The grand competition concluded, and the sect personally awarded the prizes. Xiao Fei received another Foundation Establishment Pill, along with ten thousand contribution points.
By now, Xiao Fei was rather indifferent to Foundation Establishment Pills; his excitement upon receiving one was less than that of the onlookers.
As Xiao Fei collected his prizes and headed down the mountain, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Young friend Xiao, I am a Golden Core Elder of the Purple Cloud Sect. I wonder if you would be interested in learning about our sect?"
Xiao Fei looked around and saw an elder a short distance away nodding slightly at him. It was indeed the elder who had led the disciples of the Purple Cloud Sect to participate in the exchange competition.
"As long as young friend is willing to abandon the Danxin Sect and join the Purple Cloud Sect, I promise to immediately accept you as a personal disciple. Furthermore, the Purple Cloud Sect will spare no effort to ensure your successful Foundation Establishment."
The Golden Core Elder of the Purple Cloud Sect cut straight to the chase, offering two enticing conditions. For any ordinary disciple, either one would have been enough to incite fervent desire. Given the general moral standards in the cultivation world, betraying one's sect was something that could be done once or twice if the benefits were substantial enough.
"I apologize! True Lord Guangling has shown me immense kindness, and I cannot bear to betray him."
After a moment of hesitation, Xiao Fei still refused the conditions offered by the Purple Cloud Sect. These two conditions were indeed very attractive to him. Although he was now apprenticed to a Golden Core cultivator, he was merely a registered disciple. Moreover, the promise of full support for his Foundation Establishment was something countless Qi Refining cultivators dreamed of.
However, what the Purple Cloud Sect valued was his alchemy talent, whereas in reality, he possessed no innate talent for alchemy. Everything he had achieved was through practicing far more than others. The Purple Cloud Sect's willingness to pay such a high price was essentially an investment, and they expected a return. The greater the investment, the greater the expected return. If he were to join the Purple Cloud Sect, he would indeed be valued, but his future would be confined to alchemy. Furthermore, someone who easily betrayed their sect would find it difficult to gain trust in the future.
The elder from the Purple Cloud Sect was not angered by Xiao Fei's refusal and did not press further. He merely promised that the conditions offered today would remain valid indefinitely, and if Xiao Fei ever changed his mind, he could contact the Purple Cloud Sect at any time.
After Xiao Fei rejected the elder from the Purple Cloud Sect, the matter did not end there. In the following period, the Ziwei Sect and the Chiyang Gate also contacted Xiao Fei successively, attempting to poach him. The conditions they offered were similar to those of the Purple Cloud Sect, and Xiao Fei rejected them all. For these sects that were not particularly skilled in alchemy, recruiting a talented disciple in this field might elevate their entire sect's alchemy standards by a level in the future.
Following these attempts by the sects to poach him, numerous cultivation families also began to court him. Although cultivation families were bound by blood ties, they had beautiful female disciples who could be offered for marriage alliances. If that wasn't feasible, male disciples of the family could also make sacrifices for the family. There was always a suitable option.
Xiao Fei lacked interest in such loveless political marriages, and living together long-term would easily expose the secret of his spatial artifact. The most difficult person to guard against in this world is the one beside you in bed, unless there is mutual understanding and absolute trust. Otherwise, waking up one morning to find your neck bare and your head gone would be a terrifying thought.
Only when Xiao Fei announced his seclusion again did these disturbances finally subside.
Today, Xiao Fei sat in the living room of his cave dwelling, holding a piece of roasted snake meat sprinkled with spices and eating it with relish.
"Young Master, look at this invitation, it seems quite good."
Huang Feifei sat by the table, flipping through invitations and reading them aloud to Xiao Fei.
"The Sima family has a female disciple with exceptional appearance and demeanor, currently 22 years old, willing to form a spiritual union with young master Xiao."
Seeing that Xiao Fei seemed uninterested, Huang Feifei picked up another bright red invitation.
