Chapter 107: I am not yet strong, but there will be changes when I am

Luo Chen's confidence came from the Four Symbols Cauldron.

But it wasn't just the Four Symbols Cauldron!

On the attribute panel, the proficiency of the Jade Marrow Pill had unknowingly reached the perfect level!

If you calculate carefully, this progress wasn't actually fast.

From the time he started refining Jade Marrow Pills until now, several months had passed.

Whether it was manpower or pill refining materials, the Broken Mountain Gang was supplying them with all their might.

If he hadn't considered hiding his true pill refining level, the proficiency of the Jade Marrow Pill might have already been brushed to the master level.

At the perfect level of proficiency, the stable pill formation rate is forty percent, and all pills produced are mid-grade.

Under Luo Chen's deliberate control, he could also reveal a mid-grade pill formation rate of fifty percent.

He could just happen to embezzle the extra mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills to satisfy his daily magic power consumption.

At noon, Mi Junping came to the Pill Hall in person, as expected.

She stared fixedly at Luo Chen, attempting to find some facial features similar to her or Mi Shuhua on the other party.

In the end, she gave up the idea that Luo Chen was Mi Shuhua's illegitimate child.

However, the treatment of four bottles of Dust-Transforming Pills and one box of Soul-Calming Incense per month really made her heart ache!

She, the biological daughter of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, had never had such treatment.

Luo Chen didn't care about her dark thoughts, and after resting, he turned on the pill refining mode again in the afternoon.

He still needed to get familiar with the Four Symbols Cauldron, so he didn't let anyone else help today.

The success rate in the afternoon wasn't high; that one cauldron with four batches of raw materials only produced twenty Jade Marrow Pills, and the rest were all waste beads.

Luo Chen secretly put away ten, and let the pill-nurturing master put away the others.

If Mi Shuhua knew about Luo Chen's embezzlement, he would probably raise the Heavenly Moon Purple Gold Wheel and give him a hard hit.

Late at night, a figure went down to the depths of the underground along the mine tunnel.

Dang!

The low-grade pill furnace, the Purple Cloud Copper Furnace, landed in the spirit vein cave, and Luo Chen took out some high-quality firewood he had stolen from the Pill Hall one after another.

Lighting the fire, brewing the Qi-Nourishing Spirit Liquid.

Looking at the raging fire, Luo Chen subconsciously touched his chest.

After breaking through to the seventh level of Qi Refining, a full month had passed.

His meridian injuries, with the help of that bottle of Deficiency-Repairing Meridian-Moistening Liquid, had all healed.

Not only that, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, he noticed that his meridians were tougher and wider than before.

Even if he had to endure the massive spiritual power torrent like the one during his breakthrough again, he felt he would have no pressure at all.

This was a good thing!

The tougher the meridians, the more pills he could refine normally.

Even if he couldn't absorb them, he could temporarily store them in the wider meridians than before.

It was precisely because of this that he embezzled mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills in large quantities.

"Perhaps I shouldn't embezzle too many mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills?"

Luo Chen thought of drug resistance.

"Eat fewer low-grade and mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills, endure for a few more days, and then secretly refine top-grade Jade Marrow Pills to supply my cultivation. Maybe that would be better?"

Thinking about these things, the Qi-Nourishing Spirit Liquid had unknowingly been brewed.

Taking off his clothes, he stepped into it with bare feet.

Another iron pot stewing himself!

Entering, medicinal bath.

After absorbing enough medicinal power and feeling that his blood and energy were extremely vigorous, Luo Chen took out another incense burner.

"This was a birthday gift from that kid Tang Quan, right!"

"He's a sensible one; maybe I can consider letting him take over part of the refining of Myriad Wonders Pills later?"

Smiling slightly, he lit a stick of Soul-Calming Incense.

Facing the hot temperature, Luo Chen swallowed a Dust-Transforming Pill and operated the Evergreen Art, his mind converging like a cold pool abyss.

Under such focused cultivation, the night passed in the blink of an eye.

Opening his eyes, Luo Chen fell into deep thought.

At the sixth level of Qi Refining, two Qi-Nourishing Pills a day, plus a portion of Qi-Nourishing Spirit Liquid, a few low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, and finally seven operations of the Evergreen Art under the blessing of Soul-Calming Incense.

