Chapter Forty-Four: Underestimation

  More than an hour later, Kong Fang and Sun Hao, who were sitting in the Flying Cloud Chariot, could already see the mountain gate of Blue Central Gate.

  Lan Zhongmen is built in the valley between two mountains, surrounded by lush green trees, with mountain springs and waterfalls flowing through it. The environment is extremely quiet and peaceful, making it a blessed place. At least it's much better than Qierong, which is filled with the power of fire, and has very little vegetation on its peaks.

  The speed of the airship gradually slowed down, and its flying altitude also decreased. Finally, it landed a few hundred meters away from the gate of Blue Central Mountain.

  Outside the mountain gate, four disciples guarding the gate saw the Xingyun boat land and all let out a slight sigh of relief. One of the disciples walked slowly forward.

  Sun Hao and Kong Fang jumped out of the Silver Cloud Chariot, only to see it quickly shrink in size before being stored away by Sun Hao into his storage ring.

  Kong Fang's heart was slightly moved, this Cloud Chariot not only made traveling convenient but also much safer than traveling on the ground. A cultivator had to be able to fly in the air and reach the Ascension Realm to do so, and those who could reach the Ascension Realm generally knew about the Instrument Sect. With caution in their hearts, they would not easily take action against a disciple of the Instrument Sect. However, it was hard to say for those with lower cultivation levels, as people like that would do anything for treasure or cultivation methods.

  Kong Fang wants to accumulate 10,000 contribution points to exchange for a five-element prism, after which he will inevitably have to do many tasks. Having a mount is indeed more convenient. If he goes to the Lingbao Hall to rent one every time, in the long run, the contribution points spent won't be saved anywhere.

  "Could it be that you two are from the Qigong Sect?" The disciple who had walked up asked.

  Kong Fangzheng was about to speak, but saw Sun Hao take out his soul token from the storage ring and throw it to the guardian disciple. Kong Fang couldn't help but swallow the words that had already reached his throat, and could only take out his own soul token and also throw it to the guardian disciple.

  Looking at Kong Fang's slightly awkward face due to being speechless, Sun Hao twitched the corner of his mouth a few times, suppressing his smile.

  "What a petty-minded senior brother!" Kong Fang was speechless and looked up at the sky. He had teased Sun Hao several times before, but he didn't expect to get his comeuppance now.

  The gatekeeper's disciple carefully examined Kong Fang and Sun Hao's soul symbols, and after confirming their identities, the gatekeeper's disciple completely relaxed.

  "Both of you, follow me." The gatekeeper's disciple returned the soul tokens to Kong Fang and Sun Hao, then turned around to lead the way.

  Kong Fang and Sun Hao followed behind.

  As he entered the mountain gate, Kong Fang keenly discovered that many powerful arrays were arranged around him. The fluctuating power emitted by these arrays made Kong Fang's heart skip a beat. He guessed that if someone rashly broke into the Blue Central Gate from outside the mountain gate, they would be completely destroyed by these arrays without leaving any residue.

  Kong Fang and Sun Hao followed the Guardian Disciple, walking deeper into the Blue Central Gate. Along the way, some of the Blue Central Gate disciples saw Kong Fang and Sun Hao, and couldn't help but stop in their tracks to stare at them curiously.

  Sun Hao walked straight ahead without looking around, while Kong Fang looked around at the surroundings and took in the unique scenery of the Blue Central Gate.

  After more than ten minutes, the gatekeeper led Kong Fang and Sun Hao to a small courtyard.

  "Please wait for a moment." The gatekeeper's disciple said and turned around to enter the small yard.

  After the gatekeeper's apprentice disappeared into the small courtyard, Sun Hao suddenly changed his silence and smiled: "How does my junior brother think this blue central gate looks? I see that he has been watching all the way."

  Kong Fang looked at Sun Hao in surprise and said, "So brother, you can speak after all. I was worried all the way, thinking that brother had suddenly lost his ability to speak. I was just thinking that when we return to Qizong, I would ask the elder for some spiritual medicine to help treat brother's illness." Kong Fang spoke in a serious tone.

  Sun Hao's smile on his face stiffened for a moment, but he soon understood that this was Kong Fang's revenge for deliberately making fun of him outside the mountain gate earlier.

