Chapter 45: Settling the Mind

Regardless of whether the high-merit Daoist from Longhu Mountain comes or not, and no matter how the matter of Qingquan Village is ultimately resolved, life must go on.

Unless it rains knives from the sky, one must still go to work and perform one's duties; the principle is the same.

Essence Refining.

Bigu Pill.

Soul Fixing Talisman.

Chen Ci's vision went dark for no reason; he felt that he had gone out to avoid trouble, but not only did he fail to avoid anything, he had also left himself a mountain of work to do?

Damn Qingquan Village.

However, he did learn some real things on this trip out, for instance, *cough*.

How to reduce the cost of making Bigu Pills.

"Reducing the proportion of grain essence to eighty percent is the limit; any lower would be impolite."

"Honey can also be replaced with syrup; why did the texture even improve?"

Chen Ci smacked his lips, his face full of bewilderment; how could this fake, improved version of the Bigu Pill be so strangely delicious?

"It's egg white; I added egg white to it."

Chen Ci began to calculate; not only did the cost drop by a fifth, but the taste was even better. Even if he offered a buy-five-get-one-free deal, he could still earn a little more than before. From now on, he would no longer fear losing the price war against those unscrupulous merchants in the market.

Now there are only two problems.

First, ordinary cultivators are fine, but he reckons he cannot fool an expert.

Second, the production volume of Bigu Pills is still low. Without volume, he actually still cannot make much money.

"I still have to look at the progress of my cultivation in the Small Heavens Qi Absorption Pill Method, but it's fine; I'll just treat it as laying the foundation for making money in the future."

Chen Ci cheered himself up; he had always appreciated this drive of his to delve into things.

As for the payment for Shi Sanniang... forget it, he would give her the authentic Bigu Pills.

Although business is business, it is not easy for a welfare girl to earn some money; there is no need to be stingy over ten or twenty Bigu Pills.

Master Chen is truly kind-hearted.

After finishing the production of this batch of Bigu Pills, Chen Ci strolled around the courtyard; the anxiety of the previous two days had faded quite a bit.

He combed through the whole affair of Qingquan Village from beginning to end and suddenly realized, what does this have to do with him?

Qingquan Village must have made contact with the Wenxiang Sect.

The one who died was a young master of the Wang Family of Xishan Prefecture.

The one coming to handle it is a high-merit Daoist from Longhu Mountain.

Even if he is conscripted, everyone will go up and resist together. With Chen Ci's cultivation, unless it is a total wipeout, it will never be his turn to throw his life away.

And shallow water cannot raise a true dragon; the cultivation of this world is materialistic rather than idealistic. Even if some devil or evil spirit really blood-sacrificed the entire Qingquan Village, in less than a year, they could at most advance their cultivation by five apertures and refine their Dharma Artifact by three layers.

Longhu Mountain is already a top-tier sect in this world, and He Mountain Sect Apprentices are also famous for their combat prowess during the Qi Refining stage.

How could this battle be lost? Just ask, how could this battle be lost?

His previous anxiety was purely a bout of persecutory delusion; he subconsciously felt that he might be targeted by the Daoist from Longhu Mountain, which is why he felt danger everywhere.

But he is a cadre of some standing, after all.

Thinking of this, Chen Ci even had an urge to give it a try.

"My sword is not yet blunt!"

Therefore, Chen Ci is researching his own Five Yin Evil Qi Bag.

According to some sort of progression, he felt he should have great potential. As a fellow He Mountain Sect Apprentice, why was it that Hutou Daoren, Lin Qinhu, won thirty-seven sword duels in seven years and became notorious, while his own methods were mediocre, and he always felt that fighting was not very satisfying?

The Five Yin Evil Qi Bag actually ranks quite high in the He Mountain Scripture.

For example, on the exchange gold book of the Fuhu Altar, the refining method for the Five Poisons White Bone Sword is priced at 120 merit points. This poisonous sword does not even rank as high as the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag in the He Mountain Scripture; it is at least a dozen places behind.

