Yao Chen didn’t continue to try searching for the Violet Fiend Gang. The passing of his mother had had a profound impact on the deepest recesses of his heart. He knew he didn’t have the time to grieve right now. Since he needed to get stronger, he couldn’t waste even a moment.
The next day he continued to go to the Feng family’s Precious Treasure Auction to refine medicine.
Producing third tier medicinal pills was already effortless for Yao Chen. He gradually started to aim for fourth tier medicinal pills.
Peak Flame Pill, a medicinal pill that was even higher level than the Violet Flame Pill. It was capable of letting a person’s flame attribute Dou Qi become several times stronger. One Peak Flame Pill had the same effect as five Violet Flame Pills combined with his Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique.
“This is… false boundary pill! Flame attribute Dou Shis can use it… no, even Da Dou Shis should be able to use it as long as they take more than one….” The Feng family’s head Feng Xiangtie’s eyes almost shot out of his head and his mouth trembled slightly. These types of medicinal pills might just be of the fourth tier, but not even some fifth tier alchemists would be able to master them. The way he looked at Yao Chen became even more respectful.
False boundary pills were a general term that could let people temporarily jump classes. It allowed someone to use a strength that was not within their current level.
“Master Chen, these medicinal pills…” Feng Xiangtie gulped, feeling his throat was dry. “Are you planning on auctioning them?”
In just a day, Feng Xiangtie’s addressing of Yao Chen had turned from brother Chen to Master Chen. “Take them to be auctioned. Other than that, in terms of medicinal ingredients…”
“I’ll immediately prepare them to Master Chen’s satisfaction.”
Yao Chen nodded and once more focused on his cauldron. Continuously refining the Peak Flame Pill required quite a bit of effort from him. What would allow him to become stronger in just a short time was using medicinal pills!
Feng Xian was extremely busy at the side as he prepared the medicinal ingredients. He almost pulled a muscle just from helping. But he didn’t feel the slightest bit irritated with that. Whenever he looked at Yao Chen, it was with worship in his eyes. He had met quite a few alchemists, but it was his first time meeting one like Yao Chen who had such a high efficiency, success rate, and who didn’t tire.
Yao Chen refined till he was exhausted, failing three times but succeeding eight times. In the end he had refined eight Peak Flame Pills and over a hundred various third tier medicinal pills.
By the time he left, it was already late into the night.
“Grandmaster, why don’t you rest here?”
Feng Xiangtie collected his courage and asked him.
Yao Chen shook his head. “No need.”
Feng Xian continued, “Then let me send you home.”
Yao Chen thought about it and acquiesced. The city had a curfew and there were patrols around the city. Someone like him who was covered tightly in a black cloak would draw much suspicion, so having a disciple from the Feng family accompany him could save him some trouble.
Feng Xian was a bit excited. After handing over the medicinal ingredients they had offered to him, he fervently walked with him. “Tomorrow is the auction, and with grandmaster’s refined medicinal pills my Feng family won’t just be able to survive our current trouble, we’ll be able to rise to the next level.”
The Feng family originated and had developed within Peak Martial City. It had been a local power before the city had even been built. Ever since the start, the Feng family had always maintained the number three spot within the city. Becoming the number one powerful household was their long-cherished ambition.
After the auction this time, they might really be able to expand and defeat the Mu family, becoming the second top power. Each step forward was a huge boost to morale.
Yao Chen only indifferently nodded, but a suspicion suddenly arose within him. He asked out of nowhere, “Do you know the Bitter Flower Yard?”
Feng Xian blinked. “It’s the Mu family’s industry. Grandmaster… have you gone there?”
Mu family?
The second top power within Grand Martial City, the Mu family….
“If the Mu family were to fight an all out war with your Feng family, does your Feng family have the ability to reply?”
Feng Xian was startled, but laughed, “That’s not possible. Although my Feng family is third, when it comes to battle strength it isn’t weaker than the Mu family. My father is a seven star Dou Ling, and there’s a great-uncle in seclusion who is a nine star Dou Ling. The Mu family has three Dou Lings, but only their ancestor is at nine stars. The others are just at the initial stages. In a battle of the peak battle powers, my Feng family should win a battle at the moment.”
Strength decided everything, and the battle between the top members would decide the whole thing. In terms of their top combat potential, the Mu family wasn’t a match for the Feng family. Even if they could suppress them in other ways, they would dare start a war with them.
If the Bitter Flower Yard belonged to the Mu family and the Violet Fiend Gang had been within it, it seemed obvious that the Mu family had some secret battle power hidden away. He asked, “If the surrounding gangs joined the Mu family, what would happen?”
