Chapter 40: Unwelcome Guests at the Door

After returning to the clan, Xiao Yan had intended to find Little Doctor Fairy to spend some time together, only to learn that she had already found a cultivation room and begun closed-door training.

Back in the Tagor Desert, Little Doctor Fairy could have directly pushed for the Great Master Fighter realm, but she had delayed it because she had to return to Wutan City with Xiao Yan. Now that she had settled down in the Xiao Clan, it was only natural to restart her closed-door training to break through.

On the other side, Qing Lian also threw herself into the process of cultivation. After all, among Xiao Yan's group, Qing Lian's cultivation was the weakest. She could currently manage a draw with Little Doctor Fairy by relying on the Tier 3 Sand Python, but once Little Doctor Fairy broke through to Great Master Fighter, the Sand Python, lacking a special bloodline, would likely not last three rounds under her.

As for the affairs within the clan, they were all handled by their respective managers; there was no need to trouble Xiao Yan.

Thus, after wandering around and finding nothing to do, Xiao Yan arrived at the cave dwelling he had previously excavated in the back mountains.

Several years ago, when he still did not know that Yao Lao had dissipated, he had once planned out scenes of training with him and had prepared this cave dwelling for that purpose. Although it ultimately never got used, the furnishings inside were still fully equipped.

This naturally included an alchemy room.

Although the medicinal pills obtained from the Mo Clan were enough for the Xiao Clan to sell for a period of time, Xiao Yan was idle anyway, so he planned to start refining pills first, which would also serve as practice for his alchemy.

Under normal circumstances, for a Tier 4 Alchemist like Xiao Yan, refining Tier 1 or 2 pills provided no benefit, and might even lead to becoming rusty with high-tier alchemy techniques after a long time.

Therefore, Xiao Yan was naturally not refining pills normally at this moment.

In one breath, he took out ten medicine cauldrons bought from Gu Ni, and his surging Dou Qi transformed into green-red dual-colored flames, splitting into ten streams that, while carrying the dozens of medicinal herbs he had taken from his storage ring, were injected into the ten medicine cauldrons respectively.

If anyone else were present, they would discover that the medicinal herbs tumbling within the ten cauldrons and the heat control had significant differences.

Yes, Xiao Yan was not only refining ten batches of pills at once, but they were also different prescriptions, such as Hemostasis Pills for healing, Power-Accumulation Pills for increasing strength, and so on.

Although doing this could greatly increase the efficiency of alchemy, and simultaneously refining ten batches of pills with dozens of materials each was a complexity that did not lose to the refining of a Tier 4 pill—which counted as no small amount of tempering for the current Xiao Yan—unexpectedly, an accident was about to happen soon.

Just as one of the pills with a faster refining speed was about to be finished, the energy within the cauldron suddenly fluctuated and then rapidly expanded. By the time Xiao Yan reacted, it was already too late to save it.

Boom!

An explosion sound accompanied a rise of black smoke; fortunately, Xiao Yan protected the remaining medicine cauldrons in time, so the other nine did not have any problems.

When was the last time a cauldron exploded while refining Tier 1 pills? Xiao Yan mocked himself inwardly, but he did not feel discouraged; after all, one is always unaccustomed to things the first time.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath and continued to throw himself into the refining of the remaining nine medicine cauldrons.

Time flew by. Xiao Yan was, after all, a Tier 4 Alchemist, and he had Yao Lao's alchemy notes in hand; small-scale multi-cauldron alchemy was naturally not a particularly difficult task for him.

Just five days later, Xiao Yan could stably refine ten batches of Tier 1 pills simultaneously.

At the same time, the medicinal herbs for Tier 1 pills that Ya Fei had sent three days ago had also been completely consumed.

Looking at the hundreds of jade bottles filled with pills scattered across the floor, the corners of Xiao Yan's mouth curled slightly, and after stretching, he walked outside, intending to relax properly.

Just as he emerged from the cave dwelling, Xiao Yan saw a green figure rushing toward him; it was none other than Qing Lian!

"Young Master Xiao Yan, you've finally come out!" Seeing Xiao Yan's figure appear at the entrance, joy appeared on Qing Lian's face, and she quickened her pace to run in front of Xiao Yan.

"What is it, Qing Lian? Is there something the matter that you're in such a rush?" Xiao Yan casually pinched Qing Lian's small face and said with a smile.