As a primary Dharma Artifact, although the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag is not lacking in power, is easy to use and maintain, and has extremely wide applicability, it really cannot be considered formidable.

It is fine for bullying the weak, but it falls a bit short in duels at the same level.

As a major heterodox sect, the He Mountain Sect only lags behind in fundamental techniques and top-tier combat power, but He Mountain Sect Qi Refining Apprentices are notoriously fierce; when it comes to duels, they might even be a few notches stronger than those disciples from profound sects.

Hutou Daoren is a very obvious example.

However, Chen Ci studied it for a long time but did not discover anything profound about this Five Yin Evil Qi Bag; it was still just a bag with an opening, with seven strands of evil qi running amok.

"Perhaps it traded combat power for this useless internal space."

Chen Ci sighed; initially, upon learning that the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag could form its own space, he was a little excited, because in his memory, there were no convenient divine artifacts like storage bags or storage rings in the cultivation world. If the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag came with several cubic feet of space, wouldn't he be rich?

It is not that there are no storage Dharma Artifacts; supernatural powers and treasures like the Mount Sumeru Mustard Seed do exist, but those are things only high-level cultivators can play with. At the very least, no one in the entire Xishan Prefecture has ever been heard of possessing such a treasure.

But unfortunately, the space inside the bag is the private territory of the Black Sha; one strand of evil occupies one space. Flesh and blood would be eaten if put inside, and objects would be ground down. If one were to force hard objects inside, the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag would feel very uncomfortable after a short while, and the feedback to Chen Ci would be a strange feeling of dizziness and nausea, the kind that makes one want to vomit.

It was a miscalculation after all.

Not letting things in after so many years of affection is truly meaningless.

But thinking about it, cultivation is not a novel; if low-level cultivators who cannot even fly through the air each had a space Dharma Artifact, it would be truly surreal.

"However..."

While muttering something, Chen Ci pulled open the mouth of the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag and poured lime powder inside—one jin, two jin, five jin, ten jin—until he developed a dry, choking sensation in his throat and could not help but cough, only then did he stop.

"Cough, cough, Black Sha, come out!"

From the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag, the Black Sha rolled out violently; the terrifyingly aggressive evil qi, greyish-black in color, was mixed with several jin of lime, puffing out debris. If the opponent were careless, it might truly have some miraculous effect.

It is just that it only has the power of one strike, and the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag, along with the sensation in his brain, feels very uncomfortable; it cannot be sustained.

"It is, after all, a petty trick that cannot be brought to the table... It is just that high-quality poison powder is hard to find, and ordinary goods are not as fast or direct as lime powder."

Chen Ci felt a bit regretful; if not for the world forcing his hand, he would never resort to such methods just to be safe.

Really.

Sanyin Temple, front hall.

"Daoist Huang, what has happened to you?"

Chen Ci took a sip of tea, looked at the expression of Huang Defa before him, who seemed to want to speak but held back, and felt slightly surprised: "Could it be that the high-merit Daoist from Longhu Mountain has arrived?"

He had just been in the backyard researching the Soul Fixing Talisman.

Although the Soul Fixing Talisman was good, it had a small flaw: it could not be thrown far enough, and its speed was not fast enough.

Chen Ci was attempting to bind the Soul Fixing Talisman to hidden weapons or draw it onto metal objects, but none had succeeded; he had not expected the Head of the Family of the Huang Family to suddenly pay a visit, as there were still five or six days left until the end of the month.

"No, this old man is visiting presumptuously this time because there is actually an important matter I wish to discuss with the True Person."

Huang Defa hesitated for a long time, and seeing that Chen Ci was about to raise his cup to see him out, he lowered his voice and asked apprehensively: "True Person Chen, could you perhaps investigate in advance what exactly has happened at Qingquan Village, or take action directly to wipe out Qingquan Village?"

"Pfft~"

Chen Ci was almost choked by the tea; he coughed twice before regaining his composure, looking at Huang Defa with a speechless expression.

You must be...

Forcing himself to hold back a retort, Chen Ci deliberated his words before saying: "Head of the Family Huang, have you perhaps gone insane?"

(End of this chapter)