40: Chapter 40: Second-Grade Formless Pill, Inner Sect Assessment Begins

Tranquility returned to the courtyard.

Qi Yang stood in place, straightening his back that had been hunched for nearly a hundred years.

He raised his head to look in the direction of Jianzhi Peak of the inner sect, terrifying bright light bursting from his cloudy old eyes.

"Assessment Ceremony?"

A confident arc rose from the corner of Qi Yang's mouth.

When it came to the recognition of Spiritual Plants, an old farmer like him who had farmed for a hundred years and ate top-grade poisonous weeds as meals every day dared to claim second, and no one in the outer sect dared to claim first!

As for survival ability?

He gripped a pile of top-tier grade 1 explosive flame talismans in his hand, hid blood-sealing poisonous arrows in his sleeves, and harbored the overbearing and matchless Poison Wood Spiritual Power in his Dantian.

"Inner Sect, this old man is definitely going!"

Qi Yang turned and walked into the thatched cottage, locked the wooden door from the inside, and plunged straight into the underground secret room.

There were three months left until the assessment, and he had to make foolproof preparations.

Experts were as common as clouds in the inner sect, and the spiritual sense perception of Foundation Establishment Stage Elders was extremely sharp; he had to make his disguise seamless!

"The wuxiang pill must be improved so that even the spiritual sense of Late Stage Foundation Establishment cannot see through it!"

"A batch of top-grade poisonous weeds must be ripened again to refine a few colorless and odorless life-saving ultimate poisons!"

Sitting cross-legged on the bronze stone platform, Qi Yang summoned the purple copper alchemical furnace, and the crimson alchemical fire ignited once more.

Since he had decided to go make trouble in the inner sect, he had to be armed to the teeth!

...

In the secret room ten zhang underground, the crimson alchemical fire crazily licked the bottom of the purple copper alchemical furnace.

Sitting cross-legged on the bronze stone platform, Qi Yang was covered in sweat, his cloudy old eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

Staring intently at the Pill Furnace, his hands formed seals at lightning speed like butterflies flitting through flowers, pulling out strand by strand of the overbearing and matchless Poison Wood Spiritual Power within his Dantian and cautiously striking it into the furnace.

This was already his thirtieth time opening the furnace.

Beside his hand were a dozen or so empty jade boxes.

To refine this furnace of Medicinal Pills, he had consumed a full dozen or so hundred-year-old Yinling Grass ripened by the black gourd!

This kind of Spiritual Plant was very rare, specially used to hide one's aura, but wanting to refine it into a grade 2 Medicinal Pill demanded extreme control over the heat and Spiritual Power.

"Condense for this old man!"

Qi Yang let out a roar in his heart and slammed his hands together fiercely.

Chi!

A muffled sound came from within the Pill Furnace, and a rich medicinal fragrance began to permeate the entire secret room.

Qi Yang patted the furnace lid, and a grey Medicinal Pill that was completely round and covered with obscure array patterns on its surface fell into his palm.

Lower grade 2 wuxiang pill! It was done!

Qi Yang let out a long breath of turbid air, collapsing onto the stone platform like a drained person.

Over these past three months, he had tirelessly struggled day and night in the secret room, finally concocting this life-saving Medicinal Pill.

The inner sect was not like the outer sect; elites of the Qi Refining Tenth Layer were as common as dogs there, and Foundation Establishment Stage Elders would scan the area with spiritual sense from time to time.

That kind of spiritual sense was omnipresent, and a slight carelessness would expose one's details.

Qi Yang was now at the Qi Condensation Seventh Layer cultivation, and he still hid the Poison Wood Spiritual Power capable of poisoning people to death in his Dantian.

If he swaggered over to participate in the inner sect assessment like this, he would definitely be slapped to death on the spot by those Elders as a demonic Cultivator spy.

"With this grade 2 wuxiang pill, even if a Late Stage Foundation Establishment Elder scans with spiritual sense, they will only be able to see that I am an old good-for-nothing at the Qi Condensation Third Layer with withered Qi and blood!"

Without any hesitation, Qi Yang swallowed this grey Medicinal Pill straight into his stomach.

The Medicinal Pill melted upon entering the mouth, transforming into a strange energy that flowed through his entire body.

Qi Yang introspected his Dantian, only to see that energy resembling a thick grey insect cocoon tightly wrapping and sealing his massive Qi Sea of the Qi Condensation Seventh Layer as well as that dark green Poison Wood Spiritual Power.

