Chapter 113: What do you think of Mi Junping?

The alchemy room door was wide open, and pill-nurturing masters were coming in and out holding wooden trays.

Gu Caiyi, who had arrived early, was sending people to count the pills refined today, for the convenience of putting them into storage later.

"Eighty-seven low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, thirty-five middle-grade Jade Marrow Pills."

"Put them into the pill-nurturing room."

After counting, Luo Chen washed his hands in a small pool formed by mountain spring water.

Gu Caiyi walked over, "Are you going home today?"

Luo Chen shook his head: "No, I've been leisurely for several days, and now my hands are a bit itchy. I'll stay here tonight to read alchemy books and experiment with some new ideas."

After hearing this answer, Gu Caiyi didn't say much.

She had to go home today; she had been keeping an eye on things here recently and was truly a bit tired.

Walking to the cliff edge outside the Alchemy Hall, Luo Chen looked into the distance.

His mind, however, remained on the attribute panel.

"Limited by the large-scale refining of low and middle-grade Jade Marrow Pills, the proficiency of the Jade Marrow Pill is being brushed slower and slower."

Luo Chen had already figured out the characteristics of the attribute panel.

At every stage, one must refine pills of the corresponding level, otherwise the proficiency cannot be improved.

The entry and proficiency stages are mainly low-grade.

The mastery and perfection stages require a large number of middle-grade pills.

And after reaching the master stage, one must refine five hundred high-grade pills to advance to the Great Perfection.

This characteristic was very reasonable.

In the cultivation world, being able to stably refine hundreds of high-grade pills of a certain type was enough to be called an alchemy master.

Supreme-grade pills were all obtained by chance!

In reality, Luo Chen had also experimented with the refining of Great Perfection-level Grain Bigu Powder.

Wanting to refine supreme-grade Grain Bigu Powder, the success rate was only ten percent.

And this was already very high.

Sighing, Luo Chen no longer struggled with this matter.

For the moment, middle-grade Jade Marrow Pills were enough to satisfy Mi Shuhua.

The high-grade Jade Marrow Pills he secretly embezzled were also enough to satisfy Luo Chen himself.

It was just that the Zhongmiao Pill had been stuck at the master level for so long; he didn't know what the effect would be after reaching Great Perfection and refining supreme-grade Zhongmiao Pills.

Fellow Daoist Zeng Wen was probably looking forward to it even more than he was!

With a light laugh, Luo Chen put away his thoughts and looked at the scene in Xieyue Valley.

Cultivators who had finished work were taking advantage of the bright sky to either cast the Wind-Riding Technique or drive magic tools, leaving in groups.

Under his gaze, Gu Caiyi also met up with Murong Qinglian, who had finished her work, and went home together.

Before long, Xieyue Valley, which had been bustling during the day, was left with only a batch of middle and late-stage cultivators on duty.

These people were not all exposed in the open.

Some were lurking in the dark, some were patrolling outside, and some were resting, ready to replace their companions at any time.

"Mi Shuhua is paying more and more attention to Xieyue Valley!"

Sensing the more rigorous protective forces than before, Luo Chen felt much more at ease.

Returning to the stone house, he activated the first-grade Water Wave Array to shroud the house.

Then, opening the floor, Luo Chen fell into the well-developed mine tunnel.

Following his memory, he went all the way down.

Soon, he arrived above the spirit vein cave.

He didn't rush down, but took out several array flags from his storage bag.

Planting the array flags around and leaving enough spirit stones, Luo Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

This set of first-grade array flags was spoils of war from Lu Huaiben's storage bag, and it had only one function: to conceal spirit power fluctuations.

Although it still couldn't control the leakage of spirit energy in the cave, being able to conceal this place was always good.

He believed that even if Mi Shuhua came to the Alchemy Hall and used his spiritual sense, he should not be able to detect the spirit vein cave.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual sense was not omnipotent; it would be blocked by mountains, soil, water currents, and many other things.

Now with the concealment array, this spirit vein cave could finally be considered foolproof.

