Cao Yun decided not to cultivate or train his martial art that night. He entirely focused on training his mind as he had realized that his Shen, the Fire Spirit, was essential. It was the force harmonizing Yi and Zhi, and it also seemed to boost his deduction abilities during alchemy. Since he had first started cultivating this character, he could now draw it forty-six times and was still short of eighteen repetitions to reach True Success. If he was able to get this Praying Demon Pill, he would surely be able to advance at least twice as fast.
Then, he focused on alchemy and tried to sort through all the recipes to find the best one to challenge his opponent. By the same occasion, he reviewed all the recipes. Even when he woke up, he used the entire morning to focus on his alchemy. He trained with flame control and ingredients preservation. Expecting to have some problems with the ingredients of the Dragon's Fire Faction, he was particularly careful with that.
Today, Cao Yun was going to lose a lot of time on alchemy. Recently, he was starting to realize that he had gotten too absorbed by alchemy. He had not abandoned cultivation, mind cultivation or martial arts, but this little fight with the Dragon's Fire Faction was getting out of hand. Whether he won or he lost, he would stop selling pills himself and he would limit the time he devoted to pill refinement.
But he would still work on it daily for several reasons. First of all, he quite liked alchemy now, and he could even talk about it with Feng Yingyue. But, it also was very good for his mind cultivation which was important as the Drop of Wrath could act up at any moment. And finally, he had realized that this new technique he had named 'Shen Visualization' could be used in actual combat.
Just before he left for the Wubei Merit Market, the entire Heavenly Swallow Faction came to see him.
The first one to talk was the only man. Contrary to yesterday night, he seemed to be in good shape. His face was now full of life. He had short hair and yellow eyes. Compared with Cao Yun, he was smaller, but still taller than the little Ling Hui who was fuming behind.
"Brother Chen, we never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Zhao Fei and this is my twin sister Zhao Lin." The woman he showed was stern and glared at Cao Yun with angry eyes. Her eyes were as yellow as her brother's and her hair also kind of short as they only reached the bottom of her shoulder blades. Both their hair were brownish.
"Do not mind my sister, she's upset about what happened to me. I know this is related to your fight with the Dragon's Fire Faction, but I do not blame you." He looked back as though he wanted to speak to everyone at once.
"We all knew that we'd have to fight against the other factions. If we got enough points outside, there was no way they would leave us alone for long. So you should not blame Brother Chen. If he had known we would be implicated, he would have waited to warn us before doing anything. And he is risking a lot for us today. Remember that if he loses, he will have to leave our faction for good which means that he won't be able to be in any faction next year because of our agreement." He finally put his hand on Cao Yun's shoulder as his sister was pouting. "Brother Chen, good luck!"
"My brother is too nice. He may have forgiven you, but I'm still a long way from this. You better not lose today!"
"Stupid Chen, if Fairy Zhi loses face because of you today, I'll break both your arms and we'll see how you can do alchemy then!" Ling Hui was once again the most ferocious. She really had a problem when it came to Zhi Yin.
"Brother Chen, do not mind the harsh words of these ladies. I know that you will do all you can to make up for what happened. I probably shouldn't have to remind you, but Zhuge Si is very crafty. The competition he organized won't be as simple as that. Even with Instructor Meng there, I fear that there might be some traps. Be very mindful and wary of everything."
"Thank you, Faction Leader. I'll do everything I can.
Brother Zhao, Sister Zhao, I never thought that my fight with the Dragon's Fire Faction would result in your injury. I naively thought they would only target me, but it seems like they found no other way to me than through you. No matter what, this is my fault, I should have tried to warn you even though you were outside.
Sister Ling, if I bring any more harm to the Heavenly Swallow Faction, I will gladly let you break my arms."
Since the death of his family, Cao Yun was even more intent on protecting the people close to him. Even though he had joined this faction recently and had almost never seen them, he still felt a feeling of belonging. He had not joined them on mere impulse. And since he intended to stay with this faction for a long time, he would have to fight for them.
