Chapter Eighty-Eight: An Unexpected Visitor from the Sky

The days of guiding fellow disciples and practicing the secret art of body refinement suddenly became somewhat monotonous for Luo Tian.

Though he would occasionally enter the gathering array node in the valley to cultivate, there was no doubt that after choosing to practice with fire elemental energy, simply seeking places where heaven and earth’s energy gathered in abundance had become much less effective than before.

Luo Tian knew that if he wanted to maintain such a rapid pace of cultivation at a time like this, there were only two ways. One was to seek out places where fire energy converged, such as volcanic craters or underground magma pools. In such places, there was also a very small chance of encountering a true fire spirit, the fire of the Earth’s core.

The other method was to consume heavenly treasures of the fire element, such as Redleaf Fire Essence Grass or True Flame Spirit Fruits. Of course, if there were pills specially refined for converting one to fire elemental cultivation, that would be even better.

But after looking into the contribution points required by the Pill Treasure Pavilion for pills of this kind, Luo Tian immediately felt a headache coming on. These pills that aided the cultivation of a single element were often priced in the tens of thousands. Judging by that, they were clearly not prepared for cultivators in the Spirit Gathering stage, but instead seemed mainly intended for inner sect disciples who had already reached the Meridian Flow stage.

At first Luo Tian had been somewhat puzzled, but later he finally understood. Qin Tianyu was the emperor of the entire Cloudpeak Empire; the resources at his disposal and the breadth of his vision naturally needed no elaboration.

But what level was the Sunlight Sect at?

The Cloudpeak Empire governed ten great prefectures, vast beyond measure. And among those ten, Heavenly Wind Prefecture was said to be the one with the fewest cities. Windrise City occupied only one-eighth of its territory.

The Sunlight Sect, however, was merely the most inconspicuous sect within Windrise City’s jurisdiction.

Had it not been for the fact that Liu Changtian, relying on his own strength, had forged the Spirit Origin Pill and barely proved himself somewhat presentable, the Sunlight Sect would likely have long since been deemed worthless and erased by Windrise City.

A trash existence like the Human Spirit Pill, given enough pills, could be had in any quantity. If even a sect master was only at that level, what use was there in keeping him?

Fully aware that he could not pin all his hopes on slowly accumulating enough sect contribution points with time alone, Luo Tian began to accept some tasks selectively.

Most of these tasks were concentrated in the Sunlight Forest, and were mainly about finding medicinal herbs or other materials. Luo Tian did not care so much about the contribution points themselves; rather, he figured that if he could complete a few tasks while searching for the relevant treasured lands, the trip would not be wasted.

As for waiting for his junior brothers and sisters to come rushing up to hand over contribution points, Luo Tian had neither the leisure nor the patience for that. As for raising his fees, he did not consider it at all. He had originally intended to maintain an exceptionally upright and polished image as senior brother, and now that he had not even managed to pull in the elite disciples of the Four Great Clans as his money bags, Luo Tian did not think increasing the price was appropriate.

Running, leaping, twisting his body, Luo Tian traveled through the Sunlight Forest. His movements were as smooth as flowing clouds and drifting water. Even though the trees here were tall and dense, with vines crisscrossing everywhere and the ground rough underfoot, it still did not greatly hinder him.

During these three days, Luo Tian had been steadily moving deeper into the Sunlight Forest. The task this time required a material called Seven-Leaf Grass. This herb grew only parasitically upon tree vines in dark, damp places with little sunlight, and there was only one plant in any given area. So if he wanted to gather the required quantity, he would need to put in a bit more effort.

Fortunately, this task had no time limit. Luo Tian had also taken on a few other similar tasks along the way, planning to finish them together.

After several consecutive days of instruction, although he had not devoted all his time to it, Luo Tian felt it was more than enough. After all, there were not so many disciples lining up all day long, stuck at bottlenecks and waiting to break through.

As Luo Tian kept moving his legs, his eyes also swept across the surroundings. The scenery flashed by, but still he did not find the thing he needed.

