Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven

"What?!"

Yu An's expression changed abruptly, and his heart filled with utter terror.

This was the presence of a Sage King Realm expert!

Yu An inwardly cried out in dismay and hurried to use his methods to escape.

An innocent man was guilty for possessing a treasure.

He was but a Rogue Cultivator. If a Sage King Realm expert learned that he possessed a grotto-heaven secret realm, he would surely be hunted without end unless he handed it over.

But how could he bear to do that?!

Yet soon, he fell into despair once more.

Waves of profoundly mysterious power surrounded him, frantically suppressing his cultivation. He felt as though he had strength he could not use.

"Senior, there is no grudge between us. Why must you do this?!"

Yu An shouted.

But the mysterious Saint King expert gave no response.

As the seconds ticked by, Yu An gradually ceased to move. He had been completely suppressed and could not move a muscle, but his eyes were full of unwillingness.

The next moment, in the void,

A white-browed elder in dark robes slowly appeared, then drifted over.

"I didn't expect to make such a gain on this return to Central Province."

The white-browed elder chuckled, then casually took the crystal ball from Yu An's hand and held it up for inspection.

Yu An's expression was agitated, but he could do nothing in response.

His heart was full of doubt and alarm. The man had attacked without him noticing a thing, so his methods of concealing his presence were clearly superb. They were very likely methods of the Dao of Deduction.

And his own cultivation was being held firmly in check. A Saint King expert like this should have been well known, so why did he have no recollection of him at all?

As if sensing what Yu An was thinking,

The white-browed elder examined the crystal ball for a moment, then put it away and looked at Yu An.

The white-browed elder waved his hand, and Yu An felt his whole body loosen. He regained control of his body, though his cultivation remained firmly suppressed.

"Senior, you are a Saint King expert, yet you bully a junior like me. Do you really think I have no one behind me?"

Yu An suppressed his anger and questioned him in a low voice.

Though he truly had no one behind him, what if the man really feared breaking the vase while striking the rat?

The white-browed elder, however, shook his head with a smile. "Don't try to deceive me. You're just a Rogue Cultivator. What backing could you possibly have?"

At those words, Yu An's pupils contracted slightly, and his fear grew.

He could not help suspecting that this mysterious expert had set his sights on him long ago and only struck after he had gone through countless hardships to obtain the grotto-heaven secret realm and let down his guard.

If that was true, it was terrifying.

Not one of his actions had ever escaped the man's eyes.

Yu An's thoughts raced, but how could he have known that the mysterious expert before him had only just led his clan in a move to Central Province and happened to come across him here?

At that moment, even Sage Tianyan, who excelled at divination, could not help sighing inwardly at the fickleness of fate.

Just when the Lu Clan needed resources with deep foundations, such as heaven-and-earth secret realms, someone had delivered one to its door.

It seemed the decline of the Lu Clan's fortune really was a thing of the past.

Qiyun Mountain in Central Province was precisely the place he had divined in Qingzhou as the most suitable for the Lu Clan to settle.

It was pure coincidence that Yu An was here with the Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven. If anything was to blame, it could only be his bad luck.

Now that Ancestor Tianyan had encountered it, he would truly be a fool not to do something.

"I am not alone in this world. I have descendants of my own to protect, so if I let you leave, you might well take revenge on them in secret."

Seeing that Yu An had fallen silent, Ancestor Tianyan paused for a moment before suddenly speaking.

Yu An froze, then began to tremble all over. He understood what Ancestor Tianyan meant.

The man meant to kill him and leave no loose ends!

"Senior, please show mercy!"

With life and death hanging in the balance, Yu An could no longer concern himself with anything else. He dropped to his knees before Ancestor Tianyan, begging for a chance to live.

Looking at Yu An, who was so desperate to survive, Ancestor Tianyan said calmly, "What good would sparing you do me?"

Yu An hurriedly said, "Senior, I can see that you do not cultivate the Dao of Alchemy. The Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven is not very useful to you, and if you exposed it, that would certainly do you more harm than good."

"But I am different. I cultivate the Dao of Alchemy. Though I am only a seventh-grade alchemist, with the help of the Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven, I will surely advance to become a ninth-grade alchemist one day!"

"As long as you spare my life, I, Yu An, am willing to swear that I will serve you and refine pills for you for the rest of my life."

"Think about it, Senior. A ninth-grade alchemist! You can't find a single one in the entire Cangxuan Continent today!"

Yu An rattled off a long string of words, repeatedly reminding him of an alchemist's value.

He believed that no cultivator in the world would ever turn down an alchemist, especially a ninth-grade one.

