Tainted will

Lu Yunjie started at Bai Ming as a cold light flickered past his aged eyes, his voice naturally turned a bit colder after getting rejected twice, "Oh, I didn't expect brother to really look down on my red lotus sect and not even give elder Teng some face."

Bai Ming showed a apologetic look and wanted to speak otherwise, but Lu Yunjie waved his hand and spoke indifferently, "It doesn't matter, since your not interested there is nothing we can do. Brother Yi Yun please share the reason for your visit."

Bai Ming's face was very bitter, he forced a smile and said, "Please don't take offense from this juniors words. As for the purpose of my visit, it is to buy a batch of tier-4 essence gathering pills and some tier-3 formation flags and formation base."

"Sigh, brother unfortunately for you currently we have completely run dry of tier-4 pills, even the other branches have no stock, it's probably going to take an extremely long time before we can supply you with some tier-4 essence gathering pills, but our red lotus sect has plenty of tier-4 pills along with a huge number of realm breaking pills and tier-5 pills, but too bad the sect rarely sells those pills to outsiders." Lu Yunjie had a helpless expression as he spoke, but his eyes were clearly mocking Bai Ming. His words were both a threat and a compromise at the same time.

'Want to force me. Hehehe, but this is good. The more forceful you are the higher my value, if I am going to join a sect it is better to get an understanding of what my value is to the sect, am I easily replaceable or am I highly valued or am I just an average genius. Once I am clear on that, not only will i know how unrestrained i can be in the sect, I should also get bountiful benefits from the Teng city Lord.' As Bai Ming thought to himself, he put on a gloomy expression and his tone became low, "It's really unfortunate, I was here few days ago. At the time there was still a large amount of pills available, whatever nothing can be done now. Please inform me when the next batch arrives."

Lu Yunjie snorted inwardly, but on the surface his face was calm as he nodded slightly.

"Then what about the formation flags and bases, they should be available right?" Bai Ming still looked gloomy.

Lu Yunjie's expression was about to turn bitter, but his eyes momentarily shone. This minute change was clearly caught by Bai Ming's astute gaze.

Lu Yunjie laughed lightly, his expression had turned into a gentle one, "Brother Yi Yun, worry not our Lotus treasure pavilion is after all a part of the Red lotus sect, tell me the amount of materials you require."

Bai Ming pondered for few breaths, before he spoke, "Tier-3 Flags worth 600,000 and Tier-3 bases worth 250,000 spirit stones, that's all for now."

"Does brother need anything else." Lu Yunjie smiled lightly, as he spoke. Bai Ming soundlessly shook his head sideways in response.

After waiting for a minute, Bai Ming got the things he wanted and left quietly.

The instant Bai Ming left the pavilion, in the fourth floor of the lotus treasure pavilion, Lu Yunjie a grand Yin-Yang void cultivator kneeled on the floor as he faced a middle aged man's image in a bronze mirror.

The middle aged man had a square face and thick brows. His brown eyes were big as bells, his hands were behind his back and his head was held up high. He was wearing bright red clothes with golden threads embroidered on them, his cold eyes stared at the Lu Yunjie.

"Elder Tian, please forgive this junior for failing to live up to your expectations." Lu Yunjie spoke with utmost respect, he was still kneeling as he spoke.

The middle aged man was none other than Teng city's Lord, Teng zhe.

Teng zhe coldly laughed, his voice was as cold as ice, "Such an amusing brat, Lu Yunjie worry not it is not your fault. I have already seen everything that has transpired, speak do you know what to do next."

"First we need to make a yin-yang void cultivator to keep an eye on the brat and to attack him if he leaves the city, but as a safety measure I will also inform all the branches of our lotus treasure pavilion to add him to the blacklist just in case. With this he will never be able to get outside of the city while also being unable to get pills for his cultivation, he will have no other choice but to join our sect if he wants his cultivation speed to not slow down, him joining the sect is but a matter of time." Lu Yunjie respectfully replied.

"Its a common tactic, but still a effective move. But are you forgetting that i am also in a bit of rush. This plan of yours is not enough to immediately subdue him, I have a better method." Next Tian Zhe unhurriedly explained his plan, in his eyes a devious but excited light shone.

