Chapter 76: Returning to the Mysterious Mechanism

  Taking advantage of the Tuan Di Dan, Su Che successfully captured the second cultivator in the Qi Refining stage. The Tuan Di Dan had rendered great service once again, and Su Che rewarded Luo Lianqiao with twenty Ling Stones as a prize.

  In the prison, other prisoners learned about this news. They were envious of Luo Lianqiao and also jealous. Unfortunately, they didn't know how to refine elixirs and couldn't produce something as excellent as the Escaping Earth Elixir.

  However, through this point, the prisoner also knew that even if his personal freedom was restricted, in this prison, as long as he made contributions, he could still continue on the path of cultivation. That unseen warden was indeed fair and just in rewards and punishments, not as black-hearted as previously thought.

  Especially Luo Lianqiao, who was quite satisfied with the double reward. After all, the materials needed for alchemy were provided by Warden, and he was just a craftsman, so it was already pretty good to get so many spirit stones. It's worth noting that even during the Tianlu Peak, the inner door disciples who successfully refined the Earth Escape Pill only received rewards at this level.

  "In the Xianyu, Laohei counted the contents of 'Zhengyuan's' Qiankun bag and reported to Su Che: "Master, we've obtained 500 spirit stones, a top-grade flying sword, two mid-grade defensive artifacts, as well as various talismans and elixirs... roughly calculated, their total value is around 2800 spirit stones."

  A harvest of 2,800 spiritual stones. After deducting the one top-grade spiritual symbol and two Earth Escape Pills consumed by Su Che, it's still a pretty good profit.

  However, Su Che secretly despised: "As an inner door disciple, he only has this little wealth. It seems that this 'Zheng Jun' is not doing well."

  Contempt breeds contempt, and Su Che also understood that even among inner disciples, the competitive landscape was extremely severe. Generally speaking, every resource obtained by a cultivator would be immediately used for their own cultivation, making it unlikely to have many leftovers. Unless one was like himself, with the secret medicine garden and the numerous specialties of the Yin Wind Gorge, having gained enormous opportunities several times in a row, they wouldn't possess such immense wealth at the Qi Refining stage.

  Next, Lao Hei will wake up Zheng Jun who is unconscious and interrogate him; Su Che will continue on his journey.

  Just as they were about to arrive at Xuanji City, the interrogation came to an end, and the basic situation had been clarified.

  "Master, the thing is like this." Old Hei reported: "At first, you entered the Lingcao Medicine Garden of Xuánjī Peak through Yuqing's recommendation, but unexpectedly, you took the position of medicine garden manager that someone else should have gotten. The unlucky guy who was replaced is Zheng Jun."

  "Oh?" Su Che continued to think: "So, this means that Zheng Jun's ambush on me halfway, also has something to do with Chen Zongguan from the first floor of Yao Garden, right?"

  Su Che remembered very clearly that when he first went to report to Director Chen, the old man had wanted to make things difficult for him. Later, because he had saved the Flowing Cloud Golden Basin, Director Chen's attitude towards him had changed greatly, and every time they met, he was all smiles...

  "Yes, master." Old Black replied: "The one who is behind this matter is Chen the steward, that old thing. He envies your skill in curing the spiritual grass and also has a great interest in your rapid progress from practicing Qi to practicing Qi three layers in just four months. So after finding out about your whereabouts, he arranged for Zheng Zhong to ambush you on the road, wanting to capture you alive."

  Su Che asked: "Then what is the relationship between General Manager Chen and this Zheng Jun?"

  "Uncle and nephew."

  "Is it a blood relationship again?" Su Che furrowed his brow: "How does the Tian Xuan Sect always come up with family or blood backgrounds?"

  "This is normal." Old Hei smiled and replied, "I learned from a classic book that within a range of tens of thousands of miles, there are at least over a thousand immortal families attached to the Tianxuan Sect. Every year, they would send a large number of family juniors to the Tianxuan Sect. Over time, countless small groups with family backgrounds were established within the Tianxuan Sect."

  "It's actually like this......" Su Che thought to himself: "So, if we capture Zheng Zhong, not only will we have a complete falling out with Director Chen, but it'll also implicate their entire Chen family?"

  "Yes, pulling out the radish brings out the mud, it's inevitable." Old Hei replied in a low voice.

  "What a hassle!"

  Su Che muttered to himself, but it was also helpless. Because, he had already been found by Zheng Jun on his own head, and no matter how he was dealt with, he would eventually offend the entire Chen family. The only thing he didn't know was how strong the Chen family was in Tianxuan Sect.

  Lao Hei took the initiative to respond: "In the Tianxuan Sect, the highest position in the Chen family is two Golden Dan stage elders. Further down, there are more than a dozen foundation-building cultivators like Chen Zongguan. The overall strength of the entire family is only considered mid-sized in the cultivation world."

