Ninth In the World

Huo Jianqian was no fool. The grade-three immortal pills Di Jiu had refined were all three-patterned, and the grade-four immortal pills he had refined were all two-patterned or three-patterned.

It was evident that Di Jiu had not used his full strength even when he had been refining the grade-four, special-class, three-patterned immortal pills. This showed just how frightening Di Jiu’s Alchemy Dao was. Now that Di Jiu had requested a large amount of level-six immortal spiritual herbs, he would definitely become a real grade-seven Alchemy King, or perhaps even an Alchemy Supremacy, in the future.

Why, then, would she want to sabotage such a person? After all, Di Jiu had given her a Seven-Orifice Soul Condensing Elixir, and her friend had begged her to help him. Even if this did not happen, she would still not sabotage Di Jiu. The truth was that it would not be beneficial to her if Di Jiu was sabotaged and the Star Elixir Dispensary gained from it.

If the sabotage failed, she would have to face the wrath of an expert who was about to become an Alchemy King. Furthermore, she knew that Di Jiu was not such an easy target even though she had only known him for a short time.

Di Jiu’s mercilessness and decisiveness could be seen simply based on how he had handled the matter with Huang Yetian’s daughter. It was best to not become enemies with such a person, even if one could not become friends with them.

Di Jiu stood up, cupped his fists and said, “Thank you, Senior Sister Huo. I will accept this debt of gratitude regardless of everything.”

Regardless of Huo Jianqian’s motive or whether he would be tricked in the future, he was indebted to her because she had told him about the situation at the Star Elixir Dispensary in advance.

Huo Jianqian smiled. “Call me Jianqian from now on. I would still like to remind you that you have breached the tacitly-agreed regulation of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City, even though Hall Master Zong had already given you permission. After all, you killed Huang Quan and destroyed that store.”

Di Jiu smiled but remained silent. He took out two cups, placed one tea leaf inside each and used a jade kettle to help Huo Jianqian fill her cup. “Senior Sister Jianqian, we will cross that bridge when we get there. Drink the tea I just refined first and tell me how it is.”

Huo Jianqian was still questioning why only one tea leaf was used to welcome guests, when the serenity within this tea leaf was completely released through its immersion in boiling water.

At the moment, Huo Jianqian’s slight uneasiness disappeared. The cup of Immortal Spirit Tea placed in front of her seemed to make the world of cultivating, where she was constantly anxious to increase her strength, become peaceful. A new universe was opened up to her.

When she smelled a faint aroma, she could not help but lift the cup to her lips and take a sip from it.

Noisiness, anxiousness, busyness… All these things completely disappeared in a moment and she felt peace and calmness slowly spread in her. A new world opened up to her, allowing her to sense an inexplicable aura of silence.

Huo Jianqian closed her eyes. She sensed that her slightly unstable cultivation foundation had suddenly been stabilized and her cultivation realm, which had been stagnant for a very long time, started to show signs of moving.

Some elixir poison aura was excreted, floating as though it was in the clouds. Both her body and mind were cleansed.

“Good tea!” Huo Jianqian opened her eyes after a long time. She looked at Di Jiu in delight and said, “Junior Brother Di Jiu, this is the best Immortal Spirit Tea I have ever drunk. The Star Immortal Spirit Tea is significantly noisier compared to this.”

Her cultivation level had not increased, but what she had gained was way better than that.

Di Jiu took out a jade box and handed it to Huo Jianqian. “Senior Sister Jianqian, these tea leaves are for you.”

“Thank you, thank you. This is too valuable.” Huo Jianqian knew that these tea leaves were very valuable. Although she believed that she should not accept this, she could not help but do so.

This was exactly what she had been lacking. With the help of this tea, she would be able to quickly break through the shackles of cultivation.

“I still have more. Besides, you are the one who gave me the tea tree,” said Di Jiu indifferently.

Huo Jianqian snapped out of her reverie. “Junior Brother Di, are you thinking of opening an Immortal Spirit Tea business?”

Di Jiu nodded his head. “This is the Immortal Spirit Tea I just refined, which is called the Starry Sky Tea. I intend to open this business in this store.”

Huo Jianqian looked anxious. “Don’t do it. There might be no competition in this business, but the consequences will be frightening should you bring this Immortal Spirit Tea out to the public.”

After she finished her speech, she was still worried that Di Jiu did not realize how serious this entire situation was. Thus, she added, “The reason the Star Elixir Dispensary sent me here was to secretly take you out of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City and lead you to the Star Elixir Dispensary’s headquarters, where you’d have nowhere else to go. When that happened, it would be impossible for you to come out ever again.”

“Junior Brother Di Jiu, you must know that the Star Elixir Dispensary cannot be considered a powerful existence in the entire Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City. However, this is how they wanted to treat you, simply because you can refine grade-four, special-class immortal pills. I’m afraid that even more people would cause you trouble once you started selling the Starry Sky Tea.”

Di Jiu nodded his head. “I know, which is why I will be selling this immediately. I would rather not start this business if I am unable to find a suitable business partner.”

The business partner Di Jiu had in mind had previously been Chi Yuanqing. Now, however, he knew that Chi Yuanqing was still too weak.

Huo Jianqian knew that Di Jiu would have his own ideas on this matter. Therefore, she did not continue to advise him. Instead, she downed the whole cup of Immortal Spirit Tea, closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation, and said, “Thank you for the Immortal Spirit Tea. I need to head back to the Star Elixir Dispensary. I assume that the deacons of the Star Elixir Dispensary’s headquarters are already waiting for me to report back. I will simply inform them that you thought that you had already resolved this problem, which is why you were unwilling to follow me back to the Star Elixir Dispensary.”

