Chapter 98 Zhou Tian News
Kunlun has three important competitions every year: the Alchemy Apprentice Competition, the First-Class Alchemist Competition, and then the Qi Refining Disciples Competition. Among them, the rewards for the Qi Refining Disciples Competition are the most generous. After all, Kunlun has the largest number of magic cultivators. The strength of any sect is also evaluated by the number of magic cultivators, especially the number of high-level cultivators such as the Nascent Soul Stage, the God Transformation Stage, and the Void Stage.
Li Yu originally thought that if he took ten Tuomai Pills a year, that would be four hundred in forty years. As long as he did not build his foundation and participated in competitions for forty years in a row, he would be able to save enough Tuomai Pills to cultivate to the Golden Core stage. However, Wu Tong's words extinguished his hope.
The top three in the Qi Refining Period Competition can only participate in the competition once. If they rank in the top three this time, they will not be able to participate in the future.
Otherwise, there will be some Qi Refining disciples who will be forced to stay in this realm and wait until they earn enough Tuomai Pills to build their foundation, which will undoubtedly greatly undermine the fairness of the competition.
It seems that it is not an easy task to take advantage of the sect.
Among the three competitions, only the first-grade alchemist competition has no limit on the number of participations. However, after Li Yu builds his foundation, he will definitely be promoted to a second-grade alchemist, so he can no longer take advantage of this opportunity.
Since I have nothing to do anyway, I might as well take those ten Tuomai Pills.
Initially, Li Yu thought that the competition among Qi Refining disciples was a duel between two disciples to determine the winner, but Wu Tong laughed at him for being ignorant. He thought that kind of backward competition was a thing of the past a thousand years ago.
The Qi Refining Stage disciples' competition, like the illusion trial, is conducted in an illusion.
All disciples face the same opponent in the illusion, and the one who defeats the opponent in the shortest time will be the champion of the competition.
In a real fight, there will inevitably be casualties. This method can not only reduce the casualty rate to zero, but also greatly improve efficiency. Thousands of years ago, the major sects abandoned the primitive and backward competition method and introduced this more scientific method...
There are tens of thousands of Kunlun Qi Refining disciples. If they really want to compete against each other, it will not only consume a lot of space and manpower and material resources, but the number of competitions required for accurate ranking is also impossible to estimate.
The method of trial in illusion does not require any manpower. All it needs is a magic weapon similar to the Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains Map. The competition can be completed in three days and the specific rankings can be determined. It is extremely efficient and was adopted by all factions once it appeared.
When Li Yu arrived at Tongtian Peak, it was crowded with people and there was almost no place to stay.
The square in front of the palace is so large that there is no place to step. The battle formation is even more severe than when Li Yu first took the trial.
Among them, only a small number of people came to participate in the competition, and most of the disciples came to watch the fun.
After all, this annual competition is prepared for the true geniuses of the sect. It is extremely difficult and only those who have at least the strength of the ninth level of Qi Refining with a single spiritual vein are eligible to participate in the competition.
Although there are tens of thousands of Kunlun Qi Refining disciples, there are very few who have reached the ninth level of Qi Refining, only about a thousand people.
In the square in front of the trial hall, there is a huge scroll. Next to the scroll, there is a suspended water curtain with words floating on it. They are all the names of people who have participated in the trial.
The disciples who came to watch the fun crowded Tongtian Peak, looking at the trial list and talking about it.
"Ten Tuomai Pills, how envious! It's a pity that they have nothing to do with us ordinary disciples."
"Last year, the winner was someone from Yuling Peak. Who will win this year?"
"Nonsense, who else could be the champion this year but Junior Brother Li?"
"Hey, that's strange, why isn't Junior Brother Li's name on the Trial Ranking?"
"Junior Brother Li hasn't arrived yet. He must be practicing hard at home. He rarely goes out except for taking part in trials. It is because of his hard work that he has achieved his current level of cultivation..."
"Here he comes, Junior Brother Li is here!"
…
Li Yu landed on Tongtian Peak, and all the disciples automatically made way for him.
In the middle of the square, there was a huge scroll floating , a formation covering an area of ten feet in radius, separating a space. Some disciples were crowded outside the formation, while a few disciples could pass through the formation without any obstacles.
