In an alleyway in Violet Moon city, a filthy creature lay on the ground, with bottles of cheap wine spread all around it. Its eyes were bloodshot, its expression hideous. As it lay there, a group of young men appeared. They saw the creature spread out on the ground, and saw the number of wine bottles scattered all around it. Despite its pathetic appearance, the creature seemed to be rich; the expensive wine bottles spread all around it were testament to that very fact.
“Elder Brother Ming, seems like we’ve managed to find a nice and fat cow, ready to be slaughtered.”
One of the youths spoke, his eyes reflecting the greed he was attempting to rein in.
Another one stepped forward; judging by the respectful looks directed at him, he seemed to be the leader of the gang. He drew out a dagger from his pocket, and brought it close to the neck of the creature lying on the ground.
“Come on now, hand over all your liquor and money, and we might let you go. What do you say?”
The creature did not move, nor did it avert its gaze; it continued staring at the person who was holding it hostage.
“Don’t stare at our Elder Brother like that, you piece of sh*t!”
One of the youth’s lackeys’s said, punctuating his sentence with a kick directed towards the creature. It made no attempts to either parry or block the kick, and took it without making as much as a whimper.
“What? Are you deaf? Brother Ming here is a cultivator! Unless you want us to gouge your eyeballs out, answer!”
The creature just lay there, staring defiantly at the group. Its blood red eyes betrayed a terrifying hidden bloodthirst, and the men felt their a chill go down their spine. But how could they retreat? If word spread that Ming Feng’s gang ran due to a drunkard’s stare, they would lose all face. After all, they had with them an immortal cultivator! Humans fear those stronger than them, and they fear things they doin’t understand, or don’t know. Ming Feng found the creature’s stare disturbing, and for some reason, he felt that the creature was an existence that he should fear; but how could he, an immortal cultivator fear a measely mortal?
“That’s it, looks like the vermin that infest these alleys have forgotten the terror of being up against an immortal cultivator. Lets drag him out onto the streets and make him an example. To think that a drunkard dares oppose me, Ming Feng, the eldest son of the Ming family, and a Qi Condensation Immortal Cultivator!”
The four other men behind him came forward, and surrounded the drunkard in question. Each one of them positioned himself near a limb of the sorry excuse for a human who was sprawled on the floor, with grime making it impossible to guess as to what colour his skin was. They bent down to pick him up, when one of the men suddenly let out a bone chilling scream. The others turned to see him on the floor, clutching his hand, which was horribly disfigured, with blood spurting out of it. His horrified expression soon became contagious, as the other three felt their own hands bend in ways they never thought possible, and waves after waves of indescribable pain surged through their nervous systems, all the way to their brains.
The man then proceeded to cut off the disfigured limbs using a dagger he had drawn for within his clothes, and blood gushed out of the bodies of the four who had charged forward.
The onlookers were flabbergasted; a drunk man, no, a drunk animal, had incapacitated four strong men. This result would shock anyone. The onlooking Ming Feng and his companions were smarter than the ones who had gone to pick up the man; since they had felt a certain degree of danger from him initially they had let the muscle brains handle the matter of picking up the man. And looking at the scene in front of them they could only thank the heavens, while cursing them at the same time; thanking them for the sense of foreboding which had prevented them from taking action, and cursing their terrible luck, which had caused them to offend such a monster. Yet, none of them fled; after all their boss was Ming Feng, the future leader of the Ming Clan, and an immortal cultivator. No matter how fearsome an ordinary person, he wouldn’t be able to match up the least against an immortal cultivator.
Ming Feng was quite scared; although he was an immortal cultivator, the sense of danger that he got from the man was not lesser than the sense of danger perceived by his subordinates; if anything, it was only greater. Ming Feng took a deep breath to calm himself down; he was the son of the Ming Clan of Violet Moon city, a clan with a Foundation Establishment Cultivator! He moved forward, and raised his hands up to his chest, showing his empty hands, in what he hoped what a peaceful gesture. He then spoke,
“Brother, I, Ming Feng thank you for taking care of the trash that had accumulated inside my group. I find that your strength is quite decent; would you consider joining me? Not as a subordinate, but as my younger brother. I guarantee that you will get as much wine and money as you want; and not this cheap wine that you were drinking. My brothers drink fine wine which is almost comparable to wine drunk by Qi Condensation immortal cultivators. And if your talent in immortal cultivation is good, then the Ming Clan will make you a full member, and even find you a bride, maybe even a daughter of the Ming Clan.”
Listening to the words of their leader, the faces of the four disabled bullies turned pale, as they struggled to staunch the blood flowing from their missing limbs. The ones behind Ming Feng all had superior looks, as they congratulated themselves on having escaped the fate of cripples. A few seemed shocked by the behavior that their leader was displaying, but most them behaved as if they didn’t care about their former gang members.
