Chapter 20: The Invitation
The exchange ended, and Ke Huan stood up: “At this small exchange gathering, all fellow daoists have gained something, which is truly rare.”
“If there is a chance, let us gather again for the next exchange.”
After a few pleasantries, the people left one after another.
“Fellow Daoist Wu, Fellow Daoist Rong, this exchange was unexpectedly smooth. This upper room still has about two hours left, if you don’t mind, you can stay here and talk in detail with Fellow Daoist Tong.”
Ke Huan greeted them and left on his own: “If fate permits, we shall meet again.”
“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Ke…”
Song Yan stayed behind. He had made a great profit by exchanging those things for three bottles of Yellow Sprout Pills, so a few casual words were naturally worth the favor.
“You two have asked me to speak privately, is there something on your minds?”
Wu Huaguo was a female cultivator of plain appearance, without the charm and ethereal clothing of Lin Xiaoyu.
She looked at Song Yan, her face full of the resilience of one who had weathered many storms in the cultivation world: “Fellow Daoist Tong, just now you said you wanted information about Supreme Spirit items. To tell you the truth… my husband and I do know news of Supreme Spirit items.”
“Oh?”
Song Yan’s eyes lit up, and he listened attentively.
The couple began to explain in detail.
It turned out that the last time this couple attended the Spirit Source Marsh night market, they had accidentally obtained news about a Foundation Establishment Stage rogue cultivator’s cave dwelling.
That rogue cultivator started from humble beginnings. Although his spiritual root aptitude was extremely poor, he had extraordinary talent in the art of spells, and with some fortuitous encounters, he eventually cultivated to the late Foundation Establishment Stage realm.
It should be known that in the State of Chu, Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators could already be called “Senior” and “True Person.”
Even within the six great sects, late Foundation Establishment Stage was completely a mainstay, a core fighting force.
Unfortunately, that senior was ultimately hindered by his aptitude and passed away in his cave.
It was rumored that because that cultivator practiced spells during his lifetime and liked to collect various spell texts, those who knew of this planned to join forces to explore it.
It was said that the cave dwelling was protected by a formation, requiring at least ten cultivators at mid-stage Qi Refining or above to join forces and slowly break it with spiritual energy, which was why they sought out the couple.
“The cultivator who sought us out said that during his lifetime, that senior’s Thunderfire spells were unmatched among his peers. From this, we inferred that perhaps there might be Thunder-attribute or Fire-attribute Supreme Spirit items in the cave dwelling.”
“However, we did not fully believe what that person said, which is why at the exchange just now, we did not make a definite offer to trade.”
“We were not familiar with them, so we lied and said we wanted to invite a stronger friend, and they agreed…”
“I wonder if Fellow Daoist Tong, for the sake of the Yellow Sprout Pills, would go with us…”
“You two are familiar with Fellow Daoist Ke and the others just now, why didn’t you call them, but instead called me, a stranger?”
Wu Huaguo shook her head: “I don’t trust Lin Xiaoyu or Ke Huan. Zhou Jiasheng is simple-hearted, but he is close to Ke Huan, so we didn’t dare take the risk.”
“Fellow Daoist Tong is different. The status of an outer disciple of the Eastern Abyss Sect is enough for us to invite you. Moreover, killing a demonic cultivator and destroying the pill formula fully demonstrates your character.”
Song Yan asked: “What if I had lied?”
“No.”
“On this point, Fellow Daoist Tong has absolutely not spoken falsely.”
Wu Huaguo smiled freely.
“From the moment Ke Huan stopped you until now, you have only told one lie.”
“Tong Chuping is not your real name.”
“…”
Song Yan remained silent, thinking to himself what the hell kind of secret treasure or technique was this that he had never heard of.
It could actually tell whether someone was telling the truth or lying!
“Alright, when?”
“Fellow Daoist, don’t rush, the time is set for a year and a half later.”
“That long?”
It was true that cultivators’ seclusion periods were generally quite long, but these people were all at the Qi Refining Stage, so why would they need a long seclusion?
