Chapter 117: Seeing and hearing at the Immortal Building, refining the Burning Blood Pill

"Here, breakfast."

Handing a green-leaf-wrapped rice cake to Luo Chen, Gu Caiyi sat down beside him.

Luo Chen took the hot rice cake and took a beautiful bite.

"Authentic!"

"I never knew that rice cakes made from spirit rice could be made so delicious."

Looking at Luo Chen, who was eating heartily, Gu Caiyi smiled lightly, "Isn't this inspired by your popcorn? Those who followed the trend started to put their minds on the most ordinary spirit rice."

Luo Chen chuckled, enjoying the breakfast containing spirit energy.

Once humans reach Qi Refining, their bodies are in a process of passive transformation.

In this process, besides cultivation, the replenishment of food is also a key point.

The so-called cultivator fasting is usually something high-grade cultivators will actively do when they go into seclusion.

But in reality, low-grade cultivators should try their best not to fast, because in the Qi Refining stage, besides refining external spirit energy, it also involves refining the body's own essence and energy.

If essence and energy are insufficient, it will damage the origin.

It is common for those who refine Qi to the point where their bodies are exhausted and injured.

But eating also has its ways; ordinary grains are not the first choice for cultivators.

Eating too much of those things will instead make the body full of impurities, affecting the process of refining essence into energy.

Spirit rice, spirit vegetables, spirit beast meat, spirit wine, spirit tea—these things naturally became popular.

Even when Luo Chen was at his most down and out, he would

Nowadays, in the Dahe Market, the development of spiritual food is in full swing.

Originally, there were normal places like the Spiritual Source House and the Bell Tripod family.

Later, Luo Chen tinkered with a bunch of snacks containing trace amounts of spiritual energy, which were very popular.

Stimulated by this, those rogue cultivators also racked their brains and innovated many small foods containing spiritual energy.

It must be said, there was quite a market for it; cultivators were tired of eating spiritual rice and were still very willing to spend a few spirit stones to improve their taste.

For example, Luo Chen liked several snacks sold at the White Stone Plaza very much and often had Gu Caiyi and the others bring them over in the morning.

Of course, he would also give spirit stones; he couldn't freeload off them.

He was even relatively generous, and those who helped him bring breakfast could also enjoy it together.

Gu Caiyi used to be like ordinary cultivators, generally eating only one meal of spiritual rice a day.

But now, following Luo Chen, she had also started to get used to eating breakfast.

She lay there, thinking about some matters regarding cultivation.

Suddenly, she smelled a fragrance.

"Eh, Luo Chen, did you apply some rouge? Why is there a fragrance on your body?"

"I'm not a woman, why would I apply rouge!"

Gu Caiyi sniffed her nose and smelled carefully; the fragrance emanating from Luo Chen's body was faint and elusive.

Intense like fire, yet gentle like jade.

It was contradictory, but it felt quite comfortable to her nose.

Luo Chen paused and suddenly said, "It must be the elixir aura left over from my year-round alchemy; is this scent strong?"

"Not strong, you have to be very close and smell carefully to notice it."

Gu Caiyi sniffed, actually feeling a bit refreshed.

Why hadn't she noticed the elixir aura on Luo Chen before?

Hearing her say this, Luo Chen felt relieved.

It was very normal for an alchemist to have some elixir aura; as long as it wasn't overly strong and didn't leave a deep impression on people, it was fine.

However, in the future, if he had to do some unspeakable things, it would be better to cover it up or clear it directly.

After breakfast, those internal affairs cultivators gradually arrived at the Alchemy Hall.

A new day of alchemy work was about to begin.

However, under Gu Caiyi's leadership, these people didn't have any complaints.

Starting this month, the improved treatment promised by Hall Master Luo Chen had been approved by the gang.

Each of them, according to their respective positions, had more or less gained some benefits.

And working in the Mountain Breaking Gang for a long time would also increase merit points.

After accumulating enough merit points, they could go to the Merit Hall to exchange for some low-grade spells.

Although they were just common goods, buying them outside would also cost high-priced spirit stones.

Internal exchange was very cheap.

It was precisely because of the improvement in treatment that these people's work passion was even higher than before, and they were more attentive than before when assisting Luo Chen in alchemy.

After all, Luo Chen had once casually said that he wanted to promote two managers like Qu Hancheng from among the medicine apprentices and elixir-nurturing attendants.

After a day, the alchemy work ended.

Today's elixir success rate wasn't high, only about forty percent.

Of course, that was only what the internal affairs cultivators saw.

