biggest regret of their entire lives.

Although the Blue Lotus Art could be considered a Hou Tian level technique, it was at the pinnacle of all Hou Tian techniques, with a rating of the Heaven Grade. After all, Xian Tian level techniques are akin to the stars in the skies, the essence and concepts behind it are too unfathomable for most people to grasp, so a Hou Tian level technique with a Heaven Grade could be considered as extremely valuable! Majority of the cultivators in the Kyushu world could only employ Hou Tian level techniques. Only those from very established sects or big clans with deep roots would have the possibility to possess Xian Tian level techniques or higher; even the rumoured Legendary level and God level techniques!

Cultivating the Blue Lotus Art would allow one to reach the peak of Hou Tian. Similar to Qing Luo, with a cultivation realm of the Martial Commander, 10th Grade. As long as he could step inside the Xian Tian realm, his life force would be more than doubled, from 200 years to 500 years. But Xian Tian lifeforms…. even in a extremely large city, the numbers of Xian Tian cultivators could be counted on 1 hand, how could there be an existence like that in the Qing Village? Over here, including the Hundred Miles City, one could already be considered an expert once their cultivation had reached the peak of Hou Tian.

Qing Shui got all this information from Qing Hai, and discovered the many benefits of reaching the Xian Tian Realm. Just solely based on the fact that a Xian Tian cultivator could live up to 500 years, already proved to be an extremely attractive carrot, inspiring all cultivators of the Hou Tian stages to push forward to break through.

Qing Shui did not know what exactly was his level of cultivation, after all, the Blue Lotus Art he practiced was different from the rest of the clan. The strongest 3rd generation disciples of the Qing Clan so far was Qing You and Qing Zi, both who had broken through to the 7th Grade of the Martial Warrior realm.

Martial students could not be considered as cultivators, only those who had reached the realm of Martial Warriors could be considered as one. Qing Clan’s 3rd generation disciples had all broken through to the Martial Warrior Realm, so when someone was said to have broken through to the 6 Layer, it actually means that they have broken through to the realm of Martial Warrior, 6th Grade.

Even though the Blue Lotus Art was said to be a Hou Tian level technique, there still exists a miniscule amount of probability for a cultivator to break through to the Xian Tian Realm. The percentage of successfully breaking through was only about 1% success rate. After all, the Blue Lotus Art was a Heaven Grade, Hou Tian Realm technique, The rest of Hou Tian level techniques; Earth Grade, Mystic Grade and Huang Grade are all considered rubbish in front of it. The probability to breakthrough to the Xian Tian Realm does still exists, with a success rate of less than 0.01%.. Other than the rogue cultivators, unaffiliated with any clans or sects, there were no other cultivators willing to cultivate those rubbish techniques to its peak with its low success rate of breaking through.

Although there were plenty of cultivators, there were plenty of other ways to survive in this world. The one with the most advantages were the beast tamers, the alchemists and the medical doctors.

There are also a lot of people who chose to be architects, cooks, tailors and blacksmiths but this professions were not as revered as the beast tamers, alchemists and doctors.

As the proverb states “every profession would produce a master, as long as you put in enough love and diligence in your work” The people of this world would still need to eat, need weapons to fight with, will fall sick and get injured..

So it doesn’t matter which profession one was in, as long as you were the absolute best in that profession, riches, woman and respect will come to you too.

Especially for the alchemists, they are the most revered profession in this world. Alchemists could concoct the Yuan Replenishing Pellet to block pain and aid in recovery, or the legendary Dragon Martial Pill which raise the chances of breaking into Xian Tian Realm by 50%!

Any alchemists, no matter if they are high or low ranked, even if they failed a thousand times in pill concoction, they would still be revered and venerated by the masses! Pill concoction also requires luck. Who knows… that lowly ranked alchemist which you snubbed yesterday may produce an immortal-grade elixir today.

All of this information was told to Qing Shui, by his 4th uncle Qing Hai and his wife Song Yan. Qing Shui was extremely interested in the Xian Tian Realm and the alchemist profession. He decided that one day, he too would walk down the path of alchemy, to be revered and venerated in the whole of Kyushu!