During the nine days that Sect Leader Jun devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation, he didn’t just obtain natural spirit stones—he also acquired a new batch of medicinal herbs.
Under the twenty-fold spiritual energy infusion, the newly produced medicinal herbs possessed terrifyingly potent spiritual power.
Jun Changxiao refined them all into Qi Gathering Pills, and after consuming one, discovered they were at least twenty times more potent than ordinary Qi Gathering Pills!
Previously, limited by the ecological environment, Elder Wei could only cultivate medicinal herbs up to fifteen times potency at most.
“Excellent, excellent.”
As long as it aided faster cultivation, Jun Changxiao was naturally very satisfied.
“Sect Leader.”
Elder Wei said, “This batch of medicinal herbs benefited during their growth phase, so their spiritual power hasn’t reached its peak yet. The next ones we plant will only be even stronger.”
The high spiritual power of the new medicinal herbs had another contributor—the wild boar Peppa.
During this time, it had been diligently using its earth-attribute abilities every day to nourish the medicinal garden’s soil, not only achieving complete coverage but also extending outward.
As disciples continued to increase in number and rise in cultivation realm, the required martial resources would naturally grow greater, so Elder Wei naturally needed to expand the medicinal garden’s scale.
The initial plan was to expand from ten acres to one hundred acres.
The disciples of the Medicine Hall, such as Sun Bukong and others, had already become medicinal herb cultivators early on under Elder Wei’s instruction.
As the saying goes, renowned masters produce outstanding disciples. Although they hadn’t been officially certified, their ability to cultivate medicinal herbs was absolutely incomparable to mere apprentices.
Jun Changxiao said, “I’ll trouble Elder Wei to plant more and provide greater cultivation resources for the Tiegu Sect.”
As he spoke, he took out fifty natural spirit stones and said, “This is Elder Wei’s monthly salary.”
Inner sect disciples received at most twenty stones, yet he directly gave fifty and personally presented them, showing how much he respected and valued him.
During this time, the martial resources consumed by disciples had all been refined from medicinal herbs by Elder Wei. Jun Changxiao could shortchange anyone, but he would absolutely never shortchange Elder Wei.
It could be said that whether the sect could grow stronger depended critically on this reclusive expert!
Elder Wei shook his head and said, “Even if this old man absorbs spirit stones, they will dissipate with time. Sect Leader should keep them for those children with dreams in their hearts.”
These three words—”children”—revealed an old man’s weariness and also conveyed some helplessness.
Everyone has been young once, and Elder Wei was no exception. It’s just that after experiencing so much, people gradually age, and the dreams they once pursued can only serve as memories.
“Elder Wei.”
Jun Changxiao said, “I will find a way to cure your illness, restore your Martial Emperor prowess, and then you can follow us young people to continue striving for those dreams of the past!”
“Hopefully such a day will come.” Elder Wei smiled.
His own illness belonged to the category of rare and complicated conditions—the probability of being cured was zero.
However, since he was a member of the Tiegu Sect, he would naturally spare these old bones to help them walk further and fly higher.
—
Spirit stone mining and disciple cultivation—the Tiegu Sect operated as usual.
Jun Changxiao temporarily stopped cultivating and began considering the upcoming Mount Hua Martial Discourse.
Should he go alone, or with a group?
“For such a grand event, naturally you should go with a group,” Li Luoqiu said.
“Right.”
Jun Changxiao said, “Go notify Elder Jiang and have him prepare to accompany this Sect Leader to Mount Hua.”
Li Luoqiu didn’t even need to notify him—Jiang Xie walked into the great hall with a completely devastated expression.
As soon as he sat down, he clutched his head in frustration and said, “Sect Leader, that disciple called Shangguan Xinyao is absolutely terrifying!”
Today was the first time he, as an elder, opened a lecture hall to teach at the Martial Discourse Hall.
It started out quite peaceful, with disciples listening with great interest, and some even showing expressions of sudden enlightenment.
But just as it was about to end, Shangguan Xinyao stood up to ask questions about martial arts knowledge.
Well, well—how diligent!
Elder Jiang greatly appreciated this female disciple and carefully answered her questions.
As a result—disaster struck!
Shangguan Xinyao’s questions came one after another, leaving Elder Jiang’s head swelling to the size of a bucket.