“It wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t know about other places, but within five hundred miles of the city, there is not a single Dou Ling amongst any gang. The strongest is just a nine star Da Dou Shi.” Feng Xian continued to laugh. The Feng family might not be that good at running a business, but when it came to combat power, it was definitely not weaker than anyone else within the city.
Yao Chen nodded. Seeing Feng Xian’s confident smile, he wondered if he might have been over thinking. It was possible the Mu family’s schemes within the Bitter Flower Yard weren’t planned against the Feng family.
At this time, a patrolman quickly rushed up from the side to question the two of them.
“How come I don’t recognize you?”
The patrolmen were set up by the three great powers of the city, the Yao family, the Mu family, and the Feng family. They all had people in the system, maintaining the balance.
During normal times, patrolmen of any of the three powers would all get out of the way when seeing the young master of the Feng family. But this man’s attitude now was extremely rude. He had directly rushed over and acted rudely towards him. Hearing Feng Xian’s question, a couple of his squadmates coldly laughed, “Only a ghost would recognize you. Get lost.”
The entire squadron planted their grounds in front of them, and the people behind them used the cover of the night to take out some hidden weapons and attack Yao Chen and Feng Xiang.
“You asked for it.” Feng Xian angrily roared and with a wave of his hand, wind and thunder exploded from his sleeves. His Dou Qi appeared like smoky mist, turning into another layer over his clothes. Those concealed weapons were all blocked by his Dou Qi cloth.
A fiery light erupted from Yao Chen’s body. He directly used his Dou Flame to snatch the weapons and he ended up melting them into a liquid that dripped with poison.
“How sinister.”
Yao Chen waved his hand and the liquid iron once more formed into a weapon, shooting towards the patrolmen.
“No good, they’re experts!” cried the patrolmen.
But at this time Feng Xian had already charged over with his Dou Qi cloth defending him. Ignoring the various attacks, the wind lightning surging in his hands knocked them down one after another.
“What brazen dogs! Speak, who is your superior?”
Feng Xian had yet to realize the true crucial point and actually wanted to investigate who was responsible. He thought it was just a problem in the patrolmen system.
Yao Chen’s eyes flashed. He had greatly changed recently and was now able to sense danger and schemes better. It was obvious to him that the Feng family was about to have huge changes to it. That previous thought of his was not unfounded.
“Feng Xian, the patrolmen have been corrupted. Your Feng family’s patrolmen are probably either dead or have defected. You need to go back quickly and tell your household to prepare to fight…”
Since the Feng family’s top members were comparable to the Mu family’s, they should be able to handle it as long as it wasn’t a sudden sneak attack.
But even as he spoke, the distant Feng family’s Precious Treasure Auction house blew into a blaze of eerie green fire. Within the blaze, countless hidden figures were moving.
Feng Xian’s expression changed and he didn’t reply immediately. The Dou Qi cloth around him began to whistle, and faint mist surged out form his robes, obviously from his state of mind. He had guessed something and respectfully kneeled to Yao Chen, “Please Master Chen, help my Feng family survive this calamity!”
Yao Chen supported him up. Looking up at the flames from the auction house, a bit of fear crept into his heart. “Let’s first go your Feng family’s head residence.”
The Precious Treasure Auction house was a business house for the Feng family within the city and not their true core. That was located outside the city, the Feng family manor. The Feng family controlled an area of dozens of miles within the manor.
Feng Xian nodded and brought Yao Chen outside the city. When they arrived at the gate leading into the area controlled by the Feng family, they saw that there were corpses everywhere of the disciples guarding the gate and blood flowed in rivers. It was obvious that a massacre had just occurred here.
“Impossible!” Feng Xian’s gaze sunk. The Feng family had a great Dou Formation at this eastern gate, and once activated, even a nine star Dou Ling wouldn’t be able to break in without spending some time.
There was no one at the eastern gate at this time, but that wasn’t good news. All it meant that the enemy was handling this manner with as much precision as possible and that they hadn’t wasted the slightest bit of their forces to defend this gate. They were planning on striking the family’s head residence with all their power!
Feng Xian rushed over to the hub of the formation and saw that it had been destroyed from the inside, not the outside!
“A traitor!”
Feng Xian’s expression became even more unsightly. He charged in without a word, using his fastest speed to get to the head residence.
Yao Chen followed behind him. After going a dozen miles forward they could already see the Feng family’s main manor. It was a huge building with tall walls and specially trained warriors defending it tightly. Everything appeared very quiet under the moonlight.
Feng Xian sighed in relief. It seemed that nothing was wrong up ahead…
However just as he was about to continue forward, Yao Chen’s expression changed and he quickly pulled him back. “We’re too late.”
“What?”
“There’s a hidden formation up ahead. Look closely at the sky.”