Li Yu had already gotten started in the art of formations. He could tell at a glance that the function of this formation was to screen people. Only those with a cultivation level above the ninth level of Qi Refining could pass through it.
He walked through the passage made by the crowd and easily entered the formation.
The competition among the Qi Refining disciples was fully automatic, both in process and ranking. There was only one Foundation Establishment elder and two deacon disciples watching here. The three of them were also Li Yu's acquaintances. They were usually responsible for the illusion trials, and they were the ones who gave him the elixirs every time.
The old man who was building the foundation saw Li Yu and smiled, "I just said that if I don't see you tomorrow, I will send someone to Ziyun Peak to call you."
Li Yu smiled and said, "I just learned about the competition as well."
The old man in the foundation building stage pointed at the scroll and said, "This is your first time participating in a competition. Let me tell you the rules. This competition is actually similar to the illusion trial. After you enter with your disciple token, an opponent will appear in the illusion space. His strength is at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining. You just need to defeat him as quickly as possible. Everyone only has one chance, so remember not to waste time."
Li Yu smiled and said, "I see."
After saying this, he entered the scroll with the disciple token in his hand.
The next moment, he flashed out from the scroll again.
The disciples inside and outside the formation were also paying attention to Li Yu.
The second on the trial list is undoubtedly the number one Kunlun Qi Refining disciple of the contemporary era. There is no suspense at all about passing such a trial. After all, the difficulty of this competition is much less than that of the illusion trial.
They watched Li Yu enter the competition space, and after just a blink of an eye, he came out again.
"Uh, was I dazzled just now?"
"Why do I seem to see Junior Brother Li go in?"
"The competition shouldn't end so soon, right?"
"You are not dazzled. Look at the list next to it..."
After being reminded, they looked at the list next to the scroll, and then saw that the first name on the water curtain had become Li Yu.
"I just blinked..."
“Isn’t this too fast?”
"Is the one we met in the illusion an opponent?"
"That's normal. When Senior Sister Qin participated in the competition, she was also this fast..."
This speed made some disciples at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining who had just finished the competition doubt their lives. The opponent in the illusion was at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining, and his attack and defense were very balanced. It was difficult for an ordinary ninth level Qi Refining disciple to defeat him.
Even if those geniuses with double or triple spiritual veins could be defeated, it would still take some time.
Over the past hundred years, the only people who could finish a competition so quickly were Senior Sister Qin and Li Yu.
After coming out of the competition space, Li Yu flew back to Ziyun Peak leisurely in the shocked gazes of everyone.
This level of competition was naturally not difficult for him now. He could easily kill the phantom of the ninth level of Qi Refining with just a single move. All he had to do was wait for the reward at home.
This competition lasted for three days.
Until the last day, when the competition was over, Li Yu's name was firmly at the top of the list, and no one could surpass him.
This was naturally something that everyone had expected. It was no exaggeration to say that this competition was prepared for him. This result was destined before the competition.
Inside the villa, Li Yu sat in the pavilion. In the jade box on the stone table in front of him, ten pills were neatly placed.
This is the Tuomai Pill, which looks extremely similar to the Tongmai Pill, but is slightly larger in size. After opening the jade box, Li Yu felt the rich spiritual power contained in the pill.
One Tuomai Pill costs 10,000 spirit coins in Kunlun, but this is just the price. In fact, Tuomai Pill cannot be bought with spirit coins and can only be exchanged through contributions.
Li Yu is unable to take Tuomai Pill now.
Before building the foundation, his spiritual veins were not strong enough to accommodate so much spiritual energy. One Tuomai Pill could destroy one of his spiritual veins. He had to cultivate all five spiritual veins to the foundation building stage before he could start taking Tuomai Pills.
After looking at it for a while, Li Yu put away the Tuomai Pills and would take them after he had established his foundation.
At present, the more useful thing for him is the Tongmai Dan.
Unfortunately, apart from surpassing Senior Sister Qin on the trial list to obtain ten Tongmai Pills, and the fixed three pills every month, he has no other channels to obtain Tongmai Pills.
One day, Li Yu was reading a book in the pavilion when the doorbell of the villa rang again.
