Chapter 96: "Extreme"

Reconsider?

Xu Xiaozhan was taken aback, a hint of bewilderment flickering in his eyes. When he had first agreed to join the organization, he hadn't given it much thought. After all, Liu Pan had been quite casual about it, and had explicitly stated that even if he joined, he wouldn't be forced to do anything.

But now, Liu Pan had suddenly said he wanted to tell him the name of the organization, and then have him reconsider whether to join at all. This instantly struck Xu Xiaozhan as rather baffling. Wasn't it just a name? What was there to reconsider?

For a moment, Xu Xiaozhan even suspected Liu Pan was making fun of him, trying to find some flimsy excuse to kick him out of the organization. Though, truth be told, he didn't feel much attachment to the organization anyway…

Frowning slightly, Xu Xiaozhan gazed at Liu Pan's earnest face and was silent for a long moment before asking, "What name?"

"Ji!" Liu Pan's voice was resolute, and the instant he spoke the word, a strange light suddenly blazed in his eyes.

"Ji?" Xu Xiaozhan was puzzled. He didn't understand what the word meant coming from Liu Pan's mouth, or rather, he didn't know which "ji" character Liu Pan was referring to.

"That's right, Ji!" Liu Pan confirmed. As he spoke, his gaze remained fixed on the distant sky, but the strangeness in his eyes only grew more intense. "The 'ji' of ultimate. In the organization, while there are no restrictions on anyone's freedom of thought or action, once you join, you must possess a heart that is resolute and ever-striving. To put it plainly, no matter what anyone in the organization wants to do or enjoys doing, they must set their sights as wide as possible, take the entire world as their stage, and bring whatever they wish to accomplish to its absolute peak."

Xu Xiaozhan was dumbfounded. At that moment, he truly was dumbfounded. For a young man who had never even left Yunliu City his entire life, words like "the entire world" wouldn't provoke much deep thought even if he heard them or said them himself.

Yet, hearing those words from Liu Pan's mouth at this moment, Xu Xiaozhan inexplicably felt that this was no mere talk.

And Xu Xiaozhan finally understood why Liu Pan had told him the organization's name and asked him to reconsider joining. After all, what he had mentioned before—compared to the entire world—was truly too trivial.

But the entire world? As he seriously contemplated what those four words meant, Xu Xiaozhan suddenly felt at a loss. He was merely a young master from a second-rate family in Yunliu City, accomplished in neither letters nor martial arts. Although he considered himself to have some talent for commerce, in this world where martial might reigned supreme, what right did a merchant have to cast his gaze across the world?

Liu Pan naturally noticed Xu Xiaozhan's bewilderment. He didn't immediately press Xu Xiaozhan for a decision, nor was he certain whether Xu Xiaozhan currently possessed such courage. But he felt that now was the time to administer such a strong dose of medicine.

Moreover, if he didn't say these words now, once Xu Xiaozhan helped manage too many affairs for the Yunliu Sect and revealed his commercial talents, he might very well be bound to the Yunliu Sect for the rest of his life, never having the chance to set his sights on the world.

Forcibly changing Xu Xiaozhan's mindset and thoughts at this moment might be somewhat selfish on Liu Pan's part. But if he didn't forcibly change Xu Xiaozhan's mindset and thoughts now, Liu Pan felt he would be struck by lightning from the heavens!

As an author who had transmigrated into his own novel, wouldn't it be foolish not to consider his own interests? After all, since transmigrating into the book, was there a single thing Liu Pan had done that was entirely free of selfish motives?

"Think it over carefully. Give me your answer once you've made up your mind." As he spoke, Liu Pan turned to glance at Xu Xiaozhan, then walked toward the courtyard exit.

"Where are you going?" Seeing that Liu Pan seemed about to leave, Xu Xiaozhan snapped back to reality and called out to stop him.

"Well…" Liu Pan opened his mouth, about to say "You don't need to concern yourself with that," but suddenly thought of something and changed course mid-sentence: "I plan to find a quiet place to refine some pills and speed up my cultivation."

"You not calling out to me reminded me—in this Yunliu City, your Xu family has the most hidden shops and courtyards." As Liu Pan spoke, he glanced around, then said, "Does your Xu family have any courtyard in Yunliu City with a peaceful environment, preferably one with a basement?"

Xu Xiaozhan completely ignored Liu Pan's subsequent words. His attention was entirely caught by that one phrase about refining pills.

"You want to refine pills?" When Xu Xiaozhan said this, he truly couldn't believe his ears. In his view, although Liu Pan had become a medicine boy at Cangyun Peak after joining the Yunliu Sect, it had only been a few days! Alchemy and all that—it was simply too absurd!

What was more, he could clearly sense that Liu Pan's cultivation was still at the martial apprentice realm, without having awakened his spiritual sense. As for whether Liu Pan had spiritual power or not, that thought never even crossed his mind.

"Is there a problem with that?" Liu Pan's eyes flickered, as if something had occurred to him, and the corner of his mouth curled up almost imperceptibly. Then he said with a hint of arrogance, "If you don't believe me, this pill master will permit you to observe while I refine."