In this spirit vein cave, one cultivation session could increase the progress bar by two.

Now, he was at the seventh level of Qi Refining!

The Qi-Nourishing Pills were replaced by Dust-Transforming Pills with double the effect, and the quantity was still two.

One portion of Qi-Nourishing Spirit Liquid, low-grade Jade Marrow Pills were replaced by mid-grade ones, and the Evergreen Art was still operated seven times.

It could be said that Luo Chen had tried his best to improve his cultivation resource configuration.

However, a night had passed.

His progress bar had only barely jumped from [1/100] to [2/100].

"The resources have almost doubled, but the efficiency has actually decreased by half."

"Is this the reason why the higher the cultivation base, the longer the time required for cultivation?"

Luo Chen sighed, but without any frustration.

Actually, he had long expected this, and even the possibility that the eighth and ninth levels of Qi Refining would become increasingly difficult, he had already thought about.

It's a simple truth: if late-stage Qi Refining cultivation wasn't difficult, the ten thousand rogue cultivators in Dahe Market wouldn't have only had a few hundred people.

And among those few hundred people, most were trapped at the seventh level of Qi Refining.

Usually, although you could see ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators like Sikong Shoujia and Qin Liangchen when you looked up.

But they actually couldn't be counted as ordinary rogue cultivators anymore.

Each of them had titles, positions, and even industries in the Broken Mountain Gang.

Conversely, those cultivators in the Medicine Hall and those internal affairs cultivators in the Pill Hall were the representatives who could reflect the average cultivation level of Dahe Market.

Leaving the spirit vein cave, Luo Chen piled up stones to cover the traces as usual.

Coming to the center of the mine tunnel, when he was about to go up, Luo Chen suddenly thought of a problem.

"What if something happens and I get blocked down here?"

Looking around, Luo Chen remembered that the few mine tunnel exits were all leading to the center of Xieyue Valley.

If something happened to the Pill Hall, then Xieyue Valley certainly couldn't be stayed in.

His gaze fell on the three mine tunnels, which were the three furthest paths Luo Chen had explored initially.

"Maybe I should find a time to open up one or two mine tunnels and seek a new exit."

With this thought, Luo Chen returned to the stone house.

Removing the formation, replacing the few waste spirit stones, Luo Chen strolled to Xieyue Valley.

Perhaps knowing that the outer city area would be chaotic during this period, many cultivators didn't go home and stayed directly in the stone houses built on the Xieyue Valley cliff at night.

Early in the morning, many people were already up and busy.

Su-su...

"This snow is really thick!"

Luo Chen didn't use the Wind-Riding Art, just stepped on the thick snow layer and took a walk in Xieyue Valley.

After hard cultivation, appropriate relaxation is necessary.

Breathing some fresh air, the mood will also be more pleasant.

Walking and walking, Luo Chen lay on the railing, staring deeply at the bottom, as if thinking about some key to the Great Dao.

"Little Luo, what are you thinking about?"

Behind him came the sound of clear springs tinkling, and Luo Chen said without looking back: "Nothing much, Sister-in-law, you're here so early?"

"Didn't go back yesterday; the Medicine Hall still needs someone to watch it."

Murong Qinglian walked to the side and stretched.

Her plump figure made Luo Chen subconsciously glance at it.

"Good, so you were peeping at the female cultivators in our Medicine Hall!"

From this angle, Murong Qinglian realized that Luo Chen wasn't thinking about problems at all; his pair of thief eyes were clearly looking at the female cultivators working below.

Cough, cough!

Luo Chen straightened his face: "That's not it, it's just that I've been quite interested in the spells of spirit planters recently."

"Hehe, really?" Murong Qinglian couldn't stand his fake serious look and laughed until she trembled. "Then do you want me to collect a few spirit planting techniques for you?"

"That's not impossible!" Luo Chen said seriously.

Don't say, the few spells he was learning now, many proficiencies had been brushed to the perfect level and master level.

Coming up with a few more spirit planting techniques could be used to continue brushing achievement points.

Moreover, alchemists cultivating spirit plants was a common routine in career planning.

Which alchemist doesn't have a small medicine garden of their own?

