Chapter 244

He wasn't expelled; it was said he had accepted a task with very high contribution points but great danger, and had entered the Yunling Mountain Range alone a day ago to hunt for treasure.

There was one more thing: the Ten Elites List had removed Lu Ren, and Jiang Fan had entered the list at third place, pushing the original third-place Kong Yu to fourth.

After chatting a bit more with Sun Tao and the others, Xu Yang returned to his room and closed the door:

【Profound Mountain Bear Gang Qi Chapter · Entry Level (1385/2000)】

After four months of Qi Refining to Gang Qi, the progress of the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture was only 1,300; at this rate, he would need nearly three more months of hard cultivation for the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture to reach the Minor Success Realm.

Remembering this progress, he sat on the bed and took out the Origin-Returning Pill, wanting to see how much cultivation one Origin-Returning Pill could provide.

A faint herbal fragrance wafted over, and Xu Yang gazed at the jade-like, translucent pill in his hand.

Compared to the Blood-Coagulating Pills he made by hand, this was a true elixir, refined in a pill furnace and naturally formed; it was incomparable to those hand-rolled ones.

Of course, the price was also different; his Blood-Coagulating Pills had a market price of ten taels each, while the Origin-Returning Pill had a market price of one hundred, but often, even with money, one couldn't buy them.

At the Wanbao Pavilion auction, one sold for nearly two hundred taels.

Such items were often used by large families to win people over, and under normal circumstances, they couldn't be bought at all.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yang swallowed the Origin-Returning Pill in one gulp.

"Bang!"

It felt as if a copper pellet had dropped into his stomach, emitting a muffled sound.

He activated the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture, and the medicinal power erupted into rolling heat, rushing into his limbs and bones; for a moment, Xu Yang felt as if he were breaking through a realm, his cultivation base rising rapidly, his aura growing strong quickly.

An hour later, Xu Yang finished his cultivation.

【Profound Mountain Bear Scripture Gang Qi Chapter · Entry Level (1491/2000)】

"This is the kind of elixir that should be taken at the Gang Qi realm," Xu Yang sighed.

In this one hour, the progress of the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture had actually increased by over one hundred, equaling his past half-month of hard cultivation, and the medicinal power of the Origin-Returning Pill hadn't been fully absorbed yet; much of it was still deposited in his flesh and blood, and it would take several more days to finish absorbing it.

"It is said that the Profound Origin Qi-Transforming Pill has even more potent effects than the Origin-Returning Pill, and its conversion is more direct; one can absorb its medicinal power in a single day."

It was just a pity that the Zhu family didn't have a share of the Profound Origin Qi-Transforming Pills, only the Origin-Returning Pills.

"Cultivating for this month, and getting another Origin-Returning Pill from the Zhu family next month, I will be able to reach Minor Success in Gang Qi."

That meant in about a month's time, he could reach Minor Success in Gang Qi.

After resting for a while, he practiced the Diamond Body Technique for another hour before going to bed.

The next day, the first thing he did upon opening his eyes was to look at the panel:

【Cooperate with the Zhu family, points +10】

【Behead Kong Yu, points +5】

【Martial Dao Longevity Points: 30】

"It seems choosing the Zhu family was not wrong."

Cooperating with the Zhu family had earned him a reward from the panel, meaning this cooperation was beneficial to his Martial Dao Longevity; the reward given by the panel was even more than the points given for beheading his genius enemy, Kong Yu.

Using one point to increase his lifespan and saving the rest, Xu Yang sat up from the bed and began to cultivate the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture; after dawn, he swallowed an Eight-Treasure Body-Strengthening Pill and rushed to the Fire Peak, successfully meeting Gao Lin.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Gao." Xu Yang cupped his hands.

Gao Lin didn't ask why Xu Yang had only just arrived, nodding with a smile: "You are no longer a novice, go do your work."

Xu Yang turned and left, soon arriving at the place for refining black iron.

At this moment, the furnace had just been lit, the raw black iron ore hadn't been burned red yet, and a group of outer disciples who had come to do the task were still idle.

Xu Yang saw several familiar faces; there were people who had refined black iron here last time, Chen Chao was notably among them, and he also saw Yun Feng and Hu Fengyi, while the others he did not recognize.

However, the number of people was even higher than last time; it seemed every forging station had an owner.

"Haha... Junior Brother Xu, you finally arrived." Chen Chao walked over with a smile.

Xu Yang cupped his hands: "Greetings, Senior Brother Chen."

Immediately after, he asked the doubt in his heart: "Senior Brother Chen, why are there so many people this time?"

The black iron refining task had high contribution points, but at the same time, it was a bitter and tiring job; one had to swing a seventy or eighty-jin hammer for an entire day, and even a Gang Qi expert would be exhausted by the end of the day; most people would rather do tasks with lower contribution points than come to do this one.

Chen Chao was stunned, lowering his voice: "You don't know? It is said that this black iron refining is related to a selection, so many people came; many people spent money and still didn't get this task. How did you get it?"

A selection?

Spending money to get a task?

Xu Yang was also stunned: "My task was assigned by Senior Brother Gao; does Senior Brother Chen know what kind of selection it is?"

Chen Chao suddenly realized that Xu Yang had truly caught Gao Lin's eye, saying: "I don't know what it is either, I just heard them say so."

He gestured to Xu Yang toward the few people Xu Yang didn't recognize.

Chen Chao didn't know, and Xu Yang couldn't go and ask those strangers, so he had to let it go.

"They are all competitors, be careful and don't offend anyone." Before leaving, Chen Chao warned him carefully.

People with such inside information were generally the kind not to be trifled with.

Soon the furnace fire was ready, the raw black iron ore was burned red, and Xu Yang picked up the great hammer and began to refine.

"Clang!"

With Gang Qi cultivation plus the Major Success level Mountain-Shaking Hammer, one strike down, impurities splattered with sparks like rain; the refining efficiency was much better than when he was at the Qi Gathering realm.

"Major Success Mountain-Shaking Hammer!"

Those few new faces looked over in shock, while Chen Chao and the others looked unsurprised; one had to know that in the last task, Xu Yang, with Qi Gathering cultivation, had earned contribution points that almost caught up to them, the Gang Qi experts.

Xu Yang didn't care about their gazes, continuing to swing the great hammer and activating the Diamond Body Technique.

The counter-shock force still had some effect on tempering the body, but not as good as when he was at the Qi Gathering realm.

By evening, he had refined the first piece of pure black iron; the refining speed was three times faster than before; previously, it would have taken him three days to refine one piece.

In the following time, Xu Yang's life became regular; during the day he refined black iron at the Fire Peak, in the evening he practiced the Phantom Star Gang Fist and the Blazing Sun Gang Blade in the peach forest, and at night he cultivated the Diamond Body Technique and the Profound Mountain Bear Scripture.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed, and Kong Yu's failure to appear finally attracted the attention of the Chuying Society members; upon investigation, they discovered that not only Kong Yu, but Li Xu and Fang Wei had also gone missing, and had not been seen for many days.

They hurriedly sent people to the Qunying Society to seek help, asking the Qunying Society to help find Kong Yu.

The Qunying Society attached great importance to this, and Shi Yong personally led people down the mountain to Qingyang City to search, but they found nothing.

A day later, the Qunying Society reported the matter to the outer sect deacon, and the sect personally mobilized manpower to search, but they still could not find Kong Yu and the others.

The third-ranked genius of the Ten Elites, Kong Yu, with Grade-C innate talent, had thus disappeared.

This matter caused a huge uproar in the outer sect, but if they couldn't find him, they couldn't find him; even after a bounty was issued, no one knew where the three of them had gone.