"Perhaps, even if he discovered it, he wouldn't care about this small branch vein!"

After all, he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator; even the main vein of a first-grade spirit vein was barely enough to supply his practice, so how could he take a fancy to a small branch vein.

Luo Chen laughed at himself and went down into the cave.

First, he set up the Purple Cloud Copper Cauldron to brew the Peiyuan Spirit Liquid.

After the spirit liquid was brewed, he removed the firewood.

Luo Chen took a deep breath, took out the array flags of the Small Spirit Gathering Array, and his gaze fell on the cyan array flag.

Performing the technique, the array flags trembled and buzzed, and then the cyan array flag fell to the center.

In this way, the Small Spirit Gathering Array would focus on absorbing the surrounding wood-attribute spirit energy, making it more suitable for the operation of his Changchun Gong.

Burning incense, bathing in medicinal liquid, taking the pill.

Calming his mind and concentrating, his bitter practice began.

After a night, Luo Chen put away the pill cauldron and array flags and floated away from the cave.

As expected of the Small Spirit Gathering Array!

The improvement was actually that great!

Without considering the pills, the effect of Changchun Gong absorbing and converting spirit power alone had improved by a large margin.

His original master-level Changchun Gong already had a cultivation efficiency comparable to a three-spirit-root cultivator, about four times that of the five-spirit-root period.

After the blessing of the spirit vein cave, it increased by about one time, reaching five times the efficiency.

After using the Small Spirit Gathering Array last night, the efficiency increased by another three times, and now he possessed eight times the cultivation efficiency.

What was the concept of eight times?

Luo Chen guessed that this cultivation efficiency was already infinitely close to, or even equal to, a dual-spirit-root cultivator!

The cultivation world had many legends, some true and some false.

But many were based on experience.

For example, a Heaven-spirit-root cultivator reaching Foundation Establishment in ten years was recorded in history, and that was without taking pills.

And dual-spirit-root cultivators, it was said that normal Foundation Establishment only took twenty or thirty years.

Eight times the cultivation efficiency was very consistent with this time.

After getting this guess, the tense state of mind Luo Chen had always had regarding cultivation finally relaxed a little.

Previously, with five times the cultivation efficiency, it would have taken at least fifty or sixty years to barely reach the critical point of Foundation Establishment.

And his lifespan was strangely stuck at seventy-five years from his previous life.

Fifty or sixty years later, he would be old and frail; where would he have the strength to charge toward Foundation Establishment?

But now, with the help of the Small Spirit Gathering Array, this time was shortened to within thirty years.

By then, he would only be fifty or so.

It would be the prime of his life, with vigorous blood and energy, and he would have enough strength to charge toward Foundation Establishment.

And!

All these calculations were without considering taking pills and many cultivation auxiliary resources!

If those things were added, this time would be shortened crazily.

After all, active refining and absorption could not compare to the short, flat, and fast nature of pills that had been concentrated with spirit power.

"Mi Shuhua is really good to me!"

Luo Chen sighed as he went up the mine tunnel.

When he was about to leave, his body paused, and he looked at the well-developed mine tunnels all around.

That thought that had popped into his mind last time surfaced again.

Perhaps he could really dig another exit leading to other directions?

With a thought, Luo Chen released the puppet beast Little Pangolin and, based on his good memory, walked toward a mine tunnel facing the Xiaoyue Mountains.

"Hall Master, you seem to be in a good mood today?"

Tang Quan leaned over and said flatteringly.

"Oh, is that so?"

Luo Chen's mouth curled up slightly.

He was indeed in a good mood; the increase in cultivation efficiency allowed him to truly see the hope of Foundation Establishment.

And exploring the mine tunnel in the early morning finally discovered a small path that had been dug very far away before.

That mine tunnel was very narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass through.

But after comparing, Luo Chen found that the mine tunnel was the closest to the Xiaoyue Mountains.

If he took some time later to dig a little every day, perhaps there would be an exit leading directly to the outside world.

