Chapter 142: A Masterstroke Reemerges

Gu Fatty's actions along the way once again thoroughly made his name resound across the Southern Domain. During this period, not only cultivators, but even some mortals who could neither practice spiritual arts nor martial arts, driven by curiosity, brought over some discarded common steel and iron from their households to try their luck. Unexpectedly, Gu Fatty actually smiled warmly, pulled out some small gold and silver pieces needed by mortals, and generously accepted them all.

This became a sensation. Along the way, endless crowds formed long, orderly lines from afar, consisting of both cultivators and mortals. As for anyone who dared to bully mortals using their cultivation, Gu Fatty would personally step in to cripple their cultivation on the spot, making an example of them to warn others and serve as a deterrent.

Continuously collecting and gathering everything in his path while scattering spiritual stones, gold, and silver, Gu Fatty truly looked like the God of Wealth and a prodigal son of the entire Southern Domain. Even countless ordinary people knew his great name by heart. While counting the small gold and silver pieces they had exchanged with Gu Fatty, they would simultaneously use him as a negative role model to earnestly lecture their children and younger generations, telling them never to grow up to be as wasteful as Gu Fatty.

When Gu Fatty and his entourage arrived at the imperial capital of the Zijin Royal Court, an old eunuch had been waiting for a long time.

"Son-in-law, please follow this servant, His Majesty wishes to see you."
"Oh? Very well."
"I'll be leaving for a moment. You all continue collecting, no slacking off!"

With that, Gu Fatty hoisted the old eunuch up by the collar. Amidst the old eunuch's duck-like screeches, he unleashed his full gale-force spiritual energy and vanished with a swift whoosh.

When Gu Fatty touched down, he had already arrived outside the imperial study room of Zi Qiankun. Countless guards along the way felt a gust of wind blow past and glanced into the distance at two small dark figures speeding away, wondering if that looked like the Prince Consort and the Grand Eunuch.

Gently setting down the slightly nauseous and heavily panting old eunuch, Gu Fatty sauntered right through the doors.

"You brat, what kind of trouble are you stirring up this time?!"
"It's a secret."
"By the way, Your Majesty, does our national treasury have any discarded or broken weapon fragments lying around..."

Emperor Zi Qiankun was left entirely speechless, instantly regretting why he had insisted on summoning this brat for an audience.

After Gu Fatty emerged from the imperial study, the old eunuch led him to the national treasury. Gu Fatty stood on no ceremony whatsoever, sweeping away everything he considered to be discarded junk without another word. Before leaving, he made a special trip to the Eastern Palace and gave the Crown Prince and the Second Prince—who were plotting who knows what—a thorough beating. Along the way, he also looted a considerable amount of gold and silver from the two of them that he deemed useless to them. He moved truly like a plague of locusts, leaving not even the gold leaf on the grand plaque untouched.

When Gu Fatty hurriedly rushed out of the palace gates, he was instantly startled.

What was going on?

All the cultivators and mortals of the imperial capital had blocked the exterior of the imperial palace gates, packing his three hundred subordinates so tightly that not even water could leak through. There had to be at least several hundred thousand people.

However, within a single breath, Gu Fatty's face was once again wreathed in smiles and benevolent warmth. These people were all here to patronize his business, haha!

When Gu Fatty and his party passed through Nanyan County again, they left behind the three hundred disciples to continue the acquisitions while he went off to visit his master.

Song Wuji naturally would not miss out on this lively spectacle. Apart from the treasures in his own treasury that he deemed untouchable, he sold every scrap of waste he could possibly gather in a single batch to Gu Fatty's collection outpost. After Gu Fatty left behind hundreds of self-refined spatial spiritual crystals for his master, the old figure of Shadowless, he set off once again.

When the entourage passed through Verdant City, a similar scene repeated itself.

By the time Gu Fatty led his forces back to the Misty Sect, a month had already passed, which also happened to coincide with the conclusion of his one-year trial period.

As the group entered the grand sect-protecting array, tens of thousands of disciples lined both sides to welcome them. Every disciple held a stack of broken weapon fragments in their hands, and even the countless prefects and elders of various peaks were no exception.

Another day and night passed before Gu Fatty finally finished collecting all the waste items from his own sect, after which he dismissed the three hundred face-selling and song-singing disciples with two thousand spiritual stones each.

