Chapter 1436: The Pill Cauldron Guild

The situation had been urgent at the time, so after breaking the barrier of the Buddhist hall, Qin Sang had only given the place a hurried glance. Buddha statues, a stone statue, an offering table. Bones and astras. One thing he was certain of was that nothing had been labeled in writing.

The seven-story stupa had been concealed inside the body of the Guanyin statue, with a shrine around it, and the whole arrangement had stood at the center of the offering table, placed more prominently than either the Lingzhi Ruyi or the Wishing Pearl. An arrangement like that could not have been without reason.

Could it have been some senior's token of identity, something with a special meaning for Pure Sea Sect? The thought crossed Qin Sang's mind, and his eyes moved as he stared at the seven-story stupa. A relic of that person, then, enshrined as a holy object?

He thought of the stone statue that had no business being in a Buddhist hall. It had stood as an equal to the Buddha statues, enshrined alongside them, which was a desecration of the Buddha and of the sect's own faith.

Pure Sea Sect should not have made an error of that kind, and no debt of gratitude, not even one for a life saved, could have driven Buddhist disciples that far.

Qin Sang's curiosity about the stone statue had grown intense. Unfortunately, Tan Hao knew nothing about it.

The statue had been lifelike, its features distinct. If the man had been some great senior out of the North Sea, tracking him down should not prove difficult.

"I'll decide once I've confirmed who he was." Qin Sang put the stupa away for the time being.

After that, he remained in the cave dwelling and paid no attention to the outside world. He refined the devilish fire and the Wishing Pearl while turning over the problem of how to remake the Devil-Subduing Vajra, using the Vajra as a mirror against which to study Buddhist refinement methods, and his gains were considerable.

Since he was only altering the shape rather than raising the Vajra's grade, no especially precious materials were required. He gathered a few things from the Thousand-Jin Ring, and they were near enough to sufficient.

More than two months later, Qin Sang drove the devilish fire and reforged the Devil-Subduing Vajra.

In his hands, the imposing Vajra changed shape entirely. The Buddhist patterns across its surface vanished, ridges swelled up all over it and drew out into spikes, and in the end it had become a mace!

Swish! Swish! Qin Sang swung it a few times, and the image of that hulking brute Tan Hao smashing the mace down on an opponent rose in his mind. The corner of his mouth curved up.

He put the mace away, and he had not been sitting in cultivation long before the cave dwelling's barrier was triggered. Qin Sang came out of his trance and pushed the door open, and sure enough, Tan Hao had returned.

"Try it out." Qin Sang tossed him the mace.

"You've finished reforging it?" Tan Hao caught it in one hand, delight all over his face, and swung it about several times, reluctant to let go. He then refined it according to Qin Sang's instructions, and the mace immediately lit up with waves of cold blue light, unmistakably a weapon made for killing.

"I disguised it as best I could, but there's no changing what a Buddhist treasure fundamentally is. The moment you trade blows with someone, your opponent will still sense the distinctive fluctuations of a Buddhist barrier. When you strike, leave no one behind to talk." Qin Sang delivered the warning, then shifted his tone. "What did you find out?"

Tan Hao stowed the mace away, pleased, and grew serious. "The stir Pure Sea Sect caused still hasn't died down. Plenty of immortal cultivators are lingering in Ethereal Sea with no intention of leaving, and some have traveled thousands of li to get there. But the crimson flame qi wiped every trace of Pure Sea Sect from the world, and so far nobody's reported finding any treasure. What there's been no shortage of is swindlers working the crowd. In the first days, Spiritual Infant grandmasters kept showing themselves, but lately none have been seen..."

He went on to run through the important points of what he had learned.

"When the seal collapsed, it killed many cultivators, more than anyone can count, and the islands around Ethereal Sea are full of sorrow. Aside from the phenomenon of the crimson flame qi erupting, though, nothing else was out of the ordinary, and the Chaotic Devil Elder and the other Spiritual Infant cultivators never came to blows. Once the phenomenon faded, they searched the area for a while, then left one after another."

