One month later—
Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua held their Dao companion ceremony as planned.
They chose the venue to be at the residence of the Right Virtuous King.
Guests from all walks of life across the Ying Ding Tribe, aside from the three Divine Masters themselves, came in full attendance. Not a single seat was empty.
Among them were Su Bing'er and Yan Yu—both closely connected to Wei Tu.
"Alchemist Wei really lives a blessed life," whispered some of the cultivators who saw Su Bing'er and Yan Yu seated right next to Wei Tu, envy flashing across their faces.
After all, in the world of cultivation, female True Lords had always been fewer than their male counterparts.
And Su Bing'er and Yan Yu weren't just young Golden Core cultivators—they were both strikingly beautiful and exceptionally gifted.
When you added both of those together, there were hardly any cultivators in the Ying Ding Tribe who fit that combination.
Moments later—
The stars of the event, Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua, flew out hand in hand from the inner palace of the Right Virtuous King's estate and landed on the uppermost platform of the main hall.
Both wore traditional red ceremonial robes of the Kang Kingdom and golden crowns. Their festive appearance set the tone.
Then—
The sound of gift offerings began to echo throughout the hall.
"Divine Master Du Long congratulates the Right Virtuous King and Princess on their Dao companion ceremony, gifting 1 Blood Spirit Ganoderma of 1,000 years!"
"Divine Master Hedi congratulates the Right Virtuous King and Princess, gifting 1 Cold Jade Ice Bed, 1 Red Spirit Treasure Colt, and 2 Purple Spirit Cushions!"
"Divine Master Donglai congratulates the Right Virtuous King and Princess, gifting 10 bottles of Sunset Sacred Water!"
Within the hall, representatives seated in the honored section—disciples of the Divine Masters—stood up one after another and bowed with clasped hands as they gave their offerings.
'Disciples serve in place of their masters.'
Even though today's Dao companion ceremony was a major event for cultivators in the Ying Ding Tribe, it still wasn't enough to warrant the Divine Masters showing up in person.
Just having the Golden Core disciples bring congratulatory gifts was already a huge honor for Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua.
After the representatives from the Divine Masters sat down—
Other guests in the VIP section, like Qu Bei and Wei Tu, also got up and presented their own gifts.
"Qu Bei presents 10 Red Bright Divine Beads. Wishing the Right Virtuous King and Princess eternal love and an everlasting Dao path."
"Wei Tu presents 5 Tier-Three Treasure Pills and 10 top-grade talismans. Wishing the Right Virtuous King and Princess…"
With the extravagant offerings from the Divine Masters setting the bar high, most of the gifts from others in the VIP section felt somewhat underwhelming to Yuan Jie—none of them truly rare or precious.
But when he heard Wei Tu's gift, his eyes lit up and he thought to himself, 'Wei Tu put real thought into this.'
Most of the other gifts were just flashy spiritual items with little practical value. Wei Tu's gift, on the other hand, was the real deal—solid, valuable, and useful.
Especially the 5 Tier-Three Treasure Pills...
No matter what kind of pill it was, once it reached Tier-Three, the price was guaranteed to be high.
By Yuan Jie's estimate, the total value of Wei Tu's gift was at least 20,000 spirit stones.
Even though that was just the market price—not what it cost Wei Tu as a skilled alchemist and talisman master—it was still incredibly generous.
Not long after—
The round of gift-giving ended.
Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua took their seats and motioned to the steward of the royal residence to begin serving the banquet.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, I didn't disappoint you. I've got news about the Solid Flame Pill formula," Yuan Jie smiled and looked over at Wei Tu not far from him.
Originally, he had planned to use the pill formula to keep Wei Tu in check, but after receiving such a generous gift, he knew it was time—emotionally and logically—to give the formula to Wei Tu.
"What? The Solid Flame Pill formula?" Wei Tu said in mock surprise.
"Isn't that formula not included in our division's collection? How did you suddenly get it?"
With the soul memory of Yuwen Cheng in his mind, Wei Tu already knew that the Ying Ding Tribe had the formula for the Solid Flame Pill.
Giving such a grand gift to Yuan Jie was part of his plan—one of his main goals was to move Yuan Jie enough to hand over the formula and ease his own concerns.
That things had gone so smoothly still came as a pleasant surprise.
"Two years ago, when you first asked about the pill, our division didn't have it," Yuan Jie said, lying with a straight face.
"But over the last two years, I paid a hefty price to acquire it from a mage in the Sun Shooting Division."
"I see," Wei Tu nodded with a look of realization on his face.
…
While Yuan Jie chatted with Wei Tu—
Fairy Baohua, as one of the stars of the day, turned her attention to Su Bing'er.
After two years, Su Bing'er—who had switched to cultivating the Ancient Scroll of Heavenly Fragrance—had developed a good friendship with Fairy Baohua.
