Chapter 260

Xia Daoming took the storage bags and magic tools, waved his hand at the three, stepped onto the flying boat, and broke through the air.

With his current cultivation and status, he naturally disdained to settle old scores with the three, but he wasn't generous enough to reward them with the storage bags and magic tools either.

The three watched the flying boat quickly disappear into the horizon, their moods complicated.

Mo Rujun, in particular, was filled with regret.

However, today Xia Daoming not only saved their lives but also didn't say anything afterward, clearly no longer intending to pursue past matters, which made them breathe a sigh of relief.

The flying boat had been upgraded to a more advanced one, and its speed was extremely fast.

Less than a day later.

Xia Daoming arrived at Red Flame Peak.

At this time, Red Flame Peak was no longer as withered and desolate as it had been two years ago.

Now, Red Flame Peak was shrouded in immortal mist.

Trapezoidal spirit fields extended from the bottom of the mountain to the mountainside.

Swathes of spirit rice were planted on them.

As the breeze blew, golden waves rose and fell, like a golden ocean.

From the mountainside upward, one could see patches of herb gardens distributed among the lush trees.

As the breeze blew, wafts of spirit herb fragrance drifted over.

Within a radius of more than ten miles around Red Flame Peak, mountain peaks stood tall, and the valleys and flat lands between the mountains, as well as the mountain peaks themselves, were all covered with spirit fields and herb gardens.

From time to time, people could be seen shuttling back and forth, busy between the spirit fields and herb gardens.

Looking at it, it was a scene of vitality, harvest, and busyness.

Flying down to the summit of Red Flame Peak, Xia Daoming headed straight for the Alchemy Hall.

The Alchemy Hall had eight alchemy rooms.

Each alchemy room was connected to the earth fire, and an alchemy furnace was placed on top.

Xia Daoming arrived at Alchemy Room No. 1.

In the alchemy room, Shang Rui was closing her eyes and resting, while a tiger-headed, brainy-looking alchemy boy was tending to the furnace fire.

Seeing Xia Daoming enter, the alchemy boy hurriedly stood up and saluted, saying, "Yuchi Dong pays respects to Xu Shixiong Uncle."

"You've grown taller again, not bad! Not bad!" Xia Daoming touched Yuchi Dong's head, looking delighted.

This Yuchi Dong was none other than the youngest son of Xu Shixiong Yuchi Xiao.

Among Yuchi Xiao's many children, only this one had some talent for cultivation.

This time, when Shang Rui and Ji Wenyue returned to Li Cheng, they discovered that he also had some talent for alchemy.

Ji Wenyue knew that Xia Daoming had deep feelings for the senior brothers in the martial arts hall, so she brought him to the Qingyuan Sect.

Xia Daoming was indeed extremely mindful of his old fellow-disciple feelings; after the descendants of his former senior brothers came to the Qingyuan Sect, he treated them as his own, taking great care of them and cultivating them vigorously.

Like Yuchi Dong, even if his talent had been a lot higher, it would have been impossible for him to catch Shang Rui's eye.

But because Xia Daoming insisted on stuffing people to her, she had no choice but to accept him and teach him carefully.

"It is all thanks to the cultivation of Xu Shixiong Aunt Rui and Xu Shixiong Uncle that this disciple has grown so fast," Yuchi Dong said in a muffled voice.

"Haha, you kid have grown up to be as tiger-headed as your father, but this mouth is much better at talking than your father's," Xia Daoming said with a smile, touching his head again, then waved his hand and said, "Go tend to the furnace fire; your Xu Shixiong Aunt and I have some things to discuss."

"What is it?" Shang Rui slowly opened her eyes, her expression indifferent.

Xia Daoming casually set up a sound-insulation spell.

Seeing this, Shang Rui's expression became grave.

"A few days ago, I went to the Ancient Desolate Ruins of the Dragon Fish Sea and accidentally hunted about a hundred third-rank high-tier and top-tier demon beasts," Xia Daoming said casually.

