"Foundation Establishment-level body cultivation?" Seeing this scene, Zhu Ruishan was visibly shaken.
For ordinary cultivators, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm was already incredibly difficult.
Let alone achieving dual cultivation of magic and body—reaching Foundation Establishment in both paths.
To cultivate body refinement to the Foundation Establishment level, one either needed a systematic body cultivation legacy, or an abundance of rare spiritual materials to forge the body.
The former was almost exclusively reserved for disciples of large sects. Rogue cultivators rarely had access to such complete body cultivation methods in the outside world.
The latter required either profound fortune or immense wealth.
Spiritual materials suitable for body cultivation were rare in the marketplace.
This time, Wei Tu had shown up at the Zhu family's medicine shop looking to extort some spirit stones. Zhu Ruishan didn't think too much about it and assumed Wei Tu belonged to the first category—a sect disciple who had received formal body cultivation training.
—A sect cultivator with a proper body refinement legacy.
"Forgot his sect token, huh? That's likely just an excuse to avoid revealing his true identity and inviting unnecessary trouble," Zhu Ruishan thought.
In the cultivation world, the identity of a sect disciple could offer convenience, but conversely, it also acted as a shackle.
Unlike the righteous sects, demonic sects were far from "harmonious."
The major demonic sects were infamous for making enemies everywhere, and even among supposed allies, many held deep grudges against each other.
For strategic purposes, the various sects under the pressure of the Five Great Demonic Sects could temporarily band together to attack the righteous path.
But shared interests only concealed the conflicts—they didn't eliminate them. Behind the scenes, it was anyone's guess what schemes were being brewed.
So—
In Zhu Ruishan's view, Wei Tu, who displayed dual cultivation in both magic and body, was undoubtedly a sect disciple, though whether he truly belonged to the Desolate Mountain Sect was uncertain.
A rogue demonic cultivator could never have cultivated to such a level.
—Besides the Desolate Mountain Sect, other demonic sects also had body refinement inheritances, but their techniques were far inferior in quality.
With that thought, Zhu Ruishan chose not to expose anything. He smiled respectfully and bowed slightly, saying, "So Senior Gu is a distinguished disciple of the Desolate Mountain Sect. I was blind not to recognize your greatness—please forgive my rudeness."
"These spirit stones shall be the deposit for your efforts, Senior."
"When you drive off Jiao Qizhi, I will not only offer the 'Heavenly Spirit Water' but will also prepare another gift to express our gratitude."
With a wave of his hand, the puppet on the left stepped forward and presented the redwood tray to Wei Tu.
"Heavenly Spirit Water" was a rare spirit item used to assist cultivators in forming their Golden Core. Although not as rare as true "Golden Core spiritual items," it was still extremely hard to find in the outside world.
Therefore, Zhu Ruishan would never hand it over as a mere deposit.
"These spirit stones alone aren't enough for me to go up against a Foundation Establishment elder of the Xuancha Sect," Wei Tu said after glancing at the puppet. He weighed a few spirit stones on the tray, then set them back down, as if hesitating for a better offer.
"This is just a deposit," Zhu Ruishan said with a strained smile, stepping forward to remind him.
At this moment, Zhu Ruishan was feeling a bit overwhelmed. He had intended to "drive away the wolf and welcome the tiger," but Wei Tu, this hungry wolf, was showing a rather bottomless appetite.
Thirty-six top-grade spirit stones was already a hefty sum. Many Foundation Establishment cultivators didn't even possess that much.
"Young Master Zhu, do you take us demonic cultivators for righteous sect disciples?" Wei Tu scoffed coldly. "There aren't many demonic cultivators who honor their word. If you go back on the deal and don't give me the 'Heavenly Spirit Water' and the rest of the reward, wouldn't I have done all this for nothing?"
"Senior Gu speaks the truth," Zhu Ruishan said hastily, realizing his approach had indeed been lacking, and he quickly apologized.
Thirty-six top-grade spirit stones were more than sufficient as a deposit for driving away Jiao Qizhi.
But this was Fragmented Star City, within demonic sect territory. The old order of the righteous sects no longer applied.
Everything had to follow the rules of the demonic path.
"I've heard the Zhu family has a body cultivation treasure? If you're willing to offer that as payment, then Gu might consider helping Young Master Zhu drive Jiao Qizhi away," Wei Tu said after a moment of thought.
"Body cultivation treasure?" Zhu Ruishan finally understood why Wei Tu had come knocking at the Zhu family's medicine shop today.
