...
It was midnight.
The bustling Chouyun Pass quieted down, with only the occasional sound of magical battles, as if cultivators from the Ruins Country and Qi Kingdom had a conflict.
Inside the inn, it was quiet and peaceful.
Qing Jun and Jin’er, having been busy the whole day, were already sound asleep.
Qing Jun slept as dominantly as ever, half of his body pressing on Jin’er, occasionally smacking his lips and muttering dream words like "roast chicken" and "beat the bad guys."
Jin’er frowned in distress, seemingly having a nightmare.
As for Zhiwei, she was meditating cross-legged, her eyes tightly closed, highly focused.
And Chen Ye,
naturally couldn’t sleep with his disciples.
No matter how much the disciples fussed and rolled around, Chen Ye ignored them, cultivating alone on the low bed in the outer room.
"I’ve been stuck at the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment for quite some time now."
"The pills from before are now of little use, even the Purple Sun Pill can’t sustain the expenditure of my cultivation."
Chen Ye silently sighed.
Even though he could already refine top-grade Purple Sun Pills, the limit of Purple Sun Pills is there, usually only taken by cultivators in the early to middle stages of Foundation Establishment.
Fortunately,
among the pill formulas bestowed by the Grand Elder, there’s a Condensation Pill, just suitable for late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.
But the cost of the Condensation Pill is very high, a single furnace of them costs at least 2,000 spirit stones, almost equivalent to a lower grade second-tier Magical Treasure.
"The disciples gained about 140,000 spirit stones in Luoxiao Grotto Heaven. But these stones must be used on them, after all, it’s their gain, and once they enter the Foundation Establishment Stage, they’ll need resources for cultivation too."
Chen Ye pondered to himself,
He must use these 140,000 spirit stones to buy Magical Treasures for Qing Jun, whose poor little girl is still using a lower-grade second-tier flying sword... This sword has been damaged before, with little power remaining.
Jin’er practices fire magic, with a relatively long casting time, and lacks defense, needing top-notch protective Magical Treasures.
Zhiwei does not lack Magical Treasures, but actually needs more resources than Qing Jun and Jin’er.
Regardless of how much Qing Jun can eat, Qing Jun still has the True Dragon’s body as a foundation, and Jin’er has the Divine Fire as a foundation.
But Zhiwei is the most orthodox of the geniuses, and the demand for resources is also very high.
"In short, although 140,000 spirit stones seem like a lot, when divided among three gold-devouring beasts, it feels quite meager."
"As for myself, there are less than 10,000 spirit stones left."
The master sighed.
As of today, Chen Ye once again experienced the bitterness of having no spirit stones.
It’s all the disciples’ fault!
Their cultivation is too fast, the consumption between the Foundation Establishment and the Qi Cultivation Stage is simply not comparable!
Even so,
Chen Ye still endured the pain of losing money, looking for more suitable pill formulas for his disciples in the Lingyin’s pill formulas.
Since he gained access to Lingyin’s pill repository, and now has time for alchemy, he naturally has to provide his disciples with the top-notch pills, so as not to fail their talents!
After all, it uses the disciples’ reserve funds...
"Hmm... This Clarity Pill is suitable for Zhiwei cultivating swordsmanship, this Transitive Powder is suitable for Qing Jun to digest treasures of heaven and earth and awaken her lineage, this Fixation Powder is suitable for Jin’er to refine the Divine Fire... As for daily cultivation pills, still use the Purple Sun Pill."
"A single Purple Sun Pill outside costs 500 spirit stones, let alone other higher-tier pills? Luckily these pills take time to digest..."
"Calculating carefully, just pills cost the three disciples nearly 2,000 spirit stones a day. But after that, their cultivation speed will soar!"
Unknowingly, the night had passed.
Chen Ye rubbed his slightly sore brow, finishing a circulation of the Life and Death Profound Light Sutra.
This whole night,
not only did he need to stabilize the realm that was in flux due to excessive spiritual power expenditure in the Celestial Abyss, but he also needed to continually deduce the newly acquired Lingyin pill formulas in his mind.
Although the loss of spirit stones is painful, the thought of his disciples’ limitless future achievements makes Chen Ye feel it’s all worth it.
He got up and walked to the window, opening a slit.
There were more pedestrians on the street than last night, including quite a few cultivators with powerful auras.
These cultivators probably come from more than just the Yan and Qi regions.
The explosion in the Celestial Abyss was enough to attract the attention of the entire Lingxu Realm.
"I wonder if there are any cultivators from the Grand Myriad Gate among them."
Chen Ye pondered.
In reality,
the Qi Kingdom had two major Demon Sects, but ever since the Emotion Crossing Sect received support from the Li Family of Lake Tide, the other major Demon Sect had been suppressed into oblivion, and even the two Golden Core True Men of the sect had fallen.
