Chapter 722 - 474: Return and Negotiation (Part 2)

Seeing that Fang Qingyuan didn’t answer her question directly, Situ Jingyu didn’t ask again. Asking that question had taken a great deal of her courage.

Since it was a gift from Fang Qingyuan, Situ Jingyu accepted it without another thought. The bottleneck at the Third-Layer Golden Core had plagued her for a long time, and now that there was hope for a breakthrough, she certainly wasn’t going to pass it up.

After gifting the Spirit Fish, Fang Qingyuan prepared to leave. The Immortal Mansion had already stored far too much magma, and it wouldn’t be able to process it all any time soon. Considering the Immortal Mansion’s capacity, it was pointless to continue cramming more inside.

There was a limit to how fast the Immortal Mansion could absorb spiritual materials of different attributes. At the moment, its absorption rate couldn’t keep up with the speed at which Fang Qingyuan was funneling in magma.

Inside the Immortal Mansion, a massive, circular pool of magma with a radius of over a mile and a half was BUBBLING steadily. The heat it radiated had raised the temperature throughout the entire Immortal Mansion by several degrees.

If Fang Qingyuan continued to pour magma into the Immortal Mansion, he would likely roast the Spirit Rice seedlings and mulberry trees to death. Besides, according to his calculations, this amount of magma was already enough to advance his cultivation to Golden Core Sixth-Layer Perfection.

All that was needed now was time for the Immortal Mansion to finish absorbing the magma. Furthermore, the transition from the Sixth-Layer to the Seventh-Layer Golden Core involved a bottleneck between the mid-stage and late-stage. Merely accumulating spiritual materials wouldn’t be enough to break through it, so there was no need to keep funneling them into the Immortal Mansion.

’I’ll just build a good relationship with Situ Jingyu now and come back next time. This place isn’t going anywhere, so why rush?’

"You’re leaving just like that? Shouldn’t you go say hello to Nanli’s mother?"

"Why the sudden concern for Nanli’s mother, Senior Sister? You were the one who snatched Nanli from her arms and gave it to me. Have you forgotten?"

Situ Jingyu’s face flushed. ’I just don’t want him to leave so quickly.’

"Alright, take care, Senior Sister. I’ll be on my way. I’ll come visit again next time."

With that, Fang Qingyuan recalled Nanli into his Immortal Mansion and turned, phasing up toward the rock strata above. The thick layers of rock that had once blocked his path were no longer an obstacle for him, now a master of the Five Elements Escape Technique.

As she watched Fang Qingyuan disappear, Situ Jingyu sat quietly in the scorching magma pool for a long time.

.....

「Three months later.」

Fang Qingyuan returned to the Qingyuan Sect. His mood was much lighter than when he had left.

But his good mood only lasted until he saw Liu Xun.

"Sect Leader, you’re finally back! Two senior Golden Core Female Cultivators are desperate to see you. They’ve been asking for you eight times a day! I’ve been too scared to even show my face recently. Please, hurry and see them."

Fang Qingyuan was surprised. ’Two Golden Core Female Cultivators? Besides Tu Dai’Er, who else could it be?’

Soon enough, Fang Qingyuan met the two women. Inside the main hall, Tu Dai’Er and Huo Yao’Er completely ignored each other, and the moment they saw Fang Qingyuan, both vied to be the first to speak with him.

Seeing that Huo Yao’Er had also come to join the commotion, Fang Qingyuan felt a sense of resignation. ’I’ve already rejected the Huo Family twice. Why won’t they give up?’

"Huo Yao’Er, we can discuss your business later. Right now, I need to discuss some matters with Fellow Daoist Tu. Please excuse yourself for a moment."

Tu Dai’Er represented the will of Tu Wuzhao, so naturally, she took priority. Hearing Fang Qingyuan’s instruction, Huo Yao’Er didn’t throw a fit. Instead, she obediently bowed to Tu Dai’Er and quietly took her leave.

This behavior was a complete surprise to Tu Dai’Er. ’Is this the same Huo Yao’Er who was constantly at odds with me before? Why is she being so obedient and sensible now?’

Once Huo Yao’Er had quietly departed, Tu Dai’Er composed herself and finally stated the new terms offered by Tu Wuzhao.

"My Master’s view is this: in that minor world, the highest level of power is limited to Golden Core Perfection. Even if a Nascent Soul Cultivator were to enter, their Divine Techniques would be suppressed by the Laws of Heaven and Earth. Your combat strength is among the very best in the Golden Core Realm. As the saying goes, why get two people to do one person’s job? So, we might as well entrust this matter to you as well.

