The fairy forced me to marry into her family, so I retorted by throwing myself into the Pool of Fate

The spring water flew out of his hand and silently swept across the courtyard.

Just as Li Ping was about to test the power of this attack, a figure suddenly darted in from outside the courtyard gate and intercepted the spring in mid-air.

"Don't……"

Li Ping's pupils contracted sharply, and before he could finish speaking, the man had already slapped the spring with his palm.

Bang!

With a muffled thud, the white spring suddenly exploded, and violent spiritual energy surged outwards in all directions.

Caught off guard, the figure was violently thrown away by the shockwave, crashing into the courtyard wall like a kite with a broken string, its back slamming heavily against the bluestone wall.

The man slid to the ground, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, his face as white as paper.

Li Ping stared intently, then froze.

"Mu Yan?"

He rushed over, grabbed Mu Yan's shoulder, looked him up and down, and only felt relieved to see that he was still breathing.

"Is everything alright?" Li Ping asked, his tone tinged with nervousness.

Mu Yan leaned against the wall, and it took him a long time to recover.

He raised his hand, his lips trembling for a long time before he finally managed to utter a single sentence.

"Li Ping, are you trying to kill me?"

"I barely made it back alive from the sea, and before I could even have a sip of water, you hit me with a spell." Mu Yan clutched his chest, his voice trembling. "Your spell was incredibly powerful!"

Seeing his tearful expression, Li Ping felt bad, but he couldn't help muttering, "Who told you to come back without saying goodbye and then randomly accept my spell..."

"Are you even speaking human language?"

Li Ping coughed lightly, patted Mu Yan's shoulder, and comforted him, "It's alright, you're strong, the pain will pass."

Mu Yan rolled his eyes, too exhausted to argue with him. He pushed himself up and staggered to the stone table to sit down.

He took out a porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured out two pills, put them in his mouth, closed his eyes, and circulated his spiritual power to enhance the medicinal effect.

Li Ping didn't urge him, but just stood aside and watched quietly.

After about half a cup of tea's time, Mu Yan's complexion gradually improved, and his originally frighteningly pale face finally regained some color.

Seeing this, Li Ping finally asked, "How long are you staying this time?"

Mu Yan looked distressed and slowly held up one finger.

"One day?" Li Ping frowned. "Shouldn't you rest more? All this traveling back and forth must be taking a toll on your health."

Mu Yan sighed and shook his head helplessly.

"The new route should be familiarized with by the clan as soon as possible."

Li Ping was silent for a moment, then could only nod and offer a few words of comfort.

Mu Yan stopped complaining, took out two wooden boxes from his storage bag, and handed them over casually.

"Here you go, the Crimson Marrow and Mysterious Mushroom you requested."

Li Ping took the wooden box and opened it.

Inside the box lay a Ganoderma lucidum, its cap no bigger than a child's fist, its entire body a deep red, almost purple, with a smooth, jade-like surface.

Li Ping carefully put the bag away and handed Mu Yan a spirit stone pouch: "Thank you."

Mu Yan took it and saw that he had been given an extra two hundred spirit stones.

Without any hesitation, he stuffed the spirit stone bag into his pocket and asked curiously, "Wow, you've struck it rich lately?"

Li Ping smiled and casually said, "I made a small profit cleaning up the robbers in the market earlier."

"You've run into this yourself," Mu Yan said. "I heard this one's on a huge scale."

"The bandit cultivators around the market have basically disappeared," Li Ping said calmly.

"Tsk tsk." Mu Yan clicked his tongue with envy, "Why can't I ever have such a good thing? Look at me, I'm on the sea every day, braving the wind and waves, and I earn my money with blood and sweat."

As he spoke, he recalled the blow he had just received, and suddenly felt even more aggrieved.

"I finally managed to go back to the market, and you made me a target."

"Alright, alright, stop nagging." Li Ping was both amused and exasperated. He slowly got up, and when he reached the courtyard gate, he looked back and found that Mu Yan was still sitting on the stone bench without moving.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to the Relief House?"

Mu Yan's eyes lit up: "You're treating?"

"If I don't invite you, are you going to invite me?" Li Ping retorted.

Before the words were even finished, Mu Yan had already come running over, his previous half-dead appearance completely gone, and he was as energetic as if he had just come out of seclusion.

Li Ping shook his head and stepped out of the courtyard gate.

The two walked one after the other along the bluestone street toward the center of the neighborhood.

Upon arriving at the Relief House, the two went to a private room on the second floor.

Mu Yan took the menu, and unusually, he didn't spend it as lavishly as last time.

He looked at the menu up and down, ordered only five dishes, and also asked for four jugs of spirit wine, before handing it back.

"Is that enough?" Li Ping glanced at him. "Don't try to save me money, order a few more."

Mu Yan refused, waving his hands repeatedly, "That's enough, that's all."

Seeing his resolute attitude, Li Ping didn't press him and told the waiter to go and prepare.

Before long, the food and wine were served.

Mu Yan filled two glasses of wine, picked up one of them, and raised it towards Li Ping.

Li Ping picked up his wine glass and clinked it against his.

The two tilted their heads back and drank it all. Mu Yan picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and then started talking.

He was still boasting about his deeds, but this time it wasn't as far-fetched as before; most of it was related to cultivators and sea beasts.

"Last month, near Turtleback Reef, our fleet encountered a group of over thirty ship robbers..."

Li Ping listened without interrupting, occasionally nodding in agreement.

After Mu Yan had finished speaking, he asked, "By the way, what do you think of Qingfeng City?"

