The Hehuan Sect cultivates alchemy; my senior sister helps me refine alchemy throughout the world.

Two days later, at dawn, Shen Yifei climbed out of Yin Wuxie's stone bed. Yin Wuxie was still asleep, a pale arm draped over his waist.

Shen Yifei moved her arm away and rolled off the bed. His feet had barely touched the ground when he was kicked in the waist.

"They're leaving already?" Yin Wuxie lay on his side, his blood-red eyes half-open and half-closed.

"If you don't leave now, I'm afraid I'll die in your bed." Shen Yifei rubbed his lower back. "Master, you're over three hundred years old, can't you take it easy?"

"You think I'm too old?"

"I think you're too rough." Shen Yifei picked up his pants from the ground and put them on. "Even oxen that plow the fields need a rest, but you've been doing this for two days and two nights without letting me take off the harness."

Yin Wuxie propped herself up on her elbows and sat up, the blanket slipping down to her waist. She reached under the pillow and pulled out a storage bag, tossing it to Shen Yifei.

"What is it?"

"Here's a cow for you, with 50,000 spirit stones inside. Don't say I'm mistreating you."

Shen Yifei caught the storage bag and weighed it in his hand; it was quite heavy. He grinned, "Is this a tip for your trouble?"

"Enough nonsense." Yin Wuxie lay back down, turning his back to him. "Get lost. Next time you come, remember to bring more pills from the Hehuan Sect. I've heard that your sect's Hehuan Powder is exceptional; bring me a few bottles."

Shen Yifei paused, turning back to glance at her. Yin Wuxie had her back to him, her shoulders rising and falling slightly, making it impossible to tell whether she was awake or asleep.

He pushed open the door and left.

Ah Qi stood guard outside the door. When he came out, he handed him a bundle without expression: "Food for the road."

Shen Yifei took the package; it was still warm. He looked down and smelled it—roasted mutton.

"Take care, Miss Qi."

Ah Qi's lips twitched slightly, as if he was reluctant to leave. "Elder Shen, next time you come, please don't cause any more chaos in the sect."

"That's hard to say." Shen Yifei slung the bundle over his shoulder and strode toward the exit of the underground palace.

The exit of the underground palace was halfway up a desolate mountain, on a huge rock covered in moss. Shen Yifei emerged from a hidden door behind the rock, the sunlight so bright it made him squint. After spending more than a month in the underground palace, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to bask in the sun.

Shen Yifei squinted and stood there for a while, then took a deep breath.

He glanced back at the moss-covered boulder. The hidden door was closed. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary stone. No one would guess that a cult stronghold of more than three hundred people was hidden underneath.

"Stop looking, let's go." Liu Mengli's voice drifted out from inside the cauldron. "What, are you reluctant to part with that three-hundred-year-old cult leader?"

"Reluctant to part with me? I'm afraid she'll be reluctant to part with me."

Liu Mengli scoffed and didn't say anything more.

Shen Yifei walked down the mountain path for about half an hour and then saw a small town in the distance.

The town was small, consisting of only one street, which could be walked from one end to the other in the time it takes to burn an incense stick. He found an inn in town, asked for a bucket of hot water, and took a long, refreshing bath.

Liu Mengli floated out of the cauldron, sat cross-legged in mid-air, looked down at him taking a bath, and occasionally came down to help him scrub a couple of times.

"How do you plan to return to the sect? We don't even know if Elder Gu and your senior sister are alive or dead."

"They're fine." Shen Yifei splashed water on himself. "Yin Wuxie told me that the Blood Soul Sect's target that day was me. Elder Gu and Sun Yiran were trapped in the black net for a while before being released. The Blood Soul Sect doesn't want to become mortal enemies with the Joyful Union Sect. Offending a sect and kidnapping a disciple are two different things."

"Then they should be in the sect now?"

"Probably," Shen Yifei said, leaning against the tub. "We'll know when we get back."

He stayed at the inn for one night, checked out early the next morning, and headed out of town. Outside the town was an official road, at the end of which was a ferry crossing where flying boats traveled to and from various states.

Shen Yifei bought a boat ticket to the Hehuan Sect. There were five or six people on the boat, including a couple in the Foundation Establishment stage who were sitting in the back row, embracing and kissing each other as if no one else was around.

