"Yunyan... what happened?" Liu Li looked surprised for a second. She was worried that she was here to interrupt her time with Ye Ming!
"Thunder Horn Beast just appeared on the outskirts of Cloud City!" The girl said in a hushed tone.
"...Isn’t it a Foundation Realm Beast? Why is it so close to the city?" Liu Li asked with a frown.
"...Why should we even care?" Ye Ming didn’t care either way. Once he is strong enough, he could bother with Foundation Realm beasts.
"T-That’s because it’s a treasure trove! E-Especially for an Alchemist such as you. The horn, especially, is pure Thunder Qi! It’s perfect for quick sword use of Cloud Style." Yunyan explained to Ye Ming.
"She is right... There is also something called Thunder Soul Pill. It’s a pill I heard about in my birthplace." Liu Li nodded at the fellow girl before looking at Master Ming.
"Thunder Soul... Pill?" Now that intrigued Ye Ming.
"Yes. Though I have never seen it in person, people from where I come from have seen it before. This pill doesn’t have any side effects; it gives one affinity to thunder and resistance to it.
From what I understand, if you have it, then any Thunder-based Martial Arts become easy to learn, on top of allowing you to wield Lightning and thunder like your alchemist flames, if not greater."
The Alchemist stroked his chin as he listened to her explanation.
"By this logic, there should be Water Soul, Fire Soul and so on." He concluded from her explanation.
"There is." Liu Li nodded sharply.
As these two were talking, Yunyan was gawking at Liu Li; she had never heard this proud girl talking about her home like that.
"From what I understand, the alchemist needs to refine parts of an elemental beast to acquire its nature." The girl tried her best to recall what she had heard back in the day.
"...Does the cultivation of the beast matter?" Ye Ming pondered.
"Not really? Because any Elemental Beast is powerful towards its element, but some... like, for example, the Thunder Horn Beast is special."
The Alchemist immediately understood what she was hinting at.
"The horn?"
"Yes." Liu Li nodded with a small smile. "The Horn of Thunder Beast absorbs all of Thunder and Lightning. If you add that to Thunder Pill."
"...Oh..."
"Though it’s a Foundation Realm Beast, what does it have to do with us?" Liu Li asked as well. She was a mere Seventh Stage of Qi Gathering.
"That’s because it’s injured! And I heard that Jiang Longtian’s people were fighting it."
"Oh... Mistress Mengxue wants to get it before they get it!"
"Indeed! So we should move out!" Yunyan said in a hushed tone.
"..."
"..."
Liu Li looked at Ye Ming.
The alchemist in the end shrugged as he decided... why not. It’s not like he is going to fight it.
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
’Thunder Horn Beast!? That is exactly what I need!’ Jian Long, the Reincarnated Son of Jian Xuan, the founder of Cloud Sword Sect, smirked as he heard the news.
He was about to demand that Jiang Mengxue release her darling Bai Lingxi from her service, but then he heard this!
’I can demand the release of Xi’er later; now I need to get that wounded beast!’
Jiang Long listened carefully before he got the idea of where it was.
Once he grasped the location, he dashed as if there was no tomorrow.
With a massive opportunity in mind, he missed the whole point of how weird the whole thing was.
What he didn’t hear was that Jiang Mengxue was not as greedy anymore. In fact, she calmed her desperation down and instead decided to ask several Deacons to assist and come with her.
And she had chosen right, as the beast was not injured or anything. So when Jian Long arrived, he was greeted by a four-legged mountain of muscles with a horn sharper than any Foundation Realm Sword.
If Ye Ming saw this creature, he would comment on how big this rhino looked.
"Damn them! They tricked me! This beast is not wounded!"
The Reincarnator complained loudly as he rolled out of the way. The beast slammed its horn into a boulder, shattering it into millions of pieces.
’I can’t run from it. It’s simply too fast with its Thunder Element.’ Jian Long bit his lower lip as he decided to use his arts to beat it.
As the son of the founder of Cloud Sword Sect, he wields his father’s arts.
First, he raised his sword and ghostly clouds manifested around him as his Qi spiked, and soon enough, he began to swing his blade and build up the momentum.
But it was not easy, as the blade he was using rapidly deteriorated; each collision chipped it, and the cuts grew deeper and deeper. Before long, the Qi around him became solid; it was a sign of the Foundation Realm.
’Ugh... I can only do this once!’
His eyes glowed blue as clouds around him surged and manifested above him, then a golden light separated them, casting a blade to drop from the heavens and slash the beast down. The stroke went right to the neck.
"Jian Heavenly Cloud Sword!"
What Jian Long used was his father’s prized technique, a Xiantian Rank Art that summons a blade from the heavens.
Though a mere Qi Gathering Realm Martial Artist like him, using moves like that strains him to the point that he can permanently damage his meridians.
*Cough!!!*
As the beast collapsed, Jian Long dropped to his knees and coughed up blood.
’Not good.’
The Sword Reincarnator could barely keep his eyes open.
"It should be over here!"
Jian Long’s eyes widened as he swiftly scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain and strain, and he disappeared from the area.
’Damn those Jiang!’
His hatred for the Jiang family only grew greater the longer he was in this false Sect!
