Chapter 468: An Imperial invitation

The eight Frozen Fire pills were emitting a radiant blue light. Although they seemed to be made out of blue ice, they were extremely warm. In fact, if a mere mortal had touched them, they wouldn't have been able to keep them in hand for too long before it hurt. The cold aspect of the pill was strong enough so the extreme heat within didn't make it dangerous. But it was not overbearing to the point of negating it. As such, this pill contained a powerful Fire element. For a 4th-grade Mortal Warrior trying to gather Fire Qi within their Middle Dantian, this was the perfect.

Among the eight pills, not a single one was below Perfect. In fact only three of them had failed to reach the Pure grade. All five others were at the very least Pure pills. From a distance and without spiritual senses no one in the audience could be sure of that, but it seemed like there was a True Essence pill among them. Refining such a pill was truly wonderful. Even with Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng's talent, obtaining such a result was a matter of luck. Maybe they could be sure to obtain a True Essence pill while refining an Earth pill, but for Heaven pills or even Human pills, this was way more difficult. That was why Cao Yun's ability to refine them so easily was incredible.

Of course, Cao Yun had not the level required yet to even refine a Perfect Heaven pill. But when he would reach that king of level, he might probably be sure to get one True Essence pill out of five or six batches of pills. That alone would be almost unthinkable for most alchemists. In fact, even Emperor Weide was astonished.

Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng had indeed been incredibly lucky. Maybe the Dao of Fire that had touched the Hellish Dragon Fruit had helped with that. Cao Yun wasn't too sure, but he didn't think such an event was dumb luck. After all, even with their talents, they would have refined a single True Pill out of at least two dozens batches. But just after refining a single batch of pills, they had produced two True Essence pills, this was just too much.

What no one knew was that those two True Essence pills would go to Cao Yun. Indeed, they had agreed beforehand that Cao Yun would obtain the five best pills while Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng would keep the other three for their disciples. That meant that Cao Yun would get three Pure Frozen Fire pills and two True Essence ones. Those were 3-star Heaven pills. Even for him and his recently acquired wealth, this was a lot. But now he had a dilemma as to who would get each pill. Two of them were for his brothers, one of them for Hongyu and the last two for him.

To be honest, he hesitated to keep the two True Essence pills for himself. Then, he thought about giving one of them to Feng Yingyue in exchange for the one she would receive from her master. But he also wasn't sure what the effect of the pill would be on Hongyu. If he could completely cure her affliction by using a True Essence pill, this would be way more beneficial to her. After all, Feng Yingyue was a powerful alchemist with a half-step Spirit alchemist as a master. She would have no problem improving her cultivation.

As Cao Yun was thinking about it, the crowd had gone crazy. Indeed, Xiao Xuefeng had officially announced the result of the refinement process. Two True Essence pills had been refined. Despite the rarity of those pills, no one had any ill intent. First of all, they were in the Imperial Palace so stealing from such an important character would mean immediate death for them and maybe their family. Besides, Xiao Xuefeng was an 8th-grade Spirit Warrior, even without the laws of the Hongchen Kingdom, they wouldn't have dared to have any ill thought against her. To the contrary, this made them want to befriend her even more.

In the next few months, she and her sister would receive many gifts even from people who weren't there but had heard the rumors. Actually, some rumors went a bit overboard stating that they had refined eight True Essence pills out of a batch of eight 3-star Heaven pills. At some point, people even talked about 5-star Heaven pills. Of course, the great families of the Hongchen Kingdom knew the truth, but it was still incredible for them.

Finally, Xiao Xuefeng heard something in her mind that was more than unsettling.

"Spirit Master Xiao. Congratulations! What you just achieved was indeed prodigious. You and your sister are truly the pride of Director Ge Ling. To be honest with you, I am somewhat interested in your pills. I understand that you might want to gift them to your disciples right away. But from what I understand none of them reached the 4th-grade Mortal Warrior stage yet. I am sure that we can come to some form of agreement. Once you're done here, I'd like to meet with you to discuss it."

Although he didn't state it outright, Emperor Weide had clearly given her an order through his tone. He absolutely wanted at least one of those two True Essence pills. Even after hearing what Cao Yun had to say about Emperor Weide, she had not believed that he would do such a thing. In fact, he could have talked to them before they attempted to refine the pills to try and produce a bit more. But somehow, Xiao Xuefeng felt like the problem was different. Obtaining a Pure Frozen Fire pill wasn't difficult to Emperor Weide so he didn't need one. However, now that he had seen those two True Essence pills, he couldn't disregard them either.

As it turned out, Xiao Xuefeng was absolutely right. Emperor Weide had already obtained a Pure Frozen Fire pill with more than 98% of medicinal essence. Despite this great quality, a True Essence pill was just in a league of its own. Most of the times, it wasn't just a quantitative difference but a qualitative one. And he was ready to exchange his Pure pill for one of those two True Essence pills. In his mind, it was already his in fact.

What Xiao Xuefeng didn't know for sure was the use of that pill.

Since she couldn't complete ignore Emperor Weide, she sent a response.

"Emperor, unfortunately, the materials didn't belong to me. I refined those pills for someone else. And I already promised them the five best pills. Those True Essence pills are not mine to give or to sell. This humble one begs for your understanding."

For quite some time there was no answer.

"I fully understand. But Miss Xiao, I would ask of you to give a message to your customer. If they are inclined to exchange this pill, I can offer them a half-step True Essence one instead of it. More than that, the Emperor of the Hongchen Kingdom will owe them. I am certain that they wouldn't be ignorant enough to pass on such an offer. Please, Miss Xiao, before you allow them to act too rashly, transmit this message."

