"Whoosh!"
A black-robed figure flashed through the dense woods, sending leaves swirling in his wake.
Lin Yiqing had already scouted his retreat route, so the moment he'd succeeded in fishing in troubled waters, he'd decisively fled toward the outskirts of the Tianyan Mountain Range.
I hope that Little Fatty can be of some use and hold the Liu Family off for a while.
Thinking of Little Fatty, trapped by the Liu Family cultivators in the cave, Lin Yiqing could only hope he'd take care of himself.
Since he'd planned to fish in troubled waters, he had to be prepared to live or die by his own hand.
Given the other man's build, it was probably impossible for him to leap through that narrow gap as Lin Yiqing had. That left him with only one option.
He could kill every Liu Family cultivator who'd entered the nest and make his way out. Whether he could pull it off would depend on his strength and the will of the heavens.
As for those Liu Family cultivators, they were all thoroughly wicked. Lin Yiqing felt no burden at all, no matter how many of them died. He didn't pity them in the slightest.
Now that he'd snatched the Spirit Candle Fruit, both the Liu Family and the Storm Fierce Tiger were surely going berserk. Naturally, his best course was to make a clean getaway.
I can't go to Ye City now. I need to guard against that kid selling me out!
Lin Yiqing considered the matter, then changed direction and sprinted with all his might toward another exit from the Tianyan Mountain Range.
Back in Qingping City, Lin Yiqing had told Little Fatty that he planned to go to Ye City. So if the other man betrayed him after being captured,
Liu Tiansheng and Qiu Xuanxiao would surely lie in wait for him there. The risk would be too great.
Those two Lesser Perfection of the Form-Shaping Realm experts were far beyond what he could contend with at present.
Of course, that was only a possibility. The other man might die outright, or he might surrender. But if there was any risk, Lin Yiqing had to avoid it in advance.
So Lin Yiqing planned to bypass Ye City, cross the Mist Forest, and head straight for the Great Wilderness Prefecture!
Perhaps because the Liu Family and the Qingping City Lord's Mansion were driving people away, Lin Yiqing's retreat went very smoothly. No one tried to stop him.
In just one day, Lin Yiqing had left the Qingping City region far behind.
The sun sank and the moon rose. Once night fell, Lin Yiqing found a pitch-black cave to use as a temporary shelter.
He took a huge boulder and sealed the cave entrance. Only then did Lin Yiqing sit down to meditate and catch his breath.
After sprinting at full speed for an entire day, even his physique was starting to feel the strain. Although the Supreme Origin Pellet continuously supplied him with Origin Qi, the long journey still left him mentally exhausted.
"Phew!"
He exhaled a breath of stale air, and a smile crept across Lin Yiqing's handsome face. He then took two Spirit Candle Fruits from his Universe Bag, placed them in his palm, and examined them closely.
"That wasn't easy. After all that planning, I finally got them."
The first time he'd seen the Storm Fierce Tiger in the mountain hollow, Lin Yiqing had used his Origin Qi Vision to spot the large amount of Origin Qi gathering there. He'd known the cave had a high-grade spirit medicine.
He hadn't expected it to be such a precious one!
No wonder those two middle-aged men had set up such a trap to swindle Little Fatty.
Still, the two of them probably hadn't expected someone to expand the trap, stirring things up and drawing in behemoths like the Liu Family and the City Lord's Mansion.
The Spirit Candle Fruit was classified as a Seventh-Grade Spirit Medicine, but because of its unique properties, the appearance of even one fruit would cause a sensation.
Even experts of the Creation Three Realms coveted it.
That was because the Spirit Candle Fruit had an astonishing effect. Any cultivator below the Creation Realm who ate it for the first time was guaranteed to break through one minor realm bottleneck with the aid of its medicinal power.
It was a divine medicine for breaking through realms, something countless cultivators could only dream of finding.
The Storm Fierce Tiger had probably been counting on this very thing, waiting for the medicine to ripen so it could eat it and advance.
