13: Chapter 13 A Bitter Duty at the Cold Pool, A Secret Maneuver

Outer Sect Servant Hall.

The place was bustling with noise, and the Utility Disciples accepting missions were huddled together in a crowd.

Qi Yang hunched his back, looking like an aging farmer on the brink of death, and laboriously squeezed from the edge of the crowd to the front of the steward's counter.

"This old man Qi Yang has come to take on the chore of clearing weeds at the back mountain's cold pool."

Qi Yang handed over his identity jade token with both hands, his face plastered with a flattering smile as his wrinkles bunched up together.

Behind the counter, Steward Fatty Liu of the Servant Hall was picking his teeth while crossing his legs.

He glanced sideways at Qi Yang, his perception sweeping unceremoniously over Qi Yang's body.

Qi Condensation Third Layer.

Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root.

Fatty Liu sneered, casually flicking away the bamboo toothpick he had been using.

"Old thing, are you tired of living? What kind of place is the back mountain's cold pool? That is an extreme frost land!"

"With your Trash Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root at the Qi Condensation Third Layer, absorbing Spiritual Qi is as slow as a snail crawling, and that pitiful bit of Spiritual Power inside your body can't even withstand the chill of a single incense stick's time."

"Going there is just seeking death, you'll be frozen straight into an ice sculpture!"

Although Fatty Liu was a steward, he was merely at the Qi Condensation 5th Layer cultivation with a four-attribute human Spiritual Root.

Facing a Trash with Mixed Spiritual Roots like Qi Yang, he possessed an absolute sense of superiority.

Not only did Qi Yang not get angry, but he bent his waist even lower and coughed violently twice.

"Cough cough... Steward Liu speaks the truth, but this old man's medicine garden is truly barren, isn't it because I want to earn a couple more Spirit Stones to exchange for some life-extending Medicinal Pills."

"This old man's life is worth nothing; even if I freeze to death in the cold pool, I will never blame the Sect even a bit!"

"Fine, fine, fine! Since you want to court death, how could I not grant your wish?"

Impatiently, Fatty Liu snatched the jade token, casually carved a mark onto it, and threw it back like throwing away garbage.

"Take it! Report to the outer periphery of the cold pool tomorrow morning; if you die, no one will collect your corpse!"

"Many thanks, Steward! Many thanks, Steward!"

Expressing boundless gratitude, Qi Yang picked up the jade token and walked out of the Servant Hall with staggering steps.

After turning around, the humble and flattering smile on his face slowly disappeared, replaced only by utter calmness.

Court death?

He was more afraid of death than all of them combined; without foolproof preparations, he would not step half a step into a dangerous place.

Late at night, in the underground secret room of the medicine garden.

On the bronze stone platform, Qi Yang sat cross-legged, with several stalks of Spirit Medicine just ripened using the black gourd placed before him.

One of them was crimson all over, its leaves resembling burning flames and emitting an astonishing heat wave.

A century-old, first-grade superior Blazing Sun Grass!

If this thing were swallowed directly, the violent fire-attribute Spiritual Power could burn straight through the internal organs of a Qi Condensation 5th Layer Cultivator.

But Qi Yang possessed a century's worth of pharmacological knowledge.

He summoned the purple copper alchemical furnace, threw the Blazing Sun Grass into it, and slowly roasted it with gentle pill fire, extracting its purest medicinal liquid drop by drop into a small jade bottle.

Afterwards, he tightly bound the black turtle shield—which he had spent two hundred Spirit Stones to buy—against his chest.

Finally, he groped three first-grade intermediate breath-concealing talismans out of his Storage Pouch.

"Although the Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root is the worst talent in the Cultivation World, it possesses all Five Elements and mixed auras, making it less prone to violent fluctuations of a single attribute."

Qi Yang sneered inwardly.

"Coupled with this breath-concealing talisman, even if a Qi Condensation Great Completion expert stood right in front of me, they would never dream of seeing through my background!"

Everything was ready.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Qi Yang arrived punctually at the outer periphery of the back mountain's cold pool.

As soon as he stepped into this area, a bone-piercing chill drilled along his pores into the gaps of his bones like steel needles.

A dozen or so Utility Disciples sent here to do hard labor had already gathered around.

One by one, their lips were purple from the cold, shivering all over as they desperately drove the weak Spiritual Power within their bodies to resist the cold qi.

"Get to work faster, all of you! Clear away the weeds at the edge of the Formation!"

An Outer Sect Disciple at the Qi Condensation 6th Layer held a leather whip and sternly reprimanded from a high vantage point.

The Disciples dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak, having no choice but to bite the bullet against the cold qi and use sickles to cut down the tough weeds mutated by the cold qi infection.

Qi Yang blended into the crowd, putting on an act of shivering from the cold and looking like he was about to draw his last breath at any moment.

