"And given my current situation, it's not suitable for me to remain at Mingxin Xuan either."
Chen Rong gave a wry smile, his tone filled with helplessness.
Besides his identity as a disciple of the Shenxuan Sect, he had also made a Great Dao oath to become Ji Yuan's shadow and serve under him.
As such, Qian Nishang and Mingxin Xuan would naturally not allow him to act on his own behalf, nor could he indefinitely stay in the Qian family's ancestral hall.
Thus, Chen Rong could only embark on his journey alone, taking more than a month to finally reach the Jiuxuan Sect.
"But it's good that you're here. I happen to need some assistance right now."
Ji Yuan nodded slightly, a hint of joy appearing on his face.
What he lacked most currently was skilled individuals to guard the place. It was precisely for this reason that he was confined to Xuantian Peak, unwilling to leave even half a step.
With Chen Rong, a former inner disciple of the Shenxuan Sect and a master at the mid-stage of the second realm, he no longer needed to stay by their side constantly and could attend to matters he had been contemplating for a long time.
At that moment, Ji Yuan exchanged a few words with the disciples guarding the mountain gate, presented his identity jade token, and then led Chen Rong back to Xuantian Peak.
Although he was not yet a member of the Jiuxuan Sect, he still held some authority, and bringing one or two people into the sect was not an issue.
Upon returning to Xuantian Peak and seeing that the formations here were still intact, Ji Yuan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He had been worried that someone might have tried to harm the people here in his absence.
Even within the Jiuxuan Sect, and with elders likely watching from the shadows, this matter could not be completely guaranteed.
However, with Chen Rong now present, he didn't have to worry too much. With his cultivation and realm, it would be absolutely impossible for anyone to act against the people here stealthily.
Once any disturbance occurred, the third-realm elders within the sect would surely arrive immediately.
After all, this was the location of the Jiuxuan Sect's mountain gate, and the security was guaranteed to a certain extent.
After introducing Chen Rong to everyone and entrusting him with the control of the formations here, Ji Yuan returned directly to his room and took out the brass pill furnace left by the ancestor of Xuantian Temple.
Around him, various spiritual materials were already laid out, and in his hand, he held three pill recipes.
After more than a month of contemplation, coupled with his own attainments in the Way of Alchemy, the Great Dao Scrolls, and occasional lectures from elders skilled in alchemy.
While he couldn't claim to be completely confident, for the simplest three among over ten types of pills, Ji Yuan had about a thirty to forty percent chance of success.
This was the limit of what he could achieve at the moment. To further increase the success rate, unless his attainments in alchemy reached another level, the only path left was to gain proficiency through practice.
Once he succeeded in refining them, he would be able to earn merit points.
Taking a deep breath, Ji Yuan channeled his spiritual power into the brass pill furnace, quietly activating its restrictions, causing it to hover in mid-air before him.
Since breaking through to the Spirit Opening realm and possessing spiritual power, he discovered that the brass pill furnace was actually a high-grade magic artifact, containing eight layers of restrictions derived from Innate Qi.
However, due to the passage of time, he had only mastered the first layer of restriction so far.
But even with just one layer of restriction, it could provide significant assistance during his pill refinement.
Over the next ten-plus days, Ji Yuan did not leave his small room, dedicating himself entirely to pill refinement. Occasionally, explosions and the smell of burning could be heard.
The three types of pills he was currently refining were the San Qi Gui Yuan Dan, Ling Gui Zhen Qi Dan, and Xiong Hu Zhuang Shen Dan.
These were the three simplest among the over ten pill recipes that could earn merit points. Yet, even so, at the beginning, with Ji Yuan's attainments in alchemy, he failed three consecutive batches.
Even the three failed batches could not be classified as waste pills; they contained no spiritual energy or medicinal properties, and there was no possibility of decomposing them into liquid medicine.
Fortunately, the three failures had accumulated a considerable amount of experience for him. By the fifth batch, he finally succeeded once.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. After exhausting all the materials he had prepared, Ji Yuan finally concluded his pill refinement session. He then directly lay down on the bed beneath him and, after a few breaths, fell into a deep sleep.
Refining pills continuously for over ten days was taxing, even for someone at the early stage of the Spirit Opening realm.
For this reason, he slept for a full day and night, barely replenishing his depleted energy, and then spent an equal amount of time recovering the spiritual power consumed within his body.
Once his condition returned to its peak, he immediately left Xuantian Peak and traveled to the Wanxing Courtyard halfway up Yunxia Peak.
This time, he had refined a total of seventeen pills. After selling them to Wanxing Courtyard, he not only recouped the cost of purchasing the materials but also made a small profit of over two hundred taels of silver.
In addition, he exchanged these for over seventy merit points.
Within the Jiuxuan Sect, the tasks in the Qiankun Pavilion were divided into four levels: Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding. Only tasks of Bing level or above would award merit points, but most were only one to five points.
For ordinary inner disciples, earning around seventy merit points typically required half a year of hard work, during which countless efforts and even some costs would be incurred.
It was no wonder that alchemists were the wealthiest. Just a few batches of pills, in less than half a month, were equivalent to half a year of hard work for an ordinary disciple.