The man didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes showed the contempt that he was hiding. Looking at his superior expression, Ming Feng could no longer hold it in. For him, a son of the Ming Clan to be looked down upon by a random drunkard, he couldn’t take it.
He charged, and punched the man, who didn’t dodge it, but in Ming Feng’s eyes, he couldn’t dodge it. The very air seemed to tremble as Ming Feng’s fist met the man’s forehead. The forehead is one of the strongest parts of the human body; moreover, the man was an immortal cultivator, which made his fleshly body much stronger than that of ordinary mortals. Blood flowed down his face, as he continued to stare at his attacker.
Ming Feng lost the ability to think; a drunkard had survived an attack in which he had infused his Qi; he had survived the attack of a Qi Condensation Stage cultivator, with his fleshly body alone! The ones behind Ming Feng did nothing, for the scene that had played out in front of their eyes had seemingly taken away their ability to react.
The man, with blood flowing down his face seemed like a demon, finally moved forward, and attacked Ming Feng. A single punch, and Ming Feng’s body fell to the ground, lifeless. A few of the survivors panicked, and ran away, but they had not even gone a few metres when a hazy figure appeared beside the one in the lead, and punched him; he broke into tiny pieces, and blood sprayed everywhere as he died. The blood sprayed over the others who were running, but they had no time to react to the death of their fellow gang member, as they followed him to the netherworld soon after.
The ones who had not run initially did not run not because they did not want to. Rather, they did not run because they could not run; terror had robbed them of the ability to command their own body.
The man, now drenched in blood, walked towards the immobile persons, and killed them all. There were few passersby, and the most of them had run away when they saw the man hunting down the fleeing bullies. The man did not notice that of all the passersby, a single one had passed by two times, and had fled screaming both the times after looking at the scene inside the alley. He didn’t notice that very passerby running towards the Ming Clan headquarters, praying that information about the Clan’s young master would be enough to free him of his longstanding debt towards the Ming Clan.
“Patriarch! Patriarch Wu!”
A harried looking man rushed into a salubrious room with purple curtains and rugs, and with dark crimson chairs arranged in a circle in the center. The chairs in the room were empty, save for two. One of the chairs was occupied by a large man with bulging muscles, whose clothes struck a contrast with the luxurious and expensive interiors of the room, while the other chair, which was slightly larger than the other chairs, was occupied by a pale faced man, whose beady eyes and frail figure made him seem weak, but all the members of the Ming Clan knew that he was anything but weak.
He was the Patriach of the Ming Clan, Ming Wu, a late-Core Formation expert, who was infamous for his ruthless and cold blooded methods; the muscular man was the first elder of the Ming Clan, Ming Yun, who was an elder of the Ming Clan, an Early Core Formation expert.
The two men were engaged in a serious discussion when the messenger rushed in. Ming Wu turned, and gave the man a cold stare, which almost made his heart stop, but he clenched his fist and prepared to speak, because he knew that the price of not informing the Patriarch about such a serious matter would definitely be much higher than the price for interrupting a serious discussion. He bowed, and directed his gazr towards Ming Yun, who nodded his head, before continuing.
Ming Yun had the reputation of being a simple and straightforward man, and he was the only man capable of changing the Patriarch’s mind. He had the support of many clan members, and was touted the next Patriarch of the Ming Clan.The clan members would often make sure that they had his support before speaking; the messenger’s glance and Ming Yun’s nod signified that Ming Yun would protect the messenger from the Patriarch’s rage, atleast to a certain extent.
Taking a deep breath, the messenger spoke,
“Patriarch, the young master Feng attempted to bully a man in one of the city’s alleys, and was killed by the man; All of young master Feng’s companions have also perished. A passerby who owed the Clan a favor came to the clan to report this matter; a squad has been dispatched to the location where the young master was killed, and the person who informed us about the young master’s death is currently being held until the death of young master Feng is confirmed. We have also elicited from him a description of the killer, and our best artists are busy recreating his face as we speak.”
The messenger spoke quickly, and let loose a barrage of words, while praying that speaking quickly might allow him to escape before the Patriarch lost control. The handrests of ming Wu’s chair shattered, and a bloodthirsty aura filled the room, and the messenger found that breathing had become much more difficult than before; luckily for him, another pressure suppressed the bloodthirsty aura, and the breathing became easy again.
“Leave us!”
The muscular man, Ming Yun spoke. The messenger gave the muscular man a look of gratitude, before bowing and departing from the room, while thanking the heavens and blessing Ming Yun.
“Patriarch, you need to calm down. We don’t know whether or not the news is true; the young master may still be alive.”
“Why would that passer by lie, when he knows that nothing good can come out of it? No, Feng’er is dead! And soon, so shall his killer!”
