Transcending the Nine Heavens

Past midnight, a bright moon in the sky.

The courtyard of Diwi Qingrou was surrounded by the Supreme Martial Artist’s divine senses, securing the place tightly and closely.

“Are all the preparations ready?” Diwu Qingrou asked softly.

In front of him, the elder nodded and said, “Yes, everything is ready.”

“Well, the qualification trials for the Medicine Banquet begins tomorrow.” Diwu Qingrou appeared deep in profound thoughts and said, “How’s the response amongst the various clans?”

The elder laughed and said, “Except for the local Zhuge Clan, the Chen Clan and the Li Clan, all the other clans are restless and ready to take actions. Specifically, on the news of the Holy Tribe Elder, they all appeared to be really interested.”

“That’s good.” Diwu Qingrou gently smiled and said, “It may not be true that Chen Clan is uninterested in the news, but rather, they may have been forced to be low profile about it due to the circumstances. They have already lost many of their members during the fight with the Feng Yue couple.”

“Therefore, they might feel that they cannot afford any further loss.”

“However, once the matter grows out of hand, the Chen Clan is bound to take action! Even if they don’t, others will come to make trouble for them.”

Diwu Qingrou gently smiled.

“And the Li Clan now is unstable within. Even if they do not snatch it, the others will not let them go. Therefore… the Li Clan will take action as well.”

The elder said, “Yes, the situation has all panned out nicely. It is as good as saying that the opera stage has already been set up and now, just waiting for the actors to come up on stage to start singing.”

Diwu Qingrou chuckled and said, “That’s right. My main job is to set up this opera stage. We do not need to bother about other things. Just quietly waiting at one side will do.”

“Just setting the stage and not singing?” The elder was startled. He could not help but frown, and reminded, “Qingrou, you are wrong. Although they have all been lured in already, it will still require an igniter fuse. Even if it has the potential to become a prairie fire, it will still require a single spark to ignite.”

“This is not wrong. However, this single spark must never start from my hands. If it were to start from us, it would only engulf the entire Diwu Clan and destroy us completely. This way, even though the plan is a success, there is not a single advantage to us, but rather, all the benefits go to others.”

Diwu Qingrou has a mysterious smiley intent on his face.

“This, I do not understand. Who can replace us?” The elder racked his brains but to no avail.

“If I did not miscalculate, that person has already planted the ignitor fuse. What he needs now is for us to set the stage for it. That’s all.”

Diwu Qingrou’s eyes flashed. He said, “Once the news of our completion of the stage is disseminated, it will be the start of an endless battle. The Nine Super Clans will be sure to fight amongst themselves into a huge mess.”

The elder blinked with perplexity. He had absolutely no idea what Diwu Qingrou was talking about.

The elder thought, ‘Allies?’

‘But, I had always been beside Qingrou, how could I not have discovered it?’

“My dear granduncle, if I didn’t remember wrongly, in another ten more days, the ninth day of the lunar 12th month, which is also the last day of the Medicine Banquet preliminaries. That should be the birthday of big brother, right?” Diwu Qingrou smiled mysteriously.

“Yes, you are right. It’s rare that you can still remember.” The elder chuckled.

“Big brother is almost 60 years of age. Yet, he has never had a good birthday celebration…” Diwu Qingrou sighed and said, “This time, let me the younger brother organize a great celebration for him.”

The elder became even more confused.

The elder thought, ‘We were just talking about proper business matters, why is it suddenly about birthday celebrations?’

‘This change in topic is too big, isn’t it?’

In deep thoughts, Diwu Qingrou said, “Tomorrow, you shall disseminate the news, announcing that Diwu Clan will reserve the entire Shui Yue Garden, to hold a 60th birthday celebration for my big brother Diwu Qingkuang!”

“What?” The elder was stunned.

The elder thought, ‘I had already lived over a few thousand years. Yet, I had never had such a grand birthday celebration. Your big brother is only 60 years of age and he is actually having such a grand celebration?’

“In addition, for my big brother’s 60th birthday celebration, I, Diwu Qingrou, shall foot the entirety of all expenses.” Diwu Qingrou added more seriousness to his voice and said, “This sentence, please be sure to disseminate out, to further emphasize our brotherly love.”

“The entirety of all expenses?” the elder was shocked, and said, “This will not be a small sum.”

“I can still afford this bit of purple crystals.” Diwu Qingrou said nonchalantly, “Furthermore, this sum will be paid by the clan.”

“Paid by the clan?” The elder almost fainted from the confusion. He said, “Paid by the clan, but under your name?”

“That is obvious!” said Diwu Qingrou without any sense of guilt.

“Ah… I am really fainting… what exactly is going on?” asked the elder, while he covered his forehead in deep thoughts, appearing a little giddy from the confusion.

“Furthermore, the celebration must be as grand as possible.” Diwu Qingrou continued to say, “During that time, we would invite an opera troupe, to stage an opera show. Therefore, from tomorrow onwards, we would begin to prepare the stage.”

“To stage an opera? Such grand celebration?” said the elder with some dizziness.

“Of course! That is the 60th birthday celebration!” Diwu Qingrou waved his hands and said, “This will be it for this celebration. From tomorrow onwards, start to disseminate this news and to invite our guests and friends. When the time comes, we shall be watching the opera from Shui Yue Garden.”

Seeing that the elder was persistent and wanted to continue his questions, Diwu Qingrou frowned. He sighed deeply and said, “You do not need to understand the reason for this! You just have to do what I said, that’s good enough!”

“Okay.”

The elder agreed to it, even though he was still in a state of confusion.

