Dao Thieves (Part 1)

"Ha ha..." Li Feng let out an incomparably arrogant laugh. With a guiding gesture of his right-hand sword seal, he spat out a surge of True Essence. The sword light in the sky—over ten feet long, neither red nor black—instantly split into three, sweeping up a faint cloud of fire as it shrouded the two pale golden sword lights formed by Xie Yuezi and Gu Lingzi, forcing them to frantically command their sword lights, each more than a hundred feet long, to flee at top speed.

Had a Sword Immortal who cultivated the sword been present, his teeth would surely have fallen out. By all ordinary reasoning, the longer a sword light was, the more abundant its wielder's True Essence, and the greater its power should have been; apart from certain sinister poisonous swords or orthodox invisible sword lights, the more brilliant its radiance, the greater its power should have been as well. Yet look at Li Feng's sword light. It was clear he had only been able to control a flying sword for barely more than ten days, but he had driven two sword lights backed by more than two hundred years of hard cultivation into such headlong flight. It was far too unreasonable.

Gu Lingzi had long since begun cursing at the top of his lungs. "Hey, hey, hey! Little Martial Nephew, be careful, be careful! That Vermilion Bird Crescent is too wicked. Our two flying swords were forged from Taiyi Gold Essence—they can't withstand its flames! Be careful! Hey, hey, hey, I'm not competing in swordsmanship with you anymore. Tomorrow, I'll give you an ordinary flying sword. Refine it first, then spar with us. There's no way to compare like this."

Li Feng laughed smugly, barely drew in a breath, and recalled the red light formed by the Vermilion Bird Crescent. Brimming with pride, he said, "Then doesn't that make me a master of my generation? You don't even dare compete in swords with me. Hahaha."

Xie Yuezi's mouth drooped, and bitterness covered his face, as though he had just swallowed an old bitter gourd raw. The Vermilion Bird Crescent, as its name implied, was a weapon containing powerful fire-spirit force. Unless a flying sword was of exceptional quality or its wielder had reached a very high level, it would melt into molten iron upon contact. Though Li Feng could not yet bring out the Vermilion Bird Crescent's true power, Xie Yuezi and Gu Lingzi were not especially skilled in sword arts either. What they excelled at were incantations and Talisman Charms; their flying swords were merely ordinary sword embryos. Faced with Li Feng's outrageously overbearing challenge, they could only retreat. Otherwise, if flying swords forged through more than a hundred years of painstaking cultivation melted into iron, even they would feel the pain.

Gu Lingzi shook his head and sighed; Xie Yuezi shook his head and sighed as well. They had originally intended to teach Li Feng swordsmanship and help him become familiar with controlling a sword for thrusting attacks, but it seemed there was simply no way to teach him. Who told Xiao Longzi to be so useless that he had let Li Feng extort the Vermilion Bird Crescent right out of his hands?

Li Feng, meanwhile, could not bear to put down the Vermilion Bird Crescent as he admired it in his palm. It was a cone-shaped short blade curved like a crescent moon. Its entire body was made of jade that gave off a faint chill, while a lifelike flying bird formed the blade itself. Every feather had been carved in exquisite detail, and many parts of it had been hollowed out, making it appear so delicate and fragile. Who could have known that this treasure possessed such tremendous power?

Watching Li Feng bounce about like a monkey, Xie Yuezi shook his head and said, "All right, Martial Nephew. Starting today, your lessons will change. Every morning, cultivate qi with me. Your Martial Uncle will properly help you improve your True Essence. In the mornings, read Daoist texts on your own. That is cultivation of the heart, and you must do it yourself. In the afternoons, study the art of alchemy with Senior Brother Gu. How does that sound? You must understand that alchemy is also a method of cultivation, but cultivators must take great care never to rely too heavily on the power of pills."

Gu Lingzi muttered a few words under his breath, then shook his head. "That depends on the circumstances too. Heh, for instance, your Martial Uncle truly enjoys alchemy, so... Haha, Martial Nephew, don't worry. Give your Martial Uncle one month, and I'll make sure you understand how to refine a furnace of fine spirit pills."

Xie Yuezi understood at once. Gu Lingzi wanted to wash his hands of the matter again, which was why he had only promised one month. Learn how to refine spirit pills in a month? At most, he would probably stuff Li Feng's head full of pill formulas. As for how to actually refine them, Li Feng would have to figure that out himself. But then again, Qingyun Flat had countless spirit herbs. Even if Li Feng ruined some while refining pills, what was the big deal?