As they were leaving, the group saw Mei Hua. Usually, she was busy at this time of the day as she almost entirely focused on her alchemy and spent a lot of time in the alchemy pavilion with Guest Elder Xiao.
She approached Cao Yun.
"Brother Chen, Mei Ying was asking why you didn't come play with her yesterday."
When the others saw the Dragon's Fire emblem on her chest and then the 5-star Earth alchemy insignia, they all became wary. Ling Hui even walked up front and put up a stance.
"What do you want, you bastard?!"
Mei Hua recoiled. She was friendly with Cao Yun so she did not understand what was going on. As she was busy with her study, she did not really care about the internal affairs of her faction. Moreover, Cao Yun had never talked about his problems with her faction with her because he did not want to put her in a bad position and make things awkward between them.
"Sister Mei, please do not mind them. Some people from your faction hurt Brother Zhao. They have no qualm with you, but..."
"What?! What happened?!"
"Sister Mei, I'm sorry, this is a long story and we don't have the time right now. I'll explain everything to you when I get back from the market. Tell Mei Ying that I'm sorry but I had to help some friends. I'm sure she'll understand. Excuse us."
"The market?!" Mei Hua got silenced by this word and she watched as the glaring group left with Cao Yun, her face utterly shocked.
-
When they arrived at the Wubei Merit Market, two tables with a furnace and a cauldron had been set up. Many outer disciples and some inner ones were gathering around them. No one knew what was going on, but there was a banner announcing an epic alchemy duel between Heavenly Swallow and Dragon's Fire. The inner disciples asked around because they did not really know the factions of the outer yard. Dragon's Fire was known but Heavenly Swallow seemed completely new to them.
Among these inner disciples were the customers of Cao Yun. They had never even heard the name 'Chen Guo' so when the outer disciples told them, they did not react. But the little plump man suddenly had an idea.
"Brothers, sorry, but this 'Chen Guo', could he be the friend who was selling Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills these past few days?"
"Yes, it's him. I heard that the Dragon's Fire Faction was waging a price war with him. Apparently they got enough of this and here we are."
Many people had really enjoyed this war as the prices of the Dragon's Fire Faction had gone down. As a matter of fact, the reason the other factions did not try to hinder Cao Yun even though he was earning many points was precisely because of that. A faction with a monopoly on pills was always a problem, but they wouldn't dare cross a faction full of alchemists. And the prices weren't too crazy, otherwise the inner disciples would just stop buying anything. That was also the reason why Zhuge Si did not even try to get their help, as he knew they had no real incentive to stop this price war.
When they heard the news, the inner disciples were shocked.
"Brother, does this mean that if he loses, he won't sell his pills anymore?! Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills, even Pure ones, are not that precious or rare. But on the other hand, his three True Essence ones are really useful to us, and we probably won't be able to buy them anywhere else unless we're really lucky."
"Calm down. We don't know for sure that he won't sell. And if he's able to make Pure and True Essence pills so easily, he should be a great alchemist, so he may win."
"But Brother, he's clearly a 1-star Earth alchemist. His Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills were really good, but that should be because he focused all his time on those. Could he really fare as well with other recipes?"
"Sister, it doesn't matter what we think. The competition will happen either way. As we can't intervene, let's just enjoy the show. Afterwards, it will still be time to act. If he loses, maybe we will be able to buy them from the Dragon's Fire Faction, who knows what they bet..."
Soon, Cao Yun and his group arrived. Cao Yun examined both furnaces and cauldrons to determine that there was nothing wrong. They were the most standard tools, exactly like the ones he had received.
"Junior Brother Chen, do you maybe suspect me of rigging the competition with faulty alchemy tools?"
"Of course not, Senior Zhuge. But a good alchemist should always properly inspect his tools, don't you think?"
