Chapter 72 If You Don't Like the Food, Then Eat Me Instead

Afterward, Chu Tianfeng led Fan Youchang and the others away from the Dazhan Hall’s new branch and headed to the antique market, where he purchased an alchemy furnace. The plump shopkeeper genuinely suspected that Chu Tianfeng’s head had been damaged during that beating; he kept coming back to buy fake furnaces, so much so that the shopkeeper felt downright embarrassed. This time, therefore, he found Chu Tianfeng a better-quality furnace, but the price remained the same—two thousand yuan.

Then, the four of them made their way unhurriedly to Qianiao Lake Town to rendezvous with Ma Tu, a team member who had arrived earlier. Ma Tu was also a young man, rather thin, and his cultivation matched that of Du Jingjing—both were at the mid-stage of Dark Energy.

The sky was still bright. Fearing that delays might invite complications, Fan Youchang suggested they start searching for the treasure immediately. Chu Tianfeng agreed at once; he, too, wished to settle matters quickly. They had already agreed beforehand that his responsibility was only to guide them to the destination—once there, he would leave. Whether Fan Youchang and the others could find the treasure, and how much, was none of his concern.

No one objected. The matter had dragged on long enough; everyone was weary and eager to see it concluded. The five of them reached the lakeshore, boarded a speedboat Ma Tu had prepared in advance, and sped across the water toward the submerged cavern’s location.

Ma Tu handled the speedboat impressively—far better than Chu Tianfeng ever could. He drove swiftly yet steadily, and within an hour, they were near their destination. After Chu Tianfeng pointed out the exact spot, he asked Fan Youchang to take him by boat to a nearby islet.

Ma Tu was displeased that Chu Tianfeng would be leaving halfway; he seemed worried that Chu Tianfeng might reveal their plans. Still, seeing that Fan Youchang and Du Jingjing raised no objections, he kept his thoughts to himself.

Chu Tianfeng naturally noticed Ma Tu’s expression, but he had neither the desire nor the time to argue. He had bought twenty batches of spiritual herbs and was eager to refine them into pills.

Once Fan Youchang and the others departed, Chu Tianfeng hurried to the center of the islet, cleared a relatively flat patch of ground, and began his alchemy. He started by refining Foundation-Enhancing Pills, as he was most familiar with their preparation.

It took him over four hours to refine the ten batches of herbs, during which he failed completely three times—not only producing no pills, but nearly blowing up the furnace and covering himself in soot.

From the seven successful batches, he obtained thirty-two Foundation-Enhancing Pills. Combined with the few left from before, he now had about forty—the amount sufficient to cultivate to the peak of the Qi Refinement stage.

After storing away the pills, Chu Tianfeng rested briefly, ate some bread he had prepared, and then sat cross-legged, practicing the Five Elements Incantation to replenish his vital energy.

To speed up his recovery, he even used the demon core, whose spiritual energy was now nearly depleted, striving to absorb every last trace. Unexpectedly, he soon sensed a loosening at the boundary of the fourth level of Qi Refinement.

He then recalled that, having trained tirelessly for some time, his vital energy had already reached the threshold of the fourth level. Opportunity knocks but once! Without hesitation, Chu Tianfeng swallowed two Foundation-Enhancing Pills and cycled his Five Elements Incantation, launching an assault against the barrier to the fifth level.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth slowly gathered around him, forming a tiny vortex, then flowed into his body through the Baihui, Laogong, and Yongquan acupoints, being gradually refined into true essence.

Thanks to the wealth of experience from his previous life, the absorption and refining process was smooth and unhindered.

Half an hour later, his entire body trembled violently—he had broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refinement.

With the advancement of his cultivation, his inner reserves of true essence doubled yet again, and his spiritual sense grew stronger, now extending outward to sixteen meters. Once he had stabilized his realm, midnight was approaching. Chu Tianfeng removed his mask, leapt into the lake, and enjoyed a long, refreshing swim.

The improvement in cultivation naturally bolstered his confidence; he knew that the true essence within him now surpassed that of an average cultivator at the peak of Qi Refinement, approaching even the first level of Foundation Establishment.

In terms of strength, he believed he was no weaker than an ordinary martial artist at the early Innate stage. Moreover, the cultivators on Earth knew no spells, while he was different—if he unleashed his techniques, he was confident he could utterly overwhelm those early-stage Innate martial artists.

That night, Chu Tianfeng did not continue his training. Instead, he found a large tree, lay down comfortably, and slept soundly.

The next morning, Chu Tianfeng resumed alchemy, this time refining Restoration Pills. He extracted the essence from the herbs, liquefied them, refined the medicinal solution, condensed the pills, and collected them—every step was performed with extreme care and seriousness.

Perhaps his luck had been entirely used up the day before, for, despite his improved cultivation, the process was still fraught with difficulty, and the results were predictable. Out of ten batches, only three were successful, yielding a total of twelve Restoration Pills.

He took it in stride, though. After all, Restoration Pills were not ordinary medicine—twelve pills were practically equal to twelve extra lives, and he was content.

