“Fellow Daoist, this Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit may be valuable, but it’s only so to core cultivators. It’s useless to you. Why don’t you hand it over to the Xuan Yuan Family?” The Travelling Immortal Qing Lan suddenly had a friendly smile on his face. Stepping forward, he continued, “Rest assured, Fellow Daoist, I promise that I’ll hand over any treasures that I find in this Immortal Pavilion so long as you hand me the Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit. I won’t hold anything back.”

　　Lonemoon’s expression darkened. He had met thick-skinned people before, but he had never met anyone as thick-skinned as Qing Lan. No matter how nicely he tried to word it, Qing Lan ultimately wanted them to give up the Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit to him.

　　“You have it well planned, don’t you, Fellow Daoist? You expect us to give up the Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit to you in exchange for just a few empty words? I’m sure you’re aware that the Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit possesses a sentient spirituality. I don’t even know if it would follow you. And honestly…” He looked at their desperate expressions and emphasised each of the following words. “Have some freaking respect!”

　　Their faces fell immediately. Qing Yin snorted and said, “We tried to ask you nicely, yet you insist on making things difficult. I, for one, want to see exactly what you guys can do. Senior Brother, there’s no need to waste anymore time talking to them. We can take them down.”

　　As he finished, he whipped out his Dharma artifact and charged toward them. Now this was what it meant to resort to robbery after a failed threat. Lonemoon scoffed and slipped the Vegetation Spirit into his storage bag. He drew his weapon as he muttered under his breath, “Shen Ying, you take the one in the middle.”

　　“Okay,” Shen Ying replied.

　　Lonemoon took out his sword and blocked Qing Yin’s attack. The collision of the two swords released Sword Qi, creating slash marks in the surroundings. The two of them were almost equals in terms of cultivation, but Lonemoon was a Sword Cultivator after all; his Sword Qi was different from that of ordinary cultivators. Qing Yin staggered backward from the impact.

　　“Pui, you’ve overestimated yourself.” Travelling Immortal Qing Lan’s eyebrows furrowed. He snorted, glanced at the cultivator beside Lonemoon, and flew forward to attack. Yi Qing moved to attack the last cultivator.

　　Qing Lan was a Travelling Immortal. Yi Qing amounted to nothing in his eyes. He paired up with Qing Yin to fight the seemingly most powerful of the three—Lonemoon.

　　Lonemoon had just overpowered Qing Yin with one move when from beside him came a formidable attack from the Travelling Immortal Qing Lan. He braced himself for the sword to strike him.

　　But all of a sudden, Qing Lan’s sword stopped. The Spirit Qi that he had concentrated suddenly dissipated—something had stopped his hand.

　　Qing Lan’s heart jumped. From his days as a soldier to the present, he had never experienced something like this. It felt almost as if his body had been possessed. His eyes widened as he turned around. His face nearly collided with another’s which had a visibly more relaxed expression.

　　Who is this? When did she appear?

　　Before he could gather his thoughts, however, he saw the woman break into a smile as she said, “The person over there said… I’m to handle you. He has paid me, so I’ll appreciate it if you cooperate.”

　　Qing Lan subconsciously wanted to retreat. He moved to retract his outstretched hand, but that was when he realised… he couldn’t retract it! He felt like his hand was rooted in place. Using a single hand, he made to cast a Dharma spell. However, it was of no use. He still couldn’t move his captured hand.

　　How can this be! This woman’s cultivation was so thick and so deep. A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind and his heart sank. He had been too careless! He hadn’t thought that the insignificant Middle Azure World could produce a cultivator that matched up to a Travelling Immortal.

　　He gritted his teeth and he made a sudden decision to summon his intrinsic Dharma artifact. A dagger, three feet long, pierced straight through the woman’s chest.

　　The woman remained in her place. The dagger seemed to have gone almost right through her. Yet, moments later, the golden dagger cracked and disintegrated into a thousand pieces. There was not a scratch on her body.

　　Pu…

　　The intrinsic weapon was closely linked to his Primordial Spirit. Blood spurted out of Qing Lan’s mouth.

　　How… can this be?!

　　The woman patted at the golden shards on the ground. Frowning in impatience, she said, “I’ll say this again: you’d better co-operate or…” She stared him dead in the eyes as she grabbed his hand and flung it with great force. His entire body went flying. “I’ll hit you!”

