This was definitely something others would remember for a long time. Even those at the Manifestation realm were full of praise for the winners.
An Zihao.
Xiao Yu.
Lu Mengyu.
Li Tengfei.
These youngsters had delivered a spectacular fight, probably the best one that happened for decades in this city. Of course, those from the Fu Family currently had an ugly expression. They were trying to temper their elites by making them clash with others, but they were confident that no matter what happened, the Fu Family's elites would be victorious, especially given the trump cards that Qin Da possessed.
Now came the time to give the prizes.
"Greetings dear audience. I am the First Elder of the Fu Family and I am here to give out the prizes to the champions of this year's Genius Summit..."
After basically praising those who did well in the competition and meanwhile show the 'generosity' of the Fu Family, the First Elder gave the quartet their prize and let them go. Of course, the fake smile on his face couldn't fool Li Tengfei. He knew they'd meet again, sooner or later...
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Back at the motel
"I am sure you are all thinking the same as me for the matters concerning the Fu Family." Li Tengfei said gravely.
"Indeed"all three of them replied in unison.
"Good. I propose that we share the prizes and leave in exactly four days. Any objections?"
"We're fine with that."
After spending this much time together, everyone kind of thought of Li Tengfei as their leader, including the newcomer named Xiao Yu.
'Little Fei, wait a minute before you share the prizes. You see these herbs? These are not spirit grass, they just look like it. These are actually Moon Grass."
'Moon Grass? What kind of weird name is this? Also, what's your point? Did I get ripped off?'
'Ripped off!? No! These herbs are very precious, even more than those low-grade spirit stones you got. I happen to know an easy method to refine them into something that will help you during your next breakthrough.'
'Oh really? There's four strands, can the others have some too?'
'Well, err... actually this has to do with your Nightmare Kraken bloodline... so it won't help them. It could even drive them crazy...'
'Oh... okay, so I'll take those strands for myself'
...
"Okay so, since Mengyu uses sabers, this saber should be hers, as for these spirit stones, Xiao Yu and An Zihao can have them." Li Tengfei declared casually.
"But... what about you?"Lu Mengyu was the first to object.
"Oh, I'll just take the spirit grass."
"What!? But... you're the one who put in the most effort in this competition. It's unfair."
"For once, I agree with Zihao." Xiao Yu said jokingly.
"Don't worry, I've got a few uses for these strands of grass."
"If you say so..."
The group had already passed through thick and thin together, and, subconsciously, they had considered themselves as family. Of course, it was out of question that a member of the family would be on the losing end of a deal. However, since Li Tengfei kept on insisting, they had no other choice but to give up on persuading him.
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Three days went by.
Li Tengfei was in his small world, refining pills!
His small world was actually really useful, it could act as a mobile storage and a mobile lab for him to experiment on things. This would have been useful to know before he embarked on his journey as he wouldn't have had to carrry everything by hand, but Ancestor Li 'forgot' about this. In truth, he was simply too lazy to tell Li Tengfei.
During these few days, Li Tengfei successfully learned the basics of pill refinement and could proudly be considered as the equivalent of a two stars Pill Master, stars being apparently the ranking system of occupations. For example, a regular blacksmith was a one star, a 'Master' blacksmith was a two stars and the 'Grandmaster' blacksmiths were three stars. The number of stars reflected the weapon rank they could easily produce, one star for Red grade equipment until six stars for Indigo grade equipment, afterwards, seven stars for Pale Purple equipment, eight for Normal Purple equipment and nine for Dark Purple ones. According to Ancestor Li, seven,eight and nine stars blacksmiths were just mythical. This was due to the terrible heavenly tribulations blacksmiths had to face the further up they went when creating a weapon.Even the Great Wyvern Clan he ruled upon, only knew of a six stars blacksmith which would just make even the clan to pale with hear upon hearing the price for equipment. It was relatively the same case for pill making although they were a bit rare due to the higher requirements for materials needed.
After another day of hard work, Li Tengfei managed to successfully refine the pill. It was of a pale blue colour and emitted a... rather weird aura? It was difficult to describe.
Meanwhile, Li Tengfei had a few more questions for Ancestor Li, of course, this time he specifically asked for a brief answer.
"I remember you once told me about bloodline powers. Could you explain what they are to me?"
"Sure thing. As you know, your two paternal Ancestors are the Primordial Lightning Wyvern and the Primordial Nightmare Kraken. The Primordial Lightning Wyvern's bloodline will help you cultivate faster and give you a very obvious speed boost in whatever you do. It'll also increase your affinity wiith lightning tremendously and if you manage to make it evolve enough, other powers may reveal themselves. The Nightmare Kraken will give you immense affinity with mental attacks and soul attacks. It'll also let you use dream force which is something only its direct descendants, which you form part of, can use.
I also think you may be the descendant of a Dragon Family, but your aura is different from the ones I know. Instead of fire, you seem to have an affinity with water and winds? I don't know much about that."
"Err.. okay, but why can't I use these abilities yet?"
"Hehe... well you're simply too weak. You'll need to enter at least the Manifestation Realm to start using them, after all, mind you, these beasts were existences on par with Ancient Gods!"
"But what about those pills then?"
"Oh those... Well, they will react with your Nightmare Kraken bloodline to give you access to the mysterious dream force. They'll also give you a very high resistance against any kind of soul or mental attack. Of course, if someone without the Nightmare Kraken's bloodline consumes it... well, let's just say it'll be a messy death."
"Okay, thank you for answering my questions."
Meanwhile, Li Tengfei was thinking: 'Damn... maybe I should just stop asking him questions. I always end up even more lost after his 'explanations'.
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The fourth day arrived.
Li Tengfei just reached the peak of the ninth realm and was on par with Lu Mengyu in terms of cultivation. An Zihao and Xiao Yu were both now qualified to be called half-step Manifestation realm.
Our quartet set off on foot again in the direction of the Thousand Acres Wood. No map could be found detailing the entire forest. It was apparently bigger than a small country!
A few moments after entering the Thousand Acres Forest, a terrifying aura at the first level of the Manifestation Realm pressured Li Tengfei and the others.
"Haha... you finally came out of hiding! But how did you think that you could leave as you want after crossing the Fu Family? I'm afraid the only outcome for you is death!"