"A ninth-grade alchemist? Heh, as it happens, my clan already has one."

Just as Yu An thought Ancestor Tianyan would be tempted, the ancestor said something so astonishing that Yu An froze on the spot.

"A ninth-grade alchemist?"

Had he heard correctly? Had the mysterious expert before him said that his clan had a ninth-grade alchemist?

What a joke. Even the president of the Alchemists' Guild in Central Province, whose name was known throughout all four provinces, was only an eighth-grade alchemist. Ninth-grade alchemists were already the stuff of legend.

With the Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven absent from the world, could anyone truly become a ninth-grade alchemist?

Yu An did not believe it for a moment. In his view, the mysterious expert was only trying to undermine his confidence.

"Senior, you needn't test me. I truly only want to live. As long as you spare me, I will certainly do everything in my power to serve you."

Yu An bowed solemnly to Ancestor Tianyan.

Hearing this, Ancestor Tianyan fell silent for a moment and thought of the shortage of alchemists in the clan. Although Ancestor Danyang was there, they were bound to be short-handed.

Sparing this fellow and having him assist Ancestor Danyang might not be a bad choice.

With that thought, Ancestor Tianyan nodded slightly. "Very well, then. I'll spare your life."

Yu An hurriedly thanked him on his knees, though his expression was somewhat bitter.

He was a distinguished alchemist. How had he come to be valued so little?

Then, under Yu An's astonished gaze, Ancestor Tianyan swept his hand and brought the clanspeople out of the special space.

The more than ten thousand clanspeople soon occupied the entire mountaintop.

But compared with Qiyun Mountain as a whole, that number was rather insignificant.

Under the leadership of several clan elders, the clanspeople soon began building their home on Qiyun Mountain in an orderly fashion.

Ancestor Tianyan sat in the void, looking down at everything with satisfaction.

He naturally had his reasons for choosing this place as their stronghold in Central Province.

Though he was a Saint King expert, he was not actually skilled at fighting. Against an ordinary Saint King expert, he would still struggle. That was also why he had kept a relatively low profile ever since awakening.

He was better at planning, directing affairs from his command tent and securing victory a thousand miles away.

Likewise, Ancestor Danyang was no fighter. He was an alchemist; asking him to fight was practically asking him to throw his life away.

So Ancestor Tianyan had chosen Qiyun Mountain, a remote place with thin Spiritual Qi, but a rather beautiful and secluded setting.

As for the thin Spiritual Qi, that was all too easy to fix. They only needed to find a few large spiritual veins and move them into Qiyun Mountain.

The most pressing task now was to improve the Lu Clan's overall strength.

Only then would the Lu Clan have what it needed to establish a firm foothold in Central Province.

Elsewhere, Ancestor Danyang had already led Lu Qingshan to the Alchemists' Guild in Central Province.

"Please halt, you two. This is the Alchemists' Guild."

Ancestor Danyang and Lu Qingshan had only just reached the entrance to the Alchemists' Guild headquarters when they were stopped.

Lu Qingshan looked at Ancestor Danyang.

Ancestor Danyang's expression remained unchanged. He merely raised his hand slowly.

A ball of crimson Pill Fire appeared, startling the two gatekeepers.

When it came to identifying an alchemist, Pill Fire was without a doubt the principal means.

Seeing how dense the Pill Fire in Ancestor Danyang's palm was, the two gatekeepers realized that he must have attained some skill in the Dao of Alchemy.

After all, they had guarded the entrance to the Alchemists' Guild headquarters for so many years; they had the discernment expected of them.

"Please wait a moment, Senior. The steward will be here shortly."

The two gatekeepers were humble and courteous, completely different from their earlier cold manner.

Hearing this, Ancestor Danyang merely gave a soft grunt and closed his eyes to rest.

Beside him, Lu Qingshan discreetly surveyed their surroundings.

On the way here, Ancestor Danyang had given him a detailed introduction to the Alchemists' Guild.

It was a power composed of alchemists, with enormous influence. Ninety percent of the pills circulating on the market throughout the Cangxuan Continent came from it.

Once someone offended the Alchemists' Guild, obtaining pills would become extremely difficult.

That was the effect of a monopoly.

Some members of the Alchemists' Guild did not usually stay at the guild, but within their own factions, returning to the guild only at intervals to carry out some basic tasks.

It gave the alchemists who joined it plenty of freedom.

Lu Qingshan learned from Ancestor Danyang that the ancestor had once been appointed a grand elder of the Alchemists' Guild at its request.

After all, he had been a ninth-grade alchemist back then.