novelraw Chapter 717: Ten-Billion Bounty
Chapter 717: Ten-Billion Bounty
Pill Sect, within the grand hall.
The Sect Master of the Pill Sect, who has been in closed-door meditation for a long time, erupted in thunderous anger as soon as he emerged from the rocky seclusion cave!
Three pieces of news drove him to madness, making him lose the calmness he once had!
Firstly, the demon he had left in the Rain Immortal World had unexpectedly disappeared! And Changshan, the rogue immortal tasked with retrieving the demon, had perished in the Heavenly Court decades ago!
Secondly, the Ghost Cultivating Formation he had painstakingly set up within the Heavenly Court had been destroyed!
Thirdly, before he went into seclusion, he gave orders for someone to seize the opportunity to assassinate Ouyang Nuan, the chief disciple of the Medicine Sect, and steal her Five-Color Medicine Soul without leaving any traces.
Yet after decades, Ouyang Nuan was still alive! Moreover, the plot of the Pill Sect to harm Ouyang Nuan had been discovered by Wei Wuzhi, the Sect Master of the Medicine Sect!
The Medicine Sect and the Pill Sect have now truly shown their hostility!
Just half a month ago, the Sect Master of the Medicine Sect suddenly returned to the sect and identified several Medicine Sect Life Immortals who had been harmed by the Heartbreak Pill.
He then spent a large sum to gather more than a dozen Eastern Heaven True Immortals as assistance, and obliterated several subsidiary forces of the Pill Sect!
Among those subsidiary forces, there were even two True Immortal Powers!
Wei Wuzhi was truly enraged this time. He didn’t care about the petty rivalry between the Pill and Medicine Sects, but he wouldn’t allow anyone to harm his disciple!
The Pill Sect had crossed his bottom line!
"A bunch of useless fools!"
The Sect Master of the Pill Sect looked down at the elders and disciples below, seething with anger.
A group of incompetent fools, the loss of the demon rendered his two-hundred-thousand-year wait meaningless!
The destruction of the Ghost Cultivating Formation meant he lost those high-level prayer beads, making a breakthrough in spirit sense to the next realm exceedingly difficult.
The most troublesome issue was still regarding Ouyang Nuan!
Failing to acquire the Five-Color Medicine Soul had indeed resulted in a greater problem, completely souring relations with the Medicine Sect!
The Sect Master of the Pill Sect knew all too well that the reason Wei Wuzhi hadn’t launched a direct attack against the Pill Sect was merely a deterrent, a warning!
If the Pill and Medicine Sects were to go to full-scale war, they would each summon countless True Immortals. Rivers of blood would flow, lasting decades or even centuries, without a guaranteed winner.
Although Wei Wuzhi hated the Pill Sect, he knew his own Medicine Sect did not have the strength to completely annihilate the Pill Sect.
With only 20 years left for Ouyang Nuan, Wei Wuzhi wanted to make one last gamble to find Eternal Jade in the True Immortal Forbidden Land and had no intention of starting a death battle with the Pill Sect now.
The obliteration of the Pill Sect’s subsidiary forces was a warning!
If the Pill Sect dared to attack Ouyang Nuan again within these 20 years, Wei Wuzhi couldn’t guarantee what crazy actions he might take, even if it meant mutual destruction, he would make the Pill Sect regret it!
"Sect Master, please calm down! According to the plan, Ouyang Nuan should have died in the Shaoze Star Domain, and the culprits would merely be a few money-hungry bandits and demonesses... The plan was originally flawless, but an unexpected Void Fragmentation junior interfered, ruining our plans and exposing our murderous intent towards Ouyang Nuan..."
A Ghost Profound Life Immortal reported to the recently emerged Sect Master of the Pill Sect, full of resentment.
"What! You say the one who ruined our grand plan was merely a Void Fragmentation junior! Hahaha, hahaha!"
The Sect Master of the Pill Sect was so angry that he laughed!
Unexpected, truly unexpected, that a mere Void Fragmentation junior would dare to spoil the plans of the Pill Sect!
"Who is this person!" The Sect Master’s face was extremely gloomy!
"His name is Qianqiuzi, hailing from the Lower-Level Star Domain’s Chaotic Demon Star Domain. He has slain the Star Lords of all seven Cultivation Stars there, with a 30 million Dao Crystal bounty placed by the Seven Fiends Sect." The Pill Sect Life Immortal reported.
"Qianqiuzi... Hmph, notify all those tasked with assassinating Ouyang Nuan to return to the sect, Ouyang Nuan cannot be killed for now, or it will completely enrage Wei Wuzhi. But as for this Qianqiuzi... Guichen!"