Qin Sang nodded. "No great battle, so it seems like the devilish monster inside the seal has already perished. Then again, it may have used some method to slip past everyone's eyes, though that has little to do with us. Go on. Any word on Daoists Qi and Wang?"

Tan Hao nodded. "Their identities weren't hard to learn. Daoist Qi and the Precept-Keeping Sage, the island master of Nine-Precept Island, are both overlords of the waters near Ethereal Sea, and the two of them have never gotten along. Their juniors clash constantly. He hasn't founded a sect of his own, but he has eight disciples under him. Daoist Wang only formed her Spiritual Infant a short while ago, and she's said to be his partner."

Qin Sang repeated the name Precept-Keeping Sage silently to himself, now certain that this was the second man who had ambushed them. But with the Chaotic Devil Elder standing behind him, it would be unwise to go looking for trouble just yet.

Tan Hao continued without pause. "At first I didn't dare ask after the eight disciples directly, but I soon heard the rumors anyway. The island where Daoist Qi's cave dwelling sits was attacked by a mysterious expert. Mortal and cultivator alike, everyone on the island was slaughtered down to the last. There's talk, though, that the eight disciples had already vanished before the massacre, no one knows where. I couldn't confirm whether that part is true."

Eight disciples vanishing without a trace suggested someone had taken them away.

They knew nothing of what had happened inside Pure Sea Sect, and Daoists Qi and Wang could never have imagined that a single stroke of fortune would set off a storm this large, so there had been no way for them to guard against it in advance. Which meant one of the three, Valley Master Mu among them, had survived.

Most likely it was Valley Master Mu, whose cultivation was the highest, and who still had the fourth-metamorphosis Tide-Drawing Horseshoe Crab.

Qin Sang relaxed a little at that. It would make trading with him later a good deal easier.

"These are the people and factions in Boundless Sea who are skilled at alchemy and take commissions." Tan Hao handed him a jade slip.

Without an event on the scale of Pure Sea Sect, Spiritual Infant grandmasters rarely showed themselves in the world. Golden Core cultivators were the true protagonists of the immortal cultivation world.

The information Tan Hao had gathered was thorough and detailed.

"The one everyone in Boundless Sea agrees has the best reputation and the deepest attainments in the Dao of alchemy is the Nine-Star Guild's grand elder."

Qin Sang was somewhat taken aback when he read that. After a moment's thought, he ruled the Nine-Star Guild out.

He had asked around at the Nine-Star Guild about Ethereal Sea before entering Pure Sea Sect, and after everything that had happened, they would certainly connect the two. Better not to deal with them again.

He skimmed on quickly, and his brow gradually furrowed. The remaining candidates were either short on skill or short on trustworthiness. He was not afraid of someone coveting his treasures, but he would rather invite as little trouble as possible.

"Huh, the Pill Cauldron Guild." Qin Sang's gaze settled on one name. This was another merchant guild, and behind it, unexpectedly, lay the shadow of Pill Cauldron Mountain, a famous and powerful sect of Crescent Moon Realm.

Pill Cauldron Mountain enjoyed an enormous reputation in both the Dao of artifact refinement and the Dao of alchemy, the equivalent of Taiyi Core Sect and Xuling Sect combined, and its name was a trustworthy one. He had already planned to go to Crescent Moon Realm if he found nothing suitable in Boundless Sea.

The Pill Cauldron Guild it was.

Qin Sang put the jade slip away, exchanged a few more words with Tan Hao, and returned to the meditation chamber to meditate.

Half a year slipped by. Tan Hao went out to gather news several more times during that period, and the results were much the same. The storm Pure Sea Sect had raised seemed to have subsided for good.

A figure broke through the surface of the water and shot westward, skimming just above the sea. It was Qin Sang, on his way to the Pill Cauldron Guild to commission the Hidden Fragrance Pill.

The Pill Cauldron Guild was not a native power, and its outposts were sparse. Qin Sang chose the nearest one, on an island called Blue Star Island, said to be a thriving center of commerce. He was in no hurry, and the journey took him a little over half a month.

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