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Time flew by like an arrow, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.
During these seven or so months, Holy Pill City had been unusually quiet. As for Xiao Yan and the Three Leaders, they had spent this entire period tirelessly searching for Lin Feng.
Unfortunately, even after scouring nearly the entire Central Plains, as well as the Western Region where Lin Feng had previously stayed the longest, they still found nothing.
They even sent people into the Western Desolate Region to look for him, but after a long and fruitless search, they came up empty-handed.
Still unwilling to give up, Xiao Yan and the three Pill Tower Leaders dispatched others to the Northern Region, territory of the Wind Lightning Pavilion, to continue the search.
As expected, they also returned with no clues.
Afterward, the group realized that Feng Qing'er belonged to the Sky Demon Phoenix Clan, a race with great power within the Beast Region. So, the Three Leaders sent people there as well.
But in the end, their efforts were once again in vain. Helpless, Xiao Yan and the Three Leaders had no choice but to abandon the search for Lin Feng and turn their focus back to improving their own Dou Qi cultivation.
After the defeat last time, Xiao Yan deeply understood the importance of strength. If his strength had been even slightly greater back then, his master's ring and the Bone Chilling Flame would never have been taken away.
Two months after leaving Holy Pill City, Gu Xun'er returned once more. This time, however, several elders of the Gu Clan accompanied her.
As soon as these Gu Clan elders met Xiao Yan, they immediately asked whether he truly intended to sign the agreement with the Gu Clan.
Upon receiving his confirmation, the elders promptly took out the prepared agreement for Xiao Yan to sign. They also reaffirmed their promise — as long as he signed it, all the conditions their young lady had previously offered would still hold true.
After all, compared to the benefits involved, the cost of three Heavenly Flames was something the Gu Clan could afford. Of course, before making this trip, they had carefully calculated everything within the clan.
Of the three flames, only one was required to be no weaker than the Fallen Heart Flame. The other two merely needed to rank within the top twenty of the Heavenly Flame list.
Though Heavenly Flames were rare treasures of heaven and earth, those near the twentieth rank were not entirely unattainable within the Dou Qi Continent.
In the Central Plains, they already knew that Burning Flame Valley possessed the Nine Dragon Lightning Flame, while a reclusive hidden clan held a Fire Mountain Rock Flame.
Although both Burning Flame Valley and that hidden clan had considerable strength and complex backgrounds, making it inconvenient to use force, as long as the Gu Clan was willing to pay the price, they could still acquire them.
Even if it required a ninth-tier treasure pill, they were more than willing to offer it.
Furthermore, the old ancestor of Burning Flame Valley was gravely injured — if the Gu Clan's alchemists were willing to heal him and provide a high-quality pill on top of that, they didn't believe Burning Flame Valley could refuse such an irresistible offer.
As for that hidden clan, though they had no severely injured ancestor, the Gu Clan was confident that using valuable pills as an opening would yield the same result.
In this way, they would only need to send people across the continents to find one more Heavenly Flame to complete the set. Though it would take effort, the elders found the outcome more than worth it.
Reaching this point, Xiao Yan naturally had no reason to back out. His expression firm, he signed the agreement without hesitation.
After all, he knew that with his current strength, he was as insignificant as an ant before the Gu Clan — there was nothing he could do to resist them.
By signing this agreement, as long as he could absorb those three Heavenly Flames, and then obtain the three Heavenly Flames from Lin Feng and that white-clothed woman, along with the Three Thousand Burning Flame of the Pill Tower and the three he already possessed himself —
With the power of ten Heavenly Flames gathered within him, his future achievements would undoubtedly allow him to dominate an entire region of the Central Plains.
Moreover, he himself was an alchemist — one who possessed the Fallen Heart Flame, a Heavenly Flame capable of refining souls and enhancing one's soul power By then, everything the Xiao Clan had lost in the past… he, Xiao Yan, would take it all back!
The Gu Clan elders, upon seeing Xiao Yan sign the agreement, couldn't hide the thick delight spreading across their faces.
Now that the Xiao Clan patriarch had been missing for so long, this young clan leader of the Xiao Clan was without question the best candidate to sign the agreement.
Even if the Xiao Clan ever tried to go back on their word later, the Gu Clan would be sure to properly teach them what it meant to "keep one's promise."
After that, the Gu Clan elders left Holy Pill City.
As for Gu Xun'er, under the urging of the Pill Tower, she fulfilled her promise — publicly delivering the compensation to Xiao Yixian. The Pill Tower, at the same time, decided to make the resolution of this matter public.
However, perhaps to protect their disciple, they didn't specify the exact details of the compensation. They merely stated it was several eight-colored eighth-tier pills, along with one scroll of a cultivation art.
Gu Xun'er, on the other hand, had no such restraint. She straightforwardly announced before everyone that the compensated technique was a Heaven Class cultivation technnique, warning the crowd not to imitate Xiao Yan's actions — otherwise, the price of compensation would be devastating enough to make one suffer heavy losses.
Her clever move of killing with a borrowed knife had an unexpectedly strong effect. Ever since Xiao Yixian received the compensation, the number of strangers wandering outside the Leaf Courtyard had suddenly multiplied several times over.
The matter spread throughout the entire Central Plains at an astonishing speed. As rumors often do, it grew more exaggerated with every telling.
Before long, the original "few eight-colored eighth-tier pills and a Low-Grade Heaven Class cultivation technique" had somehow turned into "a full Heaven Class cultivation technique and Dou Technique set, plus several ninth-tier treasure pills."
This, of course, made Xiao Yixian the target of countless Dou Zun powerhouses' greedy thoughts. Fortunately, she had already revived Lei Zun and Feng Qing'er's trusted followers.
With such a group guarding the Ye Courtyard, many ambitious experts were deterred.
After all, Lei Zun Zhe had carefully chosen a corpse from the Wind Lightning Pavilion's forbidden grounds — the remains of the Pavilion's strongest former master, an Eight-Change Dou Zun!
Moreover, when Xiao Yixian revived him, the pill she used reached the seven-colored. As a result, just as Lin Feng had predicted, after his resurrection Lei Zun soared in strength, directly stepping into the Nine-Change Realm!
As for Feng Qing'er's revived subordinates, their strength varied from Six-Star to Eight-Star Dou Zun.
After all, even before their deaths, their weakest members had already been Six-Star Dou Zong, while the strongest had reached the peak of the Dou Zong realm. Thus, after revival, their strength naturally far surpassed that of the Third Elder.
To further enhance their combat power, Feng Qing'er even had each of them learn portions of the Earth Force Reversing-Heaven Formation.
With this, their combined strength surged once again — even Lei Zun Zhe found himself helpless when facing their united assault. During this period, both Xiao Yixian and Feng Qing'er's own strength hadn't fallen behind in the slightest.
With the aid of pills, Feng Qing'er directly rose from a mid-level Dou Zun to a Seven-Star Dou Zun. Among magic beasts, such cultivation speed was nothing short of terrifying!
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