"Present!"
"Send someone to the Seven Fiends Sect and have them raise Qianqiuzi’s bounty to one billion, remember, do not let anyone know that it’s the Pill Sect’s doing, to avoid further troubles!"
"Understood!"
Guichen, the Ghost Profound Life Immortal, coldly smirked, fully understanding the Sect Master’s intentions.
Currently, it is a time of many troubles, the Pill Sect cannot make a move against Ouyang Nuan nor personally deal with Ning Fan.
Who knows if Ning Fan is also Wei Wuzhi’s reverse scale?
Just increase the bounty and let others do the dirty work.
A bounty of one billion Dao Crystals would surely attract Life Immortals to covet Ning Fan’s head.
One incense stick later, Guichen returned to the hall, respectfully bowing to the Sect Master of the Pill Sect,
"Report to the Sect Master, I have sent someone to the Seven Fiends Sect, and soon the bounty on Qianqiuzi will rise to one billion. I have notified all Life Immortals responsible for ambushing Ouyang Nuan, summoning them back urgently, yet there’s been no contact with Guest Elder Lu Elder for the time being... Lu Elder is currently in the Ancient Chen Star Domain, the Life Immortal closest to Ouyang Nuan."
"Lu Zong? That Human Profound Initial Stage Puppet Master..." The Sect Master of the Pill Sect mused.
He always had a strong regard for this Puppet Master and had bestowed upon him a Ninth Revolution Pursue-Death Pill.
"Oh no! Lu Elder’s soul plate has shattered!"
Suddenly, two low-level disciples burst into the hall with panicked expressions.
"Lu Zong is dead?!" The Sect Master’s gaze turned steely, employing the power of the Medicine Soul to calculate.
Having consumed the Pursue-Death Pill, even if the assailant’s cultivation was at the True Immortal Realm, he could determine the assassin’s identity!
Upon calculation, the Sect Master’s expression became even more dour, laughing in anger!
"Where is Guichen! Send people to the Seven Fiends Sect again, tell them, raise the bounty on that Qianqiu child to ten billion! I won’t need to act personally, I will have him die under the pursuit of countless immortals!"
"What! A ten billion bounty!"
Guichen’s eyes widened in shock but dared not speak further, agreed, and hastily left the grand hall, ordering someone again to go to the Seven Fiends Sect.
A ten billion bounty, enough to bring a True Immortal calamity down upon Ning Fan!
It seems the Sect Master really loathes that Qianqiu child... unless he dies by the hands of countless immortals, the anger in the Sect Master’s heart cannot be quenched!
With the bounty raised to ten billion, it won’t be long before the name Qianqiuzi spreads throughout Eastern Heaven.
And thereafter, ceaseless pursuit!
...
Every disciple recruitment ceremony of the Slaughter Hall has distinct assessment procedures.
In this ceremony, the key object for the first round of assessment is the Slaughter Badge.
In the first round, the participants must hand over all the Slaughter Badges they possess, with the number of badges determining their score.
The top one thousand in score will pass the first round.
The rest will be eliminated.
The Slaughter Badge has three types: a bronze badge worth 5 points, available for purchase from the Slaughter Hall at one million Dao Crystals each.
A silver badge worth 50 points, which cannot be purchased from the Slaughter Hall, only obtainable from the Slaughter Pavilion on the main star of a Mid-Level Star Domain.
The method is to challenge the Pavilion Master, and if victorious, one can obtain a Slaughter Badge.
A gold badge worth one thousand points, requires a challenge against the Pavilion Master of an Upper Starfield Slaughter Pavilion, defeating them grants the gold badge.
Apart from the bronze badge, obtaining the other two types of badges does not permit external assistance, except for demon pets and puppets.
Each participant can only obtain badges from one Slaughter Pavilion.
Badges obtained through strength can be sold to other cultivators.
If a cultivator possessing a badge is slain, the badge can be claimed.
The rules for this Slaughter Hall disciple recruitment ceremony have only been publicized for one to two years, and many cultivators intent on participating are actively challenging Pavilion Masters and collecting badges.
No one has challenged for the gold badge because the Pavilion Master stationed at the Upper Slaughter Pavilion has at least a Ghost Profound Peak-Stage cultivation. Who among the cultivators below three thousand years old has the strength to defeat such old monsters?
Those who can challenge the holders of the Silver Badge are considered strong. The Pavilion Masters of the Mid-Level Slaughter Pavilion are at least at the level of rogue immortals, and occasionally there are even Human Profound Fate Immortals.
