Chapter 238: The Dan God Hall

Long Xuan nodded and pondered, "The only thing that can tempt all Gu cultivators at the Essence Refining stage is the Realm-Breaking Pill."

"From now on, everyone is to refine Realm-Breaking Pills. Furthermore, I have already successfully researched the 'Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique'. I refuse to believe that bringing out a pile of Realm-Breaking Pills won't be enough to tempt them to death!"

Long Xuan's lips curled into a smirk as he handed a thin book to the Flame Clone.

This "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique" was a brainwave he'd had shortly after transmigrating, but despite racking his brains for so many years, he had never succeeded.

However, ever since he began practicing the "Heavenly Demon Disintegration Divine Art", the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique" had fallen into place naturally. It took less than two days, a task he'd completed casually in his spare time; it was nothing short of a miracle.

He finally understood now: to master the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique", one must possess split souls and the ability to multitask. Otherwise, this technique would be impossible to achieve.

Because the Big Cauldron Pill requires putting a tenfold or hundredfold amount of ingredients for a single batch into one alchemy furnace, the yield would also be tenfold or hundredfold.

Yet, how could one person possibly manage such a massive amount of spirit herbs simultaneously? This inevitably required split souls and multitasking.

Thus, his practice of the "Heavenly Demon Disintegration Divine Art" had naturally led to the successful research of the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique".

With this technique, his clones only needed to dedicate a small amount of time to alchemy each day, without delaying their cultivation progress.

However, the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique" had its limitations; it could not be applied to all types of spirit pills.

He could refine as many First Grade Spirit Pills as he wanted now without any pressure.

But if he were to challenge a heaven-defying spirit pill on the level of the Heaven-Mending Pill using the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique", it would be completely beyond his ability to control.

Blowing up the furnace and killing himself would be a minor matter; the real fear was that the resulting anomaly might change, potentially triggering a lightning tribulation, which would be a huge headache.

The Flame Clone hurriedly took the "Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique" and began reading it with great interest.

Even the rabbit ran over to join the fun, seemingly very interested in this magical alchemy technique, hopping over to the Flame Clone's side to learn the ropes, watching with rapt attention.

The book didn't have many words, and the man and rabbit finished reading it quickly. Then, unable to wait, they each took a large-sized alchemy furnace and began attempting to refine Big Cauldron Pills.

Meanwhile, the other clones had finally returned with a large quantity of ingredients for Gathering Sea Pills.

That's right, the spirit pill Long Xuan intended for his clones to refine was the Gathering Sea Pill.

The Gathering Sea Pill could increase the breakthrough rate from the peak of Essence Refining to the early stage of Spirit Sea by half a percent. While the breakthrough rate wasn't high, it was enough to drive all Essence Refining stage Gu cultivators mad.

The formula for the Gathering Sea Pill had also been collected by the clone while running the medicine shop.

There was an unwritten rule in the Gu world when seeking an alchemist to refine pills: the client provides the ingredients and the formula, and the alchemist takes a cut of the finished pills.

This trading rule was the favorite of all alchemists, as it allowed them to "leech" a formula for free.

This Gathering Sea Pill formula had been obtained by the clone through this method, but precisely because it wasn't a unique formula of any clan, its medicinal power was limited, only assisting with a half-percent breakthrough rate at the peak of Essence Refining.

For Long Xuan, with his Ten Extremes Body, such meager medicinal power was absolutely useless.

But once he mass-produced the Gathering Sea Pills, he would be able to make a fortune, which would be more than enough to cover the wealth needed to build a large ship.

One had to know that among pills of the same grade, Realm-Breaking Pills were always the most expensive, with a value over a hundred times that of other pills of the same grade.

You couldn't trade a single Second Grade Realm-Breaking Pill for hundreds of Second Grade Spirit-Replenishing Pills.

For pills of the same grade, the price gap was just that exaggerated.

Therefore, refining Realm-Breaking Pills was absolutely a windfall. Once he used the Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique to mass-produce Gathering Sea Pills, he would be able to earn an uncountable amount of wealth.

Although the Gathering Sea Pill had low medicinal power, low medicinal power had its advantages: the ingredients were usually very easy to collect.

So, as long as he had money, he didn't need to waste time collecting ingredients at all.

A single batch of Gathering Sea Pills usually yielded five pills; after using the Big Cauldron Pill Refining Technique, he could basically yield fifty pills per batch.

By then, with all clones refining Gathering Sea Pills together, given their success rate, they would have refined hundreds of Gathering Sea Pills in half a month, right? Such a massive fortune would be enough to support him in building a large ship.

Come to think of it, his alchemy furnaces weren't large enough, and he didn't have enough split souls; otherwise, a tenfold yield per batch was far from his limit.

To rush the work, Long Xuan joined the Gathering Sea Pill refining process.

Using split souls to refine massive amounts of spirit herbs simultaneously made the alchemy efficiency incredibly fast, and the most time-consuming step in alchemy was refining the spirit herbs, which he was now doing much faster than any normal alchemist.

Realm-Breaking Pills were not easy to refine; all Realm-Breaking Pills shared the characteristics of high refining difficulty, a universal abundance of ingredients, and a long, arduous process.

Therefore, no Realm-Breaking Pill could be mass-produced, and accounting for the failure rate, every alchemist needed a long time to refine a single batch.

Yet Long Xuan had managed to make Realm-Breaking Pills mass-producible, and had cut the time-consuming Gathering Sea Pill refining process down to less than half a month.