By then, if Xieyue Valley encountered cultivators or spirit beasts that could not be resisted, he could retreat calmly.

With hope for both cultivation and an alternative path for survival, his mood was naturally very good.

Glancing at Tang Quan, Luo Chen suddenly said: "Your uncle Zeng Wen asks me every day when I will refine the Zhongmiao Pill. But now you also know that the Gang Leader asked me to refine the Jade Marrow Pill with all my strength; where would I have time to refine the Zhongmiao Pill for him."

Tang Quan nodded, wondering why Luo Chen was saying this.

Then, Luo Chen's next words made his expression somewhat colorful.

"Sister Mi Li and Luo Erduo are now refining Grain Bigu Powder quite decently, and you mixing in the herb pile every day is not the way to go."

"Why don't you refine the Zhongmiao Pill for me instead!"

"Ah!" Tang Quan was dumbfounded.

"Ah what ah!" Luo Chen pulled him into the alchemy room and pointed to the Xuanyun Cauldron: "Take advantage of the free time now, I'll teach you a few tricks."

After speaking, he looked back at Sister Mi Li and the others.

"You can also watch; if you have any ideas, you can also come and try your hand."

Teaching the refining of the Zhongmiao Pill to the people below little by little.

This was actually an idea Luo Chen had had vaguely several months ago.

At first, he held the idea of cherishing his broom and didn't want to teach anything to others.

But as alchemy work occupied too much cultivation time, he knew he couldn't be like that anymore.

Therefore, he taught the techniques of processing medicinal materials, controlling the heat, and even the techniques of collecting and storing pills little by little.

Three months ago, he also taught some insights on Grain Bigu Powder to Sister Mi Li and the others.

Actually, Grain Bigu Powder was fine; the pill recipe itself was common goods.

Back then at the loose cultivator market, Luo Chen wasn't the only one selling Grain Bigu Powder.

Compared to Grain Bigu Powder, the pill recipe for the Zhongmiao Pill was undoubtedly very precious and belonged to a trade secret.

Logically speaking, Luo Chen shouldn't let others know.

But now, his mentality had changed.

Cultivation was the foundation of a cultivator, and the hundred arts of cultivation were all just to serve cultivation.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Luo Chen finally felt it was better to let his subordinates learn.

For one, if they learned to refine the Zhongmiao Pill, they could maintain the types of pills produced by the Poshan Gang's Alchemy Hall.

For two, it could save him a lot of time to use for cultivation.

For three, to be honest, the market for the Zhongmiao Pill was truly limited.

Even though it was now stably producing middle-grade Zhongmiao Pills, the market was only limited to the Dahe Market.

Mi Shuhua had also tried to promote it to places like Taishan Market and Liuguang Market, but the price there could never go up.

That was why Mi Shuhua finally made up his mind to let Luo Chen refine the Jade Marrow Pill with all his strength.

It was really because the profit in the Zhongmiao Pill was too small.

It was barely enough to support Luo Chen's solo practice before, but as the main product of a gang, it wasn't enough in weight.

Finally, there was another very important reason.

An alchemist wasn't able to refine good pills just because they had a pill recipe.

With the aptitude of Tang Quan, Sister Mi Li, and others, even if they were given enough raw materials and enough time, it would be difficult for them to refine high-grade Zhongmiao Pills in their lifetime.

In other words, the core competitiveness was actually still in Luo Chen's own hands.

Luo Chen wouldn't do the stupid thing of teaching his apprentices and starving himself to death.

He would always keep a few tricks up his sleeve.

Hu, hu.

Tang Quan's nose twitched in the alchemy room, and he smelled a burnt smell.

He turned to look at Luo Chen, only to see Luo Chen shrug his shoulders.

"Why look at me? Alchemy failure is a common occurrence."

"Clean up the pill cauldron; there is still Jade Marrow Pill refining work in the afternoon."

After speaking, he turned and left.

In the alchemy room, only Tang Quan, Sister Mi Li, and others were left, cleaning up the pill cauldron with bitter faces.

