Xuan Ping in Peril

Upon returning to the Marquis General's Mansion, Yue Qianchou saw Shi Xiaotian waiting for him with a joyful expression as soon as he entered the gate. He glanced back at the passersby on the street, glared at Shi Xiaotian, and went over to greet him, saying, "Third Young Master."

Shi Xiaotian realized that he didn't want to attract attention in crowded places, so he immediately put on a young master's demeanor, nodded and said, "Come with me."

The two walked towards the back garden one after the other. As they walked, Shi Xiaotian asked softly, "Boss, it's been a long time since I've seen you. Why didn't you say anything when you came? I only found out you were here because I ran into your two wives."

"The Cultivation World has been quite unsettled lately, and I've been busy with many things. I'll be going on another long journey soon. I'm coming back this time to take care of some miscellaneous matters. I don't know when I'll be able to come back again," Yue Qianchou said.

Shi Xiaotian nodded and said, "My mother heard that you had come and wanted to pay her respects."

"No need, just give my regards to your mother." As they spoke, the two had already arrived at the back garden. Yue Qianchou suddenly said, "I have to go to your father's place right away. Go and ask your mother and the others if they have any messages for you to pass on to your father. It would be best if they wrote them down in writing so they could be easily forwarded. Don't worry about me, just go and ask them now. I can't stay here for too long."

"Got it." Shi Xiaotian turned and ran. Although he didn't know what his boss was busy with, he knew it wasn't easy for his boss to come all this way.

Yue Qianchou walked alone into the courtyard, thinking about the affairs of the Cultivation World, and couldn't help but worry about the safety of this family. Shi Xiaotian's cultivation was only at the late Foundation Establishment, and the old team members sent to protect this family were all at the Nascent Soul Realm. Normally, there wouldn't be any problems, but now it was hard to say. He had to improve their cultivation as soon as possible.

His Divine Sense immediately locked onto Chen Feng inside Utopia. He saw Chen Feng and Xiao Wanqing vying to do chores, Chen Feng bowing and scraping like a servant. It wasn't that he wanted Xiao Wanqing to take care of him; it was clearly that he was taking care of Xiao Wanqing. Yue Qianchou shook his head and smiled bitterly, transmitting his Divine Sense: "Chen Feng, how many of those Restriction Breaking Pills did you refine? Give me some first."

"Uh... Boss!" Chen Feng was taken aback at first, then said somewhat awkwardly, "It hasn't been refined yet. I'll come back tomorrow." Xiao Wanqing, who was standing to the side, looked around blankly when she saw him talking to thin air.

Yue Qianchou's face immediately darkened. He disappeared from the courtyard and reappeared beside the two from Utopia. Xiao Wanqing bowed somewhat mournfully and said, "Chief!" Yue Qianchou nodded and said, "Since you've followed Chen Feng, you're family now. There's no need for such formalities in the future."

Hearing this, Chen Feng was quite satisfied and nodded repeatedly to Xiao Wanqing. Yue Qianchou glanced at him and said expressionlessly, "Come with me for a moment, I need to talk to you about something."

"Wanqing, wait a minute, I'll be right there." Chen Feng said, then happily followed Yue Qianchou away.

The two arrived at Chen Feng's private Alchemy Chamber, where Yue Qianchou turned hostile and shouted, "Chen Feng, have you been bewitched by a woman? With such an important matter at hand, how can you be so careless? Don't you have time to keep both of you busy later? I'm just warning you today: if you neglect your duties again and spend all your time by a woman's side, I will immediately expel Xiao Wanqing from Utopia and ensure that the two of you never see each other again."

"Ah..." Chen Feng was startled, but their relationship was unusual, so he wasn't afraid that Yue Qianchou would actually do that. However, it was hard to say what would happen if his boss became ruthless. He fawned, "Boss, calm down. I know I was wrong, I won't do it again." He understood that Yue Qianchou had already been very lenient by not turning on him in front of Xiao Wanqing and everyone else; otherwise, given his temper...

"Hmph!" Yue Qianchou snorted coldly, saying nothing more. He walked to the side of the pharmacy, retrieved several portions of spiritual herbs, and with a flick of his wrist, a nearly transparent azure flame ignited. He then quickly began refining the herbs... His skillful refining technique once again attracted Chen Feng's attention. Before long, one batch of white and five batches of purple Restriction Breaking Pill were completed. Yue Qianchou put them into his Storage Bag, shook his head at Chen Feng's disappointed expression, and vanished instantly.

