"I lost..." In just two days, Bai Qiuran had quickly refined a pill for Tang Ruowei whose medicinal properties and quality were identical to the Foundation Establishment Pill he had taken back then.
Jueyunzi pleaded for mercy. A chill ran through him.
"Ruowei is about to break through. I'm preparing to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill for her." Bai Qiuran answered as he directed the Fifth Elder to pick out the medicinal ingredients.
"On the one hand, as her master, I really hope Ruowei will prove my theory wrong and go farther and farther in the future. But on the other hand, I can't help this dark thought inside me: you know, if someone could keep me company, and we all failed to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage together, I'd be so happy."
"Then you're..."
"I'm going to use the pill formula my master used to refine one for me back then."
The girl gazed at her master, then suddenly smiled and slapped a palm against the ground.
Most of the Foundation Establishment Pill formulas used by the five major sects of the Righteous Path Alliance had been written by him at their request. Over the past three thousand years, he had saved countless disciples and rescued the sect from disasters worthy of the name several times.
"Ah, I'm in a complicated mood right now," the Sixth Elder replied. "Anyway... let fate decide."
When it came to refining Foundation Establishment Pills, there was probably no one in this world—or even in the Immortal Realm—more familiar with the process than Bai Qiuran.
Though Bai Qiuran held no position in the sect and his cultivation had remained stuck at the Qi Refining Stage, his sect contribution points had always been the highest in the entire Azure Nether Sword Sect.
But the Foundation Establishment Pill he planned to refine for Tang Ruowei wasn't some miraculously improved formula.
The youngest, the Seventh Elder, called out to Bai Qiuran, "Martial Ancestor Uncle, could you stop pacing back and forth? It's just a Foundation Establishment breakthrough. Why are you so anxious? And even if you lose the bet, it's not like you'll lose anything."
"Dragging someone else into the pit is only human nature."
"Hm?"
Today, for Tang Ruowei's Foundation Establishment breakthrough, Bai Qiuran had brought his three-thousand-year-old jade pendant to the Azure Nether Sect to exchange for medicinal ingredients in various storerooms.
Bai Qiuran sat down across from his juniors, his face grim.
"What? Ruowei is about to break through already?"
Just as he'd said, Tang Ruowei had some qualities similar to his own. So Bai Qiuran wanted to recreate, as closely as possible, the scene of his own first failed attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
The Qi Cultivation Method he'd given Tang Ruowei was the one Daoist Qingming had given him on the eve of his own Foundation Establishment breakthrough. And naturally, the Foundation Establishment Pill he was preparing to refine was the very pill Daoist Qingming had personally made for him after emerging from seclusion.
Under the enhancement of the Fortune Body Forging Technique, the power of Primordial Magnetism surged out of his body, leaving a clear palm print on the stone paving in the courtyard.
Only the Sect Master, the elders, and a handful of direct disciples knew his identity. So before long, word spread across Qingming Mountain about a wandering hero with an enormous allotment, trading for supplies all over the place.
Over the past three thousand years, he had studied the Foundation Establishment Pill formulas of countless sects and had no idea how many Foundation Establishment Pills he'd swallowed. He knew not only how each pill worked, but could tell its taste and feel just by looking at its shape and quality.
Jueyunzi nodded in understanding.
The girl, who had been in seclusion for three days, pushed open the door to the cultivation chamber. Bai Qiuran hurried over, his heart pounding, and asked, "Ruowei, how did it go? Did you break through?"
Watching their Martial Ancestor Uncle pace back and forth outside his disciple's door, anxiety written all over his face, the talkative Sect Master whispered to his junior brothers and sisters, "Look, how long has it been since we've seen Martial Ancestor Uncle wear an expression like that? He looks like a man waiting for his wife to give birth. That means our plan is working. At the very least, he's starting to care about Ruowei."
With the sect's great figures seeing her off, Tang Ruowei entered the cultivation chamber with trepidation and began her seclusion to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Outside, Bai Qiuran paced back and forth, waiting to learn the outcome of his bet with his disciple.
"What did I lose?"
That was why Bai Qiuran's allotment had always been the largest in the sect. It also made things easier for Jueyunzi and the others. Given Bai Qiuran's unusual circumstances, they simply had no idea what cultivation realm over sixty thousand Qi Refining layers should be converted into.
Bai Qiuran asked.
The Sect Master, Jueyunzi, soon heard the news, along with several elders. Unable to sit still, Jueyunzi hurried to the storeroom and intercepted Bai Qiuran. "Martial Ancestor Uncle, what are you doing?"
...Bam!
Jueyunzi asked curiously, "The pill formula used by the Qingming Patriarch must be extraordinary, right?"
Bai Qiuran patted Jueyunzi on the shoulder. "Did you forget what I taught you? Techniques, divine abilities, cultivation methods, and realms all improve with the accumulated efforts of each era. Unless they came from an ancient civilization that once flourished, then abruptly fell to disaster and was destroyed, these things are always better the more modern they are."
Tang Ruowei's seclusion lasted three days, just like Bai Qiuran's had back then.
During that time, Bai Qiuran sent the Sect Master and elders back to keep the sect running. But as the idle bunch left, they kept watch on the changes in Spirit Qi with their Spiritual Sense. When Tang Ruowei was about to emerge, those shameless old geezers returned to Seven Star Peak together, as if they'd planned it, to watch the excitement.
The Sixth Elder offered a conflicted assessment.
The contribution a disciple made to the sect could also be added to their allotment.
Bai Qiuran replied.
The changes in Spirit Qi had settled, and Tang Ruowei's breakthrough was nearing its end. At last, everyone's Spiritual Sense sensed the energy inside stop shifting. Tang Ruowei emerged from seclusion.
If Bai Qiuran wanted to, he could instantly and quite legitimately become Sect Master of the Azure Nether Sword Sect, while also taking on every elder's position, from Grand Elder to executive elder.
Ahem. He absolutely wasn't using Tang Ruowei as a test subject. Absolutely not.
"No, the aftermath of the great calamity was still lingering then, and the Cultivation World lay in ruins. Even my master's pill formula was merely decent—without any flaws, but nothing particularly remarkable."
Bai Qiuran descended the mountain and headed for the medicinal storehouse overseen by the Fifth Elder.
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