~~~
About ten seconds later, a group of disciples arrived at the place where the beast was supposed to be. They could have been faster, but Ye Ming didn’t have a movement technique; he was far too poor even to get a chance to study.
So the group moved a bit slower than they should have.
But at the end of the day, they, in fact, arrived just on time.
"..." Jiang Mengxue looked at the headless corpse with wide eyes. What she was looking at made no sense to her.
"Hah? They killed it? But left it behind?" Ye Ming was speechless. He expected at least some fighting... this was not how Cultivators behaved; they could be like a locust swarm, consuming everything in their path, but this...
It makes no sense.
"...It’s still warm." One of the deacons who was with them said with a frown.
"The Thunder Horn Beast could have been wounded, but someone just killed it. We arrived just in time, Young Mistress."
"...Yes, and it was not Jiang Longtian either. A third party?"
She looked around while commenting. Her girls spread out to look for clues as well.
"Could be. Beasts such as these do not live close to settlements, and we are not far from Alchemist Association-controlled lands as well." The Deacon looked away from the corpse and said to his Young Mistress.
’More ties between Jiang Longtian and the Alchemy Association...’ Jiang Mengxue bit one of her nails as she was getting quite a good picture of what was going on.
"...So you mean to tell me... that this Jiang Longtian is colluding with the Alchemy Association to get his position, but... won’t that weaken the Sect?" Ye Ming, who learned about this just yesterday, started to understand as well.
"Yes, but he would be the next Sect Master. I am pretty sure he doesn’t care. After all, he thinks he is a genius with no equal. I am certain that in his head, he thinks he can grow strong enough to resist the Alchemy Association, but that is a mere delusion of an idiot." Jiang Mengxue clarified with a dark expression.
’Wow, she really hates him.’ Ye Ming was a bit surprised by the venom in his girl’s voice.
"Mistress! Look what we have found!"
One of the girls returned with a flustered expression.
Jiang Mengxue, Ye Ming and one of the Deacons walked over.
What they found were scraps of metal... a large pile of metal.
"...bars... looks like remains of a cage," One of Deacons commented with slight surprise.
"...Shipped, they must have shipped the beast here?" The other Deacon realised that as well.
"Yes. Buying and shipping Thunder Horn Beast is cheaper than buying materials made from them.
I suppose Jiang Longtian decided that getting a beast is easier than buying made products from the Association."
"...Are you serious? They are ripping people that badly?" Ye Ming was baffled to hear that!
"They hold a monopoly on pills and alchemy in general. There is no need for them to hold back the prices, since they control it and they have powerful cultivators." Jiang Mengxue explained to him.
"..."
Ye Ming got a bit spooked when he heard that! It feels like he will end up in danger at some point... soon.
"So he got the beast... but what could he do about it?" The Alchemist asked for more information.
"No doubt he has a contracted Alchemist who would make items and pills from this beast." Jiang Mengxue said with a strained look.
If this were a different situation, she would be jealous, but she has one of her own.
’...Items?’
Ye Ming’s gaze snapped at her. Could he make items?
"Master Ming, you should take these scraps. This looks like it was made from spirit ore and has been tampered to conduct Thunder Qi.
If you could make them into swords, we could potentially have a decent amount of weapons against any other Thunder Elemental Beast." Jiang Mengxue suggested to him.
The Alchemist looked at her, slowly nodding at the suggestion, then he walked over and used the new storage ring to collect the scraps.
"Once you’re done, you should collect the beast carcass as well."
"!!!"
"I would love it if you could make a sword out of one of the bones." She smiled hopefully at him.
"...don’t you have Smiths for those?" He wasn’t certain he had enough experience to make any of that!
The pills he made so far are basic! But this... this beast is Foundation Realm! The fermenting aura alone could ignore his flames altogether!
"Smiths don’t wield Qi as you do. They only work with metals. If we give them these bones, they will damage them. What we need is perfect refinement from an alchemist." Jiang Mengxue explained.
’I see...’
"Then you should know that I have no idea how to render the beast apart or how to work with bones..." Ye Ming honestly replied.
"Hmm, that is true. Let me assist you in that. I can send you anything that I find in my family’s library." The girl turned towards him and smiled a bit. At least he wasn’t pretending to know what he was doing.
"That would be appreciated." He smiled back; for a daughter of a Sect Master, he didn’t expect her to be... down to ground.
Sadly, he didn’t realise... yet, but Jiang Mengxue is not that nice; she is only nice because it’s him and his abilities.
"Wonderful. Then let’s collect whatever we can; we can’t leave anything for Jiang Longtian or the Alchemist Association.
With that said, Ye Ming walked over and tried to take the carcass into his Storage Ring. To his surprise, he was able to, and the severed head, but afterwards, he realised that there was not that much space in it anymore.
Roughly speaking, his ring’s space was around a decent-sized room. And the carcass could barely fit inside...
Thankfully, his ring’s contents were only a few pills, his Qi Stones and his training sword.
"The Storage Ring’s properties will preserve the carcass for a considerable amount of time. Until then, we will find some information on how to render it for Alchemy use." Jiang Mengxue walked over to him and explained their next course of action.
"Good, in the meantime, I will train and improve my cultivation."
"Yes, please do, and I will get you a copy of the movement technique as well." Jiang Mengxue recalled the awkward moment when they got here.