Huang Feifei, after listening to Xiao Fei's lengthy discourse, also informed him about the Lu Sect, as well as the situations in the Wu Kingdom and the Eagle Mountain Kingdom.
The Ancestor Shangguan of the Lu Sect and Ancestor Jiang of the Ziwei Sect had both announced their seclusion for cultivation after Xiao Fei's departure and had not yet emerged.
One matter was indeed as Xiao Fei had guessed: the Black Blade Sect of the Wu Kingdom had set its sights on the Treasure Pavilion.
A Nascent Soul stage expert from the Black Blade Sect personally intervened, plundering two branches of the Treasure Pavilion consecutively. The cultivators guarding the shops were all slain, their bodies hung in the main halls of the respective establishments.
This action by the Black Blade Sect not only resulted in heavy losses but also dealt a significant blow to the Treasure Pavilion's reputation.
Huang Feifei, left by Xiao Fei to guard their home, felt she had failed his trust. She was no meek woman.
She immediately rallied the remaining two Nascent Soul stage experts of the Lu Sect and launched a more ferocious retaliation against the Black Blade Sect.
The Black Blade Sect was deeply entrenched in the Wu Kingdom, with numerous businesses distributed across various locations.
With three Nascent Soul stage experts acting in concert, they consecutively plundered six of the Black Blade Sect's enterprises, leaving no survivors after each raid.
They retaliated with triple the compensation for the Treasure Pavilion's losses.
Naturally, the Black Blade Sect refused to back down and destroyed another branch of the Treasure Pavilion.
Similarly, Huang Feifei led her group to destroy three more of the enemy's enterprises.
The two Nascent Soul stage experts brought along by Huang Feifei were thoroughly enjoying this plundering. The Lu Sect had lacked avenues for wealth in recent years, and such opportunities for enrichment were rare.
As the high-end resources of the cultivation world were controlled by major powers, rogue cultivators could only cultivate to the Golden Core stage, which was nearly the end of their cultivation path.
Nascent Soul stage experts belonged to their respective factions. Despite their immense power, they could not arbitrarily plunder other factions, as that would invite retaliation against their own backing.
Only cultivators leaning towards unorthodox paths, like the Black Blade Sect, would engage in such reckless behavior.
However, after two rounds where neither side gained an advantage, the Black Blade Sect could only temporarily cease their hostilities.
Whether they would engage in further covert actions in the future remained unknown.
Aside from the Black Blade Sect, the Eagle Mountain Kingdom also underwent drastic changes. Many demons who had previously been hidden began to emerge, openly walking about.
Some rogue cultivators in the Eagle Mountain Kingdom directly transformed into demons, while the rest were enslaved by them.
Those rogue cultivators who refused enslavement fled to surrounding countries, including the Wu Kingdom, which received a large number of them.
However, given the nature of rogue cultivators, even when living under the patronage of others, their behavior could not be altered.
These rogue cultivators caused chaos everywhere, committing heinous acts of slaughter and creating a pervasive atmosphere of corruption.
Fortunately, Xiao Fei had just trained a guard unit, which had now cultivated five Golden Core stage cultivators and fifty to sixty Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.
With such strength, while they could not contend with Nascent Soul stage experts, they were more than capable of dealing with ordinary rogue cultivators.
The guard unit, in cooperation with the Lu Sect cultivators, thoroughly cleared the rogue cultivators from the vicinity of the Lu Sect mountain range. They also undertook the task of protecting the Treasure Pavilion's merchant caravans.
Upon his return to the Lu Sect, Xiao Fei did not venture out again. He stayed diligently in his cave dwelling, refining his cultivation.
Before preparing for his breakthrough, he needed to further purify his magical powers.
Concurrently, he was awaiting the maturation of the Moonflower Grass and Wood Spirit Fruit within his spatial artifact.
Two years later, the Moonflower Grass in his spatial artifact finally matured, bearing over a dozen seeds, all of which Xiao Fei replanted within the artifact.
Moonflower Grass was an indispensable primary ingredient for refining the Nascent Soul Pill.
Due to the Moonflower Grass's delicate nature and difficulty in cultivation in the outside world, it was the most elusive spiritual herb in the entire Nascent Soul Pill recipe.
