Wang Chao, Zhao Xinghai’s advisor, had sought out Qin Li twice. He didn’t say much, only conveying the Second Prince’s greetings and assuring him that the Prince would help handle certain matters.
As for what those matters were, Qin Li didn’t ask, and Wang Chao didn’t say. They were both perceptive people. For Wang Chao, all that mattered was that Qin Li accepted the gesture.
After all, for Zhao Xinghai, winning over a person like Qin Li was far more important than obtaining imnse wealth.
It had to be said that in this regard, Zhao Xinghai was a mber of the Royal Family with excellent judgnt and ttle. Compared to his older brother, Crown Prince Zhao Xinghe, he was indeed far superior.
It wasn’t that Zhao Xinghe was a completely worthless person. His only mistake, perhaps, was making an enemy of Qin Li. When it ca to magnanimity, the children of the Royal Family were all more or less the sa. Zhao Xinghai was tolerant and had an excellent attitude toward Qin Li, but he treated those he deed worthless completely differently.
As for Crown Prince Zhao Xinghe, he was also capable of spending lavishly on those he deed worth recruiting.
Thus, his mistake was simply offending Qin Li.
Business at the shop was excellent. anwhile, the Daqing Gang began to gradually shift its focus out of the Imperial Capital, Cyan Dragon City. In particular, a disguised Leng Ping took his entire family south to the major stronghold of Yellow Sand City.
This was because Yellow Sand City was Qin Li’s personal fiefdom.
Most great Noble Families would keep a respectful distance from a powerful organization like the Daqing Gang, taking care not to offend them.
As the saying goes, it’s easier to deal with the king of hell than his troubleso imps.
Disputes between noble houses were settled in their own ways, but if you offended an underworld power, you would face all sorts of ruthless retaliation, with no holds barred.
With most of the Daqing Gang’s upper echelon having moved out of Cyan Dragon City, the city’s underworld was left without a leader. Just as other gangs were rubbing their hands in glee, preparing to make a big move and seize the title of Dragon Head, Vice Gang Leader Chang of the Daqing Gang suddenly reappeared in Cyan Dragon City. He announced that the Daqing Gang would support the Grey Eagle Gang. Furthermore, he handed over the Daqing Gang’s main headquarters in the Capital City to the Grey Eagle Gang, along with more than thirteen thousand of its skilled mbers who remained in the city.
And so, Xi, the leader of the Grey Eagle Gang—a young man of the sa age as the Cyan Dragon Kingdom’s number one Marquis—erged for the first ti before the eyes of Cyan Dragon City’s entire underworld.
Naturally, countless people refused to accept this. In the underworld, there was only one way to settle such disagreents: fight.
No one expected this Xi to be so ferocious. Despite only being at the peak of the Profound Level, he was able to go head-to-head with an Earth Level, Third Tier Martial Artist. In the end, he cut his opponent down with a single slash of his blade.
The Grey Eagle Gang had successfully taken up the Daqing Gang’s banner, becoming the new leader of Cyan Dragon City’s underworld.
In reality, on the night of the brawl, Qin Li, Hu, Leng Yao, and Bu Yunyan had been observing from the shadows the entire ti. Also hidden and ready to intervene at a mont’s notice were several of Second Prince Zhao Xinghai’s Celestial Level guards.
In other words, it wouldn’t have mattered if Waterlon had been no match for his opponent.
But the outco surprised many. Waterlon was so vicious that he brutally cut down the leader of a gang only slightly smaller than the original Daqing Gang. It was only after this Earth Level, Third Tier Martial Artist was killed that the fighting stopped. Everyone could see that this young gang leader nad Xi was in no way inferior to the Daqing Gang’s Dragon Head, Leng Ping, in terms of strength, skill, or determination. Although his raw power was slightly weaker, the fact that a Profound Level Martial Artist could kill an Earth Level one was nothing short of a miracle.
This caused many people to subconsciously think of Qin Li and sigh with emotion. ’Have the tis changed? Have all the young people beco such monsters? Back when Qin Li crippled Wei Qiang with a single kick, the strength he displayed was also only at the Profound Level!’
With this, Qin Li had finally established a preliminary foothold in Cyan Dragon City.
The progress of Bu Yunyan, Leng Yao, Hu, and the others was gratifying. If they continued to cultivate like this, while reaching the Celestial Level within five years wasn’t guaranteed, achieving the High Tier of the Earth Level was certainly not a problem.
At the sa ti, Leng Yao gave Qin Li the pill formulas. If they wanted to rapidly increase their strength, they would need to concoct at least three types of elixirs.
The first was called the Blast Pill.
This elixir was refined using four types of Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Grass as the primary ingredients, supplented by over thirty different kinds of Spiritual dicine.
One didn’t need to think hard to understand the value of Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Grass. Any plant that could absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for ten thousand years and survive would be an absolute treasure in itself.
Wherever such Spirit Grass grew, there would undoubtedly be extrely powerful Spirit Beasts guarding it. The reason was simple: humans could refine these grasses into elixirs to enhance their strength.
Likewise, Spirit Beasts could also increase their own power by consuming these Spirit Grasses directly.
