Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

Chapter 33- Golden Twin Dan Part 2

Translated by Snowfall77

While waiting for Xia Ge to finish eating, Gu Peijiu picked up some papers she had, pausing on one in particular.

It was a copy of the leaflet advertising Lingxi’s upcoming Danfeng entrance examination, disseminated to various villages.

Scanning the paper, Gu Peijiu spoke soft and low, almost as if to herself: “It’s 6 days until Danfeng’s entrance examination.  And Lingxi Sect has recruited for it in many places.  When the times comes, it won’t just be outer disciples competing in Danfeng’s examination.  There will be others—Xia Wuyin, Danfeng will only accept 6 new inner disciples at this next examination.”

Xia Ge’s stuffed bun consumption slowed a little.

The system made clucking noises and deeply sighed: [Yo, It Looks Like This Examination Will Be Even Harder Than Previously.]

Before, all that had been required To become a Danfeng inner disciple was to refine the Bigu dan.  Why had the difficulty been increased this time around?

Xia Ge found it rather confusing.

“This examination is different.”  Gu Peijiu quickly picked up on Xia Ge’s consternation, “Even inner disciples have a class.  A disciple’s liandan ability is judged by the purity of the Bigu dan that they refine.”

“Danfeng’s true inner disciples are free to come and go on Lingxi’s peaks,” Gu Peijiu’s words were leisurely, “Such as Ye Ze.”

Xia Ge: “……”  That Ye Ze was an inner disciple she’d concede, but he actually had a talent for liandan?

Dumbfounded.jpg

Still, Xia Ge figured she knew what Gu Peijiu meant.

In Gu Peijiu’s eyes, only the top 6 individuals of the next examination would have earned the right to be called inner disciples.

Like Ye Ze had risen above the others during his entrance examination.

“Xia Wuyin,” Gu Peijiu’s tone subtly shifted, “If you are not among the top 6, I will not acknowledge you.”

Xia Ge was stupified all over again.

What did that mean, ‘will not acknowledge?’”

“I will not consider that you have passed the examination and you will remain an outer disciple.”  The young lady’s voice was flat, drawing blood with one prick, “I will only let through Danfeng’s inner gate disciples who will give their all, not those who hold back.”

System: [Host, You’ve Been Completely Seen Through.  The Critics Have Spoken—You’re A Bad Actor.]

Xia Ge: “……”  Shut the fuck up–please.

During this enlightening chat, Xia Ge had finished devouring the steamed buns.  Her full stomach giving her a false sense of security, Xia Ge’s trepidation receded along with her eased hunger pains.

The boy with the green ribbon raised his eyes.

“Then let’s get started, Senior Sister.”

Glancing at the bright sunshine outside, Xia Ge thought of Ye Ze who’d seemed so tired yesterday.

—-Pass the entrance examination, enter the inner gate.

—-She had indeed been seen through.

And now the time to strive hard had finally come.

So there was nothing to get all agitated about.

Xia Ge lit a fire in the furnace and began to prepare the materials.  As she sorted, she found that Liuli tree wood weighed far more than the other stuff.

Taking a knife, Xia Ge shaved off more wood, mentioning as she did so: “Senior Sister, I think there’s going to be extra Liuli tree wood.”

Gu Peijiu rolled up a scroll and answered without batting an eye: “Whatever you don’t use, you can keep for yourself.”

“Oh.”

When she was done arranging the materials, Xia Ge rolled her sleeves up: “Senior Sister, after I refine an excellent Bigu dan, I won’t need extra tutoring anymore, will I?”

Gu Peijiu considered: “Hmm.”

Xia Ge’s movements stopped: “……”

Getting additional lessons was no fun, but that also meant no more free buns.

……never mind, Ye Ze was about to leave Danfeng and there were a lot of things she needed to prepare.  She didn’t have time to be fussing over liandan.

There was Guilongyu, puppets, and finding the trail of the Zhen Hun.

It was just a pity about Senior Sister’s steamed buns and exquisite face.

A truly beautiful face, making people bashful when they beheld it.

No wonder the system had ranked her a SSS beauty.

The fire in the furnace was now scorching hot.  Squinting against the heat, Xia Ge started gradually throwing in materials.

