A fourth-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill!! Would it help? Of course it would.
The Second Elder said, “Even if Old Seven wanted to die right now, he couldn’t.”
The pill worked instantly, just as expected. The Seventh Elder felt the pain in his lungs vanish, the ache in his legs ease, and even the lingering hidden injuries left over from previous wounds healed completely. The Seventh Elder felt his condition was better than it had ever been.
The Second Elder stared at him for a good while, checked his pulse once more, and said, with a touch of envy, “This must have been a high-tier fourth-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill.”
An ordinary fourth-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill couldn’t possibly have this good an effect.
The Seventh Elder waved Xian Qinglin over and, expressing his gratitude, handed him a spatial ring. “Thank you so much for this. How many spirit stones was that pill worth? See if what’s inside is enough, if not, I’ll make up the difference once we’re back.”
Fourth-grade pills weren’t cheap, and Xian Qinglin was an outer disciple with limited status and cultivation, earning spirit stones wasn’t easy for someone like him. The Seventh Elder naturally wouldn’t take advantage of him like that.
Xian Qinglin refused to accept it at all. The Seventh Elder had been injured trying to save him, even giving his own life would have been justified under the circumstances. How could he possibly take spirit stones on top of that?
Seeing him adamantly refuse, the Seventh Elder sighed. “Fine then. Consider it a debt I owe you.”
Xian Qinglin said guiltily, “But if you hadn’t saved me, you wouldn’t have been hurt at all.”
“That’s a separate matter entirely. The two shouldn’t be conflated.”
The Second Elder, curious, asked Xian Qinglin, “Where did you buy that pill?”
The moment a fourth-grade pill ever surfaced, it was immediately snatched up by the great clans and powerful experts, and Xian Qinglin was merely a lowly floor-sweeping disciple…
Xian Qinglin’s index finger curled unconsciously, Xu Yifan’s round, plump figure flashing suddenly through his mind. “I… someone gave it to me.”
“Well, whoever that was is certainly generous. A high-tier fourth-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill isn’t cheap, at an auction house it would sell for at least a million spirit stones.”
Hearing that price, Xian Qinglin was instantly stunned. “…It’s that expensive?”
The Second Elder said, “Refining a Sovereign’s Cure Pill isn’t easy. A third-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill wouldn’t cost nearly that much, of course, but a high-tier one can cure poison while nourishing the body, and taking it produces no pill toxicity at all, ordinary pills don’t have that kind of effect, which naturally drives the price up. Currently, there isn’t a single pill master in our entire Southern Region capable of refining one.”
The moment the Second Elder finished speaking, Xian Qinglin distinctly felt several gazes land on him.
He looked up and caught several inner disciples who hadn’t managed to withdraw their stares in time.
Those disciples clearly weren’t afraid of him. With the two elders having their backs turned, they took full advantage of being unseen, their eyes openly sizing him up and calculating without the slightest restraint.
One disciple transmitted his voice to a companion nearby. “Fourth Senior Martial Brother, you think that kid’s got more pills on him? Pulling out a high-tier fourth-grade pill just like that, this guy might be loaded. Should we?” He made a throat-slitting gesture.
Fourth Senior Martial Brother turned to look at him, brow furrowing. “The priority right now is finding a way out of here. More hands means more strength. Besides, both Elders are right here, he just pulled out a pill today, and tomorrow he turns up dead? You think no one would suspect you? Forget about it.”
He spoke with righteous conviction, yet the other disciple noticed his gaze lingering on Xian Qinglin with a reluctant, lecherous glint before he finally looked away. The disciple pursed his lips, thinking privately, quit the act.
Although Xian Qinglin was an outer disciple, his extraordinarily handsome, delicate looks had earned him a fair bit of renown even within the inner sect.
Those who wanted to pursue him could probably circle all of Xianhao Sect twice over, and there was never a shortage of people with nothing better to do who’d dug thoroughly into his background and identity.
He was the son of the head of the Xian clan from Yuzhou in the mortal realm. Years ago, a minor steward from the outer sect, passing through Yuzhou on business, had happened to come across him. Seeing that, even at such a young age, his looks were already ethereal beyond compare, and his aptitude decent enough, the steward had brought him back to the sect, thinking to gift him to Young Master Ma to curry favor. Somehow, though, Xian Qinglin had found out about this plan and refused it absolutely, no matter what.
Ma Xiu happened to have a new infatuation at the time, and the steward, seeing him wholly absorbed in his new fling and worried about causing a death that would be hard to explain to the sect, had simply let the matter drop.
But Xian Qinglin’s resistance had offended the steward. Displeased, the man had assigned him only the most exhausting, most grueling tasks that paid the fewest spirit stones.
Pulling weeds in the spirit plant fields.
Shoveling animal dung in the Beast-Taming Hall.
He could earn about four spirit stones a day at most. These outsourced tasks required obeying others’ orders and running errands for them, demeaning, dangerous, and time-consuming, and even a full trip out would only net him a dozen or so spirit stones.
Someone with no backing, someone who’d nearly been treated as a plaything to be pushed around at will, and yet here he was, pulling out a high-tier fourth-grade Sovereign’s Cure Pill without hesitation. He must have latched onto some important figure somewhere.
Could it be he’d agreed to something with a senior martial brother…
Otherwise, why would he say it was a gift?
Tch!
Yeah, right.
Who had that kind of extravagant wealth, handing out fourth-grade pills just like that?
Why not send one to me instead, let’s see it.
The Seventh Elder could clearly sense the disciples’ gazes landing on Xian Qinglin, deliberately or otherwise.