However, it was fine, since he was about to go on a sect joint mission anyway.
With more time, he could improve his strength and have more confidence to protect himself.
“As for the meeting time and arrangements, we are only following that person’s notice.”
Song Yan nodded.
…
The three discussed the matter in detail for a while, and then Song Yan got up to leave.
By now, the lights at Spirit Source Marsh were sparse, and the night market was gradually dispersing.
The things had been sold, and Song Yan had no reason to stay any longer, so he went straight back to the outer disciple cave dwelling.
Three bottles of Yellow Sprout Pills were placed before Song Yan, perhaps this was the wealthiest he had ever been. According to his original plan, he was going to sell one bottle of Yellow Sprout Pills first to make up for the spirit stone deficit from this night market trip.
But on second thought, there was less than a month left before the outbound mission, so why waste energy refining Qi Nourishing Pills.
It was better to improve himself in all aspects.
“This spiritual energy cultivation is truly hard to break through in a short time…”
Song Yan decided that in the following days, aside from basic spiritual energy cultivation, he would focus daily on divine sense training.
Although the Five Star Pulse Grasping Technique had no continuation, it was actually a method for training divine sense, so although progress was slow with continued practice, it could still increase divine sense.
Finally, there was the “Condensing Sword Essence” method mentioned in the “Sword Planting Technique.”
Song Yan carefully took out a Yellow Sprout Pill. The pill was pale yellow, with an elegant medicinal fragrance.
The pill entered his stomach, and a pure stream of spiritual energy flowed to his limbs and bones.
…
The Dongyuan Immortal Sect had seven main peaks, surrounding the great Spirit Source Marsh, three mountains in the south, four peaks in the north.
On Lotus Seclusion Peak, only female disciples were accepted.
“Eh? Qingqing, Xiaoyun, what are you doing?”
Inner disciple Liu Yuechan passed by Lotus Garden and glimpsed two young girls in the outer pavilion, secretly holding a small booklet and whispering from time to time.
“Senior Sister Liu, in a few days, Qingqing is going to participate in that sect joint mission.”
On the peach blossom tree of the outer pavilion, a petite girl sat barefoot, giggling mischievously and swinging her fair feet.
“It’s her first time leaving the sect, and they’re looking up the male cultivators going along, trying to find a sweetheart for Qingqing!”
“Zhaozhao, what nonsense are you talking!”
The two female cultivators below immediately blushed and ran to the peach blossom tree to shake its branches together.
They seemed very dissatisfied with this “traitor” who had betrayed them.
The girl on the peach blossom tree was named Xiang Zhaoling. When she entered the sect, due to her extraordinary talent of a congenital single fire spiritual root, she was directly admitted to the inner sect for cultivation.
A single spiritual root was commonly known as a Heavenly Spiritual Root.
This indeed caused quite a sensation at the time, and the other great sects had all probed for information.
“Hey… hey… stop… stop… don’t shake anymore, I’ll get dizzy if you keep shaking!”
“Oh?”
Liu Yuechan became interested: “Let me see…”
“Which senior brothers are lucky enough to go out traveling with our Qingqing.”
“Lu Ziye…”
Seeing this first name, Liu Yuechan frowned.
“What’s wrong, Senior Sister Liu?”
“Ah… nothing, this Senior Brother Lu…”
“He is rather… rather… humorous.”
“If he says anything to upset you, come tell me when you get back, and I’ll beat him up.”
“Okay.”
“Shao Sichao… has been in the sect for over two years, sixth level of Qi Refining Stage, passable.”
Actually, Liu Yuechan had basically never heard of these outer disciples’ names.
“Song Yan…”
“Has been in the sect for one year and seven months, fifth level of Qi Refining Stage, aptitude is a bit lacking.”
He looks quite handsome and delicate… hmm?
Liu Yuechan suddenly showed a puzzled expression.
“I feel like this name is a bit familiar…”
Did I remember wrong?
It seemed she had heard it from Senior Sister Qin in the inner sect.