Chapter 00119: Shan Qianyue Gets Captured (For the Silver Alliance's Chen Zucheng, extra update 2)
# Shan Qianyue Gets Captured (For the Silver Alliance's Chen Zucheng, extra update 2)
Chapter 119
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 119: Shan Qianyue Gets Captured (For the Silver Alliance's Chen Zucheng, extra update 2)
The ceremony for the new sect leader of the Qianyun Immortal Sect looked grand, but in reality, it was quite shabby.
The only guests present were a few one-star sect representatives and a couple of lesser-known cultivation families.
Not even a single representative from a two-star sect showed up.
Regardless of this, Lan Xiaobu was now officially the leader of the Qianyun Immortal Sect.
Previously, Lan Xiaobu believed that the Qianyun Immortal Sect had over a thousand members, and while a bit lacking, it wasn't too bad.
When he took over as leader, he realized what that thousand really meant.
Out of those over a thousand, two to three hundred were just various disciples doing chores for the sect.
There were only three elders: Cheng Yixi, Situ Tong, and Wen Xinran.
Cheng Yixi had only achieved the Dan Refining Stage, whereas Situ Tong and Wen Xinran had reached the Dan Condensing Stage, yet Situ Tong had been injured in the past, which severely impacted his abilities.
The only one with significant strength was Wen Xinran, but he couldn’t leave the sect.
Wen Xinran had always protected the Qianyun Immortal Sect.
Now that Lan Xiaobu had become the new sect leader and the former leader's health was improving, the Qianyun Immortal Sect had shown a slight revival.
There were a total of one hundred thirty-seven inner disciples within the sect, all in the Foundation Establishment stage.
However, due to a lack of resources, none of them could advance to the Dan Refining stage.
Achieving this required both medicinal pills and spiritual energy, but the Qianyun Sect had neither.
Even their only secret realm, the Qianyun Secret Realm, was occupied by others.
Some disciples, bold and eager for greater opportunities, had left, while those who remained either couldn’t bear to part with the sect or didn’t want to venture elsewhere.
The outer sect had five hundred seven members, but all the peak leaders had fallen, leaving no one stronger than the Dan Condensing stage to take charge.
As for the core disciples, only Shan Qianyue remained.
She had been adopted as a child by the former leader, Shan Changxiu; otherwise, there likely wouldn’t be any core disciples left.
During the ceremony for the new sect leader, Lan Xiaobu could clearly see the hopeful gazes of many disciples.
Suddenly, he felt that he could no longer have the same thoughts he once did.
Previously, he had planned to use the Qianyun Immortal Sect as a stepping stone to venture into the Kunxu Xuan Stream and then leave.
Cultivation might require forsaking everything and severing all attachments.
Yet, Lan Xiaobu felt he couldn’t do that.
As a sect leader, facing so many eager disciples, wouldn’t it be too much to just leave after receiving some benefits?
Unfortunately, he neither knew how to refine pills nor forge weapons.
Besides being in the Dan Condensing stage, which was still decent for the sect, he really only knew a bit about formations.
In the cultivation realm, scientific knowledge was like a piece of scrap.
No, it was even less useful than that.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu’s frowning silence after looking at the disciples, Shan Qianyue comforted him, “Brother Xiaobu, if we get the chance to enter Kunxu, our sect will definitely advance a star.”
Lan Xiaobu sighed, “It’s not just about that. The Qianyun Immortal Sect is a two-star sect, but now we can’t even make one inner disciple advance to the Dan Refining stage; honestly, that’s a bit absurd.”
Shan Qianyue became quiet for a while before saying, “To reach the Dan Refining stage, we need a type of pill called the Zhen Dan. This pill perfectly transforms the Inner Qi of Foundation Establishment cultivators into True Yuan. However, it mainly requires a spiritual herb called the Shudan Grass, and right now, it is extremely rare across the entire Yuanzhou. Cultivating Shudan Grass is very difficult, and wild ones have almost been completely collected. So, not just our Qianyun Immortal Sect—other sects also find reaching the Dan Refining stage challenging. I believe there is definitely some in Kunxu, as long as we can get in.”
Shudan Grass?
Lan Xiaobu suddenly remembered that he had a pile of various medicinal herbs in his spatial ring, which not only included Shudan Grass but a whole bunch more as well.
When he was at Yuqi Star, Lan Xiaobu didn’t even know what Shudan Grass was.
But during his time as a shopkeeper in the Mobei Market, he had collected all sorts of foundational jade slips.
He had at least a dozen versions of slips for identifying spiritual herbs.
Shudan Grass was one of the most important spiritual herbs, and its details were very clear.
Knowing that the primary spiritual herb for the Zhen Dan was Shudan Grass didn’t mean much to him since he hadn’t used any medicinal pills for achieving either the Dan Refining or Dan Condensing stages.
He just engraved everything into the Seven Sounds Model.
Now, with Shan Qianyue mentioning Shudan Grass, he immediately recalled it.
With a wave of his hand, at least a hundred Shudan Grasses appeared in front of Shan Qianyue. “Look, is this not Shudan Grass? Our inner disciples should be able to reach the Dan Refining stage now, right?”
“Ah, these are all Shudan Grass?” Shan Qianyue exclaimed excitedly, carefully picking up one of the plants.
She then looked at Lan Xiaobu with certainty, “Brother Xiaobu, these are really Shudan Grass? How come there are so many?”