After receiving the remuneration and merit points, Ji Yuan went directly to the Treasure Pavilion. He spent all his merit points and an additional thousand taels of silver to acquire a rather profound formation.
As soon as he returned to Xuantian Peak, he eagerly followed the formation-laying method recorded in the jade slip and set up this formation, capable of withstanding the full force of a second-realm cultivator's attack.
This formation, compared to the one gifted by Song He, was undoubtedly more mystical, and the materials used were not ordinary. In addition to resisting multiple full-force attacks from second-realm cultivators, it also had the effects of trapping enemies and obscuring detection.
Just laying the formation took Ji Yuan more than half a day, and maintaining it daily required several low-grade spirit stones.
If fully activated, the consumption of spirit stones would be even greater.
However, no matter the cost, Ji Yuan could only grit his teeth and accept it. Without a powerful protective formation, he could never truly feel at ease.
After handing over control of the formation to Chen Rong and Zhao Yuebai, he finally let out a long sigh. The toil of over ten days was for the sake of obtaining this formation.
With this formation in place, coupled with Chen Rong guarding Xuantian Peak, he could finally leave for a period without worrying about the people around him being harmed in his absence.
"Have you made up your mind?"
Zhang Zhiya slowly approached, asking with a rather solemn expression.
Hearing this, Ji Yuan nodded silently. Regardless of anything else, he had to leave the Jiuxuan Sect and travel to a market town tens of miles away.
The annual tribute from Mingxin Xuan was not a small sum; it was related to his future cultivation, and he absolutely could not give it up lightly due to potential dangers.
He had stayed on Xuantian Peak previously because he couldn't rest assured about the people around him. Now that everything was prepared, it was time to make the trip.
As for whether this journey of tens of miles would involve any danger, Ji Yuan was not very fearful. With his current cultivation and several magical artifacts for protection, ordinary second-realm cultivators could not harm him.
It would take at least five or six Spirit Opening realm cultivators working together, each mastering multiple magical artifacts and setting up several formations in advance, for his life to be endangered.
But he wouldn't fight to the death. If the situation turned unfavorable, he was confident he could retreat safely. Unless a peak second-realm cultivator wielding a top-grade magical artifact appeared, it would be impossible to stop him.
And if such power appeared, or even if a third-realm cultivator made a move, Ji Yuan believed the Jiuxuan Sect would not remain indifferent and allow outsiders to act so brazenly at their doorstep.
Furthermore, he had already guessed some of the Jiuxuan Sect's intentions. They wanted to use pressure from various parties to force him to accelerate his realm advancement.
However, the reason why the Jiuxuan Sect wanted this, he could not figure out for the moment. The only certainty was that if they wanted the perfect fusion and unification of destiny, they seemed to be indispensable to him.
"When do you plan to set off?"
At this moment, Zhang Zhiya asked with concern.
Around Ji Yuan, Zhao Yuebai and others also looked on with worry in their eyes.
"I'll set off right now."
He said without hesitation.
This matter was better done sooner than later. If news of his acquisition of the formation spread, it was hard to guarantee that some forces wouldn't guess something and set up an ambush outside the mountain gate in advance.
It would be better to set off now, perhaps catching the other party off guard, or at least reducing some of the risks.
After half an incense stick's time, Ji Yuan, having made all arrangements and leaving behind a batch of cultivation resources, hurried away from Xuantian Peak.
However, he did not go to the market town tens of miles away alone. Instead, he waited at the mountain gate for over an hour and left with a caravan from the Jiuxuan Sect.
He had inquired long before that at the end of each month, the Jiuxuan Sect would send a caravan to the market town to transport a batch of supplies for the disciples within the sect who had not yet reached the second realm for their daily consumption.
And today happened to be the day the caravan departed, which was one of the reasons he chose to set off immediately.
The entire convoy consisted of dozens of handyman disciples, ten outer disciples with first-realm cultivation, and three inner disciples with second-realm cultivation.
Coupled with the fact that the surrounding hundreds of miles were all within the sphere of influence of the Jiuxuan Sect, the journey was considered quite safe. Even if enemies sought revenge, they would generally not target such a caravan transporting daily necessities.
As long as Ji Yuan followed this caravan, he should not encounter any danger. If someone truly wanted to kill him, they would have to face the three second-realm inner disciples and ten first-realm outer disciples of the Jiuxuan Sect simultaneously.
Unless third-realm cultivators were deployed, it would require at least three to five times the force, or multiple peak second-realm cultivators, to achieve this.
But doing so would mean that unless they could annihilate everyone in a short period, under the distress signal, it would take less than fifteen minutes for the Jiuxuan Sect's third-realm elders to arrive by flying beasts.
As for whether such an action would endanger the safety of the Jiuxuan Sect disciples, Ji Yuan did not think too much about it.
With his own cultivation level, several magical artifacts in hand, and over a dozen inner and outer disciples of the Jiuxuan Sect, such a force could even attack the mountain gates of certain small sects.
Unless someone was willing to completely tear their face with the Jiuxuan Sect, not caring about their exposure and subsequent retaliation, under covert operations, there should not be a force capable of annihilating this caravan in a short period.