Chapter 60 Reaching an Agreement

Qin Hainian was invited away by Elder Jia of the Azure Cloud Sect, and order was restored to the venue.

However, quite a few elderly people, especially some aged women, still gazed at Liu Jingchun from afar, their eyes filled with curiosity.

This once-brilliant prodigy from two hundred years ago, who had captured the hearts of countless celestial maidens of his generation, had seemingly vanished from the cultivation world overnight, only to be gradually forgotten by time.

Tailor Zhou looked across the distance at Liu Jingchun's aged visage and let out a lingering sigh. "Time is merciless. The spring breeze ages the young man; no matter how magnificent one's appearance once was, the day of growing old will eventually come."

Li Ji'an raised an eyebrow, realizing that this Liu Jingchun must have been a peerlessly handsome man in his youth.

Yet now, he was reduced to the twilight of his years, growing increasingly frail by the day.

Although, judging by their chronological age, the years they had lived were roughly similar.

Li Ji'an could not truly empathize with him. After all, he had never experienced true aging, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would likely never grow truly old.

Soon, the auction resumed.

After his identity was revealed, Liu Jingchun was invited by an attendant to the VIP seating area where Li Ji'an and the others were located.

"Alchemist Li, this old man harbors no malicious intent. I was merely driven by circumstance; please forgive me." As soon as he sat down, he transmitted his voice to Li Ji'an.

Li Ji'an stood up and cupped his hands in greeting.

piecing together all the fragmented information, he deduced that the clan members who had ambushed the guiding immortal master back then were likely connected to this man. He even had a vague premonition that this person might hold the key to resolving the blood slave incident.

Seeing Li Ji'an's gesture, Liu Jingchun nodded slightly and walked directly over.

Watching his childhood idol approach, Tailor Zhou held his breath and immediately glared at Array Master Qian.

Reluctant yet helpless, Array Master Qian stood up. "Senior, please take a seat."

"Many thanks, young friend." Liu Jingchun nodded and sat down between Li Ji'an and Tailor Zhou.

"Greetings, Senior." Li Ji'an offered a formal salute.

"No need for such formalities." Liu Jingchun nodded, then spoke with candid directness:

"Alchemist Li, this old man has come to shamelessly ask for your magnanimity. Furthermore, if possible, I would like to request Alchemist Li to refine pills for me. I will take only two, and the rest shall serve as Alchemist Li's remuneration. I wonder what you think of this arrangement?"

A batch of Tier 2 Longevity Pills had a yield limit of five, and given Li Ji'an's reputation in alchemy, securing a baseline of three was not a problem. His sincerity was evident.

"Very well." Li Ji'an did not hesitate long before agreeing. If he didn't strive for top quality, he was confident of producing four pills.

However, that was not the primary reason.

The main factor lay in the high probability of Liu Jingchun's antagonistic relationship with the ancestor of the Liu family.

Aside from that, there was Liu Jingchun's demeanor just now.

Having just been publicly humiliated by Qin Hainian, he had remained serene and unperturbed, swallowing his pride without a word of complaint.

To have his past glory exposed and contrasted with his present decline, yet still maintain such composure and calm—

Furthermore, to be able to cast aside his pride in front of a crowd and beg a junior—

His exceptional temperament and undisturbed state of mind won Li Ji'an's deep admiration.

"Thank you, Alchemist Li."

Shortly after, Liu Jingchun successfully bid for the Zhuyu Fruit at three thousand one hundred spirit stones.

Without even touching the Zhuyu Fruit, after paying the spirit stones, he instructed the attendant to hand it directly to Li Ji'an, along with the supplementary materials he had prepared in advance.

Having agreed upon a three-day delivery window, he left the auction.

He departed with great nonchalance; it was obvious that his sole purpose for attending the auction was the Longevity Pill.

Before long, the auction grew lively once more as new items were presented, and the previous interlude was forgotten.

"Congratulations to Alchemist Li for winning the ultra-fine-grade magical artifact, the Glazed Mirror!"

"Congratulations to Alchemist Li for winning the Millennium Ice Silkworm Magic Robe!"

"Congratulations to Alchemist Li for winning the Tier 2 Blood Swallow Flower..."

...

With virtually no more reservations, Li Ji'an actively bid on anything beneficial to him and secured every single one of them.

He spent nearly twenty thousand spirit stones in total, exhausting almost all the windfall profits he had supposedly reaped in recent years, at least in the eyes of outsiders.

Aside from two rare ultra-fine-grade defensive magical artifacts, there were also several Tier 2 spiritual herbs, including the main ingredient for breaking through the mid-Foundation Establishment bottleneck.

What surprised him most was the appearance of a top-grade flying boat during the process.

