Chapter 315: The Yun Clan

"Do you know the countermeasures against the Hundred Li Talisman?" Long Xuan asked again.

He had to ask this question clearly; he needed to know whether the Teng Family possessed any means to counter the Hundred Li Talisman.

If, after investigation, the Teng Family had no way to counter the Hundred Li Talisman, then he could go to the Teng Family with complete confidence and boldness.

Yun Shuiyao explained patiently: "The principle behind the Hundred Li Talisman's ability to instantly teleport one hundred li is that it borrows Space Power."

"Any means capable of restraining space can render the Hundred Li Talisman ineffective."

"It can also be said that any method capable of disabling a Teleportation Array or a Rain Gu can also disable a Teleportation Talisman."

"You need not worry at all that your future enemies possess means to counter the Hundred Li Talisman."

"Even if they truly do, they may not be able to deploy them in time."

"The method for creating the Hundred Li Talisman has been lost for who knows how many tens of thousands of years; this incomplete Hundred Li Talisman is the only one remaining."

"The vast majority of people do not even know that something like the Hundred Li Talisman exists in this world."

"Unless your opponent can foresee the future, it is absolutely impossible for them to prepare means to restrain space in advance to restrict you."

Hearing this, Long Xuan felt even more confident about his journey to the Teng Family and added: "I suppose for such a Heaven-defying Talisman, you would only accept trade in kind, correct?"

"Speak! What do you want!"

Yun Shuiyao smiled immediately and said: "That's right; for such a priceless treasure, I certainly would not accept exchanging it for a pile of useless stones."

"Since Senior just now took a fancy to the Devil Swallowing Cauldron, Senior must be a Third Grade Alchemist."

"I wish to request that Senior act on behalf of my Yun Clan to refine a Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill; I wonder if you possess the Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formula?"

"And whether you possess the capability to refine a Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill," Yun Shuiyao said frankly, looking into his eyes.

Pills that can be used to break through to Gu King are, in any place, over a hundred times scarcer than Spirit Sea Peak Gu Cultivators; even though the Yun Clan is wealthy and powerful, they are not something one can simply buy whenever desired.

Therefore, although the Treasure Listening Pavilion seems to have every kind of treasure, it truly does not have any Third Grade Realm-Mirror Pills, so she could only invite someone to refine them.

Hearing this, Long Xuan finally understood this woman's background.

Since he had arrived on Tianxing Island, he certainly intended to investigate the forces on the island clearly.

From what he knew, this medium-sized island hosted many Gu Cultivator families, among which there were five Great Clans, yet the Yun Clan stood alone as the dominant power, capable of opposing the other four families by itself.

Consequently, nearly all successive Island Masters of Tianxing Island have come from the Yun Clan.

This woman must be an important figure within the Yun Clan.

On the island, he had heard passersby discussing that a few months ago, the island suffered a Beast Tide; massive numbers of Amphibious Sea Beasts climbed onto the island, causing heavy losses to all the major families on the island.

Presumably, the Yun Clan lost quite a few Gu Kings during this Beast Tide; the number of Gu Kings has become severely insufficient, even to the point of being unable to maintain the Yun Clan's status on the island.

Therefore, they urgently need to find a Third Grade Alchemist to refine Realm-Breaking Pills to immediately replenish the number of Gu Kings within the clan.

Long Xuan pondered for a moment, then added: "Judging by your words, does your Yun Clan not possess the Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formula?"

Yun Shuiyao smiled bitterly and said: "If every faction possessed the Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formula, the number of Gu Kings in this world would already be everywhere under the heavens."

"Moreover, my Yun Clan is merely the dominant power on a single medium-sized island; compared to the forces on those large islands, we are by no means a Great Clan, and viewed across the entire world, we are even less worth mentioning."

"My clan actually did possess the Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formula ten years ago, but one of the materials went extinct ten years ago, rendering that formula completely unusable."

Hearing this, Long Xuan suddenly realized; he himself possessed many Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formulas, such as the Long Clan's Xuan Long Pill Formula, and the King-Breaking Pill Formula he had learned from the Cold Clan.

During his many years as a Gu Cultivator, he had encountered too many opportunities, picked up too many Storage Bags, and even unearthed several Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formulas.

When he later created his own Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill, these formulas would all serve as valuable experience.

With so many Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formulas in his possession, if not for Yun Shuiyao's reminder, he would have subconsciously assumed that Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill Formulas were very common.

"I naturally possess the Third Grade Realm-Mirror Pill Formula and fully have the skill to refine it."

"However, you must provide the materials listed on the formula yourselves."

"Let me state clearly in advance: my Third Grade Pill Formula is a unique formula; some of the materials on it are special and require a large quantity of Thunder Attribute Spirit Insects as a medicinal guide. Therefore, this pill is named the Thunder Roar Pill," Long Xuan said solemnly.

His little scheme was not hard to guess; clearly, he intended to borrow the hands of the Yun Clan, the local power, to rapidly collect the materials listed on the Calamity Gu Formula for him.

As the number one power on Tianxing Island, and with extensive connections across the surrounding major islands, the Yun Clan naturally possessed the strength to rapidly collect the Calamity Gu Formula materials for him.

He was indeed willing to be lazy; with such a faction collecting materials for him, he only needed to sit still and enjoy the ready-made results, saving both time and effort.

"Providing the materials ourselves is proper; may I first see what materials need to be collected so that my Yun Clan can prepare as early as possible?"

Hearing this Third Grade Alchemist agree to refine the pill, Yun Shuiyao felt a surge of joy in her heart, though her facial expression remained completely unchanged.

Long Xuan was not polite in the slightest and directly handed her a thick book.

