Li Jing and Li Zhang arrived in front of a small building after a few minutes of walking.
The Storage Hall was the most protected place in the clan. In addition to many guards, it was also protected by a powerful and deadly Array Formation that could only be deactivated by the clan leader or the clan patriarch.
Li Zhang deactivated the Array Formation by injecting his Qi inside it and both him and Li Jing entered the building.
Li Jing wondered why the Storage Hall was not a huge building but everything became clear when he saw its inside.
The Storage Hall was actually one big room filled with several shelves and, on each shelf, was inscribed the name of the category of an item. Every item was stored inside spatial rings sorted by category.
Li Zhang walked towards the shelf 'Spirit Stones' and took out from the spatial ring five large boxes with the number '10000' written on it.
"Here are the 50000 Spirit Stones." He Said, pointing the five boxes.
Li Jing nodded and stored the Spirit Stones inside his own spatial ring. Then, he followed his grandfather towards the shelf 'Tier-2 Demonic Cores'.
One thousand five hundred Tier-2 Demonic Cores was a lot even for the powerful Li clan and represented almost three-quarters of their reserve. It was because the number of cultivators in the clan who could kill a tier-2 Demonic Beasts was limited. Moreover, the price of these cores was very high so it was not worth buying them from outside…
Finally, after giving the 1500 Demonic Cores to Li Jing, Li Zhang walked towards the shelf where the pills were stored.
"Considering the market price of the Earth-grade weapons, I can give him 4500 Qi Gathering Pills. However, we currently only have 300 Qi Condensing Pills in our reserve since these pills are still new."
Li Zhang hoped that it would be enough. He didn't want to offend this Mysterious Alchemist and, on the contrary, wanted to gain his favor.
Li Jing was satisfied, with all these pills he would be able to breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm immediately.
He stored the boxes containing the pills in his spatial ring and thanked his grandfather before walking back to his bedroom.
Inside his courtyard, he saw Li Hua who seemed to wait for him.
"Young Master, I found the maps!", She exclaimed when she saw him.
"Good job, Sister Hua." He said, smiling and taking the maps from Li Hua. She found them faster than he expected.
Li Jing entered his bedroom and started consuming the pills he just received…
Three hours later, Li Jing had not yet consumed all the pills but someone knocked at his bedroom door.
"Young Master, your father is back and wants to see you. It's urgent." Said Li Hua, anxious.
Li Jing assumed that his father wanted to see him to talk about princess Wang Qing Yue and the deal with the Mysterious Alchemist. He left his bedroom and walked towards his father's courtyard.
Inside the main hall, Li Jing saw his father and grandfather sitting in their armchair and talking. Judging by their facial expression, they seemed to be very angry.
Li Jing greeted them and Li Bai turned to him.
"Today, the princess fell into a coma and no one was able to cure her except this trash Teng Fen. He said that a mysterious alchemist came to see him this morning to tell him how to cure her. What does that mean? I thought we had a contract with this mysterious alchemist!" He said.
Hearing this, Li Jing was surprised. In the web novel, Teng Fen said that he read the method to cure the princess in an old book.
"We can't trust this Mysterious Alchemist anymore. From now on, we won't make any deal with him and if he wants to get the Spirit Stones from the sale of the Qi Condensing Pills, he will have to see me directly and show me his face." Continued Li Bai.
Li Bai wasn't afraid of this man. He already realized that if this Mysterious Alchemist was that strong, he wouldn't hide and instead reveal his identity to everyone. It was more probable that he had a kind of treasure that allowed him to be undetectable.
Li Jing understood that Teng Fen's plan was to create discord between his clan and the Mysterious Alchemist to force him to reveal himself…
He couldn't prove to his father that Teng Fen lied or that it was another mysterious alchemist who talked to him. Moreover, Li Bai was a stubborn man so it was useless to try to change his mind.
"I understand. What about the king and the princess? What did they do?" Asked Li Jing.
"The king is very intrigued and wants to meet the Mysterious Alchemist to thank him personally. The princess is fine, she's very grateful to that person and also wants to meet him… I'm sure that this Mysterious Alchemist wants to get closer to the royal family. He just used our clan and the Teng clan to gain money and fame." Answered Li Bai, furious.
So, Teng Fen didn't get the treasure and the princess was not interested in him, it was a very good outcome for Li Jing. However, it seemed that he won't be able to use the identity of the Mysterious Alchemist anymore. Fortunately, he already obtained all the items he needed just before his father came back.
"I understand, father. Next time the Mysterious Alchemist comes to see me, I will tell him to see you." Said Li Jing.
"Good."
Li Jing bade farewell to his father and grandfather and walked back to his bedroom, he still had a lot of pills to absorb.
…
The next day.
It was noon when Li Jing finished consuming all the pills. He now had 290,066 Experience Points, more than enough to breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm!
However, before spending his Experience Points, he first took out the Qi Concealment Ring from his blood ring and put it on the index finger of his left hand.
This ring was one of the artifacts he obtained from the demonic inheritance and could hide the cultivation realm of a cultivator by making it appear five levels lower. That way, when Li Jing will breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm, everyone will only see him in the sixth level of the Qi Gathering realm.
'Use 155000 XP to increase my Qi cultivation realm.' He thought.
[155000 XP has been used. Remaining XP: 135066.]
Li Jing suddenly felt an overwhelming energy passing through his whole body and moving towards his dantian.
A moment later, he felt like this raging energy was trying to break a wall in his dantian by repetitively crashing onto it.
Bang!
As a loud bang resonated, the wall inside his dantian finally broke and the powerful energy invaded it. It was the sign that Li Jing successfully breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm.
[Congratulations! Host has reached the first level of the Foundation Establishment realm.]