Scheming

Meanwhile, Xun Zhenbei...

After returning from Han Ling City, he passed through Mount Zhouyou without entering, and then headed towards Vermilion-Glow Mountain.

Vermilion-Glow Mountain is located in the southern part of the Nine Nether Domain, adjacent to the Cloudwaste Domain to the south.

The mountain is named for its color, which is described as "as red as cinnabar and as bright as the morning glow."

A mountain is not famous for its height, but for the immortals who dwell there.

In the misty Vermilion-Glow Mountain, legend has it that an old immortal cultivates there. He drinks the white dew in the morning and refines the Golden Core of immortality at noon. Often, miraculous elixirs flow out, and the fragrance of these elixirs wafts through the air. If an ordinary person smells it, they will live to be a hundred years old and all their diseases will be cured. Even the wild beasts in the mountains, upon smelling it, seem to Spirit Birth sentience.

This day.

Xun Zhenbei landed outside Vermilion-Glow Mountain, not daring to fly away, and instead climbed the mountain step by step.

With the body of True Immortal, his speed was quite fast.

Xun Zhenbei started his ascent at Morning Sun, and by the time he reached a Daoist temple atop the mountain, it was already noon. In front of the temple was a cloud-viewing Cloud Platform. On the platform, a huge cauldron swirled, with a fire that flickered between light and darkness below. From within the Pill Furnace, a fragrant aroma filled the air, a delicate and delightful scent.

The old Daoist priest held a palm-leaf fan and gently fanned the flames.

Not long after.

He stretched out a hand, reaching towards the Blazing Sun Realm in the sky. His palm was like white jade, yet it drew down a wisp of Scattered Adept Blazing Fire, crimson to black. He played with and rubbed this flame between his fingers.

It took a full quarter of an hour before it was thrown into the Pill Furnace.

Buzz!

The Pill Furnace trembled slightly, the lid was lifted, and flames swept across the surface, sending a fiery red pill soaring into the sky. The old Daoist casually waved his hand, and the pill landed in the jade bottle in his hand.

Only then did he turn around and see clearly.

It turned out to be an old Daoist priest with flowing white hair, kind eyes and a bright and radiant appearance.

"Disciple Xun Zhenbei greets Master."

Having not dared to disturb him earlier, Xun Zhenbei hurriedly stepped forward to pay his respects upon seeing the old Daoist refining the elixir.

"Your timing is perfect."

"If you had come earlier, your master would not have finished refining the 'Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill' yet, and you would have had to wait a long time."

The old Daoist priest chuckled.

It felt like he had just concocted an elixir of immortality, and he was in an extremely good mood.

"The Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill must be refined by capturing the Great Sun True Fire in the sky. The timing must be just right; if it is a moment too early or a moment too late, the elixir will be destroyed immediately. In this Nine Nether Domain, only you, Master, can control it at will and refine it at will."

Xun Zhenbei praised.

This wasn't flattery. His teacher, after all, came from the Dao of Alchemy lineage of the Sixcraft Pavilion of the Myriad Arts Way, and had received some True Disciple, making him capable of refining immortal pills. This 'Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill' was especially his specialty.

"The Nine Nether Domain is vast and boundless, containing countless powerful immortals, and there are countless masters who surpass me in the path of Dao of Alchemy."

"Making such big claims, aren't you afraid of getting laughed at?"

As the old Daoist priest spoke, his smile widened, clearly indicating that he was very pleased.

Before Xun Zhenbei could speak...

The old Daoist handed over the Pure Jade Bottle in his hand, put his hands behind his back and said, "This is an elixir that the Three Mountains True Lord the Flame God Palace requested to refine for his closed-door disciple Chao Jue. You should send it to Nine Suns Ridge."

"Chao Jue?"

Xun Zhenbei's eyes lit up. "May I ask, teacher, are you the 'Fire Crow Divine Son' among the thirteen divine children of the Flame God Palace?"

"Good."

"Chao Jue is quite ambitious. He had the strength to break through to the True Immortal realm long ago, but he has been delaying the breakthrough and instead went to fight in the outer realms to hone his cultivation. A few days ago, his heart and lungs were frozen by the cold air emitted by an Azure Jade Demon Spirit, which is why he returned to Nine Suns Ridge. Now that he has taken this 'Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill' to remove the cold poison, he should take advantage of the situation to advance to the True Immortal."

The Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill can neutralize cold poison, and it contains a powerful medicinal ingredient, refined with the essence of the celestial Blazing Sun Realm's true fire.

It is of great benefit to practitioners of fire magic.

