272 Return to the Soul Tower

It wasn't long before Xue Wei began to concoct pills. He had received a large number of herbs from the deal, particularly all the ones he needed to make many Sky Knight Pills.

The Sky Knight Pill was something he would never consume of course, but others were not as talented; thus they would benefit greatly from this pill.

Since this was the case, Xue Wei expected that each family would have quite a few experts who would be willing to consume the Sky Knight Pill—some of them might not even have bad talent but would be blinded by the tremendous rise in strength.

All of these experts were from Yan Dalu, they had previously been incapable of breaking through to the Knight rank in Qi cultivation, and to suddenly be given the choice of an instant rise to the Sky Knight Rank, it was obvious that they would be willing to take the sudden, but limiting rise in strength as it was just a secondary energy to them.

Xue Wei felt that it was a shame to give up future prospects for a momentary gain but he was not in a position to argue about the decision made by the two families, especially as their current decision suited his interests. They had a pleasant agreement right now, so Xue Wei didn't find it necessary to hold their hands and make decisions for them.

This was also why he was only interested in working with intelligent people—the ones he would not have to guide.

The Sky Knight Pill was not easy to concoct, but it was not overly complicated either. Each batch produced five to eight pills, and these pills were all of the best quality, ready to be given to the Gu and Yuan families.

Xue Wei concocted for a full night; by the time he finished, he had filled many jade bottles with batch after batch of pills.

When dawn broke through, Xue Wei finally stopped his pill-concocting spree and rubbed his eyes. Although he was no longer a normal mortal in need of sleep, he still felt exhausted after producing that many pills.

"Take a rest for now," Lin Xiao said as he saw the dark circles around Xue Wei's eyes, "we will find Gu Bing'er and Yuan Bailong when you have rested enough. Even if they are eager to get the pills, they should accept waiting a bit."

In fact, neither Gu bing'er nor Yuan Bailong has expected that the pills would be ready already. Both of them had expected that it would take Xue Wei at least a few weeks to create enough pills for their entire families—they had forgotten or were just unaware that each concoction of pills produced more than one pill each, making it much quicker to create the pills needed.

When Xue Wei heard Lin Xiao's words, he nodded his head and went to his room. Kicking off his shoes, he did not even remove his outer robes but allowed himself to collapse on the bed. Practically the moment his head landed on the pillow, his eyes were closed, and he had quickly drifted off into a restless, troubled slumber.

Xue Wei started having a strange dream as he slept through the daylight. In the dream, he was standing on a massive battlefield but was all alone as there was no one else alive.

The ground was littered with corpses as far as he could see, both the corpses of humans and beasts alike. Blood was flowing like muddy rivers through the trampled ground, and rain was dripping from the grey skies.

Xue Wei was the only living creature within the dream, and he stood above all others. His body was restless; bloodlust was invading his body, and the roar of a dragon was reverberating through his mind, though not only the roar of a dragon resounded there, there was also the sound of an intimidating and unfamiliar bird screech.

His body was beyond his control; it was constantly changing from his human shape to the azure dragon shape and back to his human form. Sometimes it was as if it was changing to another shape as well—a gigantic bird, but he was unable to make heads nor tails out of this strange shape and even though his body tried to take on this form, it never fully succeeded, as if it was sealed by something.

Xue Wei felt pain within his body. It was as if something was being torn, but he was unable to determine what exactly was going on.

When he finally could no longer bear the pain, his body jolted, and he awoke with a shock. Sweat had beaded on his forehead, and his hand was trembling.

He stroked his chin, unsure of what could have happened to him. Usually, when he slept, he did not dream, but this time he had a strange dream that he could not control and that even shook him to the core.

He exited the room and found Mo Yi going past at the right time, "please draw a bath for me," he requested, and Mo Yi quickly nodded his head in acceptance.

It was quite a coincidence that Mo Yi was outside at the exact time that he needed him, but he did not think too much of it.

His clothes were drenched in cold sweat, and his mind was in disarray. He could not help but feel that something was off about the dream he had earlier.

He could understand his transformation to the azure dragon but what was happening with the bird shadow that he had seen?

Frowning, Xue Wei considered all his clues, but there were really too few; he could not determine what was right and what was wrong anymore.

In the end, he sighed and shook his head. He would not forget the dream, but now was not the time to begin pondering the meaning of a dream, he had a lot of things he needed to do so that he could get to the Demon Phoenix continent.

The sleep had not caused him to feel rested as he wished but the warm bath relaxed his taut nerves, and he finally managed to unwind and recover some energy.

After the bath, he quickly changed into another set of red robes before he exited the house and headed towards the courtyards of Gu Bing'er and Yuan Bailong.

