"I can offer two hundred and fifty thousand spirit stones!"
"Alright." Meng Hao was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded and stood up.
The woman immediately rose, pointed a finger, and a gust of wind struck the two-tiered alchemy furnace, producing a crisp sound. More than ten seconds later, a young woman carrying a jade tray descended from the third floor, quickly walked to Meng Hao's side, and presented it.
Inside the white jade tray was a storage bag.
Meng Hao took it, didn't even glance at it, and turned to quickly descend the stairs. Under the gaze of the cultivators on the first floor of Tianhe Pavilion, he stepped out of Tianhe Square.
Until he disappeared into the crowd, Meng Hao blinked, quickly took off his long robe as he walked, and when he emerged from an alley, he had changed into a different outfit, bowing his head and walking quickly.
At this moment, on the second floor of Tianhe Pavilion, the woman stood respectfully beside an old man in a floral robe. He was standing by the window, gazing into the distance, holding the Foundation Establishment Pill that Meng Hao had sold.
"Are you sure?" After a long while, the old man asked.
"I've had someone check; indeed, a disciple from the Ziyun Sect named Ding has come to Zhao State these past few days," the woman replied respectfully.
"Are you sure it was him?" the old man asked again.
"This junior dares not be certain. After all, that Ding Xin is a ninth-level Qi Condensation cultivator, while this person is an eighth-level Qi Condensation cultivator. However, earlier on the first floor, both his words and demeanor were very arrogant. This is the first point.
"After going upstairs, he didn't choose the seat closest to the stairs, nor the one closest to the window, but chose the one in the middle among the seven seats. This indicates that he is confident in his strength and doesn't care what actions we might take. This kind of certainty cannot be achieved by an eighth-level Qi Condensation cultivator, unless he has a powerful sect backing him. That is the second point.
"Then, this person wore white clothes and had a Ziyun Sect jade pendant. Even if he intentionally revealed it, it can be understood. After all, this is Zhao State, and he must be on guard. That is the third point.
"Furthermore, this person dared to directly throw the elixir to this junior without fearing that this junior would pocket it. Even when this junior used words to probe, this person revealed a feeling that disciples of Zhao State's sects could not achieve. This is the fourth point.
"Finally, regarding this Foundation Establishment Pill, it bears the mark of Grandmaster Dan Gui. To this day, no one has dared to imitate it, and this junior has learned how to distinguish it; it is a genuine seal.
"These five points allow this junior to confirm that this person is Ding Xin of the Ziyun Sect. Two years ago, it was rumored that Grandmaster Dan Gui took a registered disciple named Ding. Now it seems to be this person indeed." The woman smiled, her expression confident, and her face showed shrewdness and intelligence.
"Unless..." She suddenly hesitated.
"What is it?" The old man turned his head, looking at the woman gently, his eyes full of encouragement.
"Unless this person has an extremely high intellect, and all those points were intentionally created by him, laying out a flawless plan. Moreover, the possibility of the mark on this Foundation Establishment Pill being fake is not high; among all the disciples of Zhao State's sects, no one has the skill to do such a thing." The woman smiled, regaining her confidence.
"Not bad. To be able to deduce based on these clues, Mu'er, your intellect is indeed extraordinary, and you've become much more profound these past few years. This elixir is real, and this person is eighty to ninety percent likely to be that Ding Xin." The old man said with a smile, looking affectionately at the woman in front of him.
"Thank you for the ancestor's praise, but you just let him go like that?" The woman smiled, looking up at the old man.
"We cannot get involved with the Ziyun Sect. Let's pretend this never happened. As for this Foundation Establishment Pill from Grandmaster Dan Gui, Mu'er, with your aptitude, an ordinary Foundation Establishment Pill will suffice. This one should go to your father." The old man pondered for a moment before speaking.
Hearing this, the girl's eyes flashed, and even her voice turned cold.
"He's back?"
"He returned a few days ago. That year, he insisted on going to the Kaoshan Sect. Now that the Kaoshan Sect has disbanded, he still hasn't reached Foundation Establishment. Perhaps you should go visit him." The old man frowned, sighed, and looked at the young woman before him.
"Mu'er still has to manage the market stalls. It doesn't concern Mu'er whom the Old Ancestor gives this Foundation Establishment Pill to." The young woman remained silent for a moment before replying coldly.
"He is your father after all. Besides, I've noticed he's been troubled lately and intends to leave. You should think carefully." The old man shook his head, turned, and departed.
"Father." Shangguan Mu stood calmly, looking out the window, her eyes filled with hatred.
Returning to Meng Hao, after changing his clothes, he immediately left the black city of Tianhe Square. After exiting the city, he did not hesitate to take out his treasured fan, transforming into a rainbow and soaring away.
He traveled continuously for several days. Seeing that no one was pursuing him, he finally relaxed. He found a desolate mountain not far away, took out his flying sword to carve out a cave dwelling, and began his secluded cultivation.
This time, he intended to break through to the ninth level of Condensation.
With enough spirit stones and even the Heaven Spirit Pill, all he needed to do was replicate enough Heaven Spirit Pills to consume, raise his cultivation to a certain level, and then begin his breakthrough.
In the blink of an eye, several months passed. Meng Hao did not go out, silently sitting cross-legged in his cave dwelling, swallowing a few pills daily and circulating his cultivation within his body. As time passed, Meng Hao's cultivation improved a little almost every day.
It was not until the fifth month that Meng Hao's cultivation was full, and his Dan Sea churned. He had long since reached the peak of the eighth level of Condensation, only a sliver away from the ninth level of Condensation, but this sliver had kept Meng Hao stuck for two months.
Having burned through over a hundred thousand spirit stones, Meng Hao was heartbroken. However, he was even more pained that despite spending so many spirit stones, he couldn't break through his cultivation.
"Senior Sister Xu once said that when breaking through the fourth, sixth, and eighth levels of Condensation, there are bottlenecks. Previously, when breaking through the fourth-level bottleneck, I used enough Limit Spirit Pills to push through. The sixth-level bottleneck was broken by proving the Dao in the North Sea. But how do I break this eighth-level Condensation bottleneck?" Meng Hao opened his eyes, which were bloodshot. Of the more than two hundred thousand spirit stones, only about fifty thousand remained. All the rest had been converted into Heaven Spirit Pills, but now even the Heaven Spirit Pills were running low.
He had anticipated this before: for someone who purely relied on pills to increase their cultivation like him, the more pills consumed, the weaker their effect, requiring an increase in quantity, which had become a cycle.
"I wonder how others resolve this?" Meng Hao frowned, a hundred thoughts perplexing him.