45: Chapter 45 Su Qinghan's Crisis, A Secret Move

Qi Yang quickly calculated in his mind.

What did Su Qinghan's life or death have to do with him? A great deal!

First, Su Qinghan was his nominal wife. Although the marriage was a joke, it was written in black and white on the Sect's records.

If something happened to Su Qinghan, the people from the Law Enforcement Hall would investigate, and it would inevitably lead back to him.

He had just secured a foothold in the inner Sect, his secret chamber was newly built, and his tunnel was only half-dug. He absolutely could not afford to be targeted!

Second, although this girl Su Qinghan had a cold personality, along the way, her attitude toward him had already shifted from hostility to a tacit understanding.

More importantly, her Three-element Profound Spiritual Root Aptitude was quite high. Once she successfully achieved Foundation Establishment in the future, she would become an influential figure in the Sect.

Keeping her alive was far more valuable than letting her be ruined by someone else.

Third, and the most crucial point.

Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan was Peak Master Wu Lie's Personal Disciple. Wu Lie himself was the Peak Master of Jianzhi Peak, and at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment!

On the guard duty roster of the Spirit Spring Cave, Peak Master Wu Lie was scheduled for a three-day shift every month!

If he could use this matter to stir up internal turmoil within Jianzhi Peak, forcing Peak Master Wu Lie to distract himself with Sect affairs... then he could take advantage of the chaos to dig through the final, most dangerous stretch of the tunnel!

Killing two birds with one stone!

Qi Yang lowered his head, a cold smile playing on his lips.

After handing in the Spiritual Plants and collecting his monthly "salary" of three Spirit Stones, he slowly walked out of the main hall of the Spirit Plant House.

On the way back, Qi Yang's mind was already spinning rapidly.

Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan was at the Qi Condensation 11th Layer, possessing the metal, fire, and earth Three Spiritual Roots, and he Cultivated Jianzhi Peak's peak-guarding Cultivation Technique, the "Scarlet Gold Burning Heaven Sword Technique".

This person was ranked in the top ten of the inner Sect, possessed formidable strength, and with his Master, Peak Master Wu Lie, who was at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, backing him, he could practically do whatever he pleased in the inner Sect.

Confront him head-on?

Qi Yang was only at the Qi Condensation Seventh Layer. Against someone at the Qi Condensation 11th Layer, he wasn't even worthy of carrying the man's shoes, let alone facing him in a direct confrontation.

But Qi Yang never confronted anyone head-on.

Returning to his secret chamber in the Nether Grass Field, he sat cross-legged and began to organize the information in his mind.

During his half-month in the inner Sect, although Qi Yang pretended to be invisible every day, his perception had never been idle.

The cultivation bases, habits, and relationships of the Disciples from various peaks in the inner Sect... he would silently memorize them for anyone who passed near him.

Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan had a fatal weakness.

The "Scarlet Gold Burning Heaven Sword Technique" he Cultivated required him to regularly consume a first-grade top-tier Medicinal Pill called the gold-refining pill to nourish the metal-attribute Sword Qi in his Meridians.

This kind of Medicinal Pill was extremely precious. In the entire Xuantian Sect, only Elder Tian of the inner Sect's Alchemical Room knew how to refine it.

And every fifteen days, Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan would personally go to the Alchemical Room to collect the gold-refining pill.

The route to collect the pills went from Jianzhi Peak, across the Linghe Bridge, over Qingyun Slope, and finally reached Zixia Peak where the Alchemical Room was located.

"I don't need to kill him."

Qi Yang analyzed calmly.

"I only need to make something go wrong with his gold-refining pill."

The "Scarlet Gold Burning Heaven Sword Technique" had extremely high requirements for the purity of metal-attribute spiritual power. Once there was a deviation in the medicinal properties of the gold-refining pill, even if it was just one-thousandth of an impurity, it would cause the Sword Qi in the Meridians to run wild—resulting in Qi Deviation at best, or severed Meridians at worst!

And Qi Yang happened to have something in his possession that could perfectly accomplish this.

The root sap of nether grass!

This sap was colorless and odorless, but contained trace amounts of yin-cold toxin.

Under normal circumstances, this tiny amount of toxin had absolutely no effect on Cultivators.

But if it was mixed into the gold-refining pill, the metal-attribute spiritual power, while being nourished, would be slowly eroded by the yin-cold energy. Once it accumulated to a certain point, it would cause a clash between the metal-attribute Sword Qi and the fire-attribute spiritual power, resulting in a conflict of the Five Elements!

Metal overcomes wood?

No, it is water overcoming fire!

Yin-cold water suppressing scarlet gold fire, an imbalance of the Five Elements, leading to Qi Deviation!

"Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan, oh Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan, if you had Cultivated honestly, I wouldn't have bothered with you. But since you insisted on seeking death by targeting Su Qinghan, don't blame me for sending you on your way."

Qi Yang took out a small jade bottle from his Storage Pouch, which contained the concentrated sap he had extracted from the roots of the nether grass over the past half-month.

Late at night three days later.

Qi Yang changed into a black robe, slapped on a breath-concealing talisman, and quietly left the Nether Grass Field through the tunnel exit.