As compensation, during the new round of expansion wars thirty years from now, our Black Wind Valley is willing to support you with two Nascent Soul Battle Powers. What do you say?"

’Two Nascent Soul Battle Powers?’

That was a generous offer. In an expansion war, a single Nascent Soul was worth a ten-thousand-strong Qi Cultivation Array. Moreover, against high-rank Ancient Beasts of the Wilderness, Nascent Soul Battle Power was a surefire way to rack up an enormous amount of merit points.

The offer was tempting, but it wasn’t enough to make Fang Qingyuan commit. After all, according to his own plans, he was quite confident he could acquire enough merit points for a Fourth-rank Spiritual Land even without the support of Black Wind Valley’s two Nascent Souls.

"Is there anything else?"

Fang Qingyuan pressed, and Tu Dai’Er’s brow furrowed, clearly displeased by his greed.

"Two Nascent Soul Cultivators is already extremely strong support! It’s not easy for us to pull them from the front lines. Besides, an expansion war can last for seven or eight years; it’s not a short-term commitment. What more could you possibly want?"

Fang Qingyuan simply met Tu Dai’Er’s displeasure with a smile and retorted:

"What if I’m willing to forgo the help of these two Nascent Soul Cultivators? Can I get out of going to that minor world?"

"Of course not!"

Tu Dai’Er blurted out. Fang Qingyuan immediately shot back:

"You see? You’re the one asking a favor of me, not the other way around. Is this how you treat a benefactor?"

"You..."

When it came to verbal sparring, Tu Dai’Er was clearly no match for Fang Qingyuan. She was momentarily speechless; after all, she wasn’t some wily veteran seasoned by years of dealing with worldly matters.

But Tu Dai’Er quickly realized Fang Qingyuan was just being difficult on purpose. She calmed down and said:

"Fang Qingyuan, this is non-negotiable. Don’t make us do this the hard way. If you refuse to go, those two Nascent Soul Cultivators might just become your opponents in the future."

Faced with Tu Dai’Er’s threat, Fang Qingyuan’s attitude immediately softened:

"There you go again, getting all worked up. We’re in the middle of a negotiation, aren’t we? You at least have to tell me what the Black Earth Bodhisattva’s objective is. You can’t expect me to just guess, can you?"

At the mention of official business, Tu Dai’Er reined in her temper and her expression softened.

"That minor world has a population of nearly one hundred million. Lacking the legal and ritual constraints of the Great Zhou Academy, it’s overrun with innumerable profane cults. There are around a million Divine Spirits alone; sometimes, foolish peasants will worship a simple rock as a Divine Spirit.

While most of them are so fragile you could blow them away, some are quite valuable. My Master’s intention is for you to bring these Divine Spirits out to her.

According to the current agreement, the Great Zhou Academy wants the land and its people, the Nangong Family wants to collect cultivation resources and some of the Cultivation Immortal Seedlings, and as for us, Black Wind Valley, we are only interested in these Divine Spirits. Therefore, your goals don’t fundamentally conflict with any of the three factions."

As he listened to Tu Dai’Er, Fang Qingyuan’s thoughts raced. He naturally trusted her; if she were deliberately trying to deceive him, she would never be able to hide it from the perception of his Mind Divine Technique.

’The problem is, what if the information *she* received was incomplete? In that case, the truly fatal dangers would be hidden within her simple explanation.’

’These Divine Spirits are a valuable cultivation resource in their own right. Do the Great Zhou Academy and the Qi Yun Nangong Family really not care about them?’

’And on top of that, I’ll have to get involved in the conflict between the Gui Ru and Gui Gu factions. How could this possibly be an easy job?’

"So when exactly does this start? How much time do I have to prepare?"

"In six months. The Gui Ru and Gui Gu are still busy bickering and dragging each other down, but the Nangong Family is desperate to rescue their people, so they’ve moved forward on their own. They’ve already made significant headway and have located the entrance to the minor world. They’re currently building a Teleportation Array to connect the two realms. Based on the construction timeline, we have six months at most."

"Six months... That should be just enough time."

Fang Qingyuan muttered to himself, and Tu Dai’Er pretended not to hear. What he meant was that in six months, the Immortal Mansion would have finished processing the magma, allowing his cultivation to advance to the Sixth-Layer Golden Core.

’As for the bottleneck between the Mid-stage Golden Core and the late stage, I have a solution for that too. Won’t those Spirit Fish in the Immortal Mansion come in handy then?’