A Large Amount of Vital Blood

"A letter?"

Lin Changheng's eyes flickered.

He had made a few friends over the past decade or so. He still kept in touch with the three people he had sought the path of immortality with in the mortal towns, though the frequency of their correspondence had dwindled as he grew increasingly melancholic and anxious.

Beyond that, there were a few fellow immortal sprouts within the Xu Family with whom he got along well enough to call friends, and they interacted often.

Who could it be?

"Alchemist Lin, the letter is with Guest Elder Mo. He asked me to come and inform you..."

As he spoke, the clerk gestured quietly toward the floor above.

"Understood."

Lin Changheng smiled in realization and headed upstairs.

Master Mo was sitting in the reception room. He spotted him immediately and beckoned him over. "Changheng, a letter has arrived from Zhaoli."

Zhaoli?

An image of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl instantly surfaced in Lin Changheng's mind.

Slender and graceful, her brows like ink paintings, her eyes like polished lacquer, and two dimples that appeared whenever she smiled.

A true beauty in the making.

Mo Zhaoli, Master Mo's granddaughter and his only living relative.

He wondered what she looked like now.

"I'm here."

Lin Changheng's thoughts drifted as he approached with a smile, as if lost in memory. "Master Mo, it's been a year since Zhaoli last wrote, hasn't it?"

"Indeed!"

At these words, Master Mo's thoughts drifted away as well. His wrinkled old face softened with joy, though he kept up a stern front.

"That little girl is truly becoming unruly. If she hadn't sincerely apologized and explained herself in detail this time—claiming she hadn't forgotten her grandfather, but that the sect had suddenly arranged a cultivation competition and she had no choice—I certainly wouldn't have let her off so easily!"

"Zhaoli has always been sensible and possesses exceptional talent. It is only natural that she is highly regarded and heavily cultivated by the Upper Sect, leaving her no time to send letters," Lin Changheng said, knowing full well what the old man was thinking.

Sure enough, Master Mo burst into hearty laughter. He used his spiritual energy to waft a sealed letter toward Lin Changheng, feigning jealousy. "Every time that girl writes to me, she never forgets to include a note for you, Changheng. Tsk tsk, it seems your status in her heart is no less than mine."

"Not at all! I became an apprentice under you eleven years ago, Master Mo, and I've had five or six years of friendship with Zhaoli. Now that she has joined the Upper Sect and still remembers an old friend, such character is truly limitless," Lin Changheng said with a smile as he took the letter.

After a few more words, Xu Liucai asked Lin Changheng to perform the alchemy techniques. After offering a respectful salute, he took his leave.

Once he had finished the techniques at the furnace, Lin Changheng opened the letter from Mo Zhaoli, whom he hadn't seen in over five years.

The handwriting inside was delicate and elegant.

She began by congratulating Lin Changheng on finally fulfilling his wish to become a ranked alchemist.

Clearly, Master Mo must have mentioned this in a previous letter to her.

Next, she described her recent situation at the Purple Extreme Sect, her tone light and casual.

Yet, Lin Changheng could sense that even with her middle-grade spiritual roots, she was under immense pressure within the Purple Extreme Sect.

Although her middle-grade spiritual roots possessed a full fifty strands of spiritual essence—incredibly close to high-grade roots—that single strand of difference meant she was still significantly slower during cultivation.

She had to work tirelessly to keep up.

Fortunately, heaven rewards the diligent; she had finally broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining within the time limit set by the sect.

She had also received a generous reward of cultivation resources.

If she could keep this up, she would have a chance to enter the inner sect and become a disciple of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Everything would be different then.

After reading this, Lin Changheng felt a shiver down his spine—it was too cutthroat.

If rogue cultivators with ordinary roots were struggling, those with better roots had their own ways of struggling!

For someone with Mo Zhaoli's aptitude to have to fight this hard, to the point of having no time to write back to her own grandfather, tsk tsk...

Indeed, if one doesn't speak of it, it is hard for others to see the suffering hidden beneath a glamorous exterior.

At the end of the letter, Mo Zhaoli revealed a piece of inside information.

She urged Lin Changheng to protect himself and stay safe, because the "Great Reclamation" led by the Purple Extreme Sect would last a long time and could be exceptionally dangerous. One piece of evidence was that the sect was rumored to be offering five Foundation Establishment Pills as rewards for factions that contributed to the reclamation!

This news was rampant within the sect, yet it had not been suppressed.

It was suspected to be an intentional leak.

The probability of it being true was high!

She had also informed her grandfather of this news, which would surely reach the Xu Family quietly, prompting them to react.

For a family of Qi Refining cultivators, the allure of a Foundation Establishment Pill was immense!

This was not merely a cultivator's Foundation Establishment; it was the takeoff of an entire family, a chance to climb off the dinner table and stand tall at the gambling table!

"Once word spreads, the major powers will surely go mad! I must be careful!" Lin Changheng felt a shiver run through his heart.

He then returned to his room, picked up his brush, and wrote a reply to Mo Zhaoli.

He first expressed his gratitude for her well-wishes and congratulated her on her progress.

He also chatted about his own recent situation and reminisced about their shared past, expressing his sentiments.

Finally, he hoped that their relationship would remain unchanged and their friendship would endure.

Lin Changheng's final stroke of genius was intended to maintain their connection, doing his best to slow the inevitable cooling of their relationship.

As distance grew and their levels diverged, indifference was inevitable. Lin Changheng could not stop it; he could only try to delay it.

After all, the world of cultivation was not just about killing and fighting; it was also about human connections and worldly wisdom.

Having a friend within a sect offered many benefits; in terms of information alone, the channels were broader, the level was higher, and one could obtain news faster than others.

And the fact that Master Mo had been so tolerant of him before his awakening was likely influenced, in no small part, by Mo Zhaoli.

Four months later.

At dusk.

Su Shuangjiang once again knocked on Lin Changheng's door, carrying a heavy scent of blood.

"Please, come in quickly."

Lin Changheng invited her inside and served a cup of fragrant tea along with a plate of spirit melons and exotic fruits.

This was the second time the female cultivator had visited in four months.

She had come straight to Lin Changheng the moment she returned from the outside world, before she even had time to wash away the stench of blood.

Sensing the anticipation and eagerness in his neighbor's eyes, Su Shuangjiang smiled slightly. "Take a look."

As she spoke, her fair palm swept across the table, and a row of small glass vials filled with essence blood appeared.

Lin Changheng made a rough count; there were twenty-two in total.

"Among them, sixteen vials are essence blood from mature Fire Crows, and six are from the young."

Su Shuangjiang's red lips parted slightly. "The quantity is about the same as last time. It's a pity that Fire Crows are difficult to kill; few rogue cultivators go out of their way to hunt them, usually only striking if they happen to encounter them. Moreover, the outside world is somewhat turbulent right now. For the sake of safety, rogue cultivators are traveling in groups and hunting larger prey, generally ignoring Fire Crows... so this is all there is."

"No matter. I am purchasing them by quantity anyway, regardless of the amount." Lin Changheng smiled freely, his mindset quite calm.

Last time, he had subtly sounded out Shopkeeper Xu Qianyou regarding his confusion over why Fire Crows were hard to hunt yet their essence blood remained in constant supply. It turned out that beast-rearing families had discovered the market and were specifically raising Fire Crows to supply essence blood to several families involved in alchemy, talisman-making, and spirit food, and the demand still exceeded the supply.

"I wonder if Brother Lin still has any [Crimson Flame Pill] on hand? Because of the unrest, the demand for pills outside has increased, and Brother Lin could raise the price by another ten percent."

Su Shuangjiang brought up another matter.