“We need to be cautious, Patriarch. For a person to kill Feng’er, who was at the early foundation establishment stage, the opponent must have been atleast an early foundation establishment stage immortal cultivator. Moreover, he must have killed young master Feng quickly, or the Violet Guards would have definitely stopped their conflict. That means that the opposing party must have had the strength of atleast mid foundation establishment stage. Such a strength, while not formidable, is definitely not insignificant in Violet Moon City. We need to ensure that we do not end up offending a major power, or that will spell doom for the Ming Clan.”
The gaze of Ming Wu turned cold, as he stared at his companion.
“Are you suggesting that if the killer has a powerful backer, we should just let this slide? Never! My son has died, and I will find his killer!”
“But we need to ensure that we don’t end up offending a major power!”
“I don’t care about major powers; I created this clan, I can destroy it if I need to! Oh, but maybe you are happy that my son died, eh, Ming Yun? Maybe now you can finally kill me and take over the Ming Clan?”
Ming Yun bowed, and said,
“This one’s heart is filled with sadness, nothing else. I, Ming Yun, would never take over the Ming Clan. Since Patriach has spoken, I shall obey. The Ming Clan shall mobilize all the clan members, and will do everthing possible to find and kill the murderer of the young master of the Ming Clan!”
Appearances are not everything; although Ming Yun appeared simple on the surface, he would never have survived in the ruthless world of cultivators if he was as simple as his appearance suggested. His simple exterior hid a clever and determined brain. His choice of words was impeccable, and he managed to calm the Patriarch down. He made a show of his loyalty to the Patriarch, and changed the crime in question from killing to murdering.
As he dealt with the Patriarch, he sighed in the privacy of his own mental space. It looked like Patriarch Wu would use this opportunity to destroy him. His influence within the clan had been growing, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to dispose of a potential threat.
It was time for him to leave. He had served the Ming Clan for a really long time; he wasn’t a member of the clan to begin with; he had married into the clan and after his wife’s death, he had continued to serve the clan, like his wife had wished on her death bed. But now, it looked like staying in the clan would cause his death, and knowing how much his wife had loved him, Ming Yun knew that she would rather that he lived by ‘betraying’ the clan rather than dying for no mistake of his.
He called his loyal servant, and gave him instructions to prepare horses and supplies; in his mind, the seed of a plan had already started germinating. He had to move fast before his actions drew the attention of the already paranoid Ming Wu. He called in all the favors that others owed him, and visited his wife’s grave, and waited in his room. He was waiting for his spies to reveal the location of the killer of young master Ming Feng. He received news that his spies had discovered a suspicious figure wandering around in the city’s alleyways; his appearance matched the description that their witness had given. It would be another ten minutes before the Clan Patriarch would be informed about the matter. Indeed, all the clan members respected Ming Yun and were willing to bend rules and delay information if he asked them to. This influence was the very thing that Ming Wu feared, for most of the clan members did not possess respect of this kind for him. They only feared him.
Ming Yun raced towards the alleyway where the killer was last seen. Upon reaching that area, he started wandering about in a seemingly random pattern, all the while keeping a cautious look out for the killer. He mentally calculated the time, and he realized that he had very little time until Ming Wu was given the news regarding the killer; he had to find the killer, and fast. No one was allowed to use their divine sense inside the Violet Moon City other than Violet Fate Sect disciples. Breaking this rule would cause the offender to be hunted and punished, by the Violet Fate Sect’s garrison inside Violet Moon City. This rule made searching for the killer a much more time consuming task than it would be otherwise.
He sped up his search, and came across a filthily man in one of the alleyways, with red eyes. Despite his shoddy appearance, Ming Yun noted that his clothes were of the finest quality, ones even the Ming Clan could not hope to afford. When he saw that, the corners of Ming Yun’s mouth rose, for the probabilty of his plan succeeding had just gone up.
He walked towards the man, when the man spoke.
“Who are you, and what do you want, cultivator?”
Ming Yun stopped moving, and replied.
“My name is Ming Yun; fear not, I have no intention of harming you. In fact, I have come to propose a deal which I think you will find is to your liking.”
The man snorted.
“No intention of harming me despite the fact that I killed your young master? I am not a naïve idiot. You just want me to let down my guard so that you can capture me. Ask your Patriarch to send someone smarter next time; oh wait, you won’t be able to tell him that, because you are about to join your young master in the underworld.”
Ming Yun sighed. If not for his situation, he would have thrashed the man soundly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that, for he needed the man. There was only one way to convince him. Ming Yun then unleashed his cultivation base, and terrifying pressure weighed down on the man. He found that under Ming Yun’s pressure, even breathing had become difficult, let alone moving. Then, the pressure disappeared, but in its place, numerous questions popped up inside the man’s brain. Who was this man Ming Yun, and what did he want from him.
