With Danxia Valley as its backing, Qilin City was soon on the right track.
About three days after Qilin City opened up, the people from the Heavenly Secret Pavilion arrived. Since the inns in Qilin City were not yet ready, they were temporarily accommodated in the City Lord’s Mansion.
Although they were under the same roof, Wen Qixue and Suo Xuanlin had no interaction with the people from the Heavenly Secret Pavilion.
Previously, due to the influence of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, no rift had formed between Wen Qixue and Suo Xuanlin, but Wen Qixue could still see Suo Xuanlin’s rejection of them. Therefore, he deliberately avoided contact with the Heavenly Secret Pavilion’s people during this time.
Suo Xuanlin was even more so.
He wished the Heavenly Secret Pavilion would stay as far away from them as possible; it would be even better if they left the City Lord’s Mansion entirely.
For this reason, he had specifically gone to the inns in Qilin City during this time to ask when they would be able to open.
The answer he got was that it would still be a while.
Although the two in the City Lord’s Mansion were just deliberately avoiding the Heavenly Secret Pavilion people, in the eyes of those from the Pavilion, it was a different story.
They just felt that these two people living in the City Lord’s Mansion were arrogant and looked down on them.
Fortunately, the elder leading the Heavenly Secret Pavilion was a rational one who suppressed these dissatisfied voices.
Their trip this time was to beg for pills for the Great Elder and the Pavilion Master—and they were longevity pills at that. Faced with this most important task, everything else could be set aside.
Besides, the people just didn’t like to socialize with their Heavenly Secret Pavilion.
Their reputation outside was always mixed; many people labeled their cultivators as “mumbling” or “weird.” There were plenty of other cultivators who didn’t like to deal with them either.
If they were to take offense every time they met someone like that, they wouldn’t be able to get anything else done.
In fact, this elder from the Heavenly Secret Pavilion didn’t understand why those Pavilion disciples felt dissatisfied over such trivial matters. He just thought that Qilin City hadn’t been fully built yet, and since they couldn’t find anything fun to do in the city, they could only go to the Danxia Valley street, which made them bored.
Therefore, this elder assigned them quite a bit of homework.
Since they were bored, they might as well do their homework. Even if they were outside the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, as inner-cabinet disciples, their studies could not be neglected.
But even so, the conflict still erupted.
Just as Wen Qixue broke through to the ninth level of Qi Refining and went out to eat with Suo Xuanlin and Danxia Valley’s Rong Mingmo to celebrate Xia Changxun’s insights during his recent seclusion, they ran into the Heavenly Secret Pavilion’s group at a restaurant.
There was only this one restaurant operating in Qilin City at the moment, so running into each other was inevitable.
The Heavenly Secret Pavilion people were resentful toward Wen Qixue and his companion, but thinking of the elder’s instructions and the terrifying amount of homework they had these days, they suppressed their resentment. They just glared angrily at everyone in Wen Qixue’s party before heading to their own booked private room.
The Danxia Valley trio who were glared at: “…No, did we provoke them? The people from the Heavenly Secret Pavilion are really getting more and more inexplicable.”
Rong Mingmo was especially baffled: “The day before yesterday, that so-called Young Pavilion Master came to ask me about my master’s alchemy progress, and today he glares at me like that. What kind of people are they!”
Suo Xuanlin couldn’t help but ask on behalf of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion people: “Is their pill order still falling far behind? Why are they still here?”
Rong Mingmo knew some inside information, so she explained to him: “Actually, their previous order was completed before they were notified, but this time my master had an outburst while refining pills—not a single furnace exploded, so two portions of medicinal materials were saved. After the Heavenly Secret Pavilion elder found out, he requested my master to refine the remaining two portions as well, and they would pay extra spiritual stones for it. That’s why my master has been immersed in the alchemy room all this time.”
Once inside their private room, she lowered her voice and told the others: “When I went to the alchemy room to look for him the day before yesterday, I even heard him cursing and swearing, berating all the pavilion masters and elders of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion.”
After all, the longevity pills needed by the Heavenly Secret Pavilion were for people at the level of the Pavilion Master and elders. Even in Danxia Valley, the number of people capable of refining longevity pills of this level could be counted on one hand. Of the Ten Great Elders, there were only three: one, Cen Qianxu, was still busy conditioning the meridians of his precious disciple who had just recovered; another, Shen Lan, had not yet returned from finding supreme attribute medicinal materials for Yun Luo; so that only left Jiang Che.
