This bout of heart-stopping, soul-shaking combat left Ning Sihua, Mu Xi, and Lan Suo feeling that, even if they went all out and risked their lives, they’d struggle to block their foes. 

But as soon as Su Yi intervened, it transformed into a petty farce, and the curtains fell on the whole incident almost immediately.

Perhaps this is the bearing of the truly invincible! thought Ning Sihua as she took in Su Yi’s tall, lean silhouette.

A single wave of the arm was enough to severely injure Wang Tu, while a single slap smooshed Helian Hai.

Even the mighty Liao Yunliu of the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect was as helpless as a fly caught in a trap; struggle as she might, she couldn’t escape.

Just how terrifying were these abilities?

It seemed that the world’s Xiantian Martial Ancestors, regardless of whether they hailed from the mundane world or cultivation factions like the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect, were no longer qualified to oppose Su Yi! 

The Burning Heaven Restricting Demon Formation sank back into silence.

“How are your injuries?” Su Yi glanced at Ning Sihua and asked softly.

“I’m fine; they’re just superficial injuries,” said Ning Sihua with a faint smile.

Lan Suo took out a tiny jade bottle. “Big Sister Ning, this is Divine Spiritfrost Powder. It’s specifically intended to treat external wounds, and it won’t leave a scar. Take off your clothes, and I’ll help you put it on.”

“Uh….” Who knows what Ning Sihua was thinking, but her pretty face flushed red.

Lan Suo froze, then seemed to realize something. Her cheeks heated up, and she said hurriedly, “Let’s find a private place first.”

With that, she and Ning Sihua turned and left.

“For cultivators like us, injuries are all but unavoidable. They’re just applying medicine to her wounds; is there any need to be so embarrassed? Honestly!” Mu Xi couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh.

Su Yi glanced at him. “Go gather up the spoils.”

In the past, being ordered about like this would have made Mu Xi uncomfortable. He might even have asked, “Why should I?”

But he’d experienced this before. Last time, at Bloodthistle Yao Mountain, Su Yi had him go fetch a wooden sword; he was already accustomed to it. 

He was even somewhat happy. Su Yi wasn’t treating him like an outsider; didn’t that mean he was starting to see him as an ally? 

Thus, Mu Xi got to work without complaints.

Su Yi, meanwhile, sat cross-legged on the ground and took out the Violet Imperial Cauldron.

Someone had disturbed him during the refining process, but it wasn’t a complete loss. Some of the pills had been ruined, but it was less than twenty percent.

Su Yi tapped the little furnace, and a pill flew out and revolved in the air, radiant light flowing around it. 

Upon closer inspection, the pill was perfectly round, blue-green, and as translucent as jade. It was swathed in mists, and its surface had nine minute apertures. The faint roaring of tigers and dragons emanated from within; it was strange and mysterious to the extreme. 

The Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill!

This was one of the “Four Great Spirit Pills of the Origin Dao”. The recipe was under the control of the Nine Provinces of the Wilds’ number-one holy land for pill refiners, the Pill Clear Sect.

This was a pill martial artists used to establish their foundations when they stepped into the Origin Dao. It was a first-rate pill famed far and wide.

Even one such pill was worth over a hundred tier-four spirit stones!

Furthermore, in the Wilds, they were extremely difficult to purchase.

This was because such pills were under the control of the Pill Clear Sect, and they rarely sold them to outsiders. 

In his past life, Su Yi had once visited the Pill Clear Sect to research the Dao of Pill Refining. During his visit, he observed and studied the seventy-two secret pill recipes in the sect’s archives.

He even “sparred” with the patriarch of the Pill Clear Sect, Yao Emperor Shu Changsheng, competing with him at medicine refining. After all that, there was no way he wouldn’t know how to make a Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill.

“Without borrowing the power of the Burning Heaven Restricting Demon Formation, my current cultivation wouldn’t have been anywhere near sufficient to refine a first-class Origin Dao spirit pill like this….” Su Yi picked up the Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill and examined it closely, a hint of satisfaction in his gaze.

This batch of pills had used up roughly eighty percent of the spiritual ingredients he had on him. In the end, he produced forty-eight pills.

Their value absolutely far surpassed that of their ingredients. 

Before long, his companions returned, one after another.

Ning Sihua had changed into a clean dress, and her cheeks were rosy. It seemed she’d recovered much of her vitality.

Mu Xi came back with a big pile, their spoils of war. This included about thirty types of spiritual medicine, three hundred spirit stones of various tiers and elements, as well as scattered spiritual materials, jade talismans, and other such goods. 

Su Yi’s gaze swept over the treasure. Then, he said, “I’ll take the spirit stones tier four and up. Divide the rest among yourselves.”

Mu Xi did as he was told. Ning Sihua and Lan Suo didn’t refuse or stand on ceremony either.

In the end, Su Yi obtained a little over fifty tier-four spirit stones, as well as two incomparably rare and precious tier-five spirit stones.

Mu Xi and the others were quite satisfied too. The spoils Su Yi didn’t take a fancy to were enormously valuable to them. 

Like the Qianyun Umbrella. That went to Ning Sihua.

After dividing the spoils, Su Yi took out the Violent Imperial Cauldron and gave them twelve Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pills apiece. 

This left them both startled and flattered, and even a bit uneasy.

There was nothing for it; these pills were simply too precious.

Within the Great Zhou, never mind ordinary martial artists… They feared that even Earthly Immortals would go mad over such pills. They were unquestionably unsurpassed treasures!

But now, Su Yi gave each of them twelve such treasures all at once. This was already far more than a delightful surprise... it was a terrifying shock!