He was not surprised by this. Along the way, he had only obtained six stalks of Seven-Leaf Grass. If this stuff were truly common enough to be everywhere, then it would never have offered a reward of fifty contribution points per stalk.

It was a pity that the rankings for the Purple Sun Mountain martial contest had already been decided. Luo Tian, having obtained the bulk of the harvest from Huo Jiang, Ye Lei, He Yiming, and Liu Longfei over the past few days, had unquestionably secured a very commanding result.

If at the beginning of the secret realm expedition there had still been people who did not care much about Luo Tian’s existence and did not believe he could achieve any dazzling result, then after his battle with He Yiming, no one would object to such a ranking.

Two top-grade treasures: Luo Tian chose a set of inner armor and a longsword. Although he did not have any especially particular feeling toward sword weapons, he was used to using one after all, and for the time being he had no intention of changing.

As for the Spirit Gathering Pill...

Luo Tian recalled the brocade box he had already placed inside his storage bracelet.

It was only a pill the size of a longan, yet within it contained an extremely pure and abundant force of elemental energy. Luo Tian did want to take it, but considering that when he truly reached the moment of breaking through from the Spirit Gathering stage to the Meridian Flow stage he would certainly need a great deal of elemental energy to support him, he might as well keep it for now and take it only when it was truly needed.

The terrain gradually rose, and the surrounding trees also became increasingly short. Seeing a small hill appear ahead, Luo Tian decided to climb up and rest for a while first.

However, just as he was nearly there, he noticed that in the distant sky, a streak of azure light had appeared, flying at great speed.

What was that?

Though the distance was too great to see clearly, Luo Tian could not yet tell whether the thing flying was a demonic beast or a human cultivator who had reached the Spirit Pill stage, but Qin Tianyu’s memories were of considerable help. Demonic beasts rarely flew with such a display of power leaking outward; nine times out of ten, it was a human expert.

Looking at its direction, it seemed to be heading toward the Sunlight Sect. Was it an elder from within the sect, or was it an outsider coming to visit?

Luo Tian was uncertain, but caution was best in all things. He still carefully drew back and hid behind a tree, so as not to be discovered by the expert in the sky.

Some cultivators of great strength had perverse tempers; let alone those who, at the slightest disagreement, forced others to confront life and death with a cold shrug, there were even some who would not say a word at all and simply strike.

Unfortunately, what one feared would happen often came to pass.

That azure streak of light actually began to descend. Judging from the trajectory of the radiance, its landing point was almost right nearby.

It couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it?

Luo Tian curled his lip, but he was not especially afraid. By probability alone, the number of bloodthirsty people who killed without reason was extremely small. It was not as though he had gone out to do a task just to run into fatal bad luck.

As the distance closed, the figure in flight became clearer and clearer in Luo Tian’s eyes. Yet precisely because of that, the expression on his face slowly turned to confusion and puzzlement.

There were two people. More accurately, one was carrying the other as they descended from the sky.

As the newcomers’ features gradually came into view, Luo Tian’s brow furrowed even tighter, and he even drew all his elemental energy back into his dantian, not daring to let out the slightest trace of aura.

A Spirit Pill stage expert had all his power concentrated into a single pill, and his sensitivity to elemental energy was terrifyingly keen. Luo Tian was afraid of being discovered.

Judging from their state, the pair looked to be injured rather badly.

The two slowly descended from the sky and, coincidentally enough, stopped right atop the hill.

“Zheng’er, this should be the Sunlight Forest, shouldn’t it?”

One of the two was an old man, plain in appearance, his face even deathly pale, yet his words and movements still carried a weighty, imposing air. Clearly, years of strength and status had left their mark, and even if his condition was unusual, nothing about that had changed.

The old man’s face had the sickly pallor of severe blood loss, looking as though he had been weakened to the extreme. And the moment he landed, he even staggered, nearly unable to remain standing.

Fortunately, the young man beside him supported him in time, allowing the old man to steady himself.

The Zheng’er he addressed was a handsome young man, who appeared to be in his twenties. He swept a vigilant glance around them, then nodded slightly. “Master, we have reached the territory of our Sunlight Sect!”