“Killing you is as easy as slaughtering a chicken for me. However, I do not want to. What is your name?”
The man gritted his teeth, and said.
“Liu Yanbing.”
The eyebrows of the listener shot up; The Liu Clan was an extremely powerful and illustrious clan, whose power was much, much greater than that of the Ming Clan.
“Are you a member of the Liu Clan? If yes, why are you here?”
“I was a member of the Liu Clan, but I left it a month ago. I am here of my own accord, and was minding my own business when your” the man spat, “damned young master Feng threatened me. So I killed him.”
Ming Yun found that story quite plausible; the young master would often roam the darker sides of Violet Moon City, and would use his clan’s name to bully the poor souls who inhabited this part of the city. As for the reason why Liu Yanbing had abandoned the Liu Clan, he couldn’t care less about.
“What is your current cultivation?”
Liu Yanbing regarded him carefully before answering,
“Early Foundation Establishment. Yours?”
“Early Core Formation.”
Liu Yanbing sucked in a cold breath, as he realized the wide gap in cultivation that existed between him and his opponent. Then, the face of a certain alchemist appeared in his mind, and his rage bubbled up. However, a heavy hand on his shoulder dragged him from his thoughts to the real world. He looked up to see Ming Yun looking at him.
“I don’t know why you are getting angry, nor do I care, but unless we get a move on, both of our heads are going to be decorating the Ming Clan’s gate tomorrow. If you want to live, follow me, quickly.”
Liu Yanbing followed Ming Yun, without saying anything. He couldn’t sense any murderous intention from him, and he knew that he would die if he stayed in his current location. Initially, he had not bothered escaping because he knew that to leave the city, he would have to pass the city gates, and doing so would just alert the Ming Clan to his location, and he would be powerless to fight back. But with a Peak Core Formation cultivator by his side, he felt that his chances of surviving had surged.
The two of them headed towards one of the gates of Violet Moon City. As they exited the city, Liu Yanbing spotted a man bowing towards Ming Yun. Inside a small hut outside Violet Moon City, Liu Yanbing and Ming Yun picked up the supplies that had been set aside and then climbed onto the horses that were tied outside. An odd concoction, when smeared onto their faces, changed their appearance; the changes didn’t seem significant, but an extra wrinkle there, and a mole here, along with a messy haircut made it so that unless one inspected the two closely, they wouldn’t find any features in common with the now wanted Liu Yanbing and Ming Yun. Liu Yanbing could not help but wonder as to how his companion had planned an escape in such a short time.
They were on a road which ran through a forest, and connected the Violet Moon City to a neighboring city, Palm City. The forest itself was not that different from the other forests that Liu Yanbing had seen, except for the fact that small hills were more widespread in this forest.
As their horses galloped, Liu Yanbing finally asked a question which had been gnawing him for a long time.
“ Why are you running from your own clan? A core formation expert expert is very valuable, and few clans would choose to abandon him. So why would the Ming Clan want to chase or kill you? And why did the man at the gate bow to you?”
His companion did not answer for a long time. When Liu Yanbing had given up all hope of receiving an answer from him, he spoke.
“I married into the Ming Clan, not for the sake of receiving power, but because I loved my wife, and she did not want to leave her clan, Ming Clan. Later, she died. It was due to a disease, and when she was on her death bed, she asked me to live on, and also made a request, a request that I serve the Ming Clan in her stead, and for many years, that’s what I did. But the Patriarch, Ming Wu, grew wary of my growing influence in the clan. Now that his son is dead, he has lost his successor. Due to a….problem, he can’t produce anymore heirs. His son had considerable talent, and given the amount of resources that he was pouring into his son, he would definitely have become the pillar of the clan. That would have ensured the position of Ming Wu in the clan even in his old age. But with his son dead, he is afraid that I would attempt to take over the clan; given my influence and my cultivation base, coupled with the fact that the young genius of the clan is no more, I could actually take over, but managing a clan is not something that I am capable of. And that is why I escaped the clan, and that is why the Ming Clan is willing to kill one of its core formation cultivators.”
Liu Yanbing did not answer; he did not know what to say. After the awkward silence had persisted for a while, he asked a question.
“Why are we fleeing by horse? Won’t this make it easier for the Ming Clan members to catch us?”
“Of course it will. That’s why we are doing this. Because no one would ever think of suspecting two innocent travelers like us of being immortal cultivators. Immortal cultivators would never waste their time traveling by horse; that’s what all the people who are searching for us would think. If they do stop to talk to us, it will only be to ask us if we have seen any immortal cultivators.”
“Oh right, I didn’t give you the pill yet. Here.”
