Chapter 149: Are You Kidding Me

Chu Tianfeng knew nothing of this.

After traveling for many days, they finally approached the edge of the marsh. The small pools of water gradually disappeared, replaced by a faint, wispy white mist.

Following a brief discussion, the group decided to rest for a while and wait to rendezvous with Du Renzhi and the others before entering the misty region.

With nothing else to do, Chu Tianfeng slipped away to a secluded spot and immersed himself in the study of array formations. In his past life, he had been a venerable upper-grade array master, and his attainments in the field were naturally extraordinary. However, constrained by his current low cultivation level, even after five days of diligent effort, he had only managed to restore his skills to the level of a lower-grade array master.

That afternoon, concluding his daily study of array formations as usual, Chu Tianfeng returned to the camp.

When he was still over a hundred meters away from the campsite, he noticed a few more familiar figures had arrived. They were Du Renzhi, Feng Piaopiao, and Long Yuanhua, alongside the two elderly martial artists from the Mount Hua Sect and the Qingcheng Sect.

"Chu Tianfeng, was it you who killed the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect?" The square-faced elder demanded angrily the moment he caught sight of Chu Tianfeng, rushing forward aggressively.

Chu Tianfeng paused slightly and asked, "Which disciples?"

"Which disciples?" The square-faced elder glared at him with bitter hatred. "Chu Tianfeng, the matter at the Li Family Boundary is still unsettled, and now you've added another blood debt to the ledger between us."

What on earth was going on? Chu Tianfeng looked toward Du Jingjing and the others, only to find them looking equally bewildered.

"On our way back, we ran into a few rogue martial artists who claimed they saw with their own eyes that you killed Liu Shaocheng and three others from the Mount Hua Sect," Du Renzhi said, walking up slowly and lowering his voice near his ear.

"Absurd," Chu Tianfeng said with a cold laugh. "I might have wanted to kill them, but unfortunately, I don't even know them."

In truth, even if he had known them, he wouldn't have bothered. Chu Tianfeng was not a man prone to wanton slaughter; unless strictly necessary, he preferred not to decide the life and death of others on a whim.

"Hmph! So many people witnessed it, don't even think about denying it." The square-faced elder persisted relentlessly, nagging on and on.

A sharp gaze swept across the square-faced elder's face from Chu Tianfeng. "I suggest you stay well out of sight tonight, or I won't mind giving you a taste of my sword and poking a few holes in you."

"You—" The square-faced elder was choked with rage. He had the urge to charge forward and fight Chu Tianfeng to the death, but the mere thought of Chu Tianfeng's terrifying combat prowess inevitably sapped his courage.

With a cold snort, Chu Tianfeng strode past him and walked straight toward Feng Piaopiao.

"Senior Feng, your daughter owes me one thousand five hundred vital energy stones. You must be aware of that, right?" His tone was exceedingly mild and polite.

As the saying went, the debtor was the master—no, this time it had turned into the debtor's mother! Polite or not, he had no choice!

"Oh, I am aware." To his surprise, Feng Piaopiao looked at him with lingering resentment as well. "Why don't you explain to me first why it's neither more nor less, but precisely one thousand five hundred?"

"Uh..." Chu Tianfeng's eyelids twitched. "To be precise, it's one thousand five hundred and thirty. Those three lasses of yours ate three of my medicinal pills afterward."

"Good grief!" Feng Mingxue, standing nearby, was the first to scoff. "Two of those pills should count toward my commission."

Feng Piaopiao glanced at Feng Mingxue and the other two young women beside her, then turned back to Chu Tianfeng. "Let's leave those three pills aside for the moment and settle this matter of the one thousand five hundred first."

"Very well." Chu Tianfeng spread his palms and said with a straight face, "Originally, I intended to sell that medicinal ointment for three thousand vital energy stones. Considering that we are acquaintances, I gave you a ten percent discount; otherwise, you would owe me eighteen hundred, not fifteen hundred."

Long Yue, Du Jingjing, and the others couldn't help but giggle softly.

"Chu Tianfeng, has anyone ever told you that with an attitude like yours, you'll never find a wife?" Feng Piaopiao asked, pushed to her absolute limit.

Chu Tianfeng couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Senior Feng can rest assured, I have no plans to find a wife anytime soon."

