These past few days.
Lu Qingfeng's level had reached 4 (18/20), and his cultivation had also reached the peak of the second layer of the Embryonic Breath Realm. He could break through at any moment.
With inner breath, Lu Qingfeng could finally use an alchemy furnace.
An alchemy furnace was different from a medicinal-material processing table.
Every alchemy furnace had been painstakingly refined by an artifact refiner, allowing alchemists to refine pills better and more efficiently.
Wang Tao, for instance, used a Fourth-Rank Talisman Artifact-grade alchemy furnace—Purple Smoke!
It had three hundred and thirty-six talismans inscribed within it, forming thirteen sets of talisman arrays, including spirit gathering, cooling, flame, and temperature control arrays. With inner breath and True Qi manipulation, alchemy became quite effortless.
When Lu Qingfeng used the medicinal-material processing table to refine Yellow Dragon Pills, it took half an hour to complete one batch. But when he used Wang Tao's 'Purple Smoke,' he could cut that time down by the length of a single incense stick.
It seemed insignificant, but accumulated over time, it was still impossible to ignore.
"Perhaps I can collect ores and metals in Miaoyin City and begin learning artifact-refining techniques with an alchemy furnace!"
Lu Qingfeng pondered as he walked out of the alchemy room.
Rumble!
The moment he stepped outside, he discovered that the earth seemed to be trembling faintly. Immediately afterward, a rumbling reached his ears. He looked up and saw a giant rapidly approaching from beyond Mount Yuanyi.
This giant was the culprit behind the trembling earth!
"What is that—"
"A puppet?!"
Lu Qingfeng looked at the 'giant' and immediately thought of the puppets Wang Tao had told him about over the past few days!
According to Wang Tao, the president of the Yuanyi Guild, Mu Yuanyi, was a Foundation Establishment elder of the Spirit Mechanisms Institute on Emerald Screen Mountain. Both his status and strength ranked among the very best in the Spirit Mechanisms Institute.
The Spirit Mechanisms Institute was itself a separate estate established by a Spirit Void Cultivator of the great Hundred Crafts Sect on Cloud Dream Mountain, several hundred li away.
The Hundred Crafts Sect was known as the 'Hundred Crafts' Sect. Besides excelling at refining all kinds of talisman artifacts and magical artifacts, its puppet-refining techniques were among the finest on the entire Eastern Victory Continent!
The Yuanyi Guild had the Spirit Mechanisms Institute backing it, while the Spirit Mechanisms Institute was a separate estate established by a Spirit Void Cultivator of the Hundred Crafts Sect. Thus, it was hardly surprising that they possessed puppets.
But to Lu Qingfeng, seeing a humanoid puppet seven or eight zhang tall appear before his eyes was still deeply shocking.
Looking more closely, behind this seven- or eight-zhang-tall humanoid puppet were nine more puppets of slightly smaller stature, each only about two or three zhang tall. They might have been equally shocking on their own, but following behind the giant puppet, they seemed rather inconspicuous.
These puppets all bore traces of battle to varying degrees, with dark-red bloodstains splashed across them. They had clearly endured a bitter struggle!
"These are the mechanical puppets of Mount Yuanyi. They're so powerful!"
"Of course! The president had them refined by the seniors of the Spirit Mechanisms Institute. The largest puppet is powerful enough to sweep aside any demon beast below the sixth rank, while the other nine can also fight fourth- and fifth-rank demon beasts!"
"I wonder when I'll be able to own a puppet!"
Behind Lu Qingfeng, quite a few members of the Yuanyi Guild had been roused by the commotion at the foot of the mountain and ran out to watch.
They had arrived before Lu Qingfeng and had seen these puppets before, yet they were still shaken by the sight.
"Old Lu, come with me."
Lu Qingfeng watched the ten puppets disappear from sight before turning around and hearing Wang Tao call to him.
Lu Qingfeng hurried after him.
"The president and the others are back. I'll take you to meet them." Wang Tao led the way as he explained to Lu Qingfeng.
A short while later.
They arrived at the rear mountain of Mount Yuanyi.
Lu Qingfeng had spent the past few days familiarizing himself with Mount Yuanyi and knew that the rear mountain was forbidden ground for the Yuanyi Guild. Strictly speaking, he had not yet joined the Yuanyi Guild, so he was not allowed to enter. But with Wang Tao leading the way this time, he went straight in without anyone stopping him.
The rear mountain was completely different from the front mountain.
The front mountain was gentle and lush with vegetation. The rear mountain, however, was steep, its strange rocks jagged and rugged.
Lu Qingfeng saw the one large and nine small puppets vanish into the cliffs of the rear mountain.