The real success rate was actually fifty percent.

The extra ten percent was quietly embezzled by Luo Chen.

Those were twenty high-grade Jade Marrow Pills he had specially refined, with an efficacy comparable to Nourishing Qi Pills.

Although they couldn't compare to the Dust-Transforming Pills he mainly took now, they had no drug resistance!

Luo Chen wasn't in a hurry to refine them; he just ate them, letting the medicinal power fill his meridians to be absorbed automatically.

In this way, whether he was refining elixirs or releasing spells, his spiritual power could always remain in a full state.

And the automatic energy recovery characteristic of the Everlasting Spring Art was always playing a role.

Luo Chen also wanted to try whether his spiritual power would undergo passive purification if it remained in a full state.

Actually, sometimes Luo Chen also wondered.

What would happen if his embezzlement behavior was discovered?

After thinking about it many times, Luo Chen reached a conclusion.

What could happen?

As long as it wasn't too excessive, Mi Shuhua would just pretend not to see it if he found out.

Could he really throw him into a dungeon?

At most, he would give a warning, and then he would restrain himself a bit, and after a while, he would return to his old ways.

Therefore, Luo Chen now had no psychological burden when lining his own pockets.

After getting off work, Luo Chen called Gu Caiyi and headed toward the inner city.

Following his departure, Zhou Yuanli and several other bodyguards also tacitly followed.

It wasn't until they entered the safe inner city that these bodyguards dispersed.

After they left, Luo Chen bid farewell to Gu Caiyi and started strolling around the inner city alone.

First, he went to the Hundred Herbs Hall.

Accompanied by Bai Meiling, Luo Chen met the new manager of the Hundred Herbs Hall.

Unexpectedly!

The other party wasn't an old cultivator like Liu Hecai, but rather a Foundation Establishment cultivator who looked very young.

Shouldn't such talent stay in the sect to study diligently, become a Foundation Establishment true disciple, and then strive for Core Formation?

Or was the Medicine King Sect so full of talent that even young Foundation Establishment cultivators were casually sent out to handle business?

The reason the other party was willing to meet Luo Chen was because the previous Manager Liu had greeted him, saying that Dahe Market had a rogue alchemist named Luo Chen.

Alchemists were already very rare.

Rogue alchemists were even more intriguing.

However, upon learning that Luo Chen was already serving a gang, the other party lost interest.

They exchanged names, and he waved his hand to let Luo Chen go look around himself.

Buying some medicinal herbs for the Nourishing Essence Spiritual Liquid and attaching dozens of Heavenly Yang Fruits, Luo Chen bid farewell to Bai Meiling and headed straight for the Immortal Building Residence.

Immortal Building Residence, a shop under Ailao Mountain, specifically selling various building materials, ores, etc., and also collecting resources.

Entering the Immortal Building Residence, Luo Chen started wandering around inside.

Seeing his look of wanting to stroll around, the Ailao Mountain disciples in the Immortal Building Residence had no intention of coming up to greet him.

There were plenty of such rogue cultivators.

Wandering for half a day, they might not even buy anything valuable.

"What else is there to quibble about? It must have been done by their Jade Tripod Sword Sect!"

"Who would be so stupid as to commit murder on their own turf."

"Tsk, there are plenty of such things. Otherwise, where would the Jade Tripod Sword Sect get so many magic treasures to auction off?"

Listening to the idle chatter of two late-stage Qi Refining Ailao Mountain disciples nearby, Luo Chen became interested in the gossip.

He thought of the auction back then, where the local Sword Pavilion representing the Sword Sect indeed brought out many magic treasures for auction.

Like the Heavenly Moon Purple Gold Wheel that Mi Shuhua bought at a high price, it was one of them.

In the subsequent auctions, at least four magic treasures were sold!

He used to be curious; the Jade Tripod Sword Sect wasn't a major casting sect, so where did they get so many magic treasures?

Who would have thought he could hear such an explanation from disciples of other sects.

Thinking about it carefully, it made sense; for Sword Sect cultivators, once they reached Foundation Establishment, they would abandon most external objects and focus on the Sword Pellet.

The magic tools and magic treasures that rogue cultivators regarded as treasures were really not indispensable to sword cultivators who revered "one sword breaks ten thousand laws."

If they accidentally obtained some magic treasures and they were useless to keep, auctioning them off was a very reasonable thing to do.

There might be trouble at auctions in the heartland of the Jade Yu Yu Dingyu, but in a remote place like Dahe Market, there would be no loose ends.

In such a place, the Jade Tripod Sword Pavilion was a proper hegemon that no one dared to provoke.

