Cultivation begins with earning spirit stones

Chapter 21 The Classic of Herbal Elixir

After having breakfast, Zhang Lin didn't rush to leave the inn. Instead, he ordered a pot of tea in the lobby and sipped it slowly.

The inn's lobby is one of the most well-informed places in Qingyun Town.

Merchants and monks from all over the country like to rest here and chat for a while.

Zhang Lin sat in the corner, seemingly resting with his eyes closed, but in reality, he was listening to the conversation around him.

"Have you heard? The Black Wind Gang collected protection money from another pharmacy yesterday. The shopkeeper refused to pay and was beaten half to death."

"The Black Wind Society has been running rampant for quite some time now. With Xiong Ye's late-stage Qi Refining cultivation, who dares to mess with him?"

"Sigh, for us small businesses, we can only lose money to avoid further trouble."

"I heard a disciple from a major sect has arrived in town, from the Danxia Sect?"

"I've heard about it too. He's a young man with late-stage Qi Refining cultivation. He has some good medicine. He showed up at the market yesterday."

"What are the disciples of the major sect doing in our small place?"

"Who knows? Maybe they were just passing by."

Zhang Lin listened to all of this conversation without changing his expression. He simply picked up his teacup, gently blew away the foam, and slowly took a sip.

The news has spread.

This is enough.

He sat in the inn for most of the hour, until the sun was high in the sky, before getting up to leave.

He didn't go to the market, but wandered around the town at will, looking at this and asking that, just like a passerby who was idly strolling through the streets.

But in reality, he was observing.

Check if anyone is following you.

Since the Black Wind Society has already set its sights on him, it's impossible that they would only send Liu San alone.

Even if Liu San fails, they will definitely send people again, either to continue tracking him or to find an opportunity to strike.

Zhang Lin wandered around the town for half an hour, then left the town, walked north along the main road for a while, and then turned back, returning to the town by another road.

After walking around, he confirmed one thing: no one was following him.

This surprised him somewhat.

Has Master Xiong given up?

No, it's impossible.

Given Xiong Ye's personality, which allowed him to run rampant in Qingyun Town for five or six years, he wouldn't just let it go after losing one of his subordinates.

The only possibility is that he is waiting.

After Zhang Lin left the territory of Qingyun Town.

Making a move within Qingyun Town's territory would be too drastic. If Zhang Lin were to disappear there, it would inevitably attract a large-scale investigation and cause unnecessary trouble.

But once you leave Qingyun Town and enter the wilderness, things are different.

They killed them without anyone noticing and destroyed the body to cover their tracks. They were just outer disciples, so even if an investigation were conducted, no one would suspect them.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Lin went to Heming Hall.

------

Black Wind Mountain.

When Xiong Ye opened his eyes, it was still dark outside the window.

He was awakened by a sudden heart palpitation.

He hadn't felt this way in a long time.

The last time was six years ago when he fought to the death with that injured level-two demon beast. The beast's venomous fangs grazed his throat, just half an inch away from killing him.

Since then, he has settled down in Black Wind Mountain, gathered a group of outlaws, and gradually secured his position as the number one leader in Qingyun Town within a hundred miles. He has never felt that trepidation again.

until today.

Xiong Ye sat up abruptly, his imposing figure resembling a small mountain in the dimly lit room.

He is forty-seven years old this year, which is not considered young among Qi Refining cultivators, but his strong physique and late-stage Qi Refining cultivation make him an untouchable figure in the Qingyun Town area.

He walked barefoot to the window and pushed open the wooden window.

The birdsong echoed through the mountains, sounding no different from any other day.

But that unease wouldn't go away.

Yesterday, his cousin Xiong Kui and several brothers went missing, and then that Danxia Sect disciple came to Qingyun Town.

Liu San did not return last night.

Liu San was his most capable spy. Although his cultivation level of mid-stage Qi Refining was not high, his lightness skill combined with his concealment techniques meant that no more than three people in Qingyun Town could detect his whereabouts.