By this point, all the gains from Gu Fatty's successive looting—excluding the five million spent on hiring assassins—along with his remaining forty-plus million spiritual stones and thousands of tons of gold and silver, had been completely emptied out. If the deceased Manifestation realm powerhouses Xiu Gang and Huo Wei, along with the late-stage Nascent Soul experts and various other Nascent Soul members of the Asura Mansion and Puppet Sect, knew that their centuries of hidden savings had all been used by Gu Fatty to buy up garbage, one wondered if they would be angry enough to come back to life.

Inside the main peak's council hall:
"Sect Master, esteemed peak masters, and pavilion masters, do you have any useless discarded weapon scraps or fragments lying around? How about donating some to this junior?"
"Donate? You're not buying them with money?"
"Stop joking around, you're all elders, how could you have the face to take money from a junior?!"
"Besides, my vast private territory has been carved up by all of you, and to this day you haven't given this junior a single cent in rent."
"A single cent? What on earth is that? Rent? What is that?"

Hearing Gu Fatty bring up his private territory, the various big shots hurriedly changed the subject and feigned ignorance, making Gu Fatty want to stamp his feet in anger. Finally, Sect Master Nangong Kang brought the matter to a close with a single decree, stating that Gu Fatty's rampant scavenging along the way had severely damaged the sect's reputation, so the rent for his private territory would be written off as the sect's damage compensation fee for its reputation.

"Right, brat, why are you making such a huge fuss to acquire so much waste material?"
"Naturally, it has great uses!"
"By the way, Sect Master, as the Young Sect Master, do I have the authority to mobilize elders and disciples across all seven peaks?"
"Well, you do have it, but what are you up to this time?"
"Nothing much, nothing much, as long as I have the authority, that's just great, hahaha!"

Ling Er ignored Gu Fatty and holed up in her room to cultivate in seclusion. Gu Fatty made a trip to the main peak's Alchemy Pavilion and met with Mu Wan'er. Then, in the name of the Young Sect Master, he forcibly conscripted all fire-attribute disciples, prefects, and elders across the entire sect's seven peaks to gather at the Third Peak's Artifact Pavilion. Moreover, with supreme dominance, he usurped the pavilion, commandeering everyone except Pavilion Master Nangong Xun, along with all the smelting furnaces of various systems.

The countless elders and disciples of the Body Pavilion and Array Pavilion also failed to escape his clutches. Left with no choice, Pavilion Master Nangong Xun could only resignedly wander off to the peak of the Fifth Peak to play chess with Elder Gu, or simply remain holed up in the main peak's council hall and refuse to come out.

The commotion stirred up by Gu Fatty this time directly shook the entire Misty Sect. If the Supreme Grand Elder hadn't spoken beforehand to let Gu Fatty do as he pleased, some of the big shots would surely have already stepped forward to give him a rigorous lecturing.

"Your first task is to sort these piles of materials into five distinct categories according to their elemental attributes for this Young Sect Master!"

The countless fire-attribute disciples and elders were deeply shocked by the countless mountains of broken treasures and artifact fragments casually tossed out by Gu Fatty, each pile consisting of at least thousands of tons. Even the big shots occasionally watching from the council hall opened their mouths in astonishment.

Yet, under Gu Fatty's wide-eyed supervision, the fifteen thousand-plus people swung into action with bustling energy. Half a day later, all the waste materials had finally been sorted and organized into five distinct, clearly separated mountain ranges.

"Second task: groups of three thousand people will take charge of one section each and begin smelting all the waste on the spot!"
"Discard the dross, this Young Sect Master only wants the essence!"
"Begin!"

Under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of disciples, prefects, and elders of other attributes, these fifteen thousand-plus fire-attribute fellow disciples began unleashing their flames, melting down the waste materials of the five elemental attributes. Meanwhile, Gu Fatty casually set up over fifty large alchemy cauldrons temporarily borrowed from the Alchemy Pavilion. With a wave of his hands, numerous fire and wood spiritual dragons darted inside respectively, and countless second-, third-, and fourth-grade herbs were systematically tossed in, allowing him to start refining pills on the spot.

