Chapter 2159.2: Saint? Saaaaaint?

“Lu Xuan, confine his cultivation for me!” Lu Yun yelled, drawing a blank stare from his guard.

Confine the opponent’s cultivation? He knew how to kill people, but confine their cultivation?

He didn’t know how!

But before he could do anything, he saw Ouyang Shengmu stiffen, like he was a wooden log. Face contorted in a fiendish grin, Lu Yun pressed his palm on Ouyang Shengmu’s dantian.

Pfft!

Ouyang Shengmu spat out a mouthful of blood amid a look of incredulity. His dantian had been shattered and his meridians crumbled from the impact of Lu Yun’s savage blow! He was in the same ghastly condition that Lu Yun had been three months ago!

Yuwen Chenghu, Yu Shuai, and Zhao Chenguang paused with shock.

The four children of Ouyang Baitian were renewed throughout Darklake. Even the least accomplished Ouyang Shenghe was a latter formation establishment cultivator. Ouyang Shengmu was already peak formation establishment, one step away from golden core. But Lu Yun had just crippled him!

Ouyang Shengmu might have a chance to recover if he came in possession of a miracle pill like the Nineturns Profound Life Pill, but those were impossible to find, even with money. Lu Tianling had rendered such services to the empire and had only one grandson. That was why the emperor had bequeathed him a pill.

But for the Ouyangs, they had Ouyang Shengtian, Ouyang Shenghe, and Ouyang Shengxiang to carry on the family name. It didn’t matter that Ouyang Shengmu was out of the picture.

Additionally, it was likely that the imperial family didn’t have a second pill to give.

“Y-y-y-y-you, Lu Yun, you crippled Ouyang Shengmu! Do you have a death wish?! Do you know the disaster you’ve created for yourself?? The Ouyangs will not forgive you for this!” Yuwen Chenghu gasped when he saw Ouyang Shengmu gurgle bloody foam.

“Won’t forgive me?” Lu Yun tilted his head to the side without a care in the world. “So what? This young master dares touch even Ouyang Shengxiang. Who cares about an Ouyang Shengmu? So he’s crippled. If you keep running your mouth, I’ll have you join him…”

Violence brewed from his bones. Cripple Ouyang Shengmu? How dare the idiot go by the name of Shengmu?! That was the same pronunciation as the characters for saint! Is he mocking me with that name?!

No, wait, when did the scourge of the capital turn into a saint?

Lu Yun shook his head rapidly, still quite irritated by the name. And why did the idiot have to be named Ouyang?!

Ouyang…

Yuwen Chenghu shuddered, subconsciously glancing at the ramrod straight Lu Xuan standing behind Lu Yun. He turned on his heel and left without a word.

Lu Yun shook and nearly fell to the ground. Yu Shuai and Zhao Chenguang quickly helped him up.

“Are you alright, Lu Yun?” Zhao Chenguang asked.

“I’m fine, just not fully recovered from my injuries yet. I’ll be fine with a bit of rest,” Lu Yun waved them off.

“Young masters, you’ve destroyed three private rooms with your fight. Are you going to just leave after the deed?” The restaurant’s grand steward appeared again.

“Didn’t the one on the floor say that he’ll pay ten times over for whatever breaks? Send him the bill,” Lu Yun huffed with a sideways glance at the man.

……

After departing Immortal Gathering, Lu Yun went straight home with Lu Xuan. The Lu servants knew that their ashen-faced young master had come off worse for the wear after an encounter with others and didn’t dare get on the baleful young man’s bad side.

“Lu Xuan, stand guard at the door. Don’t let anyone in before I come out!” Lu Yun panted. His guard stood silently at the door, as expressionless as always.

Lu Yun took out five upper rank spirit stones and waved them into the void. They transformed into a miniature Five Elements Exclusion Formation that isolated the room’s energy ripples from the outside.

He took out another upper rank spirit stone and gripped it, silently replenishing some of the Hongmeng true qi that had been depleted.

Lu Yun had consecutively deployed Petrification today in order to kill four golden core powerhouses and crippled two foundation establishment cultivators. Unfortunately, it resulted in his remarkable stores of energy being consumed.

The limits of Petrification were significant. Although it could freeze cultivators two realms higher than him, it consumed his Hongmeng true qi at a pace that could only be described as colossal.

Hongmeng true qi is used up pretty quickly… Hellfire is way more useful.

“Eh? What’s hellfire?” Lu Yun blinked as the question flashed through his mind. It was quickly suppressed by his subconsciousness and he didn’t dare think further.

He closed his eyes to meditate, slightly recovering his store of Hongmeng qi after four hours.

“Time to see what I got today.” He eagerly took out three storage rings from his own—they were from the general manager of the Lingtian Pill Pavilion, the Ling family steward, and Ouyang Shengmu.

These three occupied high positions in their families and as such, there were quite a few treasures in their rings. Lu Yun erased their owner brands and emptied them of their contents, filling his meditation chamber with a dazzling assortment of glittering, twinkling magnificence.

A myriad of spirit medicines, pills, ores, ingredients, and spirit stones piled up in his room. Just the fortune held in the three rings eclipsed the Lu Clan’s former family wealth by more than ten times.