On the surface, his Meridians had once again become shriveled and fragile, leaving only a few turbid wisps of Five Elements Spiritual Qi in his Dantian—a living image of an old farmer with the Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root who had one foot in the grave.

"Perfect!"

Qi Yang patted the tattered hemp clothes on his body with satisfaction.

"xuanyin water, this old man is coming."

...

Today was the liveliest day for the Xuantian Sect outer sect.

The huge outer sect plaza was packed densely with handymen and Outer Sect Disciples.

The exceptionally opened inner sect handyman assessment ceremony made everyone as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

As long as they could enter the inner sect, even if it was dumping nightsoil, the Spiritual Qi concentration there was ten times that of the outer sect!

That was the only Heaven-Defying opportunity for all low-level Cultivators to change their fate!

Carrying a broken hoe, his back hunched, Qi Yang squeezed slowly into the very back of the crowd.

He was like an invisible person; basically no one spared him a second glance.

Just at this moment, a huge commotion suddenly came from the front of the plaza.

"Good heavens! Quick, look at the Spiritual Measurement Monument! Qi Refining Ninth Layer! Who is that?!"

"It is Su Qinghan of the Special Grade Herb Garden! The Sect Master's daughter of the Luoxia Sect! She actually broke through to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer in this short span of less than a year!"

"Hiss! Three-element Profound Spiritual Root, an eighteen-year-old at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer! This talent is simply incredible!"

Qi Yang raised his head, looking over along the crowd's gaze.

In front of the Spiritual Measurement Monument in the center of the plaza, Su Qinghan was wearing plain white martial attire, her long hair like a waterfall, and her temperament as cold as frost.

Her palm pressed against the Spiritual Measurement Monument, and the monument erupted with dazzling three-color spiritual light, reflecting her peerless face like a heavenly fairy of the Nine Heavens.

The several inner sect deacons in charge of the assessment were all so shocked that they stood up.

Even Peak Master Wu Lie, the Jianzhi Peak Elder of the inner sect sitting on the high platform, suddenly widened his eyes, directly transforming into a stream of light to land in front of Su Qinghan.

"Three-element Profound Spiritual Root, and the Foundation is so solid! The purity of the Spiritual Power even rivals Dual Spiritual Roots!"

Peak Master Wu Lie's eyes were burning hot, as if looking at an uncarved peerless jade.

"Little girl, are you willing to directly enter this old man's sect and become a formal Disciple of Jianzhi Peak?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire audience was in an uproar!

Without needing to participate in any handyman assessment, she was directly accepted as a formal inner sect Disciple as an exception by a Foundation Establishment Stage Elder!

This was the absolute privilege brought by Spiritual Roots and talent! In the Cultivation World, Aptitude was everything!

Su Qinghan withdrew her hand without showing too much wild joy. She merely bowed slightly, her voice icy and cold: "This Disciple is willing."

Peak Master Wu Lie laughed heartily and nodded with satisfaction.

Su Qinghan turned around, preparing to follow Peak Master Wu Lie to the inner sect.

But just as she was about to leave the plaza, her footsteps suddenly paused for a moment.

Her pair of beautiful phoenix eyes pierced through the crowded throng, accurately falling upon the hunched-backed white-haired old farmer in the corner.

Su Qinghan's gaze was very complicated.

There was gratitude, doubt, and a trace of unspeakable, unclear sigh.

She didn't know whether she would still have intersections with this nominal husband after she left.

From then on, she was a lofty inner sect Prodigy, while he remained that old farmer digging for food in the mud and waiting to die.

Su Qinghan's lips moved slightly, and an extremely faint voice traveled along the Spiritual Power into Qi Yang's ears: "Old man, live well. If anyone bullies you, report my name."

Listening to this sound transmission, Qi Yang's cloudy old eyes did not have the slightest ripple.

He merely lowered his head slowly, continuing to look at the bluestone slab beneath his feet as if he hadn't heard at all.

Report your name?

Qi Yang sneered in his heart.

Rely on mountains and mountains fall, rely on people and people run.

In this man-eating Cultivation World, the only thing one could rely on was the trump card in one's own hands.

Once this old man gets xuanyin water and refines a foundation establishment pill, who bullies whom won't be certain yet!

Seeing Qi Yang make no response, Su Qinghan's gaze completely dimmed.

She shook her head, turned around, and stepped onto the Spirit-Guiding Bridge following Peak Master Wu Lie without looking back.