Li Feng's eyes gleamed as he looked at Gu Lingzi. He could not help recalling one of Tiger Boss and the others' secret businesses in Suzhou Prefecture. Street thugs would carry little medicine bottles and furtively hawk them to customers outside Chunyi Tower and other brothels. "Want some? Good stuff. One pill lasts all night." One bottle cost ten taels of silver... Li Feng's eyes instantly turned gold. He immediately asked, "Martial Uncle, Martial Uncle, can you refine Rejuvenation Pills?"

Gu Lingzi froze. Xie Yuezi froze as well. Gu Lingzi blankly asked, "Rejuvenation Pills? What sort of pill is that? I have Spring Breeze Rain Transformation Pills, Soul Return Pills, and Yang Return Pills, but no Rejuvenation Pills."

Li Feng gestured frantically. "Ah, it's the kind that, after a man takes it, he can..." He carefully and exceedingly thoroughly described the miraculous effects of the Rejuvenation Pill, then earnestly painted Gu Lingzi a picture of the wonderful market prospects and enormous, enormous, enormous business opportunity if they could refine Rejuvenation Pills in large quantities. One pill was worth ten taels of silver—ten taels!

Xie Yuezi's eyes widened more and more. Then he burst into wild laughter and leaped straight into the clouds. Gu Lingzi's face grew paler and paler, and his body gradually began to tremble. At last, he let out a roar and chased after Li Feng, trying to beat him. "You little bastard! This Daoist master's pills are miraculous medicines with the power to turn back the heavens! You, you, you dare compare this Daoist master's alchemy to that lowly trash? You little bastard! One aphrodisiac costs ten taels of silver? Why didn't you think of this: one Spring Breeze Rain Transformation Pill can make an ordinary person at least twenty years younger. Wouldn't that be worth millions of taels of silver?"

Li Feng abruptly stopped and looked seriously at Gu Lingzi. "Then, Martial Uncle, how about giving me a hundred Spring Breeze Rain Transformation Pills? That would be... Heavens, one hundred million taels of silver! With that much silver, I, Li Feng, guarantee I could recruit soldiers in Suzhou Prefecture and immediately bring five or six thousand people into the Yiyuan Sect. Wouldn't our Yiyuan Sect then become the number one sect in the Cultivation World? If that's too few people, I can recruit elsewhere too... Give each of them one string of copper coins a month for wages. Heh heh."

Gu Lingzi was so angry that smoke practically rose from his eyes. He slapped Li Feng on the head and shouted, "A hundred? Do you think they're lumps of mud?... You, you, you think the Yiyuan Sect is some kind of place? Recruiting people with money? If word got out, would our Yiyuan Sect have any face left?" Thinking of how his unfathomably marvelous alchemy had been assigned such a bizarre purpose by Li Feng, Gu Lingzi felt that his pill arts had suffered a tremendous insult. That fury, that rage, that... frustration.

Xie Yuezi, clutching his belly in laughter, drifted down from the sky with tears all over his face. He laughed madly and said, "Senior Brother, hahahaha, Senior Brother, your alchemy has a bright future indeed... In the future, refine tens of thousands of Rejuvenation Pills... Hahaha, Rejuvenation Pills! Stand with Martial Nephew outside that Chunyi Tower and sell them, hahaha! You could even hang a sign saying, 'Bian Que Reborn, Hua Tuo Returned to Life!' Hahaha... Our Yiyuan Sect would be raking in gold by the day... Hahaha."

Gu Lingzi gave a crazed roar and struck at Xie Yuezi with a Palm Thunder. The alchemist, originally as refined and ancient as an immortal, was now black enough to turn purple, purple enough to shine. His brows stood on end, his eyes were bloodshot, his fangs protruded—he was the very image of a demon king. That Palm Thunder contained a full ten-tenths of his power. Xie Yuezi cried out in alarm and shot away in a streak of faint golden light. With a thunderous BOOM, seven or eight stone peaks more than a hundred feet tall were instantly reduced to powder.

From a pavilion atop one of the floating stone peaks, an old Daoist poked out his head. He scratched his tangled hair and muttered, "Huh? Even Junior Brother Gu, that old good fellow, has gotten angry? Who provoked him? But haha, in all the world, I alone am most carefree. Who cares who he's fighting? Eh? Why is there a child there too? Hmm, probably some master's Nascent Soul out for a stroll. Forget it, forget it. Eh, I'd better continue my closed-door cultivation, or I'll be dragged off to wander the mortal world again. Hoo, hoo."

After saying that, the old Daoist swiftly pulled his head back in. He did so so quickly that it could rival the neck of a turtle frightened by thunder.

