Coincidentally, Wei Tu's main cultivation technique, Divine Wood Origin Technique, was also a wood-attribute technique.
This might benefit him.
"Alright! I accept Fellow Daoist Wei's request."
Fairy Baohua didn't hesitate for long. After a brief thought, she agreed to what wasn't even much of a demand.
Letting Wei Tu take a look at the Hundred Flowers Secret Art might expose some of her foundation, but Wei Tu was already a core figure within the Cangkun Alliance. The chances of him becoming her enemy in the future were slim.
Besides, she'd likely still need his pills in the future. If Wei Tu really wanted to target her, pills—things you ingest—would be the easiest way to do it.
Compared to that small risk, a Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma, a spirit item that could determine one's cultivation path, was clearly more important. Worth its weight in gold.
…
At the same moment.
Lou Sanhua was grumbling under her breath. The protector who had come with her had taken out the Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma without her permission.
She had already considered the ganoderma her own since receiving it from her master, Divine Master Xuan Tong. She hadn't wanted to give it up so easily as payment for a pill.
She was confident that if she just kept provoking Wei Tu, she could eventually force him to respond.
If by chance Wei Tu really refined the Blood-Cleaving Pill… wouldn't that ganoderma be lost for nothing?
"Rest easy, Saintess. The tampering we did with the Blood-Cleaving Pill's ingredients was well hidden… There's no way Wei Tu will succeed in refining it."
The old woman cursed Lou Sanhua for being short-sighted, but since their mission was critical, she held her tongue and spoke gently to reassure her.
"…Fine."
Lou Sanhua sighed and reluctantly turned her gaze away from the Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma in the old woman's hands.
Even as the disciple of Divine Master Xuan Tong, it was extremely rare to get her hands on a treasure like this in the Feng Wu Tribe.
Using it as bait said everything about how much the Feng Wu Tribe feared Wei Tu.
…
A quarter of an hour later.
Wei Tu descended from the fourth floor of the shop and entered the main hall, agreeing to refine the Blood-Cleaving Pill for Lou Sanhua.
"We don't know much about alchemy. If Alchemist Wei uses inferior materials or swaps things out to trick us outsiders, that wouldn't be acceptable."
Lou Sanhua requested to observe the pill refinement.
The success rate of a pill furnace was closely tied to the quality of its ingredients. Many alchemists had poor reputations precisely because they were caught secretly swapping ingredients.
That was "using inferior in place of superior."
"Swapping old for new" referred to alchemists who, during a batch, would use pre-made pills to pass them off as freshly refined, claiming poor performance while pocketing the full set of ingredients.
These were common shady tricks in the alchemy world.
"Lou Sanhua came prepared," Fairy Baohua thought, her gaze falling on Wei Tu. She began to worry.
The Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma had clouded her judgment, leading her to overlook just how thoroughly Lou Sanhua had planned this.
"Of course you may observe," Wei Tu said with a faint smile. He didn't object.
When refining valuable pills, it was normal for clients to ask to observe.
Lou Sanhua offering the ganoderma as payment followed standard practice.
'Where is his confidence coming from?'
Seeing Wei Tu agree so easily, Lou Sanhua was momentarily stunned. She had been expecting him to dodge like the ever-diplomatic Tao Fangde, using some excuse to shift the situation.
But Wei Tu agreed immediately, without hesitation.
'Could it be a trap?'
Lou Sanhua began to have second thoughts. She really didn't want to part with the ganoderma.
But things had gone too far for either side to back out now.
With every cultivator present watching, Lou Sanhua and the two old women behind her followed Wei Tu and Fairy Baohua up to the fourth floor.
"Lou Daoist, you may observe, but not all three of you need to come."
At the doorway, Wei Tu reminded her.
"The Saintess is precious. She shouldn't be exposed to risk. I will go in her stead."
Before Lou Sanhua could respond, the old woman who had produced the ganoderma stepped forward.
Lou Sanhua seemed caught off guard. Her eyes widened, and her face showed a flash of confusion.
Fairy Baohua noticed and teased, "Looks like Saintess Lou isn't truly in charge of her mission here in Hujie Immortal City. Even your subordinates are taking the lead."
Lou Sanhua's face turned red, then green. But she suppressed her anger, remembering this wasn't the Feng Wu Tribe's territory.
"Granny Ke is my elder and here to protect me. She's not a subordinate. Fairy Baohua is reading too much into things."
Her voice was cold.
Though that was what she said, it was true that Granny Ke and the other old woman were her protectors. Normally, they deferred to her in everything and never acted on their own… This scene sent her an unusual signal.
