Chapter 5: Cultivating Spirit Mice

The purchasing power of Spirit Stones for Pills is still quite strong.

Compared to low-grade Talismans that cost two or three Spirit Stones at every turn, or low-grade Dharma Artifacts that cost double digits.

Pills are not too expensive, provided they are not Superior Pills.

One Spirit Stone can buy two to three Middle-grade Peiyuan Pills.

It can even be exchanged for over one hundred and twenty Waste Peiyuan Pills.

Such pill pricing is a result intentionally fostered by the Chiyuan Immortal Sect to better cultivate the geniuses of the Inner Sect.

For unknown reasons, the vast majority of Spirit Herbs in the Cultivation World contain more or less some kind of toxin, which is highly harmful to cultivators and must not be eaten raw.

The key to alchemy lies in expelling the toxins from the medicinal materials while retaining as much of the medicinal efficacy as possible.

Therefore, in this region, the yield rate of a mature alchemist for a single batch of pills is usually seven waste, two inferior, and one medium.

Superior Pills, however, rely entirely on luck; one can only encounter one or two by refining enough times.

And because of the existence of pill toxins, geniuses will eat nothing but Superior Pills.

Thus, under the promotion of the geniuses and the tacit approval of the higher-ups.

The result is that for alchemists, those Superior Pills that only appear under extremely rare coincidences above the medium grade have become their true source of profit.

Each Superior Pill sells for a hundred times the price of a Middle-grade Pill, and they are always in short supply, with a price but no market.

This has greatly increased the enthusiasm of alchemists for refining, invisibly increasing the production of pills of other qualities.

Added to this is the fact that the Immortal Sect has always upheld a policy of vigorously supporting low-grade cultivators who have the talent to become alchemists.

This has resulted in the number of alchemists in the Immortal Sect far exceeding that of cultivators of other crafts! It has become a natural consequence that the prices of low-quality pills have been suppressed as a result.

Whether this trend is good for the future of alchemists, Su Ping does not know, nor is he in a position to judge.

But Su Ping, who has now pulled out three Spirit Stones and obtained two hundred and thirty Waste Peiyuan Pills and one hundred and twenty Waste Blood-Qi Pills, is still very satisfied with this situation in his heart.

After buying the Waste Pills, he drank up the good tea sent over by the old cultivator.

After Su Ping and the old cultivator exchanged a few compliments, he left Yunbao Pavilion and returned to the street.

It was only then that Su Ping realized that quite a few peddlers on this street were selling the very same mundane beasts with spirituality that the old cultivator had spoken of.

This made Su Ping understand that this Immortal-Hero world is also not lacking in clever people who know how to do business.

These people clearly understand that feeding Waste Pills to mundane beasts does not necessarily guarantee a profit.

But selling mundane beasts to those willing to take a gamble is a hard truth that will definitely make money! Su Ping scanned the mundane beasts on these stalls.

After thinking for a while, Su Ping took out one Middle-grade Peiyuan Pill and ten Waste Pills, and from a Qi Refining First Layer Loose Cultivator, he exchanged them for two small mice—one white and one gray—and three small snakes.

These two small mice had light in their eyes and seemed quite intelligent, capable of understanding human nature.

In Su Ping's perception, these were the most spiritual mundane beasts in this Market on this street.

It is rumored that once Spirit Beast mice grow up, their escape techniques are peerless.

Coupled with their small size, which would be inconspicuous even in modern society, Su Ping felt that he would have a use for them here.

The three small snakes were of inferior quality by comparison, but they were merely a bonus for the two small mice.

Su Ping had already made up his mind that once he raised them into Spirit Snakes, he could find another place to sell them to make up for the deficit in Spirit Stones these days.

…………

At night, a bright moon hung high in the sky.

Under the moonlight, inside the master bedroom of Linyue Villa.

Su Ping had converted all his fish catch into Fishing Coins; after deducting the Purification Spirit Medicine exchanged last night, he now had 160 coins remaining.

Su Ping looked at the small mice and small snakes he had brought back, which were in two separate cages.

He smiled slightly, and after softly saying that meeting him was their good fortune.

Su Ping did not rush to use the Waste Pills, but instead took two Beast-Taming Talismans from his Storage Bag.

As an Inspector who had cut off his own future, Su Ping was naturally prepared with things he might need in the future.

Often, using fierce beasts is undoubtedly more useful and better at ensuring loyalty than having people guard the house.

