Chapter 973: I won’t admit it

The guests immediately shifted their gaze and identified that the two people who got teleported out were Jing Han and Dou Jiangshi. Jing Han stood in front, with Dou Jiangshi standing slightly behind him.

Everyone kept their gazes peeled at these two people, and silence took over the guest hall for quite some time. There was a good chance that one of these two had opened the thirteenth gate, but the question was, who among the two had opened it? The order of greeting took primary precedence at this moment. If they greeted the pill sage who hadn’t entered the thirteenth gate, it would immediately displease the one who did enter the thirteenth gate. If that happened, it would become almost impossible to obtain the extinct spirit grasses or the dao fruits.

“Congratulations to the two for the great harvest in the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. Pill Sages, please take your seats.” Le Jiesheng stood up and broke the silence.

As Le Jiesheng was the City Lord, Jing Han and Dou Jiangzhi didn’t dare show any negligence. They both politely greeted him back before sitting down.

“Pill Sage Jing is a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, so I guess he must be the first to enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. My Immortal Corpse Sect congratulates Pill Sage Jing Han for the achievement.” Immortal Corpse Sect’s Chun Fei stood up somewhat impishly and said, finishing it off with a heated smile.

Everyone understood what Chun Fei meant. That is, Chun Fei had already decided that his Immortal Corpse Sect’s Dou Jiangshi had entered the orchard first. It was the reason why he dared to stand out and ridicule Jing Han.

Jing Han’s expressions turned cold.

Then, in an indifferent tone, he finally spoke up. “It’s nice that your Immortal Corpse Sect was the first to enter the first and second levels of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. But it was me, Jing Han, who entered the third and fourth levels first.”

There was a good reason for his arrogance. Even an idiot knew that the first to enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard could potentially obtain more spirit grasses and dao fruits. But it was also true that the spirit herbs at the higher levels of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard were far more valuable than those at the lower levels. Dou Jiangshi had entered the first and second levels of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard first. But he, Jing Han, had entered the third and fourth levels of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard before him.

It wasn’t the first time Jing Han had attended the opening of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. Therefore, he naturally knew why the greetings from the crowd seemed a little slow when he and Dou Jiangshi came out. He reasoned it as people trying to figure out who had obtained more precious dao fruits between him and Dao Jiangshi.

What Jing Han didn’t expect was that the people in the guest hall became even more enthusiastic after his words came out. Unlike what he imagined, almost everyone went up and clasped their fists in front of Immortal Corpse Sect’s Dou Jiangshi. The respect shown was almost on the same level as when greeting one’s father.

Dou Jiangshi’s face showed no expression. But facing so many warm greetings, he had to stand up and force some smiles on his zombie-like face.

Jing Han’s expressions turned even uglier as these people only greeted him after greeting Dou Jiangshi. The momentum of the hall clearly put him behind Dou Jiangshi.

Le Jiesheng laughed and even took the initiative to walk down and cupped his fists at Dou Jiangshi. “Congratulations to Pill Sage Dou for being the first to enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard and opening the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.”

When Jing Han heard those words, he immediately felt shocked. He instantly understood why the crowd showed so much enthusiasm towards Dou Jiangshi. That zombie-faced bastard had opened the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. As a Dao Transformation Pill Sage, he had naturally heard that the Illusionary Fruit Orchard had a legendary thirteenth gate. Now that Dou Jiangshi opened the thirteenth gate, it turned that rumour about it into a fact.

Something’s not right. Eleven doors were left unopened when Jing Han opened his gate to the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. In other words, Dou Jiangshi had indeed gone in before him, but it was only one of the twelve gates. When did that zombie-faced bastard open the thirteenth gate?

Dou Jiangshi’s zombie face already looked stiff, but it turned even more rigid after hearing Le Jiesheng’s words. He quickly reacted and spoke up with a slightly confused voice. “I was the first to enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, but I opened only one of the twelve gates, right?”

Immediately, he asked in a startled voice, “Did you say someone opened the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard?”

Silence once again returned to the guest hall. If Dou Jiangshi and Jing Han didn’t open the thirteenth gate, the only possibility left was Lei Shamu.

The crowd had just thought of Lei Shamu when he was teleported out and landed in the middle of the great hall.

Despite a warm greeting, Lei Shamu didn’t feel special about entering the fourth level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. What was the Illusionary Fruit Orchard? It was a place where dao fruits grew abundantly. Even if he didn’t count what he used up to enter the fourth level from the third level, he still had obtained nearly a hundred dao fruits.

He naturally didn’t need so many dao fruits, which meant exchanging them for other resources.

However, Lei Shamu quickly felt confused about why everyone showed so much enthusiasm towards him. Asking around, he finally found the answer and asked with even more surprise and confusion, “Someone entered the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard?”

Lei Shamu’s words made it clear that neither he, Jing Han, nor Dou Jiangshi opened the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. So, who opened the thirteenth gate to the Illusionary Fruit Orchard? The eyes of the crowd immediately fell on the eight people who came out first.

“Maybe there was a problem with the crystal screen?” A holy emperor spoke up in doubt.

Someone immediately refuted his words. “There is absolutely no way the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s crystal screen could have made a mistake. A total of eleven alchemists had entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard this time. But there are still two doors left unopened of the twelve gates leading to the first level. It shows that there is one person who didn’t enter through one of the twelve gates to the first level.”

Many people’s eyes swept out towards Ning Cheng. Although Ning Cheng was only a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity, he was the most suspicious person. That’s because Ning Cheng possessed the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill and was also brothers with the Pill Union’s Sheng Houtian.

