More than half a year later, a batch of Foundation Establishment Pills emerged from the Alchemy Hall. Chen Xun volunteered to deliver one to Ji Kun, saying that since they had both come from Nine-Star Valley, he wanted to see him off on his final journey...
The elders had no objections. It was only a small favor, after all. Delivering a Foundation Establishment Pill to a Rogue Cultivator brought no benefit, since most people failed at Foundation Establishment anyway. Resentments had even arisen within the sect over such matters before.
They handed Chen Xun a jade bottle. Inside was, as ever, a pitch-black yet translucent Foundation Establishment Pill.
The Five Aggregates Sect maintained strict rules and thoroughly investigated embezzlement. If it was discovered that a Foundation Establishment Pill had not reached a disciple's hands, the light punishment was imprisonment and torture in the Law Enforcement Hall; the heavy punishment was the abolition of one's cultivation and expulsion from the sect.
If such practices were allowed to take root, who would still be willing to serve the sect with their lives? It would also lead to a lack of successors. Not everyone could charge into Foundation Establishment purely on talent.
Chen Xun flew on his sword with Black Bull. The Foundation Establishment Pill in the bottle had already been switched out for a gleaming white pill without Pill Veins, though he had smeared it with medicinal liquid to turn it black.
It was still that old, shabby house. Ji Kun's gaze was sharp as he waited day after day, neither arrogant nor impatient, for Chen Xun to arrive.
Whoosh!
A streak of sword-light came flying from the distant horizon. Ji Kun smiled. That huge black lump could only be Junior Brother Ox. It always liked staying behind Chen Xun.
"Ji Kun!"