Fei Li’s expression immediately darkened.
He didn’t even bother to look at Nie Tian, but rather stared coldly towards An Shiyi. “Is he a junior clansman from your clan?”
Without waiting for An Shiyi to reply, Fei Li grinned maliciously, and nodded towards Nie Tian. “You like cursing people, right? Fine! I’ll let you know what punishment a disciple from a subordinate clan will receive for insulting me!”
Sparks of flames immediately floated out of Fei Li’s fingertips, within which thrummed surges of blazing spiritual energy.
He was on the property of the Spiritual Treasure sect, with the An Sisters standing right beside him. Even so, after assuming Nie Tian was a clansman from the An clan, he actually dared to make a move on him without the slightest scruple.
“You dare to lay a hand on him?” An Ying shouted out loud. “You aren’t afraid that Eccentric Wu will rip you apart!”
An Shiyi had also planned to stop Fei Li, but hearing that An Ying shouted out, she stopped.
After hearing An Ying’s words, Fei Li’s expression abruptly changed.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
He forcefully channeled those beams of flame back into his body. He took a deep breath and asked, “You are Nie Tian?”
“I am,” Nie Tian calmly answered.
“Who is An Shiyi to you?”
“She’s my sworn sister.”
Fei Li clearly had a suspicious look in his eyes as he glanced at An Ying, and then he realized that An Ying had an arrogant expression on her face.
He immediately understood that it was An Ying who had brought Nie Tian to this place. He also understood her intentions.
“It’s dark already. It’s inconvenient for me to stay here any longer.”
With these words, he frowned and left decisively, without continuing to berate Nie Tian or demand an answer from An Shiyi.
After he had left, only Nie Tian and the An sisters were left in the courtyard.
“Thank you,” An Shiyi said softly.
“You’re my sworn sister from today on,” Nie Tian said solemnly. “And I’m serious about that.”
An Shiyi’s bright eyes lit up.
An Ying said hastily, “Elder Sister, Nie Tian is Wu Ji’s disciple. As long as you establish a relationship with him, that old bastard Gan Kang definitely won’t dare to be so impudent!”
With great sincerity, Nie Tian said, “Elder Sister An, you gave me a slot to the Green Illusion dimension trial. Whatever your intentions were, I benefited a great deal from it and for that I’ll always remember your kindness. I once said to An Ying that if you were to encounter troubles one day, then given that I was capable, I would definitely help you at all costs.
“Of course, my strength is still far from sufficient. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have allowed that Fei Li to walk out of this courtyard!
“The only thing that I can do for you now is to use my status to overshadow Gan Kang, so that he won’t dare to act imprudently.”
Before An Ying and Nie Tian arrived, An Ying had already told him that Fei Li’s Master, Gan Kang, was one of the equipment forging experts of the Spiritual Treasure sect.
The Spiritual Treasure sect was a Qi warrior sect, but wasn’t exactly the same as the Cloudsoaring sect, Grayvale sect, or Mystic Mist sect. The sect was divided into two parts, namely the Spiritual school and the Treasure school.
The Spiritual school attached their importance to the cultivation of Qi, which therefore made it generally similar to the other three sects.
The Treasure school, on the other hand, consisted of equipment forgers who focused their energy on researching the techniques of equipment refining and forging, and viewed it as their way of cultivation.
Gan Kang was one of the highest ranked equipment forging experts in the Treasure school, and also the fifth person in the Treasure school to be able to refine Premium grade spiritual tools.
The best equipment forging master in the Treasure school was an old friend of Nie Tian’s master, Wu Ji, and was also infatuated with equipment forging and practically never paid attention to sect affairs.
Therefore, Gan Kang and three other high-ranked equipment forging experts were left in charge of all of the affairs in the Treasure school.
The master of the Spiritual school was also the master of the Spiritual Treasure sect. Even though he held unparalleled power in the sect, he seldom interfered with the Treasure school’s internal affairs.
Even he had to give face to the four highly ranked equipment forgers. As long as they didn’t do anything over the line, the sectmaster would usually not interfere with what they did or just turn a blind eye to it.
The reason that the Spiritual Treasure sect ranked higher than the Cloudsoaring sect, Grayvale sect, and Mystic Mist sect, was that other than the Spiritual school, they also had the Treasure school.
Most of the spiritual tools that the Qi warriors of the four sects used were refined and forged by the Treasure school, and thus the Treasure school enjoyed a very special position amongst the four sects.
Generally speaking, the Spiritual school, as well as the other three sects, weren’t willing to offend equipment forgers from the Treasure school.
The reason Nie Tian was aware of Gan Kang’s status, yet still had the audacity to pressure Gan Kang with his own status was, because he knew that his Master, Wu Ji, was sworn friends with the Treasure school’s strongest equipment forging master, Fang Hui.
Considering Gan Kang’s status, if it was anyone else from the Cloudsoaring sect, they probably wouldn’t be too willing to make enemies with Gan Kang.
However, Nie Tian wasn’t afraid.
“Elder Sister, you need Nie Tian as your nominal younger brother!” An Ying said in a low voice.
An Shiyi seemed somewhat hesitant. “It’s very kind of Nie Tian, but I’m afraid that I’ll bring him troubles.”
Nie Tian chuckled and said, “I don’t care whether you accept me or not. From now on, I’ll tell everyone I see that you’re my sworn sister!”
An Shiyi’s glistening, charming eyes hesitated for a moment before she burst into laughter. Her beauty was like that of hundreds of beautiful blooming flowers. “If you want an elder sister so badly, I’ll be your elder sister.”
