Mid-June.

Fang Yun was at his residence, diligently refining and absorbing an Upper-Grade Qi Enhancement Pill.

Having not been to Battle Peak for a long time, he had made a trip there last month.

It wasn’t that he went to Battle Peak of his own volition; rather, Yuan Yunfan had initiated a ranking challenge against him.

Yuan Yunfan was now third on the Inner Sect Ranking.

On their way to Battle Peak, Yuan Yunfan had explained the reason to Fang Yun.

Ever since Fang Yun had reached the Qi Refining Tenth Layer, Yuan Yunfan had been looking for a chance to have a round of Magical Combat with him. However, he later heard that after reaching the tenth layer, Fang Yun had only visited Battle Peak twice and hadn’t been back at all since February.

So, Yuan Yunfan took the initiative to visit his residence to look for him.

But after trying three times, he still hadn’t found him.

In the end, Yuan Yunfan resorted to this last-ditch measure and initiated a ranking challenge. If he hadn’t been completely unable to find him, Yuan Yunfan’s next opponent would have been the senior sister ranked second on the Inner Sect Ranking.

After hearing this, Fang Yun expressed his understanding.

Yuan Yunfan hoped that Fang Yun would go all out during their ranking challenge.

After Fang Yun agreed, the ranking challenge ended with Yuan Yunfan’s swift defeat. His extraordinary talent provided him with virtually no help when fighting Fang Yun in Magical Combat.

Interestingly, after this ranking challenge, while some Inner Sect Disciples wanted to spar with him in Magical Combat, many more hoped he would save that time and use it for Artifact Refining instead.

Meanwhile, no one among the Inner and Outer Sect Disciples on Battle Peak brought up the fact that he had wiped out an entire Qi Refining Influence of Demons.

This indicated that news of his deed had only spread among the Elders. Aside from the Stewards of the Evil Extermination Hall, not many other Stewards knew about it either.

Fang Yun understood the reason for this very well.

If this matter were to spread widely among the disciples, there would be no guarantee that one of them, when traveling outside, wouldn’t mention it to their Loose Cultivator friends to show off how formidable a senior brother from their Celestial Cloud Sect was. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The more people who knew the news, the more likely it was to reach the Demons in the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory.

This would be disadvantageous for Fang Yun’s future trips to the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory.

Fang Yun was relieved by how the sect handled such matters; this was the outcome he had wanted. It was enough that the sect’s leadership knew.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Just as a tiny bit of the Upper-Grade Qi Enhancement Pill’s medicinal power remained unabsorbed, Fang Yun heard a knock on his door.

"Hold on."

After calling out, Fang Yun absorbed and refined the last bit of the Upper-Grade Qi Enhancement Pill’s power before getting up to open the door.

"Senior Brother Wu... No, I should be calling you Elder Wu from now on." Fang Yun noticed that Wu Junxin’s aura was different. Upon probing it, he realized Wu Junxin had successfully reached Foundation Establishment.

"Congratulations on your successful Foundation Establishment, Elder Wu."

"Whether you call me Senior Brother or Elder, it’s all fine. Whichever you prefer," Wu Junxin said casually.

"Alright," Fang Yun nodded, then invited him in. "Come in and sit."

"No need. I came looking for you today to invite you to the Smoke Cloud Pavilion with me tomorrow at noon."

"I understand. It’s to celebrate your successful Foundation Establishment, Senior Brother." The thought immediately occurred to Fang Yun.

"Not exactly."

’It either is or it isn’t. What does he mean, "not exactly"?’

Wu Junxin’s answer prompted Fang Yun to immediately ask, "Besides me, who else did you invite, Senior Brother?"

"I was also planning to invite Jiang Yan and Yingjie, but Jiang Yan isn’t at his residence right now."

"If Brother Jiang isn’t at his residence, he should be on Dan Cloud Peak."

"Mm."

"Huh? What about Senior Sister Yao?"

"Her? She won’t be on our side tomorrow."

At that moment, Fang Yun truly understood.