“Alright. Thank you, Senior Sister,” said Di Jiu once again as he personally led her out.

“Brother Di, I assume that that woman came here to help you. However, she did not seem to possess enough capabilities to help you in my opinion,” said Xie Huang with a chuckle after Huo Jianqian had left.

“Brother Xie, head up with me for a chat.” Di Jiu was aware that Huo Jianqian could not help him much. However, he was grateful that she had not betrayed him and had reported everything to him instead.

Xie Huang followed Di Jiu into the guest room on the second floor. Upon seeing the cup of ordinary Immortal Spirit Tea that Huo Jianqian had left unfinished, he laughed and said, “Brother Di, the quality of this Immortal Spirit Tea is too poor. Try mine instead.”

With that, Xie Huang took out a jade bottle and got ready to pour some tea leaves out.

Di Jiu stopped Xie Huang. “This is used to welcome ordinary guests. I have a better Immortal Spirit Tea here. Try it. If this is still not up to your standards, we will drink yours.”

Di Jiu sensed that Xie Huang was too anxious to please him. He actually looked a little ill. However, the latter was straightforward whenever he spoke. Di Jiu appreciated this aspect of him a lot.

“Alright, I will drink your Immortal Spirit Tea first then. Let me make this clear: Your Immortal Spirit Tea is definitely inferior to mine because…” Xie Huang stopped mid-speech and said in disbelief, “Brother Di, I helped you say a few sentences just now, yet you only took out a tea leaf to make the tea. Ain’t you being a little too stingy?”

“Be patient.” Di Jiu poured the boiling water in the teapot and then into the teacup. Xie Huang stared at the cup of tea. This was a mere tea leaf in a cup of water, yet he sensed a new world and a peaceful universe.

He had yet to even drink the tea, but his body and mind had already been cleansed by this peace. Even his soul had been cleansed.

“Good tea…” praised Xie Huang before he even drank it. Then, he lifted the cup and drowned its contents.

Di Jiu was amused when he saw Xie Huang’s actions. Huo Jianqian had drowned the Starry Sky Tea in one gulp because she had been in a hurry to leave. Under normal circumstances, it would be foolish to drink the Starry Sky Tea in one shot.

A starry sky existed within the tea and made one feel the silence within the universe!

A full hour passed before Xie Huang opened his eyes and sighed. “This is a really good tea. The tea my father obtained seems trash in comparison. Why does saying this make it seem as though I have tasted trash before?”

His pale face gained a little color. Only Xie Huang himself knew how many benefits he had gained from drinking this tea.

Di Jiu also took a sip of tea and helped Xie Huang make another cup. “Why did you help me? I’ve heard that Sect Master Huang is not a simple person.”

Xie Huang huffed in disdain. “Sect Master Huang is nothing. My father only needs to lift a finger to kill him.”

Upon noticing Di Jiu’s confusion, Xie Huang laughed self-derisively. “I’m useless, which is why I mention my father every time I face any kind of situation. My father is called Xie Wanling, and he is the Palatial Lord of the Starry Demon Palace.”

Di Jiu, who was enlightened, said, “So you’re the Young Palatial Lord. A Daoist called Shen An came to find me not too long ago…”

“Yes, he is a butler who works for my family. He secretly let me out of the house, but he was locked up instead… Forget it, let’s not talk about this anymore. Where did you obtain this tea leaf? If I gave some to my father, he might give me more freedom.” Xie Huang laughed awkwardly.

“I have spent several decades trying to produce this. This is called the Starry Sky Tea. What do you think of it?” Di Jiu chuckled as he multiplied the time it had taken him to refine the Starry Sky Tea by several hundred times.

“Impressive, truly impressive…” said Xie Huang excitedly, sounding extremely impressed by Di Jiu. He had thought that Di Jiu was a genius when he’d heard that Di Jiu was able to create an Array-Breaking Elixir without the use of an Abalone Shell. Now, he sensed that the title of a ‘genius’ was insufficient to fully describe Di Jiu. The geniuses he were friends with were considered trash in comparison to Di Jiu.

“Could you teach me how to refine this Starry Sky Immortal Spirit Tea as well?” Xie Huang looked at Di Jiu yearningly as he started daydreaming about learning to refine this Immortal Spirit Tea. When he did, he would return home, surprise his father and make his father’s jaw drop open. He would prove to his father his capabilities and prove his father wrong for looking down on him.

Di Jiu looked at Xie Huang speechlessly. He could not believe that such a carefree fella existed. He had already said that this tea was the product of several decades of research.

“Big Brother… I’ll be calling you Big Brother now. From now on, you will be my blood-related big brother, so long as you teach me how to refine the Starry Sky Tea.” Xie Huang was not a fool. He understood what Di Jiu’s look of contempt meant. He even stood up, slapped himself on the chest and said, “Big Brother, in the future, I will not head to the West if you tell me to head to the East. I will definitely not drag you down if you tell me to advance forward.”

Xie Huang had already started to address Di Jiu as Big Brother, regardless of whether the latter had agreed to it or not.

Little Tree, who was following them, said, “Even if you did not head to the East, you could still head to the North or the South…”

“How did you know what I was thinking about? No, no! Big Brother, that was definitely not what I was thinking about! So long as you teach me how to refine the Starry Sky Tea, I will surely head to the West. Definitely! I’m 100 percent certain.” Xie Huang reacted after he had unconsciously let that slip out.