“Do not forget to widely disseminate the information that all these are paid for by me!” Diwu Qingrou reminded once again, as he was uncertain if the elder would forget about it.

“Okay.”

The elder agreed to it and left.

Diwu Qingrou watched his back as he left. He could not help but feel a headache as he frowned his forehead. He sighed and said, “So tired.”

…

It was a mess within Tianji City, starting from the dawn of the second day. It almost seemed like a pot of porridge, that was gradually boiling as time passed and the sky became brighter.

Chu Yang ended his meditation, with breathing and the process of enlightenment. He stood up with only a small bag from the Nine Tribulations Space and was ready to go out with it.

The voice of Zi Xieqing came from next door. She said, “I will not accompany you over today. Today is the most important day of Le’er’s reborn process. I want to stay to guard her in case of any emergencies.”

“Okay.”

Chu Yang agreed.

At this moment, someone asked aloud, “Brother Chu, have you finished your preparations?”

That was the voice of Han Xiaoran.

“Yes, I’m all done,” answered Chu Yang as he walked towards the gates of Orchard Palace. As he opened it, he was astonished to see Han Xiaoran dressed in a neat and tidy black robe, standing with his hands behind his back, nodding and smiling at him.

“Today is the first day of the Medicine Banquet. Let me bring you there and enter the preliminaries together.” Han Xiaoran said and gave a smile.

“Alright.” Chu Yang laughed.

“Little brother, this first round of the preliminaries is a competition of heavenly treasure. Nothing ingenious about it! Are you prepared for it?” Han Xiaoran asked, “If you have no confidence, then the 5000-year-old Blood Lingzhi that I brought along should be sufficient.”

“I have already prepared for myself.” Chu Yang smiled and said, “And, I have prepared one for you as well.”

“Prepared one for me?” Han Xiaoran replied strangely with his eyes wide open.

“I have gotten two red fruit. I shall use one of it as a prerequisite to enter the Medicine Banquet proper. The other will be for you to consume. While it may not cure you completely, it can make you feel much better after consumption. Furthermore, the effects of this red fruit are longer lasting than others.” Chu Yang said while smiling gently.

Han Xiaoran shook his head in disapproval and said, “My brother, I’m not trying to be a wet blanket, but you’re oversimplifying this Medicine Banquet. There are at least a few ten thousands of Pharmacists gathered here and since they dared to attend this Medicine Banquet, would they not have a rare treasure on hand? A mere red fruit would be tough to get you an entry ticket into the Medicine Banquet proper.”

“It is naturally impossible with a normal red fruit, but what about a black-blooded red fruit?” Chu Yang smiled mysteriously and said, “I obtained this red fruit from the midst of the black blood forest.”

“Black… Black-blooded red fruit?” Han Xiaoran was suddenly dumbfounded.

The lands within the Black Blood Forest was at least a hundred times harder than outside. Therefore, the Panacea that grew within was definitely worth a hundred times or more as compared to those grown outside.

Furthermore, a black-blooded red fruit was definitely not something that could be bought with money alone!

A typical heavenly treasure and definitely a top-class one.

A normal red fruit took minimally a 100 years to grow before it could bore fruit, with an additional 50 years before it ripened into a red fruit. A total of 150 years!

However, this was definitely not the same within the Black Blood Forest.

In other words, within the Black Blood Forest, the duration would be 100 times longer, before the red fruit would mature!

That’s to say, 15,000 years!

However, 15,000 years within the Black Blood Forest versus that of the outside world… how could it be compared? It would be just like Heaven and Earth.

“You obtained the black-blooded red fruit?” Han Xiaoran suddenly thought of the route that Chu Yang took along the way and said, “You did not take the specific path from Xiao Clan, but came through from the Black Blood Forest?”

“There was a specific path from Xiao Clan?” Chu Yang was confused for a moment.

Han Xiaoran was stunned. The two looked at each other in dismay and smiled bitterly.

“You are really daring. Coming through from the Black Blood Forest…” Han Xiaoran shook his head and sighed. “Furthermore, you managed to obtain the black-blood red fruit. Your luck is really great.”

“Haha.” Chu Yang laughed and said, “And it’s not just a typical black-blooded red fruit, but a top-class exquisite snow red fruit.”

Han Xiaoran stared vehemently and said, “Exquisite snow red fruit?”

Chu Yang smiled and took out a purple crystal box from within his bag. He threw the box over and said, “Brother Han, this fruit took over 15,000 years to grow, hurry, eat some of it.”

Han Xiaoran caught the box hurriedly with a moment of panic. He said, “This is a Heavenly Treasure that took 15,000 years to grow and you just threw it like this? Such pain.”

Chu Yang replied indifferently, “What about this? I threw it over and it’s already yours, not mine. Even if it’s dropped and broken, that would still be yours. What would I be unwilling?”

Han Xiaoran’s lips twitched a little, feeling some anger within but could do or say nothing about it.

This red fruit was something that Chu Yang took from the red fruit tree which he obtained within the Black Blood Forest. A bunch of it has a total of 36 fruits. Chu Yang merely took out 2 of it. What was there to be distressed about?

When Chu Yang first obtained the red fruit tree, the fruits were still green in color. However, after he entered the Nine Tribulations Space with it, the Sword Spirit very quickly catalyzed the maturing process using the special nature of the Nine Tribulations Space.

Han Xiaoran said with a bit of a heartache, “This is only the preliminaries of the Medicine Banquet and using this great treasure that defies all natural order, isn’t it a little extravagant, a little too wasteful…”