No matter how many strange interludes occurred, Li Feng began studying alchemy under Gu Lingzi. Cultivating qi with Xie Yuezi every day was fundamental training, and there was not much to say about it. The only thing was that Xie Yuezi told Li Feng it had taken him a full eighty years to go from early Qi Condensation to late Qi Condensation. That gave Li Feng quite a headache.

Gu Lingzi's lessons, however, interested Li Feng greatly.

Because his mind was still full of those alluring words: Rejuvenation Pill.

Gu Lingzi's Alchemy Room was an exceptionally spacious stone chamber. Above was a vast round dome, while below lay a square stone room measuring twenty-four zhang by twenty-four zhang, quietly corresponding to the saying that heaven was round and earth was square. The chamber's dimensions also corresponded to the twenty-four solar terms. Three hundred and sixty luminous pearls were set into the dome, illuminating the entire chamber brightly and echoing the three hundred and sixty degrees of the heavenly cycle. Apart from the wall containing the entrance, the other walls were covered in enormous sandalwood shelves, all divided into tiny compartments filled with countless boxes, bottles, jars, urns, and other containers.

At the center of the Alchemy Room stood an enormous pill furnace three zhang tall. Beside it was a golden Eight Trigrams diagram condensed from magical power. The four primal forces of earth, water, fire, and wind surged madly within the trigrams, and a scorching heat rushed toward them. Eight round openings were set in the pill furnace, corresponding exactly to the eight directions of the Eight Trigrams diagram. Li Feng could sense streams of pure energy pouring into those openings—the fuel for the pill furnace's flames.

Li Feng curiously walked toward the pill furnace, intending to reach out and touch it. Gu Lingzi beside him shuddered from head to toe, grabbed Li Feng by the collar with one hand, and dragged him back. He shouted, "You are not allowed to touch anything here at random, especially this pill furnace! Its temperature can turn even the toughest meteoric iron from beyond the heavens into vapor in an instant, much less your body, which has only been tempered for a little over three years. Without three hundred years of hard cultivation, don't even think of touching this pill furnace."

Li Feng jumped in fright, stuck out his tongue, and finally behaved himself.

Gu Lingzi stood facing east and repeatedly waved his hands. Strands of cold light flew from his palms, and the air throughout the Alchemy Room began to ripple. A flash of fluorescent light appeared before them, and a broad stone table materialized out of thin air. It was four zhang long and two zhang wide, neatly arranged with over a thousand small medicine bottles and piles upon piles of scrolls.

Gu Lingzi smiled. "What is stored here are all the spirit pills and miraculous medicines I have successfully refined over the past two hundred years. Heh, apart from the pills I have taken myself, all the rest are here. As for those texts, they are my insights into alchemy and the pill scriptures I have collected. They are all treasures... Martial Nephew, come. Move all those scrolls down for me. This month, watch me refine pills while reading the scrolls. Understand?"

Li Feng froze, and a surge of wicked anger immediately rose within him. This old bastard is afraid I'll steal his spirit pills. Once I move down the texts, he'll immediately place a restriction on this stone table. Damn it, does he take me for a thief? Hmph. If they weren't top-grade spirit pills, why would I steal his things?

Gu Lingzi saw the wickedness on Li Feng's face, but pretended not to notice. Solemnly, he cast a restriction spell, causing the scrolls to float up and obediently settle beside Li Feng. Then he immediately formed another hand seal and waved at the stone table. A faint rumble of thunder sounded, and the table vanished on the spot. Gu Lingzi swept his sleeve again, and eight meditation cushions immediately appeared beside the pill furnace. He chose the one due south and sat down, smiling. "This furnace of Spirit Transformation Pills has already been refined over and over more than ten times. This time, I should be able to produce a pill, yes? Martial Nephew, read carefully. Your Martial Uncle will first add another burst of firepower."

Helplessly, Li Feng sat on the ground and casually grabbed a jade slip to read. As Gu Lingzi focused on forming hand seals, he casually said, "The art of alchemy is broad and profound. If one is fortunate enough to refine a Heaven Grade One Spirit Pill, then so long as one's body can withstand it, an ordinary person can immediately gain a Nascent Soul. It is a supreme treasure indeed. However, this method is inadvisable. If an ordinary person gains a Nascent Soul, their foundation is too thin and their body simply cannot bear it. Thus, it is generally enough to keep things within the Qi Condensation stage."

"At its root, pills are the extraction of the essence of all medicinal ingredients. Following the principle of ruler and minister supporting one another, the power of the Five Elements is merged into them, granting them the power to transform life and death."

