“What, do you want to avenge Liu Junxian?”
Fan Xiwen’s tone was calm, but Mo Younian felt his scalp go numb. The killing aura contained in those words made Mo Younian, the richest man in Shao City, tremble all over.
Mo Younian was over fifty and had experienced his share of storms, but he had never felt such a powerful sense of crisis as he did tonight. It seemed that if he gave an answer that displeased the boy sitting on the sofa, death would arrive in the next moment.
Mo Younian, who was facing Fan Xiwen’s question directly, was like this, and the bodyguards standing to the side were no different.
These bodyguards, who had undergone rigorous training at a security company, were all terrified at this moment, yet none dared to make a move.
A sense of crisis was an innate human gift, and rigorously trained bodyguards were especially sensitive to it.
The air in the room seemed to have solidified. No one dared even breathe loudly, and everyone was as quiet as a frightened cicada.
These people had been the same the last time they faced Liu Junxian. No—that sense of crisis seemed even stronger this time.
It was difficult to imagine that the reason these people were in such a sorry state came from a young man who still looked like a student.
After a long while, Mo Younian finally mustered his courage and said, “Someone else wants to avenge Liu Junxian.”
At this answer, Fan Xiwen merely chuckled. “You mean the Wangdao Sect behind Liu Junxian?”
Mo Younian nodded as if relieved of a heavy burden. Who could have expected that the young man sitting on the sofa would merely snort disdainfully? “They’re nothing but a pack of weaklings. They’re not worth mentioning.”
Before the Chu Emperor, this realm—the Unnamed Star—even the Heavenly Dao was incapable of putting up a fight, let alone a minor sect struggling beneath the Heavenly Dao. Never mind that the Wangdao Sect possessed tremendous influence throughout Hu Province—even if the Wangdao Sect held command over Dragon Nation martial arts, it would still be nothing but trash.
Therefore, Fan Xiwen’s disdain was entirely justified.
Mo Younian’s thoughts immediately became complicated...
“Since you don’t want to avenge Liu Junxian, why have you come to Dragon City?”
Fan Xiwen stared directly at Mo Younian. The latter immediately lowered his noble head, then said loudly, “Liu Junxian died in Dragon City. Mo Younian fears being dragged into the disaster. If you would...”
“You want to be my dog?”
Fan Xiwen looked somewhat amused as he watched Mo Younian, who had yet to finish patching up his lie.
A trace of astonishment flashed across Mo Younian’s face. The richest man in Shao City, becoming someone else’s dog?
To be honest, he had truly never considered such a thing.
No—to be more precise, Mo Younian was unwilling to admit it.
When Liu Junxian had come to Shao City, Mo Younian had hurriedly sent two bodyguards to him and fawned over him as much as possible. How was that any different from being a dog?
“If I can establish a connection with a martial arts faction no weaker than the sect Liu Junxian belongs to, wouldn’t the Mo Family still have hope of expanding toward the provincial capital?”
“That’s right. He’s so young, yet his cultivation is terrifying. He even killed Liu Junxian without hesitation. With his strength, he must be an important disciple of another sect, and his status must be even more distinguished than Liu Junxian’s.”
After thinking it over, Mo Younian decided that being a dog actually wasn’t anything remarkable.
However, Fan Xiwen merely chuckled. “Unfortunately, you don’t even have the qualifications to be my dog.”
A trace of anger immediately flashed through Mo Younian’s eyes!
Tonight’s experience was, to him, nothing short of a supreme humiliation.
However, Fan Xiwen continued, “I can give you a chance to prove yourself. If you can seize it, I can make an exception and let you be my dog.”
Long ago, the Chu Emperor had indeed possessed a loyal hound by his side. However, it had been a True Dragon in transformed form, and its cultivation had reached the Late Immortal Emperor realm. Its combat strength was also extraordinary. Whenever he went to war, Fan Xiwen would certainly lead it around to inspect the various regions. Moreover, it even possessed a title: the Celestial Dragon Immortal Emperor. In other places, the Celestial Dragon would at least have been the supreme ruler of a domain.
Mo Younian was merely a mortal, a figure as insignificant as an ant, yet he actually wanted to become the Chu Emperor’s hound?
What a fool’s dream!
Still, if Mo Younian could prove himself, Fan Xiwen did not mind granting him some rewards.
At the height of his power, the Chu Emperor could make a mortal ascend in broad daylight with a single word. Although he had been reborn and his cultivation was now less than one ten-thousandth of what it had once been, Fan Xiwen could at the very least lead Mo Younian onto the path of cultivation. If the Great Chu Divine Dynasty were rebuilt in the future, granting him Immortal longevity would not be difficult.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Mo Younian could make his own contribution.
With a wave of his hand, the teapot and teacup on the table flew into Fan Xiwen’s hands. He poured himself a cup, took a small sip, and then disdainfully crushed the teacup.
The teacup shattered into powder, while the tea remained suspended in the air for a long while before falling to the ground like a column of rain.
Only then did Mo Younian come to his senses as if awakening from a dream. He immediately knelt on the floor, putting on a fawning expression as he looked at Fan Xiwen. “This humble one, Mo Younian, pays his respects to... to...”
After speaking for quite some time, Mo Younian finally realized that he did not even know the name of the person to whom he intended to pledge allegiance. He had truly been muddleheaded.
“Fan Haotian.”