“Elder Sister,” Nie Tian called, smiling.
An Shiyi had a joyous expression on her face as she laughed, while nodding her head. “It seems that the smartest decision I’ve made this year was to go to your Nie clan and invite you to the Green Illusion dimension, although my heart was full of evil intentions.”
“Hahaha, whatever your intentions were, I’m grateful to you.” Nie Tian laughed.
“Thank you.” An Shiyi’s words sounded solemn. Shortly after, she pursed her lips into a smile, and with a wave of her hand, indicated for An Ying to take Nie Tian and leave. “It‘s late. You’ll still have to choose spiritual tools together with people from your sect. You cannot stay here too long, or else people will gossip.”
“Haha, I’m not afraid,” Nie Tian said.
An Shiyi rolled her eyes at him. “You might not be afraid, but I am. You’re no longer a child. With the messy stuff going on between those old things and me, my reputation isn’t exactly good. If you spend the night here, I’m not too sure what they’ll say about me.”
“I believe that you value your reputation very much and won’t do anything to jeopardize it,” Nie Tian said sincerely.
An Ying grew impatient and pulled Nie Tian away. “Alright, alright. Let’s go!”
An Ying glared at him and warned, “Nie Tian, my sister only needs you as her nominal younger brother for your status. Don’t you have any other thoughts! In the future, when my elder sister gets out of all the trouble and once again wins over the sectmaster’s trust, I’ll need you to remove your relationship as nominal brother and sister!”
“Oh? You’d better talk to your sister about it then.” Nie Tian smirked, and continued, “What? Are you worried that your elder sister may fall in love with me?”
“Bullshit!” An Ying was annoyed. “You still smells of your mother’s milk! How can my elder sister like a witless child like you? I’m worried that you’re like those old bastards, harboring vile thoughts towards my sister!”
Smiling, Nie Tian teased her, “Hey, I’m still a child. Isn’t it a bit inappropriate for you to say those kind of things to me?”
“Save it! I’ve known for a long time that you weren’t honest when we were in the Green Illusion dimension!” An Ying retorted. She suddenly seemed to have thought of something and lowered her voice, asking sneakily, “By the way, what did you do to Yu Tong to make her so mad at you? I heard that she spent three whole months to heal herself after returning to the Blood sect.
“After her strength was restored, she sent people from the Blood sect to ask around for your whereabouts.
“She spread the word that she bears ocean-deep hatred towards you, and as long as she sees you, one of you will have to die.
“That witch has never hated a person so much before. What exactly did you do to her to make her so angry that she wants you dead so eagerly?”
Nie Tian paused for a moment and touched his head, saying, “Nothing… Who knows what made that woman go crazy.”
“You must have done something to her!” An Ying’s words were full of certainty.
“No, I didn’t!”
“You did!”
“I really didn’t!”
“You definitely did!”
The two argued while walking. A while later, they returned to the stone pavilion that had been allotted to the Cloudsoaring sect. An Ying stopped bickering, and said, “Even though you’re a little bit annoying, you can be considered a man of your word. Thank you for what you did for my sister this time.”
With these words, she didn’t wait for Nie Tian to reply and walked off, looking slightly embarrassed.
…
The following day, in the Pill Pavilion of the Spiritual Treasure sect.
First thing in the morning, Liu Yan led Nie Tian to the Pill Pavilion.
The Pill Pavilion wasn’t big at all. It only had three stories, with a limited collection of medicine pills stored within it.
That was because the majority of the members of the Treasure school were equipment forgers; there was only one person who knew how to refine pills.
Moreover, it was said that most of the medicine pills in the Pill Pavilion actually weren’t refined by that alchemist, but rather acquired by the Spiritual Treasure sect through exchanging spiritual tools with the other eight realms.
Medicine pills only played a insignificant role in the Treasure Convention, and there weren’t many medicine pills to be sold in the Pill Pavilion.
Therefore, as long as one had sufficient spirit stones to spend, they would be able to purchase them directly, and wouldn’t need to take part in auctions.
The reason why Nie Tian arrived early in the morning was precisely that he wanted to obtain the Spiritfount Pill at the first possible moment, in case others might beat him to it.
While he was waiting for the door to open, Nie Tian was surprised to see that Zheng Bin, Han Xin, and Dowager Weng from the Mystic Mist sect had also come.
“Mr. Liu, why have you suddenly become interested in medicine pills?” Dowager Weng asked. “From what I remember, don’t you only buy spiritual tools every time you come to the convention?”
She knew that even though Liu Yan almost never hosted the Lot-drawing Conventions that had been held every few years by the Cloudsoaring sect’s subordinate clans, practically all of the spiritual tools that had been presented at the Lot-drawing Conventions had been selected by Liu Yan from the Spiritual Treasure sect.
One of Liu Yan’s major duties was to pick low grade spiritual tools and bestow them upon the subordinate clans.
“My little martial uncle has set his mind on the Spiritfount Pill,” said Liu Yan. “If you are also here to purchase medicinal pills, I hope that you aren’t aiming for it.”
“Little martial uncle…”
Dowager Weng, Zheng Bin, and Han Xin all looked over at Nie Tian with strange expressions in their eyes.
“Long time no see, Zheng Bin,” Nie Tian greeted.
“Congratulations,” Zheng Bin replied.
After a glance at Nie Tian, Dowager Weng turned to Liu Yan and said, “You can rest assured. Eccentric Wu’s disciple wants the Spiritfount Pill. Even if I wanted it, I wouldn’t dare to fight over it.”
With a smile, Liu Yan said, “Well, many thanks then.”