A 'half-step True Essence pill' was not something that existed. It was just a nice way of saying a pill that had fallen short of becoming a real True Essence one. That being said, Xiao Xuefeng could clearly sense the threatening tone in Emperor Weide's tone. In fact, she wondered about that. If she had not known what Cao Yun had told her, she would have analyzed it differently surely. Yes, she would have never thought that the Emperor could slaughter two families in order to steal a girl's soul. And she would have never imagined that he had even controlled the demonic cultivators, allowing them to prosper just to find a means to break through to the Sage realm.

Now that she knew all that though, she couldn't ignore it while analyzing his words. It seemed as though, he was ready to do anything for the pill he desired.

"I understand, Emperor. This humble one will transmit your message and urge the customer to contact you as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Spirit Master Xiao. I knew that the Hongchen Kingdom could count on you. After all, the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute is a pillar of our kingdom. I have no doubt that you'll know how to find the right words. Just tell them that they will d a great service to mankind with that act."

After refining the pill, they couldn't just leave. Many alchemists in the audience were looking forward to an opportunity to talk with the alchemists, even the assistants. For several hours, they discussed with everyone around the stage. Thankfully, nothing had happened, the demonic cultivators had not attacked during this refinement process. However, the guards were still actively observing their surroundings. They couldn't lower their vigilance for that would be when the attack would happen.

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At last, the group of alchemists came back to their residence. Once they were there, Xiao Xuefeng gave the three lowest pills to her sister and isolated herself with Cao Yun. For now though, the disciples wouldn't take the pills. First of all, their cultivation was still a bit weak to really make good use of those. Even if they could advance their cultivation a little thanks to such a concentrated Fire Qi, it was really useful for the 4th-grade Mortal Warrior stage and onward. Moreover, they had many things to meditate about after today's refinement process.

Even Song Guixiang was mostly silent. As much as he loved to eat, drink wine and be surrounded by beautiful women all the time, he also knew when to work and when to play. This was what Hua Fenfei appreciated about him. He might play around a lot but when the time came to be serious, he had never failed her. In fact, he was the one who had helped discover that Luo Jiang was a demonic cultivator back in Yinmen City.

While the alchemists were meditating on their recent experience, Cao Yun and Xiao Xuefeng were talking through spiritual senses. With her sensitivity, it was impossible for someone else to eavesdrop without her sensing it. Still, she had activated an array formation plate just in case. After all, Emperor Weide might be able to do so, either alone or through the use of some artifact or something. Thus, she had decided to protect herself and Cao Yun as much as possible even if that wasn't absolutely necessary.

Then, she obviously told him what Emperor Weide had asked of her. His first thought was Yong Ke. She was still only a 3rd-grade Mortal Warrior. But soon, this True Essence Frozen Fire pill would be highly beneficial to her. And Cao Yun was absolutely right, Emperor Weide wanted his daughter to cultivate as fast as possible with as few problems as possible. Using that particular pill was the right move for that.

For Cao Yun though, this pill could be used if Emperor Weide coveted it. Thanks to that pill, he might be able to approach him and even find more about Yong Ke herself. With Xiao Xuefeng, they talked about it a lot. She still thought it was too dangerous to mess around with Emperor Weide. But to be honest, Cao Yun was tired of being kept in the dark. The more he learned about his past, the more he wanted to know everything. There was no doubt anymore on the fact that Emperor Weide had had his family slaughtered in order to find a specific Soul Embryo only some women with this blood could develop.

Just like his alliance and support to the demonic cultivators, he had done so in the hope of becoming a Sage someday. All of that was not obscure at all. In fact, it was even a bit too simple for Cao Yun. His family, his families, had been massacred like cattle. As much as he would try to deny it, Emperor Weide had truly acted as a demonic cultivator. And most likely, he had made sure that everyone in those families were dead so there would be no witness to his abominations.

Worse than that, he might have committed more heinous crimes that no one had figured out yet. For example, he was probably using some of the results of his demonic cultivators' experiments. He could claim that, like Cao Yun, he was just using what they had produced through disgusting means for good instead. However, there was a huge difference between using means created through demonic arts and having an indirect hand in their creation just to claim to have technically clean hands.

And then there was this Yong Ke. Cao Yun could not chase the feeling that he knew her somehow. There was still the possibility that her family had been used in some horrendous way to heal her injuries. But the more he thought about it, the more Cao Yun thought it was something else. None of the dates seemed to match. But if Yong Ke didn't remember her attack and if her past was just fog, maybe everything was just wrong. After all, if she had been in a serious coma, she would have no idea of how long had really passed. Emperor Weide could tell her anything at all. At the very least, Cao Yun wanted to see her face.

Now that they had fought side by side, he knew that she might agree to show it to him. Even if she was terribly injured, this wasn't a problem. But for that, Cao Yun had to get close to her. And if some of his suspicions were correct, there was no way Emperor Weide would ever let her out, especially not after what had happened in the Subei Province. Besides, there were threats from both demonic cultivators and demons.

Before doing anything too rash, Cao Yun discussed it a long time with Xiao Xuefeng. In fact, she mostly tried to dissuade him. Unless he became a Spirit Warrior, he shouldn't get too close to Emperor Weide. There were also deep political implications. Although she wasn't the current director of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute, she would be the next one.

As much as it pained Cao Yun, he knew she was right. But for the moment, he didn't really care about politics at all...