Chapter 34: I Don't Mind Offering Myself

"Hmm, do you want it?"

Gu Caiyi drank the tea Luo Chen had poured for her, her willow-leaf eyebrows furrowing.

What kind of tea leaves were these? They were too bitter!

Luo Chen, sitting opposite her, had eyes shining, his heart thumping several times faster than usual.

The Purple Cloud Copper Furnace, a standard alchemy furnace produced by Wanbao Tower.

Its grade is not high, only first-grade low-tier, but its applicability is extremely wide.

Most of the common alchemy methods in the cultivation world can be adapted to it.

Moreover, this furnace has a Fire-Gathering Array inscribed on it, which has unique advantages in adjusting heat.

Novice alchemists often cannot control the heat well, leading to the destruction of the processed raw materials.

But with this array, as long as different amounts of spiritual power are injected beforehand, it can adjust itself regardless of how strong the external fire is.

Fire-Gathering Array: gathering and dispersing at will, the elixir fire is spirited.

You ask Luo Chen if he wants it?

Of course he wants it!

If he had this kind of alchemy furnace, he wouldn't be stuck refining only one pot of Myriad Wonder Pills a day.

In terms of efficiency, he could refine at least two pots of Myriad Wonder Pills a day!

Looking at Gu Caiyi with burning eyes, Luo Chen suddenly reached out and grabbed her delicate hand, to her surprise.

"Sister Caiyi, are you going to give me one?"

"I'm willing, as long as you give it to me, even if you ask me to offer myself, I would have no complaints!"

Gu Caiyi was stunned for a moment, then pulled her left hand out of those thick, large hands.

"Get lost!"

"Who wants you to offer yourself? You shameless thing!"

She rolled her eyes and said seriously, "If you want it, you have to spend spirit stones to buy it."

"Is that so..." Luo Chen sighed dejectedly. "If I could afford it, I would have bought it long ago."

"It's not asking you to buy it at Wanbao Tower." Gu Caiyi couldn't bear Luo Chen's rapid change of expression and said, "The top courtesan, Miss Xiangxiang, of Tianxiang Tower is also an alchemist, and she has an idle Purple Cloud Copper Furnace. I've asked, and if you want it, she can sell it to you for a bit cheaper."

The top courtesan Xiangxiang—of course he knew her.

Beautiful and stunning, knowledgeable, and especially deeply involved in water methods and alchemy.

Moreover, the reason she was most famous was that she held the title of an inner sect disciple of the Hehuan Sect.

However, no matter how beautiful or famous she was, it had nothing to do with Luo Chen.

What he cared about most was the price!

"A bit cheaper? How much cheaper?"

"Three hundred low-grade spirit stones."

Luo Chen was overjoyed, but his face still showed a look of difficulty. "That's so expensive; second-hand ones only cost around two hundred."

"Then why don't you go buy one?" Gu Caiyi chuckled. "Stop crying poor; this price is only because you are my neighbor. If you really want to buy it, you can let me know."

Indeed, this price was very cheap.

The so-called second-hand price Luo Chen mentioned was the recycling price of Wanbao Tower.

As everyone knows, Wanbao Tower is the most unscrupulous of unscrupulous merchants.

A brand-new Purple Cloud Copper Furnace costs four hundred and fifty.

It is only slightly cheaper than defensive magic tools and far exceeds other first-grade low-tier attack magic tools.

And because it is an alchemical apparatus that rogue cultivators don't often touch, there are very few on the market.

Now that he had encountered one and the price was so cheap, Luo Chen naturally wouldn't miss it.

Luo Chen gave a sheepish smile and said hurriedly, "Buy, definitely buy, but it will have to be in a while, after I save up enough money."

"So poor?" Gu Caiyi looked at Luo Chen suspiciously. "Are you actually earning spirit stones by refining elixirs?"

She had once suspected whether her neighbor would be kicked out of the inner city in three months because he couldn't pay the rent.

"You don't need to worry about that; I will definitely bring the spirit stones to your door when the time comes!" Luo Chen said confidently.

In reality, he could actually come up with three hundred spirit stones.

Not to mention anything else, he currently had over four hundred spirit stones in his pocket!

The Flying Swallow Sword sold for eleven hundred, and after purchasing Qi-Nourishing Pills and five spells, four hundred remained.

