OBS! 

My editor is unable to edit for some time. I have found a temporary editor, but you will be able to see the difference in edit style.

"We were successful," he said tentatively, as he waved his hand and the snow jade box appeared in his hand. 

"Let us discuss the reward," he continued. Although he knew that he was risking quite a lot, he had to try it. 

"When we agreed to go on this mission, we were promised riches and honor, but what we really want is to be able to leave this city alive," he said honestly, and as he spoke Wan Qiang's eyes shone excitedly. 

"You are trading the Seven Star Nightflower for your lives?" He asked curiously and Xue Wei nodded his head. 

"If I knew what was going on then I would not have returned to fulfill my promise, but I cannot change the past and now I am here. I have the responsibility for my friends as well and I cannot allow them to be implicated."

"Outrageous!" one of the Elders of the Black Iron Fortress exclaimed in anger. "You killed human experts like chopping weeds during the tournament! Someone like you is not worthy of living in this era where humans stand united!"

"If you did not want anyone to kill others, then why would you make the tournament encourage us to kill one another?" Xue Wei asked back. He did not sneer, his killing intent did not flare, but a cold gleam shone in his eyes. He felt aloof from the world, but also as if someone was trying to trample on his pride. 

Xue Wei could see that this Elder was willing to kill him no matter what he said, but he had to try and convince the other Elders that it was not his fault. 

"We did it to allow someone to feel a life and death crisis, but to actually go the extra mile and kill them, it is unacceptable!" 

"It is not my fault they were weak like paper tigers, unable to sustain against a single attack from me," Xue Wei said with a shrug of his shoulders. "If they truly cannot handle me, how would they ever be able to handle a Primordial Beast? Instead of sending them to their slaughter where their corpses will be mauled and destroyed, I did them a favor."

What Xue Wei said was extreme. Calling it a favor to kill them was a little over the top, but the expert could say nothing. He knew how dangerous Primordial Beasts were, what Xue Wei said was not completely ungrounded. 

"Elder Gao," Wan Qiang spoke with a smile on his face, but there was a chilling undertone in his voice, and even Xue Wei could feel the pressure in the air that suddenly descended in the room. 

"This young man has just gone on a long mission for our sake. Not only did he travel to a danger zone, he even entered one for the sake of getting his hands on a herb we needed and without his help, we would have been powerless and herbless."

"Now that he has produced such outstanding achievements, you do not want to praise him and reward him, but instead cannot wait to rip him to shreds? Could this be because of your relations.h.i.+p with the Crimson Suns.h.i.+ne Sect that lost members to his hand?"

The Elder that had been called out as Elder Gao frowned. "No, it is not like that Elder Wan," he a.s.sured him, but he could not help but curse in his mind. With Wan Qiang's words, it was indeed a vile thing he was doing, and if anyone else said that they wanted to kill this young man, then they would suddenly turn into ungrateful b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. No one wished to be seen as such. 

Wan Qiang nodded his head. "Young man, you have done a great meritorious service to the Black Iron Fortress," he said, ignoring the ugly expressions on a handful of elders, "I will guarantee that you and your entourage will be able to leave this fortress alive, and I will personally follow you until you leave the Skyward Empire," he said.

The fact that he was going to such lengths for Xue Wei caused everyone to be confused, especially Xue Wei, who was already on alert when it came to this Wan Qiang, but right now he dared not say no to the offer. 

If he decided not to accept it and the other Elders acted on their hostility, then he and his friends would end up dead faster than he could count to three. 

"This young one appreciates Elder Wan's efforts and reward. We are very grateful for Elder Wan's care and consideration."

Under usual circ.u.mstances, Xue Wei would have said something along the lines of carving the grat.i.tude into his heart and remembering it, but considering it was a transaction, he felt that he had already done his part by giving them the Seven Star Nightflower.

Not to mention, he did not wish to actually owe this Elder Wan anything. He was simply too mysterious.

Elder Wan seemed to guess his thoughts, but instead of becoming insulted, the smile on his lips grew larger instead. He was definitely pleased with Xue Wei being stingy. 

"Well, in that case, you and your friends are welcome to stay in my manor until you wish to exit the Black Iron Fortress. When you leave I will follow you."

"I hope you can accept that it will take at least a week before we set out though," Wan Qiang said, "I have something I need to do with the Seven Star Nightflower, which will take a week's time."

"We can wait a week," Xue Wei said with a nod of his head, and then Wan Qiang waved for a servant to step out from the corner of the room. 

