"Letters?"
Lin Changheng's eyes flickered.
It was not as though he had made no friends over the past dozen years. He had initially kept in touch with the three companions who had sought immortality alongside him in a mortal town, but as he grew increasingly melancholy and anxious, their correspondence had dwindled.
Besides, he had befriended several promising young cultivators in the Xu Family whom he got along with, and they visited one another often.
Who could it be?
"Pill Master Lin, the letters are with Guest Official Mo. He sent me to let you know..."
As he spoke, the attendant discreetly pointed upstairs.
"Understood."
Lin Changheng smiled in understanding and headed upstairs.
Master Mo was sitting in the reception room. The moment he spotted Lin Changheng, he beckoned him over. "Changheng, Zhaoli has written."
Zhaoli?
The image of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl immediately surfaced in Lin Changheng's mind.
She had been graceful and slender, her brows like ink paintings and her eyes like dots of lacquer. Whenever she smiled, two dimples rippled into view.
A beauty in the making through and through.
Mo Zhaoli was Master Mo's granddaughter and his only remaining relative.
What did she look like now?
"I'm coming."
His thoughts wandered as he approached with a reminiscing smile. "Master Mo, the last time Zhaoli wrote was before the new year, wasn't it?"
"Indeed!"
At those words, Master Mo's thoughts drifted into the distance as well. Joy quietly smoothed the wrinkles on his aged face, though his words remained stubborn.
"That little girl has really gotten out of hand. If she hadn't sincerely admitted her mistake this time and explained everything in detail, saying she hadn't forgotten her grandfather, but that her sect had suddenly arranged a cultivation competition and there was a reason for it all, I certainly wouldn't have let her off!"
"Zhaoli has always been a good girl, and she's exceptionally talented. It's only natural that a great sect would value her and focus on nurturing her, leaving her no time to send letters for a while."
Lin Changheng knew perfectly well what the old man was thinking, so he said just that.
Sure enough, Master Mo burst into delighted laughter. He sent a sealed letter floating over with his magical power until it settled before Lin Changheng, then feigned jealousy. "Every time that little girl writes to me, she always includes a letter for you, Changheng. Tsk, tsk. It seems your place in her heart is no lower than mine."
"Not at all! I became your apprentice eleven years ago, Master Mo, so Zhaoli and I had five or six years of friendship. Now that she's joined a great sect, she still hasn't forgotten her old friends. With a disposition like that, her future is limitless."
Lin Changheng accepted the letter with a smile.
They exchanged a few more words before Xu Liucai asked Lin Changheng to perform the Pill Formula Hand Seals. After paying his respects, he took his leave.
After completing the Pill Formula Hand Seals over the furnace, Lin Changheng opened the letter from Mo Zhaoli, whom he had not seen in over five years.
The small characters inside were graceful and neat.
First, she congratulated Lin Changheng on finally fulfilling his wish to become a ranked Pill Master.
Clearly, Master Mo had mentioned this in a letter to her; that was how she knew.
Next, she described her recent circumstances in the Purple Pole Sect in a lighthearted tone.
Yet Lin Changheng could sense that, with her middle-grade spiritual root, she was under tremendous pressure in the Purple Pole Sect.
Although her middle-grade spiritual root possessed a full fifty wisps of spirit resonance, placing her incredibly close to a high-grade spiritual root-just one wisp away-her cultivation was still considerably slower.
She had to work hard to catch up.
Fortunately, Heaven did not fail those who persevered. She had finally broken through to the Qi Refining fifth layer within the deadline set by her sect.
She had also received a substantial reward of cultivation resources.
If she kept this up, she would have a chance to enter the inner sect and become the disciple of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Everything would be different then.
After reading this section, Lin Changheng felt his scalp prickle. The competition was far too fierce.
Rogue cultivators with ordinary spiritual roots competed relentlessly, and those with better spiritual roots had their own ways of competing!