Beside his ear, talk came again, quite indignant.

"The injuries on Uncle Fei Bai Wen's corpse were clearly caused by a magic-treasure-grade Sword Pellet; there are many Sword Pellets in the entire Jade Yu Yu Dingyu, but only the Sword Sect Core Formation cultivators can nurture a magic-treasure-grade Sword Pellet!"

"But why would a Sword Sect Core Formation cultivator attack a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"

"Who knows? Maybe they took a fancy to Uncle's Cage magic treasure. It is said that defensive magic treasures like the Cage can also be used by sword cultivators."

"Perhaps!"

"Anyway, the Jade Tripod Sword Sect is too bullying; when our sect's Supreme Elder went to demand an explanation, they were very arrogant. After the Supreme Elder returned to the sect, he was so angry that he cursed the Sword Sect and even stopped the renovation plans for several large Sword Sect markets."

"Hiss, our Ailao Mountain can't afford to provoke a Nascent Soul major sect; isn't the Supreme Elder afraid of bringing disaster by doing this?"

"Heh, you don't know about this. When the Jade Yu Yu Dingyu was first opened... that kid, are you buying something or not!"

Luo Chen was stunned, then revealed a smile.

"Buying, buying, I was just afraid of disturbing your chat, Fellow Daoists!"

"What do you want to buy? Say it quickly, we are closing."

Luo Chen pursed his lips and said with a smile, "Earth Fire Evil, it is said you have it here. But I looked for a long time on the shelves and didn't see it."

The Immortal Building Residence cultivator looked at him with disdain.

"Ignorant, how could Earth Fire Evil be put on the shelf? How much do you want?"

Evil is the same as kill, extremely fierce and evil, where strange things do not exist.

If there is an extremely fierce place, evil energy will often be born.

If corresponding evil energy exists, apart from things that give birth to evil, no other external objects will exist in this place.

Like the Yellow Spring Yin Evil, it is the evil energy condensed over years and months in a place where second-order Yellow Spring water gathers.

In that place, apart from Yellow Spring water, Yellow Spring Yin Evil will actively destroy any external objects.

And this Earth Fire Evil is the same.

It is a kind of evil energy born only in places where a large amount of Earth Fire exists.

Therefore, Earth Fire Evil often does not tolerate external objects, has extremely strong destructive power, and belongs to yang-rigid evil energy.

But cultivators are such clever people; if that kind of extremely strong destructive power is added to a magic tool, its power will soar several times.

Therefore, after years of research, generations of highly talented people have come up with many methods to extract, contain, and use evil.

After all, no matter how awesome you say you are, one thing subdues another; there is always something with a higher grade and attribute restraint than you.

Like Earth Fire Evil, although it is fire-attributed, it resides in mountains and earth veins all year round, so it will naturally be restrained by earth-attributed things.

Under the guidance of that Ailao Mountain disciple, Luo Chen saw the thing that stored Earth Fire Evil.

A stone that looked full of many tiny holes, like a honeycomb.

"This is Rock Floating Stone, a companion object of Earth Fire, one can contain ten wisps of Earth Fire Evil."

"If you want to buy Earth Fire Evil, you have to buy a Rock Floating Stone by the way. So, this price..."

Fifty spirit stones!

Luo Chen was shocked.

Earth Fire Evil is only the lowest level, the most common evil energy, and its grade is only first-order.

Just ten wisps, and they actually want to sell it to him for fifty spirit stones!

Seeing Luo Chen's pained expression, the cultivator smiled. "Of course, we will also teach you the method of how to guide the evil energy; you definitely won't lose out on this deal."

Hearing him say this, Luo Chen could barely accept it.

However, after spending fifty spirit stones to buy the Earth Fire Evil, Luo Chen was still indignant.

This Immortal Building Residence of Ailao Mountain was also a big profiteer.

Selling things was fine, but they also engaged in tie-in sales.

Ten wisps of Earth Fire Evil were actually sold bundled with the Rock Floating Stone and the Evil Control Formula.

After leaving the Immortal Building Residence, Luo Chen did the math.

Ten wisps of Earth Fire Evil required fifty spirit stones.

Heavenly Yang Fruits were relatively cheap; buying the quantity corresponding to the Earth Fire Evil cost about ten spirit stones.

One of the three main ingredients of the Blood Burning Pill, Explosive Ape Blood, was not cheap either.

He hadn't gone to buy it yet, but he knew the corresponding price; buying ten portions of Explosive Ape Demon Blood would cost at least thirty spirit stones.

