Pill Recipe

Inside the room, on either side of a light-colored carved round table, Qu Ping'er sat quietly, listening to Liu Zhengguang's flattering words. Seeing the unconcealable arrogance on Liu Zhengguang's face, she sighed inwardly. Was this still the Senior Brother Liu who once captivated her heart? The Senior Brother Liu she remembered had an elegant demeanor, was kind and considerate, and was the dream lover of many female disciples in the Qingguang Sect. She didn't know when it started, but she had gradually grown weary of him.

Gazing at the face she once thought was the most handsome in the world, Qu Ping'er's eyes slowly shifted away, and a plain, ordinary face quietly surfaced in her mind.

At the forbidden water pool, she had been naked, terrified, and clutching her clothes as she hid. Afterward, she had blocked a man with a nosebleed. The man, scared speechless by her at the time, had looked so foolish in his panic. In the end... she had actually kicked him down the mountain.

But how could she be blamed for that! At the time, he was the only one there. It was inevitable that she would misunderstand, and misunderstand deeply, even having the impulse to kill him. If it weren't for peeking in the forbidden stone cave, she wouldn't have known how long she would have continued to misunderstand. Elder Hao's death, the silent weeping, the blood spat out in extreme sorrow – all of it showed his deep emotions and integrity. How could such a person possibly do such sordid things?

Facing the Sect Master without a trace of fear, speaking his mind directly – how many Qingguang Sect disciples could do that?

Facing the label of "waste" with equanimity – how many could do that? If it weren't for Senior Brother Liu's palm strike, the entire Qingguang Sect might not have known to this day that he was someone willing to remain unknown.

Facing the widely sung songs, he clearly knew she had composed them, yet he sought neither fame nor fortune, acting as if he hadn't heard. If she hadn't known, if she hadn't exposed him in person, would you have continued to hide it like this forever?

Seeing the helpless and tragic smile on your face at the Spirit Stone mine, do you know how much my heart ached? Hearing that you were killed by the Demonic Path at the Spirit Stone mine, do you know how many times I cried for you in the dead of night? Seeing you silently reappear before my eyes today, do you know how happy I am?

He actually lived here too. Could this be fate? Thinking of Yue Qianchou's hand gestures to her from downstairs, a smile touched Qu Ping'er's lips. She hadn't heard a single word of what Liu Zhengguang was saying.

Yue Qianchou, eavesdropping outside the door, and Liu Zhengguang, speaking, were naturally unaware of what she was thinking. If Yue Qianchou had truly known, heh! The consequences would likely have been unthinkable.

Liu Zhengguang also noticed his junior sister was a bit distracted. He paused slightly, and his words naturally stopped. But Qu Ping'er was still lost in thought, and a hint of annoyance flickered across Liu Zhengguang's face.

As the direct grandson of the Qingguang Sect Master, his status was extraordinary. Which female disciple in the sect didn't harbor secret affections for him? The woman before him had once been the same. He knew all this, but he had far-reaching ambitions and was solely focused on his cultivation. Once he achieved success, wouldn't these female disciples be his for the taking?

When did it happen? Qu Ping'er had gradually drifted away from him. The look in her eyes towards him had lost its unusual sparkle, finally drawing his attention. When he compared her to other female disciples, she was undoubtedly the most outstanding.

The most outstanding female disciple had lost interest in him! This was undoubtedly a provocation to him, who was accustomed to being high and mighty. How could he tolerate it? So he began to actively pursue Qu Ping'er, but the result of his active pursuit seemed to be that she was drifting further away.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhengguang's facial muscles twitched slightly. He took a breath, adjusted his emotions, picked up the teacup lid on the table, and gently tapped the teacup. A "ding" sound rang out, waking the dazed Qu Ping'er.

Liu Zhengguang smiled and said gently, "Junior Sister! My feelings for you are known throughout the entire Qingguang Sect. Don't you know them yet?"

After a slight hesitation, Qu Ping'er nodded gently. It was under the persuasion of her Grandmaster Lu Wanqian that she had come out alone with Liu Zhengguang for this outing. Her Grandmaster had made it very clear before they came, hoping she would become Liu Zhengguang's cultivation dao companion. Under the pressure from her Grandmaster, she had already prepared to yield. What else could she do if she didn't yield?

Being in the Qingguang Sect, some things were simply not up to a mere disciple to decide. But what no one could have expected was to meet Martial Uncle Yue, who should have been dead long ago, here!

"You bastard, you really want to hit on my girl. You can even say such disgusting things. You're making me so angry. My dearest Immortal Sister, for the sake of the next generation of the Cultivation World, you must hold your ground!" Yue Qianchou, eavesdropping outside the door, gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly.

Seeing that Qu Ping'er seemed unmoved, Liu Zhengguang frowned. He reached out and took out a long, strip-shaped jade slip and said, "Junior Sister! Take a look at this."

Qu Ping'er took it, turned it over and over, and asked doubtfully, "It looks very ordinary! Not long, not short, I can't tell anything special about it."

Yue Qianchou outside the door changed his expression. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't defeat Liu Zhengguang, he would have kicked the door open right now to see what the couple inside was doing. He was thinking too much and muttered to himself, "Liu Zhengguang, you wouldn't have taken out your reproductive organ, would you! You're truly shameless!" The words that followed made him breathe a sigh of relief.

"Junior Sister! This jade slip is no ordinary thing. Have you heard of the 'Pill Sect' from three thousand years ago in the Cultivation World! This contains the pill recipes painstakingly gathered by countless generations of the Pill Sect!" Liu Zhengguang said.

"Ah! Pill recipes!" Qu Ping'er exclaimed, looking at the jade slip in her hand, "Is it that Pill Sect which held the position of the number one righteous sect for countless years with its pill refining arts? Wasn't it rumored to have been annihilated by the Demonic Path three thousand years ago? How could their things fall into your hands?"

It was no wonder Qu Ping'er was so surprised. In the Cultivation World, the most precious things were pill recipes. A good pill recipe was enough to stir up a storm in the Cultivation World. Absorbing the spiritual energy contained in Spirit Stones could indeed increase one's cultivation, but for those whose cultivation had reached a certain level, the effect of Spirit Stones was no longer significant. It was different with good pill recipes. After refining good elixirs, taking one could be equivalent to a year of hard cultivation, or even several years.

And for cultivators, advancing from one level to another was often as difficult as climbing to heaven. It was like how Yue Qianchou needed a Foundation Establishment Pill to advance from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Establishment stage. Although Foundation Establishment Pills were precious in the Cultivation World, the pill recipes for refining them were almost available in all major sects. But what about the elixirs for advancing past the Core Formation stage, Nascent Soul stage, and Tribulation Transcendence stage?

Although each sect had its own secret remedies and guarded them as treasures, the effect after consumption likely depended on one's luck. It seemed that only a very, very small number of people had good luck. This showed the preciousness of good pill recipes in the Cultivation World, which was absolutely no less than a good magic treasure.

The 'Pill Sect' was a cultivation sect specializing in this very art. It was rumored that its disciples, once their cultivation reached a certain level, had a breakthrough probability of up to thirty percent after taking elixirs. Don't underestimate this thirty percent. If the Qingguang Sect had a hundred Nascent Soul stage cultivators, and if thirty percent of them could break through to the Tribulation Transcendence stage, what would that concept be? That would be an additional thirty or so Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivators! Such a probability was something major sects could only dream of.