Over the years, there hasn't been a single piece of information that Liu San couldn't find out about the fat sheep that the Black Wind Society had its eyes on.

But last night, Liu San went to town and never came back.

Master Xiong sent two men to the town to investigate.

An hour ago, the man he sent out returned, and the news he brought left him silent for a long time.

That Danxia Sect disciple is still alive.

I stayed at the Yunlai Inn in town. There seemed to be some commotion in the inn last night, but the innkeeper dared not say anything.

This morning, the man ate breakfast at the inn as usual, looking perfectly normal, with no visible injuries.

Liu San vanished without a trace.

"Danxia Sect".

As Xiong Ye pondered these three words, his copper bell-like eyes narrowed slightly, a gloomy glint flashing in them.

The disciples of the Grand Sect are indeed not to be trifled with.

The Danxia Sect is one of the nine top-tier Xuanmeng sects, based in Yunmeng Continent, and is renowned throughout the world for its alchemy skills.

Even a mere outer disciple of such a sect is not someone a lowly Black Wind Gang leader like him can afford to offend.

In the past, he would have chosen to withdraw.

The reason why Master Xiong was able to run rampant in Qingyun Town for five or six years without falling was never because of his brute force.

He knew perfectly well who he could mess with and who he couldn't.

He has always kept his distance from three types of people: disciples of major sects, scions of aristocratic families, and independent cultivators with powerful backgrounds.

But this time, it's different.

It wasn't because that Danxia Sect disciple had good medicine.

A hundred-year-old ginseng and a twenty-year-old orchid are indeed rare items, but they are not worth the risk of offending the Danxia Sect.

As for his cousin, he was probably blind and died at that man's hands; he deserved it.

What truly drove him to murder was something else entirely.

Master Xiong turned around and walked to the bedside. He took out a palm-sized wooden box from under the pillow, opened it, and inside lay a jade slip.

The jade slip had a faint bluish glow on its surface, and several tiny characters were engraved on it: "The Hundred Herbs Elixir Classic - Fragment".

He had taken it from a down-on-his-luck rogue cultivator three months ago.

The rogue cultivator claimed to be a discarded disciple of the Danxia Sect, with a cultivation level of only mid-stage Qi Refining, yet he possessed this incomplete copy of the alchemy scripture.

After killing and robbing the treasure, Master Xiong flipped through this alchemical scripture and realized what a treasure he had found.

The "Hundred Herbs Elixir Classic" is a closely guarded secret of the Danxia Sect, recording the cultivation methods for dozens of spiritual herbs.

Even though it's just a fragment, the content it contains is enough to allow a rogue cultivator to make rapid progress in the art of alchemy.

In the past few months, Master Xiong has used the methods in the alchemy manual to improve the quality of several spiritual herbs cultivated by the spiritual spring in Black Wind Mountain by more than one level.

But he also knew that this thing was more of a curse than a blessing.

The Danxia Sect is extremely strict in guarding its inherited cultivation methods, alchemical texts, and pharmacopoeias; any leak of these materials is a capital offense.

If the Danxia Sect were to find out that he possessed a fragment of the "Hundred Herbs Elixir Classic," not only would a mere Qi Refining stage cultivator like him be hunted down by the Danxia Sect, but even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator would find it difficult to escape their pursuit.

Therefore, when Liu San told him that a disciple of the Danxia Sect had come to the town, Xiong Ye's first reaction was not greed, but fear.

Was that person looking for the alchemical text?

Does the Danxia Sect already know?

Once this thought arose, it gnawed at his mind like a venomous snake, day and night.

He sent people to keep an eye on the Danxia Sect disciple, intending to test him.

If the person was just passing by, he would remain still and wait until the person left before resuming his normal activities.

If that person is after the alchemical texts... then we have no choice but to strike first.

But Liu San disappeared last night.