Half a year later, Lu Ranting sent a piece of news back to the clan.
There was an outcome regarding the recipe of the Foundation Building Elixir.
Lu Chaoxi's breathing became very rapid after he finished reading the letter.
There was mention of a Foundation Building Elixir!
Lu Ranting had spent the past year coming in contact with many clans and factions. She had gained an understanding of which faction needed the recipe of the Foundation Building Elixir more and what the other party could provide the Lu Clan.
She made a list of all the items and sent it back to the clan.
Lu Chaoxi could not move his eyes away from the words "Foundation Building Elixir" on the list.
Level Three magic equipment, elixirs, and recipes—all of those were treasured items that were hard to come by. However, they paled in comparison to the Foundation Building Elixir.
There was so much that the clan could do with the Foundation Building Elixir. They would have another Foundation Building cultivator!
Lu Ranting might have understood this. Her introduction to the other items was rather summarized, but she wrote a full page for the Foundation Building Elixir.
The Foundation Building Elixir came from the Husheng Merchant House.
The Husheng Merchant House was one of the two largest merchant groups in Feiyun State, equal in status to the Feiyun Manor.
Actually, both of the two largest merchant groups in Feiyun State—the Husheng Merchant House and the Feiyun Manor—were controlled by the Qingfeng Sect. The difference between them was that the Feiyun Manor did business within Feiyun State, while the Husheng Merchant House dealt with transactions between Feiyun State and the Xue State in the north.
The party that wanted to buy the recipe of the Foundation Building Elixir was a clan in the northern Xue State.
The situation in the Xue State was utterly different from that in the Feiyun State. The Qingfeng Sect had a monopoly in the Feiyun State since there were no other sects in the state other than affiliate clans that listened and were ranked under the Qingfeng Sect.
On the other hand, there were three major factions in the Xue State. Also, they were constantly besieged by the White Ghoul Army from the Extreme Northern Snow Plains. The state was repeatedly ravaged by war. One could live peacefully in the state.
The three factions had similar strength, though only the Baiyang Clan had a Golden Core cultivator and thus acted as the leader of the three factions. However, in actuality, they were also an affiliate of the Qingfeng Sect.
The main reason why the Baiyang Clan was an affiliate of the Qingfeng Sect was that there were just too many White Ghouls in the snow plains in the extreme north. Every year, these monsters would attack the human territories to the south. And once every several years, the White Ghouls would also launch a series of large-scale attacks. The three major factions of the Xue State could not deal with such pressure, and thus, they had no choice but to seek outside assistance.
The Feiyun State, which was close to the Xue State, was an essential source of aid.
The Qingfeng Sect also knew when to extend help when it was needed. They would send reinforcements to their neighbors in the north every time there was a crisis.
However, these reinforcements came with a price. Because of this, the three major factions of the north naturally had an alliance with the Qingfeng Sect. Even though they were said to be independent, they had, in reality, become affiliates of the Qingfeng Sect.
Without the aid of the Qingfeng Sect, the impoverished Xue State that was ravaged continuously by war would not be able to sustain that many cultivators. They would not be able to maintain their line of defense against the White Ghouls from the Extreme Northern Snow Plains.
The mission shouldered by the Husheng Merchant House was to maintain the economic relationship between Feiyun State and Xue State.
Even though the Xue State was poor, it did produce several specialty items. For example, the Soul Orb of the White Ghoul could be used like a Demon Core, even though it had to be processed beforehand. A few treasures that could only be found in Xue State could also be exchanged for large amounts of resources from Feiyun State.
The party that wanted the recipe of the Foundation Building Elixir was one of the large clans in Xue State. The Husheng Merchant House did not reveal exactly which clan it was, but Lu Ranting managed to find out anyway. It was the Gongsun Clan from the Liao Prefecture.
The Gongsun Clan was the weakest of the three major factions in the Xue State. At the same time, it was the only clan out of the three major factions. The other two were sects. The Gongsun Clan had a Golden Core cultivator 70 years ago, but he died in battle during a large-scale invasion of White Ghouls. The clan suffered greatly because of that.
