The end of the year had just arrived.
The middle-aged cultivator from the Starry Sky Pill Sect who usually came to collect spirit medicines from Zhang DaoMing had come to the door again.
As always, he had an unhurried pace, head held high, casually kicking the door open with one foot, hands clasped behind his back, staring at the room with a contemptuous look.
The first thing that met his eyes was Chen Xia leaning on his crutch against the wall.
He frowned slightly, not knowing what the old Zhang DaoMing was thinking. There were not many pills refined, yet he had taken in a disabled person.
"Zhang DaoMing, where are your pills for this year? If the quality is still not good, you'll have to pay out of your own pocket to make up for it!"
Zhang DaoMing sat in a rocking chair, took a sip of wine, and laughed lightly, wrinkles on his face squeezing together, and replied:
"I haven't refined a single one."
The Middle-aged Cultivator knitted his brows, the jade double horns on his head gleamed, and he stared deeply at Zhang DaoMing twice, his tone became heavier.
"Not a single one?"
"Are you tired of living after so many years, or do you really not care about the Starry Sky Pill Sect?"
Zhang DaoMing gestured with his hand, "Listen to me first, don't get impatient."
"I'm not impatient, I see you're looking to die!" The Middle-aged Cultivator shouted, his face wrinkling, anger surging up.
Hearing the sound, the Big Yellow Dog came running out, took one look at the Middle-aged Cultivator, rolled its eyes, clearly not having any good will towards him.
Chen Xia was just quietly watching on the side, stifling a yawn.
Zhang DaoMing suddenly waved his hand and called out, "Chen Xia, show him what you can do."
The Middle-aged Cultivator frowned, his eyes following Zhang DaoMing's waving hand looking towards Chen Xia, first sizing up the crutch made of unknown materials, then Chen Xia's slightly youthful face, sneering,
"Don't tell me you old fool has become muddled and lost your senses, randomly finding someone to trick me. If there are no pills handed over today, neither you nor this cripple will get away!"
Chen Xia hobbled over with the crutch, fully extending his hands out of his sleeves, truly showing what he could do. Then he gestured with his eyes at the Big Yellow Dog, waving his hand,
"Bring out the pot you use to stew medicine."
The Big Yellow Dog immediately came bouncing over, extremely quickly bringing over the iron pot still stained with some oil.
This made the Middle-aged Cultivator even more puzzled, lightly stroking the jade double horns on his head, coldly laughing,
"What, are you planning to stew this dog and make me eat it? But I won't eat such a lowly thing."
Chen Xia glanced at him, with a slightly subtle displeasure in his expression, he didn't respond, and dumped Zhang DaoMing's remaining medicinal ingredients into the pot all at once.
At this point, the Middle-aged Dragon Kind cultivator was completely confused, frowning as he watched. This didn't seem like refining medicine, but medicinal ingredients were clearly being used.
Chen Xia snapped his fingers, flame burst out from his hand, he whipped it into the pot extremely quickly, instantly igniting the medicinal ingredients inside, using spiritual power as a ladle to directly stir inside the pot.
He used some pharmacological knowledge to match these medicinal ingredients decently, his technique became quite orthodox.
This was no random concoction.
The Middle-aged Cultivator watched with knitted brows, feeling that Zhang DaoMing was working with this cripple to trick him. Just as he was about to curse them out, his expression suddenly changed to shock.
Brilliant medicinal light flashed inside the iron pot, and an extremely rich medicinal fragrance emitted!
He deeply furrowed his brows, absolutely unable to believe it, shouting in a low voice,
"Tricks of ghosts and gods cannot fool me!"
He was just about to reach in and touch the pot when Chen Xia first grabbed a golden, patterned pill from inside, smiling as he asked,
"Recognize it?"
Anyway he didn't recognize it himself.
The Middle-aged Cultivator's eyes flickered as he carefully inspected it for a while, then his gaze shifted back and forth over Chen Xia's body, solemnly saying,
"Using this method, you refined a top quality, high grade spirit pill?!"