Ming Yun tossed a pill to Yanbing. He caught it, and looked at it, as a wave of emotions swept over him. It had been long, too long since he had last consumed a good pill. And judging by the color and fragrance emitted by the pill in his hands, it was a pill with atleast 50 percent strength.
He saw Ming Yun looking at him with an odd look in his eyes, and quickly swallowed the pill. As it traveled down his throat, he could not help but think back to the time when he was a glorious member of the Violet Fate Sect. Master Alchemists would prepare pills for him, and all the other cultivators would bow towards him, for he was a chosen of the Violet Fate Sect, and his future, while not blindingly bright, was nonetheless quite bright. But then, a single misstep in order to impress his worthless underlings, and everything, he had lost everything. After Fang Mu had entered his name on the pill blacklist, he knew he was hot water. What he didn’t know was how hot the water was. Only too late did he realize that he had stepped into boiling hot water, and ended being completely burnt.
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His worthless subordinates abandoned him, his sworn brothers shunned him, his clan had disowned him. He had no one talk to, let alone anyone to depend on. He left the Violet Fate Sect, for he could not bear the scornful gazes and the mockery that was directed at him. He, a mighty chosen, had towered above everyone for his whole life, but now, he was being towered upon, by the other Chosen of the Violet Fate Sect. Even ordinary disciples looked down on him.
He left the Sect, and tried joining other clans; but unfortunately for him, during the time when he was a Chosen of the Violet Fate Sect, he had made too many enemies, and too few friends. In each and every single clan he visited, there was atleast one person he had offended in the past, and this made it impossible for him to join any clan.
Revenge fueled him for many days, but what could he, an ordinary disciple do to a master alchemist, moreover an extremely gifted master alchemist. He attempted to use his old connections, only to find that everyone he knew had decided to sever all connections with him. The Liu Clan has disowned him for in order to avoid offending the East Pill Division; he wasn’t worth offending the master alchemists of the East Pill Division. The others had cut all ties with him for that very reason.
He then became depressed, and spent his days drinking in the alleyways of Violet Moon City. As a former Chosen and a former member of the illustrious Liu Clan, he had enough money to waste away his entire life, and that is what he did. Sometimes people would come looking for trouble, but he would just bear the pain; it reminded him of the fact that he was still alive. When Ming Feng and his underlings had attacked him, he had planned on bearing the pain; after all, what could they, those trifling mortals, hope to do to him, an immortal cultivator? But looking at the bootlicking subordinates, and the arrogant attitude of Ming Feng, he could not help but remember the times when he had behaved just as arrogantly, and his subordinates had licked his boots just as eagerly. The memories that he had suppressed broke free, and he remembered the Paradise where he had spent his life. He could not control his rage, and he killed them, hoping that the memories would go away, but they didn’t. They just kept getting stronger and stronger, and more vivid and colorful.
The excitement from the escape and the fear of being caught had suppressed them, but looking at the pill had caused them to burst forth with renewed vigor, and he was filled with hate; he felt like tearing apart the one who had pulled him down from heaven. He wanted to kill Fang Mu.
All the murderous thoughts that were teeming inside his brain had caused him to emit a terrifying bloodthirsty aura. Ming Yun felt the aura of a beast, and turned hastily, and found that his companion was the source of that wild and fierce aura. His expression changed, and he got down from his horse, and and walked towards the oblivious Liu Yanbing, before lifting him in the air by his throat.
Liu Yanbing was moving closer and closer to Fang Mu; he didn’t notice him, for he was busy refining pills, and his gaze was directed towards the cauldron in front of him, and his back was facing Liu Yanbing. He quietly drew a dagger out, and moved closer and closer to the immobile alchemist, and then stabbed downwards. Blood flew everywhere, and the dazed Fang Mu was pushed to the ground, as Liu Yanbing continued to stab his body, continuosly. Fang Mu’s face grew pale, but he found that he could do nothing. Suddenly, Liu Yanbing stopped stabbing. He clutched his throat, for he found that he was unable to breath. The world around him shattered, and he saw that he was being held up by Ming Yun, and the reason for his breathlessness was that Ming Yun was holding him up by his throat.
“Le-Let me go.” Yanbing squeezed out.
“Let me make one thing clear. The only reason you’re still alive is because I think that my chances of surviving are greater with a foundation establishment cultivator supporting me. However, if you are unable to contain your bloodlust, the chances of me being discovered increase. So, unless you reign in that bloodthirsty aura of yours, I kill you down like a dog.”
Ming Yun said, his face remaining expressionless throughout.
“Ok, n-now let me go!” Liu Yanbing, in the face of certain death, controlled his aura and caused it to disperse. Seeing that the aura had dispersed, Ming Yun let him go, and climbed onto his horse, and continued moving forward like nothing had happened.