However, they were in a much better state than the Lu Clan. After all, they were a clan that had a legacy of thousands of years. The Gongsun Clan still had six Initial Enlightenment cultivators and more than 30 Foundation Building cultivators even after their Golden Core Patriarch died in battle.
Lu Ranting had been rather depressed at the start. Why would a large clan like the Gongsun Clan not have a recipe for the Foundation Building Elixir? However, she gained a slight understanding of the situation after she asked around closely.
They once had the recipe, but they lost it.
Around 15 years ago, the Liao Mountain Pass, where the Gongsun Clan was located, had fallen under the powerful siege of the White Ghouls. Even though they quickly took it back, the clan's treasure had been destroyed, and the recipe had gone missing. The cultivator who practiced the recipe also died in battle that year.
Since that was the case, the Foundation Building cultivators that the Gongsun Clan was nurturing were in trouble. They had to find a way to obtain the Foundation Building Elixirs from the other two factions or the Qingfeng Sect. The price they had to pay was large.
Throughout the years, they had been asking to purchase a recipe for the Foundation Building Elixir from all around the region, but to no avail. There were not many factions who had the recipe for the Foundation Building Elixir. Most of the factions who bought the recipe also signed agreements that forbade them from selling the recipe to a second party.
In the world of cultivation, an agreement made by signing the Soul Contract was extremely binding. Anybody who went against the contract would die.
Thus, the Gongsun Clan's request for purchasing a recipe for the Foundation Building Elixir was put on hold.
The Lu Clan had gotten the recipe from Lu Qing. They had not signed an agreement with another faction that forbade them from selling the recipe to a second party. Thus, they could sell the recipe to whoever they pleased.
The price offered by the Gongsun Clan was fair. They offered 8,000 Spirit Stones for the recipe, much higher than the value they estimated. They could also provide the Lu Clan with a Foundation Building Elixir for the price of 10,000 Spirit Stones. The Lu Clan could obtain a Foundation Building Elixir if they came up with 2,000 Spirit Stones.
In Lu Ranting's eyes, the Gongsun Clan, as well as the Husheng Merchant House that represented them, was the best candidate for their transaction.
The Gongsun Clan was a famous clan that had a legacy of thousands of years, while the Husheng Merchant House was the half-official merchant group of Feiyun State with the Qingfeng Sect as their backer. These two parties had a massive reputation and had more regard for their reputation than these kinds of minor profit. There was a guarantee when doing business with them.
At the same time, the Foundation Building Elixir was something that the Lu Clan desperately needed. There were many ninth-tier Qi Refining cultivators in the clan. However, they were all stuck at that level as it was difficult to obtain a Foundation Building Elixir.
It was not that no one tried to advance to the Foundation Building Stage without the Foundation Building Elixir, especially since there was a successful case with Lu Mingchao. However, after three cultivators of the Lu Clan died pathetically during their advancement to the Foundation Building State, the rest of the clan's cultivators became fearful.
A ninth-tier Qi Refining Cultivator still had 60 years of Core Lifespan left even if they did not take the risk of advancing to the Foundation Building Stage. Cultivators were unlike normal humans. Normal humans would become frail and sickly when they reached 60 to 70 years old, but cultivators still looked like ladies in their 20s even at the age of 110. They had a high standard of living.
Thus, most people did not dare to attempt an advancement to the Foundation Building Stage without a Foundation Building Elixir at the risk of their lives. Without this courage or, in other words, an insufficiently strong mental state, their success rate was equivalent to zero.
Lu Ranting always thought that she was not a person without courage. However, when she was faced with this hurdle many years ago, she also chose to retreat after much struggle.
In this regard, the Foundation Building Elixir was a necessity for most ninth-tier Qi Refining cultivators.
The clan had been lacking this necessity for nearly 40 years. During these years, aside from Lu Mingchao, the Lu Clan had not produced any new Foundation Building cultivators.
This kind of despair would cause the lower-level cultivators of the clan to have a negative thought—there was no future in training in the clan.
It was best to dispel these thoughts of despair as early as possible!