43: Chapter 42 Acquaintances

Arriving at the atrium, the arena for the competition was being constructed in the open space.

"No wonder the atrium is an open space; it turns out it's used for competitions."

Li Fan realized. Just then, his opponent for this match flew down from the second floor, landing directly in the center of the arena.

The man lowered his head, his gaze sweeping over the curly-haired man and Li Fan, before coming to a rest on Li Fan.

"Is this Fellow Daoist the opponent for this competition?"

The curly-haired man nodded.

"Junior Brother Li Fan is a newly admitted Disciple. He's new here and hasn't seen the Spirit Refining Tower yet, so he wanted to spar with someone to learn."

He paused slightly and continued, "I briefly explained the situation regarding the second-floor Spirit Refining Room to Junior Brother Li Fan."

"He thinks exchanging pointers with you, Senior Brother, would be most appropriate."

Hearing this, the man on the arena's expression darkened, a flash of displeasure crossing his eyes.

This remark, both overtly and covertly, was essentially saying that a newly enrolled student viewed him as a soft target.

He immediately shouted in a deep voice, "Li Fan, is it? Get up on the stage!"

Upon hearing this, the curly-haired man clapped his hands, a subtle smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

He gestured for Li Fan to proceed.

This petty scheme naturally could not escape Li Fan's eyes.

However, he looked up at the man on the arena—only at the Qi Refining Early Stage.

To Li Fan, this level of strength was no different from an ant.

He couldn't be bothered to care.

The man on the stage saw Li Fan's calm expression and graceful strides.

Combined with the curly-haired man's earlier secretive smile, he suddenly felt an ominous premonition.

His tone softened slightly, and he hurriedly asked, "I wonder... Junior Brother Li Fan, what is your cultivation level?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Fan channeled his Spiritual Qi, took to the air, and landed steadily on the arena.

Throughout the process, his Spiritual Qi was extremely restrained, with not a trace overflowing.

It was a world of difference compared to the crude flying methods of Qi Refining Cultivators.

Li Fan looked at the dumbfounded man and calmly uttered four words: "Just Foundation Establishment."

These simple words, combined with his earlier display, shook the man on the stage to his core.

The arrogance on his face vanished instantly, and he hurriedly bowed with his hands cupped.

"So it is Senior Brother Li Fan. Junior Brother will go back immediately and clear out the Spirit Refining Room."

After speaking, he turned his head and glared fiercely at the curly-haired man, grinding his teeth as he moved his lips. The lip-reading was: "Just you wait..."

He then immediately went back to clear out the Spirit Refining Room.

Li Fan watched the man's retreating figure, hurrying off in a panic, and couldn't help but chuckle.

Strength truly is the only hard truth; even the competition was waived.

He stepped off the stage, walked over to the curly-haired man, patted his shoulder, and spoke in a casual tone.

"Well done. By the way, Junior Brother, what was your name again?"

The curly-haired man was sweating profusely at this moment. How dare he give his name? He could only offer a bitter smile.

"As long as Senior Brother is satisfied."

Not long after, the male Cultivator who had been competing finished packing up and came down to the first floor.

After handing over the Spirit Refining Room token, he slung an arm around the curly-haired Cultivator's shoulder, and the two walked off to who knows where.

Li Fan couldn't be bothered to care what would happen to the two of them.

He followed the token's guidance to the corresponding Spirit Refining Room on the second floor.

The room was indeed different from an ordinary cultivation room.

Besides the necessary Spirit Gathering Array, there were also various tools for Alchemy, talisman-making, and weapon forging.

It could be said that regardless of one's cultivation path, the Spirit Refining Room could provide assistance.

Of course, the most important thing was the Spiritual Qi.

"Is this enough for the daily cultivation of a Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivator?"

The configuration of the first-floor Spirit Refining Room was already so luxurious, let alone the top dozen floors or even the highest levels.

"It is worthy of being a premier university."

Li Fan praised as he sat on the futon and opened the System panel.

The previous encounter had indeed triggered the strongest face-slapping system, and another twenty or thirty hard training points had been credited.

[hard training points: 560]

The bulk of the points still came from the strongest slacking afk system.

Now that Li Fan was at the Foundation Establishment stage, sleeping with his eyes closed triggered the Slacking System to grant 10 hard training points per hour—ten times the original rate.

"Is diligent practice not as good as just sleeping?"

He continued to check the System.

[Foundation Establishment Breakthrough: 200 hard training points]

"Not much. Let's try a Breakthrough."

Consuming the hard training points, and with the support of the Spirit Refining Room's abundant Spiritual Qi, Li Fan logically broke through to the second stage of Foundation Establishment.

Checking the System again.