He had a fairly strong impression of Xian Qinglin already, partly because of his striking looks, which made him stand out among the crowd of disciples, he’d also been aboard the flying ship during the last recruitment trip.
He must have offended someone, because he’d been constantly excluded aboard the ship, and yet at the same time pursued by several inner disciples, likely because his status and position weren’t high enough to risk offending anyone, he could only play along evasively with whoever pursued him.
Within the sect, aside from himself and Sixth Senior Martial Brother, the other senior martial brothers spent all their time outside of lessons on their own respective disciplines and had no idea about the internal power struggles among the disciples.
Xian Qinglin, this outer disciple, was obviously poor and without status, he’d wrapped the pill in a handkerchief, not even owning a proper medicine vial. It was fortunate the pill had only recently been refined, had it been refined years earlier and stored this carelessly, its potency would surely have degraded significantly by now.
The Seventh Elder was reasonably satisfied with Xian Qinglin’s character.
These past few days while he’d been injured, this child had been tirelessly running around taking care of him. Although his aptitude wasn’t great, his heart was kind and he understood gratitude.
His disciples didn’t need exceptional aptitude, didn’t need to be especially formidable, as long as they were good people, he didn’t mind shielding them.
“How long have you been at the sect?”
Xian Qinglin had no idea why he was suddenly asking this, but answered honestly anyway. “Six years.”
The Second Elder didn’t understand the reasoning either, and merely watched as the Seventh Elder untied the jade pendant at his waist and handed it to the young disciple. “If we manage to make it back alive, take this token and register with the inner sect.”
As everyone knew, Xianhao Sect’s seven great elders each held their own respective peaks—Elixir Glow Peak, Talisman Script Peak, Formation Peak, Artifact-Refining Peak, Inscription Peak, Spirit Sword Peak, and Return Sword Peak.
Each of these peaks had restrictive wards set up, no outsider could enter or leave freely except the elder in question and their registered disciples.
Unless one held a token specially issued by an elder.
But such tokens were normally only ever granted to a personally taken disciple.
The meaning of the Seventh Elder’s gesture was already unmistakable.
The Second Elder felt this was far too hasty a decision and wanted to say something, but on second thought, kept his mouth shut.
The formation was under fierce assault, the entire grand array shaking violently. Xian Qinglin heard a series of booming thuds, seeming to come both from his own chest and from beyond the array itself, almost deafening.
His greatest wish had always been to enter the inner sect, to no longer be bullied, to no longer have to bow and scrape before others. And yet now, with an opportunity he wouldn’t have even dared to dream of laid right before him, Xian Qinglin found himself hesitating.
In that instant, a thousand scattered thoughts flashed through his mind at once.
To become a personally taken disciple, one needed good aptitude, sharp comprehension.
His three spiritual roots really weren’t anything to boast about.
The Seventh Elder was only doing this to protect him, anyone with a shred of self-awareness shouldn’t climb the ladder just because it was offered. But if he refused… even if he didn’t die here in Lianyun Mountain, he probably wouldn’t survive long once they returned to the sect either.
And besides—
The Seventh Elder and the Sixth Elder were on good terms.
Xian Qinglin knelt down, accepting the token with both hands, and kowtowed deeply before the Seventh Elder. He heard himself say, “Thank you, Elder.”
“Now that you’ve accepted the token, you should call me Master from now on,” the Seventh Elder said with a smile.
The disciples nearby were so envious they nearly ground their teeth to dust.
This Xian Qinglin, a mere outer disciple, what virtue or ability did he possess, that someone would gift him pills first, and now the Seventh Elder was breaking protocol to promote him to personal disciple? What kind of outrageous luck was this?
Was he some secret illegitimate child of Heaven’s Dao itself?
…
On the flight to Lianyun Mountain, Xu Yifan had spent the whole time sleeping. When he finally woke, rare as that was, he found his master sitting nearby, wearing a troubled expression, sighing repeatedly.
“Master, what’s wrong?” Figuring he must be worried about the Seventh Elder, Xu Yifan offered some comfort. “Good people have the protection of Heaven [1]a common saying that decent people are watched over by fate and come through danger safely jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015888_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015888_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine.”
The Sixth Elder’s expression stayed grim. “I am worried about Old Seven, but that’s not what’s troubling me right now.”
“Then who’s troubling you?”
The Sixth Elder changed his answer. “I’m just thinking about some things.”
Xu Yifan sat up, digging for details. “Thinking about who? That little widow from the Beast-Taming Hall?”
“…” the Sixth Elder glared at him. “Just be quiet.”
He seemed genuinely troubled. Xu Yifan got off the bed to sit beside him and asked seriously, “What’s actually going on?”
“The sect just sent word, apparently more than half the soul lamps of the inner disciples that Old Seven and Old Two led out have already gone dark,” the Sixth Elder sighed. “In just the few days since we set out, several more have gone out one after another.”
He pulled out a list and handed it to Xu Yifan. “Take a look yourself. This is all that’s left now. Grand Senior Martial Brother wants me and Fifth Senior Martial Brother to find them as fast as possible.”
At the top was a list of disciples whose soul lamps were still lit, below it, a few more names were listed separately.
The handwriting was extremely small, crowded together.
As if added on at the very last moment.
Neither outer nor inner disciples could have a soul lamp kept within the sect unless their standing qualified for it. Given that outer disciples had accompanied this particular expedition, the Grand Elder had ordered the list sent along as well.
Xu Yifan skimmed over it quickly, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
Xian Qinglin’s name was on there too!!!
Oh no.
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