Before long.
More than ten figures leaped up from the foot of the mountain in a few bounds.
The person at the front wore a black battle robe and looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His face was firm, his features sharply defined.
This was the president of the Yuanyi Guild, the Foundation Establishment elder of the Spirit Mechanisms Institute on Emerald Screen Mountain—
Mu Yuanyi!
"Old Wang, this is the newcomer Old Lu mentioned, right?" Mu Yuanyi's voice was deep and magnetic, inspiring goodwill the moment one heard it.
"That's right. This is Lu Qingfeng, a low-level alchemy apprentice. When it comes to refining low-level pills, Old Yue and I can only admit our inferiority." After introducing him, Wang Tao did not hold back with his praise.
"Brother Wang was too kind."
Lu Qingfeng modestly replied, then cupped his fists toward Mu Yuanyi. "Lu Qingfeng greets the president."
"We're all brothers here. There's no need for such courtesy."
"Old Wang and Old Yue have a very accurate eye for people. Since they've given you such high praise, I'll have someone build a third alchemy room over the next couple of days and place Brother Lu in charge of it."
Mu Yuanyi did not even test him. He directly settled the matter.
Only then did he introduce several people behind him to Lu Qingfeng.
"Old Zhang, Zhang Zong, a top-level artifact-refining apprentice currently studying puppet techniques."
"Old Yu, Yu Bufan, a sword cultivator. His combat strength in the guild ranks among the top three."
Mu Yuanyi introduced all the dozen or so people behind him, giving special emphasis to Zhang Zong and Wang Bufan. At the same time, Wang Tao transmitted secretly to Lu Qingfeng, allowing him to learn that these two were the last two players in the Yuanyi Guild.
The people gathered here at this moment were the Yuanyi Guild's most powerful experts.
Mu Yuanyi, Zhang Zong, Yu Bufan, and the others included three Foundation Establishment grand cultivators in total. The remaining twelve had cultivation levels ranging from the seventh to the ninth layer of the True Qi Realm. When controlling humanoid puppets, their combat strength was no weaker than that of Foundation Establishment grand cultivators!
Advancing from the Embryonic Breath Realm to the True Qi Realm was simple, but advancing from the True Qi Realm to Foundation Establishment meant stepping from postnatal to innate, and the difficulty was immense. Countless cultivators became stuck at this step.
In Black Sand Town, Lu Qingfeng had seen far too many cultivators trapped in the True Qi Realm.
That included Daoist Huang Luo, with whom he had an especially close relationship!
Foundation Establishment was no easy feat. Across the entire Yuanyi Guild, there were only three Foundation Establishment grand cultivators, including Mu Yuanyi.
This time, they had received a mission from the Spirit Mechanisms Institute to travel more than a hundred li southeast to Dusk Mountain City and suppress a beast tide.
More than ten days earlier, they had finally slain the sixth-rank demon beast that had stirred up the beast tide. They had then spent several more days clearing out the beast tide and had only returned to Mount Yuanyi today.
"President, what kind of demon beast was causing trouble this time? I heard that the Yanluo Guild, Blood Wolf Guild, and Azure Flame Guild all received missions as well!"
As they walked toward the mountaintop, Wang Tao asked curiously.
Four of the eight great guilds in Sishui Town had mobilized at once. Clearly, this beast tide was no ordinary one.
"It was a Three-Headed Giant Python." Mu Yuanyi pursed his lips as he spoke.
"A Three-Headed Giant Python?"
"The Three-Headed Giant Python from legend, said to be able to spew water, fire, and wind techniques from its three heads—and even swallow talisman artifacts and magical artifacts?"
Wang Tao's brows twitched.
"That's right."
"This Three-Headed Giant Python had cultivated for who knew how many years and had already reached the sixth-rank level. Its innate techniques were powerful, and it could restrain magical artifacts. Among Foundation Establishment cultivators, it was practically invincible. We joined forces with the Yanluo, Blood Wolf, and Azure Flame Guilds and fought it for more than two hours before finally strangling it."
As Mu Yuanyi recalled the battle, a trace of lingering fear appeared on his face.
Hearing this, Zhang Zong, who looked to be middle-aged, spoke up. "We were still relatively lucky. The Blood Wolf Guild's treasure, the Blood Wolf Puppet, was bitten in half at the waist, suffering a heavy blow. Until the Blood Wolf Puppet is repaired, they'll probably have to hunker down!"
Lu Qingfeng followed alongside the others, listening to them discuss the mission.
All kinds of strange demon beasts, all sorts of puppets, and battles fraught with danger opened his eyes to a whole new world.
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