Unfortunately for the tiger, the fruits had all ended up in Lin Yiqing's hands. After examining them for a while, he sighed and reluctantly put them away.
The spirit medicine clearly hadn't ripened yet. A mature Spirit Candle Fruit should be as translucent as tourmaline, brimming with medicinal power.
But the surfaces of the two fruits in Lin Yiqing's hand still showed patches of green. That was probably why the Storm Fierce Tiger hadn't eaten them.
Perhaps refining them into pills would be more suitable.
At the thought, Lin Yiqing immediately focused on the Wordless Heavenly Book floating in his Mud Pill Palace, hoping to find a suitable combination of medicinal properties for a pill.
"Yang dragon, yin tiger; wood essence, metal essence; the two qi converge, and are refined into..."
A moment later, Lin Yiqing raised a hand and rubbed his handsome, sword-shaped brows. A hint of fatigue showed in his eyes. The knowledge in the Wordless Heavenly Book was too vast; every time he consulted it, he felt dizzy and lightheaded.
Still, he was fortunate to have this encyclopedia of cultivation. It had spared him decades, even centuries, of others' hard-won knowledge.
He was proficient in every auxiliary cultivation art, from alchemy, talismans, and arrays to artifact forging.
The cave was quite spacious, so Lin Yiqing immediately decided to set up his furnace and refine pills there. No matter how good a spirit medicine was, it was only useful once you ate it.
Otherwise, he'd have gone to all that trouble just to hand the spoils to someone else. It would be enough to make him die of rage.
After clearing some space, Lin Yiqing took out the Bronze Cauldron and set it in the middle of the cave. He then laid out the several spirit medicines and Monster Crystals he needed, one by one.
Most of those things had come from Little Fatty, so Lin Yiqing silently said another prayer for him.
"Life-Transforming Rune Array, Myriad Transformation Flame!"
At a thought, strands of mental power shot from Lin Yiqing's eyes. In an instant, they joined together to form the Life-Transforming Rune Array.
"Pfft."
A faint flame of mental power sprang to life, and the entire cave seemed to brighten.
Guided by Lin Yiqing's mental power, the Myriad Transformation Flame slowly entered the Bronze Cauldron. He'd reforged the cauldron, so he no longer had to worry about the flame melting it.
He activated the Fire-Avoiding Runes on both sides. The Bronze Cauldron gave off a milky-white glow, and with Lin Yiqing's mental power suppressing the flame, the conditions were now perfect for alchemy.
With a gentle wave of his hand, Lin Yiqing wrapped his mental power around a Monster Crystal the size of a baby's fist and sent it into the pill furnace to be roasted.
Once the Monster Crystal had melted down to its essence, he gradually added several mild medicinal ingredients and refined them to serve as auxiliary ingredients.
Then Lin Yiqing took out the two Spirit Candle Fruits and sent them into the pill furnace without hesitation to extract their essence.
Alchemy also required the main ingredient to be supported by complementary ones. For this pill, the Spirit Candle Fruit would be the principal ingredient, with all the others as supplements. Together, they would make a Realm-Breaking Pellet!
With the aid of the Myriad Transformation Flame, Lin Yiqing's control over its temperature improved greatly. Before long, the cave filled with the sweet aroma of pills.
"Condense!"
Lin Yiqing formed a hand seal, and mental power surged within his Mud Pill Palace. The Myriad Transformation Flame instantly enveloped the inner chamber of the pill furnace.
A moment later, Lin Yiqing dispelled the Life-Transforming Rune Array and opened the Bronze Cauldron. Inside lay five round, pink pills.
Dense currents of heaven and earth Origin Qi swirled around the pills, and a heart-soothing fragrance slowly wafted from the cauldron.
"Looks like it worked!"
Lin Yiqing smiled faintly, took one pill to keep, and packed the rest into a porcelain bottle, which he put away with care.
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