"Third-rank high-tier and top-tier demon beasts—you actually hunted a hundred of them, and it was an accident!" Upon hearing this, Shang Rui's eyes widened instantly.

"Yes, and then I hunted a few fourth-level dragon fish demons along the way," Xia Daoming continued, still looking casual.

"Fo... fourth-level dragon fish demons! You hunted fourth-level dragon fish demons, and several of them?" Upon hearing this, Shang Rui couldn't help but shudder all over, her speech stuttering.

She knew Xia Daoming was very powerful.

But she also thought that Xia Daoming was at most equivalent to an early-stage Jin Dan.

She could barely accept him saying he went to the Ancient Desolate Ruins of the Dragon Fish Sea and hunted a hundred third-rank high-tier and top-tier demon beasts.

As a result, she didn't expect that this brat would pop out with a few fourth-level dragon fish demons.

And even the worst fourth-level dragon fish demon was equivalent to an early-stage Jin Dan.

This meant that to kill a fourth-level dragon fish demon, if one were alone, one would need at least the cultivation strength of a mid-stage Jin Dan.

Thinking that Xia Daoming's strength could actually rival a mid-stage Jin Dan, how could Shang Rui not be shocked?

Of course, the fourth-level dragon fish demons themselves were also extremely precious resources; the mere appearance of one would be enough to shock Shang Rui, let alone several.

"Yes, I hunted seven dragon fish demons without paying attention—four fourth-level early-stage and three fourth-level mid-stage," Xia Daoming said with a smile.

"And, and there are three fourth-level mid-stage ones!" Shang Rui was almost petrified by the shock.

Shang Rui took deep breaths repeatedly, and it took a long while for her to recover.

"And there are quite a few various spirit herbs that are several thousand years old," Xia Daoming added casually.

Shang Rui was shocked again.

"The things are all in these storage rings; demon cores, spirit herbs, and so on—Sister, just take them to practice; if you ruin them, you ruin them, don't worry about it," Xia Daoming said, taking out a bag and handing it to Shang Rui.

This bag contained nine storage rings.

Third-rank and fourth-rank demon beasts were huge in size, and a single storage ring couldn't hold them at all.

Fortunately, Xia Daoming had been mentally prepared long ago and carried more than a dozen storage rings with him, all of which had considerable capacity.

"You, you mean you are handing the demon cores to me to handle?" Shang Rui's heart was shaken again, and she looked at Xia Daoming in disbelief.

To become an alchemist, one not only needs alchemy talent but also needs to frequently use various medicinal herbs to practice.

This also meant that to cultivate an alchemist, one needs to waste a lot of medicinal herbs at the beginning.

And to cultivate a high-level alchemist, the waste of medicinal herbs is even more terrifying; if it weren't a large sect, they wouldn't be able to afford to cultivate one.

Like Shang Rui, although she is now a third-rank alchemist, she rarely attempts to refine third-rank spiritual pills.

Because that level of spirit herbs is not only hard to find but also expensive, and she can't afford to waste them.

As for demon cores, Shang Rui didn't even dare to think about them.

This level of alchemy material is incomparably expensive; who would be willing to hand it over to a newly promoted third-rank alchemist to refine spiritual pills?

This also meant that if it weren't for Xia Daoming, Shang Rui might never have been able to come into contact with this level of alchemy material in her life, and thus would have been unable to explore higher alchemy realms.

"If I don't hand them to Sister, who else can I hand them to?" Xia Daoming said with a smile.

"Don't worry, I will handle them very carefully," Shang Rui said, unable to hide her excitement.

"By the way, please also work hard to handle the flesh and blood of the demon beasts, Sister," Xia Daoming said.

"With the help of the earth fire, handling the flesh and blood of demon beasts is much easier; it doesn't count as hard work," Shang Rui said, rarely showing a smile.

"Then I will trouble you, Sister; I am leaving," Xia Daoming cupped his hands and left Alchemy Room No. 1.

——

In the days that followed, Xia Daoming lived very comfortably.

On Shang Rui's side, she would have someone send over processed beast meat every few days.

