After ten minutes, Chu Zhaonan jumped up on his feet. “Are you sure?” His gaze was fiery, and he stared fixedly at Xu Yangyi. “Are you sure you want to contact him?”

“I’m sure.” Xu Yangyi’s expression was incomparably resolute. “Chu Zhaonan, when the pill master doesn’t arrive on the day of the auction, what do you think will happen to me?”

“They’ll draw out your soul.” Chu Zhaonan’s facial muscles twitched. He clenched his teeth and said icily, “A Core Formation ancestor… is an illustrious sage once in several hundred years. They’ve ascended step after step. They don’t care about your life or mine.”

“All are insects below Core Formation. No one mentions these words, but everyone knows it in their hearts.”

Xu Yangyi nodded and fiddled with a lighter. His gaze exposed a thread of contemplation. “One can search and inspect all of a person’s past memories by drawing the soul. Even the ten Dao Masters don’t care at all about the deterrence of Mingshui Province’s Umbran Armament.”

Chu Zhaonan was taciturn for a long while. He nodded deeply. “Ten days. In ten days, I’ll deliver your words.” He looked at Xu Yangyi. “After ten days… if there’s no news, I’ll help you prep an airplane ticket. You… can go to another country…”

“It’s already too late.” Xu Yangyi said indifferently. “Feel carefully.”

Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense far surpassed Chu Zhaonan’s. Chu Zhaonan skimmed around with his spiritual sense. Even if he was Chu Tianyi’s grandson, his face couldn’t help but change somewhat. There were at least thirty terribly fearsome spiritual senses, like grand mountains and vast seas, shrouding their entire location!

Foundation Establishment spiritual sense! In less than ten minutes, thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators had already received news and came! Like a cage, their spiritual senses were monitoring the present grounds!

Chu Zhaonan exhaled heavily. Forcefully nodding, he turned around and left. The inside of the room settled. Xu Yangyi didn’t care one bit about the spiritual senses outside. He lit a cigarette and sunk into rumination.

Great opportunity was likewise accompanied by great danger. He’d pondered many, many ways on how to reveal the Dao of Pills, but he couldn’t wait. Daomaster Floatingcloud’s Damocles Sword hung high over his head, and he’d entered seclusion for two consecutive years. If he didn’t come out with the Pill Dao, it wouldn’t make his reputation outstanding and cause all the Core Formation masters to take heart and interest. The execution of this mission was to take down Floatingcloud’s sword. Once he succeeded, the sword would forever be removed!

“Hurry up…” His spiritual sense brushed past the window and fell onto Chu Zhaonan, who was getting into his car. “These words are my true hidden aces…”

At the same time.

Bang!

 Following a crunching noise, Lu Gandang’s face reddened, and he sprayed out blood as he flew back several meters.

“Useless trash!” Thousandedge’s roar reverberated through the room. He gnashed his teeth rigidly, his complexion ashen. 

This loss of face… This extreme humiliation! How could I support this trash in everything today?!

“I beg your forgiveness!” Lu Gandang dropped to his knees and said. His nose and mouth were filled with blood, yet he dared not cough at all.

“Scram!” Thousandedge bellowed angrily. An invisible air wave of surging spiritual sense was enough to blow Lu Gandang several meters outside the room door! Soon after, he slammed into a wall with a rumble. This time, his seven apertures were flowing with blood and even his qi sea was aching dully. Thousandedge had truly just wanted to cripple him!

“Xu Yangyi…” In his office, Thousandedge deeply bit his lip and shut his eyes in terrible vexation. Who would’ve thought that a Qi Condensation insect could become so troublesome these days?