"Little Sister Bing'er, over the past two years, how come it seems like nothing's happened between you and Daoyou Wei?" she asked curiously.
"Uh…" Su Bing'er's face turned pink as she quietly tried to explain, "Sister Baohua, you've misunderstood. Senior Brother Wei and I… we're just normal senior-junior disciples, not a couple or anything… Besides, Senior Brother Wei's been in seclusion this whole time…"
Halfway through her sentence, Su Bing'er's voice trailed off into barely audible murmurs.
Clearly, even she realized her explanation was as revealing as shouting 'there's no silver buried here' and then pointing to the ground.
Over the past two years, Wei Tu never clarified the rumors about them, and that silence rekindled a glimmer of hope in her—hope that she might still become Wei Tu's Dao companion one day.
So, even though she was verbally denying it, Su Bing'er couldn't hide the secret joy welling up inside at Fairy Baohua's teasing.
"Daoyou Wei's just like Yuan Jie—both are men with ambition," said Fairy Baohua playfully. "People like them don't waste time tangled up in emotions… but even the hardest heart would soften in front of someone like you, Sister Bing'er."
Fairy Baohua truly favored the match between Wei Tu and Su Bing'er. In terms of cultivation level and emotional connection, they were a great fit.
"This is a Cloud Mist Stone from the Vast Sea Desert. Among us Kang people, it's also called the Love-Confirming Stone."
"Back then, Yuan Jie gave me this very stone, and today, we've finally achieved our bond. So now, I'm giving it to you."
As she spoke, Fairy Baohua took out a dazzling blue-and-white gemstone, about the size of a baby's fist, and sent it floating toward Su Bing'er with a bit of spellpower.
"The Love-Confirming Stone?" Su Bing'er stared blankly, lost for a moment as she looked at the ordinary but stunning Cloud Mist Stone.
"Will that day ever come?"
She lowered her head slightly. A quiet sadness welled up in her heart.
Ever since that day when she offered to become Wei Tu's concubine and got gently turned down, she knew the chances between them had become slim to none.
Because when it came to benefits, Wei Tu had always been the one giving.
And she… was just a burden.
Dao companions were supposed to support each other. What could she even offer Wei Tu? A few moments where he had to rush to save her?
But—
When Su Bing'er looked up again, all signs of sorrow on her face vanished completely. She flashed a bright, friendly smile like the sun had come out.
"Thank you, Sister Baohua." She reached out to take the Cloud Mist Stone and gave a sweet smile of gratitude.
Fairy Baohua and Su Bing'er, like Wei Tu and Yuan Jie, had been communicating through voice transmission.
So while Wei Tu was a bit surprised to see Fairy Baohua suddenly give Su Bing'er a stone, he didn't think too much of it. He just assumed it was because of their close friendship.
…
Two days later—
Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua's Dao companion ceremony wrapped up smoothly.
And Wei Tu successfully obtained the pill formula for the Solid Flame Pill.
"Though the spiritual herbs required for this pill are rare, most of them grow on the grasslands. If I spend about 10 to 20 years, I should be able to gather them all and begin refining."
With just one sweep of his divine sense over the jade slip holding the formula, Wei Tu already had a rough idea of the timeline.
He was no rookie in pill-making anymore. Now, he was a seasoned alchemist, not just in the Ying Ding Tribe, but even throughout the entire Kang Kingdom.
He had long memorized the types of spiritual herbs needed in most pill formulas, where they grew, and their age requirements. Just one glance was enough to estimate the effort needed.
Of course, Wei Tu had no plans to collect the herbs himself.
Right now, what mattered most was raising his cultivation to the peak of the Golden Core Realm, preparing to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm.
After a bit of thought, he decided to assign the task to Yan Yu and Tao Fangde.
Yan Yu would handle collecting the main ingredients.
Tao Fangde would be responsible for the supplementary herbs.
"I know what you're hoping for," Wei Tu said on the fourth floor of the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall. He looked at Tao Fangde—an elderly man now, with failing vitality and graying hair.
"Once this task is complete, I can't promise anything else, but I can promise you this—there will be one more Golden Core True Lord in the Hanshan Tao family."
Foundation Establishment cultivators had a lifespan of 400 years.
Tao Fangde was already over 300 years old, and even older than Wei Tu.
By Wei Tu's estimate, Tao Fangde's remaining lifespan was likely no more than 20 years.
Once he completed this job, it wouldn't be long before he sat down in meditation and passed away.
"Thank you, Senior Wei!" Tao Fangde was overjoyed when he heard that.
He bowed with cupped fists and quickly thanked him.
All these years of serving Wei Tu, what he'd been hoping for was nothing more than the revival of the Hanshan Tao family.
Now, Wei Tu had given him exactly that hope—how could he not be happy?
"Junior will get started right away!"