He opened the door and saw no one. There was a thin booklet on the ground. Li Yu picked it up and walked back to the villa.
This is the "Kunlun Monthly" published by Wu Tong. It contains excerpts of important news from the sect. Wu Tong's business is getting bigger and bigger. The information in the Kunlun Monthly is not only limited to Kunlun, but also contains all the strange stories and events that have happened in the entire world of immortal cultivation in the past month.
Wu Tong obviously knew his limits. He knew a lot of secrets about the sect, but most of the information in the Kunlun Monthly News were well-known or harmless entertainment news.
These things are not considered sect secrets, so the sect will not care about them.
Many Kunlun disciples are either on missions outside or practicing, and have no channels to obtain information. Some of those who are not short of spirit coins will subscribe to a Kunlun Monthly Report, which will be delivered to their door every month to make up for their lack of information channels. At least they can know what happened in the sect in the past month.
Li Yu walked back to the villa, came to the swing, held Senior Sister Zhou in his arms, and they read the newspaper together.
The front-page headline of this issue of Kunlun Monthly is naturally the death of Elder Zhao.
With the cultivation level of Jindan stage, and being a third-rank alchemist, his status in the sect was not inferior to some ancestors in the early Yuanying stage. His unclear death was the most important event that happened in Kunlun last month.
Li Yu became the second on the trial list and won the championship in the Qi Refining Disciple Competition, right after this news.
One of the Seven Sons of Kunlun, Senior Sister Xu Qingxin from Yuzhu Peak, was also listed on the list because of the news that her cultivation had broken through to the Golden Core Stage.
Wu Tong was in Kunlun, and he didn't know how many sources of information he had. Some of the sect's geniuses had breakthroughs in their cultivation, and two Jindan elders had formed a dual cultivation partner. All of this was clearly recorded...
After the news about Kunlun came some anecdotes from the world of immortal cultivation.
Not long ago, Li Yu appeared in the Emei Cave Heaven, accompanied by Bai Qingying, one of the four beauties of Emei. He tried the Emei Illusion Trial and topped the Emei Trial List. It was actually recorded.
The next piece of news was from Emei. Two male geniuses of the Emei sect announced in public that they were going to be Taoist couples. Li Yu could already imagine the expressions of some male disciples of Kunlun.
She was fortunate enough to become an Emei disciple. With so many beautiful sisters and fellow students around her, she chose a man instead of one. The Kunlun disciples couldn't understand this, and neither could normal people like Li Yu.
He looked down at the beautiful woman in his arms, and really couldn't understand what was going on.
Even though he didn't understand, Li Yu still respected their choice.
The monthly report also said that the Qingcheng Sect's "Qingcheng Six Arts" had changed last month. One of them was over 30 years old and automatically lost his title. One of the younger generation of disciples in the Qingcheng Sect took his place...
Speaking of which, the same goes for the "Seven Sons of Kunlun" and the "Four Beauties of Emei". Once they exceed the age limit, they will lose their titles and be replaced by younger geniuses. The upper age limit set by each faction seems to be thirty years old.
There was no change in the candidates for the Four Beauties of Emei, but there were some changes in the Twelve Beauties. Three of the Twelve Beauties lost their titles due to their age, and their positions were inherited by the three sisters of the Zhao family.
They are naturally beautiful and born with the attributes of triplets, so they are also very famous in Emei.
Li Yu glanced over all the news until he saw an inconspicuous piece of news in the corner of a page of the booklet, and was suddenly shocked.
In the corner of the monthly report, there was a line of small words written: "Zhou Tian, a disciple of the Soul Refining Sect, was chased by disciples of the Five Poison Sect and fled into the Thousand Poison Cave. His whereabouts are currently unknown..."
This seemingly insignificant information in the booklet immediately caught Li Yu's attention.
He has always been aware of the name Zhou Tian.
Back then at Baiyun Temple, he and Zhou Zixuan were plotted against by the other party twice, and Zhou Zixuan was even injured as a result. It can be said that Li Yu and he had a grudge against each other for a long time.
What made Li Yu remember him later was naturally the high bounty. Kunlun offered a bounty of ten Tongmai Pills for this man's head, and Tiandao Sect offered a bounty of fifty. Adding up to sixty Tongmai Pills, it was enough for Li Yu to open up all his spiritual veins, and there would be thirty left for Zhou Zixuan.