If he added the remaining auxiliary materials, it would be about twenty more.

Calculating this way, gathering ten portions of main materials would require at least one hundred and ten low-grade spirit stones.

He didn't know until he calculated; with this calculation, the cost price simply broke through the sky.

The cost of one furnace started at eleven spirit stones!

As for other manpower and material resources, and the firewood burned for alchemy, Luo Chen hadn't even added them in yet.

"The cost of Myriad Wonder Pills and Jade Marrow Pills is only five spirit stones. Why is the cost of Blood Burning Pills so high?"

"Could it be because this elixir formula was deduced by me?"

Luo Chen couldn't help but think about the elixir formula.

Generally speaking, mature elixir formulas are deduced countless times by alchemy grandmasters, and the main and auxiliary materials are all carefully selected.

The time spent in this process might be ten years, a hundred years, or even a thousand years of evolution.

Therefore, the prices of various main and auxiliary materials in the elixir formulas have been pressed to the lowest.

His Blood Burning Pill formula, however, was a bit opportunistic.

It was deduced by him through the second-order Blood Evil Pill, with the help of the system to forcibly enter the door.

Among them, there was no optimization or simplification process.

"If this is the logic, it means there is room for optimization in the Blood Burning Pill formula."

"But with my current alchemy attainments, I have already exhausted my efforts to deduce an elixir formula that can enter the door. How can I optimize it again?"

If the cost price isn't brought down, the profit of the elixir will be very small.

Even if the effect is very good, it is ultimately just a first-order elixir.

It has no effect on high-level cultivators, and low-level cultivators cannot afford high prices, so naturally, the profit will be very small.

"Forget it, let's refine it first."

"If the effect is average and not suitable for sale, I'll use it myself!"

Luo Chen sighed and made this plan.

He didn't intend to give up refining the Blood Burning Pill; it was a first-order elixir after all, what if it had a market after refining it?

Moreover, by refining the Blood Burning Pill and raising his proficiency, it could also have the effect of "stones from other hills can serve to polish the jade of this one" for his improvement of the Blood Evil Pill.

Ultimately, the two came from the same source.

Over the next few days, he successively collected the remaining auxiliary materials.

As for the Explosive Ape Demon Blood, he didn't go buy it himself, but entrusted Duan Feng to buy it for him.

The reason he let Duan Feng come forward was that it was reasonable for the other party to buy such things.

Explosive Ape Demon Blood was very suitable for refining a kind of great tonic medicinal soup, which was quite beneficial for those with blood deficiency.

Those cultivators who often fought on the Dao Discussion Platform would often go buy it to boil soup to drink.

Luo Chen had actually seen this kind of thing before.

Back when the eighteen cultivators were fighting to the death, Murong Qinglian had boiled a kind of tiger bone soup for Qin Liangchen to drink.

The recipe for that tiger bone soup was the kind of great tonic medicinal soup mentioned above.

It was just that the main materials used were different, but the principle was the same.

After collecting the materials, Luo Chen prepared to start refining the Blood Burning Pill.

And he placed the refining location at home, in his own small alchemy room.

Thump!

With a muffled sound, the Four-Image Tripod landed above the fire pit.

Luo Chen frowned; the area of his alchemy room at home was too small, and after accommodating the one-zhang-high Four-Image Tripod, it appeared quite crowded.

But there was no other way.

He couldn't blatantly put this kind of thing in the Alchemy Hall of Slanting Moon Valley.

Even if he refined elixirs late at night, it would be very easy for the Mountain Breaking Gang cultivators on night watch to discover it.

Therefore, he could only refine elixirs at home.

With no one to help, Luo Chen did the alchemy chores he hadn't done for a long time.

Heating the Four-Image Tripod took a long time, and relying on firewood alone wasn't enough, so Luo Chen had to do two things at once, occasionally casting Fireball Spells.

He also had to control his spiritual power and couldn't let the Fireball Spell be too powerful.

Fortunately, he was already familiar with the Flame Control Art and was very skilled at manipulating flames.

Doing these tedious tasks, Luo Chen even associated it with his recent situation.

Fortunately, he joined the Mountain Breaking Gang; if he were still fighting alone like before, refining elixirs every day would tire people to death.

Now he refines elixirs twice a day, three furnaces at a time, and obviously the workload is more than before.

But because he had that group of medicine apprentices and fire workers to help, he was actually much more relaxed.

"Next, it's time to add the auxiliary materials."

Various processed medicinal herbs were added to the Four-Image Tripod in turn.