Indeed, his heart held only Qianling; he had little romantic inclination toward any other woman. Though Du Jingjing would occasionally drift across his mind, it was no more than that—just occasionally.

Feng Piaopiao felt as though she had splashed a basin of hot water onto a dead pig—utterly ineffective and leaving her completely helpless.

Pondering for a moment, she unfastened the bundle from her back and said, "I can give you the one thousand five hundred vital energy stones, but you must give me a few more bottles of those two kinds of medicinal pills."

"Are you joking?" Chu Tianfeng stepped back two paces. "The Nourishing Origin Pills are one thing; they're only worth a dozen or so vital energy stones, so whether I give them away or not hardly matters. The Foundation... no, the Innate Pills are entirely different. A single one of those is worth tens of thousands of vital energy stones. I truly cannot afford to give those away as gifts."

Innate Pills were fundamentally different from Nourishing Origin Pills. Nourishing Origin Pills had countless formulas, allowing for substitutions among their principal and auxiliary ingredients. Innate Pills, however, had relatively few formulas, and no matter how the formula might be altered, their primary ingredient remained the Earth Lotus.

As the Earth Lotus was inherently rare and subject to overwhelming market demand, its price remained perpetually high, thereby driving up the cost of Innate Pills as well. Consequently, the price of an Innate Pill differed vastly from that of a Nourishing Origin Pill. On the Blue Moon Star, an ordinary Innate Pill was generally worth several thousand to tens of thousands of spirit stones, while those bearing medicinal halos commanded an even higher price.

"Tens of thousands of vital energy stones?!" Upon hearing this, Long Yue and Du Jingjing cried out in simultaneous astonishment. They were well aware that each of them had consumed one of those so-called Innate Pills—which meant they had personally swallowed tens of thousands of vital energy stones!

"Impossible." Feng Piaopiao refused to believe it outright. "I have never heard of any medicine being that expensive."

Calculated according to the auction prices at the Li Family Boundary, a single spirit stone was worth at least two hundred thousand RMB, meaning tens of thousands of spirit stones equated to over two billion RMB! This price far exceeded the upper limit of what Feng Piaopiao was willing to pay.

"Believe it or not, that is simply my price." Chu Tianfeng shrugged. "Of course, if you can provide a matured Earth Sovereign Gall bladder, I can help you refine it. I will only charge you a few hundred vital energy stones as a processing fee, but half of the resulting pills will belong to me."

"Are you saying a single Earth Sovereign Gall bladder can yield many Innate Pills?" Feng Piaopiao asked doubtfully.

"It depends on the size of the Earth Sovereign Gall bladder. If it's about this big," Chu Tianfeng said, holding up a clenched fist for comparison, "I can refine a full cauldron—ten pills!"

Feng Piaopiao turned her head to look at Feng Mingxue and the others.

"Mother, what he said is true. Sister Jingjing also said before that he can use a single Earth Sovereign Gall bladder to refine several Innate Pills, unlike the ones we usually see," Feng Mingxue pouted.

Feng Piaopiao nodded, turning her gaze back to Chu Tianfeng. "And if the refinement fails?"

"The worst-case scenario is that I compensate you with an Innate Pill," Chu Tianfeng replied with a nonchalant air.

Feng Piaopiao placed her bundle on the ground, slowly counted out one thousand five hundred spirit stones, handed them over to Chu Tianfeng, and said, "Give me two bottles of the cheaper Nourishing Origin Pills first."

With a cheerful grin, Chu Tianfeng pocketed the spirit stones, retrieved the IOU along with a single bottle of Nourishing Origin Pills, and handed them to Feng Piaopiao. "There is only one bottle. Take it or leave it."

Feng Piaopiao took the bottle, poured the pills into her palm to count them, and frowned slightly. "Why are there only seven?"

"There were ten originally, but three of them were eaten by those three lasses of yours," Chu Tianfeng said, gesturing toward Feng Mingshuang and the others standing behind her.

With a soft huff, Feng Piaopiao put the pills away. "And what about the matter of the pill refinement?"

"Tell me your phone number and address; I'll go help you refine them when I have time." Turning around, Chu Tianfeng walked toward the barbecue grill.