Several people’s eyes also shifted to the two Dao Raising Pill Sages who had come out earlier. The two Dao Raising Pill Sages didn’t even wait for anyone to ask before taking the initiative to come forward and deny entering through the thirteenth gate.

The rest of the people also quickly stood up and came forward to deny entering the Illusionary Fruit Orchard through the thirteenth gate. By now, only two people remained who didn’t deny it, Jian Sanshan and Ning Cheng.

Jian Sanshan didn’t stand up because he had already guessed that the one who opened the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s thirteenth gate was Ning Cheng. It wasn’t surprising for a person who could help him in mid-refinement and still refine a batch of top-quality Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills to open the thirteenth gate.

Ning Cheng had long since known that there wouldn’t be any way to hide this matter. Besides, him being a Dao Transformation Pill Sage would come out sooner or later. Plus, even if all the alchemists here didn’t deny it, he couldn’t leave. It was also why he made some preparations and announced in advance that he had obtained some precious spirit grasses. Now that all eyes focussed on him, he immediately sent out a sound transmission to Jiang Sanshan, asking him to come forward and deny it.

Jian Sanshan listened to Ning Cheng’s sound transmission and quickly stood up to deny entering the thirteenth gate.

Ning Cheng laughed after Jian Sanshan denial. “It couldn’t be that I entered the legendary thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, could it? I was in a daze when I entered and got teleported out quite quickly. But I did indeed get some rare spirit grasses.”

It wasn’t an outright denial, nor was it an admission. This kind of thing, even if everyone else knew that he was the one who entered the thirteenth gate, he would never come forward to claim it. Having cultivated to this day, he had seen too many people who tried to take advantage of him using force and threats. In any case, just the suspicion of him opening the thirteenth gate was more than enough for other people to form plans to grab him. But as long as he didn’t admit it, these people would have to take the time to find a reasonable excuse, even if they wanted to capture him.

“Hehe, Brother Ning, is that the truth? I’m afraid it’s a little difficult to open the thirteenth gate with your alchemy level. Perhaps someone else entered the thirteenth gate but didn’t dare come forward to admit it.” A harsh-sounding voice came out.

Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel a bit happy internally when he heard those words. Even if this person wanted to ridicule him or speak out based on logic, he didn’t care; those words helped his case.

“Haha, what Brother Percy said does make sense. I may not have opened the thirteenth gate, but I did obtain some precious spirit grasses. In any case, I’ve already decided to trade them all.” Ning Cheng laughed and cupped his fists towards Percy, who most likely wanted to help him.

Everyone else couldn’t help but feel weird in their hearts. Whether Ning Cheng admitted it or not, it should be Ning Cheng who entered the thirteenth gate.

The anger in Le Jiesheng’s heart was now starting to overflow. If he knew that Ning Cheng could open the thirteenth gate, he would never let Ning Cheng keep all the spirit herbs even if he received more benefits.

Le Jiesheng looked at the rest of the holy emperors in the great hall. He wanted very much for someone to stand out at this time and make Ning Cheng hand over the spirit herbs. Unfortunately, none stood up; most were even greeting Ning Cheng and trying to strike up a friendship.

Ning Cheng’s words had worked, especially about him wanting to trade all the spirit herbs he obtained.

Jing Han’s expressions turned increasingly ugly. He realised that he had underestimated Ning Cheng too much. This bastard had hidden himself even deeper than Dou Jiangshi.

“City Lord Le, the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, has now closed. Let’s announce the start of the spirit herb exchange. Everyone is quite anxious about it.” Seeing that Le Jiesheng was late with the announcement, Holy Emperor Extreme Void stepped forward to speak.

Le Jiesheng quickly put a smile over his face and said, “Yes, yes. I was just too happy about this development and ended up delaying things.”

As he spoke, Le Jiesheng raised his hand and collected the two formation flags, and the crystal screen in the middle of the screen disappeared without a trace. The hall already occupied a significant area, so it became even more prominent when the crystal screen disappeared.

“Pill Sage Ning, I’m Cen Ruxuan from Grand Essence Sea’s Profound Aquatic Palace. I saw someone refine the Harmony Bodhisattva Pill and the Nine-Orifices Heart Pill earlier. I wonder if you were the one who refined them, Pill Sage Ning?” A pretty looking female cultivator stood up, clasped her fists towards Ning Cheng and asked. She even bowed towards him and gave him a respectful salute.

The Grand Essence Sea’s Profound Aquatic Palace was one of the top ten forces in the Grand Essence Domain. Therefore, when Cen Ruxuan, a Dao Essence expert, showed so much politeness to Ning Cheng, everyone understood that she wanted to ask Ning Cheng for something.

Ning Cheng smiled, “I only reached the second level before I got teleported out.”

Ning Cheng’s meaning was obvious. He had only reached the second level, so how could he have gone on to refine the Harmony Bodhisattva Pill or the Nine-Orifices Heart Pill?

When Cen Ruoxuan heard Ning Cheng’s words, her heart sank, and she suddenly regretted it a little. She regretted that she shouldn’t have asked Ning Cheng this question right now. Even if she wanted to ask Ning Cheng about it, she should have waited until no one was around. The spirit grass needed to refine the Harmony Bodhisattva Pill was the Bodhisattva Dust Lotus, an extinct spirit grass that one simply couldn’t purchase. So, why would Ning Cheng admit to it? If Ning Cheng had accepted it, he wouldn’t have been so vague about opening the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard earlier.

She could only blame it on her eagerness and forgot about showing patience when needed.

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