For some that needed on-site processing, he also had the special alchemy technique, the Heart-Nurturing Hand, to process the medicinal herbs.

Then it was the mild-natured Heavenly Yang Fruit.

This thing contained a wisp of innate energy; the amount wasn't much, but it was quite precious.

Otherwise, the Hundred Herbs Hall wouldn't sell it.

After the Heavenly Yang Fruit, it was the Explosive Ape Demon Blood.

Luo Chen took out a magic tool, the Wave-Swallowing Sea-Holding Pot.

This was something he had bought recently; the previous one was given to Feng Xia, specifically used to hold the beast milk of the Fu Zhu deer.

Don't mention it, the price of this magic tool only cost two hundred spirit stones.

He remembered that the Wave-Swallowing Sea-Holding Pot at the Myriad Treasure Pavilion used to sell for two hundred and thirty.

Sikong Shoujia didn't lie to him; the price of magic tools was indeed getting cheaper and cheaper. Perhaps thousands of years later, storage bags, whose prices remained high, would be in the hands of every Qi Refining cultivator.

The pot mouth opened, and a fishy, foul smell gushed out.

This thing didn't need processing; what was wanted was the original flavor.

Luo Chen precisely controlled the amount of demon blood until there was enough for one portion of Blood Burning Pill, then put away the Wave-Swallowing Sea-Holding Pot.

After pouring in the Explosive Ape Demon Blood, Luo Chen stopped his movements and focused on controlling the heat.

Occasionally, he would use the Traction Spell to open the tripod lid, then use a special medicine shovel to stir the medicinal liquid gradually melting inside.

According to the elixir formula he deduced, during the refining process of the Blood Burning Pill, it was best not to contact the alchemist's spiritual power too much.

Otherwise, it would affect the purity of the elixir.

The only place where it would contact would probably be when it came out of the furnace, relying on alchemy techniques to use spiritual power to knead the medicinal liquid into elixir pills.

The work of boiling and stirring went on for a long time.

Luo Chen was even a bit sleepy.

Of course, he definitely wouldn't fall asleep.

He even thought about how to arrange this time period if he were to refine Blood Burning Pills on a large scale.

Fire workers to watch the fire were definitely needed.

He could also train a group of people from the medicine apprentices specifically responsible for the stage of medicinal liquid changes during the alchemy process.

Perhaps not just the Blood Burning Pill, the Jade Marrow Pill also had a stage that consumed a lot of his energy; it seemed it could also be done like this?

These thoughts flashed by.

Luo Chen continued to focus on refining the elixir.

After another stick of incense time, he felt it was about time.

Luo Chen took out the honeycomb-shaped Rock Floating Stone.

The stone floated above the Four-Image Tripod, and Luo Chen stretched out one hand from afar, spiritual power surging out.

As he pinched the seal with one hand, those wisps of spiritual power intertwined into a ball like bees, drilling into the honeycomb.

Breaking through the barrier set by the Ailao Mountain cultivator, Luo Chen's spiritual power then acted like bees carrying pollen, wrapping a wisp of Earth Fire Evil and slowly moving it out.

Earth Fire Evil entered the tripod, and Luo Chen's spiritual power was suddenly withdrawn.

The tripod lid was also pressed down instantly.

Almost in an instant, the Four-Image Tripod emitted a slight tremor.

"The mild medicinal liquid, after contacting the Earth Fire Evil energy, will produce special changes. The overall attribute will instantly evolve in a violent direction."

"Not only that, the spiritual power in the Explosive Ape Demon Blood and Heavenly Yang Fruit will also instantly erupt under the stimulation of the Earth Fire Evil, and then fuse with each other."

The elixir formula he deduced naturally had the changes that might occur during the elixir refining process.

It could be said that Luo Chen was the person in this world who knew this Blood Burning Pill formula best.

If another alchemy grandmaster came, they wouldn't be more familiar with it than him.

Suddenly!

The trembling Four-Image Tripod stopped and became quiet as before.

Luo Chen's mind concentrated; this was the final moment of elixir formation.

He cast spiritual power, following the formation patterns originally reserved by the elixir tripod, and permeated inside.

After about five breaths, Luo Chen opened the tripod lid with anticipation.

A burnt, pungent smell instantly spread out.

"Failed?"

"Used to it, first time refining, just at the entry-level proficiency, it's very normal to fail..."

Luo Chen, who had already prepared himself mentally, was stunned when he saw the five peanut-sized, blood-red elixir pills at the bottom of the Four-Image Tripod.

Didn't fail!

Success in one stroke!