Chapter 183: Chapter 143: Mixing This Poison Into the Elixirs, Xiao Chen, What Are Your Intentions

Chen Tianyuan’s attitude was clear: "The Jiang Family and the Song Family are more anxious than we are. It’s best to let them scout things out first this time."

"The sect should be sending a second wave of reinforcements. If the risk really isn’t that high, it won’t be too late for us to go later."

From him, Xiao Chen also learned about the current attitudes of the Five Great Clans.

The Jiang Family wanted to expand into Hezhou’s Alchemy market, and the Song Family wanted to restore their trade routes as soon as possible.

Therefore, both families hoped the sect would send reinforcements to Hezhou, making them part of the aggressive faction.

Meanwhile, the Liu Family only wanted to protect their Spirit Fields on the plains, and the Su Family only wanted to guard their own South Lake.

Neither of them wanted to rush off to Hezhou to fight to the death, making them part of the conservative faction.

The Chen Family’s current position was wavering. They wanted the Lingyuan Sect’s rewards but were unwilling to bear too high a risk.

Thus, they planned to wait and see how the situation developed. To put it nicely, they belonged to the Neutral Faction.

Xiao Chen’s original thoughts were actually quite similar to the Chen Family’s.

Firstly, while the Lingyuan Sect’s rewards were indeed tempting, they weren’t indispensable.

The Spiritual Liquid he had on hand was sufficient for now, he wasn’t in dire need of Top Grade Magical Artifacts, and the Earth Level inheritances and Magic held little appeal for him.

Secondly, with his abilities, it wouldn’t be a problem to contend for the Inner Cores even if he went a little later.

Since there would be a second wave of reinforcements later, there was really no need for him to rush over and take risks right away.

Therefore, he also decided to wait and see first.

He would make a decision after the first group of fellow sect members heading to Hezhou sent back more definitive news.

.

Three days later, Xiao Chen arrived at the sect plaza to see off Huang Haoran and Ye Fei.

Ye Fei even invited him to go to Hezhou as well: "I heard you were asking about top-tier Spiritual Liquid, Xiao. The Lingyuan Sect is offering a full six bottles of Wood Element Spirit Liquid this time."

"With your strength, earning points will be a piece of cake."

Huang Haoran, on the other hand, supported him staying behind: "If you ask me, it’s better that you’re not going, Xiao."

"It works out perfectly, since we’ll still have someone left at the Demon Extermination Hall."

"A new clue was reported yesterday that we haven’t had time to investigate. The case file is in the rear hall. I’ll have to ask you to take a look at it, Xiao."

Xiao Chen nodded. "No problem. I’ll handle it."

The Demon Extermination Hall had a total of four Foundation Establishment cultivators, but Miao Yuqing only ever acted alongside Ye Fei, inseparable as body and shadow. This time was no exception.

Normally, they handled most of the daily affairs.

However, the three of them were going to Hezhou this time, and it likely wouldn’t be for a short time.

On top of that, many other cultivators from the sect had also been dispatched, gathering a full fifty Foundation Establishment cultivators, which led to manpower shortages everywhere.

Therefore, in the days that followed, the many duties of the Demon Extermination Hall naturally fell onto Xiao Chen’s shoulders alone.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much trouble left these days.

After numerous relentless crackdown operations within the Li Huo Sect’s territory, Demon Cultivators had basically vanished without a trace.

Following the case file Huang Haoran left behind, Xiao Chen personally went to take a look, but he found no trace of any Demon Cultivators.

Instead, in a deep, dark forest, he caught a pair of secret lovers meeting at night.

The woman was from a nearby Foundation Establishment family, but the man was just a Loose Cultivator with no background.

Since the woman’s family forbade their relationship, the two had no choice but to meet in the dead of night, wearing masks, in this forest.

Unexpectedly, their actions were misunderstood by a nearby Spirit Farmer, who mistook them for Demon Cultivators operating in secret and hurriedly reported it to the Demon Extermination Hall.

Aside from that, the rest of the "urgent intelligence" basically turned out to be false alarms.

The most serious case of Demon Cultivator chaos involved a small town to the north where ten children had gone missing over ten consecutive days.

Each child would mysteriously disappear one night and then reappear the following evening in a dilapidated temple outside of town.

By the time they were found, all of them were missing their hearts.

After Xiao Chen’s personal investigation, it turned out to be a Loose Cultivator from the town who had accidentally found a folk recipe for a so-called ’Elixir of Immortality’. It was a completely man-made disaster.

Xiao Chen drew his Flying Sword and cut the Loose Cultivator down. As it turned out, the folk recipe was a fake.

The so-called Elixir of Immortality couldn’t save his worthless life.

「A month passed like this.」

News came from the Alchemy Hall. They had received another batch of orders for Blood Piercing Pills.

This time, Chen Tianyuan directly sent someone to inform Xiao Chen, telling him to go pick up the medicinal ingredients.

Ever since the Li Huo Sect and the Lingyuan Sect began their cooperation, both the Alchemy Hall and the Artifact Refining Hall had received a large number of tasks.

No matter when one came by, they could see numerous cultivators busy processing Spirit Grass or firing up their cauldrons for Alchemy.

Xiao Chen directly stored all the raw materials for refining Blood Piercing Pills into his Storage Bag.

Originally, this was not allowed, of course. But ever since he had turned in fifty bottles of Blood Piercing Pills last time, no one had mentioned this rule to him.

He was about to leave after collecting the Spirit Grass.

Suddenly, a voice came from behind him: "Master Xiao, please wait."

Turning his head, he saw a somewhat familiar old man.

The man walked over and bowed again. "Master Xiao, we have another fragmented recipe that has us all a bit stumped. Since you happen to be here today, would you mind offering some guidance?"

This title, "Master Xiao," was also a leftover from the last time he refined Blood Piercing Pills.

Xiao Chen had corrected them several times, but it was no use.

Eventually, he simply got used to it. As a form of repayment, he would occasionally answer some questions about Alchemy. For parts that were hard to describe or that they didn’t understand, he would just demonstrate it himself. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Over time, this only made them call him that with even more enthusiasm.

"Hasn’t everyone been busy handling the tasks from the Lingyuan Sect recently?"