Chapter 147 – All is Fair in Love and War

  In order for Luo Feng to remove Jun De from Bai Xuelian’s side, he needed more information on his target and the resources required to use the Onyx Exchange Slate.

  Information on Jun De was easy to obtain; most of the Sect were talking about the visitors from Tranquil Mountain, especially after Zhao Wuxian’s performance in the plaza. Luo Feng had been forced to listen to them talk about how handsome Jun De was, how he was a perfect match for Bai Xuelian, before he got anything useful.

  Luo Feng learned that Jun De was talented in pill refining, but preferred to study and cultivate rather than spar or fight. While he wasn’t entirely sure how to make use of what he learned, he was sure an opportunity would present itself eventually.

  As for resources, they were nearly as easy to obtain as the information had been.

  Luo Feng travelled to the mines to gather what he needed, moving amongst the miners with a fake smile plastered on his face and using his status to enter areas normally restricted to Elders.

  He would pick up discarded ores or chunks of crystal deemed too flawed to remove from the mine and place them in his storage bag. When asked, he would tell them that he was collecting scraps for the Junior Disciples to practice with, and the miners nodded at him in approval.

  On the day that Luo Feng was in the mine, he saw the muscular Zhao Wuxian striking the rock walls with his bare hands while laughing, gouging out valuable ores from the earth with enthusiasm.

  ‘What an oaf.’ Luo Fend thought as he sought out particular shades of stones that were veined with black. These were ores that the Sect deemed useless but were valuable to the Onyx Exchange Slate for some unknown reason.

  When his storage bag was filled to the brim with ‘trash,’ Luo Feng left the mines through the miles of tunnels and made his way home to drop them off before taking another bag to the Refining Hall. The air here was hotter than outside, and the smell of molten metal was thick enough to burn his throat.

  A kindly Senior Disciple paused in his work to nod at him.

  “Ah, Brother Luo! Gathering scraps for the younger Disciples? Good, good! I’m glad to see that your new status has dulled your work ethic!”

  Luo Feng’s fake smile didn’t falter as he politely responded while moving through the hall to collect discarded fragments of ore, shards of metal with too many flaws, or failed projects that were considered irredeemable by their makers.

  He didn’t care what they were; they all had value to the Slate. He wasn’t sure why it found value in these scraps, but it accepted anything with Spiritual Energy.

  ‘Maybe it melts it all down for something?’ Luo Feng idly wondered.

  Hours later, when the sun had begun to sink beyond the hills surrounding the Sect, Luo Feng returned to his quarters and shut the door firmly while activating the wards. He pulled several full storage bags and set them down on a table next to the Onyx Exchange Slate.

  “I’ve got a lot for you this time. You know what I want! I need something that will let me remove Jun De from Bai Xuelian’s side. He’s stronger than me, so give me something good!” Luo Feng said to the Slate as he eagerly pulled out all the items he had gathered.

  He took a deep breath before setting to work. He piled scraps and ores onto the Slate, feeding them in one after another. Unlike his usual method, he didn’t let the Slate have a chance to give him something in return after the first lot. He kept adding more and watching the items sink beneath its obsidian surface.

  When he had dumped an entire storage bag worth of scraps he had found in the mines, he waited a heartbeat for the Onyx Exchange Slate to calculate his offering.

  A moment later, a small porcelain bottle rose from the stone. Luo Feng eagerly picked it up and uncorked it, catching the strong smell of Golden Marrow Pills. He recognized them immediately, as they had helped him reach his current cultivation level.

  They were an uncommon pill that the Sect would stock occasionally before selling out almost immediately each time.

  “A bottle like this might let me reach the 7th Level of Qi Condensation! It’s not exactly what I was looking for, but this is a decent start!” Lio Feng exclaimed as he put the bottle aside for later and reached for the next storage bag.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  This time he added the ruined projects from the Refining Hall, along with some of the rare materials that had been discarded during the refining process.

  The Slate seemed to take a little longer this time, before something small and metallic rose from the slate. Luo Feng blinked and picked it up to find that it was a simple iron storage ring. It didn’t look extraordinary at all, but its interior space was several times larger than the storage bags he normally used.

  He placed the bottle of pills inside the ring before pulling it out again with the swipe of his sleeve. He repeated the process several times, laughing in delight at the results, before turning his attention to the last bag.

  “Last chance, or I’ll need to go back tomorrow. It will look odd if I’m seen in the mines two days in a row collecting scraps.” Luo Feng muttered.