Walking out of the alchemy room, Luo Chen didn't return to the stone house, nor did he go to Xieyue Valley to wander around.

Instead, he greeted Zhou Yuanli and flew toward the forest behind Xieyue Valley.

"I was able to get started with the Zhongmiao Pill basically by relying on the system's entry, and even so, I failed many times."

"Tang Quan and the others, I'm afraid I don't know how many times they will have to fail before they can explore their first success."

"Let them fail; anyway, it's the Poshan Gang's raw materials that are being wasted."

Luo Chen laughed lightly, descended from the sky, and came into the forest.

Glancing back, Luo Chen withdrew his gaze.

If there were no accidents, Zhou Yuanli and the others should all be secretly protecting him.

So be it; anyway, he was just here to test magic tools, and there was nothing that couldn't be exposed.

Luo Chen's trump card now was not the magic tools in his hands.

But the many spells he had painstakingly cultivated.

Great Perfection Fireball Technique, incomparably fast escape speed, and the master-level Entanglement Technique.

Even the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers, which he had just started, relied on the Great Perfection Hunyuan Bead technique and cooperated with the hundreds of discarded Jade Marrow beads he had collected, all of which had extraordinary power.

Compared to this, these magic tools were just to make his combat methods more rich and diverse.

"To be able to cast many spells calmly and quickly in the Qi Refining stage, I'm probably the only one!"

After the last battle, Luo Chen was very satisfied with the richness of his spirit power.

The power of spells was never weaker than magic tools!

What was weak was just the person.

Sou!

A simple and unadorned gray long spear landed in Luo Chen's hand.

Injecting spirit power, the gray long spear gradually became crimson, and gradually Luo Chen felt a scorching high temperature on his hand.

"High-grade Fire-Tip Spear, known for its powerful attack."

"Back then, the full defense of my Four-Image Cauldron almost couldn't stop it. If the enemy was unprepared, under one spear, ordinary high-grade magic robes couldn't stop it at all."

The defensive power of a magic robe was far inferior to a specialized defensive magic tool.

With a wave of his hand, the long spear flew out like a meteor.

The target was a hundred-meter-tall century-old tree.

With a boom, the tree suddenly shook.

Dust and smoke rose, and Luo Chen looked up to see that the tree had already turned into powder.

Reaching out to summon it, the Fire-Tip Spear flew back toward Luo Chen domineeringly, and when it reached him, it stopped nimbly.

The master-level Traction Technique allowed Luo Chen to handle magic tools extremely quickly.

"The power is indeed extraordinary!"

After testing, Luo Chen reached a result.

The penetration was not as good as the Soul-Breaking Nail, but in terms of instantaneous burst and range line damage, the Soul-Breaking Nail was far inferior.

With this spear, Luo Chen had a means for frontal combat.

From now on, the Jade Blade was just the second choice.

It was a pity for that high-grade flying sword!

That flying sword was ice-attribute; for such a flying sword, one either had a corresponding ice spirit root or had to possess an outstanding water spirit root to master it.

Luo Chen didn't have an ice spirit root.

Although he had a water spirit root, it was complete with all five elements and was not outstanding.

Especially since his cultivation technique, Changchun Gong, was wood-attribute.

With wood-attribute cultivation technique as the main one, the cultivator's spirit power would basically lean toward the wood attribute.

According to the principle of the five elements generating and overcoming each other, wood generates fire, and more wood makes fire flourish; therefore, Luo Chen would also have good adaptability to fire-attribute spells and fire-attribute magic tools.

In contrast, water generates wood, and the two were difficult to reverse.

Therefore, Luo Chen didn't have such good adaptability to water-attribute spells and magic tools.

But for a high-grade magic tool, Luo Chen couldn't bear to sell it, so he simply left it in the milk tea shop to use as an "ice maker."

If he needed it later, he could take it back at any time.

"What is this bell for?"

Taking out the pair of emerald bells, Luo Chen was a bit strange.

Injecting magic power, the bells shone with green light, but there was no other reaction.