He immediately began to wail bitterly and waved his hands in protest. "That's just a rumor, Senior Gu. Please don't believe baseless gossip."
"My Zhu family's medicine shop has been operating in Fragmented Star City for a thousand years. All kinds of rumors can pop up," he explained.
"If there's no body cultivation treasure…" Wei Tu rubbed his chin, his expression turning hesitant as if he was about to get up and leave.
"The Heavenly Spirit Water can't be handed over in advance, but we do have other family treasures that will surely satisfy Senior Gu," Zhu Ruishan quickly stepped in to stop him.
"Fine." Wei Tu sat back down and nodded. "In addition to these top-grade spirit stones, bring out other spirit items worth at least two thousand spirit stones. If you do, I'll agree to help your Zhu family this time."
"Besides that, cultivation methods or secret techniques can be included too."
"Especially body cultivation methods…"
As he spoke, Wei Tu subtly wove his true objective into his words.
This whole charade had been to pressure the Zhu family into voluntarily handing over the body cultivation inheritance from the Hongri Sect.
Of course, even if Madam Zhu wasn't really Ye Hong's descendant, just this batch of payment alone was worth his trip to the Zhu family's medicine shop.
"Cultivation methods and secret techniques?" Hearing that, Zhu Ruishan let out a breath of relief and felt a bit more grateful toward Wei Tu. He thought to himself that Wei Tu wasn't being completely unreasonable.
After all, compared to spiritual materials, cultivation techniques—being replicable forms of knowledge—were considerably "cheaper."
"Please wait a moment, Senior Gu. I'll return home and search through our archives." Zhu Ruishan bowed respectfully.
As a thousand-year-old cultivation family, the Zhu clan had countless techniques and secret arts in their collection. There was no way Zhu Ruishan could recall all of them off the top of his head.
…
Half an hour later.
Wei Tu once again tapped into the conversation between Zhu Ruishan, the Zhu family patriarch, and Madam Zhu.
The Zhu family patriarch found Zhu Ruishan's bold decision hard to believe. But after hearing out the full plan, this Foundation Establishment cultivator, who was already on his last legs, could only sigh in silence and allow it.
Madam Zhu's reaction was entirely different.
Seeing that Zhu Ruishan's plan had made such swift progress, she was overjoyed and muttered repeatedly that Heaven was blessing them.
But—
The couple soon ran into a new problem: how to gather the "deposit" Wei Tu demanded.
The Zhu clan's cultivation techniques and secret arts were abundant, but most were low-level—useless to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
If Wei Tu had been a righteous cultivator, they might've tried to gauge his expectations. But since he was a demonic cultivator, they didn't dare risk angering him.
Their higher-tier, second-rank techniques and secret arts were the Zhu family's very foundation—they couldn't be casually handed over.
"We've already decided to flee Jing Kingdom and head to Zheng Kingdom. These second-rank techniques and secret arts won't do us any good anymore," Zhu Ruishan said after a moment's consideration, speaking like a man willing to sell off his ancestors' land without guilt.
"Husband, you mustn't!" Madam Zhu quickly objected. "Doing so would expose the full extent of our Zhu family's foundations. The consequences could be dire."
"Our position between Jiao Qizhi and this Senior Gu is already precarious. If we hand over our core family secrets, this Senior Gu might look down on us even more."
She explained this calmly and thoroughly.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Zhu Ruishan had no answers either.
In recent years, Jiao Qizhi hadn't just taken his wife—he'd also found various pretexts to siphon off the Zhu clan's wealth.
Bit by bit, he'd bled them dry.
The top-grade spirit stones and Heavenly Spirit Water they'd offered earlier were practically the last remnants of the Zhu family's heritage.
All the posturing was just a façade—to keep Wei Tu guessing about their true state and perhaps instill some caution.
"These second-rank techniques and secret arts are all passed down from our medicine master lineage. If we hand them over, our foundations will be fully exposed."
"But I still have several techniques passed down from my father," Madam Zhu said seriously. "Those can be given to that Senior Gu."
"I almost forgot about that." Zhu Ruishan sighed in relief.
With that, Madam Zhu carefully retrieved three jade slips from her storage pouch and handed them to Zhu Ruishan.
"These three jade slips—one of them contains a body cultivation secret art. It's exactly what that Senior Gu is after."
"When you return to the medicine shop, gauge the situation carefully. Don't give away everything at once."
"Start with the other two jade slips. Only hand over the final one if it's absolutely necessary."
Madam Zhu instructed.