Plus the original twenty or so scattered ones.

It could be said that Luo Chen at this moment really couldn't be considered very poor.

The reason he didn't go buy the alchemy furnace now was mainly because he didn't need it for the time being.

The current batch of raw materials was specially processed according to his own iron pot.

If he used an alchemy furnace to refine the remaining raw materials, it would be one thing if his technique wasn't adapted, but the firewood to be burned and the time for the elixir to form would all have to be prepared from scratch.

Therefore, he planned to consume all the raw materials in this batch, recover all the funds, and then consider buying the furnace.

Damn it!

If only there were interest-free, large-sum spirit stone loans for aspiring rogue cultivators.

This cultivation world controlled by sects is truly too cold to us rogue cultivators!

Refining elixirs and taking medicine, practicing methods and studying techniques—the days passed day by day in this orderly arrangement.

Luo Chen changed the time and frequency of his spell practice.

He had previously retained the habit of living in the outer city, and his daily spell practice was only superficial.

He realized some time ago that the inner city was already quite safe, and there was no need to keep his spiritual power in a peak state at all times.

Therefore, he could use more spiritual power to practice the new spells he had learned.

In his spare time, he would chat with Gu Caiyi about things in the cultivation world.

Actually, he was also strange—how come he never saw Gu Caiyi practicing?

After Gu Caiyi explained it later, he suddenly realized.

It turned out that Gu Caiyi usually went to Tianxiang Tower to practice, where a Spirit-Gathering Array was set up, which could raise the concentration of spiritual energy by a notch.

Of course, the spiritual energy concentration of a first-grade spiritual vein is limited; if some people are gathering spiritual energy, naturally others cannot enjoy the due concentration.

Hmm, the latter refers to the rogue cultivator residents like Luo Chen.

The Jade Cauldron Sword Sect is also a huge unscrupulous merchant; what happened to the promised high-quality housing with a first-grade spiritual vein?

After all that, the spiritual energy they absorbed was just what was left over after others had filtered it.

During this period, he would occasionally meet the small round-faced woman, Bai Meiling.

Not often; it seemed the Hundred Herb Hall was very busy recently, and people from the Medicine King Sect had come to take inventory, planning to transport a batch of spiritual herbs collected by the Hundred Herb Hall back.

However, Luo Chen had never seen the other resident living in this courtyard even once.

"Fu Xiuxiu is the manager of the Divine Talisman Pavilion and usually lives there. And I heard her talisman-making level is very high, and she has a great hope of being admitted into the Divine Talisman Sect."

This was what Gu Caiyi told Luo Chen.

After hearing this, Luo Chen was very envious.

Being able to join a sect—that is a fairy fate that countless rogue cultivators bitterly seek.

He didn't know if he would have the chance to join a powerful sect.

He didn't have high requirements; one like the Hehuan Sect would do.

When he was at the market, he would tell everyone he met that Venerable Yunhe was his idol.

Just like that, Luo Chen worked overtime and finished using all the materials on hand before the big market arrived.

The final result made him very satisfied!

Of the last twenty-five portions of raw materials, he succeeded five times.

This meant that his success rate in refining Myriad Wonder Pills had increased from the initial one-tenth to two-tenths!

In terms of cost control, this was a qualitative improvement.

Initially, the cost of fifty spirit stones could refine ten pots, succeed in one, and sell for fifty, leaving him in a state of neither profit nor loss.

Oh, no, actually, it was a loss.

If those few months had been used to refine Grain-Grain Bigu Powder, he could have earned dozens of spirit stones one way or another.

So, at that time, he was really losing money.

Now, or rather, in the future.

With the same cost of fifty spirit stones, if he could succeed in two out of ten pots, he could sell them for one hundred spirit stones, a net profit of fifty.

With this profit margin, as long as he was willing to spend the cost, Luo Chen could count spirit stones until his hands went soft.

"This is only at the proficient level; what if I improve to the mastery level, perfect level, or even grandmaster level in the future?"

Luo Chen was looking forward to it.

Then, on a dim morning, like an early-rising vegetable farmer, he headed straight for the rogue cultivator market in the south of the city.

Today would be a day full of harvest! ===== CHAPTER 35 =====