[Foundation Establishment Breakthrough: 300 hard training points]

"The hard training points required to break through to the next level increased by one hundred?"

Seeing this, Li Fan also had an expectation of the hard training points required to reach Foundation Establishment Perfection.

"Relying on the System, breaking through to Golden Core within half a year should be no problem."

Thinking of this, Li Fan immediately took out the furniture he had prepared in advance from the System space.

He kicked the futon used for cultivation to the side.

"Breaking through one level of Foundation Establishment today was very tiring; let's rest first."

Half-lying on the sofa, he skillfully brewed himself some goji berry health tea and sipped it leisurely.

"I'll recover for a day or two before going back."

Li Fan really needed to recuperate his body; Nangong Miao had exhausted him during this period.

Thus, he opened his terminal and searched online to see if there were any Spirit Pills for nourishing yang and replenishing the body that he could purchase.

His gaze fell on the news related to Medicinal Pills on the internet, and Li Fan raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Is the Medicinal Pill sector so lively recently?"

The top headline was: "Xuanv United Pharmaceutical has been established, led by the authorities, merging many large pharmaceutical companies."

Beneath the news, onlookers left comments speculating.

"Why is there such a huge official adjustment suddenly? Are these pharmaceutical families really willing to be integrated together?"

"Maybe there's some unspeakable deal behind it."

Although Li Fan was also a bit confused about the authorities' extensive adjustments, he still prioritized finding a miracle medicine to nourish his essence and body.

As his online search deepened, he indeed found relevant Medicinal Pills.

"Gu Ben Pill, Huichun Small Pill, Qingyang Pill, Runyuan Powder..."

Unexpectedly, there were quite a lot of such Medicinal Pills, but they were all in short supply.

Li Fan found several Alchemists online who could refine such Medicinal Pills.

The response was that their production capacity for the next half year had already been fully booked.

"Could it be that I have to refine them myself?"

Li Fan, lying on the sofa, glanced at the Pill Furnace and Spirit Fire in the Spirit Refining Room, then shook his head.

"Forget it, it's too troublesome."

He knew nothing about the Dao of Alchemy.

Besides, this stuff takes half a day or even longer to refine, which would delay Li Fan's time spent surfing the internet for fun.

"It seems I have to find another way."

Speaking of which, Li Fan turned his attention to the System.

"Ahem, System, time to step up."

[strongest face-slapping system is offline; Strongest Medicine Heart Refining Enlightenment System is online]

Li Fan raised his eyebrows and sat up. He hadn't expected the System to actually respond.

He immediately checked the newly launched System.

[Can consume hard training points to improve Alchemy level]

[Can consume hard training points to improve pharmacological knowledge]

...

"Whoa, nice, it's arranged the whole Alchemy set clearly."

Although Li Fan was amazed, he couldn't be happy about it.

If the [Medicine Heart Refining Enlightenment System] were given to someone else, it would definitely be a Heaven-Defying change of destiny.

But that wasn't Li Fan's focus.

"It turns out I still have to refine it myself."

This was still too high a requirement for the salted-fish Li Fan.

"Let's look for other purchasing channels."

After searching online again without success, a thought suddenly flashed through Li Fan's mind, and he clapped his hands.

"Why did I forget about the school?"

As a top university, Xuanzong University naturally had an Alchemy Hall, and since it only provided to internal students, there might be stock.

Thinking of this, Li Fan immediately opened his student terminal, walked out of the Spirit Refining Room, and prepared to head to the Alchemy Hall according to the directions.

Just after leaving the Spirit Refining Room, the noisy sounds of the atrium reached him. The arena constructed from Spiritual Qi was surrounded by many people.

Li Fan turned into a spectator on the spot, walked to the second-floor railing, and looked down to watch the excitement.

At this moment, a man and a woman were confronting each other.

However, seeing this scene, Li Fan shrank back, because he happened to know one of them.

The man on the arena took a step forward, having already circulated his Spiritual Qi, ready to release a spell.

"Wen Xinran, I advise you to surrender and obediently return the Spirit Refining Room."

Li Fan secretly poked his head out and swept over with his Divine Sense.

The man was at Qi Refining Perfection. Although Wen Xinran had improved compared to her time in the Shi Shui Secret Realm and was at the Qi Refining 8th Stage, she was definitely no match for someone at Qi Refining Perfection.

Yet she still didn't intend to admit defeat, instead pleading for mercy.

"This Spirit Refining Room is still useful to me. Could you accommodate me for a few more days?"

Seeing Wen Xinran's persistence, Li Fan was puzzled. Although Xuanzong University's Spirit Refining Room was very good...