Under the glowing golden rays of the setting sun, his silhouette seemed cast in a layer of gold, gleaming brightly.

Yet Feng Piaopiao found that color thoroughly grating. Pointing at Chu Tianfeng's departing back, she said to Feng Mingshuang and the others, "Did you see that? Keep your eyes wide open in the future; make sure you never find yourselves a miser like him."

Feng Mingxue giggled merrily. "Mother, actually, finding someone like this is much safer. Driven by his obsession with money, he'll never let us suffer through poverty in the future."

Feng Mingshuang and Feng Minghui couldn't help smiling amusedly.

"Oh, nonsense. Only a fool like the Du family's girl would take a liking to such a bizarre eccentric," Feng Piaopiao said with a flick of her sleeve. "From now on, all of you keep your distance from him, you hear me?"

Feng Mingshuang and the others chorused their agreement in sweet voices.

Though the four Feng women spoke in hushed tones, Chu Tianfeng's divine sense was exceptionally powerful, and he caught every single word without missing a detail. Even so, he had no intention of arguing with them.

He picked up a few alligator legs, severed them into smaller pieces with his flying sword, brushed each piece with oil, and tossed them onto the fire to roast.

"Were those people from the Mount Hua Sect really not killed by you?" Du Jingjing walked over to lend a hand.

Chu Tianfeng glanced toward the distant square-faced elder, raised a piece of roasted alligator meat in front of Du Jingjing, and said, "Why would I kill them for no reason? If I were going to kill anyone, it would be that stubborn old codger."

"Hateful," Du Jingjing said, gently pushing him aside. "What about Wang Caizhang and Mo Wannian?"

"Help me brush some oil on these," Chu Tianfeng motioned toward the alligator meat with his chin. "I saw Old Man Wang and Old Man Mo fighting each other to the death in the desert with my own eyes."

"Really?" Du Jingjing blinked her large eyes, staring intently at Chu Tianfeng.

"I'm not entirely certain. After all, even eyes can deceive you sometimes." Picking up the oil brush, Chu Tianfeng dipped it into the oil and began brushing methodically.

Before long, the air was rich with the aroma of roasted meat.

"Aren't you afraid this will attract wolves?" Feng Piaopiao walked over and casually picked up a piece of alligator meat.

Lowering his head to sprinkle cumin powder, Chu Tianfeng ignored her.

"Mother, you can rest easy," Feng Mingxue said, tugging on Feng Piaopiao's sleeve. "This fellow fears nothing in heaven or earth. If wolves actually came, that would be even better."

Feng Piaopiao looked at Feng Mingxue in confusion. "What kind of talk is that? How is wolves coming a good thing?"

"Hehe! If wolves come, we get an extra dish on the table!" Feng Mingxue giggled playfully. "A few days ago, it happened just like this—they attracted several dozen wolves, and he slaughtered the lot of them single-handedly in mere minutes."

"What?" Feng Piaopiao's jaw dropped. "All by himself?"

"Indeed," Feng Mingxue said, leaning close and playfully biting off a piece of alligator meat from the one Feng Piaopiao was holding. "Even the wolves have learned their lesson now; whenever they spot Chu Tianfeng from afar, they tuck tail and flee, tee-hee!"

Muttering inwardly about a freak of nature, Feng Piaopiao bit into her piece of alligator meat and began chewing heartily.

"Oh, right," Du Jingjing said, walking over with a basin to collect the freshly roasted alligator meat. "What about Wang Lianyao and his brother?"

With an expression of pure innocence, Chu Tianfeng opened his mouth to reply.

"We ran into the Wang Lianyao brothers this morning; they're still trailing behind us," Feng Piaopiao interjected. "Wang Lianyao had some good luck—he dug up a massive Earth Sovereign Gall bladder and has broken through to the Innate Realm as well."

"It seems quite a few people have broken through to the Innate Realm," Chu Tianfeng remarked, picking up another piece of alligator meat to chew on.

"Since you can refine Innate Pills, I imagine every martial artist in China will be coming to look for you once we leave this place," Feng Piaopiao said, her eyes rolling with a clever thought. "Why don't you come with us to the Feng Family Village? I can guarantee your safety."

Puff! A mouthful of alligator meat shot straight out of Chu Tianfeng's mouth.