After he patiently answered all her questions one by one and rose to leave the Martial Discourse Hall, he immediately felt a sensation of “Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?”
Jun Changxiao cast him a sympathetic look. He too had been driven to collapse by Shangguan Xinyao’s questions.
However, he quickly got back to business and said, “Tomorrow, accompany this Sect Leader to Mount Hua to participate in the Sect Discourse.”
“Sure thing,” Jiang Xie said.
He’d been cultivating at the sect for quite a while now. Apart from showing off at the life-and-death arena, he rarely got any screen time.
Damn it, I’m at least the Tiegu Sect’s only current elder—shouldn’t I get more screen time instead of having it all stolen by disciples?!
Jun Changxiao considered for a while longer and decided to bring Lu Qianqian, Li Qingyang, Xiao Zuiji, Ye Xingchen, and Zhou Hong—five people in total.
As for the other disciples, they would continue cultivating at the sect.
An elder and core disciples—for this trip to Mount Hua to participate in the Sect Martial Discourse, the Tiegu Sect could be considered to have deployed its elite forces.
—
The next day, Liu Wanshi prepared a sumptuous send-off meal for the Sect Leader and others. After eating, amid the disciples’ enthusiastic farewells, they headed south.
Mount Hua was farther from Tiegu Mountain than Dragon Yang City, but with wind-attribute fierce beasts, traveling quickly wasn’t a problem.
“Sect Leader.”
On the road, Li Qingyang said, “These Hurricane Wolves seem stronger than they were a while ago.”
“Fierce beasts absorb heaven and earth attributes to advance their cultivation. With twenty-fold spiritual energy in the mountain, naturally they’ll become stronger,” Jiang Xie said, forcibly adding screen time for himself.
This statement gave Jun Changxiao inspiration. He thought to himself, “When I have time, I can capture more fierce beasts and raise them in the mountain. First, I can regularly obtain beast meat, and I can also obtain beast cores.”
Others raised domestic animals like cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks, but this guy actually planned to raise fierce beasts in the mountain—his ideas were truly rather frightening!
—
They had just crossed several mountains and forded several rivers—the rugged, winding paths seemed endless.
Forget your险峻 mountains and treacherous waters, we’ve encountered difficulties and tasted bitterness, and we’ll forge a heavenly road broad and wide.
This was the opening theme from Journey to the West’s sequel, and it could now perfectly describe Sect Leader Jun leading his disciples over mountains and through rivers.
Of course, they didn’t encounter any demons on the road, but they did encounter bandits.
“Everyone.”
Sitting on a boulder eating skewers, Jun Changxiao said rather helplessly, “Coming out to rob without even saying your lines—that doesn’t follow the rules of the road!”
Around them, seventy or eighty fierce and menacing bandits wielding swords surrounded him and his disciples in a tight circle.
“Rules of the road?”
The bandit leader was startled and said, “Could you be fellow professionals?”
“Swish!”
Jun Changxiao tossed away his skewer, clasped his hands behind his back, and declared loudly, “The earth shakes the high ridge, one stream of mountains eternally magnificent!”
Bandit leader: ???
Bandit members: ???
“Swish!”
Li Qingyang, Xiao Zuiji, and the others stood up and shouted, “The gate faces the great sea, three converging rivers flowing for ten thousand years!”
The bandit leader immediately understood—this was absolutely a meeting code phrase from the road!
But… this old man has mixed in these circles for so long, and has only heard of code phrases like “The Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger” and “The Pagoda suppresses the River Demon”—I’ve never heard of “one stream of mountains eternally magnificent”!
Swoosh—
Just then, a cold gleam flashed before his eyes.
Ye Xingchen held a sword in her left hand and ate skewers with her right, her gaze cold and severe as she said, “Trash should go die in the trash heap.”
“Thud.”
The bandit leader’s legs went soft and he immediately knelt on the ground, a sword mark appearing on his neck.
“Boss!”
The bandits all cried out in alarm.
“Swish! Swish!”
They angrily swung their blades and swords, and then… before they could even attack, they saw countless sword shadows burst forth.
“Clang!”
“Clang!”
Li Qingyang, Xiao Zuiji, and the others all sheathed their swords. By the time the sword energy dissipated, all seventy or eighty bandits surrounding them had fallen to the ground, dead.
Jun Changxiao looked up toward a distant mountain peak and murmured, “We can go plunder their bandit lair.”
—