"Indeed, indeed. You sure are a great 1-star Earth alchemist." Zhuge Si was almost puffing his chest out to show off his 1-star Human alchemist emblem. In the Dragon's Fire faction, there were four Mortal Warriors who had achieved the 1-star Human rank in alchemy. By using pills, alchemists could boost their cultivation, but their fighting prowess stayed very low. Most likely, despite being Mortal Warriors, they could be beaten by late Mortal cultivators. Luckily for them, almost no one dared challenging them to a fight. After all, alchemist was the most respected profession in the Hongchen Kingdom.
"I was wondering where my opponent is, Senior Zhuge."
"Oh, do not worry about that. She's on her way right now. I'm sure that this competition will be very exciting. I look forward to our win."
"You woke me up for... I mean, you disturbed my work for this competition and your alchemist is not even here yet?" A very sleepy Meng Jia walked through the crowd. He was constantly putting his hands or even entire arms other his eyes to protect them from the sun.
"Oh, I'm sorry Instructor Meng, she will be here shortly. We prepared a spot for you." Zhuge Si lead Meng Jia toward a chair over which an umbrella was set up.
"Good, good. You seem to still be respectful of your seniors." He took place and finally was protected from this awful warm and pleasant sunlight. "Chen Guo, you'd better win today. I did not make the trip all this way to watch my only student lose. If not, your training will be hell from now on."
"I'll do everything I can, Instructor Meng. Thank you for watching over my duel."
-
After long minutes, the contestant from the Dragon's Fire Faction arrived. She was the dejected Mei Hua. This morning her faction had asked her to partake into a friendly competition with their rival. Zhuge Si knew she and Cao Yun had some kind of relationship through Xiao Xuefeng. But from what he had gathered, they just vaguely knew each other from the entrance examination and Cao Yun played with her sister from time to time.
As a matter of fact, Xiao Xuefeng had made sure that the news concerning Luduo Bu and Mei Ying would not spread, as she wanted to protect the little girl. Chief Elder Baishen had also ordered the disciples who were in her pavilion the day of the beating to shut up about it. Hence, apart from the people directly involved, no one knew what had gone down.
Even Zhuge Si, who bragged about being an excellent strategist, had no access to this information. If he had, he would have asked someone else.
Cao Yun was surprised, but he soon realized that this made sense. The day after her sister's attack, still with a chaotic mind, she had been able to refine a 87% Frozen Heart pill and she was a 5-star Earth alchemist. Of course she was the best alchemist under Human rank in the Dragon's Fire Faction. After all, she was even the direct disciple of Xiao Xuefeng.
"Brother Chen, I'm sorry. I didn't know that this competition would be against you. I was just asked to partake in it this morning."
"Sister Mei, do not worry. Competing with you is always a pleasure. Since the first time we refined a pill together, I got better and I hope to showcase my improvement to you today."
"But, Brother Chen... If my Dragon's Fire Faction is competing with you, there should be some high stakes..."
"About that..." As Cao Yun was a little embarrassed to tell her that she was going to compete with him under such a high bet, Zhuge Si took over. He was not stupid and he quickly understood that he had made a mistake. Alas, Meng Jia was already here and he had announced Mei Hua as their contestant already. He couldn't simply replace her in front of everybody.
His only course of action was to minimize the consequences of this competition to appease his contestant.
"So many people have gathered to watch this friendly competition between our Dragon's Fire Faction and the alchemist from Heavenly Swallow. I hope everyone will be able to enjoy the great alchemy skills of Guest Elder Xiao's sole and direct disciple." By using Xiao Xuefeng's name, he was trying to pressure Mei Hua into showing her best so as to not dishonor her master's name.
"The conditions are agreed upon by both alchemists. The stakes of this bet are a little agreement between our factions as well as these pills." Zhuge Si showed the Praying Demon Pill to the crowd, and then stretched his hand toward Cao Yun. As per their bet, Cao Yun sent him the three True Essence Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills.
"Instructor Meng will be the referee. Now, both contestants will declare the pill they want their opponent to forge. Our Dragon's Fire Faction will provide all the ingredients."
The crowd got quiet in order to hear the name of the pill that would decide this duel.
"Frozen Heart pill."
"Frozen Heart pill."
Both of them had chosen the same pill!