Raise a sword!

Early morning, south of the market, at the Li family's house.

In the main hall.

The patriarch, Li Ruyuan, sat in the main seat with a gloomy expression, looking down at the kneeling figures below who were banging their heads on the ground.

Although he didn't say a word, his tightly clenched fists silently revealed the turmoil in Li Ruyuan's heart.

"You unfilial son," Li Ruyuan said softly.

Those two simple words caused the figure below to kowtow heavily.

As the second young master of the Li family and the most favored youngest son, Li Zhi had never been scolded by his father like this before.

Li Zhi had to stop when his forehead was covered in blood from banging his head against the ground, and after waiting for a long time without any response from his father, his eyes filled with tears.

"Father! It is your unfilial son who will punish me as you see fit! But my elder brother's body is barely cold..."

Li Ruyuan slammed his fist on the table and stood up.

"How dare you say that!"

Li Zhi trembled with fear.

Li Ruyuan took a deep breath, sat down again, and said with a sorrowful expression, "Tell me everything you know truthfully. If you conceal anything..."

He didn't say anything specific, but Li Zhi understood what his father meant.

The Li family is no small family.

The family has two Foundation Establishment cultivators: one serves as the family head, overseeing the market, while the other is an elder in the Cangshan Sect.

With such a family background, there are many younger generations. When the direct line dies out, naturally a talented member from a collateral branch will be adopted.

For Foundation Establishment cultivators who live for over two hundred years, offspring are not as important as one might imagine, unless they are exceptionally outstanding.

But Li Zhi, who is standing before us, is clearly not within this category.

Li Zhi dared not hide anything and quickly recounted the whole story.

"It was my elder brother who approached me first! He lacked the aptitude for low-grade spiritual roots and knew that neither the family nor the sect would allocate resources to him. So my elder brother came to me and said that I should find a way to accumulate resources myself."

Li Ruyuan took a deep breath.

"Your plan is to take the three complete Qi cultivation techniques that your family painstakingly acquired and sell them on the black market?!"

"Continue!" Li Ruyuan suppressed his anger.

Li Zhi frankly explained.

Selling cultivation techniques has always been a very successful business.

What kind of powerful person could be able to find a complete cultivation technique on the black market?

First, we can exclude disciples from sects, as they have their own lineages.

Secondly, excluding family members, cultivation techniques are not a non-renewable resource. Even if a family member has poor aptitude, the family will not be stingy in passing on a Qi-refining technique.

If we eliminate these two categories, then what's left are mostly incompetent rogue cultivators.

Why is it because they lack ability?

Those with real talent had already been recruited by sects and aristocratic families, becoming members of the former two.

Because those with real skills wouldn't need to resort to the black market to find cultivation techniques even if they didn't join a sect or family.

Who doesn't know that the black market has nothing but scams?

"I originally thought that those who came looking for us would be easy to deal with. Even if we stumbled upon someone difficult to handle, as long as my brother identified himself, could there be any petty scoundrels that the sect couldn't control on Cangshan Sect's territory?"

Bang!

Li Ruyuan grabbed the stool next to him and smashed it on Li Zhi's head.

Seeing Li Zhi clutching his head and pretending to be in pain, he was furious.

"There's no villain that no sect can suppress? You're the villains!"

"Go on!"

Li Zhi shrank back, no longer daring to pretend.

"This business has been going on for almost half a year. During that time, we did encounter some tough opponents, but they were concerned about the reputation of the sect and wanted to avoid trouble. They returned the jade slip and left without any further problems."

"So the family's cultivation techniques have already been leaked?!" Upon hearing this, Li Ruyuan felt his vision go black.

Li Zhi once again banged his head on the ground.

"And then, it happened last night."

Li Ruyuan, seated in the main seat, pondered for a long time.

He only snapped out of his reverie when a figure appeared outside the main hall, and waved his hand somewhat listlessly.

"Get lost."

