"I was wrong! Damn it, I was truly wrong. To think that my legendary fame, Wukongzi, would be ruined by you!"
"Hey, did we kill your father or brother in our past lives, or steal your wife, that you've reincarnated as my disciple in this life just to mess with me!"
At this very moment, Wukongzi held a spirit-infused immortal pill in his hand, while Wu Tao clutched a lump of something that resembled coal.
More than three years had passed since Wu Tao became his disciple.
Wukongzi's journey from initial excitement to his current despair had taken just one year.
Initially, Wukongzi wanted to impart some sword techniques to Wu Tao!
The result was that even Wukongzi had to admit that Wu Tao was a monstrous genius in this regard!
For any sword technique, without Wukongzi having to say much, Wu Tao would quickly grasp its essence after a few demonstrations.
Within a few days, Wu Tao could perfectly execute all sorts of sword techniques.
Later, Wukongzi began to teach Wu Tao various divine abilities.
While Wu Tao couldn't claim to be a genius in condensing divine abilities, with a large amount of resources, his progress was remarkably swift.
Just when Wukongzi felt Wu Tao was a genius, an incident occurred that dealt him a devastating blow.
Wukongzi reasoned that his closed-door disciple shouldn't just be good at combat. If he were to cultivate elsewhere in the future, he would need a skill to rely on.
So, after much deliberation, Wukongzi decided to pass on his alchemy skills to Wu Tao.
Alchemy was a highly sought-after skill among the hundred arts of cultivation.
Millions of years ago, when the human race first arrived and settled in the underground cultivation world, some exceptionally talented individuals, with limited spiritual herbs, created the art of refining pills from metals and stones.
Wukongzi, as a rogue cultivator from the beginning, followed a path of dual mastery in both pills and swords.
At this point, his cultivation had reached the second realm of the Violet Mansion stage, and his alchemy skills had reached the level of a Grandmaster of the Pill Dao.
After Wukongzi pompously recounted his glorious achievements to Wu Tao, Wu Tao looked at him with adoration and anticipation.
Seeing this, Wukongzi puffed out his chest and promised to turn Wu Tao into a Grandmaster of the Pill Dao.
Immediately, he began to teach his disciple alchemy, but the final outcome was far from satisfactory...
Wukongzi was so disheartened by Wu Tao's performance that he began to doubt his entire life...
At this moment, standing in the alchemy room, Wukongzi watched Wu Tao blow up another top-tier artifact-grade exquisite pill furnace, and his heart bled.
He finally understood the saying:
"When heaven opens a door for you, it seals the window above your head."
His closed-door disciple was not perfect. He could reach the pinnacle of the sword path and contend for the strongest position.
However, to achieve anything significant in alchemy would be more difficult than for humanity to unify the underground world...
"Alas... my alchemy skills might be lost to this world..."
Wukongzi watched Wu Tao prepare to switch to another pill furnace, his heart aching.
Many times he wanted to tell his disciple to give up, but he had promised to train Wu Tao into a Grandmaster of Alchemy.
Now, despite the agony, he had to maintain his dignity, as his pride had committed him to teaching his disciple well.
...
However, Wu Tao's talent in alchemy was truly abysmal. Wukongzi had even fainted several times out of sheer frustration.
Since he started teaching Wu Tao alchemy half a year ago, Wu Tao had never succeeded even once!
You heard that right, not once! Not even a single time!
"Keep in mind, this isn't some difficult top-tier pill we're refining, but merely a pill for the initial Qi Refining stage."
"..."
"Master, I feel I can control the flame well, but for some reason, the furnace always explodes!"
Wu Tao could feel Wukongzi's helplessness and despair, but he felt even more desperate than Wukongzi.
He had even tried to cultivate alchemy on his own before. Although he had shamefully failed, it wasn't this ridiculously bad!
Alchemy was the most lucrative skill among the hundred arts of cultivation.
As the saying goes, "Spin the pill furnace, and wealth will flow. With one skill in hand, you'll fear nothing anywhere."
Yet, at this very moment, with a top Grandmaster of Alchemy teaching him hands-on, he still couldn't learn it!
Wu Tao began to doubt if his talent was truly as poor as Wukongzi claimed...