“He must die…” The opening of his eyes revealed a blood-red expanse. “I have a premonition… about his mission this time. It’s the first time I’m personally going to make a move. If I don’t succeed, it will also be the last…”

“This child… absolutely cannot be underestimated… His… use of his own advantages is too good… It can be said to be perfect!” Thousandedge painfully shut his eyes. “At the Four Great Joint Pools he borrowed from Ancestor Earthcleaver, the demon core, and the Umbran Armament’s deterrence to forcibly pressure Daomaster Floatingcloud’s avatar into retreat. He was then able to choke himself on two years of bitter cultivation, so that none would be capable of acting against him. Straight until he took out this card as he left seclusion… chaining these rings together… He is simply a fiend!!!”

“Success or failure lies between this single idea… I must kill this child during this mission!”

Lu Gandang hadn’t left but instead continued kneeling at the doorway. He allowed the blood in his mouth to spill freely and dared not utter a word.

“I… will grant you another opportunity.” Thousandedge looked coldly at Lu Gandang. “If you cannot accomplish it, the Featherwood Guard will be scarce one A-rank legion.”

“Understood!” Lu Gandang tightly clenched his teeth and answered resolutely. On the ground, his fist squeezed into a deathly pallor.

“Go.” Thousandedge calmed down and picked up a teacup. “When it is time to take action, I will notify you.”

Ten days passed by quickly. It seemed there were ten great invisible hands concealing everything. In these ten days, there was no one that shouldn’t have known about all that transpired at the Xingtian Legion’s inauguration ceremony. However, all those who should’ve known were aware.

“Meng Kuo.” In Mingshui Province at the Meng Clan, a fully bearded man was sitting at the master seat. His gaze like fire, he said heavily, “Settle 50% of the Meng Clan’s liquid capital. You have three days time.”

He was wearing a tunic suit and had swept-back hair. The qi besides him was gently vibrating. In a great hall that was about thirty-somewhat meters long, there were three armchairs ahead, and three men were settled on them. Behind, there were no seats. Everyone was standing in place, but none of them dared to complain.

[1]

There existed nothing else but the three men seated on the three armchairs and Foundation Establishment spiritual sense that swept over the whole audience like an ocean wave! It caused all the Qi Condensation cultivators besides these men to dare not speak a single word!

“Yes!” A seemingly seventy-year-old man stepped out from the ranks and bowed to the floor. His voice carried an absolute determination, absent of the slightest hesitation. “In accordance with Clan Elder’s directive, a total sum of 800 million Chinese dollars has already been converted into an equal amount of spirit stones. Moreover, Panshan City’s properties and golf course sums up to 400 million Chinese dollars. It’ll be on account before the month’s end.”

“It’s still very dangerous.” On another armchair, a seemingly sixty-year-old man with a head of gray hair gritted his teeth. “A pill master in the End of Days… Clan Elder, I still have a 200-year-old Firecore Lotus. Currently…”

The clan elder was dazed. After a brief moment, he said with difficulty, “That’s one of the ingredients for the Core Formation pill-elixir formula… You and I are both at the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment…”

“Don’t tell me we’re still going to wait now?!” A gray-haired old man fiercely slapped his chair. “Right now… to be able to fight over a single pill, it’s not known which Dao Master’s arcane chariot will be arriving! Once there are medicinal pills, who will even want to use pill-elixirs?! This is our Meng Clan’s chance to rank as China’s top clan!” 

“If This Throne can exchange a Firecore Lotus for such an opportunity… it would be worth it.”

The last old man on an armchair sighed and said quietly, “In the end, it returns to this mere opportunity, eh…”

“This opportunity, empty like the void and indistinct like mist… yet it has drawn so many to scramble around like ducks. It has caused several apex clans to sell off their family properties… This Xingtian Legion, no matter what in the future, they will inevitably be marked in the annals of history.”

“Is there anything else? What about our commercial properties in Tianfeng City?” At the same time in a famous building in Tianfeng City, dozens of people were sitting at a very long conference table. Those who were unaware believed them all to be opening the floor with a great assembly related to their company’s future. None could look upon the qi inside which had almost solidified because of the raging emotions within the room.

“We’ve already dumped the green properties. Since we’re in an urgent need for cash, we’re in a deficit of at least several hundred million Chinese dollars.” A middle-aged woman pushed on her glasses. “Clan Elder, take a look at this.”