Xia Daoming ate a large amount of beast meat containing powerful blood-energy energy every day. After refining, this flesh and blood turned into pure blood energy, which rushed along the twelve regular meridians like a river into the boundless blood sea.

The blood sea became increasingly surging.

Xia Daoming could feel his strength growing every day; this feeling was very good, and life had a lot to look forward to.

After some days passed like this.

One day, Xia Daoming inadvertently learned that because fourth-level demon beasts were running rampant everywhere, the Ancient Desolate Ruins of the Dragon Fish Sea were no longer suitable for Foundation Establishment cultivators to enter to seek opportunities, and had been jointly closed by the Changhe Sect and the Xuedao Sect, forbidding anyone from entering.

As for when it would reopen, it would depend on the duration of this wave of fourth-level demon beast riots.

After Xia Daoming learned this news, he was stunned for a long while.

——

There is no time in cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, ten years passed.

During these ten years, Xia Daoming kept a low profile, hiding away and focusing on eating beast meat and other spirit herbs and spiritual pills to strengthen his blood sea.

Because of that trip to the Dragon Fish Sea, his harvest was very astonishing, and he was no longer short of cultivation resources.

Not only was he not short of them, but all the disciples of Red Flame Peak were not short of them either.

So in just ten years, the three of his couple, his righteous sister Lan Xue, and his niece Lu Ziying had all safely reached mid-stage Foundation Establishment.

Mo Yongzhi and Wan Yan had already entered late-stage Foundation Establishment, and Shao Shiyu was only a little short of Foundation Establishment perfection.

Except for these three, most of the Qi Refinement cultivators who had come to join him in the early years had already reached Foundation Establishment.

Meng Manyun, who had originally thought he had no hope of Foundation Establishment, succeeded in Foundation Establishment two years ago under Xia Daoming's special care, which made many outer sect disciples envious for a time.

Now, many inner and outer sect disciples of the Qingyuan Sect knew that the true disciple Xia Daoming was extremely generous to his own people, sparing no expense to cultivate them, and was someone worth relying on.

It was just a pity that Red Flame Peak had said eight years ago that it was already full and was unwilling to recruit new people.

No matter how those inner and outer sect disciples begged or pulled strings, it was useless.

This day.

Qingyuan Main Peak, Discussion Hall.

Sect Master Yue Huang sat high on the Sect Master's throne, with more than twenty Jin Dan Elders sitting below.

Zuo Dongge was also present.

In the past, he never attended discussions, but ever since he took Xia Daoming as his disciple, his style had changed.

He began to care about sect matters.

"Why did the trip to the Nieyan Ancient Desolate Ruins only give us four spots? According to precedent, shouldn't it be eight?" Luo Qian said with a gloomy face.

With eight spots, his daughter Luo Mu could still compete for one; with four spots, his daughter's hope was very small.

"The spots were set by the Xuantian Pavilion; what can we do about it!" Yue Huang said with a depressed and helpless face.

"What about the Changhe Sect and the Xingyue Sect?" Luo Qian asked.

"Eight," Yue Huang replied.

Everyone was silent.

An indescribable atmosphere of oppression and indignation swirled in the hall.

"The cultivation world is inherently about the strong preying on the weak; everything must still be spoken of with strength," Yue Huang said with a heavy face after a long time.

"Back then, if my Master and I hadn't known we were being plotted against but still resisted the demon invasion to the death, waiting for reinforcements, I fear many places in the Great Xuan Kingdom would have been plunged into misery.

In that battle, my Master passed away, and I was seriously injured. Now, the Qingyuan Sect only has one Nascent Soul Supreme Elder left in service. It has been less than two hundred years, and the Xuantian Pavilion has already begun to forget this matter; are they not afraid of chilling the hearts of those below?"

Zuo Dongge's face was cold, and his eyes revealed an indescribable anger and sorrow.

Everyone was silent again.

"It is a pity that Xu Shixiong Zuo was injured too heavily, otherwise the Xuantian Pavilion would not have treated us differently from the other two sects today," Xiao Hongyi said in a deep voice.

(End of chapter)