She glanced at the dead robed man still lying on the ground, a growing sense of unease rising in her chest.
'Play it by ear.' Lou Sanhua was growing anxious. She had no more clear plan.
…
A quarter of an hour later.
On the fourth floor of the shop, inside the pill refinement room.
Granny Ke sat kneeling at the edge, separated by a tier-three formation. Her eyes were cold, fixed on Wei Tu as he stood by the pill furnace inspecting the ingredients.
When she saw that Wei Tu showed no change in expression after checking the ingredients, she let out a silent sigh of relief. She folded her sleeves and quietly began to activate a gray-black dagger.
'What a shame about the Saintess,' Granny Ke thought, sighing to herself.
Like the robed man earlier, Lou Sanhua was also a sacrificial pawn in this plan to provoke Wei Tu.
Even though she held the title of Divine Master Xuan Tong's disciple, that didn't mean much in Xuan Tong's eyes.
Giving up an average disciple in exchange for the death of a high-potential outsider alchemist like Wei Tu was an easy choice for him.
As for her own life, Granny Ke didn't care. She still had nearly a hundred years of lifespan left, but for the tribe, it was worth it.
…
But things didn't go as she expected.
Wei Tu didn't use the ingredients Lou Sanhua had brought.
Right before he was about to place them into the pill furnace, he swiftly swapped them with another set.
As for how he pulled it off…
With the formation blocking her senses, Granny Ke's divine sense couldn't reach, and her line of sight was easily misled.
Unfortunately, the two shady tricks Lou Sanhua had just mentioned—"using inferior in place of superior" and "swapping old for new"—had indeed been used by Wei Tu on occasion in the past.
He had refined the Blood-Cleaving Pill several times before.
Long ago, he had quietly set aside a full set of the pill's ingredients.
That was precisely why he dared accept Lou Sanhua's challenge—he was already prepared.
With the "Late Bloomer" destiny, his alchemy skills improved far faster than ordinary alchemists.
Not only that, the quality of his pills was better and more stable.
Time passed slowly.
Three days went by in a flash.
Throughout the refinement, Granny Ke had been watching from the side.
Her calm demeanor gradually gave way to anxiety, because she never saw any sign of pill failure from the furnace.
'Just wait a bit more. Maybe it's not time yet.'
She tried to reassure herself.
But just then—
A humming sound came from the furnace lid, and a rich pill fragrance began to spread.
"Pills are done?" Granny Ke was stunned. She had no idea where things had gone wrong.
She hadn't realized from the beginning that she had completely misjudged Wei Tu's true alchemy skills. She didn't know he had another full set of Blood-Cleaving Pill ingredients on hand.
"Fortunately, I didn't fail. Four pills in total."
Wei Tu smiled lightly, flicked his sleeve, and opened the furnace. From within the spiritual flames, he retrieved four lustrous, blood-red pills.
"Granny Ke, now that the pills are complete, it's time to hand over the promised payment—the Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma."
Fairy Baohua, who had observed the entire refinement process, also came to her senses. Her expression brightened as she looked at Granny Ke.
The Blood-Cleaving Pill, depending on ingredients and the alchemist, could yield at most six pills per batch.
But even four was considered excellent in terms of success rate.
Nothing to complain about.
Only a handful of top-tier alchemists could manage to refine six pills in one batch, and only under optimal conditions.
"This…" Granny Ke hesitated, unsure how to respond.
The gray-black dagger in her sleeve could only cripple Wei Tu's cultivation base. It wasn't enough to kill both Fairy Baohua and Wei Tu.
If the pills hadn't succeeded, she could've claimed foul play as a customer and justified harming the alchemist. The Feng Wu Tribe could've used that as an excuse afterward.
But now, with no justification, a random attack would put them clearly in the wrong—and the Ying Ding Tribe wasn't one to back down easily.
'Only one plan left.'
A vicious glint flashed in Granny Ke's eyes.
She moved her lips slightly and sent a voice transmission to the other protector outside, Granny Ma.
Afterward, she put on a smile, patted her storage pouch, and handed the Form-Shifting Spirit Ganoderma to Fairy Baohua.
But the moment the exchange finished—
A wail rang out from outside.
"Wei Tu! You poisoned the tea?!"
Granny Ke's face changed. Her aura surged violently, rising in moments to the Late-stage Golden Core Realm.
Granny Ma outside did the same.
Two Late-stage Golden Core experts appeared in the pill chamber in a flash, glaring at Wei Tu, who was behind a tier-three defensive formation.
This sudden shift caught everyone off guard.
"How dare you!"
Fairy Baohua immediately acted to intercept.