A data sheet was placed before everyone. A man at the head seat glanced at it, and his entire face scrunched up.

Mingshui’s Meng Clan had sold Panshan City’s golf course, which had financed 700 million, and dumped 800 million in stocks...

Zhuzhou’s Song Clan had three gemstone businesses. In total, it was 1.2 billion Chinese dollars...

Beijing’s Lou Clan had completely sold off Beijing’s villa courtyard, Beijing’s most luxurious commercial property, a forecasted 1.5 billion Chinese dollars… 

Nantong’s Fang Clan had cleared out all their stock of pill-elixirs and produced three Foundation Establishment pill formulas...

Yet this was still just the surface amount!

“This… This…” The man’s eyes were quivering, and he slammed the table afterwards. “Are they crazy?! Wouldn’t these reserves run several decades of operations?! At the minimum, this has emptied half the liquid capital for these apex clans! This is just a possible opportunity!”

No one answered. The other clans were like this but weren’t they the same, as well? Things were stirring into action… All the clans with the qualifications to know this information had all begun to move. None would bother haggling over current deficits because all of them knew that the re-emergence of the Dao of Pills, this grand affair, had roused not only mere Foundation Establishment seniors. 

In the same vein, the ordinarily unseen Core Formation ancestors, high and lofty like clouds, we’re arriving in their arcane chariots!

Each and everyone of these names were akin to great stone steles. The clans simply had no way to compete against these ancestors. To them, the only chance was to smash down with money! Smash down until the pill master nodded!

In Panshan City, a few of the Xingtian Legion’s personnel were already busy sweating up a storm. Cheng Jianfeng set down a telephone, his brows beaded with sweat. His heart was frantically pounding.

He’d never experienced such a sensation… Ordinarily, he only heard news of Foundation Establishment cultivators. One or two had called, yet he had to decline. But even in this rejection, he refused to be frightened, to have his heart skip and skin to crawl. Over-excitement made his fingers somewhat shaky. He clenched his teeth as he wrote down four characters on a jade slip at the side.

 Zhuzhou’s Song Clan.

It was already the twelfth day since the auction had been announced. Xu Yangyi’s desk had already accrued tens of business cards! All of them were from each province’s famous top clans, peak powers! However, Xu Yangyi didn’t divide his attention at all. The weight of these business cards were heavy, but they fell short to a true weight like Sun Wukong’s golden staff! A Core Formation imperial mandate!

[2]

“I don’t believe…” His gaze carried a wisp of burning excitement. “That all of you will be indifferent!”

Thirteen days passed. Fourteen days passed. On the night of the fifteenth day.

Swoosh… Swoosh…

 At the instant the clock struck midnight, all the trees outside the room moved freely in the absence of the wind. In the sky, the stars appeared to twinkle with a boundless magnificence and dyed the entire sky with a layer of silver-white gauze! Meanwhile, on the ground, all shadows seemed to have been imprisoned. They transformed into inanimate objects, unable to budge!

It had completely surpassed natural law! As if the area had become a canvas, and all the myriad beings were the backdrop! There was no tumultuously surging spiritual pressure, only the descent of a sovereign king. For this king, nature was willing to make path! And moreover alter its own rules!

“This is…” In the Featherwood Guard’s office, Thousandedge gasped coldly. In a flash, he opened his eyes in disbelief. “How… How could…”

In the Xingtian Legion’s office, Xu Yangyi quickly stood up, his eyes glowing with radiant light. 

He’s come… He’s finally arrived!

On the twenty-first day… still nine days left until the auction would convene… 

he 

had come at long last!

1. Armchair is referring to a very specific piece of Chinese furniture, but it sounds weird to phrase it as such. Look up: 太師椅. Literally means: “High Teacher Chair”.

2. In legend, Sun Wukong is said to have a staff that morphs in size and weight. It is extremely heavy.

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