Yun Ping had already told Cao Yun about this martial art exhibition. General Yun Po had thought about it for several reasons. But the most important one was to help raise the reputation of the Yun family in those trying times. Of course, he had other things in mind. As much as it would be a show of strength for the outsiders, it would also serve to reinforce his and his son's positions within the family. And it would also be a good opportunity to invite Guai Mo.
Cao Yun had thought about it and had decided that this would also be a great opportunity for him to show off. Right now, he wanted to get as much of Gu Song's attention as possible. Since he was certain that he was in the Xue family, he had to following what was going on in the capital as well, especially when it came to alchemy. Besides, Xue Rui was his disciple. Surely, Guai Mo had already grabbed his attention.
"Are you sure about this girl?"
Once again, Cao Yun was back in the secluded room of the Major Hall. Yun Ping had just left and he was alone speaking with Yong Ke.
"Of course I'm not. She's a thief and we can't trust her at all. But it's the safest way to get a complete map of the estate. And I'll need it. As long as I have the information she's looking for, she will do her work."
"But if she gets discovered, she won't bat an eye before betraying you."
"Obviously. It's a good thing she doesn't know much. In fact, most of what I told her was a lie. Although she didn't blindly believe me, I am certain that she did believe the gist of it. The best outcome would be to obtain a good map of the layout. But even if she gets captured, the lies I fed her might be useful. Hopefully it won't come down to this though."
"And you're sure about going up against a 4th-grade Spirit Warrior? Even if his cultivation has been helped by alchemy and demonic ways, he should be powerful enough to crush you in an instant."
"That is why I need General Yun Po's support. But as long as we don't have any proof, it would be almost impossible to bring any late Spirit Warrior here. The Imperial City would take that as a sign of treason."
What Cao Yun didn't add, because Yong Ke was coming from the Imperial City, was that he didn't trust the Imperial City at all. For all he knew, they might have tried to get rid of Gu Song in order to silence him. And if any other Spirit Warrior but those he trusted took care of him, he would not get his answers. However, considering the proximity of the demon territory, no late or even middle Spirit Warrior could move freely toward the Subei Province. Their mere presence could be seen as an act of war by the demons and no one wanted this war to start too soon.
Right now, both the humans and the demons were preparing themselves for it. The humans were in a very precarious situation as they didn't want to be the ones to cause the hostilities but they didn't want to give too much time to the Empyrean Asura Theocracy to get more powerful. Unfortunately, if they attacked first, this could unite even more demon kingdoms to the Empyrean Asura. For the time being, many demon kingdoms were opposed to both his tyranny and his cult. So humans had to keep up appearances and respect the Seven Treaties. Even among the humans, the Seven Treaties were deemed as sacred so no emperor would willingly disrespect them.
Since Cao Yun had no proof, he didn't have many options. However, he was still convinced that his ideas would work. Just in case though, he prepared several contingencies. Yong Ke was one of them, but she might also be his way to more information on the Imperial City. Clearly, she was worried about the fate of the people so he knew that she had nothing to do with whatever conspiracy was going on. And overall, he had learn to know and trust her. Although she was very open with him, it took a long time for her to speak with Yun Ping with the same ease. She was incredibly shy.
"I have two weeks to get ready now. So I'll have to trust you with my other preparations."
"What do you intend to do?"
"I have to catch Gu Song's eye and what better way than to use the gift I'm going to make to General Yun Po for his invitation? I'll refine a pill in such a way as to ignite Gu Song's curiosity and envy. He'll want to get me alive just for that if nothing else. Hopefully he'll even try to make me his new disciple if everything works fine."
"And do you really trust me with your other preparations?"
"Yes. Although there are some secrets between us, I know that our opinions are the same about this demonic cultivator. And I know I can trust you in that cause."
"Thank you."
Just like that, Yong Ke left the Major Hall and even Qingyun City. Cao Yun had given her a task to help him set up some of his array formations around the Xue residence as well as other ones.
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Cao Yun decided to go back to his alchemy. He didn't have a lot of time before General Yun's martial art exhibition. However, Cao Yun wanted to take this as an opportunity to further his plans. Cang Yin had accepted his offer and was slowly getting infiltrated within the Xue family. So he had to wait for her reports and her map to finalize his array formations. Thankfully, Cao Yun had observed this household for quite some time and had a rough idea of things within. But he had no idea where Gu Song was precisely and he needed that information.
When this was taken care of, Cao Yun's plan would almost be complete. He still had to prepare contingencies just in case though, but his boat was sailing smoothly with no storm to be seen. That didn't mean that he wouldn't do anything more just to be sure. Moreover, he was only trying to get closer to this Gu Song that was most likely hidden behind Xue Rui. But it wasn't his only goal by coming in the Subei Province. He also wanted to try and learn more about the Governors. After all, the disappearances that had made him suspicious of the province had not been dealt with by the Governor. Either he truly was a base and utterly incompetent politician trying to safeguard his post no matter what, or there was something more to the story. Anyway, this was something that would worry him later.
Right now, Cao Yun had to refine a pill as a present to General Yun that would also attract Gu Song's attention. Of course, there were many such pills, but Cao Yun took it as a challenge. Maybe he could kill two or even three birds with the same stone, while having a lot of fun. Although he was still technically a 1-star Human alchemist, Cao Yun's proficiency was way closer to the 5-star rank now. Maybe he wasn't quite there yet but he was getting closer. Thus, he got the idea of trying to refine a higher grade of pill.