“Fellow Daoist, these pills are too precious. One each would be plenty. The rest….” Ning Sihua wanted to refuse, only for Su Yi to wave and cut her off.

“We’re traveling and working together. It’s only right that we divide these treasures equally. Besides, it’s just a bunch of pills. They don’t amount to much.”

When they saw this, his companions looked at each other, then put the pills away. 

“And they call me rich and overbearing….” Lan Suo couldn’t help but mutter to herself.

Compared to the Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pills, her treasures weren’t even worth looking at.

Su Yi was quite satisfied with his gains from this trip to Treasure Temple Yao Mountain.

His three greatest harvests were subduing a drop of true dragon blood, refining a batch of Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pills, and gaining control of the Burning Heaven Restricting Demon Formation!

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Su Yi rose, and the group returned along their original path.

When they left, Su Yi controlled the grand formation, sealing the underground world completely, just as he had when he left Bloodthistle Yao Mountain.

No otherworld cultivators would cross through that particular spatial barrier for at least three years. 

……

……

Some time later, in a restaurant in Golden Willow City.

As soon as they returned from Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, Su Yi and company ordered a sumptuous feast and chatted over dinner.

Once they were sated, Su Yi took out a white jade talisman and used his divine sense as a brush to record a secret method.

At his current level, using his divine sense to record techniques wasn’t at all tiring.

Before long, he passed the talisman to Ning Sihua. “Fellow Daoist Ning, this is a soul cultivation technique called the lesser ‘Inducing One Thousand Opportunities'. It’s nothing special, but it might be useful later, when you attempt to break into the Origin Dao.” 

Ning Sihua was stunned. She subconsciously asked, “Fellow Daoist… Can you tell what bottleneck I’ve encountered in my cultivation?”

Su Yi nodded. “I can discern a little.”

In the world beneath the tower, Su Yi sensed that Ning Sihua’s soul was enormously strong and perceptive, and that there was an inscrutable and mysterious power sealed within her body. 

After fighting side by side, Su Yi could clearly sense that Ning Sihua had run into an extremely troublesome obstacle. This particular bottleneck involved her soul.

“Thank you for sharing this technique, Fellow Daoist!” Ning Sihua took a deep breath, then solemnly accepted the jade tablet. 

When she sensed the profundity of the lesser “Inducing One Thousand Opportunities”, she was rooted to the spot. Waves of shock coursed through her heart, and the tips of her long, slender fingers quivered. 

With her powers of discernment, she immediately realized that this was a peak-level method for tempering the soul! It wasn’t anywhere near as ordinary as Su Yi made it sound. 

“Fellow Daoist, I…” A while later, Ning Sihua took a deep breath. She was just about to say something when Su Yi smiled and interrupted her. 

“If you’re planning to thank me, don’t bother.”

“Uh…” Ning Sihua hesitated, then straightforwardly agreed. “Okay!”

Su Yi thought for a moment, then inscribed a cultivation technique on another jade tablet and passed it to Mu Xi. “The power of the Qilin Blood Jade Pendant has given your cultivation extremely firm foundations. That’s especially true of your physique; it’s extraordinarily powerful. However, your cultivation methods are a bit overly ordinary, which is having an enormous impact on your growth.

“This is a technique called the ‘Perceiving Profundity Yang Sutra.’ It’s of the Daoist tradition, and it’ll be enormously beneficial for tempering your physique, as well as for refining the power of True Spirit blood. Take it.”

Mu Xi was initially a bit jealous of Ning Sihua. When he saw this, he found it hard to believe. “I… I get one too?”

“You don’t want it?” asked Su Yi.

Mu Xi immediately reacted as if he’d been electrocuted. He hurriedly accepted it, then broke into a broad grin. “How could I pass up such a grand stroke of fortune?”

He was beside himself with delight, too much so to hide it.

When she saw this, Lan Suo couldn’t help herself. “Young Lord Su, what about me?”

“You?” Su Yi said casually, “You don’t need any new skills or techniques. No, you need to temper your heart. When you cast aside your dependency on external objections, your cultivation will naturally improve by leaps and bounds.”

Lan Suo instantly grumbled and pouted, “But that’s so hard… Even if I don’t want those treasures, my seniors won’t let me refuse them!”

“....” Her companions didn’t quite know what to say to that.

After chatting a little longer, Su Yi decided to continue on his journey. 

“Let’s part ways here,” said Su Yi as they left the restaurant.

After traversing through Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, they entered the White Province, the province bordering the Jade Capital.

“Fellow Daoist, are you really going to continue on your own?” Ning Sihua couldn’t help but ask.

Earlier, she and Mu Xi both expressed a willingness to travel with him, only for Su Yi to turn them down.

“I ought to resolve the grudge between myself and the Su Family on my own,” said Su Yi. He waved. “Bye.”

Then, just like that, he left.

Lan Suo was stunned. “He…. Didn’t he leave a bit too abruptly?”

“Fellow Daoist Su has always been like that,” said Ning Sihua as she watched Su Yi’s tall, lean figure gradually disappear from view. “We should go too.”

Both she and Mu Xi realized that after this trip to Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, Su Yi truly saw them as his allies. 

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taught them each a technique.

It’s important to note that for cultivators, granting someone a legacy had an entirely different meaning. 

A day later.

Morning, the ninth day of the fourth lunar month.

Within the White Province, alongside a wide official road, there was a crude little teahouse that offered travelers refreshments and a place to rest. 

Su Yi sat casually on a run-down bench, sipping tea made from wild leaves the proprietor had picked that very morning. 

“Big Brother, would you like to eat a jujube?” A pigtailed girl who looked about five walked up to him and asked in a childish voice. She opened her tender little hands and revealed a green jujube.