After obtaining the Foundation Establishment Pills, Wei Zhong left Bright Moon Market and continued onward in a direction away from Azurewood Sect.
Not far behind him, three figures emerged. All wore black hooded robes that concealed their faces.
"Why is that spirit farmer heading beyond Azurewood Sect's territory?"
"Isn't that perfect? Once he leaves Bright Moon Market, won't it be easier for us to make our move?"
Only the last man secretly furrowed his brow, a trace of hesitation suddenly rising in his heart.
"Brother Liu, is it true that he has two Foundation Establishment Pills on him?"
"Of course. Qi Yun producing two pills in one batch was quite well concealed. I'm afraid there are scarcely a few people in the Pill Hall who know of it now. I only learned of it by chance, which was why I invited you two to lend a hand."
Hearing this, the delight in the two men's eyes deepened. One of them spoke first.
"On this trip, I will take none of the other items on Chu Zhong's person. I only want one Foundation Establishment Pill."
The other immediately added.
"Then the other Foundation Establishment Pill will be mine."
After saying this, the two looked at Liu Di at the same time. He sneered inwardly and cast aside his earlier hesitation.
"That will not do. Who knows how many spirit stones Chu Zhong still has in his pockets after asking someone to refine pills for him? If you two wish to divide things this way, each of you must compensate me with one thousand spirit stones."
The two men across from him exchanged glances, and one said.
"One thousand is too much. How about five hundred? The two of us will jointly make up one thousand spirit stones for Brother Liu."
Liu Di shook his head.
"No. One thousand is too little. At the very least, it must start at one thousand five hundred spirit stones each. Decide quickly. Chu Zhong is getting farther and farther away."
"Then we shall do as Brother Liu says."
At those words, Liu Di was instantly overjoyed.
Foundation Establishment Pills were difficult for rogue cultivators to obtain, but for Liu Di, an Azurewood Sect Inner Sect Disciple and even a disciple of the Pill Hall, they were not nearly so hard to come by.
In recent years, the yields from the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range had greatly eased Azurewood Sect's shortage of Foundation Establishment Pills. Things were even considerably better than in the days when they had relied solely on the Qingchuan Secret Realm.
Having reached an agreement, the three immediately mounted their flying swords and headed in the direction Wei Zhong had gone.
As he traveled farther away, Wei Zhong saw that the three had finally followed him and let out a sigh of relief.
He had thought his headless-fly escape might have made the three suspicious.
Good thing they followed me.
Wei Zhong chose a remote, uninhabited direction and accelerated.
"Not good, he's discovered us."
"Chase!"
The farther Wei Zhong fled, the deeper he went into desolate mountain forests. The three behind him pursued relentlessly, when they suddenly saw him turn and plunge straight into a huge boulder on the mountain, vanishing in an instant.
"He's gone. Could it be an array?"
The three stopped before the boulder and looked at one another.
Liu Di watched as one man reached an arm toward the rock, only for it to pass straight through.
"A Concealment Array. That man is inside. Chase."
Without waiting for the other two to speak, he flashed into it and disappeared.
The two exchanged a glance, then stepped into the mountain rock as well.
After a moment of dizziness, they saw that the cultivator who had entered first was staring ahead with wild delight.
"This is... a Third-Order Spirit Land?"
The two who entered afterward sensed the dense spiritual energy here and were immediately seized by the same ecstatic joy.
Liu Di's surprise lasted only an instant before he realized that such a spirit land could not possibly be hidden by a crude Concealment Array.
Unless the other party had done it deliberately.
At that thought, a chill rose continuously from his tailbone. Liu Di could no longer suppress the terror in his heart and urged the dharma sword beneath his feet, intending to turn and flee the way he had come.
Yet once he turned around, where was the path back? There was only a stretch of golden Spirit Fields.
Just then, Wei Zhong's strange laughter rang out.
"Heh heh, you entered this old man's grotto-heaven and still think you can leave so easily?"
As soon as he spoke, Wei Zhong's aura abruptly changed.
Years Dao Method
Wei Zhong instantly broke through from the ninth level of Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment. The momentum continued unabated until he reached the third level of Foundation Establishment, only a hair's breadth away from Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment.
"Grotto-heaven? No... Senior, spare our lives! The two of us had no intention of offending you. It was him—he tempted us into coming to rob Senior of your Foundation Establishment Pills."
Sensing the Foundation Establishment aura emanating from Wei Zhong, one man's face filled with terror. He could not even speak smoothly as he shoved every bit of blame onto Liu Di in one breath.
"Oh?"
Wei Zhong was in no hurry to act. Instead, he watched this scene with great interest.
Seeing the rogue cultivators he himself had invited sell him out in the blink of an eye, Liu Di's face turned ashen.
Then he looked at Wei Zhong, withdrew his dharma sword outright, and fell to his knees.