"Stop trying. You're an idiot, a fool, a complete moron! Damn it, I'm almost there myself..."
Youmeng had never left the Sea of Consciousness these days, but her silence didn't mean she was staying put.
Every time Wu Tao failed, Youmeng would pop out and attack him with extremely venomous language.
"Loser, you really suck. This is the thirty-second pill furnace you've blown up..."
"And your failed attempts at alchemy are a staggering thirty-eight thousand, seven hundred and twenty-five times. Do you know, if your master wasn't super rich and super powerful, he would have been ruined by you long ago!"
"The pill furnaces and various refining materials you've destroyed these past few days are enough to buy a medium-sized sect..."
Although Youmeng's words were malicious, the underlying truth was undeniable.
Given the current price of pill furnaces in the cultivation world and the preciousness of refining materials, the pill furnaces and materials Wu Tao had destroyed might indeed be enough to purchase a medium-sized sect.
Wukongzi was no ordinary person. The ores he used for refining were never low-grade; they were mostly high-level.
Moreover, a significant portion of these were rare ores seldom seen on the market, making their prices sky-high.
Sometimes, even with money, such precious ores were impossible to obtain.
Yet, under Wu Tao's hands, these things turned into black waste in mere moments.
Imagine this: it was only because Wukongzi had a broad mind that others would have suffered a heart attack and died of rage long ago.
"Crack..."
Wukongzi, who had endured Wu Tao for over half a year, could no longer hold back. He delivered a straight punch to Wu Tao's head.
The unsuspecting Wu Tao was dazed by the blow.
However, it wasn't entirely Wukongzi's fault for being so enraged, as Wu Tao was truly becoming too much of a burden.
Even without Wukongzi's intervention, Wu Tao himself wanted to hit himself. You can imagine how infuriating Wu Tao was at this moment.
"Scoundrel, if you can't do it, admit you can't do it, and stop making excuses!"
"There is nothing in this world that one cannot learn if they calm down and study diligently!"
"If you can't learn it, it proves you're not serious enough! Practice! Practice until you drop!"
"I refuse to believe it! I'll sell everything I own if I have to, to make you learn."
Wukongzi said in exasperation.
"I'll study diligently. I will study diligently, alright... Is it not enough if I study diligently..."
Wu Tao was almost on the verge of tears from the injustice.
When it came to earnest effort, he had not been lazy in the slightest!
His words, however, earned him another slap on the head.
Wu Tao began to wonder if one day, when Wukongzi was too furious, he might accidentally kill him!
Thus, the prodigal cultivation of alchemy began.
One moment, it was a precious ore worth thousands of gold, and the next, it was worthless black ash.
Wu Tao was truly demonstrating what a spendthrift was with spirit stones.
Facing Wu Tao's innocent expression, Wukongzi suddenly felt regret.
He regretted taking such a closed-door disciple.
Wukongzi mentally estimated.
If nothing changed, given Wu Tao's current progress, without any other solutions, it would likely take him several hundred more years to even become an entry-level alchemist.
As time passed, countless precious ores had turned to dust in Wu Tao's hands.
And in Youmeng's words, Wu Tao had earned a new title: the Terminator of the Pill Dao.
Even Wu Tao was starting to feel the pinch from such unprogressive waste, as he could see from his master's bulging veins that he had likely caused him significant harm...
At the very least, perhaps a quarter of his master's wealth, accumulated over thousands of years, had already been spent by him!
"Master..."
Wu Tao called out.
"Don't call me master. Damn it, I will never admit that I took a pig as a disciple!"
Hearing Wu Tao call him "master" now filled Wukongzi with dread!
"..."
Helplessly, Wu Tao once again manipulated the spiritual fire and pushed the pill furnace, attempting to refine the pill.
However, having gone through this process tens of thousands of times, Wu Tao knew very well that as soon as he infused his power into the pill furnace, before he could even fuse the spiritual energy from the ores into a pill as his master instructed, the ores would immediately turn into black ash.
Why was this happening?
Why was it so simple for his master to refine these ores, as easy as eating and drinking...
But for him, it was as difficult as ascending to heaven?
Was he truly as stupid as a pig?
Demoralized, Wu Tao began to doubt his own intelligence.
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