"No," Chen Xia shook his head, laughing lightly, "A whole pot."
He waved his hand, dispersing the excess pill vapor on the iron pot, revealing another 5 evenly arranged, golden, top grade spirit pills inside.
The Middle-aged Cultivator didn't know what he was feeling right now, only knowing that his own hands were shaking as he looked at the remaining 5 top grade spirit pills in the pot, truly unable to believe it.
After a long while, he suppressed the shock in his heart, his expression calming, hands clasped behind his back, nodding and laughing,
"Your pill refining skill is quite good, to be able to serve my Starry Sky Pill Sect would be fortunate, I'll forgive the previous disrespect."
Chen Xia tilted his head, chuckling as he asked, "Do you want these 6 pills?"
"What do you mean?" The Middle-aged Cultivator frowned.
Chen Xia put down the pill he was holding, waving him over, "Come here."
The Middle-aged Cultivator didn't understand, but still went over, wanting to see just what he was trying to do.
Chen Xia pulled out the crutch from under his armpit, smiling at him, "Although I like to deal with others politely, when I meet a rude thing like you, I still become very unhappy. Let me also mention..."
He pointed at the crutch, "This is specially made from Mystic Iron."
Before the Middle-aged Cultivator could react, his ears caught the fierce roar of something whizzing through the air, and from the corner of his eye he glimpsed a flash of color in the last moment.
It looked like... a crutch?!
Bang!
A huge sound rang out as the Middle-aged Cultivator was directly sent flying to the door, his face slightly sunken in, with an extremely obvious rod mark on it.
Does getting hit by an Mystic Iron crutch hurt?
Chen Xia held up the crutch, the end that had hit people bent slightly, showing how powerful that strike had been. He smiled and said,
"Please call me Iron Crutch Li."
The Big Yellow Dog who had been watching the fight hurriedly ran over, shouting, "Wait, wait!"
It held back Chen Xia, persuading him, "You hit too hard, he can't take it. How about letting me do it, I'll only hit once, definitely not more."
As the Big Yellow Dog spoke, it even reached out and stroked Chen Xia's crutch, sighing, "Truly a natural treasure."
Chen Xia rolled his eyes at it, released the crutch, allowing the Big Yellow Dog to bounce over carrying the crutch, hitting the Middle-aged Cultivator like hitting moles.
After hitting him, it even hurriedly ran away, standing to the side whistling, as if it had nothing to do with the matter.
It was weak yet loved to play around.
Chen Xia remained in his original spot, didn't even look straight at the Middle-aged Cultivator, casually throwing the top grade spirit pill in his hand back into the pot, disdainfully saying,
"You're not even worthy of talking to me, send someone who is really in charge above you."
Cultivators of the realms had one advantage, which was that they generally don't pretend to be tough when they know they can't win, bowing their heads when defeated, and won't make up threats about people backing them.
So at this time the Middle-aged Cultivator covered his face and crawled up from the ground, a somewhat frightened expression, bowing his head to Chen Xia, "I will report this and someone should be able to come see you in two days."
As expected, a beating makes them honest.
Chen Xia nodded, casually waving his hand, "Go on."
What he wanted to discuss with the Starry Sky Pill Sect was cooperation. And according to the rules of the realms, what needed to be shown first when discussing cooperation was strength.
The strengths had to be about the same in order to stand on equal footing and discuss conditions with the other party. Otherwise no matter how amazing Chen Xia's pill refining skills were, he could only be a laborer for the Starry Sky Pill Sect.
Only pill masters at the Inverse Seas Realm or above had the qualifications to truly discuss cooperation conditions with the Starry Sky Pill Sect. And those at the Inverse Seas Realm or higher didn't even need to be said, they could become honored guests of the Starry Sky Pill Sect.
Chen Xia wiped the bloodstains off his crutch, feeling quite satisfying using this Mystic Iron crutch to hit people, it could be tested frequently in the future.
Now he just had to wait for someone to come from the Starry Sky Pill Sect.