He attained True Immortal and his cultivation advanced greatly.

If the Primordial Spirit True One takes it, it can break through to a higher realm. If one is stuck at the Body Integration Peak Stage, swallowing a Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill will greatly increase the possibility of advancing to True Immortal.

As the Fire Crow Divine Son among the thirteen divine sons of the Flame God Palace, Chao Jue already possessed the cultivation to advance to the True Immortal. With the assistance of the Great Sun Demon-Breaking Immortal Pill, his advancement was even more natural.

The old Daoist chuckled and said with great admiration, "Chao Jue is quite powerful in the Primordial Spirit Realm. He has cultivated the 'Fire Crow Transformation' of the 'Thirteen Flame God Transformations of the Flame God Palace' to the 'Force Control' level, and he has also been recognized as the master of the 'Eight Desolations Profound Fire Mirror'. Even if you were to face him, you wouldn't necessarily have an easy time. The Three Mountains True Lord accepted the immortal pill from his master and promised to let his disciple make a trip to the Mountain-Water Realm."

"That would be wonderful."

Xun Zhenbei was overjoyed.

The Dao Soldiers' actions would be too drastic, making them too conspicuous and lacking in agility. However, with the Fire Crow Divine Son taking action, possessing strength comparable to True Immortal and the Quasi-Immortal Artifact 'Eight Desolations Profound Fire Mirror' in hand, capturing the demon from the lower realm would be a sure thing.

Only--

"The thief hid himself away."

"The Fire Crow Divine Son has descended to the mortal realm; he may be difficult to find."

Xun Zhenbei frowned and then recounted his experience of being rebuffed by Han Ling'er, along with his own speculations.

"The one from Heaven-Piercing Gorge has a wide circle of friends, and his talent is astonishing."

"Since his disciple is unwilling to help, let's just leave it at that and ignore her."

The old Daoist waved his hand, still smiling, "The other day, the Daoist Du Tian obtained a lineage involving the 'Nine Universes Immortal.' My Myriad Arts Way cannot interfere, but there are many in the world who covet the Nine Universes Immortal Mansion. The Black Dragon True Lord in Chilian Mountain has a 'Three-Eyed Divine Hound' under his command, with a vertical eye between its brows that can see up to the Nine Heavens and down to the Nine Netherworlds. I will go and borrow it. After it is done, the 'Star Stele of the Celestial Constellations' will be his. I think he will not refuse."

The problems that were giving Xun Zhenbei a headache were all resolved in just a few words by this old Daoist priest.

This put Xun Zhenbei at ease.

With no more worries, he took the elixir and left Vermilion-Glow Mountain, heading straight for Nine Suns Ridge, where the Flame God Palace was located.

Three Mountains and Nine Rivers.

Lu Qingfeng frowned.

Lately, he's felt a shadow looming over him. At first, it was inconspicuous, but it's gradually growing stronger.

The Great Law calculates the secrets of Heaven.

The secrets of heaven are shrouded in mystery and cannot be fathomed; they seem to lie not within the Three Mountains and Nine Rivers. A careful investigation reveals they do not originate from the celestial Han Ling City.

"It's not Han Ling'er."

"It's not located in the Three Mountains and Nine Rivers."

Lu Qingfeng looked towards the heavens, "The one who plotted against me came from beyond the heavens? The Spirit Domain?"

In this celestial realm, he has made far too many enemies—

By destroying the Azurewood Valley lineage, they offended the True Immortal Xun Zhenbei and the Myriad Arts Way behind him.

They seized the Miaofa of Six Dust Temple, which seemed to have a lineage in the upper realm and an extraordinary origin.

In previous years, Lu Qingfeng obtained the 'Star Stele of the Celestial Constellations' from the Heaven Stele Secret Realm, and it seems that Violet Spirit Fairy Seven Severances Mountain and Mei Plum Blossom Wanderer of Plum Blossom Cave of Jade-Congealing Cliff also coveted it.

In recent years, the Yuan Gui City has been newly acquired, and has thus formed karmic ties with the Ice-Snow Divine Palace behind the first city lord Fairy Yunyan, and the Yuan Gui Water Mother, whose Life and Death and whereabouts are unknown.

"I am invincible Three Mountains and Nine Rivers."

"Even those who cultivate to the thirty-eighth level of the Invert-Grand-Void Glazed Wall possess Great Divine Ability that are difficult to fathom."

"But."

"Yuan Gui City is exposed to the outside world, and we must cover it up as soon as possible."