Glancing at the time, he saw it was nearly noon. He jumped into the lake, caught two large carp, and after cleaning them, realized he was out of seasonings and hadn’t had a chance to restock. Helpless, he took out his phone and called Fan Youchang and the others for help.

Fan Youchang responded readily—within ten minutes, he brought the boat alongside Chu Tianfeng.

“Team Leader Fan, how did it go?” Chu Tianfeng asked as soon as he boarded.

In truth, the expressions on Fan Youchang and the others’ faces already told the story; they likely found nothing, or very little.

“You guessed it. We’ve been at it a whole day and night and still found nothing,” Fan Youchang replied with a wry smile.

“Don’t be discouraged—persistence is the key to success,” Chu Tianfeng consoled, not entirely sincerely. “I specially caught two big carp to reward you all.”

Most of them knew full well he was only there because he’d run out of oil and salt; his talk of a special treat was just a joke, and they took it as such. Only Ma Tu muttered a few words under his breath to voice his dissatisfaction.

“Can you even cook? If it tastes terrible, don’t blame me for charging you for the seasonings,” Du Jingjing said, tossing him oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

“It’ll be delicious, guaranteed! If not, you can eat me,” Chu Tianfeng replied with a laugh, scooping up the condiments and darting into the small cabin, locking the door tight to keep Du Jingjing and the others from peeking in.

He needed true fire for roasting, and he certainly didn’t want anyone to see that.

A few minutes later, two aromatic carp were brought steaming hot to the deck.

Lü Hui, ever the straightforward man, couldn’t wait—he was first to grab a knife and fork, cutting off a piece to taste.

“Mmm! Mmm!” His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Chu Tianfeng.

“Oh, you!” Chu Tianfeng arched his fingers delicately, mustered his true essence, and stabbed a fish head with his fork before plopping down on the deck.

Lü Hui devoured his piece of fish, exclaiming, “Wow, this is amazing! I’ve never tasted grilled fish this good!”

Du Jingjing, skeptical, took a small piece herself and tasted it cautiously.

Wow! It really was delicious!

She, too, widened her eyes in surprise at Chu Tianfeng. Fan Youchang and Ma Tu could restrain themselves no longer and both rushed for knife and fork to attack the carp.

“I’m starting to wonder if you majored in performing arts or in cooking,” Du Jingjing remarked, snatching a big piece of fish and sitting down next to Chu Tianfeng.

Chu Tianfeng chewed on his fish head with deliberate leisure. “I have many talents—acting and grilling are nothing special. Actually, my greatest skill is thievery!”

He wasn’t exaggerating; when it came to stealing, there wasn’t a soul who could claim to be better. In his previous life, his invisibility technique was so formidable that even those two entire realms above him could not detect his presence with spiritual sense. Coupled with his status as a master formation expert, he could enter and leave the most heavily guarded sects at will.

“If you ask me, your real specialty is killing, not stealing,” Du Jingjing said, pursing her lips.

Chu Tianfeng feigned shock. “Who have I ever killed?”

“Still pretending?” Du Jingjing gave him a look that said, ‘you must think I’m an idiot.’ “When we were filming at Huangshan Valley, several disciples from the Huangshan Sect and Dai Xing from the Salt Society all vanished mysteriously. Are you really saying it had nothing to do with you?”

In the past two days, the disappearance of three Huangshan Sect disciples and the four from the Salt Society had become common knowledge. Du Jingjing was, of course, aware. Most martial artists believed Dai Xing and his group had killed the disciples to steal their rare herbs.

But Du Jingjing thought otherwise; she found the timing far too coincidental—and at precisely those moments, Chu Tianfeng was always nowhere to be seen.

“That’s ridiculous,” Chu Tianfeng said, his face a picture of embarrassment. “So one person could take them all out? Were they made of clay or tofu?”

Du Jingjing frowned slightly. True, if Chu Tianfeng had killed one or two, it would make sense. But for him to have slain all of them—especially since two were advanced practitioners: Dai Xing, who was late-stage Transforming Energy, and Chang Gengsheng, who was early-stage—was simply impossible, no matter how agile or skilled Chu Tianfeng was.

After a moment’s thought, Du Jingjing settled on a possibility. “Maybe both sides fought and injured each other badly, and you just happened to come by and finish them off, like a fisherman reaping the spoils.”

“What?” Chu Tianfeng was so startled he nearly dropped his fish head. “You have an incredible imagination. If you don’t write novels, it’s a waste of talent.”

Du Jingjing wanted to believe him, but for some reason, her intuition told her that Chu Tianfeng’s abilities were far beyond what she imagined—Dai Xing and the others might well have died at his hands.

However, she had not a shred of evidence, and Chu Tianfeng was sly as a fox. She could not extract a single clue from him.

Fan Youchang and the others didn’t join in the conversation between Chu Tianfeng and Du Jingjing; instead, the three of them sat with beers in hand, animatedly discussing the latest developments in the Liu Zhijian scandal—how Zhang Xiaoyu had been found “suicided” in her home bathroom with her hands bound, and how Liu Zhijian had fled overseas, managing to save his own skin for the time being.