Ambush and Slaughter

The moment the Five-Tusk Warship bearing the Azure Sea Sect's banner crashed brazenly into the Four-Directions Heavenly Water Formation, the entire Flying Fish Island began to stir.

Countless Hua Family cultivators wore looks of panic and despair.

As for the spirit farmers, mulberry farmers, fishermen, and retainers hired by the Hua Family, they hurriedly knelt and kowtowed. "We are willing to surrender... Honored superiors, please hear us out—we truly have nothing to do with the Hua Family!"

A few bold Rogue Cultivators had already impatiently begun attacking the Hua Family's old estate, hoping to make a fortune while proving their innocence.

"Hmph, courting death... You dare try to pick up scraps from my family?"

Hua Tianfeng raised a hand, and a gold scissor-shaped Spirit Artifact appeared. With a single snip from its enormous phantom, it severed those rogue cultivators at the waist.

The bisected Rogue Cultivators did not die immediately. They sprawled upon the ground and wailed, a sound enough to raise goosebumps all over one's body.

After casually dealing with those Rogue Cultivators, Hua Tianfeng looked toward the Five-Tusk Warship that had already reached the formation eye. His face filled with despair. "The secret has been exposed..."

He looked at Hua Zong beside him and secretly transmitted through Spiritual Sense. This must be because our dealings with the Zhong Family have come to light... There is no room left for maneuver. You and I are both on the Azure Sea Sect's kill list. We cannot escape. Immediately have the Lineage's few Foundation Establishment seeds take storage bags and flee far away! Let as many as can escape, escape.

"Send out the signal. The clansmen we secretly sent to the Heavenly Heart Chain Islands are to conceal their names and identities at once... So long as the Azure Sea Sect remains, they must never bear the surname Hua again."

Only after seeing Hua Zong agree did Hua Tianfeng burst into laughter and point a finger.

The golden scissor Spirit Artifact suddenly blazed with light, like two golden flood dragons carrying him into the sky. "I am Hua Tianfeng, ancestor of the Hua Family! Who dares take this old man's head?"

"I do!"

Cui Zhe merged with his sword, becoming a streak of jade-green sword light that met the two golden flood dragons head-on.

A Foundation Establishment battle was about to erupt!

Meanwhile, more enforcement disciples from the Hall of Punishing Evil descended from their spirit boats without expression and began sweeping through the Hua Family members on the island.

"Listen up! Do not let a single one escape!"

The many enforcement disciples were all Late Qi Refinement cultivators. They cultivated exquisite techniques and possessed abundant combat experience; the Hua Family cultivators had no hope of resisting them.

Several Qi Refinement Great Completion cultivators even exchanged glances before charging directly toward the Hua Family's underground cavern.

Clearly, they had long coveted the Profound Wind Baleful Intent.

Every time the sect exterminated a Foundation Establishment force, it was the best opportunity for these enforcement disciples to make a killing!

The southeastern waters of Flying Fish Island.

The autumn sky was high and crisp, while the sea breeze carried a slight chill.

A small boat drifted with the waves. Fang Qing lay on its deck with one leg crossed over the other, a fishing rod resting at his side.

Splash!

Suddenly, the sea broke open, and he flung a large, foolish-looking green fish onto the deck. Its tail continued to flop wildly.

"Haha... Got one."

Fang Qing laughed, then suddenly kicked the large green fish back into the sea.

Standing atop the Profound Ice Wheel, he flew toward the horizon.

In Fang Qing's direction, a Hua Family cultivator drenched in blood was fleeing in panic.

This Hua Family cultivator had ordinary features, the sort of person who would disappear into a crowd and never be picked out again. He possessed no distinctive aura either; only his cultivation, which had barely reached the Qi Refinement Seventh Layer, stood out at all.

When he saw the Profound Ice Wheel beneath Fang Qing's feet, his eyes lit up. "Are you a Zhong Family cultivator? I am a member of the Hua Family. Please, save me quickly..."

Boom!

Before he could finish speaking, Fang Qing visualized the Horse-Head Vajra Guardian. His Spiritual Sense transformed into a Demon-Subduing Vajra Pestle and smashed directly into the man's Consciousness Sea.

The cultivator immediately felt as though his head were splitting apart. Before the talisman in his hand could be activated, he saw a fist rapidly enlarging before his eyes.

Bang!

Great Vajra Divine Strength erupted. Fang Qing's punch shattered a Black-Iron Magic Shield and landed squarely on the cultivator's head.

"You called out so warmly on the surface, but weren't you hiding a talisman behind your back?"

"Good fellow... It was even a Second-Order talisman? Even if I survived taking that head-on, I would have been skinned alive!"

He reached out, took the talisman from the Hua Family cultivator's hand, and silently grumbled, You identified me as a Zhong Family member just from a Profound Ice Wheel flight artifact? Are you the fool, or am I? The Azure Sea Sect has fought the Zhong Family for so long—how could we possibly not have seized ice-attributed artifacts? You were obviously trying to bluff me!

A moment later.

A headless corpse fell into the sea, while Fang Qing swiftly departed with a storage bag.

"What a harvest!"

With the aid of his Spiritual Sense, he easily destroyed the mana imprint inside the storage bag.

When his Spiritual Sense entered it, the first thing that astonished Fang Qing was the storage bag's capacity!

An ordinary storage bag was merely the equivalent of carrying an extra suitcase.

This storage bag had clearly been specially made. Not only did its surface bear intricate patterns, but the space inside was as large as a room!

In one corner of the room lay a pile of spirit stones. Most were low-grade, with the occasional middle-grade stone mixed in—more than four thousand in total, by estimate.

Besides that, there were bolts of silk woven from Dragon-Soaring Silk.

At certain times, this could be an even more valuable "hard currency" than spirit stones!

