Qi Zhiheng examined the token in his hand. The so-called token was an invitation, on which was written Yi Yun's name.
You can enter the Divine Wood Sect with this invitation.
"Now that Master Yi has arrived, let's set off now." Guan Yunmo stood up and gestured for Qi Zhiheng to follow him.
Qi Zhiheng followed him out. In fact, he didn't know Guan Yunmo's thoughts. Guan Yunmo was from the Shenmu Sect, but outsiders had mixed opinions about the Shenmu Sect. When it was mentioned, it was often described as "domineering".
The Shenmu Sect controls most of the elixirs in the Southern Continent, and many sects have to respect and defer to it. This has also fostered an arrogant attitude among many Shenmu Sect alchemists.
Qi Zhiheng didn't feel good about this, but it didn't seem right to be prejudiced against the disciples of the Shenmu Sect just because of outsiders' opinions. After all, people have all sorts of personalities, and you can't deny everyone in the group just because some of them have been labeled negatively.
Guan Yunmo still brought more than a dozen people with him when he went out. Alchemists are generally weak in combat, and among these people were two Nascent Soul stage cultivators, who were probably there to protect Guan Yunmo.
It's perfectly normal for a skilled alchemist to have someone protecting them, but it's rather strange that an alchemist like Qi Zhiheng doesn't have anyone with him.
Qi Zhiheng boarded the flying spirit boat with Guan Yunmo. Guan Yunmo's flying spirit boat was exquisite and gorgeous in appearance alone. Compared with it, Qi Zhiheng's spirit boat could only be described as simple. When Gu Qinglin was refining spirit weapons, he paid more attention to practical value and rarely did too much decoration in terms of aesthetics. After all, Gu Qinglin was just the son of a local rich man in a rural town!
Half of the spirit boat was open-air. Guan Yunmo set up a small table on the deck and invited Qi Zhiheng to sit down.
The journey from Juxian City to Shenmu Sect was not far. The two discussed some alchemy experiences on the flying spirit boat and arrived at the territory of Shenmu Sect before they knew it. It only took a few days in total.
Qi Zhiheng was an alchemist invited by Guan Yunmo, and Guan Yunmo naturally invited Qi Zhiheng to live in his cave.
Qi Zhiheng did not refuse and followed him to Guan Yunmo's mountain.
The two stopped in front of the Shenmu Sect's mountain gate. Flying was not permitted inside the gate; they could only use land transportation or walk. So they boarded a hearse. Although called a hearse, it wasn't two spinning vehicles. This type of hearse simply abandoned high-altitude flight, hovering only half a meter above the ground. This reduced the vibrations caused by the vehicle hitting the ground.
Guan Yunmo's mountain is called Qingmo Peak. As a fourth-level alchemist, he naturally has many disciples. When Guan Yunmo's hearse stopped in front of his mountain, more than a dozen disciples were already waiting at the foot of the mountain to greet him.
Upon seeing Qi Zhiheng, whom their master had brought back, the disciples secretly sized up the newcomer.
Qi Zhiheng wasn't angry at being stared at like that, but Guan Yunmo used his soul power to deflect the gazes of these disciples.
Guan Yunmo: "Is this how I taught you to be rude?" His tone carried an air of authority that commanded respect without anger. The disciples below all knelt down: "Disciples know their mistake! Please forgive us, Master!"
Qi Zhiheng looked at the kneeling disciples and servants and couldn't help but compare them to himself.
He had never received such treatment before. At most, he had his disciples kneel down to acknowledge him when they first became his disciples. Qi Zhiheng really couldn't handle the constant need to kneel down.
Since Guan Yunmo wanted to instruct his disciples, Qi Zhiheng couldn't interfere. However, he still wanted to make his stance clear: "Master Guan, considering it's their first offense, let's let it go. Let's go inside and continue discussing how to improve the medicinal properties of the Qingxu Pill."
Guan Yunmo, seeing that Qi Zhiheng no longer cared, then had his disciples stand up and led Qi Zhiheng into Qingmo Peak.
With five days to go before the exchange meeting began, Guan Yunmo took Qi Zhiheng on a tour of the sect and even introduced him to the sect leader of the Shenmu Sect.
Qi Zhiheng was really nervous. To be honest, he didn't want to see any sect leader!
The sect leader of the Shenmu Sect is a Nascent Soul stage cultivator and a level 5 alchemist. Qi Zhiheng is only a Golden Core stage cultivator. It would be bad if the sect leader of the Shenmu Sect discovered anything unusual about him.
Fortunately, the sect leader of Shenmu Sect did not notice anything unusual. However, his words contained a hint of recruitment. Qi Zhiheng naturally could not enter the Shenmu Sect, so he could only pretend to be ignorant.
It was only then that Qi Zhiheng realized that Guan Yunmo was actually a disciple of the sect leader of the Shenmu Sect.
As a friend of the disciple, the sect leader of Shenmu Sect gave Qi Zhiheng some level-four spiritual herbs as a gift.
After politely declining several times, Qi Zhiheng accepted it nonetheless.