...as the daughter of the Wen Family Pharmaceutical Group, Wen Xinran shouldn't be so obsessed with it.

However, the man's statement gave Li Fan the answer.

"This Spirit Refining Room was originally yielded to you because of your status as the daughter of the Wen Family Pharmaceutical Group."

"Now that the Wen Family Pharmaceutical Group has been swallowed up, you should have some self-awareness."

Hearing this, Li Fan realized it must be related to the trending news in the pharmaceutical sector from earlier.

The newly established Xuanv United Pharmaceutical had unexpectedly even affected the Wen family's industry.

Wen Xinran did not reply, but silently circulated her Spiritual Qi, ready to fight again.

Seeing this, the man did not hold back and cast spells one after another.

The result was obvious. Xuanzong University was a gathering place for Geniuses; their Aptitudes were similar, so in most cases, cultivation level determined everything.

After only a few moves, Wen Xinran was sent flying.

She fell to the ground, vomiting blood.

The man on the stage looked at Wen Xinran coldly and raised his hand; the token for the Spirit Refining Room flew from her waist.

Wen Xinran reached out, wanting to grab the token in the air.

But the residual Spiritual Qi in her body was raging, and she could only cough up another two mouthfuls of blood.

Seeing the token being caught by the male Cultivator, a trace of despair appeared in her eyes.

She gasped for air, propped up her body, and circulated her Spiritual Qi to repair her internal injuries.

After recovering a little, the ringing in her ears disappeared, and the comments from the surrounding Cultivators drifted in.

"She used to rely on being the daughter of the Wen Family Pharmaceutical Group to get some advantages, but now she won't let go—she's really ignorant of the situation."

"I heard that the Wen family is currently unable to protect itself."

"I've looked down on her for a long time."

The mean, cutting remarks from all around came into Wen Xinran's ears, making her feel somewhat dazed.

Her recovery technique went awry, and she vomited another mouthful of blood, her face turning pale.

Seeing this, the ridicule grew even more intense.

It kept ringing in Wen Xinran's ears, causing her vision to black out, and she was about to collapse.

At this moment, a pair of strong hands supported her.

Wen Xinran looked up with difficulty, and the person who had arrived was Li Fan.

Looking at the face that had protected her in the Secret Realm, her mind relaxed, and she collapsed into Li Fan's arms.

In the Spirit Refining Room, on the sofa, Wen Xinran opened her eyes. The severe pain she had expected did not come.

"I have already smoothed out the chaotic Spiritual Qi in your body."

Li Fan's words came from the side. Smoothing out the chaotic Spiritual Qi of the Qi Refining Realm was a piece of cake for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Wen Xinran propped herself up, her gaze falling on Li Fan, who was sitting on the futon, her beautiful eyes filled with disbelief.

"You're still alive?"

But a moment later, the joy on her face at seeing Li Fan was covered by deep worry.

Li Fan naturally saw this and asked.

"Tell me, what happened?"

He also wanted to know exactly what had happened to cause the massive Wen Family Pharmaceutical Group to collapse.

Wen Xinran sighed and spoke slowly.

...

Li Fan took a sip of his goji berry health tea,

"So that's how it is."

After listening to Wen Xinran's story, he finally understood.

There was only one reason why such a century-old family could end up in this state in just a few dozen days.

The Wen family's only Nascent Soul Old Ancestor had fallen.

Strength is everything. Without a Nascent Soul Cultivator to hold the fort, Mr. Wen, a Golden Core Cultivator, naturally could not support such a large industry.

One night, late at night, the Wen family was attacked, and Mr. Wen had desperately sent the Wen Xinran sisters away.

Although the Xuanv authorities promised to investigate the matter thoroughly, the results came to nothing.

Instead, the authorities established Xuanv United Pharmaceutical using the industry left behind by the Wen family.

Li Fan put down the teacup and sighed.

"It was to be expected."

This was also why Li Fan had always avoided getting too deeply involved with Qian Zhenzhen and Wen Xinran.

These families were deeply involved, and their relationships were complex and convoluted.

If he wasn't careful, or if there was a change, with Li Fan's current cultivation, he would only be cannon fodder.

Recalling this, Wen Xinran was tearful.

"That attacker had Nascent Soul cultivation; even the aftermath of their spell caused my sister to suffer heavy injuries."

"If it weren't for my sister's desperate resistance, I'm afraid I would have already..."

Li Fan stood up, wiped away Wen Xinran's tears, and asked in a deep voice.

"Where is your sister?"

"In a temporarily rented apartment outside the school."

Looking at Wen Xinran, who had once threatened to be his Dao Companion, ending up in such a situation...

Li Fan couldn't bear it, so he stood up.

"Let's go. Take me to see her."