Ye Yunchuan remained silent for a moment.

The man in black robes said no more and disappeared into the alchemy room.

Ye Yunchuan sat down again and refined another batch of pills, until someone triggered the restriction outside the door.

Ye Yunchuan opened the door and went out.

Ye Xuanwei, standing outside the forbidden area, bowed to Ye Yunchuan and said, "Ancestor."

Ye Yunchuan nodded slightly and activated the signal to gather the sect's high-level members.

All the peak masters of the Shenmu Sect gathered together, and Ye Yunchuan proposed to continue selling pills to the Lushen Sect, which immediately aroused opposition from some people.

"Elder Ye, it was you who proposed to stop supplying pills to the Slaughter God Sect, but over the years, it hasn't caused any significant damage to the Slaughter God Sect. If our sect were to offer to continue supplying pills to the Slaughter God Sect now, wouldn't that be trampling on our sect's reputation?"

At that time, the Shenmu Sect felt ashamed because its fifth-level alchemist had failed to defeat a fourth-level alchemist, and was trying to find a way to salvage the sect's honor. It was then that Ye Yunchuan proposed ceasing to supply pills to the Lushen Sect.

Everyone knew that Ye Yunchuan had a conflict with the fourth-level alchemist of the Golden Core stage from the Slaughtering God Sect, but who could blame them when Ye Yunchuan had become the sect's second Nascent Soul stage cultivator? With such strength, he would inevitably become a fifth-level alchemist sooner or later. Therefore, they tacitly accepted Ye Yunchuan's extremely high influence within the sect. Thus, they conveniently cut off the Slaughtering God Sect's supply of pills.

They had originally planned to watch the God-Slaying Sect make a fool of itself, and then raise the price when the sect was cornered, thus venting their anger. This two-birds-with-one-stone strategy was unanimously agreed upon.

Unfortunately, their plan to kill two birds with one stone was completely thwarted after they threw it out. They said they would no longer provide pills to the Slaughter God Sect, and the Slaughter God Sect never bought pills from them again!

They initially thought the Slaughtering God Sect had found a way to supply other alchemists, but after investigating, they discovered that the Slaughtering God Sect had no supply channels whatsoever. This left the Divine Wood Sect feeling like they had punched a pillow.

The alchemists in the Slaughter God Sect are not particularly strong. Even if they can refine some pills, the quality is not good. Once the pills are used up, won't they have to beg the Divine Wood Sect for help? Although the Slaughter God Sect is ranked higher than the Divine Wood Sect, it does not mean that the Divine Wood Sect is really inferior to the Slaughter God Sect. After all, the two sects have different power systems.

Their plan was clever: firstly, they could force the Slaughtering God Sect to submit to their Divine Wood Sect, and secondly, they could take the opportunity to increase the value of their pills. Unfortunately for them, the Slaughtering God Sect did not grant their wishes every single day.

“I disagreed with your plan to deal with the Slaughtering God Sect from the start. Even though we've been controlling them in terms of pills, their foundation is still there, and they're not so easily defeated. Unfortunately, you were blinded by short-term gains. Now look what's happened; the Slaughtering God Sect's pill supply has been cut off, and our sect has gained another source of resources.” An elderly man with white hair and beard said in a deep voice, “Now, you're shamelessly trying to sell the pills back to them. What if you're rejected? You can afford to lose face, but I can't!”

An elder from Ye Yunchuan's faction argued, "The Slaughter God Sect hasn't purchased any pills for several years. Even if they had some savings, they're probably all gone by now. I think they're at their wits' end and won't refuse our sect's proposal. I'll just ask for a higher price, and the result will be the same."

The two sides argued about whether or not to take the initiative to sell pills to the God of Slaughter Sect. In the end, under Ye Yunchuan's insistence, they sent someone to contact the God of Slaughter Sect to discuss the pill transaction.

A few days later, inside the God Slaughtering Sect.

Qi Zhiheng used the spiritual herbs he had taken from Que Hanhai to refine some level-five pills. He didn't need them for the time being, so he prepared some and got up to send some to Zuoqiu Man and Que Hanhai to see how effective they were.

He first went to Zuoqiu Man's residence, delivered the elixir, and then went to Lufeng where Que Hanhai was located.

Qi Zhiheng was somewhat surprised to learn from Que Hanhai that the Shenmu Sect had sent people to discuss the matter of the elixir: "How come they would still think of making a deal with our sect?"

Que Hanhai said, "Who knows? Perhaps they are reluctant to give up our sect's resources. In the past, we gave away a lot of resources in exchange for some good quality pills. Now that we have lost our sect's resources, it must be like cutting off a piece of flesh for the Shenmu Sect."

Qi Zhiheng: "So how did the sect leader reply to the Shenmu Sect?"

Que Hanhai stroked his beard and said in a relaxed manner, "How else can we reply? Of course, we refuse the request. Our sect is not short of pills now, so who would want the pills from the Divine Wood Sect? The pills produced in your alchemy room are many times better than those from the Divine Wood Sect."

