'If the Elder Dragon Flood Dragon has such a disposition, then he must die even more!' Li Yan thought to himself.
Having said this, Xing Ming paused for a moment and then looked at Li Yan seriously.
"However, leave this matter to me from now on. If there is a need for you to act, Junior Brother, I hope you will be able to lend a hand."
Xing Ming slowly explained what he knew and decided to deal with this person himself.
But he didn't have much confidence in dealing with a Poison Cultivator like the Elder Dragon Flood Dragon on his own. Therefore, it would be best to join forces with Zhang Ming when the time came. What he needed to do now was to find him.
Subsequently, the two called Su Yuan in and had a deep discussion about the transaction with the Sacred Demon Palace.
After Su Yuan left, since it was a rare occasion for Xing Ming to be here, Li Yan certainly wouldn't let the opportunity slip. He raised some cultivation matters to ask for Xing Ming's guidance.
The other party was a veteran Golden Core cultivator. Now that Li Yan had revealed some of his cards, he could ask many questions with fewer reservations.
After a long conversation, Li Yan indeed reaped great rewards. Xing Ming's immersion in the Golden Core stage for several hundred years was not for show.
Xing Ming, in turn, answered every question. For what he knew, he gave detailed explanations; for what he didn't, he would offer some speculation after some thought.
He was now increasingly satisfied with this Elder Zhang, and naturally, his mood became very pleasant, something he made no effort to hide.
Li Yan could also tell that the other party's answers to his questions were not perfunctory; he would give his own views only after careful consideration.
Many of the problems that had been troubling him were instantly resolved, giving him a sense of clarity as if everything had clicked into place. This was the difference between having a teacher and not having one.
At the same time, Xing Ming also discovered that Zhang Ming's knowledge was quite impressive, far beyond what a cultivator from a minor sect could possess.
Sometimes, he only needed to mention a single point, and Zhang Ming could immediately draw inferences and come up with new perspectives, some of which even Xing Ming himself had never considered.
It could even bring Xing Ming some enlightenment and food for thought.
Just this level of insight alone meant Zhang Ming couldn't possibly be from a small sect. Although his actual age was never explicitly stated, he could guess that Zhang Ming was definitely not over a hundred years old.
Furthermore, some of the things Xing Ming himself mentioned were not all from the legacy of Falling Star Valley, but were from his own experiences and knowledge gained while out adventuring.
This could already be considered a collection of wisdom from a hundred schools of thought.
'His Master is definitely no ordinary Nascent Soul senior. He must have come from a large sect, at least a first-rate sect, possibly even a super sect. Otherwise, how could Zhang Ming, who has just stepped into the Golden Core realm, possess such extensive knowledge?'
Xing Ming had a new understanding of Li Yan in his heart. Of course, this was also because Li Yan himself had relaxed some of his privacy.
Five months later, in a side chamber of a grand hall in the outer courtyard of the Sacred Demon Palace, Li Yan was sitting opposite a handsome, elegant-looking middle-aged cultivator, a smile on his face.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, the quality of this batch of medicinal pills is quite good, even higher than the last time. In the future, just deliver them at this grade, and there will be no problem at all," the handsome middle-aged cultivator said with a smile.
"Fellow Daoist Chu, this is all thanks to your support. On behalf of my sect, I thank you!" Li Yan said with a smile. The cultivator surnamed Chu opposite him was the one in charge of procuring low-to-mid-rank medicinal pills, raw materials, and some magical treasures for the Sacred Demon Palace.
This was Li Yan's third visit. Falling Star Valley had officially completed its first transaction with the Sacred Demon Palace three months ago.
'Every time I see these Demon Clan cultivators, I can't help but admire their excellent bloodlines. Not a single one of them isn't handsome or beautiful!'
Even now, every time he ascended the main peak and entered the Sacred Demon Palace, his eyes would light up. Along the way, handsome men and beautiful women moved through the world, making the entire place pleasing to the eye and unconsciously lifting one's spirits. This made Li Yan click his tongue in wonder.
That time, after discussing with Xing Ming, Li Yan had expressed his intention to stay and oversee things for a period to prevent any accidents.
Xing Ming didn't have many objections to this. In fact, he understood that there must be some hidden reason for Li Yan's keen interest in this matter, most likely related to his Master.
But what did that have to do with him? As long as it was beneficial to the sect, he wouldn't do anything to displease Zhang Ming.
Thus, after instructing Li Yan to have the sect disciples handle any matters or to send a message to him, he departed gracefully.
Li Yan, on one hand, urged Su Yuan to finalize the arrangements with the Sacred Demon Palace, and on the other, he investigated news of the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan.
At the same time, he would receive voice transmissions from Xing Ming from time to time, mostly about the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan's recent news. Xing Ming had also placed great importance on this matter.
The Elder Dragon Flood Dragon and Xi Ye had gone into seclusion within their sect and had not come out since. There were as many as five possible locations for their seclusion.
Each location was one of the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan's most heavily guarded areas, and they were exceptionally secret. The specific situation was still under investigation.
Regarding this, Xing Ming had also roughly mentioned a few locations. Li Yan had once used the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief to infiltrate the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan again, but he failed to find any fluctuations of a formation's aura.
This left him with the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief but no way to use it.
Li Yan even suspected that they might have gone underground. If they hadn't set up a formation on the surface but only underground, it would be much harder to sense the aura.
With the opponent's Sect-Protecting Grand Formation active, Li Yan didn't dare to use his Divine Sense at full power.
Under these circumstances, Su Yuan, on the other side, finally completed the arrangements with the Sacred Demon Palace after two months.
The reason it took so long was mainly that there were still two batches of medicinal pills ordered from the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan that had not been delivered, and the deposit had already been paid.