Looking at such a thick book, Yun Shuiyao was stunned; what kind of pill formula could possibly be this thick?

Curiously, she took the book and flipped through it at the fastest speed, unable to stop the corner of her mouth from twitching slightly.

Good heavens, the materials in this book were almost entirely various types of Thunder Attribute Spirit Insects.

How could a single pill formula require so many Spirit Insects?

It is true that Spirit Insects can serve as medicinal guides, but for nearly all the materials on a pill formula to be Spirit Insects is simply nonsense.

At this moment, how could she not see that this person's request for the Yun Clan to collect pill formula materials was false, and that his true intention was to borrow the Yun Clan's hands to collect Gu Formula materials for him?

Yun Shuiyao took a deep breath, but ultimately did not expose him.

She did not care what things this Third Grade Alchemist wanted; as long as this Third Grade Alchemist could truly refine a Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pill for the Yun Clan, even if he used metal materials to refine pills, she would believe him.

"The materials on this pill formula are very rare; many are not available on the island, so we will need to conduct trades with other Merchant Associations."

"We will need a certain amount of time to collect all the materials on the pill formula."

"Why not first move to my Yun Clan to be a guest for a while?" Yun Shuiyao invited warmly.

"Then lead the way!" Long Xuan nodded, accepting her invitation.

The Yun Family residence.

In the conference room, a group of elderly men with graying hair sat together, their faces filled with worry.

"How is the Ancestor's condition? How much longer can he hold on?" an old man asked worriedly.

"His injuries will allow him to last at most another year," an old woman said with a grim expression. "He is the last Gu King of our Yun Clan. Once this final Gu King is gone, I need not tell you what fate awaits the Yun Clan; you can all guess."

"We must devise a countermeasure; a Yun Clan without a Gu King cannot possibly maintain its status on Tianxing Island."

"Whether we should leave or stay, and where we might settle after departing—do any of you have good suggestions?"

"Hmph!" An elder with a fierce expression slammed his hand heavily on the table and shouted in anger, "Leave my foot! Do you truly believe those four families would let us depart freely?"

"When the Beast Tide occurred a few months ago, the Gu Kings of those four families pretended to die in the tide, forcing us alone to bear the brunt of every sea beast, which resulted in nearly all of our Yun Clan's Gu Kings perishing."

"Just as we managed with great difficulty to repel the Beast Tide, those Gu Kings from the four families who had supposedly died in the tide miraculously came back to life."

"Even a fool knows they were employing deceit; their goal was to use the power of the Beast Tide to severely wound our Yun Clan so they could carve up our territory on Tianxing Island."

"Since this feud has already been established, how could they not root us out completely to prevent us from ever rising again?"

"The reason they have not made a move yet is that they fear our Yun Clan's last Ancestor."

"A Gu King Peak cultivator's death throes would make it easy to take at least one of their Gu Kings down with him."

"They only wish to drag out our last Gu King until he dies, so that in one year they can occupy our Yun Clan's territory without suffering any losses themselves."

"What a clever scheme."

"If we have no other means, whether we leave or stay, the Yun Clan faces certain death."

The atmosphere in the room instantly grew heavy, and everyone's face turned gloomy.

"Are we simply to sit and wait for death? At worst, while our Gu King is still alive, we fight them to the end."

"If we fight, we might at least inflict heavy damage on them; if we do not fight, we will only be giving ourselves away for nothing!" a young man suddenly shouted in anger.

"Family Head, do not act rashly!" the old woman hurriedly spoke up to stop him. "Doing so would be no different than smashing an egg against a rock."

"The Beast Tide caused us to lose far more than just our Gu King strength; more than half of our low-rank Gu Cultivators were also lost in that tide."

"Meanwhile, the strength of the other four families remains largely intact; where would we find the capacity to severely wound them?"

The old woman sighed inwardly; this Beast Tide had caused truly catastrophic losses for the Yun Clan, claiming even the lives of the Family Head and his wife in this calamity.

They had no choice but to force the issue, promoting the Family Head's youngest son to succeed as the next Family Head.

But now it seemed this young Family Head was impetuous and hot-blooded, acting impulsively without considering consequences; he would likely prove unequal to the great task.

Handing the position of Family Head over to him, one could not tell whether it would bring fortune or disaster.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, she retrieved a Communication Talisman from her Storage Bag; upon seeing the content upon the talisman, her brows immediately relaxed, and a look of ecstatic joy appeared on her face.

"Our Yun Clan is saved! That child Shui Yao has somehow picked up a Third Grade Alchemist from who knows where."

"This Alchemist possesses the ability to refine Third Grade Realm-Breaking Pills; we must all go out immediately to welcome them."

The old woman immediately stood up and ran excitedly toward the outside.

"What? Are these words true?" Everyone in the room was now greatly shocked; they all stood up, faces filled with ecstatic joy.

Many among them had already reached the bottleneck of Spirit Sea Peak and needed only a few Realm-Breaking Pills to break through to become Gu Kings.

As long as this Third Grade Alchemist's Alchemy skills are at a normal level, it would be sufficient for our Yun Clan to produce many new Gu Kings within a year.

What we currently lack are Gu Kings; as long as the number of Gu Kings is sufficient, every crisis can be resolved effortlessly.

"This Third Grade Alchemist has arrived like timely rain; now the Yun Clan is saved. Let us all hasten out to welcome them, receiving this great figure with the highest ceremonial rites, and be sure not to show any neglect."

Sweeping away their previous worries, the high echelons of the Yun Clan filed out of the meeting hall, vanishing completely in the blink of an eye.

(End of Chapter)