Shanghai, Sun Family.
Although the Sun family was a top affluent family in Shanghai, their ancestral home was not in the urban area but in the suburbs.
However, the Sun family's architectural complex covered an area exceeding seven thousand mu.
While land in the suburbs of Shanghai was not as valuable as in the city center, it was still quite expensive compared to other provinces and cities.
Currently, a large area in the Shanghai suburbs was occupied by the Sun family, indicating their immense wealth.
Within this massive estate, the Sun family clan, along with disciples of the Medicine Sect, servants, and employees, numbered over twenty thousand people!
Normally, apart from members of the Sun family and the Medicine Sect, others were forbidden from entering this vast estate.
This time, the Sun family had dispatched a large portion of the Medicine Sect disciples to the Golden Wind Hotel for an auction, ensuring maximum security around the hotel.
This deployment had left the Sun family's estate feeling rather deserted.
However, no one dared to trespass in this area on a regular basis, so the security here was not as critical.
"So this is the Sun family..."
Ye Ling stood in the void, gazing down at the sprawling estate below, murmuring to himself.
He had easily located the place by following Deng Changyu's memories.
According to Deng Changyu, the Sun family's ancestor, Sun Bugui, was in seclusion deep within the estate. Moreover, the only people in the entire Sun family who had met the Medicine Immortal Kong Xuhan were Sun Bugui and the Medicine King Sun Zheng.
As Sun Zheng had not yet returned from the capital, Ye Ling had no choice but to approach Sun Bugui if he wanted to find Kong Xuhan.
Ye Ling scanned the estate from high above before locking onto the area with the strongest aura within the grounds and flew directly towards it.
...
Sun Family Estate, Busi Pavilion.
A small courtyard.
A white-haired elder and a black-haired young man were toasting each other and conversing animatedly in the garden.
Busi Pavilion was the secluded retreat of the Medicine Sect's ancestor, Sun Bugui. Normally, no one could enter without his permission.
This included Sun Zheng.
At this moment, two people were drinking in the courtyard of Busi Pavilion. It was evident that the white-haired elder was the Medicine Sect's ancestor, Sun Bugui.
The other young man was likely the protagonist Ye Ling was looking for, Kong Xuhan.
"Brother Kong, don't be so secretive about your Elixir of Immortality. Your elder brother doesn't want anything from you, just let me have a look," Sun Bugui urged Kong Xuhan at the table.
The two men in the courtyard appeared to be from different generations, yet they conversed as if they were old friends who hadn't seen each other for years, their interaction remarkably cordial.
If outsiders were unaware of the situation, they might have assumed the two were friends bridging a significant age gap.
"That won't do! The Elixir of Immortality is my masterpiece. With your alchemy skills, if you manage to trick me out of my Elixir of Immortality, you'll likely be able to analyze its formula in no time."
"That thing is my livelihood, and I still need to trade it with Hongchen Pavilion for the Three Lives Flower. How could I possibly give it to you so easily?"
Kong Xuhan refused Sun Bugui without hesitation, his words clear and firm.
"Look at you! After all these years, you're still so stingy!" Sun Bugui complained. "I was the one who connected you with Hongchen Pavilion. If you obtain the Three Lives Flower, you'll be able to refine the Elixir of Eternal Life, so why would you still need this Elixir of Immortality?"
Kong Xuhan waved his hand, "The Elixir of Eternal Life isn't that easy to refine."
"The Three Lives Flower is just one ingredient. Whether the elixir can be refined at all is still uncertain. Once I truly refine it, I won't mind giving you an Elixir of Immortality!"
Sun Bugui chuckled, "Then I'll hold you to that promise! If you manage to refine the Elixir of Eternal Life, I'll come to your door and ask for it!"
Kong Xuhan sighed, "Alright..."
"Alas... you are truly remarkable, Brother Kong. Your alchemy skills are unparalleled, like a still ancient well. You can even refine something as mystical as the Elixir of Immortality. With your medical skills, if Hongchen Pavilion takes notice of you, you'll soar to great heights from now on."
"When you become successful, Brother, don't forget who made the connection for you."
Kong Xuhan cupped his hands around his wine cup, "Your younger brother certainly remembers you, Elder Brother. I'll drink this cup to you first!"
"Hahaha, well said, I'll drink to you too!"
"..."
Ye Ling watched the two chat casually in the courtyard, a faint smile gracing his lips. "I had originally planned to search Sun Bugui's soul to find your likeness, Kong Xuhan, from his mind, and then seek you out."
"I never expected you to be here as well. This has saved me a lot of trouble."
Ye Ling muttered to himself, no longer concealing his presence, and stepped boldly into the courtyard.
The moment Ye Ling entered the courtyard, Sun Bugui noticed him, his entire being instantly alert. He looked sharply towards the courtyard entrance, "Who?"
Kong Xuhan, whose face had been full of smiles, also became serious. He slowly put down his wine cup, looked at Ye Ling entering the courtyard, and asked Sun Bugui in a deep voice, "Elder Brother, is this one of your Medicine Sect disciples?"
Sun Bugui shook his head, "I don't recognize him. I suspect he's here with ill intentions."
"I think so too."
Upon hearing Sun Bugui's words, Kong Xuhan nodded, his hand subtly reaching into his sleeve and grasping a black bottle.
Kong Xuhan only had a cultivation of the sixth rank, while Ye Ling was someone even the seventh-rank異士 Sun Bugui found somewhat troublesome. He naturally wouldn't be complacent.
However, although Kong Xuhan appeared to be of the sixth rank, his combat power could threaten even an eighth-rank異士.
Medicine and poison were fundamentally related. Kong Xuhan had been known as the Medicine Immortal a hundred years ago!
But few knew that the Gu Immortal, who was famous in the Miao region a century ago, was the same person as the Medicine Immortal!
Back then, Kong Xuhan had lived incognito in the Miao region, using the Miao people as test subjects, focusing on the study of Gu arts.
At one point, Kong Xuhan used several villages as his Gu breeding grounds, letting the villagers' bodies nourish his Gu worms, and then making those Gu worms kill each other.
Through this repetitive process, Kong Xuhan, using the lives of thousands, refined an extremely venomous Gu King!
It was precisely because of that Gu King that the Miao region spoke of a Gu Immortal's emergence, which became renowned throughout the martial world.
Even to this day, many poison users deified the Gu Immortal and revered him as their ancestor.
Even in the current era, some villages in the Miao region were still living under the shadow of that Gu Immortal from the past, unable to escape it.
After refining the Gu King, Kong Xuhan did not cease his research into Gu arts; he even applied Gu arts to the art of alchemy.
No one would have guessed that the Elixir of Immortality he refined was actually made using Gu!
Now, his mastery of Gu had far surpassed his medical skills!
Sun Bugui himself was a highly skilled physician, and with his seventh-rank cultivation, ordinary poisons would have no effect on him.
However, even so, he was unwilling to fight Kong Xuhan.
He had no idea about the combat power limit of Kong Xuhan, who used Gu.
Ye Ling smiled faintly, glancing at Kong Xuhan and Sun Bugui, and finally fixed his gaze on Kong Xuhan, asking with a smile, "Are you Kong Xuhan?"
Upon hearing Ye Ling's words, Kong Xuhan's pupils contracted slightly, "You know me?"
The hand hidden in his sleeve immediately tightened around the black bottle!
"I didn't know you before, but I found out recently," Ye Ling chuckled. "I need you for something."
Kong Xuhan frowned, "What is it?"
Ye Ling narrowed his eyes and smiled, "I need to borrow your name and identity."
"And you, it's best if you never appear again."