She summoned a flower basket magical treasure.
From the basket burst a torrent of multicolored blossoms—purple, red, white—vibrant and vivid, all blooming in wild profusion.
The flower pollen merged into a river, forming a multicolored arc that swept toward Granny Ke and Granny Ma.
"Petty tricks."
Granny Ma sneered, pulling back her sleeve to reveal a dark-blue tattoo of a Golden Crow on her arm.
The tattoo glowed fiercely and shot out a beam of black light, instantly tearing through the colorful arc.
"Die!"
Granny Ma's grin turned sinister. She dashed forward, her gnarled hand like a vulture's claw, aiming for Fairy Baohua's crown.
Tsssk—
Fairy Baohua's figure disintegrated into a flurry of petals, scattering into the air, only to reform her Dao body several dozen steps away.
"Hundred Flowers Dissolution?" Granny Ma frowned in confusion.
The three tribes knew each other well. The Feng Wu Tribe even had backups of the Hundred Flowers Secret Art cultivated by Fairy Baohua.
The "Hundred Flowers Dissolution" was the most advanced and difficult technique in the Ancient Scroll of Heavenly Fragrance.
Once mastered, the user could scatter into countless petals and become virtually immortal during battle, as long as their spiritual essence endured.
"Good thing her realm is still low."
Seeing that Fairy Baohua's aura had dropped significantly after reforming her Dao body, Granny Ma sighed with relief.
Meanwhile—
Granny Ke, seeing that Granny Ma had failed, arched her brow and prepared to strike together to finish off Fairy Baohua first.
But just then, an eagle screech rang out. A dark-blue giant eagle burst through the wind, talons sharp as blades, diving at Granny Ke's back.
"A tier-three peak-stage spirit beast?!"
Granny Ke was shaken. This didn't match the intelligence she'd received at all.
Hadn't Wei Tu's spirit beast only just reached tier-three a few decades ago?
Tier-three spirit beasts had bodies as strong as Late-stage Golden Core cultivators. Granny Ke, who had only reached that level using secret techniques, didn't dare clash head-on with the Wind Cleaving Eagle.
She crossed her arms and leapt back.
The Wind Cleaving Eagle didn't press the attack. It curved through the air and crashed through the fourth-floor roof, letting out a shrill screech to draw the attention of the royal guards.
That appearance—
Nearby shops and passersby all took notice of the commotion at the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall. But with Golden Core cultivators fighting, no one dared get close.
"They're fighting upstairs! Senior Wei is still up there! What should we do?!"
Behind the loft, Tao Ya was frantic as she watched the battle shockwaves coming from the fourth floor. She looked to her older brother Tao Jie for guidance.
"Ya'er, the ones fighting are Lou Sanhua's guards. They're both in the Golden Core Realm. We're just Foundation Establishment. There's nothing we can do."
"It's best to stay put and not cause trouble."
Tao Jie was helpless.
He wanted to make a good impression on Wei Tu too, but Golden Core battles were far beyond his reach.
"Let's just hope the royal guards get here soon."
Tao Ya murmured a prayer and looked toward the patrol route of the royal guard.
…
Sensing the distant energy clash, the royal patrol guards in Hujie Immortal City immediately changed expression. Several Grand Mages took to the air, preparing to quell the disturbance.
"The royal order—Golden Tent election is imminent. Do not act without authorization!"
"This matter will be handled by the Royal Prince's command."
At that moment, a gray-robed youth flew over and flashed a gold token carved with the character "Left." He held it up and said these words.
"Left Virtuous King's faction?"
The leading Grand Mage frowned deeply. He seemed to understand something. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded slightly, then turned and returned to his original post.
Meanwhile, in the main hall of the Cangkun Alliance compound, Yuan Jie anxiously looked toward the direction of the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall.
He hadn't expected that at such a critical moment, Lou Sanhua and her bodyguards would really dare stir trouble and clash with Fairy Baohua and Wei Tu.
"No… I can't just stand by and do nothing."
Determination flashed in Yuan Jie's eyes.
Baohua was his most trusted ally, one of the earliest cultivators to support him from the bottom. They even had the possibility of becoming Dao partners.
As for Wei Tu—first in Falling Sun City, he had warned him and helped him avoid assassination by the Second Prince. Later, he leaked information about the Right Virtuous King's talisman procurement. Clearly, Wei Tu was a friend on his side.
If, just for the sake of the bigger picture, he abandoned both of them now, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.
"Qian Yue, go help Wei Tu and Baohua immediately."
Yuan Jie turned and spoke urgently to a black-robed figure hidden in the shadows.