Tao Fangde took his leave, rushing out of the Wei Clan Pill and Talisman Hall like a man on fire, heading off to find the spiritual herbs needed for the Solid Flame Pill.
Seeing Tao Fangde leave, Wei Tu, still on the fourth floor, couldn't help but shake his head.
He had originally thought that after promising the Tao family a Golden Core spot, Tao Fangde might use it for himself. After all, with his skills in alchemy, Wei Tu could easily help Tao Fangde recover to his best state for breaking through, so that age wouldn't be an issue during the breakthrough.
But surprisingly, Tao Fangde never even considered it. From the start, all his thoughts had been for his clan's revival. He never spared a thought for his own future.
'Admirable, pitiful, and fearsome.'
That was Wei Tu's private assessment of Tao Fangde.
Admirable—for his selflessness.
Pitiful—for never considering his own path, only the clan's.
Fearsome—because with an elder like him, how could the Hanshan Tao family not rise again, how could it not become a Golden Core family once more?
Even without Wei Tu's help, the Tao family still had a good chance of regaining its strength.
"But a family can't depend on just one Huang Xinglie or one Tao Fangde."
At this thought, Wei Tu recalled the Heshan Huang family he had once served.
Back then, the Huang family patriarch Huang Xinglie was wise and fair, a true model for the clan.
But sadly, the family's culture was rotten. Talented members lost faith and drifted away, benefiting others instead.
And so, a thousand-year-old Golden Core clan collapsed.
Wei Tu didn't know whether the Hanshan Tao family would one day become the next Heshan Huang family.
…
Time passed swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, another two years had gone by.
After taking a second Purple Candle Pill, Wei Tu's cultivation smoothly broke through to the late stage of the Golden Core Realm, reaching Great Accomplishment.
When he came out of seclusion, he received another wedding invitation.
But this time, it wasn't just anyone—it was his son, Wei Xiuwen.
The bride was a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Tao family, named Tao Wenzhi.
As this was a remarriage, not a first marriage, Wei Tu didn't feel the need to attend the ceremony in person.
"Yushan Market?"
Wei Tu glanced at the location listed on the invitation.
He thought it over, then decided to ask Su Bing'er to go in his place to witness Wei Xiuwen's wedding.
First, because of the Solid Flame Pill matter, both of his current "managers," Yan Yu and Tao Fangde, were out searching for spiritual herbs and couldn't be spared.
Second, Su Bing'er was his fellow disciple, also at the Golden Core Realm, so she was perfectly suitable in both status and strength to represent him.
What Wei Tu didn't know, though, was that after Su Bing'er attended Wei Xiuwen's ceremony on his behalf, both Yuan Jie and Fairy Baohua became even more convinced that she was his destined Dao companion.
Still, Wei Tu didn't care about other people's little assumptions. Right now, all he cared about was cultivation—pushing his realm higher.
Six months later—
Wei Xiuwen's Dao companion ceremony was complete.
At that moment, in seclusion, Wei Tu swallowed the last Purple Candle Pill.
But clearly, that one pill wasn't enough to push his cultivation from Great Accomplishment to the Peak of the Golden Core Realm.
"If there's no other pill to help, I'd probably need around 40 more years to reach the peak."
Wei Tu calculated carefully.
By now, he could precisely gauge the time required for his own breakthroughs.
"But that works too. This timeframe pretty much matches what I need to cultivate the Righteous Clarity Divine Qi to Great Accomplishment."
He immersed his thoughts and gazed at the golden-purple fate mark deep in his mind.
『Righteous Clarity Divine Qi (28/100): Practice once every 3 days, fully achieved in 120 years.』
That progress reading was from back when he was still in the Great Void Secret Realm, at the mid-stage of the Golden Core Realm, so it wasn't very accurate anymore.
Now, based on his current pace, he figured he could finish cultivating this secret technique within 35 years at most.
And only once Righteous Clarity Divine Qi reached Great Accomplishment could he use its condensed divine gang energy to dissolve the deadly poison hidden inside the Nascent Soul Pill he got from Qingzhu Mountain.
So in terms of timing, both tasks lined up almost perfectly.
In other words, even if he got another set of Purple Candle Pill ingredients and reached the peak of the Golden Core Realm ahead of schedule, he still couldn't immediately swallow the Nascent Soul Pill and break through.
"These next 40 years, I'll keep pushing my realm while also cultivating Righteous Clarity Divine Qi, Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes, and Golden Toad Qi—these three secret techniques…"
After a brief moment of thought, Wei Tu locked in his plan.
"Just not sure how Yan Yu and Tao Fangde are doing with the spiritual herb collection for the Solid Flame Pill..."
"It's already been 5 years."
Wei Tu flicked his sleeve and summoned the pile of accumulated message talismans from outside his meditation room, carefully going through them one by one.