“Two parts zhe wood.”

“Three parts Liuli tree.”

After waiting about three seconds, Xia Ge proceeded to throw in more materials.

“Two or three parts silver sitan.”

""

“……”

Gu Peijiu paused in her reading, casting a sidelong look at Xia Ge.

The corners of the boy with the green ribbon’s mouth were curled up in a cynical smile, yet the deep dark eyes held the leaping flames of the furnace.

The fire reflected in the pupils seemed to reveal the boy’s inward blazing conviction.

It was the first time Gu Peijiu had seen this side of Xia Wuyin.

An earnest and serious Xia Wuyin.

Having finished throwing in the materials, Xia Wuyin was sitting in front of the furnace, its flickering flames making the boy’s inky black hair gleam beautifully.  His eyes were closed and his bandaged left hand slightly clenched.

Gu Peijiu’s ink brush inadvertently made a small black dot on one of her papers—

Dan Jue?

The little slickster was actually using Dan Jue?

Gu Peijiu had mentioned Dan Jue to Xia Wuyin before, and it was in the Danshu.  Still, in order to use it, you had to possess a certain amount of natural talent.

Unexpected……

According to the Tiandixuanhuang, elixirs could be divided into four ranks.

Only those above the ground level required Dan Jue.

But setting aside the Tiandixuanhuang, each elixir or dan could also be subdivided into 3 levels; low, medium, and high, depending on their quality.  Ye Ze had said that the Bigu dan was brown, and that was true.

However, the highest grade Bigu dan would be golden.

Ye Ze hadn’t told Xia Wuyin that, likely because Ye Ze figured Xia Wuyin was going to have enough of a hard time as it was just making a brown Bigu dan.

And Dan Jue could guide the spirit as the dan formed in the furnace, increasing the quality of the dan.

To be able to refine a golden Bigu dan showed that the person had lingqi and could do basic spiritual induction.  When Ye Ze had passed his Danfeng entrance examination, he had refined a golden Bigu dan and thus placed first.

Withdrawing her gaze, Gu Peijiu lowered her eyes.

The flames within the furnace were raging, and Xia Ge kept her eyes closed and her Dan Jue very steady.  Suxi Pavilion was already overflowing with qi, therefore, with a little bit of guidance, there could be a steady flow of qi into the furnace.

—-Almost there!

Xia Ge ceased the Dan Jue, opening her eyes.  The next moment there was a glinting golden light in the furnace, accompanied by a burst of dan fragrance.  Then two golden dan suddenly flew out of the furnace, straight towards Xia Ge!

Easily managing to catch them both in her palm, the next second Xia Ge threw them aside with a wail!

“Ao—hot, hot, hot—ah—”

System: [……]  Could you manage to be cool for three seconds?  No?  How about just one second?

Hurts the eyes.

[Ding!  Congratulations To The Host For Successfully Refining Golden Bigu Dan (High) *2.  The System Rewards 10 Points!]

A red shadow flashed by, and Gu Peijiu’s soft, beautiful ayara caught Xia Ge’s two dan, landing back on the table beside Gu Peijiu.  Blowing on her burned palm, Xia Ge ran to Gu Peijiu’s side to assess her dan: “Yay, Senior Sister, I succeeded, right?”

One dan had fine red lines, like the veins of a bloodshot eye, all over it and the other was simply smooth gold.  But both were clean and pretty.

“You refined twin dan, congratulations.”  Gu Peijiu’s eyes were faintly smiling, “You have succeeded.”

“Twin dan?”  Xia Ge mulled it over, “What does that mean?”

Twin dan was where, combining the materials and the lingqi of heaven and earth, the potency of the materials was doubled, producing two dan, each with different efficacy, from one refinement.  Thus the name ‘twin dan.’

Gu Peijiu briefly explained it to Xia Ge, then pointed at the dan with thin red lines: “This dan is the Xue Bigu Dan.  It’s written that its effects only last 3 day, but during those 3 days, the person who eats it will be able to maintain the highest energy and not suffer from exhaustion.”

Xia Ge was quite amazed.

“The other dan is simply a high-grade Bigu dan.  After eating it, a person won’t feel hunger for a year.”