The sect leader of Shenmu Sect first tested Qi Zhiheng on some alchemy questions, which Qi Zhiheng answered fluently. He even came up with some theories that he had never heard of before in Nanzhou, which made the sect leader of Shenmu Sect praise him for being young, promising and knowledgeable.
Some of the theoretical ideas Qi Zhiheng mentioned were written in the alchemy books he had read, and some were things he had figured out himself while practicing alchemy. Therefore, when the sect leader of Shenmu Sect praised him, he accepted it very readily, only offering a few perfunctory words of humility.
After spending a day at the Shenmu Sect, Qi Zhiheng and Guan Yunmo left.
After Qi Zhiheng and Guan Yunmo left, the sect leader of Shenmu Sect suddenly spoke up: "What do you think?"
Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared out of thin air, and then the shadow turned back into a person.
The man was dressed in black robes, his face shrouded in a layer of black mist. A somewhat unreal voice came out: "Some of his ideas are very special, and his soul power is also very strong. Compared to most Nascent Soul cultivators, he is much stronger."
"I had inquired about him before, but I hadn't heard anything about him in Nanzhou. However, a group of cultivators from a deserted island came recently. Although they all had good aptitudes, the highest among them was only at the Golden Core stage. It was impossible for them to have reached the Nascent Soul stage in such a short time." The Sect Master of Shenmu Sect said this, while also thinking that if someone broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, the momentum would be enormous. Fortunately, no one had broken through to the Nascent Soul stage in the past two years, which ruled out the possibility that Yi Yun was from the deserted island.
“Then there’s only one possibility,” the man in black said. “He was vague about his origins, so he must be very wary of others discovering his identity. I guess he must be from somewhere.”
The sect leader of the Divine Tree Sect became more serious: "You mean, he's from the Central Continent?"
“That’s right, only someone from Central Continent could have such a high talent for alchemy!” The man in black confirmed that his idea was correct.
The sect leader of the Shenmu Sect said, "That explains it. No wonder he, as a rogue cultivator, didn't want to join our Shenmu Sect. No matter how generous our Shenmu Sect's conditions are, they can't compare to those of the Central Continent! If he weren't from the Central Continent, I really can't understand why anyone wouldn't be tempted by the Shenmu Sect when they don't belong to any sect. It must be that his original sect was superior to our Shenmu Sect!" So, the claim of being a rogue cultivator is false. The "superior" claim stems from the fact that his original sect wasn't in the Southern Continent.
The sect leader of Shenmu Sect immediately made a decision: Qi Zhiheng was someone who could only be befriended, never befriended. He immediately sent a message to his disciple, Guan Yunmo, instructing him to treat Qi Zhiheng with more courtesy.
Qi Zhiheng never expected that his feigned ignorance would arouse such suspicion from the Shenmu Sect Master, and also prevent a possible conflict with the Shenmu Sect.
Guan Yunmo received a message from his master but didn't ask why. He introduced Qi Zhiheng to his master today at the request of the Shenmu Sect Master. He needed to find out the other party's identity in order to determine his future attitude.
Guan Yunmo replied to the message, and his attitude towards Qi Zhiheng became even more respectful.
In the past few days, disciples from other sects have also arrived at the Shenmu Sect one after another, but they have been arranged to stay on the peaks used by the Shenmu Sect for entertaining guests.
Qi Zhiheng felt somewhat uncomfortable with the special treatment he received, but he certainly couldn't bring himself to suggest living with the other alchemists right now. Otherwise, Guan Yunmo might think he wasn't comfortable living on his own mountain or something else, which would make him feel awkward.
However, Qi Zhiheng still asked Guan Yunmo to take him to the Welcoming Peak, where guests were being received, to see the grand gathering of alchemists from the Southern Continent.
Guan Yunmo did not refuse Qi Zhiheng's request and took Qi Zhiheng to Yingke Peak.
Qi Zhiheng was treated to some interesting scenes right from the start. The most discussed topic among the people here was the challenge that other sects had brought their disciples to the Shenmu Sect's alchemists.
Before the exchange meeting for fourth-level alchemists began, private competition between sects was allowed, and at this time, most of the alchemy competitions were between disciples of fourth-level alchemists.
Guan Yunmo smiled and said, "If Master Yi is interested, then let's go and take a look?"
Qi Zhiheng nodded and said, "Then I'll trouble Master Guan to lead the way."
The two quickly arrived at the competition venue. The competition was about to begin, and the alchemists competing were all level three alchemists.
Qi Zhiheng even spotted a familiar face inside—the second disciple of Tang Min, the peak master of Danfeng. Qi Zhiheng had seen him a few times, but wasn't familiar with him and didn't know his name.
Most of the fourth-level alchemists were sitting in the stands watching the competition below. Qi Zhiheng even spotted Tang Min up there. He instinctively wanted to hide, but thankfully he managed to restrain himself. He had a guilty feeling, afraid that Tang Min would recognize him soon.
Guan Yunmo also planned to take Qi Zhiheng to sit on the stands. There were too many disciples watching, and it would be beneath their dignity for two fourth-level alchemists to compete for seats with the other disciples. Qi Zhiheng didn't care about status, but he couldn't expect Guan Yunmo, a disciple of the Divine Wood Sect, to be indifferent to status.
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