This way of making money was practically robbery.

Thus, after half a month, the five major clones had each refined two batches, failing one batch each, for a total of 250 pills.

Long Xuan himself had refined two batches and succeeded in both, for a total of 100 pills.

The rabbit had refined two batches and failed both—completely useless—and was severely punished by Long Xuan.

So, in this half-month, Long Xuan had refined a total of 350 Gathering Sea Pills. Considering these were all Realm-Breaking Pills, such a number was simply terrifying.

Today was the day the Essence Refining stage trading assembly was to begin.

After Long Xuan put these 350 Gathering Sea Pills into individual pill bottles, he suddenly thought of something. To avoid being cheated during the trade, he actually pulled that Honesty Gu out of the World Tree seed and hid it in his clothes, right at his stomach.

With this Honesty Gu as his backup, Long Xuan finally felt at ease and walked toward the trading assembly with full confidence.

The location of the trading assembly was in a private manor in Star Sea City, covering a massive area, with hundreds of Essence Refining stage Gu cultivators gathered.

Those qualified to attend this trading assembly were all famous and powerful Essence Refining stage Gu cultivators; in short, they had to be wealthy. Poor scattered cultivators certainly didn't have the qualifications to attend.

Because Long Xuan was the "First Alchemist of Star Sea City" with a great reputation and naturally immense wealth, he had naturally received an invitation to this trading assembly.

The invitation was signed by the owner of this manor, a man named Mo Bufan, the eldest young master of the Mo family, who was quite powerful in Star Sea City and was the one hosting this assembly.

When Long Xuan arrived at the manor gate, he was stopped by two Gu cultivators at the peak of Essence Refining. He produced his invitation, and the Gu cultivator on the right took one look and let him pass.

"So it's Master Ye, please enter, please enter!" The two Essence Refining stage guards immediately gestured for him to enter, extremely enthusiastic.

Long Xuan nodded and walked through the gate.

Ye Xuan was his alias. Whenever he used a fake name while traveling, he would use the surname "Ye". There was no special reason; he just felt the surname sounded quite impressive.

After walking into the manor, just as Long Xuan was preparing to find a quiet corner to wait for the assembly to begin, a group of Essence Refining stage Gu cultivators unexpectedly walked over with smiles on their faces.

Long Xuan showed a helpless expression; there was no helping it, this was the downside of having too much fame.

Because he was the "First Alchemist of Star Sea City", everyone wanted to curry favor with him and befriend him.

Don't underestimate the title of "First Alchemist of Star Sea City". As long as he raised his arms and shouted who he wanted to hit, a group of people would immediately rush over to act as his thugs. This was the terrifying appeal of an excellent alchemist.

Many people believed that his future would at least be a Third Grade Alchemist, or perhaps even a Fourth Grade Alchemist. Naturally, countless people were rushing to invest in him as a potential stock; he definitely counted as a potential asset worth investing in.

Long Xuan finally understood why he had become the "First Alchemist of Star Sea City".

Star Sea City did have Third Grade Alchemists, and more than one. However, people move to higher places just as water flows downward. Many people, once famous, were unwilling to stay in a small place and chose to develop in larger regions.

Many alchemists from remote regions, once they advanced to Third Grade, would choose to join a powerful organization called the Dan God Hall.

The Dan God Hall was one of the ten most powerful organizations in the entire Gu world, with influence spread across every corner.

They were powerful enough to dare to grade alchemists for the whole world and set their own assessment standards.

In other words, the Dan God Hall decided what grade an alchemist was. Every alchemist, after advancing, had to go to a Dan God Hall branch for assessment and receive an alchemist rank medal and a unified alchemist uniform. Alchemists without a rank medal were all treated as "wild path" practitioners.

The Dan God Hall was just that overbearing.

But the whole world recognized the standards set by the Dan God Hall, and it had become a holy land that every alchemist yearned for, with joining it as their lifelong dream.

Because there, one could learn more pill formulas and collect rare spirit herbs very conveniently. Their growth speed would greatly increase, and they could go to the broader Central Region.

Therefore, any Third Grade Alchemist with even a little ambition would choose to join the Dan God Hall and would never stay in their remote, barren hometown. This was human nature.

Of course, Long Lao, who lacked ambition, was an exception.

After successfully passing the assessment for Third Grade Alchemist at a Dan God Hall branch, he took the Third Grade Alchemist medal and returned to his clan.

Then he tossed the Third Grade Alchemist medal, which all alchemists viewed as an honor, onto the table like trash.

His lifelong ambition was to work for the development of his clan; he would never abandon his clan to develop in a place with broader prospects.

As for Long Xuan, he naturally had no interest in running all the way to a Dan God Hall branch to get his alchemist rank certified. Why would his alchemy level need recognition from others?

He simply used his Heavenly Mechanism Eye to analyze the composition of the Third Grade Alchemist medal Long Lao had tossed on the table, and then perfectly forged a Third Grade Alchemist medal.

After all, he had forged a mysterious alchemist master, and this Third Grade Alchemist medal might come in handy when he disguised himself as that master.

Because of the existence of the Dan God Hall, unless it was a very wealthy place, it was basically very hard to see Third Grade Alchemists. Occasionally seeing a few, they were definitely those with poor aptitude whom the Dan God Hall didn't want.

Long Xuan happened to be invincible among Second Grade Alchemists, so wherever he went, he would obtain the status of the "First Alchemist" of that region.

It was no surprise at all that he could become the "First Alchemist of Star Sea City".

(End of chapter)