"Pills are divided into four ranks: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow. Each rank is further divided into three grades, with Grade One being the highest. So-called Yellow Grade Pills are pills made from the plants, woods, medicinal stones, and minerals used in the mortal world. Profound Grade Pills are those refined by people with some cultivation in ordinary mortal temples and Daoist monasteries. The pills refined by legendary divine physicians such as Bian Que and Hua Tuo also belonged to this level. Their efficacy is at least ten times stronger than ordinary mortal pills."

"Earth Grade Pills are pills refined by true cultivators. Because they can already incorporate a certain amount of heaven-and-earth primordial qi into the pills, their efficacy cannot be spoken of in the same breath as Profound Grade Pills. Growing flesh upon white bones and raising the dead is not particularly difficult. But bringing a mortal truly back to life after death is a grave taboo. Unless absolutely necessary, cultivators would never do such a thing. Martial Nephew, remember this: the path of life and death, the cycle of reincarnation through the six realms—these are matters of the unseen. Even if you cultivate into a Great Principal Heavenly Immortal, these matters remain under the unseen's charge, and you must never interfere at will. The fortune and destiny of the world are the same. No matter how dynasties rise and fall, cultivators rarely step forward, precisely for this reason."

Li Feng felt as though lightning had struck the crown of his head. His formerly relaxed and idle mind immediately sobered. He understood that Gu Lingzi was teaching him something. The rules for surviving as a street thug were simple: anything useful had to be heard clearly. Just like entering a city, the first thing to find out was who ruled it. One had to understand that, or one day after offending someone, one would not even know how one died.

Seeing Li Feng sit upright with his gaze fixed on him, looking ready to listen with washed ears, Gu Lingzi felt rather pleased. Shaking his head and swaying it as he spoke, he said, "Looking further back, the Investiture of the Gods War, and even the several campaigns in the age of Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan—were they not all attempts by cultivators to alter the fortune and destiny of the world? In the end, Heavenly Tribulation descended. Other than a few fellows whose cultivation was frighteningly high, who managed to withdraw unscathed? So, Martial Nephew, your nature is impetuous and unrestrained, and your Second Martial Uncle has determined that your Sha Qi is too heavy. Who knows what opportunities you may encounter in the future? But you must remember: even if you gain the ability, do as few heaven-defying things as possible."

Li Feng frowned. "If plague spreads throughout the world and I use talisman water and pills to treat it, is that defying heaven?"

Gu Lingzi repeatedly shook his head. "No, no. If plague spreads throughout the world and you use talisman water and pills, that is an act of accumulating virtue. Heaven's heart is most compassionate. Those who were not meant to die, if you save them, that becomes your merit. When you face Heavenly Tribulation in the future, its power will be reduced according to the amount of your merit... But if people have already died, and you rely on the fact that their last breath has not yet left their bodies to forcibly save them with pills, then heh heh, you are snatching back what King Yama holds in his hands. Is that not defying heaven?"

Li Feng came to a realization. "So saving people is also a speculative business. Save those where there's profit to be made, and don't save those where there isn't. You can even make King Yama recognize your face and build a friendship with him, right?"

Gu Lingzi was left speechless and shot Li Feng an annoyed look. How did every word change flavor once it passed through this brat's mouth?

With a snort, Gu Lingzi continued, "That is enough about Earth Grade Pills. You have a general idea now, yes? Then let us speak of Heaven Grade Pills. Heaven Grade Three spirit pills can generally be refined by ordinary cultivators, so long as their opportunity is right and the medicinal herbs are potent enough. But Heaven Grade Two spirit pills cannot be successfully refined by anyone below the Spirit Transformation realm, because the amount of heaven-and-earth primordial qi required is far too great. As for Heaven Grade One spirit pills, several experts who have reached the Void realm must join forces before success is even possible. Heaven Grade One Spirit Pills are also called Heaven-Defying Pills, and they violate taboos most severely. Once the pill is formed, either heavenly demons will interfere, enemies will come to seize it, or worse still, Heavenly Tribulation will descend directly, leaving nowhere to hide."

Gu Lingzi smacked his lips as though savoring the memory. "Your Martial Uncle once accompanied my master to observe such an occasion, two hundred years ago. More than a dozen overseas loose immortals refined pills together. Heh heh, and what arrived in the end was actually the Forty-Nine Lightning Tribulation. Heh heh, those dozen or so overseas loose immortals, who had looked down on everyone at the time, were scared witless, scrambling away in panic. They each snatched two pills and fled, but two loose immortals still ran a little too slowly and were struck into reincarnation by the lightning tribulation."