Liu Yanbing clenched his teeth in anger, but he knew that he could do nothing to the man in front of him, so he swallowed his rage, and mounted his horse, before following Ming Yun.
They kept travelling till dusk. When the rays of the sun could no longer provide illumination, Ming Yun led his horse up a hill, and entered a cave which was located on the side of a hill. Liu Yanbing followed him, grudgingly. Ever since the throat clutching incident, an awkward and cold atmosphere had existed between the two, and both of them had not bothered to speak in order the break the chilly silence.
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The fire crackled gently, and a few sparks flew out, and shone brightly, before dying. Suddenly, Ming Yun spoke up.
“Do you see those flying sparks?”
Liu Yanbing had not expected his companion to talk, especially not about sparks, so he found it difficult to reply, but after a few seconds, he managed to squeeze out a “Yes” while nodding his head.
“You and I are both like those sparks. We have separated from our ‘fires’ and will die out soon.”
Liu Yanbing chose to remain silent; He knew that he was but a spark, and he knew that he could not survive in the outside world with his trifling cultivation base. He had long since realized that the reason why cultivators stronger than him had feared him was because of his strong background, as Chosen of the Violet Fate Sect and as member of the Liu Clan. Without the backing of those two powers, most of them wouldn’t even put him in their eyes.
“How did you get your hands on such high quality pills?”
Ming Yun looked up at him, before answering with a question of his own.
“How did you know that those pills were high quality pills?”
Liu Yanbing smiled.
“Even a branch family member of the Liu Clan would recognize a high quality pill if he saw one. Although I no longer am a member of the Liu Clan, it doesn’t mean that I can’t recognizer good pills. I have answered your question, its your turn to answer mine. How did you get your hands on a high quality pill? Such a pill would have been sold for an extremely high price, and I don’t think that you would have been able to afford it. And pills which can hide your cultivation base are even more expensive.”
“I made it myself.”
I made it myself. These four words made Liu Yanbing breathless, and then dizzy, before he fell onto his knees, and stabilized himself. I made it myself. Those words, if true, meant that Ming Yun, along with his power as a core formation expert, was also an alchemist. And an alchemist who could concoct a pill with fifty percent strength! His pills were equal to the pills of the peak master alchemists of the East Pill Division!
At this point suspicions regarding his departure from the Ming Clan once again arose; for a clan to sacrifice an alchemist who could create pills with 50 percent strength? Inconceivable; no matter how serious his or her crime, no clan would sacrifice such an alchemist. This held true even in the case of some of the larger clans like the Liu Clan.
He gritted his teeth, and then kowtowed.
“Please ac cept me as your disciple!”
Ming Yun looked up, his eyes reflecting some of the amusement he felt at the his companion’s behavior.
“I could find talented apprentices if I truly wished to pass down my Dao of alchemy. Since I have not made any attempts to find an apprentice, I obviously have no intention of passing down my skills. What makes you think that I would accept you as my disciple?”
“There is no cause for you to take me on your disciple; but if, if I manage to learn the method to concoct even one pill , in that case, don’t you think that the chances of us surviving might go up?”
“Hah; chances of surviving would go up? You seem to know nothing about the Dao of Alchemy. One needs to memorize the names of countless ingredients, and one needs to practice for years before they manage to gain the qualifications to call themselves ‘alchemists’. Hell, you might not even be capable of practicing alchemy for all I know!”
“I might not have talent, but I am determined!”
“Determined? Do you think that determination alone is enough for you to walk the path of alchemy? How naïve. If determination was all it took, then all the apprentice alchemists who have toiled forever, they would all have become master alchemists at least! The Dao of alchemy not only requires one to be determined, but it also requires that the person have talent. Without talents, there isn’t much you can do; its harsh, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
Drops of sweat fell from Liu Yanbing’s forehead to the ground, as he maintained his position, not willing to give up. After the time it took for 3 incense sticks to burn, Ming Yun spoke.
“I can see that you are determined; I will teach you a basic method of concocting pills. Oh, don’t get me wrong; I am not going all soft hearted on you. Like you said, having a person who can make even one pill by my side would be a great help.”
He then tossed a jade slip to his prostrating disciple.
“That slip has information about a method for concocting pills; this method works even if you don’t have any talent; however, those who are unable to bear humongous amounts of pain cannot practice this method. Yes, this method subjects you to a lot of pain. Think about how painful being dipped in lava after having your skin peeled would be? That painful, and that’s just to create a basic pill. As the level of the pill increases, so does the amount of pain that needs to be endured in order to successfully concoct it.”
Liu Yanbing couldn’t help but muse when he heard the odd requirements and the pain that one would have to bear in order to practice it. But he wasn’t going to give up; what was pain compared to the humiliation that he had endured? What was pain compared to the hopelessness and despair that he had felt?