"Senior, spare my life. I am Liu Di, an Inner Sect Disciple of Azurewood Sect and a first-order alchemist. From this day onward, I am willing to serve Senior like an ox or a horse. I beg Senior to spare this lowly one's life."
As an Azurewood Sect Inner Sect Disciple who often interacted with Foundation Establishment cultivators, Liu Di clearly understood that an insurmountable chasm lay between Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining. Since escape was impossible, he simply knelt and begged for mercy.
At the same time, he cursed Wei Zhong inwardly. You're a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so why pretend to be a Qi Refining cultivator and make such a grand show of refining Foundation Establishment Pills? Could anyone in Bright Moon Market possibly dare rob a Foundation Establishment cultivator of his pills?
"A first-order alchemist? Unfortunately, first-order pills are likely useless to this old man. The three of you know the secret of my grotto-heaven, so you should die here."
"S-Senior, I guarantee that within ten years—no, within five years—I will become a second-order alchemist. I will certainly be useful to Senior."
Yet Wei Zhong paid him no heed. The surging spiritual power within him formed into a spiritual-energy arm that reached for the three men.
Seeing that there was no room for reconciliation, the other two also hardened their expressions and drew their accompanying dharma artifacts.
They were, after all, Robber Cultivators who had spent their lives licking blood from knife edges. They possessed more ferocity than Liu Di.
One man formed a hand seal, and an ancient little sword immediately flew from the sword sheath on his back. It was mottled with rust, as though it had been stained by some filthy thing.
The other slapped a jade talisman onto himself. A flash of bright light passed, and a thin layer of golden radiance enveloped his body.
Then he took out a large stone halberd. He was unexpectedly a rare close-combat dharma cultivator.
"Brother Liu, rather than begging so bitterly, why not join the two of us in resisting?"
The words seemed to move Liu Di. He revealed a miserable expression and took out a blood-red pill, stuffing it into his mouth.
Stimulated by the pill's medicinal power, Liu Di's face twisted savagely. Blood flowed from both his eyes and ears, while the spiritual pressure emanating from within him scattered his bound hair bun.
At this moment, Liu Di actually possessed a trace of the imposing might unique to Foundation Establishment. He could be called Half-Step Foundation Establishment.
The two men beside him stiffened, then rejoiced. Liu Di's transformation seemed to give them several more measures of confidence in resisting Wei Zhong.
Liu Di himself looked miserable, grief visible in his eyes. He was finished. Taking this pill had stimulated his potential while destroying his foundation. From this day forward, he would never again have any chance of advancing to Foundation Establishment.
Watching the three men each reveal their methods, the delight on Wei Zhong's smiling face grew even stronger.
Sure enough, none of these ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators were easy to deal with. For years, their lack of Foundation Establishment Pills had prevented them from advancing, forcing them to seek out all manner of strange methods to improve themselves.
That strange flying sword was one such method, and so was the Golden Body Cultivator wielding the great halberd.
Liu Di in particular truly deserved to be an Azurewood Sect cultivator. He actually carried a pill that could forcibly raise his cultivation by half a realm. An ordinary Qi Refining cultivator really would capsize in the gutter against him.
Their strength was decent—perfect for helping me familiarize myself with this Foundation Establishment power.
Wei Zhong merely condensed a massive hand of spiritual power from his own spiritual energy and used no dharma art whatsoever.
The spiritual power produced by cultivating the Spring Autumn Water Refining Art was inherently far stronger than that of ordinary cultivation methods, and it carried a weighty, profound quality.
Especially now that Wei Zhong had reached Foundation Establishment, that heaviness had risen to another level. Even the spiritual power within his body carried a trace of black.
To outsiders, it looked as though ink had been mixed into it, exuding an unstoppable aura.
Let's see whether the three of you can withstand this one move of mine.
"Ah, no..."
A look of astonishment instantly appeared on Wei Zhong's face.
"Liu Di, have you gone mad?"
The cultivator wielding the great halberd clutched a gash in his chest as he roared at Liu Di.
Liu Di slowly pulled his hand from the other man's chest, while also drawing out the dharma sword lodged in his neck.
"Sure enough, body cultivators are hard to kill."
Casually shaking the blood from his fist and dharma sword, Liu Di glanced toward Wei Zhong. He immediately had no time for idle chatter and charged at the rogue cultivator.
The cultivator behind him let out a muffled whimper, but the unceasing stream of blood flowing from his neck already showed that his death was near.
His body instantly fell from the air, and that strange, decayed flying sword dropped alongside him.
Wei Zhong watched as Liu Di raised his hand and brought down his blade, killing the other two cultivators after only a few exchanges. Then Liu Di gathered the spoils of battle, came before Wei Zhong, and knelt with the three Storage Bags raised in his hands.
He knocked his forehead against the ground.
"Those two thieves have been slain by this lowly one. I beg Master to spare my dog life!"
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