Even someone with Mo Zhaoli's aptitude had to work herself to the bone, to the point that she had no time to reply to her own grandfather. Tsk, tsk...
Sure enough, unless people spoke of it, others could hardly see the suffering beneath their gleaming exteriors.
Finally, at the end of her letter, Mo Zhaoli shared a piece of hearsay.
She urged Lin Changheng to protect himself and stay safe, because the Great Reclamation led by the Purple Pole Sect would last a long time and might be extraordinarily dangerous. One piece of supporting evidence was that the sect was rumored to be offering five Foundation Establishment Pills as rewards to factions that distinguished themselves in the reclamation!
This rumor had spread like wildfire within the sect, yet no one had suppressed it.
It seemed they were deliberately allowing it to spread.
There was a good chance it was true!
She had also told her grandfather about this. Presumably, the Xu Family would quietly learn of it and react accordingly.
Foundation Establishment Pills held an immense allure for Qi Refining lineages!
This was not merely one cultivator's chance to reach Foundation Establishment, but a chance for an entire lineage to soar-to turn away from the dining table and stride up to the gaming table!
Once this news spreads, all the major factions will go mad! I must be careful!
Lin Changheng's heart tightened.
Then he returned to his room, took up his brush, and wrote Mo Zhaoli a reply.
First, he thanked her for her congratulations and congratulated her on her progress.
He also shared some of his recent experiences and reminisced about things they had done together, expressing his feelings.
Finally, he voiced his hope that their relationship would remain unchanged and their friendship stay evergreen.
Lin Changheng's inspired final touch was intended to preserve their connection, slowing the fading of their friendship as much as possible.
With distance between them and the gap in their standing widening, growing apart was inevitable. Lin Changheng could not prevent it; he could only do his best to delay it.
After all, the cultivation world was not all fighting and killing. There were also relationships and social obligations.
Having a good friend in a sect brought plenty of benefits. In terms of information alone, her channels were broader, reached higher levels, and delivered news sooner than other people's.
And it was hard to say that Master Mo's tolerance toward him before his awakening had nothing to do with Mo Zhaoli's influence.
Four months later.
At dusk.
Su Shuangjiang once again knocked on Lin Changheng's door, reeking of blood.
"Come in, come in."
Lin Changheng welcomed her inside and served her a cup of fragrant tea and a platter of spirit melons and exotic fruit.
This was the female cultivator's second visit in four months.
She had come to see Lin Changheng as soon as she returned from the wilderness, before she even had time to wash the blood off herself.
Sensing the eager anticipation in her neighbor's gaze, Su Shuangjiang smiled faintly. "Take a look."
As she spoke, she swept her fair hand across the table, and a row of small glass bottles filled with blood essence appeared.
Lin Changheng counted roughly twenty-two bottles.
"Sixteen bottles of blood essence from mature Fire Crows, and six from juveniles."
Su Shuangjiang parted her red lips slightly. "About the same amount as last time. Unfortunately, Fire Crows are difficult to kill, so very few rogue cultivators deliberately hunt them. Usually, they only try their luck when they happen to encounter one. Besides, things outside have become rather unsettled. To stay safe, rogue cultivators are going out in groups and hunting bigger prey. They hardly ever bother with Fire Crows... so this is all I could get."
"That's fine. We buy by quantity anyway, however much there is."
Lin Changheng smiled easily, entirely at peace.
Last time, puzzled by the steady supply of blood essence despite how difficult Fire Crows were to hunt, he had sounded out Manager Xu Qianyou indirectly. It turned out that beast-rearing lineages had learned there was a market and begun raising Fire Crows specifically to supply blood essence to several lineages involved in pill refining, talisman crafting, and spirit cuisine. Demand outstripped supply.
"I wonder if you still have any [Crimson Flame Pills] on hand, Brother Lin? With the unrest, demand for pills outside has risen as well. You could raise your price by another ten percent."
Su Shuangjiang brought up another matter.