"Lead my guests to my manor. If anything is to happen to them, I will eradicate everyone in the entire Black Iron Fortress as a tribute to their souls, innocent and not alike!" Wan Qiang warned the servant, but his words were mainly added for the sake of the other Elders.

When they heard the words, their faces twitched and they did not know exactly how to react, but the threat was very effective. No one dared to move even an inch or to try and contact their men outside of the room to cause problems for Xue Wei and his friends. 

Like that, the group settled into Wan Qiang's manor. Although they had a room each, all next to one another, they gathered in Xue Wei's room to discuss what had happened. 

"It is indeed odd," w.a.n.g Xiaoyun said with a frown on her face. "That man has absolutely no reason to treat you the way he does, but he still acts as if you were his own son or disciple. He is even willing to take all the blame for ma.s.sacring a whole town for the sake of keeping us safe."

"I told you from the start that he seems to have some sort of goodwill towards me, but I am rather uncomfortable because of this," Xue Wei admitted. "I don't know what he wants from me, but an expert of his strength cannot simply accept me for who I am when he does not know me. Although we are to stay here for a week, we will leave as soon as the week is over."

"It is not as bad as you might think," Bai Tianyi suddenly said from the sideline. "I would suggest you spend the time we wait creating some formations. Some of the formations we can sell on the way towards the center of the continent, others we can use when we encounter trouble, but formations have always sold well. Even if their price is not outstanding, they could always bring in money."

"That sounds good!" Xue Wei instantly agreed. He knew that although they had some wealth now thanks to the tournament and the ring he had looted from the Moon Prince, he had to provide for four people and their cultivation bases. This was truly a bottomless pit that he had to fill. 

Xue Wei instantly sat down and scoured through his memories thinking about which formations he should make. He finally decided on offensive formations that could be used in battles. 

These formations he decided to scribble down on paper. He had found a lot of paper made especially for formations in the Moon Prince's storage ring and now he took out a stand and began to inscribe his spiritual energy onto the papers. 

Formations did not require any sort of materials. They could be inscribed on everything, but usually, for offensive formations, the things that they were inscribed on would break after the formation had been used. 

Since this was the case, one had to be careful with what they inscribed the formation on, they also had to ensure that the surface was large enough to contain the entire formation. 

Every formation was an entangled mess of runes that entwined into one another and looked like snakes and mazes. 

Each and every rune was inscribed with spiritual energy, and as long as someone had enough spiritual energy they could create formations however, the formations were simply not easy to make. 

Xue Wei soon found that he could make the Spiritual Energy Bombs easily, so after making fifty of those he quit. Fifty was without a doubt a good amount and he did not think he would need more than this.

After that, he began inscribing the Paralyzing Formation, a formation that when activated with Qi would cause one's target to freeze for but a moment however, in a life and death battle, freezing for a moment could easily be the difference between the survivor and the loser.

When he began inscribing this formation, Xue Wei was leisurely and did not think it would become too much of an issue however, as he inscribed the fifth rune, he found that his spiritual energy was being drained at a rapid speed.

He managed to get halfway through the formation when he realized that all his Spiritual Energy had been drained. The formation was now useless as only half of it had been inscribed and it was impossible to finish it later.

Xue Wei finally learned that although he could handle the Spiritual Energy Bomb easily, the other formations were not such easy inscriptions and he sat down closed his eyes and began to rest his mind, nouris.h.i.+ng his Spiritual Energy. 

After an hour, his Spiritual Energy had reached the peak again and he once more began to inscribe the Paralyzation Formation on a piece of formation paper. 

Formation Paper was a bit thicker than normal paper and it was yellow. In many ways did it resemble a paper talisman, however instead of being rectangular the formation papers were square or round, depending on the kind of formation that was placed upon it. 

Seeing that Xue Wei had focused fully on the formations, w.a.n.g Xiaoyun, Hei Gou, and Bai Tianyi returned to their own rooms and began to cultivate. 

They could not waste any time what so ever. All of them understood that they were from the outskirts of the continent. Even if they were considered geniuses here, they knew that the outskirts geniuses were as common as stars in the sky at the center of the continent. They were nothing special so if they did not work hard then they would end up suffering later. 

While Xue Wei was inscribing formations, his mind was completely focused on the formations, but his body continued to refine the Heaven and Earth essence into Qi, while his control over spiritual energy was increasing drastically. 

Not only was his control increasing, the amount of spiritual energy he could command increased too, his body being able to hold more and more spiritual energy within, he just needed to find some soul power that he could refine into spiritual energy, then he would have a breakthrough in strength unlike none he had ever had before.