Chapter 13 of Volume 1: The Strife Between the Two Houses
"Ugh! I hate eating rice cakes!"
Facing the fiery sunrise, Feng Ruo sat on a huge stone in front of his own bamboo shed, sighing and staring at the small piece of rice cake in his hand, with an expression as if he was going to die for it.
As for this rice cake, Feng Ruo's resentment has been going on for a long time. He dreams of finding a way to replace the rice cake! Unfortunately, until today, he still can't get rid of this rice cake!
Of course, Fang Ruo wasn't without thinking of hunting low-level spiritual beasts and eating their meat, but although the meat was delicious, it didn't have the same effect as rice cakes. For example, when he was exhausted, all he had to do was eat a piece of rice cake and he would immediately recover his vitality.
In contrast, no matter how delicious and mouth-watering the food is, it can't achieve this point. Not only are those delicious foods difficult to make and inconvenient to carry, but if you accidentally eat too much, your stomach will be affected instead.
From all aspects, although Fang Rong is unwilling to admit it, this terrible rice cake is indeed the best choice. If there wasn't this thing, all Qi Refining stage cultivators would probably have headaches!
"Alas! Indeed, as long as it exists, there must be a reason for it!" Feng Ruo sighed and closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and with great determination swallowed the rice cake.
After enjoying the daily must-have rice cake, Feng Ru went to the Xiangling Rice Field again and took a turn. Now that the task of feeding the nine Snow Spirit Silkworms is done, this Xiangling Rice Field absolutely cannot be lost, after all, it's related to whether or not one can fill their belly!
Those nine snow silkworms transformed cocoons are still in the Ling Sang Forest, because those cocoons are really too big, Feng Ruo's Qian Kun bag can only hold one, which makes his previous plan a bit worse. The space where the Mu Ling Stone is located can also only barely squeeze in one cocoon, so he can only work harder himself.
However, Fang Ruo can't immediately go to the secret place in Dong Feng to cultivate because Kong Fei and others have been back for a while, he naturally has to go ask for the reward of that low-grade five-element stone.
Fortunately, Kong Fei returned in time. Otherwise, if the nine Snow Spirit Silkworms were forced to pupate, Feng Ruo would be in big trouble!
Apart from asking for that one low-grade Five Elements Stone, Feng Ruo also wanted to take this opportunity to make a deal with the cunning merchant Qu Yun. That is, he hoped to sell him several low-level spiritual beast corpses, because Qingyun Sect did not have a dedicated market, and Feng Ruo could only sell them at a low price to others.
If this plan goes through, then from now on, Fēng Ruò will be able to obtain the Five Elements Stones endlessly.
Kong Fei's residence was at the farthest edge of the Qingyun Sect's mountain gate, which was actually because he was the worst in cultivation among all three generations of disciples in the Qingyun Sect, and had the lowest status. If it weren't for that cunning merchant Qu Yunzhao supporting him, it would be even more miserable! Of course, compared to Feng Ru who was still just a miscellaneous servant, Kong Fei should have been satisfied with his good fortune.
As for Qu Yun, the cunning merchant, he was somewhat famous in Tianji Academy and had five disciples who were as weak as Kong Fei. They usually acted together, advancing and retreating as one, or went out to hunt and kill spiritual beasts, managing to make a name for themselves. Due to Kong Fei's involvement, Feng Ru was still quite familiar with them.
Just as they walked to the entrance of Qingyun Sect, Feng Ruo saw that on a not-so-spacious square in front of them, at least dozens of third-generation disciples of Qingyun Sect had gathered. These people were divided into two factions and were now glaring at each other, seemingly ready to fight at any moment.
"Huh? Did something happen?"
Upon seeing this scene, Feng Ruo immediately stopped in his tracks. It was clear that the two groups of people belonged to the Tianji Institute and the Tianshu Institute respectively. The discord between the Tianji and Tianshu Institutes had a long history, even he, a miscellaneous servant, was extremely familiar with this matter. It was said that this discord had been ongoing for over a thousand years, and not even the first- and second-generation disciples could avoid it.
It's just that those first and second generation disciples are the backbone of the Qingyun Sect, so for the sake of the overall situation, at most they would only exchange a few cold words with each other. However, conflicts between third-generation disciples often occur.
On the side of the Tianji Academy disciples, Feng Ruo quickly found Kong Fei and the treacherous merchant Qu Yun's group. They were also shouting something in extreme anger with other Tianji Academy disciples at this moment. It seemed that the Tianji Academy was at a disadvantage.
"Cut the nonsense! Xifeng Valley is close to our Tiānzhǔi Institute, so it's naturally managed by us. What does it have to do with your Tiānji Institute? I'm warning you now, if anyone from your side sneaks into Xifeng Valley again, don't blame me for not showing brotherly love!" At this time, a third-generation disciple of the Tiānzhǔi Institute, who was only eighteen or nineteen years old but had already reached the late stage of Qi refinement, shouted out loudly. This shout directly suppressed the momentum of the crowd from the Tiānji Institute.
"Chu Tian! He's indeed the most notorious of the three great bullies among the third generation disciples of Qingyun Sect!" Fēng Ruò exclaimed in admiration from a distance. This Chu Tian was the direct disciple of the master of Tiān Shū Yuàn, with extremely high innate talent, and had reached the late stage of Qi Refining in just over a decade. However, he was arrogant and domineering, so his fellow third-generation disciples who grew up with him rarely dared to cross him.
Of course, Chu Tian had the capital to be arrogant. The red-eyed eagle under him was a third-level fighting spirit bird, its ferocity was no less than the silver eagle that Feng Ruo had seen before. The Lingyun suit on his body had been completely collected, especially the pair of Lingyun battle boots that increased speed and bounce ability, which was the only one among all three generations of disciples, and countless people were envious.
In addition, Chu Tian's three-product sword was also extraordinary. Not only was it the best quality Longquan product among its peers, but it had also been refined with three inferior five-element stone essences by him in an extremely arrogant manner, so the power of this three-product sword suddenly increased by a factor of two!
To know that the lower-grade five-element stone is not comparable to the low-grade five-element stone, although it's only one grade apart, but the effect is far apart. The simplest example is that in the market, only low-grade five-element stones can be used for trading, while lower-grade five-element stones are extremely rare, and even if you want to buy them, it's very difficult. Most cultivators who have reached the Refining Qi stage can refine a single lower-grade five-element stone for their sword, which is already quite impressive. Usually, only when they reach the Foundation Establishment stage and learn the Sword Controlling Technique do they have the qualifications to venture into more dangerous places to obtain lower-grade five-element stones.
It can be seen from this that Chu Tian's pressure on the three generations of disciples of Qingyun Sect is enormous.
As expected, after Chu Tian stepped forward, the people of the Heavenly Machine Institute all honestly retreated to one side, not daring to say anything more. Qu Yun and others were even more so, daring to be angry but not daring to speak out. This matter was not a big deal, so even if they reported it to the higher-ups of the Qingyun Sect, it would be useless. Therefore, they could only admit defeat.
Of course, there is another reason why from a young age to adulthood, Chu Tian's accumulated prestige was too great, among all three generations of disciples, except for a few people, no one dared to oppose Chu Tian!
After a few loud laughs, Chu Tian finally left with the people of the Heavenly Pivot Institute, looking very pleased with themselves. The remaining people from the Heavenly Machine Institute and others were left to sigh and disperse in all directions, it was clear that among them, there was no one who could rival Chu Tian.