Gu Lingzi said regretfully, "After being injured by the lightning tribulation, those two unlucky loose immortals were actually reborn as idiots. The two spirit pills they had snatched had to be used on them again, and after spending a hundred years in painstaking cultivation, they only returned to their former level... In the end, it was all labor for nothing. That is why there are probably only a hundred and thirty-odd Heaven Grade One Spirit Pills in the entire Cultivation World now."

Li Feng froze. "That many?"

Gu Lingzi gave Li Feng a strange look. "Of course. There are actually many ways to take shortcuts. For example, when the Emei Sword Sect refined pills a hundred years ago, they invited fellow cultivators far and wide to bolster their formation. Even many unknown recluses emerged. More than ten thousand highly cultivated practitioners formed the Chaos Two Poles Eight Extremes Slaughter Formation. Not only did they withstand the Heavenly Tribulation, they even severely wounded a heavenly demon that descended from Void Beyond Heaven. That one furnace produced twenty-seven Grade One pills, more than three hundred Grade Two pills, and over ten thousand Grade Three pills. Those numbers were terrifying... As for those loose immortals two hundred years ago, they mainly had no disciples and were too embarrassed to ask others for help, which was why they ended up so miserable."

Li Feng gave an enlightened "Oh." "So that's how it is. Then if our Yiyuan Sect refined Grade One pills, we would surely all die, every last one of us. Other than Little Cat, probably no one would be left."

Gu Lingzi leaped up in fury, nearly forming the wrong hand seal. The pill furnace immediately swayed as though it were his shadow, and let out a thunderous roar. That frightened Gu Lingzi into honestly sitting back down on his meditation cushion. Gritting his teeth, he said, "If our Yiyuan Sect refines pills, how could we be like them? Not to mention that the mystical arts and transformations of the three Martial Grandfathers are nearing the realm of heaven and man—if they act, there would absolutely be no failure. Even if the five Martial Uncles joined forces and added the power of the One Yuan Pearl, how could failure be possible?"

Li Feng gave Gu Lingzi a strange look and nodded. "The One Yuan Pearl is that powerful?"

Gu Lingzi immediately began boasting. "Naturally! Hahaha, the One Yuan Pearl is a treasure formed from a trace of chaos qi left behind when chaos first opened. Using it to absorb heaven-and-earth primordial qi is more than a hundred times faster than a Void-realm expert, and when used as a defensive treasure, it is practically indestructible. After all, no one like Great God Pangu can be found today to split open chaos again. Hahaha! Beneath the One Yuan Pearl, what is Heavenly Tribulation?... It is only a pity that the One Yuan Pearl's nature is unpredictable. Sometimes it simply refuses to obey, otherwise why would the three Martial Grandfathers need to hide away at the Little North Pole?"

Li Feng's dog mouth began spouting again. "Then if the One Yuan Pearl suddenly failed while we were refining pills, wouldn't our whole family die?"

Gu Lingzi's eyes nearly popped out. For a moment, his thoughts were tangled as a thousand threads, and though he had many things to say, he did not know where to begin. He could only drop the subject outright. The One Yuan Pearl was, after all, the Yiyuan Sect's treasure that safeguarded the sect, with endless wondrous uses. How could it be explained so easily? Changing the subject, Gu Lingzi said, "Hmm, Martial Nephew, look at that black bamboo slip. Yes, that one. It contains some basic knowledge about alchemy. You may read it."

"You must note that Yellow Grade Pills are merely pills compounded by mortal physicians. What is there to see? They are no more than black, sticky lumps—too ugly to behold. Profound Grade Pills, however, have some distinction. Their medicinal fragrance is more than ten times stronger than ordinary pills, and they especially possess a certain metallic or stone-like sheen, making them easier to distinguish."

"As for Earth Grade Pills, their surfaces gleam smoothly, their fragrance coils through the air, and one breath of it shoots straight to the crown of the head. Their effects are powerful indeed. An Earth Grade One Pill can open the hundred meridians and recast the body in no more than the time of a breath." Li Feng blinked. He suddenly remembered the three Azure Spirit Pills he had thrown away. They must have been Earth Grade One treasures. What a pity, what a pity. Had he known earlier, he would have swallowed them in one gulp.

"As for Heaven Grade spirit pills, they have no particular fragrance, but each one is as crystal-clear as a crystal. The higher the grade, the more transparent the pill body. Heaven Grade One Spirit Pills are even like a ball of flame, a mass of light, their radiance dazzling to the eye."