He thought for a while and shook his hand slightly.

"Ding dang!"

With a light sound, Luo Chen, who was completely unprepared, felt his brain go slightly dizzy.

"Eh, it's a sound-wave magic tool!"

"This is rare!"

Luo Chen was delighted, blocked his ears with spirit power in advance, and then shook the bells quickly.

Ding dang, ding dang, ding dang.

Plop!

A large snake fell directly into the forest ahead.

Luo Chen just glanced at it and remained unmoved.

It was just a vegetable snake, and even among first-grade spirit beasts, it was extremely weak.

The spirit power was thin, and usually, if taken out, the meat wouldn't even sell for a price.

"Although it's only a middle-grade magic tool and the power is very poor, sound-wave attacks are very rare."

"Caught off guard, perhaps it will have a decisive effect."

In an instant, Luo Chen thought of the most suitable way to use this bell in battle.

It wasn't to cooperate with the Fire-Tip Spear, but to cooperate with the Soul-Breaking Nail, which was also good at sneak attacks.

"Since that's the case, I'll simply name you the Soul-Losing Bell!"

Luo Chen smiled slightly and put the Soul-Losing Bell into his storage bag.

Then, he successively tested the other magic tools.

Unfortunately, they were all very ordinary low-grade magic tools, far from having any power.

As for that white board, Luo Chen had long ago inquired about its specific effects from Wanbao Tower.

That thing was actually sold by Wanbao Tower, but it was specially supplied for environments like Snow Lotus Market.

Snow-Treading Board!

A flying magic tool.

But the flying speed was very average, equal to an ordinary middle-stage cultivator casting the Wind-Riding Technique.

However, if it were in a land of ice and snow, or on a large river or sea, the Snow-Treading Board could borrow the geographical advantage, and the speed would soar several times, reaching the flying speed of a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

Luo Chen didn't intend to sell it.

Such magic tools still had their uses at times.

Next, Luo Chen went several thousand meters deep, entering the inner part of the outer forest.

Once there, the traces of spirit beasts were relatively more frequent.

With the help of these first-grade spirit beasts, Luo Chen began to familiarize himself with the Fire-Tip Spear and the Soul-Losing Bell he had obtained.

It had to be said that some magic tools' wonderful uses could only be understood in actual combat.

That Fire-Tip Spear, besides being used to drive the enemy, could also emit a powerful rain of fire when held in the hand and activated with spirit power.

Large clusters and large clusters of sparks flew out, falling like a rain of fire across the sky.

The attack intensity was low, but it won by having a large attack range.

Under large-scale strikes, almost every spark had the power of a low-grade magic tool.

As for the most suitable combat method for the Fire-Tip Spear, besides frontal combat, the "returning horse spear" was the best move.

"No wonder Lu Huaiben didn't use this magic tool at the first moment, but only used it when I was chasing him."

"For one, I guess he was scared out of his wits by the two enemies I killed instantly; for another, he wanted to make a contribution in one fell swoop, taking my life when I was relaxed."

"Unfortunately, I was always maintaining the defense of the Four-Image Cauldron at that time."

Stepping on the white Snow-Treading Board, Luo Chen flew back to Xieyue Valley slowly.

And behind him, Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang looked at each other.

The Hall Master seemed to have a lot of combat talent!

Just now in that forest, he encountered three first-grade spirit beasts in succession, and he defeated them easily.

You have to know that those magic tools were clearly just being handled for the first time.

When using them, there was always a sense of unfamiliarity.

But later on, he drove them more and more proficiently, and even some special wonderful uses were excavated by him.

"Perhaps, those three enemies who chased the Hall Master back then were really killed by the Hall Master himself?" Zhou Yuanli couldn't help but say.

Liu Qiang was half-believing, after all, those were three enemies of the same realm as Luo Chen!

Returning to Xieyue Valley, Luo Chen sought out Elder Sikong Shoujia.

"Entrust the gang to sell these low-grade magic tools?"