Although she was not as luxurious as Li Yu to eat Tongmai Pills as meals, through her own practice and the three Tongmai Pills she took every month, she had opened up twenty acupoints in the Wood Spiritual Vein. After taking thirty Tongmai Pills, she could immediately be promoted from the third level of Qi Refining to the seventh level.
Zhou Tian's traces appeared in the Demonic Path. Li Yu wanted to find the witch to verify it, but when he tried to contact the witch, he found that there was no response from the other side.
This made Li Yu feel a little strange. The only possible reason for this situation was that the witch had blocked him.
Women are really hard to understand. When the soul contract was signed, she clearly said that she would be there whenever Li Yu contacted her, but when she really needed something, she couldn't be found at all...
Unable to contact the witch, Li Yu had to go find Wu Tong.
Wu Tong no longer lives in Danding Peak.
Although he was still an apprentice of the alchemy path, in Kunlun, as long as he had spirit coins, he could live outside the gathering area of low-level disciples. Not long ago, he moved to Chaoyang Peak, where all the young disciples lived. They were either alchemists, weapon refiners, or ninth-level Qi-refining practitioners...
Wu Tong spent a huge amount of spirit coins every month to rent a small courtyard here.
Li Yu came to Chaoyang Peak according to the address Wu Tong told him. He rang the doorbell, but no one came out.
It seems that Wu Tong is not at home. He spends most of his time every day collecting intelligence, and sometimes he even leaves the sect to collect information. It is not easy to find him. However, Li Yu knows that if he is in the sect, he will usually be in Tongtian Peak, Tianzhu Peak and Feilai Peak.
These peaks have the largest number of disciples gathered, and information flows most quickly.
Li Yu was lucky. He didn't find him at Tongtian Peak. When he came to Tianzhu Peak, as soon as he landed, he saw Wu Tong and several disciples whispering under a mission wall somewhere.
After they finished talking, Li Yu walked towards Wu Tong.
When Wu Tong saw Li Yu, he was surprised and said, "Hey, Li Yu, you come to take the mission. There doesn't seem to be any Tongmai Dan mission at the moment."
Li Yu said: "I came to see you."
Wu Tong asked in surprise: "What do you want to see me for?"
Li Yu took out the monthly report, pointed to one of the pages and said, "Where did you get the news about the Soul Refining Sect disciple Zhou Tian? Is it true?"
Wu Tong took a look and said, "I didn't collect this information. It was first spread by Xiaoyao Sect. It shouldn't be false. They have many spies in both the righteous and evil ways. I got a lot of news about the immortal world from them and compiled it into the monthly report."
Xiaoyao Sect is the largest organization of independent cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation, and also the largest intelligence organization. Timeliness and authenticity are some of the intelligence principles they uphold.
Li Yu felt that Wu Tong and Xiaoyao Sect should be cooperating and might exchange information with each other on a regular basis. There were disciples like him in all the major sects.
Wu Tong looked at Li Yu and asked, "Why, are you interested in him?"
Li Yu said: "The Tiandao Sect and us together offer a reward of 60 Tongmai Pills. Who wouldn't be interested?"
Wu Tong smiled and said, “Then you have to hurry up. There are many people attracted by the fifty Tongmai Pills of Tiandao Sect. Not to mention us righteous disciples, even the demonic sect and even the fellow disciples of Lianhun Sect want Zhou Tian’s head. After Xiaoyao Sect released this news, I’m afraid that many people have already gone to look for him…”
Li Yu asked, "Where is the Thousand Poison Cave?"
Wu Tong told him, "Deep in the Nanzhao miasma land, there is a first-level secret realm, but usually few people go in. That secret realm is full of poisonous smoke and miasma, and there are all kinds of powerful poisonous beasts. Even a disciple at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining cannot survive there for long without detoxification pills. Even the disciples of the Five Poison Sect are unwilling to go in. The reason why the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom perished and became an uninhabited miasma land is because the Thousand Poison Cave Secret Realm was connected to the big world..."
After getting the information he wanted from Wu Tong, Li Yu returned to Ziyun Peak.