“Hmm? The fourth rank Grand Unity Pill?” Lu Yun discovered with surprise when he opened a jade bottle and sniffed the dense fragrance emanating from it. “But there’s an additional ingredient of Extreme Flame Grass in it, so it’s actually a poison pill…”

His expression darkened.

The Grand Unity Pill was a fourth rank pill that replenished qi and healed internal injuries. Since Lu Tianling had exhausted his nascent soul and was beset with internal injuries, he needed a pill like this the most.

However, the one from the Lingtian Pill Pavilion was a poison pill! It would heal his injuries in the short term if he took it, but once he used too much internal force, he would shatter all of his meridians.

Lu Yun had stood at the peak of the four supplemental daos at different times in his journey through the three thousand worlds. He constantly innovated and defined new disciplines. The sabotage within a mere fourth rank pill wouldn’t escape his eyes.

Although he didn’t know what the Ling Clan had planned, he was well aware that this poison pill would eventually make it into his grandfather’s hands!

But… wasn’t formula dao the king of supplemental dao?

Huh? What’s formula dao?

Lu Yun blinked when a new thought entered his mind, one that was swiftly destroyed with a rumble.

A certain heavenly dao: Formula dao cannot appear in this era! If it does, what will you utilize in the future?? You would be boxed in by the will of nothing from day one!

“It looks like there’s no use for the Immortal Talisman of Water and Sky that I spent all of my effort etching yesterday. The Grand Unity Pill is far more valuable than it.” A smile curved his lips as Lu Yun rifled through a heap of spirit herbs and medicine.

“As precious as Skystar Grass and Nineleaves Root are, they’re not rare. But there’s none here…?” He frowned slightly. “Oh, right. Yu Shuai gave me a chest of ingredients today.” He summoned the chest back out with a wave of his hand. Throwing the lid back, Lu Yun scanned the tall pile of spirit herbs within.

“Skystar Grass, Nineleaves Root!” He brightened. “The Grand Unity Pill, Extreme Flame Grass, Skystar Grass, and Nineleaves Root can be combined to create the medicinal properties of the ninth rank spirit grass—Violet Orchid Ganoderma!”

Medicinal properties reformation.

In Lu Yun’s eyes, other than the mythical spirit roots of legend, he could recreate the medicinal properties of any immortal pill or grass so long as he had sufficient ingredients. He could do so even with much lower level components.

In the three thousand worlds, he once used the lowliest spirit herbs to recreate the effects of a legendary immortal pill. Far from being limited to pills and medicines, his skills extended to crafting high level talismans, treasures, and formations from lower level inputs as well.

“I think there’s more to this… When I traveled through the three thousand worlds, it felt like I knew all of this to begin with. But when did I learn everything?” Lu Yun tilted his head to the side, unable to come to an answer.

He waved out a small pill cauldron from one of the storage rings—formerly the possession of the golden core general manager of Lingtian Pill Pavilion. Given his place of residence, he was naturally practiced in refining pills.

As it’d been three months since the pill pavilion’s opening, they’d yet to build rooms dedicated to pill refinement. Thus, the general manager carried a pill cauldron on him—a habit that benefited Lu Yun handsomely.

He tossed a handful of spirit herbs into the pill cauldron and set them on fire with a hand seal. He lacked an internal fire of his own as his cultivation was only seven levels qi refinement. Thus, he could only use external fires to refine his pills.

However, he was likely the only one in the entire cultivation world who would use spirit herbs as fuel for his refinement flame!

His hands continued to flicker through seals as the fire blazed. When the cauldron stabilized at the appropriate temperature, he tossed in the Grand Unity Pill, Skystar Grass, and Nineleaf Root. Hongmeng qi swept out of his body and entered the pill cauldron through his hand.

……

Lu Tianling’s residence.

Lu Tianling frowned as he read the report from a subordinate.

“What do you make of it, Old He?” He handed a jade slip to He Wuheng—it contained a detailed recounting of Lu Yun’s dealings of the day.

He Wuheng had fully recovered from his injuries after refining the Nineturns Profound Life Pill. He would return to his former cultivation given enough time and reach even further.

“The young master’s cultivation has fully recovered. Even this old servant needs some time to recover after refining the Nineturns Profound Life Pill…” He Wuheng paused.

Lu Tianling nodded wordlessly.

“The Nineturns Profound Life Pill is a spirit pill beyond ninth rank. But a spirit pill cannot restore a crippled cultivator to their former strength within two days,” the old servant concluded. “However, the young master’s change in personality is the key!” A keen light shone in his eyes. “What seemed to be preposterous speech just so happened to jab at the listener’s weak spot. It flustered and discomfited Ouyang Shengmu, throwing him off balance.”

Lu Yun had fallen into an Ouyang scheme three months ago and spent three months in bed. Lu Tianling had exhausted the family fortune to save his grandson’s life, so how could he not take some precautions after the fact?

Everything that Lu Yun had committed was done under Lu Tianling’s watchful eye.

“The flame fruit vendor… wasn’t a coincidence. The young master knew who he was targeting.” Being Lu Tianling’s right hand man both on and off the battlefield, He Wuheng possessed equal parts valor and intelligence. He was no simple steward.