Thinking of the unpleasant looks on the faces of the Shenmu Sect's visitors after they were rejected, Que Hanhai couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. He didn't even pay much attention to the Shenmu Sect's "guests" and sent them away after refusing them.

Qi Zhiheng was not flattered. While the quality of the pills they produced in their alchemy room was good, there was one drawback: they did not have any high-level alchemists.

Que Hanhai stole a glance at Qi Zhiheng, then sighed.

Qi Zhiheng saw his actions and asked directly, "Sect Master, why are you sighing?" He was still sighing at him. The recent events were all under the control of their sect. He couldn't think of anything Que Hanhai had to sigh about.

Que Hanhai said, "I feel sorry for the sect."

"What a pity about those pills from the Divine Wood Sect?" Qi Zhiheng asked, somewhat puzzled.

Que Hanhai shook his head and said, "I am a disciple of the sect, but it's a pity about you."

Qi Zhiheng listened attentively.

Que Hanhai: "A genius like you is destined not to stay in the sect for long. Aren't I just feeling sorry for the sect?"

"What do you mean?" Qi Zhiheng didn't think he would betray the Shenmu Sect.

Que Hanhai said, "Do you know why Tianyuan Sect, which is already ranked first in the Southern Continent, still wants to attack our sect?"

"Weaken the strength of our sect." Qi Zhiheng understood this clearly. Back then, the people of Tianyuan Sect wanted to plant demonic energy in his body, wasn't that to make him fail his tribulation?

Que Hanhai confirmed the answer and then asked, "Do you know why the Tianyuan Sect did this?"

Qi Zhiheng: "I would like to hear the details."

Que Hanhai explained, "Then let me start with the Southern Continent. The Southern Continent is called the Southern Continent because, in addition to the Southern Continent, there are also the Northern Continent, the Western Continent, and the Eastern Continent. And the center of the Eastern Continent is the Central Continent!"

Qi Zhiheng had heard some of these things before, but not in great detail. Now, the true situation of this continent was finally revealed.

Que Hanhai continued, "The Central Continent is the place with the richest spiritual energy among the five continents, and it is also the place that cultivators from the other four continents yearn for. However, the Central Continent is separated from the other four continents by a natural barrier, and one must go through countless risks to reach the Central Continent."

Qi Zhiheng interjected, "Does the sect leader think I'll go and try it out?"

Que Hanhai shook his head and said, "That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how to safely get to Zhongzhou."

Qi Zhiheng became somewhat interested.

Que Hanhai: "Every fifty years, the major sects of the Central Continent will form an alliance and send people to the Four Continents to recruit disciples with good aptitude. This is the safest way to go to the Central Continent."

"Do they have maps and routes?" Qi Zhiheng thought. If the other side could get there safely, then they should also have a safer way to get there from Nanzhou.

“That’s only one thing,” Que Hanhai explained. “There’s another thing: they have some decent spatial artifacts that allow them to safely travel to other continents.”

Qi Zhiheng narrowed his eyes. A spacetime artifact that can travel through space? He wondered if it could travel to Earth. He knew that Yang Yitian had always wanted to go back to Earth. Since the people of Zhongzhou had such an artifact, perhaps they had other, even better ones. Those better artifacts might be able to travel to Earth. At this moment, he was genuinely more interested in the affairs of Zhongzhou.

Qi Zhiheng asked, "How long until the next fifty years?"

Que Hanhai reassured him, "No rush, no rush, there are still more than twenty years to go. Young people don't need to be so impetuous." He wanted to use Qi Zhiheng for a few more years and really didn't want him to leave so soon.

Qi Zhiheng frowned slightly, somewhat dissatisfied with the time limit. He thought to himself that if given the chance, he would still be willing to try to break through the barrier of the Central Continent.

Que Hanhai, unaware of his thoughts, assumed that Qi Zhiheng would behave himself after learning about the time limit, so he continued to explain the relationship between Zhongzhou and Nanzhou: "There are some connections between Zhongzhou and Nanzhou. Disciples from sects that have passed through the past have already taken root in Zhongzhou. Zhongzhou and Nanzhou also have similarities, such as sects, which are numerous."

From Que Hanhai's subsequent explanation, Qi Zhiheng learned some things. The forces in the Central Continent were also distributed. For example, the Lu Shen Sect and the Tian Yuan Sect had different sects in the Central Continent to rely on, and they basically all had a fixed sect to rely on. Although it was not absolute, it had become a tacit understanding. After all, the previous batch of disciples in the sect were all in that sect. If the current batch of disciples didn't go to that sect, where else could they go?

Therefore, in another sense, their God-Slaying Sect can be considered an affiliated sect of a certain sect in the Central Continent. If they follow along, there is a high probability that they will become disciples of that sect.

Qi Zhiheng was not very satisfied with this. He was unwilling to join a sect casually before he knew its general situation.

Que Hanhai: "The number of people who can go to the Central Continent is limited. If there are more people from our side, the number of slots for other sects will decrease. And the number of slots for going to the Central Continent determines the allocation of resources brought by the Central Continent. The more disciples from our sect can go, the more resources the Slaughtering God Sect can obtain."