Volume 1 Chapter 7: The Carefree Alchemist Brother

  "If only I had an iron pot, I could make some meat soup!" Fang Ruo muttered to himself. Thanks to the Qiankun bag, the black spirit fox's meat could be preserved for a long time. For the past two days, he had been roasting it every day, but unfortunately, except for the first few times when it tasted relatively fresh and delicious, eating it again made his head ache. After all, there were no seasonings at all, and it was impossible to compare with the roasted meat in the mortal world.

  The only thing that made Feng Ruo feel a little relieved was that the blue-clothed girl didn't really come to eat the tyrant's meal, but instead gave him a false alarm.

  However, Fang Ruo also understood that the blue-clothed girl's cultivation had already reached the middle stage of Qi Refining. Although she hadn't yet reached the so-called "Burglar's Boundary", when it came to roasting meat and whatnot, she didn't have much dependence on it. Especially for these Qingyun Sect disciples who were used to eating that terrible rice cake since they were young, perhaps they weren't suited to enjoying good food. Otherwise, like that merchant Qu Yun, why hadn't he seen them roast and eat the spiritual beasts they had hunted?

  Extinguish the bonfire, and by the way, feed the eighteen Snow Spirit Silkworms. Then, he set off towards the Qingyun Sect's mountain gate. In these two days, he risked going to the East Peak again, finally gathering enough Congealing Blood Grass to make three hundred. After setting aside a dozen or so to experiment with refining the Hemostatic Powder, he planned to reduce his debt a bit.

  The Qingyun Sect's mountain gate was built on the top of the main peak, extremely spacious, with a total of over a dozen large halls and several squares, which were further divided into the Tianji Institute and the Tianxu Institute. Like Qian Yun, Xiao Kui and Kong Fei were all third-generation disciples of the Tianji Institute, but as miscellaneous servants, they could only enter some peripheral areas, so they didn't know much about the inside situation.

  In the outer periphery of those grand halls, is where the third generation disciples of Qingyun Sect live on a daily basis. Each person has their own separate courtyard, and is also equipped with a dan room, quiet room, etc. The treatment is more than a hundred times better than that of Feng Ru. Fortunately, Qingyun Sect only has over three hundred disciples, and the third generation disciples are only around one hundred and fifty-six people. Otherwise, the mountain gate of Qingyun Sect would have to be expanded.

  Envy returned to envy, Fang Ruo couldn't even dare to hope that he could one day become a formal disciple of the Qingyun Sect, because the requirements for accepting disciples were simply too harsh. They only selected children under the age of five, unless they were those rare cultivation geniuses who appeared once in a thousand years, and might be exceptionally accepted.

  This method of collecting door people will undoubtedly increase the loyalty of the door people to a great extent. After all, it is generally impossible for ordinary people to betray an environment that has been familiar since childhood.

  Apart from the third-generation disciples, Qingyun Sect also has second-generation and first-generation disciples. The first-generation disciples refer to the people of Qingyun Sect who are of the same generation as the current sect leader. When this generation's sect leader retires, the second-generation disciples will automatically become first-generation disciples, and the third-generation disciples will also become second-generation disciples. It is only at that time that Qingyun Sect will continue to accept new disciples. Therefore, the age difference between each generation of disciples in Qingyun Sect will not be very large, and it will not exceed ten years at most.

  It's precisely because of the rigorous selection process when recruiting disciples that most third-generation disciples have similar cultivation speeds, but there are also those who stand out from the crowd, such as the three great villains mentioned by Kong Fei, who far surpass everyone else.

  The higher-ups of the Qingyun Sect seem to not be very strict in managing all third-generation disciples, at least that's what Feng Ru thought. They need to plant their own Xiangling rice to fill their own bellies and also earn their own Five Elements Stones to purchase various equipment and weapons. In short, they have to be busier than Feng Ru every day.

  Only after successfully advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage will one become a core disciple of Qingyun Sect and have some benefits.

  After walking through several courtyards, Fang finally stopped in front of a courtyard covered with dense foliage, which was the residence of that alchemist brother.

