Meng Hao stepped into the pavilion calmly. He didn’t look at the four others, nor did they look at him. He sat down off to the side.
Not much time passed before three more people arrived. They were surrounded by the sound of singing, and yet no dancers could be seen. It created a truly bizarre air. Suddenly, contented laughter rang out as a ruddy-faced old man appeared and strode toward them. He sat down in the seat of honor.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, let today’s secret meeting begin. I won’t go into all the rules. I’m sure this is not your first time participating as guests in a secret meeting, Fellow Daoists, so let’s get going.” He flicked his sleeve, and a Nine Dragons Furnace appeared in the middle of all the participants. Mist began to spread out, and Meng Hao glanced at the old man.
This man was clearly not the same old man Meng Hao had seen at his first secret meeting. However, Meng Hao’s Cultivation base was not the same as it had been at that time. With his Spiritual Sense, he could tell that the old man wasn’t even real.
He was actually a projection!
“These secret meetings are really mysterious,” Meng Hao thought. “There must be some powerful forces behind the scenes that organize them. The meeting back in the Black Sieve Sect territory was exactly the same as this one.” He pulled out a jade slip, which he sent into the furnace.
All the other participants did the same, and soon the mist from the dragon furnace filled the area, enveloping everyone.
Glowing lights began to appear, which Meng Hao started to browse through. His eyes began to flicker. The vast majority of the offerings were for pill formulas and medicinal plants.
“There must be at least one person from the East Pill Division here today, and not just a master alchemist, but a Furnace Lord.” In the past few days, Meng Hao had made a few inquiries about the East Pill Division, and now knew much more about it.
For example, disciples of the East Pill Division started out as apprentice alchemists. Eventually, they could become master alchemists, then Furnace Lords. Higher than the Furnace Lords were the Violet Furnace Lords, who were very important figures within the Southern Domain.
Violet Furnace Lords were automatically novitiates of Grandmaster Pill Demon, and thus could receive direct instruction from him. The only other way to become a novitiate of Grandmaster Pill Demon was to have special backing, and thus reach heaven in a single bound, so to speak.
For example, Ding Xin from all those years ago, had been a disciple of the Violet Qi Division. However, his gift for pill concoction impressed Grandmaster Pill Demon, and he eventually was selected to become a novitiate. Sadly, before he could even begin his studies, he had been sent to the State of Zhao and had fallen at the hands of Meng Hao. 1
After that, the only disciple Grandmaster Pill Demon had accepted to be a novitiate was Chu Yuyan. However, her skill in pill concocting was actually only at the level of a Furnace Lord. She was still quite a distance from Violet Furnace Lord.
Meng Hao sat there thoughtfully, looking over the various twinkling dots of light. After a while, he reached out to grab the glowing dot that contained his information. He quickly imprinted it with some more details and then threw it back out to wait.
Not too much time passed before a streak of light appeared in front of him.
“You have a friend who wants to join the Violet Fate Sect’s East Pill Division and become an apprentice alchemist? You’ll need a recommendation for that. What do you have to trade?”
Meng Hao’s eyes glittered. This was the exact purpose for which he had chosen to attend the Violet Moon City secret meeting.
According to the rules of the Violet Fate Sect, it was impossible to just randomly join the Sect. However, the larger a Sect is, the more dragons and snakes will be jumbled together 2. Of course there would be some people who would break the rules out of self-interest. And apparently this secret meeting had a Furnace Lord in attendance, most likely because of the recent Pill Auction.
If medicinal herbs could be sold for profit, then why not a spot in the Sect for an apprentice alchemist? After all, in the Violet Fate Sect, there were roughly one hundred thousand apprentice alchemists. One spot didn’t really count for anything.
Meng Hao didn’t respond immediately. He waited for about the time it takes two incense sticks to burn. No more responses to his request came in, so he began to negotiate with the person who had just messaged him. They felt each other out to confirm each other’s legitimacy. Meng Hao was familiar with this process.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to reach an agreement. Meng Hao traded some of the medicinal plants he had acquired in Patriarch Reliance’s Immortal’s Cave in exchange for a spot as an apprentice alchemist. When the deal was completed, Meng Hao had a new jade slip in his hand.
It was dark green, and the image of a pill furnac