Especially when a cultivator is old and frail.

Even the most trusted person can change their heart. These two Beast-Taming Talismans were bought by Su Ping from a junior brother who had learned the art of beast-taming.

They allow ordinary cultivators to also perform beast-taming arts.

Of course, the grade of the talismans Su Ping took out could not even be considered low-grade talismans!

What is performed is called a beast-taming art, but in reality, it is at most a beast-taming Trick, effective only on mundane fierce beasts.

Because of this, its advantage lies in its cheap price, and its target audience is also cultivators like Su Ping who have descended to the mortal world to enjoy life.

"Contract!"

Su Ping bit the tip of his tongue and spat two mouthfuls of tongue-tip blood onto the talismans.

Immediately, these two talismans turned into two clusters of red light and merged into the shivering white and gray small mice in the cage.

"Squeak?"

The small mice were panic-stricken; after being struck by the red light, they had no power to resist as Su Ping's Dharma Power Mark appeared in their minds.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

The red light dissipated in the blink of an eye, and the two small mice were no longer afraid; capable of understanding human nature, they instead looked at Su Ping with a hint of fawning.

"It went as smoothly as it should have... but thinking about it, that's expected; after all, I am a Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator. If I could fail at contracting two mundane small mice, how bad would my luck have to be!"

Su Ping felt the mysterious insights brought by the beast-taming contract and gently spread his hands open.

Immediately, as he spent thirty Fishing Coins, the Purification Spirit Medicine and Life Spirit Medicine appeared in his palms.

"Behave and be obedient!"

"Eat the Waste Pills first, then drink some Life Spirit Medicine; if you really can't hold on, then drink the Purification Spirit Medicine!"

Su Ping held the Waste Pills in one hand and the Spirit Medicine in the other, and began to circulate his Dharma Power to control the small mice.

Following the practical experiments on-site.

Su Ping discovered that the minimum dosage for the Spirit Herb he exchanged was one milliliter.

Spirit Herb amounts lower than one milliliter would not take effect.

This prevented Su Ping from using the infinite subdivision method to test the lower limit of the Spirit Herb, which left him feeling somewhat regretful.

However, Su Ping's path of raising a Spirit Beast by feeding it Waste Pills, with the support of Spirit Herb, was indeed the correct path just as he had guessed!

The white mouse promoted to a First Tier Spirit Mouse after eating the Waste Pill for the sixth time.

As for Xiaohui, it succeeded in its promotion during the fourth feeding of the Waste Pill.

Do not be fooled by the fact that they only consumed a single-digit number of Waste Pills.

In reality, without the help of the Life Spirit Medicine, the two little mice would have most likely been poisoned to death upon consuming the first Waste Pill.

And without the Purification Spirit Medicine to clear away the pill toxins and repair defects.

Even if the little mice had survived the first one, they would have reached their limit and been unable to progress any further by the second Waste Pill.

In the real world, for a mortal beast to become a Spirit Beast by relying on Waste Pills... I fear it is even more difficult than winning the jackpot in a lottery! "Squeak!"

Having become Spirit Beasts, the two little mice were more human-like, and were even able to transmit messages to Su Ping through their contract.

Su Ping also opened the cage, and after releasing them.

The two little mice turned into afterimages and dashed out of the cage, landing on Su Ping's left and right shoulders respectively, and spontaneously began to circulate their breathing techniques, inhaling and exhaling the moonlight essence under the night sky.

"Those that are uncontrolled are Demon Beasts, and those that are controlled are Spirit Beasts."

"My pair of Spirit Mice can spontaneously absorb moonlight essence once they successfully promote... and they spontaneously deepen their contract with me, allowing me to vaguely see what they see and hear what they hear."

"This is a trait only possessed by Spirit Pets with an extremely high degree of compatibility! I never expected that contracting and raising them from mortal beasts would bring such an unexpected joy!"

"If I were to sell such Spirit Pets for Spirit Stones, it would at least be a three-digit number, right?"

Su Ping was somewhat pleasantly surprised that his first attempt at cultivation had such good luck, obtaining two Spirit Mice that appeared to have significant potential.

He ignored the little mice that were cultivating on their own and cast his gaze toward the little snakes.

Following the same pattern, with the experience he had gained, Su Ping took out his homemade syringe and successfully turned the three little snakes into Spirit Beasts as well.

(End of this chapter)