His next question would completely confirm his suspicions.

"Senior Sister Yao’s parents will be there too, right, Senior Brother?"

Wu Junxin nodded, then smiled. "Looks like I don’t need to explain any further."

"Alright, Senior Brother. See you at the Dan Cloud Pavilion tomorrow."

"Mm, see you at the Dan Cloud Pavilion tomorrow."

Wu Junxin still had to go invite the other two. He was pretty sure he could get Jiang Yan, but he’d only be able to invite Yang Yingjie if he wasn’t away on a mission.

Fang Yun understood. After Wu Junxin’s Foundation Establishment, his story with Yao Shuixiao had reached a stage akin to meeting the parents.

Wu Junxin had no backing in the Celestial Cloud Sect, and his parents were mortals. In such a situation, it was best to have a master to provide a show of support.

If one didn’t have a master, their only choice was to do as Wu Junxin was doing: bring along senior and junior brothers with whom they had a good relationship.

This was also a way to show Yao Shuixiao’s parents what kind of senior and junior brothers Wu Junxin was close to in the sect, and to see if there were any problems with the company he kept.

Fang Yun knew that Yao Shuixiao’s parents were both Foundation Establishment Elders in the sect.

Compared to unions between Qi Refining Cultivators, it was much harder for Foundation Establishment Cultivators to conceive a child. However, once they did, there was an eighty percent chance the child would be born with a Spirit Root.

If a pregnant Foundation Establishment Cultivator took pills or Spiritual Objects that increased the chances of a child being born with a Spirit Root during her pregnancy, the child would almost certainly possess one.

「The next day.」

Before noon, Fang Yun arrived at Dan Cloud Peak.

He hadn’t yet reached the Dan Cloud Pavilion when he saw Wu Junxin with two others. It seemed Yang Yingjie hadn’t been away on a mission after all.

"Junior Brother Fang, we were just waiting for you! I knew you’d be the last one here."

Jiang Yan came over to Fang Yun, immediately putting an arm around him and launching into a discussion about Alchemy.

As he spoke, he also informed Fang Yun that this was their only chance to discuss Alchemy; once they entered the private room on the third floor of the Smoke Cloud Pavilion, they would have to keep their mouths shut.

Evidently, Wu Junxin had already reminded Jiang Yan to be mindful, as this concerned a matter of lifelong importance for Wu Junxin.

The third floor of the Smoke Cloud Pavilion had a total of five large private rooms.

The private room they were going to this time was different from the one Elder Xu Qingxuan had taken Fang Yun to before.

"Greetings, Elders."

When the four of them arrived at the private room on the third floor of the Smoke Cloud Pavilion, three people were already seated inside: Yao Shuixiao and her parents. Furthermore, the Spiritual Food that had been ordered was already served.

"Mm." Yao Shuixiao’s father, Yao Fenghua, gave a faint nod.

Yao Shuixiao’s mother, Zhou Rong, however, smiled and said, "Please, sit. Don’t be nervous. There’s no need to treat us as Elders today."

After they sat down, even though Jiang Yan was seated next to Fang Yun, he didn’t say a single word to him. Wu Junxin had only reminded him not to talk about Alchemy, not that he couldn’t make small talk. However, the oppressive aura from Yao Fenghua was simply too intense, leaving Jiang Yan too intimidated to speak at all.

On their side, it was basically Wu Junxin who did all the talking.

As for Fang Yun, he didn’t know what to say either.

He was also afraid of saying the wrong thing, so most of his comments were just words of agreement.

「An hour later.」

The most talkative people at the table were, naturally, the three Foundation Establishment Cultivators, followed by Yao Shuixiao.

At this point, seeing the state of Fang Yun and his two friends, Yao Shuixiao’s mother, Zhou Rong, thoughtfully asked about a matter she assumed they were all aware of.

"Fang Yun, you single-handedly destroyed the Demon Gu Family, a Qi Refining Influence. The whole process must have been quite perilous, wasn’t it?"