"Take care, boss!" Chen Feng waved with a smile at the void, then let out a wry smile. His boss was busy, not only raising a large amount of Spirit Stone but also rushing back to refine pills. He'd really managed this whole mess well. Everyone was busy, and he... it seemed his boss was right; he'd really been blinded by a woman. Chen Feng touched his forehead, realizing his mistake and feeling somewhat ashamed. He turned and slammed open the lid of the Pill Furnace ...

When Yue Qianchou returned to the back garden of the General's Mansion, Shi Xiaotian was already waiting for him with several letters in his hand. He was not surprised to see him suddenly appear. He handed over the letters and said with a smile, "I heard that you are quick to come and go. In addition to Mother, I also wrote a letter to my eldest brother and two sisters-in-law, as well as my own. Thank you for your help, sir."

Yue Qianchou took it and threw it directly into his Storage Bag, saying jokingly, "When did you start being so polite with me?"

"It's not a personal matter; it's just on behalf of my family to express our gratitude," Shi Xiaotian said with a smile.

Yue Qianchou waved his hand, took out the newly refined white and purple Restriction Breaking Pill and placed them on the table, and said, "Keep the white one for yourself, and give the purple one to the team members who are guarding the General's Mansion and to Ling Feng and the other two. I will bring Ling Feng and the other two over as soon as possible. We don't need to gather so many people now, otherwise I will go bankrupt..." He then told Shi Xiaotian in detail about the effects and methods of taking the two kinds of pills.

"Ah!" Shi Xiaotian exclaimed in surprise, "Since these two kinds of elixirs are so different, why give Ling Feng and the other two the purple one? This is not a good idea!"

"Stop arguing. I know what to do. I won't harm them." Yue Qianchou took out another Storage Bag, threw it on the table, and sighed, "I'm poor! Here are ten million high-grade Spirit Stones. You'll have to make do with this for now..." Before he could finish speaking, his expression changed and he said, "Oh no! Xuan Ping is in danger. You wait for me here!"

Shi Xiaotian saw that Yue Qianchou had suddenly disappeared, but he had clearly heard what he said. His expression turned serious, and he murmured, "What danger might Xuan Ping be in?"

Outside, Yue Qianchou's cultivation level wasn't high enough for teleportation. However, with the mysterious effects of the golden pearl, as long as he had the necessary coordinates, Utopia would be his bridge to any other shore, allowing him to reach even the farthest place instantly. Upon suddenly sensing Xuan Ping's distress signal, Yue Qianchou immediately returned to Utopia, only to disappear again...

Xuan Ping was a man of few words and overly straightforward, practically single-minded. After parting ways with Ling Feng and Bei Zi, he arrived in a relatively large city in the Huaxia Empire. That very day, he encountered several orphans with Spirit Root. Realizing that with so many people, they would need a place to stay, he couldn't very well stay in an inn—that would be too conspicuous. So he hurriedly searched for a house to rent. As the saying goes, different places nurture different people, and the locals were generally quite hostile towards strangers. Upon hearing that Xuan Ping didn't speak with a local accent and seeing his expensive clothes, they asked him, "You don't look like a local. Do you need a place to rent urgently?"

Xuan Ping honestly replied, "I need it urgently." And so it was settled; renting a house was no problem, but the price was ridiculously high.

Although Xuan Ping was rather dull-witted, he wasn't stupid. After all, he had spent so much time in the capital and knew the market prices. How could the rent in this place be twice as high as in the capital? His attempts to negotiate failed, so he resolutely refused. He then inquired at several other places, each one more outrageous than the last. It was all the work of the first landlord; a group of landlords were conspiring to rip him off. So he returned to the original landlord, who was delighted to offer five times the initial price. Xuan Ping was furious and almost attacked, but being rather stubborn, he remembered the rules of the Cultivation World and ultimately refrained from doing so.

If it were Ling Feng and Bei Zi, they wouldn't openly confront them, but they would at least teach them a lesson secretly. However, if it were these two, they would have simply thrown money at them to rent the house from the start— Shi Xiaotian gave them a considerable sum! Why would a dignified cultivator care about such a small amount of money? Then none of this would have happened...

When the landlord saw that Xuan Ping was about to make a move, he got angry and cursed, "What? You're an out-of-towner and you want to hit someone? I'm telling you, you're dressed like a respectable person, but you're not rich, so why are you pretending to be rich? You think it's too expensive? There's a dilapidated temple at the foot of the mountain south of the city. If you're so tough, go live there. It's free there."

