Chapter 41: Tang San: If I die, we all die together!

"No, recently it's only been Brother Han Li asking for help with alchemy. I guess no one else has any medicinal ingredients on hand..."

Xiao Yan's voice quickly drifted in from outside the room.

Hearing this, Yao Lao finally breathed a small sigh of relief.

"It's damn ridiculous. Where does that guy Han Li get so many spiritual herbs? Does his family specialize in cultivation?"

Yao Lao was currently suffering in silence.

In order to help Xiao Yan establish a firm footing in that chat group and make more powerful connections, he had agreed without a second thought the last time the other party asked him to act as an alchemist.

He had originally thought that not many people in that chat group would need alchemy.

After all, alchemy required the user to provide their own ingredients and pill recipes, while he was only responsible for the refining process.

But who could have guessed?

As soon as he let Xiao Yan spread the word, a guy named Han Li showed up at his door with a massive amount of spiritual herbs and precious medicines, along with a pill recipe called the 'Essence Augmentation Pill.'

Looking at that huge pile of spiritual herbs and precious medicines back then, he had felt almost numb.

However, Han Li was quite decent; while delivering the herbs for alchemy, he also gave him plenty of spiritual medicines to restore his soul power, allowing his soul to grow rapidly.

It was precisely because of those spiritual medicines that restored his soul power that he was able to help Xiao Yan successfully obtain the Green Lotus Core Flame deep within the Earth Core last time.

Furthermore.

To thank Xiao Yan for helping him with alchemy, after learning that Xiao Yan needed powerful soul power to improve his alchemy skills, Han Li immediately uploaded a cultivation technique titled *The Great Derivation Formula: Complete Version* to their chat group.

After Xiao Yan practiced that technique, his soul power saw a massive boost, breaking through directly from the Mortal Realm to the Spirit Realm.

And as Xiao Yan's teacher, Yao Lao naturally studied that *Great Derivation Formula* as well!

However, he was not a "Child of Destiny" chosen by the chat group; even if he practiced the *Great Derivation Formula*, he could only comprehend it on his own and could not directly obtain the insights and realizations of others.

But even so, the improvement to his soul power from this technique was significant.

He felt that if he could fully master this technique and reach Great Completion, he might be able to break through the bottleneck that had plagued him for years and elevate his soul power to the Emperor Realm!

...

Meanwhile, inside the chat group.

Because they hadn't seen Zhu Chen for a long time, everyone else greeted him warmly.

Lin Dong was even more straightforward.

He knew that Zhu Chen's appearance online this time was definitely to borrow the Ancestral Stone from him.

Thus, before Zhu Chen could even speak, Lin Dong sent the Ancestral Stone over himself.

However, after sending the stone, he added a reminder to Zhu Chen in the group.

[Lin Dong: Brother Zhu, once you finish repairing the Original True Interpretation, please, whatever you do, do not upload it to the group.]

[Zhu Chen: Why?]

Lin Dong's words made Zhu Chen frown.

He remembered that when he last introduced the Original True Interpretation in the group, Lin Dong, Xiao Yan, and the others had all shown great interest in the technique.

How could these people have changed their personalities after only two and a half months of not seeing each other?

[Lin Dong: We can all download any technique you upload to the group. It doesn't matter if I learn it or not, but I just don't want that Tang San to learn it.]

[Xiao Yan: Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. That Tang San is truly disgusting. Last time, to thank me for helping him with alchemy, Brother Han Li uploaded a technique called the *Great Derivation Formula: Complete Version*. We all downloaded it, which was fine—after all, if people upload techniques to the group, they must be prepared for them to be shared. But do you know what that Tang San said after downloading it?]

[Zhu Chen: What did he say?]

Zhu Chen was also curious.

If Lin Dong and Xiao Yan would rather give up practicing the Original True Interpretation than let Tang San benefit from it, that guy must have done something truly detestable again.

Just as he was thinking, Xiao Yan's message appeared in the chat group again

[Xiao Yan: He said that since he helped Brother Han Li last time, Brother Han Li still owes him a balance of several bottles of spiritual liquid, so this technique counts as the final payment. He said he wouldn't thank Han Li, nor would he share his own techniques. Then, to belittle Brother Han Li's technique, he actually had the audacity to say that the *Great Derivation Formula* only slightly improved his mental strength and wasn't of much use.]

[Xiao Yan: Dammit, I learned that *Great Derivation Formula*, and my teacher learned it too. How can I not know if it's good? This guy throws some trash into the group, and before we can even say anything, he starts looking down on other people's stuff. Don't you think this person is disgusting?]

The more Xiao Yan spoke, the angrier he became. He wished he could go to the Douluo World right now to hit Tang San with his latest creation, the Buddha's Fury Lotus.

After hearing Xiao Yan's account, Zhu Chen's loathing for Tang San grew even deeper.

Everyone in this chat group was decent; how did a piece of rotten dung like him end up here?

He sighed, preparing to say something more in the group.

But just then.

Tang San beat him to it and spoke in the group first

[Tang San: Fine, Zhu Chen, just listen to him and don't upload that Original True Interpretation. That way, you can keep describing your technique in flowery language; no one will know if it's real or fake anyway. Also... stop trying to use that muting trick on me. It only proves that you're afraid of me. Of course, if you still want to mute me, go ahead. It's no loss to me; at worst, I just won't speak. I can still download the techniques you guys upload regardless.]

Zhu Chen smiled.

It seemed this guy truly had no sense of self-preservation.

[Zhu Chen: You don't need to provoke me. I will upload the Original True Interpretation. Just you wait.]

[Xiao Yan: Don't, Brother Zhu! This guy has already downloaded many techniques from the group. If your Original True Interpretation is so amazing and he downloads it too, wouldn't that be exactly what he wants?]

[Lin Dong: Exactly, he's using reverse psychology. I saw through it too.]

[Tang San: Fine, if we're going down, we're all going down. Don't even think about using this sharing function in the future. Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you—I might not have much else, but I have plenty of skills. Besides the Tang Sect techniques and the Hundred Hidden Weapons from my past life, I also have soul bone skills and soul skills. Moreover, I have dual martial souls; in the future, I'll have at least 20 soul skills just from my body, which is more than enough. Unlike certain people who think they're so great just because they came up with some crappy Fire Lotus.]

[Xiao Yan: F*** you, let's duel!]

[Lin Dong: Brother Xiao, why waste words on him? Just take him out!]

[Tang San: Two idiots. All you can do when you lose an argument is bark. I can't even be bothered to deal with you...]

Xiao Yan and Lin Dong were both furious.

Especially Xiao Yan.

The Buddha's Fury Lotus, which he had worked so hard to develop, was being dismissed as worthless by the other party.

It was simply intolerable.

"It seems the newly upgraded permission functions might actually come in handy."

The corners of Zhu Chen's mouth curled up slightly.

He didn't speak in the group; instead, he silently opened the two functions that had just been unlocked!

[Group Notification: Group Leader (Zhu Chen) has enabled Private Chat mode!]

[Group Notification: Group Leader (Zhu Chen) has enabled Blacklist settings!]

Two horizontal notifications appeared in the chat group!

In an instant.

Xiao Yan and the others, who were in the middle of a "heated exchange," suddenly fell silent.

...

(End of Chapter)