His main goal wasn't just to refine a pill but to showcase his talent and competence. Like that, he would get more support for the upcoming competition against Xue Rui, he would make Xue Rui madder and he would attract Gu Song's attention. So he decided to refine a pill with a different, way cheaper, recipe.
Instead of crafting the pill with the usual recipe, he might think of substitutes. After all, what mattered was the interaction of the various properties of the ingredients. Cao Yun's understanding of the Five Golden Elixir Principles had reached great heights. In particular, his Flame Control had been boosted by the incomplete Rune of Fire. Even without understanding the Dao of Fire one iota, there had been a change. Most likely, it had interacted with his Drop of Wrath and it was obvious that both Cleansed Asura and Axiu Qian had understood the Dao of Fire. Maybe it had awakened a deep memory within the Flying Poison that was now almost Cao Yun's.
At the same time, his understanding of Yin-Yang Balance and Five Elements Wheel had also progressed a lot thanks to all the books he had read. In fact, he had spent most of his time studying alchemy on those two subjects. They would not only help his alchemy but also his array formations and even his overall comprehension of the world. After all, the five elements were also involved in cultivation itself as he had experienced. By using the interactions between the Fire, Wood and Water elements, Cao Yun had restored his Bai Hui and was tempering his Five Prodigious Gates.
To prepare himself for the Alchemy Conference, Cao Yun had decided to study a bit more of the Minor Principles of Silver. Contrary to the Five Golden Elixir Principles, they were not essential to refine a pill, but to advance in one's alchemy, they had to be studied. There was no official list and some authors even disagreed on what could constitute a minor principle. In fact, some authors even disregarded this concept in itself, claiming that they were not principles at all. They preferred to talk about tools or specialties. Anyway, Cao Yun had already worked a lot on Toxins Minimization under Instructor Meng. Now, he was working on the Treasures in Mud.
That principle was somewhat simple to understand but incredibly difficult to master. It simply stated that any ingredient could be replaced by one or several others as long as the sum of all the interactions between the ingredients stayed exactly the same. That also meant that it was possible to introduce ingredients that would cause further interactions as long as those new ones were perfectly countered and balanced by yet other interactions. Of course, the downside was that refining the same pill with those new ingredients would become exponentially more difficult.
After reading entire books on this principle, Cao Yun had become quite familiar with it. In practice, this principle wasn't very useful but it was almost essential in research. After all, alchemy was a living discipline. Even today, many alchemists were working on old recipe in order to make them cheaper and more efficient. Alchemists were also working on creating new pills with better effects and fewer toxins, as well as refining forgotten pills. Maybe it could be possible to refine a Heaven pill with almost the same effects as a Spirit pill.
Since Xiao Xuefeng and Hua Fenfei had refined the Life Boiling Cradle pill, there had been a boom in research as more and more alchemists wanted to replicate this great triumph. Even if they could replicate just a fraction of this achievement, their names would be remembered for generations. Unfortunately, they would not be achieving that any time soon.
First, Cao Yun sifted through his mind to try and identify the pills that interested him and might also get the desired outcome. He wanted this pill to be useful to him as well, if not directly, at least to help him temper his alchemy. Finally, Cao Yun had decided to opt for a pill connected to his blood cultivation. Since his blood had to slowly enter his marrow deep within his bones to then connect it throughout his skeleton, pills could be useful. Besides, getting some experience on that point could help him develop the right pills for Hongyu who was still getting afflicted by her evil core.
Until now, he had focused more on his Qi cultivation which was coming along just fine. His Five Prodigious Gates were stronger than ever and almost perfectly unified. It wouldn't be long before he felt the sign of a breakthrough. Then it would be time for him to accumulate Fire Qi in his Middle Dantian. And for that, his blood cultivation would help him a lot, as well as the Rune of Fire. Indeed, the Middle Dantian was situated around the heart, and his blood was full of Fire element. Cao Yun could then both siphon Fire Qi from his environment and also extract it from his very blood.
Although he let his blood cultivation lag behind, he had not decided to completely disregard it. Since he could think of no other pill that would be useful to him right now, he decided he might as well improve his blood cultivation. Right now, he was very close to reaching the 7th-grade Blood Child stage after helping his blood enter his bones.
With his mind set on this objective, Cao Yun found the perfect pill, the Merging Minerals and Seas pill. This was a 5-star Human pill that seemed rather difficult to make. If he added the cost of every single ingredient, one pill would cost around one Yuanbao to make. One Yuanbao being equivalent to fifty taels of gold. In other words, Cao Yun would invest a lot of money in the research even if he used cheaper ingredients. In the worst case scenario, Cao Yun still had several other pills he was certain he could alter without any problem, but they wouldn't have the same effect. After all, demonic cultivators would be interested in pill related to blood since Mo Tian had been working on merging human and demon blood.
In fact, Cao Yun could also make a True Essence 4 or 3-star Human pill. But he would try not to showcase it as it might be suspicious with the recent True Essence pills sold by the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall. Obviously, several people had seen that something fishy was going on there. Thankfully, Fang Shaolong seemed to have helped Hall Master Qinghe conceal it better. No doubt, Xiao Xuefeng had had a hand in it too.
After a bit more consideration, Cao Yun was certain that this was the pill he wanted to work on. If he could rewrite the recipe of such a pill and make it cheaper, it would impress almost everyone. Besides, this pill was useful for him but also for soldiers. Indeed, this pill could help promote the production of blood, of marrow and could even strengthen the bones. If the quality was high enough, it might even have a small impact of Jing. It was no wonder this pill was deemed a 5-star Human pill.