Thus, Jiang Che began refining pills while cursing, indiscriminately berating everyone.
Even the spirit beasts that passed by his alchemy room had to be cursed at by him, and Rong Mingmo, who occasionally went to the alchemy room to find him, was naturally no exception.
She complained: “I suspect my master’s current attack power might be higher than a sword cultivator’s.”
At this moment, the door to their private room was “swung” open, followed by the furious voice of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion’s group: “It’s bad enough that we haven’t received the corresponding treatment since we arrived in Qilin City, but your Danxia Valley is actually insulting our Pavilion Master and elders behind our backs!”
“You, you are going too far!”
Upon hearing this, Wen Qixue’s eyebrows twitched uncontrollably, and the crisp phrase “Eldest Brother, you are going too far” echoed inexplicably in his mind.
Back when he was still at the Heavenly Sword Sect, every time he returned, several people would say this to him.
The expressions were different, but the words were identical.
The reason was that after he was promoted to the Golden Core stage, he began to become stingy toward the people of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
Especially after Gu Ninglu started his apprenticeship.
Gu Ninglu was the “Heavenly Chosen One” recognized by everyone in the Heavenly Sword Sect, and it was not a simple task to cultivate a Heavenly Chosen One; it required countless resources.
And at that time, he was the one with the most resources in the entire Heavenly Sword Sect. Unfortunately, by then, he had already become an “iron rooster” (a miser). He had no interest in cultivating so-called Heavenly Chosen Ones; he only wanted to cultivate his future self who needed to re-cultivate.
He silently put down his chopsticks, feeling that his mood for eating was gone.
It wasn’t just Wen Qixue; the others also showed confused expressions at the sudden appearance of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion people.
Especially Rong Mingmo, who had just been complaining; she completely didn’t know how to respond at this moment and could only show a hint of an awkward smile.
Xia Changxun, who was sitting on the outside, walked a few steps to the outside of the private room. He felt it was strange: “Is the soundproofing formation of this private room not turned on? Or is it that this restaurant just opened and isn’t well-prepared, so the soundproofing formation is malfunctioning?”
Then, he saw outside the private room that the light symbolizing the soundproofing formation inside the room was indeed not on.
It should indeed have been a mishap.
But Xia Changxun felt that the problem wasn’t very big. What they were saying earlier, while not exactly kind words, hadn’t reached the level of “insulting.”
He walked back into the private room: “Fellow Daoists, my Junior Sister is not good with words. If you have any dissatisfaction, please forgive us.”
“You have come from afar; how about I pay the bill for you all today?”
Rong Mingmo apologized according to the situation: “I’m sorry.”
However, the people from the Heavenly Secret Pavilion did not buy it: “That’s it?”
He took a step forward and slammed his palm heavily on the table in the private room: “What is the use of your apology? Let your elder come and apologize, and arrange the best place in Danxia Valley for us!”
Lan Qinchuan stabilized the table: “Danxia Valley does not allow outsiders to enter. Even when we traded in the past, there was no precedent for letting people into Danxia Valley.”
“If you are not used to living in the City Lord’s Mansion, you can go 300 kilometers east out of the city. There is a teleportation array there leading to Youlan City, and there must be suitable inns there. In past trades, you all stayed there.”
At this moment, someone else sneered: “So, the hospitality of your Danxia Valley is like this. It seems that Danxia Valley doesn’t necessarily need the Heavenly Secret Pavilion’s order.”
Rong Mingmo continued to follow the situation: “That is also true.”
“My master has been tormented by the sudden longevity pill order these days. If you really take it back, then he should be quite happy.”
The Heavenly Secret Pavilion people sneered: “Then it will become a joke if it can’t be sold.”
Rong Mingmo seemed to have heard some huge joke and “ha”-ed: “Longevity pills can’t be sold?”
At this time, Lan Qinchuan tapped the table with his fingers, making two “du-du” sounds: “Although the Heavenly Secret Pavilion is sometimes mumbling and weird, they are not this kind of dandy. What exactly are you here for?”
Wen Qixue nodded secretly.
But for some reason, he always felt that the behavior of these Heavenly Secret Pavilion people who came to pick a fight gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
It seems I’ve met them before, and quite often too.