Yao Chen shook his head and pointed to the sky. There were black clouds continuously surging above the Feng family’s main manor. But of course it wasn’t really black clouds, but smoke from fire.
“No, I have to go save them…”
“It’d be useless. They have a Dou Wang.”
Yao Chen sent his Spiritual Perception over and found that in amongst those ‘black clouds’ was a powerful, unstoppable aura!
Unless someone had cultivated a special Flying Dou Technique, only a Dou Wang could transform Dou Qi into wings and let one escape the binding’s of the earth to soar in the sky.
“Impossible, there’s no Dou Wang in Peak Martial City.” It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him, but that he simply couldn’t believe it. If there truly was a true Dou Wang that was opposing their Feng family…
Although Peak Martial City was a popular alchemy center, it was still just a small city and wouldn’t be able to attract the interest of experts at the Dou Wang stage.
“Master Chen, I beg you, please save my Feng family!”
Yao Chen smiled bitterly. He was just a Dou Shi, and using the Violet Flame Pill or the Peak Flame Pill could at most let him reach the limit of a Da Dou Shi. If he met a Dou Ling he might be able to go all out and exchange some blows, but fighting a Dou Wang was a death sentence.
“Master Chen, my Feng family will pay whatever price…”
“Sorry, but it’s not that I don’t want to help you. The truth is…”
Yao Chen took a deep breath. Looking at Feng Xian, he took off the black cloak he had covered himself with.
Feng Xian’s mouth dropped. Looking at Yao Chen’s youthful face, his mouth trembled and only startled cries came from his mouth.
“I am no Master Chen. I was just protecting my identity.”
“No, no way, Master Chen… you, how…”
“If the opponent was a Dou Ling then I might have been able to do something.” Yao Chen shook his head. Interrupting Feng Xian’s shock, he said, “Let’s go. We first have to survive in order to take revenge.”
“No, I have to get back. I was born with the Feng family and will die with them!”
Yao Chen frowned. He was about to persuade him when a powerful divine sense came from the sky. That Dou Wang had noticed something was happening over here.
“Quickly run!”
Yao Chen’s expression changed and he didn’t hesitate. Consuming a Peak Flame Pill and holding on to Feng Xian with one hand, he started rushing madly into the distance.
“I…”
“If you want to die I won’t stop you, but don’t bring me down with you.”
“Then let me go.”
“No.” Yao Chen tightly held onto him, and with a roar he shot forward like an arrow from a bow.
That Dou Wang suddenly appeared in the sky. The entire sky became filled with green light. A bolt of aura shot directly at Yao Chen.
It was impossible to dodge. A green seed of the Dou Wang’s aura wriggled its way into his body, locking it in place.
Yao Chen spit out a mouthful of black blood. Just a distant aura had already injured him gravely. This was the destructive power of a Dou Wang.
However he quickly consumed a couple healing medicinal pills and forcefully suppressed that green seed. Dragging Feng Xian with him, Yao Chen shot forward, appearing a dozen miles away in the blink of an eye. However that feeling of being locked by the seed still didn’t fade and it felt as if that powerful Dou Wang’s gaze was always locked onto his back.
Only once he rushed another dozen miles away and entered a thick forest did that feeling fade away.
When he stopped, Feng Xian knelt on the ground and let out mournful cries.
Yao Chen sighed and advised him, “Don’t cry.”
“I’m… not crying. It’s just…ugh.” Having been dragged along at such a great speed, he had been shaken and jostled, making a mess of his insides.
“This place still isn’t safe… cough…” Yao Chen was about to speak when a vile pain exploded from his chest. Tearing off his clothes, he saw a green bud had appeared upon his chest. It was the growth of the green seed the Dou Wang had shot into his body.
He could sense the green bud was constantly absorbing his Dou Qi. Once it grew bigger, it would tear apart his body.
Feng Xian looked at it and his expression changed completely. “This is Wood Seed Art of the Mu family; it’s a Di class technique! Does that mean that Dou Wang is from the Mu family?”
Even Yao Chen’s face was turning a bit green. He tried to remove the bud several times but he was unable to expel it from his body. Even his Dou Flame was unable to burn it. He could only suppress the green seed and prevent it from exploding out.
Feng Xian looked at Yao Chen, still somewhat unable to belief that ‘Master Chen’ was actually someone even younger than him. What was even more shocking was that even in the face of a Dou Wang’s technique, Yao Chen was actually still able to survive. The Mu family’s Wood Seed Art was extremely terrifying. That green seed would explode out suddenly. Using the person’s body as nourishment, in just a short time that person would transform into a tree.
However Yao Chen used his Dou Qi to firmly suppress the seed’s force, not letting it absorb his Dou Qi to grow.