Shen Yifei leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest.

The little monster poked its head out, its eyes fixed on the couple in the back row, making gurgling sounds in its throat.

Shen Yifei shoved it back down, "You little brat, what are you looking at these for!"

Soon, the flying boat landed at the foot of Hehuan Sect Mountain.

Shen Yifei walked up the stone steps.

The gatekeeper saw him from afar, paused for a moment, then turned and ran inside, faster than a rabbit.

Shen Yifei stood at the mountain gate and touched his face.

"Do I look like a ghost?"

In less than half an incense stick's time, a large group of people poured out of the mountain gate.

Sun Yiran was leading the way.

She had lost weight, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes reddened the moment she saw Shen Yifei.

Sun Yi was followed by Qin Wan and Liu Er, and Su Yao was also nearby.

Qin Wan's eyes also reddened, and Liu'er burst into tears, tears streaming down her face.

Next was Elder Gu. The old man had a stubble of beard and his left arm was in a sling. When he saw Shen Yifei, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Kid, you're still alive."

"Elder Gu, your arm..."

"It's nothing serious, you were just corroded by the toxic fumes from the black market that day. You'll be fine in a couple of months." Elder Gu waved his hand. "It's good that you're alright. The day you were swept away by the black smoke, Yi Ran and I searched for three days and three nights, but we couldn't find a trace of you. After we returned to the sect, the sect leader sent people to search every 500 li around, but we still didn't find a single clue."

Shen Yifei felt a warmth in his heart.

While he was causing trouble in the Blood Soul Cult's underground palace, the people outside weren't idle either.

"I'm sorry to have worried everyone."

Elder Gu chuckled and said, "It's good that he's back, otherwise I would have been in grave danger. The sect leader is waiting in the main hall, let's go there first."

When Shen Yifei entered the main hall, Su Wuwang was sitting in the central position of the sect leader.

She wore a white dress today, with no makeup on, her face bare. But her face was even more beautiful without makeup than with it, her eyes exuding a natural, languid charm.

Several elders, all at the Nascent Soul stage, stood beside her. Upon seeing Shen Yifei enter, their gazes all fell upon him.

Shen Yifei walked to the center of the main hall and bowed.

"Disciple Shen Yifei greets Sect Master."

The hall was quiet for a while.

Su Wuwang said, "I sent Elder Gu and Sun Yiran to Qingyun Sect to pick you up, but they didn't bring you back. You were kidnapped on the way. There was no news of you for more than a month. I sent people to search every 500 miles around, but they couldn't even find your body. I was about to build a cenotaph for you when you came back alive and kicking."

She paused, then leaned forward slightly.

Where have you been for the past month or so?

Shen Yifei knew he couldn't avoid this question, and he had already thought about how to answer it while on the flying boat. He couldn't tell the whole truth, nor could he tell the whole lie. Su Wuwang was a powerful cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage, with terrifyingly sharp divine sense; a lie would be easily detected. The best approach was to be seven parts truth and three parts falsehood, glossing over the crucial points.

"Reporting to the sect leader, this disciple has been bound by the Blood Soul Sect and taken to their underground palace."

"Where is the Blood Soul Cult's underground palace?"

"It's at the bottom of a desolate mountain, but I can't say exactly where. I was blindfolded when I was taken in and blindfolded when I came out. I only remember that the underground palace was very large and had many branching passages."

Su Wuwang hummed in agreement, signaling him to continue.

"The leader of the Blood Soul Sect is named Yin Wuxie, and she has the cultivation level of the peak Nascent Soul stage. Her purpose in kidnapping her disciples is to force them to refine pills for her."

"Alchemy?"

"Yes. When she heard that her disciple could refine top-grade pills, she locked him in the pill room and forced him to refine one hundred top-grade Qi Gathering Pills every day."

The elders nearby exchanged glances. One hundred top-grade Qi Gathering Pills a day—that's truly astonishing.

"I spent over a month refining pills in the underground palace. Later, trouble broke out within the Blood Soul Sect. Their Grand Elder took advantage of Yin Wuxie's mishap during cultivation and led a coup. Fighting broke out in the underground palace, and it was complete chaos. I managed to escape during the chaos."

"It's that simple?"

"Reporting to the Sect Master, it's that simple!"