The Ghost Flood Dragon Clan did not jump out to interfere again, and after delivering the two batches of pills, there was no further news.
Inside the side hall, the demon cultivator surnamed Chu saw that this Elder Zhang's attitude towards him remained respectful and had not become careless as their relationship grew more familiar. He inwardly praised the man's way of handling matters.
During their first transaction, this Elder Zhang had secretly gifted him two seemingly ordinary medicinal pills, saying they were a personal gift.
He had also stated that they were poison pills, capable of dealing with Golden Core realm cultivators without any problem, but that he just hadn't been able to refine an antidote, which was a great pity.
The matter of the poison duel between Falling Star Valley and the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan was naturally not hidden from a cultivator like Chu.
He had also heard that this Elder Zhang had single-handedly fought against their three Golden Core cultivators. In the end, that Jiao Wuxing had died without a complete corpse, a truly miserable death, with even his demonic core melting into a pool of green liquid.
Even the Elder Dragon Flood Dragon, whom he considered particularly difficult to deal with, had not yet come out of seclusion and had vanished from all news.
This showed just how malevolent this Elder Zhang's poison pills were. Seeing that his opponent was so generous in their very first transaction, gifting him such a grand present, cultivator Chu couldn't help but feel pleased.
According to Zhang Ming, these pills were at least as potent as the ones that had defeated the Elder Dragon Flood Dragon. He accepted them without any hesitation.
Afterward, Cultivator Chu immediately went to the palace's great prison. After spending some Spirit Stones, he had the guard on duty find a Golden Core stage death row inmate from the Black Demon Clan.
Then, he carefully scraped some powder from one of the pills and secretly mixed it into the food for that Black Demon Clan prisoner.
The result delighted him. A quarter of an hour later, the Black Demon Clan prisoner clutched his own throat tightly and died of suffocation.
This symptom seemed similar to what he had heard about the Ghost Flood Dragon Clan's Xi Ye during the duel, only his whole body didn't petrify. Instead, after death, it quickly melted into a pool of foul water.
One had to know that the Black Demon Clan cultivator was only trapped because of the restrictions in the cage. The Pipa bone that ran through his meridians was locked, preventing him from using his magic.
But his full cultivation power was still present. Even so, he couldn't last more than a quarter of an hour.
For this, Cultivator Chu had to spend another considerable sum afterward to smooth things over.
Although the death row inmates held in the palace prison were all destined to die, they still held some value.
And these types of cultivators often had means of sealing their own souls. If one tried to forcefully search their soul, it was highly likely that one would end up with nothing.
Although this method was rare, if it was a spy from the Black Demon Clan, it was possible. Their Divine Souls were often tampered with by Nascent Soul stage cultivators or higher.
The purpose was to prevent their souls from being searched, which was why they were allowed to live for the time being, and occasionally even served a gourmet meal.
Normally, things like food were meaningless to cultivators, but they were death row inmates and understood that their future was bleak.
So, whenever a gourmet meal was delivered, they would eat it without question, to satisfy their palate and live happily for a moment. They weren't afraid of the other party tampering with the food.
If the White Demon Clan wanted them dead, they had hundreds of thousands of ways. But this time, it just so happened that Cultivator Chu had tampered with the food, and it had caused the prisoner to die prematurely.
Such a sudden death would also place responsibility on the guard in charge of the prison.
But after Cultivator Chu spent another sum of Spirit Stones, the matter was concluded with the official story that the Black Demon Clan prisoner had died from a sudden turmoil in his Divine Soul, which caused him to go mad and his body to decay.
Although it cost him a large sum of Spirit Stones, the matter made Cultivator Chu's mood even more pleasant. The effect of the poison pills was unexpectedly good.
And he didn't really need an antidote anyway. He would only use these poison pills for self-preservation and killing.
Thus, he felt an even greater affinity for this Elder Zhang of Falling Star Valley.
"There's no need for pleasantries. Last time we spoke, some of the human cultivation methods you mentioned also broadened my horizons, hehe..."
Ever since confirming the extraordinary effect of the poison pills Zhang Ming had given him, Cultivator Chu's relationship with Li Yan had deepened.
He would occasionally reveal some information that was secret to outsiders but common knowledge to cultivators of the Sacred Demon Palace during their conversations.
During their second chat, the two naturally drifted to the topic of cultivation methods, a common subject of exchange between cultivators.
In between, there were occasional private transactions, such as bartering for items or purchasing unused artifact refining or alchemy materials from each other.
But what cultivators enjoyed the most was discussing the Dao. They would bring up some of the problems they encountered in their cultivation, to see if they could get some inspiration from others.
Often, a casual sentence from the other party could lead to one's own enlightenment.
But it was also most common for cultivators to cherish their own knowledge and not share it. If you only wanted to get cultivation experience from others without giving anything in return, you would only have one chance before others would immediately distance themselves from you.
After a conversation with Li Yan, Cultivator Chu was surprised to find that this Elder Zhang, a cultivator from an alchemy sect, was also a decent Body Cultivator.
Their Demon Clan cultivators were inherently of the Body Cultivator lineage. As the two chatted freely, they found their conversation to be even more enjoyable.
So this time when they met again, after a few pleasantries, the two naturally started talking about cultivation methods again.
After chatting for a short while, Li Yan said in a seemingly casual tone, "Although there are countless types of body refining arts in the world, the human race is at a congenital disadvantage compared to the Demon Clan. Your race is born with powerful bloodlines. Even when cultivating ordinary body refining methods, you will far surpass our human Body Cultivators. And while there are some special constitutions among the human race, those who possess a congenital superior bloodline constitution are truly as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. This type of person is the envy of us body refining practitioners. Not only is their speed incredibly fast, but the power they can unleash can only be described as enviable."
Li Yan felt that today would be a good day to try out his plan.