Gu Bing'er's house was the closest, and when he arrived, he found that she was living together with other members of the Gu family. All of these members were descendants of the elders or were, in some way, of great talent within the family, so when they saw Xue Wei, they quickly went to fetch Gu Bing'er. None of them dared to treat Xue Wei with the tiniest bit of arrogance.

In fact, all of them knew of the Sky Knight Pill he'd promised and even though they, personally, had all decided not to consume it, they all still felt greatly tempted to try it out.

They also knew that these pills would make their entire family change in a great way, so Xue Wei was considered their benefactor, and thus he was treated with great reverence, similarly as if he was their grandfather.

Gu Bing'er was not present when Xue Wei arrived, but he was not in a rush, so he waited for her to return. The other Gu family members who were present in the house had already sent someone out to fetch her so she could make his acquaintance as soon as possible.

At this point the other people in the house had brewed some tea for Xue Wei, and they were doing their best to be accommodating but unfortunately, no one knew what to speak about, and thus the room descended into an uncomfortable silence with the only sound coming from the teacup as Xue Wei lifted and sipped from it from time to time.

Xue Wei felt helpless. He knew these people were all looking at him with reverence, none of them daring to speak out of fear of angering him in some way, but Xue Wei really wasn't such a scary person.

Fortunately, he was saved when Gu Bing'er arrived. Her face was slightly red making her seem adorable and flustered.Clearly, she had rushed back to the house as fast as she could.

"What brings you to our humble abode?" she asked politely, her eyes shining with excitement as she saw Xue Wei waving his hand and a few jade bottles appearing, with the scent of medicines spreading through the room.

The hearts of all present started beating rapidly. This could only be the Sky Knight Pills they had been hearing about, however, was it not too soon to have produced these pills? They had only been told about them the day before.

Noticing the surprise in their eyes, Xue Wei explained, "I had the herbs needed, so I made a few hundred pills for each family. Take these and bring them back to your elders, but be sure not to get robbed on the way."

Having said this, Xue Wei got to his feet, bowed in thanks to his hosts for his tea, and swiftly made his way out of the courtyard, heading straight towards the one belonging to Yuan Bailong.

Here, the same scene played out. Yuan Bailong was not immediately present, and the ones who were quickly tried to please him while they impatiently prayed in their hearts that Yuan Bailong would arrive soon so that they did not have to be so scared for what Xue Wei might request of them.

It was not that these people had no idea to strengthen their relationship with him, they just feared that they might insult him instead, and considering he was already working with their families, they would be seen as traitors if they inadvertently messed up this transaction.

After delivering the pills to Yuan Bailong, Xue Wei also warned him about not allowing the pills to be stolen, and then he exited their courtyard and returned home.

"Tianyi, we are returning to the Soul Tower," he said as he entered the room and found all three of his friends waiting inside.

"We are going to enter the ninth floor as soon as possible. I am currently able to enter the seventh floor, and we will use the golden dragon spirit to enter the eighth floor."

"Sure," Bai Tianyi nodded his head casually and stretched his body. Looking towards Lin Xiao and Hei Gou, he told them, "if Gu Bing'er or Yuan Bailong comes looking for him, then tell them we will be back in a month at the latest. They should not encounter too many issues within a month anyway."

Having said this, Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi walked through the academy heading for the Soul Tower. When they arrived at the academy, many were originally looking at them because it was rare to see that many two-eyed experts there, especially one so young, but now it was moreso because everyone knew of Bai Tianyi's achievement. He had reached the ninth floor!

Every major faction had wanted to reel him into their own group, but ever since he had exited the Soul Tower, he had been in their courtyard and thus they had no opportunity to speak with him. Now things were different though, and as soon as he was seen, many rushed back to tell their superiors.

Some even rushed to the Soul Tower to rouse the people who were in charge of their factions and associations as they were cultivating—no one willing to lag behind.

"You seem to have become a celebrity," Xue Wei said with a smile on his face, causing Bai Tianyi to change his own expression into a grimace of disdain.

"I am no celebrity, I am just stronger than them, and they want to abuse me for their own personal benefits."

Xue Wei shrugged his shoulders. The group had no interest in joining any of the factions, in fact, they were not interested in having anything to do with this continent's politics; they just wanted to move on, and to do so they had to solve the mystery. They did not want to have any ties to the continent when they left, as they would likely never return again.

"They are like a starving wolf seeing a juicy steak," Xue Wei could not help but laugh as he saw how many people were rushing towards them from all corners of the roads, all of them having their many eyes locked on the face of Bai Tianyi. Their expressions were trying to appear aloof, but greed flashed across many of their eyes.