Flying magical artifacts were even rarer than combat-oriented ones. After all, flying artifacts had a singular purpose, and cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage could ride rainbow lights or drive various artifacts for long-distance travel, leaving a very small market for overly expensive top-grade flying boats.

Yet Li Ji'an had a genuine need for one. The cultivation world was vast and sparsely populated; the more time spent traveling on the road, the greater the uncertain variables. Being able to exchange spirit stones for safety—even just a fraction of it—was entirely worth it.

The mid-grade flying boat used by Yan Qingwan back in the day took four months to make a single trip to the Immortal City.

The upper-grade flying boat he had previously purchased still required nearly three months to make a round trip to the wasteland.

Now, with a top-grade flying boat, a single month would suffice.

Overall, the Azure Cloud Sect had indeed let them have a taste of the soup this time, and the resources they brought out showed a degree of sincerity.

However, among the auctioned items, there were not many resources capable of enhancing combat power; most were supplementary, with defensive artifacts being the absolute limit.

There were not even the Tier 2 mid-grade talisman materials he desired the most.

Li Ji'an's extravagant spending not only earned the envy and admiration of the surrounding cultivators but also attracted the attention of the Azure Cloud Sect elder in charge of the auction.

Li Ji'an deserved a large share of the credit for the auction's results exceeding expectations.

On the way back, the expressions with which the others looked at Li Ji'an were entirely different.

Alchemist Zhou wore a look of utter dejection. Originally, he had hoped to gain the attention of the Azure Cloud Sect elders by strongly supporting the auction, but his financial power simply could not rival Li Ji'an's, ultimately reducing him to a mere foil.

Upon returning to the Li residence, Li Ji'an handed a piece of cold marrow acquired at the auction to Xiao Qiao. "Wear this close to your body. It has the effect of calming the mind and stabilizing the soul. It should also be somewhat helpful for your array setup and sensing the spiritual energy of the earth."

"Huh? Xiao Qiao, what's wrong with you?"

As he handed it over, he noticed for the first time that Xiao Qiao seemed somewhat absent-minded.

During the auction, Xiao Qiao had stayed with Duanmu Qin, so Li Ji'an hadn't paid special attention to her.

Only now did he realize something was amiss.

"Ah, Uncle Li, I... I suddenly felt a wave of panic just now, experiencing a... a very strange feeling," Xiao Qiao snapped back to reality, saying somewhat uncertainly.

"A very strange feeling? Panic? Was it when that Senior Qin appeared?" Li Ji'an thought for a moment and asked.

Qin Hainian's false-core majesty, coupled with such willful and uninhibited release, easily exerted immense pressure on Qi Condensation cultivators, and those with weak willpower might even suffer mental trauma.

"It seemed... to have started right around then." Xiao Qiao still looked somewhat distracted.

Li Ji'an let out a slow breath, reached out to press his hand between Xiao Qiao's brows, and channeled his spiritual power to help stabilize her sea of consciousness.

Though he was unclear about what exactly had transpired between Qin Hainian and Liu Jingchun, he could roughly piece together the outline. For Qin Hainian to retain such status yet still behave with such agitation and resentment, he must have been deeply wounded in the past.

Still, compared to Liu Jingchun, Qin Hainian's temperament was far inferior.

After stabilizing Xiao Qiao's sea of consciousness, Li Ji'an fed her a Soul-Nourishing Pill and sent her back to her room to rest.

Only then did he return to the alchemy room to sort out his gains from the day.

The two ultra-fine-grade magical artifacts included the Glazed Mirror, which possessed the ability to reflect attacks and could also serve as a heart-guard mirror, capable of withstanding a full-strength blow from an ordinary mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator's magic power.

The other was a dragon-patterned forehead guard, an artifact designed to defend against spiritual consciousness attacks, which also had some effect in preventing others from prying with divine sense.

The reason both were classified as ultra-fine-grade rather than top-grade was that they originated from ruins and had undergone weathering through the ages, resulting in some degradation of their powers.

These two artifacts could now be considered Li Ji'an's overt safeguards.

At the very least, an average mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator would find it nearly impossible to subdue him quickly.

Perhaps if the Blood-Handed Butcher had known he possessed such treasures, he wouldn't have targeted him in the first place.

As for the other spiritual herbs, they were all medicinal materials aiding Foundation Establishment cultivation, alongside the main ingredient for the mid-Foundation Establishment breakthrough pill—nothing particularly out of the ordinary. However, among them, the Tier 2 Blood Swallow Flower was the spiritual herb Li Ji'an cared about most.

This herb was not only the main ingredient for a Tier 2 medicinal pill but also a compounding ingredient for a Tier 3 poison capable of threatening even False Core cultivators.