Elder Sikong Shoujia examined those low-grade magic tools and shook his head: "I guess they won't sell for many spirit stones."

Luo Chen was puzzled: "No way, these are all in good condition, and there's no damage. Moreover, Dahe Market has always had a high demand for magic tools!"

"Dahe Market has a high demand for magic tools, but other places don't!"

Elder Sikong Shoujia rolled his eyes and explained to Luo Chen.

It turned out that in the Yuding Region, ever since the Sword Sect established its dominance here, except for the first hundred years, the following three hundred years had gradually become peaceful.

Conflicts decreased, the demand for pills became higher, but the demand for magic tools had dropped again and again.

Plus, magic tools were durable, and old seniors could pass them down as inheritance to future generations after they kicked the bucket, so that there were more and more magic tools in the cultivation world.

If it were a magic treasure, it would be even more powerful.

Cultivators could use spirit power to nourish them, and the power and grade could even climb again and again.

So much so that over the years, the price of magic tools in the Yuding Region had been on a downward trend.

It was only because Dahe Market was close to the million-strong Great Mountains of the Eastern Wilderness, where the style of hunting spirit beasts was prevalent, that the price of magic tools remained high.

But over these years, the price of magic tools in other places had also gradually affected Dahe Market.

This point was actually something Luo Chen had come into contact with very early on.

Wanbao Tower recycled magic tools, always capping at half price, and for those with serious damage, they wouldn't even give half price.

When Wang Yuan set up a stall, most of what he sold were middle-grade magic tools.

Low-grade magic tools were few and far between.

"With your ordinary goods, even if you take them out to set up a stall, not many people will look at them. Those who do look at them are definitely early or middle-stage cultivators, and they won't give a high price."

"I reckon that selling them for a few hundred spirit stones at most would be the limit."

Luo Chen was furious!

"These are magic tools I earned at the cost of my life; just a few hundred spirit stones, are you trying to send off a beggar?"

"Who told you that these are I don't know how many hands down! And they are the trashiest low-grade magic tools!"

Elder Sikong Shoujia curled his lips and then gave Luo Chen three suggestions.

"Either give them to friends and get a friendship price."

"Or take them to Wanbao Tower; they'll just treat them as scrap and give you a cost price."

"Or, you can hand them over to the gang and convert them into merit points."

The first one, Luo Chen directly ruled out.

He didn't have any friends around him who needed low-grade magic tools.

Even Yuan Xiaoyue, who was at the third level of Qi Refining, didn't actually lack magic tools.

Her grandfather, as well as her dead father, had left her a whole set of middle-grade magic tools.

The second one, Luo Chen was a bit hesitant.

As for the third one?

"Merit points? What are they for?"

"You can use them to exchange for cultivation techniques collected by the Merit Hall! Or buy pills directly from the Merit Hall... uh, well, the pills in the gang are all refined by you."

Elder Sikong Shoujia paused; for a moment, he really couldn't think of any good things in the gang that Luo Chen needed.

The main reason was that Luo Chen, this fellow, was quite shameless; relying on his status as the Hall Master of the Alchemy Hall, he would freeload on any spells or the like within the gang whenever he could.

Merit points?

He didn't care at all.

"Forget it, I'll keep them for now!"

It was just a few magic tools, and they didn't take up much space.

What if the price of magic tools went up in the future?

After making up his mind, Luo Chen was no longer in a hurry to sell the magic tools; he didn't lack those few spirit stones now.

Just as he was about to leave, Elder Sikong Shoujia held him back.

Looking at the hesitant old man who was about to speak but stopped.

Luo Chen was strange, "What's wrong, are you constipated? Then I recommend you go to the Mixue Bingcheng on Bai Shi Square and buy a cup of undiluted Fuzhu milk tea; it's great for moisturizing the intestines and clearing the bowels, and the effect is excellent!"

"Get lost!"

Elder Sikong Shoujia scolded, and then deliberated:

"What do you think of Merit Hall Master Mi Junping?" ===== CHAPTER 114 =====