　　“…”

　　All Qing Lan could hear was the air as it whooshed past his ears. His entire body flew just like an arrow that had been launched from a bow. He flew in the direction of the Immortal Pavilion behind him. Before he knew it, he had flown through the doors of the Immortal Pavilion, making a gigantic hole in it. The impact stopped him. He fell to the floor and rolled atop a pile of gravel. He couldn’t get up.

　　Not more than ten seconds had passed from the moment he was caught to the moment he landed.

　　————

　　At this moment, the pitch black Immortal Pavilion lit up at the intrusion. Otherworldly tunes began to sound as Immortal Qi and colorful lights filled the entire hall. What sounded like ancient sounds coming from ethereal spirits suddenly rang out.

　　“The heavens have permitted that I cross paths with you today—someone who can take over the mantle and continue my heritage.” Slowly, a translucent Immortal Soul appeared on the stage. A white cloud of Immortal Qi surrounded him. “He who sees through the fiery furnace has earned his right to enter this pavilion. I am the sect master of the Dan Yang Sect, the remnant soul of Golden Immortal Bitao. You are the first one to have entered my Immortal Pavilion in 50,000 years. I will pass my Alchemical Sect down to you. May you bear fruit in cultivating your heart and mind.”

　　He waved his hand. The Immortal Qi in the air drifted toward Qing Lan who felt like he was breathing his last. Qing Lan’s entire body began to float off the ground. “Your immortal bones are all broken. You and I have been brought together by fate, so let me heal your immortal bones first.”

　　The Immortal Soul had just begun to heal the wounded Qing Lan when something burst into the Immortal Pavilion. Qing Lan, who had been floating up, was thrown back onto the ground by a foot which pressed him down.

　　Shen Ying kept her foot on Qing Lan. Lazily, she turned to the Immortal Soul. “What did you just say?”

　　The Immortal Soul remained quiet.

　　Two minutes later…

　　“The heavens have permitted that I cross paths with you today—someone who can take over the mantle and continue my heritage. She who sees through the fiery furnace…”

　　“Are you an NPC? Why are you repeating your lines?”

　　The corner of the Immortal Soul’s mouth twitched and he almost lost his sage-like demeanour. I wouldn’t have to do so if not for you. How would I know that you’d come in?

　　o(▼皿▼メ;)o

　　It was just a heritage—he could hand it down to anyone. He was going to disappear anyway as he was only a remnant soul now.

　　“You are the first in 50,000 years to…”

　　“Second,” Shen Ying corrected.

　　The Immortal Soul glanced at the unconscious man lying on the ground. He smoothly corrected himself, “The second to enter this Immortal Pavilion. But whoever sees through the fiery furnace has the best acumen in town. Fate has brought you and I together.”

　　“Oh, you people of the immortal town… Is it that easy to have fate?” That was exactly what the Immortal Soul had told Qing Lan earlier.

　　“…” Where’s my sword?

　　“In any case… From this day on, this Alchemical Sect will be handed down to you.”

　　“I don’t want it!”

　　“From today on, you will… What did you say?” The Immortal Soul hesitated. Was this woman out of her mind? “This is a heritage. How could you refuse it? Do you know that if you manage to refine a pill from our heritage, you could easily attain immortality?”

　　“It’s so troublesome!” She scratched her head. “Pills and whatnot… I’m not trained in medicine, so I’m not interested. But if you have any recipes for good food, you could hand them to me.” I’ll bring them to Chef so he can look through them.

　　“Food… food recipes…” The Immortal Soul’s expression darkened. Was an entire heritage’s worth of pills incomparable to food recipes? This person was clearly out of her mind, but he had no other options. “No, you’ve already entered the Immortal Pavilion. You have to accept this heritage!” He was rushing to be reincarnated!

　　Once the words were out of his mouth, his form flickered. He suddenly appeared in front of Shen Ying, reaching for her forehead and seeking to pass down his heritage by force.

　　“Eh?” Why was there no reaction? He pressed harder on her forehead. Then, he realised why he couldn’t hand the heritage down. “How can this be?”

　　“Press any harder and I’ll hit you!” Shen Ying threatened as she took a step back.

　　The Immortal Soul didn’t dare reply. He studied his own hand. How could this be? As he faced the woman in front of him, his eyes widened.

　　“Damn. You don’t even have a Spirit Root!”

　　“Is that… important?”

　　“…”

　　You’re freaking killing me. Without a Spirit Root, how in the world did you make it into this pavilion?

　　(╯‵□′)╯(┻━┻