  She lightly knocked on the courtyard door and then waited quietly, because that alchemy brother might be in the process of refining elixirs, which naturally couldn't be disturbed.

  Of course, with Feng Ruo's strength, even if he wanted to disturb him, he couldn't. The courtyard given by the Qingyun Sect to many third-generation disciples was not an ordinary courtyard, but one with array protection. Not to mention Feng Ruo, even some ordinary spiritual beasts could not break in.

  Apart from that mysterious formation, what made Feng Ruo most envious was that each of these courtyards had a low-grade spiritual tree planted in them. This could help the courtyard owner absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, and with sufficient spiritual energy, their cultivation speed would be unstoppable.

  However, this time Fang Ruo didn't wait for long outside the courtyard gate. With a flash of a spiritual talisman, the gate swung open by itself.

  As soon as he saw the curtain, Feng Ru hastily walked in and was immediately greeted by a refreshing breath of air. This breath was extremely unusual, and just a slight response made his whole body feel incredibly comfortable. Needless to say, this was the effect of the low-grade spiritual wood. With such an abundance of spiritual energy, even someone with mediocre talent like Feng Ru would have no problem entering the initial stage of Qi refinement.

  Unfortunately, this idea can only be thought of in his mind. Such luxurious treatment is not something that a humble servant like Fang Ruo can have.

  Without stopping at all, he passed through the courtyard where various high-grade spiritual herbs were planted. Feng finally stopped outside the main hall. Inside the main hall, two young men in their early twenties were chatting and laughing.

  Glancing at the two people in the main hall, Feng Ruo calmly bowed his head and said: "Greetings, Ning Shixiong, Duan Shixiong!"

  One of them was Ning Shizun, a master of alchemy and one of Fang Ruo's creditors. The other was Duan Yuan, also a third-generation disciple of the Qingyun Sect.

  This Ning Shixiong is named Ning Yuan, and it's said that he's the first among the third generation of disciples in Qingyun Sect's Tianji Hall. His cultivation has reached the later stages of Lianqi, and normally he's always smiling, but if you think this person is the most gentle, then you'll definitely suffer a great loss.

  This Ningyuan was given the task of collecting medicinal herbs by Feng Ru only because he had recently needed these low-grade spiritual grasses for some reason, and apart from Feng Ru, several third-generation disciples of Qingyun Sect also took on this task.

  As for that Yun, he is a disciple of the Tianzhui Institute and his strength is also quite powerful.

  At this time, when he saw Feng Ruofei appear, that Yan Yun just took a glance and continued to leisurely taste the spiritual tea, without any intention of speaking. It's also understandable, how would a cultivator like him chat with an ordinary person?

  Ning Shixiong, however, was different. He carefully sized up Feng Ru for a moment before opening his mouth to laugh and say: "Not bad! In just one month, your magical powers have actually improved a bit. How much spiritual grass did you collect this time?"

  "Reporting back to Ning Shixiong, I've collected 300 stalks of Congxuecao!" Feng Ruolan hastily took out the 300 stalks of Congxuecao.

  "Three hundred?" Ning's eyes showed a hint of disappointment, and he shook his head. "Feng Ruo, it's not that I'm making things difficult for you, but your collection speed is too slow. My younger disciples can collect this amount in one day, while you took an entire month. If we continue at this pace, I won't even need these low-grade spiritual herbs! However, this task is indeed too difficult for you. In that case, the debt of five spiritual stones will be waived. You don't have to collect anymore, and living a peaceful life isn't bad either. You may withdraw."

  "Thank you, Master Ning!" Feng Ruo was stunned for a moment, then calmly walked out of the courtyard. It wasn't until he had been walking for a long time that he turned his head to look back at the heavily guarded courtyard. Only now did he clearly realize how vast the gap was between him and these disciples of Qingyun Sect. No matter how hard he tried, it would only result in being ignored and pitied!

  "Alright! This situation isn't that bad after all!" Feng Ruo took a deep breath, smiled and turned to leave.