Ning Fan calculated that on his journey, he would pass through over 200 mid-level star domains. If he challenges the Pavilion Masters of the Mid-Level Slaughter Pavilion along the way, he should be able to collect quite a few Silver Badges.
Passing the first round of the grand competition shouldn’t be difficult.
Time and again, he opened the Star Gates and traversed the star domains. After passing through several lower-level star domains, the first mid-level star domain came into view.
"Nuan’er, do you know which star domain this is?" Ning Fan was merely following the direction of the Imperial Star Astrolabe and did not have the star disk for this area, so he naturally did not know where this was.
"Little Maoqiu, it seems your daddy has no sense of direction... This star domain is near the Ancient Chen Star Domain, and there are many Cultivation Stars with fire veins here. You can easily guess this is the Purple Fire Starfield, yet he doesn’t know." Ouyang Nuan teased little Maoqiu, her mood quite cheery.
"I’m not familiar with the star domains near the Ancient Chen Star Domain..." Ning Fan shook his head speechlessly, his gaze sweeping over several Cultivation Stars nearby.
Seeing that these Cultivation Stars were indeed interwoven with fire veins, he had a thought and spoke.
"I don’t know where the main star of the Purple Fire Starfield is, but I reckon the main star’s fire veins must be excellent, perfect for refining Soul Jade. To go to the main star, I need to get a star disk first..."
After speaking, Ning Fan leaped onto his ancient sword, transformed into a golden light, and carried Ouyang Nuan to a nearby lower-level Cultivation Star.
A stick of incense later, Ning Fan returned from the lower-level Cultivation Star, having ’borrowed’ a Purple Fire Star Disk from the Star Lord of that star, and headed straight for the Purple Fire Star.
The Purple Fire Star is a mid-level Cultivation Star, not a large trading star, and doesn’t have as many Fate Immortals as Shaoze Star.
Looking at the appearance of this star, it seemed to be slightly damaged, with the traces still very fresh... Ning Fan speculated speechlessly, could these damage marks have been caused by Wu Chen?
Wu Chen had been to several nearby star domains and most likely came to the Purple Fire Starfield as well.
Before entering the star, Ning Fan used the Rain Spell to sense the number of Fate Immortals on this star.
Sitting on the Purple Fire Star, there were only two Fate Immortals, both at the early Human Profound stage.
With Ning Fan’s current cultivation, encountering early Human Profound Fate Immortals again would not invoke the same trepidation as before.
Outside the Purple Fire Star, a group of Void Refinement cultivators responsible for patrolling, upon seeing Ning Fan’s sword light approaching, immediately released their spirit sense to investigate.
Upon discovering that Ning Fan was a Fracture ninth cultivator, their attitudes immediately became highly respectful.
The two Fate Immortal Star Lords had instructed that upon encountering a cultivator of Ning Fan’s level, they must show respect.
"We, cultivators of the Purple Fire Star, greet the Senior. May we ask where the Senior wishes to go on this star? We juniors are willing to guide the way for Senior."
"No need, I know the way."
Ning Fan replied in a detached tone, and with those words, he stepped onto his ancient sword and headed straight for the capital of the star.
Before entering the star, he had already thoroughly surveyed it using the Heaven Prying Rain Technique; how could he not know the way?
The patrolling cultivators bowed and cupped their fists, lowering their heads as they watched Ning Fan enter the star.
On the Purple Fire Star, the place with the best fire veins was the capital city. The two Fate Immortals also resided there, both being fire cultivators.
The Slaughter Pavilion was also located within the capital city.
Outside the Purple Fire City, Ning Fan put away his ancient sword and gently hugged Ouyang Nuan’s waist before leaping down to the ground.
As soon as they arrived at the gates of the Purple Fire City, a team of cultivators immediately came out to greet them. The reason they treated Ning Fan with such deference was that he was a Fracture ninth cultivator.
On this Purple Fire Star, setting aside the two Fate Immortals, the strongest individual is someone of Ning Fan’s level.
As those cultivators were welcoming him at the city gates, two extremely subtle spirit senses nonchalantly swept across Ning Fan’s body.
The masters of these spirit senses were naturally the two Fate Immortal Star Lords of the Purple Fire Star. Their spirit senses were somewhat weak, seemingly carrying some injuries.
After sweeping through Ning Fan, the spirit senses were immediately retracted, not lingering on him.
Since Ning Fan was not a Fate Immortal hiding his cultivation, the two naturally would not pay him too much heed.
While the two Fate Immortals wouldn’t pay attention to Ning Fan, three rogue immortals with a flash of escape light greeted him at the city gates, courteously cupping their fists to him.