However, according to Lingyin Sect’s intelligence, the Grand Myriad Gate was still active in the Qi Kingdom, and had recently promoted a new Golden Core True Man.
This sect intended to ally with Lingyin Sect, but Grand Myriad Gate’s reputation as demon path practitioners was no exaggeration; their ferocity exceeded even that of the Emotion Crossing Sect, causing the elders to remain ambiguous and not yet agree.
"Master, you’re awake."
A gentle voice came from behind.
Chen Ye turned around to see his eldest disciple already dressed neatly, holding a basin of warm water, with a white cloth towel draped over the side.
"Master, wash up." Zhiwei placed the washbasin on a wooden shelf, naturally rolled up her sleeves, revealing her fair wrists, preparing to assist Chen Ye in washing his face.
"I’ll do it myself."
Chen Ye smiled and accepted the cloth towel.
People in immortal cultivation naturally do not gather dust; a simple dust-cleaning spell could solve the problem, yet he couldn’t bear to refuse the sincerity of his disciple.
After washing up, two little fellows in the inner room also woke up with disheveled hair, crawling out sleepily.
Qing Jun rubbed her eyes, and the first thing she said was, "Master, what’s for breakfast? Is there any roast chicken left?"
"Eating roast chicken first thing in the morning? Aren’t you afraid of getting sick of it?" Chen Ye flicked her forehead, "We’ll have something lighter today. In a while, let the waiter bring up some Spirit Porridge."
After settling the three disciples, Chen Ye instructed:
"Today, I need to visit several markets in the city, buy some spiritual medicine for pill refining, and gather some intelligence on the situation. Chouyun Pass is currently a place of mixed fish and dragons; the three of you must stay honestly at the inn and not cause trouble. Especially you, Qing Jun; if you dare to sneak out, all future roast chickens will be canceled!"
"Got it..." Qing Jun stretched her voice in grievance.
Zhiwei slightly bowed and promised sensibly, "Rest assured, Master, I will look after the two junior sisters. Master, please also be careful on your journey."
Chen Ye nodded and went to the neighboring woodshed to check on the half-dead Tuoba You. Seeing the restriction intact and the ’door knocker’ still hanging by a thread, he was reassured.
...
If there was a place in Chouyun Pass where information was most agile, it was indeed the markets within the pass.
Though the markets were mostly filled with low-tier loose cultivators, these cultivators were scattered throughout the Celestial Abyss and Chouyun Pass, making information spread rapidly.
Chen Ye casually picked through the cheap spirit grass at a stall, secretly extending his divine sense.
He focused on gathering intel about last night’s magical battle conflict.
Sure enough, he hadn’t moved through many stalls before overhearing several loose cultivators huddled in a corner excitedly discussing something.
"Did you hear about the big commotion last night in the west of the city? My goodness, the spectacle of that magical battle suppressed even the cold winds blowing from the Celestial Abyss!" whispered a scrawny loose cultivator mysteriously.
"How could I not have heard? Apparently, it was one of our local Foundation Establishment middle-period demon cultivators from the Qi Kingdom who died! That demon cultivator was a ruthless character from Blood Slaughter Ridge, always arrogant for having killed a Lingyin Sect guardian, but last night he kicked a steel plate and got his bones turned to dust!"
"Hiss—who did it? Was it someone from Lake Tide Li Family making a statement?"
"Not the Li Family!"
Another informed individual, with a scar at the corner of his eye, glanced around and lowered his voice even further,
"I heard it was an outsider, a young gentleman! Sporting flashy brocade clothes and waving a folding fan in the middle of the night, with a pretty little girl who looked like a white flower by his side. The demon was tempted by beauty, thinking the young man, who was a cripple, was easy to bully..."
"So what happened?" Others eagerly asked.
"That young man just coldly smiled, waving his fan, and a pink peach blossom miasma surged up from the ground! The demon, a proud Foundation Establishment middle-period, couldn’t even unfold his protective gang qi, didn’t even manage a scream before dissolving into a pool of blood! His methods were so sinister that even our Qi Kingdom’s demon cultivators shudder at the thought! It’s said that this person is from Huayue Mansion, who just came from the Yan Kingdom!"
Hearing this, Chen Ye’s hand, while picking spirit grass, paused slightly.
A cripple, folding fan, a Huayue cultivator from the Yan Kingdom?
Isn’t this person Hua Wuyin?
But who was the little girl beside Hua Wuyin?
"Hiss! So it’s a Huayue cultivator, his little girl companion must also be a Huayue genius, right?" Someone gasped.
"Heh... A genius? That little girl is his sister, and a tripod furnace from Budu River, who arrived not long ago with the Li Family caravan." The man sneered.
Budu River?
Chen Ye suddenly remembered that he had a token from Budu River, and this token seemed rather special...