"It's like this, Young Master. Because the Xiao Clan's market has been selling pills consecutively these past few days, the suppression from the other two clans has collapsed without a fight. Not only that, but we've also snatched away many businesses that originally belonged to the other two clans. Now the heads of both clans can no longer sit still and have already brought people to our Xiao Clan's main hall to cause trouble!" Perhaps because she had just run over, there was a layer of flush on Qing Lian's face, which was quite beautiful.

"So that's how it is. It's fine, let them come. We'll just slaughter them," Xiao Yan said indifferently, as if the heads of the two clans opposite were nothing more than ants on the ground. Compared to the heads of the other two clans, the Qing Lian before him was more worthy of Xiao Yan's attention; her smooth, small face was simply hard to keep his hands off.

"Oh, Young Master!" Little Qing Lian was made somewhat shy by Xiao Yan, but she still remembered the instructions from the Clan Head—that is, Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zhan—before she came: "Young Master, this time it's different from what you thought before. Before I came, the Clan Head told me that today the Wutan City Lord is also coming to the Xiao Clan to personally handle this dispute between the three clans, and he told you to hurry over!"

"The Wutan City Lord?" Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed, and he immediately let out a cold laugh: "Hmph! They joined forces to deal with our Xiao Clan for so long, and I never saw him come to mediate. Now that our Xiao Clan has just fought back for less than five days, he can't sit still? Does he really think our Xiao Clan is made of mud?"

"Exactly! What kind of City Lord? Truly shameless," Qing Lian also said indignantly.

However, Xiao Yan was not truly angry, nor was he even surprised. After all, as the City Lord of Wutan City, joining the other two clans to suppress the Xiao Clan, which showed signs of rising, was perfectly normal. This was something he had long anticipated and was not impossible to understand.

But although he could understand it, that did not mean Xiao Yan had no dissatisfaction in his heart.

With a cold snort, Xiao Yan said to Qing Lian: "Qing Lian, let's go! I want to see what kind of tricks this group of people can pull."

In the Xiao Clan's main hall, where Xiao Yan had been welcomed a few days ago, it was now filled with another group of people.

Seated on the left and right of the head seat of the main hall were two middle-aged men in fine robes. The one on the left was Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zhan.

The one on the right was the key figure of this conflict, the Wutan City Lord—Wu Jin!

As the Wutan City Lord, although Wu Jin had not yet reached the Spirit Master realm, he was a peak Great Martial Master expert. Furthermore, his age was a few years younger than Xiao Zhan's. If nothing unexpected happened, in less than ten years, he would be able to become a noble Spirit Master expert! He would no longer need to worry about the power of the other three great clans in Wutan City and would become a true local emperor.

But just at this time, the Xiao Clan's head, Xiao Zhan, did not know what kind of good fortune he had stumbled upon; not only had his own cultivation advanced a step further, being one star higher than the heads of the other two clans, but the sons he had produced were all geniuses.

His youngest son, Xiao Yan, was the youngest Martial Disciple in Wutan City, and his other two older sons were also said to have reached the Martial Master level of cultivation. (At the time, when Xiao Zhan let it slip, he had said Great Martial Master, but those listening did not believe it, thinking Xiao Zhan had added an extra 'Great' word, so what spread was Martial Master.)

At the thought of this, Wu Jin's originally sunny mood felt as if it had been covered by a layer of dark clouds.

To dispel this layer of dark clouds, Wu Jin instigated the other two clans to start causing trouble for the Xiao Clan. Originally, everything went smoothly, and the Xiao Clan was indeed suppressed to the point of being unable to lift their heads. But for some reason, these past two days, the Xiao Clan suddenly had many pills for sale in the market, instantly poking a huge hole in the half-year blockade.

Seeing that the other two clans were also unwilling to commit without seeing results and had no intention of making further moves, he had no choice but to make this trip himself.

Looking at Xiao Zhan, who was sitting in the upper seat just like him, endless resentment surged in Wu Jin's heart. *Fine, just a six-star Great Dou Shi and you're already putting on airs in front of me! Very well, watch how I deal with you! *

Below the two, the elders of the Xiao Clan and the heads and elders of the Jia Lie and Ao Ba clans were currently spitting fire at each other over this incident.