"Is the Young Sect Master refining pills?"
"Should be."
"Controlling the fire for fifty cauldrons simultaneously by himself, refining fifty batches of pills at once?"
"Perhaps."
"Have you ever heard of such a method of alchemy?"
"Seems not."
"Could Pavilion Master Mu reach such a level?"
"Probably not."
"Do you think the Young Sect Master will succeed?"
"Maybe."
"This looks like they're refining Spirit-Returning Pills?"

"Open!"
"Ignite!"

Batch after batch of fifty cauldrons of Spirit-Returning Pills were refined, ten pills per cauldron, every single one of top quality. After a short while, Gu Fatty had continuously refined nearly twenty thousand Spirit-Returning Pills without a single cauldron exploding. Casually tossing the pills aside onto the white cloth spread across the ground until they formed a mountain, he immediately began refining Qi-Returning Pills instead...

Gasps of astonishment rose in waves from tens of thousands of people across the Misty Sect, discussing the scene amidst wave after wave of shock. Even the big shots in the main peak's hall rubbed their old eyes vigorously, and Elder Mu Huo, who was Gu Fatty's alchemy master, wore a face full of shock, bewilderment, and emotional turmoil.

Blazing fires soared into the skies, burning across all five mountain ranges simultaneously. Within a short time, the innocent spiritual flora within visible range of the Third Peak's Artifact Pavilion were completely baked dry, losing all their moisture, drooping limply, and withering away directly.

"Good, ten spots have already been refined, everyone keep it up!"
"For those who are exhausted and drained of strength, this Young Sect Master has top-grade Spirit-Returning Pills and Qi-Returning Pills here, supplied in unlimited quantities!"

With that, Gu Fatty waved his large hand, and a massive volume of both types of pills flew toward the fifteen thousand-plus laborers. With sharp eyes, the crowd immediately caught these top-grade spiritual pills and tucked them into their robes, then pulled out their own original middle-grade and low-grade Spirit-Returning and Qi-Returning Pills to shove into their mouths.

A new round of blazing fires soared into the heavens once more. Three days later, the five mountain ranges of raw materials had been completely smelted down, turning into five large ponds storing the concentrated elemental essences.

"Thank you for your hard work! We'll need everyone's help again in a moment."
"Elders and disciples of the Artifact Pavilion, where are you?!"
"Elders and disciples of the Body Pavilion, where are you?!"
"Next is the third task: artifact forging!"
"Whether it's sabers, swords, or axes... forge whatever you are most skilled at!"
"Fire-attribute and Body Pavilion folks, divide yourselves into five groups and assist the Artifact Pavilion in forging!"
"Requirements: Magical instruments are preferred! Anything lower than top-grade precious tools will be deemed waste and must be re-smelted and re-forged!"

As Gu Fatty's words fell, a grand army of well over twenty-five thousand people began large-scale artifact forging with clear divisions of labor! Some poured their all into fiercely releasing flames, some swung massive hammers to violently pound and smash, and some continuously formed hand seals to control and shape the elemental essence liquid...

Another day and night of forging later, a massive crowd within the grounds began experiencing unstable spiritual fluctuations, clearly on the verge of breaking through their realms. Seeing this, Gu Fatty paid a visit to the Herb Pavilion, forcibly retrieved countless numbers of various spiritual herbs, and resumed alchemy once again.

All fifty large cauldrons of the pavilion were activated, spiritual herbs were tossed in wave after wave, and wood and fire spiritual dragons rampaged wildly.

"Is this brat trying to refine Foundation Establishment Pills? Ziyang Pills?"

The entire Misty Sect was left utterly speechless and shaken by Gu Fatty's extravagant methods. Sect Master Nangong Kang even ordered Array Pavilion Master Li Luo to forcibly activate the grand protective array of the sect.

"Open!"
"Ignite!"

Batch after batch of fifty cauldrons of either top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills or top-grade Ziyang Pills were freshly baked and outputted, tossed with extreme casualness onto the white cloth spread out beside him.

"Everyone whose cultivation has reached a breakthrough bottleneck, step forward to receive your pills and break through on the spot. Everyone else, continue forging artifacts!"
"Elders and disciples of the Array Pavilion, where are you?!"
"Imbue all the newly forged artifacts and precious tools with defensive arrays! Start now!"
"Understood!"