Besides the Moonflower Grass, he had already prepared all the other spiritual herbs required for refining the Nascent Soul Pill.
Furthermore, in terms of alchemy techniques, his proficiency in refining Tier Four pills used by Nascent Soul stage cultivators was already flawless.
When refining Tier Four pills, producing nine or ten pills per furnace was common, and sometimes he could even produce mid-grade or high-grade pills.
Unbeknownst to him, his alchemy skills were now unmatched by few in the entire cultivation world.
When one path is mastered, all paths are mastered. Although it was his first time refining the Nascent Soul Pill, he was still very confident.
After making some preparations, he began to refine the pill.
Three days later, when Xiao Fei opened the lid of the pill furnace, five Nascent Soul Pills lay quietly within.
For his first attempt at refining the Nascent Soul Pill, achieving a five-tenths yield was considered quite good.
Xiao Fei carefully stored the five Nascent Soul Pills.
In the cultivation world of the Eastern Continent, the value of Nascent Soul Pills far surpassed that of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs.
Another year passed, and the four fruits on the Wood Spirit Fruit tree finally ripened.
This fruit could be refined into Marrow Cleansing Pills, which improved the cultivation aptitude of Wood Spirit Roots. Its status in the cultivation world was comparable to that of ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs.
For cultivators with exceptionally poor cultivation aptitude, even possessing Nascent Soul Pills would make it difficult to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Xiao Fei happened to be one of those with such abysmal aptitude that it was difficult to look at.
The Wood Spirit Fruit tree only bore one fruit per cycle, from which he refined five Marrow Cleansing Pills.
Each Marrow Cleansing Pill could increase Wood Spirit Root aptitude by five points. After consuming five Marrow Cleansing Pills, his Wood Spirit Root cultivation aptitude increased from 20 points to 45 points, reaching a mediocre level.
Xiao Fei's current alchemy skills were vastly different from before. From the five Wood Spirit Fruits, he refined 49 Wood attribute Marrow Cleansing Pills, including two high-grade and twelve mid-grade pills.
He did not touch the mid-grade and high-grade Marrow Cleansing Pills for the time being, opting to consume the regular Marrow Cleansing Pills first.
Each Marrow Cleansing Pill increased his Wood Spirit Root cultivation aptitude by five points. He consumed eleven pills consecutively, raising his Wood attribute spirit root to 100 points.
The cultivation aptitude of any spirit root could only reach a maximum of 100 points, which was the limit for humans.
In the cultivation world, encountering an individual with a single spirit root aptitude reaching 100 points was rare, and they were often hailed as geniuses seen once in a thousand years.
Xiao Fei, having been a good-for-nothing for hundreds of years, had even been looked down upon for his poor spirit root aptitude.
He never expected that one day he too would become a genius rarely seen in a thousand years.
At this moment, he sat quietly in the cultivation room, not circulating any techniques, doing nothing at all, simply spacing out.
However, the spiritual energy in the cultivation room rushed towards him as if it had found its father, a stark contrast to its previous adversarial attitude.
With his current 100-point cultivation aptitude, his cultivation would slowly increase even without any active cultivation.
"Hahaha... It feels so good to be a genius!"
However, he was not content with this. He wanted to try again to see if he could further improve his cultivation aptitude.
When he consumed another regular Marrow Cleansing Pill and refined it, as expected, it had no effect, wasting a precious Marrow Cleansing Pill.
He then took out a mid-grade Marrow Cleansing Pill and consumed it. After refining it, he quickly took out a spirit testing plate to check.
This time, his spirit root aptitude indeed increased by another point, reaching 101 points.
"It can really break through!"
A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Xiao Fei's face. He then consumed the remaining 11 mid-grade pills, and his Wood Spirit Root aptitude successfully increased to 112 points.
Following this, he simply consumed the two high-grade Marrow Cleansing Pills as well.
High-grade Marrow Cleansing Pills could now only increase his aptitude by two points each. After consuming the two high-grade pills, another four points were added, bringing his Wood Spirit Root cultivation aptitude to 116 points.
At this point, Xiao Fei did not know what words to use to describe his genius. He had consulted various ancient texts but had found no records of such a phenomenon.
Perhaps he was a peerless genius unprecedented in history.