As soon as she said this, everyone’s gaze, except for Zhou Rong’s and Yao Fenghua’s, fixed on Fang Yun, their eyes filled with utter astonishment.

Seeing this, Zhou Rong realized the situation was clearly different from what she had imagined.

She had assumed Fang Yun had already told his close senior and junior brothers about it and bragged to them.

"Senior Brother Fang, so it was you who destroyed the Demon Gu Family alone? The news I heard in the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory was that our Celestial Cloud Sect had dispatched dozens of Peak Qi Refining Inner Sect Disciples to destroy the Demon Gu Family. I thought something had gone wrong internally with them."

The first to speak was Yang Yingjie.

He was astonished, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but speak up.

The mission he had introduced to Fang Yun was to kill a Demon from the Gu Family at the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer. When he heard the news in the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory, it never even occurred to him that Fang Yun might have single-handedly annihilated the Demon Gu Family, because in his eyes, such a thing was impossible.

Among the Demon Qi Refining Influences, the Demon Gu Family was by no means weak.

The idea of the sect dispatching dozens of Peak Qi Refining Inner Sect Disciples also seemed like nonsense to him.

In his mind, the most likely scenario was that after Fang Yun killed that Demon from the Gu Family, he had orchestrated an elaborate plot to frame a rival Demon faction, thereby causing the Gu Family’s demise.

If not for this occasion, he would have eventually found an opportunity to ask Fang Yun about the general situation to see if it matched what he had imagined.

Besides Yang Yingjie, Jiang Yan also couldn’t help but voice his own thoughts.

Having been silent for an hour, he was about to burst.

"Junior Brother Fang, I can’t believe you pulled off such a feat! I bet you used pills to poison all those Demons to death..." As an alchemist, Jiang Yan’s thoughts immediately turned to pills.

"It wasn’t like that." Fang Yun shook his head, cutting Jiang Yan off before he could continue.

If Jiang Yan had kept talking, he would have started discussing how to refine such amazingly effective pills without the Demons noticing.

Fang Yun’s account to the group was no different from the one he had given to Elder Xu Qingxuan.

"So that’s how it was," Wu Junxin nodded. "Fang Yun, you’re really something else!"

Yang Yingjie had originally wanted to ask Fang Yun to refine an Upper-Grade Magical Artifact for him that could stack concealment effects.

But seeing the current setting, he decided against it and figured he would ask later.

Fang Yun’s story was just a small interlude in the meal.

Afterward, the conversation focused mainly on Wu Junxin and Yao Shuixiao.

The Spiritual Food on the table gradually dwindled.

This very formal meeting between Wu Junxin and Yao Shuixiao’s parents was also drawing to a close.

Finally, Yao Shuixiao’s father, Yao Fenghua, looked at Wu Junxin and asked.

"Now that you have reached Foundation Establishment and become a Sect Elder, where do you plan to take up a post?"

"Battle Peak," Wu Junxin replied.

"How about coming to the Law Enforcement Hall?"

Wu Junxin’s face lit up with joy. "Of course, Father-in-law!"

"Mm."

Only then did Yao Fenghua nod in satisfaction, though the stern and serious expression on his face remained unchanged from the beginning.

Fang Yun was happy for Wu Junxin. It was clear that Wu Junxin had passed the test.

Yao Fenghua himself was the Great Elder of the Law Enforcement Hall, holding the most authority within it.

As for Senior Sister Yao’s mother, Fang Yun knew she was an ordinary Elder in the Task Hall and held a certain degree of power herself.

For Fang Yun, accompanying Wu Junxin here had also been fruitful.

His sect influence, which had not risen for over a month, increased by another one percent.

「Half a month later.」

Night had fallen.

Fang Yun looked at the Talent Points from the June settlement on the light screen.

He immediately went to the Combat Talent interface.

Of his three Combat Talents, his Shield Talent would very likely upgrade to four stars this month.

With a thought, Fang Yun immediately drew Combat Talents thirty-eight times. The results did not disappoint him.