Infinite Awakening: My Exp Doubles Everyday - Chapter 140

Chapter 140: Refining Spiritual Weapons
Elder Huang, Liu Meiling, and Elder Guo sat together. Although it seemed peaceful on the outside, the tension between them was palpable. Elder Guo’s gaze darted anxiously between the two women. After several moments of unbearable silence, he finally gathered his courage.

“Actually…” he began, but was immediately cut off.

“Shut up!” both women commanded in perfect unison.

Elder Guo’s mouth snapped closed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He settled back into his chair, accepting his fate as a mere spectator in whatever confrontation was unfolding.

Elder Huang turned to Meiling, her lips curving into a smile. “So you’re Mei Mei. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“And you’re the junior sister?” Meiling returned the artificial smile. “I’ve heard quite a lot about you as well.”

Inwardly, Meiling couldn’t hide her shock. This guy really got married? I thought he was gay, she thought, studying Elder Guo curiously.

Xiuying, who had been observing the exchange with wide, innocent eyes, suddenly piped up. “Sister Mei Mei, is this what they call a love triangle?” she asked, tilting her head with genuine curiosity.

Meiling’s face flushed crimson. “Wh-what are you talking about? What triangle?” she sputtered, before quickly regaining her composure. She smoothed her robes and addressed Xiuying with forced authority. “Go and play by yourself. The adults are speaking.”

“Oki,” Xiuying agreed cheerfully, wandering away without further protest.

Once the girl was out of earshot, Meiling turned her attention back to Elder Guo, her expression sharpening. “Anyway, ‘senior brother,'” she emphasized the title with subtle mockery, “you seem to have grown weaker since the last time we met.”

Elder Guo chuckled. “Haha, I’ve grown old. Just letting the younger generation have a turn.”

Meiling studied him with unconcealed skepticism. What did he mean by old? He was barely three hundred years old—practically in his prime for a cultivator. And what younger generation was he referring to?

“Hmph,” she scoffed, folding her arms across her chest. “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d taken my offer back then.” Her gaze hardened as she leaned forward. “When your Sect Master returns, you should convince her to take the Righteous Alliance’s offer. Otherwise, your sect won’t survive.”

Elder Huang’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Do you think our sect needs your help?” she retorted, her voice rising with each word. “We’d die before we accepted any help from you self-righteous cult bastards!”

“What did you say?” Meiling rose to her feet, spiritual energy rippling around her like heat waves.

Elder Huang stood to match her, undaunted. So what if Meiling was a Golden Core cultivator? Did she think she could humiliate them in their own home? Besides, the woman was well within their formation’s attack range, and Elder Huang was itching to test its capabilities.

“Ladies, please calm down,” Elder Guo attempted to interject, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

“Stay out of it!” both women shouted without even glancing his way.

Elder Guo sank back into his seat, resignation etched into his face. He couldn’t help but reflect on how far he had fallen. How could someone like him be treated with such disrespect? He had failed his ancestors. Silently, he prayed his disciple Xiang Yu wouldn’t meet a similar fate.

“Do you think my Azure Cloud Sect fears you?” Elder Huang challenged, her fists clenched at her sides.

“Hmph! What can you possibly do against a rank five sect?” Meiling countered. “Even the other rank five righteous sects can’t stand against the Wuming Cult leader.”

Elder Huang knew there was truth to these words. She knew that it was ambitions of them to challenge the Wuming cult. But her faith in Li Yao remained unshakable—she was certain that the Sect Master would turn the situation around.

“So what if they can’t? Do you think we can’t?” she replied, her voice filled with conviction.

Meiling burst into laughter, the sound sharp and dismissive. “Although your sect has now become a rank seven sect, you’re still far from being able to defeat a rank five sect,” she said, wiping away imaginary tears of amusement.

Elder Huang’s eyes widened slightly. Had news spread that quickly already?

“You should just collaborate with us to form a trap for the Wuming Cult leader,” Meiling continued. “That way, you can at least save your sect.”

As expected of the Righteous Alliance, Elder Huang thought bitterly. They aren’t doing this out of kindness but because they want to eliminate a competitor. In the end, it’s all about their own interests.

…

After his alchemy reached the sixth grade, Xiang Yu found himself crafting eighth-grade pills with remarkable ease. His success rate had climbed to a perfect hundred percent, eliminating all wastage of precious materials. With this newfound mastery, he decided there was no longer any reason to hold back. His fingers moved with purpose as he produced three hundred eighth-grade healing pills for his daily bloodline stimulation sessions.

These pills would sustain him through the next three days. He had calculated that it would take that much time for his alchemy to advance yet again. He deliberately limited production to this amount, having noticed an intriguing pattern in his advancement.

With each breakthrough, not only did his success rate increase, but his resource efficiency improved dramatically. He now required fewer herbs to achieve the same results, a significant advantage when working with the rare eighth and seventh-grade materials.

“If this efficiency continues to improve,” he mused, examining a perfectly formed pill between his fingers, “I might eventually craft higher-level pills for the sect without depleting our resources.”

After completing his personal supply, Xiang Yu turned his attention to refining lower-grade pills for the sect’s collective benefit. Though the sect already possessed substantial quantities, additional pills provided valuable trading currency. They could exchange these for higher-grade herbs, which he could then transform into even more powerful pills. He made a mental note to discuss this strategy with his martial aunt later.

He reasoned that she probably hadn’t purchased higher-grade herbs because he had yet to mention any advancement in alchemy.

The hours passed as Xiang Yu refined thousands of pills. When he finally completed this task, he shifted his focus to weapon refining, something he’d been quite eager to explore.

His blacksmithing had broken through to the sixth stage, crossing the threshold into the mid realm. This advancement unlocked the ability to forge spiritual weapons. Though these would be low-level ones, the significance couldn’t be overstated. The gap in power between magical and spiritual weapons was vast, comparable to the difference between a candle and a bonfire.

“If I can mass-produce spiritual weapons,” he thought as he gathered his materials, “our sect will enter an entirely new realm of power.”

With spiritual weapons in hand, perhaps they wouldn’t be so easily overwhelmed. Even if they couldn’t match the Wuming Cult’s overall strength, they could at least defend themselves with dignity.

A sigh escaped his lips as he realized how deeply he had embraced his role as Grand Elder. He had genuinely begun to care about the sect’s future and dignity.

The actual process of refining spiritual weapons proved far more challenging than he had anticipated. The materials required precise control beyond anything he had previously attempted. The spiritual energy infusion needed to be performed with absolute concentration, any wavering of attention resulting in immediate failure. By lunchtime, he had only managed to produce ten weapons.

Yet Xiang Yu remained undaunted. This was merely the first day of many. With persistent effort and advancing proficiency, he would eventually create hundreds. He decided to keep one of the weapons for himself while entrusting the others to his martial aunt for distribution among the elders.

As Xiang Yu emerged from the spirit vein, wiping sweat from his brow, he was startled to discover someone waiting outside. A young woman with delicate features stood there, her eyes widening upon seeing him appear from what had appeared to be solid rock.

“Ah, someone came out!” Xiuying exclaimed, her voice filled with childlike wonder.