Well, Xuan Ping is really something else. He didn't even think of any other way, and in a fit of anger, he actually went and lived in that dilapidated temple. After some time, the temple housed over a hundred orphans with Spirit Root. One day, one of the orphans, being playful, secretly ran away from the temple. Because it was at the foot of the mountain, the orphan was bitten by a poisonous snake. When Xuan Ping returned, he found that the orphan was too deeply poisoned; his cultivation level was insufficient to completely expel the poison. At this moment, he thought of Yue Qianchou.

Just then, at the crucial moment, eight people burst into the dilapidated temple. Upon seeing the courtyard full of children with Spirit Root, they were all stunned. Seeing that Xuan Ping, who had saved the children, possessed the cultivation of the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, they all assumed that Xuan Ping was a disciple sent by some sect to recruit students. Without saying a word, one of them asked Xuan Ping to step aside, and that person quickly rescued the children.

Xuan Ping, tongue-tied and unsure how to express his gratitude, simply pulled a handful of amber-colored, gleaming high-grade Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag and stuffed them into the bag as a thank you. Immediately, the eight people who had arrived were green with envy, their shifty eyes constantly glancing at Xuan Ping's Storage Bag. The consequences of such greed were predictable.

These eight people were originally herb-gathering disciples of the Daluo Sect, the kind who collected spiritual herbs from all over the place. After exchanging glances, one of them stepped forward to strike up a conversation, asking Xuan Ping which sect he belonged to and how many of his fellow disciples were with him. Xuan Ping, that blockhead, actually said that he was a rogue Rogue Cultivator without a sect or affiliation, and that he had come alone.

His explanation failed to convince the eight men. Why would a Rogue Cultivator with no sect or affiliation collect so many children with Spirit Root? And why was he so wealthy? After several questionings, Xuan Ping, seeing that the kind people who had helped him didn't believe him, desperately tried to prove himself by claiming he was an outcast from Fu Xian Island who had only managed to achieve Foundation Establishment by fortuitous opportunity after leaving the island. He wasn't completely foolish; he didn't reveal Yue Qianchou's identity.

The disciples of the Daluo Sect, still somewhat skeptical, exchanged glances, but couldn't resist the lure of a large amount of Spirit Stones. However, they feared Xuan Ping might have reinforcements if they acted here. So, they lured Xuan Ping 'Xuan Ping immediately became precarious. Of the eight opponents, only two had lower cultivation levels than him; the rest were all stronger, especially the leader, who possessed early-stage Core Formation cultivation. How could Xuan Ping possibly be a match for them? Fortunately, Yue Qianchou, concerned for the safety of the three, had given each of them a pile of talismans for protection.

Surrounded by eight people, Xuan Ping used a bunch of random talismans to clear a path and actually managed to break through the encirclement, fleeing in disarray. However, he was covered in wounds. At the critical moment, he managed to pull out the silver ball that Yue Qianchou had given him and send out a distress signal, though he wasn't sure if it would work.

Among the eight opponents were cultivators at the Core Formation stage. Xuan Ping couldn't escape very far, given his speed. After running out of talismans, he was finally trapped again in a valley. Looking around, Xuan Ping sadly realized that Yue Qianchou hadn't appeared in time. Just as he was preparing to fight to the death, he suddenly saw a servant in black clothes and a black hat appear on a nearby rock. Such a flamboyant yet familiar outfit—who else could it be but Yue Qianchou?

"Boss didn't lie to me, he really came to save me!" Xuan Ping, battered and ragged, almost burst into tears of excitement, and shouted in a trembling voice, "Boss!"

The eight people immediately noticed Yue Qianchou on the rocks. Dressed like a servant, his sudden appearance in this remote mountain was too strange. The leader, a Core Formation stage cultivator, shouted, "The Daluo Sect is handling business. Unauthorized personnel, please step aside." He realized that he couldn't see through the newcomers' cultivation level with his own, and he immediately became flustered, so he invoked the Daluo Sect's name.

"The Daluo Sect is handling matters; bystanders, please step aside?" Yue Qianchou scoffed, his face grim as he jumped off the rock and swaggered towards Xuan Ping, who was surrounded. As he walked, he sneered, "The Daluo Sect? They really have quite the airs. Heh heh! It seems I have an inexplicable connection with the Daluo Sect. I can run into them in any nook and cranny. It's like seeing a ghost."

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