Lu Qingfeng possesses the "Invert-Grand-Void Glazed Wall," the "Invisibility Technique," and even the "Seven Birds Lesser Evolving Numerology" to foresee fortune and misfortune, making self-protection and hiding easy.

However, Yuan Gui City was in ruins, and all the formations that concealed its aura and form were destroyed.

Outside the void.

The Star-Sucking Demon Spirit could sense the existence of Yuan Gui City, Han Ling'er could easily find it using Han Ling City as a reference. Lu Qingfeng didn't want to abandon Yuan Gui City, but also didn't want to expose himself because of it—

"The concealment formation must be the top priority."

The most important thing is to hide Yuan Gui City first.

Only.

The first batch of goods has already been delivered to Han Ling'er.

However, Han Ling'er needs to establish channels to sell these Clearbright Spirit Water. After the funds are recovered, she will then need to procure materials for Lu Qingfeng, which will require considerable effort.

Lu Qingfeng also knew that he couldn't rush things.

Fortunately, many broken parts are still hidden among the ruins of Yuan Gui City. They were once made from precious refining materials, but now they are as one. Even if Mahayana True Immortal obtained them, it would be difficult to disassemble the materials one by one and reuse them.

However, Lu Qingfeng mastered the 'Dutian Demon Flame' Divine Ability with ease.

The precious refining materials obtained were first used to repair and modify the Heaven-and-Earth Furnace.

"The Heaven-and-Earth Furnace is mainly for absorbing spiritual energy and releasing power. At the same time, it is the core of the Battle City formation system, which is equivalent to the core of a composite formation."

"The Spirit Devouring and Energy Spouting Array directly relates to the grade of the Heaven-and-Earth Furnace."

"When the Cloudmist Heaven-and-Earth Furnace was first built, its ability to absorb Spiritual Qi was comparable to that of thirty-six Mahayana First Realm Resonance Realm True Immortal. After Fairy Yunyan's continuous exploration, modification, and strengthening, it eventually reached the level where forty-two Resonance Realm True Immortal could absorb and exhale Spiritual Qi at the same time."

"It belongs to the low level in the fifth-order Heaven-and-Earth Furnace."

"It can support Yuan Gui City to operate at full capacity for ten years and can contend with True Immortal in the second stage of Mahayana Tribulation Transcendence Realm."

Lu Qingfeng pondered in his heart that his original modified and strengthened array system, due to the material problems of the Three Mountains and Nine Rivers, was not even as good as the first version of the Cloudmist Heaven-and-Earth Furnace, and was only at the level of three to five True Immortal of the Resonance Realm.

Although room for upgrades has been left.

They even planned an upgrade path so that after ascending to the Spirit Domain, they could continue to improve upon this foundation. However, it would be more troublesome, as many components, materials, and even magic arrays would need to be replaced.

It requires a lot more effort.

"Now that we have Han Ling'er as a channel, we can purchase many precious materials from the Spirit Domain, so there's no need for this."

Lu Qingfeng smiled.

The original simplified and weakened version of the formation system was discarded, and the complete version was implemented directly. Formations that conceal traces and obscure the calculation of heavenly secrets also require the spirit-absorbing and energy-expelling formation as a foundation, otherwise they are extremely difficult to operate.

Then.

The time that follows.

Lu Qingfeng was in Yuan Gui City, constantly breaking down materials to repair and modify the Heaven-and-Earth Furnace.

Before the materials purchased with Han Ling'er arrived and the second transaction was to take place, Alchemist were transferred from the Dutian Gate to teach him the refining formulas for enhanced versions of non-ranked pills such as Grain Avoidance Pill, Yellow Dragon Pill, and Clear Spirit Powder.

Lu Qingfeng's time is precious.

The Clearbright Spirit Water is more complex and precious to refine, so he will refine it himself. Fortunately, the quantity is small, so it won't take much time; his Azure Wood Avatar can complete it.

However, those non-ranked pills mainly rely on quantity to win.

Relying solely on Lu Qingfeng would be too much of a waste of his cultivation time and impractical. Entrusting the task to these disciples would be most suitable.

An order was issued.

The Dutian Gate began to widely recruit disciples and extensively train Pill-Refining Apprentice and Alchemist. Having been established for over six hundred years, its foundation was already solid. It had quite a few third- and Fourth-Order Alchemist, and even more first- Second-Order Alchemist.

If they were dispersed, it would be easy to train thousands or even tens of thousands of Pill-Refining Apprentice capable of refining non-ranking pills.

In a short time.

The Dutian Gate is working feverishly and with great enthusiasm.