  He gathered the remaining materials, along with a few spirit stones that he had, and fed them all into the Slate. For a long moment, nothing happened before the Slate responded by placing a single, withered herb on its surface.

  Luo Feng frowned and picked it up. Its stem was golden-green, while its leaves were a bright yellow that had dulled with time. Even though it was dried and shrivelled, there was a vitality and warmth that emanated from it.

  He didn’t know much about herbs and plants, and the Slate rarely gave him anything like it in the past. Unfortunately, the Slate never provided an explanation, and it would be up to Luo Feng to investigate the items it gave him.

  Luo Feng turned the herb over in his fingers several times, staring at it intently. It didn’t look poisonous, and he had to admit that the Slate normally didn’t provide things that could harm him.

  “Alright, if none of this stuff can be used against Jun De, then it can at least make a decent bribe to get what I want.” Luo Feng murmured as he placed the herb in his new storage ring, along with the Slate itself.

  Not willing to wait for answers, he cleaned up his residence and hid the evidence of his stolen resources before making his way to the Ironvein Quarry Sect’s Alchemy quarters, where the air was thick with the smell of herbs and plants.

  The Ironvein Quarry Sect didn’t have many herb gardens, and they had to import most of their Alchemy ingredients, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have Disciples for pill refinement. Where the Tranquil Mountain would have entire valleys filled with herbs and plants, the Ironvein Quarry cultivated herbs in former mines that had been stripped of their ore.

  Luo Feng stopped at one of these former mines turned herb greenhouses and stepped inside. An older man sat hunched in front of a pill furnace, his hair streaked with white and his grey robes seared around the sleeves from years of work, and his aura revealed that he was at the 10th level of Qi Condensation but had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment.

  “Senior Brother Qiu Wei.” Luo Feng greeted, bowing slightly before he stepped inside.

  The older cultivator grunted in acknowledgement without turning away from his pill furnace.

  “Luo Feng, have you stumbled upon more pills that you need identified?”

  “Not quite.” Luo Feng said with a thin smile. He had come to Qiu Wei several times in the past with pills he had claimed to have found in an ‘inheritance site,’ or had traded.

  Luo Feng used his new storage ring to remove the strange herb and placed it on the worktable next to Qiu.

  “I found this herb while exploring the mines. It seemed to be unusual, and I had hoped that you might identify it for me.”

  Luo Feng’s explanation got Qiu Wei’s attention. When Luo Feng claimed to have ‘picked up’ or found something, it was often very valuable. Qiu Wei turned away from his pill furnace and leaned over the herb to study it carefully.

  “This is very unusual, and a rare find indeed. It has strong Yang Essence, very pure despite its age. I would estimate it is over a thousand years old.” Qiu Wei explained as he carefully picked it up and turned it over.

  “What is it used for?” Luo Feng asked, his excitement growing. Rare and old often meant very valuable, and he could either trade it for what he needed or use it himself in his scheme against Jun De.

  Qiu Wei paused for a moment, and he became slightly uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, hesitating, before speaking.

  “It is used in vitality-boosting elixirs, or in Yang Amplification Pills.” Qiu Wei paused again, and Luo Feng had to prod him to continue.

  “Its main purpose is to…stimulate a cultivator who has suffered an injury that prevents them from…performing.” Qiu Wei said carefully. He noticed that Lue Feng had no idea what he was talking about, and he let out a sigh and handed the herb back to him.

  “It can be refined into a pill that helps with…certain types of Dual Cultivation between Dao Companions. It can be dangerous in high doses, however. Too much Yang Essence can cripple, or even kill a cultivator.”

  Luo Feng’s eyes gleamed faintly.

  “You mean it can overheat the body?”

  “Precisely. But there is not too much to worry about on its own. As a herb, and in this amount you have here, it would not be overly harmful even if you swallowed it raw. You would be flushed and uncomfortable for a few days. The true danger comes when refining it into a pill.”

  “Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have difficulty refining its energy without proper preparations. A pill would properly balance its nature, but a single mistake in its creation could have serious consequences.”

  “Oh.” Luo Feng replied as his thoughts turned. He needed Jun De removed from Bai Xuelian’s side. If he could somehow get him to refine this herb into a pill without knowing what it was…

  At the very least, it would get him away from Bai Xuelian for a period of time.

  After speaking with Qiu Wei a bit more, Luo Feng managed to find the name of the herb and the pill that could be refined from it. Using his gains from the Onyx Exchange Slate, it was an easy matter to get the rest of the ingredients as well.

  Now that he had the herb and the pill recipe, he just needed a way to involve Jun De.

  Then Bai Xuelian would be his.