When Fan Xiwen spoke this name, a trace of reminiscence appeared in his eyes. When he had transmigrated from the Unnamed Star to the Xinghe Continent, he had been fortunate enough to be taken in by his Revered Master, Xuan Lingzi, and become an outer disciple of the Haotian Sect. Later, Fan Xiwen revealed his cultivation aptitude and fought his way out from among the countless disciples of the Haotian Sect, becoming an inner disciple. Before proving the Dao and ascending, Fan Xiwen had become the youngest sect master in the Haotian Sect. Fan Haotian was the name by which the various sects addressed Fan Xiwen at that time. After proving the Dao and ascending, the name Fan Haotian spread far and wide. It was not until Fan Xiwen became an Immortal Emperor, swept across the Five Great Sects and Four Great Immortal Palaces, and established Great Chu that the name was gradually recorded in the annals of history and autobiographies along with Great Chu’s conquests.
Now, Fan Xiwen did not want his parents to become involved in too many disputes, so he naturally intended to use the name Fan Xiwen as little as possible. As for the title of Chu Emperor, Fan Xiwen also had no intention of using it for the time being. He would certainly return to the Xinghe Continent in the future, and this time, to avoid being schemed against by the Lord of Great Han, Fan Xiwen would not reveal that identity before possessing the strength to confront him head-on.
Therefore, when Mo Younian entered Dragon City, Fan Xiwen used his divine sense to slightly conceal his appearance. In other words, Zhou Hu and Mo Younian had seen a different face. No one would connect him with that Fan Xiwen from Zhujiachong.
“Yes, this humble one will remember.”
Mo Younian nodded and replied very sensibly.
“This is a list. Within three days, you must gather everything on it.”
Fan Xiwen took a sheet of paper from his pocket. It was covered with the names of medicinal materials. There were nearly thirty types in all, densely packed together, and Mo Younian had never even seen many of them.
Mo Younian raised his head to look at Fan Xiwen, who merely said calmly, “If you can’t gather everything within three days, that will prove you have no value whatsoever.”
“Mo Younian, you’re a smart man. You should know what happens to people who have no value, right?”
Mo Younian trembled all over once again, and the little schemes he had been harboring instantly vanished.
For people with no value, there was only one path: death.
“Oh, right. You can try running away after leaving Dragon City. Guess how many hours it would take me to make you vanish completely.”
“This humble one wouldn’t dare.”
Mo Younian lowered his head, a trace of sorrow showing in his eyes.
The richest man in Shao City? Now he was nothing more than a fish on someone else’s chopping block. Whenever the other person wanted to cut him down, they could do so. Most pitiful of all, as that fish, he did not even have the right to choose whether he would be steamed or braised.
“Go handle it.”
At Fan Xiwen’s command, Mo Younian did not dare linger any longer. He immediately led his people out in a steady stream.
Fan Xiwen, meanwhile, simply lay down on the sofa, showing no awareness whatsoever that he had usurped another’s nest.
This luxurious Suite soon became Fan Xiwen’s temporary resting place. Whenever Fan Xiwen wanted to stay at the hotel, it would be prepared for him at any time.
For Mo Younian to climb to the position of the richest man in Shao City, he certainly had no shortage of methods, and he was equally lacking in neither intelligence nor insight.
..
Over the next few days, Fan Xiwen became busy. Every day, he wandered around various parts of Dragon City, visiting most of its towns and villages, but he still could not find what he wanted. He did find some temples, but they had all been built by villagers from the mountains and countryside. The immortals and bodhisattvas enshrined inside had never descended there. He also found a temple dedicated to the Earth God, but unfortunately, the deity enshrined there was not orthodox. Moreover, he had already perished a hundred years ago.
Fortunately, although Fan Xiwen’s search had yielded nothing, Mo Younian handled matters quite efficiently. The medicinal materials and alchemy furnace Fan Xiwen needed were smoothly delivered to the room. Several of the medicinal materials had even been purchased by Mo Younian at a high price from the black market. The hardships involved were not something outsiders could know.
Once the medicinal materials were ready, Fan Xiwen began refining elixirs.
Because he had not yet begun cultivation, divine sense was extremely useful in alchemy, but the fire used for refining elixirs was still ordinary fire. He simply added a special ignition device beneath the alchemy furnace. That way, Fan Xiwen only needed to control the timing and use his divine sense to manipulate the furnace.
After coming into contact with cultivation, Fan Xiwen had learned alchemy. Even when the Great Chu Divine Dynasty had been at its height, Fan Xiwen would occasionally refine some elixirs, so his alchemy skills had never grown rusty.
After instructing Mo Younian to arrange bodyguards and prohibit anyone from entering the hotel’s seventh floor, Fan Xiwen began refining elixirs.
At first, Fan Xiwen needed to become familiar with the temperature of the alchemy furnace’s flames. Once he had done so, he began adding the medicinal materials.
With divine sense at his disposal, Fan Xiwen’s operations became extremely simple, and his success rate was also exceptionally high.
However, the quality of the elixirs was not particularly outstanding.
Although Fan Xiwen had added medicinal materials that could improve the quality of the elixirs, the result remained the same.
There was no other reason. The Heavenly Dao of the Unnamed Star was damaged, its spiritual energy was insufficient, and even the medicinal effects of many wild medicinal materials were inadequate. Although Fan Xiwen had previously screened them, it was merely choosing the tallest among the short—there was only so much improvement to be found.
“Since the quality isn’t good enough, I’ll make up for it with quantity.”
Looking at the results of his efforts over the past few days, Fan Xiwen secretly shook his head.