  "Even if it's just a medium-sized family, for oneself, it's an unstoppable behemoth." Su Che couldn't help but secretly feel a headache: "After all, I'm just a lone wolf with limited power."

  Lao Hei said with a half-serious and half-joking tone, "Master, don't forget that your identity as 'Su Che' also has a cultivation family backing you up."

  "Su family?" Su Che shook his head: "That's a declining small family, I don't want to implicate them."

  Su Che's borrowing of a corpse to return his soul was also known to Lao Hei, because any thoughts in Su Che's mind would not be hidden from Lao Hei.

  Lao Hei reminded him, "However, Master, don't forget that you are the most promising young master of the Su family in this generation. In the future, if you achieve something, they will definitely find you and ask you to revive the family."

  "We'll talk about it later!"

  Su Che accelerated his footsteps, passing by Xuanji City without entering, and rushed straight to the Tianxuan Sect's mountain gate.

  Mystic Peak

  Back at Xuanji Peak, Su Che first went to Lei Xiao's place.

  "What?"

  As soon as he saw Su Che, Lei Xiao's eyes widened in surprise, his face full of incredulity: "Am I seeing things? You seem to have... reached the third layer of Qi training?"

  Su Che nodded and smiled, without explaining anything.

  Two months ago, Su Che left Lingcao Medicine Garden and went to Yinfeng Gorge for training. At that time, he was already at the peak of the third layer of Qi cultivation, but he didn't come to see Lei Xiao, so he didn't know about it yet.

  "In the Xian prison, Old Black Thief laughed and said: 'It's not just the third layer of Qi cultivation, it will soon be the fifth layer. Once Master reveals his true cultivation, he will surely shock many people to the point of shitting and pissing at the same time.'"

  "Really has he reached the third layer of Qi?" Lei Xiao asked again, his tone laced with incredulity. To think that up till now, he was still at the second layer, Su Che's rapid progress was undoubtedly a huge stimulus to him.

  It wasn't long ago that Su Che was just a new junior brother who had just entered the sect, and in less than half a year, he suddenly jumped to the third layer of Qi Refining?

  As for his true cultivation, Su Che didn't want to deceive Lei Xiao, nor did he want to confess the truth, so he changed the subject and said: "The two Silver Whisker Grasses that were originally agreed upon, I have already brought them. One is 500 years old in medicinal age, and one is 800 years old in medicinal age. Has your family's Earth Spirit Pill been prepared?"

  The transaction with the Lei family's spiritual grass has long passed the agreed date, but because Su Che was practicing in the Valley of the Wind and forgot about it, it was delayed until today.

  "I've been ready for a long time."

  Lei Xiao's eyes widened as he carefully examined Su Che, feeling that his cultivation progress was too exaggerated. However, he replied, "A week ago, I went to the Lingcao Medicine Garden looking for you and found out that you had gone out for training. Brother, tell me, what kind of good fortune did you encounter outside that made your cultivation surge to this extent?"

  "It's just a blessing from the elders of the family, and besides, it's only an upgrade in the Qi training stage, nothing to be proud of." Su Che lightly shook his head, still unwilling to explain further, and immediately threw out the two silver-whiskered grasses, shifting Lei Xiao's line of sight.

  Bang! Bang!

  Two stalks of spiritual grass were thrown to the ground by Su Che, which frightened Lei Xiao into shouting: "Ahh, such a treasure, how can you treat it like this?!"

  These two silver whisker grasses, still with large clumps of mud, can continue to grow for hundreds of years if transplanted in time... perhaps only Su Che could produce such fresh goods.

  After Lei Xiao carefully collected the spiritual grass, Su Che said: "Hand over the Earth Spirit Dan as soon as possible. Because of my reason, the transaction time has been delayed and the family elders are already blaming me. At that time, we agreed on 90 Earth Spirit Dans, you can give me 85."

  Another five, naturally, was given to Lei Xiao as a benefit fee.

  "No problem!" Lei laughed and said: "I suddenly earned five Earth Spirit Pills, I really benefited from following you."

  "It's only right that we two brothers do things together and make a profit. Su Che said sincerely: "In the entire Xuanji Peak, you are my only good brother."

  "En, en." Lei Xiao nodded vigorously: "I'll go to the elder's place right now and get the Diligent Spirit Dan. You can have it by tonight."

  Su Che nodded and asked: "Two days later, I and Song Baozi of Tianwu Peak will have a duel at the Competition Peak. You don't know about this yet, do you?"

  Unexpectedly, Lei Xiao nodded and said: "How could I not know? A month ago, Tianwu Peak's Zhen Yan began to spread the word everywhere, saying that she wanted to make Yu Qing Shixiong lose face greatly. I estimate that at that time, there will be many people going to watch."

  "Tian Wu Zhen Lan......" Su Che couldn't help but shake his head: "A woman who turns love into hatred is indeed troublesome!"