“A full year?!”  Xia Ge blurted out in shock, “I wouldn’t be hungry for a whole year?!”

“Mmm.”  Gu Peijiu thought Xia Ge was probably full of happy wonderment and was about to say more, when Xia Ge interrupted with a fearful expression: “I’ll never eat this dan in my life, it’s too awful.”

Gu Peijiu: “……”

System: [……]

After a moment, Gu Peijiu nonchalantly changed the subject: “In any case, if you refine this well during the entrance examination, you should easily place in the top 3.”

Xia Ge grinned: “Don’t worry, it absolutely won’t be a problem!”

“Very well, that’s good.”

After saying this, Gu Peijiu went back to her reading.  Yet the boy stayed standing by her side, motionless and staring at her blankly.

Gu Peijiu finally registered Xia Ge’s behavior and shot her a look: “Hmm?”

“Senior Sister,” Xia Ge affected coyness, “……since I did so well, do I have to keep coming to these extra lessons?”

Gu Peijiu: “……”

The smile in Gu Peijiu’s eyes faded, and she answered in an indifferent tone: “No need.”

""

Xia Ge made a solemn vow: “I will never forget Senior Sister’s buns!”

System: [……]  Something about that didn’t sound right……

==

Done going over her papers, Gu Peijiu got ready to leave Suxi Pavilion.  But before she could, a boy who worked in the dispensary approached her with some hesitation: “Senior Sister……do you still need the Liuli trees you left?”

Gu Peijiu paused, thinking of the boy who’d refined golden Bigu dan that morning and then walked away, seemingly without a care in world.  Expressionless, Gu Peijiu ordered: “Store what remains in the warehouse.”

“Yes.”

The dispensary boy stole a glance at the inscrutable young lady in pristine red and white dress, pushing down his inward doubts.

……where had Senior Sister bought more than 10 catties of Liuli trees?

And when you carefully examined them, they looked like they’d been plucked from somewhere……

灵气[líng qì]

Aura, anima

斤jīn

catty / (PRC) weight equal to 500 g / (Tw) weight equal to 600 g / (HK, Malaysia, Singapore) slightly over 604 g

天地玄黄

tiāndìxuánhuáng

first line of the Thousand Character Classic

“The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, the universe is prehistoric” is the first sentence of ” Thousand Characters “. “The Mysterious Yellow of Heaven and Earth” comes from the Book of Changes . In the Book of Changes, it says “Tianxuan and Dihuang”, here it is changed to “Tiandixuanhuang”, which does not change the ancient characters, for the sake of comparison. “The Great Wilderness of the Universe” comes from “Huainanzi” and ” Tai Xuan Jing “. In “Huainanzi”, it is said that “the upper and lower squares are called yu, and they have been called cosmos from ancient times to the present.” The author of ” Tai Xuan Jing ” is Yang Xiong from the Western Han Dynasty . The combination of the words of the two sutras is “the great universe”. This way of quoting the sutras is called secret quoting, so these two sentences are both classics [1] .

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A9%E5%9C%B0%E7%8E%84%E9%BB%84/45289

Dan Jue

Danjue health noun. Refers to the method of alchemy. Jin Ganbao’s “Sou Shen Ji”: “Someone entered Jiaoshan for seven years, and Laojun and his auger drilled through a plate of stone.” “Qingwei Dan Jue” records: “A person who refines qi, calms the mind and calms the rest, and the yuan Silent, qi enters the dantian. Breathing in the navel, continuous, holding the navel with both hands, the dan fire is warm, the six faculties are stable, the object and I forget both , this is the way to refine qi.” Peng Dingqiu of the Qing Dynasty, “The Collection of Taoist Collections in Lu Zhaoxiang”: “( Yuan Keli ) loved Taoism very much in the late period, so he built several temples in Luyuan , and the locations were all instructed in dreams. It should be obvious.”

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%B9%E8%AF%80/467709

诀 [jué]

（歌诀; 口诀） rhymed formula:

十六字诀the sixteen-character formula

（解决问题的好方法） knack; tricks of the trade:

秘诀secret of success; key to success;

妙诀a clever way of doing sth.; knack