But in reality, he had a drop of Blazing Sun Grass juice held right in his mouth!

That drop of juice slowly dissolved on the tip of his tongue, turning into a pure and gentle warm current that circulated throughout his entire body along his meridians.

As soon as the bone-piercing cold qi entered his body, it was neutralized by this warm current, not harming even a single hair on Qi Yang's body!

Hunched over with a sickle in hand, he slowly cut the grass while his gaze scanned around without leaving a trace.

His perception was like an invisible giant net, spreading along the ground toward the core Formation of the cold pool.

Although Qi Refining Stage Cultivators did not possess the Spiritual Sense capable of leaving the body to probe like the Foundation Establishment Stage, the perception of the Qi Condensation 5th Layer was still enough for Qi Yang to detect any Spiritual Qi fluctuations within a radius of ten zhang.

The deeper one went into the cold pool, the heavier the cold qi became, and even the patrolling Outer Sect Disciples were unwilling to approach.

This suited Qi Yang's intentions perfectly.

Taking advantage of the action of clearing weeds, he inched bit by bit, inch by inch, toward the edge of the Formation.

An hour later.

Thud!

Not far away, a Utility Disciple at the Qi Condensation Second Layer finally failed to withstand the erosion of the cold qi, falling stiffly to the ground and freezing into an ice sculpture.

"Trash!"

The patrolling Disciple snorted coldly, stepped forward, and kicked the ice sculpture into a deep ditch nearby.

"Keep working! Whoever dares to slack off, this will be their fate!"

The Cultivation World was simply that cruel; the lives of bottom-tier Utility Disciples were not even worth as much as a stalk of the lowest-grade Spiritual Plant.

Qi Yang didn't even lift an eyelid, continuing to work with his head lowered.

He had successfully sneaked to the side of a rock crevice at the edge of the Formation, where the cold qi had grown so dense that it condensed into white frost.

Qi Yang's powerful perception slowly penetrated the rock crevice.

Deep within the crevice, in a shady corner, there unexpectedly grew a stalk of Spiritual Plant that was translucent all over, resembling a glossy ganoderma carved from white jade!

jade pith ganoderma!

Although this jade pith ganoderma was not yet fully mature and was only the size of a palm, the extreme yin-cold Spiritual Qi emanating from it was definitely unmistakable!

Around the roots of the jade pith ganoderma were scattered a few imperceptible specks of powder emitting a faint fluorescent glow.

jade marrow spores!

The seeds of the jade pith ganoderma!

Qi Yang's breathing suddenly choked, and fanatical light burst from his eyes.

The missing main medicinal plant seeds from the incomplete foundation establishment pill formula had finally been found!

Without any hesitation, he immediately mobilized the pure Wood-attribute Spiritual Power within his body.

Wood-attribute spell, Binding Technique!

But this was not used for attack; instead, it was manipulated by Qi Yang to an incomparably subtle degree.

A trace of green Spiritual Power filament, almost invisible to the naked eye, acted like the most dexterous tentacle, probing bit by bit into the rock crevice.

Qi Yang held his breath, a layer of fine sweat seeping out from his forehead.

Harvesting the spores of this heaven-and-earth Spirit Medicine could not tolerate the slightest roughness; once the Spiritual Qi structure of the spores was damaged, even if brought back, they could not be successfully planted.

The green filament gently wrapped around those few jade marrow spores, peeling them out of the rock crevice bit by bit like drawing silk from a cocoon.

Throughout the entire process, Qi Yang's hands were as steady as a boulder.

Ten breaths later, the spores were successfully guided out of the rock crevice.

Qi Yang flipped his palm, and a specially made warm jade box appeared in his palm, with the spores steadily falling into the box.

Snap.

The jade box closed, a spirit-sealing talisman was pasted onto it, and it was shoved directly into the deepest part of the Storage Pouch.

Got them!

Qi Yang was ecstatic inside; this trip to the cold pool was simply perfection!

As long as he went back and ripened them with the black gourd, another ingredient for the foundation establishment pill would be gathered!

However, just as Qi Yang was about to straighten his waist and pretend to nonchalantly retreat to the outer periphery, the previously calm and waveless surface of the cold pool suddenly churned violently!

Glug glug! Glug glug!

Large swaths of bubbles gushed out from the bottom of the pool, and the surrounding temperature plummeted by more than tenfold at this moment!

Crack crack!

The rocks at the edge of the cold pool all began to form a thick layer of hard ice.

A terrifying pressure, so massive that it was suffocating, soared into the sky from the bottom of the pool, enveloping the entire outer periphery of the cold pool!

"Roar!"

A low and tyrannical roar emanated from under the water, shaking the surrounding air so that ripples visible to the naked eye emerged!