After a short period of shock, all that remained in Feng Xian’s heart was disappointment. It was obvious that such a young ‘Master Chen’ was unable to save the Feng family from such a critical danger.
Their opponent had a Dou Wang expert. This time they were completely exterminating the Feng family in one blow.
Feng Xian’s mood changed several times before he finally made a decision. Turning around, he began to walk back to the Feng family’s manor.
Yao Chen admonished, “Where are you going?”
“The Feng family’s disciples are born together and die together. I can’t just live freely here like this.”
Yao Chen’s eyes flashed and he went to block his path.”
“Who will get revenge for the Feng family if you die?”
Revenge…
A complicated expression arose on Feng Xian’s face.
“As long as you survive there will be hope. You might be the last seed of the Feng family.”
“No, I must go back.”
Feng Xian shook his head abruptly. The Feng family still had many talented disciples outside training who had yet to return. The matter of revenge would have to be passed on to them. His temper was too candid and he definitely didn’t have the tolerance to live a disgraced life.
Yao Chen opened his mouth to speak when suddenly he vomited more blood.
When Feng Xian looked at Yao Chen, he couldn’t continue moving forward. Despite the fact that Yao Chen had suppressed the Wood Seed Art, was a Dou Wang’s attack so easily resisted? He had stopped the special power of the green seed, however the Dou Qi within it was also a killing blow. It hadn’t erupted immediately, instead pausing up till this moment when it charged out and attacked his inner organs.
“You…”
“If you want to go die then I won’t stop you. But you should know that taking revenge late is better than never. If you go there and deliver yourself to your death, the person who will be happiest is your enemy.”
Wiping the blood of his mouth, he turned and began to walk deeper into the forest. There was still danger; with a Dou Wang on their enemy’s side, the Feng family would not be able to hold out for long. Once the manor was destroyed, they would go clean up the surroundings. Unless they managed to flee at least a thousand miles away, nowhere was safe.
Not only was the Mu family’s power now too great, but even the lesser powers in the vicinity would all try to curry favor with them by striking down their enemies.
Feng Xian hesitated for a moment before grinding his teeth and following behind Yao Chen. “You were implicated by my Feng family. I can’t let you leave while you’re heavily injured.”
Yao Chen smiled slightly and didn’t say anything in response. He took out two medicinal pills. Taking one for himself, he handed the other to Feng Xian. “This is a Qi Concealing Pill. It will temporarily hide your body’s aura.”
This was a pill used for escaping assassination. It could conceal against spiritual probing and scouting techniques. Back when Yao Chen had been fleeing in the Shennong Mountain Range, he had always wanted to refine some of them. When he had arrived in Peak Martial City he had managed to refine five of them with the Feng family’s help.
The Feng family’s manor had already turned into a sea of flames at this time.
Each one of their rooms, even their guest rooms, had all been the scene of a massacre. The Mu family’s disciples were currently in the process of sweeping up the battle spoils, taking out all kinds of valuable items from within the flames.
“Haha, this manor has operated for hundreds of years. It really is a bit sad for it to be destroyed like this.”
“What’s sad about it? Even if it was gifted to you, would you dare use it? Who knows what kinds of secrets are hidden here. There are also quite a few Feng family disciples that have managed to escape.”
“What? How is that possible? The Feng family’s disciples that are outside training have already had experts sent to assassinate them by the ancestor. Not even one should be able to escape.”
“Right, that dumb young master Feng Xian seemed to have not been caught.”
“Hmph, Feng Xian happened to find an alchemist out of nowhere and managed to escape from the ancestor’s plan. But that alchemist was struck with the ancestor’s Wood Seed Art so his death is a certainty. As for Feng Xian, his talent is just average and he has many shortcomings mentally. Capturing him is a simple matter.”
“That’s true.”
“The ancestor has returned.”
As the disciples of the Mu family were chattering, a green light flashed over the sky which was the Mu family ancestor flying over. With a wave of his hand, several heads fell the ground. Those heads were actually the talented disciples the Feng family had sent out to train!
Seeing those heads, everyone knew that the Feng family had been completely exterminated. Even those talented disciples that were out training had been killed. There was no chance of them rising ever again.
The various gangs that were also cleaning up the battlefield were terrified of that display. The Mu family was absolutely ruthless and extremely meticulous. They had definitely been planning this for a long time.
The most terrifying thing was of course that the Mu family ancestor had actually advanced to Dou Wang a long time ago, but had always suppressed his power to that of a nine star Dou Ling, completely tricking the other two major powers of the city. They had all been fooled into thinking his strength had reached its limit…
Such a patient and decisive scheme was even more chilling than simply using power to suppress.