Chapter 1386 - 1386: Yuan Guang's Speculation

The Daoist Venerables who had been a bit excited before all cooled down.

Yuan Guang Daoist Saint's words, if you think them through carefully, are downright terrifying.

"Why would he do that?"

"What's his intention?"

The answer now seemed painfully obvious.

"Could this be a bait-and-switch scam?"

"Or is it just to cheat us out of materials and rob us of our assets?"

"Ahem!"

Sitting in the chief seat, Gong Qing had no choice but to lightly clear her throat.

"The Supreme Palace Master would never stoop to such despicable things."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, with a hint of displeasure.

"To speculate about him so maliciously—you are violating Sect rules!"

Only then did the Elders shut their mouths.

But what they thought in their hearts, that was something no one could control.

Besides, Yuan Guang Daoist Saint had not shut his mouth.

He was like an old detective who'd lived for hundreds of billions of years, teasing out one suspicious point after another.

"Why did he choose to help Outer Disciples with Alchemy?"

"Why not help Inner Sect Disciples with better Talent?"

"Why not help the True Disciples who are the future pillars of the Sect?"

His gaze slowly swept over everyone's face present.

"Why… is it specifically the Outer Sect?"

Someone finally 'caught on'.

"You mean… he only knows how to refine Emperor Pills below Sixth-grade?"

"So that's why he deliberately picked the East Pole Institute in the Outer Sect?"

"Every abnormal point suddenly has an explanation."

"So this is the real truth."

Yuan Guang lowered his eyes and stilled his mind, like a swordsman sheathing his blade after a strike.

"I never said that. I merely raised a few questions."

As for how your thoughts branch out—that's up to you.

The effect of his words was immediate.

Except for Daoist Venerables like Bone King and Corpse King, who didn't need Pills and weren't interested, all the others once again dropped the idea of asking Jiang Cheng to do Alchemy for them.

They did not want to 'be fooled'.

As for those Outer Disciples of the East Pole Institute whose materials had already been 'cheated away'… they could only pray for themselves.

Jiang Cheng's combat strength was right there for all to see, and he was moreover the Supreme Palace Master of the Ice Palace.

They might gossip in private, but none of them dared go in front of him and ask him to give the materials back.

They could only sigh one after another that with this stunt, the Outer Sect of the Ice Palace was going to suffer a serious crisis of morale.

After these Daoist Venerables went back, they very quickly rejected all Alchemy requests from Inner Sect Disciples and Outer Sect Elders.

They also did not dare openly spread that Jiang Taishang was out to cheat materials.

After all, the battle record of the 'Invincible Daoist Saint' still carried heavy deterrence.

Each of them spoke vaguely, saying to wait and see, to see whether the Supreme Palace Master could really refine materials for more than three hundred thousand people.

Hearing them say that, others also started to feel it didn't sound very plausible.

In the past, even with so many Pill Masters in the Celestial Pill Department, they still couldn't keep up with demand.

Now there was only Jiang Taishang alone. How could he possibly handle it?

Maybe… just wait and see?

In the end, what was delivered into Jiang Cheng's hands were only the materials from the 320,000 Outer Disciples and Steward Elders of the East Pole Institute.

"How come it's just this little?"

Hearing this, Gong Qing, who had personally brought the materials over, truly didn't know what to say.

Everyone outside is saying there's so much that you couldn't possibly finish refining it, and you're complaining it's too little?

Do you have any idea what the materials of 320,000 people means?

"These materials are already a lot."

Don't be fooled by it being just a single Storage Ring; once opened, it would be enough to gather into a small lake.

Just imagining it made one's scalp go numb.

"What about the others?"

No matter how little Brother Cheng cared about management, he still knew the basic structure of his Sect; the Outer Sect had four large regions, so what about the other three regions?

And the Inner Sect?

And the Daoist Venerable Elders?

Gong Qing couldn't very well plainly say that everyone suspected him of cheating materials, so she could only be euphemistic.

"Everyone is afraid you'd exhaust yourself too much, so…"

Hearing this, Brother Cheng smiled wryly.

"Are you trying to coax me like I'm a three-year-old? Since when did the ethos of the Cultivation Realm become this modest and pure-hearted?"

He could more or less guess what had happened.

But he didn't really care.

After all, the System Refining Technique was real.

"Alright, you can withdraw for now. Once this batch of Pills is done, I'll notify you to come collect them."

With that, he closed the hall doors and began to 'busy himself'.

Outside, Gong Qing was a bit worried.

Could this batch of Pills really be finished?

Even with her understanding of Jiang Cheng, she still couldn't judge his intentions this time.

Back in the days of roaming the Ice Realm with Lord Jiang, she had seen plenty of scenes of looting spoils of war.

That really was all kinds of extortion, gambling, robbing—using every trick in the book; you could practically compile a textbook for the Evil Immortal Realm out of it.

But on the other hand, his targets had always been enemies; he'd never really eaten the grass by his own nest.

She could only hope he would stick to the same principles as back then.

As for when those 320,000 sets of materials would be finished?

In her estimation, not even a few billion years would be enough.

The wear and tear of Alchemy was no less than a fierce battle; after finishing one furnace you'd have to rest for a while, it's impossible to keep going non-stop.

This was going to be a huge, long-term project!

And once enough time passed, certain suspicions from the Inner and Outer Sects would begin to surface.

If finished Pills did not show up for a long time, the speculation that the mighty Supreme Palace Master had cheated the Outer Disciples of their materials would gradually be taken as truth.

The negative impact of that would be immeasurable.

By then, even if no one dared confront the Daoist Saint face to face to 'seek justice', the Ice Palace's morale would definitely crumble.

Gong Qing's gaze was always far-sighted.

Imagining those scenes that might unfold in the future, she couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

The direction of events really did seem to be developing exactly as she had feared.

After Jiang Cheng shut the hall doors, there was no sign of them opening again.

During this period, the entire Ice Palace was watching that grand hall at the very top, closely monitoring this grand Alchemy project.

For a whole month, they did not see a single bottle of finished Pills sent out.

What did that mean?

Among the million disciples of the Inner and Outer Sects, some finally couldn't help but start discussing in private.

"Could he really have cheated them out of materials?"

"He's a Daoist Saint, after all. Surely not?"

"They say the Supreme Palace Master's Alchemy Speed is very fast—he can refine a furnace of Sixth-grade Emperor Pills in a single day."

"Now that a month has passed, he should at least be able to take out three to five bottles of finished Pills."

"Yeah, even accounting for a failure rate, it's impossible that we haven't seen a single bottle."

"There should at least be one or two finished pills, right? With absolutely nothing, what's going on?"

"Those materials are like stones dropped into the sea."

"Those poor East Pole Institute disciples…"

"They've been swindled badly this time, losing everything!"

Once these comments sparked, they quickly spread like wildfire.

Even among the hundreds of thousands of Outer Disciples who'd met Jiang Cheng that day, many began to feel uncertain.

Had they really been duped?

Their fretting didn't last long.

Because on the fortieth day after they'd sent in the materials, the grand hall where Jiang Taishang resided finally swung its doors wide open.

Upon receiving the notification, Gong Qing rushed over immediately.

Before she could even ask, Jiang Cheng handed her a Storage Ring.

"This batch is finished, everything's inside. Distribute it according to the registered names and quantities."