After years of development, Lingyuan Mountain had become the largest place for independent cultivators in the Bianzhou region. Countless cultivators without their own spiritual veins rented caves here, cultivating spiritual fields and running industries.
As a result, the market in Lingyuan Mountain had flourished, and in recent years, it had brought in over 20,000 spirit stones in tax revenue to the Chen family every year.
As Elian landed his flying sword, he noticed that Wei Xuyuan had already smiled and was approaching.
"How come you have time to visit today?"
"I came to see a friend," Elian replied, glancing at Wei Xuyuan and noticing that Wei had reached the third level of the Purple Mansion realm.
In the blink of an eye, Elian had broken through to the Purple Mansion over eighty years ago, while Wei Xuyuan had been delayed by a failed breakthrough. But now, he was only about seventy years away from breaking through.
For the first twenty years, Wei Xuyuan's cultivation had progressed slowly due to the lack of a spiritual mountain and a salary.
However, after being invited to oversee Lingyuan Mountain, his situation had improved. Not only had he cleared his family's debts, but he had also spent 300,000 spirit stones to upgrade Wei Family's Tian'e Mountain to a third-grade low-tier spiritual vein.
Seeing that his friend had reached the third level of Purple Mansion, Elian handed him two Creation Cloud Pills that he had prepared earlier.
"The Creation Cloud Pills are valuable; I can't possibly accept them," Wei Xuyuan quickly declined, feeling awkward.
Elian smiled and shook his head.
"My family's Nianchuan and Uncle Qinghao have broken through to the Purple Mansion a few decades ago. I expect them to break into the mid Purple Mansion within ten years."
"These Creation Cloud Pills were personally crafted by me, and since I had extra, I brought them to you."
"Don't be shy about it. Didn't your Wei family plant the fruit for the pills? Once it matures, you can exchange it with me."
Upon hearing this, Wei Xuyuan finally accepted the pills.
The Wei family had indeed planted Cloud fruit, but it would take some time for the fruit to mature.
Although the Cloud fruit wasn't as powerful as the Five Elements Crystals, it was one of the key herbs for refining the Creation Cloud Pills and the Purple Qi Cloud Pattern Pills.
These fruits were quite rare, so exchanging them for the Creation Cloud Pills was a reasonable deal.
After chatting with Wei Xuyuan for a while, Elian proceeded to the cave residence of Yu Qingyan.
When Yu Qingyan saw him arrive at Lingyuan Mountain, she shot him a glare and said, "You promised to bring me to Chu Kingdom to take over a spiritual mountain, but now I don't even have a single one."
"This matter doesn't need to be rushed," Elian replied with a smile.
"The demon beast turmoil is imminent. Even if we were to take a demon race's spiritual mountain, investing the resources to develop it would likely be wasted once the turmoil begins. It would be a loss."
"Instead, it's better to wait until after the demon beast turmoil; that way, we can enjoy a hundred years of peace."
Hearing this, Yu Qingyan felt it made sense and nodded in agreement.
Seeing her expression, Elian asked, "You wanted to see me for something, what is it?"
"This matter…" Yu Qingyan hesitated for a moment, then clenched her teeth and said, "To be honest, I came to ask you to help me take revenge."
"Revenge?" Elian frowned slightly, eyeing Yu Qingyan. Revenge often involved significant consequences.
Since obtaining Lin Daoyang's heirlooms, Yu Qingyan had received treasures worth millions of spirit stones, which caused her cultivation to advance rapidly. Recently, she had even broken through to the later stage of the Purple Mansion realm.
Even with her current cultivation, she wasn't confident in taking revenge, so she wanted Elian's help. This indicated that her enemy was at least at the later stage of Purple Mansion and might even be a False Golden Core or Golden Core cultivator.
Although the two were good friends, they hadn't reached the point of risking their lives against high-level cultivators for each other.
"This story is long," Yu Qingyan said, sensing Elian's concern, and began explaining.
It turned out that Yu Qingyan had some background herself. She was originally a disciple of the Golden Core Yu family in Can Kingdom, Ji Continent.
About a hundred years ago, the Yu family had fallen into a difficult position, and the last Golden Core ancestor had passed away in the family's spiritual vein.
The fall of a Golden Core cultivator from an immortal family caused other powerful clans to see the opportunity and attempt to seize their territory.
Initially, the Yu family had tried to defend their assets, relying on their substantial resources to cultivate a new Golden Core cultivator. However, after several battles, they suffered heavy losses, and more ancestors passed away due to various reasons.
The last clan leader failed three times in attempts to break through to Golden Core and ultimately passed away, depleting most of the Yu family's foundation.
With no other choice, the Yu family had to give up most of their spiritual mountain assets and even handed over their fourth-grade spiritual vein to barely preserve a fragment of their foundation.
Before they could catch a break, a Purple Mansion Great Completion rogue cultivator attacked the Yu family.
In a single night, the Yu family's remaining strength was wiped out, with only Yu Qingyan, due to her exceptional talent, being spared.
"The one who attacked was called Gu Xuan Daoist, the top rogue cultivator of Can Kingdom," Yu Qingyan continued, her eyes filled with hatred.
"This man is nearing the end of his life, but he has already broken through to False Golden Core. His Daoist temple is hidden in the Ji River."
Gu Xuan Daoist was ruthless, having slaughtered the Yu family's high-level cultivators. To prevent any descendants from seeking revenge, he hunted down and killed the Yu family's lower-level cultivators, showing how heartless he was.
As a result, nearly all of the Yu family's cultivators perished, leaving no one to protect the mortal members of the family. This indirectly led to the loss of over 80 million Yu family members.
Many people perished at the hands of demon beasts and demon cultivators. It was even rumored that the Demon Lair's leader advanced to the later stage of Golden Core by secretly blood-sacrificing a large number of the Yu family's mortals.
Yu Qingyan had once sworn a blood oath to avenge her family. Now, with Gu Xuan Daoist's life nearing its end, she feared that if she didn't take action soon, she might never have another chance.
Elian frowned after hearing her story. Generally speaking, wars between righteous cultivators didn't involve innocent mortals.
Jiang Linglong had taken control of Qingyang Mountain but had ensured the safety of the billions of mortals under the Qingyang Sect's jurisdiction. Most of them were distributed among various immortal clans, with the remaining part taken care of by Jiang Linglong's disciples, becoming the primary source of cultivators for the Tianxu Alliance.
Gu Xuan Daoist was cruel, killing mortals to prevent the Yu family from taking revenge and refusing to protect them. This indirectly led to countless mortal deaths at the hands of demon beasts and demons. His actions were much more ruthless than necessary.
Noticing Elian's frown, Yu Qingyan gritted her teeth and continued, "Gu Xuan Daoist has a fourth-grade celestial sword, the Yu family's clan treasure."
"If you can join me in taking revenge and killing him, all of his treasures, including the fourth-grade celestial sword, will belong to you."
"I will also offer 300,000 spirit stones as a reward for your help."
The 300,000 spirit stones were enough to make even Elian hesitate.
Especially that fourth-grade celestial sword, which would be an excellent choice whether used for battle or refined into a treasure to upgrade his own magic weapons.
...
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I need POWAAA! Gimme Power Stones :D