Murong Qinglian tapped his head and scolded with a smile: "You pretend really well!"

Thinking for a moment, Murong Qinglian said seriously: "Little Luo, I know the female cultivators in the Medicine Hall well. Their cultivation levels might not be high, but most of them have clean backgrounds and pure characters. They would rather earn hard money here than go to filthy places like Tianxiang Tower or Chunchao Pavilion to earn spirit stones."

"Sister-in-law, what are you trying to say?" Luo Chen was a bit confused.

"You're not young anymore, and your spiritual root aptitude isn't good either. While you're young and strong, why not start a family!"

Once the words were out, Murong Qinglian was clearly concerned.

She counted on her fingers and said: "Looking at it from nearby, you are so busy every day that you can't go home; having a Daoist companion can help you do many things, and at worst, she can warm your bed in the cold winter."

"Looking at it from a long-term perspective? That's even more to talk about!"

"Find a Daoist companion, have a child with spiritual roots, cultivate for ten or twenty years, and send them to the sect. If you're lucky, they'll succeed in Foundation Establishment in twenty or thirty years, and you'll still have lifespan left to wait for them to come back and repay you."

Luo Chen finally understood.

This was to urge him to marry, and perhaps Murong Qinglian even wanted to be a matchmaker.

He smiled and said: "Don't say, listening to you, it really is like that."

"Right!" Murong Qinglian smiled like a flower, "Tell me, what kind do you like? I'll help you analyze."

"Then I like those whose eyebrows curve when they smile, and their figure shouldn't be too slim, they must be plump, with meat."

Murong Qinglian nodded slightly; this was a preference for the plump type!

"And they must be generous in their words and actions, not too petty."

This requirement was also very normal; Little Luo was now the Pill Hall Master, and the people he contacted were either rich or expensive, so being too petty wouldn't do.

"And they must be good to me, know how to make soup, know how to cook, and usually give me some suggestions so I don't go astray."

Murong Qinglian didn't have time to analyze if there were any female cultivators in the Medicine Hall who met the conditions before hearing the last sentence.

"The cultivation level can't be bad, at least the ninth level of Qi Refining, just like Sister-in-law!"

Murong Qinglian was stunned, then covered her mouth and laughed: "You little guy, you are really bold, not afraid of your Brother Qin beating you."

"Humph, beat me?" Luo Chen held his head high and chest out, "I am not yet strong, but there will be changes when I am!"

"Change your grandfather!"

A sharp shout came, followed by snow falling from the sky.

Luo Chen's face changed drastically, and he fled in a panic.

Behind him were Murong Qinglian, who was laughing uncontrollably, and Qin Liangchen, who was furious.

After a fierce snow battle, it ended with Luo Chen taking the initiative to admit defeat and apologize.

Qin Liangchen didn't take it to heart; he knew Luo Chen well and knew the other party was just joking.

However, after this incident, Murong Qinglian really didn't mention finding a Daoist companion for Luo Chen again.

Clearly, she also knew that Luo Chen was using joking words to politely and firmly refuse to start a family.

"Little Luo, after all, his heart is set on the Great Dao!"

This was what Murong Qinglian said to Qin Liangchen in private.

In fact, it was indeed the case.

For the rest of the time, Luo Chen almost did nothing but refine pills or cultivate.

Even if the progress was slow, it depends on who you compare with!

If compared with those rogue cultivators who are short of cultivation resources, Luo Chen's cultivation speed is definitely as fast as a Jin Dan sword cultivator flying in a rainbow!

After all, counting fully, one progress a day, he could break through to the eighth level of Qi Refining in three or four months.

Even a peerless genius of a sect would be no more than this.

And in alchemy, after Luo Chen became familiar with the Four Symbols Cauldron, he gradually began to let others help.

In this way, the stall was completely spread out.

The Four Symbols Cauldron could refine four batches of raw materials at once.

The Xuan Yun Cauldron could put in two batches of raw materials at once.

The Purple Cloud Copper Furnace, one batch!

In one morning, he could refine seven batches of Jade Marrow Pills at the same time, and if he added the afternoon time, that would be fourteen batches a day!

Combined with a forty percent success rate, he would produce at least one hundred Jade Marrow Pills a day.

As for why it wasn't more than a hundred?