Zhou Tian was smart. He knew that the huge bounty offered by the Tiandao Sect would make him the target of public criticism in the world of immortal cultivators. Both the righteous and the evil would want his head, and it would probably even attract strong men in the foundation-building stage. So he simply ran away to a first-level secret realm.
Those who can enter the first-level secret realm are at most at the ninth level of Qi Refining, thus avoiding the possibility of being hunted down by those in the Foundation Establishment stage.
The special illusion of the Thousand Poison Cave makes it difficult for even a person at the ninth level of Qi Refining to survive there. If you want to kill him, you have to think carefully.
However, his own cultivation was not very high. Judging , Zhou Tian's strength would not have exceeded the fifth level of Qi Refining a year ago. Unless he had an inexhaustible supply of detoxification pills, otherwise, he would be dead if he entered the Thousand Poison Cave.
Even if you don't become food for the poisonous beasts there, you will be poisoned to death by the poisonous miasma.
Li Yu was determined to get Zhou Tian's head. Now that he had finally got some news about him, he naturally wanted to settle all the old and new grudges together.
To be on the safe side, Li Yu went to the alchemy room first and took over the task directly. He refined several furnaces of top-grade detoxification pills in the shortest possible time. Without the detoxification pills, he would need to use mana to maintain the protection of his whole body, which would consume a lot of mana in vain.
Li Yu also refined several batches of top-grade Qi-Restoring Pills. The spiritual energy in the first-level secret realm was extremely thin and there was no way to quickly replenish it from the outside world, so Qi-Restoring Pills were also a must-have.
As a result, Li Yu was delayed for a longer time.
During this period, he only hoped that Zhou Tian would not be eaten by the monsters in the Thousand Poison Cave, nor would he be found by disciples from other sects, and must wait for him...
After making preparations, Li Yu said goodbye to Zhou Zixuan and left Kunlun alone.
Passing through the mountain gate, Li Yu saw that there were several spirit boats parked in the square in front of the mountain gate. Some disciples at the ninth level of Qi Refining gathered under the spirit boats. On each spirit boat, there were at least two elders at the Foundation Establishment stage.
"Fifty Tongmai Pills! The Tiandao Sect is really generous. Our sect only awarded ten."
“Hehe, if I’m lucky enough to pick up Zhou Tian’s head, that would give me 60 Tongmai Pills. Then I can help my other two Taoist companions to cultivate to the peak of Qi Refining.”
"I'm different. I don't have a woman, so I feel relaxed. If I give the sixty Tongmai Pills to the sect, I can at least exchange them for a few Foundation Building Pills or Tuomai Pills. Wouldn't that be good for improving my own cultivation?"
"How can you, a single dog, know the joy of having two companions?"
"I am devoted to the path of immortality and don't want a woman to affect my cultivation speed."
"You are just jealous. Look at Junior Brother Li. Not only was he not affected, he even became the number one in the Qi Refining Stage..."
…
Once Zhou Tian's whereabouts were revealed, some of Kunlun's disciples who were at the ninth level of Qi Refining could no longer sit still. Those were fifty Tongmai Pills. Even if they couldn't use them themselves, they could give them to people around them, or directly hand them over to the sect in exchange for Foundation Establishment Pills and Tongmai Pills. It would also be an unexpected resource.
All of a sudden, many people at the ninth level of Qi Refining began looking for teammates to go to the Thousand Poison Cave to hunt Zhou Tian.
After all, the Thousand Poison Cave is not an ordinary secret realm. It is fraught with dangers. If they enter alone, unless they have abilities like Li Yu, there is a risk of death even if they are at the peak of Qi Refining.
The safest way, of course, is to find a few fellow travelers and travel together. In this way, although some of the Tongmai Pills will inevitably be taken away, safety will be better guaranteed.
The various peaks of the Dharma Cultivation Sect even sent out elders from the Foundation Establishment Stage to carry the ninth-level Qi Refining disciples on a spirit boat to escort them all the way. Sixty Tongmai Pills were something that most of the Yuanying ancestors of the sects could not afford at once, so naturally many people were tempted.
Within a short period of time, many spirit boats and flying boats took off from Kunlun and headed straight for Nanzhao.