"Yes, Master." The figure nodded, then turned into a streak of light and sped toward the shop.
Not long after Qian Yue left, a cultivator dressed as a royal guard entered the hall and knelt on one knee. "Alliance Master Yuan, it's time for the Golden Tent election. The royal court asks you to proceed to the Golden Tent Platform at once."
The Golden Tent Platform was the gathering site for all tribal chiefs of the Ying Ding Tribe during this time.
It lay outside Hujie Immortal City, roughly one hundred li away.
"Understood. I'll go now."
Yuan Jie's heart sank slightly. His two most capable allies—Fairy Baohua and Qian Yue—weren't by his side now.
Still, knowing he couldn't be late for such a major assembly, he could only grit his teeth and comply.
Elsewhere, inside a large hall in Hujie Immortal City—
An old man with sallow skin sat across from a middle-aged man in feathered robes.
Projected on the watery screen before them were various live scenes from around the city.
One showed the fighting at the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall.
Another showed the gray-robed youth using the royal token to stop the patrol guard.
But their attention was fixed on the scene where Yuan Jie sent Qian Yue to assist Fairy Baohua and Wei Tu.
"Even at such a critical moment, he still sends his forces to aid his companions. Yuan Jie has a good heart, loyal and righteous. But this act… may just ruin him for good."
The feather-robed man commented, a look of amusement on his face, as if watching a drama unfold.
"It's one hundred li from Hujie Immortal City to the Golden Tent Platform. The Right Virtuous King has laid an ambush. Without help, Yuan Jie might not come back alive."
"Du Long, aren't you worried? Wasn't Yuan Jie the one you favored?"
The feather-robed man turned to the sallow-skinned old man beside him and raised an eyebrow.
"Such is fate."
"These are all his own choices."
Divine Master Du Long slowly shook his head.
After a pause, he said, "If Yuan Jie loses here because of his loyalty, then that is his destiny. A Right Virtuous King with empathy would benefit the tribe. But that doesn't mean a cold-blooded one wouldn't serve even better… In fact, the latter might do the job more efficiently."
"That said…" His tone shifted slightly. "Even if Yuan Jie loses the crown, he doesn't have to die. If he no longer becomes the Right Virtuous King, he could still be our successor."
The Right Virtuous King and a personal successor were two different roles.
While a Right Virtuous King might benefit from being ruthless, Du Long would never choose someone heartless as a successor.
A man who abandons his friends today could abandon his teacher and tribe tomorrow.
"You make a fair point."
The feather-robed man—Divine Master He Di—nodded in approval.
"Still, Du Long, I don't believe Yuan Jie is going to lose his claim to the throne."
He chuckled.
Had any cultivator outside the hall heard this, it would've sparked a huge uproar.
After all, in the eyes of the Ying Ding Tribe's upper echelon, Divine Master He Di and Divine Master Du Long had always been at odds—and supposedly opposed Yuan Jie's ascension.
"What makes you say that?" A hint of surprise flashed in Du Long's eyes.
He didn't think Yuan Jie had what it took to beat both major royal factions at once.
"He hasn't used his full strength yet."
He Di smiled and pointed to the scene on the water screen showing the interior of the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall.
"Him?" Du Long looked intrigued.
To survive two Golden Core cultivators and return to the tribe alive already proved this man was no ordinary figure.
…
Back at the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall, fourth floor.
Facing Granny Ke's attacks, Wei Tu didn't panic. He kept stabilizing the tier-three defensive array in the pill chamber without making a move.
"Go!"
Seeing the array still holding, Granny Ke grew desperate. Her face flushed red as she slapped her chest and spat several mouthfuls of essence blood onto the gray-black dagger in her hand.
At once, the dagger lit up with intense spiritual glow. The immense spiritual pressure distorted the surrounding space.
The next moment—
The gray-black dagger crashed into the blue barrier created by the formation, its blade flickering with black light as it struck at every weak point in the array.
Crack! Crack!
Within a few seconds, the tier-three formation finally shattered into pieces of light and vanished.
"Wei Tu, you dared poison our tribe's Saintess—die!"
Granny Ke grinned coldly. She spat another mouthful of essence blood and pressed it into the dagger.
The tip of the blade burst into eerie red light and shot toward Wei Tu's chest like a bolt of lightning.
But right then, a golden barrier of talismanic energy flared up and blocked the dagger's strike.
"What?! A tier-three superior-grade talisman?!"
Granny Ke was stunned. She couldn't believe it.
Not only had Wei Tu set up a tier-three formation in the pill chamber, but he even carried a superior-tier talisman with him.
"But… if it's just one…"
Granny Ke gritted her teeth.