He had fallen inside a pit, a dark and horrifying pit, and now, a rope had been thrown inside; the rope had thorns, but he would be damned if the thorns deterred him. He was going to grab the rope, thorns and all, and he was going to climb out, and then he was going to push that damn Fang Mu, along with all the people who had betrayed him, into the very pit they had pushed him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A thin veil of mist covered the forest. A group of immortal cultivators zoomed through the mist, all the while maintaining a state of concentration, as they strained their eyes and ears for a sign of the criminals they were pursuing.
As they kept racing ahead, one of them spoke.
“We haven’t seen any human, let alone a cultivator, despite using so many treasures; other than those two travelers of course. We should have asked them whether or not they had seen any cultivators.”
These words were directed towards the man in the lead, who was, shockingly, the man that Liu Yanbing had seen at the gate. Judging by the attitude of the other people in the search party, he was the leader.
“Ming Zhao, for a moment, put yourself in their shoes; they did not have cultivation bases, and were obviously nothing more than poor mortals. For immortal cultivators to suddenly stop and question them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they died due to a heart attack then and there. Even if they don’t die, what do you think they’ll do? For them, the ones who were fleeing are as dangerous as us, and offending either them or us? That will really put them in a tight spot, don’t you think?”
“Weak arguments, Ming Dong. If you fail to find Ming Yun and the murderer, then the Patriarch will be furious with you. But you don’t mind, do you? For the sake of your master, Ming Yun, you are willing to face death, aren’t you?”
Another member of the search party spoke up. Ming Dong didn’t reply, he just sneered. And the group continued moving forward, in search of the two cultivators.
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“Damn him! That Ming Yun! Not only did he withhold information about my son’s murderer, he also met him, and escaped together with him! When I find him, I will not kill him, oh no, I won’t. I will first cut off his limbs, then I will gouge out his eyeballs, and then, only then shall I kill him. As for that murderer? I won’t kill him, I won’t. I’ll keep him alive, and I will use him like a dummy, a dummy to try out all my torture techniques on.”
The elders of the Ming Clan sat in their chairs, squirming uncomfortably at their Patriarch’s gory description of the torture that he would subject Ming Yun and Liu Yanbing to.
“Tell each and every cultivator inside this city; whoever catches Ming Yun or the murderer will become an elder in the Ming Clan. If anyone catches both, the murderer and Ming Yun, then I will immediately proclaim him as my heir, and the future Patriarch of the Ming Clan.”
The Ming Clan, while not the most powerful clan in Violet Moon City, was one of the stronger clans, and the prospect of becoming its future Patriarch was an extremely alluring one; this reward was bound to send countless cultivators scurrying, and would almost certainly result in the capture of Ming Yun and Liu Yanbing.
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“So, can you concoct it? The pill whose recipe I gave you?”
Liu Yanbing bowed to his master before replying.
“This junior can barely concoct the Qi Accumulation Pill; due to this disciple’s poor skill, he has ended up using up all of the 100 year old May Die extract.”
Ming Yun snorted, and tossed out a bag.
“That bag has more May Die extract; use it carefully, since I can’t very well stop in a town or city to replenish my supplies.”
Inwardly, he could not help but marvel at the monstrous pace that his disciple had shown; a few weeks, that’s the time that Liu Yanbing had taken to learn how to concoct a simple pill, the Qi Accumulation Pill.
The Qi Accumulation Pill basically helped a person recover his energy after a battle; it could also be consumed during battle if one needed to fight a really long battle. After Liu Yanbing had learned how to concoct the Qi Accumulation Pill, the odds of their survival had increased by quite a lot.
“Continue practicing; each and every pill you concoct is like an extra lifeline at this point; all of them will dictate whether we live or die.”
“If you learn how to concoct the Cultivation Veil Pill, then the load on me will decrease by a lot; I will be able to concoct pills to boost out cultivation. So, hurry up, disciple.”
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The days passed quickly; often groups of fortune seekers would pass, but most of them didn’t spare more than a glance at the two travelers, for they could not detect even the slightest Qi fluctuation from their bodies; this would happen only in two cases. Case one was where the other party had an unfathomably high cultivation base, and case 2 was that they had consumed pills to disguise their cultivation. Case 3 was that they were ordinary mortals. Case 1 and 2 seemed highly unlikely, since cultivators with a cultivation level that high are extremely rare, and also since pills that can hide your cultivation base are extremely rare, and require a furnace lord to concoct them.
While most of the cultivators ignored them, a couple of them did come down and ask them questions;
Had they seen 2 cultivators fly past them? How many search parties had they noticed? Had anyone else come down to ask questions?
None of them suspected that the two simple looking travelers might actually be the ones they were searching for.
As the days passed, Liu Yanbing’s skill in alchemy also rose; by a terrifying amount.