Although Alchemists saw this behavior as an egregious waste, a desecration of natural treasures, in the eyes of Spirit Beasts, were the humans who ca to harvest these grasses any different from robbers?
The second elixir was the Strengthening Pill.
This elixir, however, wasn’t for increasing strength. On the contrary, it was an elixir ant to restrict Spiritual Power!
The reason was simple. After consuming a Blast Pill, one’s Spiritual Power would soar, and the Primordial Power within the body would beco too potent. A Martial Artist would be completely unable to digest all this Spiritual Power at once. To prevent the power from dissipating or, worse, causing one’s ridians to rupture and lead to death, another elixir was needed to temporarily seal it away.
Then, through special thods, a balance could be achieved.
In other words, this thod maximized the effects of the Blast Pill, allowing a Martial Artist to absorb the greatest possible amount of Spiritual Power under manageable conditions, without being hard by the excess.
This elixir was not to be underestimated. Before this, even Leng Yao, a scion of an Alchemy Family, had only ever heard of it but had never seen its formula.
Formulas similar to the Blast Pill’s could still be found among the ancient Noble Sects that had survived since Ancient Tis. But a miraculous elixir like the Strengthening Pill? Almost no family specializing in alchemy possessed its formula!
Furthermore, refining this elixir required seven types of flowers, two of which even Leng Yao had never heard of. According to the pill formula, combined with the notes left behind by Prince Wu, those two flowers both grew on islands in the sea. Moreover, they wouldn’t be found on just any island. Only islands with a sufficient density of Spiritual Qi could possibly host such flowers.
And once again, humans were not the only ones who knew of these flowers’ effects. Spirit Beasts understood their value even better! Therefore, to gather them, one would need a cultivation base of at least the Celestial Level.
In any case, even Leng Yao herself had little confidence she could gather all the necessary ingredients. This was because the growth environnts of many celestial treasures were, for humans, forbidden lands in their own right.
And the more a place was like that, the more likely it was to be ho to incomparably tyrannical and terrifying Spirit Beasts.
In truth, although humanity held a dominant position in this world, not even the most arrogant person would dare claim that humans were the strongest beings.
Across the Celestial Essence Continent, there were countless forbidden lands—places where humans simply could not set foot.
The third elixir was called the Essence Pill.
This elixir was ant to enhance a person’s ntal faculties and strengthen their Divine Sense. This would prevent the ergence of a Heart Demon due to overly rapid advancent in strength, which could lead to cultivation deviation.
Relatively speaking, the ingredients for this elixir were sowhat easier to obtain. They could be acquired simply by spending money. Although they were all extrely expensive, for Qin Li, who now controlled the Daqing Gang, money was clearly no longer an issue.
According to the records, most of the ingredients needed for the Blast Pill and the Strengthening Pill could be found in the four great perilous lands surrounding Yellow Sand City. A few others would have to be sourced from several neighboring kingdoms.
In any case, they at least had the formulas now. According to Leng Yao’s deductions, if they could really gather the ingredients for all three elixirs, there was a very high chance they could all reach the Celestial Level within five years.
Leng Yao was always conservative with her words. If she said there was a "very high chance," it basically ant it was a sure thing.
For the dicinal ingredients that could be purchased with money, Qin Li sent a ssage via falcon directly to Leng Ping, tasking him with the matter. As for the difficult-to-obtain celestial treasures—especially the two types of flowers found only on islands—Qin Li decided he would go and find them himself.
His current strength, according to the Martial Artist Level standards of the Celestial Essence Continent, had already reached the High Tier of the Celestial Level. In Cyan Dragon City, it was impossible for him to unleash his full power, and finding an evenly matched opponent was next to impossible. If he wanted to improve further, he could only do so through real-world tempering.
However, Leng Yao, Bu Yunyan, and Hu all disagreed with Qin Li going to search for these spiritual dicines and rare flowers alone. There was only one reason: it was too dangerous.
Faced with their resolute opposition, Qin Li had no choice but to drop the matter for now. ’However,’ he thought, ’I’ve already made up my mind. I have to find a chance to go out. With my current strength, I’m confident I could even fight a Martial Artist of the Celestial Shattering Realm. And even if I can’t win... running away should be no problem.’
Qin Li was never concerned about the retaliation that could co at any mont. He continued to act as he pleased. There was never a shortage of people tailing him, but in over a month, not a single one had dared to make a move.
Qin Li had been hoping a stronger opponent would co for revenge, preferably a High-Tier Celestial Level Martial Artist. That way, he could use them to test how much he had improved recently.
Unfortunately, no such opponent appeared. Instead, he received a different piece of news—one that was surprising, exhilarating, and infuriating all at once.
One day, it was ti for him to lecture at the Advanced Academy again. Qin Li had never ntioned the matter with Bu Tong to Bu Yunyan. Ever since failing to take down Qin Li before the Emperor, Bu Tong had adopted an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude. Every ti Qin Li ca to the academy, the vice principal was nowhere to be seen.
Just as Qin Li entered the academy grounds, he was stopped by one of the princess’s best friends, an alluring girl nad Wuyin. Unlike her usual self, who always enjoyed shooting a few flirtatious glances at Qin Li, Wuyin now wore a look of pure anxiety.
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