"Qingfeng City is much bigger than ours, with tens of thousands of permanent cultivators. There are three major forces in the city: the Qingfeng Merchant Guild, the Feiyu Sect, and the Loose Cultivator Alliance. The three sides check and balance each other, so it's relatively peaceful. The market has a wider variety of goods than ours. If you have enough spirit stones, you can even buy Foundation Establishment Pills," Mu Yan said.

"Foundation Building Pill?" Li Ping raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Mu Yan nodded. "But the price will scare you to death. A Foundation Establishment Pill starts at least at 30,000 spirit stones, and you need connections to even get a chance to buy one. Rogue cultivators want to buy one? No way."

Li Ping silently made a note of it, and then asked some questions about Qingfeng City.

After listening, Li Ping finally had a general understanding of Qingfeng City.

The two ate and chatted, and before they knew it, four jugs of wine were empty.

Mu Yan's face flushed red from drinking, and his voice became louder.

Seeing that it was almost time, Li Ping called the waiter over and settled the bill.

As Mu Yan left the Jieyoufang, a night breeze sobered him up somewhat.

"What time are you leaving tomorrow?" Li Ping asked.

"Chenshi (7:45 AM)." Mu Yan yawned. "The fleet will depart at three-quarters past Chenshi (7:45 AM). We can't be late."

Back in the courtyard, Li Ping made up a bed for Mu Yan in the side room.

Mu Yan fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and soon began snoring.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Mu Yan got up.

Li Ping personally escorted him to the dock.

Once on the boat, Mu Yan turned around and waved to Li Ping.

"Next time I come back, I'll bring you some good stuff from Qingfeng City."

Li Ping smiled and nodded, then watched the large ship disappear before turning around and walking back.

When they returned to the courtyard, a disciple of the Mu family was standing at the entrance.

Upon seeing Li Ping, the disciple bowed respectfully and took out a spirit stone bag from his robes, handing it to him.

"Fellow Daoist Li, Senior Brother Fang Xu asked me to tell you that you have quite a lot of things, so they need to be delivered in several batches."

Li Ping took the spirit stone bag, opened it, and found a full five thousand spirit stones inside.

He nodded, put away the spirit stone bag, and said to the disciple, "Go back and tell Senior Brother Fang Xu that I'm not in a hurry, he can handle it slowly."

The Mu family disciple responded and quickly left.

Li Ping returned to the room, closed the door, and sat down at the table.

He took out three wooden boxes from his storage bag and placed them on the table one by one.

These three items were what he intended to offer as a sacrifice.

To collect them, he spent two thousand spirit stones, almost emptying most of his savings.

Li Ping examined the three wooden boxes and muttered to himself, "Two thousand spirit stones. This time, you'd better give me something good."

Having said that, he took a deep breath and a thought crossed his mind.

The scenery before my eyes suddenly changed.

The barren land, the dry well, the hazy sky—the environment in the Realm of Chance remains unchanged.

Li Ping took a step forward and arrived at the dry well.

Without hesitation, he threw the three wooden boxes into the well one by one.

The moment the wooden box fell into the well, colorful clouds surged from the well, and a beam of yellow light shot into the sky, piercing the hazy heavens, before turning back and falling back down.

A moment later, a fist-sized yellow ball of light slowly drifted down from the sky and hovered in front of Li Ping.

Li Ping reached out and touched it gently.

The ball of light shattered, leaving behind a yellowed piece of paper that floated silently in the air.

"Paper?"

Li Ping was stunned for a moment, then reached out and took the paper down.

He looked down and saw that the paper was covered with tiny characters; it was a prescription for a pill.

"A prescription?" Li Ping frowned.

He looked down carefully.

This pill is called the Returning Cloud Pill, and it is used to restore magical power.

According to the recipe, after taking this pill, the dantian will spring up like a spring, and spiritual power will be generated abundantly. Within ten breaths, it can restore about 30% of the mana of a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

After reading it, Li Ping's expression became somewhat subtle.

There are two common types of pills available on the market for Qi Refining cultivators to restore their mana.

One type is the Qi Gathering Pill, which is cheap but has mediocre effects; taking one pill can only restore about 10% of one's mana.

Another type is the Yellow Sprout Pill, which is much more effective than the Qi Gathering Pill. One pill can restore nearly 20% of mana, but the price is also several times higher.

This time, Yun Dan restored 30% of its mana within ten breaths, far surpassing Huang Ya Dan in both speed and effect.

If one's magical power is exhausted during a battle, taking a Rejuvenating Pill will allow one to regain 30% of their combat strength after ten breaths.

In a life-or-death struggle, this 30% of magical power often represents the difference between life and death.

"The effect is not bad," Li Ping murmured, then shook his head, "but the problem is I don't know how to refine pills."

He looked at the prescription several times to make sure he hadn't missed anything before carefully putting it away.

After carefully putting away the pill formula, Li Ping had a thought and summoned the control panel.

[Required for the next offering: 1 Zhenxuan Stone, 1 Miaoxiang Saliva, 1 Bisui Jade]

Li Ping frowned slightly as he looked at the three spiritual items on the panel.

He had never heard of Zhenxuan Stone, let alone Miaoxiang Saliva and Bishui Jade.

But that's normal.

The offerings requested by Jiyuan Well each time are not ordinary items.

Last time, he asked Mu Yan to search for the Vermilion Marrow and Mysterious Fungus for a long time before finally finding them. This time, these three items will probably also require a lot of effort.

Li Ping memorized the names of the three spiritual objects, and then, with a thought, returned to his room.