“This boy has a lot of potential. He is already able to create low level Cultivation Veil Pill. With his talent, he could have actually practiced the orthodox pill creation method. Oh well, at least the chances of me surviving increase with this brat helping me. If only he didn’t waste so many ingredients…. Even if he wastes low level ingredients, it isn’t a problem, but when he starts wasting expensive ingredients like that thousand year ginseng, or that Raflesia nectar, it makes my heart ache.”
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A group of cultivators where moving through the sky at quite a high speed. The groups which passed them gave them strange looks, for they were heading in the direction of Violet Moon City; unlike the others, who were fanning out from Violet Moon City.
This group was surprisingly the same group which had passed Liu Yanbing and Ming Yun a few weeks back
“We could not find even a trace of those two! Ming Dong, you will have to shoulder the blame!”
“I don’t need your reminder, Ming Zed; I plan on taking responsibility for my failure. You don’t need to tell me what to do!”
Most of the members of the group did nothing; they had no intention of getting involved in a conflict between the strongest members of their group.
Ming Dong and Ming Zed, both of them were of the early core formation stage, and were extremely formidable. The tense atmosphere lasted for a while, when one of the other members saw Liu Yanbing and Ming Yun on their horses, trotting along at a leisurely pace.
“Hey, aren’t they the same ones we spotted earlier?”
Ming Dong’s expression flickered for a brief second, but that second gave away a lot to Ming Zed; he had his suspicions regarding the two travelers, and had been looking at Ming Dong’s face for any change in expression, and had ended up catching the brief change in expression.
He gave the order for the group to move down, and they surrounded the two.
The solution concoction which they had smeared onto their faces only disguised their appearance enough for them to deceive a casual glance; however, Ming Zed stared attentively at their faces, and then smirked. He slapped his bag of holding, and after producing a water bag, he emptied it over the two. The concoction wore off slightly, but that was enough for Ming Zed. He immediately attacked them. He smashed his fist towards Liu Yanbing, but was suddenly blocked by Ming Yun, who immediately counter attacked. His counterattack, however, was blocked, and Ming Zed flew backwards, to catch his breath.
Most of the members of the group were unable to keep up, and were in a daze. Ming Dong took advantage of this and killed off two members. The remaining 6 members, whose cultivation bases varied from the early foundation establishment stage to the quasi core formation stage , immediately awoke from their dazed state, as they understood what had happened. Ming Zed laughed maniacally,
“Ming yun, Ming Dong, both of you are dead; The Patriarch will hunt you down. And as for the murderer, you would be better off committing suicide.”
He gazed pityingly at Liu Yanbing.
Ming Yun, Ming Dong, and Liu Yanbing drew together, and after a moment’s hesitation, they charged forward. They clashed against the larger group, and chaos ensued.
Liu Yanbing, after a consuming lots of pills, had advanced to the middle stage of foundation establishment. He held off two early foundation establishment cultivators, as the balance of the battle kept changing.
After a long and bloody battle, the smaller group emerged victorious. However, they had to pay a huge price for that victory. Ming Yun and Ming Dong lay on the ground, heavily wounded, as Liu Yanbing stood beside them, concocting pills to help with their recovery.
Initially, when the relationship between Ming Yun and Liu Yanbing wasn’t strong, everytime Liu yanbing concocted a pill, he would consume half, and would give the other half to his master, in order to show that the pill wasn’t poisonous.
This time, after he finished brewing the pill, he was about to break it into half, when his master caught his hand, and ate the pill whole; Ming Dong followed suit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A few days later, a group of cultivators reported that there were dead bodies tied onto a tree, and one of the dead bodies belonged to Ming Yun.
The search for the murderer of Ming Feng was called off on the surface, and extremely powerful experts were sent out; all of them were of atleast the core formation stage. They were the hidden experts and elders of the Ming Clan, and they took on the job of hunting down the murderer.
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“Thousand year ginseng, and nectar from the Raflesia flower; the key ingredients in order to create the Noxious Poison Pill; he brought it upon himself, that old man. Did he expect me to not notice that the flame produced by this method is the flame of life, and that burning the flame of life whittles away at one’s life force? That’s probably the reason why he didn’t make his identity as an alchemist known. Hah! What a fool. But atleast he gave me a method to concoct pills. Never again! Never again will I have to depend on others for pills! Never again will I be looked down upon! Never again shall anyone stronger than me threaten me! Never again shall a person dare offend me! So what if I burn away my life? I will burn it away for the sake of pulling down those who betrayed me, humiliated me, and ignored my plight. Especially that Fang Mu! My strength isn’t enough, but with this flame of life, I will make the world burn, even if I end up burning with it!”
Disclaimer: This is an ISSTH Fan Fiction Story. I do not own ISSTH or any related products.