'With this not only will he have to join the sect, but he might feel a tiny amount of gratitude towards me and readily become my disciple. It will then be easier for me to get that item, Normally I would have just used some kind of curse or binding on him to obey me but once he enters the sect, the other elders will be surely interested in him or worse even the sect leader might take a intrest in him, but the chances are low Considering that sect leader already has such a monstrously genius disciple. But the other inner elders would just remove my binding and try to rope him. With my current method, atleast he would give me much priority over the other once he joins the sect.'

.....

Bai Ming quietly walked back home, his expression cold.

'Why did he suddenly change, from his earlier expression he was definitely going to make some excuse of there being a shortage of materials, but then why did he sell me these formation materials. There definitely is some motive behind this act, from my understanding they should have someone keeping an eye on me, most likely an yin-yang void cultivator.'

'They must think that i would quietly leave the Teng city once I make some money, they might also expect me to visit other cities to buy pills. But the thirty six cities surrounding the Teng city are under the control of the Red lotus sect. Surely I won't be able buy anything in those cities and I also have to worry about those Evil dao valley members and the person tailing me, is the city Lord also aware of my enmity with that evil dao valley. There certainly is a possibility, but it doesn't matter since I do not plan on moving outside the city anyway.'

'My current actions are only to determine my value, if the city Lord hatches some kind of plot against me it'll just show that my value is not only higher to the sect, but also to the city Lord himself. With this knowledge before I enter the sect I can get more benefits from him in the name of alliance, but if they do not act soon I can just approach them and volunteer to join the sect.'

'I'll wait for another ten days and then display my formation skills to the greatest extent, of course they could already know that I can set up tier-4 formations. If even that method fall's short there is no need to wait any longer as it will only slow down my cultivation speed.'

Bai Ming wanted to join the red lotus sect to gain more cultivation resources, but he was also aware of the fact that competition inside the sect was extremely fierce and deadly. He had to be prepared before hand, if wanted to be lone cultivator it was going to be extremely difficult to progress rapidly.

Even with his grandmaster realm attainment in the formation path, he could only sell tier-4 formations at max. With that he could earn huge sums of money, but with just spirit stones how could he gain precious resources, when there's no seller. And joining a sect had variety of benefits be it higher cultivation speed, gaining martial skills, treasures, insights from expert's, etc.

Bai Ming arrived in his residence, he then quickly began setting up formations. With the amount of materials he had, he could set up nearly 160 tier-3 formations which would let him earn nearly 9,600,000 spirit stones.

Every single formation he made until now had few restrictions secretly placed on it which would slowly destroy the formation after dozens of use and one restriction would even prevent a person from learning the intricacies of the formation. Learning the workings of a formation was already extremely difficult to begin with. And with the restrictions he placed on them, it would make it almost impossible for others to study it, unless they had higher attainment than Bai Ming.

After creating nearly hundred formations Bai Ming's soul force was getting weaker, after three hours of meditation his soul returned to its peak state, as he once again began setting up formations. Like this Bai Ming spent the entire day immersed in the creation of formations.

The day quickly passed by.

It was early in the morning, but the streets of the Teng city was already packed with cultivators.

Swish! Swish!

In a backyard, Bai Ming was diligently practicing with his sword.

'It's still a bit misty, if I could get my hands on few superior grade fire techniques it won't be long before I create the second form of the self sword technique. Once I join the sect, I should be able get my hands on such skills, if my fire path attainment was high I could probably integrate the fire element into the self sword formation.' Bai Ming's mind wandered as crimson eyes looked at his reflection on the blade.

"Hmm" Bai Ming was suddenly broken from his train of thoughts as he felt the voice transmission jade in his robes vibrating.

Bai Ming swiftly placed the jade against his forehead, immediately hearing Yang lai's anxious voice.

Bai Ming patiently heard what he had to say, before saying, "Manage it, I'll be there in a moment."

"Causing trouble already. Hehe, how impatient." Bai Ming coldly laughed in his heart, before suddenly vanishing from the backyard.