"This Daoist friend looks unfamiliar. May we know your name?" Among the three, a white-robed old man asked with a smile.
"My Daoist name is Qianqiu." Ning Fan did not intend to hide his identity, as the three rogue immortals could find out he was a wanted demon anyway.
"The Thousand Autumn Ancestor with a bounty of thirty million!" The expressions of the three elders slightly changed. As people in charge of the Purple Fire City, they were naturally aware of some of the more notorious wanted demons.
At this moment, those two subtle Fate Immortal spirit senses once again swept across Ning Fan’s body, but this time with a sense of apprehension and favor.
The change in expressions of the three elders was momentary, and they quickly returned to their previous demeanor, awkwardly smiling at Ning Fan,
"So this Daoist is the famous Thousand Autumn Ancestor. Our apologies for the slight rudeness upon hearing Daoist friend’s title for the first time. We hope Daoist friend can forgive us. May I ask how you are related to the Ghost-Faced Pavilion Master of the Ancient Chen Star Domain?"
"A friend."
As Ning Fan contemplated, he seemed to understand something.
When Wu Chen came to rob things here, he likely mentioned him, that’s why the rogue immortals and Fate Immortals here turned pale at the mere mention of his name.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Two lights from the Fate Immortals hurriedly darted out of the city, not even tending to their wounds, appearing directly at the city gates.
The lights landed, transforming into an old man in a red robe and an old woman in a purple robe, both at the early Human Profound stage.
The expressions of the two were extremely complex at the moment. They anxiously forced out a few smiles. Despite their higher realms, they showed extreme courtesy to Ning Fan, cupping their fists,
"Hehe, it seems young friend is the one the Pavilion Master mentioned as a friend. The Ghost-Faced Pavilion Master recently came here to ’purchase’ some Star Gate Jade Slips, and said that if a certain Daoist Qianqiu were to pass by this star, we should take good care of him and not neglect our duties. Otherwise, hehe..."
There’s no need to guess, these two Fate Immortals were severely threatened by Wu Chen and dared not show any disrespect to Ning Fan.
"Don’t worry, seniors. I will only stay on the Purple Fire Star for a few days and then leave. I won’t cause any trouble here. Both seniors are injured, so you should return and heal. I’ll just wander around Purple Fire City on my own..."
Ning Fan gave a respectful salute to the two Fate Immortals and the three rogue immortals, before pulling Ouyang Nuan into Purple Fire City.
Seeing Ning Fan being much more agreeable than Wu Chen and not difficult to attend to, the two Fate Immortals breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems Ning Fan is not here to cause trouble, and that’s good...
The two subtly ordered that the city’s shops must politely entertain Ning Fan if they encounter him and not be negligent.
Being held by the hand by Ning Fan, Ouyang Nuan was in a very good mood and even hummed a tune lightly.
However, when Ouyang Nuan realized that Ning Fan led her to a Hot Spring Palace, her face couldn’t help but flush with redness.
"You... why did you bring me here..."
This is a popular place for many cultivator couples to express their affection...
Do you not see how many couples bathe together here...
"This place has the strongest fire veins on the Purple Fire Star. The hot springs here are rich with origin fire, which will considerably aid in refining the Soul Jade."
"Are you sure you’re here to help me refine the Soul Jade and not to take advantage of me?" Ouyang Nuan looked at Ning Fan somewhat doubtfully.
"I promise I won’t take advantage of you. Do you want to come in for a bath?" Ning Fan teased.
"I, I better not... you go by yourself..."
Ouyang Nuan’s gaze flickered as she attempted to escape, only to be pulled back by her wrist by Ning Fan and taken inside.
"I want the best hot spring pavilion here." Ning Fan casually took out ten thousand Dao Crystals and handed it to the shopkeeper of the Hot Spring Palace.
The shopkeeper was a Divinity Transformation cultivator. Upon seeing the visitor’s appearance, his eyes widened in surprise and he immediately hurried over with utmost respect,
"There’s no need for so many Dao Crystals. Even the best hot spring pavilion with the strongest fire veins costs only one thousand Dao Crystals a day..."
"Then pay for ten days first." Ning Fan didn’t know how many days it would take to refine the Soul Jade.
Soon, a charming maid arrived and led Ning Fan and Ouyang Nuan to the Heaven No.1 Hot Spring Pavilion.
The shopkeeper of the Hot Spring Palace pondered for a moment, then summoned six or seven of the most beautiful maids and instructed them in a low voice,
"Tonight, you all will serve that Senior. Remember, you must serve him well and not offend him in the slightest!" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)