"The Hong family has a disciple, currently 20 years old, with unparalleled beauty..."
These cultivation families had no sense of modesty or subtlety; their words were always so blunt and direct, as if they were negotiating a business deal. Moreover, they had chosen the wrong messenger, and Xiao Fei wondered why they insisted on having Huang Feifei deliver the messages.
In this regard, he was unfairly blaming the various families. Since Xiao Fei announced his seclusion and refusal to receive visitors, the only person who could still enter and exit his cave dwelling and maintain contact with him was Huang Feifei. Huang Feifei delivered a beast carcass to his cave dwelling every few days, or helped Xiao Fei run errands to purchase supplies. At his current cultivation level, Xiao Fei could not truly enter absolute seclusion; he still needed to eat, drink, and attend to basic necessities, which required logistical support.
"Alright, if all of them are like this, don't bother reading them!"
"Young Master, these beautiful maidens are being sent to you, wouldn't it be a shame to refuse them?"
Huang Feifei wore a look of great regret, but a subtle glint of cunning and smugness flashed in her eyes.
"Why don't you choose one or two gentle and amiable ones to come back and help you cook or warm your feet?"
Xiao Fei took a large gulp of spiritual wine. "Stop trying to persuade me. I'm too easily swayed; if you keep at it, I might actually agree."
Huang Feifei could only regretfully put away the pile of red invitations, then grabbed a piece of roasted snake meat from the table and began to gnaw on it. It tasted quite good.
"Feifei, during this time, please help me find these medicinal ingredients."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he handed a jade slip to Huang Feifei. According to the pill formulas recorded in the "Hunyuan Five Elements Technique," refining the five types of Foundation Establishment Pills with different elemental properties required many rare medicinal ingredients. Some of these ingredients he had already exchanged for with contribution points from the sect's treasury. He still needed to find eight more spiritual herbs.
"These eight spiritual herbs are all very rare, some are even second-tier spiritual herbs, making them very difficult to find and quite expensive. Here are five thousand pills; take them as your expenses. I'll provide more if it's not enough."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he gestured to a wooden chest beside the table, which was filled with pills he had refined, totaling five thousand.
"These spiritual herbs are very important to me. Even if they are a bit expensive, it doesn't matter as long as they are found. If mature spiritual herbs cannot be found, even seeds will suffice."
"Understood, Young Master. Rest assured, I will do my utmost to help you find these spiritual herbs."
Huang Feifei's hand flashed, and the jade slip and the chest of pills were collected into a blue bead on her wrist. This blue bead was a gift from Xiao Fei, a storage artifact, which she had strung up and worn on her wrist.
"Also, these two bottles of mid-grade pills were also refined by me. Take them to consume; your cultivation should not lag behind."
Huang Feifei's aptitude was much better than Xiao Fei's. When she entered the sect, she was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, and by now, she was only at the eleventh level. Her progress had been somewhat slow over the years. One had to realize that if Xiao Fei hadn't widened his meridians through body refinement, increasing his total mana capacity, he would have already reached the peak of Qi Refining.
"Thank you, Young Master!"
Huang Feifei took the pill bottles and found that each bottle contained fifty mid-grade pills, a total of one hundred. These were all mid-grade pills, with one being equivalent to three ordinary pills, and their price was ten times that of ordinary pills, and they weren't always available for purchase.
After leaving Xiao Fei, Huang Feifei immediately went to the marketplace and posted a search mission with an underground hunter organization. The business scope of this underground organization extended beyond the tedious work of assassination. Many other tasks could be posted as bounties, and as long as one could afford the price, there were always people willing to do anything. Moreover, the hunter organization could maintain confidentiality for the mission poster.
Through the hunter organization, Huang Feifei managed to find three spiritual herbs within half a year, much to Xiao Fei's delight. While Huang Feifei was fully engaged in searching for spiritual herbs, Xiao Fei began his research into second-tier pills.