There were also many fine magic artifacts, high-grade talismans, medicinal pills, books... and...

Light flashed in Fang Qing's hand, and a white jade bottle appeared.

Upon pulling out the stopper, he saw a snow-white pill inside. A spirit pattern lay across its surface, and an icy chill instantly spread outward.

"A spirit pattern? A Second-Order spirit pill?"

"Mm... Based on the pill manuals I have read, this should be an Iceheart Meridian-Guarding Pill... This is a spirit pill capable of assisting Foundation Establishment! It is even a Zhong Family specialty!"

"Sure enough... When a family is being destroyed, a Foundation Establishment seed fleeing with its reserves can be described with just one word—fat!"

"This is only one of them. If I caught the others... or even the branch families that had been sent away beforehand?"

Fang Qing shook his head, laughing at his own insatiable greed.

The destruction of the Flying Fish Island Hua Family was such a major event that every side would surely be watching.

If he intercepted every last one of them?

They would hunt him from the blue vault of heaven to the yellow springs of the underworld.

"With these gains, plus this Second-Order talisman, it is enough."

He did not grow greedy and flew straight back toward the sect.

As he flew, he examined the Second-Order talisman in his hand.

Clearly, that Hua Family cultivator had never believed he was from the Zhong Family. Everything he said had merely been intended to lure Fang Qing closer, then use this trump card to deal him a vicious blow.

What he did not know was that Fang Qing was even more underhanded. The moment they met, he had used a Spiritual Sense secret art, then killed with one strike, leaving him no opportunity at all to activate the talisman.

Now that he touched the Second-Order talisman himself, Fang Qing felt that his earlier actions had been entirely correct.

"A Second-Order... Heavenfrost Ice Blade Talisman?"

"Once activated, it will not only release intense cold to freeze the surroundings, but also summon three ice blades to tear apart everything ahead..."

Fang Qing merely injected a thread of mana into it as a test, yet he felt as though a vortex within the talisman were about to suck away most of his mana.

"Sure enough... For Qi Refinement cultivators like us, Second-Order talismans are still far too excessive. The mana they consume is difficult even for Late Qi Refinement cultivators to bear... More importantly, once unleashed, they seem rather indiscriminate between friend and foe."

Without Spiritual Sense, it would likely be difficult to precisely control the direction of the three ice blades. At that point, one could only leave it to fate.

"When that Hua Family cultivator used it earlier, why did it seem more like a method of perishing together?"

"Then again... After escaping layer upon layer of pursuit, he must have already been at the end of his rope, his oil exhausted and lamp guttering, right? This Heavenfrost Ice Blade Talisman was probably his final trump card."

"I cannot allow myself to end up in such a state. I must take this as a warning."

Azure Sea Sect.

"The resources obtained this time are enough for me to attempt Second-Order pill refinement dozens of times... But I cannot explain their origin, so I must act discreetly. It would be best to refine pills using my own Spirit Pool."

Unfortunately, that was impossible.

A Second-Order Spirit Pool was standard equipment for a Second-Order alchemist. In particular, the best few spring eyes had long been occupied by Pill Island elders such as Clouddrift Adept.

Even an ordinary Second-Order Low Grade Spirit Pool required one to be a First-Order High Grade alchemist before qualifying to apply for its use!

"If only the Spirit Pool in my cave abode were Second-Order... Unfortunately, that would require a Second-Order geomancer and formation master... With my current connections, I simply cannot hire them."

"So it would be best to successfully certify as a First-Order High Grade alchemist first, then apply?"

When Fang Qing returned to his cave abode, he saw a transmission talisman fluttering wildly about.

He casually caught it, and Hua Lingsu's voice sounded by his ear. "Junior Brother Fang... The First-Order High Grade alchemist examination has been arranged. Please come to the Pill Hall in half a month."

"Oh? The First-Order High Grade alchemist examination is about to begin?"

Fang Qing felt a faint anticipation. "I wonder which examiner they have arranged for me?"

In truth, at his current level, the possibility of failing to refine a First-Order High Grade pill was infinitely close to zero.

Half a month later.

Pill Hall.

"So you are the one taking the First-Order High Grade alchemist examination? Not bad, not bad... Pill Island truly produces talent generation after generation."

An elderly man with a wrinkled face, full white hair, and an ebony hairpin looked at Fang Qing.

"Fang Qing greets Elder Han!"

Fang Qing bowed. He had seen this elder before while attending lectures at the Cauldron Altar.

It was said that he was a Second-Order Mid Grade alchemist, with exceptionally impressive pill-refining skill.

"Mm... To advance to a First-Order High Grade alchemist, you must refine three different First-Order High Grade pills. You will have three attempts for each type."

Elder Han waved a hand and passed a storage bag to Fang Qing. "Follow me!"

Fang Qing followed Elder Han all the way to a spot halfway up Cold Spring Peak.

This place was shrouded in mist year-round and concealed by a formation.

When Elder Han took out an elder's token and formed a hand seal, a swath of dense fog dispersed, revealing a Spirit Spring.

"A Second-Order Low Grade—Cold Marrow Spring. You may use it as you please for one month. How about it?" Elder Han asked casually.

"Agreed!"

Fang Qing lifted a thread of spring water and sensed its properties before nodding slightly. "This junior wishes to refine Qi Refining Powder, Qi-Replenishing Pills, and Origin-Restoring Pills..."

Looking at the surroundings veiled by thick mist, he silently praised, If I can rent a Second-Order Spirit Spring like this afterward, with a formation guarding it, it would not be too bad...

Yet in the next instant, Fang Qing's thoughts entered a hazy, profound state. He took out a Qi Refining Flower, a main ingredient for Qi Refining Powder, and tossed it into the Cold Marrow Spring.