…

An hour later, in a rather ordinary courtyard at the southeast corner of Yunliu City.

"This is the place." Xu Xiaozhan gestured slightly, then his eyes flickered as he said, "This courtyard was quietly purchased for me personally by my family. The deed and all the ownership documents are entirely in my possession. This property was never reported to the Yunliu Sect, so it remains a hidden asset of our Xu family—it doesn't belong to the Yunliu Sect."

Liu Pan swept his spiritual sense outward, immediately probing the courtyard and its surroundings, then nodded and said, "Good. This place is quite nice."

With that, Liu Pan wasted no time and walked straight inside.

"Tell me, do you actually know how to refine pills?" Xu Xiaozhan asked with deep suspicion, following him into the courtyard.

Toward Liu Pan, Xu Xiaozhan truly felt a sense of inexplicability. He thought Liu Pan was either crazy, had a problem with his head, or he himself was seeing ghosts.

In the previous hour or so, after Xu Xiaozhan confirmed such a peaceful courtyard existed, he had followed Liu Pan to browse the market stalls and shops in Yunliu City. And then Xu Xiaozhan was utterly dumbfounded, because Liu Pan had gone and bought a complete set of water-method alchemy equipment!

And now, aside from the composure and confidence on Liu Pan's face, Xu Xiaozhan could find no reason whatsoever to believe Liu Pan could actually refine pills.

"You'll see in a moment." Liu Pan said without turning his head.

The courtyard was indeed very peaceful. The residents of the neighboring households were all ordinary people, so Liu Pan was quite satisfied with the conditions and environment. Of course, what pleased him most was that there was a basement.

Without bothering to inspect the courtyard, Liu Pan walked straight through the main hall, opened a hidden compartment in a side room, and then descended into the basement while Xu Xiaozhan stared at him as if seeing a ghost.

Xu Xiaozhan truly felt he was seeing ghosts now. He could swear that Liu Pan had never set foot in this courtyard before. Yet Liu Pan's behavior seemed even more familiar with the place than its own owner—he could even find the basement. This was simply…

One had to know that the basement had only been dug out after the Xu family purchased this courtyard, and only a handful of people knew of its existence. Moreover, the hidden mechanism of the basement had been specially treated. According to his father, even a spiritual sense scan would never detect anything unusual. So how could Liu Pan possibly know about it?

A strange light flickered in his eyes. Involuntarily, Xu Xiaozhan thought of the "Ji" Liu Pan had mentioned, and a peculiar feeling arose in his heart.

An organization that took the entire world as its stage? Just what kind of people were in it—what kind of people had to be in it to be qualified to speak such words? Liu Pan was clearly a member of this "Ji" organization, which meant…

At that moment, Liu Pan instantly became something mysterious in Xu Xiaozhan's eyes. For the first time, Xu Xiaozhan clearly realized that Liu Pan was not as simple as he had thought.

Letting out a soft breath, Xu Xiaozhan adjusted his mindset, then walked down into the basement.

Although this courtyard was not particularly notable among the Xu family's holdings, since they had dug out a basement and the hidden compartment had been so carefully crafted, it was obvious the basement was no mere decoration.

Thus, upon entering the basement, Xu Xiaozhan discovered Liu Pan unabashedly picking through items on the storage shelves, stuffing them unceremoniously into his own storage pouch.

Though he felt Liu Pan was being a bit too familiar—treating the place as if it were his own—Xu Xiaozhan didn't say anything.

The things here meant little to his entire Xu family. Even though the Xu family had now been taken over by the Yunliu Sect, they had still secretly retained many possessions, and this was merely one of them. Besides, Liu Pan was his family's benefactor. Even if everything here were taken, it still wouldn't be enough to repay that debt.

As for Liu Pan, he genuinely had no intention of being formal with Xu Xiaozhan. Not stuffing good things within reach into his own pockets would be doing himself a disservice.

In the end, Liu Pan loaded all the useful items into the storage pouch at his waist, then reached into his robes and pulled out another storage pouch, from which he produced all the equipment for water-method alchemy.

The alchemy cauldron was a newly forged one, purchased from the Yunliu Pill Pavilion, an enterprise under the Yunliu Sect. It was said to have been personally cast by Elder Wu of the sect's Artifact Hall, and it was the only water-method alchemy cauldron in all of Yunliu City.

Precisely because it was one of a kind, Liu Pan had really paid a hefty sum, even borrowing some money from Xu Xiaozhan, in order to buy it.

In truth, Liu Pan could have avoided spending so much on the cauldron—but only if he had been willing to present his medicine boy token from the Cangyun Peak Pill Hall.

After some deliberation, Liu Pan chose not to show the token.

What Liu Pan didn't know was that on the fifth day after he bought the cauldron, Elder Zhao announced in the Yunliu Sect that he was accepting Xiao Hanyi as his personal disciple. Afterwards, Xiao Hanyi came to the Yunliu Pill Pavilion with the token Elder Zhao had given him to collect this very cauldron—only to find it already gone… (To be continued.)