The extra ones were naturally quietly embezzled by Luo Chen.

Even though Luo Chen deliberately controlled the pill formation rate of mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills, five days later, his proficiency still climbed to the master level.

At the master level of proficiency, not only is the pill formation rate as high as fifty percent, but he can even refine top-grade Jade Marrow Pills, and the medicinal power is not inferior to normal low-grade Qi-Nourishing Pills!

Of course, Luo Chen had always been controlling the birth of top-grade Jade Marrow Pills.

Under his strenuous control, every top-grade Jade Marrow Pill produced would go directly into his storage bag when he collected the pills.

The benefits of master-level proficiency didn't stop there!

After harvesting a large amount of extra experience, Luo Chen became more proficient in controlling pill quality, reaching the level of the Myriad Wonders Pills back then.

Not only that, after teaching some low-end techniques to the medicine apprentices and fire workers, he could also be much more relaxed and not so tired.

One month later!

In the Pill Hall, in the Pill Nurturing Room.

Sikong Shoujia and Gu Caiyi were nervously counting the number of Jade Marrow Pills.

Every batch of Jade Marrow Pills, after being refined, had a dedicated pill-nurturing master to put them into the pill-nurturing room, bottled according to grade and time of production, and stored in categories.

Therefore, counting them was exceptionally easy.

However, in a minute or two, Sikong Shoujia's excited voice came.

"Two hundred and eighty bottles of low-grade Jade Marrow Pills!"

"One hundred and twenty bottles of mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills!"

What did this mean?

Low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, the Broken Mountain Gang priced them at ten spirit stones per bottle.

Mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills, the Broken Mountain Gang priced them at fifty spirit stones per bottle, and they could be sold individually.

As long as you had a brain, you could calculate how many spirit stones this batch of pills in the pill-nurturing room could sell for.

Eight thousand eight hundred spirit stones!

After getting this number, Sikong Shoujia looked at Luo Chen, who was leaning against the wall behind, and his eyes changed.

Gu Caiyi swallowed her saliva, and once again, Luo Chen refreshed her values.

Are alchemists really that profitable?

"Why are you looking at me?"

"Let the Pill Guard Team come and escort the pills to the shop!"

Luo Chen curled his lips and turned to leave, as if he wasn't interested in that huge profit at all.

After he left, Sikong Shoujia and Gu Caiyi looked at each other.

Since when was Luo Chen so unmoved by spirit stones?

Was Luo Chen unmoved?

That was naturally impossible; after this batch of pills was sold, he had a twenty percent dividend.

What made him so uninterested was that he felt regretful.

Regretful that if he didn't have so many restrictions, had a more powerful background, and could refine pills unscrupulously.

Then what was placed in the pill-nurturing room today wouldn't just be four hundred bottles of low-grade and mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills.

He could have refined most of them into top-grade Jade Marrow Pills!

And top-grade Jade Marrow Pills, although Mi Shuhua hadn't announced the price, were definitely very close to the price of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion's Qi-Nourishing Pills.

What did that represent?

It represented tens of thousands of spirit stones!

"It's a pity, I must hide my clumsiness, otherwise a Mi Shuhua can't protect me."

After the regret, Luo Chen was still a bit excited in his heart.

Although he couldn't refine top-grade Jade Marrow Pills to sell, he could secretly keep some top-grade ones for his own use!

Top-grade Jade Marrow Pills, the medicinal power is equivalent to low-grade Qi-Nourishing Pills.

He couldn't take Qi-Nourishing Pills anymore because of drug resistance.

But Jade Marrow Pills had no drug resistance!

Moreover, through taking them for the past half month, Luo Chen had already discovered that Jade Marrow Pills that reached the top-grade level had no aftereffects of dantian jade-ification!

This meant that he could again take pills to cultivate unscrupulously.

The eighth level of Qi Refining is just around the corner!

Before getting off work, Luo Chen gathered all those internal affairs cultivators.

Facing dozens of eyes, Luo Chen wasn't panicked at all.

With his hands behind his back, he paced in front of them leisurely.

"I believe everyone has heard more or less about the pill refining results this month."

"This is not just my credit alone, but also the result of everyone's efforts."