He did not go looking for Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan, nor did he go to Jianzhi Peak.

He went to the Alchemical Room.

To be precise, he went to the storehouse where the Alchemical Room stored finished Medicinal Pills.

Although the defenses of the inner Sect's Alchemical Room were tight, that was only against outsiders.

The pill cabinets inside the storehouse only had simple Spirit-Sealing Talismans on them to prevent the loss of Spiritual Qi, not to prevent theft, because no one dared to steal things in the inner Sect's Alchemical Room.

Qi Yang wasn't going to steal either.

He merely used a thread of Wood-attribute Spiritual Power thinner than a strand of hair to inject three drops of the concentrated nether grass root sap into the gap of the cork of the gold-refining pill bottle specifically designated for Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan.

It was colorless, odorless, and had no fluctuations of Spiritual Qi.

Even if an Elder at the Foundation Establishment Stage personally inspected this bottle of Medicinal Pills, without sending their spiritual sense deep inside to investigate thoroughly, they would detect absolutely nothing unusual.

Having done all this, Qi Yang returned the way he came, taking less than the time for an incense stick to burn from start to finish.

Next, he only needed to wait.

Another five days passed.

A piece of news exploded within the inner Sect.

The Prodigy of Jianzhi Peak, Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan, had suddenly suffered Qi Deviation while Cultivating!

The metal-attribute Sword Qi in his body ran wild, tearing through three of his main Meridians, and his cultivation base plummeted directly from the Qi Condensation 11th Layer to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer!

Not only that, but the rampaging Sword Qi also affected a hundred-zhang radius around his Immortal Cave, even blasting several cracks in the stone chamber in the back mountain where he had confined Su Qinghan.

Su Qinghan took the opportunity to escape, charging straight into the main hall of Jianzhi Peak, and exposed Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan's evil deed of attempting to force her to become his Dao Companion right in front of Peak Master Wu Lie.

Peak Master Wu Lie was furious.

It was not because Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan had harassed his Junior Sister; in his eyes, that was nothing.

He was angry because Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan was actually stupid enough to suffer Qi Deviation!

What gave Peak Master Wu Lie an even bigger headache was that the Law Enforcement Hall had intervened to investigate the matter.

Although Su Qinghan was only a newly promoted Inner Sect Disciple, she ultimately had the backing of the Luoxia Sect. Coupled with her Three-element Profound Spiritual Root Aptitude, her future was limitless, so the Law Enforcement Hall did not dare to ignore it.

Over the next half-month, Peak Master Wu Lie was utterly overwhelmed, having to clean up his Disciple's mess, deal with the questioning from the Law Enforcement Hall, and arrange for people to take care of Senior Brother Chen Daoyuan, whose cultivation base had plummeted...

Guard duty at the Spirit Spring Cave?

Peak Master Wu Lie directly pushed his three-day shift onto another Elder at the Early Foundation Establishment stage to cover for him.

As for that covering Elder, he was famous for prioritizing his own Cultivation and being extremely perfunctory when it came to guard duties.

When Qi Yang received this news, he was digging at the very front of the tunnel.

"The right time, the right place, and the right people—everything is perfectly aligned."

The progress of the tunnel was even smoother than Qi Yang had anticipated.

The soil along the subterranean river had been moistened by yin-cold water vapor for years, making it exceptionally soft. His earth-attribute spiritual power sliced into it like a knife through tofu.

On the night of the twenty-sixth day, Qi Yang's perception suddenly captured a heart-palpitating fluctuation of spiritual power.

It was dense and pure!

It was as if a massive river condensed from Spiritual Qi was roaring and flowing deep underground!

"The outer Spiritual Vein of the Spirit Spring Cave! I've reached it!"

Qi Yang stopped digging, withdrew his perception, and cautiously probed forward.

Sure enough, less than three zhang ahead of the tunnel's end, a thick barrier of spiritual light lay across the rock layers.

The barrier of spiritual light emitted a colorful glow, with the Spiritual Qi of the five attributes—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—flowing and circulating systematically within it.

A second-grade high-tier Formation, the Spirit-Severing Formation!

This was part of the Xuantian Sect's grand Sect-protecting Formation. Any unauthorized fluctuation of spiritual power, once touching this Formation, would directly trigger an alarm, and the experts of the entire inner Sect would arrive within ten breaths.

Qi Yang crouched at the end of the tunnel, staring intently at that paper-thin barrier of spiritual light, not daring to make a sound.

"Forcing my way in? Don't even think about it."

A second-grade high-tier Formation would take even a Cultivator at the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment some effort to break, let alone him, a mere Qi Condensation Seventh Layer.

There was only one consequence of forcing contact with it—death!

But Qi Yang was in no hurry.

He carved out a small space at the end of the tunnel, laid down a futon, and came here to sit in meditation every night.

He did nothing else, merely using his perception to silently observe the operational patterns of the Spirit-Severing Formation.

Qi Yang's patience was even better than an old turtle's. He had laid low in the Outer Sect Herb Garden for ninety years; what did this bit of waiting matter?

Finally, on the night of the full moon on the twelfth day, Qi Yang got what he was waiting for.