Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

The first thing I saw when I opened it was the Cloud Piercing Crossbow.

Xu Lingguang was both surprised and delighted. He took out the Cloud Piercing Crossbow and touched it again and again. It was indeed the one he had brought in.

Without a suitable weapon during this period, he could only try to survive by any means possible, which was incredibly frustrating for him.

He quickly checked the other items in the Qiankun bag, but there was nothing else; only a Cloud Piercing Crossbow was returned.

Xu Lingguang pouted slightly in dissatisfaction. Among the pills he carried with him were many powerful weapons.

He went to check the rewards again, and thankfully they were pretty good.

There were many kinds of spiritual herbs. He counted them and found that the most valuable ones were Blood Lotus Heart, Mystic Ice Jade Dew, Fire Flame Flower, Green Wood Essence, and Soul Nourishing Wood.

He remembered that these items were listed in Qianjinlou's catalog. Each one was quite expensive, and most importantly, they all looked to be of the highest quality. Whether he used them himself or sold them, he would definitely not lose money.

Besides elixirs, this time there were even talismans and array plates.

There are ten talismans, all primarily for attack; and two array plates, one a Thousand Shadows Illusion Array and the other a Nine Heavens Thunderfire Needle. The former can be used to confuse the enemy and protect oneself, while the latter can be used to set traps; both are valuable items.

After carefully putting it away, Xu Lingguang discovered that there was something else at the very bottom of the Qiankun bag.

He took it out and found that it was a piece of wood with golden characters carved on it, but Xu Lingguang couldn't quite understand them. Just as he was wondering what it was, the golden characters on the wood suddenly crawled into his palm.

Xu Lingguang was startled and subconsciously threw away the wood, but the words did not disappear. Instead, they swam up his palm like fish to his arm and then remained still, returning to the way they appeared on the wood.

Xu Lingguang tapped his hand and rubbed it hard, but the golden characters didn't budge or fade at all, as if they were naturally grown on his arm.

He frowned and studied it for a while, only to find that the thing didn't hurt or itch on his arm. Instead, he rubbed it vigorously for a long time until his skin turned red, so he had to give up in frustration.

We can't deliberately cheat him out of the rewards from the Hundred Refinements Tower.

With that thought in mind, Xu Lingguang decided to put the matter aside for the time being, lowered his sleeves, and began refining pills on the spot.

He received a considerable amount of spiritual herbs as a reward this time, and he planned to refine the pills thoroughly before setting off again.

*

Xu Lingguang was focused on refining pills in the Mountain and Sea Hundred Refinements, unaware that the outside world was in an uproar because of him.

On the fourth day after the Hundred Refinement Tower opened, Gongyang Songfeng emerged.

This time, he finally made it past the tenth floor of the Hundred Refinements Tower, but stopped at the twelfth floor.

Last year he was stuck on the tenth level, but after a year of hard work, he has finally overcome this hurdle.

Gongyang Songfeng was quite pleased with himself. Among the young alchemists of the Gongyang family this generation, he was the only one who had crossed the tenth level.

Although the Hundred Refinement Tower has a total of twenty-seven floors, the first to tenth floors are actually the most basic levels. Any alchemist with decent aptitude can easily pass the first nine floors.

But things are different on the tenth floor. The difficulty of the tenth floor is double that of the previous nine floors combined.

Many alchemists, lacking experience, venture into the Hundred Refinement Tower for the first time. They become complacent after clearing the first nine levels, thinking the Hundred Refinement Tower is nothing special, and often suffer a major setback on the tenth level.

Even though Gongyang Songfeng knew this all along, he still failed on the tenth floor when he tried to enter the Hundred Refinements Tower last year.

But this year is different. He is not like those mediocre talents. Many alchemists have to stay stuck at the tenth level for several years before they can continue to move forward. He broke through in the second year, so it is inevitable that he will be complacent.

The alchemists who came out before and after him shared similar feelings.

After all, it has been four days since the Hundred Refinement Tower opened. The alchemists who have survived until now have all made breakthroughs compared to the past. So, although they were expelled from the Hundred Refinement Tower, they are all in good spirits.

Gongyang Songfeng lightly touched the ground with his toes, skimmed over Longyantai, and landed on the second floor of the Wendao Hall with a carefully considered and elegant posture.

He had expected that the disciples and friends of the Gongyang family would come up to congratulate him, but he stood there with his hands behind his back for a long time and no one made a move.

Everyone had a look of utter despair on their faces and didn't even notice him coming out.

Gongyang Songfeng was displeased and could only cough loudly to remind everyone of his arrival.

The junior brother, who usually loved to follow him around like a lackey, was the first to see him. He quickly forced a smile that looked more like a grimace and came over to greet him: "Senior Brother, you're out!"

Gongyang Songfeng nodded arrogantly, seemingly casually mentioning, "It's a pity that I made a wrong move and failed to pass the thirteenth level."

He fully expected his junior brother to continue asking questions, but his junior brother nodded blankly, said "Oh," and sat back down like a lost soul.

Gongyang Songfeng's anger was already starting to fester.

His lips twitched, and he swept his face over the crowd, suppressing his anger as he asked, "What's going on? You all look like defeated roosters. If outsiders saw this, they'd think something had happened to the Gongyang family."

Finally, someone noticed his suppressed anger, but by then no one had the energy to flatter or fawn over him, since many of them had staked their entire fortunes on it.

Not to mention, the disciples of the Gongyang family felt an urge to defect whenever they thought about the storms they might face.

However, the thought that Gongyang Songfeng was the first to face this storm gave those present a strange sense of balance, and they all glanced at Gongyang Songfeng with veiled eyes.

He just came out of the Hundred Refinement Tower and probably doesn't know about this terrible news yet.

Nobody wants to risk this misfortune, so no one has taken the initiative to tell him this unfortunate news.

Gongyang Songfeng sensed something was amiss, but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. He glanced around and saw Huai Qing and the others not far away, but didn't see Xu Lingguang. So he asked, "Where's Xu Lingguang? What day did he come out?"

His tone was filled with undisguised smugness: "I'm out now, it's time to settle this bet."

However, after he finished speaking, he found that no one present responded to him. Instead, they looked at him with strange eyes, as if they wanted to say something but couldn't.

Gongyang Songfeng finally realized what was wrong. A sense of foreboding rose in his heart, but he quickly suppressed it and forced himself to remain calm, saying, "Why isn't anyone saying anything? Have you become mute?"

The sound became increasingly shrill and out of control towards the end.

The disciples of the Gongyang family looked at each other, trying to pass the buck with their eyes.

There you go.

You should go.

If you don't go, I won't go either.

So everyone remained in an eerie silence.

However, some alchemists who were merely trying to curry favor with Gongyang Songfeng, seeing that things were not going well, began to make excuses to leave.

Without waiting for a reply from Gongyang Songfeng, he took his leave and fled as if he were escaping.

Gongyang Songfeng's face turned ashen.

His cheeks twitched, his anger barely contained. His gaze swept across the room, then he pointed to his junior brother: "You speak!"

The junior apprentice stammered.

Hu Lie, however, came over upon hearing the commotion. He not only watched the spectacle with a smile but also kindly came to his junior brother's rescue: "I do know where that Second Young Master Xu is."

Gongyang Song Feng looked at him.

He said with a grin, "Young Master Xu is still inside the Hundred Refinement Tower. Brother Gongyang will have to wait patiently if he wants to settle accounts."