"I dare not say anything else, but as long as everyone cooperates well with me in refining pills, once the Pill Hall's profits increase, I will definitely apply to the Gang Leader to improve everyone's treatment!"

"Alright, that's all I have to say, off work!"

After speaking, he waved his hand and slipped away, not taking a single cloud with him.

And behind him came enthusiastic cheers.

Among them, the voice of the old cultivator Qu Hancheng was the loudest, leading a group of fire workers, shouting things like "Long live the Hall Master."

Others were also infected and participated, singing praises to Luo Chen.

As for a group of cultivators, is it normal to have this reaction?

Actually, it's very normal!

Because whether working in a sect shop or in a gang, the salaries of most internal affairs cultivators are fixed.

To improve treatment, one must either have outstanding skills or participate in dangerous combat-type missions.

Like these old, weak, sick, and disabled people in the Pill Hall, perhaps they wouldn't necessarily improve their treatment once even if they died of old age.

But Luo Chen is a generous person, not only kind to people, but also often seeks benefits for everyone.

He had already given some small favors to a few cultivators before.

This time, he even declared that he would improve everyone's treatment.

Although the increase wasn't large, it was one or two spirit stones a month, a few catties of spirit rice, and the like.

But accumulating little by little, it was quite considerable.

Following such a Hall Master, the days ahead would definitely get sweeter and sweeter!

Luo Chen didn't care about these thoughts; anyway, improving treatment wasn't him spending spirit stones, it was the Broken Mountain Gang's money!

Conversely, letting these old cultivators and female cultivators have better treatment would also make them work harder when refining pills.

That way, he could also be much more relaxed.

He couldn't continue to stay in the Pill Hall to cultivate today; staying too long would easily arouse suspicion.

After all, the inner city is the place for cultivation.

And he had things to do when returning to the city; Soul-Calming Incense was not enough, so he had to buy more.

The account at Yuan Xiaoyue's side was also due for monthly settlement, and he still had to provide goods for next month.

Casting the Wind-Riding Art and flying in the sky, Luo Chen chatted and laughed with the two bodyguards.

"Heard that five days ago, cultivators in the outer city fought and burned a large area of houses?"

"Yes, no one died, but the houses were burned, so the matter became serious."

Liu Qiang was very gossipy and liked to tell Luo Chen these things.

In his words, killing people wasn't a big deal, but setting fire to houses touched the bottom line of the Jade Cauldron sword cultivators.

He gloated: "The inner city law enforcement team was brought in, and after a day of searching, the two culprits were caught. The outcome was miserable; first, they had to compensate for the losses, then rebuild the houses. Not only that, they had to go to the Red Pillar for half a month."

"Finally, they had to go to the Dao Discussion Platform, and the two of them had to fight in front of everyone under the gaze of the masses; the winner would be released from prison, and the loser would stay for another half a month!"

Luo Chen found it interesting, and when he heard the end, he clapped his hands and cheered.

Such criminals who kill and set fires should be caught and severely reformed through labor!

In addition to reform, fighting on stage was even more entertaining for the masses and a contribution to society!

"What about that Xuan Yi Society? Didn't they say they clashed with Luo Wudi's men again?"

Liu Qiang curled his lips: "A small matter, just encountered a first-grade demon beast in the mountains, and they insisted on fighting Luo Wudi for it."

"Later, how was it resolved?"

"Both sides sent three people and had a fight. The Xuan Yi Society won two rounds and obtained the hunting rights. After they killed the demon beast, Luo Wudi made a move himself..."

Luo Chen's eyes shone: "Killed them?"

"No, he bought the demon beast corpse, and after turning it over to the Medicine Hall and Beast Hall for processing, he sold it for a high price."

"Cut!"

Everyone says this Tiger Descending the Mountain, Luo Wudi, is so brave.

Turns out he's also someone who plays with his brain.

Luo Chen curled his lips, then frowned, his gaze falling on the slightly deep forest below.

Liu Qiang and Zhou Yuanli were stunned, then their faces changed drastically.

The two didn't hesitate at all and struck together.

A huge light shield spread wildly.

A pitch-black light suddenly broke through the air.

In the small forest, a black-robed cultivator stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky.

"Actually has a top-grade defensive magic tool, this is a bit tricky."