Li Zhi felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and left quickly with his head down and body hunched over.

Li Ruyuan then looked at the person at the entrance of the main hall.

That was his cousin, Li Rufeng, a Foundation Establishment Elder of the Cangshan Sect.

Li Ruyuan quickly recounted the events from beginning to end, then asked, "What's the sect's version of events?"

"A vendetta," Li Rufeng said coldly. "It was done by a sword cultivator at the mid or late stage of Qi Refining. I couldn't understand why at first, but now it seems that my two good nephews didn't clean up their mess properly and let the tiger return to the mountain, which led to this retaliation."

"To kill someone and then grind their bones to dust, what is this if not a revenge killing? It's clear that they knew about the deception of the martial arts technique and deliberately took the bait, luring someone to a secluded spot in the mountains to kill them."

As he spoke, Li Rufeng flipped his hand, and a jade slip covered in soil appeared in his palm.

"Ha, the tracking methods on the jade slip have become bait. Our Li family has really made a huge fool of itself this time."

"Sword cultivators? Jade Pavilion Sword Clan?" Li Ruyuan's expression turned grim. "So, are we just going to let this matter drop?"

"The sect has already sent a message to the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion," Li Rufeng said.

Li Ruyuan quickly asked, "How is it?"

"Ha, do you expect Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion to hand over the murderer?" Li Rufeng said bitterly. "Not only do they not admit it, but they also said it was good that they killed him, and told my Cangshan Sect to have the guts to attack their mountain gate, or get lost."

"This is outrageous!" Li Ruyuan's face also showed anger. "I think those petty villains who have been stirring up trouble during the recent beast tide have the Jade Pavilion Sword Pavilion behind them!"

Li Rufeng glanced at his cousin.

"The sect also has the idea of ​​using this matter as a pretext."

Li Ruyuan raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

Since it involved sect secrets, the two immediately switched to telepathic communication to avoid being overheard.

...

House No. 42, Dingzi.

Inside the cultivation room.

Jiang Peng finished summarizing all the gains she had made this time.

The complete Qi cultivation technique, "Golden Flame Technique," means that with this technique, one need not worry about cultivation methods until at least the Foundation Establishment stage.

In addition, there are many other miscellaneous items.

There are seven first-tier talismans of various types, none of which are of superior quality. Their total value is approximately two hundred spirit stones.

Six bottles of Qi Condensation Pills of good quality, likely reserved for sect disciples. Jiang Peng refined them for his own use.

In addition, there are three other materials for refining weapons.

[Hundred-Refined Mystic Iron: Tier 1 Refining Material]

[Refined Gold: Tier 1 Refining Material]

[Phoenix Cry Jade: Tier 1 Refining Material]

All three refining materials were obtained by Jiang Peng after dismantling the three people's magical artifacts.

This was the first time Jiang Peng had used the decomposition function of the Purple Gold Cauldron.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to refine artifacts, and he couldn't discern the value of the three materials he had acquired. He couldn't say whether breaking down the artifacts would be a loss or a gain, so he could only keep them for the time being.

However, after collecting these three materials, Jiang Peng discovered that her exquisite sword could now be refined.

The previously grayed-out options have finally lit up.

However, Jiang Peng did not blindly begin refining.

The Linglong Sword is already a top-grade first-tier magic weapon. With further refinement and upgrading, it will become a proper second-tier magic weapon.

With Jiang Peng's cultivation level, controlling the Linglong Sword was already somewhat difficult. If the Linglong Sword were to advance further, he might not be able to use it at all.

Moreover, the incident of refining the second-tier spiritual material, Fragrant King Wood, is still fresh in my mind.

Refining artifacts always consumes more resources than refining spiritual materials.

So Jiang Peng suppressed her thoughts and focused her attention on the largest harvest.

There were 20 ordinary mid-grade spirit stones and 347 low-grade spirit stones.

This outcome was somewhat unexpected.