  The two immediately started a verbal fight, but Sun Hao was no match for Kong Fang, who had been tempered by the information explosion of the 21st century. Just as he was about to be defeated, footsteps came from inside the courtyard and helped Sun Hao out of his predicament.

  Kong Fang didn't say another word, but a triumphant smile hung on his face.

  Sun Hao secretly curled his lips and felt a little resentful in his heart.

  Soon, four people walked out of the courtyard. In addition to the gatekeeper who had entered earlier, the other three were an old man with white hair and beard, a young man with narrow eyes and a somewhat cold gaze, and a beautiful young woman wearing a light green dress.

  The young man and woman looked at Kong Fang and Sun Hao with some curiosity, but the young man's eyes still had a hint of scrutiny, which made Kong Fang feel slightly uncomfortable.

  "This old man is Jin Jiu. I suppose you two are the disciples of Qi Zong who have come to receive the task?" The old man stroked his beard and said with a faint smile.

  "I've met Master Jin before. As for being a senior, I really don't dare to claim that title. My name is Sun Hao, and I'm a disciple of Huoyun Hall. This is my junior fellow apprentice Kong Fang." Sun Hao slightly bowed.

  Kong Fang also followed suit and paid his respects. Although they came from a more powerful sect, the other party was after all a senior strong practitioner, and some formalities still had to be observed.

  Jin Jiu smiled and nodded, then introduced the young man and woman beside him to Kong Fang and Sun Hao. However, Kong Fang only remembered that the man's name was Wei Shou, the woman's name was Zhao Binglan, and he completely ignored what the old man said next.

  Sun Hao said: "We have come this time for the task released by your sect, and we hope that Elder Jin will take us to select materials as soon as possible."

  "Alright, you two come with me." Jin Jiu led Sun Hao and Kong Fang back into the small courtyard. The young Wei Shou looked at the backs of Kong Fang and Sun Hao, lowered his voice and said to Zhao Bingxue beside him: "Junior sister, no matter how I look at it, these two don't seem like they can refine a postnatal spiritual treasure. Even an ordinary spiritual treasure seems unlikely for them. They look too young. Do you think they might be intentionally coming to our Blue Central Sect to practice with the materials we provide?"

  Zhao Binglan was taken aback for a moment, then nodded slightly and said: "Brother Shifu is right, last year there was also an inner disciple from the Qizong sect who came to our Blue Central Gate to refine the acquired spiritual treasure, but that person was at least over 30 years old. However, even so, he only managed to refine four low-grade acquired spiritual treasures, two of which were ruined and only reached the level of quasi-spiritual treasure, directly wasting half of our materials."

  "Judging from the appearance of these two, it's highly likely that they're using our materials for practice. Especially that one named Kong Fang, he didn't say a word from start to finish, if not for Sun Hao introducing him as his junior brother, I would have thought he was his follower." Wei Shou's long eyes narrowed slightly, making him look even more sinister.

  "Let's not say more, let's take a look at the past. If their first attempt at refining a weapon was a failure, we'll advise Master Jin to send these two back to Qizong directly. We'd rather wait for others to refine the acquired spiritual treasures than let these two practice with our collected materials." Zhao Binglan wrinkled her nose and snorted coldly.

  "Just listen to Shifu's sister." Wei Shou's expression was somewhat cold.

  Jinjiu easily overheard the conversation between Weishou and Zhao Bingxue, but he didn't interrupt. Over the years, many disciples of the Blue Central Sect's Instrument Refining Division had wasted materials, with those who were skilled in refining instruments only wasting a small portion of their materials, while those who were unskilled wasted more than half of theirs.

  Seeing that the two who came this time were young inner disciples, Jin Jiu was also very suspicious of how much material the two would waste to complete this task. If the wasted materials were too much, Jin Jiu had already made up his mind to send the two back to the Qizong.

  Jinjiu, walking in front, inadvertently glanced at Sun Hao and Kong Fang following closely behind him. Sun Hao's expression was calm, and he hadn't heard Wei Shou and Zhao Bingxue's words at all. What made Jinjiu somewhat surprised was that the other person had slightly furrowed his brow, with a hint of displeasure on his face.

  "This man is Sun Hao's junior brother. If Sun Hao didn't hear what Lan Er and the others said, how could he have heard it?" Jin Jiu felt a wave of astonishment in his heart.