After saying this, she remembered something and quickly took out a pile of jade boxes, carefully placing each Shudan Grass into them. “Brother Xiaobu, Shudan Grass needs to be kept in a confinement jade box; otherwise, its medicinal properties will diminish.”
One or two wouldn’t matter since they would quickly be used to make Zhen Dan.
However, the over a hundred plants that Lan Xiaobu brought out couldn’t all be refined into Zhen Dan at once.
Lan Xiaobu was in a good mood.
He was thinking about possibly returning to Yuqi Star in the future; that place had many good things.
“Take these Shudan Grasses to refine some Zhen Dan. Let’s increase the number of inner disciples in our sect.” Lan Xiaobu pushed all the jade boxes to Shan Qianyue.
She quickly responded, “Brother Xiaobu, we don’t need this many. I’ll just take five to find Master Xiyin. He is a very famous fourth-grade dan master. Even if he takes sixty percent of the medicines and some scraps, we can still produce twenty Zhen Dan from five Shudan Grass.”
“Isn’t that too steep?” Lan Xiaobu then realized that the pill master had set a high price for his work.
A single batch of Zhen Dan should yield twelve pills, but the success rate with five Shudan Grass was just above thirty percent.
Shan Qianyue explained, “That’s already considered generous. Refining Zhen Dan requires a fourth-grade dan master. Throughout Yuanzhou, fourth-grade dan masters are extremely sought after. To ask Master Xiyin, we also need to present some gifts before we can invite him. Brother Xiaobu, I will hurry to find Master Xiyin. Before Kunxu opens, our Qianyun Immortal Sect might just produce a few more Dan Refining experts.”
Lan Xiaobu nodded.
He had thought about whether becoming a dan master would be more profitable.
But soon he brushed that thought aside.
There were many ways to earn spirit stones; becoming a dan master would be too time-consuming.
Even with the Seven Sounds Model, pursuing mastery in pill refining would demand a lot of time.
He would be better off using that time to cultivate.
Previously, gathering all sorts of spiritual herb introductions and various pill formulas was not meant for him to become a dan master.
Though Yuan Youhen had said that dan masters were quite impressive, he had already chosen to be a formation master.
Learning pill refining on top of that would only spread him too thin.
If he became a dan master, would he later need to become a weapon refiner? A talisman master? A spirit plant master…
The cultivation world had just as many things to learn as the technological realm, and all were good choices.
However, he simply didn’t have the energy for so much.
…
With a month or two left before Kunxu opened, Lan Xiaobu and Gu Dao remained on Qianyun Peak to cultivate.
Lan Xiaobu was very troubled because he had no cultivation methods.
During this time, although he practiced the Spirit Refinement Technique and expanded his divine sense to thirty miles, he hadn’t made any progress in strength.
Instead, regarding formations, Lan Xiaobu thought that it was closely related to divine sense, and he could barely set up a third-level protective formation now.
As a third-level formation master, Lan Xiaobu hadn’t sent anyone to do menial tasks on Qianyun Peak.
A single Dust Dispersing Formation could solve all problems.
Just like back when he went to Red Cloud Sect; it was pristine inside because there was a Dust Dispersing Formation present.
One day, while Lan Xiaobu was studying the fourth-level Spirit Gathering Formation, he concluded that for Qianyun Immortal Sect to develop, it must have a very good Spirit Gathering Formation.
Currently, the Spirit Gathering Formation was barely second-tier; this formation clearly didn’t match the contingent of cultivators present.
The spiritual energy around Qianyun Peak dissipated as there were no spiritual pulses within the sect and no pills to assist them.
If this continued, it would be a miracle if the disciples could make any progress.
Suddenly, the alarm array outside Qianyun Peak emitted a shrill cry.
Lan Xiaobu extended his divine sense and immediately saw an inner disciple standing outside the protective formation.
Lan Xiaobu recognized this disciple named Xuan Fu.
He had been with the Qianyun Immortal Sect for nearly twenty years and was an old disciple.
He had always been stuck at the peak of Foundation Establishment as he couldn’t enter the Dan Refining stage due to a lack of Zhen Dan.
Lan Xiaobu opened the protective formation, and Xuan Fu practically dashed over to him, “Master Brother, something happened to Sister Qianyue.”
Lan Xiaobu frowned, puzzled, “Wasn’t Qianyue supposed to seek Master Xiyin for refining Zhen Dan? How did something happen?”
Xuan Fu said anxiously, “Yes, I went with Sister Qianyue to the Baiyu Immortal City’s Wanyue Dan Building. Master Xiyin said he didn’t have time to refine pills for her, but after much persuasion from Sister, he agreed to refine the Zhen Dan. Later, when Sister presented five Shudan Grasses, Master Xiyin looked notably pleased and took the Shudan Grass from her. We waited three days, and when we returned with Sister to collect the pills, Master Xiyin only gave her two low-grade Zhen Dan…”
Lan Xiaobu’s face turned cold.
This Master Xiyin had clearly taken advantage of Shan Qianyue.
They must know the Qianyun Sect's weak position; the former leader was stronger but was unfortunately seriously ill, leaving everyone uncertain of his time left.
The remaining elders barely made it to the Dan Condensing stage and couldn’t leave the sect.
So, even if he scammed Qianyue's pills, no one would stand up for her.
Sure enough, Xuan Fu continued, “Sister wouldn’t agree and demanded that Master Xiyin return the spiritual herbs. In the heat of the argument, she accidentally broke a vase, resulting in her being detained at Wanyue Dan Building.”
(Today’s update ends here.
Good night, friends!)
(End of chapter)