"The Northern League Alchemy Conference?" Lu Ping gave Li Mao-Lin a puzzled look.
"That's right!"
With a smile, he explained, "The Northern League has been around for thousands of years, and the conference is a way for it to recruit talents and strengthen its forces. Every hundred-year anniversary, the Northern League hosts a series of activities, and the Alchemy Conference is one of them."
"Is Senior Li asking me to go on behalf of the Li Clan?"
"Exactly!"
Lu Ping glanced at Li Xiu-Zhu and Chu Ting sitting at the side. He couldn’t ignore their imploring eyes, so after a moment’s hesitation, asked, "Now that Young Lady Chu has advanced to the Core Forging Realm, she’s probably a Master Alchemist already. Can't Young Lady Chu go instead?"
"Well…" Li Mao-Lin looked at Chu Ting—there seemed to be some other reason that couldn't be said.
"Because I will not attend the Alchemy Conference. Please forgive me for not sharing the reason," Chu Ting explained.
Li Mao-Lin looked at Lu Ping, waiting for his answer.
Lu Ping thought about it.
The Li Clan had done him a huge favor by opening its great protection formation and helping him refine his nascent weapons with its spirit vein.
So, Lu Ping said, "Alright, I will. This conference sounds interesting, and it will most likely help boost my alchemy."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Feeling quite pleased, Li Mao-Lin pushed several things on the table to Lu Ping. "The Li Clan is indebted to you for your help—please accept these tokens of our gratitude."
Lu Ping did not reject their gift and stored them away in his interspatial ring.
Li Mao-Lin had already introduced the items before their conversation.
The jade token was an invitation talisman for the Alchemy Conference, an identity card for him to act as a Li Clan guest elder, a small interspatial pouch that contained a couple hundred pieces of 500-year spirit herbs (used to concoct Late Blood Condensation Realm pellets) and five hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
The underground trade fair, closed-door cultivations, and nascent weapon refinements had used up almost all of Lu Ping's spirit herbs and spirit stones. So, these items were exactly what he urgently needed, especially the spirit stones.
Seeing that Lu Ping had accepted the items, Li Mao-Lin was relieved. "My daughter and Niece Chu will also be there. Even though they won't be participating in the conference, they will still be around to enjoy the other activities."
Lu Ping nodded understandingly; there was no way an alchemist could resist a large-scale conference like this, Chu Ting was no exception even though she was now a Master Alchemist.
The Alchemy Conference would be held two years later, so Lu Ping planned to take this opportunity to explore the East Ocean.
He arranged to meet Chu Ting and Li Xiu-Zhu on the Northern League's Qian Yuan Island where the conference would be held two years later.
After leaving the Li Clan, Lu Ping returned to the cave-dwelling and prepared to depart.
In fact, he had planned to leave earlier, but as he was checking out, Innkeeper Li had invited him to the Li Clan's residence, and that was when he heard their request.
However, Lu Ping didn't agree just because he wanted to repay a favor; in fact, he was also really interested in the Alchemy Conference.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})After entering the cave-dwelling, Lu Ping waved his hand and put away the spirit pets playing in the cave.
Thanks to the massive amount of spiritual energy from the refinement process, Dabao's breakthrough was smoother than expected and he woke up at an earlier time. This fortuitous event had helped Dabao consolidate his cultivation base to the Fourth Layer Blood Condensation Realm.
Lu Dagui was still in the Fifth Layer, but it was also only a matter of time before he entered the Sixth Layer.
The snake trio was also stimulated by the massive spiritual energy and they couldn't suppress their cultivation base anymore, resulting in their advancement into the Sixth Layer.
Lu Qin also broke through to the Eighth Layer.
The cultivation progress of Lu Ping’s spirit pets brought his overall strength to a greater level.
After leaving Three Clans Island, Lu Ping stood on Lu Dagui's back and they leisurely headed southwest.
Situated tens of thousands of miles away from here was the Northern League's Qian Yuan Island. Lu Ping planned to spend these two years slowly making his way there while exploring the East Ocean.
Upon returning to the sea, the snake trio became incredibly energetic and started to frolic around while looking for food.
However, this was the inner sea of the East Ocean islands, so there were obviously no monster beasts nearby.
Lu Ping knew that the sea was home to the Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes, whose race led gifted lives.
Lu Qin was like an innocent little girl—she soared over Lu Ping's head and chirped happily as always.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Lu Dabao, as usual, hated the water and would rather stay in the spirit pet pouch to sleep.
Suddenly, Lu Ping heard three long chirps. He looked behind him with an inscrutable glance, the corners of his mouth showed a slight smile, and he continued his journey at the same pace.
However, the snake trio that had been playing around Lu Ping suddenly disappeared.
A few miles behind Lu Ping, three cultivators were carefully trailing him.
"Big Brother, are you sure this person isn’t that mysterious Li Clan alchemist?" the cultivator on the left asked with some hesitation.
The big brother, a Ninth Layer Blood Condensation Realm cultivator, said coldly, "Why would the Li Clan let its alchemist leave on his own?"
On his right, the youngest brother echoed, "Big Brother’s right! If this person really is the Li Clan's alchemist, why wouldn’t they send a dozen cultivators to escort him?"
The cultivator on the left still felt something was wrong and said, "But if this person isn’t the Li Clan's alchemist, then why bother informing Big Brother, instead of coming here themselves?”
The right cultivator was taken aback at this statement, and the two looked at the middle cultivator, waiting for him to explain.
He waved his hand impatiently and said, "Why do you have so many questions? He’s just in the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm, so let's take him down first! Don't forget that he’s just an alchemist, and all alchemists are wealthy brats. And not just spirit stones, he’ll definitely have a lot of medicinal pellets, maybe even those half-step Core Forging Realm ones that help breakthroughs. If he does, then we’ll be super rich!"
Greed had taken over the two younger brothers and eased them of their doubts. All they could think of now were spirit stones and medicinal pellets.
At this time, Lu Ping was already far away from Three Clans Island.
The three exchanged a look and nodded tacitly; they split off in three directions and surrounded Lu Ping. It was obvious that they had done this many times before and were already familiar with such things.
